For a second, his head cleared. Panic struck. What if everyone else was sick, too? Alex. GrammaU. The old man. Pain sliced through him again made worse this time by the fear for those he loved. Again, the huge fist balled and pushed up through his insides. And again, nothing.
He perspired even more profusely. And suddenly a bomb went off in his head. Something was seriously wrong. Definitely what ailed him was more than just a taste of a bad banana cream pie. He looked wildly about just as another spasm took hold. He saw what was left of the food on the table. Then, a thought hit.
The food he’d eaten. He’d thought it tasted and smelled funny, because he was lovesick, but the food must have been bad. He probably did have food poisoning and needed to get to the hospital. Fast.
The relentless fist pushed through his insides again, and this time he vomited. With the emptying of his stomach, he could think. Doubled over, he made his way to where he’d thrown the food on the ground and vomited until he thought he might die from the effort and the pain. He reached down for the plate of remaining barbecued ribs. Then he grabbed a gob of potato salad, a handful of beans, and threw them on the paper plate.
Shaking and weaving, trembling so hard he could barely walk, he somehow reached his truck. He dug in his pocket for the key. Please, Jesus, please let his key be in his pocket. He’d never make it up the steps if he had to go back to the cabin to retrieve it. His fingers curled around the hard piece of steel, and a wave of gratitude rolled over him just as he was wracked by another pain.
Pulling together every ounce of strength and resolve he could muster, he got behind the wheel, started the engine, and headed for the road that led to the hospital. Twice, he was overcome by weakness so profound he considered pulling off the road and just dying there, alone. Then he’d think of Alex, of never seeing her again, and from somewhere deep inside, he found the strength to keep going. When the hospital came into view, he almost passed out from relief.
Somehow, his wobbly legs carried him into the Emergency Room. Someone slipped a wheel chair under him. Gentle hands lifted him up onto a table. He was in too much pain and too weak to do anything but give himself over to the care of those merciful hands.
A face that seemed too young to belong to a doctor asked him what he’d eaten.
In the middle of a severe stomach cramp, he whispered, “A plate of food is in the truck.” Suddenly, his stomach started emptying again.
Before the episode was over, the boy-doctor showed him the trashed plate of food. “Is it possible this food might have come in contact with a poison?”
Beck shook his head. He had been in charge of the food himself, and he had no poison around.
“Anyone there have access to poison that you know of?”
His head spun, and his ears buzzed.
“Anyone who worked where chemicals are stored or who lives on a farm…maybe takes care of animals?”
In an instant, reason overcame pain. Animals. Kent. Kent worked part-time in a veterinary clinic, and Kent brought him the plate of food. The bastard poisoned him. But why? In a flash, he was struck with the truth. All along, Kent was the one who’d been after Alex. Now, he had her. Beck struggled to get off the table, but strong hands held him down. He fought the restraint. He had to get to Alex .
“You’re lucky you didn’t eat too much. And lucky you came straight here. More food, or a longer delay, and you might be knocking on heaven’s door right now.”
The boy-doctor was reassuring him. But all he wanted was to get out of here. Get to Alex. “The police,” he rasped over the doctor’s voice. “Make sure they reach her in time. He’s going to murder her.” He was forced to take quick agonizing breaths between the white-hot knives of pain that still sliced through him while the doctor and a nurse worked on him.
Not certain he made any sense, or even if he talked out loud at all, he tried to get through to them. He had to give them Alex’s address. He croaked out the information, punctuating every number and every syllable, forcing himself to push the pain deep, deep enough to clear his brain so he could do what had to be done.
He would not let himself die. Not before he made certain the police reached Alex in time. Not before he got to that little bastard and choked the life out of him.
Not before he told Alex he loved her.
Chapter Twenty-One
Alex pulled into the parking slot at her condo and turned to Kent. “I’ll run inside and get the book. I’ll only be a second.”
