Fear E-Book

Mary E. Thompson

• Herausgeber: BluEyed Press
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Enjoy the 6th book in the steamy BBW romantic suspense series from USA TODAY Bestselling Author Mary E Thompson. 

She survived a fate worse than death. She wants revenge.  

Not remembering the months she spent held captive didn’t erase that they happened. Edie lost more than her memories. She lost her dignity, her job, her cousin, and all faith in humanity. And the man who held her was still out there. Doing the same to others. 

Being a cop wasn’t always Pryce’s dream, but when his childhood best friend fingered him as an accomplice, he fought like hell to hold on to it. He kept his job, but the other cops didn’t trust him. Most refused to work with him. Pryce knew there was value in the streets, and he focused on gaining the trust of the people in his district instead of his coworkers. 

Edie knows there’s only so much the police can do to stop the man who kidnapped her, but she isn’t bound by the same laws. When Pryce gets word of a new vigilante taking down criminals in his district, he has to stop her before she gets hurt. But Edie is no fragile flower. She has vengeance and knowledge on her side. Two things Pryce knows can tip any scale. 

Night-by-night, they get closer to the truth, and day-by-day, they get closer to each other. Falling in love shouldn’t be possible going through hell, but for two people with nothing to lose, holding on to each other feels as easy as decimating the organization that tried to destroy her. But the man they’re after isn’t going down without a fight. 

Leseprobe

FEAR

A CURVY GIRL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

F-BOMB: CURVY VIGILANTES

BOOK 6

MARY E THOMPSON

FEAR

F-BOMB: Curvy Vigilantes, book six

Copyright © 2023 Mary E Thompson

Cover Copyright © 2023 Mary E Thompson

Cover Photo from depositphotos, Copyright © envivo

Break (Mask) from depositphotos, Copyright © K3star

Published by BluEyed Press, All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, businesses, locations, and events are either products of the author’s creative imagination or are used in a fictitious sense. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-953879-41-7

Print ISBN: 978-1-953879-42-4

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-953879-43-1

Created with Vellum

F-BOMB: CURVY VIGILANTES

Say hello to the Curvy Vigilantes, a group of plus-size women who protect their city. They have no training, but they don’t need it. All they need is the desire to right wrongs and to protect the ones they love… and maybe some help from the men strong (and smart) enough to fall for these kick-ass curvy women.

F-BOMB: CURVY VIGILANTES

Forsaken (subscriber exclusive)

Fury

Framed

Feign

Fierce

Fatal

Fear

Flee

Fracture

Faith

SUBSCRIBE NOW AT MARYETHOMPSON.COM

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

FLEE

About the Author

To every woman who has ever doubted her own strength… you can do anything and you are powerful beyond your imagination.

Never give up.

1

Edie Warren was done letting fear run her life. She was done being afraid of every damn thing. She’d stared the devil in the face, then snuck out the back window when he wasn’t paying attention.

Damon Street wasn’t the only devil, though. Not by a long shot. And Edie was going to take down the other ones. The little devils who helped those evil bastards get their hooks into innocent victims. And the devil who held her captive far longer than a few days. The one who held her for months.

That was the one who cost Edie’s cousin her life. If Edie had never gone missing, Tonya wouldn’t have dug into her disappearance and been in the wrong place at the wrong time and gotten killed for it.

Edie was done hiding and being afraid and letting others fight her battles for her. She was going to fight her own.

She slid the black mask from her pocket and onto her face. She closed her eyes and inhaled deep, ignoring the scents of urine and vomit in the alleyway where she hid. The mask made Edie strong. It connected her to the other women she knew. Her friends. The Curvy Vigilantes.

Edie was just one of them. They were fighting to make their city a better, safer, brighter place. Niagara Falls, New York, was one of the most beautiful places on earth, but the seedy, nasty evil that had taken control of parts of it was ruining the beauty of one of the Wonders of the World.

Edie was ready for it to stop.

A door opened down the alley, twenty feet or so from Edie. She waited until the man leaned against the brick wall and took a drag from his cigarette. He blew out a long breath, the smoke dancing in the air above his face for a second before it dissipated and disappeared into the mild evening air.

