She squeezed his forearm as she stepped around him and responded to Dale’s yell. “Yes, sir!”
It was time.
IDIOT.What kind of moron decides to profess his undying devotion right before they attempt to capture a vicious murderer? He was relieved that Dale had stopped him. Now, if this worked out the way he hoped it would, Faith wouldn’t be spending the rest of their lives reminding him of that time he told her he loved her under the romantic blue glow of a police cruiser’s flashing light.
Mrs. Lin was safely in FBI custody. When David Lee arrived earlier that afternoon and asked her for a room, she hadn’t panicked or bolted. She settled him into a corner room, and then she’d told her entire kitchen staff to take the night off and leave immediately. As soon as the house was clear, she left as well. When she felt like she could safely pause for breath, she darted into a coffee shop and texted Hope. Then she called her two boarders and told them not to return until she gave them the all clear.
An agent had picked up Mrs. Lin and she’d been taken to the local FBI office and given a polygraph, which she passed with flying colors. She might even wind up with a commendation for her efforts. They weren’t sure why David Lee had returned to her establishment, but the theory was that he might have been planning to kill her, given that he seemed to be on a mission to eliminate everyone who had known that he and Mi Cha were friends. Regardless of his purpose, David Lee had seriously underestimated how much Mrs. Lin despised him, and now they had him surrounded.
After all the boarders and kitchen staff had been accountedfor, the SWAT team had done a flyover with a heat-sensing drone. Pretty cool contraption. If it was working properly, only one individual was left in the house.
The trick was going to be getting him out.
Night was coming fast, hastened by the cloud cover.
Luke was excited that they could have the murders solved and all this madness could end tonight—and terrified he would lose friends in the process.
They’d discussed the possibility that this was all a trap, but they couldn’t wait forever. They couldn’t endanger more people, innocents, while they stalled.
Faith waved him over. “We’re tightening the perimeter. SWAT’s prepared to breach.”
The FBI had gotten all grouchy over the presence of the Secret Service agents. And to be fair, their argument was valid. They were the targets, and they shouldn’t be within five miles of this place.
However, the FBI needed all the help they could get, so the agents had been allowed to stay—provided they agreed to stay away from the closest perimeter and from one another. “Let’s not give them an easy way to take all of you out,” Dale had said.
Encouraging guy.
Fifteen minutes later, the house was in view. SWAT was ready. Faith was standing thirty feet away, leaning against a cruiser, megaphone in hand.
Lord, protect us. Protect usall.
“David Lee!” Faith’s voice echoed through the damp air. “David Lee, come out with your hands up.”
Nothing happened. Not that they’d expected it to.
Faith checked her watch, and Luke glanced at his. One minutepassed, then Faith spoke again. “David Lee! Don’t make this worse than it is. Come out with your hands up.”
Another minute.
One corner of the house exploded.
Shrieks and yells filled the night air. If he had been looking anywhere else, like, say, for example, at the burning house like a normal person, he would have missed it.
But he was looking at Faith.
And he couldn’t breathe.
“DON’T EVEN ATTEMPTto get to that weapon, young lady.” The cold voice was clipped and sure. And it was not the voice of David Lee.
The knife at her throat was sharp and had already pricked her skin. It would hurt later, but right now there was no pain.
He reached under her windbreaker and removed her weapon. She had a small gun at her ankle, but it wasn’t much use to her at the moment.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Yeah right.” She whispered the words.
“Move.” He had one arm around her neck, holding the knife flat against her skin, and he was pressing a gun, probably her own, into her side with his other hand. His knee landed in the back of her thigh, and she stumbled forward. One step. Two.
