Step Into My Web

by Cynthia Eden

  “That night,” Chloe continued in her ever-so-cool voice, “Joel was with me.”

  Richardson opened his mouth. Gave a little jerk. “What?”

  “If you will recall, the very next day, Joel and I were at the bank together. We stopped the bank robber. Caught him in the act.” Her head turned toward Joel. “Our first case together right, darling?”

  Darling?

  “Our first case, but hardly the first time we met.” Now her head angled back in the agent’s direction. “You see, Joel was with me the previous night. The night that some mystery witness swears she saw Joel swinging a bat? Impossible.”

  “She saw him.” Richardson’s face was going splotchy.

  “She saw him only if Joel was in two places at once. I hardly think that is possible. He was with me,” Chloe repeated with a roll of her shoulders. “We were having sex. It lasted for a very long time.”

  Joel could not take his eyes off her.

  “He’s an incredible lover.” A faint smile. “When we were finished—or pausing, if you will—we slept in each other’s arms. Then we woke up, went to the bank, and foiled a robbery. A big day. Oh, sure, if you check the security cameras at the bank, it will appear that we arrived separately, but that was planned. Deliberate on our part. We wanted to throw off Harry’s accomplice.”

  “You’re lying,” Richardson accused.

  “Am I?” Her fingers were warm and soft around Joel’s. “Prove it. Give me a lie detector test. I guarantee you, I’ll pass it in an instant.”

  Holy shit. Holy…

  Joel tried to keep his breathing as easy and steady as Chloe’s. Hard when he felt as if he were hyperventilating. She was claiming to tell the truth, but she wasn’t. She’d just lied for him. Given him an alibi. Protected him. Now Richardson was staring at them both with angry suspicion. The agent was going to dig and dig and dig, and Joel knew he’d figure out that Chloe was lying and—

  “Don’t believe me? My friend Marie saw Joel in the house with me. She can back up the story. So can my brother Reese. So that’s three witnesses who will say Joel was not attacking Donnie Adams with a bat. Three…to your one.” Her head cocked. “Who do you suppose a jury will believe?”

  Richardson leapt to his feet. “Don’t even think of leaving!” He stomped toward the door. Threw it open. When it slammed shut, the walls seemed to shake.

  At first, Joel didn’t move at all. She’d…she’d covered for him. He swallowed. “Chloe—”

  Her hand rose. Her index finger pressed to his lips. “You don’t have to say a word, my love. I know you wanted to keep our personal relationship a secret, but I couldn’t let him throw suspicion on you.”

  Uh, okay. He hadn’t really cared about keeping—

  She pulled him in for a tight hug. While hugging him, Chloe brought her lips to his ear. “He has eyes on this room. He’s recording everything we say and do.” Barely a whisper. “Back me up, no matter what happens next.”

  What in the hell else could happen? Some witness was out there, accusing him of murder, and Chloe had just lied to a federal agent in order to protect him. What could possibly happen next?

  The door opened. Swung open so hard that it thudded into the wall.

  Chloe gave a little jerk of surprise. Joel had the feeling her jerk was faked.

  “Thought it would be helpful if I brought in someone who had expertise when it comes to you, Joel.” Richardson was back to being an arrogant prick. “He’s also someone I thought might be able to give me a better read on you, Chloe.”

  Chloe slowly pulled away from Joel. She looked toward the doorway. He followed her glance and shock rolled through Joel.

  Yep, right. Almost forgot about him. So this is the shit that comes next.

  “I believe I told you that Dr. Gordon Jennings was waiting at the station.” Richardson motioned toward the man in the brown suit with the carefully cropped beard and watchful eyes. “It was time for him to stop waiting.”

  Tension knotted Joel’s muscles.

  “Joel.” Gordon’s voice was low. Probably meant to be soothing. It was the same low, I-care voice he’d used in their few sessions back in Texas. “I’m here because I’m worried about what you’ve done.”

  What you’ve done.

