Blood Score Part 23

Making noise bothered her. In the stillness it echoed through the trees no matter how quietly she worked. When she heard a sound over her shoulder, she stopped and dropped to her haunches, listening. She grabbed her weapon at the sound of Gabe's voice in her ear.

"Is that you, Angel? You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Just a little B & E."

Angel got back to work. After unhinging the door, she pulled it open and shined her Kel-lite into the pitch black of the musty shed. As she moved the light, dust swirled in the beam. Shelves of tools and yard maintenance equipment were organized. Given the thin walls of the structure, she didn't think it was likely that McFarland would've hidden his videos in the walls like he'd done at his home. That left only one viable option.

The shed floor.

With access to real tools, it didn't take long for Angel to find exactly what she'd come for. She found a loose floorboard and when she pried it up, she saw a plastic bag inside. McFarland's recordings.

"I got it, partner. I'm going back to the house," she whispered. When he didn't answer, she tried again. "Gabe? Talk to me."

Gabe never answered and the darkness and the silence closed in on her. She tried the patrol car and got nothing. Angel did the only thing she could. She grabbed the bag of digital recordings and inched toward the shed door with gun in hand. She listened and looked for signs of movement until she decided to make her move. This time she couldn't afford to use her Kel-lite. The light would make her a target.

She gripped her weapon and stepped out of the shed into the night.

Where are you, Gabe?

Making her way back to the lake house in the dark had taken time. Although she hadn't seen or heard anything to alarm her, Angel felt on edge. Something wasn't right.

The lights were still on in the house as she approached the front door. With her back to the wall, she crept toward the entry and reached out her hand to test the lock. The k.n.o.b didn't budge. With the door locked, Angel felt relief that things were as she'd left them. Once she got inside, she could attempt to contact Gabe on her com unit again. She pulled the key from her jeans pocket, undid the lock, and slipped inside.

When she stepped through the door, she secured it behind her and saw that all the lights inside were blazing, as she'd left them. But without hearing from Gabe, she felt exposed. The large picture windows toward the rear of the home made her vulnerable. She moved fast and dimmed the lights as she tried to raise Gabe again.

"Talk to me, Gabe. Where are you?"

Nothing. She tried the backup officers in the squad car and got radio silence as she checked every entry on the first floor to see if things were still locked tight. When Ethan stirred upstairs, she heard his familiar m.u.f.fled cries and the rattle of metal cuffs on the headboard. Nothing had changed, except that she hadn't heard from her partner.

Before she checked on Ethan, she looked down at the plastic bag of recordings she'd found-McFarland's secret surveillance. He'd marked each disk with something brief to remind him what had been recorded. One marked "Hot" got her attention.

She had to know what McFarland had recorded that might have drawn out a killer.

Sitting on the edge of a coffee table in front of the TV, Angel pulled the bag open and grabbed the disk she wanted to see first. It only took her a moment to figure out how to use the remote control and play the recording.

In the dim light of the living room, the TV screen cast a murky glow over her as she tried to make out what she saw. One camera angled down from a ceiling. It didn't take long for Angel to recognize Ethan's recording studio with its distinctive red settee. On that designer sofa was a naked Bryce Peterson. His hands were cuffed behind his back, and when his head lolled to the side, Angel thought he looked drunk or drugged. She leaned closer to the screen and felt her body tense.

Within minutes, another man entered the room. He had on a mask of sculpted gold and glitter that covered his eyes, an elaborate disguise that reminded Angel of Mardi Gras. The second man had short dark hair and a muscular, fit body. The minute Bryce looked up and saw him, he cowered and yelled something. He was angry. The recording had no sound, but it didn't take much for Angel to realize that Bryce was scared. He opened his mouth, yelling for help, but with the sound proof studio, no one would've heard his cries.

Angel gasped when she realized what she was watching-the beating and rape of Bryce Peterson. Ethan's friend fought back, but with his hands tied behind his back, the other man overpowered him. The attack was vicious and brutal. Angel fast-forwarded the video, not wanting to see the worst of an attack that never seemed to end. The guy a.s.saulted him more than once. The blood and Bryce's pain turned the guy on, but when Angel saw the shadow of someone else in the room, she tried to make out who the third person was.

Someone had not only watched the a.s.sault. They recorded it with their cell phone. When Angel saw who it was, she gasped.

"Oh my, G.o.d. What the h.e.l.l...?"

A chill ran through her body when she realized what must've happened. She paused the recording with a familiar face on the screen before she bounded up the stairs and ran for Ethan's bedroom. She hadn't left a lamp on in his room, but moonlight shining through window blinds made a glow of ribbons over his body. She saw the silhouette of his head, rising off the pillow. Angel raced for his bed and sat by him.

"Did you know what would be on those recordings?" she asked him, tugging at his shirt.

In the dim light from the doorway, Angel looked at the blind musician. His eyes grew wide, and she saw him shake his head. With his mouth still gagged, he pulled at his restraints and jerked his body. If she wanted him to answer her, she had to take the washcloth from his mouth.

