The Perfect Liar (Last Stand 5)

Ava sucked in a stabilizing breath. That voice. Maybe she recognized it, after all. She'd heard it before. She understood what they were talking about, too--remembered what'd happened to Kalyna's mother and that hitchhiker. They were dead. Someone had kil ed them. Maybe Kalyna.

Maybe...

Her thoughts were so muddled she couldn't draw the name of the second person from her memory. She swiped at her face, trying to clear her vision so she could make out the details of the man's appearance, but tears--or maybe it was blood--kept fil ing her eyes.

Somehow, Kalyna managed to break away. She came to her feet, wielding the crowbar. "Get back!" she cried, raising it high. "You can't hurt me anymore, Mark. You're going soft, you perverted necrophiliac faggot!

You might have the police convinced you didn't enjoy what you did with those corpses, but you and I know better. You're probably stil doing it every chance you get. A dead body makes you hornier than a live one."

Mark. Mark Cannaby. The last name popped into Ava's mind.

"That's right!" With a hungry growl, he stuck out his tongue and waggled it. "Imagine how many times I raped your sister after I kil ed her."

"No--" Kalyna swooned, and nearly dropped her weapon.

"Yes." He taunted her with a laugh. "But it was good for me."

Searching for her phone, Ava feebly patted the carpet.

"Why? " Kalyna cried. "Tati never did anything to you!"

"I thought she was you when I followed her into your apartment. I should've known you wouldn't let yourself gain that much weight. You've always been too vain."

"I'm going to kil you," she screamed. "I'm going to kil you for Tati."

Ava's movements nearly made her lose consciousness. Where was her phone? How could she find it and get out of here? These people were demented. Two souls so similar they'd briefly joined together--but so narcissistic they couldn't make even that work. Ava knew it didn't matter which one of them came out of this alive. Neither would allow her to go on breathing. They couldn't; she knew too much.

"Like you kil ed your mother?" Mark taunted.

Kalyna shook her head. "No, more violent than that. Like I kil ed Sarah."

He pulled a weapon from behind his back. Ava might've thought it was a gun, but she could tell by the way he wielded it that it wasn't a gun--it was a knife. "Take your best shot. You only get one."

Chapter 34

Fear trickled through Kalyna's veins. She never dreamt she'd come face-to-face with Mark again. He'd been gone from her life for so long she'd forgotten how intimidating he could be. She'd figured she had him, that he'd go to jail for murdering Sarah and Norma, and she'd be able to forget him for good. But he'd come after her, just as he'd promised all those years ago.

Had he really kil ed Tati? Kalyna couldn't believe it, refused to believe it, even though she had no other explanation for the wet spot in her bedroom or Ava's claim that she'd found Tati's purse.

Thinking of Ava reminded Kalyna of her presence. She was searching for her phone. Kalyna could sense her panic, was surprised she could even move. That crowbar should've done more damage, but she'd been swinging wildly, hitting Ava in places that wouldn't kil her so she could prolong the pain. She wanted to tell Ava with each blow that she was going to die. And she was. As soon as Kalyna took care of Mark. Her plan was ruined, but she'd figure out some other way to dispose of the body.

The knife he held at the ready glinted in the light from the bedroom.

Unfortunately, Kalyna's knife was in her backpack in the room where she'd climbed in. She couldn't get to it from where she was. She only had the crowbar. But she wasn't a seventeen-year-old girl anymore. She'd grown up, was at least as strong and smart as Mark. She'd been serious when she said he'd gone soft in the past ten years. She'd felt his rounded paunch when they were wrestling, heard his labored breathing. They'd barely exerted themselves, and he was already winded. The shaved head and the tattoos were just for show.

"You're the one who's going to die, Mark. I should've kil ed you a long time ago. I should've done it for Sarah."

He narrowed his eyes in derision. "You think you need to avenge Sarah? You're the one who kil ed her! And you enjoyed what we did to her as much as I did. Shit, you thought of half of it!"

There were parts of her that'd enjoyed the power. But Kalyna didn't want to admit it. Mark reminded her of her worst self, of what she could be--

or maybe what she was. She didn't want to be around him, didn't want to face the ugly realities he pushed into the light. He was the only person in the world who really knew her. Norma and Dewayne had always suspected the worst; Tati had always seen what she wanted to see. But Mark had embraced her for who she really was, and she'd hated him for it.

"I enjoyed what I did to my mother, but I didn't even know Sarah," she said. "It was your idea to kidnap her."

His wet clothes clung to him, indicating that he'd been in the river.

Those splashes...

"But it was your idea to kil her!" Kalyna shouted. After wrestling with him, her clothes were damp, too.

"What else were we going to do? Let her go? If you think that would've been a better option, you're as stupid now as you were then. We only did what had to be done. And then you did me a favor when you kil ed your mother. But I'm not taking the fall for it."

"Don't worry. You won't be around to take the fall." She swung the crowbar, hoping to knock him down before he could use the knife. She had to make her move, had to kil Mark and stop Ava before Ava could call for help. Somehow she'd make it look as if they'd kil ed each other and then she'd walk away and be done with them both.

But he was quicker than she'd expected. Ducking the crowbar, he slashed up with his knife and caught her on the chin. The sting surprised her, caused her to rock back--and she couldn't recover fast enough. The next thing she knew he plunged the knife into her chest.

"I thought...you loved me. You promised you'd always love me." She attempted to swing the crowbar--but missed. Dropping it, she staggered in an effort to keep her balance.

"You know better than that. Me and you, we don't love anyone," he said as she sank to the floor. "And we don't trust anyone, either. I was crazy to trust you."

Ava had found her phone. Dimly, Kalyna realized she was fumbling with it, trying to dial.

Mark realized it, too. Leaving her where she lay, he yanked the knife from her chest and turned to Ava. Kalyna would die, but at least she'd die knowing that Ava was going with her.

The drive seemed interminable. Luke had called the police as soon as he dashed out of his apartment, but he didn't have an address to give them. He couldn't even remember the name of the town with the bait shop.