Twenty minutes earlier
Empty lobby. Quiet halls. Kathryn figured her night in the ER was just about done.
She checked in with the nurses at the entry point. Everything was under control. Doing one last walk-through, she checked silently as she moved from room to room, deciding it was just about time to call it a night and hunt down Jake.
Or hunt down Jake to make her night.
There was one last item on her mental checklist. She wanted to swing by Wing E, just to make sure Troy and Scott were okay and didn’t need her to smuggle them some late-night offerings from the snack bar. Nutter Butters. Jell-O. Soda. All they had to do was ask and they would receive. Mama knew all the good stashes.
She turned a corner and froze when she saw Andi. Pretty, pixie-haired, long-legged Andi.
If Kathryn turned her down, not wanting to mix business with pleasure, or pleasure with pleasure, would Andi make a fuss? Cost her the teaching opportunity that had breathed new life into her otherwise mostly dull workday?
Ugh. We should talk.
Kathryn took a few hesitant steps forward as Andi wheeled a gurney through the hall, parking it along one side before taking brisk steps back in the direction she came.
“Kathryn,” a man called from behind her.
Regretting her decision to turn back even before she did it, she sucked it up and painted on a smile. “Carter. Hi.”
“I know you hate the accolades, but great job today,” her ex said, reaching out to grab her shoulders and give them a congratulatory squeeze.
Having both his hands land on her shoulders was seriously making her itch with discomfort. Kathryn squirmed out from under them, but Carter’s smile didn’t dim.
“Not that that’s anything new coming from you. Now, if you’re ready to get off your feet for a hot second, there’s a casual dinner with your name on it.”
“Dinner?” Kathryn was distracted as she saw Andi stepping away from the gurney. Why would a pharmacy tech be at the hospital wheeling a gurney? Addressing Carter, she blurted, “I can’t. I’ve got one more patient to check on.”
“Want me to help?” Carter asked.
“No.” Kathryn relaxed the strain in her voice and mustered up a smile. “I mean, no—you’ve worked ten times harder than I have today. You’ve earned your dinner. Another time.”
“Another time. Soon,” he said, playfully aiming a finger gun at her.
Kathryn could only nod, taking several rushed steps to the gurney. She glanced at the crisp white sheet pulled up to the resting man’s eyes. Noting the sheet was tucked a little too high, she pulled it off his face to give him some air.
A tug of the sheet revealed an unconscious Scott, pale and lifeless. Alarmed, she called his name, and when there was no response, she administered several mild slaps to the cheek.
“Scott? Detective Delaney, can you hear me?” Nothing but a long breath.
Then he murmured, “Troy.”
Shit. Troy. This couldn’t have happened half an hour ago when everyone and their mother were in the hall?
Scanning in each direction, Kathryn was distressed to see the halls were empty. She raced in the direction Andi had gone, creeping along the hallway and opening each door with a near-silent knock.
She bounced from room to room, but her search turned up empty. No Andi. And no Troy. She might as well have been searching for a needle in quicksand. The process was taking way too long.
Kathryn reached for her phone—the one she’d lost that morning in the hotel room. Goddammit.
The nurses’ station was empty. Momentarily, most likely, but at the worst possible time. Thankfully, there was a phone mounted to the wall just up ahead. Kathryn made a beeline for it and hit the red button for the security desk.
“Security,” the man said, identifying himself.
“Ow!” Kathryn dropped the phone and grabbed her arm.
She mouthed the word help, but nothing came out. The weight of her body rested against the cool wall, sliding despite her will to fight. To stay standing. She could feel her body collapsing. As if from a great distance, she heard her name being paged.
“Paging Nurse Chase. Nurse Kathryn Chase, your party is expecting you in the lobby.”
When Kathryn came to, a damp rag was pressed hard against her mouth and nose. She struggled to breathe but otherwise let her limbs go limp and remained still.
She wasn’t half as concerned about what was being done as the psychopath doing it. When oxygen is cut off, panic starts setting in. But she knew she had only one option to survive.
Submit. Or rather, succumb. Build the illusion her body had given in to the injection of drugs and the chloroform covering her face now. Whatever she’d been injected with had already worn off—which could have been minutes or hours. Or days?
