Chapter Fourteen
Josh pulled on his bulletproof vest. He and Tucker were in the shadows, well away from the lighthouse. The spotlight was on at that place, blazing out, circling into the water, but as far as he knew, the lighthouse should have been shut down.
“Who’s been paying the power bill?” he muttered.
“Hayden checked on it—nothing is shut down here for another month.” Tucker had his vest in place. His voice was guarded, and he seemed...oddly hesitant as he stood in the darkness. They were far enough away from the lighthouse that any watchers up there wouldn’t see them, not yet. “It feels like another game.”
“It is a game—one that has a woman’s life as the prize.”
Hayden slipped from the darkness and closed in on them. “I scouted the area. There’s one car near the lighthouse.” His voice was a gruff rumble. “I know that car—it belongs to Kurt Anderson.”
Hell.
“You go in first,” Tucker said to Josh even as he checked his own weapon. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“I’ll have lookout,” Hayden added. “I’ve got my night-vision gear ready. We’ll be ahead of every move these guys make.”
Josh hoped so. He stuck to cover as much as he could, moving quickly toward the lighthouse. When he neared the car—Kurt’s car—he paused a moment and put his hand on the hood.
Cold. The guy had been there awhile.
Josh slipped inside—the front door was partially ajar. The place smelled old, stale. His eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, a good thing because he didn’t want to risk shining a light in there and giving his location away. He looked up, noting the spiral staircase and the illuminated peak of the lighthouse. The only light in the whole building came from that spotlight, but it was shining out, not down, so he stayed in the dark. There was a room to his right—probably the old office in the place. He edged closer to it. The door was shut.
He pushed it open and went in fast, coming up in a crouch.
A new scent hit him. Coppery. Acrid.
Blood.
There was no furniture in that room, nothing at all but the body. He could see the man lying in the middle of the room. He looked more like a twisted heap than a person.
“I’m FBI Agent Josh Duvane!” He called out, just in case this was some kind of trick. “Identify yourself!”
But the heap didn’t move.
Josh rushed forward. There was a gun on the floor near the downed man, inches from his hand. Josh kicked that weapon away. He kept his own gun in his right hand even as he reached for the other man’s shoulder.
Blood. Soaking wet with blood...because there was a gunshot wound to the guy’s shoulder.
In the exact same spot Josh had shot the perp who’d come at him and Casey. He pulled out his light and shined it at the man’s face.
Kurt Anderson’s skin was a stark white. Blood trickled from his pale lips, and his eyes were closed. Josh swore as he lowered the light over the rest of the man’s body. There was another gunshot wound to the fellow’s stomach. And so much blood.
“Josh!”
Tucker ran in after him. Josh glanced up. “It’s Anderson.” His hand went to the man’s throat. The guy’s skin was cold but...was that a pulse? Faint? Thready? He pushed harder, searching for that sign of life.
“The rest of the place is clear. Katrina isn’t here.” Tucker dropped to his knees beside Josh. He gave a low whistle. “This isn’t right. This whole scene...it’s wrong.”
Wrong because their victim was missing. Wrong because—
Kurt’s pulse jumped beneath Josh’s fingers. “He’s alive.”
Tucker immediately started applying pressure to the man’s stomach wound.
“Not...me...” Kurt whispered, the words little more than pained gurgle. “Not...”
Josh’s shoulders stiffened. It was a game, all right. All along. A setup. He’d been lured to the lighthouse, but the victim wasn’t there...
Because Katrina was never the victim that the perp really wanted.
Casey...she was the victim he’d wanted. And she was the woman who Josh had left behind.
*
HE’D HANDCUFFED HER.
Casey sat at the kitchen table, her hands cuffed behind her back, and she stared up at Tom—a Tom she didn’t know, not at all.
He’d pulled out another knife from his boot—and he’d put that knife to her throat as he stared into her eyes.
“Why are you doing this?”
He shrugged, rolling his shoulders, then stopped to wince.
Because he’s hurt! Now she realized that his right shoulder appeared a little bigger than the left, as if...he had bandages beneath his shirt.
“Casey...” He sighed out her name. “You’re my star reporter. In your last moments on earth, I really expected you to have better questions. Why are you doing this? I mean, that’s just so typical. I wanted more from you.”
“And I wanted my producer not to be a killer!” The words shot from her.
He smiled. “There we go. Got a little fight back, huh?”
