The Leah Ryan Thrillers Box Set: Three Chiller Thrillers (Repo Chick Blues #1, Finding Chloe #2, Dirty Business #3) (Leah Ryan Thrillers Box Set, Books 1-3)

by Tracy Sharp

  We climbed into one boat and started paddling. Turning the motor on wouldn’t be wise. My guess was that Gabriel wasn’t up for entertaining us. We paddled slowly, trying to be as silent as we could. I shivered, the wind was picking up, and the air was bitter coming off the water.

  I’d have preferred to be just about anywhere else. I thought of Lucas’s warm skin and felt myself flush. There was an enormous sadness in the pit of my stomach left by Callahan’s leaving. So Lucas was my happy place right then. I would hold on to that sensory image tightly until we and the women were out of there and safe.

  We had made it almost to the shore when a gunshot rang through the air and Declan flew back, almost falling into the water.

  “Get down! Get down!” Jack screamed. He ducked low and reached for his gun, aiming it at the compound.

  I stretched my arm out toward Jack. “Wait. We don’t know if it’s Gabriel shooting or if it’s one of the women.”

  He lowered his gun. “Shit!”

  “Hey asshat! Having fun?” I shouted.

  “More than you can possibly imagine,” was the amused reply, carrying eerily over the water. “But I wouldn’t shoot back if I were you. I’m not the only one standing out here.”

  He was despicable, using pregnant women as a shield, and that was exactly what he was doing.

  “You are disgusting. You’re nothing but a coward. You’d put those pregnant women in danger to save your own ass,” Jack shouted.

  “They are happy to do it,” Gabriel’s voice floated down to us.

  We couldn’t see him. Too many shadows. Darkness was draping itself over us. There was no light.

  “You will get yours, Gabriel. Believe that.” My teeth were gritted, more from anger than cold, but still I shivered. My teeth began to chatter.

  “I’m taking a swim. Keep him busy.” Jack took off his leather jacket and prepared to drop into the water.

  “No,” I whispered. “You’ll freeze. That water is way too cold now, Jack.”

  “I can do it. The shore is not that far away. We’re almost there.”

  “You may get there, but your limbs will be too numb to do anything to stop him,” Declan said.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Jack said. “Just keep him busy.”

  I’d seen Jack bear temperature extremes that would make most of us faint with no problem at all. Sometimes I wondered if he weren’t superhuman.

  Declan and I moved to the opposite side of the boat to keep it from tipping as Jack waited. When we were ready, as silently as he could, he dropped into the water.

  For as big a boy Jack is, he didn’t make as loud a splash as I’d thought he would, and I wondered if Gabriel had heard him at all. He wouldn’t have seen him. Darkness had covered everything now. The wind had picked up and I could barely see the water. Only a crescent moon shone in the sky, not lending us any real light.

  “You come up on this island, you’re not leaving.” Gabriel’s voice was carried by raw, icy wind.

  “No, you’ve got that wrong, Gabriel,” I shouted back. “We come up on that island, and those women aren’t all happy and fine, you aren’t leaving.”

  His laughter rang and bounced around on the rocks. “You’re one ballsy woman; I’ll give you that, Leah. But these women don’t want a thing to do with you. You’re a Judas. You can’t be trusted. You’ve revealed yourself to be a serpent.”

  “Blah, blah, blah. Don’t you ever get bored of hearing yourself talk? Cuz I gotta tell you, Gabe, your spiel is way past old.” I scanned the water for Jack, but didn’t see him. He really was stealthy and silent when he wanted to be. I just hoped that’s what he was being, and not sinking to the bottom of the lake. He wouldn’t have much time before his limbs grew numb and stopped working. I kept talking. “I mean, seriously. Go look at yourself in the mirror and see if you can keep a straight face saying that shit.”

  “You’ve got about five seconds before I start shooting blindly at the water. You and your friends would be wise to turn around and leave us alone,” Gabriel said.

