Stolen Faces Chapter 1

Pre-Order Your Copy Here Chapter 1Elora

Elora’s heart pounded so fast and loud in her ears that she worried it would jump right out of her chest. She could still see the pain and fear in Marlowe’s eyes, and more than that, she could see the regret.

Marlowe had gotten away. She had made a new life for herself and hid away from whatever danger she had feared enough to escape. And now she was dead. That final breath slipped from her like a warm summer breeze. Everything had changed since.

Elora glanced over at Aiden, who gripped the wheel tightly as he sped toward the apartments. “Are you sure she was dead?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “She told me to run, and that was it. As soon as I heard someone in the house, I knew I had to get the hell out of there. There wasn’t anything I could have done for her. I couldn’t tell what was wrong. There was so much blood.”

“There was nothing you could do. You’re safe now,” he said, placing his hand on her knee. “We’ll go home and sort this out.”

“I have to call for help,” she said. “What if there’s still time to save her?”

“It’s not safe. And it’s already been too long,” he said, shaking his head. “You said she wasn’t breathing, Elora. There is nothing you can do for her now.”

She understood that. “But I still have to call the cops. The killer might still be in her house. We can take that person down.” She wanted them to pay for what they had done.

Aiden still looked doubtful. “I know you want to do that, Elora, but they’re probably long gone. And what’s to say they won’t think you’re involved?”

“Why would they?” She crinkled her brow. “I’m the one who got her identity stolen.”

Aiden nodded. “And that’s a good motive to kill Marlowe. She stole your life. She left you burning in a house fire, right? Even you think she did it on purpose. She said she didn’t know you, remember?”

“I know. She said she was sorry.” Elora closed her eyes. She hated to think that Marlowe could have done something like that, but the apology she had given her said it all.

She had orchestrated everything to save herself. Elora saw it on her face when she opened the door the first time. It was the same look she got when the cops would show up at their college apartment after she and Skye had gotten into trouble. And now, Elora was torn. She could hate Marlowe for what she had done or figure out what pushed her friend to such extremes. If Marlowe felt she had no other choice, how bad was it? And how many other girls out there were in the same danger? “I still think there’s something I should do.”

Aiden sighed. “Let’s get back to the apartment first, okay? We’ll sort it out when you calm down. There’s nothing you can do to help her now anyway.”

Elora felt the sting of those words. Marlowe was gone. Really gone. “I think it was easier not knowing where she was. At least when she was missing, I could pretend she was alive. Now I know she’s gone.” There was an emptiness inside with that knowledge. She felt the warmth of her tears as they ran down her cheeks.

“You’ll get cleaned up and feel better,” he said. “It’s going to be okay, Elora.”

Elora looked down at her arms. There was blood on her hands and forearm. “Oh no. I didn’t realize.”

“That’s why you need to calm down, get cleaned up, get your wits about you. You can’t go off half-cocked to the police. They won’t understand why you were there or why you have her blood on you. You can’t trust that you won’t end up behind bars.”

Elora was confused. “Okay. You’re right. I need to think this through.”

“You said she died. Could you tell me how? What happened to her?” He glanced her way.

She shrugged helplessly, remembering. “There was blood everywhere. She was bleeding out on the floor. I think she tried to get up. It looked like she had pulled the sofa table over on herself. There was broken glass. It stuck in the bottom of my shoe.” It was strange how every detail was still in her mind. The sound of the glass beneath her shoes as she hurried across the tile to leave, and the smell of blood so thick in the air, she could taste it. “Pennies,” she said. “It smelled like my hands when I used to roll pennies.”

Aiden glanced her way. “I’m sorry, Elora. We’re almost home. You’ll be okay.”

“I need to know who did this. I need to know what happened.” She shivered.

“Are you cold?” he asked, diverting the vents from her.

“I’m fine. I want to get home.” She closed her eyes and realized it was true. She wanted to go home, but not her apartment. She wanted to go back to her grandmother’s house. She needed to open the back door and find her grandmother in the kitchen, waiting with a warm hug and the reassurance that everything would be all right. She tried to imagine that warmth, but it only made her colder.

