Profile of Terror (37 page)

"You're not going to do anything to me, bitch.  Have you forgotten who's driving?  Shoot me with that thing and we both could die."

"Thanks for reminding me." Nervous sweat slicked her body. "Now slowly and safely press on the brakes and stop this van."

The van hit a pothole in the road, sending it airborne for a second.  Kaitlyn fell backward, slamming her head against the floor, sending the stun gun flying into the front compartment of the van and landing on the passenger seat.  Instantly, Evan secured the weapon.  "Now who's in control?"

Kaitlyn rubbed the back of her head, and considered the contents of the Morel High School athletic bag.  Using the syringe was a good defensive tactic, but he would know she wouldn't be able to inject him.  The last thing she needed was a driver incapacitated at the wheel.  What the hell could she do with the duct tape?

Twisting herself around, she immediately noticed two large windows mounted in the rear door of the van.  Crawling closer to the windows, she balanced herself and peered out.  There was a truck behind the van.  Delighted, she kicked one of the windows until the glass shattered.  Then Kaitlyn stuck her arms out the window, waving wildly at the driver of the truck.

"Stop it!"  Evan screamed. 

Kaitlyn turned in time to see Evan pull something from the glove box.  Her heart froze when she saw the fierce-looking gun in his hand.  With one hand on the steering wheel, he stretched his arm and pointed the gun at her chest.

"How about I stop you permanently, bitch?  Devan would approve of my shooting you.  If he were here, you would undoubtedly already be dead." 

The calm in his eyes was more frightening than if he'd shouted the threat at her. 

Heart pounding, knees shaking, her thoughts racing, Kaitlyn fought for control.  Biting her lip, she thought of Frankie's self-defense class.  Although Frankie didn't recommend the technique unless it was an extreme emergency, she'd taught her class how to jump from a moving vehicle.  It was to be a last-ditch effort, if they'd been abducted.  Frankie had emphasized serious injury and even death could occur from leaping from a moving vehicle.  Kaitlyn racked her brain for Frankie's instructions, opened both doors at the rear of the van, and then motioned for the truck behind them to back off. 

"What the hell are you doing?  Do you
want
to get shot?"  Evan shouted.

Once the truck slowed down, she moved her body to an angle so she could aim toward the soft grass at the side of the road.  Kaitlyn jumped, tucked her body into a ball, her chin to her chest, and prepared to roll.  Hitting the ground with her shoulder, she rolled across the grass into a ditch.  The air whooshed out of her as if she'd been sucker punched, the pain so severe she could scarcely breathe.  But she was alive.  Lifting her head, she saw the black truck had pulled off the road, and a teenaged boy and girl were running toward her.  In the distance, a police helicopter hugged the highway.  Gabe? 

<><><> 

Evan stared in the rearview mirror in disbelief.  The crazy bitch had jumped.  Just as he watched her roll into a ditch, he saw the helicopter heading toward him, along with a sheriff patrol car.  He floored the accelerator, catapulting the van down the highway.  He'd reached seventy-miles-per-hour when he saw the deer leap in front of him.  Evan slammed on the brakes, making the van do a sickening whirl, spinning until it rolled and rolled, banging his head against the ceiling and then the window, until a heavy darkness overcame him.

Two patrol cars blocked traffic, while another raced in pursuit of the white van.  Gabe lowered the helicopter to a landing, and leapt out.  He was followed by Cameron, along with Bryan, who clutched his black medical bag.  They hurried to the body in the ditch they'd spotted from the air.

When Gabe reached Kaitlyn, a young boy was near her body talking on his cell phone, while a girl stroked Kaitlyn's arm as she talked to her soothingly. 

"I'm here, Cat."  Gabe tried to keep the hitch of emotion out of his voice.

"I just knew that was you in the helicopter," Kaitlyn said softly, moaning in pain when he touched her.

"Where does it hurt?"

"Everywhere, but mostly up here." She pointed to her arm.

Bryan arrived.  "Move aside so I can look at my patient."  He bent down and examined Kaitlyn, who cried out when he prodded her upper arm. "Looks like her shoulder is broken.  We need to get her to a hospital, Gabe.  She's going to need surgery."

A loud and fiery explosion pierced the blue sky, and a dark cloud of smoke arose from the highway in the distance.

"What happened, Cam?" asked Gabe.

