“Melanie? Melanie, can you hear me?” I shook her shoulder, hoping like hell she was only passed out and not dead. She was filthy, and I could smell that she had peed on herself while she’d been left hanging for who only knew how long. She was probably dehydrated, in pain, and needed a hospital urgently. “Melanie! I’m FBI Special Agent Cherish Parker. Can you hear me?”
I brushed the hair back from her face and saw it was already swollen. It looked like she’d been punched in the face, and I would bet that was how he knocked her out to get her down in his torture room. I only hoped he hadn’t dropped her down thehatch to the small space below. She could have been seriously injured and possibly have broken bones.
She groaned and shifted her head, making me let out a relieved sigh. “Thank god. Come on, Melanie. I need you awake.” I took her hand and stared at the chains, realizing that they had been attached to her wrists by handcuffs. “Holy shit,” I breathed.
I reached for the small pocket on my gun holster. I always kept a pair of spare handcuff keys there after an incident during training when a few of the trainees had been screwing around. Someone had been stuck in a pair of handcuffs for hours after swearing they could escape them. Spoiler alert: they had, in fact, not been able to escape the handcuffs.
I quickly unlocked the first cuff and let her arm drop to her side. Melanie left out a pained cry. At first, I thought it was just from the pain of her body weight hanging for so long on her shoulder joints until I noticed the awkward angle. Her arm was either broken or dislocated. I cursed Morris under my breath.
Thankfully, the pain seemed to help her wake up as she began to sob. “Please let me go,” she cried brokenly. Her voice was raspy, likely from screaming for hours as she called for help.
“Melanie, it’s okay. I’m here to help you.” I grabbed her other hand and quickly unlocked that cuff as well, taking care to help her body to the floor as carefully as possible. “Can you hear me?” I swiped her hair back from her face until I could see her eyes.
Melanie blinked slowly as her sobs tapered off to whimpers. “Who are you? Why am I here?” Then she started panicking, trying to scoot away from me. “Don’t hurt me!”
I held up my badge. “Melanie, my name is Cherish Parker. I’m with the FBI. I’m here to get you out of here. Do you understand?”
She stared at my badge, then up at my face. “Is your name really Cherish?”
“Seriously, girl? You’re in a monster’s torture chamber, ready to be rescued, and that’s what you want to know?” I huffed, half amused, half annoyed at my parents. She just blinked up at me. “If I help you, do you think you can stand?”
“I can try,” she said, some inner strength slowly coming back into her eyes.
“Okay, let’s get you on your feet so we can get you out of here, okay?” Melanie was shaky, and her arm looked swollen and painful, but there was a new determination in her as she managed to keep herself upright. “Good girl,” I praised. “There’s a ladder you’ll need to climb, but I’m going to help you, okay?”
She sucked air into her lungs as she fought the pain, but she stayed strong, making me admire her. “Okay, Cherish.” I winced. For some reason, I was okay with the guys saying my first name, but hearing it from anyone else’s mouth was awful.
We took two steps across the floor when a figure suddenly appeared in the doorway. “You’re not going anywhere, bitch.”
Melanie screamed as Morris lunged for me. I shoved her as hard as I could. “Run, Melanie! Call 911!” Morris and I crashed to the floor. The wind was knocked out of me at the impact. Having his body land on me with his full weight had me needing to gasp for air.
Morris climbed off me, reaching for Melanie next as she whimpered, huddled into a protective ball. I scrambled to my knees even as my lungs burned. I wrapped my arms around Morris as he grabbed a handful of her hair. Locking my arms around his waist, I pulled with all my strength.
Melanie cried out as Morris yanked a handful of hair out of her head, but he no longer had a hold of her. “Run!” I yelled. “Melanie, get your ass out of here!”
Using the skills I learned at the academy, I pulled Morris back until he was flailing for balance. Twisting my body, I got him onto the floor under me. Before I could use the offensivemoves drilled into us during training, his fist came flying at me. I only had enough time to tilt my head, causing his blow to skate off my jaw instead of taking the full force of the blow. It still hurt like hell, but a punch from him could have knocked me out.
With my ears ringing, I returned his punch with the back of my elbow into his nose. He howled in pain as blood immediately spurted, hitting me in the chest. Taking advantage of the situation, I slid behind him. Before I could lock my arms around his neck in a chokehold, he used his other fist to ram it against my side.
I gasped with the pain of feeling my ribs take the hit. “You fucking bitch. You’re dead!” Morris growled.
Grabbing his arm, I wrapped my legs around his neck and pulled with all my strength. Jerking back sharply, I felt his arm as it dislocated from the arm bar. “Fuck. You. Morris.”
Morris screamed as he reached for his arm, the sound was wet from all the blood still pouring from his nose, sliding down his throat. I still didn’t let go, not until I glanced up to see that Melanie was gone. When Morris had finally stopped struggling, I finally let go and scooted away from him.
I dragged my service weapon from the holster and held it trained on him with steady hands. My chest was heaving from the fight, and my heart was racing so hard my ribs hurt. Or it could have been the blow I’d taken. Regardless, my fucking ribs were screaming.
“Alexander Morris, you are under arrest for the murders of multiple women. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you have to say?—”
A shot rang out, making my ears ring. As I winced from the new pain, I watched as blood poured from the hole in Morris’ forehead. I glanced from my gun to the man lying dead in front of me in confusion until I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.
SSA Walker stood there staring down at Morris’ body dispassionately, his gun hanging by his side.
“What the fuck,” I mumbled as my hearing slowly came back and the ringing began receding.
“Get up,” SSA Walker said, then turned around and left the room.
By the time I climbed out of the hole in the floor, I was fuming. I turned a furious glare on my supervisor. “Why did you kill him?” I demanded. “I had him subdued.”
