Before the Dawn (Killer Instinct 2)

“No,” Tucker growled, “she didn’t.”

“Bullshit. I broke into her shrink’s office. I read all the files. She couldn’t stand to look at you—she kept seeing dear old Jason in your place. Bet that made for some wild sex times.”

“Let her go,” Tucker roared.

“After you left her, she thought she was still seeing Jason. Did she ever tell you that? She was convinced he was following her...that was where I got the idea for a little stalking. A little sneaking into her house and rearranging things. But then Jinx fucking saw me, and I had to kill her.” His jaw clenched. “She wasn’t supposed to die. She was too good of a fuck for that.”

Dawn’s hands had fisted. She’d fought back the nausea that had risen after he’d slammed the gun into her head. Her body was steady and she wasn’t going to let him use her any longer. As long as he had her against him, he knew Tucker wouldn’t attack.

She knew it, too. And she knew why, though Tucker hadn’t said the words. She’d always known.

He loves me.

When she’d told Anthony that she was Tucker’s missing piece, she’d meant those words. She fit him. He fit her.

They’d survived hell before. They would again.

“That damn tat,” Anthony snarled. “Didn’t even realize she’d gotten it until I saw a sketch at Voodoo Tats. It had my initials in it... Can you believe that shit? So, of course, I had to bide my time. I had to wait until Julia was alone at the lab and I had to fucking hope that no one found the tat before I got there. Lucky fucking break, though, Julia was too busy with dead bodies to find it until the end...and then I took care of her. I stopped her from telling anyone else. And I cut that tattoo right off Jinx’s hip. No one will ever know.”

Her heart stuttered in her chest. “What did you do to Julia?”

“Exactly what the Iceman would have done... I gave her a very cold grave.” He laughed.

Tucker took a step forward.

“Don’t!” Anthony yelled. “Unless you want her to die right now. If I shoot her from this angle, the bullet will go straight up into her brain. If she’s not dead when she hits the floor, she’ll just be a fucking vegetable, that I promise you.”

Tucker stilled. His hand wasn’t at his shoulder any longer. It was at his side. For just a moment, she stared at him and remembered another time.

“Choose.” Jason’s voice. Filling her head. Hurting her heart. “Choose right now and let her know it. Tell her the truth that we’ve always both known. Blood is thicker than anything else. Blood binds.”

No, blood didn’t bind. Blood didn’t link people more than anything else in the world. Love did that. “I love you,” she said to Tucker and she smiled.

“How fucking sweet,” Anthony mocked them both. “She loves you... She loves the man who is going to kill her.”

Tucker shook his head.

“Oh, yes,” Anthony promised. “That’s how this is going down. The patrol outside? I sent them away when I arrived. So no one is going to come busting in here. No one has any clue what’s happening. The tattoo is gone. If there’s a sketch of it downstairs, I’ll take care of that before I’m done...maybe I’ll even torch the whole building...”

But the Iceman didn’t like fire...

“You’re going to kill her,” Anthony said to Tucker. “Or at least, that’s what it will look like. The Iceman’s brother snapped and killed Jason’s only surviving victim. Then, well, upstanding police detective that I am...I had no choice but to shoot you. To kill you.”

Dawn shook her head. The barrel scraped over her chin.

“I’ll spin some story about Tucker getting my gun and using it to kill poor Torez. But in the end, amazing cop that I am...I was able to stop the sadistic killer. You’ll both die together.”

“Why?” Dawn demanded. “Why are you doing this? Why—”

“It’s in the blood,” Tucker rasped. “I told you, Dawn. My father was a twisted son of a bitch. I wondered if he’d passed it down to me...”

He hadn’t. Tucker was good. And Anthony?

He’s been hiding the monster that he truly was all along.

“Our bastard of a father didn’t want me!” Anthony yelled. “He wanted you and precious Jason, but he didn’t want me! His mistake—his fucking mistake! The whole world will see—the two Frost boys were killers and I...I was the hero, all along.”

