Cold Silence, page 32
“Wait.” He blasted the lock and kicked open the door. He half stumbled inside coughing, the relief from the flames instant but wouldn’t last long as the fire spread. He kept his weapon raised as he moved past the rows of benches into the corridor.
His earpiece screeched suddenly as if someone had scrambled the signal. He pulled it from his ear before it burst his drum.
He glanced into the corridor and saw Alex and Ashley stumbling toward him, Alex bleeding from a bullet wound in his upper arm.
“She okay?” Ashley nodded to Laura who’d gone limp against him.
“I don’t know but she was alert when I found her.” They kept jogging, retracing the way they’d come, alert for EG, Ashley watching their six. He hated the fact assault rifles were once again in this school and that Yael’s name would inevitably be associated with the headlines. The coverage would hurt her and he didn’t want that. He didn’t want her to run. He wanted her to stay. With him.
Why would she when she thought he wasn’t serious about her?
He needed time to persuade her. Prove to her he was worth the price she’d inevitably have to pay with long periods spent alone when he was away with work.
“You okay?” he asked Alex.
“Flesh wound.”
“He jumped in front of me when Grice shot at us,” Ashley said with annoyance.
“Didn’t want Lucas chewing out my ass if you were hurt.”
Ashley gave a soft huff of laughter. “I will kick your ass later. As will Mallory.”
“Where is he?” Shane wanted this guy so badly he could taste it.
“He ran towards his vehicle.”
That was way too close to Yael.
“Shit.” With a glance at Alex, he took off at a run. He had to make sure Yael was safe.
34
Yael had watched in horror as flames formed a wall behind Laura. Then the video feed died, no doubt killed by the fire, which melted the wires and fried the computer circuits.
Her earpiece let out a loud screech and she yanked it out of her ear. Damn. Either the fire had melted something important or EG had enabled some sort of device designed to block law enforcement communication.
“Dammit.”
What had happened? Shane had found Laura, but was she all right? Was Shane?
The thought of something happening to him made her want to scream. She’d seen EG in action before. She’d watched a member of HRT’s elite team die the last time they’d tried to apprehend the guy because they’d underestimated his hateful cunning.
The idea of losing Shane hit her with the force of a sledgehammer. She’d been so busy trying to protect herself from the danger of falling for him that she hadn’t realized it was already too late. She cared about him more than she’d cared about anyone in a very long time.
She should have told him. Who cared if he ran screaming in the other direction? At least that would be an honest reaction. At least she’d have been brave for once in her life.
Her computer was useless right now. The feed dead. There was nothing left for her to track. But Ethan Grice, the self-styled Evi1Geni-us, was nearby and he was probably pissed, and he was definitely dangerous. She remembered him firing the assault rifle at her a couple of nights ago. Unlike Alex’s SUV, this vehicle wasn’t bulletproof.
She glanced at the school, the scene of all her worst nightmares.
She didn’t want to ever feel as helpless as she had on that day fifteen years ago. She didn’t want to be a sitting duck, too scared to defend herself.
Her hand shook as she slipped it into the seat pocket and retrieved Shane’s parting gift. The weapon was heavy and lethal-looking. Gore rose up in her throat until she eased the sensation with another firm swallow and deep calming breath.
It was a tool. Nothing more.
She slipped the handgun into the waistband at the back of her jeans, feeling unnerved from the touch of the cool resin. She leaned forward and scooped the electronic key fob from the console so, even with the engine running, if anyone attempted to steal the car they wouldn’t get far. She opened the door and got a fierce face full of winter as she struggled against the blustery wind.
She locked the door behind her and stuffed the fob into her jeans pocket.
If EG escaped because of her inaction, she would never forgive herself. If he hurt any of her friends, especially the man she’d stupidly gone and fallen for, well, she couldn’t bear to think about it.
She ran to the corner of the building just in time to see the black-clad figure stumble out of the school doors. She plastered herself to the rough brick surface so he didn’t see her. He climbed into his SUV and drove about five feet before the Subaru wedged solidly in the snow.
She peeked and saw one of the tires was flat.
Yes!
She heard him curse as her heart pounded. She pressed herself against the building as he got out of the car. She grabbed the handgun and clutched it tightly. She couldn’t let him get away but the thought of pointing a gun at another human being, even one as depraved as this man…
She stepped out from the side of the building, gripping the heavy gun with both hands.
“Hold it right there!”
Ethan Grice looked up in surprise. “Well, well. Yael, or should I say, Yasmine? How does it feel to be back on the old stomping grounds? And with a gun? Tut tut.”
He held up his cell with one hand, obviously filming her. The assault rifle strap was hooked over his head and he had his finger on the trigger.
“Why are you still hiding behind a mask? The cops know who you are, Ethan Grice.”
He gave a sharp laugh. “You’re one to talk about masks. You’ve been hiding behind one for years.”
He took a step toward her.
She pointed the nose of the pistol right at him. “Don’t come any closer.”
“You won’t shoot me. Laura told me all about how much you hate guns before I came by to deliver my little housewarming gift.”
Yael’s hands shook.
