Beg for Mercy (44 page)

“Who’s Sarah?” Dev asked in a shaky voice. “What are you going to do to my mom? You’re going to let her go, right?”

“Shhh, don’t worry about it,” he said, the gentleness in his voice creeping her out even more than when he was threatening her.

He put the gag back in place and went back over to her mom. The knife was in his right hand, the blade twisting back and forth as he flipped the handle between his fingers.

Oh God, oh God.

Nate grabbed her mother by her short blond hair and yanked her head back. She and her mother screamed behind their gags.

Nate froze and he turned back to Dev. She felt like her heart was going to explode through her chest.

He walked over to her and lifted her in his arms. She struggled and he squeezed her so hard she couldn’t breathe. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just taking you somewhere you won’t have to see.”

He carried her to her bedroom and placed her gently on the bed and even tucked a pillow under her head. “It will be over soon. I promise.”

Dev screamed and thrashed against her bonds as he shut the door behind him. She screamed until her throat was raw, but no one heard.

Her screams faded to sobs, and she prayed he wouldn’t torture her mother before he killed her.

They drove in silence to Dev’s trailer. Megan felt like the world was shifting, crumbling around her. Cole was silent, tension radiating from him. Several times he turned to her to say something, then stopped as though he couldn’t quite get the words out.

“Do you want me to go in with you?”

She shook her head. “You have stuff of your own to deal with.”

For some reason that seemed to make him angry.

She reached for the door handle. But before she could open the door, he grabbed her shoulders and pressed her back into her seat. “I wish with everything I have that I could wave a magic wand and get your brother out of prison. ng now that, right?” He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers. “I would do anything to go back and change everything so we could be together. Like we were supposed to be.”

Her breath caught at that, then hitched again as he cradled her cheeks in his hands and caught her mouth in a hard, almost desperate kiss. “I know.” But his words, his kiss, couldn’t erase the fact that her world was crumbling around her. God, what kind of deluded idiot was she to think she was going to single-handedly save Sean?

Now there wasn’t a damn thing either of them could do but wait for his execution. “Sometimes we have to know when to throw in the towel, right?” she said as she reached again for the door.

“Don’t say that. There’s still time. This isn’t over. You can’t give up yet,” Cole said fiercely.

“Sure,” she said as she opened the door. She knew
Cole was right, but she couldn’t see past the despair. How many times could she get up and fight after having her hopes smashed to the ground? “Call me if you find out anything new, and I’ll do the same.”

“We’re going to get through this,” he said as she started to climb out of the car. “Whatever happens, I’m with you, okay?”

She nodded and heard Cole’s whispered curse as she closed the door behind her.

She felt like she was imploding as she heard Cole drive away.
You can’t give up yet.
She knew that, knew she needed to focus, first on helping Dev through her latest crisis, then on finding the answers Sean needed before it was too late.

And yet with Talia’s disappearance and the police honing in on Jimmy as the Slasher, those answers had never felt more out of reach.

She swallowed back the devastation and forced herself up the steps to Dev’s trailer. She knocked, then tried the latch when there was no answer. “Dev, it’s me,” she said as the door swung open. “You shouldn’t leave the door unlocked….”

The smell was the first thing that hit her. Metallic blood and the stench of bodily fluids. She choked on a scream when she saw the crumpled form on the floor surrounded by a thick puddle of blood.

Adrenaline obliterated her exhaustion as fear roared through her.

“Devany!” she screamed, and ran forward to kneel next to the body. Blood soaked her jeans, and it took her several seconds to realize the small body was not Devany, but her mother. She sprang to her feet and called Devany’s
name, fumbling through her purse to find her cell phone. She stumbled down the hall, phone in hand and heard a thump coming from Dev’s bedroom.

She kicked the door open. “Oh, my God.” Dev’s hands and ankles were bound. “It’s going to be okay!” She pushed the 9 on her phone, and Dev started heaving and screaming on the bed.

Megan felt a whisper of movement behind her and turned.

“Nate?” she whispered, confusion morphing to fear when she saw the fry contorting his face.

He moved like a striking snake, wrapping a steely arm around her, his huge hand covering her mouth before she could even draw a breath to scream. Megan struggled with everything she had but was no match for his strength and size.

“I thought you were going to be the one to save me, Megan.”

Terror snaked down her spine as she recognized that throaty whisper from the hotel room, the feel of strong fingers crushing her throat. “But you’re a whore, just like them. Now you’re going to find out what happens when you betray me.”

