Beware of Me (Dark Obsession 4)

And a bullet hit her, slamming into Carly and sending her tumbling right into the cement. For a moment, she lay there, stunned, the pavement biting into her palms, her shoulder burning. She heard the rush of footsteps coming toward her. Carly pushed up to her knees, needing to run, but there wasn’t time.

Hard arms grabbed her, wrenching her shoulder and making the white-hot pain flare even hotter. She cried out and tried to fight, but Dr. Keith Nelson was much stronger than he’d appeared to be. He dragged her toward the SUV, stumbling over Victor’s sprawled body. She screamed, but no one was there. Still, no one. Victor had taken her out of building’s back entrance, and no one could see, no one—

“Carly!” That roar was Ethan’s. Her head wrenched toward his roar.

He was running toward her. But Keith had tossed her into back of the vehicle. Keith slammed the door, and she tried frantically to open it, but something was wrong. The handle was jammed.

She stared through the glass. Saw Ethan running toward her, with Sophie steps behind him. That had been the plan. Ethan and Sophie were going to follow us to the Bureau. They were coming down on the next elevator. Everyone should have been safe.

There was no safety. Because she saw—

She saw…she saw Keith lift his gun. He fired. Once. Twice. Three times.

She screamed again as both Ethan and Sophie hit the cement.

Then Keith ran around to the front of the SUV. He jumped into the driver’s seat. She lunged for him, determined to stop him before he could start that vehicle and take her away.

Her nails scratched across his face.

“Dammit, you bitch, stop!” He whirled and brought the butt of the gun down against her temple. For an instant, the world dimmed. “You’d better be worth this fucking pay-off…”

She pushed up, ready to attack him again.

But the butt of the gun hit her once more. Even harder this time. The world didn’t dim.

It went black.

***

As soon as the bullets stopped flying, Ethan jumped to his feet. He reached for Sophie, checking her out.

“I’m all right! I hit the ground as soon as he aimed the gun at me,” she said. Then, before she could add anything else, Lex was running around the side of the hotel and charging right toward them.

Lex grabbed Sophie, pulled her close—

Right. She’s good. I need Carly. Ignoring the pain in his arm—a damn bullet had grazed him—Ethan ran after the SUV. The bastard was driving it hell fast, careening down the street. Taking Carly away with him.

He’d been waiting. The freak must have followed Victor here, then he just slipped in Victor’s vehicle and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Keith Nelson’s attack made sense if…fucking hell. Maybe Keith had never been attacked by Curtis Thatch. Maybe the two men had been working together all along.

Sonofabitch.

Hard fingers locked around Ethan’s ankle, jerking his attention down and to the injured agent.

Victor looked like hell, his skin ashen, but he had a determined glare on his face as he said… “SUV…equipped with…GPS locator…”

Ethan smiled down at him. Hell, yes.

“Get…bastard…” Victor gasped. “Get…him…”

He would. The agent could count on that.

***

When she opened her eyes, Carly was being dragged out of the back seat. Keith was leaning over her, sweat streaming down his face, his hair tousled, his breath heaving—

She lifted her feet and drove them into his stomach, as hard as she could.

He let her go—immediately, and she fell straight onto the concrete. The impact jarring, knocking the breath right from her, but she rolled over and started to crawl away from him.

“Carly…” His voice seemed to echo and she realized they were in a cavernous parking garage. And they seemed to be the only people there. “I get paid if you’re delivered alive or dead.”

She stopped crawling.

“It’s more, of course, if you’re alive. There’s a bonus payment then because there are buyers out there willing to make sure you suffer.”

Carly could hear him walking closer.

“But one million to deliver your dead body? That’s still one real nice piece of change.”

She glanced over her shoulder. The gun was in his hands again.

If she tried to run, he’d shoot her. Even if the bullet didn’t kill her, another injury would slow her down and could make escape impossible.

Think. Think.

Taking her time, she turned over and stared up at him. Slowly, she lifted her hands, her pose one of surrender.

