Seconds to Live (Scarlet Falls #3)(93)

They’d gotten it wrong.

“What’s going on?” he stepped back.

Stella and Carl pushed past him. “Is anyone else here?”

“The patients are all sleeping in their rooms. I did bed check a half hour ago.” Reilly scratched his forehead.

“Can you get everyone out here, please?”

“I demand to know what’s going on.” He propped a hand on his hip.

“Two people have been abducted.”

Reilly’s eyes opened wide. “And you think they’re here?”

“We need to check.” Doubt crept around Stella’s gut as she showed him the search warrant.

“All right.” He rousted the patients. They gathered in the lobby while the police did a quick sweep of all the rooms. The basement was full of boxes and junk. No people.

“Are there any outbuildings?” Stella asked Reilly.

“No.” Reilly shook his head. “Everything is kept in the basement. Why did you think they were here?”

“Someone is abducting and killing drug addicts. We know about what happened to you in Atlanta.”

“You thought it was me?” Reilly reeled. He backed up to the wall. “I could never hurt anyone. Not after what I’ve been through. I came all the way up here to get away from those violent memories.”

Which Stella had just handed back to him. “I’m sorry.”

She paced the lobby, panic overriding her pity. If it wasn’t Reilly, then who?

Her gaze landed on a bulletin board. A notice on yellow paper read, “Free Group Session, Thursday night, 10 p.m., Our Lady of Sorrows.”

And suddenly she knew. All the pieces fell into place. “Where does Dr. Randolph live?”

“Why?” Horner asked.

“Because it’s him. Missy and Dena were his patients. He knew everything about them.” Stella walked to the bulletin board and put a fist on the yellow notice. “And if he offered free counseling to NA members after their meetings, he could have worked with Gianna as well.”

Horner’s gaze landed on the flyer. “But why?”

“It has to be connected to his brother.” Stella turned away from the bulletin board. Everything in her gut said she was right. But Randolph wasn’t holding Gianna and Mac prisoner at the center, so where were they? “Reilly, where is Randolph’s house?”

“Across the lake.” Reilly said. “The access road is just past the driveway for the center. You can’t miss it.”

“You two stay here and keep an eye on him, just in case.” Stella pointed to two officers. “Everyone else, let’s go.”

Racing for her car, she said a quick and silent prayer.

Please let them be alive.



Panic slammed inside Mac’s throat, a blind, feral animal seeking to escape. He moved his fingers, but his muscle control hadn’t returned quickly enough. He was immobilized. He yanked at the handcuffs that attached his wrists to the rails on either side of the gurney. His ankles were tied down with leather straps that looked like they’d come out of a horror movie set in a psychiatric hospital.

That wasn’t too far off.

“How are you feeling?”

Mac turned his head and shock numbed him for a few seconds.

Josh Randolph walked around a growing puddle to stand a few feet from the gurney, as if he was afraid to come closer.

Smart man.

Mac let anger kill his shock and fear. His rage roiled, wild and snapping as a caged beast. He was going to kill Josh. He didn’t know how, but it was going to happen. If necessary, he’d rip the man’s throat out with his teeth.

“I think we’d better work on your attitude.” Josh raised the Taser and fired.

The prongs hit Mac dead center in the chest. Electricity ripped through him and tore him apart. His body seized, the muscles simultaneously frozen and on fire. It eased off, and Mac’s muscles were left twitching.

He gritted his teeth and forced words through his shaking lips. “Fuck you.”

Josh’s frown was uncertain. “You are resilient.”

He squeezed the trigger again. The current made Mac’s body jump to artificial life, as if Dr. Frankenstein had thrown the switch. Mac’s body jolted on the gurney. When Josh lowered the Taser, Mac’s body convulsed with the remnants of its charge.

A minute passed before he unclenched his molars. “I’m going to kill you.”

Josh smiled. “I knew you were The One.”

What. The. Hell?

Mac swallowed. It felt like broken glass moved down the inside of his throat. “What are you talking about?”

“You are The One. Truly redeemed.” He set down the Taser and clasped his hands together. “We have a few more tests, but I knew you were special.”

“You’re crazy.”

Josh grabbed his tray and rolled it toward the gurney. Water splashed around the wheels. The puddle had grown, covering most of the floor several inches deep.

“Your basement is flooding.” Mac lifted his head. His neck muscles protested. “The lake is rising.”

But Josh’s eyes were glazed, as if he were lost in his own imagination.

He lifted a scalpel from the tray, his eyes hyper-focused on Mac. “We’ll start with the physical test. It’s redundant based on the fact that you’ve been walking around with a bullet wound, but I have to keep my experiments consistent. The physical pain test is first. I’ve designed each subject’s test for their specific background. Missy cut herself, so I used a knife on her. Dena let her husband break her bones, so breaking her fingers seemed appropriate. You are a bit more complicated. I’ll have to try both.”