She blinked. “You aren’t going to get away with this—”
“And we’re back to boring.”
“Josh will figure out it’s you! There’s a dead body in the hallway. There is no way he will think—”
Tom leaned in close to her. “I have a secret.” He smiled. “You thought you were the only one with a secret?” The knife cut into her throat. “So wrong. I have a big one. That secret will be here soon.”
Her heart felt as if it were about to rip right out of her chest.
He backed away from her. “We have to work fast, though, there isn’t a lot of time.”
Then he started opening drawers in the kitchen, one right after the other. She jerked against the cuffs even as her eyes stayed on his gloved hands. The same gloves he’d worn before...
“Here we go.” He lifted up a roll of duct tape. “Perfect.” He ripped off a piece, came back to her and slapped it over her lips. “If you’re not going to say anything useful, then you’d better not say anything at all.”
Her nostrils flared. The cuffs bit into her wrists.
“I’m going to stab you. Actually, I’m going to stab you a lot. You’ll hurt. You’ll bleed, and then your FBI agent will come back to find your body.” He leaned in close to her once more. His lips feathered over her ear. “But don’t worry—I’ll have killed the sick animal who attacked you. I’ll be the hero.”
The hell he would—
There was a rap at the door.
Her gaze snapped to the side, desperate, as she tried to look toward that door.
He stalked away from her, holding the knife. She saw him head toward the laptop—and the security feed. “Ah...and here she is. Just in time.” He tucked the knife behind his back. He disappeared from view.
Casey twisted her wrists, struggling desperately. The jerk had learned from last time. No more rope. She couldn’t cut or twist her way out of the handcuffs. They were too strong. But he’d left her legs free, his mistake. So she shoved down hard with her feet and rocked back, sending the chair crashing to the floor. Part of the wooden back broke beneath her, and she squirmed, getting her arms from behind the remains of that chair. She rolled and pushed to her feet.
“Casey?” Katrina was suddenly in front of her, staring with wide, shocked eyes.
Tom was right behind her friend. He’d hidden the knife. He’d—
He didn’t need to hide it.
Casey stilled.
Tom had said that he had a secret, a big one. And the perp hadn’t been working alone—she and Josh knew that truth. A woman had screamed on the line when the killer had called her. And Casey had been so sure she was hearing Katrina’s scream.
Because I was.
“Sorry, Casey,” Katrina said, her lips curving down. “But it’s time for someone else to be the star. I’m done working behind the camera. This is it for me. My big break.”
What?
“The cops are going to find the Sandy Shore Killer. I left him dead in the lighthouse, complete with a gunshot wound to the shoulder. They’re going to find him, and I’ll give them a terrible, sad story about how I had to fight my way to freedom. I’ll have injuries, of course. A knife wound or two to prove the terrible hell I’ve been through. And I’ll say that the killer’s accomplice ran away when I got the gun from Kurt.”
From Kurt? Kurt Anderson? They’re trying to pin all of this on Kurt?
“I’ll be the story. You’ll be another dead victim. Sorry, but in this business, sometimes, you really have to be ready to do the dirty work if you want to hit the big time.”
Dirty work? They were killing.
“Let’s get rid of her first,” Katrina said, nodding, as she glanced back at Tom. “And then I’ll get a slash or two—”
He was already slashing.
Casey tried to scream as she lunged forward, but Tom had driven his knife into Katrina’s chest.
“I think you need more than a slash,” he said. He caught Katrina’s body as she slumped. “For this story to work, the partner has to be dead.”
Casey kept rushing forward. She plowed her body into Katrina’s slumped form—and into Tom. They all fell to the floor, landing in a heap. Casey rolled away fast, then she brought her cuffed hands up beneath her now kneeling legs. She strained and maneuvered until her hands were in front of her, and then she ripped the duct tape off her mouth, barely feeling the sting. “You bastard!” she yelled. She grabbed for Katrina.
The knife was still in Katrina’s chest. Her eyes were open, wide, shocked.
Blood was pumping from her, covering her shirt. Her lips parted, as if she’d speak.
Tom laughed. “Can you believe she truly thought she’d be my next lead reporter? She never had the killer instinct.”
A soft gasp slid from Katrina’s lips. Her eyes closed.
Casey’s hand curled around the hilt of that knife.
“Did you know...if you take the knife out, she’ll just bleed out faster? I read that once—somewhere. If you leave a knife inside the person, they actually have a better chance of survival. It’s when you take it out—and all of that blood starts pumping so frantically from the body—that’s when the victim dies.”
