25. Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Five
Byron
T he unmistakable sound of a blade running through flesh is the first thing I hear when I wake up. That isn't what surprises me, though. It's that I'm not the one being cut up.
I'm unsure when my brain made the connection, but it seems painfully obvious now that I'm sitting here, trussed up like this year's Thanksgiving turkey.
The Cat is a woman.
A woman scorned.
The Cat is Lily's stalker.
The Cat is Jayne.
It is the only thing that makes sense. The lump on the back of my head pounds a steady beat, but it lets me know I'm alive to fight another day. How long that will be remains to be seen. I can only hope Jones is around the corner or called in as a backup.
Trying to take in my surroundings without letting Jayne know I'm awake, I keep my eyes shut but relaxed enough not to give me away. I'm worried about who she's carving up, but I can't hear screams, so I'm guessing the person is already dead or, at the very least, passed out. And it won't help either of us if I show my hand too soon.
My hands are tied behind me, which would usually have worked against my favor, but seeing as my back and hands are pressed against a wall, Jayne won't notice if I try and wiggle them free.
The binding is tight, but not so much that it doesn't have a little give. My feet are a different thing, though. Even if I have my hands free, I won't be up to much fighting if I can't get them loose, too, and there is no way I'll be able to do that without her noticing.
"I know you're awake, Agent Scott," Jayne calls to me from across the room. "I'm a trained professional. I can tell feigned unconsciousness from the real thing."
I slowly blink my eyes open, pushing myself into a sitting position. At least now, I will have better maneuverability in my hands.
"The Cat, I presume," I greet her, looking down at the body in front of her.
Fucking Jones.
His lifeless eyes stare back at me, his tongue already cut out. Jayne is busy carving into his large barrel chest, and from the blood spilling down from the coffee table where she has him tied to, she's already taken his manhood, too.
"My, my, my. You are a clever cookie. What gave me away?" Her face lights up with a menacing smile, her eyes staring at me with a dead quality that I've only ever seen on the worst monsters our team has put away. How the hell had she been hiding it this well? Even worse, how had we gotten the profile so wrong?
Clearing my throat, I keep struggling with the binding behind my back, feeling a little relief rush through my system when the rope gives. "Too many coincidences," I respond to her question, shrugging as best as possible. "There's also the fact that it now seems painfully obvious that these men were all killed by a woman. One with a vendetta, a mission of sorts."
Jayne's smile turns into a knowing smirk. She looks almost impressed with me, but I have seen behind the mask now. I know it's a show she's putting on.
This woman has no real emotions other than rage.
"A man must have hurt you badly in your past," I muse. "Was it someone you knew? Or a stranger, I wonder?" Her lips, purse, and brows furrow the smallest amount, but just enough for me to notice her annoyance.
"What I want to know though, why Lily?"
Jayne takes the knife in her hand and stabs it down into the body in front of her with such force that I can hear the blade hit the table underneath it. "Her name is Lillian, you heathen! You don't deserve even to breathe her name, let alone breathe the same air as her!" Spittle flies from her mouth, and her eyes bulge out, giving me the first glimpse of the madness she's been hiding so well.
The cold, dead serial killer is gone now, replaced by the obsessive personality of a stalker.
And then she shakes it off like her outburst never happened. "I thought you were different, Agent Scott. I wanted to trust you. I believed you and I were working together to rid the world of the filth that sullies it. But then you had to get your grubby paws all over Lillian."
She pulls the knife out of Jones before wiping the blade on her black slacks. "Now I'll have to get rid of you and this piece of shit on the table. He deserved everything he got for being so insensitive about breaking Lillian's heart and sharing your secret so easily. But you? You're really going to pay. For thinking you can touch what's mine."
At this point, I'm letting her talk, listening to her vitriol as I try to figure out my next move. The rope is finally loose enough to slip from my wrists, but I won't be able to run with my feet tied, and no matter what training I've received, I know I won't be much of a match.
"And when I'm done with the two of you, I'm going for my girl. She'll be coming with me. She might initially resist, but she'll see reason after a while. We're perfect for each other. It's fate that I found her. A woman with a past just as messed up as mine, one who will understand my hatred of men and their disgusting urges."
Jayne puts the blade down on a side table before slowly walking to her kitchen. She digs through the drawer before coming out with a giant meat cleaver.
Holy shit. She's completely deviating from her usual MO. She grabs some trash bags and heads back to the body on the coffee table, and I have to suppress the urge to vomit when she starts hacking at it, getting it into smaller pieces.
That's when I see it. Shadows underneath the front door.
Fucking hell. I hope it's back up and not Lily coming to see if we're fine. I don't know how long I was passed out for, but it was long enough for Jones to get his ass handed to him. Lily would have grown worried by now, and I can't see her just sitting in the coffee shop like a damsel waiting to be rescued for too long.
Another shadow passes by the door, and an overwhelming sense of relief rushes through me. There are at least two people there. It can't be Lily, then, because no cop or agent worth their salt would bring a civilian up into a possibly fraught hostage situation.
Jayne has filled two bags with random bits of body parts, and the two shadows come together at the front door. Jayne tries to shove Jones's huge torso into a third bag. I can tell from here it won't fit, but I don't mind that she's distracted as whoever is at the door gets ready to breach it.
The two shadows disappear, and I brace for the impact.
And then there's a massive bash against the front door before... fucking hell, Karl, of all people bashes through the front door.
He's holding a revolver in front of him, and his eyes scan the room before landing on Jayne as she hovers over the body, a shocked look on her face. If I weren't so fucking confused and pissed off, I'd laugh at her expression.
"Put down the fucking cleaver, Jayne." Karl barks at her as Lily rushes past him and into the room straight for me. As she starts working on the binding on my feet, I carefully push her fingers away so I can do it for her.
Her hands are shaking, and when she looks at me, I find her eyes filled with unshed tears and angst.
I want to pull her into my embrace and soothe her worries and fears, but I can't afford to lose focus right now, so I look back to Jayne after my feet are free. By the way, she's eyeing Karl's gun, I can tell she's calculating her chances.
"I wouldn't," I warn as I get up from the floor, taking Lily’s hand in mine so I can tuck her behind me. "I don't know Karl very well, but I do know he's terribly protective of our Lily here and probably wouldn't hesitate to shoot."
"Damn right I am," Karl chimes in before waving at Jayne with his gun again. "Now drop the fucking cleaver."
Jayne's eyes trail to the woman clutching the back of my shirt before her eyes lower to the ground, and she drops the large knife.
Lily pushes something into my hand, and now that Jayne is disarmed, I take the chance to look—a cell phone.
"You should probably call for backup now. I called the police, and even though they probably took me seriously, they might move a little quicker if an FBI agent made the call, too.