Plain Jane (27 page)

“I’ll tell Nicole your last thoughts weren’t of her.”

The blade dug in. Kent’s skin screamed as the edge cut the most sensitive outer layer. In a moment he would be bleeding. A few more moments and he’d be dead.

Then Rebecca’s blade hand flew outward, away from him, her arms flailing like a wheelhouse. It was then that he saw the strange ligature around the meter maid’s neck. The “rope” was made of tissue.

Uterine tissue, if he was not mistaken.

CHAPTER 109

Nicole tightened the tissue around Rebecca’s neck. Let her know what it felt like to be strangled. “You know, at one point I actually felt sorry for you, bitch.”

The meter maid didn’t retort. She couldn’t. She was too busy choking, clawing at the ligature. The detective tightened it even more. Not to kill. Oh, Nicole would have loved to kill the psycho, but the cop in her was aiming to knock her unconscious. But the tissue began to fray. Nicole put her full weight into it.

Which meant she wasn’t prepared to defend herself when Rebecca raised her knife to the ceiling, then plunged it deep into Nicole’s leg. Before she could override her reflexes, Nicole dropped the bloody noose and grabbed hold of her injured thigh. Rebecca tried to bolt, but Kent was there, grabbing the meter maid by the hair. “Where ya going?”

Nicole began to slump. Her leg couldn’t support her weight. With his free hand, the profiler grabbed her elbow, propping her up.

The meter maid’s smile became savage. “What are you going to do, Kent? Let me go or prove to Nicole, once again, that’s she’s less important than your work?”

“Neither,” Kent said. A pretty damn confident grin on his face as well. “I’m getting myself a weapon.”

Nicole was surprised when Kent chose to release Rebecca and stay with her, but she should have known it wasn’t for long. Kent used his free hand to grab the handle of the scalpel, then jerked the blade from her leg.

Screaming from astonishment, Nicole fell to the floor.

Kent looked over his shoulder. “I’d put some pressure on that.” And then he was off chasing Rebecca.

Gone into the darkness again.

CHAPTER 110

With a single sweeping backhanded stroke, Kent sliced Rebecca’s throat. Deep, but not too deep. The woman stumbled backward, hands clutching her now crimson, pulsating neck.

“How’s it feel?” Kent asked as he circled his prey. It was one thing to threaten him, but to hurt Nicole? This bitch was going down.

“How does it feel to be losing your life’s blood between your fingers?”

In the distance a voice echoed, “Nicole!” From the frantic tone, it could only be Ruben.

“Help!” Rebecca cried out hoarsely, not seeming to care who it was. Anyone but Kent.

“Keep trying. Maybe he’ll hear you? Rescue you?”

Kent closed in on the meter maid. Rebecca staggered back. One hand still at her throat, the other trying to push the profiler away. Her strength seeping out along with her blood.

“Feeling light-headed?” Kent asked, already knowing the answer. “Room spinning?”

“Don’t,” Rebecca begged hoarsely. “Please, don’t.”

“Is that what they begged?” Kent asked, already knowing the answer.

How many times had this bitch heard that plea? Had it ever stopped her? Had she ever shown a sliver of mercy to any of her victims? Kent knew he could take her alive. He could subdue her right now. But what would that accomplish? She’d be deemed insane. And the mentally ill could not be executed.

Which made absolutely no sense whatsoever. It was the crazies who were the most fucking dangerous. Whack jobs couldn’t be reasoned with. They had spent most of their adult lives stalking people they picked out using their distorted mirror of the world, then torturing and ultimately killing them. No serial killer was sane. And no one was more dangerous than a successful serial killer. Yet they were never executed.

Go figure.

At least not by court order.

Rebecca lurched, nearly falling.

“That would be anoxia. You don’t have enough blood to carry oxygen to your brain.”

Kent closed in, his voice barely above a whisper. “Don’t worry. I’ll get to the coup de grâce before you lose consciousness.”

A look of horror crossed Rebecca’s face. For the first time she realized Kent really and truly was her equal. Letting go of her neck wound, she launched at him.

Kent was quicker. The knife sunk deep into Rebecca’s belly. Blood poured around his hand, yet he didn’t pull the blade out. The meter maid’s eyes jerked open. Her visage twisted in horror.

“There we go,” Kent whispered. “That was the look I was waiting for.”

Behind them a faint voice. “Nicole!”

