But this one sure wasn’t.
Rocky was coming for her.
She got the badge ready, trying to position the sharp edges so she could try to stab him with it. She tried to ready herself, too. Karina brought up her hand. Just as Cord latched on to Rocky.
And Cord pulled him into the fray with the gunman.
Since both Rocky and his man were armed and Rocky had the switchblade, Karina had to do something fast or they’d kill Cord.
The fire extinguisher was on the floor now, but it’d rolled beneath the bed, not far from Willie Lee. There weren’t any other weapons around so she hurried to Cord and looked for an opening so she could try to hit or kick Rocky or the thug.
Hard to do, though, with Cord in a fight for his life. Both Rocky and the man were bashing their guns against Cord, and it wouldn’t be long before they managed to shoot or stab him.
Karina didn’t think. She jumped in, her body landing on Rocky, and in the same motion, she struck him with the badge. He howled in pain and used his gun to backhand her.
It felt as if her head had exploded.
The pain shot through her, robbing Karina of her breath, but she could still see. And what she saw had her heart nearly stopping. Rocky was standing over her now. His face was bleeding, no doubt from the badge.
“You cut me,” he growled, and he lifted his switchblade and came right at her.
Cord stopped him, again, slamming him down to the floor. It stopped Rocky but not the hired gun. He managed to pull the trigger again.
Karina felt a different kind of explosion in her head. And in her heart. God, had Cord been shot? Was he dead?
That got her fighting again. And she wasn’t alone. Yelling, Dr. Kenney came off the floor, and she still had that clipboard in her hand. She hurried to the thug and bashed the clipboard against his hand and his gun.
The gun went flying, skittering across the floor, but he punched her, hard, and the doctor went flying backward. Karina could have sworn she heard the sound of bones breaking. However, she couldn’t take the time to check on the woman because Karina saw something else that robbed her of what little breath she had.
Rocky was on top of Cord, and he had the knife to Cord’s throat. The thug was there, too, bleeding, and while he no longer had his gun, he was big and could help Rocky kill Cord.
“If you move, he dies,” Rocky said, glancing back at her.
She believed him. But if she didn’t move, then they would all die anyway. Mercy, this was shattering her heart. She couldn’t lose Cord. She couldn’t.
“I’ll go with you,” she pleaded, hoping that it would get Rocky to move his knife. “You never wanted to kill Cord anyway, that’s why you left him at that gas station.”
Rocky’s teeth came together. They were bloody, too. The blood had slid down from the cut on his face to his mouth. Ironic. Since the cut was similar to the one he’d given her.
And all his other victims.
Rocky’s eyes were cold and flat when he looked at her. “No deal. Cord dies, then you.”
He turned, probably ready to finish this, but since Rocky had been looking at her, he probably hadn’t seen Cord’s fist. Cord knocked the knife from Rocky’s hand, and he punched him.
“No!” Rocky yelled. He staggered back, bringing up his gun. And aiming it at Cord.
But there was the swishing sound again. And Rocky froze. For a second or two anyway. Before he clutched his chest, and his gun fell from his hand.
Karina had no idea what’d just happened. Until her gaze slashed to Willie Lee. He was still on the floor, but he’d grabbed the thug’s gun from beneath the bed.
And Willie Lee had shot his brother.
Rocky didn’t fall, and he turned as if he might lunge at Willie Lee. But Willie Lee didn’t let that happen. He pulled the trigger again. And again.
It took four shots before Rocky dropped to his knees and then collapsed.
But that wasn’t the end of it. The thug was alive, and he came at Cord. However, he didn’t make it. Cord grabbed Rocky’s gun, and he fired.
No silencer on this one, so the shot blasted through the air. It was deafening. But effective. The thug dropped like a stone, and Karina only had to glance at him to know he was dead.
Karina hurried to Cord, praying that Rocky hadn’t shot him. There was blood, but God, there was blood everywhere. She couldn’t tell if it belonged to him, Willie Lee or Rocky.
“Stay back,” Cord told her.
Both Willie Lee and he still had their guns aimed at Rocky. And she soon saw why.
Rocky was alive.
He was on his back and was laughing. Or rather that’s what he was trying to do. He wasn’t making much sound.
“You think this is over,” Rocky said. His voice didn’t have much sound, either, but it was clear enough that she had no trouble hearing him.
“It’s over,” Willie Lee assured him.
“Not a chance. Because one of my men has her, you see.”
The chill that went through Karina was pure ice. “Her?” But she already knew the answer, and judging from Willie Lee’s groan, so did he.
“Sarah,” Rocky confirmed, turning his head to look at Willie Lee. And Rocky used his last breath to finish that. “You’ll never get to her in time to save her. Sarah will be my last kill.”
Chapter Nineteen
Sarah will be my last kill.
Cord wanted to believe Rocky was lying, but he knew in his heart that the man wasn’t. Rocky hated Willie Lee enough to take away something—anything—that he cared about.
And Willie Lee clearly cared about Sarah.
