Haven of Nightmares (Littlemoon Investigations Book 5) (7 page)

And he was going to do it.

She could feel it.

Turning away, he walked out, Matilda Boyd following.

When the door closed, the radio in the corner, that his wife had insisted be in every damn room, chirped to life.

“Bad. Things. Coming.”

Well, if that didn’t just set the tone, nothing would.

Shit!

Chapter Three

At the airport, he was more than uncomfortable. He was going to be heading back to the place that destroyed him. In his heart, he knew no good would come from this, but Roman was tired of running.

At some point, he needed to man up, and own it.

As he sat there, he was completely miserable. Roman needed to get out of the funk or he was destined to sink deeper.

“Hey, is this seat taken? You look like you could really use a friend.”

The words struck a chord with him.

On the day he first met Devora, he’d said the same thing to her after he found her playing the piano in the school conservatory. In fact, they were the
EXACT
same words.

It gave him goose bumps.

When he looked up, Matilda was standing there.

“Are you okay, Roman?” she asked, handing him a coffee.

He accepted the peace offering and slid down the bench. “Yeah, I’m going to be. Have a seat.”

When he took a sip, it caught him off guard. It was just the way he liked it.

“How did you know I like French Vanilla? Did Devora tell you?”

She shook her head. “No.”

Roman thought back to that first day. He had offered her a sip of his coffee when he came across Devora all riled up. She’d made fun of him.

No real man liked French vanilla.

“Yeah, well, some things don’t really change,” Matilda stated. “You’re a girly man to the core.”

The cup paused halfway to his mouth.

“What did you say?”

“I said…”

“No, I know what you said. How did you know?” he asked. “Are you trying to hurt me?”

She stared at him. “How? By offering you coffee and remembering how you like it? How is that hurting you, Roman?”

He stared at her.

“The first day I met your sister in the conservatory, she said the same thing to me. It was the exact same words. Is this a game to you? Save yourself the time and just hit me. It’ll hurt less.”

She was staring at him.

“I see.”

“Devora was playing the piano, and that’s the day I fell in love with her.”

She blinked, forcing herself from the trance.

This was a bad idea.

She could feel it.

“If you don’t mind, Roman, I’m going to get some reading done,” Matilda said, trying to escape the conversation. He really didn’t remember.

At first, she thought he was confused, but it wasn’t that. Roman had no clue. That set off alarm bells.

It was best to let it go.

Nothing good would come from it.

The dead were dead.

When she tried to move away from him, pulling out her tablet, he grabbed her wrist. “What’s going on here? You look like you’re ready to cry.”

She was.

Once more, being a twin had been a bad thing.

“I’m fine.”

“You just lied to me.”

Yes, she had, and for a very good reason.

“How did you know, Mattie? Talk to me. What is going on in your head?”

“Trust me, Roman, you don’t want to know. Some things are better off left buried with the dead.”

He touched her hand. “Please. I need to be focused. I can’t be worried about what you’re not telling me. I took your side in the office and stood by you.”

She didn’t know how to tell him.

“Please.”

“You’ve made a mistake.”

“Trusting you?” he asked.

“That moment in your memories when you found Devora in the conservatory playing the piano, it wasn’t her.”

He stared at her.

“It was me. She never played.”

His whole world fell out from beneath him.

“What?”

“That’s how I know how you like your coffee. I took that sip. That’s how I know what you said when you asked to sit beside me on the piano bench. I was the one sitting there. That was all me. It was never her.”

“You’re lying.”

The plane began boarding.

“You never asked my name. You never cared who I was. You assumed she was me. She wasn’t. I was the one there.”

“This can’t be real.”

His heart began pounding.

If what she was saying was true, he’d fallen in love with…

Oh, shit!

Before he could say anymore, she continued, “You were wearing a blue polo shirt and shorts. You had your glasses off, and you were carrying two books. One was physics, and the other was a literature book. You offered me gum, and I declined because it was cinnamon, and I hate the stuff.”

His heart began thumping.

How was this possible?

“When I got up to leave, you told me that you’d track me down, and we’d have real coffee—no girly-man drinks. You promised to find me again.”

He knew he’d said exactly those words.

Roman didn’t know what to think.

Matilda saw it in his eyes. The cat was out of the bag, and he had to deal with it.

“Only, you never did. You found my twin instead. Fate intervened. You fell in love with my sister.”

With that, she stood.

“See you on the ground.”

Roman stared at her, not sure what to say. Everything he’d built his puppy love on was a lie. He fell for Devora because of her wit, fire, and that moment. Hearing her play the piano touched his heart. He always assumed…

This couldn’t be real.

