Sidetracked (Mindf*ck Series Book 2) Read online

  “I’ll take you on another date soon. And another. And another. I’ll make all this worth it. I’ll also be back here tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. It’s not much, but right now—”

  “Stop acting like you’re not enough,” I tell him, kissing him again.

  I want to tell him he’s too good for me.

  I want to beg him to save my soul from damnation.

  I want to plead with some powers above to take away the pain that drives me…

  To let karma step in and handle the rest.

  But I’m the only reckoning there will be.

  “Scream for me, little Victoria. Scream loud.”

  “Always knew you were a little whore.”

  “Hold her down!” Kyle says, laughing as I struggle in vain, holding back the sob on the tip of my tongue, refusing to let them see me break.

  “Leave her alone!” Marcus cries from behind me, and my heart clenches as excruciating pain slices through my body.

  “Open your eyes, sweetheart. You don’t want to miss this.”

  “Do it, Marcus. Do it or we’ll make it so you never do it again.”

  Hours and hours and hours of taunts. The night I should have died is forever seared into my memory. Their sins stained my soul with so much darkness that their deaths are needed to cleanse me.

  To make me feel whole again.

  I need to replace their taunts and evil laughter with the sounds of their screams.

  I sleep better with each new scream I get to add. The screams override the scent of their breath, the strikes of their hands, and their dirty, disgusting fingers.

  They’ll never hurt anyone else. Even if they rise from the dead, they lost their tools of pain.

  The rest will join them soon enough.

  I can’t stop now.

  Not even for Logan.

  Chapter 6

  The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

  —Confucius

  LOGAN

  “All is quiet since that last kill two days ago,” Craig says, stating the obvious.

  I nod, my mind buzzing a thousand miles a minute.

  I’ve kept my promise, going back to see Lana, even though I spend all the time sleeping. She stays cuddled against my side, strumming her fingers through my hair, as though she has nothing better to do.

  “He’s smart. Police presence has increased,” I say numbly.

  I’ve never felt so personal about a case.

  “What does ‘you can’t’ supposed to mean?” he asks, pensive as he studies the close-up of the writing on the body.

  “I don’t know. You can’t stop me? I think he got interrupted.”

  “Then there could be a witness. I have that press conference coming up in three hours. I’ll see if I can get anyone to come forward.”

  I nod absently, running my finger over my lips. The director has put all our other cases on hold. This is currently our only priority, and we’re to treat it as though it’s our only case.

  “Forensics came back on those fibers we found on the last victim’s body,” Hadley says, dropping a file to my desk. “I looked into it, and you can only find that type of thing in an old factory that was closed down four years ago. Homeless people shack up in it fairly regularly. He could be there and blending in. It’s about two hours from here. I’ll send the address to your phone.”

  I’m out of my chair and grabbing my gun in the next breath, and Donny races to catch up with me as I head out the door. Hadley stays behind, but Lisa and Elise join us as we burst through the doors, practically jogging.

  Donny makes the calls for backup, and I pull up my phone to see the address Hadley has already sent. He’d need a vehicle to get from there to here, so I call Hadley.

  “What’s up?”

  “You and Alan start sifting through any car thefts between here and there. He’s got wheels. I doubt he’s taking the bus after soaking in a blood bath.”

  “On it.”

  She ends the call, and I pocket my phone, rushing my steps. We better catch the son of a bitch.

  Lisa and Elise take the lead in their SUVs, and I follow behind them with Donny at my side, both of us turning on our lights. “Fuck,” I hiss, whipping into a gas station when my low fuel light pops on.

  I call Elise as Donny hops out to hurriedly push some gas into the tank.

  “You’ll get there before us, but don’t go in until we’re on the scene. Got it?” I say the second Elise answers.

  “Got it. We’ll have to wait for local PD to back us up anyway.”

  I hang up, tapping my fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as I wait for Donny. Deciding I need to do something, I text Lana.

  ME: You okay?