  Gordon advanced on him. “Is being trapped in this small room difficult for you? You haven’t been in here long but I know how small spaces stress you.”

  He hadn’t even realized it was a small space. Chloe had been touching him, and he’d been focused on other things—like proving my innocence—so he hadn’t even noticed that Richardson had put them in what had to be the smallest interrogation room in the whole world. Hell, it was barely bigger than—

  “But if you go to prison, you will be in a cell for a very, very long time.” Gordon’s expression turned sad. “I warned you about that. Warned you about how tiny those cells would be. I told you that you had to control your rage and not strike out but you—”

  “Oh, for God’s sake…” Chloe’s British accent was stronger than ever. “Can your license just be stripped away right now? Must we go through the whole process where Joel and I file a formal complaint against you?”

  Gordon’s gaze shifted to her.

  “Dr. Jennings…” Richardson’s voice was smooth as silk. No doubt because the jerk was confident once more. “I believe you know Chloe Hastings?”

  Wait…how would his former shrink know—

  Gordon blinked. “No, I don’t know her. Haven’t ever met the woman in my life. Why would you think that I knew her?”

  “Don’t be concerned about the matter, Dr. Jennings.” Chloe shook her head. “The agent thinks many incorrect things. It’s simply what he does.”

  Richardson’s gaze was jumping back and forth between Chloe and Gordon. “But you…” He pointed to Chloe. “You slipped up. When we were talking at Judith’s place, you mentioned him. You knew—”

  “I knew about Joel’s shrink because he told me the man’s foolish diagnosis.”

  No, I didn’t. Joel’s gut clenched. Went ice cold.

  Chloe rubbed her hand down his arm. “Didn’t you, Joel? Didn’t you tell me about him?”

  He nodded. Joel didn’t speak. He was afraid he wasn’t as good as she was at telling lies. He’d just realized that Chloe was very, very good.

  Her expression didn’t change. Her breathing didn’t accelerate. Her voice stayed perfectly normal.

  He had no doubt that she could pass any lie detector test with flying colors.

  And he also realized…

  Chloe has lied to me.

  Because it was obvious that she knew a great deal about him. Things that she’d never said.

  Richardson stalked around the table. He yanked out his chair and took up his seat once more. Gordon headed for the table, too, but he didn’t sit. Kind of just lingered. Looked. Studied.

  “If standing up makes you feel more superior, by all means, do continue to stand,” Chloe instructed. “Pomp and circumstance are important to people with low self-esteem.”

  Gordon’s chest puffed up. “I assure you, I am—”

  “Wrong. That’s what you are. Your assessment of Joel was wrong from day one. You put him on a dangerous path. Instead of supporting him, you tried to rip him apart. And now, here you are breaking the standards of your profession because you want to reveal confidential information about a patient.”

  “People are dying,” Gordon told her. His I-care voice had cracked. It was more of an I’m-getting-angry voice. “And the man that you are touching so familiarly—the man you are obviously romantically involved with—he threatened to commit murder in our sessions. I know things about him that I cannot keep quiet. If you think a patient will commit a crime, it is a doctor’s duty to—”

  “Whatever. You believe you’re going to get a book deal or something out of this whole situation. Be on every TV news show. I’ve seen it before. With him.” She nodded toward Richardson. “Selling out the innocent to be
nefit yourself.”

  The two men both glared at her.

  She’s doing this deliberately. Trying to draw their attention away from me. Trying to make them angry with her. Because she was…protecting Joel?

  “And, yes, I am romantically involved with Joel,” Chloe admitted easily. “Dr. Jennings, you wanted Joel to think he was a monster, a man that had to remain separate from the world, but that’s not who he is.”

  Gordon’s hands slapped onto the table. He leaned toward Chloe. “Let me tell you who he is…”

  Chloe’s hand caught Joel’s. Twined again with his fingers. “I don’t need you to do that. I already know exactly who he is.”

  “You know who he was before he was cut open with that knife. You don’t know the man who crawled out of the grave.”