“You have to find her now,” Willie Lee insisted. He was still too weak to stand, but that didn’t stop him from trying. He caught on to the bed and tried to drag himself to his feet.
Cord glanced at Karina to make sure she was okay, but she was already running for the door. She started pounding on it before he even got there.
“Help us!” she shouted.
The guard that’d been subdued was moving now, too, and he tried to join them. So did the doctor, even though she wasn’t 100 percent, either. There was blood on her face, and Cord was pretty sure the thug had broken her nose when he punched her.
Dr. Kenney grabbed the phone from the wall and demanded that someone get there ASAP. Now that she no longer had to worry about her sister, she was obviously doing her part to help.
But he needed a different kind of help from her.
“Rocky probably has Sarah somewhere here in the prison,” Cord said to the doctor. “He would have needed a guard or two on his payroll for that.”
She nodded. “He paid off two of them, and they should be right outside in the hall. That’s where he told them to wait before Karina and you came in.”
There was a reinforced glass panel on the door, and Cord looked out. He didn’t see Sarah, but there was a guard, and he was backing away from the door while his gaze fired all around. He likely knew from the sound of the gunfire that he didn’t have much time before other guards arrived.
Ones who weren’t on Rocky’s payroll.
Even though it was useless, Cord bashed himself against the door, trying to force it to give way. Sarah was out there somewhere.
His mother.
Rocky almost certainly had left orders for her to be taken away, or worse, if something went wrong. And it had. Rocky was dead. Cord had gotten damn lucky that Karina and Willie Lee were alive, but he might lose his mother before he even got the chance to know her.
He rammed against the door again, the pain from the impact jolting through his shoulder, and this time he heard the click of the lock. Not from anything he’d done. He glanced out into the hall again and saw the other guards storming toward them. One of them had no doubt
disengaged the lock.
Cord rushed out into the hall, and one of the guards latched on to him. Only then did he remember he didn’t have his badge.
“He’s DEA Agent Cord Granger,” Karina said, holding up the badge. There was blood on it, but the guard must have seen enough of it to let go of him.
Cord went in search of that guard he’d spotted earlier. He had to find Sarah. He had to get to her in time.
“There’s a woman missing,” Karina explained. “She’s probably somewhere nearby, and her life is in grave danger. You need to help Agent Granger find her.”
Even though Cord was making his way up the hall, he heard the doctor step in to help with the explanation. Hopefully, she would help Willie Lee, too. Cord wasn’t sure how bad his injuries were. Maybe not enough to kill him.
Hell. He could lose both his parents today.
Cord still had the thug’s gun, and he readied it as he threw open the first door he reached. It was an office of some kind, and it was empty.
He refused to believe the guard had managed to get out of there with Sarah, but Karina was taking care of that, too. She was calling out for someone to check the parking lot and to stop anyone from leaving the building. The prison was probably on lockdown now anyway, but that would help in case the guard had already made it that far.
Cord hurried down the hall, checking each room. All empty. Probably Rocky’s doing. Dr. Kenney had said Rocky had paid off two guards, and those two had probably made sure the hall and offices were cleared so their psycho boss could go on a killing spree.
“Search each room,” Cord told the guards who were trailing along behind him. “And be careful. The two men who have her are guards, too, and they’ll both be armed.”
Cord reached the next door. Not closed like the others. It was wide-open, but he didn’t go barging in there. He stayed to the side of the jamb and peered around it.
Sarah.
She was alive. For now. But there were indeed two guards holding her at gunpoint. The men were having what appeared to be a whispered argument, and Cord could practically smell the panic on them. They obviously hadn’t thought things would play out like this.
“If you hurt her, you both die,” Cord warned them, and he didn’t leave any room for doubt in his voice or the glare he shot at them.
The man on the right cursed, and he threw down his gun, putting his hands in the air. Cord took aim at the other one, and the guy seemed to have a fast debate with himself. Before he, too, surrendered.
Cord hurried to Sarah and pulled her from the room so the guard could go in and restrain Rocky’s hired thugs.
“You’re hurt,” Sarah said, her breath gusting.
He didn’t want to be touched by her concern, but he was. And Cord was glad for both her concern and what he was feeling. It felt as if some ice had melted from his heart.
“I’m okay.” That was all Cord managed to say before Karina came rushing out of the hospital room.
“It’s Willie Lee,” she said, motioning for them to come. “Hurry.”
* * *
KARINA TRIED NOT to look as if she was panicking. There were already enough panicked and worried looks in the waiting room, what with Addie, Sarah and even Cord, and she didn’t want to add more. But inside she was definitely panicking.
Before Cord and she had come here today, there had already been so many nightmarish memories in her head, but now she had a new set thanks to Rocky trying to kill them. And Willie Lee collapsing after Cord had gone off to find Sarah. Cord had succeeded, thank God, but Willie Lee might not be so lucky.
Because he’d had another seizure and then collapsed.
Dr. Kenney had been right there to help him and had called in another doctor as well, but it’d been an hour now with no news.
