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“She told me so, over and over. She found a secret way into my head and I could hear her saying it, saying David, I want to fuck you. And for a while, I said no, we couldn’t do that. Mother would have been so angry, so angry…”

“David,” Chay said softly. “Let go of Ms—Let go of Bianca. You want to have sex with her. Fine. I understand that, but if you frighten—”

Shit! Another prick of the blade. Another drop of blood.

“You’re right. I don’t want to kill her. Not yet. Not before she gives me what I need.”

“David. Listen to me—”

“She was going to be mine,” David Epstein snarled. “She told me so, at night, in my bedroom. She said so each time I touched myself. She whispered it to me after I learned how to get into her apartment.” The snarl became a beatific smile. “She said she wanted me to be with her all the time, despite Mother’s interference, and that it was up to me to figure out how to do it. So I sent her an email, a silly kind of ad, and when she opened it, a wonderful little worm ate its way straight into the heart of her cellphone.”

He giggled like a teenage boy with a crush on a girl, instead of like a lunatic with a knife at a woman’s throat.

“After that,” Epstein said, “I was with her all the time. All the time. I considered walking up to her some evening, or waiting for her in her apartment—I wanted to surprise you, Bianca,” he said, for the first time directing his conversation at her, “but then I decided it would be more romantic if I left you a gift. “ His voice hoarsened. “A gift to show you how much I wanted you.”

The condom, Chay thought. God, that condom!.

“Oh, it was going to be so exciting! I stood across the street, waiting for her to come home and find my present.” A look so cold, so ugly that it made Chay’s gut twist flashed across Epstein’s face. “But she didn’t come home alone, did she, Lieutenant? She brought you with her, and anyone could tell you were fucking her. The way you looked at her. They way she looked at you.”

Chay took another small step forward. Every instinct, every sense he possessed warned him that Epstein was just about all talked out.

“When the police came, I knew she’d found my gift and that you’d made her call the police because you were jealous. Because you wanted her to be your whore. Your vessel. And that was when I realized she was not the pure virgin I thought she was and I phoned her and you took the call, you made it clear you were claiming her for your own.” Spittle appeared in the corners of Eptstein’s mouth. “You—called me a sick bastard. And—”

Chay was no longer listening.

He saw David Epstein begin to tremble, heard Bianca gag as Epstein’s arm tightened around her neck, saw the knife blade began to move.

Years ago, one of Chay’s martial arts instructors had concluded an already dangerous training session in Krav Maga with a move so lethal it could have resulted in death.

Pain, bruises—even an occasional torn ligament or broken bone—were always possibilities in serious balls-to-the-wall martial arts training.

A session that might have ended in death was not.

Even the STUD recruits, accustomed to Silat and Muay Thai and half a dozen other forms of the most dangerous martial arts, had been stunned.

“Here’s the bottom line, gentlemen,” the instructor had said. “Sometimes, the stakes are so fucking high that a man has to risk everything for a chance at winning.”

And this, Chay knew, was that time.

He thought back to Krav Maga, thought back to high school football…

“Bianca,” he shouted, lowering his head and charging David Epstein.

Epstein, taken completely by surprise, loosened his grip just enough so Bianca could sink her teeth in his arm.

He screamed.

The blade rose, but Chay was already there, smashing his shoulder into David Epstein.

Epstein staggered back, but not before the blade flashed. It nicked Bianca’s throat, slashed Chay’s arm.

“I’ll kill you both,” he shouted.

Chay kneed him in the balls. Then in the ribs. Cartilage cracked. Epstein screamed again. He doubled over but he came up still holding the knife. Chay smashed it aside with his elbow and took Epstein to the floor.

This time, Epstein’s shriek was high and girlish.

Chay’s fists moved with lightning speed.