Chapter Twenty-Six
Alexis didn't see his fist coming, but even if she had, it wouldn't have mattered. Pain lanced through her skull as his fist made contact, not once, or twice, but three times with her face in a volley that had her head snapping left and right with each blow. Her vision whited out for a moment and her ears began to ring. Alexis could feel something running down her face. Blood. He'd broken skin.
Everything was blurry, but she had heard Moreno's threat. It was over for her. She was going to die at the hands of this psychopath, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. But at least she wouldn't die in vain. And Amelia hadn't either. She had his confession. She had what she'd needed all along to bring him down. No matter what happened next, Alexis could at least take comfort in that.
As her brain slogged through the pain to catch up with the present, she felt Moreno's hand cup her breast. His other hand picked up the knife again. "I'm torn. I don't know if I want to cut your clothes off or cut into your flesh. Do you have any preferences?"
Alexis didn't respond. He could say or do whatever he wanted. She wanted him to keep talking, because when he would be taken to court, what he said would be played in front of a judge and the jury. She didn't need to say another word.
"You'd have to be something very special if Mr. O'Connell wanted you all to himself. He wouldn't have kept you around just because you have pretty face." Moreno looked her in the eyes, after scanning her face. "Well, used to have a pretty face."
Alexis swallowed and the blade moved across her skin. He moved the blade down her body. "I can see that these little cuts are not getting me anywhere, so why don't I crank up the intensity."
The blade ended up in Alexis' thigh. She threw her head back with a scream and then looked down to assess what she already knew. Blood was already starting to pool beneath the material of her jeans.
Moreno's face got close to Alexis. "I love hearing those noises. Should I keep them coming?"
He yanked the blade back out and Alexis screamed again and tried to brace herself for whatever he planned to do with her. She knew he'd get bored soon enough. Stabbing and killing wasn't good enough. Moreno needed to violate and torture his victims in every way that he could. He wiped the blade off on the material of her shirt and smiled. "You don't have anything to say to me?"
Alexis looked him in the eyes, squinting around the blood that was sliding down her face. Moreno liked to play with his food, but Alexis wasn't sure how much more she could take. She spat in his face.
"Bitch." He wiped his face. "You will regret that." He stepped behind her and cut through her restraints. Alexis jerked forward, intent on running, fighting, anything but sitting in that goddamn chair for another minute. Fire pulsed through her leg the moment she put pressure on it, and she crumpled to the floor, just barely catching herself on her hands and knees. Her head spun at the sudden shift in position, and she tried to crawl forward. Moreno's foot made contact with her abdomen and she crumpled onto the carpet, curling in on herself with a whimper.
"Nice try." He grabbed her around the waist and shoved her backward onto Fenton's desk. Office supplies tumbled off the top, and she reached around wildly, trying to find something to use as a weapon. His fist made contact with her face again and her head snapped back against the wooden surface with a crack.
The world around her blurred and darkened, sounds muffled, sensations muted. For a long string of seconds, she floated in a space away from terror, away from pain. Then, with a gasp, she slid back to reality when she felt the cold edge of his knife cutting away her shirt and bra, nicking her skin along the way. Her jeans were gone, and she could feel the blood trickling down her thigh. Her head spun, and the throbbing pain across her body was so intense she could barely think. Each breath dragged through her lungs before being kicked out in a whimper. She sounded like a wounded animal.
"There she is," Moreno mused. He flipped her over and yanked the remnants of her shirt and bra off of her then shoved her back down onto the desk. Her forehead rested on the desk and her legs began to shake. Her left thigh was killing her and she wasn't sure just how much blood was dripping down her leg.
She heard the clank of his belt and the hum of his zipper and tried to push herself up, tried again to fight, tried to escape the fate that was right in front of her. One of Moreno' hands grabbed her by the back of her neck and pushed her face-down against the desk. A cry tore out of her throat at the unforgiving pressure on her bruised and broken face.
"Make this easy on yourself, Detective." He released the back of her neck and let his fingers trail down her bare spine. Alexis stayed perfectly still as his hands ran up and down her thighs. The motion and the knowledge that those hands killed an innocent woman, and most likely more, made her feel sick. What was the point in fighting anymore?
