by Tara Thomas
Mac gave an evil laugh. “I should kill you, but I want you to live knowing just how worthless you really are. But I really don’t want you following me, either.”
Janie screamed. A ball of fire exploded in Brent’s chest. And the world went dark.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Janie was so shocked by Mac shooting Brent, she wasn’t able to move. “Brent?” she whispered, but he didn’t move. She decided right then and there, she wasn’t going to move, she wasn’t going to do anything Mac told her to do. She wasn’t going to move from this spot because that meant leaving Brent and she was never leaving him. She closed her eyes tightly, not wanting Mac to see her cry.
Unfortunately, Mac must’ve been onto her plan. He didn’t tell her to do anything, instead he calmly picked her up as if she weighed nothing and tried to deposit her in the back of the rangers’ truck. She refused to let him get his way. She yelled and tried to bite him, and when that didn’t help, she punched and kicked with all her strength. He moved her so easily, she finally realized she still suffered from the effects of whatever drug he’d given her. All too soon, she was in the truck. No matter how hard she tried to climb out of the truck, Max once again was one step ahead of her, took some rope, and tied her hands and feet securely to the seat.
“You have been quite a nuisance this evening,” Max said. “I need to have you somewhere in a very short amount time … well, have your body somewhere in a short amount of time. Can’t have you jumping out of the truck now, can I?” He laughed at what she assumed was a look of pure horror on her face. “Don’t tell me you actually thought you were going to get out of this alive?”
She turned away. She wasn’t going to answer anything he asked. She sure as hell wasn’t going to give up, either. As long as there was a breath in her body, she was going to plan for escape. She couldn’t keep herself from looking over to where Brent slumped. Still unmoving.
“You did,” Mac said, obviously taking her silence the wrong way. “I think that makes you the worst detective ever.” He chuckled under his breath. “Frankly, it makes you look very naïve.”
He pulled away from the shed and Janie turned to look over her shoulder, willing Brent to move. But there was nothing. Before she could turn back to the front, a movement from the back of the truck caught her eye. At first she thought she was seeing things, but as she watched, Alyssa appeared.
Their eyes caught and Alyssa shook her head. Janie kept her face neutral and turned back around. Mac didn’t know where Alyssa was.
His next statement confirmed that. “I’m only keeping you alive for now because I think you might be useful in tracking down that worthless girlfriend of mine.”
He drove only a bit further before stopping the truck. “This is where you die.”
Janie found it hard to breathe, but managed to say, “That’s what you think.”
He smacked her cheek. “How stupid do you think I am? You don’t think I saw her the second she climbed in the truck?” He lowered his voiced. “Maybe the two of you together will give me the challenge I’ve been looking for and that you haven’t been able to provide.” He untied Janie from the truck, but left her hands tied together.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he said. “You and I are going to walk to that tree with the yellow ribbon on it, I’m going to tie you to it so your arms are wrapped around the trunk and then I’m going to count to five. I’ll let you guess what happens next.”
Between the pain in her foot and the fear she was breathing her last precious breaths, she felt as if she was going to be sick. Was Alyssa really unarmed?
Her body shook. He was going to kill her. Brent was already dead. Oh God, she didn’t know what to do.
They were getting too close to the tree. She had to think of something, but the only thing she could think of was so simple, there was no way it could work.
But she had no other choice.
Mac was half holding her, half dragging her. She walked with him a few steps, waiting for the perfect moment. He shifted the gun slightly and at that second, she let her body drop into dead weight. As she’d hoped, he was totally unprepared and let out a stream of curses. But more importantly, he used both hands to try and pick her up and in doing so his grip on the gun slackened just a bit. It wasn’t much, but it was all she needed.
She grabbed the gun and while he tried to reach it, she bit his arm, her teeth sinking into his skin. He yelped and pulled away. She rolled in the opposite direction. Ignoring the pain in her foot, she pushed herself to one knee and aimed.
Alyssa jumped out of the truck and with a yell, she took off toward him, knife raised in one hand. Mac looked from one of them to the other. His expression contorted into something inhuman and with a running leap, he took off as if to grab Janie.
Janie fired the gun the same second his body slammed into her. She fell backward, her head slamming into something hard. The edges of her vision grew blurry and suddenly, she was too tired to keep her eyes open any longer.
* * *
The Gentleman stepped deeper into the shadows from where he’d been watching the entire exchange between Mac, his girlfriend, and Janie. His gut had told him there was no way Mac would be showing up with Janie’s body. The man had been a liability with his pride and lack of discernment. Lately, he’d also been lazy and the decision had already been made that even if he had brought the woman’s body, The Gentleman would terminate him as well.
His only regret was that he didn’t get to face Mac and have him realize his true identity. Although in all truthfulness, Mac may not have recognized him. With a grin, the thought hit him that the same could not be said for Alyssa. That one would know who he was.
Will know, he corrected himself.
With Mac dead, Janie and Brent would no longer be a threat. Especially when he finished his plans. He wasn’t going to spend any more manpower to take them down. However, the same could not be said for Alyssa. She wasn’t next on his list, but she was on it.
Her time would come.