She could hear Dev’s terrified screams behind the gag, could see the tears spill from the girl’s eyes as she struggled, helpless, against the bonds. Nate’s grip grew tighter. An unbearable pressure built behind Megan’s eyes, and her head filled with a red, roaring haze.

Cole stopped at a light and slammed his fist against the steering wheel. He felt like he’d just taken a slug to the chest from a sawed-off shotgun.

Jesus, he wished she’d yelled at him, raged at him for leaving her to report to duty instead of helping her finish this.

Anything would be easier to take than that desolate look in her eyes. That hollow, empty look that happened only after a person had lost all hope.

He’d seen it last night in Sean’s eyes. He’d never imagined he’d see it in Megan’s. It didn’t seem possible that she could lose faith so completely, not after she’d fought so hard for so long.

And it was his fault, even if she didn’t say it. Cole knew it. His fault for not being able to do enough, for stupidly following his instincts and trusting that Talia would show up as promised and do the right thing.

What the fuck was he doing, heading back to the station as if he was going to pull his career out of the crapper?

Like he really cared anyway.

He didn’t, he realized with shock. He didn’t give a shit about anything except making things right with Megan, doing whatever he could to wipe that devastated look from her face and get her back to where she’d been just last night.

Happy. Hopeful.

Counting on
him
to help her make this right.

Even if he hadn’t been in love with Megan, he would have been compelled to do something before it was too late. Slater was right. Something about Sean’s case was starting to stink, and Cole couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t find out what.

He started to pull a U-turn, then stopped himself. It was better to go look for Talia by himself. Who knew what he would find, who he would encounter? He’d feel
better knowing Megan was safe while he was out chasing down the bad guys.

He tried calling Talia and Jack again, with no luck. In a last-ditch effort, he called Jack’s friend who ran the security firm in California. As planned, Danny Taggart and his brother had picked up Rosario last night at the airport, but Danny hadn’t heard from Jack since then.

Where the hell were they? He could see Talia getting cold feet and running, but he’d trusted Jack to keep her on a short leash. It didn’t seem likely Talia could get the drop on him, not without help anyway.

Then again, she and Brooks could have hightailed it out of here as soon as they got Talia’s sister on the plane last night.

He pulled up to Talia’s house and gave her front door a cursory knock before slipping around the house and gaining entrance through an unlocked window. Something wasn’t right; he could feel it the second his feet touched the floor.

His suspicions were confirmed with a quick inspection of the empty house. Talia’s purse, containing her cell phone and her wallet, were on the dresser in her bedroom. In the living room, the coffee table had been kicked over, and the couch looked like it had been through a tornado.

Cole checked the garage. Talia’s car was still there. Jack’s was nowhere in sight. He pulled out his phone and dialed Petersen.

“Cole, you need to get your ass in here,” Petersen said. “Chin is on the warpath—”

“I’m not coming in. I need you to put out an APB on a vehicle for me.” He quickly rattled off Jack’s information.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t have time to go into detail, but I believe Talia Vega and Jack Brooks may have been kidnapped, and they could have been taken in Jack’s car—”

“Cole, we have other priorities right now. The Slasher is in custody, and you need to get down here—”

Cole was outside, sprinting to his car. “That’s the thing—I don’t think Jimmy Caparulo is your guy.”

He climbed in the Jeep and took off for Talia’s house. By the time he arrived, the storm was overwhelming the drains, and Talia’s street was beginning to flood. He carefully guided his Jeep through the rising waters.” “What time did you arrest him yesterday?”

“Around ten-thirty. What you mean you don’t think he’s our guy? You haven’t seen the evidence.”

“What was he doing before ten-thirty?” If Jimmy really was the Slasher, he may have had time to take out Talia and Jack. It wasn’t likely, but Jimmy was tough, former Special Forces. It was possible he could have gotten the jump on Jack and snatched Talia.

“Come down here and ask him yourself,” Petersen snapped. “I’m serious, Cole. I will kick your ass if I have to find another partner.”

Cole hung up. Petersen was right—if he really wanted to figure out Jimmy Caparulo, he needed to talk to the man himself. But if he went to the station, he’d never get out of there. Talking to Jimmy wasn’t an option.

He swore. He didn’t like this feeling of flailing around in the dark. All his cases were puzzles, but this one felt like it was missing too many pieces to ever come together.
He drove, listening to the rhythmic
thwap
of the windshield wipers.

He called up Jimmy’s address on his phone. It was a long shot, but under the circumstances, it was the only move he could come up with.