  LANA: Bored to death, but fine. Playing cards with Duke and taking all his money. You okay?

  Have I mentioned I really hate Duke being there alone inside the house with her? If she didn’t need a protective detail, I’d be kicking his ass for seeing her more than I get to.

  ME: I’ll be fine once this guy is in cuffs.

  I don’t mention the shoot-to-kill order.

  LANA: Stop worrying about me. I promise I’ll be fine. You don’t know this about me, but I’m a survivor. <3

  I don’t know a lot of things about her. But a past doesn’t make a person, and that’s all she’s holding back. I trust that she’ll share that when she’s ready.

  Donny hops into the car, and I pocket my phone before cranking it back up and squealing out of the parking lot.

  Donny handles organizing the swat team, telling them to pull back until we arrive on scene.

  A loud truck passes us, blowing its horn, and Donny flips off the driver as I keep my tunnel vision, never slowing down.

  We’re about twenty miles from our destination, when I slam on my brakes, my stomach roiling as I stare at the SUV off the side of the otherwise deserted road. The backend is crushed, the glass busted out.

  It’s turned on its side, and Donny curses before leaping out of the passenger side, racing to Elise and Lisa who may or may not still be in there.

  I dive out as well, juggling my phone free, and calling for an ambulance. Cursing my low battery, I quickly give them our location and tell them to hurry. Putting away my almost dead phone, I slide to the front, trying to see through the window.

  From this angle, I can tell they were T-boned from the road connecting to this one. Elise and Lisa are both unconscious, and Elise is bleeding from her forehead. Her side took the brunt of the impact, but I can’t tell how much damage she’s sustained from here.

  “Logan!” Donny yells.

  I rush around, seeing Lisa’s door jammed into the ground as Donny breaks the front glass, trying to peel it back now that he has something to pry open. Using the crowbar, he pries the top down, and I toss off my jacket, wrapping it around my hands to help him peel the windshield all the way back.

  Lisa is breathing heavily, and her eyes are dazed as she blinks them open. She cries out, and lifts her right arm—the one closest to her door.

  My eyes widen in disbelief when I see the blood flowing from the shallow cuts.

  “It was him,” she says, sucking in a pained breath. “It was him. It was him.”

  Her panicked breaths quicken, and Donny tries to calm her down as I look at Elise.

  “Elise!” She doesn’t answer, but she finally groans.

  Relief washes through me that she’s still alive.

  “He did this,” Lisa is saying, still panicking as she points to her bloody arm. “He took our guns. He thought he got all of them. He…He had a gun. He hit us…then he pointed the gun at us. We…we were still upright when he came to my side, telling us to keep our hands where he could see them.”

  She cries out, trying to undo the seatbelt.

  “Then…then he broke my window, and he used the glass… He used the glass to write this,” she says, sobbing as she holds her arm up again.

  “He was going to kill us
, but I grabbed my spare gun when he dropped my arm to retrieve his gun. I shot at him. I shot twice. I grazed him. But…That bastard. He had someone with him. A girl. He had a girl. He knew we were coming. But he carved this.”

  Her sentences are all over the place, barely making any sense.

  All I can see on her arm are blood smears, but she wipes it off on her shirt and holds it up again. Donny’s breath leaves as he pales. Carved in her skin is the word “KEEP.”

  “He knows us,” Donny whispers as Lisa breaks down into sobs again. “He chose Lisa instead of Elise. There’s a reason he targeted your ex.”

  His tone is hushed, so as not to agitate Lisa, and my body tenses at the insight. Why “KEEP?” Why that word?

  “He’s bleeding,” Lisa chokes out. “I shot him enough to make him bleed. He’ll need stitches at least.”

  I look around, finding a light blood trail. It’s not enough for him to die from though. Fuck!

  “The truck that fucking passed us,” I say through clenched teeth. “It was him. He even blew his motherfucking horn!”

  I slam my fist down on the car, and Donny goes as stiff as I do.