Kent had asked for the loan of a reference book to use while she was out of town. She’d offered to drop it off in the morning on her way to the airport, but he’d told her he would like to begin reading it as soon as possible.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to come inside for a glass of water.” He tapped his breast pocket. “I need my medicine.”
She sighed inwardly. The last thing she wanted right now was to lose any more time. She’d planned to hurry inside, snatch the book off the bookshelf, and leave as fast as she could. The sooner she got Kent home and was back home herself, the better she’d feel. Not that she really expected anything would make her feel better. Not ever again.
Kent followed her inside.
She went into the kitchen, filled a glass with ice water from the refrigerator door, and turned, expecting him to be right behind her. He wasn’t. She walked into the hall. “Kent. Here’s the water.”
No answer. She walked toward the living room.
He stood by the front door.
Something about the look on his face sent an icy chill up her spine. “Is anything wrong, Kent? You don’t look well.”
He shook his head, a thin smile stretching his lips over his teeth, the scar on his face taut.
Another chill raced up her spine, icier this time.
Kent moved slowly toward her. “Oh, everything’s fine now, Alex. Just fine, now that we’re alone.”
His hands hung at his sides, fists clenching and unclenching, their rhythm in time with the twitching of his lips. A menacing smile deepened as he approached her. Alex’s breath caught in her throat. Something must be going on with Kent she didn’t know about. Perhaps he was ill. He kept advancing, and when he got close enough, she saw the evil in his eyes. Fear kicked up her heartbeat. At that instant, she had no doubt she was in danger. Somehow, she had to get away. “Why are you acting this way, Kent? Is this a game you’re playing?”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “Game? Oh, I assure you, Alex, I’m not playing a game.”
She suddenly felt dizzy from fear. “But why? What have I done to you? We’ve always been friends. You’re my assistant, for God’s sake.” She took a few steps back.
He matched her step for step. “You want to know what you’ve done for me, Alex? Why don’t you ask what you haven’t done for me?”
She had to keep him talking long enough so she could figure out a plan of action. “I don’t understand, Kent. What haven’t I done?”
He laughed a chilling, sinister laugh and bared his teeth like a vicious dog ready to attack. “You haven’t paid me any attention, that’s what.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Tell me what you mean. Maybe I can fix it.” She tried another few steps back.
Again, he closed the distance between them. “Fix it? No, Alex, I’m the one who fixes things. I fixed it so that battle-axe French would never get back her job. Fixed it so that cunt Cindy wouldn’t screw up things by blabbing to you.”
Alex gasped. Oh, my God. He’d killed Evelyn and Cindy? “You…you murdered…you killed Doctor French and Cindy? But why? What did they ever do to you? You hardly knew Doctor French, and Cindy was your friend.” Her breath came so fast she felt lightheaded, but she continued her backward retreat.
Kent leaned forward, his lips stretched in a sneer. “French might have come back and replaced you, and I had to keep you here. That’s the only way the plan would work. That bitch Cindy wanted to have that baby and let the whole world know it was mine.”
“You and Cindy? And you killed her? But she died of an overdose.” Suddenly, everything became clear. Her heart pounded so hard in her chest she doubled over. “You poisoned them both?” She took another step back, and her heel struck the bottom of the stairwell. To steady herself, she put a hand on the banister and stepped up backward onto the first riser. Cautiously, she lifted the other foot and set it down next to the first. Slowly, deliberately, she calculated her next move.
“Yeah,” he sneered. “Just like I poisoned that arrogant, interfering friend of yours today.”
She held her breath. Oh, my God. Dear, Jesus, not Beck. Her entire body shook. “Beck? You mean Beck?”
He thrust his face toward her.
The ugly scar on his face caught the light filtering in from the open kitchen door and glowed demonically.
“Yeah. Beck. By now, he should be feeling no pain.” He let out a low, sinister laugh.
Her heart raced. “Why Beck? What did he ever do to you?”
