Lethal in Love

by Michelle Somers

  A loud squelch shattered her thoughts. Then came a muffled grunt that sounded all too familiar.

  Her head snapped around in time to witness Georgie’s surprised gurgle before she slid to the floor. Her eyes were wide, pleading, the sky blue of her shirt swallowed by a growing circle of red. Juz withdrew the knife from her chest as if she were a slab of butter, and stabbed her twice more in the abdomen. By the time he slit her throat the light in her brown eyes was gone.

  He wiped both sides of the blade on Georgie’s trousers then straightened. ‘How does it feel to be right, Jayda?’

  Her throat constricted and she gasped for air. For all her sins, Georgie didn’t deserve this end. But then again, neither did she.

  It seemed Juz had found his voice again. It may have been laboured and weak, but the bastard was still living and breathing and able to do what he’d promised. Rob her last breath.

  She began to shake.

  ‘Oh, come now, no need to panic. Your end won’t hurt half as much.’ He stepped forwards. Jayda jerked her shoulders and twisted her wrists.

  Georgie’s perfect rope-tying prevented her from further movement.

  The bloody blade brushed against her cheek and she twisted away. Cold metal slid over her ear, towards the warmth of her beating jugular. She flinched.

  ‘No need to worry, that’s not the fate I have in store for you.’ The laughter rasped out from his throat as he dropped the knife. ‘Nothing but the full Night Terror treatment for you, my dear friend.’ He touched his fingertips to her lips. ‘This moment could be quite beautiful if you stop fighting and relax.’

  She snapped her teeth, barely missing his fingers as they skipped without hesitation towards her collarbone.

  ‘I hear that when the body is deprived of oxygen it feels like you’re drifting, as if you’re falling into a peaceful, deep sleep. Give up the fight, Jayda. It’s over.’

  ‘I’ll never stop fighting, you sick fucker.’

  ‘Never say never.’

  ‘Go to hell, Juz.’

  ‘Yes, I will. And I have every intention of taking you with me.’

  Her heartbeat belted against her eardrums. A light flickered above and the world receded until there was nothing but Juz. He filled her vision, her entire universe. His minty breath became her air, his touch on her cheek, her neck, her sole link to reality.

  His fingers wrapped around her throat, surprisingly warm, surprisingly gentle. She twisted her head side to side, but the fingers remained, and slowly, gradually, they began to tighten.

  The roar of a thousand oceans filled her ears. Her head floated, then her body followed. Fields of clover spanned out before her, mesmerising, inviting. Light transformed to dark and warm turned to ice. His mouth moved to cover hers. Her brain screamed. Her limbs heavy, lethargic, too weak to resist.

  Thunder clapped. Then again. The grip around her neck relaxed. Then came silence as a dark, cold world consumed her and awareness became a thing of the past.

  66

  ‘Juz Callum! Raise your hands and step away from the victim!’ Chase’s bellow could have been a whine for all its effect.

  There was no talking a psychopath down, and Seth wasn’t about to stand around and watch while this one killed the woman he loved.

  He dodged the front line of detectives, their weapons all levelled at the lowlife. Ignoring Chase’s shout, he ran, wanting nothing more than the crack of bone beneath his fist as he pummelled the bastard into the ground.

  Juz’s lips latched to Jayda’s like a leech to its life-giving host.

  Blood roared through Seth’s veins. He couldn’t have survived the blast only to be too late to save Jayda now.

  The parasite pulled back, eyes glazed, teeth bared, fingers wrapped firmly around Jayda’s neck. He turned and his demented glee slipped.

  Seth was almost upon him and only then did the villain’s hands drop to reach for his waist. Seth saw a gun and leapt. The blast thundered in his ears and ceiling plaster rained over them as they toppled to the ground. Air whooshed from his lungs and all he could hear was laboured breathing, Juz’s and his own, accompanied by shouts from the surrounding detectives. He pushed himself up.

  Now he knew what it was to stare into the eyes of a madman.

  Juz glanced deliberately towards Jayda’s limp body, then back to Seth. Blue lips stretched taut across teeth that released a hiss. ‘I win.’

