Forever Hers by Walters, Ednah (top 50 books to read txt) 📕

FBI profilers can look at a series of crimes and tell which ones were committed by the same person.” Eddie pushed his plate aside and continued. “These two guys, Caldecott and Aldridge, were angry because the bank shut them down and took over their rental properties. They didn’t want revenge. No, they wanted their properties back so they could start a new company. So they entered the first four houses and grabbed everything they could carry and left. We’re talking electronics, furniture, utensils, beddings, even the pictures on the wall.  But the last two houses, the thieves trashed the place up, held the couple at gunpoint, hardly the attitude of people who want their properties back.”

“Maybe they were pissed the houses were occupied,” she said.

He shrugged. “True, but trust me, the last two house were not vandalized by the same guys. We are dealing with two sets of thieves, and my gut instinct tells me the last two break-ins were by Nolan’s men.”

She frowned. “Why would you say that?”

“Because the same thing happened six years ago in Charlottesville. A string of break-ins, all smash, grab and run, then suddenly, the burglars changed their style. They became violent. Their rampage ended with the attack on you and Charles. The same thing happened here. Simple robberies, then the burglars became violent. The next house was this one, but you chased them away.”

She chewed on her lip as she thought over his words. “Are you saying that Nolan is somehow responsible for Charles’s death?”

“I’m saying there’s a possibility that what happened here is connected to what happened six years ago, but it all hinges on how well you knew Nolan before your fiancé got killed. Did he try to date you or ask you out and you turned him down?”

Her eyes widened, then Amy nodded.

***

Amy’s mind raced to the past. The entire campus had buzzed with the news of burglars breaking into student apartments and taking off with electronics. No one got hurt until the last two when two guys got beat up and a girl almost got raped. Then she and Charles were next.

She didn’t need to close her eyes to remember everything that happened that night—the darkness inside Charles apartment, the scuffle, the excruciating pain from her arm after someone pushed her and she hit a table, the kicks and broken ribs that had made every breath torture, and the horrible single gunshot that had ended Charles’s life. She touched her chest, remembering pressing her hand on his wound while screaming for help, her own pain forgotten.

“Amy?”

“I first meet Nolan when I was a senior in high school and he was fresh from the academy,” she said and frowned. “A bunch of us went to a frat party and a fight broke out.”

His brow rose. “A frat party?”

“We were at a cheer camp on campus and one thing led to another. The campus police was called in and Nolan was one of them. He gave me a ride home because I was, uh, wasted.” Her cheeks grew red. She got up and paced. “I think he spoke to my parents that night. Our paths crossed again. Each time, he let me go with a warning when he could have hauled me in.” Eddie’s expression didn’t give much away, but she was sure she’d shocked him. “I was a very rebellious child and hung out with the wrong crowd most of my teens.”

“We all do foolish things when we are young,” Eddie said dismissively. “When did he ask you out?”

“I was in college, end of first year. We’d finished finals and went out to celebrate. Things got crazy and there he was with his partner. I remember my friends asking me how I knew the cop because he called me by my name. He pulled me aside, bought me coffee and gave me a long lecture on sobriety and DUI. He dropped me off at my apartment. The next day he stopped by and, uh, ended up asking me out.”

“And?”

“I honestly don’t remember what I told him, but he asked again a few weeks later when our paths crossed again. I turned him down as gentle as I could. He wasn’t my type. At the beginning of my junior year, I met Charles.”

“Did you ever see Nolan again?”

She frowned, trying to remember. “Yeah, all almost every time Charles and I went out. I mean, it’s a small town.”

“He was probably stalking you, maybe waiting for you to get in trouble.”

She smiled. “That wasn’t going to happen. I changed after I met Charles. He made me revaluate my priorities.” She recalled the first time she and Charles met. She’d gone to see her father, to ask for more money for something. “He was my father’s grad student, mature and focused, a brilliant future ahead of him, while I was…a junior who hadn’t declared her major.”  A hot mess.

She walked to the fridge and retrieved a bottle of water. She hated talking about her past behavior and mistakes, most of which she regretted deeply. Her parents had her late in their lives, when they were set in their careers, and had no clue on what to do with her. Instead, they’d let nannies raise her, and to pay them back, she had done whatever she could to make them suffer, from bringing home bad grades to breaking school rules and being thrown out of every private school they’d sent her.

Amy rejoined Eddie and sat. “Charles wanted us to tell Dad about our relationship but I wanted to clean up my act first, so we dated secretly for several months. Then I found out I was expecting and we had to tell them anyway.”

She paused again and sipped her drink as she organized her thoughts. Her parents had hit the roof. Even the beautiful engagement ring Charles had bought her on his student salary hadn’t placated them. They’d insisted on a long engagement until Charles finished college. They actually believed Charles would not