Jaded (25 page)

“Tell me how you killed your mother.”

Jade pursed her lips and continued to look straight ahead.

Richard wasn’t so easily put off. He dug the nose of the gun into her right temple. “Tell me.”

Jade clenched her jaw and slowly exhaled. What did it matter? “I pushed her, she fell and hit her head on the corner of the kitchen table, and bled to death. I didn’t stick around to help out.”

“Otis told me you burned her up.”

Jade looked at him perplexed. “I didn’t start the fire.”

“Cops think you did.”

Jade shrugged and kept her eyes on the road. “It doesn’t matter. I hit her, she fell and cracked her head open. There was lots of blood.”

Richard snickered.

Jade glanced at him, then turned her attention back to the road.

“What?”

“It’s amazing how perception can completely distort the truth.”

Jade nodded. Perception was what kept her alive all these years. The perception that she was someone worlds away from who she really was.

“Why did you kill Townsend?” she asked.

“He called my sister your name as he was coming in her mouth. I think that was pretty rude. Then I watched him come on to you in the parking lot. You were slick stabbing him. I finished him. If anyone asked, well, you
had
threatened to cut off his balls and shove them down his throat. How could I resist such a superb ending for such a superb piece of shit?”

“So you killed Townsend because he disrespected Genny?”

“That was the trigger, but after I thought about it, I figured, what a great way to shut down the club. And if the club was shut down, then my sister wouldn’t have to turn tricks to pay for tuition. I heard what Jack Morton told you to do with Hiro. And you proved you were the whore I knew you were. I didn’t give my sister a chance to get dissed by that little prick. I went in right after you. The guy thought I was you coming back for more. I surprised him.”

Jade’s belly did several slow flops at Richard’s confession. Would Jase know the truth about her in the end? Desperately, she wanted him to know she had no hand in the Callahan’s murders. She swallowed hard and asked, “And Otis?”

“Well, now, Otis did the same thing to my Genny. He fucked her and screamed out your name the entire time. Then he slapped her around. Imagine my anger.” Richard laughed. “But Otis had a lot to say before he died. Some of it might interest you, but you’ll never know. I want to see you burn.”

“Why do you want to hurt my sister?”

“I don’t want to hurt her, I want to take her away from you, permanently, just like you took Genny away from me. She thinks I’m a monster, you know.” Richard’s hand wavered and he coughed back a small sob. “All I ever did was love her. I soothed away her tears all those times Father hurt her, sticking that sweet little-girl body of hers with his big ugly cock. He was disgusting! She let me hold her and kiss away her tears. When she was twelve and cried in my arms that she was going to kill herself before she let him touch her again, I made sure she would never have to take her life.”

“You killed your father?”

“I cut his balls off and shoved them down his throat, Jade. Just like you threatened to do to Townsend. Is that poetic justice or what?” He laughed, the sound high and grating. “I’d say great minds think alike, but you’re a whore.”

As Jade pulled onto the SDSU campus, Richard told her to slow down. “Don’t try anything, I know which dorm is Crystal’s. I also know you have a key to it.”

“How did you know her real name?”

“As I said, Otis was quite talkative before I killed him.”

“Crystal has a roommate.”

Richard smiled and shook his head. “Come on now, Jade, I’m not a complete moron. I know you pay extra for a private suite.”

As Jade parked the car, her cell phone rang. It was Jase. She went to answer and Richard clamped his hand over hers. “Don’t answer it.”

Jade gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to break out of the car and make a run for it. Although it was evening, there were plenty of students on campus. The last thing she wanted was more blood on her hands. They walked to Tina’s suite. When she said she had no key, Richard grabbed her purse and pulled out her key chain. He thrust it at her. “Open the door.”

Jade prayed Tina had gotten her message, but if she were in her room, Jade would become a human shield and kill Richard Monroe herself.

The room was empty. Jade breathed a huge sigh of relief. Richard shoved her inside and locked the door behind them. For a dorm suite it was small: the requisite single bed, desk, closet, and bathroom. But the room smelled like her sister, sweet and innocent. Pictures of her and Jade littered the walls and her desk. Her laptop was gone and Jade noticed the room was in some disarray. Hopefully, Tina had gotten her message, grabbed her things, then took off.

