Page 136 of Fragile Sanctuary

But it couldn’t have been Felix. Not if I was here now.

That thought had my gaze whipping around. No one was with me. Not a single soul. But I also didn’t know where the hell I was. The trees were too thick for me to get a good sense of direction, but being lost in the woods would be better than being at the mercy of some creepy psycho.

I hurried toward what looked like it had once been an entrance to the home, but as I reached the threshold, I came up short. The photo there was from many years ago.

It was me in shorts and a tank top at the river. I was among friends, and Emilia was with us. I remembered that day. She’d begged me to come, and Fallon and I had finally given in. She’d had the time of her life.

My eyes burned as I reached out to touch the image. To touch her.

“It’s always been you.” A voice cut through the quiet from behind me. I stiffened, my muscles turning to cement. “Even back then. You saw me when no one else did.”

I turned so slowly, like I was moving through quicksand. Because it couldn’t be. His dark, shaggy hair was swept across his eyes as he looked at me with what could only be called reverence. “Silas?” I croaked.

46

ANSON

The room buzzed around me.Voices, cell phone alerts, the crackle of radios. But I couldn’t differentiate one from the other. It was just a din of chaotic noise. All I could do was stare at the piece of paper in the evidence bag.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN.

My stomach roiled. I knew his games. They were ones full of pain and twisted torture. And inflicting those things on Rho was the best way to do the most damage tome. The Hangman wouldn’t be able to resist.

My mind swirled, all the puzzle pieces mixing together in an ugly stew as I stared at another line of the note.

SHE WAS ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO BE MINE ANYWAY.

It shouldn’t have been possible. Rho’s stalker and my tormentor were one and the same. We’d always thought The Hangman had made his home somewhere on the West Coast. It was what made the most sense, given where his victims had been found.

So, Oregon was on the list of possibilities.I’d known that when I moved to Sparrow Falls. But I’d also thought that the chances of him finding me here, in a tiny town far away from any of the major highways that were his hunting grounds, were slim to none. I’d been so fucking wrong.

He’d already been here.

And it must’ve given him one hell of a thrill to have me walking back into his net without him lifting a finger. It made sense now why he’d stopped killing for so long. Because he’d gotten a front-row seat to my suffering. It was a different sort of pain and torture, but a kind that was just as alluring to him.

He’d likely been watching Rho the same way. He’d seen her life ripped apart by the fire, the physical and emotional agony she’d been in during the aftermath, and he’d gotten off on it.

“Anson.”

Helena’s voice cut through the haze of my spiraling thoughts. I looked up, blinking a few times and trying to clear my vision. I just stared at her. I had nothing to say sitting here in this damn sheriff’s station conference room. All I had was pain.

Helena was good at guarding her emotions, hiding them under layers of practiced indifference. Being a woman coming up in the bureau, she’d had to be. But I could see her pain now. For me. “Sheriff Colson brought me up to speed.”

My gaze shifted to Trace then. He stood to her left, just behind my right shoulder, and he lookedravaged. I knew he was doing his best to hold it together, but he’d had to cede control of the investigation to his second-in-command, thanks to his close ties to Rho and the severity of the case.

Helena getting the information from him instead of Deputy Hansen was a kindness she offered Trace. But then again, she had her hands full organizing the search.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Helena prodded.

“Nothing,” I said, sandpaper coating the word. I couldn’t think a damn thing other than,This is all my fault. If I’d never touched Rho, maybe The Hangman would’ve been content to watch us suffer—our pain giving him just enough of the drug he craved.

Helena’s jaw hardened. “Bullshit. You know this case better than anyone.”

I stood, shoving my chair back and almost sending it tumbling to the floor. “Obviously, I don’t. Because this fucker has been under my nose for a year and a half, and I didn’t see a damned thing,” I spat. And the cameras outside Rho’s house hadn’t either. They’d gone mysteriously blank thirty minutes before we arrived.

She sucked in a ragged breath and let it out slowly. “You know better. We’ve always known The Hangman is a psychopath. And they blend. They can be charming. They have long-term relationships, even marriages and families.”

I knew she was right, but I’d always thought I’d just…knowif I ever saw The Hangman.

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