Page 61 of So Lethal

He had pulled her into his element and gotten the best of her. In her last moments of panic, she clawed at her neck trying to loosen the tourniquet only to find to her horror that it had compressed so tightly it was now even with her skin.

She heard the blood rushing through her ears, felt her heart pound thickly as it struggled to pump blood. Consciousness started to fade, and her hands dropped to her sides.

Then the pressure relaxed. For a half-second, she didn’t register it, but then she gasped and jerked as blood flow returned to her brain. She gasped again and began to cough as she pulled at the tourniquet and unwrapped it.

She heard growling behind her and a loud, frightened wail. She staggered to her feet and turned toward the sound, but she couldn’t see anything until a flashlight beam from above shone on Turk. Dried blood matted his fur under his ears, but he had a hold of David Harrison.

“Don’t move!” Michael shouted. “I swear to God, I’ll shoot you!”

Harrison couldn't hear Michael, of course, but he could understand what the handgun pointed at his face met. He dropped to the deck, and when Faith called weakly for Turk to release him, he didn't resist further.

Faith dropped to her knees and hugged Turk. Turk licked her face and whined, staring at her as though to convince himself she was okay.

“Good boy,” she croaked. “Good boy.”

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

The next evening…

Wow. So he’s gonna get away with it?

Faith smiled slightly and sent back, A federal psychiatric ward is a crap place to “get away” with anything.

David was the on-call veterinarian at the Philadelphia Animal Hospital tonight. Sometimes that meant constant work tending to emergencies, and other times—like now—it meant sitting around bored and waiting for something to happen. They would normally talk on the phone during these moments, but Faith's neck was swollen and sore, and talking was painful for her.

Thank God for modern technology.

Still, I don’t buy it. Crazy people don’t lay in wait for FBI agents and try to strangle them to death while effectively avoiding all of the other armed officers and using a sound weapon to take out the K9.

Faith’s smile widened. She looked over at Turk, who was happily chowing down on his dinner. Kibble tonight. For reasons only dogs understood, Turk liked the fancy wet food David bought for him but absolutely loved the meat-flavored cereal that cost a dollar a pound. She was giving him a treat tonight. He’d earned it.

He didn’t succeed, though, she texted back. Turk saved me.

Yeah. He’s a good dog.

She laughed. Damned straight.

She looked up at Turk again. Her loving smile vanished, and ice ran through her veins.

Turk was coughing and shuddering as he stumbled away from his bowl. His limbs were shaking, and drool was dripping from his mouth in copious amounts.

“Turk?” she called, her damaged vocal cords producing only a whisper. “Boy?”

Turk looked at her in bewilderment, then coughed. His eyes fluttered, and he fell to his side, convulsing.

Fear gripped Faith, more pure and intense than anything she had felt in her life. She croaked, “Turk! Oh God, Turk!” and ran to his side, dropping the phone. She lifted his head and shook him slightly. “Turk! What’s wrong, boy? What’s happening?”

Turk tried to look at her, but another series of convulsions overtook him. Faith began to sob, tears obscuring her vision as she turned around to call David and ask him how to help. Something below her consciousness told her he wouldn’t make it to the animal hospital in time.

Her vision was so blurry that she couldn’t quite tell if what she was seeing was real at first. It wasn’t until she wiped her tears away that she realized that the woman standing in front of her with the crazed smile and the wide, staring eyes wasn’t a figment of her imagination.

Understanding filled Faith with a fresh wave of fear and pulled her right back to alertness. “You…” she whispered.

“Me,” the woman replied. “You weren’t responding to my messages, so I figured I’d send you a louder one.”

Faith swallowed. She hated what she was about to do, but she didn’t have time to fight. Turk was going to die, probably within minutes. “Please. Just let me call someone to take him to the hospital. Then we’ll talk. I promise.”

The woman giggled—a sound that grated against Faith’s ears even worse than her tinnitus did. “Come on. I’m crazy, not stupid. Besides, you’re a stupid ugly slut bitch, and I have to kill you to show Frank I deserve him.”

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