“I knew it was a longshot,” Lionel said. “We just need something, anything.”
“We will get it. We need to be patient. Something will come up from the evidence, someone will call in the tip we need.”
“Being patient isn’t helping get Emily away from him.”
Lionel’s cell phone rang and he took it out of his pocket. Cassie’s name flashed on the front screen. “It’s Cassie,” he said, and answered the call.
“Hey, Uncle Leo,” she said. “I need to make this quick. I just remembered something else. In the kitchen where he blindfolded me, there was a piece of mail on the counter. I only got a glimpse, but I think I remember the address that was on it.”
Lionel took out his notepad and pen and jotted down the address. “We’ll get over there right away, Cassie.”
Pressing the end button on his cell phone, he told Shawn, “She remembered an address.”
They raced to Lionel’s car, where Shawn punched the address into the GPS. Lionel flipped on the sirens and lights and pressed the accelerator to the floorboard.
“We don’t know if this guy has a police scanner, so I want everyone off radios,” Shawn said. He dialed a number on his cell phone. “I’ll get someone back at the station to coordinate and we’ll turn off sirens and lights when we get close to the house.”
“This can’t turn into a hostage situation,” Lionel said. “Emily would never survive that.”
Shawn directed the situation over his cell phone and requested backup, S.W.A.T, and paramedics be dispatched to the location. He also issued instructions to immediately get the necessary warrants in place.
Lionel focused on the road ahead of him. Everything was unraveling for the killer so quickly, and for that he was grateful. Yet he worried what the killer might do once cornered. With Emily still his current victim, no one could rest easy. What could catch the killer could also kill Emily.
Chapter Sixty-eight
David reached once more for the bottom of Emily’s dress. Though the ecstasy controlled every sensation in her body, her fear resurfaced. Her hands grabbed at his to stop him from lifting up her dress.
“Don’t fight me, Emily,” he said. “That will only make it harder for you.”
He shoved her up against the wall and lifted her hands over her head. He pressed his hands into her arms and pinned them on the wall. “Just relax,” he said. He pushed his mouth down onto hers.
Emily kept her eyes glued shut. She had no more fight left. If she kept battling him, he would hurt her and once he started down that road, he might never stop. She couldn’t risk her life just to stall the inevitable for a few more minutes. The only way to stay alive was to let him take what he wanted.
She retreated into her mind, as far as she could go until she found a safe corner where she could curl up and hide. She didn’t want to be here anymore, didn’t want to feel his hands on her body, didn’t want to taste his vile kiss. Her consciousness tried floating away as she let go of her senses, but the darkness held onto her, an anchor keeping her rooted in the horror.
Tears escaped her closed eyelids and she desperately tried to suppress her body’s response to him. There had to be a way to get through it without knowing what was happening to her. If she could shield her mind from remembering every repulsive second of David touching her, then saving Cassie would be worth whatever she had to endure.
Jake.
He appeared in her mind and Emily’s heart swelled with hope. It didn’t seem possible, but he was here. She knew he would somehow find her and he hadn’t failed. With David’s mouth ravaging hers and his hands lifting her dress above her waist, Emily gathered every bit of energy she could find and called out to Jake from behind the veil of David’s darkness.
David pulled away from her, the monster unmasked. His hand snaked around her neck. “Who is Jake?” He smashed his hand against the wall directly next to her head, and his other hand squeezed her throat. “Who is he?”
Emily choked against his hand and struggled to pull air into her dry lungs. She tried to speak, but nothing came out.
“He’s here, isn’t he?” He let go of her neck and the back of his hand crashed into her face. Her head dropped, and he tangled both hands in her hair on each side and lifted her head. He kissed her fiercely, and Emily didn’t dare squirm. When he ended the kiss, his hands painfully tightened his hold on her hair and several hairs popped out of their roots. The back of her head slammed against the wall. He pulled her head forward and threw her head into the wall again. Her brain sloshed back and forth with the recoil, her eyesight faded, and she fought against losing consciousness.
