Chapter Twenty-Three
It was depressing how little time it took Maci to liquidate nearly every cent she had available to her name. Twenty minutes after leaving Clinton and Sheila’s house, she had the cash in hand and was on her way to meet Evelyn.
She parked outside the warehouse address, surprised her mother wasn’t there to snatch the money out of Maci’s hand like she’d done in the past.
Maci got out of the car and began walking toward the warehouse. This was it. This was the last time she was helping Evelyn in this way. The only thing Maci would be willing to help pay for from now on would be some sort of rehab.
“Evelyn?” Maci didn’t know where her mom was, but she needed to get back to the Pattersons’ house before they discovered she was gone. “Come on, Mom. I don’t have time for this.”
She called Evelyn’s phone but got no answer. She got all the way to the warehouse before deciding to turn back. There was no way she was going into an abandoned warehouse by herself, and for whatever reason Evelyn wasn’t here.
She turned and shrieked when she found a man behind her. Fortunately, she recognized him quickly.
“Dorian Cane, right? Oh, my gosh, you scared me.”
He smiled. “Sorry, wasn’t my intent.”
“Oh, no. Did Chance send you to get me?” Damn it, had he already figured out she was gone? She was in so much trouble.
“Um, yes. Chance sent me. Wanted me to escort you somewhere safe. Things have escalated.”
She nodded. “Rich, right? Ends up he’s a killer, not just a stalker.”
“Yes, Rich. Fooled us all. Chance really didn’t want you out here alone and... I was close by, so I offered to come get you.”
“I was supposed to meet my mother. You haven’t seen an older lady around, have you?”
“No, I haven’t. We should go.”
“Yeah, I’m sure Chance wants to yell at me as soon as possible too.”
Dorian smiled. “Only because he cares. I understand that.”
They began walking back toward the cars.
“Yeah, you two are probably cut from the same cloth. It’s what makes you good at your jobs.”
“Yes, this job is a battle. Getting to know Chance and the other Patterson brothers has certainly made me a better me. I’ve always strived to be the best.”
Maci tensed at his words. They were way too similar to the notes that had been left. She stopped.
“You know what? I should probably make one more sweep to be certain my mom’s not here. Do you mind waiting just a second?”
There was no way she was getting into a vehicle with Dorian until she talked to Chance. Maybe she was being paranoid, but under the circumstances, that could be forgiven.
She forced a smile at Dorian. “Just hang out here for two minutes. I’ll be right back.” She turned back toward the warehouse. “Mom? You here?”
She walked, calling for Evelyn as she pulled her phone out. She was just hitting Chance’s number when a soft voice spoke behind her.
“You’re not a pale imitation at all, are you?”
Maci tried to breathe through the terror. This was the voice from that night at the apartment when she’d been knocked unconscious.
Dorian was definitely the killer.
She turned to face him again. “You. Why?”
“Someone has to be the best. Learning how to stalk, learning how to kill... It made me the best security expert available.”
“But you’re Stella’s stalker. How can you be the best at protecting someone when you’re the one putting her in danger?”
“I never planned to hurt Stella—she’s not worth the time or effort. I wasn’t even her real stalker at first. I eliminated him early on and took over. Especially once Nicholas brought in the Pattersons. I quickly realized how much I could learn by going up against them. And knew I could up the ante when I targeted someone they cared so much about... You .”
Maci took a few steps backward, trying to figure out what to say. “I’m just their employee.”
He tsked and shook his head. “You’re the mother of Chance Patterson’s child. He would burn the world to the ground to get you back. His brothers would hold the matches for him.”
“I’m not going with you.”
Dorian smiled and slowly pulled up his pants leg at the calf, showing some sort of knife holder. “I don’t think you’re going to have a choice.”
Without another word, Maci spun and ran. She didn’t make it far before Dorian’s arms wrapped around her from behind, stopping her progress. At least he didn’t have the knife out yet.
She remembered what Chance had taught her in their training. She used her legs to kick back, aiming for his knees, groin, whatever. Dorian let out a curse as her foot connected to a sensitive spot and let her go.
