Lethal (Small Town Secrets Book 1) Read online

  LETHAL

  Book One in Small Town Secrets series

  A Prison Wedding

  Psychology professor Risa Madsen was too late to stop her little sister from marrying incarcerated serial killer Ed Dryden. But it wasn’t until he escaped, and took sister Nikki with him, that the horror really began…

  A Promise Broken

  Years ago, FBI profiler Trent Burnell gave up a life with Risa to focus on stopping psychopaths. Now a killer Trent helped convict is stalking Risa and terrorizing her sister, and it’s up to Trent to take him out. But he can’t do it alone...

  From nationally bestselling and award-winning romantic suspense author, Ann Voss Peterson, comes the first in a series of ten standalone novels exploring the world surrounding her popular character Police Chief Val Ryker (Pushed Too Far, Burned Too Hot, Dead Too Soon).

  A young woman searching for love.

  A sister hoping for a second chance.

  A FBI agent who’s seen it all before.

  A sadistic killer bent on revenge.

  LETHAL by Ann Voss Peterson

  Love, sex, revenge, murder... welcome to Lake Loyal, Wisconsin.

  Contents:

  Title Page

  Contents

  Story

  Small Town Secrets

  Witness

  Books by Ann Voss Peterson

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Risa

  May, 1996

  Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife…

  Slamming on the brakes, Risa Madsen threw open her car door. She clambered out and raced through the parking lot toward the looming perimeter fence of the Banesbridge Correctional Institution. Her heels pounded on the pavement in sync with the drumming of her pulse.

  She had to stop this marriage from taking place. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—let Nikki throw her life away. She had to save her little sister.

  And she was running out of time.

  …to have and to hold…

  The early afternoon sun glinted off strands of razor wire lining the top of the fence. Risa shivered as she ran. If it wasn’t for her, Nikki never would have sought out Edward Dryden. She never would have transferred her exhausting need for male approval from her father to Dryden. She never would have become a willing victim.

  …from this day forward…

  Two guards stood at the gate. Stopping, Risa gulped air and struggled to subdue her panic. She focused on the bulky guard whose eyes held the look of a soul weary with confronting the evil of life. “Gordy. Am I too late?”

  “They already started, Professor.” He opened the gate and pulled her inside. “What took you so long?”

  “Got here as soon as I could.” If it hadn’t been for Gordy’s call, she wouldn’t have made it at all. She wouldn’t have even known about the wedding.

  He motioned for her to follow. “Hurry.”

  Risa ran up the steps behind him. He threw open the door and led her through a metal detector and into the wide entrance hall of the prison’s main building.

  …for richer or for poorer…

  While a female guard patted her down and checked the inside of her shoes and the bottoms of her feet, Risa inhaled breath after breath of stale air into her hungry lungs. There never seemed to be enough air inside these walls. Nor enough light.

  The perfect place for a man like Ed Dryden to live out the rest of his days.

  Of course that was a thought she could never voice. In light of her profession, she was supposed to be supportive of Dryden’s efforts toward rehabilitation. She was supposed to believe that through psychoanalysis he could overcome his horrible childhood and turn his life around. A part of her even wanted to believe it. But she couldn’t shake the cold feeling slithering over her skin every time she thought of his dead, black eyes, his artful smirk.

  The feeling of impending doom.

  Trent had planted that bias in her. When he’d profiled Dryden for the FBI. When he’d testified at Dryden’s trial. When he’d helped put Dryden in prison.

  Everything always went back to Trent.

  …for better or for worse…

  Risa shook her head, trying to dislodge the litany of vows scrolling through her mind. She had to make it to the chapel in time. She had to stop those vows from crossing her sister’s lips. She had to prevent this travesty from taking place.

  Security checks complete, she hurried after Gordy. Barred doors slid open in front of them and clanged shut behind. Risa’s heart slammed against her ribs. She wanted to push past Gordy and race for the chapel as fast as her feet would carry her. She wanted to grab Nikki and drag her out of this godforsaken place, kicking and screaming if need be.

  Risa wished she could change the past. She wished she had never added Dryden to her list of case studies. More than anything, she wished Nikki wasn’t the needy, vulnerable girl she was. But wishing wouldn’t help anyone. Only getting Nikki out of this place, away from Dryden would do that.

  …in sickness and in health…

  Finally, Gordy stopped in front of a plain steel door marked Chapel. “Hope to God we aren’t too late.” He pushed the door open.

  Risa squeezed past him and lunged inside.

  Her eighteen-year-old sister stood in the corner of the chapel. Her bleached hair fell to her shoulders in platinum ringlets. At least fifty yards of lace and satin and frothy tulle flourished around her like French cream frosting. Her lipsticked mouth rounded. Her penciled brows arched in surprise. “Risa.”

  Risa looked past Nikki and focused on the groom. The man was charming, almost boyish, with an endearing shyness and a down-home smile. Looking at him, one would imagine he was a kind and gentle man, a calming influence for a reckless girl like Nikki. But Risa knew differently.

  Ed Dryden was a brutal serial killer.

