Karen Rose - Kill for Me

“Goddammit,” Chase snarled before Luke could speak. “I’ve been trying to get you for twenty minutes. What the hell’s going on down there?”

The ambulance pulled away. “Daniel’s alive, but critical. Alex is unhurt. O’Brien, Mansfield, Granville, and Loomis are dead.” Luke filled his lungs with fresh air, but the taste of death remained on his tongue. “And we have one hell of a situation.”

Dutton, Friday, February 2, 4:40 p.m.

Susannah watched the medics load the girl into the helicopter. “Can I ride with her?”

The older of the two medics shook his head. “Against regs. Plus there’s no room.”

Susannah frowned. “An ambulance took Bailey. The girl’s the only one in there.”

The medics shared a look. “We’re waiting for another patient, ma’am.”

Susannah had opened her mouth to ask who when another ambulance appeared, Luke’s car behind it. Luke jumped out of his car at the same time Alex Fallon climbed out of the ambulance. She was covered in blood, but she appeared unhurt.

“What happened?” Susannah demanded. Then she could see for herself. Daniel.

Her brother was strapped to the stretcher, an oxygen mask covering his face. She watched, frozen, as they wheeled him past and loaded him into the waiting helicopter.

He’d always seemed strong, invincible. Now, strapped to a stretcher, he seemed frail. And in that moment, all she had left in the world. Don’t die. Please don’t die .

Luke put his arm around her shoulders, lifting her, and she realized her knees had gone weak. “He’s alive,” Luke said into her ear. “He’s in bad shape, but he is alive.”

Thank God . “Good,” she said. She started to move away from Luke, whose support suddenly seemed too important, but he grabbed her arms, looking her in the eyes.

“The girl. Did she say anything else?”

“She regained consciousness only a minute or two. She kept saying, ‘He killed them all,’ then asked for her mother. What did she mean? What happened back there?”

Luke’s eyes were intense. “Did she say anything else? Anything . Think .”

“No, nothing else. I’m sure. She started gasping for air and then the medics intubated her. Dammit, Luke, what happened ? What happened to Daniel?”

“I’ll tell you on the way.” He guided her to the front seat, then helped Alex into the back. “Maybe Jane Doe will be awake by the time she gets to the ER.” He gave Susannah a sharp glance as he drove away. “Do you have any open cuts?”

“No.” The dread in her stomach twisted like a snake. “Why?”

“There were five others back there, other teenage girls. All dead. Looks like some kind of human-trafficking operation. Somebody moved some live girls away from here. But we don’t know who. Maybe Jane Doe is the only one who does.”

“Oh my God.” That her girl had been so victimized… Then Luke’s query hit home. “We’re covered in her blood,” she said quietly. They’d worn gloves, but Susannah’s jacket was blood-soaked, as was Luke’s shirt. “If she’s got anything, we’re exposed.”

“They’ll test us for everything when we get to the ER,” Alex said. “They’ll be more worried about hepatitis than HIV. We’ll get gamma globulin shots for the hepatitis.”

“How long for HIV test results these days?” Susannah asked levelly.

“Twenty-four hours,” Alex answered.

“Okay.” Susannah settled in her seat, willing her stomach to settle. Twenty-four hours wasn’t too bad. Faster turnaround than the week it took last time I got tested .

“Luke,” Alex said suddenly, “Granville said something, right before he died.”

Excuse me? Susannah twisted around to look at her again. “Granville’s dead ?”

“Mack O’Brien killed him.” Alex studied Susannah’s face, then her eyes flickered in sympathy. “I’m sorry. You never got to confront him.”

Daniel’s new lady friend was perceptive. “Well, that still leaves two.”

Alex shook her head. “No. Mansfield ’s dead. I killed him after he shot Daniel.”

Gratification warred with frustration. “Did they at least suffer?”

“Not enough,” Luke said grimly. “Alex, what did you mean? What did he say?”

“He said, ‘You think you know everything, but you don’t. There were others.’ ”

Luke nodded. “That makes sense. Somebody kidnapped the remaining girls. There had to have been others working with him.”

Alex shook her head slowly. “No, it wasn’t like that. He said, ‘Simon was mine. But I was another’s.’ ” She grimaced. “Like it was some kind of… cult or something. Creepy.”

I was another’s . A nasty shiver raced down Susannah’s spine as a memory nagged, an overheard conversation, so long ago.

“Did he say who the others might be?” Luke was asking.

“He might have, but that’s when O’Brien came in and shot his head off,” Alex replied.

“ Tick ,” Susannah murmured and Luke turned to her with a puzzled frown.

“What did you say?”

“ Tick ,” she repeated, remembering now. Now it made sense. “I heard them.”

“Who, Susannah?”

“Simon and someone else. A boy. I didn’t see his face. They were in Simon’s room, talking. Arguing. The other boy had apparently bested Simon at some game and Simon accused him of cheating. But the boy said he’d been taught how to win by another.” Mentally she put herself back to that day. “Something to the effect that he knew how to anticipate his opponent’s moves, manipulate his opponent’s response. Simon was still going to beat him up. But the boy convinced him to play another game.”

Alex leaned forward. “And then?”

“Simon lost again. Simon was a bully, but he was also very smart. He wanted to learn how the other boy had done it. I think he was already trying to figure out how to use the skill. He demanded to be taken to the person who’d taught the boy. The boy said it was his tick . His master. I thought at first he was joking, and Simon did, too, but the other boy was very serious. He spoke so… reverentially. Simon was intrigued.”

“So what happened?” Luke asked.

“The boy said if Simon went with him, he’d be forever changed. That he’d ‘belong to another.’ Those were his exact words. I remember because it made my skin cold and I shivered even though it had to have been a hundred degrees in… where I was. Then Simon laughed and said something like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.’ ”

“How did you overhear them?” Luke asked.

“I was hiding.” Her wince was involuntary.

“In your hidey-hole?” His voice was gentle, but his jaw was taut.

“Yeah.” She drew a breath. “In my hidey-hole. When I was hiding behind the closet I could hear every word that was said in Simon’s room.”

“Why were you hiding that day, Susannah?” Luke asked.

“Because earlier in the day Simon had told me to be home. He said he had a friend coming who wanted to ‘meet’ me. I was only eleven, but even then I understood what that meant. It was a good thing I’d hid. The boy said he’d take Simon to his tick , but he wanted to visit my room first. He was very angry when I wasn’t there.”

“Who?” Luke asked. “The boy or Simon?”

“Both.”

“Simon didn’t know about the hidey-hole at that point?”

“I guess not, but I’m not sure. He might have known, but let me think he didn’t so I’d think I was safe. Simon was big on mind games like that. Being able to manipulate his opponent’s responses would have been very attractive to him.”