Dungeon Games (22 page)

Liam was running beside him. “Five minutes tops. I called out to her in the locker room, but the shower was on. She’s fine, Derek.”

But he had the sudden feeling that she wasn’t. “You didn’t see her.”

“I can’t walk into the ladies’ dressing room.”

Derek hit the dressing room running. Nothing. It was quiet with the singular exception of a shower running somewhere in the back.

Please please please please be there. Please be there.

Liam stopped in front of the lockers. “Shit, is that blood?”

Sure enough, there was a smear of fresh blood on the doorway leading to the lockers.

“Karina!” He didn’t give a shit who freaked out that he was in there. He barreled into the shower area and ripped open the plastic curtain.

Nothing but an empty stall.

“Fuck me.” Liam pulled his cell. “Sean, get out to the parking lot. He has Karina. He took her out in a laundry bin.”

Derek stood there staring at the place where the water hit the tile. She was gone. Taken by a person who had already killed four times. Gone. Right out from under his nose. He was supposed to protect her, defend her, and he’d been changing into jeans while she fought for her life. Panic slowed him, made time seem to stop.

“Lieutenant?”

Who? Where would he take her? Where the hell was she? She should have been safe in his arms, but he’d been arrogant. He’d promised to protect her.

“Lieutenant!” O’Donnell whirled him around. “Snap out of it. I know you’re terrified, but she doesn’t need her lover right now. She needs the cop. You shove everything you’re feeling down and concentrate on the case. Now.”

Derek nodded. Li was right. He had to get it together. There were clues and they might, just might lead him to Karina if he could stop freaking out and concentrate.

But first he called an APB in on Karina, Terry Mills, and Will Daley. He didn’t give a flying fuck that he was rolling the dice, and if he was wrong they could fire him. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was finding Karina before…

Finding Karina. He was going to find Karina.

“You said it was a woman.” Liam had seen the person pushing the laundry cart. He’d called that person a she.

“I was standing a good twenty-five feet away, but she was small. I couldn’t see her hair, but there was no way that frame was male. She had breasts. I would bet they were fake. I can tell a fake set from a mile away.”

The doctor’s sub had fake breasts.

“Secure this room. No one gets in or out. I mean no one. This is a crime scene. I’ll have a forensic team here in fifteen minutes.” He started for the door that led to the hallway. He couldn’t be so far behind.

“All right, Lieutenant. Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find out how she took Karina out of here.” He was minutes behind her. The question was had the killer been waiting outside? He rather thought not. He would bet his life that the killer had been in the locker room, too. If Starr was in on it, then there was no way she took down Karina on her own. Even if she managed to drug her, that little stick creature couldn’t pick her up, couldn’t get her into a laundry bin.

How many people had been in that bin? At the very least Karina and the killer had been rolled out.

He turned right and saw the door that led to the loading dock. Using his boot, he kicked it open. He wasn’t about to add his fingerprints. The crime scene would already be a nightmare.

Fresh air hit his lungs as he stepped on the dock. There was a ramp that moved down toward the lot. There were four light posts, none of them with working illumination. Most of the visitors parked in the front lot. No one was out here. He turned to his left and there was the damn laundry bin.

Fuck, if she died, he would lie down beside her and never get up. Nothing would matter if he failed her.

He jogged around, looking for anything, anyone. He was in the middle of the city, but it was quiet. Too damn quiet. He could hear the freeway in the distance. He looked around for security cameras, anything that would tell him what car she’d been dumped in. Nothing. They’d placed cameras in front to catch people coming in and out. Because the victims had been at more than one club, they assumed they needed to check members, not employees, so the employee entrances had been left alone. Big mistake.

He pulled his cell and called it in, requesting a forensic team. It was time to come out of the darkness. He had to get everyone he could on finding her before it was too late.

If the killer followed his pattern, he would take her somewhere quiet, play with her for a while. The previous victims had been tied up prior to death. The patterns were intricate, requiring time and space.

He hated the thought of Karina being tortured, but he would take it over her being dead.

