“Then you killed Karen Jones by strangling her with your hands a few days later.”
Kent shrugged. “I had an itch. After my sister died, I felt...excited. Hey! A little trivia for you! Did you know Karen was my first real girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Well, now you do. She nagged me the same way my sister did. I think she wanted to break up with me that night. I can’t really be sure.”
“Why did you keep changing your MO? First, you used a knife on your sister, then you used your hands, then stockings, until you decided on switching to fishing wires and tasers.”
“The knife was too messy,” Kent said as though they were having a normal conversation. He gestured with the knife he held as some did with their hands. “I got blood on the walls, sheets, myself. Let me tell you something: it is not as easy as it looks getting blood stains out. Even with Clorox 2, which my dear mother worshiped. Or bleach. The whole thing was too messy to bother with.”
Kent laughed as though he told a joke. Aidan kept an eye on his weapon in case he found an opening to dive for it, but Kent was careful. He seemed to know he was only trying to distract him. Despite being figured out, he appeared confident things would still turn out the way he wanted.
Aidan started wondering if he planned on them finding him here.
If he wanted to take things to the next level.
“And it took too long for them to finally die if I strangled them with my hands,” Kent continued. “Even my third victim, I had to beat a brick over her head because she was just too stubborn to die. The stocking did the trick, but it was too clean. I liked seeing a little blood. So enters the fishing wire.”
Cheyenne squirmed in his arms, forcing him to pull her hair back.
“It was enough blood to satisfy me while not leaving a mess.”
Kent put his lips to her neck and bit her.
She whimpered.
“And the tasers, I thought it’d be interesting to try. I saw a man get tased once by the police. He was a big man too. Like a sumo wrestler or something. Anyway, when he got tased…” Kent chuckled at the memory, “...he squealed like a pig. So, I thought it’d be interesting to try. Some of my women passed out, which was a bit disappointing. But most of the time, it was fun.”
He sighed.
Aidan still didn’t have a way to get to her without risking Cheyenne’s life.
“Well, it’s been loads of fun. I hate to cut and run, but, well, I’ve gotta run.”
Before Aidan realized what was happening, Kent sliced Cheyenne’s throat and pushed her toward him.
He caught her before she fell to the ground. Aidan held her throat to keep the blood from oozing out.
“Shaun!” he hollered up the stairs. “With one hand on Cheyenne’s neck and the other on the radio, he said, “He’s escaping from an opening in the basement. I repeat the offender is escaping.”
When the last word came out, Shaun and a few of the agents flew down the stairs, weapons at the ready.
But Kent had already gotten out.
“We need a bus,” Shaun called through the radio. “Person of interest Grant Rivers aka Kent Ory is en route. He’s wearing a plaid blue dress shirt and a pair of jeans. He has wire rimmed glasses and auburn hair. Use whatever means necessary to bring him down.”
“It’s okay,” Aidan told Cheyenne. “You’re going to be fine, baby. I’ve got you.”
Shaun found a towel to place on the neck wound.
Agent Douglas was in the process of unchaining Jordan from his shackles.
Aidan looked at Shaun, who gave him a quick, solemn nod, letting him know he understood what Aidan was thinking.
Kent Ory was escaping again.
79
AIDAN RODE WITH Cheyenne in the ambulance as Shaun remained behind to process the crime scene.
The EMTs had patched Cheyenne’s neck and gave her medicine to help ease the pain, but keep her alert. Aidan held her hand.
“You’re doing good, love,” he told her.
She still couldn’t speak, but the tears behind her smile told him she felt safe. He told her he loved her, and he wasn’t going anywhere.
When they arrived at the hospital, the orderlies worked together to rush Cheyenne to the operating room. Since Aidan couldn’t go inside, he lingered outside the door, pacing the floor.
His phone vibrated against his hip, so he answered.
It was Laura.
“I just got home, what’s happening? Where’s my sister? What happened to my bedroom? Aidan, answer me!”
“It’s okay,” Aidan told her, trying to calm the frantic girl. It didn’t work, and he understood what she was feeling. “Cheyenne’s fine. She’s in the operating room now at Georgia Regents.”
“She’s what!” Laura demanded. Aidan heard something bang on the other end of the line. “I’m on the way.”
Before he could respond, Laura ended the call.
Aidan leaned against the wall. Despite saving Cheyenne, he was feeling defeated.
Kent had escaped their grasp again. However, now that they knew who killed ninety-two people and attempted to kill three more, they had the upper hand.
“Agent O’Reilly.”
Aidan glanced over to see Monroe with Zane at her heels, walking his way. He must have been deep in his thinking to not hear her shoes clunking loudly against the floor.
“Agent Henderson briefed us. How is Cheyenne?”
“Still in surgery,” Aidan told her with a frown. “I haven’t heard from Shaun yet. He got away, didn’t he?”
Zane nodded. “He escaped on foot through the neighbors’ yards. But we do have an APB out on him and alerted security at
