Page 100 of Ultimate Justice

“Yeah.” He shoved open the door. Now wasn’t the time to get into the sordid details. There were so many of them, it would take hours. Years. Decades.

The room was around five thousand square feet, with a ceiling at least twelve feet high. Three wood chandeliers, each the size of a VW bug, threw off garish light, casting shadows in every corner. The same cream-colored tile on the outside of the building lined the walls and floor, and one long aisle ran between rows of pews. He imagined if a church and a bathhouse had a baby, this was what it would look like.

“Stay behind me,” he said to Marlie and Noah, then walked down the aisle to the raised dais that was more like a stage, flexing his fingers the entire way so he wouldn’t ball them into fists. With all the kids surrounding them, Evan could barely see his quarry, but he knew they were there.

Hiding like goddamn cowards.

Sgt. Browning and the rest of the Cheyenne PD officers had taken up position around the room, as had the SWAT unit. On the dais, children stood in a tight circle, along with two other young couples. One of the women held a crying baby, rocking the infant and crooning something to it that clearly wasn’t working. He searched the faces of the adult women, not seeing his sister. If she were there, he was sure he’d know her on sight.

Now that he was closer, it was the couple standing in the center of the group who had every muscle in his body ratcheting tighter. Involuntarily—or was it?—the fingers of his right hand twitched. He wished he could just shoot them both between the eyes and be done with it, ridding the world of two pieces of shit who didn’t deserve to live.

“Evan,” the man said with a smile so smug and superior, Evan wanted to wipe it off with his fist. “We were wondering when you’d get here.”

This time, he couldn’t help it, and fisted his hands, digging his nails into his palms hard enough to draw blood.

In his fifteen-year career, he’d arrested some of the worst people known to mankind, yet as he stood there, staring up at the dais, rage—the likes of which he’d never known toward another human being—surged through him with nearly enough force to knock him to the ground.

He swallowed the acid threatening to burn a hole in his stomach. “Hello, Neil. Elsa.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Marlie clapped a hand over her mouth.

Elsa and Neil Wilson?

She shook her head, as if that would clear things up. It didn’t. She blinked. Nope, still there. Seeing them up there, surrounded by children they’d essentially kidnapped, yet still, she had a difficult time harnessing her brain around all the heinous things they’d done. All this time, they’d been pretending to be such good friends with Evan’s parents, while in fact, they’d done nothing but lie to them and to Evan.

More ugly truths washed over her.

When they’d been recruiting her to volunteer at the Foundation, she’d been so grateful for the opportunity to reintroduce herself back into the world of child psychology she’d been blind to their real motives.

They’d only been wooing her to get to Noah.

When they’d unexpectedly shown up at Evan’s house to deliver the Foundation papers, they’d offered to take Noah out for cake, playing on his chocolate sweet tooth. What did they think they were going to do, kidnap him right out from under their noses? Apparently so. Of all the arrogance…all the evil, fu—

Marlie blew out a ragged breath saturated with anger at the older couple she’d once thought was so kind and nurturing to both her and Noah.

Nurturing my ass. Was there anyone they didn’t use and abuse to achieve their goals?

“You’re not getting out of here,” Evan said in a low, deadly voice.

Neil made a dismissive gesture. “Of course, we are, and we’re taking our children with us.”

The gray bus. That had to be how they expected to leave.

“You can’t be serious.” Evan stepped closer to the dais. “Maybe in your sick, twisted minds you actually think these children are yours, but they’re not.”

In reality, they were hostages, and they didn’t even know it. Neil and Elsa intended to keep them only long enough to make their getaway. They were counting on law enforcement not doing anything to jeopardize the kids’ safety.

“They’re minors.” Evan and Blue continued inching closer. Keeping his focus on Neil and Elsa, Evan made a subtle gesture with his right hand, so small Marlie barely caught it. Deck and Brett, along with their dogs, also started moving toward the dais. “That makes it kidnapping.”

“Don’t be silly.” Elsa laughed, then addressed the children. “Adama and I are leaving here. Forever. Does anyone want to stay here without us and be left behind?” Amid murmurs of “no,” the children and young adults shook their heads. “You see? They all want to be with us.”

Dear God. They really had brainwashed these kids. For the first time, she heard a slight accent in Elsa’s voice she hadn’t detected before.

“We’re leaving here, Evan,” Neil said. “There’s nothing you can do to stop us.”

Now that she was listening for it, she heard the same foreign accent in Neil’s voice, as well. German? Swedish? Dutch.