Carly shook her head again. “That’s not true.”
“I know,” Ethan said, his voice soft.
“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” Carly said, wanting Ethan to understand this. “Jon was kissing me. I was at a restaurant. Just…just lost. I told him to let me go. H-he didn’t. No one was going to take from me again. No one would do what…Quincy did.”
Ethan nodded. “You just made him stop.”
She’d grabbed the knife from a nearby table. It had just been…in my hand. “I swiped out so he would stay away. I sliced his arm. People were screaming. And then I was locked up.”
Locked up and crying for Ethan.
But she hadn’t broken in that psych ward. She’d found herself. She’d realized that she was never going to let anyone lock her up again. She’d be in control. She would survive, on her own.
And she had.
Yes, she wanted to be with Ethan. But it was her choice. She could live without him. She wouldn’t wither and die, but she wanted to be with him. She was happier with him. He helped her to hope.
My choice. Always.
“I’m sorry,” Ethan said as his hand dropped. “Baby, if I could change things, if I could go back—”
She caught his hand. “Back is the last place I want to go. Forward. Only forward. With you.”
He stepped closer to her. The heat of his body wrapped around her.
“Uh, yeah…” Victor mumbled. “This scene is touching, and honestly, with every bit of info I uncover, I do think you two make a crazy, but…probably fitting couple.” He cleared his throat. “But I need you down at the station, Ms. Shay. Three men are missing, and your shrink says you confessed to wanting to—”
“No.” Her voice was flat, almost calm, and she was proud of that fact. “I told Dr. Nelson that those men didn’t click for me. That I couldn’t feel comfortable around them. I couldn’t let go with them. I never said I wanted to hurt them. Not them or anyone else. And as far as me being obsessed with someone from my past…” Confess all. “I don’t think it was obsession. When I was seventeen, I was in love with Ethan. I thought I’d moved on, but then he came into my life again, and those feelings came back, too. Only stronger than before.” Her shoulders were up, her spine straight. “I don’t know why Nelson is telling you these lies, but that’s what they are—lies. Am I dangerous? Yes, actually, I am. To anyone who tries to hurt me or the people I care about. But am I some kind of—of predator? No. No, I’m not.” Her toes curled against the thick carpet. “Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’m going to get dressed. Then I will come downtown with you. I want to see Nelson. I want to find out just why the hell he’s lying about me.”
She turned on her heel and walked very slowly back into the master bedroom. Carly shut the door behind her with a soft click.
And she still didn’t let those tears fall.
Chapter Eleven
“Bullshit,” Sophie called flatly when the bedroom door shut behind Carly. “This whole thing is bull, and I can’t believe you actually bought it for even a moment, Agent Monroe.”
Ethan made himself look away from that shut door and over at Victor. “You came to save my ass?” He gave the other man a tiger’s smile. “Said it before, but I have to say it again. Sweet, bro. Sweet.”
Victor growled back, “I had to follow up, okay? A threat was reported, and that woman in there—hell, yeah, I get it, she looks like a wet dream but—”
“Don’t.” That one word was low and lethal. Ethan’s hands had fisted. “Don’t talk about Carly like that. Don’t fucking get her in your head that way at all.”
Victor lifted his hands. “Easy. I just meant—I could see where a man—even you—would be taken in. I thought she was innocent, too, and—”
“She is innocent. Carly is good. The one good thing I have always had, the one thing I’ve tried to protect, but I screwed up, again and again.”
Victor’s expression was grim. “I’ve seen too many people be taken in during my time. Trust shouldn’t come so easily.”
“Maybe it doesn’t come easily for you, but for me, with her—it does.”
“Three men are missing.”
“She’s not involved.”
Victor swore. “What? Are murders so commonplace for you that this crap doesn’t faze you?”
Ethan just stared back at him.
