by Debra Webb
“Surprised?” Roy grinned. “Hell, yeah, you are. You thought you had this all figured out. With your silly notes and appointments to talk to people.” He made a harrumphing sound. “I was too discreet. Nobody but Miller knew that Marija and I were involved. I have a reputation to uphold in this town. She was just a distraction for a couple of months.”
Alex’s stomach churned at how he’d misled, then mistreated the young girl who’d already suffered too many atrocities in her short life. Her existence had meant nothing to Roy. “Why didn’t you just let her leave?” she demanded hoarsely. “You didn’t have to kill her.”
“Sure I did,” he insisted haughtily. “She could have ruined my life. I know what happened to Phillip and I wasn’t about to go through the same thing. No way. Every single day of his life he’s had to worry that his one little indiscretion might come back to haunt him. Especially after he got into politics.”
She had to get her hands loose. She didn’t have a chance against him otherwise. She winced when the rope burned her wrists as she twisted within its hold.
He rubbed the muzzle of the weapon against his cheek. “I did her right here in this room,” he said, as if the deed was somehow reverent.
Alex stilled and surveyed her surroundings once more. “Where are we?” she asked, as if it mattered.
“My house,” he said offhandedly. “The basement.”
“You picked her up at the airport?” Keep him distracted, she told herself.
He nodded. “I told her I’d decided we should be together. You know, get married, raise the kid, the works.” He shook his head, those dark eyes gleaming with malice. “Did her up just like Gill. Better,” he added with triumph. “I didn’t get caught.”
Alex frowned. So many of the details still didn’t tie together. “If Miller was a good enough friend to be in on your affair with Marija, then why kill him?”
“Dumb bastard grew a conscience over the past couple of months. When you showed up nosing around, he got nervous. I couldn’t have him saying anything stupid. So I told him that I was ready to talk to you, to tell you that the whole thing had been an accident, that I really didn’t mean to kill her.” Roy shook his head again, feigning sadness. “The fool fell for it. I planned on killing both of you, but a truckload of kids parked a short distance away and screwed me up.” He leaned down and traced the wound on her forehead. “I was afraid to go back and make sure I’d done the job right. One of ’em might have seen me. The next morning I couldn’t believe you’d survived that gunshot to the head.”
The loud thumping rap music she’d remembered must have been the kids. Thank God for their timely arrival. Roy’d had to get away in a hurry. Those kids saved Alex’s life. That and the fact that Roy’s shot had only grazed her. Good thing he hadn’t noticed.
“You shot Saylor,” she said, the words more a rush of breath and memory than anything. God, he’d killed two of his fellow deputies without thought.
“Would’ve killed you, too, if you hadn’t moved. Even planted the rifle in your room to make it look like you were working with the shooter. You’re one lucky bitch, but that streak’s about to end.”
“You didn’t have to run Stella’s car off the road,” Alex said, regret, hatred and anger mushrooming inside her. Stella hadn’t known anything about any of this. Alex wanted to get loose and—
“You don’t know anything! It’s your fault,” Roy said cruelly, his temper flaring. “If you’d died like you were supposed to have, none of this would have happened. Hell, I even tried to finish you off the morning we found you, but that stupid Willis kept hovering over you and asking if you were okay.”
Die, bitch. The memory of Roy’s hand over her mouth and nose trying to suffocate her exploded inside her head. He hadn’t been trying to resuscitate her as Mitch believed.
Mitch…she was never going to see Mitch again. Alex trembled, then quickly grabbed back control. She had to think right now. All that stood between her and certain death at the moment was her ability to maintain Roy’s interest.
“How do you expect to get away with this?” she suggested. “Mitch will figure it out.”
“Blood’s thicker than water,” Roy taunted. “He won’t do anything that’ll jeopardize his family. I told Marija the same thing when she threatened to go to Mitch. Down here we stand by our kin.”
“Why did you kill Jasna?” Alex asked suddenly, her mind jumping from one murder to the next. “She didn’t know you were the one. She thought it was Phillip.”
