Author's Note: Not much to say this chapter... except poor poor Katherine. :(
Shoutouts: Jeremy Shane- Got more for you! Hope you like it!
Ghostwriter- Glad you enjoyed the last chapter. This one had a lot going on in it, I tried my best to give you all the best imagery possible, so that everyone could see this particular chapter (Especially Kat's half) as I did. Hope you all like it, we've caught up to the prologue now, sadly.
Shievi- I agree, poor Katherine, and it's just getting worse for her. Hope Jason and rest of the team can solve this mystery and find her in time.
brankel1- I hope Jason kicks Tyler's butt too! But just have to wait to see what happens... although it's just down the page LOL I too felt so bad for Tom. Give credit to the relationship of Tom and Rachel to my late friend Daisy. I originally only had them having some fling with no attachments, but she thought it would add to the drama so I rewrote them. She was such a good beta! Hope you enjoy this chapter, and don't hate me!
Chapter 27
Katherine's eyes fluttered open once again. She was unbound and alone. She sat up from the bed, glancing around the room she noticed the clock on the wall reading just past six. She also noticed a note on the nightstand.
MY DEAREST KATHERINE
I WILL BE RIGHT BACK, I HAVE GONE OUT TO GET US SOME DINNER. I HAVE LEFT YOU UNRESTRAINED, BUT PLEASE BE AWARE THAT IF YOU TRY TO RUN I WILL HAVE TO KILL YOU. IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE YOU WILL STAY PUT.
THERE IS A SHOWER AND SOME CLOTHES FOR YOU. MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE.
LOVE, TYLER
Katherine scoffed as she crumbled up his note. Love... he doesn't know the meaning of love. Slowly she climbed out of the bed, her legs felt like jello, but she was determined to get a shower and wash as much of him off her as she could. In the bathroom she found some of her own clothes, a pair of jeans and her favorite pink blouse. God, I wish I had my zeonizers. I'd kick his ass to hell where he belongs!
Kat started the shower and waited a few minutes before climbing in. She stood under the shower, letting the hot needles of water work out the knots in her aching muscles. She grabbed a washcloth after a few moments and dumped a handful of soap, more than necessary, onto it and began scrubbing everywhere she could reach. She jumped as she touched her abused womanhood. It hurt so bad, but she gritted her teeth and scrubbed, as if by cleaning herself she could make the last night and the day disappear.
She'd scrubbed so hard that there was a touch of blood on her washcloth, but still she felt dirty. Kat threw the washcloth down and sank to the ground and cried with the shower still running. How could this happen to her? Why was this happening to her? What the hell did this man want from her?
Kat suddenly stood up and turned off the shower. She was going to get out of here, no matter what. It was better to die trying than to live as his... whatever she was to him.
She dried herself off quickly ignoring the pain as she dried herself womanhood. She dressed quickly and went back to the bedroom. No shoes, the bastard didn't give her shoes or even socks for that matter. Oh well, barefoot would have to do. She tried to open the door but found it locked from the outside. She went to the window and looked out. She was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and more trees. At least she was ground level.
She tried to open the window but that too was locked. She sat on the bed and tried to think of another plan. Maybe she could overpower Tyler when he came back. She was a skilled fighter now, she had a shot. Her eyes trained on the door was she waited.
Finally she heard the lock disengage and she quietly slipped of the bed. Tyler walked into the room carrying a bag of hot food. Kat's stomach growled at the smell of the food, she hadn't eaten in... she didn't know. She didn't know how long she'd been trapped here.
"Enjoy your shower Katherine?" He grinned. Before he had a chance to move another step, Kat launched a powerful spinning kick into his back, knocking him forward. He crashed into the small table, slamming his head into it with an audible thump, and then fell to the ground with a groan.
Kat didn't look back and dashed out the door and ran as fast as she could. She didn't know where she was going and the pine needles stabbed into her bare feet, but she didn't care and she didn't stop.
"Katherine!" She heard him screaming behind her, but she didn't look back. She wasn't dressed for February weather in New York, dressed in a pair of jeans and a short sleeved, thin button blouse, and bare feet. She knew that if she didn't find help or shelter, she wouldn't last long out here, but still she didn't care. She just had to get away from him.
Faster! Faster! Don't stop! Kat told herself as she raced through the forest. Her long blonde hair whipped against her face as the winter wind blew around her. She dared to look back finally, to see if he was chasing her, but as she did her foot hooked an upturned tree root. Kat threw her arms out and braced for the fall.
She laid on the ground for a moment, winded. Her foot hurt, she'd probably broke her toe, maybe even her whole foot with how hard she'd hit the root. She glanced down and saw her big toe at an awkward angle. "Shit!" She cried as she thumped her head down against the ground. Pine needles stabbed into her hands making them look like pin cushions.
