Step Into My Web

by Cynthia Eden

  Joel shook his head.

  Dane came back to his side. “Would you like for me to cut your throat? Is that the best way? This isn’t about pain for me. Really. I have no reason for you to suffer. The others—they had to pay for what they’d done. An eye for an eye, you understand?”

  No, he did not—

  Laughter. “Sure, you understand. You killed the man who came after you. If anyone gets me, it’s you.”

  Joel twisted his mouth. He pulled back his lips. Worked that stupid tape. Got it loose enough to rasp… “I’m…g-gonna…kill you…”

  “I’m afraid that will be quite impossible. You’ll be dead soon. I’ll make sure of that. I learned from the mistakes of your last attacker. When you go in the ground, I guarantee that you will not be breathing.”

  ***

  “She can’t be back here!” A woman with salt-and-pepper hair jumped into Chloe’s path. “She can’t be here—and neither can you!” She glared at Cedric.

  He flashed his badge. “We can be anywhere.”

  Her mouth snapped closed.

  Chloe’s gaze darted around the exam rooms.

  “Who are you looking for?” The woman took a step back.

  Chloe’s attention immediately swung to her. She scanned the ID badge. A nurse. Nancy Ferra. “Nancy, my partner came back into this area a few moments ago. Tall man, very handsome.”

  And over the intercom—per Cedric’s orders—a page went out for Joel Landry. A page asking him to immediately check in at the ER desk.

  Nancy’s head tilted as her gaze jumped between Chloe and Cedric.

  “The man that’s being paged right now, he’s the one we’re looking for. Joel Landry. He’s a doctor, but he wasn’t wearing scrubs. He—”

  “Oh, wait, do you mean Dane’s friend?”

  Dane. Her lungs froze. “Yes. Yes, that’s exactly who I mean.” Once more, she scanned the area. Didn’t see Joel or Dane. “Can you tell me where they went?” Cedric already had men looking for Dane, per her orders. Because before they’d burst through those ER doors, she’d realized exactly why Cinnamon had been brought to that hospital.

  Because Dr. Dane Ambrose works here.

  Dr. Dane Ambrose…the same man who had also worked at the Serpent. The same man who could have come into contact with Donnie Adams. I don’t believe in a coincidence.

  She and Cedric hadn’t wanted to page Dane, though, because they’d feared that might tip him off. But the search had started. Uniformed cops and hospital security.

  “If you’re looking for those two, I think they were going to the labs. At least, that’s what I thought I heard them say.” Nancy turned away. “I’ve got patients to see. Excuse me—”

  “Show us exactly where you saw them go.” Cedric’s voice boomed with authority.

  Nancy stopped. “Um, okay.” She motioned down the hallway. “See that door at the end? They were going that way. Don’t really know why. I mean, you can get to the labs on this floor by using that corridor, but it takes forever. The corridor leads to a wing that isn’t really used anymore, so you have to cut through the old rooms. But maybe they just didn’t want to deal with…” Her hands waved to indicate the packed exam area. “All of this.”

  Chloe was already running for the door Nancy had indicated. Her hip bumped an exam tray. She glanced down. Saw shining instruments.

  A scalpel.

  Don’t mind if I do. She scooped it up and didn’t even slow down. Chloe beat Cedric to the corridor door by seconds. She shoved open the door.

  An empty hallway waited. One that branched off with way, way too many doors. And even though light spilled from the ceiling in the hallway, all of the doors appeared to lead to dark rooms. Some of the doors were open, and the darkness snaked into the hallway.

  “Chloe, are you sure about this Ambrose guy being the perp?” Cedric had pulled out his gun.

  “Dane knew Donnie Adams. They would have crossed paths at the Serpent. Donnie gambled there, and Dane patched up the players.” Had that been when Dane noticed Donnie’s ring? One night, at a game?

  The Bad Deeds killings had started so recently. Something must have set off the killer. Something that had stirred up the past.

  It could have been seeing Donnie. A blast from the past. Right in front of Dane. Smug, brutal Donnie still wearing that ring…

  She filtered through details as quickly as she could. “The killer made sure that Gregory, Ray, and Donnie all suffered the same kind of injuries that Portia did.” And now I think he has Joel. “But the killer doesn’t want to go down for the crimes. He wants to give the cops someone else as a fall guy.”

