Wanted with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Five) by Jenn Vakey Page A

you, I’m not sure.”
    When he walked away, she saw Matthews was standing against the back wall.
    “Matthews,” she said. “Tell me what’s going on. I don’t understand. Where’s Ben? They said…what happened to him?”
    She saw something she had never seen before when she looked out at him. Hate.
    “Matthews,” she said softly. “Todd. You know me. You know I would never hurt anyone, especially Ben. Please, just tell me what’s going on. They said they’re going to burn me. You can’t let that happen.”
    He pushed off of the wall, his arms still folded in front of him, and walked toward her. “I thought I knew you,” he said coldly. “You lied to me, you lied to everyone. Look at how many people are dead because of what you can do. Ben, Mifflin… Katy.”
    “Katy?” she asked as the air rushed from her lungs. “What happened to Katy?”
    “She died!” he yelled. “You are responsible. You could have saved her. You should have saved her.”
    She dropped down to the floor, fighting the urge to be sick. Her heart was pounding so hard, she felt like it was going to explode in her chest.
    “I don’t understand,” she said. “Tell me what happened. Please. I just don’t understand.”
    “You should have seen the complications she suffered during labor. If you had just seen them and told someone, she could have been saved,” he said. “The baby could have been saved. I fought like hell to have you charged with their deaths, and I’m going to sit in the front row and watch you burn.”
    She couldn’t speak or even move. She just sat on the floor of the cell, tears rolling down her wet face, until the other man returned.
    “It’s time,” he said. She looked up and found that Matthews was gone. “Get up.”
    When she didn’t move, he slid the bars open and struck her with something hard. “I said get up!”
    She pulled herself onto her feet and stepped out of the cell.
    Suddenly, she was standing in the middle of a round room. She tried to move, but found her arms tied behind her, holding her against something hard. She looked over her shoulder as a small whimper escaped her. It was a stake. She pulled her eyes away from it and looked back around the room.
    There was a large window circling the majority of it. Sitting behind the glass she saw nothing but familiar faces. Every member of both the Addison Valley and Bodker homicide departments were staring at her, each with a loathing glare. Directly in front of her was Sarah Bennett, her former sister-in-law.
    “Please,” Rilynne said in an almost inaudible tone. She was too confused and tired to fight. Ben was dead. Katy was dead. Everyone she loved and cared about was there to watch her die. She didn’t see the point in struggling any longer.
    “And what you’ve all been waiting for,” the guide said as he reappeared. He sounded almost like a circus announcer. His upbeat tone just didn’t seem right given what was about to happen. He turned and smiled at Rilynne before reaching out and pressing his hand against a large, red button.
    Instantly, the floor around her erupted in flames. “No,” she moaned. “Make this stop. I didn’t mean to. Please make it stop.”
    The flames reached up like hands and grabbed her ankles. Their long fingers burned worse than anything she had ever felt. She looked out into the crowd for anyone to come to her aid, but all she found was a sea of scowls.
    “Make it stop!” she yelled.
    The room was still dark when her eyes shot open. She twisted quickly and found Ben sound asleep next to her. She took low, deep breaths, trying to slow the heart that was pounding violently in her chest. It took several minutes for her body to relax, but unfortunately the thoughts racing through her mind were not as easy to subdue.
    She gently slid off the edge of the bed, careful not to wake Ben, and slipped out of the room. She felt a tightness in her chest as she walked through the dark house that she hadn’t felt