by David Beers
Once he had Christian in his custody, he’d ensure the correct actions were taken. Either Christian got serious help, or he left the FBI. Tommy would hate to see him go, but he also didn’t think this place was right for Christian. It took a certain type of mind to function in this environment, one that could view humans as something different when they were on the other side of the line. Tommy learned a long time ago that he wasn’t chasing people, but felons. They were a different species, and that belief allowed him to sleep at night.
Christian couldn’t do that. People would always be people to him, and with his brain’s horsepower, that created a dangerous psychological problem.
An hour passed as they both drove toward Athens.
Finally, they reached Hinson’s neighborhood, and Tommy’s introspection ended. An alert calm came over him, his senses and training dominating his persona.
Tommy had kept his distance from Christian’s car during the drive, far enough back to see his taillights but little else. He sped up as Christian turned into the neighborhood, flooring it to over seventy. He slowed as he approached where Christian had turned, then whipped the vehicle right.
Christian’s car was parked by the curb.
Tommy sped up, needing to stop the kid before he reached Hinson’s door.
His tires squealed as he threw his car into park across the street from Christian’s car. Christian looked over his own roof as Tommy stepped outside.
“Get in my car, Christian.”
The kid cocked his head to the side as if he didn’t understand exactly what was happening.
“Get the fuck in,” Tommy said.
“No.”
Christian turned and started walking up the street, not even looking back to see what his partner did.
Tommy jogged to the other side of the street, moving ahead of Christian, then rounding in front of him, stopping him from moving forward.
“You’re not going in there, Christian. You need to understand that right now, before anything else. Whatever you wanted to do, it’s over.” Neither Tommy nor Christian reached for their weapon, though Tommy was fully aware of Christian’s hands.
“I’m going in,” he said. “It’s the only way to stop all this. Everything going on in my head. It’s the only way to make sure Hinson stops what he’s doing … Get out of my way, Tommy.”
“Listen to me. It’s over. You know there’s nothing you can do besides kill me, and we both know you’re not fast enough for it. Plus, you don’t want to. I’m not letting you go in that house. Don’t make me put you down.”
Christian looked at him and Tommy saw the raw determination that Luke never displayed, despite their similar minds. Luke was always calm, always in control. But when Christian’s mind took off, nothing stopped it.
He stepped around Tommy and kept walking forward.
Tommy didn’t hesitate. He wrapped his right arm around Christian’s neck and hooked it to his left arm.
It only took about fifteen seconds for Christian to lose consciousness.
Ted had lost control. He knew that now. It always took him a few days to come to his senses and realize the mistakes he had made when his anger took over.
He had called in sick to work for the entire week. First, he couldn’t go in with scratches across each side of his face. He was healing quickly, but thought he might have to call out next week, too. The scratches would clearly raise questions, and Ted wasn’t sure how to answer.
He was also concerned with the basement.
He had been rash. Far too rash.
His mind kept trying to return to what he had done, wanting him to remember—to stare at his mistakes in reality’s cold light.
Only flashes of what he’d done came to him this time though, and that’s how he knew he’d really gone overboard.
He remembered the mallet. The feel of it in his hand, the weight of the thing.
He remembered screaming, “YOU DID THIS! YOU! YOU! YOU!”
Ted hadn’t been looking at the person he screamed at, though. He had been looking at the other three women he took the mallet to. He hadn’t even remembered their names in the moment—his wives. Only that everything was ruined because he had to kill another one, and then he’d gone on to kill three more. Bashing their heads in with the rubber mallet.
Two women remained alive in his basement. Sarah and Julie. Four dead bodies lay with them. Ted hadn’t even started thinking about how he’d clean everything up. Keely had been easy. One body could be disposed of, but four?
He didn’t know how.
And that led him to his next decision. He thought, briefly, that he might be losing his mind, but shoved that aside. Hinsons didn’t lose their minds. Poor people did that. They were the crazies you saw at traffic lights, hustling for money. Ted wasn’t losing his mind.
He was getting his family back.
Ted was done worrying about getting other women to love him. In fact, he decided he would kill Sarah and Julie, just as soon as Christy and Callie were back under his roof. Or maybe he would just move into Christy’s house; that could work, if she preferred staying there. He could then come back here, kill the two women, and slowly get rid of the bodies.
It’d been silly, the whole thing. Trying to recreate a family when his lived right across town. Christy would just have to see it his way: they were far better together than apart.
It was nearing one in the morning on Thursday night when Ted left his house. He was going to get his wife back, just like heroes in romances ultimately did.
Luke had watched Tommy and Christian drive off into the night. He hadn’t been in his own car, of course—Tommy was a good detective, but even a poor one would have noticed that. Luke had stood beneath a tree’s shadow in Christian’s neighborhood, the rental car the next neighborhood over.
Tommy kept to his word and didn’t call when Christian finally left his house.
Luke knew it would take an hour to get to Athens from Atlanta, which constrained his own timeline. Everyone had to work with what the world gave them, however.
