Her hands had begun to shake. “Get out,” she demanded, her voice thin and reedy.
Chad shook off the charming smile he’d been wearing and walked toward her with a lazy stride, as if he had all the time in the world because he knew they wouldn’t be disturbed.
Sweat popped along her hairline and her fingers ached from gripping the pan so tightly. Panic fluttered at the edges of her sanity.
Chad tsked. “So rude. Where are your manners?” He sighed and slid on a pair of black gloves, the action freezing the marrow in her bones. Chad shook his head, chuckling. “It’s okay. It’s hard to be on your best behavior all the time. I can definitely relate.”
Her eyes darted to the window facing her side yard, searching for Saaski but she couldn’t see him. She returned to Chad who was watching her with cold, flat eyes. He flexed his fingers, showcasing the gloves. “Nice, huh? I had to ditch the latex. Made me itch. These are spy-quality. Found them in a specialty store in San Francisco. Guaranteed to leave behind no prints. That’s important, as you can imagine.”
“Why are you doing this?” she managed to whisper, though her tongue felt stuck to the roof of her mouth from fear.
“Why?” he repeated, frowning as if the question should be obvious. “Because you remember.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” she promised, but he shook his head, annoyed.
“Don’t waste your breath on stupid promises we both know you won’t keep. Besides, think of how awkward things would be later when I start dating Mya. I think I might marry her, actually. But first, details.”
She wanted to scream at him that Mya would never let him touch her but she knew not to agitate him further. The key was to keep him talking, perhaps to buy herself more time to figure out a solution. “Why me?”
Chad actually seemed pleased that she asked. “Because you were special. All my girls are in some way but I knew you’d be the one to cause trouble. Even so I couldn’t resist. What man with my tastes could? The thought of breaking you was too much to pass up. But in the end,” he admitted wryly, “it’s the one you should walk away from that causes you to make mistakes.” He broke out into a grin. “Maybe I ought to have another taste…for old time’s sake. What do you say?”
“G-go s-screw yourself,” she stammered, the shake more pronounced as desperation set in. She wasn’t going to let him touch her again. She thought of Sierra and every woman he’d defiled with his wicked cruelty and she choked down rising bile. She took in his tall, lean build and seemingly good looks and she knew how easy it must be for him to find victims, likely as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, and the resultant rage seared away the fear freezing her limbs. And he thought he’d defile her again? She’d rather die. She held the heavy casserole, waiting. The door was just a few feet beyond him. She could distract him and run.
It was her only chance. If she failed…she wouldn’t leave this house alive.
She could read it in his eyes.
He was here to tie up loose ends.
Sundance couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. His instincts clanged like a bell when he couldn’t reach Iris on her cell phone. He knew she’d gone with Sierra to see Dr. Seryn but they should’ve been back by now. He tried calming his nerves, rationalizing that it was likely Iris hadn’t charged her phone and she was probably running errands completely oblivious to the fact that no one could reach her.
But even as he considered the thought, he discarded it. Something felt wrong. He drove to the station and caught sight of the yellow note tacked to the door. He bounded from the Durango and ripped the note free.
“Need to talk. Meet you at your place.”
He returned to the Durango, wasting little time in hitting the highway again. If she’d been at his place, she would’ve called. She must’ve returned to her place to pick up Saaski. She’d never leave the dog alone for the night and he knew she’d dropped him off before leaving for Dr. Seryn’s place.
Pressing the pedal harder, he picked up speed, unable to outrun the very real feeling that he was racing a clock that was counting down to something terrible.
Chapter 22
“You’re going to get caught,” Iris said. “It’s not like I won’t be noticed.”
“Of course, I’m counting on it. You see, when Sundance finds your body he’ll discover you were attacked by someone he knows and has suspected all along, that will cause him to stop looking up my family tree. You see, he thinks it’s my father committing the crimes. Laughable really. My father couldn’t do what I do. He doesn’t have the balls. He’s a bureaucrat through and through.”
