by Lisa Olsen
“I like the keyboards,” Annaliese disagreed. “I think they’re at least as important as the bass.”
Before he could get drawn into a discussion about music that started to sound half interesting, Nick excused himself. Leaving Anna behind with Jax, he went in search of Pettijohn, finding him outside in an unmarked van across the street.
“You know she’s going to spot this van a mile away,” he pointed out once they’d let him inside.
“That’s why we’re going to park two blocks over once the show starts and we have all of our men in place.”
“People,” Perry corrected him mildly, and Nick got the feeling she did that a lot from the way Pettijohn ignored her.
“What if she’s already here casing the joint?”
“It’s possible, but unlikely,” Pettijohn replied. “All of the previous crimes have occurred later in the night. There’s never been any sign of violence before a show.”
“How many people do we have on the scene?”
They spent the next ten minutes outlining the team’s deployment. In addition to the three men in the bar, there was another in the alley behind it, and two more out front across the street. There would also be additional men in vehicles in two block intervals in case she was spotted and tried to make a run for it. If Natalie Fox showed her face, there was no way she’d escape them this time. Park and Brady were not among those attending, but Nick hadn’t objected to giving them the night off; the FBI seemed to have the situation well in hand.
“Alright, sounds like a plan. I think I’ll get back in there.” Despite his words about Jax keeping her safe, it made Nick nervous to leave Annaliese in there for very long. He cruised through the bar, whistling along to Can’t Get Enough by Bad Company on the jukebox. Rose and Ruby sat at the end of the bar sharing a drink and he gave them a jaunty wink as he passed by.
Spotting Anna in the back room, he flashed his eyes at her playfully, but she wasn’t looking in his direction. Her eyes were trained on the opposite corner of the room at something out of his sight. Another two steps brought Jax into his field of vision, his attention riveted to the same spot.
Something was wrong.
The whistle died on his lips as Nick inched forward, loosening the gun in his holster.
“It’s okay, Nick, I can hear you out there,” a woman’s voice called to him. “Come on and join the party, you’re here just in time.”
Heart in his throat, Nick bit back a curse, wishing like hell he’d asked for one of those earpieces. Instead, he did as he was told, advancing into the room to find Natalie standing in the corner, gun drawn but not raised.
She was dressed to blend in, wearing a short leather jacket and skirt, with stiletto heels. Not as flashy as she’d been made up for Rose’s party, but fitting for the venue. Her long locks were gone, cut into a short bob with razor cut ends that made her look younger, definitely not the polished professional he’d come to expect. Below her collarbone, just above the beauty mark he’d always admired, was the band’s symbol, the mark to invoke Mael. Whether it was drawn or actually tattooed, he couldn’t tell from that distance.
“Whatever you’re thinking about doing, it’s a bad idea,” Nick said gently, stepping deeper into the room to put himself between her and Annaliese.
A flash of pain twisted Natalie’s features and she stepped to the side, not liking anything getting between her and her quarry. “No… see, this is the only way,” she explained, the gun coming up.
In an instant Nick’s gun was drawn, leveled at her chest. “Put the gun down, Nat,” he ordered, a note of steel entering his voice even as his stomach clenched from the small mewl of fear that escaped Annaliese’s lips.
“I can’t do that.” Natalie kept shifting her stance, moving to the left to get a better shot. “I won’t let him go.”
“You’ve got it all wrong,” Jax started to say, but she shook the gun at him, her eyes wide and shiny.
“Shut up! Everything that comes out of your mouth is lies!”
Nick shifted with Natalie, trying to keep himself between her and Annaliese, but she wasn’t helping, sticking close to the rocker. “Whoa, calm down. Natalie, this isn’t the way to do this. Why don’t you put down the gun and we’ll talk about it. Tell me about the lies, I want to hear all about it.”
“Don’t patronize me, Nick.” She itched at her throat and he could see the red blotchy hives peeking out from under her jacket. “I’m not crazy, but I can’t let it go on any longer. One way or another, this ends tonight.”