Emily slid down the wall. David grabbed the hair at the top of her head and yanked her up. He pushed her through the kitchen, and into another door. The door opened, his hand thrust into her back, and she crashed to the floor, against the wall of a bathtub. She clung to the edge of the tub, and David rushed out of the bathroom.
He came back a moment later with handcuffs and dragged her by her hair to the plumbing beside the white pedestal sink. The cuffs tightened around her wrists, binding her to the pipes.
David knelt down in front of her. He smoothed her hair down and kissed her gently. “I’m going to take care of this little interruption. Then I’m going to come in here and we’ll pick up where we left off. You better not think about resisting me or I’ll get out my knife. Neither of us wants that, so I know you’ll do what’s right.”
His feet walked away from her and into the kitchen. Though she could only see him from the waist down, she watched him tuck a sheathed knife into the back of his waistband. He pulled his shirt over his jeans to cover the knife and walked away.
Emily bowed her throbbing head. She had to stay awake long enough to get through to Jake and warn him about the knife. With every ounce of strength she had left, she called out to him.
Chapter Sixty-nine
Jake slowed his run and stopped on the grass in front of the house. He had no plan and wasn’t sure how far away the cops were from the house. He only knew he couldn’t leave Emily alone with David a moment longer.
David came through the front door, stepped onto the porch, and walked down the steps. He seemed confused by Jake’s presence, but also appeared ready to deal with him.
“Let her go,” Jake said.
“I don’t think so. I’m rather enjoying her company. Before your intrusion, we were making our way back to the bedroom.” His lips twisted into a sadistic grin. “She tastes so sweet, her skin so soft and warm.”
Jake’s face reddened and his fingers curled into tight balls at his sides. “Let her go,” he repeated through clenched teeth.
David positioned himself a few feet in front of Jake. “She’s not going anywhere and you’re trespassing, so why don’t we hurry up and settle this? I don’t want to keep Emily waiting.”
Jake lifted his fists above his waist and waited for David to swing. He dodged David’s first strike, but the second one hit the side of his mouth. Jake threw a low punch into David’s ribs. David’s hands lowered and Jake’s other fist connected with the side of his face.
David backed up a bit. Feeling overly confident, Jake launched a fist at him again. David blocked him, and caught Jake’s nose twice. His head recoiled with the punches, but he didn’t let the blood pouring down his face stop him from attacking.
They exchanged several punches and jabs, neither one of them truly winning the war. Then David’s fist landed in Jake’s cheek. Jake lifted his hands to block another hit, but David went for his side instead, stunning him with a painful punch to his kidney. As he bent over, David went for his exposed side and the subsequent assault crushed Jake’s ribs.
Breathless, Jake gathered his strength and smashed his fist into David’s head. He backed up from David to get a reprieve from the beating, but David stepped up to him. Jake recalled David’s words about Emily, and he used every bit of his anger and rage. His fist flew out and hit David’s mouth, giving him the shot he nee
ded.
As David’s head rebounded from the punch, his hands flew downward, out of a defensive position. Jake hit him again and again, fueled by a shot of adrenaline. David managed to land only one other blow and Jake repeatedly struck until David crumpled to the ground under his furious attack.
Despite never having a broken nose before, the river of blood freely flowing down Jake’s face and the sharp pain between his eyes told him it was badly splintered. His body flared with pain at even the slightest movement, but he wasn’t done expelling his anger. He rolled David onto his back and climbed on top of him. Jake threw his fist and landed on his intended target. Again and again, his raw knuckles crashed against David’s rawer flesh until David lay motionless on the ground.
Jake slumped on his knees, muscles tense and ready to strike again if needed, yet drained of strength. He stilled his jagged breathing long enough to survey David and watch for any signs of life. He wasn’t sure if he had killed him, and though the thought of killing someone normally would have disturbed him, he hoped he had somehow managed to extinguish David’s life.
