Shattered (LOST #3)(56)

“He watched me after that, so carefully. He would stare at me as if he couldn’t figure me out. I think he expected me to be just like him. I wasn’t though, so he kept trying to turn me into a hunter, just like he was.”

“Sarah, you don’t have to tell me this.”

Maybe he didn’t want to hear it. She pulled away, her body curving a bit as her shoulders hunched.

“Stop.”

She looked up at him.

“You’re hurting when you talk about him. Do you think I can’t tell?” His jaw was clenched so tightly as he gritted out those words. “I wish I could take all of this pain away for you. I wish I could have stopped him.”

“I did.” Her chin lifted. “I’m the one . . . I finally stopped him.” The night was burned in her mind. “He’d taken a woman from the city—a lady who worked at the bakery. I’d seen her dozens of times, and he had his knife to her throat. He was telling me that I had to watch. That I had to see what she’d do . . . what she’d say. That in the end, they all confessed and they all begged . . .”

She wanted to stop the words, but now that she’d started talking, it seemed like a dam had burst and she couldn’t hold them back.

“I found a gun in my dad’s closet. He liked to use his knives when he was . . . working . . . on the victims. Said it was more personal.” In college, she’d learned that others thought just as her father did. A knife was intimate. You got close to your victim with the knife. It sliced into the skin, cutting deep into flesh. Carving—one life, taken. “But he had the gun . . . just in case. Just in case some burglar ever broke in, so we’d be safe.”

She stopped a minute, lost by the insanity of that. Her dad had kept a gun because he wanted to keep them safe from burglars. Who would keep us safe from you, Dad?

“I took that gun. When he was down in that basement, making her scream, I took the gun.”

She could see that scene so clearly in her mind. She’d gripped the gun in her hand. Her palm had been slick with sweat. She’d inched down the stairs, one at a time. The wood had creaked beneath her feet, but her father hadn’t heard her approach. The screams had been too loud.

She’d reached the bottom. Crept right up behind him. Daddy, stop.

“He thought I’d come to watch. To help. But I put the gun to his head. He laughed at first and said it wasn’t even loaded.” Every breath felt painful. “But I’d found the bullets. I told him that if he didn’t let her go, I’d shoot him.”

Jax was staring into her eyes.

“I meant it.”

“I know.” His voice was soft, gentle. There was no horror in his eyes, no pity. Just a blue stare that held her own.

“She ran out . . . I knew that she’d call the cops and I didn’t move. I kept that gun to my father’s head. If he’d tried to attack me, I would have pulled the trigger.” Goose bumps had risen on her arms as she told him the story. “When the cops finally arrived and they took him away, do you know what he said to me?”

Jax shook his head.

Right, of course, he didn’t know. Stupid question. No one knew . . . no one but her and the cop who’d been holding her father. “He said he was proud of me. That I had his killer instinct, just like he’d always wanted.”

There it was. Her shame. Her horror.

Her life.

And now he knew everything.





Chapter 11

DETECTIVE WEST?”

Brent tensed when he heard his name and he turned away from the window. Not that he’d had much of a view—the hospital’s waiting room window overlooked the place’s parking garage.

A young nurse, one with short, curly brown hair and dark eyes, waited a few feet away.

“The doctor wanted me to tell you that Ms. Guthrie has stabilized some. She may even be able to answer a few brief questions. Very brief,” she emphasized.

Relief had him rushing across the room. “Can I see her now?”

He was aware of Gabe Spencer rising behind him. Gabe and the blond looker had been in that waiting room for most of the night. He’d heard Gabe on his phone, calling in favors left and right—and Brent knew just how important that kind of power was. When a guy could get the Feds to jump and do your bidding, then that was a man with some serious pull.

He’s a man that I want on my side.

“Now,” the nurse agreed, with a nod, “but only for a few moments. And she can’t be stressed. Her body has been through a terrible trauma.”

Her body and her mind. And when the poor girl found out that her only remaining family member was dead, the pain would be even worse for her.

Brent turned toward Gabe. “You want in?”

“Hell, yes.” Gabe pressed a quick kiss to the blonde’s cheek. “Let the others know,” he said to her.

She nodded, and Gabe hurried toward Brent.

Brent had done his research on the other man. He knew just what had happened to Gabe’s sister, and it was some seriously messed-up shit. On paper, the guy was a tough-as-nails ex-SEAL. And in person, well, the man knew how to get the job done.

“This is my show,” Brent warned him before they entered Molly’s room. “I ask the questions because this is the NOPD’s case.”