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“You okay, Lex?” I ask, spinning her and running my hands over her cheeks, down her neck, placing my palm around her neck just to make sure she isn’t hurt before kissing her gently on the lips and crushing her to me.
“You recognized the voice, Lex?” I ask gently.
“I’ll never forget that high-pitched voice, ever,” Lexie cries, tears flowing from her wide eyes faster than I can wipe them away.
I grab Melissa, who’s bleeding profusely but will most likely live if I don’t kill her with my bare hands first. “What do you want with Alexis? Did Darwin put you up to this?”
She doesn’t say a word, and I shake her, and then shake her again, hard. “Tell me!”
Soulless eyes glare back at me from the floor. “Alexis knows what he looks like. The story about her apartment being trashed and the police having a prime suspect drove him crazy. He’ll come for Alexis, and then me next. Just like the women I killed for him. He never leaves loose ends, and we’re all just loose ends,” she states before losing consciousness.
“We’ll handle the mess if you want to take Alexis home, Sheldon,” Dereck mentions, seeing that she’s frozen with terror and can’t stop crying. I pull her to me, and she trembles in my arms.
I know Dereck has the cleaners on standby and will engage Cassie again to make this mess go away from a PR standpoint. “Roger that, man,” I reply, holding Alexis close as she continues to cry.
“Your friend’s going to make it,” the kindly nurse says to Alexis, gesturing with her eyes toward Jan’s room. The code team have stayed together, and they’re hurrying toward us because I’m fairly certain there’s not a staff member on this unit, overhead code or not, who didn’t hear that shot.
“Where’s Allie?” Alexis asks, looking around with tear-streaked eyes for her friend.
I gesture down the hall where Allie is being escorted toward us by Frankie and looking none too pleased about it.
I glance down at the multitude of texts hitting my cell from Nick trying to find out what’s going on.
Me: We’re at the hospital, and the girls are safe.
Nick: Roger that!
I get Alexis situated into the back seat before sliding beside her, buckling her and pulling her close, while Allie jumps into the front seat with Frankie. Allie gives him their address, but that’s not where we’re going.
“Take us to The Prestian Towers,” I tell the driver, and text a message to the security team to run prints on the woman disguised as a nurse and send another for Claire to call me.
Alexis and Allie both sit quietly in the car, looking as scared and guilty as they should. I’ll deal with these two ladies later. A call comes through from Claire, and I accept it, averting my gaze as Alexis gives me a what-the-fuck-now look.
“Darwin wasn’t there, Claire. The nurse wasn’t trying to kidnap Alexis, she intended to kill her so that Darwin wouldn’t have any loose ends. If he isn’t successful in kidnapping a woman, and she can identify him, he sets someone else up to kill them. It didn’t make any sense until Alexis froze when she heard the nurse’s voice, and then I recalled the weird platform shoe that was left in Darwin’s apartment, and it all started coming together. The lady wouldn’t have been tall enough to pass as Darwin without them. She must have been the decoy while Darwin was out playing. I wish I knew what that fucker had over her head or what made her willing to play along, but we won’t know any more until she gets out of surgery, if she even makes it. I think that’s how he’s been able to avoid detection all this time.”
“I’m glad you were there and put it all together, Sheldon,” Claire responds.
“It’s not over by a long shot, Claire. Darwin’s a fucking chameleon and smart as fuck. The men will be watching for him, but he won’t look like himself if he’s as smart as we give him credit for. He’ll have to know that something went south if the nurse hasn’t contacted him, but either way, my guess is he’s expecting a window of time. He’s not going to leave a trail like this to lead back to him. He’ll expect the ladies to go home at some point,” I counter, feeling Alexis’ body tense and the heat of her eyes penetrating me.
Claire takes it in stride. “Good thing I’m still dressed for the occasion. If he still has eyes on the situation, he’ll follow. I’m heading over there now. Anything else I need to know?”
“Yeah, we still have the perimeter canvassed, but be careful.”
I send texts out to everyone with the game plan, letting them know that Claire is heading to the girls’ apartment dressed as Alexis, and give them the detailed rundown just as we get into heavy inner-city traffic.
We’ve barely made it to the penthouse at The Prestian Towers, been introduced, and got settled in when I get the text that Claire is inside and in position. The ladies are filling Alexis’ mom in on the morning and giving her an update on Jan when the security team on assignment at the girls’ apartment calls in.
“Sheldon here,” I answer, aware all eyes in the room have turned to me as I listen to his update on the speaker.
“We’ve got trouble. The door to the apartment was left unlocked, waiting for Darwin to walk into the setup. The woman that lives next door to the ladies just knocked on the door and walked right in.”
“Fuck!” I send a note to Claire to get rid of the busybody as fast she can.
“Roger that!”
It’s been mere seconds when the team on the roof across the street calls back.
“Darwin’s here! The fucker just showed up at the girls’ apartment disguised as you. He saw Claire and that neighbor pass by the window, and he’s walking up the stairs. He’s getting a key out and putting it into the door right now,” he informs me as the irony of the depth of Darwin’s skill at shadow games hits me like a fucking sledgehammer.
