Devil She Became (Devil's Angels Book 1) (15 page)

Day forty-five. Reese nervously sat chewing her nails. She hated to ruin a manicure that way, but she couldn’t help herself. Harrison had taken his children and his wife on one last trip. They were to be gone for ten days to California. He wanted the children to have good memories of their mother. Reluctantly, Reese accepted this and she did understand for his children’s sake. It was all so surreal to her. If this hadn’t been her own life, she wouldn’t have believed any of this was happening. Since she wasn’t working, she had little to do but wait around for Harrison and worry about his wife’s impending demise. Despite her pep talk with Harrison, she sometimes laid in bed biting her lips until they bled. She popped tranquilizers like candy. She hoped that this would work out the way they’d planned. Standing up, she walked over to her window overlooking Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline. She pressed her hands to the glass and prayed for forgiveness and for Harrison to call her.

A familiar buzzing noise startled Reese. She turned to find her phone.
Coming home in a few days. Thinking of you. Will come by asap. Love and miss you. H.
Smiling, Reese sighed with relief. She wondered if Ava had followed them on their vacation or if she even knew they were gone.

********

Day fifty-five. When Ava got this close to completing her assignment, she always felt like a ruthless panther. Sleek, dressed in black, stalking her prey, she watched their every move waiting for the precise moment to strike. This job had been easier in some ways than most, but the intricate little details she’d put into planning the execution of this particular job were tireless. As Harrison was somewhat of a celebrity, it was reasonable to assume that some publicity would surround his wife’s unexpected death. How Ava handled this was of utmost importance to escape detection of foul play. Like most predators, Ava surveyed her prey, sized her up, and observed her weaknesses. At this stage of the game, Ava felt a certain invincibility. This was the most exciting part of any job. The observation, the planning… that was all the foundation. The icing on the cake was the last few moments before she struck. Every fiber in every muscle stood at attention as she poised ready to strike. Like a spider watching its prey struggle and struggle to escape her web, she remained breathless, hovering on the brink of an orgasmic climax and waiting for the precise moment to pounce. Energy flowed through her like electricity. Ava felt so alive. Her bloodlust was at an all-time high waiting to be satisfied. Every heart beat brought her closer and closer to the brink of the climax of the past sixty days. No wonder people likened her to a spider. It’s why she’d adopted the last name of Cavatica. Watching Lisa squirm and squeeze her way tighter and tighter into her web excited Ava like nothing else. Feeling someone struggle under her power, knowing she had lured them into her web of death, was the best climax ever. Picking up her business card, Ava smiled. It was about time to make a delivery.

A shiny black luxury car pulled up to the curb. Harrison.
Thank God
, Reese thought as she watched him run into her building.

Reese was waiting for him and wearing his favorite lingerie; a black lace bustier with lacy black thong and five-inch black heels. Her blonde hair lay soft and shining down her back. Around her wrist was the diamond bracelet he had given her. She had sprayed herself with his favorite perfume and lit candles around her apartment. It had been nearly two weeks since she’d seen him, and she’d missed him terribly.

Harrison burst through the door carrying a dozen exquisite red roses. “Hi, baby.” He handed her the roses. She inhaled the beautiful scent and put them in a crystal vase.

“I missed you so much.” She threw herself in his arms. He was dressed casually in jeans and a polo shirt. His face was tanned from the sun. He looked like he had spent a lot of time on the beach.

Harrison let out a low whistle. “You look absolutely stunning, Reese. Is it me or did you grow sexier and more beautiful since I’ve been gone?”

Reese smiled. “Just you. You look pretty good yourself.”

He traced his fingers along her cleavage. “I adore that lingerie on you. You look perfect.” He kissed her long and hard. Feeling his lips on hers again brought her back to life.

“So how was the trip?” she asked reluctantly.

Harrison pulled away from her and cleared his throat. That’s when she noticed his eyes were red-rimmed and he had gone pale beneath his tan.

“Hard…” He swallowed the lump in his throat.

Reese lowered her eyes sympathetically. She put her hand on his arm.

“What do you mean?”

Harrison walked over to the bar and poured himself a shot of whiskey. Downing the shot, he turned to her. “Well, it was like being on a trip with a dying person, except I know she’s dying, but, of course, she doesn’t. It was awful. I kept stumbling over my words whenever I talked to her. I wanted to apologize. I wanted to treat her as if she had been diagnosed with a fatal illness.”

“Yes…” Reese nodded her head. “You didn’t though, did you?” She panicked briefly at the thought.