“Fuck me.” Victor backed up a step as his brow furrowed. “Am I looking at this all wrong? You’re the one who made Quincy Atkins disappear, and then you’re the one who rushed back into Carly’s life. She didn’t go looking for you. You came after her.”
Ethan knew where the dick was going even before Victor said—
“How do you feel, knowing that Carly slept with those other men? Were you watching all those years? Keeping tabs on her? Going insane with jealousy when others got too close?” He waited a beat, then demanded, “Are you the reason those men disappeared?”
Before Ethan could say anything, Sophie jumped between him and the agent. “All right, Agent Jump-to-Conclusions,” she said, voice sharp. “Calm down. You say you have proof these men are missing? First and foremost, I want to know when they vanished. Because I’m betting my clients,” and she definitely emphasized the “s” on that word, “have alibis. This is some kind of witch hunt, and I don’t like it.”
“Dr. Nelson is the witness here. He’s the one talking and pointing me right at your clients.”
“Then I want to talk with him,” Sophie said.
Victor laughed. “You know that isn’t how it works. He’s in protective custody right now. And he’ll stay that way, until I get this mess sorted out.”
The bedroom door opened. Ethan glanced back and saw that Carly was there, dressed in hip-hugging jeans and a loose top. “There isn’t anything to sort out,” she told him, obviously having overheard Victor’s last comment. “I think it’s clear what is happening here.”
So did Ethan.
“My shrink wants you to think that I’m a killer. The same shrink who tried to get you to believe that Ethan was the man who’d abducted him. So for me,” Carly said, nodding briskly, “that’s twice he’s lied. Twice he’s tried to throw us under the bus, and I’d really like to know why he’s done it.”
It was one of those old school, who do you believe situations?
Only this time, an FBI agent had to decide…
“Do you trust the doctor?” Ethan asked. And he gave Victor a cold smile. “Or the killers?”
“Fuck me,” Victor said again.
Exactly.
***
Carly’s hands were clammy. Her heart raced too fast, and she was worried that her expression revealed too much.
“It’s all right.” The reassurance came from the man beside her, surprising Carly. Victor stood at her side, and for the briefest moment, his fingers brushed over her arm. “I’m going to be with you the entire time.”
That had been the plan, anyway. A crazy plan that she’d agreed to because her life was on the line again, and she wasn’t going to let anyone destroy her future.
My choice.
She’d made a choice when she came out of that suite. A choice to go down fighting.
The light outside of the hotel was incredibly bright as she left the building. Victor was a step in front of her. Ethan—Ethan was still inside the hotel. He was going to follow behind her with Sophie.
Before anything else happened, Victor had wanted Carly to have the chance to speak with his superiors. By going in—willingly—he’d said that she had a greater shot at getting folks to believe her because it would look as if she were cooperating.
Hell, she wasn’t even sure if Victor believed her. He’d certainly been suspicious enough when he first stormed in the suite. But now…now he at least seemed to be giving her the benefit of the doubt, softening some.
She hurried down the hotel’s back steps and saw Victor’s SUV waiting. The windows were dark, tinted.
He opened the passenger sid
e door for her.
The bullets didn’t make a sound when they fired. They erupted out of the gun and slammed into Victor, jerking his body back, one hitting after the other, and Carly heard herself scream when he fell.
But then she was staring down at that gun—a gun equipped with a silencer. A gun pointed straight at her as Dr. Keith Nelson smiled at her. “Get into the vehicle. Fucking now.”
No, if she got into the vehicle…
“You can die right here. I will shoot you now and still get paid just as much money.”
She’d screamed, but no one had come to her aid—it was too early, no one was out on the streets—and his finger was already starting to squeeze the trigger. She couldn’t get in that SUV, and she couldn’t let Victor die. He was still breathing. Carly could see the rise and fall of his chest. She had to get help for him.
Turning, she started to run away—
And a bullet hit her, slamming into Carly and sending her tumbling right into the cement. For a moment, she lay there, stunned, the pavement biting into her palms, her shoulder burning. She heard the rush of footsteps coming toward her. Carly pushed up to her knees, needing to run, but there wasn’t time.