When she did, Ethan blurted out, "Someone's here...in the house. I heard them break a window. You're not safe, Angelica. Let me go. Please."

Angel stood and grabbed her gun. In the darkness, she heard the soft scuff of a shoe behind her, but it was too late. She felt the hard muzzle of a gun against the back of her head. When she looked down at Ethan, he stared into the darkness, unable to help her.

"Who's there?" he begged. "Don't hurt her. Please."

Angel thought about fighting back, but she didn't know who stood behind her or if they were alone. She also had Ethan's safety to consider, and she still had no idea if Gabe had her back or something had happened to him. Angel clenched her jaw and raised her hands. She didn't want to give up her weapon, but she didn't have a choice.

She prayed they wouldn't frisk her. If they did, they might find her last hope-the 9-mil Sig she had strapped to her ankle.

Someone grabbed her gun without a word, and when she felt a hand on her neck, Angel got shoved to the bedroom door. She heard the door shut behind her. Outside the room, she walked along the landing toward the stairs. When she knew Ethan couldn't hear, she dared to say something.

"You didn't speak back there. You afraid Ethan would recognize your voice?"

As she got to the top of the stairs, Angel stopped walking and turned around. She was done playing games.

Chapter 18.

"Cops are outside. Don't make things worse," Angel said. "You obviously don't want to hurt Ethan."

"Shut up. Just shut up." Bryce Peterson spat out each word, but kept his voice low. He stole a glance to the closed bedroom door where Ethan was. "Move it. Downstairs. Now."

Angel did as he told her, but her eyes darted down the stairs and into the living room. She had to find a way to get at the gun she still had strapped to her ankle. Worse, her gut twisted when she thought about Gabe. No way he would sit back and watch as Bryce held a weapon on her.

Something had happened to him.

When Angel got to the living room, she caught Bryce staring at the television. Frozen on the screen was the last image she saw. Olivia. She had been the one to record his rape. Blood rushed to Bryce's face, and Angel watched as a slow burning rage consumed him. Before he lost it, she had to get him talking.

"That recording you said that Olivia made of you. It wasn't of the two of you in bed, was it?" When he didn't answer her, Angel shifted the focus to Olivia. "What she did wasn't right. Why did she go to that extreme? Did something happen between you?"

Bryce glared with a clenched jaw and pointed the gun at her. Things could've easily gone against her, but he eventually took a deep breath, and his fierce expression faded.

"We got drunk at a party. Ethan asked me to take her home. He did that sometimes, but Olivia came on to me. Like I said, she was a messed up b.i.t.c.h. We did it in the car, right outside her place, but when I wanted to see her again, she acted like she didn't remember we even did it. All of a sudden, I wasn't good enough."

"And you couldn't let it go."

"No." He sighed. "You don't know how she could be. One minute she couldn't get enough of me. The next, I was s.h.i.t on her designer shoes."

Bryce gripped the gun. His hands glistened with sweat, and his finger was on the trigger. Angel tensed her body, ready to move.

"I tried to get her to see me again. This time at her place. She never invited me inside, not even when I drove her and Ethan to an event, but I told her that I'd tell Ethan if she didn't agree."

What had Bryce been thinking? His ego needed appeasing, even if it came at the expense of a friend who'd taken care of him.

"What did she say?"

"She laughed at me. Said that if I told Ethan, she'd say I raped her. Can you imagine that?" He shook his head. "She would've taken Ethan down with her lie...and ruined everything for me. For what? She came on to me."

"What did you do, Bryce?"

"I made an honest woman out of her. I made sure that if she did tell Ethan that I raped her, it wouldn't be a lie."

Bryce dared to smile. There was no humor in it. In an instant, Angel knew what he'd left out.

"You raped her. For real."

"The princess had it coming." His smile faded fast. "I broke into her fancy palace, the one her daddy paid for. She liked it rough, and I gave it to her."

Angel gritted her teeth as she listened to the arrogant jerk. After Bryce had raped Olivia, the girl must've been torn up over how to get even. Angel understood how Olivia might have thought about reporting the a.s.sault to the police. Anything made public would be hard to cope with. She must've feared how her life would change if everyone knew what had happened to her. The girl probably thought about how she would've hurt her parents and Ethan, too.

Rather than reporting her s.e.xual a.s.sault, Olivia forced Bryce to know what being s.e.xually violated felt like.

"But it didn't end there, did it? She turned the tables on you. What you did to her, she arranged to have done to you? Is that what happened in Ethan's studio? Did he ever know about it?"

Bryce paced the floor and waved his gun, but kept his eyes on her.

"She pretended like it would be a turn on for us to do it at Ethan's, when he was out of town. She got me there, but drugged me to make it easy for the coward in the mask." He stopped pacing and said, "That b.i.t.c.h recorded everything on her cell. She uploaded it somewhere, for safekeeping she said. McFarland recorded it, too. Didn't he?"

"Purely by accident. The surveillance cameras he had installed in Ethan's home recorded it. We'll never know if he would've told anyone. To admit he'd seen it meant he'd have to come clean on what he'd been doing."