“We’re here,” he said, pulling into the apartment parking lot. He took the long way around and backed into the parking spot.

Elora looked down at the blood. “I just want to get this off of me.”

“Hey, I’ll fix you a nice, hot bath. You should relax. It’s going to be fine.”

“Thank you again for coming to find me. I’m sorry I went without you. I just needed so badly to confront her. I needed to know what was wrong and who had gotten to her. I guess now I’ll never know.”

“Come on, Elora.” He opened the car door, and by the time he shut it, Elora opened hers. She stepped out and into Aiden arms. He held her tightly against him. “It’s going to be okay.” He put his arm around her and walked with her up the stairs.

“Will you stay the night?” she asked. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

She took her keys from her pocket, but when she went to put the key in the door, she could hear laughter coming from inside her apartment. She looked at Aiden, who shrugged.

“It sounds like Hope,” he said with furrowed brows.

Elora could hear her, too. How to explain the blood? Before she could say anything, the door opened, and Hope stood there with a huge smile on her face.

“I thought I heard you, Elora.” She looked at Aiden. “Well, don’t just stand there. Come on in.” Elora noted the moment she noticed the blood. “Oh no! Elora, what happened?”

Elora walked in and stopped in her tracks. Hope wasn’t alone. Gavin sat across the room on the sofa and smiled up at her while Hope freaked out.

“You’re bleeding!”

“No, it’s not my blood,” she said, trying to reassure the woman.

Aiden stepped over to the sink and turned on the water. “Yeah, you wouldn’t believe what happened to us,” he said. “We were uptown, and this woman fell in the parking lot outside the coffee shop. She face-planted, busted her head open, and started gushing blood.”

“Oh no,” said Hope.

“Yeah, so Elora ran over and helped her. She applied pressure to the wound, and we waited until her husband came out. It was nuts.”

Hope’s eyes were as wide as saucers.

“Yeah, it all happened so quickly,” said Elora, walking over to the sink to join him. She squirted some soap on her hands and began to lather.

“Elora really stepped into action. You should have seen it.”

She gave him a sideward look. He was a quick thinker.

“Oh, wow!”

Gavin cleared his throat. “That’s my Elora,” said Gavin, who walked over to join them. “Always saving the day.” He held his hand out to Aiden. “Gavin Dutch.”

“Aiden Kipp.”

“I’m glad you’re okay, Elora,” said Hope. “I didn’t think you’d be gone long, so when Gavin showed up and asked about surprising you, I decided to let him in.”

“Thanks,” said Elora, wishing she had better judgment. But Gavin was famous, so she understood why she trusted him. Everyone in the world thought they knew Gavin. If they only knew.

Hope looked at him, starstruck. “It has been such an honor to meet you,” she said.

“Likewise. Thank you for keeping me company.”

“Well, I’ll just leave you to it,” she said, gesturing at her ear for Elora to call her. She would no doubt want all the details of her visit with Gavin.

Elora wasn’t sure what to think. She looked at Aiden, who didn’t seem comfortable with Gavin there. And Gavin looked as if she should be happy to see him.

“Your friend said you went to a job interview?” Gavin asked, looking confused.

“Yeah,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“I told you I was coming, Elora.”

“And I asked you not to come,” she said, unnerved. She began shaking.

“Why don’t you tell me what that blood was really about?” he said, stepping around the counter. “Because I don’t buy your story.”

Elora knew she had to tell him. He would learn it soon enough. “It’s Marlowe.”

“What about her?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. Suddenly, they were so full of confusion that she wondered what he knew.

“She’s dead.”

“Dead? What the fuck are you talking about, Elora?”

“She’s dead. I found her.”

“What do you mean you found her?” He took a step toward her. “Is that her blood? Tell me.”

“I found her living here in Milton. It was the utility mix-up. They said I already had an account, so I wrote down the address. I wanted to see who it was. I wanted to see if I knew them. So I went to the house to spy. And it was Marlowe.”

