by Jaycee Clark
His head came up. Could she see what was to come in his eyes?
“Hey, are you okay? What’s wrong?” she asked, concern written on her features. Worry in her dark eyes.
Eyes. Her eyes. They’d haunted him, plagued him for the last week.
He shook his head, looked away from her, then back. “Nothing. No, everything.”
His shoulders slumped. “I don’t know who to talk to. I don’t know what to do. Everything is falling apart.” His head bumped as he leaned back against the wall. To himself, he smiled. This might just be easier than he thought.
Jesslyn looked towards the restaurant. And he could all but see how she was thinking that perhaps she should get back.
Too late for that, my dear.
It was always like that, as though they knew before what he had in store for them. No, he couldn’t let her go back. No, he had to keep her here. Maybe she sensed the danger on some level.
Jesslyn looked back to him and a soft smile played on her mouth. “I guess I might as well make it two for two. When friends are in need . . .” He had no idea what she was talking about. He needed to get her out of here.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she tried tentatively.
He studied her, gave her what he hoped was a pitiful look and shrugged. “Might as well. Maybe you can help me, Jess.” A sigh wafted from his lips. “But not here. Could we go outside or something?”
He saw the refusal swirl within the dark of her eyes. Her head shook back and forth. “Not outside. But maybe one of the conference rooms? There’s a fireplace in one and like normal, I’m freezing. Come on. There’s a cozy one just down the hall.”
Hell. It needed to be outside. Away from everyone, away from it all. A conference room? That would be in some other part of the hotel. He’d planned to take her away from here, to finish it tonight. He started to refuse her while thinking about how to continue with his plan, but something stayed him. If the area was private it could work, and if it was all he could get, that’s what he’d take—for now. Besides, he could always get her away later. After their private meeting. It would still work. Finally, he nodded, shrugged and got up.
Jesslyn did likewise and walked across the lobby towards the front desk.
“Ms. Black,” the attendant said.
“Is the small conference room open?” she asked.
The blonde Barbie nodded. Damn it. He wanted no one to see them.
“Great, we’re gonna pop in there for a few minutes. If Mr. Kinncaid comes looking for me, tell him I’ll be right back.” She grinned and led him down a dimly lit hallway. The sound of the party fading a bit as they went around a corner and then another.
A roar from the beast within him. Ahhh . . . Soon . . . All would be as it should be soon. Her smell drifted behind her. It brought back pleasant memories.
No, those didn’t matter. He had to do this. Had to. No choice.
The thick carpet runners absorbed the sound of their footsteps. Finally, the hallway ended.
It would be finished. He smiled and started humming his favorite symphony. The notes whirled within his mind. A balm, an enticement.
Jesslyn stopped dead in her tracks. Slowly she turned. Her head was shaking back and forth. Her lips formed the words, “No, no.” But no sound came out.
He saw the recognition in her eyes. The moment she must have remembered completely the power he had, the great things he was capable of. Slowly, he nodded.
The monster smiled.
• • •
Aiden made his way around the room. Where the hell was she? The back of his neck tingled. He was being paranoid. They were in public, surrounded by plenty of people, in his hotel for God’s sake. He checked his watch again. She’d been gone for almost twenty minutes.
John came up to him. “Bathrooms are clear and so is the lobby. Doorman didn’t see her leave. The receptionist is busy on the phone.”
“What are you so anxious about?” Gavin asked, coming to stand by him.
“Have you seen Jesslyn?” Again he scanned the room. The girls were still at their table, though now Bray and Quin sat with them, as did his mother. Jock was talking to some men. T.J. was nowhere in sight and neither was Jesslyn. Where had the chief gone? And the agents? They hadn’t even said hello. Something was up, he could feel it.
“No, I haven’t. Relax, Aiden, everything is fine,” Gavin slapped him on the back, and he ignored it.
“Something’s wrong.”
His brother’s sigh filled the air. “You’re overreacting. Calm down.”
John said, “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Neither did Aiden. “Where did you see her last?”
