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

would lose. But that was okay, if she could slow him down a little. She struggled to get her hand back in her pocket. She had more nails.

Flash laughed and pumped his hips into her bottom. Marilyn gagged. Oh God, he was aroused.

"Go on, bitch. Fight me." He licked her earlobe. She struggled to keep from retching. "I like it that way."

He ran the flat of his knife up and down her neck, whispering all the horrible things he had in mind for her, while she worked her fingers deeper into her pocket. Finally, panting with fear and nausea, she touched a nail. With great care, she pulled it into her hand and out of her pocket.

If he would only move the knife away from her neck. If she stabbed him with the nail now, he might cut her throat in reflexive reaction. She wouldn't care so much, except that she'd be dead and unable to keep him from going after Slug. Please, God, Pete was already safe with Eli.

"I'm gonna take it out on you, bitch," Flash was saying.

Marilyn whimpered. He seemed to like that.

"So many damn cops around, I couldn't get back to the kid after I ditched your car."

Thank God.

"Took me hours to get back here. Now you done something with the merchandise I had stashed here, so you're gonna pay for that too." He slid the knife down into the hollow of her throat and into the neckline of the long-sleeved T-shirt she wore. "Think I'll start here."

He cut into the fabric, slicing open the front of her shirt.

The knife was turned away from her skin. Marilyn exposed the end of the nail and slammed it into the meaty thigh behind her, through black wool and into flesh.

Flash screamed. The knife jerked, tearing her shirt half open. She pounded the flat of her hand down on the nail head, hammering it in. He screamed again.

Marilyn jerked herself out of his grasp and ran for the stairs. She had her foot on the first one when Flash grabbed her arm. He yanked hard and she fell back, slamming her head against the cement wall.

He grabbed her, threw her across the room to the floor and again her head smacked concrete. Dazed, she fought to make her legs work, her arms, something. She had to get away. She had to find someone who could stop him, keep him from hurting Slug, other children.

Flash settled heavily to his knees, straddling her. She squirmed in an attempt to escape. His fist crashed into her face. Her last thought was that maybe he'd waste enough time torturing her that the police would be able to catch him.

Twenty-Three

***

Eli sprinted down the cross street, behind the flagging boy. The kid was gasping and stumbling, ready to collapse, but he kept trying. Eli grabbed him before he fell.

"Tell me where," he said. "Just tell me where."

He pointed, unable to speak past his heaving chest.

"There?" Eli pointed too, at one of the narrow, attached houses in the next block.

The boy staggered a few paces more, counting to himself. "There. Fifth house. Light in basement. Dark upstairs. She's down--"

Eli glanced back, saw a horde of cops, Joey and Detective Jackson in the lead, coming around the corner behind him. "Okay. Wait here. Tell them. Tell 'em, kid. I may need backup."

"Get--" He gasped again. "Get her out."

"Yeah. Don't go anywhere." Eli sprinted ahead, hoping like hell he wasn't too late. Hoping Flash wasn't with her. Hoping he was. Just hoping.

He found the house--a light bloomed low on one narrow side--and slammed through the front door. "Marilyn!"

Where the hell was the basement? He paused to listen, afraid to take the time, afraid not to. Faint noises came to him from down the long dark hall.

Wishing he had a flashlight, Eli moved down the hall and found a dim glow shining under a door. A silver padlock dangled open from its hasp. Eli whispered all the filthiest words he knew as he eased the door open.

The unlocked padlock had to mean Flash was here. Eli listened again. The noises were still faint. Breathing and grunting noises. Oh God.

He slipped through the doorway, walking on his toes to keep his boot heels from making noise on the wooden steps. Carefully he moved down them, crouching to see into the shadowy space below as soon as he possibly could.

Ice gripped his heart, froze his brain. Marilyn lay sprawled on the floor, blood blooming on the bare concrete around her head. Flash knelt over her, his back to the stairs. Unable yet to force his muscles to move, Eli watched, saw the knife in the other man's hand, saw it move, its use blocked from view by Flash's bulk. Marilyn whimpered and the ice holding Eli immobile melted in a rush of white-hot rage.

He didn't leap off the stairs in a roaring attack. He couldn't see where that knife was, couldn't see what it was doing. If he attacked, he could hurt Marilyn worse. Eli crept further down the stairs, thinking fast. He had to draw Flash away. The man wanted Eli, not Marilyn.

Eli jumped off the side of the stairway from a few steps up, abandoning his stealth to land with a thump on the hard floor. "You got the guts to take on a man instead of women and kids, you fucking coward?"

Flash looked over his shoulder and grinned. The one that had always sent cold chills through Eli's center. The chills mixed with the icy rage, sharpening his senses, making everything come clear. The knife hovered over Marilyn.

"Police!" The word echoed from a distance and Flash's head jerked up.

Footsteps rumbled overhead, moving slowly, cautiously through the house, checking every room. Flash moved faster.

He rose, whirled, charged all in one motion, knife low to slide into the gut. Eli slipped to one side, hand slashing out to seize the wrist with the knife. He twisted, pulled the arm behind Flash's back and heard the satisfying crack of bone. The