“Yeah, there’s a trailer park about two miles down the road, right before you leave Happy. You probably saw it coming into town.”
“We did.”
“His is the one with the cars all over the place. Well, the car parts.”
Nate was pleased they had a lead. It looked like coming to ‘Lucky’s’ was a good thing.
At least it would make the case progress. The sooner they got this killer, the sooner Jagger could start living. They all knew his whole life was on the line with this one. He was family, and they wanted him to have happiness.
“We appreciate your time,” Nate offered, shaking the man’s hand.
The bartender, Austin Ball, smiled. “Any time, man.” Then, something occurred to him. “Wait!”
They turned around.
“Two things.”
“Yeah?” Bishop asked.
“Why exactly are you investigating? We were told by the local paper and news that these women died of natural causes. Are they lying?”
This, again, was tough.
“The FBI is called in when the coroner asks for a secondary opinion. You’ve had a few people die who were young and healthy. We’re simply covering our bases.”
One of the men at the bar laughed. “They probably died of boredom,” he shouted. “This town sucks.”
There was a burst of cheers.
“Shut up, Henry!” Austin ordered. “Drink your beer before it gets warm.”
The man did.
“What’s the second thing?” Nate asked.
The man pointed over at the table where they’d been recently sitting, and where Lucian and Avalon were sitting.
“Who’s the hottie?” he asked.
Nate felt his blood pressure shoot up. “She’s my fiancée.”
Austin glanced over. “No, not her. The dude. Can I get his number? I swing both ways.”
Bishop stared at him. “Uh, no, you may not have my husband’s number!”
She didn’t know if she should laugh or stare in horror as she pictured it in her head.
They walked away.
The entire time, Nate was laughing.
“That’s not funny. Now men are trying to poach him too. Jesus! I need to keep him locked up for my own sanity’s sake.”
“People like pirates,” he offered, laughing some more. “They like them a lot—apparently.”
“Shut up, Nate.”
Oh, he couldn’t help it. Having Bishop around was going to be fun. She was a lot like Maura in the way he could torment the hell out of her.
At the table, they took a seat.
“Why are you red?” Lucian asked. “You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”
“Not yet.”
“The bartender has the hots for her husband,” Nate said.
Lucian laughed. “Well, in his defense, I am sexy.”
“In your defense, I will take you outside and hurt you, but not how you think.”
He was about to say something when he and Avalon both froze.
“He’s in the static,” she whispered. “He’s hunting.”
That couldn’t be good.
“We have to get back,” Lucian said. “He’s angry. It’s going to be bad.”
“Can you find him?” Bishop asked. “Maybe we can stop him?”
Lucian was the one who looked up at her. “We can’t stop him, baby. He’s safe at his home somewhere. Once his victim falls asleep, all we can do is try to stop him that way.”
“So we’re going to let him kill and do absolutely nothing about it?”
Avalon looked over at her, and her eyes were vacant. “We have no choice. This time, the only ones who can stop him are you guys. That’s why I told you he was stronger than I am. He’s using his mind to kill. We won’t know who the victim is until he tells me. If he tells me.”
Well, that sucked.
Yeah, they were well aware.
“We have to hurry. You don’t want me doing this here. It will draw attention.”
That was all he had to hear.
He didn’t hesitate.
Nate threw down cash, and they did what Lucian said.
They got out of there, and fast.
Chapter Twelve
Friday Early
Morning
It had been one hell of a night.
The team had spent most of it pacing around Avalon and Lucian as they fought the good fight to find anything out about the killer.
He’d taunted.
He’d been perverse.
He’d even told Avalon he was coming for her.
By the time the sun had begun peeking through the trees, Nate needed a drink, and he didn’t mean coffee.
At one point, he’d called Luke and Maura, and they headed there to help them. For now, they were in the clear with Roxy, but the woman he’d targeted?
She was dead.
“I’m sorry,” Avalon whispered as she rested on the cabin floor. Beside her was Lucian, and he had one hell of a bloody nose. He’d had flashes of the killing the entire night where he had to live through the mental and physical pain.
His gift sucked.
He’d watched the woman being chased through her nightmares. His body had been wracked with indescribable pain as he experienced her fear firsthand.
It was brutal.
When he moaned from one hell of a headache, Avalon reached over and took his hand in hers.
“We’ll be okay. I have her name.”
Luke knelt beside her. “I’ll search her, Avi. What is it, honey?” he asked.
Nate helped her sip some water. Her lips were split from where she’d bit into them with her own teeth as she fought tooth and nail against the maniac to save the woman.
The dried blood made him angry.
It pissed him off.
His sweet girl had suffered at this asshole’s hand, and one way or another, he would find him.
He’d get the dead justice.
“Joann Rice,” she whispered. “He picked her to spite us. He was amused and that’s why he played with her. He wanted us to know that he would make all of their deaths a million times worse because we were going to try and stop him.”
