Before the Dawn(97)

If anything, being with him again had made her love grow stronger.

We're different now. I thought we could have a chance this time. She'd been wrong.

Rage twisted Anthony's face. "I had everything planned...and you screwed it up. If I couldn't throw the blame on him, I was gonna put it on you. After all, you crumpled after your attack, didn't you? Let Jason break your mind?" 

"No," Tucker growled, "she didn't."

"Bullshit. I broke into her shrink's office. I read all the files. She couldn't stand to look at you-she kept seeing dear old Jason in your place. Bet that made for some wild sex times."

"Let her go," Tucker roared.

"After you left her, she thought she was still seeing Jason. Did she ever tell you that? She was convinced he was following her...that was where I got the idea for a little stalking. A little sneaking into her house and rearranging things. But then Jinx fucking saw me, and I had to kill her." His jaw clenched. "She wasn't supposed to die. She was too good of a fuck for that."

Dawn's hands had fisted. She'd fought back the nausea that had risen after he'd slammed the gun into her head. Her body was steady and she wasn't going to let him use her any longer. As long as he had her against him, he knew Tucker wouldn't attack.

She knew it, too. And she knew why, though Tucker hadn't said the words. She'd always known.

He loves me.

When she'd told Anthony that she was Tucker's missing piece, she'd meant those words. She fit him. He fit her.

They'd survived hell before. They would again.

"That damn tat," Anthony snarled. "Didn't even realize she'd gotten it until I saw a sketch at Voodoo Tats. It had my initials in it... Can you believe that shit? So, of course, I had to bide my time. I had to wait until Julia was alone at the lab and I had to fucking hope that no one found the tat before I got there. Lucky fucking break, though, Julia was too busy with dead bodies to find it until the end...and then I took care of her. I stopped her from telling anyone else. And I cut that tattoo right off Jinx's hip. No one will ever know."

Her heart stuttered in her chest. "What did you do to Julia?"

"Exactly what the Iceman would have done... I gave her a very cold grave." He laughed.

Tucker took a step forward.

"Don't!" Anthony yelled. "Unless you want her to die right now. If I shoot her from this angle, the bullet will go straight up into her brain. If she's not dead when she hits the floor, she'll just be a fucking vegetable, that I promise you."

Tucker stilled. His hand wasn't at his shoulder any longer. It was at his side. For just a moment, she stared at him and remembered another time.

"Choose." Jason's voice. Filling her head. Hurting her heart. "Choose right now and let her know it. Tell her the truth that we've always both known. Blood is thicker than anything else. Blood binds."

No, blood didn't bind. Blood didn't link people more than anything else in the world. Love did that. "I love you," she said to Tucker and she smiled.

"How fucking sweet," Anthony mocked them both. "She loves you... She loves the man who is going to kill her."

Tucker shook his head.

"Oh, yes," Anthony promised. "That's how this is going down. The patrol outside? I sent them away when I arrived. So no one is going to come busting in here. No one has any clue what's happening. The tattoo is gone. If there's a sketch of it downstairs, I'll take care of that before I'm done...maybe I'll even torch the whole building..."


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But the Iceman didn't like fire...

"You're going to kill her," Anthony said to Tucker. "Or at least, that's what it will look like. The Iceman's brother snapped and killed Jason's only surviving victim. Then, well, upstanding police detective that I am...I had no choice but to shoot you. To kill you."

Dawn shook her head. The barrel scraped over her chin.

"I'll spin some story about Tucker getting my gun and using it to kill poor Torez. But in the end, amazing cop that I am...I was able to stop the sadistic killer. You'll both die together."

"Why?" Dawn demanded. "Why are you doing this? Why-"

"It's in the blood," Tucker rasped. "I told you, Dawn. My father was a twisted son of a bitch. I wondered if he'd passed it down to me..."

He hadn't. Tucker was good. And Anthony?

He's been hiding the monster that he truly was all along.

"Our bastard of a father didn't want me!" Anthony yelled. "He wanted you and precious Jason, but he didn't want me! His mistake-his fucking mistake! The whole world will see-the two Frost boys were killers and I...I was the hero, all along."