He sighed, regret twisting his lip. “No. Tasha kept her relationship and extracurricular activities secret. Once we found out, she was already in place in Charmed and had developed trust with both you and the local sheriff.”
Tasha’s clasped her hands together. “Everyone needs a hobby. I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
“You figured wrong.” The commander drew a gun out from behind his waist and fired. The bullet hit Frant in the forehead, and he went down, his eyes wide in shock and death.
Dr. Madison didn’t even twitch.
“No!” Tasha cried, grabbing her boyfriend by the armpits and helping him to the floor. “Frantsie? Wake up.” Tears coursed down her face as she glanced up at the commander. “Why?”
“Why?” The commander frowned. “While I appreciate the need to kill for fun, the FBI is looking into Frant’s murders. Your murders. We stay under the radar, or we jeopardize everything. Period.”
“But you knew about us,” Tasha wailed.
The commander breathed in, his nostrils flaring. “I allowed you to continue only because it created a nice diversion for the cops, letting my forces swoop in under the radar. You had to know I’d dispense justice once I got the chance.”
The smell of blood and death permeated the small space. Laney breathed out evenly, trying to keep from vomiting. A buzzing sounded in her ears. “Does it strike you as worrisome that the people you’re leading are stark raving mad?” she asked.
The commander lifted a muscled shoulder. “We live in trying times. Believe it or not, this isn’t the first serial killer to be found in my ranks.”
“I believe it.” Laney sucked in air. “You sent Tasha to Charmed because you found me.” Frant followed Tasha, and they killed locally. “Claire wouldn’t be dead if I hadn’t moved here.”
Tasha wiped tears off her cheeks and smeared her face with blood. She released Frant and stood. “Claire was a dumb bitch who trusted the wrong people. If we hadn’t found her, somebody would have cut her fool neck.”
The commander chuckled. “You couldn’t believe the coincidence that there happened to be a serial killer in the town where you’d hidden, Eleanor? Really?”
Well, actually she had. “No. I understood my past would catch up to me. My name is Laney.”
“Sweetheart, your past is irrelevant, as is your name.” The commander drew out a phone to read the face. “You’re bait. Nothing else.”
Dread cascaded down her body. “You sent the note and money to Nancy’s grandmother. To show Matt and his brothers where I was.” It was a good trap.
“Of course,” the commander said.
Laney shoved her elbows against the wall to rise. If she was going to die, she wanted to be on her feet. “What are you waiting for?”
His sharp gaze raked her top to bottom. “I’m not going to kill you. Right now, anyway.” He read his cell phone. “We’ve taken Nate out, and I’m waiting for confirmation on Matt. Then we’re all heading home.”
God. The bastard was going to use her against Matt. “You’ve misjudged the situation if you think Matt cares about me. You can’t use me against him.”
“Matt may care about you, or he may not.” The commander dodged forward and gripped her arm. “But he won’t want to see you hurt. That boy has always had a weakness for anybody soft and vulnerable. No matter how many times I tried to beat it out of him.”
The words shot a chill down her spine.
The commander led her to his chair and zip-tied her hands to the wooden armrests.
Laney struggled and the ties cut into her flesh. “Why do you want them back so badly? They’ll never work for you.”
“They will.” The commander strode toward the door and kicked Frant out of the way with one large boot. “I’ve always been able to manipulate them with each other. If I threaten Nate, Matt will do as I wish. As soldiers, they’re the best. The absolute best, and right now, more than ever, I need them back.”
Laney lifted her chin. “Why?”
The commander’s jaw hardened. “Let’s just say I’m not the only one fighting for military dollars—especially those under the radar. The Gray brothers are the best, and I need them to solidify my power base. For now.”
The brothers were just tools to the bastard. Laney tested the ties. “You don’t have Shane.”
“No, but I will. He’ll give himself up when he learns I have his brothers.” The commander turned and handed his gun to Tasha. “Watch her, and perhaps you’ll live through this. Dr. Madison and I are going to fetch Matt—and I’m taking your vehicle. My troops took mine.” He turned and assisted Dr. Madison up. She lifted her nose and stepped over the body as she headed for the door. They disappeared into the storm.
