Damon (19 page)

“I’ll ride with him.
I can tell you
this, it’s going to be messy.
First tho
ught is blunt force trauma.
Dane can come in, but I’d
keep her out of the bathroom.
The
kid must have crapped himself.
I’ll get back to y
ou as soon as I get something.
And don’t think I’ve forgotten about this thing with the coroner.”

His phone was ringing as he stepped into the wagon. Frowning, he answered it, wondering what Jamie would be calling for at four in the morning. As soon as he thought it, he realized that something had happened to Charlie or Connor.

“She’s gone.
She fucking left after I to
ld her we would protect her.
I went to her room to check on her and the d
ress she had on is on the bed.
I even went down to your room to see if she was the
re, maybe sleeping in your bed.
I just checked. Connor is
bundled up in the bed asleep.
Damn it, Damon, I all but told her that we had her back and that she’d be stupid to run.”

He rested his forehead on the top o
f the car and closed his eyes.
He wasn’t really sur
prised, hurt but not surprised.
She’d left Connor behind and Damon knew that she would have told him she was leaving.

“Let me talk to Co
nnor. He might know something. It’s not your fault.
She had it in her head to run as soon as she rea
lized that this man was close.
I can’t believe she left Connor and that he let her.”

It took two minutes for Jamie to come back to the phone and another couple minutes before Damon
could get what he was saying. Connor was gone too.
He’d put his pillows in the
bed to hide that he was gone. But he left Damon a note.
Jamie asked if Damon wanted him to read it.

“Yes, hurry. Stupid woman.
I’m g
oing to beat her ass for this.
Taking a kid out when she knows fucking well that tha
t man is out to get them both.
What the hell was she thinking?”

“She didn’t. Take him, I mean.
Listen to his—‘Damon, Momma left me with you
, but I can’t leave her alone.
That man is afte
r her and I gotta protect her.
Momma
said she loves you and so do I.
I’ll p
ay you all back like you said. Connor J. Kirkpatrick.’
When you get this kid back, I’m going to give him a hug then beat
his ass.
Do these people have no concept of what this man could do to them if he finds them?”

Damon thought they probably had a
better idea than any of them.
He closed his eyes against the p
ain of losing the two of them. He had to find them.
He had to make sure they would never feel the need to run away again.

~CHAPTER 1
5
~

Dane walked into the room and was assaulted with the emotions of every person t
hat had ever been in the room.
Love, hurt, anger, sex,
and lust—the list was endless.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on one thing at a time, trying to narrow it down to the
one person she had met before.
She was just getting a handle on him when she felt Cait enter the room behind her.

“Let me know what you get, Dane, and I’ll write it down
. T
he o
thers are all out of the room.
I’ve got them looking around the building for a weapon or whatever h
e might have used to kill Tim.
Damon said not to go into the bathroom
. H
e thinks the smell might be too much for you.”

Dane nodded.
She didn’t try to have a conversation when
she was searching for someone.
It took too much energy and she didn’t want to try to fo
cus on too many things at once.
She walked over to the blood stain on the floor
and kneeled down to touch it.
Cait stopped her before she did.

“That hasn’t been cleared yet
. I
don’t know what the vic had in way of diseases and if you catch something, even a cold from
this, Jamie will have my hide.
Make sure that if you have to touch it, you don’t have any cuts on you, and that you let the EMTs clean you up after you’re done.”

Dane c
hecked her fingers everywhere.
She didn’t think she had any cuts or open wounds on her hands, but she didn’t want to take the chance either
. B
ecause she knew that once Jamie finished with Cait, he’d start on her
. S
he smiled at the thought of Jamie when he got all protective
. H
e was very laid back on everythin
g except for her getting hurt.
She touched the blood with her index finger.

Terror, terror like nothing she’d felt for a very long time hit her and nearly knocked her back on her ass
. S
he had to grip the bed hard to keep upright
. O
nce she got that feeling under control, she could sort through the other emotions.

“Tim is terrified
. H
e’s also…he’s also confused and a little angry
. I
t’s a belt
. H
eavy, and the buckle hurts as it hits me
. I
can feel the hook tearing at my skin, pulling it with every one of the hits
. P
ain radiates from my face. I don’t want to be marred
. M
om. She’s going to be so disappointed about the floor
. T
he carpets have just been replaced in here. Television is broken
. W
indow
. I
wonder if I can make it to the window to get away
. I
know I’m going to die
. D
eath is welcome from the pain, so much pain.” 

Dane sat there for a minute
. S
he knew that Cait was writing things down; the scrape of the pen across the paper was loud in the room
. D
ane spread her hand over the bed to stand, and felt the other man.

