CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Nate tried calling Olivia a dozen more times as he raced to her apartment. He tried calling Vince, too, but neither of them were answering. He parked haphazardly in front of a fire hydrant and jumped out of his car. Vince was pacing on the sidewalk in front of Nate’s apartment, running a hand over his short-cropped hair.

“What the hell are you doing?” Nate yelled. “Answer your damn phone.”

“I don’t have it,” Vince said, frowning at Nate. “I tried buzzing Liv, but she’s not answering.”

“Where’s your damn phone?” Nate hurried past Vince and let himself into the building with his key. “I told Olivia not to answer the door until you called.”

“That explains why she didn’t answer. I left my phone in my car while I was interviewing Emily’s old roommate. When I came back, someone had bashed in my car window and grabbed my phone. It was probably some stupid kids.” Vince rambled on, oblivious to Nate’s anxiety.

Olivia’s apartment door was shut, but unlocked. That immediately made Nate’s anxiety heighten. He was certain that door had been locked when he left.

“What did you find out at the hospital?” Vince said, still oblivious.

“I know who we’re hunting,” Nate said on autopilot as he hurried into the apartment. As he had expected, Olivia was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Liv?” Vince asked, finally catching on that something wasn’t right.

“She’s gone.” Nate immediately looked toward the coffee table and was surprised to see a piece of paper where the gun had been. He knew that Olivia had left it for him. As he read the brief note, a simple address, he understood what had happened. “He has her.”

“How is that possible? The door wasn’t busted in. Did she let him in? That doesn’t sound like something Liv would do.” Vince looked lost.

Nate was already heading back outside. “He took your phone and called her. She assumed that if he had your phone, he also had you. Olivia was trying to save you and instead she walked right into his trap.”

“The psycho has Liv because of me?” Vince hurried behind Nate. “Shit, man. I’m sorry. I had no idea leaving my phone in my car was going to cause problems.”

“I shouldn’t have left her.” Nate bit hard on the inside of his cheek. There was a noticeable tremor in his voice. “He’s been watching this whole time, waiting for me to step away for just a second. Then he made his move.”

“But how did he know you had left? If he took my phone, that means he was watching me, not you and Liv. I still had my phone when you left her apartment, so he couldn’t have seen you leave.” Vince noticed Nate pointing to his gun and quickly pulled it out.

Nate gestured to the old apartment building in front of them. “If he’s set up shop in there, it’s possible he’s got cameras aimed at Liv’s place. In fact, it’s possible he’s watching us right now.”

“This is where he’s been hiding the whole time?” Vince sounded doubtful. “Man, that is messed up.”

“Liv is inside. We could be walking into anything, so keep your guard up. We’ll clear each apartment together. No splitting up.” Nate knew that Tanner might be able to beat them in a one-on-one situation, but two detectives with guns would be a much harder challenge.

The front door was already open, so they were able to easily and silently enter the building. There were only two apartments on the first floor, one on either side. It took less than five minutes for them to check each apartment. There was no sign that Tanner or Olivia had been in either one of them. With a jerk of his head, Nate motioned to the stairs.

They were only a few steps up when Nate heard Olivia’s voice. It was faint, but she sounded reasonably composed. He also heard Tanner’s voice, slightly louder but also calm. Olivia probably wasn’t in any immediate danger, and there was a second apartment on that floor that needed to be checked. They couldn’t risk any surprised from behind.

Vince understood instantly why Nate motioned for him to move in that direction. It helped that the other door stood wide open. When Nate stepped inside the apartment, he sucked in a sharp breath. An entire wall was lined with television screens displaying live feeds from Olivia’s apartment. One shot showed her living room, another showed her bedroom, and a third streamed the front door to her apartment building.

“Whoa,” Vince uttered in a low breath.

Tanner hadn’t only been stalking Olivia, he had planted cameras in her apartment. Nate’s entire body stiffened as he realized all the personal and intimate moments that Tanner must have witnessed. His vision began to blur as rage rushed through his body. Vince slapped a firm arm on Nate’s shoulder.

“Liv,” he whispered purposefully.

There would be time to be angry later. Right now, Nate had to focus only on saving Olivia. He nodded to Vince to let him know that he was alright. Together, they crossed the hall and stood just outside the other door. Tanner was still talking, oblivious to their arrival. The door was cracked just a fraction of an inch and Nate could see Olivia through the sliver. She was standing in the middle of the room, her face angling away from the door.