  Seth growled and punched him straight between his beady killer eyes. The nasal bone didn’t crack beneath his knuckles. Instead, sharp pain shot through his fingers and up into his arm. Juz’s head juddered and his eyes closed. A hollow victory. There wasn’t time for more. Seth scrambled up and rushed towards Jayda.

  Firm hands wrapped around his wrist and yanked him back before he could get further. Chase’s pretty-boy face hijacked his vision and Seth tried to wrestle free, tried to see around the big oaf.

  An officer rushed past, cuffs in hand, and kicked the gun out of Juz’s reach.

  Chase jabbed his chest with his free hand, effectively pushing him backwards and further from Jayda, his nostrils flaring like a dragon ready to spit fire. ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’

  ‘Your frigging job!’

  Seth tried to wrench free, but Chase’s grip tightened, his eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t make me cuff you, Seth!’

  ‘Dammit, Chase. I need to know she’s okay.’

  ‘And you will, when the paramedics do their job.’ Seth winced as Chase jabbed his finger hard into his chest again. ‘Which part of “stay back” didn’t get through your thick skull?’

  ‘Officer down!’

  Seth spun around. The officer who’d rushed past only seconds earlier writhed on the ground, hands clutching at a knife and blood seeping from his abdomen.

  Juz sat up, the officer’s cuffs dangling from the wrist of one hand, his gun gripped in the other. He raised his arm and levelled the black barrel at Seth. Pain smacked through his chest as Chase’s palm connected with his ribs. He stumbled backwards, heard the crack! before he saw the gun in the detective’s hand.

  Juz’s right shoulder jerked backwards. He pushed himself up. Would the sonovabitch never die?

  Again he raised the weapon.

  Chase’s second shot found its mark. Juz slumped to the ground, the hole in his chest blooming slowly into a circle of red.

  Two officers converged on the body before it could spring to life a third time. Others escorted a team of paramedics towards Jayda and the officer at her feet.

  Before he could join them, Chase hauled him over to the exit. He craned his neck. Both Jayda and the officer had disappeared beneath a sea of blue uniforms. Much as he was tempted, punching the lights out of Jayda’s partner would do nothing but get him even further removed from her.

  Chase thrust him towards two officers. ‘Watch this idiot! If he moves, cuff him!’

  The men sized him up and nodded. Both held their palms against their batons. Not that he’d consider defying them.

  ‘Don’t think I won’t shoot your ass if you so much as sniff at my crime scene.’ With a final wilting glare, Chase stalked away, barking commands at every officer in his path.

  Seth raked his hand through his hair. He couldn’t see shit. His gut had twisted into so many knots even a sailor wouldn’t have a clue where to start. And all he could do was comply with Chase’s dictates. He’d never felt so damned helpless in his life. Not even when the speeding car had slammed into his parents’ sedan and he’d gaped into the bloodied, lifeless eyes of his older brother.

  Chase’s back receded beyond the blue. Seth squared his feet and waited—alone in the furore and at the mercy of his imagination.

  No pain.

  Jayda floated downwards on a sea of warmth and softness. Waves rolling over sandy beaches lulled her ears while a white glow teased at her eyelids, beckoning for them to open.

  And there was peace. Eternal peace. This had to be heaven.

  Nothing in her past warrant
ed a trip to that other place. Sure, she’d been no angel growing up. But she’d been no devil either. One of the good guys, fighting for truth, justice and the good ole Aussie way.

  Cops and robbers had been her favourite game back as far as she could remember. At the age of seven, armed with a set of two dollar handcuffs and plastic .38, she’d apprehended Bec the Burglar, considering the subsequent shattering of her grandmother’s crystal vase necessary collateral damage. Unfortunately, her father hadn’t seen it that way. She and Bec had lost TV privileges for an entire week.

  At ten, Benjamin Carmichael had told her that the perfect way to prevent a car from starting was to stick a potato in the exhaust pipe. What he didn’t add was that it could also blow the exhaust valve. The experiment cost her TV privileges for a month and over a year’s pocket money, plus change.