Tasha shoved the door shut and turned bloodshot eyes on Laney. “Frant is dead.” Shock colored her words.
“Yes.” Laney refused to look at the body on the floor. “I’m fairly certain you’re next.”
“Good.” Tasha fell to sit by Frant. She pushed his bloody hair off his face. “He was my soul mate.”
Laney tested the ties again. “I don’t know. There are tons of killers out there you could molest as children and train.”
Tasha snapped the gun up to point it at Laney. “You might want to watch the sarcasm.”
“The commander won’t like it if you kill me. Apparently I’m bait.” Laney slid her feet on the rough wooden floor, trying to find any type of weapon. “Considering your boyfriend wanted to rape and murder me, I may owe the commander one.”
“Stop talking about Frantsie,” Tasha cried, grief twisting her face. “You didn’t know him. He was amazing.”
The woman was crazy. “How did you end up working for the commander?” Laney asked.
Tasha sniffed and her shoulders slumped. “I graduated medical school at the top of my class.”
Now, that sounded familiar. “Any family?” Laney asked.
“No. Well, just a stepfather who beat the hell out of me until I escaped.” Tasha settled Frant’s head on her lap. “Frantsie said he’d go back and kill my daddy once we were finished with this mission.” She lifted tear-filled eyes to Laney. “Who’s going to kill my daddy now?”
Holy crap. “I don’t know,” Laney whispered. “But if you let me go, I’ll ask Matt to do it. You know, as a thank-you.”
Tasha sighed, her gaze on her dead lover. “I’m not that stupid.”
It was worth a try. “Please let me go, Tasha. The commander killed your soul mate. Why would you keep working for such a monster?”
“What else do I have?” With a resigned sigh, Tasha shoved Frant’s head off her.
Laney gagged and swallowed several times to keep her breakfast down. Darkness crept over her vision.
Tasha rose to stand. “I’ll kill your soul mate.”
Laney shook her head and tried to focus. “I don’t have one.”
“I’ve seen how you look at Matt—how he looks at you when you’re not watching. Soul mates.” Tasha dragged her feet on the way to the sink, where she washed blood off her hands.
Warmth and concern filled Laney simultaneously. “You’re crazy.”
“Maybe.” Tasha dried off her hands and turned around, picking up the weapon. “You love that man. I can almost smell it on you.”
“What does love smell like?”
“Desperation, lilies, and chocolate,” Tasha said.
“O-Okay,” Laney coughed out. “How much do you know about the chips?”
Tasha clapped her hands together and then looked down in surprise at the gun between them. “Oh yeah. Gun.” She pointed it at Laney’s chest. “Ever play Russian roulette?”
“No. Though you have—with those devices you implanted near their spines.” Laney fought to keep from squirming.
“Yes.” Tasha tilted her head to the side, her gaze thoughtful. “Brilliant devices, actually. If they’re touched, they detonate and split the spine in two. There’s no way to remove them while they’re active. Just brilliant.?
??
“Can you deactivate them?” Laney asked, trying not to focus on the smooth barrel pointed at her.
“Sure. Anybody can with the right code and transmitter.” Tasha put both hands on the weapon. “Boom.”
Laney jerked. “You know the codes?”
“Nope. I just implanted the devices. If I had the codes, I could deactivate them. But they’re kept top secret.”
Fury tasted like metal. “You’re twisted.”
“Yes.” Tasha inched a few feet closer. “I love powder burns, don’t you?”
“Not really.” Laney glanced frantically for some sort of escape. “I don’t think the commander realized how crazy you were before he left.”
“Arrogant bastard, isn’t he?” Tasha said agreeably. “Didn’t think a woman would defy his orders.”
Laney measured the distance between them. Too far. Way too far. “You need to follow his orders if you want to live.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Tasha scratched her nose. “I hope I get to keep working with the soldiers. It’ll be nice to study the Gray brothers. They’re a legend within the ranks—so physically superior. Even Jory grew into quite the specimen.”
