LeAnne worked until her fingers numbed from the angle at which she worked, cutting off some of the blood-flow. Trying to regain their usage, she wiggled her fingers, causing them to tingle. Again she reached with their tips, barely touching the bandanna that secured her. She managed to work a nail beneath one, but only felt it snap.
She whimpered in frustration, but continued to work a little slack wherein she could slip her hand free. Lost in concentration, she almost missed the sound of the returning rumble.
* * *
Snake almost leapt from his bike near the pile of scattered brush. Upon his first inspection, he hadn’t thought much about it and hadn’t realized its importance until he was halfway down the road. Clearly the pile of branches, leaves, and such were visible when he circled his motorcycle in the backyard before driving off. But having his own burn pile of waste in his backyard, he hadn’t realized the significance: someone as neat and orderly as Chad would never leave a pile of twigs lying around uncared for, leaving his yard unkempt.
With a swipe of his hand, he cleared the debris, finding a cellar door cleverly concealed beneath. He grasped the worn brass handle, and with a mighty jerk, sent the old wood bouncing off the side of the house. Damp, musty air greeted him. He slowly descended the steps, allowing his eyes to adjust to the blackness. His heart thudded against his ribs at his mounting fear of finding LeAnne dead.
Once at the bottom, a slight form, on what appeared to be a bed near the rear of the darkened room, negated his earlier apprehensions.
Snake slid his hands up and down the dirt packed walls, finding no switch for a light. He realized probably only a bare bulb with a cord would be in a room such as this. He moved his hand about through the dark until it contacted a slim cord. Light flooded the room.
LeAnne lay on the center of the bed, her knees drawn up, and her wrists tied to the posts, a gag thoroughly cutting off all sound.
“My, God,” Snake uttered as he took a step in her direction. LeAnne’s eyes seemed to soften as they looked at him with relief.
He would make sure no harm ever came to her again. As he took another step, her gaze left his and filled with horror, causing Snake to spin on his heel.
Chad stood in the doorway, then descended the steps. A crooked smile teased his lips as he hit the bottom.
Snake stared down the barrel of LeAnne’s gun.
“My, my. What do we have here? A lover’s reunion?” he asked. LeAnne’s eyes widened, causing him to chuckle. “Ah, my dear, you think that I didn’t know how you and this…this baboon”—he waved the barrel of the gun between the two of them—“have been carrying on behind my back. Tsk, tsk. Shame on you. For the Lord says ‘Both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.’”
“You’re insane,” Snake hissed.
Again Chad chuckled. “Some might say that, yes. But in my eyes, it is the two of you who have committed the sin against me.”
“In order to commit adultery, shouldn’t one be married?” Snake asked.
Chad appeared to ponder the thought. “Fornication is a form of adultery, sex outside of marriage.”
“If that were so, then you are also guilty.”
“Touché.” An evil smile curved his lips. “But someone must be appointed punisher. Who better than me?”
“So religion enters into the equation,” Snake stated, taking a step back. If he could keep Chad talking, then maybe he could devise a plan to get LeAnne and himself out of this alive.
“Depends how you look at it.”
“Even so, certainly you realize murder, too, is punishable by death.” He took another step in LeAnne’s direction.
“Take one more step, and I’ll blow a hole right through you,” Chad warned, causing Snake to stop, holding his hands up in front of him. Outwardly satisfied, Chad continued, “You don’t need a God to tell you that if you commit murder. The courts will see to your death.”
“Where does that leave you? You have committed both adultery and murder.”
“I hate sluts—that’s where it leaves me.”
Snake scanned the room, looking for something, anything to use as a weapon. A pair of scissors lay on the desk scattered with newspaper clippings, partially shielding them from view.
Chad, obviously having caught Snake’s eye movement, offered, “I like to read about my crimes.” With the gun, he pointed to the wall. “Keep pictures, even.”
Snake spotted several photographs of women; some he knew, some he didn’t. His wife’s picture wasn’t among them.
“Are these the women you have killed?”
“Beautiful, isn’t it? Every one of them was a slut—easy pickings. I go into a bar alone and go home for a good screw. Not one of them thought of their husbands.”
“And what of LeAnne?”
Chad’s gaze jerked to his. “What of her?”
“You intended on marrying her and keeping this little secret?”
“It wasn’t hurting her. Besides—she was the prize. I had picked her well.”
Snake heard the sheets on the bed rustle as LeAnne struggled behind him. He took a step toward the end of the bed, giving Chad a good view of her, hoping to distract him. Chad’s eyes briefly laid on her, then came back to him as he took another step toward the desk.
“You see, she hasn’t had many lovers. Just one before me. A prom night mistake. Right, babe?” he asked. LeAnne squealed in response. “Besides—he’s dead now, anyway. Bad brakes, or something like that. I heard his car hit a tree and nearly decapitated the poor boy.”
Chad smiled. Caught in his own reverie, he never noticed Snake taking a few more steps toward the desk and the wall of trophies. Instead, he walked closer to LeAnne and looked down on her before giving her his back.
Behind Chad, Snake saw LeAnne working at loosening her binds. He attempted to keep Chad’s attention on him.
