With Every Breath Read Free Page A

manner. The memory still sickened Eliza every time it came to mind. The only way to sever that irrevocable tie binding them to him was for Caleb to kill him. And he had. By putting a bullet through his evil, twisted brain.
    Oh, they’d wiped down the scene. Made damn sure it had appeared as though Caleb shot in self-defense, planting a gun with no other prints into a madman’s hand, finger on the trigger. It may not have been the legal or moral thing to do. But it had been righteous.
    Just as her mission was righteous. Maybe not to the public, the police, the justice system. But to the women he’d tortured and killed? To their families? To Eliza herself? Yeah, it was righteous. She doubted the families cared how he paid, just as long as he did. People couldn’t possibly understand or conceive the monster behind the polished, charming façade. But Eliza was acquainted with it better than anyone. Only she truly knew the depths of his evilness and it was only she who could end it all. Maybe that made her just as sick and twisted as Thomas was. Or perhaps it took evil to hunt evil.
    Right now, the families of the victims had no doubt been told, just as she had been, that Thomas Harrington was being freed in a very short time. They were likely feeling every single emotion Eliza had felt—was still feeling. Betrayal. Rage. Sorrow. Grief. A deep sense of injustice. They had likely lost all faith in the justice system sworn to uphold the law and sworn to punish those who broke it. But they were helpless to do anything about it. They would dream of revenge and retribution. Of justice. But Eliza would serve it cold.
    And this was where Eliza differed from the others who might entertain unholy thoughts of making Thomas suffer a long and painful death. She could do something about it. She would do something about it even if it meant her own death. In many ways she’d died ten years ago when she’d realized just how stupid and very naïve she’d been. So very gullible. She was as guilty and complicit in the murder of those women as Thomas himself and she’d never forgive herself for the atrocities committed. Yes, she had died and been reborn another woman. Eliza Cummings. She’d become Eliza and had embraced a new chance. The opportunity to start over. To make a difference. To help protect those who needed protection. To seek justice for those who couldn’t. And somehow she’d managed to buy into her new-but-not-real new identity. What a fool she’d been to ever think she could atone for her sins and outrun her past. Death could only be delayed, not avoided.
    In some ways . . . She stopped, frozen by the thought as it floated through her mind before she could call it back. Her heart pounded and her palms grew sweaty as she tried to open the door to her car. But she realized that thought had been there since the morning of the phone call. In the instant she’d made her decision, it had been there, only she’d ignored it, refusing to give voice to it. Refusing to acknowledge it because it made her weak, something she’d sworn never to be again.
    But she had deserved to die with Thomas. And now, she was fully prepared for her death. It was her punishment. Justice being served, finally, to the fullest. Thomas had been the only one who had paid when he’d been sentenced to life in prison. She hadn’t. But she’d deserved the same punishment and now that she’d sentenced him to death by her own sense of justice, not only was it likely she’d die taking him down, it was no less than she deserved. She embraced it with calm resolution. Didn’t fear it. No longer would she try so hard to avoid the inevitable. Maybe then she would have a semblance of peace and maybe God would grant mercy on her soul for the sins she’d committed when she’d been little more than a child, powerless against the manipulation of an older more experienced man. No, not