“She wouldn’t let it go,” he offered as if that explained everything and he’d been perfectly justified in what he did. “I couldn’t risk one of you figuring it out.”
“Well, Roy, I’ve got to admit, you’re a pretty smart guy.” She had to keep him talking. Her bonds were a little looser now. With any luck, in a few more minutes she might be free to at least attempt to defend herself. The longer she could distract him, the longer she would live.
When Mitch realized she was missing, would he come looking for her? The memory of the way he’d made love to her warmed her against the cold reality facing her now. He would come. She knew deep in her heart that Mitch wouldn’t let her down. “You thought of everything, didn’t you?” she said, forcing a respect she in no way felt into her tone.
Roy grinned. “I sure did. If I’d known how much fun killing would be, I’d have started a long time ago. There’s nothing like watching a body twitch and squirm as you squeeze off the windpipe, blocking that life-giving air.”
Alex shuddered inwardly. “I don’t understand why you made that one mistake, though,” she ventured hesitantly.
“What mistake?” he snapped. “I didn’t make any mistakes.”
“Gill never shot any of his victims,” Alex reminded. “Why did you shoot Marija?”
Fury streaked across his face like lightning in a summer night sky. “You’re lying! I didn’t shoot the little slut. I strangled her just like Gill always did.”
Alex dredged up a smile. “I can’t fool you, can I, Roy?”
He crouched down and traced the line of her jaw with the nose of the thirty-eight. “Hell no. And don’t you forget it either. Nobody fools me.”
MITCH PARKED in Roy’s driveway behind Phillip’s truck. The driver’s side door was open. He scanned the area around the house. The yard was clear. Mitch climbed out of his Jeep slowly, listening intently for any sound. The silence was deafening. The air too still for his liking.
He moved slowly toward the truck, his heart pounding so hard he could scarcely take a breath. He would not believe that anything had happened to Alex. He couldn’t be too late. He clenched his teeth and refused to think about all that Roy had done right under Mitch’s nose.
How could he have been so damned blind?
He surveyed the inside of the cab. No blood. That was good. His gaze jerked back to the shoe almost hidden under the seat. Mitch reached for the small navy loafer that belonged to Alex. She’d been wearing those shoes this morning.
Mitch tossed the shoe back into the vehicle and headed toward the house. He withdrew his weapon. If Roy had hurt…
He wouldn’t think that way. He had to focus on finding her, then he’d deal with Roy.
As Mitch neared the porch he could see that the front door stood slightly ajar. He crossed the porch, his steps painfully slow and quiet so as not to give any warning. He eased the door open, not even breathing for fear of the whine the hinges might make. The door opened noiselessly.
Silence was all that greeted him as he moved across the living room. When he reached the hall he stopped long enough to identify the matching navy-blue shoe lying on the floor. A new wave of fear washed over him.
The kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom flanked the long hall. Mitch eased quietly to the next door. He peered into the kitchen. Nothing. The next door on that side of the hall stood open. Mitch tried to remember if it was a closet. He’d been here a couple of times, but couldn’t recall what this door led to. But
since it swung outward into the hall, it must be a…
Mitch reached the door and stared down the stairs it revealed.
Definitely not a closet.
A basement.
He didn’t know the house had a basement.
Voices. One soft murmur—Alex. Thank God. Roy’s laugh, a sick, evil sound.
Mitch had watched Roy go from a gangly teenager to a man with a burning desire to be a cop, and Mitch had facilitated that effort. When Nadine and Phillip had married ten years ago, Mitch had thought this readymade family was the best thing that could have happened to his loner of an uncle.
Mitch couldn’t have been more wrong.
Roy had killed at least two people, Stella and Lorraine. It followed that he wouldn’t have killed them unless he had strong motivation, like wanting to cover up previous wrongdoing. Alex had been right on the money from the beginning. The whole thing started with Marija and snowballed from there.