Keep going! You have to run! Ignore the pain! Keep going! Her voice screamed at herself as she laid on the ground. Slowly she pulled herself up to her feet and tried to push on. She was limping badly as she tried to ignore the pain, but it was like stepping on broken glass. Every step stabbed into her and slowed her down a bit more. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Don't stop!
"Thought you could get away did you?" the chilling, deep voice of Tyler Jacobson called out from her left side. Kat froze in her steps and bit her bottom lip. "I warned you what would happen if you tried to run."
"Then do it!" Kat spat out. "It's better to die fighting then to live as your sick lover!"
"I thought you could heal me Katherine. I thought that you could help me not be a monster anymore!" He moved in front of her, his face a mere inch from hers. His nearly white eyes a mixture of sorrow and anger. The mixture in his eyes terrified Katherine. "I thought I could love you and you could love me!"
"You are not capable of love!" Katherine narrowed her eyes.
"I am too!" He shouted. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her to his chest. "All I needed was someone to love me back." He whispered in her ear as he slowly stroked her hair.
"I can't do that." Kat shook her head.
"I'm so sorry." He cried. Kat didn't have time to ask what he was sorry for, before she felt the knife slide into her back. Kat's eyes grew wide and her mouth fell open in a silent scream as she fell to the ground. She stared up at him, the bloody knife still clutched in his left hand. Tears streaked down his face as he knelt next to her. "You were my dream girl Katherine. But if I can't have you, no one can." He plunged the knife down into her abdomen. This time Katherine let loose a blood curdling scream. He drove the knife into her again and again, driven by anger. Kat's body was racked with tremors and a searing pain unlike anything she'd ever felt.
Tyler stood and turned away from her, taking the knife with him. Overhead the thunder clapped as the gray skies let loose a torrent of freezing rain. Kat's vision began to tunnel as she watched Tyler disappear down a hill. She struggled to take a breath, but felt blood bubble in her throat. She knew he'd punctured her lung. She tried to focus on staying there, staying alive. Every breath was a chore and movement seemed impossible.
Time seemed to have no meaning as she laid on the cold ground and night began wrap around her... This was it... This was the end...
Sleep... Just sleep... So tired... Just close your eyes and sleep...
Katherine's body begged for the rest it craved, even as her mind screamed at her to stay awake and keep fighting. Keep fighting for her life.
She stared out into the empty darkness surrounding her. Freezing, unforgiving rain poured down from the angry black skies, saturating the ground and mixing with the pool of blood surrounding her.
Warm salty tears streaked down her mud caked face as she thought of all the people she would be leaving behind. She didn't know when or even if she would ever be found. No! No! No! I will survive! I will not let him win! I will hang on!
Katherine renewed her struggle to hang onto life, praying that her team would put all the pieces of the puzzle together in time, wishing that she could go home, hoping against all the odds that she could return back to his warm embrace.
Come find me Jason!
XXXXXXXXXX
Jason sat with Tom and Russ in the dark car, listening the rain on the roof, waiting for Logan to show up. He was due any minute for his check in. It was nearly nine at night, they'd spent all day interrogating Rachel to learn as much as they could about her brother.
Rachel had told them how she'd helped him learn to wear stage make up and prosthetic noses to look like someone else. She knew that he dressed up everyday to be Harvey Logan, a person she thought he had created from scratch. She'd explained that she had been talking with him about the 'Angel Killer' case, getting a new perspective on it, as she called it.
When she figured out her brother was indeed the killer, she tried to drop hints to the team. She couldn't just outright say it or she would have betrayed her brother. That was why she left the note scribbled on the casefile. She hoped that Jason and Tom would follow the lead and put the clues together. Tom thought that was a messed up sense of loyalty she had, but she'd responded by saying Tyler was the only man to ever love her. Tyler would have done anything and everything she ever asked... only she didn't know it until it was too late and she'd lost him.
Rachel also divulged the details of her mother's murder and how she and Tyler had disposed of her body. Together the brother and sister had concocted a story about their mother ditching town. She told them everything except the one thing Jason really wanted to know. Where did he have Kat?
"Think he'll show?" Tom asked.
"Unless he thinks we already know..." Russ shook his head.
"Hold it!" Jason said as he spotted movement on the street.
"Moore? Is it him?" Russ asked through his earpiece.
"You bet. Right on time as always." Agent Moore replied over the radio.
"Roger that, we'll move in on him in five minutes. Dell you ready?"
"As always." Dell commented. "Recording up and running."
"Kale?"
"Got the target on scope." Kale confirmed. He was perched up high with a sniper rifle, just in case things went to hell.
"You two ready?" Russ asked Tom and Jason. Jason nodded as he took out his pistol.
