Lying on the bed next to her was a nasty looking cat o' nine tails flogger, made of stiff braided leather that was knotted at the tips, unlike the one I'd used on Lu. The sight of it made me feel ill because I knew it certainly wasn't going to be used to give her pleasure.
Vinnie stood next to the bed, leaning over her with a knife held to her throat as she lay there unconscious and completely vulnerable. Her dress was hiked up enough that I could see the white lace panties she was wearing. I hoped the fact that they were intact meant he didn't lay his vile hands on her, because if he did he was a dead man.
"Glad you could make it, bro," Vinnie said, drawing my attention to his sickeningly lecherous grin. "Now the party can start." The light from several old lamps scattered around the decrepit furniture of the room cast macabre shadows across his face, and gave me the chills.
"What do you want from me, Vinnie?" I growled out, longing to get my hands on him, so I could rip his throat out.
"First things first," he said. "Lift up your sweatshirt and show me you followed orders like a good boy and didn't bring any weapons."
I glowered at him. "Fine," I grudgingly snarled out as I pulled my shirt up.
"Turn around and show me the back," he demanded as he briefly pulled the knife away to point it at me while he spoke.
I growled as I complied, then glared at him again. "Now what?" I asked, already considering my odds of disarming him and getting to my pistol without Lu getting hurt if I rushed him right now.
That was when the cold hard barrel of what I knew to be a gun abruptly pressed into the back of my head, and I stilled. Shit. Fuck. Damn.
"Now," a familiar female voice spoke from behind me, "you give my Vincent the gift I promised him," Mistress Nadasdy continued in a stern tone.
"What fucking gift?" I growled. Vinnie grinned in maniacal triumph as he hovered over Lu, his knife flashing in the low light.
"Revenge," Vinnie answered in a vicious and crazed tone. Terror consumed my thoughts as he pressed the knife against Luisa's soft flesh again.
"Revenge?" I blurted out in confusion, wondering what the fuck was he talking about as I fought to keep from attacking him.
"You did this to me," he explained. "You made me into this. You ruined my life." The knife pressed a little harder against Lu's neck as he spoke. Her eyelids fluttered, and she let out a low moan of distress. Fuck.
"What?" I asked, too focused on the threat to Lu to understand exactly what he was saying to me as terror ripped through me.
"You gave me those fucking pills," Vinnie seethed out fiercely. "You cost me everything, my future, the woman I loved when she dumped me," -his eyes gleamed with utter madness- "and if not for my mistress, you'd have cost me my life too."
Did I give him those pills the first time like he said? I didn't know. So many of my memories from back then were murky and unreliable. I'd been high more often than not, and what he claimed could very well be true. It still didn't justify this insanity though.
"And now I'm going to take all of that from you." His hand tightened around the knife handle as he lifted it up, his body tensing and trembling in anticipation. Fuck. He was going to kill her right now. I readied to rush toward him, knowing I was going to be too late, and I'd probably get a bullet in the head for it, but I didn't care. I had to try.
"Stop!" Nadasdy snapped out sharply, her harsh command stopping the knife mid swing. "Focus, Vincent. This is not what I have planned for this one."
She planned? This one? What? And then my eyes flew wide as realization slammed brutally into me. Everything fell into place in my head. Everything. Holy. Fuck. Nadasdy was the killer, and Vinnie was just her minion. She obviously had access to the victims from the club since she was a member. Besides that, the time frame of the murders matched up perfectly with her relationship with Vinnie and lined up with the camera malfunctions too. It all made sense now. They'd been there right under our noses all this time.
Lu moaned again, this time her eyes flickering open to look around the room in fear and confusion. The urge to rush to her side took all my effort to resist.
"My Vincent deserves reparations," Nadasdy said behind me, her tone hard and deadly serious. "And I'm going to give that to him. Isn't that right, my boy?"
"Yes, Mistress," Vinnie's eye gleamed with giddy madness and deranged excitement as he spoke. "Please, let me do it now," he begged in a strained voice. "Please. I need a fix."
