He looked over at Dana who still had her arm slung around him. “I’m okay, really.”
But she shook her head, blinked back tears, then kissed the spot on his neck where he’d been shot with the dart. “We have to get this bastard.”
Yeah. They did.
Jack leaned in and managed to get his mouth working well enough to kiss her. That was all he had time for, however, because the moment they were out of the parking lot, he held out his hand for the note that Grace was clutching.
Vince, Anthony and Rusty were all still keeping watch, and while Jack was trying to do that too, he figured his aim would be more than just off. His best bet at helping them was to look at what Arrington had given them.
“Anything in it?” Vince asked as Jack’s eyes skirted over the lines. There wasn’t much to skirt over, however.
“It’s a threat,” Jack relayed. And he hated that it put a new round of fear in Dana’s eyes.
Jack didn’t want it read aloud, didn’t want the others to hear these written words. But they had a right to know what was in the killer’s mind, even if Arrington was the killer.
“I know your weaknesses,” Jack read for them to hear. “I know what can break you. I know everything about your soulless minds. The fires were just the start, but you can end it all if give me one thing.”
Jack stopped, had to, and he couldn’t blame it on the dizziness.
“What one thing does he want?” Vince demanded.
Jack stared at the note. “Dana.”
Dana didn’t react other than a slight catch of breath.
“I don’t know whether to be relieved, jealous or pissed that he wants her instead of me,” Grace said.
“Be skeptical,” Vince added. “This is another way of trying to pick us off one by one. Maybe he thinks we’ll feed him Dana. We won't,” he added, snagging her gaze. “We fight this together. Four against one.”
It was a good pep talk, but Jack saw something in Dana’s eyes again that he didn’t like. He cut that thought off at the pass. “Vince is right. You’d just be the beginning, and sacrificing yourself won’t this end. We end it.”
“But it sounds as if he’s trying a new tactic." Grace looked at the note again. “He says he knows our weaknesses.”
“Anyone with a little hacking skills could learn that.” Vince didn’t take his attention off their surroundings, but he reached out and gave her arm a pat.
“You have weaknesses?” Jack asked him.
“Yeah. Hard to believe, huh?” Vince made it sound like a joke, but Jack thought there was something there. Something the killer already knew.
“We’re each others’ weaknesses,” Jack tossed out there. “He’ll try to use that to lure one of us out.” He caught onto Dana’s chin and made her look at him. “And that’s not going to happen.”
She swallowed hard. “He burned down your house,” Dana whispered.
Jack met Rusty’s gaze in the mirror, and the man nodded. “I got the call about a half hour ago when you were still sedated. Someone used a grenade launcher on it.”
That sobered him up. It was a loss all right. The place had belonged to his parents. It was Jack’s connection to them. Just as Dana’s had been to her mother and the pub.
“I’m sorry,” Dana said. She pulled her to him.
Yeah. So was he, but this was all just part of the mind games this sick bastard was playing on them.
“I don’t own anything,” Vince volunteered. “Nothing to burn. That’s got to frustrate the hell out of the little fucker.”
Jack knew possessions weren’t the only weaknesses that could be exploited. Vince clearly knew that, too, because he hauled Grace onto the backseat with him and pulled her close.
“This won’t be a quick drive back to the house,” Rusty said, meeting Jack’s gaze again.
Jack knew that, too. Rusty would have to ride around, maybe for hours until he was certain no one was following them. They’d also have to trade out vehicles.
“Has anyone checked to make sure Sullivan didn’t manage to plant bugs on us?” Jack asked.
“I did at the hospital,” Anthony volunteered.
“Check again before we get into another vehicle,” Jack insisted. "And run a background check on the doctor who just treated me."
“You don’t trust him?” Vince asked.
The answer was easy. “No.” In fact, other than the people in this SUV and his top level employees, there was no one on his trust list.
“Try to get some rest,” he whispered to Dana.
“You, too,” she whispered back.
Not a chance. Jack intended to use every minute of this drive to figure out how he could stop this sonofabitch once and for all.
Dana put her mouth directly against his ear. “You know what has to happen.”
Jack shot her a look to let her know this conversation was over before it started.
“You know,” she repeated. “We can use me to get to him.”
“No,” Jack insisted. And he said it again to make himself clear. He wasn’t using Dana, and he hoped like hell that was a promise he could keep.
#
Jack stood in the shower and let the water spray over him. The dizziness was long gone. It’d disappeared somewhere on the three hours of driving around to make sure it was safe to go back to the house. In place of the dizziness was the headache from hell. Still, it seemed a small price to pay since they’d all made it away from the catfish diner and the hospital without any serious injuries.
Not physical ones anyway.
This had hit Dana hard, and she was no doubt still mulling over how she could convince him to allow herself to be bait. Not because she wanted to put herself at risk. No, she was scared. But she’d make herself bait if she thought it would save the rest of them.
It wouldn’t.
And even if it did, that was a price Jack wouldn’t pay.
He dried off, grabbed a clean pair of pants from the stash of clothes that Rusty had brought in, and he went back into the bedroom. Jack figured he’d find Dana in bed asleep. After all, it was going two in the morning.