  Risa strode up the aisle toward her sister, toward Dryden. Her hands hardened into fists by her sides.

  Dryden’s dark eyes met hers. A smirk slithered over his thin lips. “Hey, sis. You here to welcome me into the family?”

  A cold finger traveled up her spine.

  “No?” His smirk grew wider. “Why not? Don’t tell me you’re jealous of your little sister. Do you hear that, Nik? She’s jealous of you.”

  Nikki gazed up at him, beaming as if he’d just given her the prize of a lifetime.

  Nausea swirled in Risa’s stomach. She wanted to think all human beings were redeemable. Curable. But looking into Dryden’s emotionless eyes, she just couldn’t buy it. No, Trent was right. He’d always been right. A man like Dryden never changed. He manipulated. He terrorized. He killed. But he never changed.

  And he’d found just the right ploy to control her sister.

  Dryden leered down at Nikki as if she were a roasted leg of lamb seasoned just the way he liked. “Face it, sis. Nikki has triumphed where years of psychotherapy failed. Her love has made me a better person. A good person. She’s my soul mate. And you’re too late to change it now. We already said ‘I do.’”

  The breath left Risa’s lungs in a whoosh.

  Dryden raised his eyes to meet hers and lowered one eyelid in a profane wink. “Nikki is my wife—until death do us part.”

  Eddie

  June 1996, on a dark country road…

  Eddie Dryden stabbed the shiv just below the ribs. The sharpened handle of a toothbrush, hours spent filing down the plastic to a point on the cold concrete floor of his cell, too thin and fragile to do more than pierce the skin.

  So he drove it in harder.

  The man groaned, breath rattling, still alive. Still feeling every goddamn bit of agony.

  Nice.

 
If only Eddie had a real blade. Something sturdy. Strong. Something that could hold an edge. Then he’d field dress this asshole. Do it for practice. Just because it had been too long.

  Dryden wiped his hands on his prison garb then started to undress, swapping his orange jumpsuit for a green one with the sanitation company’s logo on the back and the blood stain at the throat. He pulled out the plastic bottle of club soda he’d been saving just for this and poured it on the stain, dabbing it clean with the sanitation worker’s white wife beater before zipping up.

  High fashion.

  Eddie had paid enough for his ticket to stow away on the damn garbage truck. Should have gotten real clothing for that price. And a real blade, like his Buck knife back home. He was cheated.

  People were idiots. Thought they had it over on Ed, but they never did.

  Losers.

  Eddie had been planning this for a long time. How he’d get out. How he’d convince the driver there was something wrong with his truck so he’d stop. How he’d take out the man and have his fun, before moving on to better things.

  It had made the hole bearable. But he didn’t have to worry about that no more.

  He turned back to the dying man. No… dead.

  Shit.

  Fuck this. Eddie deserved the best, not plastic for cutting and definitely not a man for a plaything.

  Everything was more satisfying with a woman. The piercing sound of the scream. The begging for mercy that wouldn't be shown. The look of disbelief when the cutting began, and the lovely horror when they realized the cutting wouldn't stop. It never failed to excite him. Never failed to get him hard. Blood was the best lubricant.

  And now that Eddie was out, a free man, he would have the chance to live the fantasy again.

  To make things right.

  To make her pay.

  And he couldn’t wait to begin.

  Nikki

  “You’re the only one who can do this, Nikki. You’re special.”

  Nikki Dryden pressed the phone hard to her ear in an attempt to control her shaking. Growing up, she’d always dreamed she was special. Fantasized about proving it to the world. But it wasn’t until she’d met him that she really felt it could be true.

  Every visiting day when he’d asked how she was feeling. When he’d listened to her problems, her dreams. His eyes riveted to hers, as if he couldn’t drink in enough of her. The day he’d married her was the most special of her life.

  But this?

  “Eddie, how did you get—”

  “Not important. I’m out. And I need my wife.”

  “What if someone follows me?”

  “No one will. Not if you leave now. They don’t even know. Not yet.”

  “I don’t… I don’t know the area.”

  “You’ve heard of Lake Loyal?”

  “It’s that little town, right?”

  “It’s a town and a lake.”

  “Right.”

  “On the western shore of the lake, across from the town, there’s a park. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “I’ve never been good at maps.”

  “There are signs, sweetheart. Rossum Park. That’s what it’s called. Repeat the name.”

  “Rossum Park.”

  “Good girl. I knew I could count on you. I’ve always been able to count on you. Pack only what you need and get there. Fast as you can.”

  “Okay.”

  “Don’t be late. Our real life together, it starts tonight. I can’t wait, Nikki.”

  “I can’t wait,” she repeated.

  Nikki kept pressing the phone to her ear, even after the line was dead.

  She’d first written to Eddie because of Risa. But when he’d responded, and kept responding, it had been so exciting. Even though he’d had hundreds of girls contacting him, he’d kept writing to Nikki. Told her she was special. Asked her all about herself, the good and the bad, the hopes and the disappointment.

  And he’d confided in her, too. Trusted her with things he’d never told anyone else. Not just the good, but also the bad. The way he’d let his wife take advantage of him. The reason he’d lost his temper with her. The way the system had twisted everything around.