He’d have to hurry before Ruben spoiled his plan.

“Feel that?” Kent asked as he tugged the knife upward, mimicking the wound she had inflicted on dozens upon dozens of innocent women.

He tugged again as Rebecca gasped in agony.

“That’s karma, babe.”

As if dropping a sack of potatoes, Kent let the woman fall from his grip. She slumped to the floor, motionless. He stared, watching, waiting for a breath. None came. Rebecca would not be gutting anyone else. Would not be stealing anyone else’s uterus.

He was victorious.

Then the rush was over, and his muscles betrayed him. Kent staggered back until he hit the wall. It was the only thing holding him up.

“Damn, but killing takes it out of ya.”

CHAPTER 111

Nicole tried really hard not to panic. Kent had been gone way longer than he should have, and, perhaps more topically, she could not get her leg to stop bleeding.

“Usher!” That baritone had to be Glick.

She shouted, “Here!” as loud as she could.

But it was Kent who rushed into the room. His hands were covered in blood, and his shirt streaked with it. Was it his or Rebecca’s?

As if reading her mind, he shrugged off his blood-soaked shirt. “Profiler, one. Psycho Bitch, zero.”

Relieved, Nicole hauled off and slugged him. “That stunt of yours fucking
hurt
!”

“Tell me about it,” Kent said as he shook out his wrist. “I think I gave myself carpal tunnel.”

Despite the continued oozing from her wound, Nicole still tried to push him away. For some reason, she didn’t want to seem helpless. She didn’t want him to see her weak.

Kent persisted. “Let me.”

He was actually gentle as he tended to her wound. Concern framed his features. Was this really Kent? Quickly he rigged a makeshift bandage, and the blood flow stopped.

Then he looked up, and their eyes met. So many life-changing moments had come to pass this night, and very few of them had to do with bringing a serial killer to justice. There was so much to say, yet, she couldn’t get her lips to work. Not when Kent was looking at her like that. Like he used to. Like he did that weekend they went away together to the beach. Like he did when she thought they might actually make their relationship work.

“Nikki!” That was Ruben.

“Here,” Nicole yelled back but not quite so enthusiastically as before. Could she and Kent just have a little time alone? Time to sort through the mess of their relationship before Internal Affairs got involved?

Kent patted her good leg. “I’m telling you, he’s no Magellan. I better go get them before
they
end up needing to be rescued.”

Nicole couldn’t let him go. Not yet. Not until at least one thing was cleared up.

“Wait,” she said as she took his hand in hers. “Before…” how could the feeling she had be so strong inwardly, yet so difficult to say outwardly? “Before when you said you’d never stolen anything of mine…”

Kent’s eyes searched hers, his expression unreadable as usual. It was up to her. If they were going to break this deadlock, it would be up to her to do it. Kent was absolute crap at expressing himself.

Not that she was all that much better.

“Nic, you need an ambulance.”

She ignored his words. “You did steal this…” Nicole brought Kent’s hand up to her chest and laid it gently there against her breastbone. “You stole this.”

Kent got defensive. “Your bra? No way… Okay, maybe one pair of underwear, but that was for—”

Nicole shook her head, quieting the nearly panicked profiler. She moved his hand over her heartbeat then looked up. She didn’t have the words. Would he understand?

CHAPTER 112

Kent could feel Nicole’s heart beating beneath his touch. So fast. So strong. Given the complete look of anguished sincerity on her face, he was a little ashamed about the underwear admission.

“Oh, that…”

More than embarrassment, he was tongue-tied. How many ways had he practiced telling her how he felt? His therapist had insisted that women needed to hear about a man’s feelings, not just be helped to have a lot of orgasms. Which to the profiler did not seem fair. Wasn’t that kind of attention proof enough? Obviously Nicole needed something more. Something he had never given another woman.

Kent squeezed her hand. “Then you’re quite the thief yourself.”

He leaned over as his lover tilted her head, parting her lips, ready to receive his kiss. His hand cupped her cheek and he held her eyes until the very last second when their lips met, then he could not help but close his eyes.

Everything he loved about her was summed up in that moment. Her soft lips, without a hint of shyness. The horrors of the day melted away, leaving only their kiss.

“Nicole!” Ruben shouted, sounding farther away than he did the last time. Leave it to the idiot to not only be lost, but ruin the moment as well. Yet Kent knew from the warmth of that kiss that they’d have plenty of time to work things out.