Edie moved closer to him, her sneakers silent even in the trash filled space. She wore dark clothes and was all but invisible.

The man froze, cigarette perched between his lips, breath stalled in his lungs. “Who’s there?”

Edie was close enough to see the fear in his eyes. “Did you sell drugs to a teenager last week?” she growled.

He laughed. Actually laughed. “What if I did?”

“Then you’re going to pay for your crimes,” Edie whispered.

He snorted. “And you think you’re going to make me?”

“Yes, I am,” Edie said, not wasting any time before she rushed the man. Her quick move from the dark caught him off-guard, and the knee she slammed into his nuts had him on the ground in seconds.

Edie pulled a zip-tie from her boot and grabbed the man’s wrist before he had a chance to regain his footing. She held his arm against the pipe running down the building and secured him to it.

“You bitch,” he spat, half-heartedly tugging on the zip-tie.

Edie got in the man’s face. “The kid you sold those drugs to died because they were laced with garbage. You made an extra buck and a fifteen-year-old never woke up again. So use whatever language you want, but trust me when I tell you I’m not the worst piece of trash in this alleyway right now.”

Edie walked away, the bastard shouting after her the entire time.

“Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?” Mackenzie Chambers asked. Mackenzie was Edie’s friend and confidant, but she was also a professional and had a job to do.

“Alleyway behind Jester’s Bar. There’s a present waiting if the police can get there quickly enough. He might know a thing or two about that overdose last week.”

Mackenzie sucked in a breath. “Can you tell me who you are and how you know this?”

Mackenzie hated when Edie called in her prizes, but Edie wasn’t going to go through all the work of finding out who was involved in the drug trafficking in the city without handing the scumbags over to the police. “Just a concerned citizen. Trying to do my part to clean up our beautiful city.”

“Be careful, please,” Mackenzie said. She couldn’t say Edie’s name or hell would rain down on Edie. Probably on Mackenzie, too. But Mackenzie knew Edie’s voice and always told her to be careful.

Technically, what Edie was doing wasn’t legal. But she was willing to work outside the law if it meant delivering justice for the silent ones. The ones whose voices were stolen from them. The ones who’d never speak for themselves, or anyone else, ever again.

Edie hid across the street and waited for the police car to come screeching up the street. The red lights flashed bright and drew the attention of everyone awake that time of night. When the cop walked the man out of the alley in handcuffs, the criminal insisting he was innocent, Edie smiled to herself and knew she did her part for the night.

Tomorrow was another day.

* * *

Pryce Murphy knew exactly what he’d find when he got the call that another gift was left for the police. He broke every traffic law in the book to get there before the present found a way to get free and get away.

But he was still there when Pryce arrived, the zip-tie holding him to the pipe nearly split in half from the guy’s work. His wrist was raw from the effort, but he insisted he was innocent. That he had done nothing wrong. That “the bitch in all black had the wrong guy.”

“We’re going to take a ride anyway,” Pryce told him. “Have a chat.”

The guy grumbled, but he was smart enough not to resist arrest. He wasn’t quiet about it, though, shouting the whole time Pryce walked him out of the alley and into the backseat that he didn’t do a thing.

Pryce guided the guy into the car and scanned the crowd. Whenever the cops showed up, the residents came out in force. A few were faces Pryce knew, people he’d be able to speak to another time. He nodded at Mr. Pickens, who owned the corner store. No doubt the sirens woke him up. Then there was Ms. Moore, who was definitely not sleeping and absolutely still working. Pryce didn’t bother her, even though prostitution wasn’t legal. As long as that was the worst she did and she answered any questions he asked, she was an ally.

Pryce walked around his cruiser and looked at the rest of the crowd. He was good with faces, but there were definitely new ones. And there were plenty of people in the shadows, hiding from his curiosity as they fueled their own.

Without a reason to ask any of them questions, Pryce got behind the wheel and waited. Another car was on the way to process the scene, and Pryce had to make sure they knew what he knew.

“I didn’t do anything,” the guy in the back insisted again. “That lady has no idea what she’s talking about.”

“What does she think you did?”

“Sold drugs to that kid who died. But I don’t do that shit. She’s got it all wrong.”