“You said she was dead. What the fuck happened?” He glared at Aiden.

“She is now.”

“You killed her?!” Gavin asked, eyes wide.

“No, of course not,” Elora said, scrubbing a hand over her face. “I approached her earlier. She pretended not to know me. But I knew better, so I decided to confront her again and was going to make her tell me why she staged the fire.”

“You think she staged the fire? Why would you think that?”

“Oscar told me details.”

“Oscar,” he said, shaking his head. “What details?”

“How she made me sleep in the master suite. How my things were not recovered but hers were. They were right next to each other. I doubt any burglar would take my cheap bag over her expensive one. She wanted me to be found dead. She wanted everyone to think she was the one burned up in the fire. She did that so she could start over using my identification, only she didn’t count on Oscar saving me.”

“That’s insane.” Gavin frowned. “You just happened to move to the one place Marlowe was?”

“Yes, I did. I did the same thing she did. I came to a place where I could be close to good memories. We came here once with Skye. It was long ago, but she must have loved it just as much. With me dead, no one would know about this place, and no one would look for her. I never believed she left. I thought she was taken.”

“What the fuck happened to her?”

“I went back to confront her. I heard something break inside. I tried to get in and found the door was open. I found her bleeding on the floor. She told me she was sorry. We heard a noise in the back of the house, and she told me to run.”

Aiden turned toward the sink.

“And where were you?” asked Gavin.

“He came looking for me. He knew where I would be because he spied on the house with me.”

Aiden turned around and leaned against the counter. “I found her in the street running around like a chicken with her head cut off and covered in blood. Scared to death.”

“You didn’t call the police, did you?” he asked.

Elora was ashamed to respond. “No,” she said, tearing up. “I should, shouldn’t I?”

“No,” said Gavin. “I’ll handle everything, Elora. You’ve been through enough. Calm down. It’s going to be okay.” He took out his phone and stepped away to talk to someone.

Elora turned to Aiden. “Shouldn’t I talk to the authorities?” She wondered if it was Milton police or Calter police.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Let him handle it.” He stepped away and began to pace the room.

Elora could tell that Aiden felt uncomfortable with Gavin there. She didn’t know what he must think of her and everything going on. Still, he stayed.

Gavin walked toward the back of the house and Elora couldn’t hear the conversation. She was prepared for the worst.

When Gavin returned, he went to Elora and pulled her close before she could step away.

He brushed her hair down. “It’s going to be okay. I took care of it.”

Elora got a cold feeling. She tried to glance around him to see Aiden, but he was already on his way to the door.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“I’m going home,” he said. “I’ll just give you two some time to work this out.”

Gavin put his arm around her. “Thanks,” he told Aiden.

“Don’t go,” she said.

He gave her a reassuring look. “I’m just across the hall.”

When Aiden shut the door, Elora shrugged away from Gavin. “You’ll give him the wrong idea about us,” she said.

“Or the right one,” he said, sounding amused.

Elora didn’t think it was funny. She was so put off by his remarks she glared at him. “What did the police say?”

“They’re taking care of it. You don’t have to worry about anything.”

“I want to make a statement this time.” Elora would tell them everything she knew. She never felt as if she had a chance to speak up when Marlowe went missing.

Gavin waved her idea away dismissively. “That’s not necessary. I told them already. I also called our family attorney and put him on notice.”

“On notice for what?” she asked.

“In case this comes back on you,” he said, giving her a pointed look. “You were there when she died. You’ll need to be represented just in case.”

“But I didn’t do anything,” she said. She didn’t see how it could be blamed on her.

“Well, I know that, and I told the police that, but it doesn’t mean they won’t want answers. Just relax, Elora. I’m going to take care of everything. You need to stay quiet and trust me.”

Elora knew she couldn’t trust Gavin to take care of her, but she had to play along if she was ever going to get the answers she needed. If someone was going down for killing Marlowe, it wouldn’t be her.