“Ah, right on time!” Morgan Fletcher announced. He beamed at Joel from his position in Gordo’s chair. He was sporting sun-streaked, blond hair, and his dark eyes gleamed. “So glad you could come for our appointment,” he said seriously.
Joel’s gaze swept the room and stopped on the exam table that had been set up about five feet away. Gordo was on the table. Strapped down. A surgical tray waited by the table.
“How did I do?” Morgan wanted to know. “I get that it’s not exactly a hospital, but hey, I brought in the table for you. Would you believe the movers didn’t even ask me questions? For the right money, I discovered no one ever asks questions.”
Joel surged toward Gordo. “I’ll get you out—”
“Why?” Morgan was still lounging in the chair. His feet were on Gordo’s desk. “Why would you want to do that? I had to go to all of the trouble of drugging the man—by the way, I used the same drug that Stephen asshole used on our Chloe—and now you want to just let Gordon go?” A sigh. “You just aren’t getting things, are you?”
He didn’t see a way to undo the straps. What the hell? Joel reached for a scalpel. “I’ll cut you out. I’ll—”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Morgan assured him.
Joel threw a hard stare back at Morgan. He didn’t like turning his back on the guy for even a moment.
Morgan lowered his feet. Sat up straighter. “You have the means in your hand. The means to achieve your vengeance. It’s just you and me in this room. You can cut him to your heart’s content, and then, if you want, you can let the cops think I did it.” Morgan smiled as he rose and slowly closed in on Joel. Like a snake slithering ever closer. “How is that for a deal?”
He wouldn’t take any deal from that jerk. “Why in the hell would I want to cut Gordo?” Joel demanded.
Morgan blinked. He looked down at Gordo. Gordo’s mouth was covered with duct tape, and his eyelids were flickering as he fought to wake up. “Well, because he cut you, of course.”
Joel shook his head.
“No? You don’t think so? Don’t believe me? You should. I studied him. When I made my first trip down to New Orleans, he caught my attention. He’s been pulling the strings, and now it’s time for those strings to get cut. Luckily, you are armed with a scalpel. We call that a fortuitous event.”
“You don’t have any proof. Gordo didn’t—”
“I had some time to read through the not-so-good doctor’s case files recently. You know, while I was enacting my evil plan. He treated Lucia Rossi. She was abused by her stepfather, but I suspect you know that. Your, ah, Gordo pushed her to liberate herself. To reach her full potential.” A wince. “I guess she did that, didn’t she?”
Gordo groaned.
“Then there was Kelly Addams. The woman adored her father. Serious hero worship. Then he died in an explosion and she was left with a drunk for a mother—a woman who abused her. Kelly started having terrible episodes as she aged. She wanted to strike out at those who hurt her. And what better way to strike out than with the instrument that took her precious father away?” He tapped his chin. “That’s going full circle, I believe. Your shrink was very into closing circles.”
Joel put the scalpel down on the tray. He reached behind his back and pulled around the gun. “Step back and put your hands up.”
Morgan frowned at the gun. “Why are you pointing that at me? I’m on your side. I’m helping you.”
“Bullshit. I don’t know your angle, but it’s not to help me.”
Morgan’s gaze rose to pin him. “Gordon Jennings viewed you as a psychological experiment—that is how he viewed many of his patients. He wanted to push you until you turned from healer into killer. As I said, I read his notes. He had quite a bit to say about you and the monster he believed you have inside.”
Gordo. Chloe had suspected him, too, but…
“The scalpel is right there. Just pick it up. Slice it over his skin. See what it’s like when he bleeds—”
“No,” Joel snarled.
Instead of backing away, Morgan stepped even closer. He shoved his chest against the muzzle of the gun. “Do you know what the plan was for Chloe? Stephen was taking her to kill her. It wasn’t going to be fast. Stephen Wakefield’s file showed that he had quite the sadistic tendencies. He enjoyed inflicting pain. He would have inflicted a great deal of pain on Chloe.”
Joel’s jaw locked.
“Lucia, Kelly, and Stephen are all tied to the bastard on the table. The bastard who tortured you. I have fucking wrapped him up in a bow for you, and still, you stand here and do nothing? You are such a disappointment. I don’t know why Chloe bothers with you.”
“I think I hear jazz music,” Joel told him in a voice thick with rage. “Coming from the street below. Guess we had all better just wait and—”
Morgan laughed. Then he reached under Joel’s collar and jerked away the listening device. He balled it in his fist. “Better now?”
Joel didn’t even breathe.
No, things were not better. They were one hell of a lot worse.
***
“I lost him.” Cedric yanked out his earpiece. “Sonofabitch!” But, before they’d lost the connection, one thing had been very, very clear…
Jazz.
“Move!” he snapped to his men. “We are going in, now!” They swarmed forward and as they burst from the alley—
A redhead ran out of Gordon’s building. Wendy Hyde. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her body seemed to shake uncontrollably. Cedric grabbed her. “It’s all right, it’s all—”
“B-bomb!” she gulped. “Don’t go in! He is going to make the building explode!”
Cedric’s stare whipped to the building. Fuck me. “Everyone, get back! We need to get the hell back and set up a secure perimeter!”
***
“I’ll need you to put down the gun,” Morgan directed with a congenial smile. “If you don’t…” He uncurled his left hand. He appeared to be holding some kind of key fob. The fob was in his left hand, and Joel’s now useless listening device was in his right. Morgan lifted the fob. “If you don’t get rid of the gun, I’ll just have to blow us to hell.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“I don’t bluff. That is insulting. That’s like saying Chloe guesses.” He shrugged. “After Kelly Addams suffered that unfortunate fate at the hospital, I took the liberty of sneaking into her place before the cops could get there. I helped myself to a few of the bombs that she had ready. Now those bombs are here. So put the gun down, or we will all go…boom.”
Joel laughed. And didn’t put the gun down. “Bullshit.”
Morgan lost a bit of his confident grin.
“You weren’t in town then.” He didn’t think Morgan had been, anyway. “You were still giving your cover story to the media. You couldn’t have gone in Kelly’s place. You didn’t do that—”
“You’re right,” Morgan allowed with a sigh.
Joel nodded. Shit. I was guessing. It worked. It—