He fired off a burst of bullets and Yael yelped and darted back behind the wall. She was about to run when the sound of raised voices had her freezing.
She peeked around the corner and Ethan had started to swing in the direction of three teenagers. What the hell they were doing here in a blizzard she had no clue. She yelled out, “Run away! Run away!”
She aimed at Grice’s legs and pulled on the trigger. It took an unbelievable amount of force as she frantically squeezed until finally the gun bucked in her hands.
“You fucking bitch!” he screamed.
Had she hit him?
The kids turned and ran around the side of the building. Hopefully they’d keep running all the way home like she had fifteen years ago. Fingers crossed they didn’t find what she’d found that day.
Ethan swung back to face her and started firing wildly. A piece of shattered brick sliced her cheek, narrowly missing her eye. She didn’t stop to worry about it.
She sprinted back toward the SUV, then realized that would make her an easy target.
She lunged for the doors where the others had entered the school earlier and dashed inside. Her footing was slippery from the snow and ice. She almost went down and, in the process, wrenched her knee.
Dammit. She staggered to her feet and turned right, hopping and running. “Shane! Alex! Ashley!”
She could hear Grice opening the door behind her and racing after her along the corridor. She couldn’t believe she was back here. She couldn’t believe she was once again fleeing a madman with a gun. At least this one didn’t share her DNA.
A sharp, hot pain lanced her side.
She fell and rolled onto her back, gripping the gun at her side. “You are such a loser, Ethan. We took your money and shut down your sick enterprise. Laura’s alive and we’ll track down everyone who ever donated to your auction and put them in jail right alongside you.”
His lip curled. “And you call me sick. You have no idea what they do to people in jail.” He dragged off his mask and tossed it aside. “You think I started off like this? I’m a product of the precious justice system so I’m thinking that maybe it doesn’t work quite the way it is supposed to.”
She watched his fingers start to tighten on the trigger of the rifle.
“I’m sorry for what happened to you,” Yael said quickly. “I’m assuming that’s why you killed Derek Vincent and Phillipa Laurant?”
He hesitated. She wanted him to put down his weapon. She wanted to live. She wanted Shane, she realized. Wanted him desperately.
“They both got what they deserved. She persuaded me a plea deal would be the best thing I could hope for. He—” Ethan Grice looked haunted as he swallowed loudly. “He got exactly what he deserved.”
“And the others? The innocents you murdered?” she asked.
His expression turned calculating then. “Everyone got exactly what they deserved. Just like you’re about to.”
“Grice!” Shane yelled down the corridor.
Ethan glanced over his shoulder and swung the rifle towards Shane who carried a naked and bleeding Laura over one shoulder.
No way could Yael let Ethan hurt either of them. The momentary distraction gave her time to aim the gun and pull the trigger, over and over again, five times. Tears filled her eyes and she didn’t know whether or not she’d hit him or if she was about to die. She closed her eyes against the reality of what was happening.
The noise and the stink of gunpowder brought everything roaring back into focus.
“Yael. It’s okay, honey.” Shane’s voice came from beside her which was good because that meant he wasn’t dead. He wasn’t dead.
Thank god.
She felt him gently removing the weapon from her rigid fingers. She let go with a massive feeling of relief.
She hated guns. She would always hate guns.
“You got him. He won’t hurt anyone else ever again.”
“Did I kill him?”
“Yeah. You got him.”
Emotions pummeled her like a tsunami, the most surprising of which was an immense feeling of sadness. Not necessarily that Ethan Grice was dead. He was evil and cared nothing for others. But for the fact she’d been forced to take his life, to commit violence in a place that had already seen so much suffering.
Shane started coughing. Smoke was filling the corridors.
The fire. She’d forgotten about the fire.
She could hear a siren in the distance now and she found herself trying hard to stay in the present.
“Laura? Is she alive?” Her mouth was so dry she could barely speak.
“She’s unconscious but alive. I don’t know if she’ll make it. She lost a lot of blood.”
That made her want to weep. Her dear, wonderful, vibrant friend. Shane took her hands in his and tried to tug her to her feet but the pain was so intense she cried out.
“Are you hit? Fuck.” Shane’s voice went from deep to high-pitched so fast she would have laughed if her entire side didn’t feel as if she was being stabbed over and over again with a very sharp blade.
She groaned in answer and found herself roughly rolled onto her front. The cold floor cooled her burning skin.
Shane started muttering more curses than Yael had heard in her lifetime. “Alex, Ashley. Yael’s been hit.”
“We need to get out of here. The whole place is going up,” Alex shouted.
“Let’s get to the SUV and try to keep them warm there,” Ashley suggested.
“Keys in my back pocket,” Yael croaked.
She felt him reach in and grab the keys, then move her clothes and press something warm firmly against her bare skin. She flinched. Her vision was getting spotty. She could feel the blood draining from her body and remembered how Lloyd Zenko had looked in the moments before he died.
The bullet was still inside her. She raised her one hand and edged Shane’s hair off his forehead.
“Sorry I dumped you. I was scared of falling for you. I didn’t want the heartbreak of being left behind. I should have trusted you. I’m not very brave.”