Nate breathed a little easier when he noticed her hand behind her back, grazing over the handle of his gun. As naked as he felt without a weapon, he was glad that Olivia wasn’t unarmed. Without a gun, he was going to have to let Vince move into the room first. It went against every instinct he had, but Nate knew it was the smart thing to do. But before they made a move, Nate needed a better understanding of Tanner’s situation. Was he also armed? How close was he to Olivia?

“Vince had nothing to do with Mark. Why use him as a pawn in your sick game?” Olivia said, oblivious to Nate’s prying ears.

“Because you’ll do anything for the people you care about. That’s part of your charm, Olivia.” Tanner’s voice sounded just slightly further away than hers. “I understand why your detective is so in love with you. He was smart to knock you up.”

Vince’s head swiveled toward Nate who kept his eyes straight ahead. Assuming they all made it out of this alive, Nate would have some explaining to do later.

“It’s a shame you won’t live long enough to have the baby. I’m sure it would be a cute kid,” Tanner continued.

“What about your kids? And Ruby? What will they do when you go to prison for all this?” Olivia’s fingers were slowly closing over the handle of Nate’s gun. “Where do they think you are right now?”

“I drive trucks for a living. They are used to me be going for extended periods of time.” Tanner sounded unconcerned. “I’m not going to prison for this, Liv. I know you left a note for your boyfriend and when he gets here, I’ll take care of him and then frame him for your murder. It will be easy to do. His partner’s phone found at the scene. The cameras in your apartment. It will scream jealous boyfriend losing his cool. It will also help that you’ve kindly brought his gun with you.”

Olivia’s hand froze. “What?”

“I know you’ve got his gun behind your back, Liv. I’m not stupid. But it’s possible you are if you think you’ll pull that out, aim, and fire before I close the three feet to get to you.” There was laughter dancing on Tanner’s words. “You should know this knife is very sharp. The other women all seemed surprised at how sharply it pierced their skin.”

“Why did you kill those women?” Olivia said, sounding afraid for the first time. “If you wanted to come after me and Nate, fine. Do that. But why kill innocent people that don’t even know me?”

“Because I needed to get Nate’s attention. I needed him to know that I wasn’t just making idle threats when I sent those photos. I wanted him to live with the fear of losing you for good. And I needed to get you to come back to Chicago.” Tanner’s feet shuffled over the hardwood floors. “I couldn’t keep traveling back and forth and Emily hated being in D.C. I started to think she might give up on the whole thing and I couldn’t have that yet. The only way to get you back here was to give you a reason to come back. Looks like it worked.”

“Why Emily? How did the two of you even decide to start doing this? It doesn’t make any sense.” Olivia was doing an excellent job keeping Tanner distracted. Nate was impressed by how much information she had been able to elicit from him.

Tanner chuckled. “Emily was easy. She was infatuated with my brother and they both used to obsess over Rosie’s murder. I knew if I offered her a chance to meet Rosie’s sister and get vengeance for Mark’s attack, she would jump at the chance. It didn’t hurt that she’s batshit crazy.”

“She lived. You tried to silence her, but it didn’t work. Emily is going to recover and she will tell everyone what you did. The jig is up.” Olivia scooted back slightly, retreating from Tanner’s approach.

“Emily won’t say anything. She’s a victim, just like the other women. It’s just the kind of attention that she loves.”

Olivia inched another step back. “We found the weapons in her apartment. They’ve been connected to the murders. Once they cut her a deal to sell you out, there’s no way she’s going to take the fall for what you did.”

The silence from Tanner spoke volumes. He had never expected them to find the weapons. That kind of surprise was likely to trigger his anger and Nate knew they couldn’t wait any longer. He mouthed to Vince that it was time to make a move. He further indicated that there was no need to be stealthy about it. Tanner would have the door in his line of sight, so any attempts to sneak into the room would be pointless and would only result in giving him time to grab Olivia.

Vince stepped in front of Nate with his gun held at-the-ready. He silently counted to three and then kicked the door open as he charged into the room.

“Don’t move!” he yelled, but it was too late. Tanner had already grabbed Olivia even as she tried to run away.

“Put. Down. The. Gun.” Tanner enunciated slowly, pressing the knife to Olivia’s neck. He quickly removed the gun from her waistband and pointed it at Vince. Olivia couldn’t move because the knife was pressed deep enough that it was drawing blood.