Luke ran back to his car, his lungs and legs easily carrying him the tenth of a mile as he crossed through backyards. He got in the front seat, started the engine, and pulled onto the road much faster than Christian or Tommy had.
It took him ten minutes to reach his destination.
He parked the vehicle at Tommy’s condominium.
Luke donned the ski mask, and quickly moved through the parking deck. Tommy’s building had cameras, though security wasn’t tight. One man sat at a desk in the lobby, but Luke wasn’t going anywhere near him. He had parked his car in Tommy’s spot, and then using the key Tommy made for everyone—at Christian’s insistence—took the residence elevator to the correct floor.
It was late, but not that late. People might still be moving around on the floor, and if so, Luke was prepared to kill them as efficiently as possible.
Luck, as it so often seemed to be, was on his side tonight. He made it from Christian’s house to Tommy’s condominium in fifteen minutes.
Luke used the key to open the door, and then he took off the mask, placing it in his back pocket. He hated to operate this quickly, but for once Luke couldn’t dictate the speed of things. He was at Tommy and Christian’s mercy.
He heard the television in the living room. The voices stopped, meaning that Tommy’s fiancé had heard the door open.
“Tommy?” she called.
“It’s Luke, Alice. Tommy asked me to come over. Something has happened with Christian.”
He closed the door and walked forward, listening to Alice’s footfalls coming to meet him.
“What happened?” she said as she turned the corner, shock and fear straining her face.
It only took her a few moments to start running. Luke let Alice look, watching her emotions change as she saw his own face. A woman’s intuition existed—while Luke wasn’t masking his face, a man in a similar situation would have continued talking. Alice didn’t. She clearl
y saw only one thing in Luke’s face: murder.
She took off, unable to run to the front door, and instead heading to the back bedroom. She wanted to lock Luke out and call for help.
Intuition wouldn’t save Alice, however. Luke moved with lethal precision, catching her before she reached the end of the living room. In a similar move that Tommy would use shortly in another part of Georgia, he wrapped his arms around her neck until blackness overtook her.
Luke let her collapse to the floor. He stood above for only a second. There was no time for inaction. He put the mask back on his face, and with an ease that belied his frame, threw her over his shoulder. He pulled his pistol out from the back of his pants. If anyone saw him carrying Alice out, their lives would end like so many others who had come in contact with Luke Titan.
There was one more thing to do, and this would cause the most noise out of the whole endeavor. Luke closed the door behind him, using the key to lock the deadbolt once outside. He turned and launched his foot at the door. The kick landed true and the door frame shattered underneath his strength, the door banging back against the wall.
From there, Luke left the building.
Part III
Marriage
Chapter 19
Christian woke up on the passenger’s side of Tommy’s car. He was slumped down in the seat and blinked a few times before looking around. He remembered what happened, everything until the moment he went under. He looked to his left, and Tommy sat on the other side.
“Where are we?” Christian whispered as he pulled himself up.
“Outside of my place.”
Christian looked through the window and saw Tommy’s building to the right. He waited a few seconds and then said, “Why did you stop me?”
“You know why.”
“Luke told you?”
“It doesn’t matter, Christian. You can’t do what you were planning.”
“It matters to me. Did Luke tell you?”
“No,” Tommy said. “It wasn’t hard to figure out on my own.”
“Does Luke know you have me?”
“Yes. I called him after I put you in the car.”
“What did he say?” Christian asked.
“He’s on his way over.”
Christian said nothing and the two sat in silence for the next five minutes, until Luke’s Tesla pulled up. Tommy hadn’t parked his car inside the residents’ parking deck, instead finding a spot on the street. Luke got out of his car and Christian watched him walk toward the two of them. Christian wouldn’t mention any of their conversations; Luke had kept his word about not telling anyone, and whatever came next, Christian wouldn’t bring him down, even as he fell himself. This was Christian’s fault; he hadn’t paid enough attention to Tommy—hadn’t realized Tommy was figuring everything out on his own. Certainly didn’t have any idea that he was being followed.
“Let’s go upstairs,” Tommy said.
“Is Alice here?” Christian didn’t want anyone else knowing about this. He had an idea of what would happen next, and he didn’t need the embarrassment of someone else watching it all transpire.
“She’s asleep. We’ll go in my office to talk, though.”
The office would work, Christian supposed. It was on the other side of Tommy’s condominium.
They both stepped from the car and met Luke. No one said anything as they went through the main entrance.
“Mr. Phillips,” the security guard said as they entered the lobby. “We’ve been trying to reach you for the past hour.”
All three stopped walking as they took in the scene before them. Two police officers stood next to the security guard. Both had been leaning against the guard’s desk, but now they turned to the three FBI agents.
“My phone’s off. I was working.”
“Agent Phillips, I’m Officer Vidak and this is Officer Alain. We need to speak with you immediately.”
“What’s going on?” Tommy said.