  Joel was staring at Chloe. Looking at her profile because he didn’t want to look at Gordon any longer. That bastard—Joel had gone to him after the attack. Only to be told…

  You’ll never be normal again.

  Chloe angled her head so that she was staring back at Joel. “I like the man who crawled out of the grave.”

  His breath seemed to freeze.

  “Then you’re making a lethal mistake.” Gordon’s voice was rougher. “He came out of that grave with nothing but rage and hate burning inside of him like a raging wildfire. Joel was an injured animal. He attacked and slaughtered the first person he saw.”

  “You mean the man who buried him. Joel attacked the man who put him in the ground.” She continued to hold Joel’s stare. She didn’t flinch and glance away. Just looked straight at him.

  And Gordon continued his attack. “You know the cops found him walking in the middle of the street, don’t you? Bloody and wild? He attacked them. They didn’t bury him.”

  “And he didn’t kill them.” Her stare didn’t waver.

  “In our sessions, all he could talk about was his rage…”

  “I’d be angry, too, if someone tortured me and left me to die. Seems like the right reaction.”

  “Is wanting to go out and kill the right reaction? Because that was what he confessed to me. What he said he wanted to do. Joel wanted payback.”

  He…flinched. Joel couldn’t help it. Because he remembered when Chloe had come to his apartment door and asked if he would like to go out with her…to go to that club…she’d offered him…

  Payback.

  He tried to pull his hand back. God, Chloe, you knew. You knew it all back then. Because she must have gotten access to his psych files. She’d been manipulating him every step of the way.

  While he’d…

  What in the hell had he been doing?

  Falling in love with her?

  He shut down the thought. Shut it down fast and hard. Brutally hard.

  Chloe tightened her hold on his fingers.

  “In our sessions, I noted that Joel’s affect was off. His girlfriend at the time had left him. He couldn’t talk with friends or old associates. He couldn’t connect with anyone.”

  “He connects just fine with me,” Chloe replied. She shrugged. “Don’t know why those people had problems. Maybe their affect was off.”

  “Joel talked about punishing the guilty. About how the killers out there had to be stopped. That the world wasn’t a safe place.”

  Still gazing into Joel’s eyes, Chloe said, “It’s not.” Then her head turned as she studied the shrink. “Everything Joel has said certainly seems rational to me. Killers do need to be stopped. The guilty should be punished. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe that’s the basic tenet of the American criminal justice system?”

  “You don’t understand twisted minds,” Gordon charged. “You don’t—”

  Chloe laughed. Laughed. “Oh, my, but you are certainly wrong. About Joel and me. I understand twisted minds perfectly. Mostly because I have one.” She stood. “And because I have one, I know that Joel doesn’t. He isn’t a murderer. He’s a protector. You feared that he’d lose his control and act on those impulses he told you about in your precious sessions?”

  “Only a matter of time.” Gordon nodded his head. Stroked that stupid beard. “I saw it coming. That’s why when the FBI agent called me, I—”

  “I don’t think you can see anything at all, and you’re not even wearing a blindfold.” She tugged Joel to his feet using her hold on his hand. "You told Joel that he would lose all sense of right and wrong. That he would grip a scalpel, that he would try to operate on a patient, and he’d suddenly be back in his worst nightmare.”

  Gordon’s eyes widened. “That’s right. I did tell him all of that. He…shared it with you?”

  Nope. Joel hadn’t shared a damn thing.

  “Obviously,” Chloe said.

  “I warned Joel that he would disassociate. Advised him that he should never practice medicine again. Unfortunate, but—”

  “Untrue. It was a load of absolute horse shit. I’ve seen him practice medicine. Seen him save lives. And his fingers didn’t even shake. He’s the steadiest, strongest man I know, and you did him a disservice when you pushed your own agenda with him, Dr. Jennings. You saw what you wanted. Not what was there. He isn’t the monster. You are.” She nodded toward Gordon, then Richardson. “Joel isn’t under arrest. He was polite and answered your questions, and now we’re leaving.”

  Sounded like a killer idea.