  Just like it had done to her father.

  Four months ago, if anyone had asked Nikki if she would marry a convict, she would have told them they were crazy. But that afternoon in the visiting room, when Eddie had proposed, she knew he was the one. And the past month as Mrs. Dryden… it had been the happiest time of her life.

  Nikki set the phone in its cradle. She pulled her suitcase out of the closet and scampered into the bathroom to pack her makeup case.

  She might be scared now, but soon they would be together. No handwritten letters or visiting room tables between them. Just the two of them and the warmth of their love.

  And Nikki wanted that more than anything.

  Risa

  Risa stared at the images flashing on the ten-o’clock news. Razor wire glinting in the sun. A fenced compound. A disabled garbage truck. A body bag being loaded into an ambulance. Her worst fear had become reality.

  Edward Dryden had escaped from prison.

  Her throat constricted. The way Dryden had leered at Nikki on their wedding day pounded at the back of her eyes. His taunting voice echoed through her mind.

  Until death do us part.

  Risa scrambled to her feet and raced for the kitchen, her robe billowing out behind. She’d been ready for bed when the terrifying story had come on the news. Now sleep was out of the question. Not until Dryden was behind bars. Not until Nikki was safe. She grabbed the phone from the kitchen counter. Fingers shaking, she punched in her sister’s phone number.

  One ring… two rings…

  She clenched the phone so tightly the plastic creaked. “Please, Nikki. Please be there.”

  Three rings… four…

  “Hi! Not here! Leave a message.”

  It took forever for the beep. “Nikki?” Risa said. “Nikki? Are you there? Pick up. Now. It’s important. Nikki?”

  Risa threw down the phone and ran for the staircase leading to her bedroom, bare feet slapping the hardwood floor. She had to get dressed. To find her purse, her car keys. To reach her sister before Ed Dryden did.

  She took the narrow steps two at a time, knocking the teddy bears decorating the stairs out of her way as she ran.

  The doorbell’s chime echoed through her little bungalow.

  Could it be Nikki? The police?

  Risa raced back down the stairs to the front door and peered through the peephole. Her heart stuttered then seized. Clutching her robe closed with one hand, she unlocked the dead bolt and yanked the door open.

  Trent scrutinized her from the darkness, his face all sharp angles and hard planes in the yellow glare of the porch light.

  Risa’s heart started again, pumping hard enough to break a rib. She hadn’t seen Trent Burnell in two years, not since he’d testified at Ed Dryden’s trial, and she’d never dreamed she would be glad to see him again. But for a moment, she was.

  “You’ve heard,” he said.

  “Just saw it on the news.”

  “I didn’t want you to find out that way.”

  She shook her head with frustration. The way she’d found out wasn’t important. Trent would have had to fly to Wisconsin from Quantico. That would take time. “How long have you known?”

  “They called for assistance as soon as they noticed him gone.”

  “How long?”

  “A few hours.”

  “We have to locate Nikki. I can’t reach her phone.”

  Trent paused.

  Cold penetrated Risa’s bones. “You know something.”

  “Deputies have been to her apartment. Right after they called me.”

  “And?” Risa was afraid to think, afraid to breathe.

  “She’s not there. And her car is gone.”

  Until death do us part.

  Risa’s knees wobbled, and she felt herself
sinking.

  Trent pushed his way into her house. Leading her to the antique bench in the foyer, he shoved teddy bears aside and deposited her on it.

  Risa’s mind stuttered. “She can’t be dead. She can’t—”

  “We don’t know that she’s dead. I don’t think she is.”

  Risa could feel her head nodding, every impulse grasping at the hope in his words. Trent knew Ed Dryden better than anyone. Even better than she did. “That’s why you’re here.”

  “To find Dryden. Yes.”

  “And Nikki.”

  “Of course.”

  “Let’s go.” She struggled to stand.

  Trent’s grip tightened, keeping her planted on the bench. “A police officer from Lake Loyal is on his way to pick you up, take you to the station.”

  “Lake Loyal?” Risa recognized the name of the small town a stone’s throw from the prison, but for the life of her, she didn’t see how going to the tiny police station was going to do any good. “I don’t have time. He has—”

  “Rees. Look at me.”

  She forced her eyes to focus on his face. A face full of strength and confidence and purpose. A face that, until a few minutes ago, she had never wanted to set eyes on again.

  “The town, the county, law enforcement is on this. And I’ll find Dryden, Rees. I promise.”

  Risa closed her eyes, blocking the sight of him. He’d broken promises to her in the past. But those were personal promises. Promises of marriage. Promises of a family. This one had to do with his work. This one was life and death. He would keep this one. He always kept his professional promises.

  She opened her eyes and nodded. “You’ll be at the station with me?”

  “After the officer gets here, I’ll head to the prison. I want to go through Dryden’s personal things, anything he left behind. Afterward I’ll meet you. The task force will be assembling there.”

  “Take me to the prison.”

  Familiar shadows crept into the gray of his eyes. He turned away.

  “I can help, Trent. You’re not the only one with insights into Dryden that might be useful.”