  “Joel.”

  She’d already counted twenty different doors, and the hallway branched up ahead. “We should split up. I think…” She licked her lips. “Cedric, please help me. We have to find Joel. I need him to be okay.”

  “We are going to find him. He will be okay. You hear me, Chloe? We have this.” He lifted his weapon. “Let’s go. That’s a lot of fucking doors.” And he kicked in the first one.

  Chloe’s gaze darted down the corridor.

  ***

  “No one even knows to look for you.” The scalpel pressed to Joel’s neck. “But you have this look in your eyes, like you think the cavalry is going to break down the door at any moment.” His head cocked. “Is that what it was like for you before? Did you keep thinking someone was going to save you? That if you just held out long enough, help would come?”

  Dane had slapped the tape down again. Joel couldn’t respond, so why did the fucker even ask the question?

  Help will come. Chloe would come. He knew it. She wouldn’t give up on him. She’d figure this out. When she couldn’t find him in the ER, she’d start searching the hospital. She’d know something was wrong.

  “Rescue is not going to happen.” The scalpel cut into him. Joel felt the wet warmth of his own blood as Dane said, “But at least it will be quick and—”

  “It wasn’t quick for Portia.”

  Chloe’s voice. Sweet God in heaven, Chloe’s voice. Not as cool as it normally sounded. Shaking a little. Frayed at the edges. Breathless.

  Joel’s head turned and the scalpel nicked him even more. Chloe stood in the doorway.

  “What are you doing here?” Dane demanded.

  “I came for my partner. I need him, and I don’t intend to let you take him away from me.”

  Run, Chloe! Joel tried to yell that order at her because she was standing there, no weapon on her. He knew that she sometimes kept a gun in her bag, but she hadn’t brought her bag into the hospital. Weapons weren’t allowed in hospitals.

  Just scalpels. The place was freaking full of those.

  And…actually…when his gaze dipped down to Chloe’s right hand, he saw that her fingers were curled over something. He caught the fast gleam of—

  She got herself a scalpel. Hell, yes, she had.

  Chloe took a few quick steps forward.

  “Stop!” Dane blasted.

  “Why? You haven’t stopped. You’re making him bleed, and I can’t have that.”

  Dane was on one side of Joel. Chloe came to the other. She casually moved her right hand so it placed along one of the straps that covered Joel’s arm. He was pretty sure she began to cut into the strap.

  I fucking love you.

  “You’re not supposed to be here,” Dane managed. He seemed confused. Shaken.

  He was about to be shaken a whole lot more. As soon as I’m free…

  “You’re not supposed to be here!” Dane repeated. Only this time, he was yelling.

  “And Portia Strong wasn’t supposed to die, was she?” Chloe’s face remained expressionless as she stared straight at Dane…

  And she kept sawing at the strap.

  “No, no, she wasn’t supposed to die.” He lifted his scalpel away from Joel’s throat. Pointed it at Chloe like it was a knife. “Did you figure it out? Did you realize what they did to her?”

  “Gregory Guidry, Ra
y Malone, and Donnie Adams. They had to pay.” She nodded. And shifted a little to the left, moving down Joel’s body.

  He felt tension on the strap over his thigh. She was cutting it now.

  Dane hadn’t even noticed what she was doing. He was too busy nodding. “They had to pay!” he echoed. “It was their fault. Do you know what they did to her? Chloe, they paralyzed her! She was running away from them. Those three bastards were taunting her. Chasing her. They did that to her. And they got away with it. For years and years. Everyone forgot about her. Everyone, but me.”

  “Then Donnie walked into your path. He brought the past back, didn’t he?” She’d moved to another strap. Dane’s avid focus was on her face. He didn’t even notice the careful motion of her hands. She was cutting on the side of the exam table—so careful. So sneaky.

  “I was working at the Serpent. Got freaking med school bills to pay, so I had to take those side jobs. Guy like Donnie…how the fuck did he ever get into a game? But one night, he was there. Still wearing that stupid ring. Still acting like he was the big man on campus! I’d been watching you. Watching King. You two did what you wanted. You followed your own rules. I figured it was time for me to do the same. Time for me to punish the guilty.”

