“Saw what?”
“I saw the peace that woman got when she surrendered to the inevitable,” he murmured, as if he were in awe. “Before that I only had a memory of that feeling, but when I saw it, I realized I could touch it. And oh my god, it was beautiful. It makes all this…shit…disappear!”
Charlotte believed she understood him now. He’d become a death junkie. “Why me?”
“Because I knew you’d fight the most. And you did. And it was divine.”
A rapturous look came over his features and it made her want to vomit. But she couldn’t lose it now. Kira was too close to that knife.
“Then why bring me back?”
He blinked, as if realizing she was still there. “Because…once you were at the bottom I realized I really didn’t want you dead. You were nice to me. Every time you smiled at me, or said hi to me at school. I didn’t want to lose my only friend.”
“Friends don’t hurt each other, Tucker.”
“I know. That’s why I saved you. And now you’ve finally come home. We can go back to how we used to be, you know, together. Forever.”
Unease snaked across her. “What do you mean?”
He held up the knife. “We’ll go under the water together. We’ll find peace together. We’ll both surrender to death at the same time. It’ll be wonderful.”
“You’re mad if you think I’m going back into that water,” she said. “I’ve not been in a pool in twelve years, Tucker. You did that to me. You took away what I loved most! All I ever wanted to do was swim and now I can’t!”
“Me? I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “But…but…I can make it up to you!”
Charlotte shook her head. “Just let Kira go, Tucker. Let us leave.”
“No. I can get you to start swimming again,” he vowed and it scared her a little, seeing such determination on a madman’s face. “Of course, it makes perfect sense.”
She was afraid of discovering what made sense to him. “What?”
But before she could say or do anything more, Tucker picked up his foot and kicked out. He hit Kira squarely in her back, catching her off guard and pushing her into the water.
Charlotte screamed and before she had time to think about anything, she ran and dove into the pool. She saw Kira struggling and kicking with her legs, and even though she was making some progress, it wasn’t enough, since her hands were tied behind her back. Charlotte swam quickly to her sister, hooked an arm around Kira’s breasts and kicked, propelling upward. Charlotte broke the surface and rolled so Kira’s head was above. Her sister took in several gulps of air around the gag.
Charlotte swam to the ladder and then pushed and maneuvered Kira up until her sister collapsed onto the concrete. Then she hauled herself up and knelt beside her, working at the wet cloth in Kira’s mouth and untying her hands.
“Are you all right?” she asked Kira.
Kira’s chest heaved but Charlotte saw her nod.
“See? You weren’t scared, were you?” Tucker asked. Charlotte looked over her shoulder and glared at him. He had begun walking toward them but she couldn’t abandon Kira, who wasn’t completely untied. She’d protect her sister with her life.
“What the hell were you thinking?” she yelled at him.
He shrugged and began walking toward her. “You’re over your fear. You’re now complete.”
“Oh my god,” she muttered. “Why did you kill Brandy, Tucker? She was only sixteen.”
His smile and good humor immediately fell away. “I tried not to do it, but it’s been a year since I’ve been at the hospice.” He said it in a way as if that explained everything.
She figured it did in Crazy Tucker World. “You’d watch your patients die. You get off on death, don’t you?”
“There was always someone,” he said. “Someone who gave up or whose body gave up for them. But then I came here.”
“And you needed your fix,” Charlotte concluded bitterly. “Why didn’t you just kill yourself?”
“Because I’ve been waiting for you!” he yelled back. “Haven’t you been listening? You’re complete now. You’re ready for me.”
“You have to get out of here,” Kira whispered.
“Sh,” Charlotte warned, turning her attention back to her sister. She didn’t want Tucker’s attention on her. Finally she felt Kira’s bonds start to loosen just as she felt his presence sidle next her. She looked up as he loomed over her, the light curling around his head and giving him a halo effect. A fallen angel. She was not lost to the irony.
