Lisa Jackson's Bentz & Montoya Bundle: Hot Blooded, Cold Blooded, Shiver, Absolute Fear, Lost Souls, Malice, & an Exclusive Extended Excerpt From Devious (179 page)

“Hear that? Didn’t I tell you? We have company,” Adam said as the sound of footsteps echoed from above. “Time to end it.” He was agitated. Edgy.

He glanced toward the ceiling as he stood up, and in that instant Eve nodded sharply at Kristi then sprang, her arm raised high, the piece of glass cutting into her palm.

She struck.

Hard.

Blood spurted from his neck.

Rained on her.

Adam bellowed, shocked. Twirling, he fired. The gunshot echoed like thunder in the small room, a bullet zinging past her head.

Kristi rolled, using her entire body to whip his legs out from under him. A. J. fell hard, landing on his back. He shot again, wildly.

Hot pain sizzled through Eve’s thigh.

Kristi kicked hard, landing a blow to the side of his face.

He screamed. Rage and agony reverberated through the room. Footsteps thundered on the stairs.

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

He bobbled the gun, but somehow held on, blood streaming down his neck and staining his shirt. His eyes were wild, his rage palpable. He turned the muzzle on Kristi.

“Bitch!”

Kristi kicked again, trying to knock the weapon from his hand and knocked over the lantern. Kerosene and fire crawled across the room.

Blam!

The pistol went off again, the noise like thunder.

Kristi crumpled.

Voices shouted from outside in the hallway.

“NO!”
Eve screamed, staring in shock as she realized the bastard had killed her sister. The sister she’d never gotten to know. Eve whirled on him, her gaze locked with his as flames began to spread. “You bastard!”

“Like you,” he gasped, winded from the blow, but still hanging onto his weapon. “Like you, princess!”

Someone pounded on the door. “Police, open up!”

Slowly, deliberately, unafraid, he raised the gun again. Staring down the barrel, Eve knew this was what he’d planned all along. In the puddled kerosene, fire crackled around them.

“You and me, Eve. We came into the world and we go out together!”

“Open the damn door! Now!” Bentz’s shouted urgently.

Crack!

Wood splintered. The door to the cell burst open the same moment the gunshot echoed.

Bentz fired.

Point blank.

A second later he rushed into the room, Montoya on his heels, Cole a step behind. In time to see the killer slump over and drop his gun.

“Get them out of here. Shit! Fire! For Christ’s sake, get extinguishers! There’s a fire here, damn it!” Montoya yelled. “Jesus Christ! It’s Tennet!”

Eve nearly fainted.

But Cole was suddenly beside her, pulling her into his arms, kissing her hair, cradling her protectively. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said, holding her as if he’d never let go. “I thought…Oh God.”

Tears sprang to her eyes and she broke down, clinging to him as EMTs and cops streamed into the small room. “I love you,” she sobbed against his ear. “Damn it, Cole Dennis, I love you.”

“Move it…Sir, please,” an EMT said. “I need to get in here!”

“Over here! She’s bleeding out!” another voice said. “Call Life Flight. Where the hell is the fire department!”

“Life Flight? Wait,” Rick Bentz said at Kristi’s side. “This is my daughter! She’s going to be all right!”

“Move, sir. Get out!”

“But she has to be all right,” Bentz insisted. “Kristi!”

“Out of the way, Detective.” The EMT was all business. “And get the damned chopper!”

Hours later, Olivia met Bentz at the hospital. “Oh God, Rick,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

He crushed his wife to him, drank in the smell of her and wanted to break down and bawl like a baby. “She’ll be okay,” he said and realized it was his mantra, that if he said it over and over long enough, he’d believe it.

Kristi had been in surgery for three hours…and he hadn’t heard word one. He didn’t know the extent of her injuries, just understood that it was bad. Real bad.

Images of her life floated through his brain, and he couldn’t even consider what his life would be without her. They’d been through so much together, good times and bad. Sometimes it had been them against the world, other times it had been them against each other.

He knew now that Adam Tennet had been hired by the department and never should have been. That the guy had sailed through all the tests given him and somehow made it in, literally falling through the cracks in the system to gain employment with Bonita Washington’s crime scientists. He was a whiz kid who had fooled everyone. He’d been with the department less than a year and had managed to set his sick, twisted plan into motion.

