Chapter 24 #2
Harper hung on to him, still yanking hard and choking him with the rope. “How do you like it when someone hurts you—” Harper began as both of his knees hit the mat of the cage.
His head bobbed back, hitting Harper in the face. Then he grabbed her arm and threw Harper off him.
Harper collided with the side of the cage. No voltage. But a moan of pain slid from her.
Carmichael tried to scramble back to his feet.
The rope dangled around his neck. Before he could get fully upright, Charlotte grabbed the rope, each hand catching a side, and she wrenched the rope tight, locking it around his neck and using it to cut into his skin because her grip was that strong and fierce.
But he sliced her thigh with the knife that he just would not drop. A deep, painful slice. She hissed out a breath and dodged behind him, still holding the rope in place. She’d use the rope and choke him out. He would go down.
He jabbed the knife back at her. The tip pierced into her shoulder.
She didn’t let him go.
And he…
Sagged forward.
Yes! His strength was waning. She could see it. Feel it. She could—
He brought the knife up. Sliced through the rope. Sliced his own neck in the process and the blood flowed in a stream, but he was free. Carmichael whirled toward her with the knife even as Harper screamed and tried to stagger forward and—
“You stay the fuck away from my wife!” Logan was in the cage. He grabbed Carmichael’s shoulder and spun him around.
Carmichael lifted his bloody knife.
But Logan slammed a fist into his face. A fist—one covered with brass knuckles so the blow was jaw breaking.
Even as Charlotte heard the crunch of bones, Logan raised his left hand. The hand that gripped a knife. My knife. Because, of course, she recognized it. Her favorite knife. Her father’s knife.
Logan drove it deep into Carmichael’s chest. One hard, vicious plunge. A plunge straight in his heart.
A gurgle broke from Carmichael’s lips. His body slumped. He lost the grip on his weapon. It clattered away. His fingers reached for his bleeding chest. As if he’d rip out the blade that had pierced him.
But Logan still gripped that knife, and he shoved it in even deeper. “You like cutting up women?” Logan twisted the knife hard to the side. The left. Then the right. “Let’s see how you like it.”
“Freeze!” A shout from the darkness.
Then…
Footsteps. Voices. Flashlights.
A female voice blasted, “Las Vegas PD!”
Logan did not release the knife. He might have…kept carving with it.
“Logan!” Detective Meredith Reece thundered. “Let go of the knife! Get away from him!”
Charlotte immediately put her body in front of Logan. “He’s the good guy!” Though she could see where that might be a bit hard to believe given the situation.
Behind her, Logan laughed. “Sweetheart, we both know that’s a stretch.”
He was good to her. “Don’t you dare shoot him! He just saved my life!”
Meredith Reece stepped into the light. Her gun was drawn. Aimed up at Logan. “I just saw him stab a man in the chest.”
“That man is a serial killer,” Charlotte retorted.
“He abducted Harper Channing. He tried to kill me. He would have killed me, if Logan hadn’t stepped in.
I saw him attack Logan—Carmichael had a knife of his own.
It’s literally on the floor near me right now.
Logan had to defend himself! He. Is. The. Hero.”
She felt Logan come up closer behind her. That was good, wasn’t it? Him coming closer meant he’d moved away from Carmichael and was following the detective’s orders.
Logan’s breath blew against her ear. “I’m not a hero,” he whispered. “But you are fucking delightful for saying so.” His hands curled around her waist. And, low, in her ear, just for her, “I was always going to kill him.”
“Put your hands up! I want all hands up!” Meredith bellowed. Then, “Shit! There’s another vic on the floor!”
“Sebastian!” Harper ran out of the cage. She rushed toward Sebastian and fell to her knees beside him. “Sebastian?”
He wasn’t moving.
The cops were swarming.
Detective Reece entered the cage with slow steps. She crouched near a prone Carmichael. She looked down at his chest. A low whistle. “You carved him open.” Her gun didn’t waver from Logan.
His fingers slowly slid from Charlotte. He backed away from her.
Logan raised his hands, showing that he wasn’t armed.
A quick glance down showed Charlotte that the brass knuckles were about two feet away.
As for the knife Logan had used on Carmichael— Charlotte’s favorite knife was still in the serial killer’s chest.
“Had to do it,” Logan admitted. “He tried to take my heart. So I took his.”
What?
“Back away from the woman!” Meredith ordered. “Now!”
Logan was no threat to her. He didn’t need to back away.
Charlotte spun toward him. Just in time to see him take a few steps away from her.
Uniformed cops had spilled into the cage. One stepped forward and cuffed Logan.
“Stop it!” Charlotte gaped at the cop. “He saved me!”
Looking both determined and way uncertain, the young cop gulped. “Ma’am, he just confessed to carving a man’s chest open…”
Okay, fine, Logan had done that. They’d have a chat about not making confessions. An important chat.
He tried to take my heart. So I took his.
Ignoring the cops, she closed the small distance between her and Logan. Her hand lifted and pressed to his cheek. “What did you mean by those words? Tell me. No games. No manipulation. Just the truth. When you said he tried to take your heart—”
“I love you.”
She could not breathe.
“Don’t look so surprised, sweetheart.”
Someone was reading Logan his rights. Why were they doing that? He was the hero.
At least, he was to her.
“Why else would I have married you?” Logan cocked his head to the right.
“To…protect me?” She’d thought that was the reason.
“Sure, that, too. I will always protect you. Hell, baby, I’d die for you. Also would kill for you because, you know, more effective.”
“Get an ambulance!” Meredith ordered. “Two vics down! We need help! We need this scene secured!”
They would get help to the scene, but Charlotte already knew that there would be no coming back for Carmichael. What Logan had done to his chest…
A shiver slid down her spine.
“Afraid of me?” Logan asked. The young, uniformed cop was pulling him away from her.
She surged onto her toes and grabbed his shoulders. “Never.” Her lips crashed into his. Hard. Clumsy. Passionate. “I love you. I. Love. You!”
The cops took him away. She protested. She explained. Over and over. She was even about to break cover and to tell them she was CIA—
“Enough.” Jezebel’s voice. Cutting through all the confusion and the chaos. EMTs were working on Sebastian. Others had crowded around Carmichael. Like there was anything that could be done there.
“FBI,” Jezebel announced breezily, flashing a badge toward Meredith.
A real badge, of course. She always had real credentials when she needed them.
A detective’s badge at the hospital and a badge for an FBI agent now.
“That man is a suspected serial killer.” A wave of her hand toward Carmichael.
“We’ve been tracking him for quite some time. ” She ambled closer to Carmichael.
Stared down at him.
There was still so much darkness in that building, and…suspicion bubbled in Charlotte. Just how long had Jezebel been there? Watching the show? Waiting…
For Carmichael to die?
“I bet that hurt,” Jezebel noted as she studied Carmichael’s gaping, bloody chest. Then she nodded. “Good.” Her head lifted. She sent a grim smile toward Charlotte. “Mission accomplished.”