He heard a quiet cursing and then the slamming of a door.

Moving as quietly as he could, he turned the corner into the lot on the side of the building.

And then he remembered the doc’s car. On the second night they’d been at the club, he’d followed Master Will out to get a look at his ride. The doctor drove a bright red vintage Mustang. He’d thought it was a sweet ride at the time, and now that fucker stuck out like a sore thumb.

And so did the woman who was trying to get the trunk closed.

“Damn it. Damn it.” She sniffled, obviously panicking. Even in the low light, he could see it was Starr. She had changed. She was wearing a bland uniform, her hair in a baseball cap. She stood at the back of the car, trying to shove the trunk down. “Stupid old car.”

He stopped. Was Karina still in the trunk? Was she even alive?

The trunk lid popped open again and Starr bit back a cry. She shoved it down as far as it would stay and began to reach into her purse.

In the background, he could see Sean starting around the corner.

“Cut her off!” Derek yelled and then sprinted for the suspect.

Starr screamed. He could see her startled eyes and then she turned to run, but he was on her. Derek didn’t give a flying fuck that he might hurt her. He tackled her, sending her right to the pavement.

“Check that trunk,” Derek called out.

“Let me go!” Starr struggled underneath him. “Let me go. He made me do it. He was going to kill me if I didn’t do it. Let me go!”

“What the fuck is going on?” Sean asked as he jogged to the car. The trunk had popped back open.

“Karina’s gone.”

“Yeah, I got that from Li. You think she did it?” Sean asked as he pulled the trunk fully open.

“I don’t have her.” The woman under him gasped and her words were spat out as she cried. “He took her. I was just supposed to drive his car. Please don’t hurt me. If you just let me up, you can have some of the money. We can work this out.”

“It’s not Karina, Derek,” Sean said. “It’s Will Daley and he’s alive. Unconscious, but alive.”

Because they would need the patsy alive. They would need someone to pin the murders on.

And just like that he figured it out. Four women had died as nothing but a smoke screen for the one the killer really wanted. Terry Mills was damn good at deflection.

“I know where Karina is.”

* * * *

Karina fought her way back to consciousness. The sedative he’d given her made her head throb. She came to, shivering and unable to move her arms. Damn. She could feel the ropes against her skin. He’d been working for a while, it seemed. Cool air hit her flesh and nausea rolled. Naked. She was naked and trussed up in a not pleasant way.

Through the aching in her head, she tried to remember what had happened. Someone had drugged her. Starr. She was going to get so much hell from the guys for letting that happen. She’d been distracted. Will had shown up. He’d told her to run and then she’d seen Terry.

Terry was the monster. Terry was the one who had tied her up. If she didn’t get out of here, Terry would be the one who killed her.

How much time had passed?

“Don’t even try to move, bitch.” His voice was hard, deeper than she remembered, but then he’d hidden a lot from her.

“What are you doing?” She stayed as still as she could, but she could feel ropes around her wrists. He’d bound them tight. Too tight. She couldn’t feel her hands. Her shoulders were pulled and twisted. It was a perversion of what Derek did to her. Derek wrapped her up like a work of art. Derek made her feel safe and beautiful, as though it was his arms around her. This had been done to restrict her, to hurt her, to hold her down for the kill. How far had he gotten?

She forced her eyes open. The world was still blurry. Lights. She could see them, but they were like halos, making the rest of the world fuzzy.
Stay calm.
Beyond her head throbbing, she didn’t feel a ton of pain.

“What am I doing? I’m dealing with a problem, Karina. You always were a problem.” He came into view, his face frowning down at her.

“I don’t understand.” Her voice was a little slurred, but she was sure of one thing. She had to keep him talking. She had to take stock. Her hands were tied behind her back, but it felt like her legs were still free. From mid-thigh down she seemed to have some movement. She could use that. She just needed to get a little more control back.

Where the hell was she?

“You don’t understand that you corrupted my whole family?” He reached down and slapped her across the face. “Wake up, bitch, because I have a few things to say to you before I put you down.”

