Stalked Justice (Fractured Minds Series Book 1)

by Kate Allenton

  “There is nothing to tie me to those murders that you’ve investigated. Because I didn’t do them. Good luck trying to get a jury to convict me.” His voice was smooth and would have been convincing had I not known otherwise.

  “I might have believed that, but they have attempted murder charges for you now…thanks to me.” I grinned. “Do you know how giddy that makes me to know that I’m the reason you’re going to jail? I guess I really am smarter than you.”

  “You think I’m going to jail? Take a good look at me, Lucy. How sane do I look? Isn’t that the same plea that you took?”

  Insanity plea, I should have seen it coming. Any lawyer worth his weight would jump on that bandwagon, and with the type of lawyers that Gentry’s father could afford, the trial wouldn’t even last a day. I’d read the file on all the places that Gentry had been while in town. Sam had given me a list of the hotels that Gentry had used, and a list of his father’s properties. I was positive that Sloan’s assistant was in one of those places.

  I slipped latex gloves on my fingers keeping a straight face. I slipped opened the file and turned the name for him to see, along with the picture. “You kind of screwed up.” I flipped the picture over and pointed to the fingerprint dust that remained. “They’ve got you, and you did it to yourself.”

  Gentry visibly swallowed as he lifted his angry gaze to mine. Anger filled the room, and I breathed it in.

  “Give me the woman’s location, and I’ll make sure they don’t put you in solitary, because, let me tell you, the woman you took is kind of a big deal to a man with more strings than your daddy.”

  “What makes you think that I had anything to do with her disappearance?”

  “Cut the crap, Gentry. We both know that you are smart enough to kidnap her. We both know how she fits into this puzzle. Tell me where you’re hiding her. If she’s unharmed, I promise to visit you in prison… Please.”

  Hearing the word please spew from my lips caught his attention. He leaned back in his chair with a smug look. “You think you’re going to be alive to visit me in prison? Carl will be awake soon. He’s going to finish what he started. He’s going to cut you up as the trash you are, and then he’s going do the same thing to your sister. Only with your sister, he’s going to feed her dead body to the sharks.” Gentry glanced down at the picture, and his lips twitched before he covered it. “And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it being locked up in the psych ward.”

  “Sharks? So that’s your play? That’s how you know that they’ll never find Sloan’s assistant.” I rose from my seat and slapped the folder closed. I pressed the button in my ear to trigger the earpiece. “Sloan’s assistant, Susan, is on Gentry’s father’s boat. Find the boat, and you’ll find her.”

  I turned to leave and glanced as I grabbed the doorknob. “Thank you for your assistance.”

  “You stupid bitch. These restraints aren’t going to hold me. I’m coming for you; I’m going to make you feel everything that I felt. Your sister is as good as dead. You might as well go ahead and start making her funeral arrangements. Because those are the last arrangements you’re ever going to make.”

  I grinned and closed the door as he yelled more threats.

  “How did he do? I asked, handing Sam the folder.

  Sam slipped the technology off the back of the folder. I wouldn’t have believed it possible if the others hadn’t tried it on me. A device that could indicate deception in a voice if there were enough emotions triggered to find the medium. The entire reason I pissed him off and had offered to visit him in jail. It had set the vocal range to give us enough output.

  “You did great. There was no change in his voice when he spoke about the sharks and looked at the picture. He was telling the truth.”

  I glanced around to find Sloan and Tines gone. “I hope they get her.”

  “They will,” Noah added. “Sam caught him on traffic cams and picked him back up as he neared downtown. Gentry’s father owns three properties in that area. You just narrowed it down to a single location.”

  I pressed my hands together. “Looks like my work is done here. Can I please have a glass of wine now?”

  Noah nodded and led the way out of the Sheriff’s Department. When we got to the SUV, he answered. “First round of drinks is on me, and if you’re lucky, Hunt might even let you stay in the psych ward.”

  One way or another, I was going to make sure Hunt made good on his promise. Regardless of where I ended up, I’d caught his bad guy, so it was time he paid up on his end of the bargain.