He pulled back and met Nicole’s smile. “I’ll go fetch him before we have to bring out the search dogs.”

She nodded bravely, but frowned. He knew that look. The look of well-deserved mistrust.

“I’ll be back.”

“Promise?” she asked.

“Promise.”

CHAPTER 113

It took Kent five minutes and seven switchbacks to find the wandering cops. Not only were they lost, they were a very mobile bunch of lost cops.

Ruben didn’t even bother to apologize or ask what had happened. “Where’s Nikki?”

“Where in the hell have you been? We left you a blood trail as wide as the Mississippi.”

“Where’s Detective Usher?” Ruben growled.

“She’s been choked and stabbed, but, you know, other than that, stable.”

Ruben pushed past, but Kent was not quite sure where the guy was going. Wasn’t the point of this whole exercise that Ruben was directionally challenged? Kent turned to Glick and gave a friendly nod as if they had just met on the street.

“Why don’t we catch up with Ruben and collect Usher?” the captain suggested, but Kent shook his head.

“Sorry, if the detective wants to find the girl, he’s gotta learn to ask for directions.”

Glick glowered, “Harbinger.”

Given what they were going to find deeper in the tunnels, Kent realized maybe he shouldn’t piss off the captain right now. Kent would prefer to stay out of the psychiatric ward for a while.

“Okay, okay,” Kent said as he easily found Ruben. Once again off course. “She’s
this
way.”

Kent took a little too much pleasure in the look of embarrassment and frustration on the tall detective’s face.

Quickly Kent navigated the labyrinth-like tunnels. Which wasn’t too hard if you just knew what arterial blood looked like. Within a few minutes they were back to where he had left Nicole.

“Ta-da!” Kent announced with a flourish. “This is how you rescue a fair maiden.”

Great barb, only there wasn’t any maiden there.

“Damn it, Kent, this isn’t funny.”

He knelt over, searching the floors for clues to where she might be. “She was here.”

Kent knew he wasn’t lost. There was the torn uterine ligature. Nicole’s gun. A large blood pool and the remains of a tattered sleeve they had used as a bandage for her leg. Everything was here. Everything but Nicole…and Rebecca’s knife. Kent was certain he had dropped it near the detective. Kent had also been pretty damn sure Rebecca was dead.

“Nic!” he yelled as he rushed deeper into the tunnels.

Her response was pained, but close by. “In here.”

Ruben burst past Kent, reaching Nicole sitting next to Rebecca’s body. Ruben skidded to a halt when he took in the scene. Scalpel in hand, the detective looked like hell. Shit, they both looked like hell, but Nicole was alive, and her bandage looked like it had stopped the tide of bleeding.

“I told you to stay put,” Kent reminded her as he strode past the stunned Ruben.

“I just…” Nicole looked over at the body. “I had to make sure she was dead.”

As did the captain. He knelt down and felt Rebecca’s neck. Glick nodded. “She’s gone.”

Kent went to help Nicole up, but Ruben elbowed him a good one. He stumbled as Ruben offered his partner a hand.

A hand that Nicole declined.

“It’s okay,” she said as she reached out to the profiler. “Kent’s got me.”

In perhaps the single most satisfying moment of his life, Kent helped Nicole up, then supported her as they walked past the ruddy-faced Ruben.

“So if you don’t mind, I’ll get her to the hospital.”

Elbow that, ya prick.

CHAPTER 114

It was what Kent didn’t say that stung Ruben. The profiler didn’t have to give his feelings voice. His expression was crystal clear.

Fuck you.
I
won.

And the profiler was right. Ruben had lost. In so many ways that he couldn’t even keep track of them anymore. Kent had been right about Plain Jane. He had been right about Nicole’s feelings.

Still, his pride would not let Harbinger off the hook. Ruben stepped in front of the couple. “We’ll need statements.”

“The whacko’s dead, and we’re alive,” Kent said as Nicole moaned, a hand on her bandage. “In pain, but alive.”

Glick stepped in before it could get nasty. “It’s all right. We’ll get their statements at the hospital.”

Angry at his captain, but also a little relieved that his superior had stopped him from embarrassing himself further, Ruben stepped aside and let Kent and Nicole by.

He stared at their backs, Nicole leaning heavily into the profiler’s chest, until they disappeared around the corner.