In a Heartbeat Read Online Free Page A

breath, Brad went to the kitchen, retrieved the dog food, then brought it to the back porch, filled the bowl and put clean cold water in another. His cell phone trilled, and he tensed, his hand hesitating before he shoved the dog food bag inside and grabbed the phone off the end table. Just as he feared, Ethan’s number appeared. He clicked in. “Yeah?”
    “He has another victim,” his partner said, deadpan. “That reporter, Nettleton, called it in.”
    Brad shut the French doors, yanking on his jeans and a shirt. “I’m sure Nettleton’s eating up the story just like the first GD case.”
    “Yeah, and Booker, you’re not going to like it.”
    He was reaching for his gun, but froze, clenching the phone with a white-knuckled grip. “Lisa Langley?”
    “No, Mindy Faulkner.”
    God, no. Brad staggered backward, a sick feeling in his stomach. He’d met Mindy when he’d questioned her at the hospital after White had died. She was an E.R. nurse, but she hadn’t been on duty that night. He’d dated Mindy a few times after White’s trial. Had thought by sating himself with another female he’d forget this insane lust toward Lisa.
    It hadn’t worked.
    But Jesus, he didn’t want Mindy dead or suffering, either.
    His gut clenched as he jammed his gun in his holster and rushed to his car, the reality of his job returning, reminding him of another reason he didn’t get involved with women. Being close to him put them in danger.
    Was the killer someone he knew? What if he’d chosen Mindy because of him?
    HER SHRILL CRIES shattered the peace he craved, the screeching sound echoing off the concrete walls and boomeranging through the ventilation.
    She had been crying all night.
    Scratching at the walls. Beating on the floor. Howling like an animal.
    As if she thought someone might hear.
    A deep laugh rumbled in his chest. If she only knew that her attempts were wasted. Futile. That she was so far away from another house that no one would ever know she was here. Not unless he wanted them to….
    A sharp pain splintered through his head, and he gripped his temple, doubling over, rocking back and forth to stem the mind-numbing intensity.
    What was wrong with him?
    He’d been sick before, had his share of medical problems and doctors, but he’d never had headaches before. Never felt this excruciating agony.
    Yet he was emboldened by the pain. Empowered just knowing that life and death were both only a heartbeat away.
    The air in his lungs grew tight, and he wailed in anguish, the blinding fury that drove him erupting as he tore down the steps. He stumbled. Hit the edge. Grabbed the rail for security.
    Another shrill scream pierced the air, reverberating through his head, slicing into his skull as if knives were carving into his brain matter, digging through the frontal lobe and picking at his cerebrum.
    He cursed, bile rising in his throat as another scream rent the air. She wouldn’t shut up.
    Not unless he made her.
    The pain in his head intensified, throbbing relentlessly. He grabbed his skull, sweat pouring off his body as a dizzy spell nearly overtook him. It was so damn hot he needed a drink of water. It was almost as if the heat had sucked the life from him, clouded his brain, dried out all his senses.
    A litany of curse words flew from his tongue, vile and loathing comments on mankind in general, especially women. He hated his weakness.
    Didn’t she know that he couldn’t take it? That he needed rest. Quiet. Time for the medication to settle.
    That without it, she wouldn’t live another minute. That it was all her fault he’d been sick.
    A cool darkness bathed the interior downstairs. Shadowy streaks of cobwebs dangled in the black corner. Rage seared through him as he spotted her lying on the floor, begging. Her blond hair spilled around her bare shoulders, her breasts lay waiting, supple and distended, her legs curled toward her belly to conceal her secrets.
    “Please let me go,” she whimpered.
    He