by Cynthia Eden
Victoria’s face showed her worry. “Are you going to be all right?”
Sarah forced a smile. “With these guys?” She gestured to her silent guards. “How could I not be?” But the guards wouldn’t be around forever, she knew that. “Now, let’s go check on Wade . . . before he drives those nurses crazy.”
EDDIE GUTHRIE WAS strapped to a table. He couldn’t remember how he’d gotten on that table. He didn’t know where the hell he was or what was happening.
He jerked hard, but the straps were too tight. They wouldn’t give.
“Easy . . .” It was a man’s voice. Right next to him. “We’re trying to help you.”
No, no, they weren’t. They were holding him down. He was struggling, screaming.
Hard hands grabbed him. “Hold him down! Secure him!”
Eddie’s mind was twisting chaos. He looked up and he saw a monster in front of him. A man with a mask over his face. He screamed again and twisted his body.
The table he was on . . . it fell. Eddie hit the floor with a crash.
“He needs to be sedated!”
Sedated . . . he struggled to think, but his mind felt so thick and confused. Sedated . . . did that mean they wanted to drug him?
“No!” Eddie roared. He lunged away from the floor, kicking and shoving at the straps.
“We need to know what the guy has been given!” That sounded like a woman’s voice. High and sharp and scared. “He was seizing before . . . hell, the way he’s looking at us, you’d think he was seeing—”
Monsters.
He swiped out and his fingers found . . . a knife? It was shiny like a knife. Sharp. But . . . it was something else. He knew the weapon had a name, but he couldn’t remember it. It was so hard to remember anything right then.
“He’s got a scalpel!” That shrieking woman was yelling again. “Get back!”
Footsteps scrambled back.
His eyes narrowed. He wanted to see them, but there were shadows darting across his vision. He swiped out, trying to knock those shadows away. They were like . . . like the dark ghosts he’d seen at a haunted house once. Fabric, hanging on a wire.
“Haunted house . . .” he whispered. He took another swing at the shadows, slicing with his weapon. Maybe he could cut them down.
“That guy is insane!” a man shouted. “He’s still tripping on something. Get the guards. Guards!”
More footsteps thudded into the room. That meant more people, right? He stopped swinging and narrowed his eyes as he tried to see them.
That was when Eddie saw the guns. Two big, hulking men had their guns aimed at him.
“Drop the scalpel, now!” one snarled.
He rubbed his forehead. He was sweating. It was so hot in there. So hot he couldn’t think. “Where am I?” He had memories pushing through his mind, trying to get past the thick fog that had been weighing him down. He remembered . . .
I was in a mask.
But, no, why would he have worn a mask?
Have to kill her. A life for a life.
His body shuddered. He took a step back.
He remembered . . .
I had a knife in my hand. I put the knife to the woman’s throat.
He looked down and saw the glint of the light, shining off the weapon in his hand.
Did I kill someone?
His fingers tightened around that weapon.
He remembered . . . jail. A cell. A big, blond man saying that Molly . . .
“Where’s Molly?” Eddie asked, his voice rasping out. His heart was racing. His palms were sweating. Every breath he took seemed to burn his lungs. “Where’s my sister?”
“Drop the weapon!” was the only response he got.
But if he dropped it, would they fire at him? Were they going to kill him anyway? He glanced around wildly. He didn’t know these people. He’d never seen them before in his life. And his sister . . .
Molly had been . . . taken. That was what the blond man had told him.
Then Eddie had woken up, strapped down. They’d been about to drug him.
Did they take me, too? “I’m getting out of here!” He’d find his sister. He and Molly . . . they always stuck together. It was them against the world. Always had been. Through all the foster homes. Through the different schools. They’d been together.
Molly needs me. “Give me my sister!” His head was throbbing, as if a jackhammer were digging right behind his eyes.
“We have to subdue him!” It was the woman again. Yelling. Her voice made his head ache even more.
“Shut up!” he told her. “Shut up, shut up. Shut up!” Then he lunged toward her.
