“You bastard!”
Gabe stopped, but Lilith was still moving. He swung the tree limb and knocked the rifle out of her hands. She went after it. Hopping on his good leg, he went after her. He threw himself against her. Off balance, Lilith struggled to stay on her feet.
They toppled together.
Gabe came rushing down on her, his face a mask of insane hatred as he wrapped his hands around her throat. His greater weight pinned her and kept her from breathing. Feeling as if her chest would explode, Lilith fought him to no avail. He was as desperate as she now.
He was going to kill her if she didn’t act fast.
She shoved a hand in her jacket pocket--
Her head whirled, lit by flashes of light.
--and, pulling Gabe’s knife from her pocket, plunged it into him.
His expression morphed to one of surprise and disbelief as his gut absorbed the finely honed shaft.
She felt his warm blood ooze over her as he let go and collapsed on top of her.
Limbs shaking, she lay there in shock.
Dear Lord, he’d forced her hand to kill him.
Suddenly his weight was lifted from her. Blinking, she saw Pucinski laying Gabe on the ground. And Michael was over her, helping her to her feet, pulling her tight against his chest.
“Lilith, are you all right?”
She threw her arms around his neck. “Michael, I-I killed him.”
“Nah, you didn’t,” Pucinski said. He was kneeling next to Gabe, checking his pulse. “He’s still alive.”
Lilith swallowed hard. Part of her was sorry that Gabe wasn’t dead, but mostly she was relieved. She’d lived with guilt long enough. Elena had asked her what she was willing to do. She hadn’t really known how to answer then, but she did now.
Two uniformed officers had followed Pucinski, who told them, “Get an ambulance here.” He frowned down at Gabe. “You made our case, Miss Mitchell, but we’re gonna have to come up with a creative explanation for his, uh, being in his birthday suit…”
The enormity of what she’d gone through was too much for Lilith. The dam that had been holding back her emotions finally burst, and she sobbed against Michael’s chest.
Chapter 23
LILITH SAT on an examination table, ice pack to the side of her face, as a doctor stitched up her leg where Gabe had cut her. She’d barely felt the injury until she was in Pucinski’s car and her adrenaline had drained away.
She’d insisted on checking on Hannah and Carmen, and so he’d left the uniformed officers with Gabe and had driven her and Michael to the more distant hospital.
Hannah was alive but still hadn’t come around. Lilith was sick over it, but all she could do was wait.
Thankfully, Carmen would be fine. The girl had already been released to her parents, who’d taken her home. As to Carmen’s future, Lilith only knew she would continue to fight for the girl. Assuming Carmen would still let her.
The doctor stitched, Lilith winced, and Michael found her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. She tried on a smile for him but figured it wasn’t very convincing.
“All done,” the doctor said. He pulled out a pad and wrote a prescription. Handing it to her, he said, “For the pain.”
She shoved it in her pocket, put the ice pack back to her face and waited for a nurse to come in with printed instructions on home care.
As if she was going anywhere.
By the time she was released, and she limped into the waiting room with Michael’s support, Elena was there for her. Lilith had called her on the way to the hospital.
Elena’s eyes widened when she saw Lilith’s bruised face. “Oh, honey, I’m so glad you’re all right.”
“I’m not all right. I won’t be until I know Hannah’s going to make it.”
Elena held her hand throughout what felt like an interminable wait for word on Hannah’s condition. Michael waited, too, but he gave her space, sitting to one side several chairs away. He was watching her, though, his gaze now familiar and comforting.
A half hour went by. An hour.
“What’s taking so long?” Stress over Hannah was making Lilith edgy. “Maybe I should find a doctor.”
“One will find you,” Michael said.
Elena added, “You have to believe Hannah’s going to be okay.”
“I hope so.”
“Because of you.”
A lot of things she didn’t want to think about had happened because of her, Lilith thought, just as Detective Pucinski strolled into the room. “Miss Mitchell, I just checked on Carrie… Caresse. She survived the surgery.”
“Thank God.”
“No, she wanted me to thank you.”
“Did she say what happened?” Michael asked.
“She sniffed out O’Malley through the club’s manager. Ruscio told her that O’Malley recommended Hannah. Apparently, O’Malley saw her potential.”
“So she was already tagged as one of his victims.” Lilith realized her sister never had a chance.
Pucinski went on. “Carrie put two and two together and had a conversation with O’Malley that he didn’t like. That’s how he figured out she was the plant.”
“They didn’t know each other?” Elena asked.
“No reason they should. O’Malley was a homicide detective. Carrie a uniform assigned to undercover. She was recently transferred in from another district.” He checked his watch. “I need to get going. I’ll be doing paperwork until dawn. I just wanted to let you know the good news and to check on your sister. O’Malley’s gonna stand trial, and he’s gonna be locked away forever. Tomorrow, I need to take your statement in detail.”
Lilith nodded.
“Count on me, too,” Michael said. “Whatever it takes to keep the bastard where he belongs.”
“You ask me, he belongs in a grave, but we don’t do that in Illinois anymore.” Pucinski made for the door. “We can only hope that he’ll suffer his own private hell.”
After the detective left the building, Michael said, “Great news about Caresse.”
But Lilith’s mind was back on her sister. “If only Hannah makes it, too.”
Elena wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug. “She’ll make it. She’s too much like you to give up.”
Her sister was like her, not just in looks, but in survival skills. Hannah just had developed a different set than she had. Lilith closed her eyes and prayed that Hannah came out of this alive. She didn’t care how her sister made a living. She just wanted Hannah in her life.
And so, a quarter of an hour later, when Lilith learned that Hannah was awake and wanted to see her, she finally let out the mental breath she’d been holding.
“I’ll wait for you here,” Elena said.
Michael didn’t say anything.
As she limped along the corridor behind the nurse, Lilith thought Michael was the first man with whom she’d ever really connected on more than a physical level. He was a man worthy of her trust.
The nurse stopped before a doorway to a patient room. “Keep it to two minutes.”
Lilith nodded and went inside.
Her sister looked small and fragile in the hospital bed, hooked up to an IV and medical equipment, more like the kid Lilith remembered.
Though her head was bandaged, her face bruised and cut and swollen, Hannah said, “You’re a mess. Need… serious makeover.”
Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Lilith sat at the edge of her bed. “I was so afraid for you.”
“You saved me and Carmen… found us… heard you.”
Hannah was making such an effort to speak that Lilith’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry.”
“You warned me. Wouldn’t listen. Think I’ll listen now.”
“No lectures. But when you get out of here–”