Lisa Jackson's Bentz & Montoya Bundle: Hot Blooded, Cold Blooded, Shiver, Absolute Fear, Lost Souls, Malice, & an Exclusive Extended Excerpt From Devious (178 page)

Pointed straight at her heart.

He was coughing. Tears streamed from his handsome face, but he didn’t seem to mind. He grabbed hold of her arm and forced her down the stairs, the gun pressed into her back.

She thought he was taking her to the third floor, but he pushed her farther and farther down the stairs, through the foyer on the first floor, past the dining room, and into a horrible place that was once the kitchen. Near the back door, he prodded her around the corner, where he yanked open a door to the basement.

Her heart sank, and she nearly stumbled on the stairs and half fell into a long hallway. Kerosene lamps had already been lit along the tiled corridor. They passed by darkened rooms that looked more like cells, and Kristi’s imagination ran wild as she thought of the patients who had been isolated here, below ground.

“Stop,” he said and nudged her into a room where a lantern burned and ancient tools and equipment hung from hooks screwed into the molding tile. She spied an electrical prod, a straitjacket, and a tray of time-dulled surgical instruments. Lights protruded from the ceiling, and she imagined the room had been one where surgical procedures had been performed. Her stomach churned.

A. J. plucked a grimy straitjacket from the wall. While pointing the gun at her head, he held the jacket out to her with his other hand and said, “Slip your arms through.”

“No.” She shook her head, her skin crawling at the thought. “I can’t.”

“Do it, Kristi, or I promise you, I’ll shoot you. Not in the heart to begin with. I’ll start with your femur, shatter the bone. Then I’ll shoot you in the hand.” He smiled through his tears and running nose. “Consider yourself lucky. That’s as sadistic as I get. If you would have run into my buddy, Ronnie Le Mars, he would have brought his knife. Done exactly what I told him to do. He thought I was God, did you know that? I had to look long and hard to find someone with ties to the hospital, someone who remembered Eve, someone who was psycho enough to play into my hands. And along came Ronnie. Released from prison. Someone I knew about from my mother who worked in the laundry at Our Lady of Virtues. I kept track of him, because he was perfect, and when he was released, everything I worked for could happen.” His eyes, still red and glistening with tears, actually gleamed, and he smirked with satisfaction. “But you won’t have to worry about Ronnie or his weapon of choice, because I put him out of his self-inflicted misery.” His face suddenly hardened again and he sniffed loudly. “I won’t hesitate to put you out of yours, so do as I say. Got it?”

Ronnie Le Mars was dead? Killed by A. J.? Stunned, she had to keep trying to make sense of this, find a way to best him. Desperate, she tried another tack. “I thought you were my friend.”

“Brother, Kristi, get it right,” he said, angrier than ever, his nose still running. “No, we were never friends. You were using me, that was all, and I saw through it from the beginning. But it worked for me, so I went with it.”

“And used me,” she said.

“Yeah, how’s that for irony?” He shook the straitjacket. “Put this damned thing on. Now!”

She didn’t move fast enough, so he took the gun and fired it point blank at the wall.

BLAM!

The shot cracked in her eardrums and split the tile.

“Watch out! The bullet could ricochet!” she yelled, jumping backward. He caught her with the hand holding the gun, wrapping one strong arm around her and forcing the sleeve of the straitjacket on her with his other hand.

She started to struggle until the gun barrel pointed at her, cool against her cheek. He was a cold-blooded killer. She believed that.

Once her arms were inside the sleeves, he set down the gun and tightened the straps, forcing her to hug herself, rendering her hands and legs useless. Dear God, what did he plan for her? She felt helpless and knew if she didn’t do something, she would die.

But your legs are still free…. Don’t give up. Remember. Never give up.

Crack!

A gun blasted.

Eve screamed. Sweet Jesus, what was happening? She shuddered to think.

She could only assume the monster had murdered someone. Possibly someone she knew.

Her stomach quivered and her head pounded. Trembling, she tried to somehow hold onto her thoughts.
Think, Eve, think! Save yourself. Before he kills again!

One. Two. Three…

She had no idea why he hadn’t killed her yet, but she knew that it was only a matter of time, probably minutes rather than hours, until he’d end her life as well.

Unless she did something…took action.

Heart racing, she tried to swallow back her dread and think.

Four. Five…

She’d heard two sets of footsteps walk down the stairs. Whoever had been hiding in the attic had been caught. And killed. Holy Mother Mary, she couldn’t imagine who would have been in the garret or why. One of the nuns? Someone hiding, seeking shelter, a homeless person? Or someone she knew?