  “So you started to hunt. Only you didn’t start with Donnie.”

  “No. Not him. Gregory had to pay first. He was the ringleader.”

  “Of course. The quarterback in high school. The leader of the pack.”

  “You take out the leader, and the rest fall.”

  Joel thought most of the straps had been cut. He waited for his moment to attack.

  “I only did to them,” Dane’s voice roughened, “what they did to her!”

  Chloe’s breath expelled in a soft sigh. “It was Gregory’s letterman jacket buried over her face, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, yes, I had to cover her up. I had to cover her up after—”

  “After what you’d done.” Chloe nodded. “Yes, I understand. You felt guilty. You’d hurt her, and you wanted to take it all back, but it was too late. You showed remorse when you covered Portia up and you buried her—”

  “No!” Dane yelled. He loomed over the exam table and gripped the scalpel even tighter, as if he’d lunge and stab Chloe with it.

  Not happening.

  “They killed her!” Spittle flew from Dane’s mouth. “Not me! They killed—”

  And the bastard did lunge across the exam table. He went for Chloe with his scalpel.

  Joel roared and shot up. He grabbed Dane and threw the bastard as hard as he could. The scalpel sliced over Joel’s arm, blood sprayed, and Dane thudded into the wall.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chloe yanked off the tape that covered Joel’s mouth. “Are you okay?” she asked him, voice shaking.

  “I will be.” He tore away the loose restraint straps still over him. Jumped off the table and took the scalpel from her.

  All right, if he could move that quickly, then Joel was okay. She was able to breathe again.

  Dane was on his feet. He gripped his weapon. Staggered forward. “I didn’t hurt Portia—”

  “Yes, you did!” Chloe retorted grimly. Did he think he could lie now? Not happening. “It’s the only scenario that makes sense.”

  “No!”

  “Yes!” How dare he—

  “Chloe…” Joel warned as he stood protectively before her. “We’ve got a crazy doc with a scalpel. Let’s try to not send him into a killing fury.”

  It was way too late for that. Surely Joel saw that? After all, he’d just been strapped to the exam table. And he was the one with blood dripping from a head wound and from his neck. That’s why I have to keep talking and keep Dane focused on me. I don’t want Joel injured again. She moved to Joel’s side. “You must have killed her,” Chloe told Dane. “How else would you have known which area of her spine was injured? Only the killer would have known. Her killer. The man who put a jacket over her face because he felt too guilty looking at her. Only her killer because he was the one who put her body in the ground and hid her away. Gregory, Ray, and Donnie might have been bastards, but they weren’t killers. They didn’t break Portia’s spine and bury her. But…”

  Dane’s breath was heaving. His eyes—so wild. Angry.

  “But they were taking her away from you,” Chloe concluded. “That’s what they were doing, weren’t they?”

  “I loved her.”

  Another part of the story. Another reason why you covered her face when you buried her. “You wanted Portia. You grew up in this city. Spent your whole life here. But you didn’t go to her school. In fact, you’re younger than she is so…did you live in the same neighborhood?” Chloe was considering and discarding possibilities as fast as she could. “You went to a private school. You told me that once. That’s why you weren’t at Portia’s school. She was older, at a different school. A beautiful girl. You wanted her to like you, but she didn’t.”

  The quarterback.

  “Oh, no.” Chloe exhaled. “She fell for Gregory, didn’t she?”

  “Portia had been kicked around her whole life!” Spittle flew from his mouth. “I kept telling her that she deserved better! I would see bruises on her that Gregory had left. Bruises! I told her that he was trouble. I told her he wasn’t worth her time. So he could toss a football? Big deal. I could play baseball! I was the best homerun hitter on the team.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Joel growled as he tried to pull Chloe behind him once more. “I’m sure you were a fucking slugger. Still are.”

  Dane’s stare whipped to him. “They were going to run away together. Can you believe that? She’d been in foster care her whole life. I knew she wanted a family. We met—shit, met running at that park one day. We didn’t live in the same neighborhood. She lived in a rundown hole. She deserved better. So much better. I knew it from the first time I met her in that park.”

