“He took her into his bed without the benefit of marriage! He turned her into a harlot. A whore!”
“He loved her.”
The woman refused to hear what I was saying. She hit me again, then stepped back, tugging at her conservative sweater set, pulling it low over her equally conservative skirt. She looked like something out of a bad fifties era movie, an old biddy who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, move on with the times.
She glared at me as she stepped back, gesturing to her male companion.
“Do what you will.”
I called out to her as she headed toward the door.
“Why Rosalie? Why would you kill a woman who once represented everything you thought your daughter ought to be? Why would you defile her body the way you did?”
The woman’s shoulders stiffened as she slowly turned to regard me, the look on her face stopping the man dead in his tracks, his hunger still burning.
“Rosalie was pulled away from God. I tried to bring her back into his fold, but she refused to listen to me. She insisted on this alien hunting thing she was doing,” she said. “She had wandered too far away. The only way I could save her was to sacrifice her to our Lord.”
“And the tattoos?”
She tilted her head slightly, nodding to her companion. “That was his idea. We needed a way to show Hayden that she was part of this. That she was dead because of him. He was a tattoo artist before I saved his soul.”
“His soul has been saved?” I asked, finding that hard to believe. “A rapist?”
The woman’s face turned beet red. “He is not a rapist! He’s doing the Lord’s work.”
“The Lord’s work?” It was my turn to scoff. “I’m not a religious person, but I was always told that the Lord was a kind and generous man who wouldn’t advocate torturing, raping, and murdering people.”
“The Lord always preaches an eye for an eye.”
“How many eyes have you taken in the name of your daughter? Do you really think your Lord would want that? Do you really think Sam would want that?”
“How dare you mutter my daughter’s name?”
The woman marched toward me again. I stiffened, prepared for another blow to the face. But she didn’t hit me. She simply stood in front of me and began to preach.
“You are a lost woman, but God will welcome you into heaven if you repent your sins to me, his servant, now. All it takes is a confession.”
“Is that what you believe? I believe that God is a forgiving God, but I also believe that what you’ve done is far too dark for just a confession to a priest.”
She balled her hands into fists, clearly fighting the urge to hit me again.
“Confess your sins,” she demanded.
“Go to hell!”
She did hit me then. My head snapped back from the blow and slammed into the window hard enough that I heard it crack. The room went dark and the last thing I remembered was someone picking me up and setting me on the edge of the bed.
I moaned Hayden’s name. But he wasn’t here to save me this time.
Chapter 21
Hayden
I rolled over and instantly realized something was wrong. I patted the bed in the dark, but came up with nothing but empty space.
“Waverly?”
Almost as if in answer to my question, there was a pounding on the door. I stumbled out of bed, wondering where Waverly would have gone and why she hadn’t taken the key card. I snatched the door open and found myself looking down into the familiar faces of Amelia and Rhett.
“What are you doing here?”
“Waking you up, apparently,” Rhett said, pushing past me to enter the hotel room.
“You okay?” Amelia asked.
“I should be asking you that. I thought Rowan was taking you to Ireland to meet his mother.”
“He was. He will. When this is over.”
“Amelia …”
She brushed past me, too, walking into the room and casing it like I’d taught her to do when she first came to work at Dragon.
“Where’s Waverly?” Rhett asked.
I shook my head as I dragged my fingers through my hair. “She wasn’t here when I woke up.”
“Do you know where she went?”
My eyebrows rose. “I was asleep. She was there when I went to bed, but she isn’t now.”
“Did she take the key?”
I walked over to the minibar and searched it for the key I’d tossed there when we first came into the room. It was gone.
“I’ll go look for her,” Amelia said. “You two stay here.”
I wanted to protest, but she was right. She was doing exactly what I’d taught her to do.
“Isn’t this the same hotel where Kasey’s girl was kidnapped out of?”
“Yeah.”
“Strange idea of a getaway.”
“It was convenient.”
Rhett just nodded as she moved to the windows, peeking between the drapes out into the night sky.
“Does Megan have any news?”
“Not that I’m aware of. But I heard that the theory that the killer is Waverly’s sister was blown out of the water. At least the part where she was connected to Rosalie Matthias through some psych doc. There’s more than seven years’ difference in their ages. Waverly’s sister was treated years before Rosalie.”
“Good.”
I stepped into the bedroom and pulled on jeans and a T-shirt over the boxer briefs I was wearing. Rhett didn’t seem to notice, but I knew she had. The woman never missed anything.
I walked over to the phone and snatched if off of its receiver. Rhett came over and tugged it out of my hand.
“No phone calls. They can be traced.”
“The killer knows where we are. There’s nothing I can do about that.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“I’m pretty sure.”
Rhett opened her mouth, words about to tumble out, when her cell rang. She tugged it out of her pants and answered it quickly, her tone respectful. It had to be Megan. Megan was the only one who could universally get that sort of respect out of our operatives.
She held the phone out to me.
“For you.”
“What’s going on, Megan?”
