Page 147 of Unholy Masks

My fingers were stiff when I paid for the groceries.

Yara is right.

“Can you check again, and find anything else you can about her?”

“Of course, give me a few minutes.”

I hung up and wheeled the cart out to my car. I was halfway through loading the groceries into the trunk when I felt something press against my back.

I didn’t have to turn.

“Hello, Patricia.”

“Hi, there, Sinclair. I gave you a lot of chances.”

“For?” I asked.

“Leaving Yara,” she said. “You didn’t take any of them.”

“Would you have spared me if I had left?”

She chuckled. “Probably not. Now walk straight toward that van and do not try anything funny.”

“Where is Irene? What did you do to her?”

“Be good, and I’ll take you to her.”

I didn’t struggle or fight. I stepped into the back of the van, and she closed it.

Potted plants filled one side of the van, and the other side was covered in fertilizer, weeds, and gardening tools.

“Where’s Kurt?”

“Alive,” she said.

“How long will he be alive?”

“As long as I need him.”

“If you kill Irene, you know you’ll forever lose Yara, don’t you?”

She didn’t answer. I had a feeling she was already thinking about it.

I looked around. Trish must to go back once she was done with me.

She would go back to Enzo and pretend like there was nothing wrong. I had to give Yara more reasons to dig into Trish. To let her know, somehow, that Trish was the one.

I looked around and found a sack filled with dirt and compost, along with a bag of dried leaves. I pulled it open.

Crepe myrtle flowers lay curled among the leaves. Kurt must have tended the garden and never found the time to dispose of them.

I picked one up. Dried and shrunken, but it would do.

Yara and I had stood under the crepe myrtle trees when we visited the orphanage once. She would know...

I slipped the flower beneath my sleeve as we drove deeper into the woods. Eventually, we stopped beside a cabin tucked among the trees. A very decaying one.

Trish opened the van door, pushing me out. She didn’t try too hard, because she knew I would not try to run, not without Irene.