That infuriated the rest of the team.
This maniac was sick.
“This is all a game to him. It’s not only about beating Lucian and myself, but it’s about beating you now too. He wants to be the one standing in the end.”
“What do you mean?” Nate asked.
“Gossip. He heard gossip.”
Bishop glanced over from holding a towel to her husband’s nose. She hated this.
She hated the killing more.
“Who gossiped?” she asked.
Avalon didn’t know. “I can’t tell you that. I was too busy in the dream trying to slow him down. I couldn’t save her,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry, Joann Rice. I tried.”
Nate kissed her on the forehead, and then Luke did the same. They knew that Avalon gave her all to help people. She would die doing this if she had to, and they respected her tenacity.
They hated her being hurt.
Lucian coughed.
There was blood.
“Jesus! Is he okay?” Maura asked. “That’s never a good sign. Should we take him to a hospital?”
“I’m okay. It’s from the blood draining down my throat. I have to sit up,” he said. His throat was raw from the many times he’d screamed in pain. The palms of his hands had half-moons cut into the skin from where his fists were clenched so hard.
This had been a battle.
When Avalon said this killer was going to be hard, they didn’t think it would be like this.
They looked like they’d gone ten rounds in a ring with some big brute.
They were beat down.
Bishop and Maura helped Lucian onto the couch. Nate saw Avalon wouldn’t release his hand, so he scooped her up and took her with him to be comfortable.
“Well, shit,” muttered Luke. “You’re not going
to like this,” he said, after he ran the name Avalon had given him.
They all looked over.
“What?” Nate asked. He really wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Truthfully, he was afraid.
Nate was worried about Avalon and if she was going to lose this one to the nutbag.
“Joann Rice popped in the IRS database. She’s definitely in this town. I have her address and employer.”
“Well?” Nate asked.
He rattled off the address.
It meant nothing to him.
Luke figured if he was more specific, his partner would get it. “I think I know what Avalon meant when she said he’s screwing with us. Want to guess where she worked?”
“No. Just tell us.”
“She’s employed at ‘Lucky’s’.”
Yeah, someone was definitely playing a game.
“It can’t be a coincidence that the waitress from Lucky’s was targeted, could it?” Maura asked.
“Was she working last night?”
Lucian nodded. “She was the hostess who seated us. She left when you two went to go talk to the bartender. As soon as I saw her in the dream, I recognized her.”
“Oh, shit.”
“He’s sick,” Nate stated.
“How did he know we were going there?” Avalon whispered. She was leaning against Nate, trying to regain some strength. She really needed sleep.
“The sheriff knew,” Bishop offered. “He was with us when the principal told us about Brianna going there.”
“Yeah, and the principal pointed us there.”
This was a mess.
“I’ll kick his ass if he’s part of this,” Nate stated. “If he’s causing this pain, I’ll hang Joe Gilespie out to dry.”
Avalon touched his clenched cheek. “Nathaniel.”
He focused on her. “I’m here, baby. What do you need?” he asked.
“I need a promise.”
“What?”
“When you catch this killer,” she began.
“Yes?”
“Kill him,” Lucian stated. “He’s never going to stop, and in the time he’ll be behind bars, he can take down a lot of people. His mind is too strong to be left uncontrolled in jail.”
Nate hated hearing that, but he knew they were absolutely right.
He didn’t advocate killing, but in this case, it might just be the only way to handle this. Still…it was a slippery slope, and he’d promised to serve and protect.
Not take lives without a judge and jury.
Damn it!
“What are we going to do?” Luke asked. “If we head to her place and find the body, the sheriff is going to be suspicious, unless he’s the killer. Then he’s going to know we’re onto him.”
This was a shitty situation either way.
Nate had to make the decision. Avalon was drained, and she and Lucian needed to sleep.
“Are you both safe?” he asked.
Lucian nodded. “I don’t feel any more visions.”
“We’ll be okay for a little while,” Avalon whispered. “I need to rest. My head hurts.”
“I’ll stay here,” Maura offered. “I’ll sit here with the both of them. I’ll keep them here on the couch, and that way I can watch them the entire time.”
That was a good start.
“Bishop, Luke, and I are going to head to the woman’s house.”
“What will we tell the sheriff?” Luke asked.
“She’s a person of interest. She worked at the bar, the bartender said the women came in, and we were following up because we don’t have any leads,” Bishop offered.
Perfect.
It would work, and they might just pull out of this by the skin of their teeth.
“That’s my lying wife,” Lucian said, as she pulled off his eyepatch and helped him rest on the couch.
Nate was good with that.
At this point, they were playing with a man who had no moral code. They’d have to play dirty and lie to get the job done.
He helped get Avalon in the same positon on the opposite end of the couch. When she was tucked in, he gave her a soft kiss on the battered lips.
