Page 3 of Locked In Ice

Too late.Thomas had grabbed her legs and tackled her to the floor.The bastard drew back his hand to hit her.

But Lane leapt from his chair.The last rope had given way.He grabbed Thomas’s fist, stilling the blow.

“Shit,” Ophelia whispered.“That tasing did not keep him down long enough.”Then she yanked up her knee and rammed Thomas in the groin.

He howled in pain.With his right hand, Lane still held one of the assistant principal’s beefy fists.Lane’s left hand drove at Thomas’s jaw.The powerful blow had Thomas’s head whipping to the side.“Get away from her!”Lane blasted.

Then he hit again.

Thomas fell back onto the floor.Ophelia quickly scurried away.

Lane attacked.Right punch.Left.Powerful hits again and again.Thomas tried to bring up his hands and shield his face, but that effort was useless.A killing fury had seized Lane.This was one of the sonsofbitches who got off on pain.Who’d been torturing and killing for years while hiding beneath the guise of being one of the “good” guys out in the world.

“You thought you got away with it, didn’t you?”Lane snarled.“Over and over…you thought you got away with it.”Another punch.

Thomas wasn’t fighting back.He sprawled on the floor.The cut ropes and the chair had fallen next to him.

Lane drew back his hand.

“Slugger, he is down for the count.”Ophelia caught his fist.

His head whipped toward her.

“It’s me,” she said.

He blinked.“I know it’s fucking you.”His breath heaved in and out.In and out.

“Oh, good.For a moment there, I just thought you were lost in the ass-kicking zone and you were about to take a swing my way.”

Hit her?Her?“Never.”

A quick nod.“Excellent to know.”Her hand tightened on him.“He’s not fighting back now.”Her gaze fell on the man who was, indeed, apparently unconscious on the floor.

Lane crouched near his opponent.Blood covered Thomas’s face.

“The cops are here,” Ophelia continued in what he realized was her “soothing” voice.Nice and musical.Easy.“I heard doors slamming outside.They’ll be rushing in any moment, so I thought it would be best if you weren’t actually in the act of beating a man to hell and back when they fly to the rescue.”

Lane swallowed.“He was…going to hurt you.”

“Well, we’re going to make sure that he never hurts anyone again, aren’t we?”Still her soothing voice.

He managed a jerky nod.

“I don’t want the cops coming in here and seeing you attacking him.Let’s look like the victims we are, shall we?”She used her grip on his hand to tug him upward.Slowly, he rose.The sound of Lane’s heartbeat seemed incredibly loud in his ears.Drumming over and over.Boom.Boom.Boom.

Her gaze flickered downward.“Sonofabitch.”Then she stomped her right foot.Hard.

His own stare flew to the floor.She’d just stomped her boot on Thomas’s wrist.He’d been trying to stretch his hand for the knife that she’d kicked away earlier.The killer wasn’t out.He’d been faking.

She stomped down harder.

Thomas screeched in pain.

And Lane heard the pounding of footsteps rushing toward them.

“Hands up,” Ophelia warned him even as she let him go and lifted her own hands.

Uniformed cops spilled into the room.Their weapons were drawn.Their faces tense and hard.

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