“Natalie, it’s over,” Nick tried again. “You know Jax was cleared weeks ago, a witness came forward.”
“That was all bullshit. You don’t think he could get some groupie to lie for him and say they were together?”
“She had a picture.”
“Oh please, a twelve year old with a computer could fake that.”
They weren’t getting anywhere. Nick changed tactics, taking a slow step toward her as he switched to the offensive. “Natalie, you’re the one who’s been lying this whole time. You’re the one who isn’t what she seems.”
Her dark eyes shifted away from May and settled on Nick, pain shining in their depths. “No, not you too,” she cried, the gun shaking in her hands. “Nick, I’ve always been honest with you.”
“No, you lied to me same as everyone else. You weren’t on the case.”
“But I was!” Natalie insisted. “Just because they kicked me off doesn’t mean I wasn’t still on the case.”
“And Julie, she wasn’t your cousin.”
Her forehead crumpled at the dig. “No, she was like my sister. We were in the same sorority together and I keep those vows sacred. He needs to pay for what he did to her.” The gun came up again, no steadier in its aim. “He defiled her. She was a good girl until she met him,” she bit out.
“Is that why you killed her?” Nick asked gently, taking another step closer to her.
“No… she…” Her eyes darted to Nick and then back again to her target. “She deserved better, don’t you see?”
“What about the others? Did they deserve better?” Nick pressed. “Did you try to save them from a path of degradation?”
“It was too late for them,” she said miserably, the gun wavering in her hands. “I couldn’t make things right. I had to…” The gun steadied as she found her resolve. “I have to act now before this gets any worse.”
“You need to put the gun down before it gets any worse.”
The music from the bar got louder as Ruby and Rose stepped into the hallway. Ruby took one look at Natalie, gun drawn and aimed at her brother and shrieked, launching at her with a flying tackle.
“Ruby, no wait, don’t!” Nick called out, but it was too late. The events played out before him as if in slow motion. Natalie’s surprise, half turning to meet the danger behind her, and Ruby’s face twisted with rage as they collided. He started to dive in their direction, bent on getting the gun out of play, but it went off instead, the bullet whistling dangerously close to his ear to find its mark behind him.
In a gut-wrenching moment, Nick couldn’t get himself turned around fast enough to see where it had hit, scared to death the bullet had found Annaliese. Fearing the worst, he forced himself to secure the situation before he let himself take a look, worried he wouldn’t be able to act if Anna lay bleeding or worse. Nick shouldered Ruby aside and pushed his knee into Natalie’s back, forcing her down until he got the cuffs on her.
Ruby fought him harder than Natalie, who had slumped on the ground, weeping. He had to grab her by the wrists to keep her from trying to gouge Natalie’s eyes out. “Damn it, Ruby, knock it off, it’s over,” he barked at her, his face inches from hers and she dissolved into hiccupping tears. Rose rushed to their side to gather Ruby into her arms, and only then did Nick dare to look at the damage Natalie’s bullet had caused.
To his great relief, Annaliese clutched a wad of bloody fabric against May’s bicep, no worse for wear. Just as Nick
reached her side, the employee door burst open and two agents spilled in, drawn by the sound of gunfire. Taking in the scene, one dropped to the ground to secure Natalie as the other one called it in, requesting an ambulance. In a few moments, agents swarmed the room, and a shout from the back door turned up another agent knocked unconscious in the alley.
Pettijohn came in, his stern features lit with satisfaction. “Natalie Fox, you are under arrest for the murders of Bethany Morrow, Dawn Johnson, Julie Wilson, Hayley Lambert and Angela Parker,” he said with dramatic flair. “You already know the drill, but let’s do this by the book. Perry, you do the honors.”
“Gladly,” Perry said with a tight grin. “You have the right to remain silent….”
Natalie’s head hung as she was led away, her eyes dead and vacant, as though she was unaware of her surroundings.
