If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

like bees buzzing in his ears. Slack, Remy sagged against the kiln, staring through the small, almost nonexistent peephole. It wasn’t much of a space—just enough to get a glimpse inside.
    But that glimpse was all he needed. That glimpse was too much.
    “Holy shit. God, oh, God, oh, God … Ezra.”
    Ezra let go. “What—?”
    The strength drained out of Remy’s legs and he reached up, clamped a hand over the top edge of the kiln. This was a smaller one—maybe twice the size of an industrial fridge. Shaking, he lifted his hand, rubbed his eyes. Looked again.
    What he saw didn’t change.
    “Aw, no. No,
fuck
, no.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
     
    I T WAS A DECENT SIZED HOUSE , N IA KNEW, BUT SHE was absolutely certain she was going to come out of her skin if she had to stay there too much longer. Which meant she was going to come out of her skin, she supposed.
    As much as she wanted to be out there doing something to find Carter Jennings, Nia wasn’t about to do the dumb chick thing and put her ass out where it didn’t belong. She was a photographer, not a cop. She’d done what she’d set out to do, even though it was mostly through sheer dumb luck and chance. But she’d done her part—she needed to let King do his job now.
    But the tension in this place was driving her
crazy
. It was even worse now, ever since he’d called not too long ago to check on Lena.
    The other woman hadn’t said much, but Nia could tell she was worried. She’d like to do something, say something to help, but what could she say?
I know your new husband is out there chasing after a psycho, but I’m sure he’ll be fine
, maybe? Didn’t really sound like a Hallmark card.
    By some unspoken agreement, they all stayed together. After lunch, they’d all migrated into the living room andnone of them seemed interested in leaving. When one of them left, even if just to use the restroom, Law played their shadow. It was sort of embarrassing, yet still strangely comforting, at least for Nia. He wouldn’t let anything happen, not if he could stop it. And while she’d never wanted or needed a white knight, she’d never realized how reassuring it could be to have one handy.
    Right now, he was sitting on the floor at the coffee table, across from Hope, the two of them bent over a chessboard. For some reason, it didn’t surprise her at all that he knew how to play chess. It was a game that confused the hell out of her. He’d offered to teach her, but she could barely hold a thought in her head today.
    Lena sat in a fat, overstuffed chair, her legs tucked neatly under her, a weird-looking contraption in her hand. She’d offhandedly mentioned it was her PDA—and right now, she was running the tips of her fingers over it.
    Reading, Nia supposed. The device was a lot bigger than any PDA Nia had ever used, but then again, she didn’t have to rely on her hands to read.
    Just then, Lena glanced up, a faint smile twisting her lips.
    “Do I look that much like her?” she asked softly.
    “Huh?”
    “Your cousin. Do I really look that much like her?”
    Staring at that face, feeling an ache in her heart, Nia said quietly, “Yeah. You look a lot like her.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Hell, it’s not your fault.” Because it hurt too much to think about Joely, she asked, “You can really feel me staring at you?”
    “When somebody’s staring at you, don’t you feel it? Yeah, I can feel it.” She shrugged and set the gadget on the table next to her chair. “You live without being ableto see most of your life, you start to pay more attention to your other senses.”
    “So you used to be able to see?” Then she winced. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry. That was rude.”
    “It’s okay.” Lena shrugged. “I don’t mind. Yeah, I used to be able to see. Out of one eye, at least. I was born with this thing called PHPV—persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous.” She grinned. “Try saying that ten times fast. It only affected my left eye. Up until I was ten years old, I could see out of my right eye just fine.”
    She reached up and tugged off her glasses, revealing pale, almost crystal blue eyes. “People who have a vision problem on one side are like ten times more likely to have an accident that will screw up the vision on the other side. You know that? But I was one of those kids who didn’t want to be seen as different. My mom was the overprotective sort who would have covered me in bubble wrap, put me on a shelf, and kept me there my