Steven James - The Rook

That’s why I was heading for the shark acclimation pool. It seemed like the logical place for him to bring her. And I was close.

Just a few more turns and I’d be there.

Tessa’s heart trembled with exhilaration and fear. The fan’s twitching air brushed across the curtains, they rippled faintly, and Tessa thought that in the dim light, the bluish curtains appeared purple.

And with that thought, Poe whispered to her, his words riding through the centuries, rising from the grave, “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.”

Fantastic terrors.

Never felt before.

Tessa had never hooked up with a guy. Not like this. It was something her mom had been really intense about, and ever since she died, despite two close calls, Tessa had honored that wish. No.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

Terrors never felt before.

“So, I was thinking…” Riker said. “No.” She pulled away from him but stumbled a little. Off balance. Everything was off balance. “No. I need to go.”

“We just got here.”

She backed away. “I need to go. I have to leave.”

Riker came toward her and grabbed her forearm. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Raven. Not so fast.” His grip was tighter than it needed to be.

“I said no. Now, let go of my arm.”

No, this can’t be happening.

He held her.

“Let go!”

He let go slowly but stood with arms flexed ready to grab her again. “I’ve been thinking it’s time we made a little trade.”

Terrors never felt before.

“What kind of trade?” She reached for a rubber band on her wrist. Found none.

He let a smile wander across his face, but it wasn’t really a smile.

“You don’t really believe I’d let you have a tattoo like that, five hours of work, for $180. Lachlan’s the best around. You’re wearing over $700 worth of ink and time.”

Though faint, the music was pounding behind his words. A dark heartbeat. “You told him to give it to me.” Tessa was edging toward the door. “To give me whatever I wanted.”

“That’s right. I did. I gave you what you wanted, and now it’s time for you to give me what I want. And the way I figure it, I’ve got at least a couple hours coming to me.”

Her stomach filled with ice. She rushed for the door but was too slow. Riker beat her to it and nailed it shut with one strong arm.

She began to back away from him, toward the window.

It was the only thing she could think to do.

To jump.

Jump.

I stepped past the wet suits hanging behind the staircase and saw Lien-hua chained to the bottom of the shark acclimation pool, water to the middle of her thighs. When she saw me I pressed a finger to my lips to signal for her to keep my arrival a secret, and then with the other hand I fingerspelled, “How many?”

With her hand hidden behind her leg she fingerspelled back to me, “One, maybe two.”

I could hear Creighton Melice’s voice. “Do you miss your sister, Lien-hua?”

Sister?

“What did you just say?” she called to Melice, her voice cold, unyielding.

“Weapons?” I asked her with my fingers.

“Gun. Darts. Device,” she signed to me while she stared at him.

“Your sister. Chu-hua. Do you miss her? I miss Mirabelle. It must be different for you, though. I hear identical twins share a special connection.”

Lien-hua never mentioned a twin sister.

“When one twin feels pain,” Melice said, “sometimes the other one does too. That’s what they say. When one dies, the other feels like half of her life is gone. Is it true? I’ve heard it is. I’ve always wondered.” I began to creep up the steps.

Eliminate the greater threat first.

Melice or Shade? “So Agent Lien-hua Jiang,” Melice went on. “How does it feel to know that you’re about to die the same way she did?”

The moment Creighton Melice mentioned Chu-hua’s name, it all came back. The memories, the regret, the terrible images burned in Lien-hua’s mind, they all came howling at her from her past, found the moment, and blistered apart inside of her.

Chu-hua facedown in the pool… Maybe she was still alive…

She might have been… Maybe Lien-hua could have saved her if only she’d tried. If only she’d known how to swim. If only she hadn’t been afraid of the water.

Lien-hua slid her fingertips between the metal bars of the grate and yanked until the metal began to groove through her skin, but the grate didn’t budge.

“You never believed it was an accident, did you?” Melice went on. “That’s what the cops told you, but you wouldn’t believe it.”

He was right, and she hated that he was right. It’s why she’d become a detective, then a profiler, to give others what she’d been denied-the truth.

Pat, you need to hurry.

“It’s too bad we don’t have time for me to show you the footage,” Melice said. “She was my first home movie. My first real girlfriend.”

Creighton smiled. Yes. Shade, his friend, his fan, really had been following his career, really had found the blog entries.

Really had chosen him for a reason.

It was all so perfect.

A complete circle.

“I hadn’t thought of the chain back then,” he called to Lien-hua.

“It’s a lot better this way, though, don’t you think?” The next few events happened in only a matter of seconds.

Tessa backed up all the way to the window. Tried opening it.

Locked.

Riker just watched her. Then he came at her, fast, grasped both of her shoulders, and shoved her against the wall.

“No, no, no.” Tessa felt queasy, tired. Why did she have to have those drinks? It was hard to focus, to know what to do. She tried to kick her knee into his crotch, but he must have been expecting it because he turned his leg to the side, and all she caught was his thigh.

Riker slid his hand from her shoulders to her upper arms and squeezed his right hand into her tender tattoo. A flare of pain sent bursts of sharp light sprinkling across her eyes. She wanted to cry out, needed to cry out, but refused to make a sound. Refused to give him the satisfaction of making her cry. He squeezed harder, and a tear eased from the edge of her eye, but Tessa didn’t let herself cringe.

“I was hoping to do this the easy way.” His voice was low and filled with malice. “But we don’t have to. It’s your choice.”

Think fast, think fast, think fast. “I need to get ready.”

“You look ready to me.”

Stall, Tessa. Stall. “No. I’m serious. I just need a minute in the bathroom, OK?”

“No, you don’t.”

“Shut up. I do. It’s girl stuff. Let go.”

She wasn’t sure he would do it, but at last he slowly released his grip.

Thank goodness. The screaming pain in her arm began to quiet itself.

“All right. Five minutes. Get yourself ready. But if you don’t come out in five, I’m coming in. And I won’t be so gentle then.” Tessa snatched up her canvas satchel, pushed past him, and slammed the bathroom door shut behind her.

Here she could be safe.

Here she would be safe.

She reached to lock the door but found that the doorknob had no lock. She spun around. No window. No other door. No way out.

And then a chill, raw and deep.

“They know me here,” Riker had told her just after they entered the club. “I come here a lot.”

“Oh, no, please God, no,” she whispered, and as she said the words they became a terrified prayer. “I’m not the first one.”

Now at the top of the stairs.

Go for the greater threat. Look for a gun.

With one smooth motion I stepped forward onto the deck and swung my gun at Melice. “Hands to the side where I can see them, get on your knees.” I didn’t see a gun in his hands, but eight meters away I did see the world’s most perfect assassination weapon device, aimed right at my head. The removable cesium-137 pack was in my car, but I wasn’t sure; the device might still work.