Hard arms grabbed her, wrenching her shoulder and making the white-hot pain flare even hotter. She cried out and tried to fight, but Dr. Keith Nelson was much stronger than he’d appeared to be. He dragged her toward the SUV, stumbling over Victor’s sprawled body. She screamed, but no one was there. Still, no one. Victor had taken her out of building’s back entrance, and no one could see, no one—
“Carly!” That roar was Ethan’s. Her head wrenched toward his roar.
He was running toward her. But Keith had tossed her into back of the vehicle. Keith slammed the door, and she tried frantically to open it, but something was wrong. The handle was jammed.
She stared through the glass. Saw Ethan running toward her, with Sophie steps behind him. That had been the plan. Ethan and Sophie were going to follow us to the Bureau. They were coming down on the next elevator. Everyone should have been safe.
There was no safety. Because she saw—
She saw…she saw Keith lift his gun. He fired. Once. Twice. Three times.
She screamed again as both Ethan and Sophie hit the cement.
Then Keith ran around to the front of the SUV. He jumped into the driver’s seat. She lunged for him, determined to stop him before he could start that vehicle and take her away.
Her nails scratched across his face.
“Dammit, you bitch, stop!” He whirled and brought the butt of the gun down against her temple. For an instant, the world dimmed. “You’d better be worth this fucking pay-off…”
She pushed up, ready to attack him again.
But the butt of the gun hit her once more. Even harder this time. The world didn’t dim.
It went black.
***
As soon as the bullets stopped flying, Ethan jumped to his feet. He reached for Sophie, checking her out.
“I’m all right! I hit the ground as soon as he aimed the gun at me,” she said. Then, before she could add anything else, Lex was running around the side of the hotel and charging right toward them.
Lex grabbed Sophie, pulled her close—
Right. She’s good. I need Carly. Ignoring the pain in his arm—a damn bullet had grazed him—Ethan ran after the SUV. The bastard was driving it hell fast, careening down the street. Taking Carly away with him.
He’d been waiting. The freak must have followed Victor here, then he just slipped in Victor’s vehicle and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Keith Nelson’s attack made sense if…fucking hell. Maybe Keith had never been attacked by Curtis Thatch. Maybe the two men had been working together all along.
Sonofabitch.
Hard fingers locked around Ethan’s ankle, jerking his attention down and to the injured agent.
Victor looked like hell, his skin ashen, but he had a determined glare on his face as he said… “SUV…equipped with…GPS locator…”
Ethan smiled down at him. Hell, yes.
“Get…bastard…” Victor gasped. “Get…him…”
He would. The agent could count on that.
***
When she opened her eyes, Carly was being dragged out of the back seat. Keith was leaning over her, sweat streaming down his face, his hair tousled, his breath heaving—
She lifted her feet and drove them into his stomach, as hard as she could.
He let her go—immediately, and she fell straight onto the concrete. The impact jarring, knocking the breath right from her, but she rolled over and started to crawl away from him.
“Carly…” His voice seemed to echo and she realized they were in a cavernous parking garage. And they seemed to be the only people there. “I get paid if you’re delivered alive or dead.”
She stopped crawling.
“It’s more, of course, if you’re alive. There’s a bonus payment then because there are buyers out there willing to make sure you suffer.”
Carly could hear him walking closer.
“But one million to deliver your dead body? That’s still one real nice piece of change.”
She glanced over her shoulder. The gun was in his hands again.
If she tried to run, he’d shoot her. Even if the bullet didn’t kill her, another injury would slow her down and could make escape impossible.
Think. Think.
Taking her time, she turned over and stared up at him. Slowly, she lifted her hands, her pose one of surrender.
“Good decision.” His left hand rubbed his stomach. She hoped she’d given him bruises. Some internal damage would be awesome. “Carly, Carly, Carly…Do you know how many times I thought about killing you?”