She dropped her phone in the skirmish but didn’t stop to pick it up. She sprinted as hard as she could for the warehouse.
She knew if Dorian got her into his car, she and her baby would be his next victims.
“W HAT DO YOU mean she’s not there?”
Chance was ready to put his fist through a wall. He’d called Maci’s phone half a dozen times, and each time it had gone directly to voice mail.
“We all thought she was taking a nap,” Weston said. “She left a note on the pillow saying she needed to meet her mom and would be right back.”
He’d already explained that Dorian was a killer and law enforcement had an APB out for his arrest.
That wouldn’t help if he already had Maci.
The door to the office opened and Chance turned to bark that they were closed. “I’ll call you back,” he said to Weston when he saw who it was.
Evelyn Ford. And she had seen better days.
He rushed to her and helped her sit down. She had blood seeping from a head wound. “Mrs. Ford, where’s Maci? What happened?”
His brothers rushed in to see what was going on, but remained silent.
“I needed money. She was supposed to meet me about a half hour ago.”
“She didn’t show up?”
“I don’t know. Some man saw me, said he worked with you. Offered to give me the money I needed to pay back my dealer.”
Chance grabbed a file and showed her a picture of Dorian. “This man?”
“Yes, that’s him. I thought I was doing Maci a favor, not taking her money. You know, so she could save it for the baby. But then the guy knocked me on the head and dragged me into an alley.”
“Evelyn, where’s Maci? Her phone is offline, so we can’t track it. I’ve got to find her.”
“Guy left me with the money. I paid someone a hundred of it to get me here. I needed to tell you that my dealer may be coming after you.”
He didn’t understand what she was talking about and didn’t have time to get her to explain.
“Evelyn, listen to me. My brothers and I can handle any drug dealer. We’ll get you someplace safe so he can’t hurt you either. But if you know where Maci is, you need to tell me right now.”
Every second they wasted gave Dorian more time to hurt Maci.
“I was supposed to meet her at the warehouse district. I needed the money to pay back Timothy, my dealer. I promise I didn’t mean any of those things I said to Maci.” Evelyn started to cry.
He and Maci were going to have a talk— again —about the things she was keeping from him. But he needed to find her first.
“Where, Evelyn? Focus.”
She got out the address.
“I’ll stay with her and make sure no drug dealers do whatever she was talking about,” Brax said. “I’ll get PD there immediately too.”
“Give us five minutes. Sirens may spook him into hurting her.”
Brax nodded and Chance sprinted for his car, Luke on his heels.
M OST OF THE warehouses in this section of town had been abandoned years ago after a storm had caused massive flood damage. Maci could scream, but there probably wouldn’t be anyone around to hear her.
And screaming at this point would tell Dorian exactly where she was.
She found an open door and rushed into a building. Hiding was her best option. It was dark in here, the only light from an emergency exit sign near another door at the side.
She ran for the far corner, zigzagging around various piles of crates and abandoned machinery. The door behind her opened and closed, and there was silence.
Maci struggled to hear anything over the pounding of her own heart.
The most important thing is to keep your head. Use your strengths.
She could hear Chance’s voice in her mind. He was right. If she panicked, this was over.
“Now, now, Maci,” Dorian taunted. “I love a good game of hide-and-seek, but this isn’t your style, is it? You’re more of a confronting things head-on type of gal, aren’t you?”
She wasn’t about to answer and give away her position. She needed to make her way around to the other door and try to get out.
He flipped on a phone flashlight, and she jerked her head back behind the crate she hid behind. The light would give Dorian more of an advantage.
“Do you understand the need to be the best at something, Maci? I was the best in my platoon until a stray bullet ended that part of my life. Do you know what it is to have the thing that is most important to you snatched away?”
Like a murderer trying to end you and your unborn child’s lives? Yeah, I do, asswipe.
How she longed to say the words out loud.
“Then I had to find a new career pathway on which to be the best. Private security fit the bill.”
He got quiet after that and the light switched off. She crept farther away from where she’d last heard his voice, keeping her body low and small.
“I’ve killed nine women.”
Maci struggled to keep her surprised gasp silent. He was trying to get a reaction from her—any indication of her location.