“Rest, baby. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She mumbled something.
“We had better get moving. Maura, alert Jagger that we’re going to all be tied up. He’s going to have to be all over Roxy on his own. We can’t spare a single person now that we’re down two.”
Yeah, this was exactly why they needed more people on the team. If this kind of thing was going to be the norm, they really were going to be spread thin.
Again.
It was frustrating.
“Tell him keep his eyes open, and while he’s at the morgue with Roxy, to be wary of the sheriff. Right now, he’s not looking so sterling.”
She started dialing.
“I hope Roxy is ready for a twofer this morning,” Bishop said, kissing her husband on the lips. “She’s got a dead old stinky corpse and a fresh new woman to open up.”
Lucian didn’t respond.
He was already asleep.
Nate hoped so.
At this point, there had better not be more deaths. Their psychics were burned out, and they didn’t have a lot of time.
People were going to die.
And that sucked.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
Once Jagger got the call, he was on high alert. When Roxy came out of the bathroom, she’d just finished her shower.
“I was waiting for you to join…”
She saw him suiting up in his guns, gear, and all the other things he normally wore.
It scared her.
“What happened?”
He told her.
“So he’s taken another life, and we’re one closer to me dying?”
He headed toward her.
“You aren’t dying, Roxy. I’m not letting him hurt you or our daughter. I swear to God.”
She looked freaked out, and honestly, he couldn’t blame her one bit. He was halfway to scared out of his mind too. He was simply better at hiding it.
He pulled her into his body. It was meant to soothe her, but instead it only stirred her up even more.
She was tense against him.
“What’s wrong, baby, other than what we just discussed?” Jagger asked, running his hand up and down her back.
“You’re in body armor.”
“I’m always in body armor. I’m accustomed to being shot at a lot.”
She burst into tears.
Shit!
That was probably the wrong thing to say to her.
What the hell was he thinking?
Mental note—don’t make stupid comments to the pregnant woman.
“I don’t want you to die!”
He shushed her. “Look at me.”
She stared up into his blue eyes. “I was on special forces. I’ve been a POW. I don’t die easily. I don’t go down without a big battle. This is nothing. I’m not worried. When I really look freaked out, that’s when you have to be in a panic.”
He pulled open his vest and dropped it onto the floor. She cuddled against his body and buried her face in his neck.
“I need you, Jagger.”
“Tell me what you want, Roxy, and it’s yours. I’ll die for you.”
“Just hold me a little while, okay?”
He scooped her up and carried her to the couch. When he settled, she was in his lap. This was how life was supposed to be.
Well, minus the killers.
After a few minutes, she was calm.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for feeling, Roxy. Never to me, and never to anyone else. You’re allowed to have emotions. Let them out.”
“Like you?”
He didn’t say a word.
Honestly, he wanted to let them out. Only, he didn’t think she was ready for what he wanted to say. Roxy was skittish.
Jagger had one huge issue with their situation.
> He didn’t want to be a baby daddy.
For the first time in his life, Jagger Armstrong wanted to be a husband and father.
Now, getting that was going to be the hard part.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
Joann Rice’s
House
When they got there, they weren’t shocked. It was a cabin just like theirs. Nate made Luke run it, and sure enough, it came back as property owned by Karl Conway.
Again, that man’s name came up in their investigation. After they took care of this mess, he was at the top of the list to have a conversation with some Feds.
“How do you want to handle this?” Luke asked.
Before he could even lay out his game plan, they heard the click.
“Oh look. The door is open. We had better check it out. I fear for Joann Rice’s safety,” Bishop said in a deadpan voice.
The men stared at her.
Did she just…?
“What?”
“You can’t do shit like that. Are you insane?” Nate stated as she smiled mischievously at him.
She showed him her badge. In fact, she blew on it and wiped off a smudge.
“Isn’t it pretty?”
“Uh, yeah, I gave that to you, but it’s not real. You really aren’t a Fed, Bishop. Breaking and entering is illegal.”
“I know, but this is how I roll. You’re in for many cases like this when I’ll bend the law to help someone.”
They still stared at her.
“She’s dead. I don’t think she’s going to call the police and have me arrested, okay? Chill out. I’ll be my own moral police. The door is open. Let’s just go in and see if Oracle and Lucian were right.”
Nate slapped his hand over his face. “What have I done?”
“What are you talking about?” Luke asked. “Many cases? Did she accept your offer?” he asked.
“I did, partner. It looks like we’ll be playing together all the time.”
Luke opened his mouth.
They both pointed at him before he could even get the words out.
It was as if they knew what he was thinking.
“You two suck. I can’t even have fun while I’m at work anymore. It’s like partnering up with my boss and wife at the same time. I got the shit end of the stick on this deal.”
Oracle Saving (The Phoenix Files Book 3) Page 22