No. I haven’t peed myself, so it can’t be days. Lucky for me, chloroform doesn’t work the way it does in the movies.
But why move her from the hall and give her chloroform unless . . . unless her attacker knew the shot wouldn’t be enough.
Faking her sleep state and keeping her eyes shut, Kathryn waited until the footsteps moved away. Cracking her eyes open even a fraction was a risk, but a necessary one to take in every important detail of the situation she was in.
How many assailants? What did they want? How far were they willing to go to get it?
A former Army combat nurse with just enough survival, evasion, resistance, and escape training, a training every part of her exhausted body had hated at the time, Kathryn relied on the skills she’d prayed she’d never have to use. All the while grateful as hell they were there.
The good news? Only one assailant. Andi.
The bad news? Not only did Andi have a crash cart of drugs that were all lethal in the wrong doses, she now also had something that changed the dynamics entirely.
A five o’clock shadow.
Whether her captor was a man or a woman made no difference. Kathryn was a trained combat vet. A fierce fighting machine of a woman who knew how to take names and kick ass. No one had ever accused this hellraiser of being a lightweight.
Still, her position on the bed and the drugs in her system meant whatever advantage she might have was diminished. And her wrists being bound wasn’t helping. Kathryn could feel the tug of jute ropes against them, binding them together and tethering her to the siderail of the hospital bed.
At least they’re loose. Maybe loose enough to slip through.
Silently, she watched as Andi prepped a cart next to Troy and injected something into his IV. Kathryn made small, slight movements, stretching the bindings and twisting her wrists.
With a sigh, Andi set down the syringe and turned. “I know you’re awake.”
Then there’s no use pretending.
Kathryn assessed the ropes tying her to the bed. The knot was a perfect match for the impressions in the crime-scene photographs of Troy’s arms. A sophisticated knot Kathryn hadn’t seen before.
“What kind of knot is this?” she asked, making whatever connection she could with her attacker.
Thoughtfully, Andi’s expression warmed. “I call it Troy’s Trap. I made it just for him. The harder you pull, the tighter it gets.”
Instantly, Kathryn switched her technique from gentle tugging to slow wriggling.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Andi said with big eyes.
“I don’t want you to hurt me either,” Kathryn said honestly.
Kathryn could kick her if she got any closer, but despite the looseness of her restraints, her wrists were still secured. Any attempts to free herself now would probably only piss Andi off. Maybe it was time to do what Jake and Paco and even Julian always encouraged her to do. It was time to talk. Sub to sub.
“Is it worth me saying you don’t have to do this?”
Thoughtful, Andi gave her a small, crooked grin before taking a seat next to Troy. There was a strange gentleness in the way she began to stroke his chest. “I loved him. And in some way, I think he loved me too.”
Kathryn’s expression must have changed, because Andi lost her cool.
Adamant, she bristled, thumbing hard at her own chest. “You think I’m crazy?”
God, I hate when people ask me that. “No, it’s just that . . . you wanted to give me a collar.”
Wide-eyed, Andi bristled. “Give you a collar? No. Sell you a collar. Yes. Just trying to make a living.” Blinking in disbelief, Andi balked. “Why would a sub collar another sub?”
Kathryn hoped the question was rhetorical, because at this point, she had no idea and wished that BDSM came with a manual.
Shrugging, Kathryn changed the subject, stating, “I don’t think you’re crazy,” because she had a deep-rooted sense that crazy people needed that validation. She could only hope her kidnapper was buying it.
“He loves me,” Andi said again, emphasizing each word. “Why do you think he’s been making up descriptions of how I look? How could I possibly look that different each and every time?”
Kathryn’s thoughts spun. Andi was right. Troy had described the women so differently. Each and every time. And he’d also said she was petite, which Andi definitely was not.
Paco had said it best. For all he knew, they were completely different women. But Troy did know. He knew his assailant wasn’t a woman.
“His precious goddamned public image. Troy was too afraid of how the public would react if they knew he swung both ways, especially with a trans woman.” Andi sneered. “The girlfriend? She knew too.”