But he figured wrong.
She was standing there, wearing that short bathrobe that hit her at mid-thigh, and she was clearly waiting for him.
“Something wrong?” he immediately asked.
She shook her head. Opened her mouth. Closed it. Then shook her head again. “How are you feeling?”
“Good.” But suspicious.
“Good,” she repeated. “I’m a little claustrophobic about showers. Especially that one since it doesn’t have clear glass.” Another headshake. “I, uh, would have showered with you if it’d been clear.”
So, this wasn’t about playing bait or the earlier attack. That was good, too.
Jack smiled, hitched his thumb to the bathroom. “There’s always the tub.”
She smiled a little, too, but it was filled with nerves. Jack thought he knew what this was about, and he wanted to give her a quick out. “It’s okay, Dana. I can wait until you’re ready.”
She scrubbed her hands down the sides of her robe. “What if I’m ready now?”
Oh, man.
Another instant erection. His stupid body didn’t realize the timing still sucked for Dana.
“You don’t have to do this,” he tried again.
“Yes, I do.” She went closer, put her hand on his waist and eased him to her. “I mean, I want to do this. Really, really. And before you argue, I think the best way to handle this is just shut up and kiss me.”
But she didn’t wait for that. She shut up and kissed him. It was hard, long and wet. There was no way he hell he’d be able to turn that down either, even when he figured it was mistake.
“You’re sure?” he checked.
“Sure enough,” she countered. “But I have one rule.”
Anything short of death and Jack would agree to it. Hell, he might even agree to the death part.
“You can’t be on top of me
,” she said.
Jack didn’t ask why. Didn’t need to. This all went back to that bastard who’d knifed her, and he hated that what should have been normal and good sex was now mixed up with that.
Of course, maybe this wasn't normal either. Even if he was positive it'd be good.
“You don’t have to do this,” he offered again.
“Yes. I do.”
Well, that would have to serve as his green light because neither he nor his erection had the willpower to turn her down. Jack pulled her to him and kissed her gently. He didn’t tighten his arm around her waist. Tried not to do anything that would bring back violent memories of her attack. He was her first since that, and he didn’t want this to add more bad memories to her nightmares.
Dana came up on her toes and returned the kiss.
Well, for a moment.
She jerked away from him. “Other than not being on top, this can’t be about the stabbing,” she insisted. “You can’t treat me like glass.”
And with that little announcement, she went after his zipper. Her motions were frantic and fast. “I’m thinking sex now. Like right on the floor. I want a few bruises, love bites and maybe some rug burns on my knees from where I’m riding you.”
Oh, man. That made him harder than stone. And stupid. Because hard, fast, and love bites probably weren’t the way to handle this, but the ache for her wasn't going to let him voice that argument. Heck, he wasn't even sure he could speak.
Dana unzipped him and shoved down his pants. His erection was there for her to see since he didn’t have on underwear.
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “That’s what I want.”
Then, they were definitely on the same page. For that anyway. Because Jack wanted her to want that.
She caught onto his neck and pulled him down, down, down, until they were indeed on the floor on their sides and face to face. Even though Jack had more than a few reservations about giving Dana bruises, he took things from there. He shoved open her robe and found a naked, hot woman beneath.
He looked down to the center of her body. “That’s what I want,” he repeated.
Jack kissed her mouth, hard. Her breasts, too. It’d been a while since he’d given a woman a love bite, but he put one on the top of her left breast. Then, her right one. Both earned high praise with some dirty talk and moans and Dana. He would have attempted one lower if Dana hadn’t latched onto his erection and had him seeing stars.
“We finish this now,” she said.
Again, he wasn’t about to refuse. Without even fully taking off his pants, he moved her legs apart, pulled her on top of him and slipped himself inside her.
Oh, hell.
More stars. And he couldn’t catch his breath. The sensations slammed through him, as if all the nerves in his body were firing at the same time.
“We finish this now,” Dana repeated.
He didn’t have a choice about that, either. It’d been a while since he’d had sex without a condom. Jack wanted to think that part of this heightened sensation might have to do with that, but he knew it was Dana. All Dana. They fit together like perfect puzzle pieces.
She lifted her hips, taking his fully inside her. Her head arched back. She moaned. Cursed. Mumbled something about a hard fuck.
Jack gave her that, too. He had a hard grip on her hips, but she kept shoving herself against him. And her fingers dug into his arms. She met him thrust for thrust.
“We finish this now,” she whispered.
And he did. Jack pushed into her one last time, his cock sliding right against her clit. She came in flash, her muscles latching onto him and squeezing him to a climax.
We finish this now.
But Jack had the feeling this finished nothing, that this was just the start.
Chapter Twenty-four
Dana sat on the sofa and waited for them. She knew she wouldn’t have to wait long. Jack was already in the bath where she’d left him about a half hour earlier. Her body was still buzzing from the great sex they’d had in that warm, sudsy water, but her mind was on death.
Specifically, how to prevent any of them from dying.
