her earlier, she might have had the strength to get away. Dammit, Robin!
She struggled and cried out and he put a long piece of duct tape across her mouth.
Before she knew it she was inside Will’s place.
The last time she’d been here was the day he asked her for the second time if she had been sexually involved with Theodore Glenn. She’d walked out right after that, never to look back except in her dreams.
The house was the same, for the most part. A few pieces of furniture looked new, but he still had the barely worn white Berber carpeting. One thing that drew her eye was a familiar painting hanging on the main living room wall.
It was one of hers, a piece Isabelle had sold over a year ago.
A rush of emotion filled her. For a split second, warmth and love strengthened her.
She would survive. She had to, not only for Will but herself. To keep the rare love they had alive and burning.
Glenn slammed the door shut, bolted it.
“We’re home, Robin.”
She struggled against the duct tape. He removed it in one pull and she gasped from the pain.
“I saw you fuck him right here.” He pulled her through the living room, past her painting, to the small dining table next to the kitchen. “I stood on his patio and watched. You couldn’t see me because it was dark. That night I killed Jessica. That night I imagined killing you.”
She swallowed uneasily. She remembered that night with Will. They’d been desperate lovers, so needy for each other. They hadn’t waited to go upstairs. The clothes came off and they made love on the table.
It made her physically ill to know that her sexual relationship with Will had been observed and exploited. Glenn had watched them here, at the bar, where else? How could she have been so blind to his obsession before?
“You couldn’t get off on your own, you had to watch other people having sex?” she spat out, bracing for a blow.
Instead he laughed. “You like to perform. You knew all along I was there.”
“Like hell I did!”
“You fucked him for me.”
“I love Will.”
Glenn’s face reddened, and he said in a low growl, “Really. That’s why you’ve had such a successful relationship for the last seven years. Remember, I had a spy on you. But I know Will is obsessed with you.”
“You’re the obsessed freak.”
“I would have gotten away with all of it if someone hadn’t fucked up that crime scene.”
“What?”
“You identified me off that sketch, all because you didn’t like me,” he said, angry.
“It was you.”
“But the cops had nothing on me,” he said as if she hadn’t spoke. “Nothing. The evidence was thrown out after I killed Bethany, and there was nothing to tie me to Brandi or Jessica.”
“Except someone caught you leaving Brandi’s house!”
“That was your lies. And I had an alibi for Jessica.”
“A drunk cop who fell asleep. You took the damn picture!”
He laughed, played with the knife in his hands. “But I didn’t kill Anna. Someone planted evidence after killing her. And
She shook her head. “All this because I wouldn’t sleep with you?”
He backhanded her so fast she didn’t realize it until she was on the floor, tasting blood in her mouth.
“You thought you were better than me. I would have made you a queen. I would have taken you out of that pathetic strip joint and made you
“I’d rather flirt with anyone than a twisted fuck like you.”
She pulled herself onto her knees, shook her head to get rid of the ringing.
“You think you’re so smart. Bethany thought you were-and I quote-‘a total bitch’ because you told her she shouldn’t be sleeping with customers. And Brandi was jealous-she wanted your body, your hair, your attitude so badly. She wanted to
“You’re wrong.” Robin pulled herself up and leaned against the kitchen counter.
“She was six years older than you, already on the downswing. She wanted me because I made her feel young and sexy. You should have seen her face when I tied her up. At first she thought it was just another sex game and she got excited. Until I carved into her tits. She was the first I used bleach on. Do you know what it feels like when bleach is poured on an open wound?”
Robin couldn’t help but picture Brandi lying tied to her bed, bleach poured over fresh wounds. She shuddered uncontrollably.
Glenn opened his bag and Robin jumped, swaying. Tried to run, but her head felt thick. He easily grabbed her, yanked her arm toward him and made a shallow two-inch cut on her forearm. She screamed out. He held her arm while he pulled out a small jug of bleach, pushed down on the cap, twisted, and it popped off.
“Feel for yourself, Robin.”
She screamed when the caustic liquid hit her open wound. Glenn grabbed her mouth and held tight. She bit him, tears streaming down her face from the pain. He didn’t let go.
“You thought you were better than me. That you could get rid of me. Never, Robin. From the moment I saw you, we had a bond. I would have been the best lover you ever had. I would have taken care of you. I’m rich, Robin, and I was rich then. Still, you shunned me. For what? A loser cop?”
Slowly, she breathed in through her nose as the pain dissipated.
“I’d have preferred to have William watch me fuck you then kill you, but he’ll have to live vicariously. I’ll make a tape.”
He pulled out a digital video camera from his bag. He placed it on the table and brought her over to the living room-only feet from the front door.
That was his plan all along. To kill her where Will would walk in and find her. Right here, in his house. Romeo finding Juliet.
She couldn’t let it happen like this. If Glenn was going to kill her, she had to find a way to get out of Will’s house. She didn’t want him to be tormented by her murder for the rest of his life, like she’d suffered after Anna died.
Only worse. Because Will loved her.
She glanced at her painting that hung on Will’s wall. It was a beach scene, one of her favorite to paint. Vivid shades of blue and green, rolling waves, a bright sky, and a couple holding hands in the heat of the afternoon. It reminded her that what had been lost was now found. He’d chosen one of her favorites.
She didn’t want her blood on that painting. It may be the only thing Will had to remember her by.
“For seven years I’ve been planning how to make you pay for your testimony, Robin. You pulled my name out of thin air after seeing that worthless sketch. If anyone should be dead, it should be you. I should have killed you when I had the chance: in the bar when you and William went at it like a couple of rabbits. Is that what turns you on? Sex in public?”
Glenn restrained Robin by wrapping her wrists together with duct tape, then using a rope to tie her wrists to the coat closet doorknob.
She kicked at him, barely made contact, and he laughed.
“I hear you’re scared of the dark, Robin.” He flipped off the entry light and they were plummeted into darkness.
She screamed until another piece of tape was stuck to her mouth.
“All you needed to do was come home with me.”
Her shirt tore, and a sharp pain crossed her body from her navel to her breast. She couldn’t scream, but her back convulsed in pain and her legs scrambled. She pulled herself up, but with her arms tied to the door she was stuck.