Pryce nodded, playing along like he agreed with the guy. “Mistaken identity.”

“Yeah, man. Exactly. She don’t know me. Never seen her before.”

“And you were never around that kid, either. No reason to suspect you.”

“Right. I don’t know her.”

“Sara hung out with a rough crowd. She probably got something from a friend.”

“Tara,” the guy in the back said.

Pryce met his gaze in the rearview mirror and nodded. “Right. My bad. I didn’t know her either.”

The guy sputtered his excuses as the other car pulled up. Pryce ignored him and got out.

“What do we got?” Officer Maxwell asked as he met Pryce on the sidewalk.

“Another gift. Guy insists he’s innocent.”

“Don’t they all?” Maxwell chuckled. He was a decent cop, but a bit of a jackass, in Pryce’s opinion. Not that he disagreed with what Maxwell said.

Pryce nodded. “Yep. Even knew her name was Tara and not Sara.”

Maxwell snorted. “Dumbass. What’s the scene look like?”

“Couldn’t see much. Dark alley, zip-tied to a pole. Can smell the cigarette on his breath, so likely a stub down there somewhere, but could be thousands of them.”

“Did you get the zip-tie?” Maxwell’s partner, Dempsey, was quiet until then, but he looked over Pryce like he could see the zip-tie.

Pryce nodded. “In a bag. I was ready for it.”

“Gotta love our friendly neighborhood vigilante. Tying up the bad guys and letting us know where to pick them up.” Dempsey rolled his eyes. None of them were fans of the vigilante.

“Yep. Gave this one a shot to the nuts, though, so assault isn’t out of the question,” Pryce told them.

Maxwell winced. “Damn. I’m rooting for her.”

“Not me,” Pryce growled. “She’s outside the lines. She’s going to be the one we have to rescue one of these days.”

“Nah, she’s good. I’m starting to have fun on nights again. After all that shit with Damon Street, things were tense. It’s time to put the bad guys away and know we’re making the city better. She’s doing the same.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not so sure about that.”

Maxwell rolled his eyes and backhanded Dempsey’s chest. “Well, we’ll go check out the alley. Enjoy your night, Murphy.”

“You, too.” Pryce shook his head. He wasn’t popular. That was what happened when you were a suspect as a rookie cop. It didn’t matter that he’d been exonerated. He still had a stain and had to stick far from the line. One toe out of place and he’d be on the other side of the line for good.

And Pryce did not want that to happen.

The guy in the back grumbled the entire way to the station. When Pryce booked him and put him in a cell, he asked when he’d get his phone call. Pryce assured him someone would be in soon.

“Your partner strikes again, Murphy?” Foster called out.

Detective Drake Foster was a thorn in Pryce’s side. He’d gone from beat cop like Pryce to detective in record time and had never forgotten bringing in Pryce for questioning. Or let him forget it.

“She’s not my partner,” Pryce growled.

Foster chuckled. He looked around the station, ensuring he had the attention of everyone there.

He did.

“Well, it’s funny how you’re always first on the scene. You’re always the one to collar the guys she picks up. And you never seem to know anything about what’s going on.”

“Aren’t you the detective? Shouldn’t you be the one figuring it all out? Or did I forget that was part of my job now?”

Foster scowled at Pryce, the blow landing exactly as planned. Foster pushed off the edge of the desk and leaned back. He crossed his arms and glared at Pryce. “It’s hard to do my job when one of my own is hiding things. You know how the system works and you’re keeping her just outside it.”

“Bullshit,” Pryce snapped. “I’m not doing a thing to help her. I don’t know anymore about her than you do.”

“Bullshit,” Foster parroted, a smirk lifting the edge of his lips.

Pryce shook his head and turned toward the hallway leading back outside. “I’m on duty. And some of us have to actually work for a living.”

Foster called out, “I hope your partner doesn’t get picked up before you can warn her we’re onto her.”

Pryce ignored the dig and kept going. He deserved that one, maybe, but it didn’t make it easier to swallow.

Pryce got back into his car and returned to where he picked up the guy. The other cop car was gone and nothing was out to prevent someone from going down the alley. Pryce parked at the front of it, mostly blocking the entrance, and got out of his car.

