Chapter Twenty-Nine

After Jonah’s surprising text, they headed straight to the hospital. Olivia’s stomach churned with dread. What could Jonah have to confess?

Alex was on the phone with Detective Kramer as Sawyer parked in the visitor garage. He hung up and helped her out of the SUV. When Sawyer joined them, Alex filled them in on his conversation as they made their way inside. “Definitely a bomb in the flower vase. They finally tracked someone down who met Mindy Prescott’s boyfriend and they thought his name was Ray Smith. Apparently she just started dating him a few days ago. The cops are working on locating him but there are hundreds of Ray Smith’s in the area.”

“The name sounds familiar.” Olivia repeated the name over and over in her head. She grabbed Alex’s arm, jerking him to a stop. “We met a Ray Smith at the gala on Sunday.”

Recognition came into Alex’s eyes. “The guy who almost gave you a champagne bath.”

“He was surprised I was there. Mindy said she didn’t like me because her boyfriend was obsessed with me. Could he be the one doing all of this?”

“I’d say it’s a good possibility.” Alex dialed Kramer back and relayed the information. “She’s going to track down the list of attendees to the gala.” He pushed the button for the elevator. The doors instantly slid open and they trooped inside.

“Kinda strange that your producer wants to confess something to you, isn’t it?” Sawyer mused as the elevator climbed to the fourth floor.

“Maybe a near-death experience was a wake-up call,” Alex added. “I looked through the information Benson gathered on your friends. Wasn’t his sister attacked a few years ago?”

At her nod, Sawyer asked quietly, “Could he be the Vigilante?”

Olivia’s denial was instant. She shook her head vehemently. “No. No way. Jonah isn’t a killer.”

“Sometimes people get pushed past their limit,” Alex said gently.

“Maybe he wants to confess his undying love,” Sawyer mused. “What?” he asked at Alex’s glower.

She shook her head again. “He’s like an older brother. I don’t get the vibe that he’s in love with me.”

The elevator doors parted and they stepped into the sterile white hallway. They passed a small sitting area with a beige sofa and matching chairs. “I don’t think either of those two things are what he has to confess, but I’ll find out. You two wait here.”

“I’m not letting you go in without me,” Alex protested.

“We’re in a hospital and his room is right over there,” she pointed. “He asked that I come alone, so I want to honor his wishes. You will be steps away. If I need help, I’ll holler for you. I’ll be back soon.”

“Wait a minute.” Sawyer pulled out his cell and opened an app. “This will record the conversation. If it’s something personal, we can delete it and no one has to hear. But if it’s not…” He let the sentence hang. She slid the phone in her purse.

Alex kissed her. “For strength,” he murmured.

She smiled at him, hoping he could read the love in her eyes. With a deep inhale, she turned and walked to Jonah’s room at the end of the corridor. The room was dark when she pushed open the door. “Jonah?” She eased the curtain back and gazed at the empty bed. “What—”

An arm grabbed her from behind and a hand covered her mouth. “Make one sound, bitch, and you’re dead. I’ve got a gun trained on your spine and my trigger finger’s itchy.” Something sharp poked against her lower back. “Now we’re just going to peek to make sure your boyfriend isn’t looking. Then you and I are going to take a little ride.” The voice sounded familiar but she couldn’t see his face.

He towed her roughly backwards and she stumbled against him. “Get up.” With a brutal jerk, he dragged her to the door and peered out the small window. “Dammit, we have to wait until he’s not paying attention.” He ground the barrel into her back. “I’m going to remove my hand. You aren’t going to make a sound, are you? Because if you do, I will put a bullet in your boyfriend’s head and you can watch him die before I put a matching one in yours.”

She shook her head and he removed his hand. She gulped in a breath, desperately wanting to call out to Alex but she didn’t want to test his threat. He wrenched her purse off her arm and rooted around inside. He pulled out her phone, dropped it on the ground and crushed it under his heel. “Don’t want anyone following us and ruining the fun, now do we Olivia?”

She looked at his face and sucked in a breath. “I met you and your father at the gala. Trent Charles.” Her gut had been right about him…he was pure evil.

“That was a kick in the pants seeing you there.” He chuckled. “My roommate about had a coronary.”

“I noticed. Ray Smith is his name?”

“Sure is.”

“So, Trent, you shot at me outside my apartment on Wednesday?” She hoped using his name would forge a bond that would make it harder for him to harm her.

Trent shook his head. “That was Ray.”

“Ray killed my roommate and her boyfriend later that night?”

“No, that would be me.”

She recoiled at the amused look on his face. Tamping down her reactions, she asked, “The shooting at the funeral?”

“Ray again.”

“And the bombs?”

He smiled proudly. “Those are all me, though it was a pity the chick caught me putting the one under your car.”

She gaped at him. “You killed eleven people at the television station, including Ray’s girlfriend, Mindy.”