"Let's take the bastard down." Tom stated as he took out his pistol as well. They watched Moore and Logan go into the small office they'd agreed to meet at.
"Wait for the signal." Russ ordered all of them. Jason sucked in a deep breath as he watched the second hand on his watch tick by and they listened to Agent Moore and Agent Logan talk.
"Hey Logan, what's your next step?" Agent Moore asked. That was the signal they'd been waiting for. Jason burst from the car and rushed ahead of Russ and Tom toward the door Harvey Logan was behind.
"What kind of question is that?" Jason heard Logan asked moments before he kicked open the door.
"Hands up Logan! Surrender!" Jason shouted as he pointed his gun at the tall man.
"Scott! Fuck!" Logan sneered, his brown eyes burning with rage. "You set me up Moore!"
"You bet I did." The older agent grinned as he too trained his gun on him.
"Where's Kat?" Jason asked.
"How'd you figure out it was me?" Logan grinned. Russ and Tom burst in as well.
"Your sister." Tom narrowed his eyes at him.
"She... No! She wouldn't!" Logan shook his head. "Lori would never... she didn't...she didn't even know..."
"Rachel is a lot smarter than you give her credit for." Russ snapped.
"The two timing bitch! After everything I went through for her! She ratted me out!"
"Make this easy on yourself, tell me where Kat is!" Jason growled.
"Like I'd really tell you!" He laughed. "You're too late anyway."
"What?" Jason lowered his gun in shock, dropping his defenses as well.
"I finished her off before I came here." He smirked.
"No!" Jason shook his head. "She can't be... no."
Logan shrugged as he continued to smile. "You might be able to beat the animals to her body if you hurry, but don't expect me to tell you where she is." He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.
"Hands where I can see them Logan... or whatever your name is!" Russ demanded.
"Fine, fine." Logan grumbled and slipped his hands out of his pocket. "Join her in hell Scott." Russ saw the gun, but Logan fired it before he had a chance to react. Russ fired just a second behind Logan's gun, hitting Logan in the head. He fell to the ground in a heap.
"Jase!" Tom yelped as Jason slumped against the table.
"Call for a bus!" Russ shouted into his mic.
"It's just my arm." Jason groaned. "He's got bad aim."
"Bus enroute." Dell chimed over the radio.
"At least you have good aim Thomas." Moore said as he kicked at Logan's foot. "Damn bastard."
"We don't know where Kat is." Jason shook his head. Lights danced before his eyes, but he wasn't going to stop, not until he had Kat, even if it was just her body. He had to find her.
"Rachel... she's got to know something more." Tom suggested.
"She already told us everything she knows." Russ shook his head.
"He's got pine needles in his boots. Maybe he's hiding somewhere in the woods outside the city?" Moore pointed out.
"Dammit, I should have remembered! Rach owns a cabin about an hour away!" Dell cut in.
"We have to check it!" Jason exclaimed, Russ nodded.
"Dell, I want a chopper here in ten minutes. Get us the location ASAP!"
"Already on it Russ."
"You hanging in there Scott?" Kale asked.
"Just a flesh wound, I'll be fine." Jason replied.
"I'll grab a med kit and patch you up in the chopper." Dell offered.
"Thanks Dell." Jason nodded, even though the other man couldn't see it.
Flashing lights filled the sky as FBI, NYPD and the ambulance pulled up. Overhead they heard the chopper arrive as the thunder clapped again. Jason, Tom, and Russ made their way to the roof where Kale was already waiting. Dell arrived a moment later, carrying the med kit.
"I'll stay behind and give the report. Find her Jason." Russ said. Jason nodded silently as he cradled his wounded arm close to his body. The four remaining men loaded into the helicopter, leaving Russ standing in the rain on the roof.
Dell immediately began helping Jason to remove his coat and vest. "Bullet's still lodged in there Scott." Dell shook his head. "There isn't much I can do, I don't have the right tool to take it out."
"Just wrap it up and stop the bleeding." Jason said. "I'll get it taken care of, once I find Kat."
"At least I have a sling, we can immobilize you're arm until we get you to the hospital."
"Do you think he was bluffing?" Tom asked as he stared out the window.
"I hope so." Kale nodded. "Hillard's too tough to be down and out."
"Kat's tough, that's true, but she's human." Dell said as he began wrapping Jason's bicep tightly, trying to control the blood flow.
"She's alive still. I can feel it." Jason stated.
"I pray that you are right, Jason." Tom nodded. Jason rested his head against the seat and closed his eyes for a few moments, blocking out the pain radiating from his arm as Dell continued to treat his gunshot.
She's still got the power, she's tougher than a normal person. You can't take a ranger down that easily. Hold on Kat, I'm coming!