He shined his flashlight around the small space as he walked. He wasn’t sure if he’d find anything else, but he wanted to get a look at the scene before too much time had passed.

The pipe was rubbed clean where the zip-tie had been wrapped around it. The heels of the guy’s boots dug up the gravel, leaving grooves behind. Nothing else seemed to have been touched. But the woman had to have been back there, waiting for the guy.

Pryce moved deeper into the alley, looking for places to hide. A dumpster was the perfect cover if you knew the person you were looking for wouldn’t come down that far.

Nothing. No footprints, no hair left behind, nothing to tell him that’s where she was hiding.

Who the hell was she? And how was she figuring out who all these criminals were?

Pryce didn’t have the answers, but he was going to find them. And she was going to go to jail for her crimes.

* * *

Edie sipped her coffee and stared into the pie case. Her mouth watered at the options. Chocolate, lemon meringue, apple, cherry, peach. She didn’t really need to think about which one she wanted, but she was warring with herself.

“They all look good, don’t they?” a voice said from right behind her.

Edie jumped, her coffee spilling over the side of the mug.

“Crap, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Edie set the coffee on the counter and grabbed for napkins.

“Let me help you, please. And let me buy your pie.”

Edie forced her lips to lift and glanced back at the man speaking. When she saw him, she froze.

He noticed the reaction and took a step back. “I apologize. I know a lot of people are uncomfortable around police officers. My name is Pryce Murphy. I don’t think we’ve met.”

“Hi, Officer,” Jenny said. “Here, hun, let me clean that up for you. Did you get it on you, Edie?”

Edie shook her head. “I’m good, Jenny. Thanks.”

Jenny worked the night shift at Bob’s Diner. Edie went in there the first night she brought someone to justice. Her first was a man involved in moving drugs through the city. Most of them were. Because the drugs were what kept Edie captive. What hurt her the most. If they hadn’t filled her with drugs, she would have escaped long before she did.

That first night, Edie felt a new kind of high. A high that said she was finally helping. After months as a prisoner, and more months terrified and nearly catatonic with fear, Edie was helping people. Jenny made her feel like she belonged in that diner. Like she had a safe space to be. Edie wouldn’t say they were friends, but she liked Jenny and loved the pie.

“Put her coffee and pie on my bill, Jenny,” the officer said. “It was my fault it spilled.”

Jenny raised an eyebrow at Edie for confirmation. Edie just shrugged. She wasn’t really going to argue about a two-dollar cup of coffee and a four-dollar piece of pie. Especially with the man who helped her bring in so many criminals. Even if he didn’t know she was the one who delivered them.

“Sounds good. Anything I can get you, Officer?” Jenny held the coffee-stained towel in her fingertips and smiled at the officer.

“Same as she’s having. Coffee and pie.”

“What kind can I get you two?”

“Peach,” they said at the same time.

Edie gasped and looked up at him. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

“It’s always been my favorite.”

“Mine, too,” Edie admitted.

Jenny plated two slices of pie and pushed them across the counter. Edie grabbed hers and her coffee and nodded her thanks to the officer. She headed for the back corner where she could sit alone. Far away from the cop she didn’t know.

Edie tucked into her pie and savored the first bite. It was perfect, like it always was. She had no idea where the peaches came from, but she knew the pie was homemade. Jenny confessed once that she was the pie master, and Edie bought a slice every time she went into the diner since.

“Mind if I join you?” Officer Murphy asked.

Edie nodded, chewing her overly large bite slowly.

He still stood there. “Does that mean you do mind or that I’m welcome to join you?”

Edie breathed a laugh around her food and waved her hand at the other side of her booth. She wasn’t looking for company, and definitely didn’t want it from a cop, but she couldn’t deny the man who bought her pie. Or who unknowingly helped her so many times.

Or who was so attractive she wondered if the pie was really what made her mouth water.

Officer Murphy took a bite of the pie and groaned, his hazel eyes falling closed. Dark lashes brushed his cheeks, a sharp contrast to his dark blond hair and pink-tinted skin. His uniform stretched tight over a well-defined chest and bulging biceps.