But now, she was certain, it was her turn.

Dear God, help me…. Please, please, help me!

Pull yourself together, Eve. You’re not dead yet!

Six. Seven. Eight…

Slowly her limbs began to tingle and ache. She could flex her fingers, straighten her toes…. She gritted her teeth, forced her arms and legs to drag her. Slowly. Inching. Her muscles rebelled, not listening to her brain.
Come on, come on! You can do this! You have to!

With supreme effort, she started to move. Muscles straining, screaming in protest, she pushed herself ever so slowly across the grimy, dusty, blood-stained floor. Closer and closer. Toward the fireplace where she’d seen the glittering piece of glass.

Let me get there, please…. Please…

Her hand closed around the sharp-edged fragment.

CHAPTER 36

C
ole parked at the front of the hospital, pulled out a pair of bolt cutters from his toolbox, and went to work on the chain that held the wrought iron gates together. Rain poured down his neck and the wind slapped at him as he worked.

“Come on, come on, you bastard,” he said, his jaw set, his shoulders and arms pushing, straining. “Come on!”

Crack!

He heard the muffled report of a gun and then, faintly, a woman’s scream.

Eve!

Adrenaline fired his blood.

Don’t go there!

He couldn’t think that she’d been shot. Wouldn’t. He pressed hard again, his arms shaking, and the metal link snapped. The chain gave way, slithering like a dying snake to the ground. Cole shoved hard on the gates, and, with a horrific groan, they opened. In an instant he was through and running up the drive.

He couldn’t lose Eve.

Wouldn’t!

Oh, God!

Once before he’d seen her lying in a pool of blood, a gunshot wound at her temple. But not this time. Oh God, not this time!

The monster returned.

Holding a flashlight in one hand, he pointed a gun at Eve and grabbed her by the shoulder she’d injured earlier. “Come on, let’s go. You should be able to walk now.” He yanked her to her feet, and pain screamed down her arm. Still, she held on to the shard of glass, hoping beyond hope that he wouldn’t notice her fist was clenched. Dozens of questions raced through her mind, but she asked none, instead pretending to be duller than she was, a zombie.

Face red, eyes gleaming with evil malice, he was sniffing, snorting, and coughing as he prodded her with the gun to the stairs.

“Move it!” he yelled.

Her legs were still unsteady, and she had to catch herself on the railing, cutting her hand in the process. Still, in the darkness, blinking as if he’d been crying, he didn’t notice, not even when blood began to drizzle down her fingertips and onto the stairs.

Give me strength, oh, Lord, please, give me strength.

Down to the first floor and then around the corner and through the kitchen to the basement steps where he unlocked the door. She cringed inside, her blood running cold as death. Oh, how she hated dark, dank places. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as he pushed her down the creaking, filthy steps.

Don’t let your fears get to you….

One, two…

With the gun at her kidneys, he locked the door behind him. His flashlight aimed over her shoulders, illuminating the cobwebs and filth as he shepherded her to the basement. Quivering, her skin pimpling in fear, she walked along a long corridor lit by kerosene lanterns, their golden light glowing, dark smoke curling to the low ceilings and the smudged tile walls.

Eve could barely breathe. Her heart thundered in her ears and the glass cut her hand, but still she stumbled forward past rooms where unspeakable operations had taken place. If she listened, she thought she could hear the desperate, raw whispers of ghostly patients.

She swallowed hard, closing her mind to the horrors that had occurred here. “Stop,” he ordered halfway down the shadowy corridor, and she froze.

He unlocked a door and as it creaked open, he nudged her inside with the nose of his gun. But he didn’t lock the door, she noticed, as the lock was only on the outside, in the hallway, used to keep people inside.

Another woman was waiting, standing, wearing a filthy straitjacket where a single lantern illuminated the room.

“Isn’t this cozy,” the maniac said, sounding pleased with himself over the drip of rusting, ancient pipes. “I assume you two have met…. No? Oh, that’s right. Kristi, meet your half sister, Eve. And Eve, have we met? Do you know who I am?”

She didn’t respond.

“Oh, come on, now, Sis,” he said, obviously enjoying her confusion. “Tell her, Kristi.” Then before the girl could say a thing, he added, “I’m A. J. Tennet, actually Adam Tennet. Get it? Adam and Eve? Like some kind of great cosmic joke, the gods, or really your father played on us.”

In the semi-dark she stared into eyes that were as cruel and cold as they were like her own.

Her twin! The brother she hadn’t known existed!