“But listen, Maci, before you think bad of me... I did it for a purpose. Do you understand? With every woman I killed I became better at personal security. I learned more about how killers thought and what could be done to protect someone from a killer. Those women’s deaths had meaning .”
He was a complete psychopath. Could see no wrong in what he’d done.
The flashlight switched back on, aimed for where she’d been just a few moments ago. Damn it, he was expecting her to stay low to the ground. She needed to get higher, climb on some of the machinery all over this place. Dorian hadn’t shone any light up there at all.
You’re smart. A quick thinker. Use that to your advantage.
She found some debris on the ground—a piece of metal that had broken off something—and grabbed it. She threw it with all her might in the opposite direction of where she planned to go.
Then she scurried up onto what seemed to be some sort of bottling equipment piece, careful not to make any noise. That allowed her to move onto a conveyer belt a few feet higher that held her weight easily.
Dorian’s light switched off once again when he heard the noise. When it came back on, it wasn’t pointed in the direction she’d hoped. It was right where she’d been five seconds ago.
If he pointed his light up now, she would be caught.
She swallowed her whimper.
The light switched off again. “Your death will have meaning too, Maci. So will the Patterson brothers’. I can’t leave them alive. Leaving your enemy alive means you always have to be looking over your shoulder.”
She held still. He was waiting for her to make a mistake. The slightest one and she’d be dead.
“Your mother too, probably, if she doesn’t take care of that herself. She’s got a pretty severe drug habit, you know. Was more than happy to take the money I gave her, although was probably less happy when I knocked her unconscious. I traced her phone. That’s how I found you.”
Maci had to push thoughts of her mother aside. She had to push everything aside but this moment.
Survival is always the most important thing .
She was going to survive. She had too much to live for not to.
The light came back on, once again looking in hidden corners and in low places to hide. It wouldn’t take much longer for him to figure out she wasn’t down there.
But in the silence, she heard the most beautiful sound: sirens.
The light switched off again. “Looks like the game has changed, Maci, and we won’t be able to finish today. What a shame. But don’t worry, I’ll be back for you. For all of you. I’m the best, so you can count on that.”
In that moment Maci knew she couldn’t let Dorian leave. He was telling the truth: he would be back. And one by one the people she loved would fall to his madness. Including her daughter. Maci had no doubt Dorian would hunt her too, even if it took years.
Maci could stop this right now. She had to stop it right now. Even if it cost her everything.
She stretched out her hand and found a small metal pipe. It wouldn’t be much against that knife he’d taunted her with earlier, but she just needed to stop him long enough for the police to get here. The sirens were getting louder.
She shut everything out and listened for Dorian. As he passed under her she grit her teeth and let herself fall off the side of the conveyor belt on top of him.
Light flashed inside the warehouse from the far door as she fell, but she ignored it. She would only get one chance at this.
She landed hard on Dorian, swinging her pipe and yelling as loud as she could to let the police know where they were. She got two hits in before a blow to her face threw her backward.
She tried to get back to her feet but he was already over her, knife in hand. He grabbed the pipe out of her hand and threw it to the side, then pulled her up by her shirt.
“I am the best,” he said simply.
He slashed the knife toward her chest, and she knew this was the end. She closed her eyes, waiting for the pain, distraught that she’d failed. Devastated she’d never told Chance she loved him.
But the pain never came.
She heard multiple cracks of thunder over the roaring around her but didn’t open her eyes.
“Maci! Maci, open your eyes, baby. Come on.”
Chance? She could barely hear him.
“Stop screaming, sweetheart. It’s okay. I’ve got you. Dorian is dead.”
All that noise was coming from her . She hadn’t even realized it. She closed her mouth and silence surrounded them.
“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” Chance was frantically pressing his hands all over her body, searching for wounds.
Luke was standing over Dorian, weapon raised. Dorian wasn’t moving.
“I’m okay,” she managed to get out. “I’m okay. I had to stop him. He was going to hurt you. Hurt everyone. I couldn’t let him—”
Chance’s lips pressed hard against hers and he pulled her against his chest.
“You did it. Dorian Cane will never hurt anybody ever again.”