"Such a good girl," Moreno cooed.
When his fingers slid into the waistband of her panties, she bit her bottom lip, not making a sound. She didn't want to give him what he was expecting. A sob built in her throat, but she held it back. She let her eyes close and tried to find anything to grab onto that would make all just a little less dreadful.
"Such a beautiful body. I'll hate seeing it go to waste after I'm through with you." He placed his hands on her back. "Fenton do this with you in here?" he asked.
Alexis closed her eyes tighter and she saw a face, not the face of Fenton, but of Kevin. He was smiling at her. The kind of smile that used to give her butterflies. She felt lucky for all the times she'd been able to make that smile appear. She thought of Kevin as Moreno's hands drifted to her hips. Waking up next to Kevin, just staring at his face as he slept. She remembered falling asleep in his arms, his scent relaxing her. She remembered every time he'd made her laugh. She remembered every sweet word he'd spoken to her.
It was funny to think that she had thrown it all away out of something as childish as jealousy. That would be one of the regrets that she had. Maybe the one thing she wished she could have gone back and fixed. Maybe she should have fought harder for him. Maybe she could have said something that would have changed it. Maybe she could have still fixed things with Kevin.
Not that it mattered, because she'd never be able to speak with him again.
She would never be able to talk to Kevin and tell him that she was sorry for throwing their relationship away. She wouldn't be able to tell him that she had never stopped loving him, even after she found out the truth about Fenton.
This murderer was taking that away from her. He wasn't just taking Kevin away, but Javi as well. Javi was the best partner she could have asked for. He always told her what he felt was right, whether she wanted to hear it or not, but he was also one of the sweetest people that she had ever met. She would never get to see Javi again. Who would have his back once she was gone?
Who would watch over her father? Did he have anyone else that cared about him? How would he take the news? How would he move forward? What if he slipped back into old habits? Who would be there to save him?
A sob left Alexis' lips, and her teeth gritted together in rage and despair. Moreno's lips touched Alexis' shoulder blade and in that moment she made a decision. If Moreno was going to take all of that away from her, if he was going to take the people she loved away from her, he wasn't going to take them without one more fight.
She was going to show him that she wasn't just a body for him to use and dump into a ditch somewhere. She needed him to know that the life she had built and the relationships that she had made were worthy of a fight and whatever pain came, it would be worth it.
Moreno's breath spread over her spine, and she slammed her head back as hard and quickly as she could. She heard him graon and if Alexis could've mustered a smile, she would have. Instead, she turned around as quickly as she could and kneed him between the legs.
"You fucking bitch!" He lunged for Alexis, smacking her back into the desk. His mouth was spewing what seemed like every slur he could think of, but it didn't matter to her. She fought against him and as soon as his head fell to her shoulder in an attempt to keep her still, she turned her head and bit down on his ear as hard as she could. Blood filled her mouth, and when he yanked his body away from hers, a little bit of flesh remained in her mouth.
She spat out the delicate cartilage, and Moreno grabbed her around the waist and threw her over the desk. Air rushed out of her lungs when her broken body hit the floor, and white-hot pain seared up her arm. She couldn't move her wrist without the pain blinding her.
Moreno walked across the room to stand over her body, Alexis could only shift slightly, but enough for her to look up at him. Her eyes only widened a little as she saw the look of pure rage on his face and the gun in his hand.
"You think you can fight me and win?" he yelled, making her flinch. "My fun is over and now so is your life."
He lifted the gun, cocked it, and pointed it right at Alexis' head. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and the same three faces kept coming to mind over and over again as if they were being played on a loop—
A loud boom echoed through the room. "NYPD! Put your hands up! Now!" Javi's voiced rang through the room, so loud that it felt like the room was shaking. Alexis blinked, her pain-dulled mind struggling to understand how her partner could be standing in the room, his gun locked on Moreno. And he wasn't alone.
Kevin.
Alexis focused on the blue eyes staring back at her, the eyes of the man that she loved. Something flashed in his eyes as he took her in. He shifted his gaze to Moreno, his eyes narrowing.