No, he wasn’t.

He was going to kill them both. He’d just admitted it—a dumb admission because Tucker had only been standing back because he didn’t want Dawn to be hurt, she knew that.

But if Anthony was just going to kill them both, then she had nothing to lose. I love you. She mouthed those words at Tucker once more.

He gave a hard shake of his head but she was already moving. She drove her elbow back into Anthony’s stomach as hard as she could. He grunted and his hold jerked on her. She slammed her right heel down on his foot and her left kicked back and rammed into his shin. He snarled but his grip finally loosened and she sprang to the side—

He fired. The bullet hit her in the back and she sprawled onto the floor as the pain of that hit burned through her.

She expected another bullet to slam into her. Expected to hear the rapid pounding of gunfire, but there was only silence. Silence and an odd...gurgle.

She turned her head to the side and looked to the right. Anthony was still on his feet but there was a knife in his throat. Tucker was in front of the guy—she hadn’t even heard him move.

“I always choose her.” Tucker snatched the gun from Anthony’s slack fingers and he drove his fist into Anthony’s face. Anthony fell back, hitting the floor. His fingers rose as he struggled to grab the hilt of that knife. He was choking, making that terrible gurgling sound.

He’s dying.

Tucker grabbed the knife and yanked it out of Anthony’s throat. Blood splattered. Anthony’s body spasmed.

Tucker turned away from him. Tucker’s frantic gaze found Dawn and she saw the terror there. He ran to her. She was still on her stomach, sprawled on the floor. Her back hurt, but she’d been lucky, the bullet had hit a few inches to the right of her spine. She could feel it in there. Burning.

But at least it hadn’t slammed into her spine. She could move her body. She just hurt.

“Baby.” Tucker dropped to his knees at her side and his hands reached out to her. “Just stay still. Let me check you out...” She could feel his hands trembling against her.

Her head was turned, pressed to the floor, and her gaze was on Anthony. He was still jerking. “He’s...still alive...”

“He doesn’t fucking matter. You matter. Baby, the bullet is still in you.”

“I...I know.”

“I’m calling an ambulance. You are losing too much blood.”

Not as much blood as Anthony. “S-stop blood flow...”

“I am,” he promised. She could feel the pressure on her back. “I’ve got you. You’re going to be okay.” Then he broke off and started barking orders into his phone, demanding that an ambulance get there right away. A moment later, he dropped the phone and he leaned closer to her. His lips feathered over her battered cheek. “Everything is going to be okay. Help is coming. I’ve got you.”

He did, but she could still see Anthony. He was dying before her eyes. Was she just supposed to watch him...

The way Tucker’s father had watched their mother die?

The way Tucker had watched his father die?

“You’re...better...” She forced out the words. “Help him.”

Tucker stiffened against her. “I’m helping you. You’re bleeding too much. I’m not leaving you to help his sorry ass. I don’t care if he is my brother...you are my everything. You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved. The only person who has made me feel like I belong

anywhere. I won’t lose you, I can’t—”

She caught his hand. “You won’t.” She made her lips curve for him. “I’m...not going anywhere. I’m...stronger...than I look.”

He’d bent before her and now he blocked her view of Anthony. “I know you’re strong.” His face was grim. “But I can only help one of you and, by God, I will always choose you. I love you, Dawn. Now, forever. I need you in this world. I need you in my life. So don’t ask me to turn away. You matter too much.”

Just as he mattered to her. More than anything and that was why she couldn’t let him watch again as someone else died. Not another brother, even if he is a monster. Not another—

Her broken front door banged open. She heard it slam against the wall. “FBI!” a female voice called out.