“That’s right. You’ve got it. We came into the world, right here, in this hospital. Together. Trouble was, Dr. Renner adopted you, and he tossed me out in the garbage, handed me over to a couple who didn’t give a crap about me, especially once they suddenly got fertile and had kids of their own. So you were the lucky one, weren’t you, princess?”

He was psychotic. No telling what he planned to do, but no doubt it was demented and evil. Death lurked around the corner.
Don’t give up. Fight him! He thinks he has the advantage.
Her fingers tightened over the shard of glass.

He reached for another straitjacket, but as he pulled it down it fell apart in his hands, the ancient cloth disintegrating. “Fuck!” he said. Then, to Eve and Kristi, “Sit the fuck down!”

He’s unraveling, right before my eyes, like the straight jacket. If things don’t go exactly as he plans, he falls apart….

Both women slid slowly to the floor.

He wasn’t through raving, and though Kristi tried to meet Eve’s eyes, Eve stared straight at this abomination who was her twin.

“Yeah, my mother, Lara Tennet, she was a piece of work. A real sweetheart. She taught me everything I know about women.” He said it with disgust as if it brought a bad taste to his mouth. “Whoring cunt. If you knew what she did to me. Her own damned son.” He was furious now and something more…. Beneath the anger there was another emotion visible…Self-loathing?

“And you, Eve,” he snarled. “The princess. Good old Mom told me all about you. Couldn’t give it up. She was fascinated.” He came closer then, bending down, staring at her with a lust and envy that scared her to her soul.

Pretend. Act like you’re not with him. Maybe he will let his guard down.

“You don’t know how many times I heard about you. I’d love to fuck the hell out of you. But I don’t think that’s possible and besides….” He was shaking now, his gun trembling in his hands.

Oh God, it could go off at any second!

“I–I don’ unnerstand,” she said, as if she were still more woozy than she felt. She wanted to keep him talking, hoping that he would slip up, his attention diverted, if only for a split second. Then she’d attack.

“Of course you don’t,” he said, nibbling a fingernail. “You didn’t have to join the army to get away from your mother, did you? You didn’t have to depend on the government to buy your education for you. You didn’t have to fudge on your application and hope to hell that it would get through. You didn’t sweat that the police wouldn’t accept you into their ranks.” He tore off a nail in his teeth and sank to the floor, his gun still trained on her. “I’ve been planning this a long time, you know, but I had to wait until the time was right, until Ronnie got out of prison.” Adam grinned then and whispered in a raspy voice, “Heeee’s freeee…”

Eve’s skin crawled, and he saw the reaction.

“Oh, I know you thought I was talking about Cole Dennis…. Nope. It was Ronnie. I needed someone who would do my dirty work, and who better than nutcase Ronnie? You may not know this, but he had a real hard-on for you, Eve. Um-hmmm. Planned to fuck the hell out of you and then kill you. You won’t have to worry about that now.” He leered at her as if he imagined what it would be like to rape her, but something held him back, something ridiculously tied to sanity. “Ronnie thought we were doing God’s will.”

“How do you know that?” Kristi demanded.

“Because I’m God,” Adam said, still staring at Eve. “The Voice, I think he called me. I had it wired so that I could talk to him at night, tell him what I wanted him to do. He heard other voices as well, whispery conversations that made him think he was insane. It was sick how he begged and prayed for me to come to him. He was the Reviver, that’s the name I gave him. Told him he would be deified and because I’d planted the seed, another gift from Mom and her sick palindromes, he was convinced that he was doing God’s work, God who thought backward and forward. ‘Reviver’ is a word that goes both ways, same with ‘deified’ and ‘Eve,’” he said, looking straight at her. “And the numbers tattooed onto the victims? Room numbers from the hospital. Even Sister Viv stayed here.”

Eve swallowed hard. He was sicker than she imagined.

Kristi said, “You told him who you wanted killed?”

“Yeah, and as I said, I worked palindromes into the equation and that started with Mom, too. Ronnie saw her tattoo Faith’s head with ‘live’ all those years ago. She knew Faith had been screwing around, and so she upped Faith’s meds, made her woozy and tattooed her. ‘Live,’ but really ‘evil.’ And then, on top of it all, Mom and Dad adopted me, all under the table. She told me this, you know, right before she overdosed on her own meds, poor woman. That’s why I had to steal all the files that were hidden here, in the attic, so you wouldn’t guess Mom’s death was connected to Our Lady of Virtues.”

He grinned as she realized he’d started the killing with his own mother.