Could this be real? Or was her mind playing tricks on her? She closed her eyes and opened them again, only to see the same scene before her that she had before. They were actually there.
As she stared at the men across the room, Moreno took in the man to the right. He blinked and then smirked. "Mr. O'Connell, I think perhaps we've not been honest with each other."
"Put the gun down, or I'll use mine to put you down!" Kevin snarled.
"No, you won't." Moreno looked back at Alexis. He still had his gun pointed at her head. "You wouldn't risk her life just to be able to take mine. I've seen you around her. She's special to you."
"We won't ask again," Javi said. "Put. The. Gun. Down."
"No can do, Detective," Moreno said, letting out a little smile. "If this ends with me dead on the floor, I'm not going to be the only one who doesn't make it out."
It all happened so fast that Alexis almost didn't have time to react. One moment, she was watching as Moreno took a step toward her and then Kevin was tackling him to the ground.
She flinched as a weight settled across her shoulders and looked up, her head pounding at the movement, to see her partner kneeling down next to her.
"I got you," Javi said gently, wrapping his coat around her. "Let's get you out of here."
A shot went off, making both of them flinch. She watched as Kevin and Moreno fought each other. The shot must have gone wide. It was a mad scramble to see who would overpower the other. Alexis scanned the room and saw a gun sitting on the ground. It must have been Kevin's, because Moreno still had his in his hands. Had he knocked Kevin's gun from his hands?
She could almost hear words that Javi was whispering in her ears, but she couldn't focus on anything but the scene in front of her. Kevin had managed to gain control. He was on top of Moreno, punching him in the face again and again and again.
Another shot went off, throwing Kevin off guard long enough for Moreno to knock Kevin backward. He pointed the gun at Kevin's head and Alexis screamed.
"No! Not him. Kill me!" she pleaded, not sure how she was able to find her words so quickly. Where was their backup?
Alexis knew that Javi had his gun, but that he couldn't raise it with Moreno watching their every move.
"I'll kill you, bitch, but not before I kill them, too!" He laughed, delighted with how the tables had turned. "Who should I start with? The narc or the detective?"
The gun moved in slow motion as he turned toward her. Her eyes followed the barrel, and her heart skipped into overtime when she realized who it was pointed didn't think; she didn't have the time. She propelled her body sideways, and before the bullet could hit Javi, it struck her instead.
Her body fell back against Javi's and her breath caught on a cry. The pain in her head, her cuts, her arm, and her leg were nothing compared to the feeling that she'd been ripped in two. Her shaking hands pressed against her abdomen and met warm, fresh blood.
The full force of the NYPD rushed into the room then, and somewhere in the back of her mind, away from the overwhelming sensation of her body shutting down, she heard Beckett's voice reading Moreno his Miranda rights.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Javi asked, and his voice cracked a little. She opened her eyes, meeting his chocolate-brown gaze.
"You're my partner."
Suddenly Kevin appeared in front of her, his eyes wild, and his face pale. "Alexis?" He lifted her hand away from her abdomen, and more blood gushed down her skin. "Oh, Princess." His own hands covered the bullet wound, pressing firmly. Alexis whimpered out a ragged breath.
"Let's lay her down."
They shifted her body onto the floor, and Alexis let out a cry. The adrenaline had all but dried up, and she was left with the damage Moreno had left behind. Tears slipped down the sides of her face and she breathed shallowly, each inhale a unique kind of agony, each exhale a whine.
"Hang on, okay? Help is on the way," Kevin said as he saw the damage that Javi's coat didn't cover. He didn't say anything, but she saw the raw grief in his expression. She knew the truth. She wasn't going to make it.
"We got him," she said, her voice breathless and uneven. A smile pulled at her bruised lips at that victory. "He confessed." She breathed out as the world started to blur around her. "Thank you both for t-trying to save me."
"Don't talk like that," Javi said.
She blinked a few times, her mouth forming a rebuttal, but she couldn't quite find the words.
"Alexis?" Kevin said, his voice far away. "Alexis, talk to me!"
Her eyes locked onto his, and she saw the tears in his eyes. She saw his lips forming words she was too far away to hear. And then her eyes fluttered shut and darkness wrapped around her once more.