Edie had never understood the appeal of a man in uniform before. But this man was different. She knew he was on the same side as her. It had taken Edie a while to trust the police again after having disappeared and learning no one bothered to look for her, but the police captain convinced her there were good people on the force.

She couldn’t help but wonder if Officer Murphy was one of them.

“This pie is amazing,” he said, meeting her gaze in a conspiratorial way. “Why did we only get one slice each?”

Edie chuckled. “Well, unlike you, I’m going home and going to bed after this. Too much sugar and I won’t be able to sleep.”

“Were you working? Is that why you’re up?” The question was casual enough, but Edie knew it was not an innocent question.

Edie shook her head. “I saw you take that man away.”

He looked at her more closely, then nodded. “I thought you looked familiar. I did see you there.”

“You saw me?” Edie breathed. She did her best to be invisible. Blend in with the crowd. If he noticed her in it, he could figure out she’d been in more of the crowds. All the crowds.

Officer Murphy nodded, stabbing another piece of his pie. “Yeah. We’re trying to figure out who’s capturing these people.”

“Does it matter? She’s helping.”

The officer grimaced. “She might be helping catch these people, but we don’t always have evidence that keeps them behind bars. And if she’s hurting them, it’s assault, and she should be charged. Plus, some of these people are dangerous. She could get hurt.”

Edie wasn’t worried about getting hurt. Pain was minor compared to what she’d been through. Getting caught would be a problem, but she was careful. And wasn’t catching these people helping? Wasn’t it worth a minor crime now and then?

Edie knew it was possible she could get in trouble for what she was doing, but she always assumed the police would be happy she was helping. She hid who she was so she didn’t have to answer questions. So she could keep helping.

“Did you see anything tonight?” the officer pushed. “Anything that could help me find the woman who’s doing this? I’d really like to have a conversation with her.”

Well, shit. He already was. But Edie couldn’t admit that. “Uh, no,” she lied. “I didn’t see anything.”

2

Pryce looked at the woman across the booth from him. Something told him she was lying, but he had no reason to think she would be. Even if she agreed with what this vigilante was doing, people had no reason to protect her.

Pryce nodded, focusing on his pie so he’d stop staring at Edie’s mouth as she ate. Her lips wrapped around her fork, and her tongue darted out to lick off the last bit of deliciousness. He should not be getting hard from a woman eating pie, for fuck’s sake.

But he totally was.

Pryce cleared his throat. “So, uh, do you live around here?”

She looked up at him, startled, like he caught her. “Why?”

Pryce shrugged. “You said you saw me take that guy away. I figured the sirens woke you up.”

She shook her head, hiding her eyes by focusing on her coffee. She took a healthy sip. Must be decaf if she was going home to bed. Unless she lied about that.

“I was on my way here.”

“Here?” Pryce asked, more than a little shocked.

He looked more closely at Edie. She wore black jeans and a purple sweater. Her face had traces of makeup from earlier in the day. She was stunning, but she looked a little more pulled together than the diner they were sitting in.

“Can you really tell me the pie isn’t worth it?” she asked.

Pryce chuckled. “You got me there.”

She smiled at him, and Pryce was momentarily speechless. She was beautiful before, but when she smiled, she was downright stunning. Her eyes lit up with humor, and her full cheeks plumped up. Her skin glowed, the brown tones highlighted like she was a work of art instead of real. Her lips had a sheen on them, like she’d licked them right before she looked at him.

He wasn’t sure he could survive the rest of the night. Not without kissing her. And that was a very bad idea.

“So, what⁠—”

Her question was interrupted by the squawk of Pryce’s radio. He kept it turned down when he was inside, but the screech was loud and drew the attention of half the people in the diner.

“This is Officer Murphy,” Pryce said into the radio, pressing his lips into a smile for Edie.

“Vehicle accident. Are you available?”

Pryce looked down at the crumbs left on his plate and back up at Edie. She was watching him closely. He wanted to know what she was thinking. If she wanted him to stay. He couldn’t, but he wanted to.

“Ten-four. On my way out now. I’ll call right back for the address.”

“Copy.”