Both Luke and Christian stepped up next to their partner. Christian did it subconsciously, though he didn’t notice Luke doing the same. Whatever just happened between him and Tommy, it wasn’t important right now. Protection of their own was all that mattered.
“We’d like to talk in the manager’s office down here.”
“Why not in my condo?”
“There are officers up there right now, and for the time being, we think it’s best to let them be for a few moments.”
“Where’s Alice?” Tommy said. The obvious question, because if she wasn’t down here with these cops, and they didn’t want anyone going upstairs—then where the hell was she?
“Come with us, just for a moment, sir,” Vidak said.
“Where the fuck is Alice?”
Tommy’s voice had been calm when speaking to Christian, a cold that he’d seen his partner use when talking to perps. Now, though, the calm was erased, replaced with heat burning from a furnace deep inside his chest.
“She’s missing, Agent Phillips. That’s why we need to speak.”
Tommy ran. Straight past the cops, also leaving Luke and Christian behind. He rounded the corner but everyone knew where he was headed. Upstairs.
“Let’s go,” Alain said. The four hustled across the lobby, the security guard staring slack jawed after them. They reached the elevator but Tommy was already gone. They pressed the call button and waited.
“What happened?” Luke said.
“There was a break-in. Ms. Stromin is gone. There doesn’t appear to be anything else taken.”
Luke and Christian looked at each other for a second, knowledge passing between them as surely as if each were telepathic. Ted Hinson. It’s him.
They entered the elevator and followed Tommy to his floor.
“Alice!” Tommy screamed as he stormed into the condo. His mind barely registered the broken door. He moved through the house as agile as an eighteen year old athlete, ignoring the police all around his home. He stopped in his bedroom, the final room of the house. She wasn’t here.
“Tommy,” Luke called from behind him.
He turned around.
“This isn’t what you want to hear right now, but you need to talk to the police.”
“We’ll find her,” Christian said, walking up from behind Luke. “We’ll find her.”
Tommy looked at the two of them, feeling tears threatening to overwhelm him. He couldn’t cry right now, and he knew it—he had to focus, because his fiancé was missing.
Another case, he thought. Another fucking case. Cold and detached. That’s what Alice needs right now. Not you sobbing in front of cops that are trying to find her.
In that moment, his mind came as close as it ever would to resembling Christian’s. His shoulders straightened and his hands stopped shaking. The tears that wanted to pour from his eyes disappeared, his mind listening to commands like a computer system.
He walked past Luke and Christian, heading to the living room.
“Who’s in charge?” he said to the five cops.
“I am,” Vidak said.
“Let’s talk.”
Christian sat in Luke’s office, Luke behind his desk. The sun was just coming up over the horizon and people were beginning to fill the building. Neither Christian nor Luke had slept, and Tommy was still at the police station answering questions.
“Let’s give it a shot,” Christian said.
Luke nodded and hit the speakerphone on his desk. They were calling Waverly’s cell. Very, very few agents in the bureau had the number, and none of their three had ever used it. Now was the time, though, if there had ever been one.
“Hello?” the FBI Director answered.
“Sir, it’s Luke Titan and I’m here with Christian Windsor.”
A pause on the line, and then Waverly responded, “I’m guessing this is important.”
“Yes, sir,” Christian said. “It couldn’t wait to go through your assistant.”
“I’m listening.”
Christian co
uld tell Waverly was still pissed from their last interaction. It didn’t matter, though. That would all disappear momentarily.
“There was a break-in at Tommy’s apartment last night,” Luke said. “His fiancée, Alice Stromin, was kidnapped.”
A longer silence ensued. Christian looked up at Luke, his face indecipherable.
“What do we know?” the Director finally asked.
“Not much yet,” Luke said. “Nothing else in the condominium was disturbed. The door was kicked in, which means she probably didn’t know the intruder. Neighbors called the police when they heard the door, but the intruder was gone before anyone arrived.”
“I’m going to regret this question; I already know it. Do you think this has anything to do with Hinson? And before you answer, remember that in my mind he is one hundred percent innocent. So think before you respond.”
Christian wasn’t going to say a word. Anything from him on the subject would be ignored, discarded as fanciful delusions.
“Sir, we think it’s a possibility.”
“What do you need?” Waverly asked.
“Twenty-four hour surveillance on Hinson,” Luke continued. “A warrant to his house would be preferable.”
“Surveillance is a go. Warrant will take some time, if it’s even possible, especially after the bullshit you two pulled up here. What else do you need?”
“Is a warrant for his internet history possible?” Christian said.
“Maybe, but doubtful. Again, consider your answers carefully before speaking. What do you think this man is doing with the women?”
Christian and Luke looked at each other. Christian didn’t know because he hadn’t spent any time in his mansion learning about Hinson. His purpose had been singular: simply stop him, without trying to understand anything.
“We don’t know, sir,” Luke said.
“Windsor, you don’t have any idea? That big brain of yours didn’t come up with some theories?”
“I dropped the case, sir,” Christian said.
A brief pause.
“Why would he take Tommy’s fiancée?” Waverly asked.