“You really don’t know, do you, Alex? That’s how oblivious you’ve been to me since he showed up. He took you away. Without him, I might have had a chance with you.” His whole body stiffened. “I’d still like to make it with you, Alex, before….”
Shivers ran up and down her body, from her scalp to the soles of her feet. “You’re crazy, Kent. He didn’t take me away. You and I were never together, at least not in the way I think you mean.” She pulled in some air, realizing she had been holding her breath.
He inched closer.
“Why did you do those terrible things to innocent people? How could you be so cruel?” She had to know. Cautiously, she backed up another step, her legs so weak she could barely feel them.
He sneered. “Ah, but I’m not really the cruel one, Alex. I’m not the one who hurts and kills people. Bill told me how evil you are. He made me see you for what you really are.”
He wasn’t making any sense. “Bill? What does Bill have to do with this?”
“He has everything to do with this, Alex. He’s my partner. My good buddy.” He held out an upturned palm. “I do him favors, he does me favors. That’s the way helping each other is supposed to work, Alex.”
She needed to get up the stairs and to a phone. Call the police. Alert them about Beck. But if she turned her back…
Suddenly, anger replaced her fear with a fury greater than any she had ever known. Even in her wildest dreams, she would never have suspected Bill could stoop to such lengths to conspire against her with Kent. Unless Kent was implicating Bill to hurt her even more. But if Kent told the truth, she needed to know and that need cleared her senses. If she kept Kent focused on Bill, maybe she could buy some time to use to her advantage. “Tell me about Bill. What has he promised to do? Maybe I can do more.” His laugh was evil beyond anything she had sensed in him before.
“He’ll give me money, Alex. Plenty of money. Money I need to keep me from going insane.” Kent took a short breath. “See? You’ve been so taken up lately with that fucking asshole you haven’t even noticed I’m sick. How much I need my drugs and my medicine. But Bill noticed. Months ago, he noticed. That’s when we struck our deal.”
Months ago? She pulled in a quick breath. When had Kent and Bill been together? Then she remembered taking Kent with her to Houston to visit her parents three months ago, and Bill had stopped in at their home. “Deal? What deal?” Was this her voice, so level and controlled, when inside her thoughts flew in all directions? She backed up another step, and this time, Kent didn’t move with her.
“Our deal was he’d pay me to keep track of your movements and to stay close so that if you refused to have anything to do with him….” Kent gripped the banister and his voice dropped an octave. “He tried another way first, Alex. Just the other day, he asked you to get back together.”
Oh, God. Her stomach knotted. She didn’t know where this discussion was headed. She only knew she had to keep him talking. She needed to get to the top of the stairs. To her room. To a phone.
“You hurt him a lot, Alex. You killed one of his babies. And left the other to die, slowly. Then, after he’s taken care of your little girl all these years, you’ll keep all that money for yourself, and he’ll have nothing.”
The breath caught in her throat. Money? The trust that came to her next week on her birthday? The real reason for Bill’s attempt to reconcile suddenly became crystal clear. The bastard wanted that money. “You mean Bill has been behind all these awful things that have happened? You’ve been his pawn?”
“No, Alex, not his pawn. I was happy to keep an eye on you. Actually, dreaming up all those ways to frighten you was fun. Those ideas were all mine. I thought when you got frightened enough, you’d turn to me. I thought maybe I could get a little of that lovin’ you’ve been so generously handing out to that nosy bastard.” He rubbed his hands together.
The evil inside him lit up his eyes like a raging fire.
“Bill hoped you’d come to your senses before I had to off you, Alex. Although, I must admit, the fact that you didn’t was to my benefit, ’cause now I’ll get a big bonus.”
This scenario was all too bizarre to be happening. Bill had been a bad choice for a husband. After their marriage, she’d discovered he was a schemer where business was concerned and almost ruthless at times. She had been mystified as to how he’d fooled her father and wormed his way into his business, but to want her dead was almost unthinkable.