Jack had dismissed the bait idea, but somehow she had to convince them that there needed to be a quick end to the danger. They were all stalled, just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and while being stalled with Jack wasn’t so bad, it always came back to the killer who had this insane obsession to rid the world of their soulless bodies.
A door opened, but it wasn’t the one to the bedroom that she shared with Jack. It was the middle one, and Grace came out. Alone. Like Dana, she was wearing the loaner jeans and top that Rusty had brought to the house. She was also wearing a somber look.
“You’re going to do this, aren’t you?” Grace asked.
“One way or another, yes.”
Releasing a long breath, Grace sank down in the chair across from her. Dana braced herself for a lecture to try to talk her out of this. “What can I do to help?”
“Nothing,” someone mumbled. It was Vince coming from the kitchen. He had a cup of coffee in each hand a piece of toast clamped in his mouth. He gave each of them the coffee, removed the toast and glared at Dana. “What part of dead didn’t you understand?”
Dana wanted to groan. She’d expected resistance but not so soon. She’d wanted a minute or two to go over things with Grace. “I understood it all, and I know we can’t run and hide forever.”
“Not with my bank account,” Vince argued, “but I’m betting Jack has enough money to put you somewhere far out of this asshole’s reach.”
“I don’t think there’s anything out of his reach.” And it hurt for her to admit that.
“Bullshit. We stayed off his radar for nearly thirty years. We can stay off it until he’s a dead asshole.”
“We were off his radar because he didn’t know our names. Maybe he didn’t even know we existed. Now, he does. And this kind of obsession doesn’t stop. That means we have to find out who he is, and we have to kill him.”
The other bedroom door opened, and Jack came out. He glanced at all three of them and scowled, as if he knew exactly what they’d been discussing. Maybe he did. They all seemed wired into each other.
“Just hear me out.” Dana put her coffee aside, got to her feet and faced him because she knew Jack would be her biggest obstacle. “We could make this safe. Well, safer anyway. I remember reading on the internet about a special kind of light weight body armor available to soldiers--”
“Dragon skin,” Vince readily provided. “It doesn’t protect against a head shot.”
“He doesn’t want a head shot. He wants to tranquilize me, strangle me and then rape me. In that order. And I’m trusting that one of you can stop him before he makes it to step two.” She turned back to Jack. “Maybe in addition to the dragon skin, there’s some kind of antidote I can use to protect me from the barbiturates.”
Jack hooked her arm around her and moved her back to the sofa so they could sit. “This guy wants another shot at killing Alyssa, and I think I’ve figured out a way to give him that.”
Dana stilled. She certainly hadn’t thought he’d agree with her. She was instantly suspicious.
“You’re going to let Dana be bait?” Vince snarled.
“No.”
Well, Dana hadn’t exactly jumped for joy when she’d thought Jack would go along with her plan, but she wasn’t happy about that no either. “He wants me,” she reminded Jack.
“He wants Alyssa,” Jack corrected. “So, I call Arrington and tell him to get a message to the killer, that we’re ready to deal. I’m guessing Arrington is either the killer or will know how to reach him.”
“And then what?” Vince snapped.
“We wait for the killer to call back and hear his demands for a meeting. And he will want a meeting,” Jack insisted.
“Yeah, with Dana.”
Dana tried to get in a word, but the guys spoke right over her.
“With someone who looks li
ke Dana and Alyssa,” Jack corrected.
Now, Vince cursed a blue streak. “You sure as hell better not be talking about Grace.”
“I’m talking about Patricia Snyder. We can use her body to lure in the killer.”
Dana’s gut reaction to that wasn’t good. Her dead lookalike had already been through enough with a murder and rape. Still, maybe she’d be pleased that even in death she had some part in catching the man who’d ended her life. At least that’s the way Dana would have felt.
“How the fuck are we going to convince a killer that a dead woman is alive?” Vince asked.
“It’s all in the set up. We can make conditions of our own, that Dana wants to arrive at the meeting drugged. We’d also insist that I’ll be with her.”
Dana threw her hands in the air. “So, you’ll be bait?” she asked at the same second that Vince said, “And you think he’ll go for that?”
Jack lifted his shoulder. “We have to try.” Then, he looked at her. “And I won’t be bait. This killer is in his fifties, and as long as he doesn’t shoot me with a tranquilizer, then I can stop him.”
“No!” she insisted, but she might as well have been talking to the air.
“When you’re setting up the conditions, you’ll need to figure out a way to have me and some of your men in place,” Vince said.
“I will. And not just you and some men. Backup equipment. Backup everything. I don’t want this guy coming out of there alive.”
“Uh, this might seem like a stupid question,” Grace said, “but how do you plan on getting Patricia’s body?”
“Rusty’s already working on that.”
“So, you need to make that call to Arrington,” Vince concluded.
Dana was about to issue another no!, but she stopped. This is exactly the same sort of plan she’d been about to propose to them. Well, minus a dead lookalike.
“You were right about us not being able to hide out forever,” Jack said to her. He brushed a kiss on her mouth, took out his phone and scrolled through the numbers until he got to Arrington’s.
“If he wants Dana,” Jack said when Arrington answered, “have him call me.” And he hung up.
Dead Ringers Page 21