Page 159 of Girl Between

Jake didn’t have proof. But he’d been doing this long enough to know when to trust his gut. Right now, his gut was screaming that this was the place.

There was a wrongness emanating from the condemned tower. And he wasn’t the only one who felt it.

“This building had three anonymous calls about vagrant activity in the past three weeks,” said one of the officers. “My money’s on this being Monroe’s hideout.”

Normally, Jake didn’t gamble. Not with lives. Not with Dana. But there was a fifty-fifty chance she was in there. He’d managedsuccessful extractions with worse odds. But choosing wrong could cost him everything.

It made him second-guess himself. And he couldn’t afford to be hesitant right now. Not when less than a split-second could separate life from death.

“What do you think?” George asked from his position at Jake’s side.

“I think this is the place,” Jake replied.

“Are you sure?”

Jake had no proof. Nothing but a gut feeling. A gnawing intuition that Dana was near. He wanted more. He knew his friend would follow him if he said this was the place, but the tiny seed of doubt he’d allowed to creep in had taken root.

“I wish I was,” said Jake. “But I’m not willing to wait to find out I’m wrong. If she’s in there right now, and I’m standing out here with my dick in my hand …”

George lowered his voice. “I’m with you, Shep. I don’t care about Creed’s orders. Say the word and NOPD goes in.”

Praying he was right, Jake looked up at the 19thfloor, wishing for a sign.

But they were out of time. Creed had a team in place ready to cut the backup power. From here on out, they’d be running blind.

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Dana spun away from Monroe,but he moved faster. Grabbing a fistful of hair, he yanked her back, landing a punch in her kidneys that stole her breath. She tried to fight him off, but he had the upper hand. He had hold of her throat and drove his knee into the wound in her abdomen.

Pain lanced through Dana so fast and hot that her vision tunneled.

Doubling over in agony, she crashed to her knees. The bone saw she’d brought to defend herself with skittered uselessly across the floor.

Monroe laughed. “You found a toy. Impressive.”

But he wasn’t done.

Dragging her back to her feet, he grabbed zip ties from his pocket and secured her hands behind her back. Both of them were heaving from the effort, but Monroe was grinning. He wiped a smear of blood from his face; her blood. It seemed to add to his excitement.

Dana spat more of her blood onto the floor thanks to an elbow she’d caught in the jaw during their scuffle. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“You know what they say, love what you do …”

“I don’t get it. Why did you drop out of med school? You could’ve been doing this legitimately,” she said, nodding to the rows of gurneys.

“Legitimacy is overrated.”

“No, it’s more than that. I’ve been to your slaughterhouse. I saw all the bones, the mummified woman in the attic. You enjoy this. The torture. The mutilation. Why is that? Did someone do it to you?”

Monroe laughed. “You don’t know anything.”

“A parent, maybe?”

“My parents have nothing to do with this.”

She ignored the lethal tone his voice had dropped to. “You mainly kill women, so I’m betting it was your mother. What did she do to you, Levi?”

He gave her an oily smile. “Mother was a saint.”