Hide My Thoughts: A Romantic Suspense Thriller Book (Hide Me Series 2) by Lisa Ladew

the thought that went through her mind at the touch. It had been Get your fucking hand off my man, bitch , or I’ll pitch you down the stairs , but she wouldn’t admit that to herself.
    Agnes moved past them and started down the stairs. Katerina felt West hold her tighter until the old woman was at the bottom of the steps and she was glad.
    West looked over the balcony at the crowd of police officers below. “I don’t see Blaise, maybe we should call him before we go down there.”
    But as he was speaking, a large black SUV pulled into the parking lot and Blaise and Detective Gagne got out. West saw Blaise shoot a dark look up at Katerina’s apartment. West raised his hand to get Blaise’s attention, and Blaise lifted his chin in return.
    West and Katerina wound their way through the crowd of people to the police tape, where Blaise was waiting for them. Katerina noticed that Blaise looked exhausted. There were deep bags under his eyes and lines around his mouth that she hadn’t noticed before. She wondered how she was looking these days.
    “Is it…?” West asked.
    Blaise nodded. “Yes. The same mask as the last one. Plus a note.”
    “A note?”
    “Yeah. The guy is a fucking psychopath. He’s taunting Katerina.”
    West pulled her closer and Katerina felt stomach acid rise in her throat.
    “I can’t get it for you until the detective is done with it but it says something like as long as the person who shot Frank Phillips lives free, another woman will die.
    West grimaced. “Is he trying to say that she should be arrested?”
    Blaise shook his head but before he could answer Katerina spoke up. “He’s trying to say I should be killed.” She waited for a long moment, weighing how much she wanted to say.
    She’d promised herself she would be truthful with West. “Or that if I kill myself, he’ll stop killing women.”
     

Chapter 11
     
    West drove Katerina’s small car, speeding towards his house. They had decided that Katerina’s apartment was no longer a sanctuary, and they would be better off, at least for a night, at West’s place.
    Katerina held her arms in close to her chest. Things just kept getting worse and worse. Right before they left, she’d asked Blaise if she could touch the body. She wanted to know if she had any ability to discover who this killer was. She needed to know. After a short, intense argument with his boss, Blaise had come back and said she had two minutes. He had cleared all the technicians away and led her and West to the area. Katerina imagined she could hear people behind her talking about her, calling her a freak behind cupped hands. She shook her head and focused on the body. The woman was young, with brown hair and an exotically beautiful face. There was not a mark on her, and Katerina almost cried, seeing her. Boy was she sick of crying.
    “I’m sorry,” she had whispered, and then grasped the woman’s upper arm. Nothing had happened. It had been like touching a piece of wood. She concentrated, and asked the cells to speak with her. A few cells jumped weakly, almost like a reflex, and an image like a cramp went through her mind. But they didn’t tell her anything. She tried again, and again got nothing. She’d shaken her head and plodded away from the body, West at her side, holding her in a one-armed hug as they walked. The technicians had swarmed back over the body like mother hens, clucking away their indignation.
    “I did see something when I touched the woman,” she told West. “But it didn’t make any sense.”
    “What?” West asked, stealing a glance at her as he shot between two cars.
    “I saw cold and dark and damp, like a tomb. And I heard crying.”
    “But no faces?”
    “No faces.”
    “Could you tell what she had died from?”
    Katerina thought about it. She rubbed her fingers together and asked the cold, dark, dampness what the woman had died from. “I want to say from fear, but that doesn’t make any sense either.”
    “What about