Ending his call, Cam placed his cell phone in his pocket.  "Before the deputy in pursuit could even reach the white van, it spun out of control and flipped several times, until it burst into flames.  It's too hot for the deputy to get too close to the vehicle, but he doesn't think the driver made it."

Cam's cell phone sounded.  It was Brody.

"Hey, I was just going to call you.  I've got some bad news."

"What happened?  Is it Kaitlyn?  Did she get hurt?"

"Except for a possible broken shoulder, Kaitlyn is fine.  She jumped from the back of the van." Cameron paused.  "It's Evan.  He just wrecked the van and it exploded into flames.  There's little chance he lived through it."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Bradley Lucas not only has to cope with the fact that his sons were serial killers, but now they are both dead."

"He just called.  He looked for the boys at the storage business he owns outside of town.  He'd given them a unit to store their athletic gear.  Bradley discovered a bed inside the storage unit, along with plastic bins labeled with each of our victim's names.  There were other bins, too, and he didn't recognize the names, but I did.  They're the murdered Indianapolis prostitutes.  Each bin contained personal items belonging to each victim."

"Bradley has never been one of my favorite people," Cameron said. "But I truly feel sorry for the guy.  Do you want me to visit his wife and him with the news?"

"No, I'm going to handle that myself.  Thanks, Cam."

<><><> 

Several weeks later, Gabe carried Godiva up the stairs, headed for Kaitlyn's suite.  Halting in her doorframe, he looked at the stack of clothing on her bed.  She stood near a dresser, her broken shoulder healing nicely, thanks to a white collar on her neck connected to a white cuff, supporting the weight of her arm.  Gently, he placed the chocolate Lab puppy on the floor.  Spying her yellow tennis ball, she crawled under Kaitlyn's bed to fetch it.

Gabe eyed Kaitlyn. "What are you doing?  The doctor told you to rest."

"That was six weeks ago, and I'm tired of resting.  It's time I moved back into my house."  Sighing, she pulled open the first drawer of the dresser, and then tossed some T-shirts onto the bed.

"Why?"

"Well, one reason to move is the school board.  The members are notoriously conservative, which has resulted in three female teachers being fired in the past few years for living with their boyfriends.  The board claimed they were bad role models for their students because they were living in sin."

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm not.  Besides, both Evan and Devan Lucas are dead.  It's no longer dangerous for me to live alone.  I have Godiva to protect me."

"Godiva is still a puppy," Gabe protested.

"She can bark, can't she?"

"I wanted to wait until the right time to do this, but I guess now's that time."

"What are you talking about?"

Gabe plucked something out of his pocket, and held in the palm of his hand the 1976 Pontiac Firebird Matchbox car he'd given Kaitlyn years before. 

Taking the toy car from him, she held it a second before noticing something was inside.  Opening the tiny door with the nail of her index finger, she pulled out a folded white piece of paper that she quickly unfolded. In black ink were written the words "Marry me".

Joy bubbled in her laugh and shone in her eyes as she wrapped one arm around his neck. "Tell me you're serious, Gabe.  You really want to marry me?"

Careful not to hurt her shoulder, he put his arms around her waist, and squeezed her affectionately.

"I've loved you since the first time I saw you on the Morel Elementary School playground.  Please marry me, Cat.  I can't bear to think of not having you in my life."  Pausing for a second, he added, "Besides do you want Godiva growing up in a broken home?  She needs both of her parents."

<><><> 

Dear Reader:

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Profile of Terror
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The Profile Series
by Alexa Grace

Profile of Evil

Carly Stone is a brilliant FBI agent who's seen more than her share of evil. Leaving the agency, she becomes a consultant for Indiana County Sheriff Brody Chase, who needs her profiling skills to catch an online sex predator who is luring preteen girls to their death in his community.

A life hangs in the balance, and the two rushes stop the most terrifying killer of their careers — and time is running out.

Profile of Terror

Social media sites are the playground for twin sexual predators and are the last stops for three young women.  When an ex-girlfriend goes missing, Private Investigator Gabe Chase is obsessed with finding her.  Once her lifeless body is discovered, her gorgeous and accusing older sister is the distraction Gabe doesn't need as the body count increases and he hunts down the killers.

Coming in 2015   
Profile of Fear

A dismembered body found by a trash collector catapults Detective Cameron Chase into the unspeakable world of human sexual trafficking.  His county is the last place anyone would consider for sex trafficking, and that's just what the traffickers are counting on.