Macey? Macey’s voice? And then footsteps were thundering toward her. Dawn tilted her head a bit and saw Macey. Macey sank to her knees beside Dawn. “I knew it was him!” Her voice broke a bit. “I knew it. T. D. Anthony—Tony Deveraux. He was at too many scenes...at the coroner’s lab, deliberately keeping me outside because he wanted to give Julia time to die. He was at the motel with Red, he was there—”

Give Julia time to die... “Julia?” Dawn whispered, eyes tearing.

“She’s all right,” Macey said quickly. “She’s at the hospital. I found her in time—”

Thank God.

“Look at her wound,” Tucker cut through Macey’s words. “Help her.”

And Macey’s fingers flew over her back. A sharp pain stabbed Dawn but she didn’t cry out. Because Tucker had shifted to the side, she could see Anthony again. “Help...him.”

This mattered. For Tucker...this mattered.

“Didn’t hit anything vital,” Macey said. “I’ll keep pressure on her wound. She’s going to be okay... But what about you, Tucker? Is that your blood?”

“I’m fine,” Tucker growled. “Through and through shot.”

“That’s a lot of damn blood,” Macey argued.

His jaw was clenched. “I’m fine...” Tucker stared down at Dawn. “Had much worse.”

Tucker was going to make it. Dawn was determined to survive. And Anthony... “Help...him,” Dawn said again.

“Fuck! Don’t move,” Tucker ordered Macey with a glare. “She’s the priority. You stay with her. You work on her.” His jaw locked. He turned to Anthony’s jerking body. And then Tucker put his hands on Anthony’s throat. He shoved his fingers down hard and Dawn knew he was applying pressure, trying to stop the blood flow.

Macey began yelling out orders about what Tucker needed to do.

Tucker’s fingers turned red as Anthony jerked again and the blood kept pumping from his throat.

And in the distance, Dawn heard the scream of sirens.

* * *

SHE WAS BEING...wheeled...down a hallway. Dawn blinked against the lights. She was on her stomach, but there was no pain any longer.

“It’s okay, baby,” Tucker told her as he squeezed her hand. “You’re going back for surgery. They’re going to take that bullet out and you’ll be good as new.”

She could hear the screech of wheels and she glimpsed a few other people nearby—people in scrubs and wearing gloves. She tried to talk, but her tongue felt thick in her mouth. Drugs. They’ve already given me drugs. But before she passed out, she needed to say something. “You...you’ll be here...when I wake up?” That was important. He was important.

She’d lost him once. She never wanted to lose him again.

His bright blue eyes locked on hers. His handsome face stared down at her. And he smiled, flashing his dimple.

Her Tucker.

“I’ll never leave you again, I swear it.”

She trusted him to keep his word. Satisfied, Dawn’s lashes closed. When she woke up, she’d have another scar. Big deal.

When she woke up, she’d have Tucker. That was what mattered.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Two weeks later.

“ARE YOU SURE you want to do this?” Samantha Dark asked Tucker as they stood in the narrow jail corridor. “You don’t have to go in there with him. I’d more than understand if you didn’t want to go through with this meeting.”

Yes, she would understand, he knew that. Everyone on his team had been nothing but supportive over the last two grueling weeks. The nightmare was almost over now, all of the evidence collected, the threat eliminated.

“I need to go inside.” For a final face-off with the brother he’d never known about. The bastard who’d tried to take Dawn from Tucker.

When will they learn? No one ever takes her from me.

“Besides—” Tucker cleared his throat “—Anthony called this little meeting. If he wants to confess, I’ll let him finish burying himself.”

She gave a nod. “Okay, then, but I’ll be close.”

Close, but not in the room with him because that had been part of the deal. Anthony Deveraux had said he’d talk freely with Tucker under the condition that no other FBI agents were present.

A little family chat.

Tucker squared his shoulders and entered the small room. The guards at the front of the jail had already taken his gun, so he went in unarmed. Anthony was seated at the small table in the middle of the room, his hands cuffed in front of him, and he was wearing a garish orange jumpsuit.

A jagged, bright red line—a scar—sliced across Anthony’s throat.