"It wasn't right what he did. Ethan didn't deserve that, but that pervert never got a chance to blackmail him."

"You made it look like a suicide."

From the corner of her eye, Angel thought she saw movement outside the large windows. It had to be Gabe, but she couldn't be sure. She'd only seen a shadow cut through the moonlight off the lake.

"You planted the burner phone on the neighbor so you could blame him for Olivia's murder," she said.

Angel inched closer to Bryce. He didn't notice.

"You think you have all the pieces to the puzzle, don't you?" He smiled. "It doesn't matter now."

Bryce looked as if he'd made a decision-one she wouldn't like. She was missing something, and he wasn't making it easy for her to regain control. She had to keep him distracted.

"You never found out who a.s.saulted you?"

"No, or I would've killed him."

"Why did Olivia record it? She had to know it was a criminal act. What did she hope to gain?"

"She said she did it to protect herself from me. She wanted to put everything behind her and not risk hurting Ethan because of something she'd done when she was drunk, like she was so innocent."

"But you didn't let it go, did you?" Angel narrowed her eyes. "You went to Rachel and concocted a story about Olivia, didn't you? Even if it meant hurting your best friend, you had to cover your a.s.s by making Olivia out to be a s.e.xual predator."

"You think you know how it was, but you don't. Shut up."

Angel felt the heat of adrenaline pumping through her veins as she inched closer to Bryce.

"Rachel wanted Ethan, but Olivia got in the way, didn't she?" When Bryce didn't answer, she went on. "You and Rachel made her out to be a bigger player than she was...and you planted that BDSM gear to make her look twisted. Didn't you know that would hurt Ethan...and her family?"

"Rachel had been there for him, but he never saw her...that way. In time, he could change."

Angel pictured Rachel positioning herself to pick up the pieces of Ethan's shattered life. She had no idea what the publicist had actually done, but she felt sure the woman had conspired to stir things up, to set terrible things in motion. She took advantage of the hostility between Olivia and Bryce. Although Olivia had been pushed into doing what she'd done, she wasn't innocent. She knowingly arranged for a man to a.s.sault Bryce in a vile and unimaginable way. Recording her crime had been desperate...and dangerous.

"Why would you risk killing Olivia in the park without knowing the recording she made was destroyed?" Angel thought about it. "Our crime techs didn't find it on her cell. She must've stored it in a safe place...until McFarland's surveillance made things worse."

"You still don't get it, but like I said. It's too late. For you, it doesn't matter." He pointed the gun at her face. "Hand over those recordings. All of them. Now."

Bryce was done talking. Once she handed over McFarland's disks, he'd kill her. She saw it in his eyes.

Chapter 19.

"What will happen to Ethan? If you shoot, he'll hear it." She reached for the plastic bag filled with recorded disks. "He's here. Whatever goes down, all of it will be linked to him, if you make things worse."

"Make things worse? Oh, you mean by killing you?"

"Yeah, that would make my day suck, but you didn't answer my question. What about Ethan?"

Angel fought to stay calm and keep her head clear, but her heart pounded hard enough for her to feel it throb in her ears.

"You fell for him, too. Didn't you? Women." He shook his head. "Ethan's got nothing to worry about. Rachel's good at her job. She'll spin it until he's a golden boy again, a guy who got used by a conniving girlfriend who liked it kinky. He'll become every woman's fantasy. h.e.l.l, he already is. And McFarland will go down as a suicide." He nudged the gun at her and gestured toward the TV. "Pull the disc from the DVD player...and put it in the bag, too."

Angel knelt in front of the TV and fumbled with the electronic components to stall. She kept her back to him so he couldn't see what she was doing. With one hand, she pressed b.u.t.tons, but with the other, she reached for the Sig Sauer she had strapped to her ankle. She'd cleared the holster when Bryce lost his temper.

"Back off," he yelled. "I'll do it. Get out of my way."

As he rushed toward the television, he backhanded her across the face. She toppled backward and saw stars as she watched her gun skitter under the coffee table. The room spun when she struck the floor, and she tasted blood.

Angel fought for consciousness. If she pa.s.sed out, he'd kill her.

When Bryce hit the eject b.u.t.ton to retrieve the disk, Angel raised her leg and kicked him in the back, hard. He cracked his head on a shelf and lost the grip on his weapon. As he fell, shelves collapsed and spilled books and picture frames to the floor. Angel didn't wait to see if he got up. She jumped to her feet and rushed him.

She locked her elbow around his neck and grappled him into a chokehold. As she hung off his back, she tightened her grip using both hands. Bryce gagged for air and stumbled to his feet, carrying her with him. He pulled at her arms, but she held firm as he grew weaker. In desperation, he shoved backward and jammed her into a wall. Pain shot down her spine, but she didn't let go, not even when he yanked her hair. With him wheezing for every breath, she squeezed tighter until he collapsed to his knees. When he tumbled to the floor, she didn't ease up. She had to make sure he was down.