Watch Me (21 page)

“What do you
think
he did?”

“I assume he went back for the shovel, then dragged me deeper into the woods. Because the next time I came around, he was digging my grave.”

“God.” Tears filled her friend’s eyes. “He was going to bury you? It’s a miracle you’re alive.”

Sheridan thought of Cain.
I can’t wait. I want to be inside you…
He was inside her, all right, in her heart, in her blood. And she doubted she’d ever get him out. “I wouldn’t be, if he hadn’t been interrupted.”

“Interrupted?”

“We were on Cain’s property. When his dogs started barking, he got out of bed to see what was going on. Then the man with the shovel ran away. At least, I think he did. I don’t remember anything other than staring up at the stars—until my hospital room came into view.”

Skye plucked at the worn edge of the sofa. “Cain got you to a hospital?”

“Yes.”

Blinking away tears, Skye shook her head. “You almost died.”

Sheridan didn’t respond. Skye was only reacting to her own fear and anger—but pointing out how close she’d been to death wasn’t making her feel any better.

Skye seemed to understand that they had to focus on some more constructive goal. She cleared her throat. “Do you recall anything unusual about the man who attacked you, Sher? A…a mannerism? A smell? A sound? His clothing? The way he moved? His size? Anything?”

“He had an average build. He was quiet and cautious but very, very determined. And he wore gloves—I remember the feel of them around my neck.” It wasn’t much, and Sheridan knew it.

“That’s it? What about his vehicle?”

“I don’t remember a vehicle. I mean, he had to get me from here to Cain’s property somehow. It’s a fifteen-
minute drive. But I didn’t come around until he was carrying me into the woods.”

“There has to be something else,” Skye pressed. “Something distinctive.”

Sheridan wracked her brain for the tiniest detail. She remembered her attacker’s grunts as he struck her, his palpable rage, his unyielding response when she began to plead.

And then a memory that’d been lost in the deep well of her unconsciousness floated to the surface.

“The bastard had to have it all.”

“What?” Skye said, leaning closer.

“That’s what he whispered when I went limp. He was standing over me, holding whatever he’d been using for a club, breathing heavily, and he muttered, ‘The bastard had to have it all.’”

“Who was he talking about?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Cain. We were on his property.”

Skye waited, obviously hoping for more. But there was no more. Tossing her purse on the coffee table, she finally got up and crossed the room to look out the window. “Have the police been here yet?”

Cain had said they’d been there but hadn’t found anything of importance. “Yes.”

Skye glanced around. “Who cleaned up?”

“The police?”

“Are you dreaming?” She turned back to the window.

Skye was right. Sheridan had never known the police to clean up a crime scene. That was typically hired out. Or a family member had to do it, even with the most gruesome of murders. But this was a small town, and
small towns had their own way of doing things. It was possible that someone on the police force had been kind enough to clean up the mess, but somehow she knew it was Cain. He seemed to take care of everything.

Hands on her hips, Skye pivoted to face her. “So what do you think? Are you really going to be able to tolerate sleeping here?”

Sheridan was well aware of the money it would cost them to stay at the motel, but she wasn’t eager to be back in this place. “How long are you planning to stay?”

“A week. Maybe two.”

“What about David and the kids?”

“They’ll be fine. It’s not as if I go out of town very often.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever left them before.”

“But I can trust David to look after himself and the kids. I want to help you. I want to solve this so you can go home with me.”

As touched as Sheridan was by her support, she couldn’t let Skye put her life on hold for more than a few days. “No, Skye, you have to go back sooner than that. We can’t both be gone from The Last Stand at the same time. Ava’s new. She’s probably in a panic. And you said yourself that Jonathan’s on a big case. What help can he be to her?”

Skye arched an eyebrow at her. “They’ll manage, okay?”

Obviously, Skye was refusing to be practical. She was letting her heart rule her head—but she’d have to reverse that eventually. “This isn’t convenient for you.”

