Although he'd never gone to war, all the enemies he'd imagined facing were properly labeled and wearing a different uniform. Kalyna was part of his flight crew, a comrade, a woman.
"Are you seeing anyone right now?" she asked.
"No."
"Good thing."
He sank lower. "What kind of consequences would she face for making these threats?"
"Nothing serious or long-lasting enough to render her incapable of acting on them."
"You mean, there are no consequences until she actually hurts someone?"
"Nothing that's going to be effective if her mind's made up." That was the problem Ava ran into all the time, especially with domestic disputes. But the police couldn't start throwing people in jail on speculation.
He rubbed a hand over his face. "Damn, where's this going to end?"
"Do you think it's true about the baby?" she asked.
"At this point, I don't know." He set his cell phone on the coffee table.
"They collected my se**n at the hospital, so it's possible."
That had to scare the hell out of him. "What wil you do if it's true?"
"Try to gain custody."
"There's an example of family planning."
"No kidding."
Ava got up and crossed to the kitchen. "Can I get you a drink?"
Blowing out a sigh, he dropped his head on the back of the couch and gazed up at the ceiling. "Right now I could drink an entire bottle."
Everyone was asleep.
Now that she'd finished packing, Kalyna took a last look at her sister and felt a strange pang. She doubted she'd be coming home again. There wasn't anything for her here. Her parents were even less tolerant, less accepting, of her than they'd been before. She'd hardly exchanged a civil word with them since she'd arrived. But she'd never gotten along with them so she could've dealt with that. It was her sister who broke her heart.
Tatiana was the only person Kalyna had ever loved and yet...she didn't know this version. These days Tatiana was so influenced by Dewayne and Norma she felt guilty about letting so much as a cussword slip out. And she said she was finally happy. What she meant was that she was happy with them, happier without Kalyna.
This was the worst betrayal Kalyna had suffered so far. Now she had no one. No one to act as an anchor when she felt as if she was about to spin out of control. No one to save her from the void that threatened to consume her in the long, dark hours when she couldn't sleep.
She was truly alone.
Never had the memory of that girl she and Mark had tortured ten years ago felt closer. Maybe this was that stranger's revenge. She'd never done anything to Kalyna. Kalyna had kil ed her just because she could, because Mark was egging her on. And she'd enjoyed the power it gave her.
That was why she hadn't wanted to spend time with Mark anymore. He'd made her too much like him.
Kalyna checked her wallet for what was left of the money she'd earned at the bar last night. She'd spent most of it at the mall earlier today, flashing it around for Tatiana's sake. After borrowing the money for that pregnancy test, she'd told Tati that her paycheck had been electronically deposited, even though it wasn't due for a week. She hadn't wanted her sister to think she was absolutely broke. She spent too much time trying to convince her she'd done the right thing when she joined the air force, that she had plenty of whatever she needed. It wasn't as though she'd spent it all on herself. She'd bought Tati a cute pair of jeans to make up for screwing that Danny guy. Tatiana didn't know about it, but Kalyna had made it up to her, anyway. That was nice, wasn't it?
Of course. The money was well-spent. But now Kalyna wasn't sure how she'd get home.
Dropping to her hands and knees, she looked behind the trundle for Tati's purse. It wasn't on the desk or anywhere else she could see. Nor was it under the bed. But it had to be somewhere. Maybe up in the kitchen.
Careful not to make any noise, she opened the bedroom door and hefted her suitcase through the opening. She was about to climb the stairs when the door to the cooler caught her eye.
When she was little, she'd been frightened of that cooler. She didn't like the waxy skin, the blotchiness, the bloating that made it so obvious that the people in there weren't just sleeping. And yet...those corpses sort of appealed to her at the same time. They couldn't hurt her. They'd never be able to hurt her. They were powerless. It was the living she had to fear.
Crossing to the heavy door, she unlatched it and heard a small whoosh as the seal was broken. The cool air swirled around her, welcome as an embrace, while she eyed the four gurneys that awaited Tati's attention. One contained an old man, shriveled and already skeletal in appearance; another an old woman with liver spots; the third a middle-aged woman, and the fourth the woman's teenage boy. They'd both been kil ed in a drunk-driving accident. She'd never met any of them, and yet they were her friends, the only people who'd never rise up against her.
If Ava were here, she'd be as powerless as they were, Kalyna told herself. And, unlike that hitchhiker from years past, Ava deserved to die.
Not only did she pretend to be something she wasn't, she thought she could stab Kalyna in the back and get away with it.
It was time to eliminate Ava as a threat.
The stairs creaked as she climbed them, but she couldn't hear any other sound, except the rat-a-tat-tat of the automatic sprinklers outside. Her father watered at night so the hot Arizona sun wouldn't scorch the lawn. A mortuary had to have curb appeal, he said. Perfectly manicured grass had a soothing effect.
Once she reached the kitchen, Kalyna moved more quickly. Leaving her suitcase by the door, she began searching for Tati's purse--and came across her mother's instead.
"Even better," she muttered, and carried it into the pantry, where she could safely turn on a light.
Bingo! Her mother had nearly five hundred dollars in her wallet. She'd also put her wedding ring in her coin purse. Norma couldn't wear it anymore. Her hands were too swollen from the water retention caused by some of the meds she took for depression.
It was a pretty ring with a large, square-cut diamond. Kalyna shoved the money in her pocket, then slid the ring onto her wedding finger to see how it looked. Not bad. It was much more attractive on a young hand--
A noise drew Kalyna's attention to the doorway. Her mother stood there, bedding lines scoring the cheek with the mole, her dark hair, normally ratted in a fixed "do," flat on one side.
"What do you think you're doing?" Norma wasn't yel ing. Her voice was low, but the look in her eyes suggested serious trouble.
It was more than obvious what she was doing. She'd been caught in the act. So Kalyna decided to shrug it off as if it wasn't a big deal. She pulled the ring from her finger and returned it to her mother's coin purse. "I couldn't sleep, so I figured I'd get a jump on the drive home."