Pain flared, but it did a damn fine job of making her head clear up.
Calm down. Breathe. Think.
She could beat him.

“How did I corrupt Kevin? I loved Kevin.” Keep him talking because Derek was looking for her. He wouldn’t let hours pass. He would call in the cavalry and figure out where she was. He would be here and she had to be alive when he busted down the door.

“My brother was a hero and you turned him into a freak. Sometimes I’m glad he died because you would have brought him down, you junkie whore. It was bad enough you did all those drugs, but did you have to make him into a freak?”

“He wasn’t a freak. He was a good man.” And now that she was here, she could see she’d dishonored her former Master by building walls around herself. He might not have been as deeply affectionate as Derek, but he had loved her. He had given her everything he had. Kevin wouldn’t want her to mourn him for the rest of her life. He wouldn’t want her to hide. He was proud of her. He’d never hidden her past from his family and friends and co-workers because he thought it proved how strong she was.

“He was a good man until he met you. He arrested you. He should have sent you to fucking jail.”

He had the first time. Then one night he’d found her huddling in a building where a bunch of homeless kids had taken refuge. The NYPD had busted the entire place, but he’d led her out to his squad car and she’d been shocked when he took her to his house instead. In the morning, he’d taken her to rehab.

You got one shot at this, kid. You get through this and I’ll put you up at my place. I’ll make sure you go to school. You don’t and I will take you in next time.

She’d asked him why and he’d told her nothing so beautiful should be allowed to rot and that’s what she’d do in jail. He’d told her she’d never gotten a chance, so he would make sure she got one. When she’d gotten out of rehab, he’d been true to his word. He’d gotten her through her GED. He hadn’t touched her for two months. He’d given her space to find her footing. She’d had to kiss him the first time.

Kevin would very likely have been friends with Derek. Good men. Good cops. Good Doms.

And they both had shitty brothers.

“He loved me. He helped me and turned me around. He would not want you to do this.” How long did she have before he made his move?

“What he wants doesn’t matter anymore. He was always the one our parents loved, you know. He was the smart one. He was the one who didn’t get into trouble. ‘Why can’t you be more like Kevin?’ That’s what I heard all my fucking life. I even told my mother about the shit he was into. I told her that he was a pervert freak who liked to spank women and you know what she said?”

Karina could only guess. Her mother-in-law had been an amazing woman. Tolerant. Loving. Faithful. Karina could have given him a speech about what a true lady his mother had been, but she wanted him to do the talking so she shook her head. “No.”

“She told me that if it made him happy, it was okay. It was only okay because she couldn’t see how wrong it was. Because she couldn’t see that you had brought her precious son low.”

“He introduced me to the lifestyle, but I don’t think your mother saw it as being low.” It was love and it was between them. Her mother-in-law might very well have said anything that brings a couple closer together was perfectly fine.

She was starting to get used to the light again. She could see more of him, and the first thing she noticed was his bright blue cast. “It’s a fake.”

He smirked a little. “Yeah. Oh, if anyone asks for my X-rays, I can provide them. I really did break it a couple of months back. It was right about the time I found out Kevin had a life insurance policy none of us knew about. I had to dig through some old files to find the access to ma’s old bank accounts. Kevin hadn’t touched them so there was still ten grand and a safety deposit box. I guess he decided to use it for his papers. One million dollars just sitting there.”

At least she knew why he wanted to kill her. A million would likely buy him a shiny new boat. Terry was always complaining that he didn’t get a good deal. After their mother had died, she’d left the money to Kevin because Terry had gotten their dad’s boat and his business. Kevin hadn’t wanted it and she hadn’t even thought about it after he died. She hadn’t even realized he had another life insurance policy. “It won’t work. Derek will investigate.”

“Your new pervert boyfriend? He can investigate all he likes. He’ll go exactly where I want him to go. He’ll end up here at this house and he’ll find your body. I’ll even make a little call after the scene is set. Well, I’ll let my girl call it in. She can call 911 and say she heard you scream or some shit. The police will get where I want them to go.”