Laney moved her feet into position. “Who’s Jory?”
Tasha’s eyebrows lifted into her hairline. “Matt doesn’t trust you, now, does he?” She leaned even closer, her mouth near Laney’s ear. “Jory is the youngest brother. We captured him two years ago. He was shot.”
A sharp pang slammed into Laney’s heart. “So the youngest brother really is dead?”
“I didn’t say that.” Tasha bit into Laney’s ear.
God. Laney’s shoulders tensed with the need to move, but she couldn’t quite yet. “So he’s alive?”
“I also didn’t say that.” Tasha leaned back, her face inches from Laney’s. “He was breathing last I saw him, but not very well. They took him to the other facility.”
“What other facility?”
Tasha’s gaze dropped to Laney’s lips. “You know, I think I see what Frantsie saw in this part of the hunt. I wonder how you taste.”
Yep. She was going to puke. Laney forced a smile. “You don’t know anything about the other facility.”
“Sure I do.” Tasha’s eyes opened wide, the pupils even looking crazy. “The facility where miracles happen.” She snorted. “Or cremations. I just get those confused.”
Laney wasn’t going to glean additional information from the lunatic. So she propelled her forehead into Tasha’s nose, while kicking for the woman’s ankles. Her head impacted with a loud clunk, and blood sprayed across her face.
Tasha yelled and went down.
Pushing with her heels, Laney jumped the chair up and forward, slamming a wooden leg squarely down on Tasha’s temple.
The woman’s eyelids fluttered shut.
Laney’s heated breath panted out, and her heart beat so quickly her ribs ached. Using her ankles and knees, she hopped the chair into the tiny kitchen. With her feet, she pulled open a drawer to dump on the floor. Towels. Old towels. Systematically, she opened each drawer, her feet cramping. Finally, she dumped cooking utensils onto the ground… along with one knife.
Okay. She could do this.
She pressed her ankles together and secured the knife. Scooting her butt toward the edge of the chair, she ignored the pull in her shoulders and lifted her legs. With a quick twist, she pushed the knife close enough to grab with one hand. Thank God for yoga. She began to saw and sliced right into her hand.
Pain ripped through her arm.
Tears sprang to her eyes.
Swallowing down bile, she tried again. Several bloody moments later, her hand sprang free. Pain ricocheted through her wrist. Shoving sensation away, she quickly used the knife to free her other hand.
Raw flesh rippled along her wrists. She wiped the knife off on the towels and tucked it into her front pocket before wrapping her injured hand. A quick check of Tasha’s vitals revealed the woman was alive but out cold. So Laney took the gun and opened the clip.
Empty. The commander had left Tasha with an unloaded weapon. Maybe he hadn’t been as foolish as he’d seemed.
Shoving the useless gun into her back pocket, Laney hurried out into the storm.
All alone.
Chapter 27
Matt tried to keep calm as he faced his oldest enemy. He shifted his weight on the metal chair as the walls of the interrogation room began to close in on him. They had Laney. Without question, Emery had Laney. “Where is she?” Matt asked softly.
Emery smiled. “How should I know? But she has a rather commanding presence, and I’m sure we’ll find her soon.”
The commander had her. Matt’s entire body went cold with a fear-filled rage. “Is that a fact?” Matt would kill them all with his bare hands.
“Yes, it is.” Pleasure glimmered in Emery’s eyes. He glanced at Patterson. “They’re probably creating a manhunt for whoever shot the sheriff. Why don’t you go make sure they’re not going all vigilante on us.”
Patterson eyed Emery and then Matt. “I don’t think so. I’ll stay right here.”
Chalk one up for decent instincts. Matt forced all emotion into a box, becoming the killer his creators had wanted. “Things aren’t quite what they seem, are they, Patterson?”
Emery glanced at Patterson. “Don’t let this guy get into your head.”
Patterson nodded. “I know he’s trained, but my gut tells me something more is going on here. What is it?”