John scanned the room and walked towards the doors. “Going into the restroom with her friend.”
T.J. walked through the door, looked around and headed for them. Aiden met her halfway. “Where’s Jesslyn?” he barked without preamble.
T.J. looked distracted, and shook her head. “I don’t know. I left her a few minutes ago in the bathroom. Have you seen Tim?”
Aiden shook his head and latched on to T.J.’s arm. He could hear Gavin mutter something about manners. He didn’t care.
“Will you please slow down? God, how does Jesslyn put up with you?” She yanked her arm from his grasp. “What is your problem?”
Aiden stopped in the lobby and looked into her eyes.
“Stephens!” They both turned. Chief Garrison hurried towards them, behind him were Litton and Jones.
“What? What’s happened?” T.J. asked her boss.
“They didn’t match,” Garrison said, coming to stop a few feet away.
What didn’t match? Aiden wondered what the hell they were talking about.
“The samples? You’re sure?” T.J. asked, clearly alarmed.
Jones spoke up, looked at Aiden, then back at T.J. “Yeah, Denver just called. Forensics are back. The samples from the Jeep and Maddy are identical. Kirk isn’t our guy.”
“What?” Aiden asked.
“Damn it,” John muttered.
“Hair samples,” Garrison answered. “They don’t match. We arrested the wrong man.”
The tingle on the back of his neck started to burn. The last time he’d felt it . . .
“Where the hell is Jesslyn?”
Chapter 27
“David?” Jesslyn shook her head. No. It had to be a mistake. It had to. Slowly she took a step back. His dark eyes were no longer familiar. Images and memories jagged and blackened before, solidified into the entire remembrance of one horrific night.
He stood frozen, looking at her in that odd detached way, a chilling smile on his lips.
“But, but . . . You’re my friend. What about Sally? The kids?” This had to be a horrible dream. The man was married with a family.
His dark eyes cast down and he raked a hand through his blonde hair. “Sally is just like all the rest.” His low, calm voice all but sighed. He was so normal, as though they were discussing nothing more than the rainfall. “She went snooping.” He tsked. “Shouldn’t snoop. She and the kids are in the basement.”
Terror clouded her mind, her thoughts, petrified her, until he looked at her again. His sheepish grin was one she’d come to know and trust.
She took another step backwards. If she could just get inside the conference room, maybe she could get away. The door was a few feet behind her. There was no way she could get around him.
Keep him talking.
“Why, David? Why? This isn’t right. You know this isn’t right,” she tried.
His head swiftly came up, and the predatory gleam in his eyes made her breath catch.
Stupid! So damn stupid. She was alone with him and no one knew where she was. See what ya get for ditching your bodyguard?
Her gaze quickly glanced down the hallway, then down the hallways both right and left. No one. No help there.
“Because it was my destiny. My father taught me that. God told both of us that it was my path. Then wh
en I questioned it, I also found the answer in the heavens, in the stars. Yes, this is my mission.” His face was that of a stranger, twisted in some emotion she had no name for. “They were whores, all of them. Every last one of them. There’s no need to feel bad for them. Every one of them got what they deserved.”
My God, how many were there?
He stared at her with flat, shark eyes. “Jezebels. He told me that. Father taught me that.” David’s thin shoulders lifted in a negligent shrug. But his voice was razor sharp. “They betrayed, turned the heads of married men. They tempted righteous men from their vows! Marriage is holy. Sacred!” His voice sounded as if repeating a long remembered rule. “To be revered and respected.” His lip curled back from his teeth. “And they only defiled it. God wanted them punished, and the heavens agreed.”
“God?” God told him to kill women? The man was demented, and she was here, alone with him. Think! Think! Keep him talking, about anything.
“But you go to church, David, here in town. God doesn’t tell us to kill each other. Or do you just ignore the services? Aren’t you into astrology?” Keep him talking. Just keep talking. Another small step back. Her heel brushed up against the door. She leaned back, even as he raged at her.