David didn’t move.
Jake blew out a long breath. He needed to get to Emily, but pain gripped him and his body refused to respond to his commands to stand. Instead of rising to his feet and racing to her side, he dropped his hands to the ground. With a broken nose, at least one broken rib, and a throbbing right hand as just the beginning of his list of injuries, Jake wondered if he would ever find the strength to move again.
He lifted his eyes to the house and squinted to see the front door that seemed miles away. Somewhere behind that door, Emily relied on him to save her. Her presence was stronger than it had been since he arrived, as if she were right next to him. Her voice filled his mind, but he couldn’t make any sense out of the garbled words.
Closing his eyes, he strained to grasp onto a word, any word. Jake made out the sound of his name. Emily called his name several more times, and he struggled to hear what else she tried to say. Then he heard one other word.
Knife.
A flash of white hot pain seared through the right side of his abdomen, and Jake’s eyes flew open. Emily’s voice exited his head and her presence left him. The knife pulled out and pierced his flesh again.
The blade freed itself from his body and Jake rolled to his left until he landed on his back. His breathing shallowed, and he stared up at the sky. Several clouds intertwined and Jake did what he could to focus on those clouds, rather than the pain. They reminded him of being a child, lying in the backyard next to Janie, the plush summer grass cushioning his limbs. For hours, they would watch clouds roll across the sky, forming various shapes. They argued over the pictures the clouds created, each determined they knew what images floated in the sky better than their sibling.
He thought these clouds resembled a whale, although Janie would have declared them to be something different. A ship, perhaps. The only thing of which he was certain was that at any moment, they would take on the shape of something sinister.
Blinding pain tore through the center of his right thigh. Jake tried to lean forward and grab at the source of his pain, but his frozen limbs resisted movement. He managed to lift his head, just in time to watch David twist the knife clockwise, ripping and shredding his thigh muscle. Jake did not recognize the inhuman scream coming from his mouth.
David appeared over him and eclipsed the clouds. His bloody, shattered face barely resembled the one Jake first saw walking out of the house. Jake thought if David was in the shape of the clouds, it would be that of a feared medieval creature.
“Don’t worry,” David said. “I didn’t get your artery. Wouldn’t want you to bleed out too fast and not enjoy all the pain that comes with knife wounds in the stomach.”
Jake placed his hand on his abdomen and into a sticky puddle of blood. A moment earlier, he thought he had won. He’d been close to building enough strength to save the girl. His girl. Now he stared into the sadistic, broken face of a monster.
The monster grinned.
“I’ve never killed a man before,” David said, “but so far, I’m really enjoying it.” He held the knife up. Sunlight caught the blade, illuminating the red that dripped down the handle and onto David’s hand.
Jake grimaced at the sight of his blood on the knife. Excruciating pain flared in each of his stab wounds and he groaned against the agony. The pain released him and a dreamless sleep beckoned. His eyelids slowly lowered, and his body detached from the pain.
David wrapped his hand around Jake’s face and shook his head back and forth, jolting him back to life. “You’re not going anywhere yet. I want you to enjoy this as much as me. It’s actually quite exhilarating. Is it for you as well?” He turned the knife downward.
The blade moved with conviction, slicing through his shirt and skin on his left side. Jake cried out at the penetration of his torso. He tried to move, to shove David off him, but all of his energy was caught up in the pain.
David withdrew the knife, and Jake screamed. David held the blade up again for him to see the fresh blood. The sight made his wounds all the more agonizing. If these were his last moments, he didn’t want to see David grasping a knife coated in his blood. He wanted to close his eyes and drift off to sleep with Emily’s face in the front his mind. She was so close to him, so close. But he couldn’t reach her, couldn’t muster enough strength to push David away and race to her rescue.