The Gentleman knew they’d send the bottom of the barrel to respond to the call he placed. The two young police officers were not happy to have been called to the docks while everyone else was at the park and they had no problem telling whoever was willing to listen.
“The park is where all the excitement is,” the blond officer said, kicking a pile of abandoned clothing to the side. “This assignment blows.”
“This is what we get for being low man on the totem pole,” his darker-haired partner agreed.
“Having to take the shit calls?”
“Something like that.” He looked around. “I thought the caller said he’d be here waiting for us?”
And he was on. He loved this part of the job, and with a grin, stepped out of the shadows and into the pale light given off by the streetlights.
One of the officers, the one with dark hair, spun around and a surprised look crossed his face as he realized who stood before him. “I know who you are. You’re—”
The words remained unspoken due to the bullet The Gentleman put through his forehead. He spun and aimed at the blond officer who was belatedly reaching for his weapon. “Lower your weapon.”
The blond looked frantically from him to his fallen partner. “Who are you?”
“Lower your weapon.” He waited and then added, “I’m about to make you more important than what’s happening on that island. Lower it. Now.”
He wasn’t sure why he was so surprised when the young man actually did what he was told. God, he loved newbies. He walked the few steps to the stunned policeman and calmly took his weapon.
Disgusting. He wasn’t sure why the Charleston PD hired these imbeciles. Without thinking about it, he lifted the officer’s weapon and shot him. He looked around. There weren’t people around, but he couldn’t count on that lasting. Not with him firing a gun twice. That meant he had to work fast.
Moving quickly, he put both guns in the blond’s hands. Carefully, he draped the hairs he’d picked
up on the body of the blond officer as well.
Janie and Alyssa would be looking for the person Mac took orders from. He’d just ensured they found him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Janie slowly became aware of the low hum sounding in the background, then the soft buzz of people whispering. She was in a hospital. But before she opened her eyes, she squeezed them tightly. Brent wouldn’t be here, she realized with a sharp stab of pain in her chest. Had Alyssa told everyone where to find him? They had to be able to bury him. Properly.
Maybe she could stay in the hospital bed with her eyes closed forever and she’d never have to look upon a world without Brent.
“Janie?” Alyssa asked because, of course, she would be in the room.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she felt bad. Alyssa had stood by her for years and it was doubtless she’d be able to get through the foreseeable future without her best friend.
Janie opened her eyes and forced a smile. “Hey.”
Alyssa dropped her head and whispered, “Everyone will be in shortly now that you’re awake. I need you to go along with the story I’ve been telling.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The official story is that I shot and killed Mac.”
Janie struggled to sit up, but Alyssa put a hand on her shoulder to keep her in place. “Don’t sit up. You might pull something.”
Alyssa wasn’t lying, Janie ached all over. She settled back down onto the uncomfortable mattress. “Why is that the official story? What happened after I blacked out?”
“You’re not an employee of the police department any longer and when everyone showed up at the park, I overhead Martin say that since you weren’t, he was going to look into pressing charges against you.”
“Charges for what? That’s the most absurd thing I ever heard of.”
Alyssa looked over her shoulder, but the door remained closed. She shook her head. “There’s something going in on in that department that’s not sitting well with me. I’m afraid Martin is involved.”
The fact that such an important figure in the city’s law enforcement could be in the back pocket of whatever mastermind orchestrated this situation was almost too outlandish to be true. Janie wasn’t sure what sort of magic he’d have to pull to charge her with anything, but she was too tired to fight it. If it would be easier for Alyssa to say she took out Mac, so be it. She nodded. “Okay.”
Unknowingly, a tear ran down her face. She hadn’t noticed it until she felt the wetness on her cheek.
“Janie?” Alyssa took a tissue and passed it to her.
“Sorry.” Janie wiped her cheek. “It’s just—”
Suddenly she heard a voice from the hallway.
“I don’t care if she’s sleeping. That way I can be in the room when she wakes up. Don’t put a finger on this wheelchair and I swear to God, if you touch me again, I’m suing the entire damn hospital. Don’t patronize me, I’ll think of something.”
It sounded like Brent, but there was no way that was possible; she’d seen his broken body on the ground. She wondered how long it would be before she stopped hearing his voice everywhere she went.
But then a voice that sounded a lot like his half sister, Bea, spoke. “I appreciate you trying to do your job, sir. Trust me that he’ll be a lot easier to deal with if my brother can just peek in and see her.”
Janie swung her head toward Alyssa, but her friend had already walked to the door and opened it.
“Come on in, guys.” Alyssa was smiling at whoever stood on the other side the door. “She’s awake.”
“Go,” Bea said with a half laugh. “Please. Before you threaten anyone else with a lawsuit and they actually take you seriously and send the hospital’s legal team to chat with you.”
Janie’s eyes were glued to the door. First she saw a wheelchair, then legs, and then, the face she never thought to see again was in her room and smiling. Alyssa and Bea discreetly left.
“Janie,” Brent said and with that one word, she lost it, breaking down and sobbing. She buried her face in her hands, and within seconds, he was beside her and she grabbed his hands, not wanting to ever let him go.
“Janie,” he whispered and kissed her hands.