  ****

  Sloan stayed behind in Florida. They found his assistant, Susan. She was dehydrated and in bad shape.

  When our plane landed, my brother-in-law, Grant, met us at the hangar. I knew something was wrong the minute we stepped off the plane. I didn’t know whether it was his look or the rollercoaster of emotions emanating from him, but something was seriously bad.

  I closed the distance, dragging my suitcase behind me. “What’s wrong?”

  “Goddammit,” Noah said from behind me as he stared down at his phone.

  “Tell me.”

  “We don’t know how he did it, but Gentry escaped.”

  I calmed the anger in my veins exhaling it before it could settle in my body. It was, a new technique I’d been using to try to battle emotions within. I walked back to Noah and patted his arm. “Don’t worry, I know exactly where he’s going. It just means I might be delayed getting back to the psych ward.”

  “Tell me where he’s going, and we’ll pick him up,” Noah demanded.

  “You have to trust me this time, Noah. I might not have started out as a team player, but I am now. He’s going after my family. I’m positive of it. So, I’ll be there when he does. You just have to trust me not to go on the run.”

  “You’ve got one week.” Noah glanced at Grant. “You got her back?”

  “I’ve got his,” I said. “There’s no need to even send an escort to take me to the psych ward. I’ll deliver myself there.”

  “And why should I trust you?” Noah asked.

  “Because, after a week with me, you have to admit that If I wanted to leave, I would have by now.”

  Chapter 25

  Grant led me into the hospital and down the corridor, where armed guards were stationed at Gigi’s door. “We already moved her.”

  “Gentry doesn’t know that.” I slowed my walk down the hallway and stopped in front of the picture of the man in question. Employee of the month. Had he really graduated from nursing school? Or maybe that was just another ploy for him to be as close to me as possible.

  “He’d already been working as a nurse here before he got accepted into the program. It was in his file. He’s only been assigned to this floor twice. We’re lucky Gigi is still alive.”

  “Yes, we are.”

  Grant called off the guards on the room and sent them away. We stepped inside, and he handed me the hospital gown. I made quick work of changing and climbing into the bed. In one hand I had a gun; in the other, I had the syringe. It wasn’t a matter of if Gentry would show up. Sam had already found him on the street cams around the hospital. He’d show and try to kill Gigi, and instead he’d get me.

  It took two days of pretending to be a patient before I heard in my ear that Gentry was confident enough to make his move. Moonlight shone in through the curtains into the room. I tried my best not to stare over to where Grant was waiting in the bathroom. I closed my eyes with my finger on the trigger and strained to hear. I couldn’t hear his footsteps on the floor as he approached the room. I couldn’t hear anything, but I could feel. The anger intensified and grew like a virus worming through an apple. He was here; I sensed him.

  The door creaked as it opened. I only had my gut and my intuition to help me. If I opened my eyes, he would know that it wasn’t Gigi. He approached the bed and wrapped his fingers around my throat.

  My eyes flew open, startling him, and I plunged the needle into his arm.

>   “How’s that for being unpredictable?”

  I lifted the gun and held it on Gentry as Sloan stepped in from behind the curtain separating the beds and Grant stepped out from the bathroom.

  “Eh, Gentry should have predicted it,” Sloan said. “After all, he all but drew you a map.”

  “Take me back to jail. I’ll haunt you in your dreams like Carl does. We’re connected, Lucy, until the day one of us dies, and I’ll find a way out again,” Gentry growled.

  “Aw, that’s sweet,” I said, sitting up in the bed. “You think you’re going to jail?” I chuckled. “I told you that you screwed up when you kidnapped the last girl. See Sloan here has a vested interest in what happens to you. Not only did you kill his niece, you took his assistant. So good luck with that.”

  Sloan twisted a silencer onto the end of his gun before he grabbed Gentry by his cuffed wrist. Two other men, with bulging muscles, appeared at the door with guns strapped in their arm holsters.

