Allison Brennan - Fear No Evil

“I’m going to my room,” she said, jumping up.

“I’ll come with you,” her mother said, distracted. They heard sirens in the distance.

Carina and Nick came in through the front door. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. There was an explosion.”

“We heard. There’s smoke coming from about a block away from Dillon’s house. Agent Peterson just called us about the hostage situation.”

Lucy’s cell phone rang. Fear squeezed every cell in her body. It was him, she knew, telling her everyone was dead. And it was her fault.

“Lucy!” Carina exclaimed. “Who’s that?”

She shook her head, tears in her eyes. Carina picked up the phone. “Who’s this?” Relief crossed her face, quickly replaced by fear. “I’ll take care of it.” She hung up. “Adam Scott planted a bomb in Jack’s truck. That’s what exploded.”

Lucy’s mother cried out. The anguish in her voice added heavily to Lucy’s guilt. She backed away from her family. She had to get out.

“Who was that?” Nick asked, putting a hand on Carina’s arm.

Carina accepted Nick’s quiet strength, doubly glad he was with her now.

“Jack. He’s alive,” Carina said. “We need to get out of the house. We don’t know where else this bastard has planted bombs. I’m taking you all to police headquarters, where I know you’ll be safe.”

“I’ll drive,” her father said.

“No. No Kincaid cars. He’s been in town for over twenty-four hours, he knows what you drive. I’m calling a taxi, and we’ll walk to the park on the corner.”

“Mama, I’m so sorry,” Carina said when she saw the stricken look on her mother’s face.

Rosa nodded. “It’s okay. Everyone is okay right now. Everyone will be okay.”

Carina called the taxi. “Okay, let’s go.” She looked for Lucy. “Lucy!” Carina called. When she got no answer, she ran upstairs. “Lucy! Come on!”

A minute later she called down. “Is Lucy down there?”

“No,” Nick said.

They searched the house quickly, but Carina knew Lucy was gone.

Carina tried to call first Jack, then Agent Peterson. Neither picked up, but she left the same message for each of them.

“Lucy is gone. I think she’s headed to Dillon’s house.”

Kate was at a loss.

Adam Scott was willing to kill dozens, hundreds of people, right here from his computer.

The power went out in the house.

Adam laughed.

“They think that if they shut down the power they can stop me? I have four backup batteries for a total of twelve hours of juice. Enough time to do anything I damn well please.”

“They’ll never let Lucy come. I’m here. Take me. It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“Take you? Take you?” He stared at her. “You want me to fuck you? To tie you down?” He took a step toward her. “To cut off your air?”

He grabbed her throat with one hand. She grabbed his wrist, but she was seated and he towered above her. She couldn’t get up to kick him, and she couldn’t stop him from cutting off her air.

She couldn’t breathe.

His voice was low. “You’ll feel my cock penetrate that tight hole of yours. Fill you up. And the last thing you’ll know as you lay there dying is that I will be taking intense pleasure in fucking your body. You are a worthless whore, just like the rest of them.”

He released her and she took deep breaths to refill her lungs. Her vision returned, but her throat burned. She swallowed several times before she could talk.

“Fine,” she said, coughing. She had to stay out of his reach. Scott was strong, but it was his rage that worried her more. Yet it was also his rage that she could defeat him with if she was smart. And careful. “I’m not worried. I watched that recording you sent. You can’t even get it up.”

He pistol-whipped her, and she fell across the couch. Her vision blurred. She would be no help to anyone if she got herself killed before Dillon escaped.

“You fucking bitch.”

“Go ahead. Try me.” She squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, opened them. Better.

He shook his head. “A willing participant is no fun. That fucking whore Denise liked it. She’d do anything I asked her to. What’s the fun in that? I could have killed her and she wouldn’t have cared. Yeah, she was an actress, she pretended she was scared, but she liked it. She came back for more. But Lucy…you took her from me. You and that fucking shrink.”

“Why Lucy?”

“Why not?”

“You had to have picked her for a reason.”

“You are so transparent! Buying time, trying to get me to talk. Do you think I’m going to break down and spill my guts and tell you what a miserable childhood I had and how I want you to stop me? I like my life just the way it is. And there are a lot more people out there like me than you think. I put up the disclaimer, but do you really think those people don’t know what they’re watching? Ha! They know, and they love it. I’m just better than them, better because I act out their fantasies. They want to be me.

“I’m rich. Even with your pathetic attempts to seize my accounts, I have millions all over the world. You’ll never find it all. This glitch is just that: a temporary lull in the action.

“Don’t ever think for one minute that I don’t love every minute of what I do.” He stared at her. “When I took Paige, it was you I wanted. But you know what?” He leaned forward, inches from her face. “She gave me the only thing a woman is good for, sex.”

Kate’s booted foot kicked up between his legs, connecting squarely with his balls. The pain that crossed his face was real, but he recovered quickly. As she rolled away, trying to get up off the couch, he grabbed her, threw her to the floor. Her head hit the hardwood floor and that stunned her long enough for him to climb on top of her. She was on her stomach, and he pinned her down. His arm came around her neck and he held her.

“Maybe not such a willing participant, after all,” he growled into her ear. “Too bad I can’t take both you and your boyfriend with me. I’d like him to watch.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

He laughed in her ear, then bit her neck so hard she screamed. “I was surprised, too, but Dr. Kincaid doesn’t have a very good poker face.”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement in the kitchen.

Scott saw it, too.

He pulled her up, produced a knife in his hand. It was at her throat.

Jack stood in the threshold between kitchen and dining room, gun drawn.

“I’ll kill her,” Scott said calmly. “Don’t move.”

“Give it up now, Scott.”

“Trask! My name is Trask!” He held Kate close to him. “I think I’m holding the cards.”

Scott took a step toward Jack dragging Kate with him. She provided him with a shield, dammit! She squirmed and felt the knife cut into her throat.

“Get out,” Scott told Jack.

Jack didn’t back off.

Scott pushed the knife deeper into her throat. Kate tried not to make a sound, but a cry escaped her lips.

Go , she mouthed to Jack. Now .

It was obvious he was torn, but he backed out of the kitchen.

“Out the door, soldier,” Scott ordered.

Jack complied, a tight anger across his face. Scott bolted the door.

He bolted the door , Kate thought. That meant Jack had a key. Had Colonel Kincaid given him one? Or had he gotten it from Dillon? Was Dillon safe?

He had to be. Jack wouldn’t have left the house with his brother still in danger. Would he?

With Jack gone he pulled Kate back over to the computer in the next room. “I set the next bomb to blow up in five minutes. Whoops, three minutes, ten seconds. Unless I stop it, it’ll blow. You destroy my computer, it will blow. You hinder my escape, it will blow. Hell, I might just let it blow for fun.”