Roy must have gotten her pregnant…then killed her.
Mitch pushed away the whirlwind of thoughts crowding his head. He had to focus. He’d been a fool not to trust Alex’s instincts and look more closely at his own family’s involvement in Marija’s disappearance. He wouldn’t be a fool now.
Sweat beaded on Mitch’s forehead as he began his cautious journey down the rickety old stairs. He focused intently on not making a sound. Alex was speaking again, pleading with Roy to think about what he was doing. Mitch’s heart squeezed at the sound of her fearful voice. Two more steps and he would be able to see.
Slowly, quietly, he eased down the two steps that would allow him to see the basement in its entirety. Mitch’s heart slammed against his sternum when his gaze landed on Alex, her eyes wide with fear as Roy’s fingers tightened around her throat. He was crouching over her, a thirty-eight in his right hand.
“I tried to throw you off track by tearing those pages from your notebook and framing Mitch, but you just wouldn’t back off. Now I’m gonna do you just like I did her,” Roy boasted. “Then I’ll bury you in the middle of nowhere. When they find you they’ll think old Gill’s got himself a fan. They’ll call it a copycat murder.”
Roy pressed the barrel of his weapon against Alex’s temple. Mitch’s heart seemed to stop completely then. He managed to get down another couple of steps, his weapon leveled on Roy.
“Gill might even be flattered.” Roy laughed cruelly. “And you’ll be dead.”
Alex tried to squirm away from him.
Mitch’s whole body jerked with reaction.
“Don’t worry,” Roy taunted. “I’m going to take my time. You won’t feel most of it. Then you’ll be dead and I won’t even have fired my weapon. No one will hear, just like they didn’t hear when I did Marija in this very room cause I didn’t make a sound. Not a single sound.”
Alex opened her mouth to scream. Roy clamped his hand down hard over her mouth. “Don’t bother,” he muttered hotly. “No one’s coming for you. No one believes you.”
“Drop your weapon, Roy.” Mitch was still several steps from the bottom of the stairs, but he had a perfect bead on Roy.
“Go away, Mitch,” Roy said flatly without even looking in his direction. “You don’t want to see this.”
“I said, drop your weapon,” Mitch commanded. “Don’t make me kill you, Roy.”
His muzzle still jammed into Alex’s temple, Roy’s gaze darted to Mitch. “You gonna take her side over mine? If she hadn’t come here none of this would have happened. It’s her fault Miller and Saylor are dead. She left me no choice. You left me no choice.” The pitch of his voice grew higher with each word. He was losing it. And Mitch had to stop him before he did.
“Just toss your weapon aside, Roy,” Mitch said patiently. “And we’ll talk about this.”
Roy shook his head. “No way. I’m killing her. She’s the only one who can prove what really happened. I can’t let her live. She’s got you under some kind of spell.”
“Think about your mother, Roy,” Mitch urged. “Think how devastated she’ll be if I have to shoot you.”
Roy blinked twice as if considering Mitch’s words and hesitated. Then a sick grin slid across his lips. “You’re not going to shoot me, Cousin Mitch,” he said, addressing Mitch the way he did as a lanky kid. “I’m family.”
A new kind of tension tapped its way up Mitch’s spine.
“Now go on,” Roy urged, “and let me do what I gotta do.”
“I can’t do that,” Mitch countered. “You know I can’t.
Roy whipped around, his weapon leveling on Mitch. “Then die with her.”
Alex screamed, the sound underscoring the two shots, one right after the other. Roy looked startled, the shot Mitch fired having given him a third eye and a ticket straight to hell. He slumped to the basement floor.
Mitch lay motionless at the bottom of the stairs. Alex kicked away from Roy’s body and struggled to her feet. She had to get to Mitch. Had to help him. As she stumbled across the room she jerked and tugged to get her hands free.
She dropped to her knees beside his too-still body. “Mitch.” She jerked frantically at her bonds.