A fix? I took a closer look at Vinnie. He was sweating and fidgeting anxiously as fine tremors racked his body. His eyes were watery, and his pupils dilated. I easily recognized all the symptoms of withdrawal because I knew them well from my own personal experience.
"Patience, my Vincent," she replied soothingly. "Be my good boy and do as you're told, and then you'll earn your reward."
Reward? Shit, it sounded as if Nadasdy was using Vinnie's opiate addiction to manipulate him.
"My Vincent loves to be my muse," Nadasdy said in a breathy and dreamy tone that let me know that she was just as disturbed as Vinnie, probably more so if this was how she got her jollies. "He is my brush, my paint, and you will watch your submissive become my canvas."
Now it sounded like she was using her control over him to get him to torture and kill their victims. Fuck. I never saw the crime scene photos from the other victims, but Lu's descriptions had been detailed enough that I could now picture exactly what kind of fucked-up art this crazy bitch had in mind. Hell. Fucking. No.
"Now," she snapped out sharply as she prodded at my skull with the gun, "you're going to sit in that chair over there like a good boy, or I'll put a bullet in your head."
I glanced to the left to see an old torn vinyl chair in a hideous dark-green color that was turned to face the bed. Attached to its wooden legs and armrests were four leather cuffs like the ones Lu currently wore. Fuck me. If I let them cuff me to that chair, this was all over, even with Pete and Calder here. They'd find my gun, and my only weapon would be gone. Someone would die for sure, and I feared it would be Luisa since Vinnie was still hovering over her with that fucking knife. I couldn't allow anything to happen to her. My heart would die right along with her if the unthinkable happened. No fucking way. I needed her safe. I needed her.
I looked at Lu again, and our eyes locked. She still looked terrified, but her confusion had lessened, and she saw me now, knew I was here for her. Now I just had to figure out what to do to get us out of this clusterfuck.
"We're right outside the room," came Calder's quiet voice in my earpiece. The classical music still blaring out from a speaker somewhere nearby drowned it out so Nadasdy and Vinnie couldn't hear him themselves.
"You think even with a gun to my head that I'm going to stand here and let you do this? That I'll let you cuff me to that chair and make me watch Vinnie torture Lu while she's lying cuffed to the fucking bed right next to him in the middle of the goddamn room?" I asked loudly to stall Nadasdy and Vinnie, and to clue Pete and Calder into the situation in here, hoping the two nut-jobs in here with me didn't catch on.
Pete, however, caught on immediately and spoke softly in my earpiece. "Set the arsehole off. Signal me when he's away from Lu, then drop to the floor." That I could do.
"You will if you don't want your brains sprayed all over her instead," Nadasdy snarled out as she jabbed me painfully with the barrel of the gun again.
If I didn't act soon, that was exactly what was going to happen. It was now or never.
"What's the matter Vinnie?" I asked snidely. "Are you not man enough to do this on your own? You need some crazy psycho bitch to talk you through it instead?"
Vinnie stiffened, his eyes widening in anger and his nostrils flaring as my words struck a nerve. Hell, yeah.
"You're still a fucking pushover aren't you?" I struck again, hoping I wasn't about to get myself killed before Pete could act. "No wonder it was so easy to get you to take those pills that first time."
Vinnie snarled as he took several steps toward me and aw
ay from Lu. Perfect.
"Now!" I bellowed as I dropped into a crouch on the floor.
I heard scuffling and a low grunt behind me, followed by Nadasdy's sudden gasp of surprise, and assumed that meant Pete had grabbed a hold of her. A gun fired loudly above me and plaster rained down on me an instant later, just as another gun went off. Vinnie flinched as a sudden burst of red colored the fabric of his shirt from the bullet that just grazed his left shoulder, followed by Calder swearing loudly behind me. Fuck. He missed his shot.
Instead of coming at me again like I expected Vinnie to do, he whirled and rushed back toward Lu, the knife in his hand raised high. Oh, hell no. I acted on pure instinct and surged to my feet to throw myself toward the little fucker, my ears still ringing from the close gunfire.
