by Becca Van
Jasmine might be small, but she was as tough as nails. He smiled when he remembered her declaration of not being made of glass. She certainly wasn’t. She was feisty and prickly and all theirs.
He was happy and in love for the first time in his life, but in the background, fear still lurked. Fear that the serial killer would end up getting his hands on her and killing her.
Cooper pushed those pessimistic thoughts aside and carefully withdrew his softening cock from her ass. When he was sure he could hold his own weight without stumbling, he lifted her off of Tanner and carried her toward the bathroom. She sighed with contentment, rested her head on his shoulder and gazed up at him with her soft, dreamy blue eyes.
She was so damn beautiful she made his heart ache.
He just hoped that, once all the shit was over, he and Tanner could convince her to move to Cody and in with them. Even though she’d declared her love to them, it wasn’t a given that she would put them first. Some women were more career orientated, their jobs taking precedence over a relationship, over love. He prayed that Jasmine wasn’t one of those women.
* * * *
She’d slept like a log. She smiled as she drove Misha’s car toward the inn. Jasmine hadn’t slept for seven hours straight in so long she’d forgotten how good a person could feel after getting decent sleep.
There was a definite sparkle to her blue eyes, and she hoped that it would remain for days to come.
“Shit! No frigging parking spaces.” Jasmine circled the block as she looked for somewhere to park. She spied an empty space outside a shop just closing for the night. She waved to the smiling woman through the glass door since she was a familiar face at the inn and then set off at a brisk pace toward the bar.
It was Friday afternoon, and the place was already buzzing with loud conversation and laughter. The smell of alcohol had her nose wrinkling, but after a few minutes, she wouldn’t even be able to smell that pungent scent anymore.
“Hey, guys.” She greeted the other employees already hard at work.
“Hey yourself, sugar.” Ron, one of the other bar attendants, sidled up to her. When he eyed her body up and down, she scowled at him and took a step back. “Aw, don’t be like that. I was just—”
Jasmine gave him the palm of her hand, put her purse beneath the bar, and started serving customers. She caught Ron eying her often from the corner of her eye but ignored him. He was young, and though he was handsome in that pretty-boy kind of way, he did nothing for her.
She looked out over the sea of people mingling as they drank, keeping her gaze on the door whenever someone else entered. Or at least she tried to, but it was hard when she was also working. When she had the opportunity, she gazed toward the shadowy corners, trying to see who was sitting in the back, but her alarm radar wasn’t pinging.
Before she’d left, Tanner and Coop had made sure her mic and earpiece were working and told her it was their turn to monitor her for the night. Her heart had gone all a flutter when she’d met their determined, protective gazes and once more she’d been tempted to call in sick. Nonetheless, she had a job to do, and she wasn’t quitting until that asshole was incarcerated. She had no idea where her men had hidden their vehicle and hoped it hadn’t been too far away, but even if it was, she wasn’t concerned.
She worked steadily through the night, not worried about texting her men since they were listening in. About an hour before her shift was due to end, the hair on her nape stood on end. She glanced about the thinning crowd but couldn’t pinpoint where the danger was coming from. Ron bumped her shoulder as he reached for a bottle of spirits on the shelf above her head, and though she was about to give him the evil eye, his gaze portrayed his apology before he muttered, “Sorry.” She chuckled when he scuttled back to the other end of the bar. When her cell phone vibrated in her pocket, she pulled it out and read the text.
Jasmine, we have to attend to a break in at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Clay, Spence, and Dawson are attending a fight outside the Beartooth Inn. A large group of drunk college students are scaring the motel guests. Don’t leave the bar until we get back. Love you. See you soon, Coop.
She appreciated the heads up but she wasn’t going to hang around waiting for her guys. They could be held up for hours. If they still weren’t back when she finished her shift, maybe she would drive over to them in case they needed backup. She smiled over that thought. They would be so pissed at her. She shrugged and then got back to work.
Jasmine glanced at the clock on the far wall and sighed with relief when she realized her shift was over. It was fifteen minutes passed her usual knock-off time, but there’d been a last-minute rush of people ordering drinks, and she hadn’t wanted to leave Ron to have to deal with them on his own.
The hair at her nape hadn’t gone down, and her internal alarm was pinging that danger was close, but she still couldn’t see where or if the threat was close by. With a hasty good-bye to Ron and Wanda, one of the waitresses, she grabbed her purse and headed out. After making sure no one was nearby, she moved the gun at the small of her back and shoved the barrel down the front of her jeans.
Since it had been hard to leave her guys without losing herself in their kisses, she’d been running late and hadn’t been able to get a parking space in the lot out back. She remained vigilant as she walked quickly, and even glanced about to make sure no one was following her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched.
Jasmine pushed the central locking button on the key fob as she approached the car, and just as she opened the driver’s door, she noticed the front tire was flat. There was a long cut in the rubber. Someone had slashed the tire with a knife. “My tires flat.” When she didn’t get a response, she hoped her guys were all right. Hoped that they weren’t facing an armed burglar. They’d tested the communication equipment as she’d walked toward work so she knew it was working. Unless something had fucked up in the last hour or so.