Nick gave Pettijohn a brief statement of what went down while Annaliese fussed over Jax’s arm. It didn’t look too bad, but the wound needed stitching up. Ruby huddled in a corner, crying into Rose’s shoulder, murmuring about how Jax could’ve been killed, while Rose stroked her hair and assured her it was all over.
“Good job, Gibson. I’ll be sure to make a mention of your quick thinking in my report,” Pettijohn declared, clapping him on the shoulder. Nick murmured his thanks but his heart wasn’t in it. All he could think about was the look in Natalie’s eyes as they’d taken her away – it was as if she wasn’t in there anymore.
The EMTs came in to look at Jax’s arm and declared he needed to go to the hospital for stitches. They bundled him off, and Annaliese promised to follow with Ruby, while Nick stood around finishing his extended statement with the Feds.
“Where’s Jax?” Ruby demanded in a panic, coming out of her crying jag long enough to realize he was gone, and Annaliese hurried over to help soothe her. A few moments later, Anna approached him, waiting patiently for him to give her his full attention.
“Hey, I’m taking Ruby to the hospital, okay?”
“Right, of course, you go ahead,” Nick agreed. “I’m going to be here for a while. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Are you alright?” Anna hesitated, her brow pinched with worry.
“Sure, I’ll be fine. It’s just, you know, aftermath.”
“Try not to worry,” she smiled. “At least it’s over, really over now.”
So why then did Nick feel like he’d lost instead of won?
* * *
Stephanie May burst into the bar, blonde hair wild as though she’d ridden over on a motorcycle without a helmet. “Is he alright? Where is he?” she demanded, heading straight for Sergeant Gibson as soon as she laid eyes on him.
“It’s okay, he’s going to be fine,” Nick soothed, leading her to one of the bar stools. “He was shot in the arm, but it’s a superficial wound.”
“Oh, thank God,” she breathed, slumping onto the stool. “When I heard it on the news that he’d been shot, I just…” Her hand clutched at her chest, earrings jangling as she shook her head. “I thought the worst, you know?” Dumping her purse on the bar, she dug through it until she fished out a lighter and a pack of Virginia Slims.
“Ah, there’s no smoking in here.”
“What are you going to do, arrest me for smoking?” she asked with an arch smile.
Nick wasn’t going to touch that one. “Jax was taken to Providence Hospital if you want to check up on him.”
“I don’t think I could drive like this.” A long plume of smoke escaped her lips as she let out a sigh. “Bartender, can you give me a Michelob Light, please?”
Sure, because a drink should make the drive better, Nick couldn’t help but think.
“Did you catch the son of a bitch who shot him?”
“Yes, we did. But ah, if you’ll excuse me, I have some things to attend to.”
“Yeah, whatever,” she waved him away. “God, I hate all this stuff, I always have.” She made a sweeping gesture toward the stage area.
“What, the publicity?” Nick asked, glancing at the banner.
“No, all that Satanic crap. I can’t tell you how many times I argued with Ruby over plastering her walls with it as a teenager. I finally just started ripping it down and she stopped putting it up. It’s asking for trouble if you ask me. No good can come of worshipping any of that shit.”
Nick’s brows drew together in confusion. “I thought it was all an act.”
“No, she’s always been into this junk. It used to scare the hell out of Jax, but he went along with it to keep her happy.” Stephanie shook her head, taking a long drag off her cigarette. “Ruby always had him wrapped around her little finger, he never could say no to her.”
All of a sudden it clicked. Sold her soul to the devil…
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“Thanks for stopping off, the smell of blood made me feel like ralphing,” Ruby smiled weakly as Annaliese let them into the back of the store.
“It’s no problem,” Anna smiled, setting her purse down on the kitchen counter. “We probably won’t get in to see Jax for a while anyway, and I can fix you up faster and for a lot less coin than the hospital will charge you for a minor gash like that.”
“Can’t you just…” Ruby waggled her fingers dramatically. “Rose tells me you have a real talent for healing.”