“Mitch!” she cried, hoping to rouse him. Blood had soaked his shirt. The wound was low on his left side. “Oh, God.”
She tugged harder. One hand pulled free. Thank God. Thank God. She shook her other hand free of the rope and checked his pulse. Then took a better look at the wound. Panic tightened around her throat. The bleeding hadn’t slowed. Thankfully, it appeared that the fall down the stairs and not the gunshot had rendered him unconscious.
But his neck or back could be broken. She had to get help. What was she waiting for? He could bleed to death before she pulled herself together.
Alex raced up the stairs, stumbling twice before reaching the top. She rushed through the house until she found the phone. She snatched up the receiver and depressed 9-1-1.
“I need help,” she blurted as soon as the operator had finished her spiel.
“What is the nature of your emergency?”
Alex wanted to scream. “He’s been shot. He’s bleeding badly. Please hurry!”
“Calm down, ma’am, we’ll get someone on the way right now.”
It hit Alex then that she didn’t even know where she was. “I don’t know the address!”
“It’s all right, ma’am. We’ve got you. We know where you are and someone is on the way.”
“Okay. Okay.” Alex closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. But it didn’t work. She knew the drill. Help was on its way.
“Are you safe, ma’am? Is the shooter still there? Do you need to get out of the house?”
Mitch. Alex had to help Mitch until the paramedics arrived. Alex dropped the phone and flew back down the stairs.
He still hadn’t moved.
She knelt beside him and placed her hand over the wound. There was so much blood. She pressed hard to try and slow it. The warm life-giving fluid oozed between her fingers. Just like Saylor. She hadn’t been able to help him. Alex sucked in a shuddering breath. She had to try. She had training for this.
But this was Mitch.
The man she loved.
Chapter Fourteen
By midnight that night Mitch was resting comfortably. Alex watched him sleep now, so very thankful that his prognosis was good. The internal injuries were very minor compared to what could have been. The bump on his head was only a mild contusion. The CT scan had revealed nothing of concern and Mitch had no glitches in his thought processes or his memory as far as the doctors could tell.
Alex closed her eyes and sighed. She was so tired and relieved. Although she still had not regained her complete memory, little bits and pieces were missing here and there, most of it was back. The afternoon prior to Miller’s murder she had just connected Roy and the Malloys. When she questioned Miller about Roy, Miller broke. He promised to tell her everything that night.
After arriving at the rendezvous point, Miller had behaved strangely. He kept telling
her that it wasn’t his fault. That Roy had set up everything. That he’d spread the lies about Marija’s cocaine use. That he’d even had Miller passing messages to Marija at the club so it would look like he and Marija were together. Miller hadn’t realized until later that Roy had only used him to keep from being seen in public with the girl. Miller hadn’t known exactly what Roy had done until Jasna came looking for her sister.
Alex now clearly remembered Roy joining her and Miller that night. Miller had been as startled as she by the ski mask Roy wore. He had said his hellos and then proceeded to beat Alex unmercifully. Miller had tried to stop him, but Roy had warned him to stay back. There was nothing after that except the glimpse of memory where someone, Roy she knew now, had held her hand and made her fire her weapon. Then the horror of Miller’s dead body behind the steering wheel of his car. She vaguely recalled being loaded into the passenger seat opposite Miller, followed by the weapon firing at her, the loud rap music, then nothing. Everything after that was still hit or miss.
But Alex remembered everything prior to the shooting, including that one dinner with Mitch. Though she’d never been a believer in love at first sight, something had definitely happened between them that night. Something much deeper than just attraction. And even after she’d become his suspect, Mitch couldn’t push away what he felt for her.
Alex opened her eyes and smiled, her gaze blurring with tears. Mitch loved her, and she loved him. She wasn’t sure what in the world they would do about it, but she was sure of the love.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. Zach should have been here by now. When she’d talked to Victoria to give her the news while Mitch was in recovery, Zach had insisted on coming down to be with Alex. She’d tried to talk him out of it, but that wasn’t happening.