Suddenly, nothing mattered but getting away from this madman. If she waited much longer she’d be too late to save Beck. Maybe it was already too late. But she had to try. Dear Jesus, she had to try.
If she lived and Beck didn’t, she would wish for death for herself. She couldn’t imagine him not being in the same world as she. Even if she never saw him again, she loved him too much to let him die without an all-out effort to save him. Including risking her own life.
Reasoning with this maniac was over. She had to act. And fast. She spun, her foot already poised to take the next riser.
His hand encircled her ankle.
She kicked herself loose and fled up the stairs without looking back. She was almost to the top of the stairs when she felt a pull at her neckline. But she couldn’t stop. She had to get to the phone. Somehow, she broke free again.
Breathing so hard her lungs felt on fire, she dashed to her bedroom door and had it open by the time he reached her. They struggled, she kicked and threw her arms out wildly in an attempt to free herself from his grasp. But she couldn’t.
His fist looked twice its size before it connected with her jaw. The punch reverberated in her skull. She beat at his chest, but the blow stunned her. He was stronger than he looked.
Moving behind her, he circled one arm around her waist.
A shaft of light from the bathroom picked up the glint of something shiny in Kent’s free hand. A knife. She struggled harder. “You’ll never get away with hurting me.” She thrust out her leg behind her, in an attempt to wind it around one of his and throw him off balance. But he was too fast, and he stepped to one side, pulling her with him, his depraved laugh filling the room.
Her head throbbed, and she was dizzy. She took an anguished breath against his arm tightening around her and tried once more to reason. “How will you explain what happened to me to the police? Have you thought about that? Will Bill be around to help you then?”
“What happens next is all planned out, Alex,” he whispered in her ear. “Why do you think I’m here now, instead of already home? Your car’s outside, with your luggage still in the trunk.”
She could smell malevolence in his every breath. She twisted to get away, but his grip around her waist was like a steel band.
“I’ll stuff your body in your trunk, drive you to a little-known bayou, and let the alligators have their way. When they’re finished, nothing will be left to identify.” He laughed in her ear. “If they ever find you.”
She couldn’t let her life end like this. Gauging the space be
tween her arm and his chest to be in her favor, she jerked her arm forward and rammed it back as hard as she could against his chest. Her elbow caught him in the ribs. He grunted, and his hold around her waist slackened enough for her to break free.
With lightning speed, she covered the few steps to the bedside table, yanked open the drawer, and wrapped her hand around the gun inside. The gun she’d forgotten to take back to the cabin on this last trip. Relief rushed through her, but she brushed it aside. This was no time for emotion. Only action.
Everything happened so fast her thoughts blurred. She imagined she heard a siren and heavy footsteps on the stairs.
Kent lunged.
At the look of pure evil in his eyes, she twisted away to make room between their bodies for the gun. Her foot caught on the bedside rug. She felt herself falling, heard the crack of the gun, and groaned at the blow to her head.
Then, she sank into darkness.
****
Alex moved the blinds to one side and looked out the window to the hospital parking lot. Not that she was expecting anyone. Her office mate had already gone home to Virginia for the summer, and Evelyn French, the only other person she would have called to drive her home, was dead. She still couldn’t believe everything that had happened. She shook her head, feeling as though she were in the midst of a horrible nightmare.
The Emergency Room doctor who treated her Wednesday night insisted she stay in the hospital for at least twenty-four hours, since she’d be going home alone. A precautionary measure against lasting effects from the concussion she suffered when she struck her head on the bedside table.
She let the blinds slip back in place and rested her forehead on the window casing. In a couple of hours at most, she’d be home. If she felt up to the task, she’d finish packing for her trip to Arkansas. She thought of Jeremy and how much she looked forward to being with someone she trusted and who really cared for her.
Oh, she was certain Beck cared. He’d cared enough, sick as he was to make certain the Mississippi police alerted the officers near her condo of the danger she was in. But he still hadn’t cared enough to come after her.
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