As he headed up the jetway to the belly of the plane, he was lost in the moment.

Everything felt off balance.

He was screwed.

The investigator was kicking in, and he needed to solve this mystery for himself.

Roman knew that needed to dig to find the truth.

Buried in the mess was his heart.

       
         
* * *
  L   i   t   t   l  e  m  o  o  n  * * *

Haven

Remington Academy

As he dug the graves, he couldn’t wait to get rid of the bodies. The cops were asking too many questions around the disappearances.

He had to get them hidden, and then get out of there. The safest place was on the grounds of the school. It was where he placed the other six girls all those years ago.

There was no way he could just dump them in town in some alley.

No, these women needed to disappear.

They needed to go away.

He’d used them the way he needed, and now he had to find some way to escape into the night.

Oh, he’d keep his ears and eyes open, checking on everything that went down regarding the case.

He had to.

If the police got too close, he might have to help himself out or at least escape.

That was the last thing he wanted to do.

He loved his woman.

He loved his home.

As he threw the last shovel full of dirt on the mass grave, he knew it was time to slip away.

Hopefully, no one would be any the wiser, and he’d find his way back into the shadows to be seen no more.

Well…until five years from now.

       
         
* * *
  L   i   t   t   l  e  m  o  o  n  * * *

Plane Flight

Fortunately, for him, they didn’t have seats anywhere near each other. That way, Roman had the luxury of doing some research. It had been such a long time since he thought about Matilda Boyd.

He’d met her a few times in the school cafeteria as he was having lunch or dinner with Devora. She never said much to him, and he’d always assumed that she was just shy.

If what she said was right, he now understood all the speculative looks she’d given him.

She had been waiting for him to figure it out. She’d been putting her faith in his intelligence, and he’d failed her. Roman had dropped the ball on this one. She was left hanging in limbo.

He felt like an asshole.

If what she was saying was the truth, he’d find out and then apologize. A part of him was angry at himself. He, too, knew what it felt like to blend in. His sister, Rylee, was the smart one. She was the one who was going to be a doctor.

When she died, his parents were crushed.

A little part of him actually believed they might have made it had it been him instead. Losing her had been a blow that took them to their knees.

He should have been the one who died, and this might all be better.

That was terrible to think, but it was the truth—or at least as he believed it.

Roman always killed himself with studying, and he never even came close to Rylee’s intelligence.

She was the family’s shining star.

He was simply the
‘other’
kid.

Well, he had to get to the bottom of this if it was the last thing he ever did. Even if she never forgave him, at least he could say he was sorry.

A part of him wondered if she realized that had he asked her name, they might still be together—that they might have been a couple for the last decade.

Then he thought about it.

After her sister died, there was no way she would have stayed with him. He was a suspect after all. Her sister went missing, and the cops all but said he did it.

No, she would have run.

Maybe this was for the best after all.

Going online, he found the school’s all but defunct website. While he shuttered the doors, closing out the world from the secrets that school held, he never closed down the website.

Why?

There were days he looked at it just to feel something.

Anything.

When he needed that reminder of where he came from, he’d go there and stare at the dead girls’ faces.

It made him bleed.

Deep down, he believed that he deserved it.

Only now, he was going to use the site to do some good. He was going to use it to settle the wrong he might have committed when it came to Matilda.

Digging through his memory, he sought the details he’d need to check up on her.

Conservatory.

Music.

It was his link.

Scrolling through the pages, he found the music club’s photo. A part of him was praying that she’d been lying. A part wanted to believe that he chased the right twin all along. As he found the pages that he wanted of the online annuals, he found her face.

Beneath it was Matilda’s name, and beneath that was the fact that she did indeed play the piano.

He didn’t understand.

Roman was confused.

He was pretty sure that he asked Devora to play for him, and she said she would.

Then he recalled even more.

Every time, they were in that room, she stalled or got them out of there.

Shit!

Mattie had played for him.

It became clear who had lied, and who had told the absolute truth. Well, this sucked.

He’d dated the wrong woman, even after falling in love with the other one.

God!

This was a mess.

The more Roman sat there thinking, the more he realized that Devora had pretended that she’d been there that day. Roman knew he’d mentioned it, and she’d simply smile and nod.

She never told him off.

She never made him laugh like that first meeting.

Jesus.

He’d never noticed.

Standing up, he stared back toward her seat. She was sitting there, ear buds in, and her eyes closed. He stared at her, wishing they were sitting side by side.

There was so much he wanted to say to her.

As if she knew that he was watching, Matilda opened her eyes, and she didn’t look away.

‘Why?’
he mouthed.

There was that pause.

Finally, across the distance, she mouthed her reply.

‘You were happy.’