“Why does Sundance think it’s your father?” Iris asked, not really caring, just trying to keep the sociopath from jumping her.
“The ketamine connection,” he answered. “He’s half-right. My father was my connection to the drug—it was the easiest drug to come by when I started doing this as a teenager and my dad always had it in stock—and I’ve since become comfortable with it.”
“So who are you setting up?” Her gaze swept the kitchen looking for a suitable weapon but nothing aside from the heavy dish in her hand seemed plausible.
“Curious little cat, aren’t you?” He grinned. “Okay, I’ll bite. Brett Duncan. My poor grant guy. Who knew the paper pusher was a sadist at heart? The evidence is overwhelming, though. You see, I always keep a memento of my girls. And when they find Brett with a suicide note and a pair of your panties in his hand…it’ll be sufficient to close the case.”
She hid her revulsion, fighting the urge to gag knowing Chad had kept a pair of her panties. “You killed him,” she concluded in a tight voice, wishing she had a gun in her hand so she could blow Chad’s head off.
He smiled in answer. “I hate loose ends and, besides, he was incredibly annoying and a terrible wingman.” His gaze hardened. “As much as I’m enjoying our chat—almost as much as I did our chat at the deli cart. Your pain was so raw, so visceral, I carried the memory with me the rest of the day and into the night—I can’t linger any longer. Duty calls.” He produced a syringe and advanced toward her. She heaved the deep-dish casserole, hitting him squarely in the chest, and bolted for the door.
He roared with pain but charged after her. She ran through the doorway and slammed into her Bronco, fumbling for the door with clumsy fingers, panic causing her to make mistakes. She got the door open but her head was wrenched back by a fist buried in her long hair. She managed a scream before he cut off her airway, but she stomped his instep and jabbed his midsection with her sharp elbow. He grunted and swore in pain, loosening his grip enough for her to get two fingers into her mouth to whistle loud and shrill.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, sweetheart,” he said from between gritted teeth. “Who do you think is going to save you?”
She caught movement in her peripheral vision and screamed, “Al-tah-je-jay!”
Saaski, a black blur of motion as if hell had opened up and released a hound, launched himself at Chad with a snarl, clamping down on his arm like a vise with teeth.
Chad screamed and twisted, trying desperately to pry Saaski’s jaws from his flesh. Iris heard bone crunch and blood sprayed as teeth punctured an artery.
Iris gasped, her hand going to her throat where Chad had bruised her larynx, but she didn’t give Saaski the command to stop. She knew he’d hold Chad there until his arm fell off. If she waited too long, he’d bleed to death.
And would that be so bad?
“Help,” Chad screamed, his voice choking on pain and terror. “Oh, God, help me!” Chad tried hitting Saaski with his free hand but it only caused Saaski to clamp down more viciously, and Chad’s eyes rolled up into his head as the agony and shock of having his limb nearly torn off almost knocked him out.
She turned as the sound of a vehicle tearing up her driveway drowned out the agonized screams and snarls. Sundance rushed past her to skid to a stop when he saw Saaski mangling Chad into hamburger.
“Call him off, Iris,” he
demanded, his face white from all the blood splattered in the dirt, his hand going to his holster.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t want his blood on your conscience.”
She gave him a steady stare. “It wouldn’t be.” And it was true. She felt no guilt. In fact, she felt nothing.
Sundance’s stomach roiled when he saw the mess that’d become Chad’s arm. The man had already lost consciousness from the blood loss. He was very nearly dead and he would most certainly die if Iris didn’t call off her dog. But one look at Iris and he saw murderous rage coupled with shock, which didn’t bode well for anyone.
“Iris,” he said sharply to get her attention. It worked and she turned to regard him dispassionately. “Call off Saaski before I have to shoot him.”
Her eyes followed his hand as it rested on his gun.
“Don’t you dare shoot my dog,” she hissed at him, her eyes wild.