Was it too much to hope Jase was on his way?

They had sat for two hours in the room, neither speaking, when it occurred to Richard that maybe Tina was not coming back. He looked in her bathroom and cursed. Her toiletries were gone. His eyes swept the desktop, then landed on Jade’s gaze. “You warned her.”

“What else would you have had me do?”

Richard stepped toward her, his arm raised. She didn’t flinch. She sat erect, her eyes challenging. “Just go ahead and kill me, Richard, get it over with.”

He moved closer and ran the nose of the barrel down the side of her face. “That would be too easy. I want you to feel my pain. Everything I did, I did for Genny. Like you did for Tina. How come you get to keep your sister when you took mine away from me?”

“Rus—Richard, I didn’t make Genny’s choices for her.”

He laughed. “How can you say that? You encouraged all of those girls to put out. And you led by prime example!” His face twisted in ugly anger. “Now you’re going to know how it feels to lose the only person in the world who matters to you.”

“Genny is alive!”

“I’m dead to her. You did that, Jade. All I wanted was for her to love me, to let me take care of her. I took out all of the people who hurt her, and now
she hates me for it.
”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“It is!
You fired her! She almost died because of you!”

“I didn’t make Genny’s choices, Richard. She did.”

“That’s right. I forgot you’re better than everyone because you pulled yourself out of the whorehouse! Well, you’re the same as us. Now you pay!”

He looked wildly around the room. “Call your sister.”

“I—”

“Call her! I want her here, in twenty minutes!”

Reluctantly, Jade dialed Tina’s number. When her sister answered, Jade screamed, “Stay where you are!” Richard ripped the phone from her, the Glock trained on her head. “Hey, Crystal, my name is Richard Monroe, and I want to meet you. I’m at your dorm room. Come over now or Big Sister dies. And don’t bring any friends.” He hung up.

A minute later, Jade’s phone rang. It was Tina. Her captor answered, “Yes, Crystal?”

“I’ll come, but meet me across the quad in the music lobby,” the girl shakily said.

“You aren’t in any position to be making demands, little girl.”

Jade heard the fear in her sister’s voice, but also the steel that bound them together.

“I—I don’t want any of my dormmates to get hurt. The music building is quiet this time of night. No one will see you.”

“Who knows I’m talking to you?”

“No one,” she cried. “I did what Jade told me, I went somewhere with no one around. Please, just let my sister go. I can give you money, I can give you whatever you want.”

“I want you, Crystal. Just you, an even trade.”

Through her tears, Crystal said, “I’ll meet you there in ten minutes.”

When Tina closed her cell phone, she looked up at the detective, her big green eyes as expressive as her sister’s. “Promise me you won’t let him hurt Jade.”

Jase smiled slowly and squeezed her shoulder. “I promise.” He turned to the gathered group of campus police and said, “Let’s go.”

The sergeant in charge nodded, then said, “If it goes to shit, we’re going in.”

“I appreciate the professional courtesy, Sergeant. If you ever need it up my way, consider the favor returned.”

Luckily for Jase, he’d worked with Sergeant Munson on a UC drug case a few years ago at a nearby campus. Under normal circumstance, the locals would have told him to take a backseat, but Jase had explained the facts of life and had been given the green light to proceed on his own.

Quickly, Jase went over the plan with Tina. She was to get Monroe as close to the large window as possible and to stand sideways and as far away from him as she could for the sniper to get a clear shot. She was also miked. Jase would come in the rear and try to take Monroe out if the sniper couldn’t get a clear shot. If that failed? Munson would step in.

Jade prayed for rescue as Richard used her as a human shied, ducking and moving her in tight circles while keeping to the darker shadows as they worked their way the short distance to the auditorium lobby.

As he shoved Jade inside, her hopes of rescue crashed. Her adrenaline spiked so high as she watched her baby sister—the one she had spent her life protecting—walk right into death’s jaws, she heaved. Richard quickly tied her hands with curtain cord he’d ripped from the wall as spasms racked her body, then pushed her down to the floor. Jade felt completely helpless.

