Chapter Thirty
The TikTok Motel
Sam couldn’t be surprised there was a gun pressed into her back. She wasn’t even totally surprised Brian Mathews had his big, meaty arm around her neck.
She’d always thought he was a bit of a hothead. Harassing women? No shock there.
What she didn’t understand was how in the hell he was mixed up in all of this.
She wasn’t panicking yet though. She refused. And the gun in her hand certainly helped. Though in this current position, Brian was likely to kill her before she managed to point hers in his direction.
But he hadn’t disarmed her, so that was something.
“What the hell are you doing, Brian?” she said when he didn’t offer anything.
He’d closed the door behind him, but they stood right next to it. Olivia was fully across the room, tied to the chair. Quietly weeping.
“Getting away with so much,” Brian said, his hot breath on her ear.
She tried to lean away from it, but his grip was too tight.
Getting away with…
Okay, so this had taken a turn. Unexpected. Sam wasn’t about to admit she still didn’t fully grasp what he meant, because what could he possibly have to do with Jules Hyatt?
Then again, what could he possibly have to do with Olivia Underwood?
“Here’s what’s going to happen, Sam. You’re going to shoot her.”
Sam snorted out a laugh. This guy was delusional. “Yeah, that’s not going to work for me.”
The gun dug into her back again. “You don’t really think you have a say, do you?”
“Well, I do have a gun. And free will.” And there was something about Brian Mathews, who’d never struck her as particularly smart, that just wasn’t intimidating. Even with a gun to her back.
“You’ll be dead before you do anything to me with your gun.”
“Sure, but there won’t be any confusion about who killed me.”
Brian laughed, which sent a cold chill down Sam’s spine. Okay, maybe … that was a little intimidating. She didn’t let it show, or tried not to, anyway. She had a feeling Brian was the kind of guy who liked to know a woman was scared and intimidated.
So she refused to be either.
“The problem is, Sam, you won’t stop poking. Now, I figured that when I had the bright idea to make sure all the evidence pointed to Bennet, no one was going to take the girlfriend seriously. Especially Hayes. Then this one got involved.”
Apparently, Olivia was this one.
“You … killed Jules Hyatt,” Sam managed to say, hoping she sounded as bored as she was trying to.
Even though she just … was shocked. What the hell did Brian Mathews have to do with Jules?
“Yeah, I did. Didn’t mean to, obviously. She was charmed by me, but then suddenly not interested? I’m so tired of you women. Always changing your mind. Acting like whores, then pretending you’re all innocent.”
Sam nearly gagged on her revulsion. Yeah, she’d known Brian had a kind of shitty opinion of women, but this was … God, this was disgusting.
“I was just going to shut her up, because she was all crying about how she wanted to go home, but you know what? I really enjoyed strangling her. Watching the life drain out of her eyes because of me. Fuck, that’s a high.”
Sam had to swallow down the wave of nausea that swept through her.
Okay, so he was more dangerous than she’d given him credit for, but she could still get out of this.
She just had to keep a cool head. “So, you think you can have me shoot Olivia, and then what? They won’t take my word for it that you made me? ”
“The police will arrest you. And you can cry to them about how it was all my fault, but firstly, you’ll have actually pulled the trigger, and secondly, all the evidence will be stacked against you. Just like it’s stacked against your boyfriend.”
It was baffling. “You don’t honestly think you’ll get away with this.”
“Why shouldn’t I? I’ve gotten this far. You think anyone is going to believe you?
I’ve played Hayes like a fiddle. He’s so fucking easy.
I have thought of everything. It’s so easy to get away with this shit when you know how it works.
Because even if you finally convince someone?
I’ll be long gone by the time you manage that. ”
It would have been smarter, to Sam’s way of thinking, if he’d already been long gone. But she’d never given Brian credit for being that smart.
He was right about one thing, though. He’d gotten this far. Because he’d played Hayes like a fiddle. Embarrassing.
She had to live to ensure she rubbed that embarrassment in Hayes’s smug face.
“Honestly, I have to wonder why I didn’t do it before.” He laughed again. Cruel. Just plain cruel. “I would have enjoyed strangling you back in the day.” His voice changed.
His face was suddenly closer. His breath hotter on her cheek. She was suddenly glad she hadn’t eaten in a while, because she was pretty sure it would have come back up.
“Enjoyed quite a few things actually. Showed you who is really boss.”
Sam gripped her gun tighter. Surely there was some way to whirl on him. Maybe if she just shot down at his foot, or pulled the trigger and missed even, it would take him by surprise.
Because he wasn’t going to do shit to her.
“But you’re lucky, Sam. I don’t want to leave any DNA just in case. But I could kill you both. You know what? I kind of like that idea. I really, really like killing. Can’t strangle this time, but maybe I’d like to watch you both bleed out.”
Olivia whimpered. Sam tamped down the spurt of panic because she’d be damned if they were both going to die at this piece of shit’s hand.
“Then who will you blame it on?”
“Maybe Hayes. That’s been your angle, hasn’t it?
You figured it was Hayes framing Nate. And the guy sure acts guilty, doesn’t he?
Yeah. I like that. I could make that work.
I can make anything work at the department.
Everyone underestimates me. Hell, I got that dumb Bennet knife out of evidence and to the crime scene, and no one even questioned it twenty-four hours later. ”
“So, you finally found something you’re good at? Killing women. Congrats. Real winner shit there.”
The gun dug into her back, the arm around her neck tightened. Harder and harder, until she was having a hard time getting a breath.
“Gasp for air, Sam,” Brian said, low and vicious. “I want to hear it.”
Revulsion swept through her, but she couldn’t let it win. She couldn’t let him win. “Is that all you got?” she asked, doing everything she could to sound normal even with the pressure on her windpipe.
“You’re such an uppity bi—”
She tried to use his anger against him. Surprise to her advantage. So while he was talking, she simply let her legs fall out from under her so her weight dropped, and he lost his grip on her.
She immediately rolled so she could turn her weapon on him, but a gunshot exploded through the room before she could pull her own trigger.
The blast of pain was a shock. She cried out, fell back. She knew there was something she should concentrate on, but the pain in her arm was all-encompassing, and all she could do was writhe around, trying to make it stop.
There was a commotion, and she tried to see it, understand it, but there was only pain. But no more gunshots, so there was that.
Someone said her name. She moved away from it, not able to think clearly, half thinking Brian was just toying with her. But then her vision clarified and she could recognize the face.
Cal. It was Cal. She kept struggling, trying to find a comfortable position while her arm throbbed and burned in pain. She whimpered in spite of herself.
“He fucking did it,” she managed to grit out.
“I know. We know. Hayes is arresting him. Relax. Sit still. Stop making it worse,” he ordered.
“Can’t,” she muttered.
Her teeth were starting to chatter, and she couldn’t seem to see right. The pain was so all-consuming. It was over. It had to be over. So Nate would get out, and she…
Oh, God, she didn’t want him to worry. “Don’t tell Nate.”
The last thing she heard was Cal swearing.