Pryce put his radio back on his belt and slid to the edge of the booth. “Thank you for letting me share your booth. And for letting me buy you a slice of pie. I apologize for running off.”

Edie smiled. “Understood. Duty calls. I need to get home, anyway.”

“Can I walk you out?”

Edie’s smile faltered but only for a second. She shook her head. “I don’t want to hold you up. I need to use the restroom before I go.” She held up her hands. “Sticky.”

“Understood. Well, hopefully I’ll see you again sometime, Edie.”

“You know my name?” she gasped.

Pryce looked at the counter. “I thought that was what Jenny called you. I apologize if I heard wrong.”

She shook her head. “No, that’s right. I just didn’t realize. It was nice meeting you, Officer.”

“Pryce Murphy,” he said. “Call me Pryce.”

She looked him up and down, then nodded. “Pryce.”

“Be careful going home, Edie.”

“You be careful, too.”

He nodded, then hurried to the door. He stopped when he got to the door, then looked back at her. Edie lifted her hand in a wave. Pryce returned her wave, then went to his car, reluctant to go back to work for the first time in a very long time.

* * *

Edie pushed her way into the bathroom and drew a deep breath. She couldn’t remember being attracted to a man since she walked away from the hell that motivated her to take down men who thought they could do whatever they wanted to others.

Pryce was… different. She’d thought that before, so just the thought sent a shiver down her spine. The last man she had that thought about was Damon Street. A man who said he was going to help her, then held her captive as a toy to mess with.

Street deserved the bullet he got to the chest. More than almost anyone else Edie had ever known.

And any similarities to him and Pryce made her more than a little anxious about the man she’d found herself attracted to as they shared a table and a love for peach pie.

Edie waited until she was sure Pryce would be gone, then walked out of the bathroom with clean hands and an empty bladder. She stopped by the counter to say goodnight to Jenny and was surprised when the woman grinned conspiratorially at her.

“Officer Murphy seemed pretty smitten with you.”

Edie laughed it off. “He was just being kind.”

Jenny shook her head. “I’m not so sure about that. I’ve never seen him buy pie for anyone else. He’s in here almost as much as you are, too.”

“Really? I’ve never seen him here.”

Jenny shrugged. “Guess you’ve just missed each other. He’s good to the neighborhood. I think it’s because he doesn’t have a partner. He talks to the people who live around here. Makes sure no one will go after him.”

“Why would anyone go after him?”

Jenny shrugged. “Not everyone likes the police.”

“Don’t blame them,” Edie mumbled.

“Officer Murphy is good, though. He’s always watching out for this neighborhood. He was probably hoping to find out something about that vigilante that’s been on the news lately.” Jenny’s words held an edge.

“That’s what he said,” Edie replied, not willing to get into more of a discussion about her alter-ego.

“Well, I think anyone who’s looking to take criminals off the street is doing us a favor.” Her pointed look made Edie wonder if the sweet diner employee knew more than she was letting on. “But I also think if everyone was just a little nicer to each other, the world would be a better place.”

“Not everyone is willing to do that,” Edie said without thinking.

Jenny nodded. “I agree. Which is why that woman is a gift to us.”

Edie nodded slowly, wondering if there were more people who agreed with Jenny or more who agreed with Pryce. Edie had never cared a lot about what others thought, but hearing two opposing views in one night made her think.

“Well, have a good night, Edie. Be careful.”

“You, too, Jenny.”

Jenny nodded, then went back to wiping down the counter, working her way over to the booth where Edie and Pryce had been.

Edie let herself out of the diner, relieved when there was no police car outside. She walked across the well-lit parking lot to where she parked her borrowed van and let herself in. The engine cranked up without a second of hesitation, and Edie pulled out onto the street.

The streets were quiet at quarter-to-eleven on a Tuesday night. Most people were asleep in preparation for the next day of work and school. Edie liked the quiet of the night, almost as much as she liked knowing she was doing something to help. Something she never felt like she had the power to do before.

Edie parked the van in the lot behind Shelter in the Storm. She locked it and pocketed the keys Frannie let her have. The house was mostly dark, but the lights all around the outside were bright, erasing all shadows between the parking lot and the door.

