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He continued screaming all the way down.

The other two leapt to their feet and I plowed into them, clocking the first with a straight right punch to the temple with all of my weight behind it, causing him to drop like a sack of wheat.

I grabbed the leg of the second man and jerked it up in the air, slamming him onto his back on the stairs. He flailed his arms and tried to get away from the pain, but I used the stairs as leverage. I twisted his ankle until I heard a satisfying pop. He shouted in pain, keening like a wounded rabbit, and I dropped the leg, bodily picked him up, and sent him to follow his leader two stories below.

Breathing heavily, Shoshana pointed and said, “What about him?”

I looked at the guy I’d knocked out and said, “Fuck him. Let’s go.”

We went upward, now with our weapons out, and reached the landing to the apartment. Shoshana said, “What do we do?”

And I realized she was good at killing, but had no skill on room clearing. I wished I’d sent her to the back and had Aaron with me.

I pulled out my small door charge and said, “Look, when I initiate this, there are only two things in that apartment. A threat, and Lia. Do you understand?”

She nodded, and I said, “If it’s not Lia, kill it. I don’t care if it’s a dog. If it’s something breathing, and it’s not Lia, kill it.”

Chapter 47

Lia heard the shouting outside and dared to hope. The killer heard it as well, whipping up his pants and saying, “What did you do, you bitch?”

Chained to her chair, half-naked, she said, “Nothing. It’s the kids. They always do this. It’s why I hate this place.”

The killer turned from the noise, becoming calm again, like a light switch had been flipped. He said, “Then I guess it’s just you and me now.”

He advanced to her again and said, “If you take my manhood in your mouth, it might alter your fate. I really would like that.”

Lia thought it almost seemed as if he was begging. Desperately trying to get someone to love him after his horrific torture.

And she almost considered it, to save her life. Almost.

She said, “Tell me what you want. Tell me what I can do.”

There was a small scratch on the door, a little tick. Nothing that anyone of ordinary skills would recognize, but the killer did.

He looked at her and said, “You bitch! How do they know?”

He raised the key fob device and the lock on her door exploded, a piece of the cylinder flying out and hitting him in the fist. He screamed, clutched his wounded hand, and then started sprinting to the back of the house.

Two people came in, guns raised, clearing the immediate area. Lia was astounded at the turn of events. She jerked her head toward the back and screamed, “He’s that way! That way!”

The man she knew as Pike ran to the back, talking into a radio. The woman came to her and said, “Are you okay?”

Panting, Lia said, “Get out! I’m wearing an explosive collar. He has the detonator. Get out!”

The woman floated a weird gaze on her, not unlike the killer. She said, “My name is Shoshana, and I’m not going anywhere. And you’re not going to die.”

Lia finally recognized her as the woman from the crime scene. Pike came back in and said, “I’m not sure about you Israelis. Aaron missed him out the back. He exited on the fire escape, but he never reached the ground. He’s gone.”

Shoshana gave him a laser stare, and Lia saw him subtly flinch. He said, “What do we have?”

“A woman with a dog collar of explosives, and a man with a detonator on the loose.”

Pike said, “Not on the loose.” He bent down and picked up what looked like a key fob and said, “He dropped this on the way out.”

Pike finally looked at Lia, saw her condition, and said, “What the hell, Carrie? Cover her up. You’re going to leave her exposed?”

Carrie? She said her name was Shoshana.Lia saw the woman inwardly retreat at the words, just as Pike had earlier. Experienced at reading people as an inspector, she studied them both, trying to understand who had entered the room. They might be just as crazy as the man who’d left. They might even be working together with him.