And I didn’t even notice. Guilt tore through her, and she gagged because—three men were dead.
“Tage Price. Josh Lavelle. Ace Patton.” Keith seemed to relish saying their names. “Men who paid the price because they tried to love you.”
Her eyes squeezed shut as their images flashed through her mind. They’d been good men, all of them. They’d treated her well. They’d had families. Friends. Lives.
Lost.
“Curt made the bodies vanish. Seemed fitting. After all, that was what you did to his brother.”
Her eyes opened. She swallowed back the nausea and tried to push the images—Tage, Josh, and Ace—from her mind. “Go screw yourself.” He was responsible for those deaths. Keith and Curt. Twisted freaks.
She pushed up to her feet. Her body wavered, just a bit.
Then she tensed because she could hear the sound—the sound of an approaching car. Coming closer and closer in that parking garage. Hope filled her.
Keith’s head tilted, as if he’d heard the sound too, and then he laughed. “Curt wasn’t my only interested buyer. Quincy Atkins had allies, plenty of people who want to see his killer bleed. Some of them thought that Ethan was untouchable, but you—you can be touched plenty.”
The sound of that car was getting closer. Keith didn’t appear at all worried.
“That’s my buyer. He’s bringing me so much money for you. He’ll take you away, and you won’t ever be seen again. I’ll vanish, as well. Who knows?” He smiled. “Maybe I’ll try some pleasure killing, too. Curt always told me that the rush was truly incredible.”
She had to run. There was an elevator waiting about thirty feet away. She could get there. Get the doors open—
“Ethan won’t ever find your body. Maybe he’ll think that you’re alive. Maybe he’ll hold out hope for a while. A month. A year. Maybe longer. But eventually, the truth will hit him.” Keith gave a brisk nod. “And you set this all in motion. You wrapped your hands around him, right on the street. You weren’t afraid of him. You wanted him. So plain to see. And I knew right then—Curt had his weapon. He could finally hurt you the way that he wanted.”
“H-how did you become my shrink?” It made no sense that she’d wound up with this sick bastard.
“Oh, you mean, why did Dr. Hendricks recommend me to you before she left town? I actually helped her to leave. You see, I discovered some of her secrets, too. An addiction in her past that she wanted to stay hidden. To keep my silence, she sent you my way.” He shrugged. “I told you, secrets really are my business.”
The car came around the curve, shooting off the ramp that led to their level in that garage, heading straight for them.
Keith turned toward the vehicle, a smile on his face.
And that was her moment. His distraction. Her opportunity. She turned and ran, going as fast as she could toward that elevator.
“No!” Keith bellowed.
She didn’t stop. She expected to feel another bullet hit her. So she started to zig and zag. Wasn’t the advice that you were supposed to go all serpentine? Because bullets followed a straight trajectory, but people didn’t have to?
Car doors slammed.
And—
Gunfire. Bullets booming and echoing around her.
But Keith had a silencer on his gun.
Her hand slammed into the elevator button.
She looked back, a desperate glance.
Keith was on the ground.
A woman—African American, with dark hair pulled back into a bun and a fierce glare on her delicate face—stood over Keith, her gun still trained on him.
But that woman wasn’t alone.
Ethan was there, and he was running toward Carly.
The elevator doors opened, but she didn’t move.
He found me.
“Move,” the woman standing over Keith barked, “and you will get a bullet between your eyes.”
Carly stumbled toward Ethan. He caught her and held tight. The sound of sirens reached her ears, safety—coming.
But I’m already safe. I’m with Ethan.
No, no—a buyer was coming. They were both still in danger. She shoved at his arms. “Keith had plans—another man was coming. To—to buy me and—”
“He’s already in custody. Cops caught him outside. He pulled up right when Detective Chestang and I did.”
Detective Chestang? The name was oddly familiar.
He threw a quick glance over his shoulder. “Faith is from D.C., but turns out she has a few friends on the Force in this area, too. Victor told us about the GPS tracker on his SUV, so it was easy for Faith and I to assemble a team and find Keith.”
He’d worked with the cops?
“I was scared,” Ethan confessed.