But before she could comprehend anything else, Tucker grabbed one of her wrists and slipped a handcuff around it, clicking it shut. The other cuff was around his wrist.
Kira screamed as Charlotte was yanked back. Taken off guard, she stumbled and fell painfully on her back. She hurried to get to her feet, but her attempts were impeded by the handcuff and the fact that Tucker was tugging her to walk to the opposite end of the pool.
“Charlotte!” Kira said as she pushed herself up.
“What are you doing, Tucker?” Charlotte demanded.
“I need to hold you down.”
“Down where?”
His gaze shot to the pool and horror began to dawn on her. She shook her head and shot a desperate gaze to Kira.
“Kira, get help!”
“I won’t leave you with him!” her sister declared. She was on her feet, prowling after them. “Let her go, you psychopath!”
He flashed the knife and brought it under Charlotte’s neck. “Stop.”
Kira stopped.
“I tried to drown myself once before,” he said in a flat voice. “But the body’s natural instinct to survive overrode my desire for euphoria. For eleven years I watched death, so close and yet so far.”
“There are lots of ways to kill yourself rather than drowning!” Charlotte yelled.
“Not for me,” he said simply.
“Just let me go, Tucker, then you can go to hell for all I care,” Charlotte snapped.
“But you’re my soul mate, Charlotte. Why do you think I brought you back?”
“What do you mean?”
“Sure, I drowned Brandy and I got a great rush off that, but mostly I did it because she reminded me of you. And then I thought maybe her drowning would bring you back. And it did.”
How did she seriously not see what a psycho he was? If she kept him talking long enough then maybe Nash and Jonas would get here and hurry his death wish along. Why in God’s name did she think she could do this by herself?
“This time I plan on doing it right. I had debated a long time on whether or not I should cut myself. Ultimately, I decided that if I cut the femoral artery in my leg, the blood loss will make me too weak to struggle. I’ll empty my lungs of air so I won’t float. And to make sure I stay down, I weighted my pockets. I was going to do this a few days ago but then I heard you were back so having you with me just makes everything absolutely perfect.”
“Oh my god,” Kira whimpered. She kept her gaze on Charlotte.
“If I cut the artery at an angle and twist, then the artery won’t close. I’ll lose consciousness in about thirty seconds and bleed out in about three minutes. And it should take you just about that long to drown,” he whispered in Charlotte’s ear.
Terror shot through her and she could no longer contain her cool. Heedless of the knife, she began to shake her head and pull away from him, as if denying what he was telling her.
“Wait!” Kira yelled, but before the word had even stopped echoing in the vacuous room, Charlotte saw the knife plummet down. She closed her eyes, bracing for the feel of the sharp tip, but instead all she heard was a grunt.
She opened her eyes and looked down and saw blood gushing out of Tucker’s leg.
“Oh, god, that hurts,” he managed to rasp. His hand opened and the knife clattered onto the ground and the next moment they were falling.
She hit the water sharply and sank like a stone. She tried kicking up to the surface but Tucker�
��s dead weight held her down. The water was turning red around her but she saw his eyes for a moment and witnessed his features turning slack. Charlotte put her arms around him and tried pulling, but he didn’t budge. She yanked on her arm but the handcuff held fast.
A second later, Kira was next to her in the water and pointed at Tucker’s body so they each took an arm and pulled. He moved, not much, but they were able to propel him forward. The problem was he was an anchor in sixteen feet of water and Charlotte was running out of air. Bubbles surrounded them, Charlotte could no longer see because of all the blood and her lungs were starving for oxygen.
A second later, she felt Kira leave her and that’s when hopelessness began to really hit hard. Logically, she knew Kira needed air, but realistically, she wanted her sister to be there holding her hand.
She’d cry if she could. Her deepest fear had returned. Blackness began to creep over her vision and her brain began to hurt. She felt pressure everywhere but still she fought. She took a minute to let the quiet depth seep into her and that was when she realized she wouldn’t, couldn’t give up, not this time. She refused to allow Tucker to win again. She yanked on her wrist and for a split second wondered how she could chop it off.