Was it over now? All the sickness that had come out of Our Lady of Virtues Hospital? Was it truly and finally over?

Only if Kristi survives, because if she doesn’t this will be your curse for the rest of your life.

He squeezed Olivia hard and fought the tears as he twined his hands in his wife’s lustrous hair.

“Have faith,” she whispered as the doors to the operating rooms swung open and a woman not much older than Kristi walked through. Wearing surgical scrubs and a grim expression, she approached.

“You’re Rick Bentz?” she asked, and Bentz felt his insides shatter into a million pieces.

“Yes.”

“Your daughter’s had a tough time of it but she’s a fighter. We lost her twice during surgery, but we were able to get her heart started again.”

He felt the blood drain from his face as the doctor rattled off the injuries Kristi had sustained and the procedures she’d suffered through. Essentially what it all came down to was that one bullet had hit her in the gut, rupturing several organs, all of which had to be surgically repaired. Another bullet had ricocheted and scraped across her temple, and there was a possibility of brain damage.

“But she’ll live?” Rick said.

“We’re doing our best.”

The doctor left, and Rick slid into a chair. He cradled his head in his hands. “This is my fault. My being a cop, that’s the cause.”

“You can’t blame yourself.”

“Like hell.”

“Bentz!” Olivia’s tone brooked no argument, and when he looked into her eyes, he felt a kind of solace. “She needs you to be strong now. Believe in her. Believe in yourself.”

He looked away and cleared his throat. “Okay,” he said huskily, though he wasn’t certain he could do everything she told him. “So, when did you get so smart?”

One side of her mouth lifted in a tiny smile. “I think it was around the day I agreed to marry you. Yeah, that’s when it was. Come on, Detective, let me buy you a cup of coffee. You look like hell!”

“I love you too.”

“I know it.” She laughed, and damned if he didn’t feel better. Somehow they’d get through this. And the doc was right. Kristi was a fighter.

“I don’t want to spend a night here,” Eve protested from her hospital bed, but Cole wasn’t listening. He stood at the window, the night backdropping him. It was late, the hospital was hushed and comfortable, but she’d had enough of being a patient to last her a lifetime.

“It’s just for observation. You were lucky the bullet didn’t hit any arteries or veins or bones.”

“Just a helluva lot of muscle.” She was going to be sore for a long time and it looked like a lot more physical therapy was in her future. But she really couldn’t complain, not with Kristi Bentz battling for her life.

“So it’s really over?” she asked.

He nodded. “It looks like Adam had been gunning for you for a long time. He just needed a psycho who knew you to do most of his dirty work. There was electronic equipment hidden in the mattress of Ronnie’s bed, little speakers and a small receiver. I’ll bet they find the transmitter at Adam’s place.”

“I don’t want to think about him.”

“Good idea.” He leaned over the railing and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Why don’t you concentrate on me?”

“You know, Counselor, I might just do that,” she said and reached upward to wrap her arms around his neck. “I wasn’t kidding back at the asylum. I do love you.”

“Well, then, darlin’, as soon as they release you from this place, you can show me just how much.”

“You’re on, Counselor,” she said around a yawn. “You are definitely on.”

EPILOGUE

Three months later

L
imping, still using a stupid cane, Eve walked into the hospital room where Kristi Bentz lay comatose. She was breathing on her own, and the doctors expected her to awaken. But so far it hadn’t happened.

Rick Bentz sat at his daughter’s side, reading aloud to her as he had every day since the incident. He looked up over the tops of his reading glasses but didn’t smile.

“I thought I’d spell you,” Eve said. “How is she today?”

“Better, I think.”

“Good. That’s good.” She managed a smile and didn’t say aloud that she didn’t believe him. Kristi looked the same to her, lying on the bed, barely moving.

As Bentz made his way down to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee, Eve took Kristi’s hand. “Now tell me,” she said, feeling a lump in her throat as she stared at the beautiful, serene woman who was her sister, “How are you really doing?” She linked her fingers with Kristi’s, though there was no response. “Well, let me fill you in on what’s happened. You know I met Abby, and we get along great. I haven’t connected with Zoey yet, but that will probably happen in a few months because Abby and Montoya have set a date. Do you hear me? They’re getting married this June. You have to come to the wedding. They’re counting on it.