  “I hope that shoot-to-kill order remains,” Donny growls.

  “Someone tipped him off. He knew we were coming.”

  “Is the girl his accomplice?”

  I shake my head, hating what’s going on inside it right now. “Nothing in the profile indicates a partner. Nothing in his profile indicates a relationship with police either. No. He’s smart. Calculated, even. He had a fail-safe plan. If he was hiding in this town, there was a reason he felt safe. Look into their local PD. Find out if any of the officers who were aware of this raid has a daughter or a wife. Then go door to door. Find out if someone is missing. It wouldn’t be reported.”

  His eyes widen. “You think he took a hostage?”

  “Yeah. And now that his location has been burned, he no longer needs her alive.”

  And we let him drive right by us. That sick, narcissistic son of a bitch honked at us, taunted us, knowing we were on our way to him. And I never even looked up.

  I’m supposed to be observant of my surroundings at all time. My personal involvement in this case is fucking with my head, making me have tunnel-vision, and knocking me off my game.

  He’s winning.

  Chapter 7

  Death and life have their determined appointments.

  —Confucius

  LOGAN

  “Lisa is okay. She’s in a little shock, but otherwise okay,” Donny says as he hands me a cup of coffee. Our entire team is in a hospital waiting room right now.

  The security detail makes me nervous, because someone from the police force sold us out.

  “Only cops with no kids or family at Lana’s from now on,” I say to Donny, who nods. “We’ve only been out in public once. It’s possible he doesn’t even know she exists. It’s been her house mostly we’ve stayed at when I see her, and I’d know if I’d been followed.”

  I take a sip of the coffee as he types out a text, probably relaying my request.

  “Elise?” I ask him.

  “She’s coming around. Her left shoulder was dislocated, and she has two breaks in her left leg where it got pinned on impact. She’s not in shock, but she is fucking pissed.”

  He smirks, and I laugh under my breath. Elise will take this as personally as I am now. Then again, everyone has a personal investment now. He came after two of ours, and called me out by name. It’s our mission—our only focus—to bring him down.

  Hadley is typing furiously on her laptop. She hasn’t been a techie for years, ever since she became the best in the field on forensics. But now she’s dusting off her old skills, trying to find any footage of which girl Plemmons might have had with him.

  Donny and I described the truck—old Ford, beat up, jacked up, and big brush guard on the front. You couldn’t tell it’d been the tool to crash them, because it sure as hell didn’t look like it’d been in a wreck.

  “Anything?” I ask Hadley.

  Her eyes narrow to slits.

  “Not yet. But I will find this son of a bitch.”

  “He could be somewhere in the hospital. He’ll want to see this show. Or, if he has any computer skills, he may be hacked into the feed,” I tell her.

  She nods. “On it. I already informed the cops of something like that when we got here,” she explains. “They’ve been canvassing the hallways and such.”

  “Lisa shooting at him probably pissed him off. He hit them from the rear, sent them sliding around, and then slammed them again. It dazed them enough to give him an edge,” Leonard says as he sits down. “Then after Lisa shot him, he got in the truck, got a good run-and-go from that side road, and T-boned them, probably trying to kill them.”

  “He’s a sexual sadist looking for an easy kill? Just to piss us off?” Donny asks, shaking his head.

  “He wants us investing all our attention into him. He’s winding us up,” I say through clenched teeth.

  “It’s working,” Leonard growls.

  A woman pokes her head in. “Ms. Clifton is asking for you,” she says, looking at us all instead of being specific.

  Donny, Leonard, and I stand up, and Craig comes jogging down the hall, joining us as we walk toward the room where they’re holding Elise.

  Before we make it, my eyes land on a familiar brunette who is racing toward me with wide, terrified green eyes. Her entire body visibly relaxes when she sees me, and she launches herself into my arms.

  I grab Lana, holding her to me, as she shakes and trembles. Detective Duke is right on her heels, panting heavily as he doubles over, resting his hands on his knees.

