Lisa Jackson's Bentz & Montoya Bundle: Hot Blooded, Cold Blooded, Shiver, Absolute Fear, Lost Souls, Malice, & an Exclusive Extended Excerpt From Devious (88 page)

Warren aimed the stun gun at James and pressed a finger. “What would you know of holiness, you sanctimonious bastard?” he snarled. He pressed a button. James yelped and fell to the floor.

No! He had to be stopped! Pushing herself, Olivia sprang. Her twisted ankle throbbing, she flung herself at her brother and felt the electricity before she’d landed a blow to his face. The Chosen One staggered, stumbling backward. Kristi leaped onto his back. She wrapped her chain around his neck and pulled, screaming and crying, volts of electricity streaking down her body as he pressed the gun against her thigh. Flailing, Warren slammed Kristi into a wall, his hands scrabbling for another weapon. He came up with a crucifix—a black wrought iron cross with a pointed end. James climbed to his feet, swayed and rushed Warren.

“Watch out!” Olivia screamed in horror. No—she staggered to her feet, threw herself toward the two men.

But it was too late. James wobbled forward.

“Noooooo!” Krisiti cried.

The Chosen One’s hand slashed downward.

Thud!
The crucifix plunged deep into James’s chest.

James jerked backward. Blood seeped around the weapon.

“No, no, no!” Olivia cried, tears falling from her eyes as she struggled to crawl to reach James … not dear James … “Oh, God, oh, God …” She inched toward him, but it was too late. Blood appeared around his lips.

“Forgive me, Father,” he whispered, then sank to his knees.

Bentz heard the screams as he threw himself out of the Jeep before it stopped rolling. He was too late! Whatever horror the monster had planned it was happening. To Olivia. To Kristi. To everyone he loved.

With Montoya on his heels and sirens screaming through the night around them, he rushed the building, his weapon drawn. He couldn’t lose them. Not now. Dear God, not now. His heart was pounding, his pulse thundering.
Let them be alive
, he silently prayed.
And give me a clear shot. That’s all I need. Just one.

Other officers were surrounding the building but he pushed open the door and found himself in a long hallway by a staircase, and ahead, through a door that was ajar, in the blood-red glow of the lights he looked into his own personal hell.

“No!” Kristi screamed, yanking hard on the chain surrounding the prick’s neck. He’d killed Uncle James …. Oh, God … Sobbing, kicking, grief tearing her from the inside out, she wanted to kill the bastard. She would!

All the years of hatred and confusion muddled in her mind as she saw the man who had sired her collapse on the floor. He couldn’t be dead. No! No! No! Not James! From the corner of her eye Kristi glimpsed Olivia pulling a sword off the wall. She was half-dead, too. Bleeding and raw, limping. As the creep aimed the stun gun at her again, Olivia rushed forward, swung and sliced his hand, sending the gun into the deep dirty straw.

She drew back to swing at his head, but he twisted, rolling around so that Kristi, upon his back, was his shield. “Jump off!” Olivia ordered, the bloody sword still pointed at him. He backed up, using the mirror to try and skewer Kristi on the weapon. Kristi kicked all the harder. Olivia dropped the sword.

Footsteps thundered. The door banged open. Bentz stood in the doorway. “Drop your weapons! Police!” Bentz, his Glock drawn, strode into the room. His eyes locked with hers. “Kristi, let go,” he yelled.

“Daddy,” she said weakly and willingly gave up her grip to crumple into a heap and start to cry. He was here to save her—to save them!

The Chosen One retrieved his stun gun and aimed it at Bentz.

“Rick, watch out!” Olivia cried.

Bentz fired.

With a horrible yelp, The Chosen One fell just as the stun gun fired. Bentz jolted, then sprang forward, blasting more shots into the crumpling man.

“Daddy … oh, Daddy …” In a heartbeat Bentz crossed the room, sweeping her off the dirty floor and holding onto her as if his life depended upon it. She buried her face in his neck and sobbed brokenly. “Uncle James… he’s dead,” she said and grief tore at her. The man she’d rejected. The uncle who had adored her. The man who had given her life and she’d been petty and mean to him. When all he’d tried to do was love her. She thought of the gifts he’d showered upon her, the kindness and patience and … and how, in the end, she’d rejected him, slamming down the phone the last time he’d called. And now … and now … she squeezed her eyes shut but that horrible moment when The Chosen One had slammed the cross into James’s chest burned through her brain. Shaking violently, Kristi clung to Bentz as if she’d never let go.