  The park where you buried her? Chloe was certain it was one and the same. The burial site would have held special meaning for Dane.

  “She talked to me all the time about her dreams. I understood her. I got her. I loved her. But then that last day—that last morning—we met for our run, and she told me—she was wearing his fucking jacket and she said this stupid stuff about how she thought Gregory was going to marry her. They were going to graduate, get married, and move far away. I…” He looked down at the scalpel. “I had baseball practice later that day. I’d brought my bat along. I reached for it. I don’t even know why. I did, though. I grabbed the bat, and…she was suddenly looking at me like she was scared. Scared of me.”

  “You chased her.” But he hadn’t just chased her. “You hit her,” Chloe added.

  He flinched. Looked up. He was about three feet away from her and Joel, and he still had his scalpel. Joel’s blood was on the edge of that instrument.

  “I chased her. I told her not to run from me. She did. She looked back—and she was so scared. Of me!”

  “Well, sure, dumbass,” Joel snarled. “You were chasing her with a damn bat!”

  Dane broke. Chloe saw it happen. He let out a wild roar and leapt at Joel.

  “Stop! Police!” Cedric yelled from the doorway.

  But Dane didn’t stop. He swung out with the scalpel.

  Cedric fired. The bullet slammed into Dane’s shoulder. It wrenched him back, but he surged forward again.

  Surged forward—only to step right into the scalpel that Joel had just shoved toward Dane’s stomach. The scalpel cut into him, and Dane screamed. He didn’t back down. Didn’t stop. He sliced out at Joel with his weapon, but Joel kicked him. Sent Dane scrambling back against the wall once more.

  “I said stop!” Cedric bellowed.

  Joel was going in for another attack. Chloe grabbed him and wrenched him out of the line of fire.

  Cedric shot again. This time, the bullet sank into Dane’s chest. His eyes widened. Some of the wild rage and desperation faded from his gaze. He looked down at his body even as he dropped the s
calpel. “Pay…back?”

  “Damn straight, it is,” Joel assured him grimly.

  Dane collapsed on the floor.

  ***

  “I heard it all,” Cedric told Agent Richardson flatly. “Chloe and I had a plan. She was going to head in and distract the guy. I was going to wait for the perfect moment and rush in for the arrest. I was also going to hear his confession. And I did.”

  Richardson was sweating. Joel also noticed the FBI agent hadn’t met Chloe’s stare since coming into the exam room.

  Another room. Only this time, Joel wasn’t strapped down to the table. But he had basically chained Chloe to his side.

  She’d insisted that he get his arm stitched up. Like he’d even noticed that wound. And she’d wanted someone to examine his throat. He’d reminded the woman—twice—that he was a doctor, but Chloe had been adamant.

  He’d been just as adamant that she stay at his side.

  He’d also had his head checked out. A concussion, yes, but no skull fractures.

  She tried to sidle away from him as the nurse finished up the stitches on his arm—

  “No.” Joel immediately pulled her back. “You know the rule. Not more than two feet until my heart rate calms down again.”

  Her head turned toward him. “Your heart rate is perfectly fine.” With her free hand, she waved toward the nurse. “Nancy checked it a moment ago. She assured me you were good.”

  “He is good,” Nancy agreed without looking up.

  “See?” Chloe challenged.

  “Not more than two feet.” If he’d had his way, she would have been sitting in his lap. His hands would have been wrapped around her. And he would have been completely satisfied that she was safe.

  “Joel…” Chloe sighed his name. “The bad guy is dead.”

  “Yes.” Now Richardson seemed a little more assertive as his neck stretched. “He’s dead and you—”

  “I told the perpetrator to stop. I identified myself as a police officer.” Cedric positioned his body on Chloe’s other side. “He didn’t stop. I shot him in the shoulder, and he still attacked with the scalpel. I warned him a second time. That man wasn’t going to listen. He was out for blood. My second shot was to the heart.” His voice was emotionless. “He died quickly. And I can assure you with one hundred percent certainty that Dane Ambrose was the Bad Deeds killer.”