Harrison shot her a hard glance. “No, I’m not stupid. Of course, I didn’t. But it was terribly difficult. I mean, the kids were there having a great time with their mom, and I’m the monster who has plotted to have her killed. I could barely stand myself. I mean, those kids love her.” Harrison broke off. He buried his face in his hands and began sobbing.

Reese was horrified. She had never seen him this upset before. Obviously, it was an upsetting time, but Harrison was so strong, almost unfeeling at times. He had callously plotted the murder of his wife, yet it seemed now he was having second thoughts. Reese didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She went to embrace him.

“I’m so sorry, Harrison. That must have been so hard. Of course, the kids love their mother. I can’t imagine.” Reese began tearing up as well.

Harrison wiped his face with the back of his hand. “She… um… she was so full of life. I don’t want to be with her, but I don’t want her dead. I didn’t realize how much it could hurt my kids. They are going to be devastated, and if it ever comes out I was the one behind it…” His face crumpled with pain and disgust at the thought. “I would rather be dead than face that.”

Reese was sobbing as well. She pulled her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth. “Harrison, I have nothing without you. I have put my life on the line here too. Please don’t talk that way. No one else but you and I know about this. I will take this to my grave. Your children will never know.”

Harrison was breathing in short gasps. “But I will know I had their mother killed so that I could save my reputation, my inheritance from ruin.”

“To be with me.” Reese sobbed into her hands.

“No, Reese, don’t make this about you. It isn’t. It’s about my fucking ego, my precious money, my reputation. I put that above them and you. I should’ve just told her the truth and walked out. At least she would still live!” Harrison repeatedly punched her wall so hard his knuckles bled.

Sickened, Reese grabbed a towel and cradled his injured hand.

On her knees in front of him, she asked “What do we do now? Can we find Ava? Maybe I should contact Darrell. He’s our only link to her.”

Harrison shook his head. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea, Reese. We have to distance ourselves from him in case the police are watching him. We don’t know anything about how the authorities investigated him regarding his wife’s death.”

“I thought you looked into that for yourself. You have connections with the police, the courts.”

He interrupted her. “I do, but I only got minimal information.”

Reese’s hands clenched in frustration. “Then what do we do? You didn’t get the card yet, did you?”

Harrison wiped tears from his face and shook his head no.

“But it’s due anytime now. This is fucking crazy, Reese. This is completely insane. How could I have casually planned someone’s murder? It’s not so much about her, but my kids. They are so young and it will hurt them so much.”

“Harrison, I will stand by you no matter what you decide. I love you and want to be with you. If you want to call this off, I will help. Just tell me what we should do.”

Harrison wrapped his arms around her tightly then looked at her brokenly.

“Find Ava.”

Standing outside the Victorian-style gate, Reese waited to be buzzed in. Despite Harrison’s warnings, she felt that she had to speak with Darrell. She decided that going in person would be a better choice than attempting to contact him by phone or email.

Punching the buzzer again, she waited anxiously for him to answer. This was odd. She could see his red Porsche in the driveway. She pushed on the gate and found it unlocked. Jumping back into her Mercedes, she drove up the circular drive and parked in front of his house. Pulling her fox coat around her, she shivered in the cold. Reese walked up to his front door. She rang the bell several times.
Come on, Darrell
, she thought.

Looking more closely, she noticed the huge, wooden door was ajar slightly.
That’s very strange,
Reese thought.
Maybe he left, forgot something and ran back inside.
Tentatively, Reese pushed the heavy door open. “Darrell?” she called out. Her voice rang out through the huge reception hall. “Darrell!” She continued to call out as she moved slowly about the home. Suddenly, a huge calico cat jumped out at her.

“Oh, God!” she screamed in fright. “You scared me!” she scolded the cat. The cat rubbed itself on her long legs, meowing. A deep chill shivered up her spine. Something was wrong. Walking into the kitchen, she saw dirty dishes were piled in the sink that looked as if they had been there for days.

Seeing Darrell’s home in such a state of disarray, Reese became more and more concerned.
Maybe I should leave
, she thought.
This is too weird.

Reese started to leave as something in the study caught her eye. Smoldering embers in the fireplace cast a low glow to the dark room.
So he must have been here fairly recently
, Reese thought. Then she heard water running upstairs. That’s it! He must be in the shower.

“Darrell?” Reese walked up the stairs. She came to the double doors of the master suite. She knocked. “Darrell? It’s Reese. I have to talk to you.” She pushed the door and found that it swung open with ease.