He stared her down. “Then call him off. Or I will have to.”
Glaring, she gave a Navajo command to Saaski and the dog immediately dropped Chad’s arm and trotted over to her. She rubbed his black head, murmuring soft words of praise, and Sundance checked Chad to see if he was still alive. A weak and thready pulse beat beneath his fingers. He spoke into his radio. “I need an ambulance at Iris’s place. Immediately.”
Iris continued to stroke and praise Saaski, avoiding Chad’s mangled body altogether.
“He was going to kill me and frame someone else for it,” she said, regarding him with the cold eyes of a stranger. “I won’t apologize for defending myself. He was trespassing and he threatened me.” She gathered Saaski by the collar and started to walk toward the house, and then she turned to him. “He also killed Brett Duncan. You might want to inform the man’s family.”
Sundance watched as Iris disappeared into the house, closing the door firmly behind her, locking out the carnage left behind and him with it.
Iris moved on autopilot, finding Saaski a treat for saving her life and then going straight to her room. The shakes had returned as the full impact of everything that had just happened began to manifest. She’d watched as her dog nearly mangled someone to death and she’d felt no remorse, no regret.
He deserved to die. For every woman he’d destroyed as part of his sick little game; for every young girl from whose life he’d removed all joy; for everything he’d done and more.
She collapsed on her bed, burying her face in the pillows, everything feeling and smelling foreign to her now. She didn’t like to think of herself as capable of such dispassionate cruelty but she’d proven herself wrong. She was capable of vicious payback.
She waited for the shame to follow. It didn’t.
But then nothing followed. Not shame, not sadness, not horror. She supposed that wasn’t normal but she couldn’t deal with that right now. Her mind was numb and she welcomed the disassociative feeling as she floated above the situation, removed and apart.
Her eyes drifted shut and she fell into the deepest sleep since the attack.
She could rest because her attacker was in custody and would most likely die before he reached the hospital.
All things considered, it was probably the best outcome.
Too bad Sundance wouldn’t see it that way.
Sundance paced outside the emergency room bay doors. Chad was in there, fighting for his life. He’d lost a lot of blood and the outcome wasn’t favorable.
He wanted him to live so he could kill him.
How could he have been so blind? To have the rapist right in plain sight, laughing it up behind his back as he chatted and traded jokes, even shared personal details, burned like hydrochloric acid on bare skin. Worse, he’d thought Chad was his friend. Anything he might’ve felt for Chad in deference to their years shared together as children, died without a whisper.
His cell phone buzzed and he reluctantly went outside to take the call. It was Russell Jacy.
“I got some news you might want to hear,” he said. “We found a match on the fingerprints but you’re not going to believe who it matched up to.”
Sundance’s mouth thinned, knowing the answer. “Chad Brown, Bureau of Indian Affairs liaison,” he answered, eliciting a grunt of surprise from Russell.
“How’d you know?”
Sundance rubbed his forehead, easing the ache from gritting his teeth while he waited for news on Chad. “Yeah, I’m in the E.R. right now because Iris’s dog nearly killed him when he attacked her.”
Russell whistled low. “No kidding?”
“Wish I were. Seems Iris figured out it was him and he was tying up loose ends. He killed and framed another guy for the crimes. We’re processing the body now. We searched Chad’s home and found a treasure trove of evidence—panties from his victims—I suspect when we compare forensic evidence to a bunch of unsolved rapes in American-Indian country we’ll find him at the center. I’m still trying to make sense of everything.”
“Damn,” Russell said, taking in the information. “I’ll relay the information to our investigators to reopen the cold cases. How bad off is the perp?”
“He might not make it.”
“Well, maybe that’s for the best.”
“Yeah, well, I doubt his father is going to feel that way. He’s a top dog in the BIA.” Sundance swore under his breath as he considered all that was at stake and how many projects Chad had put his touch all over. Likely, they could kiss goodbye all that promised grant money. He needed to get off the phone before his sour mood made him unbearable. “I have to check on the suspect. Keep me in the loop with your investigation so I can add the supplement to the report. Thanks for all your help.”