  Thirteen had seen her take pot shots at her mother’s prize pumpkins with a pellet gun, but by this age she’d gained street smarts. Tilly, next door’s crazy terrier, had shouldered the blame for the yellow splattered mess all over the backyard. The poor pup had also received a stern reprimand for the tunnelled prison escape beneath the back garden fence.

  The warmth of those memories rolled over her.

  Mischievous, yes. Bad, no. Not enough to discount her from floating among fairy floss clouds in glorious, perpetual sunshine.

  Jayda?

  The name wafted through the mist and into her consciousness. Something pressed against one fingernail, then another. Pain shafted through the third and she gasped.

  She tried to open her eyes, but it proved more difficult than she’d expected. Her eyelids felt heavy, her hand too when she tried to lift it. Her lashes dragged, then fluttered open, and her surroundings melded into a kaleidoscopic blur. Low voices filtered through the cottonwool. One in particular sent familiar tingles down her spine. It sounded distant, but it stood to reason that if she were in heaven he’d be there to meet her.

  If he’d failed to survive that blast.

  Her heart twisted, the sharp pierce in her chest unexpected. Was it possible to still feel pain after death?

  ‘Seth?’

  Someone rubbed her hand. A face emerged—olive skin, beach blond hair. There were others around her, two close enough to recognise. None of them the face she wanted to see.

  The clearest of the faces spoke. ‘I’m Michael, a paramedic. I’m here to check that you’re okay. How do you feel?’

  The haze in her head sharpened. ‘I’m not dead?’

  ‘You’re very much alive.’ His fingers rested against the flying pulse on her neck. ‘Can you tell me your full name?’

  Her mind whirled. She was alive! A tiny corner of her heart twisted when she realised she wouldn’t see Bec—not now, not for a while longer—but there was another part that leapt for joy at her second chance at life.

  She sensed the bustle around her, felt the charged energy of an active crime scene. Uniforms and detectives hugged the periphery of the room whilst forensics did what forensics did best.

  She craned her neck for any sign of Chase, anyone from the Pacu task force. Or Seth. Had she heard his voice earlier or was that all part of her pre-awareness daze?

  Michael rubbed the back of her hand, pulling her thoughts and gaze back to his overly blue eyes. ‘Your name?’

  ‘Jayda Marie Thomasz.’

  ‘Do you know where you are, Jayda?’

  She blinked. The ghostly outlines of covered gym equipment swam into focus. That included the multi-gym to her right, still sporting her material bindings.

  She shivered. ‘Prahran Health and Fitness.’

  Michael nodded to another paramedic who passed him a thermometer. ‘That’s good, Jayda.’ He ran the nozzle back and forth across her forehead until it beeped. ‘Are you cold?’

  She shook her head and bit her lip as the room swam again. Someone covered her body with a blanket. The wiry fibres scratched in her clenched palm. ‘The man who did this to me, his name is Juz Callum. Is he still here?’

  Michael’s cool hand covered hers. ‘You’re safe. He can no longer hurt you.’ The standard, non-committal response didn’t tell her nearly enough. She pushed herself up and immediately regretted it as the room swirled. She allowed Michael to ease her back down. ‘Is he in custody?’

  ‘I’m sure the detectives will be able to fill you in as soon as we’re done. Look at me, please.’ He flicked a penlight across one eye and then the other. When he finished, he checked her pulse again. ‘Can you tell me where you hurt?’

  ‘You don’t understand. I’m a detective and this man is dangerous.’ She grasped his wrist. ‘I need to know what happened.’

  ‘At the moment you’re my patient. Once I’ve determined you’re okay, we’ll see what we can find out. So, tell me, do you feel any pain?’

  Arguing the matter meant drawing on energy she didn’t have. Instead, her mind merged with her body and the subliminal gave way to reality.

  Her fingers ran over the puffy skin stretched across her cheek. She winced. No wonder she could barely open her eyes. She licked her lips. Blood. Then she remembered Juz, his lips covering hers . . .

  Her stomach heaved. She rolled over just in time to spill her guts onto a pair of overworn white runners.

  Someone cursed.

