He drew his Glock as he approached the area outside where Sarah was being held, immediately noticing the high window with broken glass, a space that would be damn hard to get his big body through. That window had been the point of entry. It was high, and the window was small, but the asshole had somehow managed to break the window and gain entry to the tiny bathroom attached to the room where Sarah had been playing. Most likely, Sarah’s music had drowned out the sound of breaking glass, and after that it had just been a matter of waiting for his opportunity.
There was no window on the inside.
Dante remembered checking the bathroom, and the window hadn’t been visible from the interior. The entire small bathroom had been wallpapered. The building was old, and obviously someone had done the cheapest job possible to make the bathroom look better before Grady had taken over refurbishing the center. Grady hadn’t gotten to the music room yet.
Why bother working around the tiny window when it could just be covered with a board and some wallpaper?
“Fuck,” he whispered harshly. Dante shoved the Glock back into his waistband and reached up for the windowsill. Just as he was about to pull himself up, he was yanked back down midjump.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Jared asked furiously, pulling Dante’s arms away from the window.
“Back the hell off. I don’t have time. I’m going in,” Dante growled at his brother.
“Backup is coming,” Jared reminded him heatedly.
“Too late. I need to take this guy down now.” Dante yanked his arms from Jared’s grip and turned to face his brother, ready to coldcock him if he needed to. “This bathroom is attached to the room where he’s holding Sarah. He came in through this hidden window in the bathroom. You can either help me or get the fuck out of here. We’re out of time.”
Jared gave him a stormy look, but answered, “You’re going to end up getting yourself killed.”
“I don’t give a shit. If something happens to Sarah, I might as well be dead. If she dies, I die with her.” He’d never be a functional human being again. They’d have to put him in a straitjacket and haul him away.
“Shit! Fine. What do you want me to do?” Jared answered, sounding frustrated. “I can follow you in.”
“No,” Dante answered harshly. “Go back inside. Find somebody with a key to the door and see if you can unlock it without making a lot of noise. I might need backup if I have to go hand-to-hand with this asshole. Listen at the door. You’ll know it’s time once you hear a scuffle or gunshots. Before you do anything else, get Sarah the hell away from him. Promise me.”
“Done. Be careful,” Jared responded hoarsely. “Don’t get dead.”
“I’m not planning on it,” Dante replied, hoisting himself onto the windowsill without looking back. Jared might be a pain in the ass, but Dante knew he could count on him when he really needed him.
As Dante started to force his large body through the small space, he could hear Sarah’s eerily calm voice and the replies from the murderer.
That’s it, sweetheart. Keep him talking. Smart woman.
When he heard John starting to talk about Sarah’s scars and how much he was looking forward to doing a better job at carving her to pieces, Dante almost lost it. The moment the asshole mentioned slicing off Sarah’s nipples, Dante stopped thinking like a cop and reacted like a man.
I’ll kill the fucking bastard.
By the time he dropped quietly to the floor of the bathroom, he was running on purely primal instincts, and he knew the Windy City Carver wasn’t leaving the room alive.
I can’t let him see that I’m afraid. I need to stall for more time.
Sarah was waiting for the right time, and it wasn’t now. He had the gun pointed directly at her head and John wasn’t close enough for her to get a shot at his groin. Since she didn’t have a weapon of any kind, her best bet was to maneuver him close enough, with the weapon pointed away from her vital organs, for her to take her chance at immobilizing him. If she could disable him for even a few moments, she could get out.
Just wait to make your move. He’ll have to change position eventually.
She talked to him steadily to buy herself time, but he was getting tired of talking about himself. He had her on her feet and he’d jerked her tube dress down to her waist. Right at the moment, he was tracing every one of her old scars with the mammoth knife in his right hand, letting her know exactly how he was going to carve her up this time, while the gun remained steadily at her temple in his left hand.
“I’ll take your nipples for a reminder of how much I enjoyed slicing you up,” John told her, now sounding crazed.
Sarah flinched as the knife blade scraped over her nipples. It was sharp, and she was bleeding from a few nicks he had left when he was assessing her old scars with the point of the knife.
“I think I’ll slice your throat just enough to watch you bleed to death while I’m using you,” he decided, lifting the knife to her throat.
Sarah had just decided that she would rather die from a gunshot wound than let him defile her body while she was bleeding to death when a furious blur passed by her face.
“Like hell you will,” a homicidal Dante roared as he flew through the air, putting his body between her and John, grasping the murderer’s wrist that was holding the gun, taking John down with him.
Sarah watched in horror as both men flew through the air and hit the floor. She swore she heard the crack of Dante’s skull as it connected with the hardwood platform for the piano as he fell.