As Tina walked closer to the large glass door, Jade’s adrenaline came around and spiked again, and she rolled on her ass with as sweep of her outstretched legs, kicking Richard in the back of the calves, causing him to lose his balance. He screamed and hit the floor hard. When he put his hands out to break his fall, his gun skittered across the linoleum floor. He rolled over and moved to his hands and feet, scurrying across the floor like a crab. He grabbed the gun, rolled over, aimed at her, and pulled the trigger.

The loud crack of the gun discharging sounded hollow and somehow far away in the big empty room. Jade heard screams and realized they were coming from her. Her chest constricted as her lungs compressed, expelling air. The velocity of the bullet when it struck sent her flying back onto the floor.

In a slow-motion haze, Jade heard her sister’s scream. As her body skidded, she watched, wide-eyed, as her sister ran toward her. Richard was up. He clotheslined Tina around the throat, her body jerking suddenly as the velocity of her actions were stopped. Jade blinked and the next frame horrified her. Richard had her sister in a half nelson. The nine-mil dug into her temple.

“Jade!” Tina screamed, twisting and kicking at Richard.

No! Stop, Tina, Stop! He’ll kill you!
Jade opened her mouth to scream the words, but none came out. For several long seconds, she could hear nothing nor feeling anything. Shock infiltrated her body. Haziness engulfed her senses. She was going to faint and then Richard would kill them both. Another round of adrenaline spiked. She took a deep breath.

Still reeling from the shock of being shot, Jade managed to scoot back on her butt and lean up against the wall. Her vision cleared and sound was restored. Her body throbbed, one huge mass of bruises. Her shoulder burned like hell. Her chest screamed. She couldn’t take a deep breath without her damaged ribs jabbing into her. With her hands tied behind her back, she couldn’t apply pressure. The warm flow of blood covered her arm. She looked at Tina, who had finally quieted and who watched her as big sobs racked her chest, her face tearstained.

The room spun twice more in one direction before it changed and settled back to almost normal. Jade shook her head and carefully focused. Fire flared from her arm. She glanced at it. Yep, she’d been shot, a nice hole in the fleshy part of her upper arm. It hurt like a son of a bitch.

She attempted to take several deep, cleansing breaths. The pain was unbearable. Jade looked up at her stricken sister. “I’m okay, Tina.”

Richard laughed. “Excellent! I want you alive to watch me fuck your sister while I slowly strangle her.” With Tina as a shield, he moved to the front doors and turned the lock. The light switches were on the other side of the door; he reached over and dimmed the light of the room. Now any passersby would have difficulty seeing inside. Jade’s heart pounded, blood raced through her arteries, and panic rose. How the hell was she going to get them out of this?

She’d been tugging at the frayed cord. With her slick blood acting as a lubricant, she almost had one hand out.

Richard pushed Tina toward her, careful to keep the gun trained on her temple. Jade knew with the slightest provocation he would pull the trigger. He stopped ten feet away.

He grabbed Tina’s ass with his free hand and squeezed. Tina cried out and it was all Jade could do not to lunge at the bastard. “Is that how it is for you, Richard? Molesting sisters?”

“Shut up! I loved Genny! I protected her!”

He slid his hand up Tina’s waist. She squirmed and screamed out. He dug the end of the barrel deep into her skin. “Stop moving, little sister, or you die.” Tina immediately stopped. Her wild eyes pleaded with Jade to save her.

“I protected my sister, too, Richard. I killed for her. I’ll kill for her again.”

Richard laughed momentarily, halting his groping. “You think you’re all bad because you think you killed your mama to keep her from turning this sweet thing out?”

“There was no thinking about it. I killed her just as sure as you’re standing there.”

“What if I told you all you did was give her a good bump on the head?”

Jade’s heart stopped. “How would you know what happened?”

“I told you, Otis talked a lot before he died. That boy sure hated you, Ruby Leigh. You can add him to your fan club. It was him who your mama was gonna sell Crystal here to. He was gonna get you through this little thing. Kind of like what I’m doing right now. But you were too smart for him. He didn’t expect you would rebel. He came looking for the girl, found your mama sitting at the kitchen table with an ice pack on her head and a bottle of whiskey in her hand.”

Jade gasped. “I saw the blood!”