“I’ve tried to find a balance between everything. God made the heavens.” His voice was so calm, a teacher explaining an answer to a student. “If the stars give the signs, so does God.”
There was something she never heard before. She didn’t know what to say, decided to simply remain silent.
“They were all just like her. Her!” he suddenly yelled. Spittle flew from his mouth. His fists bunched at his sides
So far, David hadn’t moved. He just stood there, waving his hands, calmly explaining one minute and losing his temper the next. It was like a switch going on and off. It was terrifying.
Aiden! Jesslyn licked her lips. The elongated handle bit into her back. “Who? Who do they become?”
A demonic laugh erupted from his chest. “Her! She ruined our family. The harlot broke our family. She tried to steal my father away from us, away from his calling. She dared to fracture what God put together. He couldn’t allow that, could he?” His voice softened at the end. A confused little boy asking for help, trapped in the mind of a lunatic.
He was stark raving mad. Jesslyn slowly moved her shoulder in a shrug. What the hell did she say?
David shook his head, the dim lights reflected off his tawny locks. “No, of course he couldn’t. I don’t think he meant to kill her. She came by our house that night. When we got home we heard them yelling and fighting. Mother was very upset. Very upset.” His soft voice reasoned, then rose. His hands came up, clenched the empty air.
“But that woman, that whore didn’t listen.” Menace dripped from his tongue as it leapt from his eyes.
Jesslyn moved a hand behind her, grasped the handle.
David’s chest rose and fell as he sighed, a wry smirk on his lips. “He had to kill her, he simply had no choice. That’s what he told Mother and me. God told him to kill her to save our family. I saw Father carry her out into the night. Her harlot’s hair trailing like a condemning banner behind her.”
Oh my God. Jesslyn’s hand shook as she tightened her hold on the cool metal.
“But still it wasn’t enough. I came home from school one day and found my mother dead in the bathtub, her wrists dripping blood. That slut stole my mother from me!” he shouted.
Then he shrugged. “I decided then and there I would rid the world of all of them. Those single women, trying their wiles on married men, tempting them from family and home. I prayed about it for years. My father hated her too for ruining everything.” He sighed. “God wanted me to do this, to begin this mission. I redeem them. I gave them the cross.”
What the hell was he talking about? She wasn’t about to ask.
David reached behind him. Silver flashed in the light. Jesslyn’s eyes locked to the knife. She knew what it felt like, pressed against soft flesh. The cold. The sting.
He took a step towards her. She jerked on the handle, could have cried when the door opened as she stumbled into the room. She shoved against the door to close it even as David rammed into the other side, shoving her back a step.
“Please, please, please.” Her hands shook as she tried to get the door closed. His weight pushed the door open further. Jesslyn’s eyes frantically searched the dimly lit room. Something. Something. The long conference table only held a glass bowl on its gleaming center. Chairs flanked a roaring fireplace. The fireplace!
“Jesslyn,” his calm voice said, “don’t do this. You’ll only make me angry. I’ll make it quick, I promise.”
“Fuck you.” Jesslyn jumped away from the door and sprinted across the room to the fireplace. She grabbed the poker and whirled.
David slowly got up off the floor. He kicked the door shut, reached up and flicked the lock.
Please, please, help me, she prayed. David smiled and started towards her.
Her hands shook on the iron weapon. It was heavy. She’d only get one chance. One chance.
• • •
“Mr. Kinncaid, sir.” The blonde desk clerk waved at him.
Aiden ignored her, turned his gaze back to T.J. “When did you see Jesslyn?”
He had to find her.
“In the bathroom, it was only about five or ten minutes ago or so.” Her eyes looked around the room and he saw relief trickle through the pale depths. He quickly looked over his shoulder. Tim walked towards them.
“What’s going on?” Tim asked
“We’re looking for Jesslyn,” Aiden told his friend.
Chief Garrison held up his hand. “I’m sure she’s around somewhere. Let’s not panic.”
“Search the hotel,” Litton advised.