“I can help it mend faster,” Annaliese admitted. “But first I think we should clean it up. You never know what kind of germs you can pick up from the floor of a place like that,” she grimaced. The cut on Ruby’s knee wasn’t deep, and the blood had already slowed to a trickle, but Anna knew it was always better to be safe than sorry. “Let me got get my first aid stuff from upstairs. I’ll be right back.” Trading a long look with Rose, Anna was confident her friend would be able to keep Ruby’s fragile state in check while she was gone.
The first aid kit was in the hall bathroom, in a small Tupperware bin. After a quick check to see if she’d have everything she needed, Annaliese washed her hands thoroughly with anti-bacterial soap. As an afterthought, she stopped off in Jax’s room to pick him up a new shirt to wear home from the hospital. The one he’d had on was all bloodstained and torn up from the EMTs’ eagerness to get to the wound.
She’d given him two drawers to unpack into, and she found his shirts on the second try, smiling over the neat stacks. Jax was such a contradiction. Who would’ve thought he was a closet neat freak?
Picking up the top shirt, a tiny wooden figure tumbled out of the folds and onto the floor, rolling under the bed. Anna bent over with a huff, stretching to retrieve the ugly thing, studying it closely in the light once she found it. It was only about two inches tall, carved in dark wood, the face leering and hideous with a sadistic grin on its grossly stretched lips. From the moment her fingers touched it, she recognized the dark energy emanating from it. It was a totem, a symbol of the evil entity, Mael.
Annaliese dropped it back into the drawer with a gasp, shaking her fingers off as if they’d been burned. What was Jax doing with a totem like that? He’d said he wasn’t into any of that stuff.
“I wish you hadn’t seen that,” Ruby commented from the doorway, her face unreadable.
“I don’t… it couldn’t be Jax this whole time, could it?” Anna whispered, reeling over the implications. What about the reports that it’d been a woman?
“That’s all it takes to make you doubt him, huh? I knew you didn’t deserve him.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Jax. None of you deserve him, you’re not worthy.” There was nothing but cold disgust in Ruby’s eyes, and her pronouncement sent a chill through Anna as everything became clear. The totem didn’t belong to Jax, it was Ruby’s.
“You killed those girls. Here and in Los Angeles.”
“And in other places,” Ruby freely admitted. “It took me a while to figure out the best way to do it. Mael requires blood, and it can get messy. At first I didn’t understand what he wanted, but now I do.”
“But why? W
hy would you do it? You’re not a killer.” It was absurd. She’d known Ruby since junior high. Ruby, who cried at the drop of a hat, who needed Jax to fight her battles for her. This was a person she didn’t recognize at all.
“Anyone can be a killer given the right set of circumstances,” Ruby said with a half shrug. “It was only one offering to start with. It was just the push we needed to break into the big time. But it doesn’t end, there’s always one more deal, one more gig, one more pinnacle to reach for. It never ends.” Her shoulders slumped as though weary, and Annaliese tried desperately to appeal to her.
“It can end now, Ruby. You can stop it. We can get you help. You don’t have to do what Mael wants anymore.”
A disturbing smile curved the corners of her mouth. “It’s not about what Mael wants now. In the end, you get to like it.”
Anna recoiled from the implications of that smile, of what that might mean for her and for… “Rose!” she shouted, suddenly remembering her friend.
“She can’t hear you right now, she’s taking a little nap.”
“You slipped her some GHB, like the others? Why didn’t you try to drug me too?”
“Silly rabbit, that’s no fun,” Ruby grinned, stepping deeper into the room. She produced a razor blade from the cuff around her wrist, turning it thoughtfully in her fingers. “You were always going to have to die, this just moves up my timetable. You’re not good enough for him, you never were. None of them are.”
Anna retreated, her back coming up against the dresser as she searched around for a weapon to use, anything. “Where is this coming from, Ruby? I thought we were friends,” she said, stalling as she desperately scrambled for inspiration. If only she hadn’t left her phone in her purse downstairs!
“Because everyone likes sweet Annaliese, right? Don’t make me gag. I thought for half a minute that you’d changed, but you’re all over him just like you used to be, distracting him from the music. From me.”