Matt wanted nothing better than to tell the agent the truth as a surprise tactic to jump Emery. But if Patterson discovered who they were, he was a dead man. The guy wouldn’t survive the night. So Matt sighed. “What’s going on is that you guys are chasing your dumb-ass FBI tails and have the wrong guy in custody.”
Emery smiled. “Look at you being all confrontational.”
“Very,” Patterson agreed with a glance at his partner, back in sync. He moved around to retake his seat. “Tell us who tried to kill the sheriff, Dean. Let us find Laney and protect her. I believe you care about her.”
Matt lifted a shoulder. “Laney was a sweet distraction as I played the part of a bartender for a while. But I didn’t kill anybody and would like to be on my way.”
“Now, why would you discount what you have with the pretty green-eyed woman?” Emery drawled. He turned toward Patterson. “She is lovely, isn’t she?”
“Very.” Patterson tapped his fingers on the manila file. “Help us save her. Please.”
“I don’t know where she is.” Matt tuned in to the activity in the station house. It did sound like the deputies were heading out to hunt… and with a vengeance. “Did anybody witness the sheriff getting attacked?” he asked Patterson.
“Nobody saw anything.” Patterson sighed. “If you don’t have a partner, and you’re not involved, why would somebody take Laney?”
“The serial killer?” Emery asked casually. “Maybe the serial killer or killers got her.”
Patterson’s eyebrows slashed down. “This attack would be different from the killer’s MO. He likes to get victims alone and take his time.”
Matt kept his gaze on Emery. “Killers? Plural?”
“It’s a theory.” Emery shifted his weight as he reached for something under the table. “Makes an odd kind of sense, doesn’t it?”
“How so?” Patterson asked. “Because Dean is here and Laney has been taken somewhere else?”
What the hell? Matt ran back the last week in his mind. So Emery knew about the serial killer. What did this mean? “I don’t have a partner, but I’m interested in your thoughts about the serial killer having one.”
A vein bulged in Emery’s neck as he angled toward Patterson. “Why don’t we go meet them?” Quick as a python, he struck with a syringe plunged into Patterson’s neck. The guy was out immediately.
Matt reacted just as quickly, balancing himself with his cuffed hands and swinging his legs over the table to hit first Emery and then Patterson. Patt
erson flew to the side, his eyes shut, his head thunking on the table. With a primal roar, Matt landed on his feet and lifted the table into Emery, throwing them both into the two-way mirror.
Then he threw himself back, ripping the table over his head and twisting. He dropped to his knees and used his teeth to tug the keys from Patterson’s pocket.
Emery regrouped and shot forward, so Matt kicked out with his boot and caught the bastard under the chin before falling and throwing the table over his head again. The cuffs ripped into his skin, and his shoulders popped from the effort.
The table hit Emery in the neck, and he fell back.
His mind calming, his body relaxing, Matt set down the table and spit the keys at his hands. A couple of twists, and the cuffs released. Just in time for Matt to throw an elbow into Emery’s chest and avoid the syringe aimed at his neck. Being able to discern movement before it happened saved his ass again.
Ducking and reaching out, Matt grabbed the syringe and burst into Emery, injecting the needle and releasing the liquid. “I hope that’s not a lethal dose,” Matt said, allowing Emery to drop.
Matt leaped across the room and locked the door. A commotion sounded beyond the mirror. Taking a deep breath, he bent at the knees and lifted the table. Tucking his arms in, he burst through the mirror.
Glass shattered.
He landed on the other side and threw the table toward two soldiers trying to draw guns. The table legs impacted first, and Matt jumped to punch for throats.
Both soldiers went down and hard.
Gulping, Matt reached for their weapons before approaching his unconscious brother.
Nate lay on his side, his heart beating steadily again. Thank God.
Matt grabbed Nate’s shoulders and shook. “Wake up, Nathan. Now.” He shook harder.
Nate came to with a low groan.
Matt removed Nate’s cell phone and dialed Shane. “We’re in trouble. Lock on to Laney’s signal, and when I’m safe, I’ll call you back.”
“Roger that,” Shane said, his voice tense.