Don’t Play With Odin by Cynthia Eden

Chapter Twenty

The car had stopped. Maisey was aware of throbbing pain in her back and shoulders, and she felt sluggish as hell. She’d opened her eyes just moments before. Been aware that she was moving. They were moving. She didn’t know where Clay was taking her, but Maisey knew she was in trouble.

She’d shoved her hand into the big bags around her. Found the laptop. Now she gripped it as tightly as she could. Maisey figured she’d have one good shot at this. One chance to catch him off guard.

She heard the slam of a car door. Footsteps. He was coming around the car. She lowered her head. Closed her eyes. Turned so that she was partially hiding the laptop with her body, but she didn’t let it go.

There was a screech as the trunk popped open. “No one is around,” he told her roughly. “So don’t waste time screaming.”

She didn’t make a sound.

Thunder rumbled.

“Maisey?” His voice was louder. Closer. As if he’d leaned into the trunk. Then she felt his hand curl around her hip as he gave her a hard shake. “Hey, wake up!”

I’m awake, you bastard. Her eyes flew open just as she lunged up with her laptop. She slammed it into his head as hard as she could. He swore and stumbled back. Maisey leapt out of that trunk. Hurtled forward and ran as fast as she could.

It wasn’t fast. She didn’t get far. Her legs seemed to immediately collapse under her. Whatever drug he’d given her was still in Maisey’s system. She shoved upright. Staggered. Rain was pummeling down on her. “Help!” she cried. “Help!”

But he was right. No one was around. They were in an empty parking lot. She could hear the splash of water. She spun, frantic, and realized—

Marina. We’re in a marina’s parking lot.

There had to be someone out there!

Lightning flashed overhead. A huge bolt that lit the scene.

Wait, was that a store up ahead? Some kind of office? Maisey stumbled toward it.

“Maisey, you disappoint me.” Clay lunged into her path. Blocked the office or whatever the hell it had been. Rain pounded against him.

The rain. That was why no one else was out. The weather was too bad. Everyone was inside, and she was alone out there with him. Wind whipped against her.

“I didn’t expect you to attack me. That’s something that jerk boyfriend of yours would do.”

Was he serious? She backed up a step. Almost fell again. Her whole body felt so uncoordinated. The rain wasn’t making that coordination any better. “You kidnapped me!”

A shrug. “You got in the way.” He advanced.

She scurried back. Almost slipped on a puddle.

“I don’t really know how you even found out what I did. That murder board of yours was quite something.”

There was a dock about ten feet away. Maybe someone was over there. In one of the boats tied close by. Desperate, Maisey darted for the dock.

He followed her. Shadowing her movements as the torrents of rain pelted down even harder.

“I didn’t kill Whitney, though. You should know that. Never touched her.” He was on the dock with her.

And, no, dammit, she didn’t see anyone who could help her. The boats all appeared empty as they shoved up and down against the rough waves.

“But I did kill that lying slut Hannah. She cheated on me with my best friend. Can you believe that? So I took her out into the mountains—there are miles and miles of mountains near my old home in Tennessee—and I made sure she didn’t come back.” He laughed. “Didn’t even have to hide her body. I let the animals take care of her.”

She needed a weapon.

“I got the hell on with my life after that. Went to college. Got my Ph.D. Met Jenny Lynch. I liked Jenny, at first. We hooked up a few times, but can you believe she was seeing someone else on the side, too? I mean, what the fuck? Does anyone understand commitment these days?”

“You killed her.” She was backing up as he advanced, and she was starting to run out of room on the dock. The water pounded on either side of them, and the bobbing boats sent waves splashing into the air.

“I did. Killed her, then took out a boat and dumped her. Figure the fish ate her. We’ve got some damn big sharks out here in the Gulf. I cut her before I put her in the water. You know, chumming her up some.”

She was going to be sick.

“I’ll have to cut you, too, so that they will come for you. But don’t worry. You won’t feel a thing. I’ll make sure you’re dead before you go in the water.” He paused. “I heard on the news that Heather was saying Whitney was alive when she went in the water. Amateur mistake. You want to kill someone, then you kill them. You don’t leave shit to chance.”