“Anthony laid here
. C
hrist, Charlie! Oh God!
He’s going to kill her
. I
t’s all that bitch’s fault that he can’t get an erection when he’s around her
. I
should have fucked her from the beginning
. I
can’t…pain, I love the pain and the power
. N
o one can defeat me, I’m the only one who…fat fuck, I’m not a homo, not a homo, not a homo.”

Dane woke to Cait screaming at her
. I
t took Dane a few moments to realize that Cait was saying something and then when Dane did, it still made little sense
. S
itting up off the floor, she put her head in her hands and raised her hand to stop the flow of words directed at her.

“Dane, you do that to me again and I sw
ear to Christ I will kill you.
You scared the living shit out of me
. I
’ve never actually seen a woman swoon before, and I hope to all that’s holy that I never do again
. Y
our fucking eyes actually rolled to the back of your head
. A
re you all right?”

Dane laughed
. I
t was all she could do
. B
ig bad Caitlynne O’Malley Grant, big time detective and killer of scum, sounded like a little girl who had just seen her first scary movie
. S
he couldn’t wait to tell Jamie.

“Yes
. S
ort of
. O
kay, not really.”
Dane sat there for a few more minutes before she felt she could ta
lk again.
“Anthony is a homosexual, but he refuses to admit it
. H
e brings women into his home hoping that one of them will give him what he feels is the right chemistry so that he’ll no longer feel anything toward men
. T
he pain and the violence aren’t new to him
. M
y mother…his mother beat him nearly every day of his young life just because she felt that at some point during the day he’d done something that warranted it and she didn’t want him to think he got away with anything.”

“You did that before
. B
efore, when you were in the trance thingy
. Y
ou referred to what you were feeling as if it was you
. I
s that normal?
It took me a few seconds to realize that you weren’t talking to me.”

“Yes
. I
f the emotion is really strong, it’s as if I’m the person
. T
im was dying and he knew it
. T
he pain was real and it’s fresh in his blood so it was easy to feel for him. That’
s what I can do as an empath.
Anthony is insane
. I
don’t mean that in a flippant way. He really is insane
. H
e has emotional problems because of his upbringing, but he had a place in his mind that’s dark
. A
lmost too dark for me to want to enter
. I
would say that he’s been killing for a very long time, probably since he was an adolescent. There were small and then larger animals in his place, the memories
. H
e is blaming everything on Charlie and Connor right now. He’s dangerou
s in every sense of the word.”

Dane watched Cait process the information
. S
he could almost see her filing things away, putting things in order for her mind to go over
. I
t was like watching a computer processor and how it would retrieve the facts before moving on
. D
ane wondered if Cait knew she did it.

“Anthony killed Tim, that much we’re sure of
. H
e also blames Charlie and Connor for his fucked up life right now
. O
h, he lost his job
. H
e told them that he was coming out here to get his wife and son and someone pointed out that he wasn’t married, never had been
. W
e think he’s done this before
. N
ow I have to figure out a way to convey this information to the people in Illinois so that they’ll know to look for others
. A
ny suggestions?”

Dane looked around the room
. B
lood was everywhere, walls, bed, carpet and dresser
. S
he figured that if he was this violent with a stranger, what would he do to someone who lived with him until he found them
unworthy?
There would have to be lots more blood somewhere.

“Do you k
now what kind of house he has? What kind of property?
He’d have to ha
ve a lot of room, wouldn’t he?
Somewhere the neighbors wouldn’t be able to hear
. I
can give you a couple of names that were running around in his head
. T
here was an Alexandra and a Margo or Argo.”

“Without last names, I don’t think
we’d have much luck…hang on.”
Cait opened her cell phone when it rang and Dane could tell right away that something had happened
. D
ane could hear a male voice, probably Damon, yelling on the other end
. W
hen she hung up, she looked pissed.

“Charlie left your house
. A
nd Connor is missing too
. H
e left a note for Damon. It said that he loved them all very much, but he couldn’t be without his momma
. T
hat she wouldn’t be safe without him
. D
amn it
. I
can’t keep them safe if I don’t know where they are.”

Dane couldn’t agree more
. B
ut she could maybe find Charlie
. S
ometimes when someone was close to her, she couldn’t read anything about them
. D
ane hadn’t been able to read Pi for years
. M
oving to the door with Cait, she thought of something else.

“Anthony won’t be satisfied with just Charlie
. H
e needs Connor too
. H
e needs to kill them both now
. I
f he finds Connor first, he’ll hold off until he has Charlie, and vise versa, I think.”