  ‘Jayda?’ Michael’s voice again. Soft. Reassuring.

  Strong arms supported her back as cool, professional fingers pushed her hair from her face.

  ‘Everywhere. I hurt everywhere.’ Most of all in my heart.

  No fixing that.

  She had to know. Good news or not, she couldn’t bear not knowing. ‘A bomb detonated in St Kilda. Was anyone hurt?’

  ‘I heard something about an explosion but I didn’t attend the scene. I’ll see what I can find out for you.’ Again he nodded to one of his counterparts. ‘In the meantime, we’re going to get you onto a stretcher and take you to St Vincent’s. You’ve had a couple of nasty blows to the head which need monitoring, and I’d like someone to take a closer look at your stomach. You may need stitches.’

  She opened her mouth to tell Michael she wasn’t going anywhere without answers, but the room began to spin and it took all her energy not to chuck her guts again. Next thing she knew, Michael had a syringe and he was checking the inside of her elbow for veins. ‘Do you have any allergies, Jayda?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Good. Here’s something for the pain.’ She felt the cool rub of alcohol and then pressure on her arm. ‘Deep breath now. It’ll only sting a little.’ Her skin burned, then cold flooded her vein.

  Cool hands checked her pulse, her forehead, then lifted her up. Someone called her name. It sounded so much like Seth. But then the spinning intensified and she had to close her eyes.

  Another dream. Flickering. Floating.

  Wind-swept clouds, wafting gently over her.

  She let them.

  It was easier. Welcome. Because dreams were heaven-sent, and that meant Seth would be alive.

  67

  ‘Jayda!’

  Seth strained for a glimpse beyond the huddle of royal blue. Seeing through a hurricane would have been easier.

  Was she hurt? Alive?

  Damn Chase for being such an ass! Leaving him to stew over a multitude of possibilities, each horrible likelihood scrambling for equal footing.

  All he could do was wait for news while taking comfort in the fact that she was surrounded by paramedics rather than forensics.

  He pressed forwards. Once again, a restraining palm stopped him from moving beyond the tape. He shot the officer his best man-to-man look. ‘Come on, man. It’s my girlfriend in there.’

  ‘It’s also a crime scene and orders are orders.’ Déjà vu. Only this time the reality of his possible loss hit him square in his pounding, aching heart.

  Juz was sprawled inert on the floor, the bloodied Georgie not far beyond him. There was no satisfaction in knowing that the man who’d betrayed Jayda so brutally was dead. Not until he kn
ew whether she was alive.

  Someone grabbed his shoulder and he swung around.

  Chase’s hand dropped. His expression had lost its edge, although warm and fuzzy it was not. ‘She’s going to be okay.’

  If he didn’t know better, he’d have said there were tears in the other man’s eyes. Not that it was easy to see through the moisture in his own.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Much as I should arrest your ass for the stunt you pulled back there, I’m going to do my damnedest to get you off the hook. If you hadn’t uncovered that birth certificate, we might never have found Jayda in time.’

  He could see how much the concession cost Chase. As though every word was a razor blade swallowed. But regardless of delivery, it was a truce.

  Seth nodded. ‘At the end of the day, we’re both after the same thing. Jayda’s safety.’

  He left it at that. They both wanted more, but there could be only one victor in that department, and it wasn’t Chase.

  A pathway cleared as Jayda’s stretcher was wheeled to the door.

  ‘I want to go with her.’

  Chase shook his head, his expression hardening.

  Seth’s resolve hardened with it. He drew Chase to the side and whispered in his ear. ‘What if I promise to shut my mouth and keep what’s under that bandage from your superiors?’

  Chase pulled back, his eyes darting from side-to-side as he gripped his wrist. ‘You bastard! What do you think you know?’

  ‘The truth. Amazing the dirt that rises when you begin to dig.’

  ‘You looked into me?’

  ‘I looked into everyone with a connection to Jayda. What? You can’t tell me you didn’t do the same.’ He glared at the other man through narrowed eyes. ‘Do we have a deal?’

  Chase looked ready to explode. But he had to know he’d been beat. He hesitated, then nodded.