He clicked his tongue. “Yeah, that was too bad. She was a tiger in bed. And she was my girlfriend, not Ray’s. I just gave her his name so she wasn’t tied to me.”

She held up her hands. “Why, Trent? I don’t even know you or Ray. I met you for the first time at the gala. Why are you trying to kill me?”

“Eh, it was all Ray’s idea. Since the Vigilante seems to speak through you, he thought if we got rid of you, the guy would go away. Nothing personal.”

Nothing personal? Was this guy delusional? Attempted murder was pretty damn personal. “Why would Ray think that?” Recognition dawned. “Did you get away with murder?”

“A girl died while she was partying with us. We dumped her body but we were never charged with the crime. I tried telling Ray that the Vigilante wouldn’t come after us but he wouldn’t listen.” He made a circle against his temple with his finger. “Guy’s a little batshit.”

Ya think? “If it was Ray’s idea and you thought he was crazy, why did you go along with it?”

His smile was malicious. “That girl who died…it wasn’t an accident. I killed her. I wrapped my hands around her neck and squeezed the life out of her. The rush was intense. I developed quite a fondness for murder. Then I shot those two people in your apartment and now I can’t seem to stop. I followed some random girl home the other day and killed her, too.”

My God, he truly was depraved. She couldn’t hide her reaction any longer. “You’re sick.”

She wasn’t prepared for the blow across her cheek. Her head snapped to the side and pain exploded.

“Shut up, bitch, or I’ll kill you right here.”

She blinked back the tears welling in her eyes. She was in a battle for her life with a sadistic psychopath. She needed to keep her wits. “You’ll never get away with this, Trent.”

“Oh, I think I will. After I get rid of you, I’ll make an anonymous call to the police and send them to Ray’s apartment. They’ll find him dead along with a note fessing up to all of the crimes.” Apparently done with his confession, he turned away to peer out the door. “Okay, your boyfriend is occupied. We’re going to calmly walk out of here and turn left. You make one sound, so much as a peep, and I’ll pump your boyfriend full of so much lead he’ll be able to use his dick as a pencil.”

“Clever. Three Amigos?”

“Ah, a movie buff, huh? Too bad I have to kill you.” His salacious gaze raked her body and she fought the urge to shudder. “I think we’d get along really well, Olivia. Don’t you?” Thankfully he didn’t give her time to answer as he tweaked her arm and reached for the handle. She managed to grab the strap of her purse. “Remember, not a sound or I’ll mow down every one in the area: men, women, kids, I don’t give a damn. Then you will die. Painfully. Understand?”

She nodded. She had no doubt he’d do it. After seeing the bullet-ridden body of her roommate, she knew what he was capable of. There was madness in his eyes.

He opened the door and they slipped out. She wanted to yell for Alex, scream out for help, but the poke of the firearm against her side stopped her. They made their way down the hall and into the stairwell without anyone noticing their presence.

#

Alex watched as Olivia padded down the hall to her producer’s room. He hoped like hell the guy wasn’t about to confess to being the Vigilante. It would crush her.

Sawyer was on the phone with the office filling them in on the bombing and Ray Smith. He’d put money down that their techs would track the man down before the police.

“Mylonas?”

He turned to see Detective Benson striding towards him. “Hey, Derek. I just spoke with your partner.”

“Yeah, she told me. This could be the break we need.”

“What are you doing here? Interviewing bombing victims?”

Benson nodded. “What about you?”

“Olivia’s producer texted her needing to talk.”

Benson studied his notebook in confusion. “Jonah Wyles?” At Alex’s confirmation, he added, “That’s strange. I just interviewed him and both of his wrists are broken. No way he could text.” He looked up from his notes. “Plus, he’s two floors up.”

Panic sliced through Alex like a white-hot knife. “Sonofabitch.” He darted across the hall and shoved the door open with two hands. It crashed against the wall. Benson was on his heels, followed by Sawyer, who’d been alerted by his mad dash. “Olivia?” Something crunched under his foot. He glanced down to see the shattered remains of her cell phone. “The bastard has her.” Blackness swarmed around the edges of his vision. If he lost her, it would gut him.

“You chipped her,” Sawyer reminded him, pulling him from the edge of the abyss.

Damn, he should have thought of that but he was having trouble dragging air into his lungs. He’d attached a device to her watch. Fear made his hands tremble as he withdrew his cell and brought up the tracking program. “They’re going down that stairwell.” He pointed. “You two follow. I’ll go down the other one and we’ll cut him off.”

With guns in hand, Sawyer and Derek bolted for the stairs. Adrenalin fueled Alex as he raced down the corridor to a different exit. He leaped from flight to flight barely touching the steps. He had to dodge a couple going up and he called out an apology over his shoulder. He shoved the door open and rounded the building to see Sawyer and Benson pointing guns on a man who held one to Olivia’s head. If he could sneak up behind them, he could surprise the bastard before sending him to meet the devil.