Page 47

She knew the exact moment he fell asleep. His breathing became deep and rhythmic, and his arm around her was utterly relaxed. As she tried to match her breathing with his, a sudden realization shot through her.

She was falling in love with Seth Daniels.

The Scarecrow Killer sat in his basement, frustration rushing through him as the sound of the crows screeched in his head.

The crows…always the crows and the memory of the woman who had made his childhood a living hell. Years ago, she’d been helped down the steep stairway to the basement floor by a hard push from him. It had been a fatal “accident.” But she kept coming back from the grave to torment him.

He squeezed the sides of his head in an effort to squeeze her out of his brain, but she haunted him almost all the time now.

“Stand up straight, boy,” she screamed at him. “Don’t you let them crows get to my corn.”

The sun beat down on his shoulders, and exhaustion had cast him down to the ground. It was only when she started stalking toward him, her face twisted with a familiar rage and a belt snapping in the air, that he quickly stood back up again. He’d been five years old at the time, and he continued to be her human scarecrow for years.

The crows squawked even louder in his head. He turned around in his chair and looked around his basement, assured by the pile of folded old jeans and plaid shirts stacked on a table and by the wooden poles that stood in the corner just waiting to hold up her as a scarecrow.

Straight ahead was a metal shelving unit, and on the top shelf four bottles stood side by side. Inside each bottle was a pair of eyeballs, all taken from his victims.

Her eyes had been bright blue, and each woman he had killed in an effort to get rid of her, once and for all, had blue eyes. But the eyeballs hadn’t held their color. They had become milky and pale and let him know he hadn’t gotten her yet.

He’d been so sure with each woman he’d killed that he’d finally gotten rid of his mother. The women, with their blond hair and blue eyes so like hers, had convinced him that they were his mother somehow reincarnated to continue to torment him.

However, he knew he hadn’t gotten her yet. He’d been so sure his last victim, Sabrina Yellin, would stop the madness. It had been his mother’s lips who had smiled at him as Sabrina had gotten into his car for a quick chat. It had been his mother’s eyes who had gazed at him wide with shock as he drove his knife deep into her chest.

When he’d brought her back here to remove her eyeballs and sew up her mouth and then dress her up as a scarecrow, he’d been excited that he’d finally gotten her once and for all.

Getting her into the school had been a piece of cake. There was no security there, and he’d been lucky enough to find a side door that was unlocked. He’d carried his scarecrow inside and placed her in the first classroom he’d come to.

By the time he got home, he knew he had failed again. The crows screamed in his head as her voice berated him. You stupid boy. You’re nothing and you will never be anything. Nobody in town even pays attention to you.

She was wrong about that. Everyone in town was paying attention to him now. The newspaper headlines screamed his name, and women shivered at night just thinking about him. After all, he was the Scarecrow Killer.

However, it was true that in his everyday life, people tended to look right through him. Everyone knew him, but they didn’t pay much attention to him.

It hadn’t been that long since he’d made his last scarecrow, but already the hunger was back inside him. He needed to continue his quest to find his mother and kill her once and for all. Only then would he finally have peace.

Excitement roared through him. He thought he’d found her again. The pretty woman with her blond hair and big blue eyes had caught his attention days ago.

Now it was just a matter of time before he figured out how he could take her, kill her and transform her into a scarecrow. He really hoped she was the one. He hoped when he finished with this one, it would finally send his mother to hell where she belonged.

Seth awakened just before dawn. He was vaguely surprised that he was still spooned around Suzanna’s warm body. Apparently, they hadn’t changed positions all night.

Normally he got up around this time each day, but this morning he was reluctant to leave his bed. Suzanna was so warm against him, and her evocative scent filled his head.

Their lovemaking had been absolutely amazing. She’d been such a willing and giving lover. Her level of passion had both surprised and delighted him.

He had hoped that making love to her would quell the crazy desire he felt for her. However, with her so shapely and soft in his arms, the need to have her once again began to grow inside him.

Before he could act on his mounting desire for her, he slowly withdrew his arm from around her waist and then slid out of the bed. Thankfully he didn’t awaken her.

With the faint light of dawn now just beginning to drift through his window, he was able to see well enough to grab a clean pair of jeans and boxers from his dresser drawer, and then he got a flannel shirt from his closet.

He left the room and went into the hall bathroom, where he took a quick shower and then dressed. He then went into Sammy’s room and got Lady to take outside.

He filled Lady’s food bowl and got a pot of coffee working. Once the food bowl was empty, he took Lady outside one more time and then carried the puppy back to Sammy’s room. Before he could leave the room, Lady was curled up in her doggy bed and sound asleep. That was one of the good things about puppies…they slept a lot.

By now the coffee was ready. He poured himself a cup and then sank down at the table, his thoughts once again on the sleeping beauty in his bed.

She was definitely getting under his skin. She felt like a missing piece of his family that had finally fallen into place, and that scared him more than a little bit.