Knight In Black Leather by Gail Dayton (ebook reader ink .txt) 📕

The second it stopped, Pete exploded out of the back seat and charged toward Eli. "Dad! Dad!"

Eli swept his son up in his arms, hugging him tight, not bothering to fight the tears. His boy was alive. He was okay.

He was okay, wasn't he?

Eli set Pete down, squatting to his level, touching him all over, making sure. "Are you all right? Did he hurt you?"

"He had a knife, a great big one, and he put it on my neck." Pete demonstrated, sending fresh fear and anger rushing through Eli. "He cut it just a little." Pete lifted his chin to show a tiny scab on his neck. "It didn't bleed very much."

Then the boy went still, eyes cast down. "I was scared. I cried."

"So was I," Eli admitted. "I did too." Now, at the end. He gave Pete another tight hug and stood, looking for Marilyn.

He didn't blame her for wanting to keep her distance, but it hurt. Didn't she think he would want to know she was all right? But he didn't see her anywhere.

Joey was hugging Pete and inspecting the wound on his neck. Marilyn wasn't there with him, as he would have expected. She wasn't at the ambulance being tended by a medic. She wasn't talking to any cop. She wasn't anywhere he could see.

"Pete." He bent beside his son again. "Where's Marilyn?"

Instantly the smile vanished from Pete's face and the fear came back. "She's here. With you. Isn't she?"

"No, Pete. She wasn't with you?" All the images Eli had comforted himself with, of Marilyn and Pete together, shattered.

Pete shook his head, looking close to tears. "Unh-uh. The man made her stop the car and told her he'd kill me if she left and he took me in this building and locked me in a room where somebody puked on the floor and there were holes in the wall and stuff, and he went back out and drove her off somewhere."

"Did he ever come back?"

"Unh-uh." He shook his head again.

Eli hugged Pete tight, grateful for that much, his stomach churning as bad or worse than before. He looked out over the crowds of police beginning to gather and spotted a grim-faced Jackson. "Stay here with Joey. I'll be back in a minute."

He worked his way through the crowd, drawing dirty looks from those who didn't know whose son they'd been hunting--most of them--until he got within shouting distance of the big detective. "Where's Marilyn? They said they found them."

Jackson swore. "We found him. We didn't find her."

The human barrier parted and let him through when Jackson and his boss beckoned.

"We didn't find Gardner either," the boss said. "Your boy reported that Gardner left with the Ballard woman--do you have any idea where he might have taken her?"

Eli shook his head. "Most of the places you hit tonight are completely new to me. I haven't been in Pittsburgh for more than a quick visit in eight years. I don't--Jackson probably has a better idea of where to look than I do."

"You said most of the places." Jackson spoke up. "But not all of them are new to you?"

"No," Eli said slowly. "There were a couple I recognized."

"So, what else do you remember? Maybe he's got her stashed in one of Fat Fred's old places. Maybe he's hiding out in one."

Eli shuddered. He couldn't dredge up all those old memories. Too many had already jumped out of their swampy graves tonight, taken on flesh. And Marilyn was out there in that vicious, crazy bastard's power. He pushed his fist hard into his gut. "Where's that map?"

"Right here." The commander spread it out on the hood of the nearest patrol car.

Eli looked back, checking on Pete. The paramedics had a blanket around him, Joey had an arm around him--he was okay.

Eli turned back to the map and let the horror out.

Marilyn sat cross-legged on the mattress, shivering as she worked on her cuticles with one of the nails she'd pried out of the board. If her three-month-old manicure hadn't been pretty much toast already, the prying would have done it in. She wasn't doing it any good now, but she had to do something. She couldn't just sit.

She'd grown cold enough to use the blanket, but she was afraid she might fall asleep if she warmed up or lay down. Sitting on the mattress was her sole concession to comfort, and only because she figured she'd have enough warning to scurry across the room to pick up the board and hide before Flash got down the stairs. She didn't want to be asleep when he came back.

He would come back. She was sure of that. He thought Slug was still here. She didn't believe all the police swarming over the area would scare him off. She'd seen the flash of red and blue lights through the basement window half a dozen times over the past few hours. She was confident that they were searching for her and Pete. Maybe they'd already found him. And Slug was out there. Surely he'd tell one of them where Pete was. Where she was. He'd promised.

Maybe they'd already caught Flash. But she wasn't counting on it.

The floor creaked overhead and Marilyn froze. Someone was in the house.

She fluffed up the blanket, trying to make it look more body-like, and rushed to the stairs as the heavy footsteps came down the hall. She hid in the shadows picking up her nail-studded board and gripped it tight. It was wide, awkward to hold, but the best weapon she had if she didn't want to get close, which she didn't. She clenched her jaw tight to keep her teeth from chattering and tried to slow her breathing.

The padlock rattled. Like somebody was using a key, not bolt cutters or a pry bar. The door burst open, flying back to slam against the door.

"Slug, you fucking little bastard, you better not be trying to climb out that fucking window again."