Chasing the Night - Iris Johansen [123]
He was trying to stagger toward her throat.
She took a step back. “I knew that you’d be searching every orifice if you ever got your hands on me, and it had to be a part of the tooth and completely hidden. I had to promise to come back to him and let him replace it with something a little more stable right after I’d used it.”
His face was growing red, livid. He was starting at her with hatred…and fear. “Hurts…hurts…stop…it.”
“Did you stop?” she asked through set teeth. “Did you stop the taunts and the torture? You took my son, and you hurt him. I don’t even know all the ways that you hurt him yet. When I find out, I’ll probably want you to live for a hundred years so that I can keep you writhing with agony.”
He was panting, his eyes bulging from his swollen face. “Stop…it.” “The venom attacks the respiratory system, Hu Chang’s additive adds heat to the mix. He promised you’d feel as if your lungs and every nerve in your body were on fire. Is that how it feels, Rakovac?”
He groaned, his hands reaching for her throat.
She took another step back. “Yes, I can see it does. Do you feel helpless? That’s how you like your victims to feel. I wanted you to feel helpless.”
He was sinking to his knees. Tears were running down his cheeks from eyes that were almost bulging from his face. “Please…”
“Please what? Please forgive you for taking and hurting my son? Please stop punishing you for doing it? No way on earth, you bastard.”
He was reaching blindly for the weapon he’d dropped to the floor.
She put her foot on the gun. “In five minutes, it will be over. But those minutes will seem like a millennium. Hu Chang promised. I could have made it quicker, it would have been safer for me. But I had to have at least this much time.” She bent down and looked into his eyes. “You’ve lost everything. I’m going to ruin all your fine plans. I’m going to take back everything you stole from us. I’m going to make my son’s life so good that he’ll never even remember what you did to him.” He understood, she could see that realization through the twisted agony in his face. “So suffer, Rakovac. Suffer…”
Chapter
18
Catherine was still standing over Rakovac’s body when Eve ran into the room.
Eve stopped short, her gaze flying from the dead man on the floor to Catherine. She looked…barbaric. Half-naked, her long hair lying half-over her breasts, a trace of blood on her lips. No, more like pictures she’d seen of the ancient goddesses in battle.
“Catherine…?”
“He’s dead,” Catherine said regretfully. “I wanted it to last longer.” She shook her head as if to clear it. She picked up the gun on the floor and turned to Eve. “I was coming after you. Are you hurt?”
“No.” She picked up Catherine’s shirt, which was lying on the floor, and crossed the room. “We’re all fine. Czadas is dead, too. Joe and Venable are right behind me. Joe was cursing a blue streak when I ran up here ahead of him.” She shrugged. “I made Venable give me a gun. I had to make sure you were safe.”
“Joe? How did he—Later.” She lifted her hand to her head. “I can’t seem to think right now.” She slipped into the shirt Eve was holding for her. “My son is alive?”
“Yes, Luke is alive. Kelly says he’s a survivor. He’s with her now.”
“Then it’s over, isn’t it?”
“It’s over.” Eve buttoned Catherine’s shirt. She couldn’t blame Catherine for being dazed. She had obviously gone through hell in the past hours, but no more than the hell she had endured for the last nine years. “Or it’s the beginning. It depends on how you look at it.”
“Yes, that’s a good way to look at it. That’s what I told Rakovac.” She looked down at Rakovac’s face, still twisted with agony. “He ruined the last nine years for Luke and me. I can’t let him take anything else from us. He’d win. I can’t let him win.”
Eve gave her a quick, hard hug. “Not you. That