Thunder erupted. No, not thunder. It was more like fireworks. He and Molly liked to watch the fireworks on New Year’s Eve.
But he didn’t see any fireworks and his chest . . . hurt.
His knees sagged. He hit the floor. The knife—scalpel—fell from his fingers. “I . . . want Molly.”
More footsteps rushed into the room. He strained to keep his eyes open.
“What the hell?” The shocked cry came from the guy who’d just burst into the room. A guy wearing a suit, with a badge pinned to his belt. The guy’s green eyes glittered.
Wait . . . he knew that guy. He was a detective. West—
I can see them all now. So clearly.
The detective must be there to help him. Eddie tried to speak, but he only managed a groan.
Then the cop was in front of him. “Stay with me, kid,” he said.
“Mol . . . ly . . .”
“We found your sister. She’s in a hospital.” The guy’s head turned to the left. “You fucking hit him dead in the heart! Why? Why?”
“He was lunging with the scalpel! I told him to drop it, again and again, and he wouldn’t! He wouldn’t!”
Eddie felt so cold. Cold everywhere, except for his heart. It seemed to be burning right in his chest. “Mol . . . ly . . .”
“Your sister is safe, do you hear me?” The detective leaned in close to him. “We got her. She’s safe.”
That was good. “L-Love . . . Mol . . .”
His chest didn’t burn anymore.
His eyes closed.
Chapter 10
JAX WAITED OUTSIDE OF THE POLICE STATION. HE’D gotten a call from Brent. The detective had said he needed to see Jax, right away.
Night had come. Darkness had swept over the city. In New Orleans, the darkness just meant that the real party was about to begin. This city never seemed to sleep. Vegas had nothing on the Big Easy.
He saw Brent hurry out of the station and quickly run down the steps. Jax hunched his shoulders and eased deeper into the shadows. Then he walked down the street, knowing that Brent would follow him. They wouldn’t have that chat right on the doorsteps of the PD. That would be far too obvious. But the perfect spot waited just ahead.
Jax propped his shoulders against the wall of an alley. Brent came into sight again a few moments later.
“He’s dead,” Brent said.
Jax waited. “Tell me you’re talking about the prick who took the girl.”
“I’m talking about Eddie Guthrie.” Brent started pacing. He jerked his hand over this face. Jax had noticed before that the guy did that whenever he was nervous or upset. “He was in the med unit, they were supposed to be taking care of him.”
Hell.
“He got loose—I don’t know how. Eddie grabbed a scalpel. The guards thought he was attacking a nurse, and they shot him. In the fucking heart.” He stopped pacing. “Why not shoot his shoulder? His hand? Why the heart?”
Jax locked his jaw.
“His last words were for his sister. I lied to the kid. I told him she was all right.” Brent swung around. “But the docs are saying she might not last until morning.”
Yes, Carlos had called and told Jax the same thing.
“I have nothing to go on here,” Brent continued, and his words sounded ragged. “All the evidence burned, and the guy got away scot-free.” Frustrati
on seethed in his voice. “Is he going to do it again? You’ve got the in with LOST. I mean, damn, it’s obvious you’re fucking the pretty profiler.”
Ah, because of the kiss? But, yes, he had fucked her . . . and he planned to do it again, at the first opportunity.
“What does she say about this guy? Do we have one of them serial killers hunting in the city? What’s happening?”
Jax pushed away from the wall. He rolled his shoulders. This was Brent’s first big case, and the guy was breaking. “I’m sorry about Eddie.”
“Me too.” Brent shook his head. “I heard the gun blast when I was in the hall outside of the med ward. If I’d just gotten there faster, I would have stopped it! I would have saved him.”
We can’t save everyone.
But Sarah was trying to do just that.
“Molly might remember her attacker,” Jax said. “She’s not dead yet.” So don’t give up, not yet.
Brent nodded. Then he said, “We had a deal. I’d keep you in the loop . . .”
Yes.
