A/N: I wanna give a huge thank you to, BrianaMichele, dean catcher, Christabel, Kakashi-luver, Thatgirl 54, Raz42492, YANIsweetness7, genevaxxxdreams, kpkisses, ninachr, kirt, sluggysmom, Princess-Maiden, trueblood3, mich430, EvilPurpleCookiePenkeyMonguin, Melissa, and Trillian, I love reading all your wonderful reviews
And of course thanks to all my readers, hope you enjoy the next chapter.
4 years, 11 months and two weeks he'd been looking for her. Sure he'd found her, he'd found her many many times, but he'd done the idiotic thing. He tried to scare her in to returning to him on her own, but she didn't. She'd just run again, and she got smarter about where she hid. The first few times he'd caught up to her he'd leave his signature behind, a little how-do-you-do that flat out told her he was there. Now he realized he should have just forced her to come back. Would have saved himself a hell of a lot of time and effort, and money. The time between her departure and his finding her home was getting longer and longer. At first he was days behind her. He knew the trail she'd made down the east coast like the back of his hand. Cause he'd had damn near five years to study it.
The first place she'd run to was Scranton, Pennsylvania, he'd caught up to her in her hotel after she'd been there two days. He'd left her a black calla lily with a red ribbon on her bed. She then run to Allentown. Took him five days to catch up with her then, and he'd left her the same calling card. Then she'd run to Philadelphia. That had taken him two weeks to track her down, she'd even gotten herself an apartment at that point, but he'd broken in easy enough and left the lily in the freezer that time. Took her a day to find it, but she ran again.
New town, new state she'd ducked down to Maryland, Baltimore first, that had taken him a month to find her, but he found her living with these two girls. This time he left a bigger warning, his lily was in the mailbox… the house was reduced to ashes. Still she ran. She went to Rockville next, took him a month and a half to find her then, and she was shacked up with some guy. Which really pissed him off, he but the little prick in the hospital, all his limbs broken and a left the lily with the poor bastard to give to her. That's where he made his mistake. That's when she started wising up.
She went down to Winchester, Virginia next and when he'd found the place, he'd missed her by two days, two days, and the bitch had lived there two months. It was the same story for each state, each town, except the time it took him to track her down got longer and the time he was missing her got longer too. She started to hop around more instead of going in a straight line. She lived in Roanoke for two months and he'd missed her by a week. Then she hopped back up to Lexington, lived there three months and he'd missed her by two weeks. Then down to Abingdon, she'd lived there for four months and he missed her by a whole month.
Then she went to Tennessee, Kingston first, she'd lived there for four months but he'd only missed her by three weeks. Then to Nashville, she'd lived there for three months but he only missed her by a week. Knoxville was last. She only lived there for two months and he missed her by only five days. He was sure he was going to find her in her next state, so sure she would hook back to the coast, figured she'd favore something a bit more populated like North Carolina but he was wrong.
She kept going south to Alabama next. First she lived in Decatur for four months and he'd missed her by a month. Then she went to Tuscaloosa, only lived there three months and he missed her by three weeks. Finally she lived in Montgomery for another three months and he only missed her by two weeks there. Again he was sure he'd had her, and moved down south to Florida to follow but the tricky bitch did another jump. She went all the way back up to South Carolina.
New state new towns. First it had been Greenwood. She lived there for four months and it he'd missed her by another three. Then she'd gone down to Charleston, she'd lived there for five months but he'd only missed her by one. Then she'd gone down to Beaufort. Which was where he was now. Walking around the house she'd rented from the old woman across the street. The woman had been nice and chatty. Told him a lot but wouldn't let him walk around the place, which was why he was here now, in the dead of night stalking around like a thief in the night, being careful to not leave finger prints behind. He was already going to bring enough heat down on himself with the window he had to break to get in here and all in the same day the woman had denied him access to the home. Sure she'd be able to pick him out in a line up but he wasn't planning on getting pinched.
No he was going to look around real good in the last place she'd lived. She'd lived her for seven months, seven months and he'd missed her by two. She had to leave something for him to find behind. Some clues as to where she was headed next. Lucky for him the old woman hadn't found anyone else to rent it out to on all hope would be lost. He was nine months behind her now. But she was feeling more and more comfortable, staying in one place longer than the next. Getting more secure… and that meant she was more sloppy. He moved up to the second floor and started pulling out dresser drawers, making sure his two sets of latex gloves were in place. Cloth gloves risked less chance of a print but the damn fibers were almost just as easy to get snagged on. After he'd dumped the last drawer with nothing, found he moved to the bed. Tossing the mattress to the floor but there was nothing hidden between it and the box spring. That's when something caught his eyes. Tucked into the bottom of one of the already tossed drawers was a small packet of papers. He moved to them snatching them up and unbundling them from their rubber band. As soon as he read them he smiled so wide he could damn near feel his face crack.
Her plans were all here. She was planning to go to Georgia next, and there were Craig's list printouts of places to look at, then down to Florida, and finally her escape plan. If she made it down to Miami she could hop a boat into Mexico and then down into South America and if she made it there she was as good as gone, and he would be damned if he let her get out of his life so easy. He had killed to keep her near, now that he'd spent to so much money and aggravation he was at the point that he'd kill her just so no one else could have her, but sadly that wasn't an option. She was far to valuable alive, that was for sure.