When the hair on her nape rose even more, she tuned all senses to her surroundings, alert to any little noise or disturbance in the air. She dropped her purse onto the seat and was about to ask Tanner and Cooper to come and get her, hoping they wouldn’t leave her hanging too long, but she didn’t get the chance.
A large hand covered her mouth and nose, and she froze when she felt the prick against her throat. She yelled, hoping to get Tanner’s and Cooper’s attention, but the sound was muffled and she wasn’t sure if they’d have been able to hear her. She didn’t need to see or ask who was behind her. She already knew. The only consolation was the prick was from the tip of a knife and not a needled filled with drugs. If the fucker had thought to knock her out, she would have been a dead woman.
Her heart slammed against her ribs, and she began to pant. Jasmine embraced the adrenaline and hormones as danger sent her body in preparation for the flight-or-fight situation.
There was no way she was fleeing. It was time to fight.
* * * *
“Did you hear that?” Tanner asked as his muscles tensed. He slammed the back door to the truck, not really caring if their petty thief got away. Although that wasn’t possible since the young man had his hands cuffed behind his back. There was no way he’d be able to open the back door even if he managed to maneuver enough to reach it. Tanner had flicked the child lock lever on the door before closing it and Coop had done the same to the other back passenger door.
“Yeah. Let’s go. Call the others when we’re on the way.” Cooper grabbed a mic and clipped it to his shirt. Tanner did the same. They’d already been wearing earpieces. Cooper had the driver’s door shut and then engine running as Tanner checked his weapon got into the truck.
He hadn’t even closed the passenger door before they were racing down the street.
Tanner pulled his cell from his pocket and called Clay. “He’s making a move now,” he said without giving the sheriff time to say a word.
“Where are you?” Clay asked.
“Heading toward
the inn.”
“We’ll be there soon.”
“Fuck!” Coop shouted when he heard Jasmine grunt with pain.
“Drive faster,” Tanner yelled, grabbing the “oh shit” handle as they skidded around a corner. Tanner wished they hadn’t been called away to a break-and-enter. If they’d been sitting outside the inn instead of being so far away from Jasmine while they’d monitored her, they could have had their killer in handcuffs already. The precious minutes ticking past could be the difference between her living or dying.
* * * *
Jasmine decided to play the sick fuck and whimpered with fear. Normally she would use the hormones coursing through her body and swing into action, but, she decided to bide her time.
She let the hormones take over and trembled in the psychopath’s arms. He moaned and shoved his hard cock into her back. She almost gagged with revulsion but swallowed the bile trying to come up her throat. He must have thought her too scared to move, or maybe he was so sick he wasn’t thinking straight. The hand he had covering her mouth eased, letting her breath a little deeper, but the knife point remained over her carotid. She wasn’t about to make a move when he could kill her by plunging that knife into a major artery.
“I’ve waited to have you far too long.” His voice was lower and raspier than she remembered. She snorted with disbelief but quickly changed it to a cough. She didn’t want to alert the psycho that she knew who he was. He might just decide to kill her faster if he realized the game was up. “We’re going to have so much fun together, and when the fun is over, you’ll be mine for all time.”
That’s what you think, you sick bastard.
Jasmine shuffled backward when he began moving away from Misha’s car. She let an occasional tremor quiver through her body and whimpered every now and then. If he thought she was frozen with terror, he would be complacent and wouldn’t guard against her attacking him. She stumbled when he began moving faster and relished the pain of the .22 she had strapped to her ankle knocking into the other one.
She must have known something was going to go down tonight because usually she had her Glock tucked in the waistband of her jeans, hidden under the hip-length shirt she’d worn to conceal the fact she was packing.
He dragged her to a small alleyway between two buildings, and when she spied the black truck, she knew it was time to make her move. If she got into that vehicle, she would be at his mercy and have less room to maneuver and fight her way out.
She made her move.
She reached back, grabbed the wrist holding the knife against her neck, forced the tip away from her flesh, and then twisted hard enough to break his wrist. He yelled with pain when his wrist snapped, the knife falling to the ground, but Jasmine kept right on moving. She spun into him so that she was side on, and then she bent lower and flipped him over her hip. He landed with a thud. He snatched the knife from the ground with his uninjured hand and turned to face her. His eyes widened, and his face contorted with rage when he realized she wasn’t who he’d thought she was. Recognition had finally set in.
Jasmine forced her lips into a smile and then goaded him by curling her fingers at him to come and get her.
“You’re going to die, you fucking bitch.”
“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Jasmine taunted. She knew she shouldn’t be baiting him, but she just couldn’t seem to help herself. He’d killed so many women, leaving shock and grief behind. He needed to pay for what he’d done. “Poor little Billy Bush abused by his mommy.”
He roared as he gripped the knife harder in his left hand and rushed toward her.
* * * *
The wheels screeched as Cooper hit the brakes, sliding to a stop inches away one of the few cars still in the inn parking lot. “Where the fuck is she?”
