Taken in Death (In Death #37.5)(27)

“Wait. A minute, a minute.” Roarke bent to the lock. “It’s reinforced. You’ll just break your foot on the bastard.”

“Hurry, hurry, hurry.”

“Does it look like I’m taking my bloody time with it? There.”

He yanked it open, and together they ran down the steps. She swept out with her weapon.

Damp, chilly, dark, but the faintest hint of light at the door at the base of the steps.

She went carefully, mindful of booby traps, and continued to sweep when they reached the bottom. Roarke went to work on the next door.

“I can hear them.” Straining, Eve caught the muffled sounds through the thick walls and doors. Screaming.

It was their monster, not hers, that came through the door.

She remembered being too late before—a child, just a little girl and the man hyped-on Zeus with a knife. Seconds too late to stop him from slicing up that tender flesh.

Not this time, not this time. Please, God, hurry.

And at Roarke’s nod, they hit the door together.

She had the ritual knife at the girl’s throat, her arm clamped around the boy’s.

She’d trapped herself, Eve thought, in a room with no way out, because spilling blood was what she wanted most.

“Stun me. My hand jerks, she’s dead. Pretty little girl with her pretty little throat slit wide.”

Identical but for the birthmark, Tosha had said. Yet Eve saw subtle differences. This face was leaner, a little longer, and these ice blue eyes held a wild glitter.

“We’re going to hold back here.” Eve spoke with her eyes on Maj, but the words were for her Roarke. “Just hold. Your back’s to the wall here, Maj. If you cut her, I take you down.”

“If you take me down, I cut her. I kill her. And maybe have just enough time to wring this little bastard’s neck. Drop the stunners, both of you. Drop them and move aside. I’m walking out of here.”

“Not going to happen.” She could take the head shot, Eve calculated, but the jolt would slice the knife right across Gala’s throat. No way around it.

“Maybe you take the kids out, maybe not. But there’s no doubt you’re down.” Eve flicked a glance at the kids, hoping the calm in her voice would reassure them, keep them still. She saw the way their eyes tracked to each other’s, held. The fear, yes, fear with the shine of tears, but something more, something intense.

Were they . . . communicating?

“I’ll trade them both for Tosha, my syster. Bring her here, and I’ll let them both go. Fast, fast, or I bleed her like a little piggie.”

“Why her?” Distract, Eve thought. If she could distract, just enough to move the knife a fraction away, she could take the risk, take the shot. “Why not him?”

“Girls are more tender. Sugar and spice.” She smiled as she said it, smiled madly. “Sugar and spice and blood. Snakes and snails for him.”

“Don’t you want to know which one she chose?”

“She chose.” Maj’s face illuminated, a fanatical joy. “Tell me, tell me! Which does she love best?”

“How bad do you want to know? You’ve made your choice.” Eve glanced deliberately at Gala. “But is it the same as Tosha’s?”

“Tell me!” In the split second, as Maj’s body shifted forward, as the knife eased a fraction, angling toward Eve in threat, Eve prepared to take the risk.

But the children beat her to it.

Both of them clamped down, fierce little teeth into the exposed flesh of Maj’s forearms. She howled in shock and pain. The knife nicked the side of Gala’s throat before it jerked away.

Eve took the shot, and as Maj’s body jittered, the knife wavered in her shuddering hand.

“Drop!” Eve shouted to the kids, and sprang forward. She led with her left, plowing her fist into Maj’s face, pivoted, grabbed the knife hand, twisting it as Maj slammed the wall and slid, shuddering, to the floor.

“Suspect’s down! Suspect’s down. Move in!” Eve kicked the knife away, put a boot on the now unconscious woman’s back. And turning, saw Roarke had both kids, one tucked under each arm as he crouched to their level.

“How bad’s she cut?”

“It’s just a scratch. Isn’t that right, sweetheart? You’re all safe and sound now.”

Gala pressed her face into Roarke’s shoulder, wrapped her arm tight around her brother.

“I’ll take them up and out of here, all right with that?”

“Yeah. Tell Peabody to contact their parents.”

Eve started to reach for her restraints, but Baxter moved in.

“We’ll clean this up, boss.” He bent over Maj, pulled her arms back to cuff, saw the bloody teeth marks in both forearms. “Jesus, what, did you bite her?”

“Not me, them.” She nodded toward the kids as Roarke hefted Gala into his arms, held out a hand for Henry’s.

“Good for them. Damn good for them.”

“Have her transported to Central, then go get some sleep—you and Trueheart. You, too,” she said to Peabody as her partner came in.

“I really hear that.”

“Reineke, you and Jenkinson take her through Booking once she’s conscious. Make sure she’s Mirandized as soon as she’s lucid. I’ll be in to interview her.”