And then a light enveloped her. Charlotte looked up from her wrist and saw Brandy hovering in the water with her, looking at her with eyes so sad it made her chest hurt. Of course, that also might be from lack of breathing. She only had a second left before the water would rush in, fill her lungs, and stop her heart.
Charlotte wondered if the younger girl was here to escort her to the afterlife.
But then Brandy grabbed Charlotte’s face, cradling it, and fitted her mouth over hers. Charlotte felt her lungs fill with air, sweet life-giving air. The blackness receded and the pressure on her chest eased. She stared in Brandy’s ghostly eyes as the girl breathed for her, keeping her alive.
She had no idea how long she’d been under the water. Seconds. Minutes. It felt like hours, somewhere beyond the scope of reality. Brandy’s spirit had become her own personal scuba gear. And then she felt hands closing around her arms, felt the clasp of the handcuff give way and felt the weight of Tucker’s body disappear, and then she was being lifted. Brandy’s mouth left hers but she kept her eyes on her until the ghost girl slowly faded away.
The next second, her head had burst through the water, being held up by strong arms. The lights overhead almost blinded her. The first thing she did was drag in a lungful of air. Other noises rushed in, filling her head and then Nash and Jonas were looming over her. Both men were dripping wet.
“Charlotte!”
“Speak to us!”
She heard Kira crying. She heard her mother screaming. She heard the various other calls and yells, as well as sirens, but her attention was focused on the two men whose faces were white with fear and shock.
“Brandy saved me,” she managed to whisper just before the world slid away from her. She felt her eyes roll back in her head as she succumbed to release.
Chapter Sixteen
Charlotte opened her eyes slowly. It took a moment for the world to come back into focus, and she had to blink a couple of times, but finally, she was able to see the hard, glittering expressions of Nash and Jonas. They stood at the foot of her bed, hands in their pockets, staring at her. Her family decorated her bedside. Annie and Delia sat in chairs on her right with Holly and her father on her left. Conspicuously missing was Kira and Alastair, although Alastair was easy to explain away. She’d either A, driven him crazy and he’d finally had enough of the Perth clan, or B, he was cleaning up her mess and smoothing things over with the local law enforcement.
The answer was probably B. He’d done it before.
“Where’s Kira?” she whispered.
Annie gasped and sat forward, grabbing her hand. “Sweetheart, how are you feeling?”
Charlotte took stock of her body, shifting minutely to test herself. Her throat hurt a little and there was a thick bandage on her left wrist, but other than that…she was alive!
“I’m good, Mom,” she answered. “Where’s Kira?”
“She’s been sedated,” Holly told her. “She’ll probably need therapy when all this is over, but she’ll be okay.”
Charlotte grunted. “I’ve been saying for years she needs professional help.”
“Charlotte,” her father warned in the voice he usually reserved for Kira.
“Sorry, Dad,” she said, although her tone implied she wasn’t the least bit conciliatory. She tried pushing herself up and winced.
“Don’t,” Delia warned. “You’ve sprained it.”
She frowned and then remembered tugging her wrist as hard as possible to try to break free of Tucker’s dead weight. She glanced at her mother.
“May I have a moment with Nash and Jonas?”
Annie’s hand tightened over hers. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”
“I won’t be alone,” she promised. “Besides, there’s no one to hurt me now.”
Silence descended on the room. She saw her mother wanted to say no but after a moment, she reluctantly nodded.
“All right,” she said. “Alex is with Kira, but I don’t suppose she’ll mind a visit. But I’ll be back.”
One by one they rose and left. Her mother was the last to leave and she gave a quick glance back to her. Charlotte saw tears floating in Annie’s eyes and it almost broke her heart.
She closed the door behind her.