Vinnie turned back just as I reached him with the knife now poised to strike me. I threw out my left arm and slammed my palm into his wrist before he could sink it into my gut. The blow knocked the blade from his hand and sent it flying into the nearby wall to clatter back down to the floor next to us. He roared and charged forward, his now empty fist flying at my face. I blocked it and stepped in close, so I could deliver a few shots to his torso that didn't even faze the raging motherfucker.
Desperate to finish this, I swept his leg out from under him with mine, but I slipped in the loose plaster and dirt on the floor and lost my footing. I fell with him and hit the floor hard, my head bouncing off the tile floor as I landed with Vinnie somehow on top of me. We must have ended up right next to the discarded knife, because before I could shake off the jarring blow to my head, Vinnie had it clenched in his fist again. I barely got a hold of his hand and stopped him before he could shove the fucking thing into my upper chest. Thank fuck, because my Kevlar vest was made for bullets and wouldn't have done me a lick of good against an edged blade that was being shoved straight down into me.
I held on tight as he leaned in and put all of his weight into pushing the knife down toward me, this time going for my unprotected neck. His strength was astounding, fed by psychotic rage. All I could do was hold him at bay for the moment, my arms shaking with the concerted effort that I knew wouldn't last long.
He put his other hand over the knife handle and pressed the blade even harder toward my vulnerable flesh. I felt the tip prick my skin. I grunted with effort and managed to push him away an inch or so, but knew it was only a stopgap measure that I couldn't sustain. Shit. This was it. I was fucking screwed. I just hoped to God that Pete and Calder could get Lu out of here alive.
"Scott!" I heard Lu cry out, followed by a blood-curdling shriek of fury. A blur of white suddenly slammed into Vinnie, knocking him off of me and sending him, and what I know realized was Lu, rolling away from me as the knife scudded across the floor for several feet. Calder must of have uncuffed her from the bed, and what did she do first? She went to battle for me. My woman was a badass, but unfortunately, her current drug impaired state put her at a disadvantage.
I sat up as I watched Lu come up swinging off the floor onto her knees, getting in a few good shots to Vinnie's face while he was down, but she immediately began to droop forward, swooning like she was going to pass out. Vinnie took advantage of it and flew upward, sending Lu sprawling backwards onto her back. He reached over and snatched up the knife again, but I was already pulling my pistol from my ankle holster and flipping the safety. He raised it above Lu, ready to stab it into her now limp and defenseless body. I aimed the gun at his head without a second's hesitation, and squeezed the trigger twice in quick succession.
Bam. Bam.
Vinnie jerked with each hit, then dropped like a fucking stone. I crawled over to Lu and shoved Vinnie's now lifeless corpse off of her, ignoring the four brand spanking new holes in his head, and the blood and brains that were splattered all over the nearby wall now. Good fucking riddance.
I pulled Lu onto my lap and into my arms, cradling her close like the precious thing she was to me. I spared a quick glance up to see that Pete had Nadasdy subdued face down on the floor by the door with her arms behind her back. She was kicking and struggling under him to no avail as she screamed out Vinnie's name, her eyes locked on his motionless body.
Calder was standing on the opposite side of the bed, lowering his own gun with a look of sheer relief in his piercing blue eyes. He didn't dare to fire during the scuffle with Vinnie for fear of hitting Lu or me. I nodded to him once, all my gratefulness and respect communicated in that one simple gesture which he reciprocated with just as much meaning behind his.
"Sc...Scott?" Lu said in a tremulous voice, capturing all my attention.
I looked down to see her blinking up at me with a confused and fearful expression in her gorgeous chocolate brown eyes.
"It's okay, babe," I said with soft affection. "You're safe, and he'll never touch you again." I reached up to cup her cheek in my hand as sweet warmth flooded my chest. I knew exactly what it meant now, and I embraced it wholeheartedly and with everything I had. "I've got you now, and I'll never let you go."
"You won't?" she asked.
"Nope." I shook my head, giving her a smirk. "And you know why?"
"Why?" she whispered with an adorable and perplexed furrow to her brow as her eyes drifted shut.