“I think we’ve figure out who’s behind this.”
“That’s great.”
“Maybe.” She sighed. “I think it’s Sam’s mom, Hayden. I think she finally went over the edge.”
“Mrs. Wagner?”
“She fell off my radar after Sam died. I never bothered to check in on her to make sure she was still alive, let alone sane. But then Vincent pointed out that the Bibles were removed from the crime scenes and Waverly discovered that Sam’s handle was being used—”
“Sam’s what?”
“It’s like a user name, but she used it with the underground hackers she’d been talking to for years. They taught her some of the stuff she knew with computers. They all knew she’d died, but I guess someone started using her handle again and acquired the virus that was on your phone. But it wasn’t Sam. It was her mom.”
I was a little lost, but I got the gist of it.
“Sam’s mom planted the virus on my phone? She compromised the safe houses and got Waverly fired? She has been orchestrating these murders?”
“I’m pretty sure. We have no absolute proof yet, but the hackers’ testimony and the Bibles … I know it’s her, Hayden.”
I dropped the phone and raced for the door. Fear clogged my throat and adrenaline sent my heartrate through the roof. I’d promised to protect her. And yet again, I’d failed the woman I loved.
I didn’t have time to pull up short at the realization; I booked it down the hallway with twin thoughts barreling through my mind. I loved Waverly every bit as completely as I had loved Sam, albeit in a totally different way. I needed Waverly. And she was in mortal danger because I’d fucked up royally and brought her into the lion’s den.
“Where are you going?”
Rhett demanded.
“She has Waverly. And I know where!”
I ran to the elevator and slapped my hand against the button. When it didn’t immediately open, I started for the stairs, but then it did open. Rhett climbed on board with me, no questions.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it. But, again, why would I? Mrs. Wagner was off my radar far sooner than she was ever on it. She was a bitter old bitch who treated Sam like she was the definition of a sinner. She abused her with her words as much as with her hands, tearing her down so far that it took weeks for me to even begin to build her back up.
It would have taken years to fix all the harm her mother had done, if only we’d had that much time. But Sam … I still marveled at how she could have grown up under that woman’s thumb, with so much anger and hatred around her, and still turned out to be the kind, gentle woman she was.
Mrs. Wagner was not even worth my thoughts. So why would she come to mind when someone started fucking with my life?
“Where are we going?” Rhett asked.
“Room 954.”
Sam would be amused that I still remembered the room number, but a man—even an unsentimental man—doesn’t forget a thing like that. It was the place where we shared our first kiss, the place where we lay as man and woman, no snarky comments, no defensive maneuvers between us. Nothing between us but our bodies and our souls. It was the most intense moment of my life.
Of course I’d never forgotten it. Most of my memories of Sam began with that one.
But it wasn’t Sam who filled my thoughts now.
God, please let her be okay. Let me get the chance to hold her in my arms and tell her that I love her and that I’ll never let her go again if she’s just okay …
The elevator doors opened and I charged down the hall. Rhett grabbed my arm and forced me back before I could reach the appropriate door.
“We need a plan.”
“She could be in there right now torturing Waverly. I think our plan should be to bust the damn door down and get her out!”
“They could have a gun. Or a knife to her throat. Do you really want to risk that?”
She was right, but I didn’t want to admit it. I needed to get into that room. I’d promised her I wouldn’t let those people hurt her—
“She’ll wake soon,” a woman’s voice floated down to us. “Just be patient.”
I turned. I knew that voice.
I pulled free of Rhett and rushed the elderly woman, slamming her to the ground. Rhett cried out, asking me a question I wasn’t really in a position to answer at that moment. Thankfully, she was quick enough to see the man start to close the hotel room door. She threw her body against it and fell inside, knocking him off his feet as she did. Someone down the hall stepped out of his room and called out to us, anger in his voice.
“Call the police,” I yelled back to him. “There’s a murder about to take place here!”
The man disappeared into his room and I prayed that he’d listened to me.
I got up, satisfied that Mrs. Wagner wasn’t going anywhere. The force of my body had knocked her out the instant she hit the floor. I grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet, dragging her into the room and depositing her on the floor beside the moaning body of her male companion.
Rhett turned toward me, her eyes wide with something I didn’t want to see. I didn’t want to—
“Hayden, you should wait for the cops to get here.”
I pushed her aside, my heart bursting when I saw Waverly, blood on her face and her throat beginning to pool under her body.
“NO!”
I reeled into the nearest wall.
No, no, no, no. Not Waverly, God, no, please …
Finding my feet again, I rushed forward and scooped her broken body up into my arms. “Do something!” I screamed at Megan even as I broke into a jog toward the nearest stairs.
“Don’t die, baby,” I pleaded in Waverly’s ear, my tears mixing with the blood on her face. “Please don’t leave me alone again. I need you so much. Please be okay. You have to be okay.”
