Page 34 of Fighting for Mallory

“They operate in the shadows,” Mallory added. “The fact that we caught Captain Valentin’s murderers was a stroke of luck, in spite of the amount of manpower on the case. These men drugged me and brutally butchered my husband. I don’t know why they didn’t kill me too, since they’ve declared I need to die. And we’re not sure why I’m a target, unless they blame me for Mercado’s and Tino’s deaths.”

“U.S. Attorney Judd Morgan now believes Mallory is innocent. He suspects the guards at the prison exacted their own brand of justice on Mercado and Tino. And he’s called off the manhunt for us.”

“I don’t know how I can help.”

“Dates,” Mallory replied. Her face brightened with the sudden thought. “The one detail we haven’t looked at too closely. When were the preacher and the career criminal killed?”

“January first and March first.” Detective Scope had them memorized. Luca understood. A detective is haunted by the cases he can’t solve.

“Nights of the full moon,” Mallory observed as she pulled up the dates on her cell phone. “Captain Valentin was killed on June third during another full moon, but Bentley wasn’t. I wonder why his murder doesn’t fit the pattern.”

“The full moon cycle is often associated with spiritual balance,” Luca noted as he read from an online article.

“When’s the next full moon?” Scope asked.

“September twenty-ninth,” Mallory answered. “Someone is going to die that day.”

“It won’t be you,” Luca vowed.

“But we don’t have any way of identifying a potential target,” Scope argued. “All we can do is notify law enforcement agencies across the States to be extra vigilant and to report any victims with missing hearts.” He paused. “You sure they’re not stealing healthy human hearts and selling them on the black market?”

Luca shook his head. “No. These cases don’t have the hallmarks of organ harvesting. But to be sure we can investigate it. See if anyone on the heart transplant list has suddenly been removed.”

“You staying in town? Come to the station tomorrow morning.”

They rose to their feet and shook hands with Scope. “We’ll be there,” Luca promised.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

When they returned to their motel, all the parking spaces close to their room were taken, so Luca had to park beyond the breezeway. He noticed darkness spilling from it and pulled Mallory behind him as they crossed the distance.

Pop! Pop!

Bullets ripped through Luca’s midsection. In shock he gazed down at the blood gushing from the gaping wounds. He gasped for breath and fell heavily onto the pavement. Three assailants jumped on him before he could reach for his gun. Though bleeding out, he fought

with every ounce of strength he possessed as they repeatedly punched his face and head and kicked him viciously in his most vulnerable areas.

Mallory screamed. Through a red haze of blood and pain, Luca watched helplessly as three more men attacked her. She fought valiantly, like a tigress, but two men held her down as the third one choked her and covered her mouth and nose with a white cloth. Mallory went limp. Luca growled with rage and threw one of his attackers against the ice machine. Another landed a well-aimed kick to his temple, and everything went black.

Sounds and images invaded Luca’s consciousness. Sirens blaring and blue and red lights flashing behind his eyes. A calm but authoritative voice urged him to hang on. “Stay with me, Detective Martinelli. Stay with me…” The voice faded away.

* * *

Luca drifted in cold, silent darkness. He longed to succumb to its comfort, but a deep-rooted fear coiled in his gut and urged him to fight against its thrall. He struggled and it suffocated him. The darkness squatted on his chest like an elephant and robbed him of breath. His lungs ached to fill with air. Unable to fight any longer, Luca surrendered to the darkness. To death.

He anticipated the light so often mentioned at that moment of death when one left this waking world to enter the next one. He expected his deceased grandmother to greet him in her perfect Italian language and hug and kiss him on both cheeks. Instead, an ethereal voice whispered, “It is not your time to enter these gates. Go back and finish the work you were meant to do.” Then, a pinpoint of light penetrated the abyss, and the weight on his chest lifted. The light grew brighter and brighter. He wanted to shutter it, but his eyes fluttered open.

Luca blinked. His eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lights above him, and he gazed at his surroundings. He recognized the sterile setting of a hospital room and smelled the strong scent of disinfectant. As his brain registered these details, becoming fully cognizant, memories of being attacked flooded his mind.

Mallory!

He tried to speak but couldn’t because of a breathing tube down his throat. Luca thrashed on the bed, oblivious to the pain shooting through him that now accompanied his consciousness. The low murmur of voices outside his room reached his ears, and he banged on the railing of his bed to get someone’s attention. The call button for a nurse was not within his grasp.

The racket brought a doctor dressed in blue scrubs and?thank God?Hutch, River, Maverick Stone, and Tex running into the room. Luca gestured toward the breathing tube.

Get this damn thing out of my throat!

“Easy, Luca,” River admonished him. “This is Dr. Stanford, the surgeon who operated on you.”

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