Clothes were scattered everywhere, the bed was unmade and the sheets rumpled. She discovered the carpet was soaking wet as her heels sank into the deep pile. Water was running out of the master bathroom into the bedroom. Suddenly, she became very frightened.
Maybe he fell in the shower and hit his head
, she thought.

Peering around the corner, Reese’s heartbeat thudded hard in her chest. A scream caught in her throat.

Darrell was lying there facedown and naked in a pool of congealed red blood. Water and blood converged at the doorway to the bathroom making a deep pink stain in the carpet. Reese screamed over and over again.

“Darrell, oh, my God!” She immediately realized he was dead. Multiple deep puncture wounds peppered his back. His hands seemed to be reaching up to the shower door as if to lift himself up when had he collapsed. A blood-stained towel lay nearby. Horrified with the knowledge that he was not only dead, but had obviously been murdered, Reese ran from the house screaming. Shaking so hard she could hardly stand, Reese fell into her car.

“Harrison!” She screamed as he answered.

“What? What’s wrong?” Harrison was alarmed by her hysterical voice.

“Darrell!” She gasped. “D-Darrell,” she stammered.

“Darrell what?”

“He’s dead… he’s dead, Harrison.” She sobbed.

“How do you know?” he demanded.

“I saw him!” She cried.

Harrison was extremely alarmed. “Where are you, Reese? What’s happened?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m here… at Darrell’s… I wanted to see if he knew where Ava was… for you.” Reese broke down in sobs.

“Hang on; I will be right there. Can you text me the address?” Harrison became frantic.

“Don’t touch anything. Stay in your car. I will be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Okay,” Reese was still sobbing. She closed her eyes and crawled into her backseat to lie down and wait for him.

A tapping at her window made Reese jump up screaming from the backseat.

“It’s me, baby,” Harrison opened the door and grabbed her. Embracing him, she cried in his arms.

“Now tell me what happened. You’re ok. I’m here now.”

Reese struggled to calm herself and speak coherently. “I… I… I knocked on the door.”

“How did you get in?”

“It was ajar. I pushed it open and went inside.”

“Why did you go in if he didn’t answer?”

“I was concerned because it was open.”

“But I told you not to come here in the first place.”

“What the fuck is this? An interrogation? I told you why! I wanted to find Ava. I thought he might know something.” Reese became angry, pushing him away.

“Calm down, Reese. Just tell me what happened.” Harrison tried to remain calm.

Taking a deep breath, Reese tried to describe what she saw. “I went in the house and called his name. I didn’t hear anything, so I stopped.”

Harrison nodded for her to continue.

“So when I went into the kitchen, it looked like no one had been in there for a few days. Dishes everywhere. It looked very messy. I started to feel like something was very wrong. His car was parked in the driveway, the gate was open and the front door was ajar, but it looked like he wasn’t home.”

“So what led you to go on? Where did you find him?”

Tears began to spill down Reese’s face as she recounted the story. “Well, I saw he’d had a fire that was dying in the study, so I thought he must be here somewhere. Then I heard water running upstairs, and I assumed he was in the shower… so I went upstairs.”

Reese broke down sobbing again remembering the horrific sight.

“So he was upstairs then?” Harrison filled in.

Reese nodded. “In the master bathroom. There was water seeping into the carpet from the shower. He was… he was in there…”

Reese fell against him, sobbing.

“Did you see anything else? Was it suicide?” Harrison, ever the lawyer, continued to interrogate her.

She shook her head. “No, not suicide. He had several… it looked like stab wounds to his back.”

Harrison bit his lip. “I see.”

Gripping her by her shoulders, he looked at her very seriously. “Now, tell me. Did you touch anything? Anything at all?”

Reese looked up at him teary eyed. “I don’t know.”

Harrison paled and nodded. “Okay. We need to go in and wipe down everything you touched.”

“What? We aren’t going to call the police?” Reese looked shocked.

“Of course not. We can’t be mixed up with this. There would be questions. No way, absolutely not.”

“I can’t go back in there, Harrison. I can’t.” Reese pulled away from him.

“Reese, you have to. Please. I will be there with you.” Harrison pleaded with her, pulling her by her hand.

“Who do you think may have done this?” Harrison asked Reese.

Reese shrugged. “I have absolutely no idea… I mean, I didn’t know him that well.”

Harrison grabbed a towel from Reese’s trunk, took her by the hand and led her into the house.

Taking care not to touch anything, Harrison wiped down any surface Reese may have touched. Then he led her upstairs.