  “Nah. I like this boat. How much did this boat set you back, Gabe? Oh wait; it must be just one more thing one of your adoring, brainwashed disciples laid at your feet. What’s that like, anyway? Having people just give you things because you blow so much smoke up their asses? Have you ever, in all your lazy-ass days, considered actually working for a living? Or is that concept completely beyond you.” I was running out of insults. Jack had better hurry the hell up. “Actually, Cult Leader is a pretty lucrative gig, isn’t it, much less work than picking pockets or snatching old ladies purses and running away?” Hurry up, Jack.

  I heard a grunt, and a gun went off. A woman screamed.

  And then there was nothing.

  * * *

  We paddled the remaining few feet to the shore, jumping into the knee deep, chilled water, and scrambled up the stairs to the chaotic sounds up ahead.

  “Jack!” I screamed. “Jack!”

  “A little help,” he shouted, his voice strained.

  I ran toward his voice, seeing vague, muted shapes finally come into view. I heard Declan right behind me.

  Jack was struggling with one of the pregnant women, she was trying to get his gun from him. She was scratching and biting, and now screaming like a banshee.

  “Jesus Christ,” Jack grunted. “Calm down, lady.”

  I heard groaning from the ground as I ran past somebody lying there. A hand clamped over my ankle and I went down hard. I kicked with my other leg and connected with something that made a cracking sound.

  “You broke my nose, you bitch.” Gabriel said, his voice sounding liquid and nasal.

  I grinned, not being able to actually see the blood clearly but imagining it just fine. “Good.” I scrambled closer and booted him in the jaw. “How do you like me now, Gabe?”

  I pushed myself up, bracing myself to boot him again if he tried anything else. I risked a peek over my shoulder to see Declan helping Jack with the woman, trying to pull her off.

  “You’re going to hurt your baby if you keep this shit up,” Jack said at her. “What’s the matter with you?”

  “We would both give our lives for Gabriel,” she said, her voice reverent.

  “Yeah, he’d give your lives for him, too,” Declan said.

  “It is God’s will,” she cried.

  “Jesus,” Jack muttered.

  I heard rustling on the ground. I looked down to see Gabriel trying to pull himself up. I took one step toward him, hearing the water squish in my leather boots, and booted him in the chest.

  He flew backward, grunting.

  “That’s for making me ruin my leather boots, you dick.”

  I loved those boots, and the delusional bastard wasn’t even worth the cost of replacing them.

  But the unborn babies being treated like commodities were worth everything. And I wasn’t leaving that island without those women.

  * * *

  Jack and Declan got the woman into the cabin and locked her in a room until she calmed down. I babysat Gabriel, who wasn’t half as mouthy with me as he had been. It might have something to do with his swollen and torn mouth. He’d called me a very nasty name, and I’d kicked him in the face.

  I sighed. “Gabe, why don’t you just shut the hell up? I’m getting tired of kicking your worthless ass.”

  “One of my teeth is loose,” he said, moving his tongue over said tooth.

  “Well, I’m sure you have at least one dentist in your flock,” I said, wiggling my toes in my wet boots. They were feeling numb. My poor feet were taking a hell of a beating because of this prick, and the weather was far too cold for these shenanigans. “Too bad you have all your followers stuck away in a compound.”

  He smirked through his bubbled lips, the effect more than creepy. “I have more followers than you can imagine. Many of them live off site.”

  “That’s heart-warming, Gabe. Really.” But a chill ran down my spine, because I believed him.

&
nbsp; He tipped his head back a little to look at me. “You really don’t know what you’re dealing with, Leah. I think you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.”

  “That’s sweet coming from a guy who won’t be chewing anything hard for a while.” I stepped toward him and he cringed back. “And if you don’t shut the hell up, I’ll fix it so you won’t be chewing anything at all. You’ll be sipping your meals through those funny, twisty straws for a long, long time.”

  Jack and Declan came back down. None of us trusted Gabriel to walk up to the cabin without pulling something on me. He was much easier to deal with on the ground. His gun was gone. Jack had knocked it out of his hand, and then pistol whipped him across the head. As long as Gabriel didn’t have a gun, we were doing okay.