Cord had used that hour a lot better than she had. He’d gotten the guards to bring him his phone so he could make lots of calls, including one to Addie, and she’d rushed there. She was sitting next to Sarah now. They were holding hands and talking. Not quite looking like mother and daughter.
Not yet anyway.
But as an outsider, Karina could see the new bond forming. Not just between Addie and Sarah, either. Cord was included in that, too. He’d gotten his mother a cup of water and had stayed by her side until Addie arrived.
Of course, he’d kept Karina close.
In a way.
He hadn’t really talked to her, but he had wiped some blood off her face. She had no idea whose blood it was, and she’d done the same thing to Cord. They had some more bruises, but that was minor stuff compared to what could have happened.
And what could have happened was that Rocky could have killed them all.
They still might not have come out of this unscathed, though, because Willie Lee might not make it. It sickened her to think that after waiting all these years he might not get to spend any time with his wife and children.
Cord looked up from his call, his gaze connecting with Karina’s, and he made his way to her. He dropped down into the seat next to her, ended the call and put his phone away. She figured he was about to ask her the same thing everybody else had asked.
Are you okay?
But he didn’t.
He kissed her.
Karina went stiff from the shock. His sister and mother must have been surprised, too, because they quit talking. Or at least Karina thought maybe they had. After the kiss went on for several long moments, Karina wasn’t sure she could hear anything.
Mercy, though, she could feel.
Cord eased back, met her eye to eye again. “Better? Because I’m better now.”
Karina hadn’t thought it possible, but she actually smiled. “Better.”
But that feeling of heat and euphoria didn’t last nearly long enough. The memories came flooding back. So did the tears, and she tried to blink them away.
“I’m so sorry,” Karina said. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t hired Rocky, he—”
“He would have found another way to get to Willie Lee. And you. You heard Rocky. He was crazy and obsessed with getting back at his brother. If you hadn’t hired him, he might have just killed you on the spot.”
Cord cursed himself when she shuddered at the thought of Rocky getting his hands on her. But Cord was right, and it was something she needed to hear.
Still...
“I wish I’d figured it all out sooner,” she said. “If I’d known he was the Moonlight Strangler, I maybe could have stopped him.”
Cord frowned. And kissed her again.
“Do you two need to get a room?” Addie teased when the kiss went on a long time.
Cord broke away from her, smiling, but he gave his sister a very brotherly scowl. “I seem to remember seeing Weston and you kiss each other’s lights out.”
Addie nodded, readily acknowledging that. “My husband and I kiss a lot. And we’re just as much in love as you two obviously are.”
Cord froze. Karina did, too, but for a different reason. Because for Karina it was the truth. Cord, however, was probably nowhere near the L stage. And might never be.
A thought that broke her heart.
Cord, however, didn’t get a chance to say anything because his phone rang again, and she saw Jericho’s name on the screen. He didn’t put it on speaker and instead stepped out into the hall to take the call.
Addie immediately motioned for Karina to join Sarah and her, and while she hated to intrude on a family moment, Karina finally went when Sarah motioned, too.
“I have two very strong, smart and wonderful kids,” Sarah said. She also had tears in her eyes again. “I hope I get to make up some lost time with them.”
“You will.” Addie dropped a kiss on Sarah’s cheek, and Karina saw the woman’s face practically glow. “And once Wil
lie Lee’s fine and out of this place, we can go on a picnic together or something.”
It seemed like such a, well, normal thing to do, and Karina wanted to hug Addie just for suggesting it. She didn’t know Cord’s sister that well, but she hoped she could spend more time with her.
Of course, it was just as likely that Karina would never see her again after today.
The door opened, and the three of them went to the edges of their seats. But it was Cord, not the doctor. Karina went to him in case he’d learned something bad that he was going to have to break to Addie and Sarah.
“It’s not bad news,” Cord told her right off. “Dr. Kenney’s sister is all right. Rocky told the truth about that. She was drugged but wasn’t hurt.”
That eased some of the pressure in Karina’s chest.
“But Rocky also told the truth about DeWayne,” Cord added a moment later. He slipped his arm around Karina’s waist and moved her several feet away from the other women. “The cops found his body.”
So, the man was indeed dead. It was hard for her to feel sorry for the person who’d set Willie Lee up to take the fall, but DeWayne hadn’t deserved to die. Instead, he should have been sent to prison for a long, long time.
“And Harley?” she asked.
“Alive,” Cord answered. “Jericho’s bringing him in for questioning about that money-laundering scheme. Now that the cat’s out of the bag on that, there’ll be no reason for Harley to try to cover it up.”
Which meant there’d be no reason to come after her. Not that he had ever done that. No, Rocky had been responsible for those attacks and heaven knew how many murders.
“The SAPD is tearing apart the Bloody Murder club,” Cord went on. “All the members are being arrested as accomplices to murder. That way, they can keep them behind bars until they sort out who was really working for Rocky and who wasn’t.”
Good. She didn’t want any of Rocky’s hired thugs on the loose.
Cord turned her so they were facing. “Are you really in love with me like Addie said?”
Laying Down the Law Page 18