Page 91 of Jessica's Hero

Jess lifts her head from my shoulder to meet my gaze. “You came.” Then she bursts into tears.

Cole crouches beside us. Zane sets the black duffel by his feet. “We need to get you out of these wet clothes,” Cole says. “We’ve got an emergency blanket. As soon as we get you bundled up, we’ll get you out of here.”

Jess looks at me with a stricken expression. “Myclothes?”

My heart wrenches painfully. Pressing my lips to her cold forehead, I croon, “It’s okay, baby. No one is looking at you like that. I’ll help you. Okay?”

She hesitates before nodding. “Okay, Kane.”

As I hurry to peel her sodden clothes off, I curse myself a million times at the sight of her blue-tinged skin and the raw and bleeding gouges around her wrists. And again when I see the bruise on her face, the one that fucking asshole must have given her.

While I wrap her in the crinkly blanket, she says quietly, “I killed him. Adam. He was going to throw me in and watch me drown.”

“What?” My voice rises. “He was?—”

“My neighbor,” she adds. “Adam. He… he said I’m not the first. He killed… Eliza. For interfering. And at least two other women. So… I had to… I pulled him in with me. And he hit his head. I wasn’t sure… but then he sank. I watched him. He’s dead.”

Then she starts sobbing again.

A hurricane of emotions crashes into me at once. Rage. Guilt. Relief.

Lifting Jess into my arms, I hug her close to my chest. She buries her face in my neck; her cold skin a shock against mine. “It’s okay,” I croon. “We’ll get you to the hospital and then back home. It’s all going to be okay.”

Although. Will it? She was kidnapped. Tossed into apit of water and left to die. And she thinks herself responsible for killing someone. And that’s not even taking into consideration any other injuries I can’t see.

Cole, Leo, and Zane close in around us. “There’s a hospital in Plattsburgh,” Cole says. “Zane, you take Kane and Jess there. Leo and I will call the police and stay here until they arrive. We’ll catch a ride to the hospital with them.”

Then to Jess, he adds in a much softer tone, “What you did, Jess? Surviving down there? Dragging that piece of garbage in with you? I don’t know many people who could do something like that.”

Jess peels her face from my neck to look at Cole. “Even if I died, I couldn’t let him kill another woman.”

Tears spring to my eyes again. “Jess.” My voice is thick. “I’m so damn proud of you.”

And as we carefully work our way back up the stairs, I bend my head to speak quietly into her ear. “Thank you, sweetheart. Thank you for hanging on for me.”

“I love you,” she slurs, and I can tell the exhaustion is catching up to her. “I was going to wait as long as I could.”

Oh.

“Oh, Jess, baby.” I kiss her cold cheek, tasting salt on my lips. “I love you so much.”

CHAPTER 19

JESS

Even twenty-four hours later, it doesn’t feel real.

Whenever I have a quiet moment to actually think about it, it feels like I’m hearing about someone else’s story. Some terrible crime you read about on the news but blithely think,Oh, that could never happen to me.

But it did. And nowI’mthe one people will read about.

Me. Kidnapped and nearly killed by a serial killer who’s been living next door for years.

Unknowingly targeted just because I had the gall to start dating instead of hiding away like the insecure hermit I’d trained myself to be.

On the news I’m being referred to as a hero. As the brave woman who took down a man suspected of killing at least half a dozen victims. Already I’ve received calls from four news outlets all requesting exclusive interviews, along with offers of money and all-expense-paid trips and promises of more media attention, if I want it.

I don’t.