Page 58 of This Time I'm Keeping You
Nick had done some research on people who appeared normal but weren’t.How they could function on a daily basis mimicking those around them but in fact were far from sane.His guess was this Malcolm Davy was that.They just had to prove it, as clearly the man was fixated on Poppy.He also wasn’t dumb.Billy had said a smart criminal was a nightmare, but a smart, insane one was even worse.
He found Sam at the refreshment table talking to a group of women.
“That scene when Maggie leaves Jake, though, that made me cry,” he was saying when Nick arrived.“I had to skip to the last page, just to make sure they ended up together.”
“Romances are usually HFN or HEA,” one of the women said.“Sometimes there can be cliff-hangers, but I’m not a fan of those.”
“HFN?”Sam asked before Nick could.
“Happy for now, and happily ever after,” she said.
“Huh,” Sam said.“I didn’t know that.”
Nick ate a sandwich the size of his thumb and drank a cup of coffee one of the hotel staff handed him.Half listening as his brother talked about the books he’d read, he kept studying the room.
“So, do you read romance, or are you into thrillers?”a man arriving at the refreshment table asked him.
“Thrillers,” Nick said, because he had read Poppy’s last book, and he’d never read anything with romance in it.
He stayed by the table talking and eating until he was sure Poppy would have finished signing books and had some time to cool off.
“Excuse me, are you Mr.Atherton?”One of the hotel staff approached him.
“I am.”
“Miss Sylvester asked me to tell you she was in the office, and could you join her there, sir?”
He nodded, suddenly tense for no reason other than he was sure Poppy wouldn’t have sent for him unless she was desperate.
“Show me where she is, please.”
“What’s going on?”Sam asked.
“I don’t know, maybe nothing.”
“But you don’t think it is?”
“It’s through there, Mr.Atherton,” the staff member said, pointing to a door off the hall.
He found her standing at the windows, arms wrapped around her waist.
“What’s wrong?”
She turned at his words, and he saw the fear again.
“Tell me.Poppy, what’s going on?”
“Jesus,” Sam said from behind him.
It was then Nick saw the long white box on the desk that he’d missed when he’d walked in.It looked like something long-stemmed roses would be delivered in.
“What the fuck?”Sam snarled.
“I’m so angry!”The words exploded out of Poppy’s mouth.
Nick grabbed her, pulling her to his side as he made his way to the desk.Looking in the box, he saw grotesque faces staring back at him.One woman had a bullet hole in her forehead; the other, a rope around her neck.
“They’re piñatas,” Sam said, reading the back of the card that must have been inside.“Sick ones.”
