Chapter Thirty-Two
“Eat.”
Kat looked down at the slice of pizza Stephen shoved in front her. “I’m not really hungry.”
“I don’t really care,” Stephen shot back, shoving the plate in front of her again when she pushed it away. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”
Which wasn’t because she was famished, more because she was trapped with the three of them and she felt…ashamed. Guilty. And just flat out uncomfortable.
They were at Alex’s. His main house because she’d refused to be stuffed into the tiny cabin with all of them. She hadn’t asked why they were here, but suspected it had something to do with Ethan. Or rather, keeping him away from her.
She looked down at her phone as she picked up her pizza, which tasted like cardboard. Ethan still hadn’t returned her calls. Or even sent a text. Alex was still pissed, barely acknowledging her when he walked in. And Stephen?
She wasn’t sure. She couldn’t tell if the distance between them was coming from him or herself. Either way, she felt like she was walking on eggshells. Only Xavier was the same, which wasn’t saying much, because she’d still never been able to get a read on him.
“Maybe we should speak with Koski,” Kat finally suggested, more to fill the silence than anything else. “We know he was involved.”
“And he’ll go right to the senator. We can’t risk it.”
Great. So they just had to sit there and twiddle their thumbs? Wait to hear from Mary or Allen?
“What else do we have?” A loaded question. No doubt Alex had spent the rest of his day investigating Ethan. She glanced over at him across his kitchen island.
Her phone rang and it seemed everybody held their breath, only to let it out seconds later. Unknown Number. She silenced the ringer.
“We need to give Mary and Allen some time. Let’s wait another day before we make a decision.”
Kat glanced up at Stephen, wondering if they had another day. Earlier, they’d gone down to BCI headquarters so Stephen could give a DNA sample, a place she’d never expected to step foot in again. She hadn’t missed it.
Her phone rang again. Kat glanced at the screen before sending it voicemail, debating on whether to shut it off or not. But what if Ethan called?
“Find anything?” Stephen asked Xavier.
“Not yet.”
She wondered what they were looking for. They hadn’t clued her in. Her voicemail dinged. And before she could listen to it, her phone rang again. “Hello?” she said, unable to keep the annoyance out of her voice. Silence. “Hello?”
“Please help me.” Softly whispered. A woman’s voice, thick with terror. Goosebumps traveled up Kat’s entire body as she tried to place the voice.
“May I ask who’s calling?” Despite the businesslike words, all three men were staring at her when she looked up, Xavier’s computer forgotten as their attention focused on her.
“Jess,” she whispered. “Jessica Adams.”
Excitement shot through her. “What’s wrong, Jessica?”
Stephen was the first to stand up. Kat put the phone on speaker.
“I don’t know where I am,” she cried. “I was home, sleeping and I woke up somewhere else. I didn’t know who else to call.” Jessica was openly sobbing now, her words hard to understand.
Alex and Xavier joined Stephen, surrounding her. Kat glanced at Alex, who shook his head, letting her know that Jess hadn’t been home. Not since she’d been released from the hospital the day of the senator’s party. But Kat played along, praying for the break they desperately needed.
“Were you…kidnapped?” And she had her phone?
Jessica sucked in a breath. “Oh, God,” she said before she dissolved into a fit of sobs again.
“Ms. Adams—Jess—I understand it’s difficult, but you need to stay calm, okay? I can’t help you if you don’t answer some questions for me.”
“Okay,” she hiccupped.
“First, I need your phone number, it came up unknown. I might be able to trace it,” Kat said.
Xavier grabbed a pen and paper, scribbling down Jessica’s number before going to his laptop.
“Okay, that’s great, Jess. Tell me the last thing you remember. That might give me a timeframe.”
“I…um…ate dinner in front of the TV. I don’t remember anything after that.”
“What time was that?”
“About seven?”
Kat glanced at the microwave. 8:45. Less than two hours ago.
“Do you feel woozy, like you were drugged?” Kat’s email dinged and she looked at the sender, sucking in her breath. She’d been waiting for this—
“I feel like I have a hangover. But I’ve felt like that since I was in the hospital. The pain medication, it knocks me out.”
So she could have been drugged or not. “Okay. Tell me everything you can see, everything you can hear. That might give me a clue.”
More sniffling. “Um…walls, windows high up. It’s mostly dark. A little light coming from the windows.”