When they reached the master suite doorway, Reese’s knees buckled and she collapsed to the floor. “I can’t go in there,” she gasped, feeling her gorge rising in her throat.

Harrison swallowed the lump in his throat. Placing the towel over his face, he allowed her to remain where she was.

“I need to see this, Reese. Just sit there for a second and don’t touch a thing.”

She nodded, sobbing quietly.

Entering the bedroom, or what was now a crime scene, Harrison moved very carefully. His shoes sank into the wet carpet as he made his way over to the bathroom. The iron-rich smell of blood hit him hard in the face, and he fought to overcome the urge to vomit. Covering his nose and mouth with the towel, he walked as close to the body as he could.

Harrison observed Darrell lying nude and facedown with stab wounds covering his back as Reese had described. There appeared to be several dozen or more of them. Dried blood covered his back. Congealed blood pooled all around him. Obviously, he had bled to death. The water continued to pour out of the shower. Judging by the purplish cast of his skin and the apparent stiffness of his hands, Harrison estimated he had been dead less than forty-eight hours. It was a barbaric scene. Who could do this? Could it have been Ava? He shuddered at the thought. A sinking realization set in as he faced the knowledge that he had fallen in league with the devil herself by making a deal with Ava.

Suddenly, something moved under Darrell’s body. Leaning down for a closer look, Harrison saw several spiders scurry out from beneath the corpse. Where did all those spiders come from? Harrison shuddered. He felt surrounded by the smell of death and decay, and an overwhelming desire to vomit came over him. He had to get out of there now. Taking care not to touch anything, he backed out of the room. Grabbing Reese’s hand, they fled the house.

“Leave everything as you found it. Get in your car and follow me to your house.” He instructed her.

Pulling away from Darrell’s house, Reese began crying hysterically again. He was such a nice guy. Who could have done this to him? Ava? Why would she kill him? Maybe he hadn’t paid her. Reese shivered, realizing as Harrison had, what a horrific monster they were dealing with in Ava. Her beauty masked her brutality, her ability to ruthlessly kill whoever crossed her. Sickened, she fought a strong desire to vomit.

Arriving at Reese’s home, they went inside. Reese poured them stiff drinks as they tried to process what they had just seen.

“So what do we do?” Reese asked after several shots of whiskey.

Harrison stood in front of the huge, picture window in Reese’s apartment. He swirled the ice in his drink. “I don’t know, baby. I know that a man was savagely murdered in his own home. Several dozen or more stab wounds to the back. Do you know what that means, Reese?”

Reese shook her head.

Harrison turned to face her. “It means that he knew whoever killed him. It was personal. It takes a lot of rage to stab someone that many times. It was overkill. It doesn’t take stabbing someone twenty times to kill them. This person was furious, no, beyond furious with him.”

Reese swallowed hard. “So who do you think… Ava?”

Harrison shrugged his shoulders. “Not sure. Obviously, she is capable of doing such a thing, which sickens me to think I have given this woman, no, this creature–”

“–A spider… a vicious, cruel spider–,” Reese filled in, shivering.

“–Money to murder my wife.” Harrison choked, the taste of vomit in his throat.

Bending over, clutching his abdomen, he rushed to the bathroom. After washing up, he emerged pale and shaky.

“Are you okay, baby?” Reese asked, rubbing his back.

He nodded taking a deep breath. “I don’t know how we will find her, Reese. Time is running out.”

Reese looked down and shook her head. “I’m scared, Harrison. What if she comes after us? We don’t know why she killed Darrell. Maybe he didn’t pay her, or she was angry with him for some reason.”

Harrison shook his head vigorously. “We don’t know she killed him, Reese. It could be someone else that was upset with him. Didn’t you say he was an investor?”

“Yes. He worked with a hedge fund management firm.”

“That makes sense. Perhaps he ripped off a bunch of clients.”

Reese walked over to pour them another shot of whiskey.

“I don’t think so, Harrison. He just didn’t seem like he would do that. I don’t know though. I still think it’s Ava.”

Taking the glass from her, he swallowed the contents in one gulp. “I guess we will see.”

“But our initial problem… how do we find Ava? What do we do, Harrison?”

He threw his hands in the air with futility. “I don’t know. I guess we could go to different nightclubs looking in little dark corners.” Harrison raised his voice nearly shouting at her.

Reese looked hurt. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t either, baby.” Harrison went to put his arms around her.

“Do you think we could try that email address again?” She asked.

“Might as well. It’s our only chance. It’s Day sixty. Time is running out.”