“But I need you to tell me what’s happening, too,” Brent pushed. In the dark, his eyes gleamed. “If LOST has intel, they aren’t sharing, I have to know about it. Because it sure as shit isn’t like Cross is going to be making breaks on this one. The guy can’t solve his way through a crossword puzzle.”
Jax inclined his head. “If the LOST group think a serial is hunting here, you can be certain that you’ll know.” He turned away from the cop. It was getting late, and he didn’t want Sarah staying at that hospital all night.
“Wait!”
He looked back.
“I’ve . . . been researching Sarah Jacobs.” Brent hesitated. “Is all that shit true? Her dad was killing when Sarah was just a kid?”
Jax hadn’t asked Sarah for details about her past. She hadn’t pressed for his, and he’d given her the same courtesy. Anything she shared . . . she’d share. He wouldn’t dig.
“She stopped him, right? Put a gun to her own father’s head and stopped him from killing that last victim?”
“If that’s what the stories say . . .”
“What does that do to a person?” Brent wanted to know. “To know that your father is a twisted killer? To see what he does . . . what does that do to you?”
It makes you stronger. At least, that was what it had done for Sarah.
He started walking.
“Do you think she’s like him . . . deep down?”
“No.”
“How can you be sure? If she lived with him all that time, how can you be sure she’s not just like Murphy the Monster? I mean, Jesus, man, when I look into her eyes, I get unnerved. She sees too much.”
Too deep.
Jax kept walking.
“We don’t need another serial killer hunting down here!” Brent called after him. “This city just survived one nightmare, we don’t need another one.”
No, they didn’t. But it wasn’t about what they needed. It was about what the twisted prick out there had planned.
“SARAH . . .” HER NAME was a low rumble, one that pushed through the fog of sleep that surrounded her. “Sarah, it’s time to go.”
She blinked and realized that she was slouched in one of the waiting room chairs. She’d fallen asleep. She hadn’t meant to drift off. Sarah straightened quickly. “Is everything okay? Is Molly all right?”
Jax’s hand closed around her shoulder. “Molly’s condition hasn’t changed. But it’s time for you to come home. You’re dead on your feet.”
She rubbed her eyes. “I—I can’t leave. Someone has to stay and make sure—” She broke off, then confessed her fear. “What if he comes back for her?” Just because they’d saved a victim, it didn’t mean the case was over. They’d rescued another girl, only to have her die in a hospital. Sarah stood. “Someone has to stay here and—”
“I’m here, Sarah.” That was Gabe’s voice. Her head turned. He was sitting a few feet away. “I’ll call you if anything happens to her.”
But she didn’t want to leave him, either. He had to be as tired as she was. “We can both—”
“Go, Sarah,” he said firmly. “And that’s an order.”
She still didn’t want to ditch him, but at that moment, another woman walked into the waiting room. A woman with blond hair and green eyes. A woman who focused only on Gabe.
“Eve?” Gabe demanded, sounding stunned, and he shot to his feet. “What are you doing here? I was coming home—”
“And I wanted to be with you,” she said, giving him a small smile. “So I found you.” Worry slid across her face. “Victoria updated me. The victim . . . she’s still in ICU?”
He nodded, then he pulled Eve close to him. He just . . . held her for a moment. Sarah saw the long shudder that shook Gabe’s body when he had Eve close. He pulled back, but only so that he could kiss the blonde. And, watching them, Sarah felt like an intruder because there was so much incredible tenderness in that kiss. Powerful emotion. It wasn’t just about passion. With those two, it was about love.
Sarah hadn’t even been sure that she believed a couple could love each other that much, not until she’d seen Eve and Gabe together.
Jax cleared his throat. “I think your boss is good,” he said. “We should go.”
Sarah felt her cheeks flush. With Eve around, she was sure Gabe was more than good.
“Brent sent some cops to keep watch down here, too,” Jax added. “Molly is going to be safe.”
Gabe’s head slowly lifted. His face had softened with love as he stared down at Eve. But then he seemed to remember that he and Eve weren’t alone. He looked over at Sarah.
“Why don’t you and Eve go to the hotel,” Sarah offered. “I can—”
Eve turned toward her. “I’m staying with Gabe. Viki told me that you were in the fire today. How are you even on your feet?”