“And, uh, what else? Oh, well…I guess we made it official, too. Cole moved in. So far, fingers crossed, we’re getting along.…Even your dad and Montoya have decided he’s an okay guy; at least that’s what they tell me.…Well, speak of the devil.”

Cole appeared in the doorway only a few steps in front of Abby. They talked for a while, including Kristi in the conversation, but of course, she didn’t respond.

It seemed so wrong.

But then there had been a lot of wrong in the last few months. They didn’t see her eyes flutter beneath her lids and missed the fact that one of her fingers twitched. They had no idea Kristi was dreaming.

But Kristi saw the images, weird, distorted pictures of people she knew going about their daily lives, running errands, walking dogs, shuffling paperwork, mowing lawns, cooking, or whatever. All in vibrant, incredible color.

The image today was of her father. He was riding with Montoya in a cop car. The sirens were shrieking, the lights flashing bright, the radio crackling. They screeched to a halt in front of a Gothic-looking house and jumped out of the vehicle.

Crack!

A bolt of lightning sizzled from the sky, splitting the lone tree in the yard. Both men ducked instinctively, and, when it was over, they straightened. Montoya looked the same, but Bentz’s color had faded to black and white. Though he still climbed into the car with Montoya, his color didn’t return and he fell over, bleeding black blood onto the street.

Rick Bentz was dead.

“Kristi? Can you hear me?”

Who was that? Olivia?

“Kristi?”

She tried to talk, but only a tiny croak escaped her lips. God, her mouth tasted terrible. And every muscle in her body ached.

“Did you hear that? She’s responding! Call the nurse!” Olivia’s voice pierced Kristi’s thick brain. It was as if she were thinking in a bog, her brain mired in quicksand.

She blinked. Her eyelids felt as if they were cracking.

“Oh my God, she’s waking up! Kristi!” Olivia’s voice broke with emotion. “Kristi!”

Kristi forced one eye open then squeezed it shut against the bright light. She felt a pain in her gut and her head and heard footsteps walking quickly toward her.

She tried to open her eyes, and this time, wincing and blinking, she was able to fixate, though the images were a little blurry.

Slowly her eyes came into focus.

She was in a hospital, lying half propped up and Olivia was standing over the bed, tears shimmering in her eyes. On a table were several baskets of brightly hued flowers: gold black-eyed Susans, blue bachelor’s buttons, pink carnations, and yellow roses.

“Oh honey!” Olivia cried, her blond hair falling over her shoulder. “Bentz! Look who’s awake!”

Kristi turned her head to the doorway where her father stood. She gasped. Her blood turned to ice water as fear shot through her.

Backdropped against the smooth green hospital walls, Rick Bentz had no color. His skin and hair and clothing were in shades of black, white and gray. Just like in her dream.

“Thank God,” he said, his eyes filling with tears. But as his gaze dropped to her bed sheets they reflected no light. He ran to her and held her tight. “Kristi,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “Oh, honey.” Tears rained from his eyes, dampening the bedsheets, but Kristi couldn’t feel them. And the arms that held her so tightly felt weird, almost weak. The side of her father’s face was gray as death.

It was an omen, she was certain of it.

Kristi felt like she might throw up. She’d had the dreams and realized now that they weren’t dreams at all; they were glimpses into the future.

In a heartbeat she knew that Rick Bentz was doomed.

Her father was going to die, and he was going to die soon.

LISA JACKSON

LOST SOULS

KILLING PATTERN

Kristi picked her words carefully. “I think whoever’s behind the girls’ disappearances is into something really dark. Evil.”

“Evil?” Jay repeated.

She nodded and he saw her shiver. “I think we’re dealing with something so vile and inherently depraved that it might not even be human.”

“What are you saying, Kris?”

“I’ve been doing a lot of research. On vampires.”

Jay laughed. “Okay. You had me going there.”

“I’m dead serious.”

“So whoever’s behind the girls’ disappearances believes in vampires. Is that what you’re saying?”

“What I’m saying is this guy believes in vampires or maybe he believes
he’s
a vampire. I don’t know. But a person like that, Jay? someone deluded or obsessed…They’re dangerous. This guy is dangerous.”

A whisper of something slid over Jay’s skin. Fear? Premonition? “Maybe you’ve let your imagination carry you away,” he said, but she could hear the uncertainty in his voice…