Edie let herself in the side door. She locked it behind her, doing her best to stay quiet so she didn’t wake anyone up. Frannie and Marcus were doing her a favor by letting her stay there. Frannie was wonderful. She owned Shelter in the Storm, a dream she created after she witnessed a woman murdered in an alley. Frannie wanted to give women a place to go when they had nowhere else to turn. And she’d done that. Marcus was the police captain, and Frannie’s husband. The two of them protected the women who stayed in the shelter, helping them to heal and rebuild their lives.

Edie thought of herself as lucky to call them friends. Even though she felt like their generosity was so much more than just a roof over her head. Edie needed Frannie and Marcus’s help just as much as every other woman who called the place home, for however long they were there.

Edie turned to the door that led up the stairs to the rest of the shelter. Frannie and Marcus lived in the basement, and the others lived upstairs. There was almost always someone awake, but curfew was eleven, so Edie was careful to be quiet in case others were sleeping.

“Hey,” someone said as Edie stepped onto the bottom step to go up to her room.

She stopped and turned, spotting the young woman on the living room couch. Charlotte was barely a legal adult, but she’d already witnessed the worst a person could see. Her boyfriend tried to kill her, and she was lucky enough to escape from him. When she got to the police station, Marcus called Frannie and had Charlotte whisked away before the boyfriend could figure out where she was.

Not that he didn’t try. But Charlotte was safe. If safe meant hiding from a man who vowed to finish the job if he ever found her.

“Hi,” Edie said, changing direction to speak to Charlotte.

“Where were you?”

“Visiting a friend,” Edie said. Her standard lie. She told everyone she was visiting a friend whenever she went anywhere. Most people didn’t ask for more.

Charlotte wasn’t most people.

“Who’s your friend?”

Edie shrugged. “Jenny. What are you doing up?”

Charlotte picked at her nailbed, the pink skin turning red before she made her way through the layers of skin to the blood beneath.

“Are you okay?”

Charlotte shrugged and laughed mirthlessly. “Are any of us okay? I mean, really?”

Edie sighed and sank to a seat on the couch across from Charlotte. Charlotte was curled up on a chair, looking younger than eighteen. Edie was so full of hope and excitement when she was Charlotte’s age. On her way to college on a scholarship to play tennis. Surrounded by new friends and fun. Her whole life was ahead of her.

Sixteen years later, nothing had turned out the way Edie was foolish enough to hope for back then.

“Have you talked to Stacey?” Edie asked.

Charlotte shared one night that she didn’t like talking to Stacey. The counselor for the women in the shelter, Stacey, was kind and understanding and compassionate. But Charlotte couldn’t relate to her, according to her excuses.

Edie was fairly sure she was not willing to face the shit in her head. If that wasn’t the pot calling the kettle black, Edie didn’t know what was.

“Why? Talking isn’t going to change anything.” It was Charlotte’s default answer.

One Edie didn’t have a good response to. “Maybe it’ll help.”

“Are you talking to her?”

Edie eyed the younger woman. Stacey was a friend. Even if Edie didn’t like the idea of talking to her as a therapist, Stacey was a wonderful person and someone Edie thought of as a friend. “I’ll go if you go,” Edie said.

Charlotte narrowed her eyes at Edie. “Why?”

Edie shrugged. “Maybe it’s time for both of us.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes and went back to picking at her nails. It was a good sign, even as more blood oozed from the wounds. It meant she was actually thinking about it.

“Fine. But you go first.”

Edie nodded. Busted. She was planning to make Charlotte go, then never get an appointment. It was a shitty plan, but it was all she had.

“Agreed. But you have to go.”

“I will if you do.”

Edie examined Charlotte and nodded once, an agreement.

“You going to bed?” Edie asked.

Charlotte shrugged but unfolded herself from the chair. Edie knew the only sleep Charlotte got was fitful and usually resulted in being woken by a nightmare. Their rooms were next door, but Charlotte never woke Edie up. Edie didn’t sleep any better than Charlotte. She’d just learned not to scream when the nightmares woke her.