David held the knife flush against Jake’s left cheek and leered. “I could do this for hours,” he said. “Just taking away bits of you, ripping apart your skin, stabbing you randomly. How long can you keep it up?” He pressed the blade into Jake’s skin and sliced across his cheek.
Jake cried out again. The pain of the multiple stab wounds overwhelmed him and a tremor controlled his body.
Would you die for her?
David leaned over, his face only inches away from Jake’s. “Not long before you came here, Emily told me how much she wants to be with me. In a few minutes, when I’m holding her warm, naked body in my arms, I’ll be thinking about how much I loved killing you. I wish I had more time to do this right and really make you suffer, but I don’t want to keep her waiting any longer.”
Would you die for her?
At David’s words, rage surged through Jake, but weakness defeated his anger before he could use it against David. There was nothing more he could do for Emily. He only hoped he bought enough time for the police to arrive, before David violated her and hurt her even more. Every second he kept David busy was one more second Emily was not exposed to him.
Would you die for her?
“Yes,” Jake whispered. “I would die for her.”
David sat up straight and angled his head, confusion furrowing his brow. His expression froze as he considered Jake for a moment. He raised the knife again, positioning it over Jake’s chest.
Chapter Seventy
“How far out is the S.W.A.T. team?” Lionel asked. The GPS let him know they were getting closer to the address Cassie gave them and he flipped off the sirens and lights.
Shawn matted his cell phone to his ear and relayed Lionel’s question. “Ten minutes, give or take,” he said to Lionel. “Backup and paramedics are only a minute behind us.”
They rounded a corner. Lionel recognized the address on the mailbox at the end of a driveway and slowed his unmarked patrol car. A black Jeep was parked beyond the mailbox.
Shawn lowered his cell phone away from his ear and leaned forward in the passenger seat. “Is that—?”
“It’s Jake’s,” Lionel said. “How the hell did he get here before we did?”
Lionel slowed the car at the end of the driveway. Shawn handed him his cell phone and hopped out of the passenger side. He removed his gun from its holster and ran over to the Jeep. After taking a look inside, he turned back to Lionel and shook his head.
Lionel beat the side of his fist against the steering wheel. He rolled down his window to talk with Shawn. “He must have gone
up to the house already,” Lionel said.
“Stay here and wait for backup. I’m going to check out the situation. When everyone gets here, direct them up the drive. That’s the best thing you can do now. You’re staying here no matter what. I’m getting a little tired of everyone breaking rules around here.” Shawn left the car and ran in a crouched position up the gravel driveway, hugging the tree line that bordered the driveway.
Lionel lifted Shawn’s cell phone to his ear and spoke to the officer who helped coordinate their efforts. “Brandt just went to the house to assess the situation. We have two civilians at the house now and a possible hostage situation. Tell S.W.A.T. to get here now.”
In the distance, Lionel heard the brief shrill of sirens. As soon as the sound entered his ears, they turned off, signaling to Lionel they were near. Lionel climbed out of the car to guide the other officers up the driveway.
Chapter Seventy-one
A faraway crack and pop stole Jake’s attention away from the bloody knife. A long moment passed before Jake realized David’s expression was not changing, nor was the knife lowering into his body. David slumped over, much as Jake did earlier, and fell face first into the grass next to Jake while his body covered Jake like a blanket.
Shawn’s face appeared over Jake. Turning his head, he called out to others that Jake could not see. “He’s alive! Get paramedics out here now!” He bent over Jake and rolled David’s body off of him. “We’re going to get you to a hospital and fix you up. Where’s Emily?”
Jake struggled to speak, but somehow managed to answer. “Inside.”
Shawn disappeared into Jake’s peripheral view, and yelled out Emily’s location to the invisible people around him. Shawn’s face floated over Jake again. “We’ll get her out of there. Just hang on for me.”
Jake wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on. Coldness crept into his veins and invaded his body, replacing the pain as his primary sensation. Despite his injuries, all he could think about was Emily. “Get her,” he said.