“I can’t do that,” Vince said, his finger on the trigger.

“You will do that, or Olivia will pay the price.” Tanner’s eyes found Nate as he stepped around his partner.

“Leave her alone. I’m the one you want.” Nate held his arms wide to show that he was unarmed. “You haven’t spent the last eight months stalking Olivia just to kill her. Maybe it started as revenge for your brother, but now you are as much in love with her as I am. We both know you are only doing all this now to get revenge on me, so here I am.”

It was a conclusion that Nate had only just reached. It would have been easy to miss considering they were dealing with a mentally deranged serial killer, but Nate remembered the photos of Olivia they had found in Emily’s apartment and he could see the hundreds of other photos that lined the walls of the room. Tanner was obsessed with Olivia, but not because he wanted to kill her.

“Would that even matter? Olivia doesn’t love me. I’m not an idiot.” Tanner’s grip on the knife had loosened and Olivia took in a deep breath. Nate couldn’t pry his eyes away from her. “If I kill you and not her, you’ll become a martyr– the man who died to save her. As if you haven’t already fooled her enough about your true nature.”

“My true nature? Unlike you, I only kill bad men. I don’t hurt innocent women.” Nate knew it wasn’t smart to anger Tanner, but he couldn’t help himself. “That’s why Olivia is with me and not you. She wants a real man, not a weak boy who can’t even satisfy her in bed. Yeah, I know all about that.”

It was a gamble. Nate and Olivia had never talked in specifics of her sexual relationship with Tanner, but given they had both been teenagers at the time it was a safe bet that it had been more awkward than erotic. Insulting a man like Tanner with regards to his manhood would no doubt get some kind of extreme reaction.

“You piece of shit. I’m twice the man you will ever be.” The gun was aimed directly at Nate now and Tanner’s finger was on the trigger. “I’ll be sure Olivia is satisfied after I kill you and have my way with her.”

“Fuck you,” Olivia snarled as she shoved away his arm that was holding the knife while simultaneously stomping on his foot.

Nate dove out of the way as Tanner howled and fired the gun as he hobbled in pain. Olivia hit the floor and scrambled away and Nate threw himself on Tanner. He hit him hard, slamming him against the wall. Tanner responded by swinging the knife at Nate’s shoulder. He was able to turn away in time to avoid being hit directly, but the knife sliced open his bicep, sending a sharp pain throughout his arm. It caused him to lose his grip on Tanner.

Tanner reacted quickly and shoved Nate against the wall, pulling back the knife again. As Nate struggled to raise an arm to protect himself, a shot rang out and Tanner jerked away. He staggered back two steps before coughing up blood.

“You alright, Tucker?” Vince asked, still aiming the gun at Tanner.

“Yeah.” Nate put a hand over the bleeding cut on this arm and watched as Tanner hit the ground, still spurting blood from his mouth. “Good shot. You been practicing?”

“I’ve always been a good shot.” Vince smirked and glanced at Olivia. “How about you, Liv? Doing alright?”

“Never better,” she said with blood still trickling down her neck. “Good timing, boys.”

“You have got to stop seducing killers, Liv.” Nate said, kicking the knife away from Tanner’s now motionless body. He put his good arm around her and pulled her close.

She sighed as she burrowed against him. “It’s totally worth it for the post-abduction and almost-death sex.”

“Speaking of your sex life…” Vince looked at both of them. Nate groaned, knowing what was coming. “I’m really looking forward to watching the two of you try to raise a baby. That’s going to be endlessly entertaining.”

“Careful, or we’ll make you the godfather,” Olivia joked.

“The godfather? I like the sound of that.” Vince grinned. “It’s almost as good as hero, which is another term that you might use to describe me after today.”

“Annoying? That’s another possible word,” Nate muttered.

“Where’s my hug?” Vince demanded. “Olivia gets a hug, but all she did was stand there bleeding. Meanwhile I save your life and you just call me annoying?”

“Monroe, if I get my hands on you it’s not going to be for a hug.” Nate tried to sound menacing, but he lost his battle with a smile. “You wanna make yourself useful and call this in to the station?”

“Sure, I’ll continue to be the only one of us that does our job.” Vince’s smile turned genuine. “Seriously, though. Congrats on the baby. I think the two of you could both use a bundle of joy in your lives, considering.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Olivia said, looking up at Nate. “My life is nothing but a dream come true.”