Dylan pulled in behind the BMW and cut the lights. “Sure is, let’s take a look.” Before exiting their vehicle, Jerry called Stark to advise her of their location. She read off the plates and asked Stark to run them while they went inside.
Moving cautiously, Dylan and Jerry circled the car, noting that it was empty. By tacit agreement, they moved to the door and turned the knob. Locked.
“Shit,” Dylan holstered his gun, pocketed his flashlight and retrieved a small kit from his back pocket. “Hold the light on the lock,” he instructed Jerry. After quick manipulation, the door clicked open. Dylan replaced the lock pick with his weapon, aimed his flashlight at the open doorway and entered the building.
“I’ve been waiting on you for a long time.” Damien told her as he moved to stand beside Nick. “This one interfered with my plans for you. I also saw him put his hands on you,” he told her accusingly. Kris remained silent, praying that he wanted Nick to watch their ‘date’ more than he wanted to kill him. “He’ll have to pay for that.” Damien stood for a long time, twirling the scalpel in his hand. Candlelight caught the point every now and then, shimmering off of the brightly polished metal.
Kris began to ease her hand back around to the gun. As soon as it touched the mattress beside her, Damien looked up, but not at her. He stared at Nick, as if willing him to stir. Without warning, he backhanded the motionless man, hard enough to sling his head from one shoulder to the other. Nick still didn’t move.
Frustrated, but trying not to show it, Damien struck Nick again, cursing at him to wake up. Kris didn’t waste the opportunity afforded her by Damien’s change in focus to reach for the gun. Holding it as steady as possible with one hand, she pointed it at Damien and fired.
The sound of the gunshot reverberated down the hallway of the old building. Dylan and Jerry raced towards it, hoping they were not too late. Weapons drawn, Dylan kicked in the only closed door in the place, which was also the only one with light flickering beneath the crack.
Nick, tied to the chair and still out cold, was the first thing that registered, quickly followed by the staccato sound of three successive gunshots. As they rounded the corner that brought them fully into the room, they both stopped dead in their tracks.
Kris was chained to the bed, holding a gun and staring down at the man bleeding on the floor. His face frozen in a combination of surprise and demented rage, Damien landed on his knees, and then collapsed sideways. He was dead before he hit the floor.
Kris didn’t move, but held the gun on Damien in case he got up again. The first shot grazed his arm and she could still see the look in his eyes as he charged her from across the room.
Gradually, she heard someone calling her name as if from a long way away. Nick, she thought and immediately focused her eyes on him. He still didn’t move. But who was calling her? She turned her head as if in slow motion and saw Jerry and Dylan standing with their hands up, watching her.
“Kris, it’s me, Dylan.” The voice was louder this time, finally registering through the haze of Kris’s shocked senses. “Put down the gun.” Kris looked down at her hand and only then noticed that she still held the smoking weapon. She dropped it like it was on fire. Fortunately, it landed in her lap without going off again by mistake. Jerry rushed to her, retrieved the weapon and handed it to Dylan. Gently, she unlocked the handcuffs and sat down beside Kris.
“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” She could see the jagged line of wet and dried blood on Kris’s face and neck, but nothing else. Dylan was busy checking Nick for a pulse and calling for an ambulance.
Kris shivered uncontrollably; Jerry spied her coat and wrapped it around her. “Nick, how is Nick?” she whispered between bouts of shivering.
“He’s alive, pulse is weak, but it’s there.” Dylan began cutting away the duct tape that held Nick in the chair. “Looks like he took one helluva beating,” he said to himself, too soft for Kris to hear. “What the hell are you doing here man?” He knew he’d have to wait for answers, Nick still didn’t move.
Epilogue
Four friends enjoyed the cool ocean breezes wafting over the early evening air. The cries of a solitary seagull and the rhythmic sounds of waves rushing to shore added to the ambiance.
“This is what life’s all about.” Dylan sighed as he took a swig of his beer. With his feet propped on the chair in front of him, he smiled around the room and rested his head on the back of the sofa.
“I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel comfortable here again.” Kris said as she sipped her wine, her feet curled beneath her on the porch swing. “I’m still not ready to be alone here,” she paused. “That probably sounds crazy.”
“No, it sounds perfectly reasonable,” Cassie hastened to assure her. After what you’ve been through, it’s absolutely sane to be shaky here for a little while.” Cassie shivered at the memory of that awful night, two weeks ago when she thought she’d lost her best friend forever.
It still feels like a living nightmare, almost as if it didn’t really happen. But I know it was very real. I wish I knew what made me a target, so I can avoid anything like that in the future.”
