to listen. He was out for blood. My second shot was to the heart.” His voice was emotionless. “He died quickly. And I can assure you with one hundred percent certainty that Dane Ambrose was the Bad Deeds killer.”
Richardson swallowed. “Because you and Chloe had a plan. You went in there together, and you both got the confession.”
“It’s what we do.” Cedric shrugged. “Case closed.”
Richardson stormed for the door. But stopped. Glanced back. “My profile wasn’t completely off,” he said as his eyes slid back to Chloe. “Dane Ambrose was the right age. He was intelligent. He wanted to punish the ones he blamed.”
“The one he wanted to punish the most was himself.”
“How do you figure that?” The question seemed as if it had been pulled from Richardson.
“Because he wanted me to stop him. Because he told Coreen Miller that he wanted me to come and get him. Dane knew that I hunted killers. He knew—deep down—what he was doing was wrong. He wanted to be stopped. And the way he kept attacking even after Cedric told him to stop…” Her words trailed away.
Death by cop? Joel suspected that had been the case.
“He wanted to be stopped,” Chloe concluded. “And he was.”
Richardson ran a hand through his hair. “Detective Coleman, I’ll expect you at my side when we do the press conference.”
“Ah…as to that…” Cedric rolled back his shoulders. “You can be at my side. Better check in with your boss. Something tells me that he’s going to find out exactly how all of this went down. And he’ll know all about how you were outside the hospital, trying to arrest Chloe’s brother, when the real bad guy was attempting to kill another man.”
Richardson flinched. “Chloe…” Richardson’s voice had gone hoarse. “Did you already call him?”
“No, but he is on my contact list.”
Richardson grabbed his phone and rushed out.
“Not gonna do him any good,” Cedric murmured. “I think that special agent is burning far too many bridges.”
Joel realized that Chloe was staring steadily at Cedric.
Cedric just shrugged.
“There.” Nancy gave Joel’s arm a pat. “All done.” She collected her supplies. Hurried off to the next patient.
Chloe lifted a brow at Cedric.
“What am I missing?” Joel wanted to know.
“The detective just lied,” Chloe informed him.
He had? Joel let go of Chloe’s hand long enough to pull on the t-shirt that had been provided to him. Plain white. V neck. His bloody shirt had been taken into evidence.
“The plan wasn’t for Cedric to stay outside and listen.”
Joel stood up. Caught Chloe’s hand again. “It wasn’t?”
“The plan was to split up. Which we did. Because there were dozens of rooms down there.” She inched closer to him. “Because I knew we had to find you fast.” Her head tipped back as she looked up at Joel. “There were too many places to search and not enough time. We split up.”
“And you came in armed with just a scalpel?” It had been so much better for his nerves when he’d thought that she had a cop on her six.
“I would have come in with nothing at all if it meant Dane would be distracted and you’d survive.”
Breathe. She’s all right. Breathe. “He was going to kill you, Chloe. He lunged across that table—”
“And you stopped him,” Chloe reminded Joel.
“Because you cut through my straps!”
She smiled. “I think that means we make a pretty good team.”
He wanted her mouth. Joel bent his head to kiss—
“Right. So, I have things to do. Press conferences to give—once the reporters crawl out of bed. Paperwork to file. Crime scenes to check. You know, important detective stuff.”
Joel kept one hand twined with Chloe’s and offered the other to Cedric. “Thank you,” he told him sincerely. “You saved our lives tonight.”
Cedric shook his hand. Held on. “Why didn’t you take my advice?”
“What advice?”
“When I told you to forget Chloe on that very first day. Why didn’t you listen to me?”
“Because it was already too late.” He looked back at Chloe. His Chloe. “I was hooked.”
“I think you were more than hooked. I think you were in love.” Cedric let go of Joel’s hand. “Welcome to the team. Can’t wait to see what kind of case we work next time.”
Next time?
Whistling, Cedric strolled from the room.
Joel didn’t move. He couldn’t look away from Chloe’s bright gaze. “Next time?”
She nodded. “There’s always a next time.”
“Should that scare me?”
“Are you scared?”
His head was lowering. “Baby, there’s only one thing in this world that scares me.” And that was the truth. He’d thought that he