A uniformed guard stood a few feet away from Anthony, but there was no attorney in that little room. No one else was present at all. But a video camera was perched in the upper right-hand corner of the room and their entire conversation would be monitored. He knew Samantha and the DA were both just down the hallway, settling in to watch the show.

Anthony raised his brows when he saw Tucker. “You sure took your sweet time getting here, brother.”

Tucker pulled out the chair across from Anthony. He stared at the other man, searching for similarities in their features. Maybe something he’d missed before. The hair was the same shade, he saw that now. Anthony’s was cut a lot shorter than his, so Tucker couldn’t tell if the texture would be the same. And maybe their jaws were similar. The dimple in their left cheeks—that was the same, too, but since it only appeared when Anthony smiled, he hadn’t seen it much when he’d first met the guy.

Anthony gave him a slow smile and that dimple winked. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist coming for a visit. Blood always tells, doesn’t it?”

“No,” Tucker growled back. “It doesn’t. It doesn’t tell a damn thing about a man.”

Anthony’s smile slowly disappeared. “You keep saying that to yourself.” He leaned forward and his voice dropped to a whisper. “Keep saying it, especially late at night, when you’re in bed with Dawn. You keep saying that blood doesn’t tell. You keep telling yourself that you’re not just like Jason. That you’re not just like me.”

Tucker didn’t speak. An old interrogation technique. Just wait out your prey. He knew Anthony wanted to talk, so he was going to let the bastard talk himself blue.

Anger had the lines on Anthony’s face deepening. “What was so fucking special about you? Why did dear old fucking Jamison Frost want you and Jason...but not me?”

Tucker laughed. “Is that really what this shit was all about? Your daddy issues? You were jealous because you weren’t part of the screwed-up family unit?”

Anthony slammed his cuffed hands onto the tabletop.

The guard immediately stepped forward, but Tucker shook his head.

“You know nothing about me!” Anthony roared.

Actually, he did know plenty. Since Anthony’s arrest, the FBI had torn the man’s life apart. They’d found more than a few skeletons in his closet.

“Jamison Frost fucked my mother. When she

got pregnant, he didn’t believe that I was his. He thought she was just tricking him. She said...she said he told her to get rid of me. He did nothing for her. We were practically homeless my whole life. She was always on drugs, always so high she couldn’t take care of herself—much less me. She screwed men for money so she could keep her habit going. I lived in filth and I had to try to pretend to the teachers at my school that everything was all right. That I was just fine while my father lived his life with you, and he never gave me a backward glance.”

“And you think that’s such a bad thing, right?” It was Tucker’s turn for a smile.

“Better than a drug-addicted whore, better than sleeping on the ground, better than—”

“The beatings started when I was five. They didn’t stop until my father was dead.”

Anthony blinked. Then he sneered. “Poor little Tuck, he got spanked and he—”

“I was beaten by my father, I was locked in closets and left to starve. I was abused worse than any animal.” He knew Samantha would hear his words but he didn’t care. Right then, his words didn’t matter. Anthony’s did. “Believe me, if I could, I would have traded my life with yours.”

“Bullshit.”

“And if I’d known about you...when I turned eighteen...when I was working to get my life together...I would have come to find you, and I would have tried to help you.”

Once more, Anthony leaned forward. “Like I wanted your help.”

“No, no, I don’t guess you did. It’s strange, though. I mean, you’ve been a cop for almost seven years. Why? I thought you helped people, but that was just a lie. A mask.”

“We both wear masks.” Anthony cocked his head. “Seven years...easy to do the math. Seven years ago, I learned what Jason was.”

“We both learned what he was that day.” And Tucker had gone on to join the FBI, wanting to stop killers. On the surface, Anthony joining the PD appeared similar to his motivation, but...

We are nothing alike.

“I learned Jason was sloppy. He wasn’t careful enough with his kills. He let you stop him. He thought you’d choose family over everything else, but you didn’t. You chose her.”