  “Fucking marathon runner or something?” he asks between labored breaths.

  Lana doesn’t speak. She just clings to me, her arms wrapped tightly around my neck.

  “I was so worried,” she finally says.

  “They said your team was hit,” Duke explains, running a hand through his hair. “She drove. I couldn’t talk her out of coming. They wouldn’t tell us who was hit.”

  I hold her for a second longer. Three of my team members are staring at us with raised eyebrows, before I finally snap back to reality.

  Fuck!

  I drop her to the ground and push her away, ignoring the way she blanches.

  “You can’t fucking be here!” I yell, then cut my eyes to Duke. “Why the fucking hell would you bring her?”

  His eyes narrow to slits. “Did you miss the part where I said she was coming with our without me. I came to keep her safe.”

  I gesture to Lana, all 5’4 of her. “She weighs 120 at most. You’re at least 200 with law enforcement training, yet you can’t restrain her?”

  Lana backs away, saying nothing, but my eyes are on Duke, furiously glaring at him. He glares back, just as furious.

  “She’s not a prisoner or a criminal. I can’t legally confine her to her damn house, you arrogant asswipe.”

  Donny takes a step between us, as though he’s preparing for things to go bad.

  “He’s possibly here or watching, and you bring her here? I’m not fucking stupid. You want him to find her. Especially now. You want a new promotion from a shiny little arrest for the highest profile killer in the nation right now.”

  He takes a threatening step toward me, and Donny wedges between us more when I take a step too.

  “I couldn’t give a shit about that. I came because I was trying to keep her safe. I don’t have any authority to confine an innocent civilian to her home, and neither do you.”

  I open my mouth to yell at him some more, when Lana calmly inserts herself into the conversation, her haunted eyes icy and detached, something I haven’t seen in a while.

  “You told me to have a protective detail, and I agreed,” she says quietly. I swallow down my words as she continues. “You told me to let a stranger stay in my house; I agreed, even though I didn’t want to. I take someone with me when I leave. I’ve put my business
deals on hold to appease you, not traveling and risking myself. I’ve sat in a protective bubble, answering all your calls and texts promptly so you don’t worry about me.”

  Her eyes glisten, but I can tell they’re nothing more than angry tears. And I realize I’ve seriously fucked up.

  Chapter 8

  When anger rises, think of the consequences.

  —Confucius

  LANA

  Harsh. Oblivious. Arrogant.

  Three words I never thought I’d use to describe the man before me.

  Unfairly confining me to my house, while not giving me the same option of knowing he’s safe… I can’t even put into words how pissed off I am.

  “You don’t even take the time to fire off a text that you’re okay,” I go on, keeping my tone even, refusing to show too much emotion.

  I don’t bleed for the world anymore.

  He saw more than anyone else, and he didn’t bother to care when it mattered the most.

  “Lana, I get that you’re pissed, but you can’t be here,” he says, his voice softening.

  “I see that,” I retort tightly, taking a step back. “Sorry I cared. It won’t happen again.”

  Tacky and juvenile as that sounds, it’s a bitter girl’s prerogative right now.

  I turn and start walking away, but he follows, grabbing my arm. I rip it free from his grip.

  “You don’t understand,” he whispers, looking over at a camera. “He could be watching. We don’t know what he’s capable of right now, and his past is mostly a mystery.”

  “You put me in a bubble, and I gave you peace of mind. You cared. I’d do anything to ease your mind so that you didn’t worry.” I swallow down the knot in my throat, refusing to get emotional, disallowing my weakness or vulnerability to shine. “I worry too, Logan. Duke got the call your team was hit, and you were all at the hospital. You wouldn’t even answer your phone. Or send a text. Or respond to my hundreds of texts. I can handle a lot of things, but I won’t let you walk all over me, then refuse to offer me the same peace of mind. And then get pissed at me? Talk down to me? Who the hell do you think I am?”