  “Have a nice life, maybe what’s left of it, anyway. I know I will.” I waved as I slid off the bed.

  Chapter 26

  I stared up at the psych ward building, inhaling a breath of fresh air. The greenery around the building seemed brighter today, or maybe it was the sun shining down instead of the clouds that normally blocked the light.

  I knew I had to do it. I walked to the door, pulled it open, and headed straight for the receptionist desk. “Lucy Bray, I have a reservation.”

  It only took me two days to get back into the swing of things. I stood at the window with a grin from ear to ear as I watched Margo being placed in the psych ward van headed for a new detention center. For a split second, she stared up at me, and I lifted my pudding cup in cheers to say goodbye.

  Margo tried to wrestle free, and I chuckled as she was strapped into a straitjacket. It was a sweet day for me. I turned toward Francine and headed her direction, placing an unopened pudding cup in front of her. “Two in one day, dear?”

  “Margo won’t be needing hers anymore.”

  “Neither will you.” Noah’s voice startled me from behind.

  “Noah, what brings you by?”

  He took his pen and raised the lanyard I’d hidden beneath my shirt. “Give it here.”

  “You know me so well,” I teased and handed him the lanyard that gave me access to anywhere in the building. Noah took one look and tossed it to the orderly in the picture. “So, what gives? Did you miss me?”

  Noah guided me out of the common area and toward my assigned room. “There were five bodies just dragged out of a lake.”

  In that moment I felt the familiar rumble of emotions flood through me like a dam that had broken free. It took my breath away. “Carl is awake.”

  “Yes, but he’s under lock and key. This time it’s personal,” Noah said.

  Not that it hadn’t been last time. How much more personal could it get to track down someone obsessed with killing me? “What could be more personal than a man wanting to killing me?”

  “Pack your bag and find out,” Noah answered, turning into the room.

  I grinned and grabbed the already packed suitcase sitting on the bed. “I bet you didn’t know that I spent so much time emotionally embedded with you that I can feel the ghosts of your emotions pulling on me.”

  “Had I known, that you never would have made it out the front door.” Noah said leading me back into the hallway and toward the exit.

  I nudged his shoulder. “Don’t worry; I’ll keep your secret safe and sound.”

  “See that you do. I’d hate for you to disappear like Gentry.” Noah raised a brow.

  “Yeah, shame about that, isn’t it? He must be more slippery than we thought.” I then immediately changed the conversation. The last thing I needed was a pissed-off fed hounding me. “I’m guessing this next case has Carson Tines’ name written all over it.”

  “I shouldn’t be surprised you’d figure that out.”

  “Well, his emotions are all over the chart, but you should know...I have new demands.”

  “I’m not surprised.”

  I pulled the paper out of my pocket and handed it to him.

  His jaw ticked as he read the paper. “You really were prepared.”

  “Just look at it this way. I’m not asking for my freedom. What trouble can I really get into if you authorize giving me a phone?” My laughter bounced off the white walls as I continued to the door.

  Keep reading for a sneak peek at Killing Justice.

  Killing Justice

  Chapter 1

  “Which one of you dumped dad’s body in the lake?” Carson asked, his somber tone void of emotion as he stared at his father’s ghostly apparition.

  Carson Tines and his two brothers stared slack-jawed, watching the horrific nightmare. Red and blue flashing lights bounced off the overhanging canopy of evergreen trees across the water. The gasoline smell from the Sheriff’s Department boats and machinery drifted on the wind. Leashed barking dogs tugged their handlers toward the boat and bodies being lifted out of the water. The motion sent waves lapping against the shoreline.

  For years people have gone missing from Carson’s town. They weren’t missing anymore.

  “None of us put him in the lake,” Michael answered. “We don’t even know if any of those bodies are him.”

  His older brother’s drunk optimism wasn’t reassuring. As sure as Carson knew the sun would rise in the east, he knew the identity of at least one of the dead bodies the cops were fishing to retrieve.

  Carson could feel it in his soul. They’d find five bodies beneath the murky water.

