When he got to basement level, Gabe switched the light back on.
Certain that he would be able to see her if he looked this way, Lilith hugged the shadows. Her senses went off-kilter — she couldn’t hear beyond her own breath, and her mouth went dry and vision telescoped.
From her vantage point, she could see him through a collection of pipes that split off and ran in different directions to take hot water heat to various parts of the house. Gabe’s back was to her. He was bent over, picking up a case. Careful not to make a sudden movement that might alert him, she strained to see as he set it on a small table next to a leather chair. He started removing items from the weapons cabinet, checking over each item as if he were taking inventory before setting it in the case.
And then he closed the case, picked it up and snapped off the light. His footsteps on the stairs told her when he got to the top. She was already leaving her hiding place. By the time she heard a door open, she was up the stairs and heading for the back. Thankfully, he’d used the front door and hadn’t seen the broken glass.
As much as she wanted to try Pucinski again, she couldn’t take the chance of losing Gabe, who seemed to be off on a hunt. She had no doubt Hannah would be his prey. She would call Pucinski the first chance she got.
Lilith exited the house and slid along the darkened pathway alongside the building and stopped in the shelter of a big bush for cover. She got ready to run. Gabe was just closing the trunk of his black sedan — she recognized it as the car that had followed her the other night. He’d parked several lengths behind Hannah’s Jaguar.
How was she going to get to the Jag without alerting Gabe? Apparently he hadn’t seen Hannah’s car or hadn’t recognized it.
Just then, a truck pulled up behind Gabe and a man exited, saying, “Hey, O’Malley, how’s it hanging?”
“Randy. Not bad. Did you find the source of that leak?”
Apparently a neighbor. He had Gabe’s attention at least for the moment. No time to consider. Like a flash, she raced across the open ground in front of the house and into the shelter of a parkway tree. Heart pumping like mad, she slid into the Jaguar and slipped the keys into the ignition.
Through the rearview mirror, she could see Gabe shaking the neighbor’s hand and punching him in the arm. Just one of the boys.
Then he got in the sedan. The moment she heard him start his car, she started the Jaguar. She waited for him to drive past her, to get to the corner and make a turn, before she turned on her lights, pulled away from the parking space and followed.
Certain he was headed for Hannah and Carmen, she was going to be right behind him.
Oddly enough, Gabe didn’t get onto the expressway but circled around to North Avenue and drove west a few miles, then turned south, heading into a questionable neighborhood of too many overgrown lots and boarded up buildings.
Where was Gabe keeping Hannah and Carmen? The graffiti on buildings told her he was leading her deep into gang territory.
He turned onto a side street. Not wanting to alert him, she pulled over to the curb where she could see him, but he wouldn’t notice her. She waited until he got to the end of the block and crossed the intersection before following. Luckily, when he got halfway down the block, she spotted his headlights turning into a drive that went to the back of a building.
She parked on the street one building down from where he’d turned in. Before following, she tried Pucinski again.
Voice mail.
What now?
Michael.
Hesitating only a second, she tried his number. He answered on the first ring.
“Lilith, where the hell are you?”
“The west side.” She gave him the address. “I followed Gabe O’Malley. This must be where he’s holding Hannah and Carmen. You have to get that information to Detective Pucinski, please!”
“Pucinski is–”
“I don’t have time to talk. I’m going in!”
She heard him say, “Lilith, no!” as she ended the call.
Chapter 21
CARMEN WAS handcuffed to a radiator, Hannah to a cot.
The way they’d both been worked over stopped Lilith’s breath.
Barely able to believe her eyes, she stared and fought the urge to sink to her knees. Dear Lord, she’d known they wouldn’t get away unscathed… but this…
She visualized smashing Gabe’s head into a brick wall.
Carmen’s face was a mess. Bruises were blooming beneath smears of dried blood, and the eye Lilith could see was swollen shut. With her bruised wrist handcuffed to a radiator, Carmen had collapsed on the floor, her head tilted at an odd angle. Lilith didn’t know whether or not she was conscious.
“Oh, Carmen,” she whispered.
The girl’s head snapped up and around, and her good eye went wide. She whispered, too, her words slurred because one side of her cheek and mouth was swollen. “…knew ya’d come!”
Grateful that the girl seemed to be okay other than the cuts and bruises, Lilith put her finger to her lips, and when Carmen nodded in agreement, she moved to see to her sister, who lay handcuffed to the cot. It took everything in her not to cry out at the sight.
Blood still oozed from a nasty gash in Hannah’s hairline. Both eyes were swollen closed, her mouth was so swollen it was slightly agape, and the lower lip was split. Still in the dress she’d worn the night she’d been taken, the additional injuries on her arms and legs brought tears to Lilith’s eyes.
In far worse shape than Carmen, Hannah lay as still as death.
A thought that choked Lilith.
No, not after all this…
But Hannah didn’t seem to be breathing.
Lilith’s heart thundered as she sat on the edge of the cot and felt for a pulse, and she nearly collapsed in relief when she found a light, irregular thread.
Let her live. Please let her live!
She gently touched and shook her sister’s shoulder to wake her, but Hannah’s swollen eyes didn’t so much as crack open.
Where the hell was backup? She might be able to defend herself against Gabe, but Hannah and Carmen needed medical help. How long before Pucinski arrived with the cavalry?
Had Michael even been able to contact the detective?
Pulling her cell from her pocket, she was about to try calling him again when she heard a footfall behind her. The bastard’s laugh cut through her, and she dropped the phone and bolted up off the cot and whirled around–
“Looking for me?”
–barely getting a glimpse of Gabe before he struck out with a rifle butt and whacked her in the head.
Her mind lit with bright lights before going dark.
“AS IF YOU COULD save anyone,” Gabe muttered, his laughter stilled when Lilith collapsed at his feet.
“No! Lilith!” the girl wailed.
“Your Lilith can’t help you now.”
The little bitch had jumped him. He took pleasure in taunting her.
She swallowed a sob and glared at him in silence.
Gabe ignored the girl and fetched a length of rope. He hadn’t expected Lilith to find his lair. How had she figured it out? No one else had been able to identify him as the hunter killer. Other than the bitch they’d planted at the club. But he’d taken care of Caresse for good. She wouldn’t be able to tell anyone anything.
Lilith must have figured out he was the killer on her own. She must have followed him here from home.