She was at the end of the dock. There was nowhere to go but into the water. And, normally, she was a great swimmer, but Maisey was having a hard enough time standing upright. Her body swayed as the heavy blasts of rain fell down on her.

Clay held out his hand to her. “End of the line.” He wiggled his fingers. “It won’t be painful, I promise.”

She was supposed to believe him?

“I had actually even thought about letting you live. But you interrupted me at the wrong time. Saw something you shouldn’t have.”

My laptop.

“I knew I had to get rid of the last bit of evidence from my break-in at your place. Especially since the cops were planning to come over with their crime scene teams and see if Heather left anything else at my house. So I just shoved the remaining murder board crap in my bags. I put basketballs on top of the evidence. That’s what I did the other night, too, when Odin caught me leaving.”

She swiped at the rain on her face. “What are you talking about?” But she knew. I just need more time.

“When your boyfriend was poking around in my trunk the other night, he just didn’t look hard enough. If he’d jerked out a few of those basketballs from my bag, he would have found some of that murder board shit you’d had at your place. I stuffed the evidence in the bottom of the bag. I hauled it away and burned that shit.” He laughed. “Oh, and by the way, nice try making me think you had a backup of the evidence on your computer at the college, but I looked, and you didn’t have jack.”

She saw movement behind his shoulders. Relief flooded through her. “Odin.”

“Yes, Odin.” His hand was still extended toward her. “He’s a fool. He thought he was protecting you, but he failed. Now you’re alone with me, and your big, bad, hulk of a boyfriend is nowhere to be found.”

She shook her head.

“How long do you think he’ll look for you?” Clay asked. Water streamed from his hair. Dripped from his clothes. “I say he’ll give you a month, then he’ll give up. He’ll move on. That’s what people do, you see. They move the hell on. If you’d only done that, instead of digging and digging because of Whitney, then we wouldn’t be in this—”

“I love you,” Maisey said.

“What?” Clay’s hand fisted. “You think—you think you can tell me that and I’ll spare you? You think you can manipulate me? You think—”

“I think she wasn’t talking to you, bastard,” Odin snarled from his position right behind Clay. The pounding rain and the rough waves had hidden the sound of his approach.

Clay spun toward him. “What? How—”

“Because I’m a fucking PI. That’s how.”

Maisey fell to her knees. Nausea blasted through her. She was so damn weak.

“No.” Clay shook his head. “No!” He launched at Odin. Flew at him in a fury of wild rage. His fists slammed into Odin. And Odin didn’t so much as flinch.

“Odin,” Maisey whispered.

He locked one hand around Clay’s throat. Drove the other into his face. Broke Clay’s nose with a sickening crunch. “Told you before, it’s harder when you’re not the one who is bigger and stronger.”

Clay kicked him. Odin didn’t let go. He punched Clay again. Again. Clay’s head snapped back from the blows.

The rain hammered them.

Clay’s hands fumbled. He seemed to be reaching for something.

Another syringe? If he stabbed Odin with whatever he’d given to Maisey, Odin would be helpless. “Odin, don’t let him inject you!” Maisey cried. She surged to her feet.

Odin grabbed Clay’s wrist. Yanked something from him. Threw it into the churning water.

“Stay back, Maisey,” Odin yelled.

Maisey froze.

Clay and Odin were facing off. Their fists were clenched. Their bodies tight with fury.

“I warned you,” Odin said, his voice echoing like the thunder. “I told you that I would make you vanish. You never should have touched her.” He bent low. Pulled something from his boot.

“Odin?” she whispered.

“You shouldn’t have touched her!” Clay screamed back. “You should never have been in the picture! I had plans for Maisey. She was going to be mine! She wasn’t like the others. She would have been true—”

“No.” Maisey’s voice. Cutting through the storm.

Clay wrenched his head to look back at her.

“I would have never been with you.” Was that why he’d moved next door? Because she’d been his next target?