  Bodies wrapped in blue tarps were being hauled out one by one. He and his brothers had known they’d eventually figure out their father’s fate. They all knew their dad was near. How near, well, one of them must have known more than the other.

  “I need a drink,” his baby brother, Bishop, announced as he spun and stalked away.

  They all did. A shot of whiskey, their father’s favorite drink, to commemorate the day.

  Michael and Bishop headed through the woods. Carson was slower to follow. Every time he returned home, he was ready to leave again. The painful memories consumed his thoughts, but being around his brothers made them worse.

  “Janet is working behind the bar. Is that going to be an issue?” Michael asked.

  Carson cursed. “My visit is temporary, but I’ll be lucky if the lass doesn’t spike my drink.”

  The bar was practically in their backyard, connected to their home by a well-worn path their father had carved out through the woods. As teens, Carson and his brothers had to retrieve their dad when he’d attempted to stumble home and inevitably passed out on the way. He excelled at drinking away his worries; that was the only life lesson he’d bestowed on his sons.

  Carson stepped into the bar; his gaze went to the familiar clock on the wall in the shape of a cowgirl holding on to her hat. At the top of every hour, her leg would swing out, and the neon lights around her frame grew bright. Even that clock was worn with age. Scarred wooden stools lined the counter. One of the locals was hunched over at the end of the bar, nursing his frosty mug.

  “Want to sit at the bar?” Bishop asked.

  Carson shook his head. “No.” He pointed to the table across the bar. “Over there, where we can talk.”

  Michael nudged him. “Grab the table, and I’ll get the beers.”

  Carson crossed the room and spun the beat-up wooden chair around before straddling it. His gaze locked on Janet behind the bar, making sure she didn’t poison his drink with arsenic.

  She hadn’t changed. Her red hair fell in waves down to her shoulders. Her bright green eyes had lost some of their light. Working in this place wore on a person. She was still beautiful, still sexy, and, judging by the tension in her jaw, still very stubborn.

  As if she sensed Carson’s thoughts, she lifted her gaze to meet his and narrowed those sexy, heated eyes. Carson tilted his head in acknowledgment, earning a deeper sco
wl.

  “Do you think she’s still pissed?” Bishop asked.

  “Looks that way,” Carson answered, taking a shot of whiskey and a bottle of beer from Michael before his brother scampered off to grab the rest of the drinks and join them.

  Carson took a long swig of the cold beer before leaning into the table. This was a conversation they should have had years ago. Only then he hadn’t been prepared to know the truth. Now it was a necessity. “Listen, they’ll think one of us killed him. They always look at family first. There’s no denying we hated the bastard.” Most of the time. “So, if one of you killed him, you need to tell me now so I can work out a plan to protect you.”

  “We don’t even know if one of them was him,” Bishop said, taking a sip of his beer.

  Carson lifted a brow at Bishop’s comment. His brothers might not know, but Carson did.

  “Still, if it is him, we need a plan.”

  “Why are you so convinced they’ll find Dad?” Michael asked. “Unless you know for a fact, he’s in the lake.”

  Bishop leaned forward. His intense gaze landed on Carson like their father’s had when dear old dad learned he’d been the one who flushed his alcohol down the toilet. “Did you kill him?”

  The bar door flew open, and the sheriff walked in with two of his deputies. Behind him was Marine Recruiter, Master Sergeant Farley. He’d been the man who straightened Carson out all those years ago and sent him down a more rewarding path.

  The sheriff scanned the room. His gaze held Carson’s as he crossed the distance. “I heard you were back,” Sheriff Anderson announced.

  There was no love lost between the sheriff and Carson. Carson had been a known troublemaker growing up.

  “Sheriff.” Carson nodded. “I’m not here to start any trouble, just visiting my brothers.”

  “Give the kid a break, Sheriff. The Marines instilled a sense of duty in Carson a long time ago. He’s no longer the punk you remember,” Master Sergeant Farley announced. “Isn’t that right, son?”