Aiden nodded. “I’ll have her paged.”
He hurried to the front desk. “Page Ms. Jesslyn Black for me. Now.” His palm slapped on the cool marble top.
“But Mr. Kinncaid . . .” she started.
“Now,” he repeated.
Her small jaw firmed. “She went to a conference room. She said to tell you she’d be back in a few minutes. Another gentleman was with her. That was about—”
Aiden didn’t wait for her to finish. “Which way did they go?”
“That way,” she said, pointing.
His stride lengthened until he was running down the hallway to the smaller conference rooms on the east side of the hotel. He rounded the corner and shoved open a door.
The room was empty.
“Kinncaid, wait,” John said.
Wait hell. Aiden pointed down both hallways. “Check the rooms.”
He hurried to the next room. Hurry. He had to hurry. He’d promised to keep her safe. His hands shook.
He heard footfalls down the hall behind him.
The door stood closed. Aiden grabbed the handle. Locked.
He slapped his pockets. Where the hell was his key?
“Jesslyn!” He beat on the door. “Jesslyn!”
• • •
David’s head whirled at the shout, at the pounding, shaking the door.
Jesslyn took her chance at his distraction. One step. She planted her feet and swung the poker with all her might.
His arm shot up, blocked her blow from crashing into his head. He grabbed the poker and tried to wrestle it from her. “You bitch. I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
Anger flamed through her, for herself, for all the innocent victims he’d claimed. For Maddy. For Tammy.
“Better a bitch than a soulless monster who believes he’s doing God’s will,” she furiously said between her teeth. “You’re pathetic. And evil.” She spat in his face.
David roared, let go of the poker and struck her across the face. Pain sang up her knees as she hit the floor.
“It is my righteous duty to protect!” David screamed. He ripped the poker from her hands, the end tearing across her palm. David flung it aside. The poker la
nded by the door.
“Jesslyn!” She heard Aiden yell before something pinged against the metal doorknob.
Jesslyn tried to crawl back towards the door. Towards the poker. David whirled. The knife hung in his hand.
She kicked at his knee and he screamed.
“Jesslyn!” Aiden yelled. Something kicked the door, and she tried to get to her feet. David grabbed her hair, shoving her down, even as she tried to fight him off, to twist away. She fell back. His strong thighs locked against her torso as he straddled her. He gasped as she brought her knees up hard against his back, his hold only tightened.
“It’s too bad you couldn’t mind your own business, but you’re like the rest, aren’t you?” This man she didn’t know—had never known. His eyes burned with a black and unholy fire. His chest heaved up and down.
Jesslyn fisted her hands and rammed them up against his sternum. David grunted.
More splinters from the door. With one hand he tried to hold her still.
“It’s time to meet the rest in hell.” He raised the knife above his head, even as she tried to twist to the side.
“Aiden!” she screamed.
A whoosh through the air followed by a string of pinging gunshots jerked her.
Blood poured over her. The coppery smell filled her nose, the metallic flavor coated the back of her throat.
David’s flat eyes went blank. The knife fell from his hands as his arms dropped to the side.
Jesslyn couldn’t move. A trickle of blood ran down from the hole in the center of his forehead, two in his chest, the poker a grotesque stake through the center of him.
Her breath broken and jagged panted out. David started to fall forwards.
Hands gripped her under her arms and jerked her up and back from the grisly scene.
Aiden clasped Jessie to him. Sweet Mother of God. Tremors shook them both as he buried her head against his shoulder.
“It’s okay. You’re okay. You’re okay.” Her chest rose and fell, quick and hurried, matching his. He could feel their hearts racing.
Jessie pulled back. She was covered in blood. Streaks of red marred her pale face and her white shirt was crimson. God had he been too late? His hands hurried over her, ripped her shirt apart to see her flat smooth belly, her chest untouched by the knife. It was a good thing they were sitting on the floor, or his knees would have given out. Her faint one-sided grin took him by surprise. “I’m glad you made it.”