“I think she’s already dead.” Casey was pretty sure he’d stabbed Katrina straight in the heart.
“Yes, you’re right.” And she heard a sound behind her, a long glide, almost a whish of air.
Casey glanced back. He’d pulled a butcher knife from the block on the counter.
“Got a new weapon,” he said, still smiling. “So why don’t we get this show moving?”
Casey yanked the knife from Katrina’s body. The other woman didn’t move at all. She’s gone. Casey clutched the bloody weapon with her right hand—still wearing the handcuffs. She whirled on Tom. “Stay away from me.”
“Can’t do that. You have to die, you see. Just as Katrina had to die. She was useful, for a time. After all, I needed someone to rent the boat for me so I could dump the bodies—couldn’t very well do the renting myself. That would have created a trail and just come back to bite me in the ass.”
She thought of Chaz’s bloated body, washing up on the shore.
“Katrina was worried the boat manager would tell the cops about her. He would have, of course, eventually. The guy obviously loved being the center of a story. It would have worked in with my plan perfectly, but she got nervous...and Katrina took matters into her own hands.”
Katrina had killed Chaz?
“Right now, your lover is finding the body of Kurt Anderson. Kurt has been quite shot up, by the way. A bullet went in and out of his right shoulder. And another—well, it was a gut shot. Highly painful. A terrible way to die, or at least, that’s what I’ve been told.”
She backed away from the kitchen—from Katrina’s prone body—and tried to ease toward the front door. He followed her, stepping right over Katrina as if she didn’t matter at all.
“Eventually, Agent Duvane will make his way back here. He’ll find the dead deputy in the hallway. He’ll find you, stabbed in this den, and then he’ll find me...grief stricken as I huddle over Katrina’s body. I had to kill her, you see. I came here, I realized what she’d done—I realized she’d been working with the killer all along—and I had to stop her before anyone else died.” He sighed dramatically. “I just wish I’d found you sooner. Maybe I could have saved you.”
“You’re sick.”
“No, I’m smart. I’m a man who knows how to create a killer story. When the situation presented itself, I had to act.” His jaw hardened. “It’s all Kylie’s fault.”
Kylie? Kylie Shane? The first victim?
“She recognized me. Can you believe that? It’s been years, but she knew it was me. Saw me on the beach while you were filming a segment. I looked up—and she was staring at me as if she’d seen a ghost.”
Her lips felt numb as she said, “When she was sixteen, Kylie was attacked. Stabbed twice, by an unknown assailant.”
His smile came again. “Not really unknown...but I did get away. I wanted to see what it was like, you see. To drive a knife into a pretty girl.”
Nausea rolled in her stomach. He’d wanted to see years ago...and he was still stabbing women now.
“I knew Kylie recognized me. I couldn’t let her talk. She had to die.” He took another step toward her.
Casey took a frantic step back. The front door was locked—could she get it unlocked before he was on her? Could she stab him before he stabbed her?
“But after Kylie was dead, well, I saw the interest buzzing in town. A new story. A better killer... So I found another victim, and I kept going. It’s easy to spot the wounded, you see. You just have to know what to look for.” He laughed. “Bridget still had a limp, courtesy of her hit-and-run. I met her at a club, asked her what had happened, and the woman just told me everything. I was a complete stranger. She should have been more careful.”
It was hard to be careful with a killer.
“And Tonya? Her scars were out for the world to see. I knew she’d be perfect.” His smile still curled his lips. “I knew about you, of course. I make a point of learning everyone’s secrets.” He glanced back at Katrina. “Like Kat over there? The woman has a bit of a drug problem. She’d do anything to get what she needed. Anything.”
She was going to run for the door.
“You had been attacked before. I understood how fragile you were. Sometimes, I could see you almost breaking in front of the camera. I think that was what the viewers loved about you—you weren’t perfect. You were weak, just like everyone is. Got to say, though, I never expected you to fight back.”
Her hand was slick around the knife. “I don’t believe in giving up easily.”
“No?” His brows rose. “Thanks for the warning. Now, sorry, but we really need to hurry along. Can’t have Agent Duvane arriving before you’re dead.”
He rushed toward her. She spun and grabbed for the door, fumbling with that lock. She managed to get the lock to turn, managed to rip the door open—
The blade sank into her shoulder. Casey cried out and her bound hands flew out as she whirled back to him—she stabbed at him, hitting his arm again and again with the blade. Hacking at him. He swore and jumped back.