Chapter 22
Megan
Amelia found a computer in the second floor office space that showed the results of a search on Rosalie Matthias. She called the office and we called the police. Luke drove as I leaned forward, willing the car to move faster. Vincent, Dominic, Cole, and everyone else, it seemed, were following behind in a procession that looked almost like a funeral.
It wouldn’t be a funeral, would it?
Rhett called from a hotel line. They had found Waverly in another room of the hotel. Mrs. Wagner and one of her accomplices were unconscious on the floor and the police were on the way.
After carrying Waverly directly to the waiting ambulance, Hayden had disappeared.
Not again.
I whispered it to myself over and over again as we sped along the highway. Not again. Hayden couldn’t go through this again. I couldn’t watch him go through this again. He would never be the same man he once was. This would break him beyond repair.
Luke reached over and touched my leg, but even his touch did little to soothe the pain in my chest.
Police cars were scattered all along the front of the hotel, blocking traffic for several blocks in either direction. We had to leave the car in front of the mall, walking the ten or so blocks to the hotel. A cop at the door tried to refuse us access, but the manager of the hotel knew me. He vouched for us.
Amelia and Rhett were standing close to each other across from the elevators when the doors opened.
“I’m sorry,” Rhett said. “We got down here as quickly as we could.”
“Just tell me what happened.”
Rhett slowly began to describe the events, starting with my call to Hayden and ending with his sudden departure from the room. As we talked, paramedics rolled by with a gurney on which Mrs. Wagner’s body rested. She was unconscious, which was probably a good thing. I couldn’t have been responsible for what I did if she’d said anything to me.
Another gurney came off the elevator and headed to the room. I stood back and watched them go by, thinking about Waverly and of the visit I would have to make to her family’s home tonight.
“We should have gone looking for her sooner,” Amelia said. “We should have come down here sooner.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Hayden,” Rhett said softly. “He was so heartbroken.”
The gurney began to come toward us again. I could see Waverly’s dark head, saw her pale hands tucked over her chest.
“Hayden?” she croaked as the paramedics wheeled her past us.
“He’s okay,” I said, grabbing the hand she held out to me.
She nodded, but I could see the other question in her eyes.
Where was he?
***
We were at the hotel most of the night. The cops wanted to know everything we knew, which turned out to be pitifully little. They were able to discover tons more just by going to Mrs. Wagner’s house and looking through the shrine she’d built to Sam.
She was insane, there was no doubt about that. But she was incredibly intelligent, too. She’d planned it all out, creating aliases that would hold up to the closest scrutiny, researching all her targets to such a degree that she knew what they ate for dinner, studying the crime scenes to pinpoint every spot where they might run into trouble.
She knew where every security camera was located, the names of the employees on duty at a specific time, which security guards by the book, and which slacked off. She could have gotten away with these murders easily.
If only she hadn’t come after Hayden.
Mrs. Wagner was arrested and charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. Her companion identified the three other men who’d been with him at my beach house, and their arrests were imminent. He’d also confessed to the rapes and murders of the couples in Louisiana and California, as well as the murder of Rosalie Matthias.
It w
as all wrapped up with a pretty bow. The only thing left was the trial and I had no doubt that this was one trial no one would mind testifying at.
It was a little after dawn when I stopped by the hospital to check on Waverly. Her nose was broken and she had a cheekbone fractured. Otherwise, she was unharmed. Apparently, according to her would-be rapist, she’d been knocked unconscious and they had only undressed her in preparation for the rape scene. Mrs. Wagner had wanted her awake and conscious for her death scene.
I sat by her bedside and held her hand for the better part of an hour.
“Megan?” she finally asked softly, peeking out from under one badly swollen eye to study me.
“I’m here.” I sat up. “I called your mother to let her know what happened. She said she’d be here after breakfast.”
Waverly smiled, then winced, clearly in pain.
“That’s Mom.”
“She said you would understand.”
“If I’m not dying, then it’s not an emergency.” Waverly lay back against the pillows, closing her eyes as she took a couple of deep, unsteady breaths. “Is it over now?”
“It’s over. Mrs. Wagner and her accomplices have been arrested.”
“Hayden knows?”
“He knows.”
It wasn’t the complete truth, but I assumed he’d figured it out. Wherever he was.
She squeezed my hand lightly. “I’m glad.”
She fell silent, and I wasn’t quite sure what I should say next. She knew he wasn’t here, knew there was a reason for it. But I was pretty sure it wasn’t the reason she believed.
“He’s been broken too many times, Waverly,” I said. “I think he’s afraid to be broken again. I’m not sure he could survive it.”
She nodded, a single tear sliding slowly over her swollen cheek. “I know.”
“If it’s worth anything, you pulled him in tighter than anyone has since Sam. Even me.”
She peeked at me through that swollen eye. “But it wasn’t enough, was it?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry.”
She closed her eyes again, more tears sliding out through the swollen lids. I patted her hand, but she pulled away. She needed to be alone with her pain and I understood that. I’d felt the same way the morning I realize Luke had abandoned me at the altar.
DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series Page 91