And Bentz wouldn’t let her. He held onto her and screamed orders, felt the wash of warm tears run down the back of his neck as other officers poured into the room. Olivia—she looked like she’d survive, but James … Bentz stared in horror at his brother and the horrid cross imbedded in his chest. He crawled to James while still holding Kristi. “James! Can you hear me?” he demanded, instantly on his knees.

Flashlights bobbed. The dogs growled. Policemen barked orders. Some rounded up the dogs, others searched the premises while still others checked the wounded.

“Get the keys off him,” Bentz ordered, pointing his sidearm at the killer. “And get an EMT in here. Now!”

A policewoman dropped to James’s side. “Hold on, Father,” she said softly.

Montoya, after checking for Sutter’s pulse, slid his fingers into the monster’s pockets. He found a set of keys and threw them at Bentz. “I’ll get you out of here,” Bentz promised as he unlocked Kristi’s chains and felt a rage as hot as all of hell’s fires burn deep within him as he glanced at this fetid, brutal room.

Then his eyes locked with Olivia’s as she sat crumpled in a corner. She was propped against one wall, breathing hard, naked but for some kind of dog collar and shivering. Scrapes and bruises covered her face and arms. Damn the bastard.

Kristi whimpered as her chains fell away.

“Shh … honey … it’ll be okay. I promise …” he said, knowing he lied as he made his way to Olivia. Still holding his child, he knelt and found a key that unlocked the collar surrounding her throat. “Are you all right?”

“No … yes …” She was crying too, tears glistening red from the weird light as they streaked down her face. Juggling Kristi, Bentz took off his jacket and draped it over Olivia’s shoulders. She flinched before he saw the red welts … deep cuts slicing across her back.

“That son of a bitch.”

“It’s all right,” she said, her chin quivering. “I’ll be okay.”

“I’d like to kill him all over again.” He slid a finger along her jaw and swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry—”

She grabbed his fingers. “Later … now … James …” she said brokenly as an officer approached and offered a blanket which Bentz swaddled around his daughter.

Kristi sobbed as Bentz looked back at his brother where the policewoman was still working over him. But James was quivering and shaking, his face white as death.

“Shit…” Carrying Kristi, Bentz dived to the other side of the room. “James … no…” He fell to one knee. “Hang in there,” he said to his brother and yelled, “Where the hell are the EMTs?” He placed a hand on James’s shoulder. “You’re gonna be all right, James, you got that? You’re gonna be fine.”

Barely conscious, James rolled glazed eyes at Bentz. A crucifix was buried deep in his chest, blood stained his pale lips. Bentz wanted to throw up.

“No … It’s too late …” James’s breathing was ragged and slow, blood spreading across his shirt. With an odd, peaceful smile, he rasped, “No doctor, Rick. I need a priest.”

“No, don’t talk that way!” Bentz swivelled his head in Montoya’s direction. “Where’s the damned ambulance?”

“It’s here.”

“Forgive me, Rick. I wronged you,” James forced out, his voice a wheeze, a horrid rattle deep in his lungs. Then his gaze moved to Kristi. “And you, too … I… I… love you. So much.”

His eyes seemed to glaze and Bentz felt as if a thousand fingernails were scraping the inside of his soul. Images of James as a young adoring pup, the kid who always tagged after him flashed through Bentz’s mind. They’d spent so many hours while growing up talking of baseball and hunting and girls. His throat clogged. “There’s nothing to forgive, James, and you’re going to be fine.”

“But Jennifer—”

“Ancient history. And I’ve got … we’ve got Kristi.” Without James’s betrayal, Bentz wouldn’t have a daughter.

“Please … please don’t die, Uncle James,” Kristi said and a tiny, faltering smile curved James’s lips. “Daddy!”

“God is calling me.”

“Not yet! Fight, James!” Rick ordered, cradling his brother’s head, feeling James’s silky hair against his palms. “Fight, damn it! We need you. I need you. Kristi needs you! Don’t give up, do you hear me!”