“It’s highly unlikely that you did anything.” Dylan told her. “True psychopaths like Damien Krakowsky don’t need a trigger to focus their attention on someone.” They had learned that ‘Strong’ was a new alias for Damien, one of many. “Based on the types of women he targeted, our profiler believes that strong, successful women made him feel emasculated. Those traits are the only ones shared by all of his victims, though in varying degrees. Whether he hated, loved, needed or wanted them is anybody’s guess, but it’s most likely a combination of feelings. Calling you ‘his beauty’ is very telling. Possession equates to mastering the victims, which gave him a sense of power and control. The more we study past behavior of serial killers, the more we can predict future behavior in other serials with similar patterns.” Dylan took a sip of his beer, before he continued. “The doctors at Quantico would have preferred that we took him alive, but I’m thrilled that the bastard is dead.”
“Didn’t his family donate the remains to scientific research?” Cassie asked. “Maybe they can find something wired wrong in his brain.”
“Yes, and they’ve donated his trust fund to the two living victims and to the families of the other victims.” Dylan looked at Kris. “At least you’ll get something from this.”
“Hmmm” was Kris’s only response, as she gently rubbed her hand over Pegasus. Cassie thought it was time to change the subject.
“Has anyone spoken to Jerry lately?”
“I talked to her today. She’s on assignment in Seattle. Said to say ‘hi’ to everyone, so “Hi.” Dylan grinned at Cassie. “She said to tell you to get her room ready, her vacation starts next week and she’s coming back to play.”
Cassie snickered. “I know, she emailed asking if she could visit. I told her she was welcome anytime.”
“Gotta love that Southern hospitality.” Dylan stretched, then looked at Kris. “Did she hit you up, too?”
“No, but she knows she’s welcome. I think she wanted to give us some time to ourselves.” She looked at Nick, sitting beside her on the swing. His head was still bandaged but the bruises on his face were almost gone. One arm was in a cast, but he held her hand with the other one. She still caught her breath when she thought about how close she had come to losing him. That bastard had beaten him so badly, that he stayed in a coma for three days. Kris never left his side at the hospital. Nick had not let her out of his sight since they both came home. The cuts on Kris’s face and neck were all but healed, leaving scars so light that they were almost imperceptible. The scar
s he left on her soul would take much longer to heal. She continued to pet Pegasus absently, listening to him purr as he lay across her lap. He had also not left her side for very long since she’d come home.
“I always liked Jerry.” Nick smiled into Kris’s eyes and squeezed her hand. Dylan and Cassie took the hint, both rising to leave at the same time.
“I have to get home, thanks for dinner.”
“I guess it’s time to head up the road.”
They laughed at each other after speaking in unison. “We’re not exactly subtle, are we?” Dylan shook his head.
“You don’t have to leave,” Kris protested, but there wasn’t much heat to it. She loved Cassie like a sister and Dylan was now part of their family. She would always be grateful to him for his help, and she genuinely liked him as a person. She knew Nick felt the same way. Too bad he and Cassie acted more like brother and sister than a couple, she thought. She wanted to see her friend as happy as she was.
“Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry,” Nick quipped with a grin.
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” Dylan winked at Kris. I really do have to leave, but thanks for dinner. Next time, I’ll cook.”
“You’ve been holding out on us,” Cassie smirked. “And I thought you were allergic to the kitchen.”
“Only when clean-up’s involved.” Dylan countered. He waited as Cassie gave Kris a hug, then leaned down to kiss Nick on the cheek. “We’ll show ourselves out, stay put.” She told them.
Kris watched her friends walk away, still chattering like buddies. She and Nick swayed gently on the swing for a long while, letting the warmth from the late evening sun surround them.
“Let’s take a walk on the beach.” Nick asked as he stood and held out his good hand towards her. She took it.
The sun was just starting to dip below the horizon, casting the clouds into shades of deep orange, yellow and red. Kris and Nick walked hand in hand along the dry sand, not speaking, not needing to. Kris was still thinking about Dylan and Cassie, wondering why the fix-up didn’t work.
“Maybe Roni would be a better fit,” she said, almost to herself.
“If you’re going to play matchmaker, then play with me.” Nick stopped walking and turned to face her, the glow of the setting sun reflected in his eyes.
Kris looked at him, confused by the sudden seriousness of his tone. “But sir, I thought you were already taken.” She batted her eyelashes at him.
“Not officially, but I’d like to change that.” As the sun fell from sight, Nick fell to one knee. He held a small blue box in the palm of his good hand. With the flick of a finger, the lid opened and a huge emerald cut diamond, twinkled up at Kris in the twilight. Kris tried to remember to breathe.
“Kristina Collins, you bring light to every corner of my life. I want to spend forever loving you. Marry me.”
Kris felt as if her heart would burst. Never had she imagined such a heartfelt proposal from the one man she had loved always. The colors of the sunset seemed to magnify around them as her eyes filled with tears. Taking the ring from the box, she slipped it over her finger.
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For excerpts of my other works and for details of upcoming novels, visit https://www.TallulahGrace.com. Take a look at the Flashy Shorts page to read short stories and flash fiction created just for my fans.
Timeless Trilogy continues with Roni’s story in Book Two,
Spellbound
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