  They headed for the door.

  “He hasn’t saved any lives,” Richardson pointed out. “Judith Key is dead.”

  Chloe stopped in front of the door. “He didn’t just work on Judith. He saved another man, too. Joel has nights that are quite busy.” She glanced back at the agent. “And you should have already realized that he did save Judith. Then someone else went into that hospital—someone who didn’t want Judith to talk—and that person killed her. Probably put an air bubble into her IV or something that he thought would be untraceable like that. Why don’t you try being an actual crime solver and go pull security footage from the hospital? Or you know, talk to the staff? When you see that I’m right, you should come and apologize to Joel.”

  Joel wasn’t gonna hold his breath for an apology.

  “Judith’s death puts a whole new light on the crimes for me. I think we’re looking for a medical professional.”

  “Yeah…like Doctor Landry there—”

  She continued, as if Richardson hadn’t spoken, “Someone who works at the hospital where Judith was being treated. Someone who could slip inside easily and would know how to kill a patient without arousing suspicion. With that much knowledge, we have to be looking for a nurse. A doctor. And considering the targeted nature of the attack on the three male victims, it does stand to reason that the perpetrator knows human anatomy. He knew which areas of the spine to target—

  “All of this points to Landry.”

  “Except for the fact that he has an airtight alibi.” Her chin lifted. “He has me.”

  “You’re not saying anything,” Richardson snarled at Joel. “You gonna let her do all the talking for you? Can’t you defend yourself?”

  Joel laughed. The reaction seemed to be the last thing that Richardson expected. Good. Joel faced him and Gordon. “You think that taunt will injure my pride? Chloe is more than welcome to defend me any time she wants. But sure, I can defend myself, too. I didn’t kill Donnie Adams. I haven’t killed anyone in New Orleans.”

  “And you have an alibi for the night of Donnie’s murder? You were with her?” Richardson wasn’t giving up.

  “You heard Chloe. She said I was with her.” How about that? Those words hadn’t been an actual lie. More like a twist of the truth. Joel recalled something that Marie had once told him about Chloe…

  What she doesn’t say is often more important than what she does.

  Damn. He’d started acting like Chloe did. Using her tricks.

  Tricks she used on me from day one.

  The anger was there, swirling inside him. The burn of betrayal. But he couldn’t let his control wav
er. Not yet. Not while they had an audience.

  “I think we’re done now,” Joel said. “So how about you two…”

  “Piss off,” Chloe told them politely.

  Joel brought her hand to his lips. Pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “I was going to say fuck off, but pissing off works, too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “I know you’re angry.” Chloe stood beside the motorcycle. The light from the moon fell down onto her as she twisted her hands in front of her body. She was trying hard not to reach out to him. Mostly because she was afraid he’d reject her touch.

  He didn’t get off the bike. He’d brought her home in silence. She’d felt the tension in his body. The anger that bubbled beneath the surface.

  “Angry?” Joel seemed to taste the word. “Is that what I am?”

  “Joel—”

  “You lied, Chloe.”

  Yes. More times than she could count. “I did it to protect you.” As if that would somehow make it better.

  “You mean in the interrogation room? I’m not talking about when you stared straight at the FBI agent and lied about us having sex the night Donnie died. I’m talking about other times. Times you lied to me. All of the times…to me.”

  “So am I,” she whispered miserably.

  “What?”

  “I was trying to protect you.” Over and over. “I know you don’t believe me or understand—”

  “Because you’ve been keeping me in the dark!”

  “Shortly after I met you, I realized Gordon was wrong about you, but if I just went straight up to you and told you that tosser was an idiot, you wouldn’t have believed me. I had to show you he was wrong.”

  “Because Chloe knows best. Because Chloe has to be the puppet master who manipulates everyone around her.”

  Chloe’s shoulders stiffened. “I’m sorry.”

  “How did you get my psych file? Wait, when did you get it?”

  “I received it about a month ago. As to how, I have a friend who is good at hacking. He got into Gordon’s system.”