“You would have,” he shouted back. “Or you would be dead.” Then he focused back on Odin. “Your fault. You are in the way. Your damn fault!” He ran at Odin. Uncontrolled. Frantic. He didn’t even stop to look. He just launched forward—

And ran straight into the knife that Odin held.

Maisey shuddered.

“Guess this will help to—what did you call it?—chum you up, bastard,” Odin twisted the knife. Yanked it up. When he pulled it out, Clay took one step back. His hands flew up to touch his chest as he half-turned toward Maisey.

Blood covered his hands. He looked at her. “Maisey?” He stretched out a hand toward her. Then he stumbled. Slipped on the wet dock. And fell. Before he hit the water, his head cracked into the bow of a bobbing boat.

Lightning streaked across the sky.

Odin rushed toward her. Scooped her into his arms. “Baby, baby, are you hurt?”

She looped an arm around his neck. “I have never, ever…” Her teeth were chattering. She was soaking wet. Her body kept shuddering. “Ever been so glad to see someone.”

He squeezed her in a grip so tight that she couldn’t breathe. “And I have never, ever been so scared in my entire life.” He buried his face in her wet hair. “Maisey.”

“Cops are right behind me!” A loud shout pierced the rain. Jinx’s voice. “Where the hell is Clay? Point me at that bastard and I will—holy fuck.”

Maisey pushed against Odin’s chest. She lifted her head so she could see Jinx—he was gaping at something in the water. She didn’t want to look, but she knew what he was probably seeing.

Clay’s body.

“He shouldn’t have taken Maisey,” Odin said simply.

Jinx shook his head. “No, and that’s a mistake he’ll never make again.”

***

“I don’t need an ambulance.” Maisey glared at Odin. “I need you.”

“You’re going to the hospital. You’re getting checked out.” And he was going to have a talk with the cops.

I killed him. If he had to do it all over again, Odin would change nothing.

She grabbed his hand before he could jump from the ambulance. “How did you know?”

Know that Maisey was in danger? Know that he was close to losing her?

“Pieces didn’t add up. Heather wouldn’t cop to the break-ins at your place. And Clay never called the cops after that mess that went down at his place last night.” Too many jagged pieces that hadn’t lined up.

“You saved my life.”

He pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “You are my life.” Then he pulled back. “You’re safe now. He won’t ever hurt you again.”

She sucked in a breath. Her gaze darted to the ambulance’s open rear doors. To the detective and the uniformed cops who waited. “Odin was defending himself. Saving me. Clay didn’t give him a choice. Clay attacked. Odin did nothing wrong.”

He’d killed a man. He’d known—as soon as he stepped foot on that dock—that he wouldn’t be letting Clay escape. Clay had been a dead man walking.

“I can back that up,” Jinx declared, voice ringing out. “I saw the whole thing.”

No, he hadn’t, but that wouldn’t stop Jinx.

“I need to give someone my statement,” Jinx added. “Tell you the whole sordid tale. Who wants to talk to me first?”

Odin glanced down at Maisey. She was safe. He brought her hand to his mouth. Kissed her knuckles. I didn’t lose her.

Because for a moment there, when he’d been on that freaking, rocking dock, and Clay had been between him and Maisey, all Odin had been able to hear in his head had been Ramsey’s damn voice.

Why do you get to be happy?

If anything had happened to Maisey, Odin knew he never would have been happy again. “I wouldn’t have stopped after a month,” he rasped.

Maisey stared up at him.

“Not one month. Not two. Not six. If I lost you, I would never stop looking.” Never.

She smiled at him. Her dimples winked. “I would never stop looking for you, either.”

He swallowed down the lump in his throat. “You’re gonna need to marry me.” So I can stay sane.

“I thought you’d never ask…”

“Never?” Jinx’s shocked voice. “I’m pretty sure he told me that you guys met just a few days ago. Days, people.”

Odin looked into Maisey’s eyes. “When you fit someone…” He deliberately used her words from before. “You just do.” Maisey fit him. She made him feel like he finally belonged somewhere. Not too big. Not hulking. Not awkward or out of place.

He belonged, with her.

Her smile stretched a little more.

He hoped that their kids would have her smile.