CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“Shit, what now,” said Sgt. Brandt. His eyes caught sight of several figures walking toward him, and he sucked in a deep breath.

“Wh-what are they?” whispered the young girl. It looked like the apocalypse walking toward them, and, for all intent and purpose, it was.

“A pain in my ass,” frowned Brandt. “Hello, boys. What are you doing out so late? Don’t you turn into pumpkins or something after midnight?”

“Brandt, you were always an asshole,” said Carl. “The department knew to contact us if anything was reported on this man. You’ve wasted more than an hour while this guy was with two young women.”

“They’re my friends,” said the girl.

“My name is Jonas. What’s your name?” asked the handsome man.

“Carol. My friends Tara and April went with that man. He said he was taking them to his suite in a hotel nearby. Please, please help me. This man didn’t believe me,” she said. Carl started to move toward Brandt, and he was smart enough to back up.

“She’s a kid! How did I know it was for real?”

“You treat every fucking report as real and credible,” said Carl through clenched teeth. Carol stared at the men, wondering why they were brave enough to argue with a police officer.

“Carol, did you see what direction they walked?” asked Jonas.

“That way,” she said. “I told him that.”

Carl looked down the street, Dan, Mike, and Rett following his gaze.

“The Royal Sonesta,” said Matt. “It’s the best one in the area. That’s where he is.”

“We’ve already checked,” said Brandt. “There’s no one there with that name. We do know what we’re doing.”

“Do you? He wouldn’t check in under his real name or even the known alias we have. He’s smarter than you think and obviously smarter than you,” said Carl.

“Jonas? Jonas, is he here?” asked Khloe, walking towards them.

“Babe,” he gasped. “What are you doing here? You need to be out of sight.”

“I needed to see him caught,” she said. “I’ve got Piper and Hazel with me.”

“I can see that, but it won’t stop him. I don’t want you or them injured. Honey, please go home,” he pleaded.

“Hey! Hey!” yelled an officer, running toward them. “We’ve got reports of screams coming from a room at the Royal Sonesta.”

Carl turned to Brandt with an ‘I told you so’ look. Jonas held up his hands in a motion for the three women to stay where they were. Turning, he followed the others, running toward the hotel.

“Is he your husband?” asked Carol. She turned to the young girl and smiled.

“He will be soon,” she said. “Hopefully.”

“You’re really lucky. That’s all I want is to have a husband and kids one day. April and Tara, my friends, they want to be super rich and marry for money. I don’t care about that. I just want a good life with a nice man.”

“You’ll have it, honey. Just be patient. You showed a lot of maturity by staying back tonight,” said Hazel.

“Yeah, but if my friends get hurt, I’ll feel terrible.” Hazel stared at Piper and Khloe, hugging the young girl to her.

“It will be alright. I promise. It will be alright.”

Archie stood and stared down at the body on the bed. This was getting exciting. Now he understood why killers kept killing. It was addictive. Especially this way. He could do whatever he wanted to their bodies without them fighting him.

Noticing the blood on his cock, he went into the bathroom and ran the warm water, soaping a cloth. As he gently cleaned himself, he forgot about the second girl, who was supposed to be asleep.

She definitely was not.

The loud shrill screams nearly made him piss himself. He turned off the water and ran back into the bedroom to see her standing over the bed, a steak knife in one hand, the corkscrew in the other. She’d wrapped herself in the hotel robe, obviously cold in the room.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. She’s fine.” He tried to reassure her, giving a seductive smile and wave.

“Sh-she’s not fine,” she yelled. She let out another scream, and he could hear people opening their doors in the hallway.

“Stop screaming,” he seethed.

“No! HELP!”

“Shut the fuck up!”

There was a loud pounding on the door, and the girl started to run toward it. He caught her arm, ripping the corkscrew from her hand and taking the steak knife. He held them to her throat as she continued to scream as loud as she could.

“Hotel security. We’re coming in!”

The door opened, and Archie stood naked as the day he was born, staring at the man.

“Don’t come any closer. I’ll kill her.”

The security guard held up his hands. They had nothing to use as a weapon, only a small pepper spray that would hurt the girl as well as the man if they used it. Not wanting to hurt the girl, they raised their hands, hoping they could talk some sense into the man.

“Let the girl go, sir. We just want her safe.”

“No. No, she’s coming with me.”