Somebody knocked on Alex’s front door, causing Kat to nearly jump out of her skin. She glanced up, but couldn’t see the door from the kitchen. As far as Kat knew, nobody knew about this place. Stephen and Alex exchanged a look while Alex took his gun from his holster, heading around the corner.
“Stairs,” Jessica whispered. “Oh, God. What if he’s up there?”
A basement. “Can you hear any movement? Creaking floorboards?”
Jessica paused for so long, Kat thought she may have lost her. She glanced at her screen again. The call was still connected. She glanced at Xavier, who shook his head. They still didn’t have a location. And damn it, she needed to check that email.
“Nothing,” Jess said eventually.
“That doesn’t mean he’s not there, so try to stay as quiet as possible, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Can you see out any of the windows? Something you can climb on to look out?”
“Not without making noise—wait. There’s a chair…” Silence again. Kat looked over at Xavier who was still shaking his head. And Kat was running out of questions, running out of ideas on how to keep her on the phone. Stephen moved over to Xavier, standing over his shoulder.
“Take a look around the basement, look for anything you can as a weapon and try to hide,” Kat said and finally she couldn’t take it anymore. She clicked the icon for her email…
And she nearly blacked out. The air rushed from her lungs as spots danced in front of her eyes, her head spinning.
Stephen shoved a pieced of paper over her phone, blocking the images.
You know this is BS, right?
On autopilot, Kat nodded, trying to switch gears, focus on the phone call rather than the email. Of course she knew it was BS. But if they could get a lead on Jessica’s location, they’d be able to question her. Hopefully break her. Because, hell, something with this messed up case needed to break.
“It’s a mess,” Jessica said, sounding a little calmer now. “I can find a spot.”
“Okay. Good. You’re doing great, Jess. Just hang on a little bit longer until we can—”
Xavier rushed her, ripping her phone from her hand, just as a gunshot blasted from the entry. Kat screamed as Xavier fell on top of her, crushing her face into the floor as Stephen ran from the room.
“Alex!”
Stephen’s voice. Tortured. Shocked. Then yelling. “Hands! Show me your hands, Ethan, or so help me, I’ll put a fucking bullet in your head!”
No, no, no!
Desperately, Kat tried to twist out from underneath Xavier, but he didn’t budge. He was too damn big, all of it muscle. Between her throbbing wrist and Xavier’s crushing weight, it was nearly impossible to breathe. He dragged them both behind the island before pulling his gun with his other hand, settling his weight more firmly on top of her. She twisted her head to the side, crushed between his chest and the tile floor. She felt him shift, propping his forearms on the tile, still pinning her so she couldn’t move.
Taking aim.
Kat tried to breathe, but it was nearly impossible, the thoughts going through her mind all too horrible to contemplate. She could only hear yelling, unable to decipher whose voice was whose. Just when she didn’t think she could take anymore, when it felt like she was on the verge of passing out, Xavier was off her, the air rushing into her lungs so fast it made her choke. Coughing, she rolled over, groaning in pain as she put weight on her wrist. Moisture leaked from her mouth, saliva or blood, she couldn’t be sure.
Blood, she saw a second later as a drop landed on the tile floor. She ran her tongue over her teeth, making sure they were intact, relieved to find they were, but her jaw throbbed like a son of a bitch.
More yelling. She scrambled to her feet, following Xavier into the entry, to a scene that made no sense, that terrified her more than she’d been a moment ago, though she hadn’t thought that possible.
Xavier was on the floor, pressing against Alex’s chest, blood on his hands, while Stephen rose from beside Alex, aiming his gun at Ethan’s chest while blood dripped from his hand.
“No!” Kat yelled, rushing between them, her worst nightmare being played out right before her eyes, each of them yelling simultaneously, yet not making out their individual words through the roaring in her head. Ethan raised his arm and for the briefest moment Kat thought he was raising his arms in surrender, but then he raised his right hand, the glint of steel impossible to miss.
Stephen lunged, catching her around the waist, Ethan’s gun exploding as she fell, the wall inches from Ethan’s head splintering as Kat screamed. Stephen grunted as Ethan slid down the wall and a roar of pain erupted from somewhere behind her.
She tried to whip around, find the source of that roar, but Stephen’s grip was too tight as he dragged her, pressing her into the corner, covering her completely with his body so she couldn’t see around him, even as she pounded on his back, her mind replaying Ethan sliding down the wall, her heart cracking, not knowing if he was dead or alive, if he’d shot at Stephen with her in between them. Oh God, Stephen!