“If you’d been listening to me, we’d already be there,” Tanner yelled. “Two hundred and fifty yards that way. I saw Misha’s car outside one of the shops when we drove down this street when we were looking for our own space.”
Cooper slammed the vehicle into reverse and pressed hard down on the gas pedal. The tires spun, blue acrid smoke rising, tires squealing as he sped out of the parking lot. He shifted to first and floored it.
Tanner sighed with relief when he saw Misha’s car parked outside a dark empty shop, but the relief was short-lived. The driver’s side door was wide open, her purse on the front seat, but she was nowhere to be seen. Coop stopped the car in the middle of the road, blocking Misha’s car in, turned off the ignition, and jumped out. He spun in circles as he pulled his weapon from his holster, hoping to set eyes on her. Tanner was out of the truck, weapon in hand and the safety off seconds before his friend.
“Over there.” Cooper pointed across the road toward a poorly lit alley.
Tanner heard a scuffle seconds before he pivoted and sprinted across the road. Cooper was right beside him.
* * * *
Jasmine kept her body loose as Billy, aka Anthony Wood, charged at her. She couldn’t see his face since he was wearing a grotesque clown mask, nor his eyes because of the poor lighting in the alley.
His left arm rose above his head as he rushed toward her, but she was ready. The second he was within touching distance, she balanced her weight on one leg and kicked out hard with the other. Her aim was true. He screamed in agony just after her foot connected with his kneecap. She’d either broken his leg or dislocated his knee, but the fucker didn’t go down.
She blocked his arm with her left as he tried to stab her and then followed up with a jab at his throat with the side of her hand. He gasped and choked, but he still kept coming. Being a psychopath gave him the added advantage of being emotionless, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t feeling any pain. Fury at being duped must have been what was keeping him upright.
He managed to unbalance her when he bent and shoved his shoulder into her stomach, but a quick sidestep kept her upright. She saw the blade coming at her from the corner of her eye, and it would have stabbed into her shoulder if she hadn’t been trained in karate. She grabbed hold of his wrist, pried his thumb from around the hilt of the knife, and bent it back toward his arm. He yelled just before the knife clattered to the ground. Using the thumb hold, she forced him to his knees and shoved one of hers into the middle of his back, taking him down to the ground. She unhooked the cuffs from her belt, securing one wrist. As she brought the tethered arm around his back, he half turned toward her.
She’d made a grave mistake, and now she was going to pay for it.
Jasmine hadn’t kicked the knife away, and although his wrist was broken, he’d somehow managed to grab it without her noticing. The tip of the blade came toward her thigh, but since she already had her hands full trying to hold him down, she didn’t have time and wasn’t going to be able to deflect it.
* * * *
Cooper reached her just in time. He kicked the knife away with his foot. The blade sailed through the air, bounced on the hard ground, and skittered a few inches.
“Ever heard of the saying just in the nick of time?” Jasmine asked with a grin.
“Fuck!” Coop spun on his heels and began to pace. The hands he scrubbed over his face were shaking.
Tanner held Wood down while Jasmine cuffed his arms behind his back and then hauled him to his feet. Tanner ripped the clown mask away from the killer’s face and stared him in the eye. Wood’s face was vacant of expression or emotion.
Clay, Dawson, and Kent arrived minutes later.
Jasmine turned to face Wood as she dug into the pocket of her jeans. She flipped open her badge and shoved it into Wood’s face. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand your rights?”
Wood didn’t answer but glared at Jasmine with pure hatred.
Cooper gripped her hips and pulled her back a few steps before insinuating himself between them. He let Wood see h
is rage. The other man lowered his gaze first. “Take the fucker away.”
“Gladly.” Clay and Dawson escorted Wood to the car.
Cooper turned to face Jasmine. “Baby, don’t ever—” He couldn’t finish. His throat was so constricted with his roiling emotions the words got stuck.
“It’s okay. I’m safe.”
Tears burned his eyes, and though he tried to keep them at bay, one welled and rolled down his face.
“Cooper,” she said right before she walked into his arms. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. “Ease up, big guy, before you break my ribs.”
“Why didn’t you wait for us?” Tanner asked as he hugged her from behind.
Jasmine shrugged.
“Next time we tell you to do something, you fucking well do it!” Cooper ordered. When she didn’t reply, he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Tell us what happened, baby.
“He crept up on me and covered my mouth with his hand. I yelled as loudly as I could, hoping you’d hear. Obviously, you did.”
“Are you hurt?” Coop asked, his voice hoarse.
“No. You saved me.”
“You saved yourself, honey.” Tanner kissed her cheek and then nuzzled her neck.
Jasmine tilted her head to give him better access. “I did, didn’t I?”
“You’re a fucking modern-day warrior sprite,” Kent said. “Are you ready to get out of here? We need your statement ASAP with all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed.”
Coop grinned when Jasmine scowled at Kent.
“I know how to do my job.”
Kent held his hands up, palm out. “No offense meant. I just don’t want this fucker being able to get off on a technicality.”