Her feet—and knees—were rather wobbly.
“We’ve got this,” Eve said, giving Sarah a faint smile. “Go and rest. And chalk this up as a win for LOST.”
A win . . . the way Eve’s case had been.
Jax followed Sarah toward the door.
“You’ll keep her safe?” Gabe called after them.
Before Jax could answer, Sarah glanced back at him. “I can keep myself safe.” Just what did he think her father had been teaching her all of those years?
How to hunt.
How to kill.
How to survive.
Jax was silent as they rode the elevator down to the parking garage. He led her toward a big, black SUV that waited near one of the columns. Before Sarah slid up onto the seat, she asked, “You’re taking me back to the hotel?”
He caught her chin in his hand. “No, Sarah.”
Her breath whispered out. “My clothes—”
“—will be taken care of.” He smiled at her, a smile that looked like a tiger, sharp and predatory. “So maybe you should send a text to your friends. Let them know you’ll be at my place. I will be keeping you safe.”
Oh, had that struck a nerve with him? Too bad. It was who she was.
“And we’ll be fucking.”
Yes, well, um, she wasn’t going to include that bit in the text.
He leaned down and kissed her. Hard and deep. He made her want more. “You scared the hell out of me today,” he muttered against her mouth.
Wait . . . she’d scared big, bad Jax Fontaine? Impossible. Nothing was supposed to scare him.
“Next time, run away from the fire,” he told her. “Save yourself.”
Ah, but that was what he didn’t understand. She had too many sins to atone for in this world. If she didn’t try to help, then . . .
What will I become?
She climbed into the vehicle. He slammed her door, then came around to the driver’s side. Sarah fired off a quick text to Gabe. A few moments later, she and Jax were leaving that parking garage and heading out into the dark night. “What’s their story?” he asked her, actually seeming to be curious.
Sarah glanced over at him. “You mean Gabe and Eve?” Well, technically, Eve wasn’t the blonde’s name. She was Jessica Montgomery. Or she had been.
“Yeah, them. Gabe looked like—”
“He could pretty much devour her.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Sarah clamped her lips shut. She had to learn to watch herself around Jax. For some reason, she revealed too much with him. “They’re pretty intense together,” she mumbled.
“They are.” His hand slid over. Squeezed her thigh. “And so are we.” His touch seemed to burn right through her jeans.
She wanted him to move his fingers a little bit. To slide them inside her thigh and up to the—
“Sarah? Their story,” he prompted.
Right. Coughing a bit, Sarah said, “Eve was a client. She came in the doors of LOST, and I’m pretty sure Gabe took one look at her and the guy fell . . . hard.” She’d never thought the mighty Gabe would go down that fast. But he’d been nearly obsessed. So determined to stay close to Eve.
To win her heart.
“Who had gone missing from Eve’s life?”
“She had.” Her head turned as she stared out her window. The streets were packed with people, and, up ahead, a horse-drawn carriage was slowly meandering through the city. “Eve woke up in a hospital, with no memory of her past. She happened to see a story in a newspaper—it was a story about the Lady Killer. He was a serial killer who’d been targeting wealthy, blond women—”
“I remember that story,” Jax said, his voice grim.
“Eve looked in the paper, saw the photos of the guy’s victims, and she saw her own face staring back at her.” The horse-drawn carriage turned. Jax sped up. “She came to LOST because she wanted us to find out if she had been a victim. She wanted us to find out anything we could about her.” And in the end, they had. They’d stopped the Lady Killer. Eve had learned about her past . . . and Gabe had fallen in love.
“Some people get happy endings,” Sarah said. “Even if they have to walk through fire first.”
Silence. She closed her eyes, feeling weary all the way to her soul. “I need to speak with Detective West. I want to make sure he’s told Eddie that Molly is alive.” For the moment. But, no, she couldn’t think that way. Molly would make it through the night. She’d be stronger by morning. With every moment that passed, Molly would keep fighting. She’d survive.