Shattered (LOST #3)(41)

Her fingers stilled. “Will he make it?”

“The medics were coming in so I hope they got him stable but . . . the guy was a weapon. Drug him, aim him, and fire him—”

“At me,” Sarah finished. Because that was exactly what the man out there had done. Dear old dad had sure made plenty of enemies. Enemies that wouldn’t stop climbing out of the woodwork.

And the worst part was . . . she understood exactly why they hated her father. Why they hated her.

Some days, Sarah hated herself.

She looked down at her left wrist. The scar was there, a stark reminder of all the things she could never forget.

What did you do to yourself, Sarah? Her father’s words whispered through her mind. She’d been in the bathroom, slumped near the toilet. Her father had come into the room, and fear—actual fear—had flashed in his eyes. Blood had pooled around her and the razor—his razor—had been on the floor near her hip. It had fallen from her shaking fingers when she’d tried to slice the veins in her right hand. My fingers had been too weak to do the job. Because I’d cut my left wrist too deeply. Those fingers had stopped working.

And she hadn’t been able to finish the job.

I’ll take care of you. He’d promised her that. You’ll be as good as new.

But she wasn’t good. She wasn’t new. She’d never been the same after her sixteenth birthday. Because on that date, life had changed. She’d—

Police lights appeared on the street to the left. A fast swirl of blue.

“I guess we found the party,” Jax murmured.

Yes, they had. The cop cars were rushing down the street and she knew the police would be setting up a search perimeter.

Jax braked to a stop, and they hurried to join the group. Gabe saw them, and he waved them over. Dean was with him and Dean’s fiancée, Emma Castille, was at his side. Emma’s long, dark, flowing hair was pulled back and her hoop earrings swayed lightly with her movements. When she saw Jax, her bright blue eyes widened. “Jax, what are you doing here?” she asked him, and Emma immediately put her hand on Jax’s shoulder.

Sarah stiffened. She knew that Emma and Jax had been lovers, but that had been a long time ago. Right? Emma was . . . the woman was great. A wonderful new addition to LOST and a woman who actually seemed to understand Sarah.

Sarah shouldn’t . . .

. . . be wanting to rip Emma’s hand off Jax.

Ah, so this was what jealousy felt like. Sarah decided she didn’t like it—and she didn’t have time for it. Not then. Not when Molly was waiting.

But she did remove Emma’s hand, and Sarah said bluntly, “He’s helping on this case.”

“Uh, yes, okay . . .” Emma’s gaze swept from Sarah to Jax. “But it’s a crime scene, and Jax doesn’t exactly get along with cops.”

“They need as much help on this search as they can get,” Sarah said. That was sure the truth. They had a big search area, and they needed to move. “If they question us, just tell them Jax is with our team.”

“Then we might all get our asses thrown out of here,” Dean Bannon murmured as he cast a considering glance Jax’s way. Dean and Jax didn’t exactly get along. Mostly because of that whole Jax-and-Emma past thing. Right then, Sarah could understand where Dean was coming from with his jealousy but—

“A woman is hurt and she needs us.” Sarah straightened her shoulders. Personal shit had to wait. “We have to find her, now.” Because it wasn’t like the perp would miss the swarm of police out there.

Detective West and Detective Cross hurried toward them. Cross frowned at Jax, but before the detective could do anything like, oh, order Jax off the scene, Jax said, “You need to be searching the buildings that are directly beside the water.”

Cross put his hands on his hips. “Is that so?”

“Yeah, it’s so.” Jax pointed up. “And go to the second floor. When Sarah had him on the phone, I could hear the lap of the water against the dock. Then the guy went inside and up one flight of stairs.” He paused. “Just one flight. I counted the steps.”

So had Sarah.

“Impressive,” Emma murmured. “Guess you still do use a few of my tricks.”

Sarah knew that Emma’s father—a man who’d pretended to be psychic—had trained his daughter to be extra observant. Sarah hadn’t realized that Jax had picked up some of Emma’s habits. Those habits sure could come in handy.

It was Detective West who turned and gave the orders to his men so that they could fan out and search.

Cross kept staring at their group. Then he muttered, “Captain said I had to let your team in on the search. I don’t like having civilians out here . . .”

Gabe was an ex-SEAL and Dean was former FBI. Those two men hardly counted as civilians. And for Sarah, well, she’d worked plenty of cases that had taken her into nightmare situations.

As for Emma and Jax . . . well, Emma was part of LOST now and Jax . . . I think the guy can hold his own anywhere.

“Get suited with vests,” Cross said as he pointed toward the police cruisers. “No weapons. We can’t give you those. So you’re going in unarmed.”

Then he focused on Sarah. “You’re the expert here, right? The one who knows what the killer is thinking?”