“And it’s convenient for
you?
”

Sheridan stood and began to wander around the kitchen. The fridge held a few of the groceries she’d bought. She didn’t know what’d happened to the rest. There was no garbage or dishes in the sink. “You could get hurt if you’re mixed up in this, Skye. I can’t worry about you in addition to everything else.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“But cases like this drag on. You know that. What are the chances we’ll solve it quickly, even if you get involved?”

“Better than if I don’t.” She clapped her hands. “But let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s see what we can dig up and go from there.”

Sheridan leaned on the back of a kitchen chair. “You’re crazy,” she said, but what she really meant was, “I’m glad you’re my friend.”

“You’d do it for me,” Skye responded.

“But I don’t have a family at home.”

“Doesn’t matter. You’re not getting rid of me anytime soon, so you might as well quit trying. Just tell me whether we should stay at the motel or move back here.”

That was the decision Sheridan didn’t want to make. Whoever had tried to kill her had known where to find her and had invaded her space so easily—
this
space. She didn’t feel safe here. But she hadn’t been expecting trouble at the time, so she hadn’t been prepared to defend herself. And murders happened in motels, too. It was more about watching her back than staying in one place instead of another. If whoever had attacked her really wanted to, he’d find her no matter where she went.

“We might as well save a few bucks,” she said with a shrug.

“I agree.” Skye started for the door. “Come on, let’s get our suitcases.”

Wondering if she’d be able to live with her choice, Sheridan lingered in the kitchen—until she heard someone at the front door.

“Well,
hel-lo
there. Who’re
you?
”

It was a familiar voice, but Sheridan couldn’t immediately place it. Turning the corner, she saw Cain’s youngest brother standing on the stoop, lowering his sunglasses in order to give Skye an appreciative once over.

Dressed in a Harley T-shirt with the sleeves ripped out and a pair of jeans, he was wearing flip-flops that revealed disgusting feet with overgrown toenails. A dragon tattoo covered the upper part of one arm;
R.I.P. Jason
in blue and red ink covered the other.

Sheridan watched Skye return the exaggerated perusal. “I’m Skye Willis,” she replied. “A friend of Sheridan’s from Sacramento. Are you the man who attacked her?”

Robert shoved his sunglasses back up to the bridge of his nose. “Um…no,” he said in obvious surprise.

“Good.” Skye nodded decisively. “Then I won’t have to shoot you.”

He laughed as if he didn’t know whether she was joking. Sheridan wasn’t completely sure herself. “She’s spunky,” he told Sheridan as he spotted her. “I like that.”

“She’s also married,” Sheridan said. “Skye, this is Cain’s youngest brother.”

“Stepbrother,”
Robert clarified.

“Step
brother,” she repeated, but she had to hide an ironic smile at his concern about the distinction. She could understand Cain’s being reluctant to claim Robert, not the opposite—but then, if Robert could really see himself, he’d probably clip his toenails.

“What can we do for you?” she asked.

“I was on my way home, saw some activity over here and thought I’d stop by and welcome you. It can’t be easy coming back to this house after what happened.” Apparently, it was Sheridan’s turn to be checked out because the sunglasses slid down again. “Hey, you’re looking better. The bruises are fading.”

It was a struggle to keep her indifference toward his opinion out of her voice. “Thanks.”

“I also wanted to let you know that I’ll keep an eye on the place from now on,” he added with a wink that did absolutely nothing to allay Sheridan’s fears.

“Robert lives in a trailer behind his father’s home across the street and four houses down,” Sheridan explained to Skye.

“It’s the one with the metal dinosaur out front,” Robert said. “My dad makes those.”

“Did you see or hear anything unusual the night Sheridan was attacked?” Skye asked, obviously uninterested in John’s hobby.

“Not a thing. Cain stopped by earlier that evening, but that was about it.”

Sheridan couldn’t help resenting the way Robert kept trying to connect Cain to everything that had happened. He’d told Amy about the argument between Cain and Jason the night Jason was murdered. He’d
blabbed what Owen had told him about the camper. And now this.

She folded her arms. “Does he come by very often?”

She hoped to get a positive answer, so she could accuse Robert of highlighting details that were irrelevant. If Cain visited the house from time to time, it wasn’t remarkable that he would’ve been there the night she was attacked. But given his relationship with his stepfamily, he probably didn’t go to their place often.

