“Sorry, get me everything you can, and I’ll call you later.” She pressed the button to hang up as she flew by Redden. The FBI agent flipped his lights on, did a U-ie and hugged her bumper the rest of the way to the opening gates of her driveway. She skidded to a halt at the front door. Grabbing her keys, she sprang from the car and ran up the shallow steps to the front door. “Karma, you clear the house. I’ll check the pool house.”
“What the hell, Rayburn?” Redden screeched.
Jo ignored him focusing on her fiancé as Rhys rounded the corner of the main hallway. “Rhys, go with Karma and get your med bag.”
She hoped they wouldn’t need it, but her gut was telling her they would. One thing Jo knew to listen to was her survival instinct. It’d saved her many a time and helped catch killers. Racing through the den and kitchen, she pulled her gun from its holster. Her legs pumped as slammed open the door to the backyard and jumped over the steps landing on the pavement.
“Get the fuck off of him, you crazy bitch!” Lisa screamed, wrestling a woman that looked like Lucy out of the door of the pool house and past Rian.
Jo put on a burst of speed to see a form darting away from the pool house toward the back of the property. She didn’t have a clear shot without possibly hitting Lisa. Stabbing her finger, she yelled at Redden. “Grab her, she’s Slenderman!”
Redden swung in the fleeing woman’s direction. Jo ran to Rian and holstered her gun. Tears streamed down the kid’s face as she pushed by him to follow Lisa. “Where’s Evan?”
“She only stabbed him once before Lisa jumped in.” Rian pointed toward the den. “We’re so sorry. We thought with the FBI, Interpol, you, and everybody else we were safe here. Especially with the new security system.”
Her hands shook as she took in Evan’s fear-filled eyes and the shallow stab wound on his chest. “You’re going to be okay, E. Rhys is right behind me.” He nodded and whimpered. Taking a breath, she pointed to the kitchen. “Grab some towels, Ri.”
She needed to get her anger under control. It was hard since it was fueled by terror and seeing blood leaking from Evan wasn’t helping.
Rian’s white face filled with panic helped get her emotions under control. “It was Lucy. I know her, so I let her in, Jo. She takes Arabelle shopping and—” He sobbed. “I let her in. I didn’t know.”
Rhys dropped down next to her. He gently lifted her hands and bent to examine the wound with Lisa’s help. The adrenaline crash would hit her soon, and she needed to gain control of her emotions before it happened.
“Rian, come with me.” She led him into the kitchen where she flipped on the water using her elbow. Jo scrubbed her hands clean of Evan’s blood before turning off the water. Bracing her palms on the edge of the sink, she dropped her head between them.
“I’m so so sorry, Jo—”
“Just tell me why. Why would you and Evan do this, Ri?”
“You weren’t getting anywhere. Then we heard on the IRC channel that Rott was dead—”
“Rottensteer?”
“Yeah, Serioulias told us. Evan and I knew we needed to help. Because there were fifty names on that list and one of them was dead.”
She lifted her head and met Rhys’s gaze over the island that separated the kitchen from the den. His face was ashen, and his gaze held accusations Jo couldn’t interpret. Was Rhys angry with her? With Rian for going along with Evan’s plan? With both of them? She hadn’t talked to Rian about the case at all. No updates. No questions. Nothing, just as Rhys wanted. Why would he be mad? She did what he asked her to do and almost got Evan, Rian, and Lisa killed. Turning back to Rian, she slashed a hand between them. “Stop apologizing.”
“We just never thought it would hurt us. Carl and Joseph said we were fortified—”
“Except against a friend. Which you consider everyone in that channel.” Jo barely bit off the snarl.
“Yeah.”
“Do you get how dangerous this is? My job is not something you ever toy around with. You’re a kid—”
“I’m twent—”
“Shut it. In terms of my job you’re not even a rookie, Ri, you’re a kid. You’re a baby, and you put all of us in danger.” She shivered at the thought of Rian being hurt. Rhys would never forgive her if that happened. Glancing at Rhys’s closed expression, Jo wasn’t sure he’d forgive her even now. “If Kyle hadn’t called me, we’d have been too late. Do you get that? After she killed Evan, she would’ve killed you and Lisa next.”
“I know. She told us,” Rian’s voice was small, his shoulders hunched and the bright light that normally sparkled in his eyes was absent.
“They’re in here,” Karma said leading the paramedics into the house.
“Go check on your friend.” Jo motioned to Evan.
Rian spun and fled as if the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels.
Her hands shook as the adrenaline wore off. Jo opened the cabinet next to the fridge and snatched a candy bar to help with the crash. Jo turned to Karma. “Talk to me.”
“She got away—”
“The fuck. You and the feeb lost her? How?”
Karma jerked her ponytail her expression a mask of rage. “Because she was wily and had an escape plan in place. Same as freaking Gravedigger.”
“A ladder she flipped to the other side?”
“Yep.”
When Jo’s palm connected with the granite counter a resounding crack echoed through the room causing everyone to room jump but Jo and Karma. “The news just had to put that piece out there, calling