  Jack glared down at Gabriel. Declan’s face was grim as he looked at me.

  “Christ. What?” I asked.

  “Julia gave birth earlier today.” Jack didn’t take his eyes off Gabriel. “Her baby is gone.”

  I looked down at Gabriel, feeling my blood boil. I hauled my foot back and booted him in the jaw again.

  * * *

  We brought him into a tool shed not far from the main cabin. Declan stayed with the women. Two were pregnant. He would try to talk to them, using his deprogramming skills as best he could. But it would take days. Hours would do nothing to change their minds.

  Gabriel sat in on the floor while Jack and I stood over him.

  “Where is Julia’s baby, Gabe?” I asked.

  He grinned up at me, blood staining his teeth. He no longer looked like an angel. He looked like a demon straight from hell. I wondered if maybe he was. How did some people get to be so evil? But right then, it didn’t much matter.

  “Gone.” He smirked now, really enjoying this.

  “Gone where?” I squatted down, looking him in the face.

  “Somewhere you’ll never find him.”

  “Same place Noel and Lydia’s babies went?” Jack asked.

  Gabriel’s eyes flicked up to Jack. “Same place they were headed. Noel’s and Lydia’s babies never made it there.”

  Something in my chest folded in on itself. “And where was that?” I stood over him, tapping one foot as a reminder of what my boots could do.

  A shot rang out. Jack and I looked at each other.

  Gabriel tilted his head back and laughed. “I bet your friend has his hands full, if he’s still kicking, that is.”

  “Go.” I tilted my head toward the cabin. “I’ll keep our friend company.”

  Jack gave Gabriel a withering look before running out the door.

  Gabriel smiled widely at me. “You really don’t have a clue, do you?”

  “No, but I have a couple of really hard boots that are ruined anyway, so I don’t mind getting more flesh and blood splattered all over them.”

  “I know about Noel sending you. Julia told me,” His grin faded. “After I caught her on the phone, I had to correct her for that.” His eyes sparkled for a moment. “She said you’d be coming.”

  “And?” I tried to appear bored.

  He laughed again, really getting a charge off the power he had over me. Off the fact that he had information I was almost desperate for.

  “I want a deal.” His smirk was back, and it was dirty.

  I wanted to walk through a car wash, but it would never make me feel clean enough. “I don’t make deals with murdering baby sellers.”

  “I didn’t murder the babies.” His eyes gleamed at me. “But I know who did.”

  “You had somebody murder them. That makes you a murderer.” My stomach roiled.

  “I didn’t have anyone murder them.” His voice was quiet and even.

  I stared at him, trying to read if he was lying to me or not. He seemed like he was telling the truth, but cult leaders are practiced liars, as a rule.

  He watched me through crazed eyes. He was on the ground, physically broken, and he still held all the power. “Let me walk out of here, and I’ll tell you who did kill them.”

  “How about you tell me who killed them, and where the other babies are, and I don’t kill your ass right here?”

  His smirk grew wider. “You and I both know you won’t do that. You kill me, and you’ll never know.”

  Hell.

  “You want me to let you walk out of here, without your entourage, and you’ll what? Give up cult leading and take up basket weaving?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I do. I have information and you need it. I’m not going to prison, Leah. I’ll do anything to avoid it, including walking away from everything I’ve built and starting over from scratch. But I won’t go to prison.”

  I watched his face. He had me and he knew it. “Tell me something to show me you’re not full of shit.”

  “Okay,” he said, grinning. “Noel murdered her own baby.”

  I rocked back on my heels a little, staring at him. “Bullshit.”

  He shook his head slowly, his manic eyes never leaving mine. “No. I’m telling you the truth. She murdered her own baby. After that, she stole Lydia’s baby and murdered her, too.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “Why does any unbalanced person do anything?” His smile fell away. “Look Leah, I know I’m not all that I say I am…”

  “Say it isn’t so.”

  “I’ve got a talent, a certain charisma, which lends itself to manipulating people for my own means. But I’m not insane.”