Chad’s eyes, somewhat dreamy, focused on Snake. “You see, then there was only me. I was the only one LeAnne had ever lain with— alive, anyway. She was the next best thing to a virgin, purity.”
“You are crazy,” Snake repeated. From his vantage point, he saw LeAnne struggle free of her restraints and rise from the bed. “Mr. Nut Case.”
Chad’s gaze heated, his eyes narrowing to mere slits. “Then came you,” he said, ignoring Snake’s slam toward his sanity. “You had to ruin everything—put your dick where it didn’t belong. I hope you enjoyed it, Gallego, because I plan to make sure it’s the last pu—”
LeAnne wrapped the binds that had held her wrists around Chad’s throat, stealing his air supply. One of his hands grabbled at the bind as the other, holding the gun, wavered.
Wavered enough that Snake kicked the weapon from his hand and sent it flying across the room to the base of the cement stairs. Snake’s fist landed a blow against Chad’s nose. The sickening sound of crunching bones could be heard as sirens in the background sounded.
LeAnne jerked one of Chad’s arms behind his back and pushed him to the floor, her knee anchoring the madman to the ground. Chad’s laughter echoed about the room as the sound of splaying gravel could be heard from above and the approaching car came to a halt.
Seeing the path of dried blood that stemmed from somewhere beneath her hairline and down the side of her neck, Snake asked, “Are you going to be all right?”
She yanked on Chad’s arm, earning her a muffled grunt. “My head hurts like hell, but other than that, I’ll be fine.”
Chad’s chuckles returned, bubbling up from somewhere deep inside as Sheriff Drake and Deputy Reese descended the stairs.
“Good God,” reverberated through the damp cellar as Joe Drake took one look at LeAnne.
Snake helped LeAnne to her feet as Bob and Joe saw to the care of the prosecutor. The clack of the cuffs could be heard from behind, before Snake and LeAnne ascended the stairs and stepped into the waning sunlight.
* * *
LeAnne couldn’t believe the nightmare had finally ended and here she stood, re
ady to say goodbye to the one person in her miserable life who meant everything to her. Marcus Gallego’s powerful thighs straddled his Harley. He wore cutoff shorts and a tank, much like the day he whisked her off her feet at the cemetery, only yards from his deceased wife’s grave.
She had fallen in love with him then, and she still loved him now.
If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you…
Dear God, she couldn’t even fathom the other possibility. Tears filled her eyes as Marcus laid his warm palm against the coolness of her cheek.
“Don’t cry,” he barely whispered, looking as though he were ready to step off his bike, take her in his arms, and never let go.
But LeAnne would not be able to live with herself if she stopped him from taking this trip. Marcus needed to meet his mother, and she was not about to stand in the way of that reunion.
She placed her hand over his. “I didn’t want to. But I’m afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
A tear slipped past her lash and mingled with their hands. “That you won’t come back.”
His bike had been loaded with all the necessities of a long trip: a sleeping bag, saddle bags filled with clean clothes, a shaving kit. Nothing of real importance was being left behind—except Ajax and Comet, Rebel seeing to their care…and her. Who would care for her?
Funny how life changes. Before Marcus, she had needed no one to care for her. Now…
Marcus set his bike on the kickstand and stepped from it, pulling LeAnne into his warm embrace. She nearly lost all her dignity by taking to sobs and asking—pleading with him to stay.
He placed his palm at the back of her head, holding her against his chest. His heart beat heavily, nearly matching the intensity of her own.
“I have to come back. My home is here.”
“Anyone can see to the sale of your house, should you decide to stay in California.”
He tilted up her head with the pad of his thumb. LeAnne looked into his amused eyes. She saw nothing funny in her insecurities.
“I said my home, sweetheart, not my house.” A smile curved his lips, then he placed a tender kiss upon hers. “My home is where my heart rests—and that, dear woman, is wherever you are.”
Hope fluttered in her chest. “Are you saying you kind of like me, Snake—a rough and tough kind of guy like yourself?”
He tightened his hold. “Hell, sweetheart, if I kinda liked you any more, I think my heart might swell and break from the pressure.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“As long as it takes. My mother, she’s all the family I have left.
Hell, no one was more surprised than I when I found that letter in my mailbox. At first I didn’t want to go. She abandoned me. How could a mother abandon her child?”
“But she did finally write.”
“I know, and that’s what changed my mind. I have to see her and set things straight. My father loved her—hell, until the day he died, I think. That’s the woman I want to know. The woman that can completely captivate a man’s heart.”
LeAnne tried to step from his embrace, tried not to think how he excluded her from being someone who could completely captivate his own heart. Obviously, he wasn’t even sure that type of a woman existed. But that type of a man did, for Marcus would forever be the captor of hers. She would go to her grave loving him. Even if he never came back.
The smile on his face returned. “Hell, sweetheart, try not to look so distraught. I have to come back, because I finally understand how my father felt. And I certainly don’t want to make the same mistake he did by ever letting you go.”
Her tears finally broke lose. “Does that mean you love me?”
“You bet, sweetheart—with all of my heart.” Then he gathered her into his arms and kissed her.