“Not really,” Robert said.

“So this was unusual?”

“Sort of. We certainly weren’t expecting him.”

“What’d he want?”

“He came to talk to my dad about Grandpa.”

That sounded like Cain. Sheridan was tempted to smile at his love for Marshall. But then Robert continued.

“He didn’t stay long enough to say much, though. Karen Stevens showed up a few minutes later and as soon as he saw her—” Robert clapped his hands for emphasis “—he took off.”

Skye’s gaze shifted between them. Obviously, she was drawing her own conclusions about Robert. But Sheridan was too preoccupied to guess what they might be. “Are you suggesting he left
because
of Karen?” she asked Robert.

“That’s exactly what I think. Happens every time. For some reason, he hates even being in the same room with her.”

“But Karen used to be Cain’s favorite teacher. Why would her presence bother him?”

A devilish smile twisted Robert’s lips. “Maybe he liked her a little
too
much. Maybe he wasn’t just cleaning her erasers after school.”

Sheridan’s stomach tightened. When she and Cain were in high school, Karen Stevens had dated John Wyatt soon after Cain’s mother died. Their relationship had started clear back then. Surely Cain and Ms. Stevens hadn’t crossed
that
line….

But now Robert had mentioned it… Sheridan recalled that Ms. Stevens had shown unmistakable favoritism toward Cain. That kind of history would make sense of her manner and her words in the restaurant.
It’s not easy to walk away from a man like that….

“Are you intimating that they had an inappropriate relationship?” Skye asked. She could obviously tell how hesitant Sheridan was to voice her thoughts, how badly she didn’t really want to know.

“I’m not
intimating
anything.” Robert’s eyebrows knitted in mock innocence. “Imagine how upset my father would be if he heard such a thing.”

Robert hadn’t appeared at her door through any desire to be neighborly; he’d come to make trouble for Cain. Sheridan had expected as much, but she hadn’t expected this. Ms. Stevens? What did Robert expect her to do with
this
information?

And then it dawned on her. He knew about the camper. He was hoping her wounded pride and outrage would provoke her into exposing this—further damaging Cain’s reputation. Maybe Robert claimed he didn’t want his father to know, but he did. He just didn’t want to be the one to tell him.

“Why are you trying to leak this?” she asked.

“I’m not,” he said.

“You want your father and Karen to break up, is that it? And if you can make Cain look bad at the same time, even better.”

“Stop it. You’re being paranoid!”

“What’s wrong? Don’t you and Karen get along?”

“It’s no secret that I think she’s a bitch, but my dad has his own life to live. I don’t care who he’s with.”

Unless he married her, of course. Sheridan was sure Karen wouldn’t be thrilled to have John’s twenty-five-year-old son living in her backyard. If the relationship became that serious, Robert would have to move, maybe even support himself for a change.

“Well, thanks for the distasteful mental picture,” Sheridan said, “but I don’t believe it. Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell anyone. I’m sure you understand what’ll happen to your father’s relationship with Karen if a rumor like this were to get started.”

“Which is why I haven’t mentioned it.”

She rolled her eyes. “You just told me,” she pointed out.

Attempting to look sincere, he shoved his hands in his pockets and jingled his change. “You know, there are times when I wonder if hiding something like this from my dad is really doing him any favors. Sex with a student is pretty scandalous. Cain was underage. And Karen was in a position of authority. I’ve seen teachers go to prison for less.”

Skye put her hand on Sheridan’s arm to act as a warning:
Hold your temper
. “Is that what you’d like to see?”

“Whether I want to see it or not, the truth usually comes out. One way or another, people get what they deserve, don’t you think? I mean, take what happened to you, for instance.”

“You think I got what I
deserved
when I was attacked?”

His lips pressed tight against his teeth. “According to what Amy told me before she was killed, you lured Jason to Rocky Point just to make Cain jealous. Is that true?”

Sheridan couldn’t answer. She kept seeing the barrel of that rifle in the open truck door, hearing the blast….

“You cost him his
life,”
Robert went on. “Because of Cain.”