Charlotte held up a hand to Nash and Jonas and they immediately came from the foot of the bed to stand at her side. Nash leaned over and kissed her hard on the mouth before moving back to allow Jonas to do the same thing.
“Jesus Christ, Charlotte!” Jonas muttered harshly. “You scared the hell out of us!”
“What were you thinking?” Nash demanded.
“I was thinking I needed to save my sister.”
“You should have told us!” Jonas admonished.
“I did. I left the phone for you,” she replied. “I knew you’d be back in a few minutes. But I also knew he’d get scared if he heard or saw the good guys. I couldn’t take a chance he’d hurt Kira.”
Jonas ran his hands through his hair. But underneath the agitation she saw his hands shake. “You were under the water a long time,” he finally said. His words were raw, as if he were bleeding from the inside.
“How long?” she asked in a whisper.
“At least five minutes,” Nash answered. He was stoic, unmoving.
Her eyes widened and then her mind flashed back to being in the water, and how Brandy’s ghost had appeared.
“When Jonas and I got there, Kira was hysterical, pointing to the pool. We saw you—”
He abruptly stopped talking and she saw his jaw flexing, as if he couldn’t bear to say what he needed to say. After a moment, he cleared his throat.
“We saw you at the bottom and immediately dove in,” he finished.
“I thought you were dead,” Jonas whispered. He abruptly fell to his knees, still holding her hand. Tears liquefied his eyes. “Don’t ever do that to me again. Do you hear?”
“I promise,” she told him softly.
“You’ve promised before.”
Nash laid his hand on Jonas’s shoulder. “What happened, Charlotte? You said Brandy saved you.”
“She breathed for me. She became my air.”
They stared at her in confusion.
“How?” Jonas asked.
“I don’t know. That’s something I’ll have to ask Melody about. But Brandy forgave me. I wouldn’t have lasted much longer without her help. The pressure was building and…and I was light-headed.”
“Dear God,” Jonas muttered and closed his eyes.
“There was blood everywhere. For a long time I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t know which way was what. When it started to clear, when Kira had to get air, it was so dark down there I almost gave up.” She looked at each man. “But I knew I couldn’t let him win, let him take m
e from you both.”
Jonas brought her hand to his mouth, kissing it tenderly. Nash leaned over and brought his forehead against hers.
“Don’t ever leave us again,” he told her softly.
“I—” she started to promise but then stopped. “I never meant to do this in the first place, so I can assure you that I wouldn’t have considered doing something so foolish if it hadn’t been for Kira. I know I’ve said I’ll never do anything like it again, and that’s been a lie, so now I’ll say that I won’t do anything without discussing it over with you both.”
Nash smiled.
Jonas nodded and kissed her hand.
A knock sounded at her door. Jonas stood up.
“Come in,” Charlotte said loudly and the door opened to reveal two suited men. They had small notebooks in hand and pens ready to write and they smelled like cops.
“Miss Perth?” asked the first man. “My name is Detective West and this is my partner Detective Simon. We’re LAPD.”
West was an older man, balding, with tired-looking eyes. His partner, on the other hand, was a young black man who looked like he was itching to catch a bad guy.
“I’m HS Agent Nash McKnight,” Nash introduced himself. “This is Detective Jonas Daire from Washington state.”
The two LA cops nodded in greeting.
“Do you mind if we ask you some questions, Miss Perth?” West asked.
“No,” she answered.
“We’ve gotten your sister’s statement but we just wanted to hear your end of things.”
So she briefly told them about the text she’d gotten from Tucker, how she’d left the phone for someone to find, and how she’d shimmied off the roof. She sent an apologetic grimace to Nash and Jonas. She finished off with falling in the water, handcuffed to a weighted dead man.
“Your sister claimed he’d hurt you before,” Simon pointed out, his tone curt and unyielding, as if she were trying to hide something.
“Yes,” she admitted. “Although I didn’t know it was him. Twelve years ago he drowned me and then saved me.”
Breathless [McKnight, Perth & Daire 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 15