She wasn’t begging for death. She should have begged. Now he’d make sure she suffered every single moment that she had left.
He drove the knife into her side.
“Not for long, you aren’t,” he promised her.
“ I ’M STILL ALIVE!”
That scream had been so terrifyingly close. Detective West was helping the wounded officers and Jax was pulling a man from the smoky building.
They hadn’t even heard the scream. Sarah had been the only one to hear Molly.
It’s a trap. She knew it. It had to be a trap but . . .
If I leave her now, she ’s dead.
Sarah took a tentative step toward that building on the left—the old clothing warehouse. When she got inside, it could explode on her, too.
No, sweetheart. No one is screaming. No one at all. Her father’s voice seemed to creep through her mind.
“Molly is screaming,” Sarah said. “I hear her.” Then she took a deep breath and she ran toward that second building. Ran as fast as she could.
Because if the killer is inside, he won’t have set the bombs to kill himself. It will be safe. It will be safe . . .
Maybe.
JAX HAD NEVER thought he’d see the day when he was saving a cop’s life. Not just one cop, two. “Remember this shit,” he muttered to the guy he’d just dragged out of the fire. “You owe me.”
Then Jax looked up, searching for Sarah. He wanted to get her back in case those flames spread. But she wasn’t standing near the dock. His heart slammed against his chest as he rushed forward. “Sarah?”
He turned to the left. Only saw cops scrambling.
To the right.
He saw Detective Brent West. That dick Cross had joined the guy. They had a uniformed cop between them, and they were helping the guy get clear of Warehouse 508.
Jax ran to them. “Where’s Sarah?”
Brent blinked at him. “With . . . you?”
Would he be asking the damn question if she was with him?
“Where did you see her last?” Jax demanded.
But Brent just looked confused. “She was behind me . . . I think . . . but then I went to help the men out of that fire . . .”
Jax had gone into the blaze, too. Was that where Sarah was? He hoped to hell not. The place had been an inferno moments before, seemingly seconds away from the whole building collapsing. But if Sarah was in there . . .
He rushed back toward the fire.
Then . . . stopped.
Fuck. Slow down . . . think. He yanked out his phone, but the thing had melted. He dropped it, swearing when it singed his fingers. He’d gone into the fire before. He hadn’t seen Sarah in there. He and Brent had been helping the cops.
Who went to help Molly?
Because the fire was a distraction. He recognized that. Like booby-traps in their path. And Sarah had been going to the second building before the explosion had rocked the dock.
The second warehouse . . . a building that hadn’t been touched by the fire, not yet.
He turned toward that building.
Stared up at the second floor.
“We need to get out of here!” It was Cross who shouted at him. “We have to create a safe perimeter and get the hell back!”
But he wasn’t getting back, not without Sarah. He started running toward the second warehouse.
Jax didn’t get far. He was grabbed from behind. “What are you doing?” Cross snarled. “You go in there and the whole place could blow!”
He’d noticed that the door was open there. As if someone had gone in . . . Sarah? Had she broken in or had the guy she was after left that door open? “I’m going after Sarah.”
“No.” Cross shook his head. “We’re getting out of here. If I let a civilian burn, even an asshole like you, I’m done.”
Like the guy really gave a shit about Jax or anyone else. Jax knew the things Cross had done . . . both before and after becoming a cop. Some sins don’t vanish. And you’re already done, buddy. “Let me go,” Jax told him. It was the only warning he planned to give the guy.
“No,” Cross said, his hold tightened on Jax. “You might have a death wish, but it’s not happening on my watch, not again—”
“Jax?” That was Gabe, shouting and running toward them.
Cross glanced over at him.
“Jax, where’s Sarah?” Gabe called out. “She said to get back . . . but I don’t leave my team behind.”
Sarah wasn’t with Gabe. She’s in the second building. She needs me!
Jax slammed his head into the cop’s. Cross howled, but the guy let Jax go. Jax didn’t hesitate. He ran right for that second building, the old clothing warehouse. Cross yelled after him. Telling him to come back—
But Jax just ran faster and he roared, “Sarah!”
SARAH’S FEET THUDDED up the stairs. The main door had been unlocked, open and ready for her, and she wished that she had a weapon. Something to use because . . .
He’s in here.
She hadn’t heard any other screams from up above. She prayed that didn’t mean Molly was dead. Not when she was so close to the other woman. Not when she could actually save her.
Sarah burst onto the landing on the second floor. She looked to the left, to the right. When they’d been on the phone, the man had gone up to the steps, then seemed to be immediately with Molly.
A door was just a step away. Sarah rushed toward the door, then stopped.
Was it rigged to blow? When she opened it, would that be the end for her and Molly? Dammit. Her hands clenched into fists and Sarah didn’t take another step forward. “Molly!” Sarah cried out. “Molly, are you there?”
Sarah could hear the crackle of flames from the building next door, but she didn’t hear Molly crying out. She didn’t hear the other woman at all.
“Molly?” Sarah tried again.
Nothing.
She had to get in that room. She had to—
“Sarah!” The bellow of her name came from downstairs. Then she heard the thud of footsteps. She knew it was Jax, rushing after her. She also knew that if he got to the top of the stairs . . .
He’ll take me away from Molly. Because he would think like she did. That it was a trap.
“Stay down there!” Sarah yelled. Then she didn’t go straight to that door. “Stay back!” She rushed down the hall and there—yes!—there was another door. This one was ajar. She could peer inside and see that the room was empty. She slipped through that open doorway without so much as touching the door, and fate was definitely on her side then because the room she was inside connected to the room immediately next door.
And she could see the crumpled form of a woman, lying on the floor of that connecting room.
Sarah ran to her. “Molly!”
Molly was lying in a pool of blood. The woman’s eyes were closed and her face was chalk white.
Sarah felt for a pulse. It was there. So weak. So incredibly thready—
“Sarah!” Now her name was a desperate roar. Jax was close. Her head whipped up and she stared at the door—the door she’d almost opened. And Sarah saw the bomb there. It was wired, as she’d feared. When the door opened, it would blow.
“No!” Sarah yelled back. “Don’t touch the door! It’s wired! Stay back!” Because if he opened that door, they were all dead.
She looked down at Molly’s body. Sarah put her hands over the woman’s side, trying to apply pressure and staunch that terrible flow of blood. She was bleeding out so quickly . . .
The blood stained the tiles. At first, it hurt but then . . .
Then I didn ’t feel anything.
“Molly, I need you to stay with me.” Sarah shoved the memories of her own past away. “You’re still alive. You made it, now just keep fighting a little longer, okay?”
“Sarah, how the fuck did you get in there?” Jax called out.