Page 32 of A Dead Man’s Pulse (Trident Security Omega Team #1)
Chapter Seventeen
F uck! Fuck! Fuck! How the fuck had the bitch escaped!
He’d been a little late getting back to her after getting stuck in traffic behind a major accident that had temporarily shut down the lanes of the highway, but she still should have been restrained even if she’d woken up from the drugs.
When he’d entered the utility bunker and found the bed empty, he’d been shocked and then panicked that the cops and feds were lying in wait for him, but when no one appeared, he quickly packed up his whips and restraints.
He always used gloves in there so as not to leave any fingerprints in case someone discovered his dungeon.
Now, after double checking there was nothing around that could lead the fucking cops and feds to him, he climbed back into the beat-up, nondescript vehicle he used for hunting and headed back to the main road. He almost missed seeing her running naked down the road to his right.
Rage boiled within him. She didn’t deserve to be a masterpiece now, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to kill her.
Punching the accelerator with his foot, he yanked the steering wheel to the right. The tires spun a moment before gaining purpose. Dirt and gravel flew behind the car as the tires squealed when they caught the pavement. The bitch heard him coming and glanced back with sheer terror in her eyes.
Hmm . . . maybe she could still be a masterpiece .
As he closed the distance between them, another vehicle came around the bend, and the Dom watched it impact the submissive’s body, tossing her like a rag doll into the air.
The other driver slammed on his brakes far too late to keep from hitting her, but it appeared he was going to stick around, which meant the Dom had to cut his losses and get the fuck out of there.
Flooring the accelerator, he sped past the broken body of Georgia Branneth, confident she wouldn’t survive her injuries.
Damn it! Now he had to find a new dungeon to continue his art .
. . and select a new victim. His cock twitched as Dakota Smith’s face and delectable body popped into his mind.
Risky or not, she would be his best masterpiece to date.
He just had to figure out how to get her away from that wannabe Dom, Logan Reese.
Dakota rushed into the emergency room on Ian Sawyer’s heels with Logan right behind her.
The partners had just come out of the gym at the Trident compound and found the owner throwing a ball for Beau to catch.
He’d offered the use of the state-of-the-art facility as another way for Logan and Kip to bond with their new partners by working out together and sparring against each other.
A brief chat between the trio had been interrupted by Sawyer’s cell phone ringing, and the resulting conversation with SAC Parrish had him barking for Dakota and Logan to follow him to Tampa General Hospital.
A naked woman, fitting the missing Georgia Branneth’s description, had been struck by a vehicle on Route 39 off I-75, near the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge.
She’d been flown via helicopter to the trauma center.
Ian didn’t know her condition, other than she was unconscious, but if this was the missing submissive, she might be the only person who could tell them who the Kink Killer was.
SAC Parrish and SA Novik were in the hallway, outside a treatment room, speaking with a short, gray-haired man wearing blue hospital scrubs.
The lead federal agent’s attention swung briefly to the newcomers, before returning to the other man.
“So, what you’re saying, Doctor Rayburn, is you have no idea if or when she’s going to wake up and be able to talk to us. ”
The physician nodded his head. “She came in unconscious, and her Glasgow Coma Score is a seven, which means she has some responses to pain, none of them verbal. If that doesn’t improve within twenty-four hours, she’s got a little less than a 50/50 chance of survival.
The CT scan showed a subdural hematoma, and she’s heading to surgery now.
On top of all that, she’s got a fractured left femur and wrist, and maybe a few ribs, but obviously, the brain is what we’re worried about most right now. Do we know if there’s any next of kin?”
“I know she’s got a brother on Miami PD,” Sawyer responded gravely. “I can have Captain Bowman call a supervisor down there for the notification. I assume a verbal consent over the phone will be fine for the surgery until her brother or other family members can get here.”
“Yes, although, with her injuries, it’s not necessary.
If you can’t get ahold of a family member, we’re covered under implied consent.
” In other words, if they didn’t operate right away, she would most likely die from her injuries, and they could assume the patient would want everything done to prevent that.
“Oh, before I forget, we took photos of her wrists and ankles, at the request of the police officer who had come in with her, before we sent her for the CT. We couldn’t wait for him to get a camera from the station.
It looks like she’d been restrained somehow.
The abrasions on her ankles aren’t too bad, but she did do quite a bit of damage to her wrists, especially the right one.
A lot of the skin is missing from struggling against the restraints.
The officer is in that report office over there.
” He pointed to a room a few doors down the hallway. “He’s got the SD card with the photos.”
As the doctor hurried into another treatment room after a nurse called for him, the door to the ambulance entrance swung open and in walked Tiny, Mitch Sawyer, and a woman Dakota didn’t recognize.
She stood about five foot four and had long black hair framing her exotic Asian features.
Worry was etched on all their faces, but Tiny seemed to be taking it the worst. “How is she?”
Not one to mince words, Ian shook his head. “It’s not good.” After filling them in on what the ER doctor had said, he addressed his cousin. “Mitch, can you look up her brother’s name in the member files? I remember he’s a cop in Miami, and we need to contact him.”
“Sure thing.”
As the co-owner and manager pulled out his smart phone and got to work finding the information, the woman who’d come in with him placed a comforting hand on Tiny’s arm.
The fifteen-inch size difference between the two of them was almost comical, but the grief on the pale, Black man’s face was heart wrenching.
He was blaming himself, and the woman knew it.
“Come on, big guy. While Mitch is doing that, let’s go to the surgical waiting room.
” She glanced at Ian. “We’ll be there for her at least until her family can get here.
She mentioned last night her folks were on a cruise in the Caribbean somewhere. It’s their anniversary.”
“Shit—happy fucking anniversary. Thanks, Charlotte. When Bowman talks to her brother, I’ll make sure he finds out what ship. I’ll send CC to their next port of call in the company jet and get them back here as fast as we can.”
Once again, Ian Sawyer surprised Dakota. She knew he was protective of the subs in The Covenant. But to send his company’s jet and pilot to pick up the couple on some island in the Caribbean showed how he took his role as head Dom of the club seriously and didn’t care about the cost.
Tiny and Charlotte headed down the hall toward a bank of elevators, and Parrish tilted his head in that direction.
“Novik, go with them. Keep me updated on her condition. Talk to security—tell them she’s in protective custody.
I don’t want this bastard trying to get to her in here when he finds out she’s escaped—if he doesn’t already know.
I’ll call the office and have Stonewall send more bodies this way.
Oh, and grab that SD card or get a copy of it.
Reese, Swift, you’re with Sawyer and me.
Let’s head to the accident scene and figure out where the hell she was running from. ”
About forty minutes later, they were standing on the edge of the accident scene.
A state police escort had sped their civilian vehicles up the fifty miles faster than they could have gone without the lights and sirens.
The driver of the car who had hit Georgia was a man in his late-fifties—a real estate agent on his way to meet a client.
The poor guy was sitting on the guardrail behind his damaged vehicle, distraught.
Dakota could see tears running down his cheeks as he spoke to someone on his cell phone.
From the report one of the first officers on scene gave the newcomers, the driver had come around the tight bend and barely had a chance to hit the brakes when he came upon the naked woman running toward him in the middle of his lane.
It had all happened so fast, and he couldn’t remember if there were any other vehicles or people in the vicinity at the time.
A few minutes later, two female drivers came across the accident and stopped to help.
They’d stayed and given their information to the police, before being released from the scene.