wanted a family. We met—shit, met running at that park one day. We didn’t live in the same neighborhood. She lived in a rundown hole. She deserved better. So much better. I knew it from the first time I met her in that park.”
The park where you buried her? Chloe was certain it was one and the same. The burial site would have held special meaning for Dane.
“She talked to me all the time about her dreams. I understood her. I got her. I loved her. But then that last day—that last morning—we met for our run, and she told me—she was wearing his fucking jacket and she said this stupid stuff about how she thought Gregory was going to marry her. They were going to graduate, get married, and move far away. I…” He looked down at the scalpel. “I had baseball practice later that day. I’d brought my bat along. I reached for it. I don’t even know why. I did, though. I grabbed the bat, and…she was suddenly looking at me like she was scared. Scared of me.”
“You chased her.” But he hadn’t just chased her. “You hit her,” Chloe added.
He flinched. Looked up. He was about three feet away from her and Joel, and he still had his scalpel. Joel’s blood was on the edge of that instrument.
“I chased her. I told her not to run from me. She did. She looked back—and she was so scared. Of me!”
“Well, sure, dumbass,” Joel snarled. “You were chasing her with a damn bat!”
Dane broke. Chloe saw it happen. He let out a wild roar and leapt at Joel.
“Stop! Police!” Cedric yelled from the doorway.
But Dane didn’t stop. He swung out with the scalpel.
Cedric fired. The bullet slammed into Dane’s shoulder. It wrenched him back, but he surged forward again.
Surged forward—only to step right into the scalpel that Joel had just shoved toward Dane’s stomach. The scalpel cut into him, and Dane screamed. He didn’t back down. Didn’t stop. He sliced out at Joel with his weapon, but Joel kicked him. Sent Dane scrambling back against the wall once more.
“I said stop!” Cedric bellowed.
Joel was going in for another attack. Chloe grabbed him and wrenched him out of the line of fire.
Cedric shot again. This time, the bullet sank into Dane’s chest. His eyes widened. Some of the wild rage and desperation faded from his gaze. He looked down at his body even as he dropped the scalpel. “Pay…back?”
“Damn straight, it is,” Joel assured him grimly.
Dane collapsed on the floor.
***
“I heard it all,” Cedric told Agent Richardson flatly. “Chloe and I had a plan. She was going to head in and distract the guy. I was going to wait for the perfect moment and rush in for the arrest. I was also going to hear his confession. And I did.”
Richardson was sweating. Joel also noticed the FBI agent hadn’t met Chloe’s stare since coming into the exam room.
Another room. Only this time, Joel wasn’t strapped down to the table. But he had basically chained Chloe to his side.
She’d insisted that he get his arm stitched up. Like he’d even noticed that wound. And she’d wanted someone to examine his throat. He’d reminded the woman—twice—that he was a doctor, but Chloe had been adamant.
He’d been just as adamant that she stay at his side.
He’d also had his head checked out. A concussion, yes, but no skull fractures.
She tried to sidle away from him as the nurse finished up the stitches on his arm—
“No.” Joel immediately pulled her back. “You know the rule. Not more than two feet until my heart rate calms down again.”
Her head turned toward him. “Your heart rate is perfectly fine.” With her free hand, she waved toward the nurse. “Nancy checked it a moment ago. She assured me you were good.”
“He is good,” Nancy agreed without looking up.
“See?” Chloe challenged.
“Not more than two feet.” If he’d had his way, she would have been sitting in his lap. His hands would have been wrapped around her. And he would have been completely satisfied that she was safe.
“Joel…” Chloe sighed his name. “The bad guy is dead.”
“Yes.” Now Richardson seemed a little more assertive as his neck stretched. “He’s dead and you—”
“I told the perpetrator to stop. I identified myself as a police officer.” Cedric positioned his body on Chloe’s other side. “He didn’t stop. I shot him in the shoulder, and he still attacked with the scalpel. I warned him a second time. That man wasn’t going