Staring at him made her skin crawl.
“You were always so cautious with me. And a few times, I caught you staring at me, as if…you knew.” He was right over her now. “But you didn’t know, did you? No one ever sees past the mask. No one knows…”
“That you’re a killer?” She thought that crap was pretty evident. “Uh, newsflash…” Her right arm was soaked with blood, her shoulder wound still throbbing. “You just shot an FBI agent. Witnesses were at the scene. Everyone is going to know what you are.”
He knelt in front of her. The silencer was still on the gun and he slid it across her cheek. “I spent years listening to criminals. Learning their secrets. Hearing them brag about their crimes and show no remorse whatsoever. And do you know what I learned?”
She didn’t really care. She just had to figure out a way to get that gun away from him.
“I learned that the criminals, the killers…they’re the strong ones. What good is regret? Remorse? Our world truly is survival of the fittest, and if you’re not fit, then you’re just a waste of air.”
This jerk had been her shrink?
“I adapted. I changed. I learned that their secrets were assets, and I sold them to the highest bidder.”
Things started to click for her. If he’d been selling secrets… “You’re the one who contacted Curtis Thatch. There was never…any abduction. He didn’t take you. You—you were working with him!”
He shrugged. The gun was still at her cheek. “I thought my bruises and the scrapes were a nice touch. Told old Curt that it had to look legit. Then I just kept Ethan busy so that he wouldn’t see Curt sneaking up behind him. Voila. Perfect plan. Curt was out of the way, and you—well, I was going to get my delivery check for offering you up and giving Curt the perfect means to punish you.”
She shook her head.
He sighed. The gun moved away from her cheek. “Ethan. A man you actually cared about. See, Curt had already killed the others, but you didn’t even know that. No, you didn’t care. I brought the guys up to you in session, and you barely blinked. They didn’t matter to you. I don’t think anyone really mattered, except Ethan Barclay. When I saw you two together, when I watched from my window and saw you hug him so tightly, as
if you couldn’t bear to let him go, I immediately called Curt to let him know the perfect tool to torture you was at hand.”
They’d planned to kill Ethan, in order to break me.
“Curt was all about the torture.”
And you’re all about talking. Arrogant asshole. But keep it up. Every second that passed…that was an opportunity for help to arrive. Ethan would come for her. She’d found him. He would find her. Carly didn’t doubt that for a moment.
“People kill for so many reasons. Passion. Greed. But the kills that interest me the most…it’s the kills that are for pleasure.” He smiled down at her. “Curt was a connoisseur. Most of his kills were for pure pleasure, but you—you were for revenge. Payback. So he changed his MO. Took out men instead of women. Killed them quickly because it wasn’t their deaths that mattered so much…but what he hoped the murders would do to you.”
And I didn’t even notice. Guilt tore through her, and she gagged because—three men were dead.
“Tage Price. Josh Lavelle. Ace Patton.” Keith seemed to relish saying their names. “Men who paid the price because they tried to love you.”
Her eyes squeezed shut as their images flashed through her mind. They’d been good men, all of them. They’d treated her well. They’d had families. Friends. Lives.
Lost.
“Curt made the bodies vanish. Seemed fitting. After all, that was what you did to his brother.”
Her eyes opened. She swallowed back the nausea and tried to push the images—Tage, Josh, and Ace—from her mind. “Go screw yourself.” He was responsible for those deaths. Keith and Curt. Twisted freaks.
She pushed up to her feet. Her body wavered, just a bit.
Then she tensed because she could hear the sound—the sound of an approaching car. Coming closer and closer in that parking garage. Hope filled her.
Keith’s head tilted, as if he’d heard the sound too, and then he laughed. “Curt wasn’t my only interested buyer. Quincy Atkins had allies, plenty of people who want to see his killer bleed. Some of them thought that Ethan was untouchable, but you—you can be touched plenty.”