“Good decision.” His left hand rubbed his stomach. She hoped she’d given him bruises. Some internal damage would be awesome. “Carly, Carly, Carly…Do you know how many times I thought about killing you?”

Staring at him made her skin crawl.

“You were always so cautious with me. And a few times, I caught you staring at me, as if…you knew.” He was right over her now. “But you didn’t know, did you? No one ever sees past the mask. No one knows…”

“That you’re a killer?” She thought that crap was pretty evident. “Uh, newsflash…” Her right arm was soaked with blood, her shoulder wound still throbbing. “You just shot an FBI agent. Witnesses were at the scene. Everyone is going to know what you are.”

He knelt in front of her. The silencer was still on the gun and he slid it across her cheek. “I spent years listening to criminals. Learning their secrets. Hearing them brag about their crimes and show no remorse whatsoever. And do you know what I learned?”

She didn’t really care. She just had to figure out a way to get that gun away from him.

“I learned that the criminals, the killers…they’re the strong ones. What good is regret? Remorse? Our world truly is survival of the fittest, and if you’re not fit, then you’re just a waste of air.”

This jerk had been her shrink?

“I adapted. I changed. I learned that their secrets were assets, and I sold them to the highest bidder.”

Things started to click for her. If he’d been selling secrets… “You’re the one who contacted Curtis Thatch. There was never…any abduction. He didn’t take you. You—you were working with him!”

He shrugged. The gun was still at her cheek. “I thought my bruises and the scrapes were a nice touch. Told old Curt that it had to look legit. Then I just kept Ethan busy so that he wouldn’t see Curt sneaking up behind him. Voila. Perfect plan. Curt was out of the way, and you—well, I was going to get my delivery check for offering you up and giving Curt the perfect means to punish you.”

She shook her head.

He sighed. The gun moved away from her cheek. “Ethan. A man you actually cared about. See, Curt had already killed the others, but you didn’t even know that. No, you didn’t care. I brought the guys up to you in session, and you barely blinked. They didn’t matter to you. I don’t think anyone really mattered, except Ethan Barclay. When I saw you two together, when I watched from my window and saw you hug him so tightly, as

if you couldn’t bear to let him go, I immediately called Curt to let him know the perfect tool to torture you was at hand.”

They’d planned to kill Ethan, in order to break me.

“Curt was all about the torture.”

And you’re all about talking. Arrogant asshole. But keep it up. Every second that passed…that was an opportunity for help to arrive. Ethan would come for her. She’d found him. He would find her. Carly didn’t doubt that for a moment.

“People kill for so many reasons. Passion. Greed. But the kills that interest me the most…it’s the kills that are for pleasure.” He smiled down at her. “Curt was a connoisseur. Most of his kills were for pure pleasure, but you—you were for revenge. Payback. So he changed his MO. Took out men instead of women. Killed them quickly because it wasn’t their deaths that mattered so much…but what he hoped the murders would do to you.”

And I didn’t even notice. Guilt tore through her, and she gagged because—three men were dead.

“Tage Price. Josh Lavelle. Ace Patton.” Keith seemed to relish saying their names. “Men who paid the price because they tried to love you.”

Her eyes squeezed shut as their images flashed through her mind. They’d been good men, all of them. They’d treated her well. They’d had families. Friends. Lives.

Lost.

“Curt made the bodies vanish. Seemed fitting. After all, that was what you did to his brother.”

Her eyes opened. She swallowed back the nausea and tried to push the images—Tage, Josh, and Ace—from her mind. “Go screw yourself.” He was responsible for those deaths. Keith and Curt. Twisted freaks.

She pushed up to her feet. Her body wavered, just a bit.

Then she tensed because she could hear the sound—the sound of an approaching car. Coming closer and closer in that parking garage. Hope filled her.

Keith’s head tilted, as if he’d heard the sound too, and then he laughed. “Curt wasn’t my only interested buyer. Quincy Atkins had allies, plenty of people who want to see his killer bleed. Some of them thought that Ethan was untouchable, but you—you can be touched plenty.”