“You got it.”
Sundance returned to the emergency room and found Mya looking for him. Her eyes were troubled. “I knew you’d want to know…he’s alive but we couldn’t save his arm. They’re stabilizing him so they can airlift him to a bigger facility with more resources.”
Sundance let out an audible breath. As much as he wanted the man to die for his crimes, he also wanted justice for Chad’s victims and he was sure there were far more than they knew about. Dead men never gave up their secrets while men facing the death penalty were more apt to cooperate. Chad was going to need to wheel and deal if he wanted to escape lethal injection. Personally, Sundance would rather the man fried but that wasn’t going to happen. He tried to keep his mind from going to the places in his memory when they’d been friends. Anytime he found himself slipping into grief over the loss, he reminded himself that the friendship he’d thought he’d shared with Chad had been an illusion. He’d never truly known Chad Brown. And then Sundance ruthlessly severed the tie. What Chad had done to Iris was bad enough but to know he’d raped so many more…it curdled Sundance’s stomach. But apparently, blood was thicker than water, because Big Daddy was looking for high-priced lawyers to represent his son, no matter that his son was a monster.
Mya’s light touch on his shoulder brought him back to the moment. “Have you talked to Iris yet?”
“She doesn’t want to see me,” he stated, a lead ball clunking in his gut.
“She was in shock. You two need to talk. You need each other,” Mya said. “Especially now that it looks as if Chad is going to be all right and this case will likely go to trial. The prosecution is going to need her testimony. Don’t make her go through that alone.”
Sundance glared. Did Mya think he wanted her to face this alone? It wasn’t his choice. Iris had shut him out when he wouldn’t let Saaski eat the man. She blamed him for letting him live. “If she needs me, she knows where to find me.”
Mya’s mouth pinched and she frowned. “You’re both mirrors of one another, stubborn as a mule and just as thickheaded. Remember when you went to her and snapped her out of her funk the first time? You’re the only person who can do that for her. You both need to accept the events as they unfolded and move on as a team.”
“Mya—”
“I mean it. I’ve spent the last few
years watching you two circle one another, not willing to budge an inch out of stubborn pride and now when you need each other the most you’re determined to keep your distance. Well, knock it off and start acting like grown-ups for a change.” She drew a breath and added, “I’ve never seen two people more perfect for one another and that’s the truth. Please go to her.”
Sundance could sense the logic and reason within Mya’s impassioned speech but he was still shocked by the look of murder in Iris’s eyes that day. If he hadn’t arrived, Chad would be dead and she’d have let it happen. It was his job to uphold the law, not look the other way just because it served someone’s thirst for vengeance. He wanted the man dead, too, but that wasn’t the way things worked. It wasn’t like he could notch an arrow and let it fly like his ancestors would’ve done. He was torn between two worlds and she, of all people, should recognize that fact.
Chapter 23
Gradually, the numbness of Iris’s brain had worn off and she was left with a heartbreaking sadness that permeated her entire being. She went through the motions of living but since Sundance had kept his distance, too busy with the tail end of the case, she’d realized how foolish she’d been to push him away.
Had she really expected Sundance to look the other way while Saaski tore apart another human being? Shame filled her cheeks with heat and a tear slipped from her eyes. But as her gaze alighted on Saaski, her beloved defender, she felt nothing but gratitude. She knew she faced an uphill battle. Chad’s father was already calling for Saaski’s death, saying the dog was a menace—completely glossing over the fact that Chad had been ready to kill her. Sundance had found the syringe, loaded with enough ketamine to kill a horse, on the gravel where Chad had dropped it when Saaski had attacked. A shudder followed. She’d been seconds from death. She’d do what she had to to protect Saaski, even if it meant draining her savings to hire her own fancy lawyer because there was no way she was putting down her dog.
Sworn to Protect Page 17