She could feel the blood on her back. Sliding over her skin, soaking her shirt. She rushed through the doorway.
“Casey!”
Josh was there. He caught her in his arms and stared at her with wide, blazing eyes.
“He...he’s in there... Knife...”
And she still had her knife, too. It was gripped in her hands.
Josh pushed her behind him. He had a gun in one hand, and Tucker Frost—Tucker was right there, too. His face was just as grim as Josh’s.
She looked back at the doorway. She’d expected Tom to follow her out. He hadn’t. What was he doing in there? The penthouse seemed dead quiet.
And then...
Laughter.
The door was still open, just a few inches.
“You’re back too soon...she’s not dead,” Tom called out.
Josh’s hold on Casey’s hand tightened.
“If you don’t all leave, I’ll kill her right now. I’ll slit her throat, from ear to ear.”
What? She wasn’t even in there with him any longer. She was safe. She was—
Josh pushed open the door to the penthouse.
Katrina.
Tom stood in the middle of the den, and Katrina was slumped in his arms. He had his knife at her throat. Her head was tilted down, her lashes closed.
“I think she’s already dead,” Casey whispered.
“Is she?” Tom shouted. “Don’t be so sure. Things aren’t always what they seem.” He jabbed the tip of the knife into Katrina’s throat.
Katrina’s body jerked.
Josh swore. Then he was shoving Casey farther back. “Sweetheart, get to the elevator. Go downstairs—get out of here—”
“Don’t go anywhere, Casey! I’m not finished with you!” Tom bellowed.
She froze.
“Casey Quinn. Casey Too-Good-For-Me Quinn. But you weren’t too good for the agent, were you? The night I took you, I was watching when he brought you back to the hotel on his motorcycle. I saw the way you looked at him, the way you let him touch you. You played hands-off with me, but I saw the truth...and I knew you were going to feel my knife.”
Tucker slipped into the penthouse. His gun was aimed at Tom. “It’s over. Let the woman go, now.”
“Nothing’s over. It’s just beginning. I’m beginning. And you’re the one leaving. You and Agent Duvane are going to walk out of this building. If you don’t, I’ll slit Katrina’s throat right here and now.”
Casey knew he would.
“You’ll walk away,” Tom continued. “Casey will stay. And then I’ll—”
“You’ll kill them both,” Josh said, his voice a hard growl. “That’s not happening. You aren’t going to touch Casey again.”
She trembled, her shoulder throbbing and the blood soaking her.
Josh edged into the open doorway. He and Tucker fanned out a bit, closing in on Tom. Casey knew she should probably run, but...her legs trembled. How much blood am I losing? She grabbed on to the door frame so she wouldn’t fall. Her hands were bloody. She’d gotten Katrina’s blood on her when she grabbed the knife.
“Casey!” Tom shouted her name.
Her head whipped up. She stared straight at him.
“This isn’t the ending I wanted.”
She knew that. “You...you went to the prison. You’re the one who kept trying to convince...Theodore Anderson...to talk to me...”
“I also convinced him that his son was an ungrateful failure who deserved to be punished. Theodore was all too eager to point the finger at Kurt. Everything would have been perfect.” He sighed and his shoulders slumped a bit. “But they came back too soon.” His gaze swept to Josh. “Couldn’t stay away from her, huh? Have to be close, every moment. There was another man who fell for Casey that way. Fell so deep and hard that he killed for her.”
“I never wanted Benjamin to kill,” she whispered.
“You’ll have to kill, too, Agent Duvane,” Tom continued. Katrina seemed to be a dead weight in his arms. “Because I’m not stopping. Casey will see you kill. She’ll know you’re just like the other one. She’ll turn from you. You’ll lose her as surely as if I put my knife in her heart.”
“No!” Casey yelled.
He looked at her. Smiled. “I chose the ending. It was my story, never yours.” His hand tightened around that knife, and she knew, she knew he was going to slit Katrina’s throat.
Casey screamed and raced forward.
Gunshots blasted.
One shot hit Tom in the shoulder. The other...in the head.
He fell back. The knife cut across Katrina’s neck, but it didn’t sink deep.
Tucker and Josh both closed in. Tucker kicked the knife away from Tom, and Josh grabbed for Katrina. Casey’s breath heaved from her as she hurried to Josh’s side. The shot to head—it had killed Tom. She’d seen—no, she didn’t want to think about what she’d seen as that bullet tore into him.