Kristi was sobbing and James’s eyes closed slowly.

“I—can’t!” he rasped, his chest rattling.

“Don’t you give up! James! James! Damn it, don’t you give up!” Bentz swung his head toward the rest of the room. “Get an EMT over here! Now!” Bentz bellowed, his eyes moist as one of the dogs snapped and yipped while an officer forced it into a cage.

He couldn’t lose James. Not this way. Not at the hands of a serial murderer whom Bentz should have put away. There was so much to say, to do, so many fences to mend

Half a dozen emergency workers lugging equipment, jogged into the room. Shouting orders, they split up to attend the fallen.

“Holy shit,” one whispered as he reached James.

“Over here, this one’s traumatized, maybe worse!” Another EMT was already with the woman chained to the wall.

“Sarah!” Olivia cried, but her friend didn’t respond.

“I’ll take care of her!” a young policeman threw over his shoulder as he unlatched Sarah’s bonds and pulled the tape from her mouth.

“This one’s dead.” A third was leaning over Warren Sutter where bullet holes riddled his alb and the pure white cloth was now stained a dark, oozing red. Bentz glanced at the man as an EMT ordered him aside and started working over James. “Out of the way. Christ, I need some help here … we’re losing this guy!”

“No,” Olivia cried. She’d managed to get to her feet and stumble across the room. Her fingers clasped a department-issued blanket around her body. “No—James!” she whispered and fell to the floor. “Please … please …” Tears rained from her eyes as she touched James’s limp hand.

Bentz’s guts twisted as James’s eyes fluttered open, just barely. “Be good to Rick. He’s a good man … you deserve someone who … who can love you … totally.” Olivia was crying openly now. “And Bentz … he … he needs … a strong woman … you.” James’s voice cracked, then faded. Kristi sent up a wail that echoed hollowly through the dank, dark chamber.

Tears streamed from Bentz’s eyes. It was too late. “Oh, Daddy, he can’t be—”

But the EMT shook his head and Bentz ached inside, guilt and anger roiling deep within. “It’s over, honey,” he whispered, fighting a losing battle with tears as he held his daughter. James’s daughter. Their daughter.

“But Uncle James …”

“Shh. He’s with God now.”

“You don’t even believe in God,” she charged. “You said so.”

“I lied.”

“Another ambulance is on its way.” Montoya clicked off his cell phone and took the time to look around the room as if for the first time. The dogs were finally penned, but the mirrors and weapons glittered in the red light, glittering more harshly by the flashlights the officers were using. “Jesus H. Christ.”

Bentz, holding Kristi, moved closer to Olivia. She looked down at his brother and shook her head. Tears streamed from her eyes and her chin wobbled in her vain attempt to rein in her emotions. Bentz wrapped his free arm around her. “We’ll get through this. Together.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Have faith,” he said and the words struck an old forgotten chord, one he’d denied for so many years. “It was James who followed you here and called it in,” he explained. “He saved you.” His other arm tightened over his daughter. “And Kristi.”

“But how did you know where to come?”

“I bugged his house, his phone, and his car.” His admission reminded him of how he’d doubted his own brother, the anger and jealousy he’d felt toward a good, if sometimes weak man. “I’m a great brother, aren’t I?” he asked, hating his black suspicions. “I guess I don’t trust anyone.” His gaze fastened on Olivia. “But I’m working on changing that. I promise.”

In the distance, the bleat of additional sirens cut through the night. “Come on,” Bentz said to his daughter and Olivia as body bags were carried in. “It’s time for us to go home.”

“No, Dad,” Kristi said. “We have to find Brian. The … the creep’s got Brian somewhere!”

“Too late.” Montoya’s face was grim, as if he’d aged twenty years. “We already found him in the trunk of the Mercedes.”

“Is he okay—?”

“I’m sorry, Kris,” Montoya said with a shake of his head.

Kristi convulsed, screaming and kicking. “No, no, no!” Tiny fists flailed, but Bentz held on, wouldn’t let her go. “He can’t be dead. Not because of me. Noooooo!” Kristi let out a painful screech louder than either the dogs or the approaching ambulances. Guilt chasing through him, Bentz wondered if she’d ever be all right. And Olivia, what of her? She looked into Bentz’s eyes.