"Because I love you, Lu," I answered with complete sincerity, my voice firm and unwavering with my conviction. I closed my eyes and leaned down to give her the tenderest and sweetest kiss I'd ever given anyone in my life. "I love you," I murmured against her warm and luscious lips, saying those foreign yet wondrous words again that I'd never told another woman. Then I pulled back to see a soft and contented smile grace my Luisa's beautiful face for just a moment before she passed out cold in my arms.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN
____________________
Lu
I gasped awake, immediately terrified and feeling trapped in what felt like steel bands wrapped suffocatingly around my body. The lingering nightmare vision of deranged smoky-blue eyes hovering over me with a wickedly sharp knife still filled my mind. I began struggling to get free as panic licked up my spine and helpless whimpers fell from my lips. I needed to get free, needed to get away.
"Shh, babe," a low familiar rumble said soothingly. "It's okay. I've got you. You're alright."
"Scott?" I asked waveringly.
"It's me, babe," the voice murmured above me. The creepy smokey-blue eyes from my shadowy and disturbing nightmare morphed into familiar vivid blue ones set in a handsome face that put me instantly at ease. Scott leaned down to brush his lips against my forehead in a gentle caress, then rose up to smile softly at me.
I blinked myself further into wakefulness and looked around to realize that we were in my bedroom. We were both tucked under my downy comforter, me wearing a T-shirt and sleep shorts, and Scott snuggled up next to me in only his boxer briefs. His warm skin felt so good against my side. What looked to be brilliant afternoon sunshine, was shining in through the room length window and bathing us in bright comforting light. I wasn't in the dark nasty room from my nightmare, cuffed to a disgusting bed with a crazy-eyed psychopath. No, I was safe in Scott's arms. I let out a slow breath of blissful relief as my body relaxed into the soft mattress beneath me.
"Wh...what happened?" I asked slowly, feeling like my brain was muddled and sluggish.
"You got drugged, babe," he explained, his smile slipping away.
"What?"
"You were slipped some ketamine last night," he answered with a worried frown. "Don't you remember?"
Ketamine? The date-rape drug? What the hell?
"I...I don't..." I trailed off as vague recollections of Vinnie offering me a bottle of water last night came to me, but my memories after that were hazy and indistinct. "It...it was Vinnie and Mistress Nadasdy."
He nodded, his expression turning furious. "They drugged you and took you."
"What?" I asked in horrified shock, suddenly realizing that my nightmare was actually a memory. I started shaking all o
ver. I don't know what freaked me out more, the fact that I'd been drugged and kidnapped, or that I couldn't remember what happened.
"Don't worry," he murmured comfortingly as he pulled me closer. "You're safe now, and they'll never bother you again."
"Did he....did he...ra...ra-" I couldn't even bring myself to say the word rape.
"No, baby." Scott's fingertips skated gently down my cheek, his eyes filled with sweet concern. "He never touched you, and he'll never have a chance to try again." His voice turned fierce and darkly possessive. "I made sure of it."
"You...you saved me?" I asked incredulously.
"No," he said with a soft version of his usual sexy smirk. "We saved each other, babe."
I gave him a questioning expression, and he proceeded to tell me what happened last night after I was drugged. As Scott spoke, what he was saying started sounding more and more familiar to me. It was as if his words were bringing back my lost memories bit by bit, piece by piece. Frankly, I didn't want any of them back. Well, all of them except for one in particular. That one I recalled quite vividly, but it was still too startling and unbelievable for me to acknowledge.
When he got to the part where he shot and killed Vinnie, I was terror stricken, but this time not for myself. Visions of Scott going to prison rose up to taunt me, even though the logical part of me knew the shooting was clearly in defense of my life. He immediately reassured me when I voiced my concern.
"No worries, babe," Scott said. "It was a clean shoot. Warren wasn't happy that Calder, Pete, and I went after you without calling the cops, but he assured me that the three of us wouldn't be charged with anything."
The mention of Sergeant Detective Warren only led to a different kind of panicked fear. If he now knew that Scott and I had been investigating the murders off the books, I'd be out of a job and the one charged with a crime. Fortunately, Scott read me like a book and settled that fear immediately.
Tempting Calm Waters Page 30