“She knew about you?” Shocked, Kathryn pressed her lips together hard to shut up.
“Knew about me?” Andi scoffed. “Alexis arranged for me.” Gently, she slid her fingers through Troy’s hair. “Brought me in. Had a fucking black book of all the deep, dark, dirty little things this boy likes to do. Trust me, I took care of him. Too well.”
“Alcohol injections?”
Andi shrugged. “Sometimes it worked, but I kept overshooting the vein. Burns like shit and gives a fraction of the buzz. But he wanted to keep it going.”
“You risked a lot. Doing it at Club Lazarus.” It was a gamble. But Kathryn needed her speculation validated, and addressing it head-on was the only way to know for sure. “Why there?”
“Troy’s idea. Hidden but still fed his need to be seen, among other things. The best of both worlds. And if anyone suspected he was drinking—like his manager, who knew more about Troy than his own mother—they didn’t have to worry about him drinking there. Everyone knows there’s no alcohol at the club. I would’ve done anything for him.”
“Troy was going to leave his fiancée for you?”
A pitying look flashed across Andi’s face as she crossed her legs, the What universe to you live in? written in the crease that formed in her brow.
“No,” she said flatly. “He wanted to keep our arrangement going. I was okay with it too, until Alexis realized we’d developed feelings for each other. Hell hath no fury . . .”
Kathryn paused for a second from working the ropes, a relief to the raw skin around her wrists. “She threatened you?”
“That’s not nearly imaginative enough for the likes of Alexis Kennedy. She’s got money, but he has so much more. She made sure everything he and I did together was videoed.”
“Blackmail?” Kathryn kept talking. Her wrist was nearly free.
“Alexis wanted everything. The ten-carat wedding ring. Mansion. House full of kids. It was an image that suddenly didn’t include me, so I threatened to expose everything. That’s when he turned against me,” Andi said, her face anguished and twisting.
“He came to my place. Walked in my house. Took me to my bed, and beat me. Almost killed me. Months with my jaw wired shut gave me time to think. Well . . .” Andi swiped away a tear, clasping her hands, and looped them around one knee. “You want me to be the bad guy? I’ll be the bad guy. For months, I woke up in cold sweats and with tremors. He haunted my dreams. Now, it’s time this villain haunts every last motherfucking one of his.”
Andi looked toward the gurney and picked up a scalpel. “I’m sorry, Mr. Brooks. I’m afraid children aren’t going to be possible for you.”
When Andi stood up and turned to face Troy, Kathryn took her shot, springing up and kicking as hard and high as she could, catching Andi in the jaw. The force threw Andi across the room, along with the scalpel.
Unfortunately, all Kathryn had accomplished was to enrage the nut job now set on causing Kathryn harm.
Andi lunged. Ready with another kick, Kathryn thrust her foot at Andi, landing her leg squarely in her strong, waiting hands.
“Gotcha,” Andi said, now licking blood from her lip. And she did.
Kathryn couldn’t move without losing her balance, and even an inch in the wrong direction reminded her that Andi had her.
A sadistic smile stretched across Andi’s face. “Feisty for a sub. Don’t worry, Nurse Chase. I’ve got the cure. And it won’t be that baby dose I gave you earlier. A syringe full of propofol should do the trick.”
With Kathryn’s leg secured in one arm, Andi managed to flip her around, landing her stomach on the bed. Andi’s heavy body crashed over her, keeping Kathryn still as Andi fished through the drug cart.
“Stay still,” she snapped. She gave Kathryn’s ass an angry, hard smack, and Kathryn froze. “That’s for kicking my jaw.”
“I’m sorry,” Kathryn huffed out, knowing her sincere apology wouldn’t mean much, but she gave it anyway. Seeing the syringe, she sucked in a breath. “That much will kill me.”
Andi leaned closer to speak into Kathryn’s ear. “Someone taught me that a little needle can cause a lot of pain. And I’m a girl of my word. I don’t want to hurt you. If you move even the slightest bit, I’ll make it hurt. If you don’t, I’ll keep the pain to a minimum. I don’t want to pump all of it in you, but if you so much as breathe funny, I will. Now, take your medicine and stay still.”