  “Well, I beg to differ, Gabe. Because I think you’re bat-shit crazy.”

  “That could be debated, if we had more time. We don’t. But I can tell you that Noel is a baby killer.”

  I watched him, feeling my eyes narrow and gritting my teeth, saying nothing. I wanted him to continue.

  “I wasn’t sure that it was her at first. But then Lydia’s baby died.” Something like sadness flickered across his face. “I did some background research on her. She was once a medical assistant on the maternity floor of St. Mary’s. A couple of apparently perfectly healthy babies died during her shifts. Somebody must’ve suspected her but didn’t have proof, because she was let go rather abruptly. That’s when I found her.”

  “You didn’t know any of this before you recruited her?”

  “I swear that I didn’t. Be that as it may, it wouldn’t have mattered. I don’t judge people who enter into my family. It’s a fresh start. Whatever they did before has no meaning on their lives with us.” He paused. “Unless they harm somebody in the family.”

  “I’d say what she did to those babies falls under the ‘harm’ category. Maybe you should rethink your recruitment policy regarding the previous lives of potential members. If you’re telling me the truth, that is.” But it didn’t sound like deception, this time.

  “Check for yourself. A private investigator could easily unearth that information.”

  “Where are the other babies, Gabriel?”

  “Do we have a deal?” He asked me, pushing himself up. He was looking rough. His mouth was split and his jaw swollen and bruised. Blood stained his chin.

  Time stood still as we watched each other. This would be a deal with the devil. But I needed to find out where those babies were.

  “Yes,” I said.

  He must’ve seen the lie in my eyes, because his own eyes became shuttered as he stood up.

  “Get back down on the floor, Gabriel.”

  He turned around and walked to a cabinet on the far end of the shed, opened the door and grabbed a hammer.

  “Get down.” I cocked my gun and aimed at his head.

  “I’m not going to prison, Leah. I told you that. So it’s either you or me, and you’ll never know where those babies are.”

  “I thought we were making a deal here,” I tried, panic raising my tone, but it was useless.

  He came at me, hammer raised. He took a running jump and launched himself at me. I had no time to aim for a leg or arm. I just pulled the trigger. He went down, blood gushing from his throat.

  H
e smiled at me, gurgling, blood leaking from the wound in his neck and staining the wooden floor.

  I leaned over him. “You’re going to hell. I hope you burn.”

  I spat at him as he lay dying.

  He laughed, only choking sounds coming from him now, because he was right.

  Now I may never know where those babies were.

  Chapter Ten

  The woman Jack and Declan locked in a room had found a rifle in the closet. She blew the hell out of the lock and would’ve blown a hole through Declan, if Jack hadn’t gotten there in time. He hated doing it, but he’d had to shoot her in the arm to get her to drop the gun.

  She called herself Number twenty-four. Declan was going to try to deprogram her. There was no need to lock her in a room in some secluded area. Gabriel was dead. There was no longer any danger that she’d return to him. The other family members would have to pick up the pieces of their lives without him. Declan would offer exit counseling to any family member who wanted it. I didn’t think he’d have many takers. But you never knew.

  We’d try to arrange for the women to be on suicide watch when they got to the hospital. They needed to be checked out, because we had little faith in any doctor who was part of a cult. The medical care they’d gotten up until now was highly suspect. We’d have to get names from the women. It would be a trick getting them to give those names up.

  It all just seemed too enormous. Gabriel’s tentacles seemed to spread endlessly, like those of some ancient unnamed evil.

  It was dark and I was cold. My feet were frozen. They’d taken quite the beating over the last week. I needed to get somewhere warm and get off them.

  The police questioned all of us for hours. Different city. Different cops. They weren’t quite as understanding as the ones we dealt with after our recent escapades with Gabriel and his goons. Still, they did realize this was a cult leader we’d been dealing with. They weren’t about to shed any tears.

  I was beyond cranky when they finally let us go. All I wanted to do was get into a hot shower, into my warmest fleece pajamas, and cuddle with my dog.