He hadn’t been shot, she realized seconds later, his body hard and alive against hers. But that didn’t lessen the terror crawling up her spine as she tried to make sense of what just happened, her mind spinning in circles.
Stephen finally moved, shifting slightly, just enough for Kat to be able to peek around his side.
Jessica Adams was sprawled on the floor, unmoving.
***
“Slide the gun over, Ethan. Nice and slow.” Stephen held his gun steady, aiming directly at Ethan’s chest, fear and adrenalin coursing through him. As desperately as he needed to check on Alex or figure out who the dead woman behind him was, he refused to turn his back on Ethan, even for a second.
He didn’t trust him, but damned if he’d shoot him. Kat would never forgive him.
“Now!” Stephen roared, desperately fighting panic. He was giving Ethan the benefit of the doubt, because despite everything he’d just witnessed, instinct had him needing an explanation. As much as he despised Ethan right now, Stephen had never killed a man and honestly, he didn’t, wouldn’t have that on his conscience.
Ethan slid the gun forward, pushed it further toward Stephen with his foot. “You can lower the gun, asshole. I didn’t shoot Alex and you damn well know it.”
He didn’t know it. Not with one-hundred percent certainty. Finally, he was able to look past Ethan, toward Alex and Xavier. Xavier had his phone on speaker as he barked orders to 911. Even from this distance, he could see Alex’s chest rising and falling, the relief Stephen felt nearly weakening his knees.
“You better start fucking explaining,” Stephen growled as he crept forward, slow and steady, gently shoving Ethan’s gun further away from him, toward Kat. But he didn’t dare look at her, couldn’t afford to relax his guard right now and he knew her expression would likely devastate him. Because sure as shit, he was enemy number one right now.
Changing direction, he stepped back, slowly inching closer to the woman, needing to make sure she was dead, never taking his aim or his eyes away from Ethan. Kat was way too close. In one quick move, Ethan could be on his feet, grabbing her…
His heart still pounded in his chest, ready to explode, too much going on at the same time. It was hard to push everything out of his head other than keeping them safe until police and emergency responders arrived.
“I punched him. I didn’t shoot him.”
Stephen glanced over at Alex. That explained the bloody nose, perhaps the unconsciousness, depending on how hard Ethan had hit him. And then as Stephen was looking at Alex, taking in his cut hair and shaved face, he glared back at Ethan. “You thought it was me.”
“He answered the door with a fucking gun pointed at my chest,” Ethan growled. “I didn’t have time to think, only to react. I ducked, punched him in the gut. He backhanded me with the butt of the gun just before my fist connected with his face.”
Stephen studied Ethan, looking for the truth. “And the gunshot?”
“I don’t fucking know,” Ethan roared. “At the time, I thought it was his gun that went off. At least until he collapsed. I was in the process of dragging him back inside when you came in. But it wasn’t his.” Ethan nodded at the gun that was still on the floor. “The safety was still on when I picked it up.”
“That’s Alex’s gun?”
“I don’t make a habit of carrying a weapon,” Ethan growled again with a pointed look at Stephen’s gun, which Stephen finally lowered, though he was still on edge, still ready to move. “So maybe you’d like to tell me what the fuck’s going on?”
All that may be true, but… “You brought her in.”
“I didn’t bring anybody fucking in.”
“Then explain it,” Stephen roared. “You obviously tracked Kat! The woman followed you. You gonna fucking tell me you never saw headlights behind you. Or maybe tell me she must have been hiding in the bed of your truck and you didn’t see her? I wouldn’t buy that bullshit for a minute.”
“I don’t even know who the hell she is!” Ethan roared back.
“Jessica Adams,” Kat supplied, speaking for the first time, just as the first sirens could be heard in the distance. She turned, looking at Jessica’s body, her face pale, but she wouldn’t look at either him or Ethan. It was then he noticed the darkening bruise on her cheekbone, the protective way she hugged her arm to her stomach. Shit, had he done that in his rush to keep her safe?
“But you already knew that, didn’t you?” And then she did look up at Ethan, sucking in a breath, her words barely audible as emergency personnel arrived in a cacophony of lights and sirens, betrayal thick in her voice. “She’s the one who drugged Karen Young. Your biological mother.”