He’s proud of himself. Bragging,
Eve realized, sick at his story and filled with a colder fear. He’d accomplished whatever it was he thought was his mission, so now he had no goal, no reason to live, no reason to keep either Kristi or her alive.

The hand holding the gun was more relaxed, but he still gnawed on the fingernails of the other hand, nervously chewing. He was volatile, liable to snap at any minute.

“Don’t you want to know how you ended up with two sets of sperm in your vagina, Eve?” he asked, and she forced herself to roll her eyes at him, her head lolling. “That was my idea. Ronnie actually did the honors. He had no problem getting off on you.”

She nearly threw up at the thought of the maniac with the needle.

Sensing her revulsion, he grinned. “Don’t fret, princess. The Reviver didn’t touch you. I did the lab work myself, added his sperm to the rape kit.” His watering eyes gleamed as he leaned close, adding, “So they’d all know you’re a whore, just like our mother.”

She fought the urge to attack, to leap across the room and pummel him with her fists and slice his face with her measly weapon. But it was no match for a gun. She glanced at Kristi, who was watching his every movement. If only she could convey her thoughts to Kristi.

Not yet.…Wait…. He’s letting down his guard. Maybe we can some how get the upper hand and if not kill him, lock him inside his own prison!

“So you see, sisters, I think we should all go out in a blaze of glory. As much as I’d love to fuck you both, we don’t have time, and that would be the ultimate sin, wouldn’t it? In another lifetime,” he whispered, and Eve felt as if the grim reaper had just slid his fingertips down her spine.

Adam glanced over at Kristi. “You know, you weren’t a part of this until you came snooping. I really was going to let you write your damned book, but once you tried to call the cops on me, well, I figured you deserve the same fate as the princess. Especially since you called in the cavalry. So…we all die. Become martyrs. We, the illicit spawn of Father James. Fitting, don’t you think? Listen…”

He cocked a head as if to focus on sounds, and Eve heard it then, the sound of footsteps, running overhead.

Where was she?

Oh God, where was she?

Heart pounding, pulse thundering, his hand bleeding from the window he’d broken to get in, Cole raced through the old hallways and stairs of the hospital. Up, up, up to the attic. Surely that’s where the son of a bitch would take them. To Eve’s retreat as a child, where the doll and Sister Vivian had been found. Frantic, he eased around the chimney, his heart in his throat, his gut churning.

Eve! Hang on, darlin’! I’m coming. Oh please, please hang on!

Around the corner and into the attic, a desolate garret where the rain pounded on the roof and the interior was still as death.

Where are you, you bastard?
Cole thought, frantic as his gaze scraped the deep umbra and every cranny.
Where!

His mouth dry as the Sahara, he stepped across the floorboards and heard the rush of the wind and scream of sirens.

No one leapt at him.

No one shouted.

He didn’t stumble over any bodies.

No one was here…. So where, damn it, where in God’s name was she?

Back down the stairs and, quickly, silently, searching every room. His heart hammered and fear tore through him as he ran, feeling every second of Eve’s life tick away as if it were her last.

Montoya stood on the brakes, and the Crown Vic screeched to a stop right beside Cole Dennis’s Jeep and the worried form of Sister Odine, who was huddled under an umbrella. Rain pelted from the sky, dark and ominous as a curse.

“I just got here,” she said, eyeing the Jeep as the officers sprang from their vehicle. “I have no idea who this belongs to or who opened the gates.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Bentz said, eyeing the bolt cutters and clipped chain. “You’ve got the keys to the building?”

“Yes.” She singled out one key and handed the ring to him then saw the blood covering his shirt. “Oh, my.”

“Not mine,” he assured her, snagging the key ring.

“Thanks. Now, please, Sister, go back to the convent and stay there. I’ve called for backup, but please leave. Now.”

“God be with you,” she whispered then made the sign of the cross. Holding her umbrella against the wind, her skirts billowing, she started back to the convent just as sirens screamed from a distance.

Bentz didn’t wait. Weapon drawn, he ran up the cracked, wet driveway and heard Montoya’s footsteps as the younger cop kept pace. Past the overgrown lawn and empty fountain, through the sheeting rain, they raced toward the behemoth of a hospital that rose sinister and dark, a malevolent brick beast where only evil resided.

Bentz’s heart nearly froze.

Kristi was inside.

In the attic.

And not alone.

With the killer!

God help her,
he thought, reaching the doors and jamming the key into the lock. His fingers were wet and the metal was slick, but the latch gave way. With a groan, the huge doors swung open.