Josh was pressing his hands to Katrina’s wounds. Tucker was on his phone, demanding to know where backup was, and Casey—
“It was my shot,” Josh said, not looking up as he worked frantically on Katrina. “My shot killed him. I did it.”
“I know.” Somehow, she’d just...known.
His head turned. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. He wasn’t going to hurt you again.”
Her lips were trembling.
“I’d do it again,” he said quietly.
A tear slid down her cheek.
I know.
*
KATRINA WELCH HADN’T SURVIVED. Josh stood in the condominium’s parking lot, the swirl of police lights illuminating the scene. A gurney rushed past him—Finn was strapped down and two medics were working feverishly on him. The knife was still in his chest, and he was still breathing, barely. Josh hoped the kid survived.
There had been enough death.
“No, no, I don’t want to leave!”
His head whipped to the right at the sound of her voice. Casey was in the back of an ambulance. She should have been on the way to the hospital, but the woman was trying to push her way past the team surrounding her. She looked over at him. Their gazes locked. “Josh!”
Instantly, he ran toward her. She’d been stabbed—her blood had soaked her clothes. “She needs to get to a hospital right now,” he snarled, glaring at the EMTs. “What are you waiting for—”
“You,” Casey said.
He shook his head.
“I can’t leave without you.” She licked her lips. The EMTs pushed her back onto the gurney. “He was wrong. Tom was crazy. I don’t see you differently. You’re a good agent, Josh. A good man. I need you to know that.”
His chest seemed to burn. He should stay at the scene, help Tucker tie up loose ends but...
Casey.
He climbed into the back of the ambulance. His hand caught hers. Did she get it? To him, Tom Warren had been a dead man the instant Josh saw the guy holding that bloody knife. Tom had come after Casey time and time again. Josh had never intended to let him walk.
Did she understand?
“I’m sorry—” his voice came out rough “—that you were hurt.” He looked down at her wrist. The handcuffs were gone and dark bruises banded her wrists. “I should have kept you safe.”
He’d nearly lost her.
“You can’t save the world.”
It wasn’t the world that mattered to him right then. It was Casey. And when he’d raced back to the penthouse, so desperate to get to her, every instinct in his body screaming at him that something was wrong—to get to her...he’d felt something splinter inside of him. He’d tried calling the condominium’s front desk, but the line had been disabled. Before he’d gone upstairs, Tom had been busy. He’d taken out the phone line and even turned off the alarm so that he could access the top floor via the service elevator. Since he’d gone through the service area, the guard in the lobby hadn’t seen the fellow. Tom had been smart.
Sadistic.
Josh was glad he was dead.
When he couldn’t reach Casey, Josh had tried calling Finn—no answer. He’d demanded backup at the condo building even before he’d rushed inside, but that backup hadn’t arrived soon enough to help.
It had been him and Tucker.
“He chose death,” Casey said. “That was on him. He did that. He could have dropped his knife. You were trying to save Katrina.”
He stared into her eyes. Her beautiful, dark eyes. The woman had gotten to him. She’d gone far beneath his skin and straight into the soul that felt battered. “I didn’t want to lose you.” Even as he’d pulled the trigger, Tom’s words had echoed in his head.
But he’d had a choice to make.
There had been no going back.
“You’re not going to lose me.” Casey smiled at him. The ache in his chest finally eased. “You’re going to get the chance to start over with me. No murder. No stories. Just us.”
He wanted it to be just them.
The EMT cleared her throat. “Uh, about the hospital...”
Josh pressed his lips to Casey’s. “Something you should know...”
She blinked up at him.
“I’m falling for you, too, sweetheart.”
Her beautiful smile stretched, lighting her eyes.
“Uh, yeah, I got things here,” Tucker called out as he cleared his throat.
Josh’s head turned and he found Tucker standing near the open ambulance doors. His friend gave him a little salute. “Why don’t you make sure Ms. Quinn gets to the hospital all right? I’m sure she would appreciate an escort. Hayden and I will handle everything at the scene.”
He didn’t have to be told twice. Josh brought Casey’s wrist to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the bruised skin. He felt her pulse surge beneath his lips.
Tucker slammed the ambulance’s back doors closed. The siren screamed on. Moments later, they were taking off.
And Josh was holding tight to Casey. The woman he never planned to let go.