Shane hoisted her into his arms. Alex had Laura over his shoulder. “Not brave? What the fuck are you talking about? You’re brave as hell. I’m the one who’s scared of commitment.”
She wanted to laugh but her world was going dark. She felt herself moving through the air, passing through these old familiar hallways that still haunted her dreams. Wondering if this had always been her fate.
35
“Don’t you dare close your eyes,” Shane yelled at Yael.
She blinked. Once, twice. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth followed by a gasp as they hit the wall of snow and ice outside. Ashley opened the rear compartment and Alex laid Laura gently in the back and covered her with his coat. “She’s unconscious.”
Ashley dove into the front seat as Shane slipped in the rear with Yael, pushing her laptop onto the floor.
Alex clambered awkwardly into the cargo area and pulled the door closed. Ashley drove smoothly away searching for the nearest medics.
“Where’s Yael been hit?” asked Alex.
Shane laid her flat on the backseat as he knelt in the footwell. “Right side near her hip bone.”
He had no idea if the bullet had shattered inside her or not but there was no exit wound that he could see. He didn’t know whether to risk undoing her pants or if the tight jeans could be acting like a bandage. His first aid training could get him through a lot of things but it couldn’t fix a bullet wound while in the back of a moving vehicle without medical supplies.
“Yael. Hey. Open your eyes, sweetheart.”
She blinked them open again, those gorgeous dark velvet eyes of hers recognizing him through the pain.
He needed to keep her awake.
“You got him, Yael. You stopped that son of a bitch even though you had to conquer your own demons to do it. That is the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Her eyes narrowed in a mix of pain and disbelief but he was telling the truth.
“I am so amazed by you, by your strength.”
Her skin was clammy and pale and he was terrified because the last person he’d seen who’d looked like that had been Scotty, moments before he’d passed.
“Do you think I’ll have to stand trial again?” Her voice was reed thin.
“What? No.”
“He was starting to turn away from me to shoot at you.” She swallowed noisily. “Before that he was pointing the gun right at me.”
He couldn’t believe she’d been concerned about that and yet it wasn’t surprising considering what she’d been through in the past. “You killed him in self-defense. The guy wasn’t about to let anyone walk out of there alive. Not me, not you, not Laura. You nailed a serial killer and deserve a goddamned medal.”
Relief washed over her features and her eyes started to drift closed.
“Hey, stay with me, Yael.” He pressed his coat against her wound and she cried out making him die a little inside. “There are things I need to know.”
“Like what?” Yael blinked.
“Like what it feels like to ride pillion on Myrtle.”
“Sublime.” A small smile touched her lips.
Shane laughed even as his heart was being torn in two. He needed to keep Yael focused. He couldn’t let her slip away from him. “I know you’re still mad at me for being suspicious of you and snooping on your phone.”
“If it helps, I’m also mad at him,” Alex said, leaning over the back seat. His gaze told Shane he knew what he was trying to do. Keep her awake. Keep her alive. Alex glanced at Laura but there was little they could do. The only way they could save these two women was by getting them professional medical attention ASAP.
“Somewhere along the way I discovered I enjoy spending time with you. Watching your mind work, watching you type away at a thousand words a second…total turn on.”
Yael’s brows crinkled and he could tell she was being hit by a wave of pain. “You get aroused by touch typing?”
“Kill me now,” Ashley grouched from the driver’s seat but it was obvious she was trying to inject a little humor into a dire moment.
“And you’re wicked smart. Without you, the task force would still be sitting around in Virginia waiting for the next crime scene.” He cleared his throat. “I love your brain and badass computer skills and those sexy tattoos of yours.”
“Not the tattoos.” Ashley slapped her own forehead.
Shane spotted an ambulance coming their way and felt a collective sigh of relief go through the three of them.
“What I’m trying to say if the spectators would quiet down.” He sent them a mock quelling glance but didn’t miss the way Yael’s lips quirked at the corners. “I’m sorry for being less than honest at the outset, but I’d really like a chance to prove myself to you even though we all know I will never be truly worthy.”
Yael’s teeth started to chatter as Ashley lowered the window and flagged down the approaching ambulance. Shane hoped to hell Laura lived. But if anything happened to Yael he wasn’t sure he’d survive.
Her eyes started to drift again.
“So, what do you think, honey?” he said loudly, desperate to keep her attention here in the moment. “About giving me that second chance?”
Her beautiful eyes opened again, briefly, and she smiled. “I think I’d like that. I think I’d like that a lot.”
36
Two days later
Laura groaned in the bed beside hers. They were in a private room of a private hospital in Colorado Springs.
“Hey, you’re awake.” Yael tried to sit up and winced. “How are you feeling?”
The bullet that hit Yael had shattered when it struck her hip bone but luckily only into three pieces. The largest had lodged into her pelvis. One had damaged her glute muscles which made it painful to sit, the other had nicked the external iliac vein. A centimeter to the side and she’d have bled out before Shane could have carried her to the car.
“Like I might live,” Laura grumbled.