At the top of the stairs, they turned down the hallway. They didn’t touch, neither was okay with touching, but Edie waited until Charlotte reached her door and waved. When Charlotte went inside her room and locked the door, Edie followed suit, hoping sleep would be nicer to her than it usually was.

* * *

Edie sat in the chair in the corner of her room, staring at the door. She’d spent the night alternating between dreams she couldn’t remember but knew were terrifying and remembering the look of delight in Pryce’s eyes when he took a bite of pie.

The world outside was waking up, and it wouldn’t be long before the world inside the house would follow. Charlotte was up. Her nightmare came just after five, which was a little more sleep than she’d gotten the night before. Edie heard Charlotte moving around in her room, changing positions and staying busy. Probably so she didn’t fall asleep again.

Edie was restless and felt the need for coffee. Her stomach rumbled, telling her breakfast was a good idea, too. Her slice of peach pie was digested and gone, and even though the house was quiet, she hoped she’d be able to find something in the kitchen.

Edie let herself out of her room and closed her door silently, not wanting to disturb the others, and secretly not wanting to let Charlotte know she was awake. Edie liked Charlotte a lot, but the nightmares made Edie felt like her skin was too tight. When she felt that way, being around others was a challenge.

Well, more of a challenge.

No one was in the hallway, but the lights were on downstairs. Edie hugged the wall, having learned months ago that the right side of the stairwell didn’t creak. She made it to the front hallway before she heard voices.

“I can’t do anything,” Marcus said. His voice was rough, broken. Like he’d given up.

But on what?

“There’s nothing you can do? A man like that is going to go back out onto the streets?” Frannie hissed.

Marcus grunted. “You know I wish I could change that, but the system works that way. He made bail, so he’s going to get out.”

“And you know what he’s going to do.” Frannie was not happy.

Marcus sighed heavily. “Yeah. He’s going to sell more drugs and probably kill more teenagers.”

Edie sucked in a silent breath. No. It wasn’t possible. The man she gift wrapped last night was getting out of jail? After a handful of hours? A teenager died. Because of him. He all but admitted it, even though Edie couldn’t tell them that without also confessing she was the one who tied him up. What was wrong with their justice system?

“I thought you said he confessed,” Frannie said.

That was news to Edie, good news. She tiptoed closer to make sure she didn’t miss a word.

“Officer Murphy tricked him into saying the girl’s name. Murphy called the girl Sara, but the guy corrected him to Tara.”

“That’s good. Why is he being let out?”

“You know why,” Marcus barked. He drew a breath and let it out slowly, the sound of it audible in the otherwise silent house. “Tara’s name was on the news. Reports of her death were all over the place. The guy said he heard it somewhere. Not that he knew her. Not that he had any contact with her. Just that he heard it.”

“You know that’s utter bullshit, right?”

“Of course I do.” Marcus laughed sourly. “But I can’t do anything. What am I supposed to tell them? The vigilante is only capturing bad guys, so this guy must be bad. The justice system doesn’t know as much as she does?”

“Sure, you could start with that,” Frannie said. Her tone was soothing and kind.

A sharp contrast to the anger and pain Edie felt. She wanted to rush in there and tell Marcus she was the vigilante. That she was the one bringing all those guys down. She could share all the information she used to find them.

But she knew the system. She’d learned a lot when she was living in safe houses. She’d learned how evidence needed to be discovered, how it needed to be handled, and who could turn it over. If any of that was messed up, the guilty party walked free.

Which was so fucking ridiculous. Because most of these criminals were smarter than the cops investigating them. They knew how to manipulate the system. They knew what to say and do in order to get out.

As evidence by the fact that the guy she had in cuffs less than twelve hours earlier was already about to walk free.

“If there’s something out there to find on this guy, we will find it,” Marcus said. His tone was firm, a promise.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first promise Edie had heard from law enforcement. So far, few promises were kept. Which was why she decided to take matters into her own hands two months ago. She refused to sit around and wait for them to find something. To let these people walk free when others were being held captive for the enjoyment of the sick fucks who decided they were in power.

No. Edie wasn’t going to sit back and let it happen like that. She was going to stop the evil that was ruining Niagara Falls. She was going to help make it beautiful again.

Even if she had to do it alone.