Epilogue
The room hadn’t changed much since the last time she had sat in these chairs; neither had her nervousness to meet this institution’s resident. It was easy for her to travel back in time, especially since she already missed Marcus and he had only been gone a mere day. She remembered his handsomeness, even in here. Though she knew she should have feared Marcus at the time, she could not help being attracted to him. But a big difference separated now and the past—this time she abhorred the person she waited to speak to.
And feared him.
She could only hope he never saw the streets again.
After about ten minutes of trepidation, the red of his uniform caught her attention. The large blond-haired man walked with a heavy gate into the room, shoulders back, escorted by two men in navy blazers. His eyes, dark and fathomless, held contempt.
Her stomach knotted.
Feeling the need to retch from the churning bile, she swallowed several times and took a few calming breaths. LeAnne reminded herself, in here, Chad Baker could no longer harm her.
“Hello, babe.” The last word he spat in disgust. “What brings you here?”
LeAnne squared her shoulders. She refused to allow Chad to see her fear. “I want answers.”
“Official business?”
“Off the record.”
“Then why come at all? Your new boyfriend not keeping you satisfied?”
“Marcus is not your concern.”
At that, he sneered. “Everything you do is my business, LeAnne. It always will be.”
A shiver passed down her spine. LeAnne did not doubt his words for a second or the threat his statement implied. Should he ever get out, she would be the first person he would look up—and kill.
“I’ve been recently informed about the woman you killed in Boston.”
“She was before I met you.”
“I gathered that by the dates. But the question is why—she had a child.”
“I know.”
“So she was married, too?”
He shrugged. “Her husband was an asshole.”
“And the child—you left her without a mother.”
Something akin to remorse filled his eyes. “Unintentional.”
“Leaving the child without a mother?”
“Her death.”
So she hadn’t been like the rest. “Was she the first one you killed?”
He nodded. “I hadn’t intended to kill her.”
Her eyes widened. She knew nothing Chad said should shock her, but this did. “How can manually strangling her be an accident?”
“Erotic asphyxiation.”
LeAnne remembered the term. Something about reducing the oxygen in the brain and raising the level of carbon monoxide. He had told her once about Buzz and Linda practicing this strange and dangerous form of making love.
“So what about the baby, Chad?”
Again, she thought she saw remorse somewhere within his eyes. “The child has the woman’s husband to take care of her.”
“The baby’s father?”
“The husband she left behind. He’s not the father of that child.”
“Who is?”
He leveled his gaze. “Someday, when I get out of here, she’ll know me—after I settle a few scores.”
The hairs rose on her nape. Again, Chad had surprised her—Chad’s being a father, as well as his belief of a release. LeAnne intended to fight that day’s ever coming to pass. She would make it a personal vendetta to see Chad Baker remain behind bars, because she knew Marcus’s life, as well as her own, would depend on it.
Not wanting to pursue the topic, she asked, “What about the rest?
They weren’t ‘accidents,’ as you call them.” His gaze had gone flat. “No, they weren’t.”
“How many were there?”
“Off the record?”
She nodded. “For my peace of mind.”
“If you ever repeat this—I’ll deny every word.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“Three.”
LeAnne blinked a few times, staring at him in awe. “I count five.”
A smile grew wide on his handsome face; his ha
nds flexed. “That’s where you’re wrong.”
LeAnne counted off each person on her fingers as she stated them. “Jillian Gallego, Miranda Holliday, the caretaker at the cemetery, Cora Smith, Samantha Duncan.”
He mimicked her actions as he corrected the list. “Miranda Holliday, Cora Smith, and Samantha Duncan. I killed her before I ever left for Boston, when you thought I was tucked away all cozy in my hotel.”
“But I talked to you that night on the phone.”
“As you recall, it was I who called you.”
Again she had been duped. A part of his plan, and now without his word as proof, his unwilling alibi. She could never repeat the things he admitted. Chad would deny every word. But of course with hotel records and flight schedules, it would be easy enough to prove that he was nowhere near Boston on the night in question.
“What about the other two?”
The room grew icy cold. LeAnne rubbed the gooseflesh on her arms.
“Think about it, babe, you’re a good detective—examine the differences in the cases.”
“Jillian wasn’t posed like the rest.”
“Correct. That’s one for the sheriff’s office.”
“She didn’t have a red lipstick print on her cheek.”
“That’s two.”
“She was a stripper, not a prominent businessman’s wife.”
“That’s three.”
“What about the Hylomar found in the bandanna tying Miranda’s hands?”
“Those rags are a dime a dozen.” He shrugged. “A mechanic left one in my car the last time I had it fixed. After that, I got the idea to take one from each household and use it on the next…adulteress,” he added with a sardonic grin.
“If you didn’t kill Jillian or the caretaker, then who?”
Chad fiddled with the edge of his uniform, the chains at his wrists rattling. “Where have all the suspects gone?”
“Anthony Hargrove fled town. Without an APB out on him, I’m sure he will return.”
“Will he?”
She ignored the question. “Allen Wymer quit the force.”
“And where did he go?”
LeAnne shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Kiss of Deceit Page 30