“You’re alive. I thought he’d killed you. You weren’t moving.” She couldn’t stand to return to that awful moment when Mac pulled her away and Brent was slumped in the dirt, bleeding.
“It’ll take a lot more than Mac to bring me down. It helped that he was a poor shot. Had he been a bit over to the left, he would have hit a major artery and I wouldn’t have been as lucky. My shoulder’s a bit messed up and I somehow managed to hit my head, but I’m alive.”
“I killed him.” She held his gaze as she told him. She didn’t care if the rest of the world thought Alyssa had killed him. She wanted Brent to know the truth.
“She told me,” Brent said. “I’m so proud of you. Your courage amazes me. And probably saved my life.”
“I’ve never killed anyone,” she said. “I thought the first time, I’d feel regret. Or at least feel something. As it is, I don’t feel anything.”
“It might come later, but don’t worry, I’ll be with you if it does. We’ll get through it together.”
A knock on the door interrupted their conversation, and a doctor stuck his head into the room. “Ms. Roberts,” he said. “I heard you were awake. I need to look over your injuries.”
“I’m going to stay right here,” Brent said, and the doctor didn’t argue.
It didn’t take long for the doctor to examine her. When he finished he stood up and wrote on his chart. “Everything appears to be healing well. You’re very lucky. Now let’s see if we can get you two out of here by tomorrow.”
“Best news I’ve heard all week,” Janie said.
Brent winked at her. “I bet I have better news.”
“What’s that?”
“They found the second party in these cases. The ringleader.”
Hope spread a pleasant warmness across her chest. Was it true? Was she really free? “Tell me.”
“An officer on the force was found this morning. He shot his partner and then himself. He had Mac’s hair on him as well as that of a newly murdered club girl.”
“It’s really over,” she said to Brent, amazed. “Finally.”
“Yes, and I can’t wait to get started on the rest of our lives.”
* * *
One week later, Janie waited in the bedroom for Brent to join her. He’d been making a phone call while she got ready for bed. And was she ever ready for bed.
In the week since they’d been back home, they had slowly grown accustomed to what it was like to have a normal life. She had no idea how much she’d changed her normal routine until she returned to it. It was freeing and wonderful. In fact, there was only one thing missing. They had not yet done anything physical other than good-night kisses and holding hands.
If all went according to her plan, that would change tonight.
A floorboard creaked outside the bedroom.
“Janie?” Brent called as if afraid he was going to wake her.
She adjusted the silver slip of the babydoll lingerie she had on so it showed a bit more upper thigh and pushed a spaghetti strap off her shoulder. “Come on in. I’m not asleep.”
He entered with a big grin that seemed to freeze in place as he took in the sight of her on the bed. She’d been afraid he’d turn her down for fear he’d hurt her or make her injuries worse or if he didn’t, that he’d ask her so many times if she was sure, that he’d kill the mood.
He did neither. Rather, he crossed the room quickly so he stood beside her, and lightly cupped her bare shoulder. “You have no idea what seeing you like this does to me.”
“What do you mean?”
He teased the remaining strap off her shoulder. “I’ve been waiting for you to give me a sign that you were ready.”
She slid her hands under his T-shirt, delighting in the feel of his sk
in, trying to be careful not to disturb the bandage that covered his gunshot wound. “Then why didn’t you say something?”
“Because I knew you’d let me know when you were ready.”
“Brent?”
“Yes.”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And none of those kisses like you’ve been giving me. I want you to kiss me like you mean it. Like you’ll die if you don’t have me right now, this second.”
Instead of replying with words, he pulled the neckline of her bodice all the way down, exposing her to him completely from the waist up. Crawling up on the bed to join her, he held himself above her. And right when she thought she’d go crazy if he didn’t move or do something, he crushed his lips to hers.
He held nothing back with his kiss. She felt his love and desire and even the fear he’d had when their future lay in a madman’s hands. He pulled back slightly and whispered coarsely in her ear, “I’m not going to be rough, but I’m going to be very thorough and by the time I’m finished and we’re both too exhausted to move, you’ll know exactly how much I mean it.”
Then, true to his word, he showed her with his touch, his kiss, and his moans of pleasure how much he loved her. When at last he entered her, he had her keep her eyes on his. His touch finished her healing and she knew she did the same to him.
EPILOGUE
SIX WEEKS LATER
Brent stepped over half-filled boxes, rolls of packing tape, and a stack of old newspapers in his attempt to find Janie. He’d looked in the bedroom and the sunroom. Finally, he saw her on the front porch. She wore a thin sweater and was sipping a cup of coffee.
It wasn’t cold enough for a sweater. If he had to guess, he’d say she wore it so she wouldn’t have to look at the scar on her arm. It had been six weeks since he and Alyssa had rescued her. Six weeks since Mac had been shot. Six weeks with no threats of any kind.
She was safe, but they were both learning that sometimes safety was more mental than it was physical and that sometimes mental safety took the longest to accept. The good news was, it had been eight days since her last nightmares. He wasn’t naïve enough to think she wouldn’t have them anymore, but that was the longest she’d gone without one and he couldn’t help but find that encouraging.