Dark Shadows (Gia Santella Crime Thrillers Book 11) by Kristi Belcamino (best motivational novels txt) 📗

and then said, “She was obviously an incredible blessing to everyone who knew her.”

He drew back and looked at me. “Yes. That’s it.”

We stood to go back inside and I couldn’t help but think that he couldn’t have described a woman who was more opposite than me.

15

After we all got home, Ryder offered to make us nightcaps. While he made our drinks, I’d run upstairs and changed into baggy shorts and a cropped top before coming back down to the pool.

Conner sat on the end of my lounge chair and trailed his finger down my bare leg. I jerked away and then felt guilty. I couldn’t tell if it was because of the startled, hurt look on Conner’s face or the way Ryder quickly looked away when I glanced over at him. He was sitting near the others across the pool.

Fuck.

Without looking our way, Ryder stood up and headed into the house.

I stood and followed. I was a little unsteady and realized that I was drunk.

Ryder wasn’t in the kitchen.

I found him in a small sunroom on the main floor. It had floor to ceiling windows and had an astonishing view of the bay with the moon rising over it. The entire room was lit up nearly as bright as day in a blueish glow from the moonlight.

I wasn’t sure how I’d missed this room before.

“Hey, sailor,” I said, to try to lighten the mood.

He looked at me and gave me that squinty smile. His teeth were brilliant white and I found myself mesmerized by them until he turned back to the view.

“It’s so ethereal,” I said walking over to stand beside him.

Standing that close, I could smell his cologne. And something else, darker, primal. He turned slightly toward me and his arm brushed mine sending an electric charge through me. With that simple touch, I was suddenly overcome with desire for Ryder.

It was ridiculous.

I held my glass up to him in a salute, swirling the melting ice in the amber liquid at the bottom of it.

“Where can a gal get a refill around here?”

“Don’t you think maybe you’ve had enough?”

I scoffed. “Hardly.”

I stood and stretched languidly. As I did, my top rode up, exposing my stomach.

His eyes flickered over me slowly. I held my breath and couldn’t look away from his mouth. When his eyes rose to meet mine, heat spread throughout my core. I couldn’t even remember the last time a man looked at me in that way. Even sweet and sexy Conner hadn’t looked at me like that. Finally, I broke eye contact.

“So no drink?”

He shook his head.

“Don’t judge me, sailor,” I said. “I think finding two dead bodies in the space of two days might warrant a little overindulging.”

He laughed.

I frowned. “What?”

“Please,” he said.

My mouth was wide open.

“Don’t act like you’re traumatized by dead bodies, Gia.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You forget how we know each other.”

Oh. Yeah. Dante probably told him my whole fucking life story.

I backed up, staring at him with my eyes narrowed.

“You aren’t some damsel in distress, so drop the fucking offended and traumatized princess act.”

Instead of giving in to my desire to punch him, I trailed my fingers down his tattoo. His entire body reacted. A tremor ran through him, and he dipped his head into his shoulder. I could see his jaw clench. He was fighting for self-control. Good.

I leaned down and whispered in his ear. “So what am I then?”

He grabbed my wrist, and I gasped.

His mouth was hot near my ear. “You are the same as me.”

“Oh yeah? And what is that?”

“A killer.”

I yanked my arm away and headed back outside where everyone else was, my face flushed.

But Ryder never came back out. I waited about thirty minutes and then went to the front of the house and looked out the window. His car was gone, too.

Damn it.

16

When I got downstairs the next morning, the group in the living room turned as one toward me. They looked so serious. I quickly scanned to see who was missing because they sure looked like they’d found another dead body. There were only the two of them: Conner and Sabine.

“Where’s Hannah?”

“She’s gone,” Sabine said and sniffed.

I stared. Was this a euphemism for “murdered?”

Conner saw me pause.

“She took the car. We don’t know when or where she went.”

Relief filled me. I didn’t think I could handle another dead person under my watch. I realized that I hadn’t set the alarm last night after Ryder left.

“I think we need to go look for her,” I said.

Conner walked toward me, but I quickly deflected his advance. “Why don’t the three of you take the Rolls. You can drive, Conner,” I said. “Maybe head down to the harbor and promenade and split up from there. If she left last night, maybe she went to the clubs. We should show people her picture and see if anyone saw her.”

“Um, okay,” he said, seeming disappointed, but I also noted that he didn’t mind me handing him the keys to the convertible Rolls Royce.

I had an idea where Hannah might be, but I wanted to confront her alone. It was my best chance of saving her.

I’d figured out the night before that she was the killer.

After Ryder left, Danny had emailed me something interesting information.

Hannah had been the only survivor in a bizarre accident that had taken the lives of her mother, father, and baby sister. She claimed to have gotten up in the middle of the night, hungry for a midnight snack. She decided on grilled cheese and turned the stove on, but then claimed to have sleepwalked her dog in the middle of the night. The house filled with gas and later exploded.

I’d stayed up late thinking.

Too many things didn’t add up.

I replayed every interaction I’d had with Hannah from the moment we’d met.

One thing that stuck out was that she’d known Lucas had hit his head before ending up in the pool. Even though she’d never seen the body. That first morning she’d said,