“That’s not amusing.”
“Actually, sometimes Zander is amusing.” She added, “I don’t have a choice. I have to work it this way, Gallo. I’ll call you when I can.” She hung up.
“He’s very protective,” Zander said. “He didn’t like it that I have you in my clutches.”
“I thought it was the other way around,” Catherine said. “And some men are naturally protective.”
“Of you.” He chuckled. “But not of Joe Quinn. I found it clever how you manipulated him to do what you wished.”
“I didn’t manipulate him. It will be his decision. I just made a decision that would help find Eve.”
“And you now have all your ducks in a row to move forward. It was fascinating watching you create an army out of a band of revolutionaries.”
“They’re brilliant, competent people. I did the best I could. But I’m handicapped from now on. As I said, they’re on their own.” She met his gaze. “It’s you and me, Zander.”
“That remains to be seen. But until I make a decision, you do have amusement value.”
“I don’t believe anyone has ever listed that as one of my primary assets.”
“Doesn’t your son think you’re amusing?”
“We won’t talk about Luke if you don’t mind. You appear to be curious about everything and everyone around you, but I’m aware that knowledge can give one weapons. You must already realize I’m vulnerable where my son is concerned. I can’t hide it now. But I can keep you from knowing any more about my relationship with Luke.”
“As you like.” His gaze shifted to the window next to him. “You’re afraid I’ll target your son to hurt you. It’s very intelligent of you to consider the possibility, but I don’t hurt children. It’s one of my idiosyncrasies.”
“We’ll still not discuss him.”
“You’re wise not to trust me. You should hold tight to anyone you value.” His gaze shifted back to her. “In many ways you remind me of Eve.”
“I don’t know why. Eve and I share a few philosophies, but we’re not at all alike.”
He smiled faintly. “Then why do I feel that if you were the one missing, I’d be sitting here talking to Eve? She’d be looking for you with the same passion you’re showing trying to save her.”
“I don’t know why you’d think that.” She tilted her head. “Perhaps you know her better than I do.” She added slyly, “Or it could be fatherly instinct.”
He looked disconcerted. Then he chuckled and rose to his feet. “As I said, you do have amusement value.” He headed for the cockpit. “Buckle up. I think we’re on the way down.”
She watched him disappear into the cockpit. The tension was easing, they had struck a balance, but she knew that he could turn and strike with lightning force if he decided to do so.
She glanced out the window and saw that they were going through wispy clouds. Zander was right, they should be landing in Seattle within minutes.
If they were right about Doane and Eve’s being on the plane that had taken off from that airport in Wyoming, they should have landed in the Seattle area hours ago.
If Doane hadn’t pulled a fast one and fooled Eve about the destination.
She felt her muscles stiffen at the thought that they might be in the wrong city with little time to spare before Doane ignited those nukes.
No, she had to trust that Eve had given them the right information or go crazy.
She closed her eyes.
Be here, Eve.
Please, be here.
Driftwood Cottage
“WE’RE HOME,” DOANE SAID as he took the blindfold off Eve’s eyes. “And it’s a very special home. Kevin loved this place.”
“It took you long enough to drive here,” Eve said as she looked up the hill at the cottage. “I thought you were taking me to Canada.” Where was she? The area appeared completely deserted, and the drive from the small airport where they’d landed had seemed to be as long as she’d said.
Dark hills loomed in contrast with the beach where the car was parked. Sand, pale driftwood gleaming in the moonlight, a weather-beaten cottage on the hill.
Surf crashing against the rocky shore.
“Not as placid and beautiful as your cottage on the lake,” Doane said as he pulled Eve out of the rental car and pushed her up the path. “This is Kevin’s house. He bought it when he was in Seattle trying to find a suitable location for the device. He got a good deal of pleasure out of this place. He said it suited him.”
“I can see how it might. Totally bizarre and theatrical.” And chilling. The cottage was small and rustic, half-hidden by rocks but what she could see was like a scene from a horror film. In front of the cottage were scores of individual pieces of white driftwood whose twisted branches were oddly shaped like gleaming headstones. They appeared to be entreating mercy from the darkness of the sky above. The thought of Kevin’s standing here and looking at those twisted branches was frightening. She could almost feel him beside her.
No, behind her. If she looked over her shoulder, would she see Doane … or Kevin?
“And I liked the thought of nature unchained,” Doane said. “I believed it might increase your feeling of helplessness.”
“It doesn’t,” she lied. She would not look over her shoulder at him. Instead, she glanced around the deserted beach and hills. “But it’s not what I expected. You’re not going to have much impact with your dirty bomb out here in the boonies. I was expecting a big-city locale.”
“You’ll get it.” He pushed her inside. “This is what you might call a holding tank. I have to get everything ready before I throw you and Zander together for the finale.”
“What do you have to get ready? I thought you told me everything was set to go, that all it would take would be pressing a button. Was that a lie?”
“I don’t have to lie to you. I don’t have to tell you anything.”
“But you like to tell me all your plans. It gives you some kind of cheap thrill.” She wrinkled her nose as she looked around the small room. It was dusty and smelled of mildew. The only furniture was a wooden table and simple kitchen chairs, a faded couch, an easy chair, and coffee table in front of a stone fireplace. “Your choice of prisons isn’t improving. This isn’t any better than that motel. How long do we have to be here?”
“Until I make arrangements.” He pushed her down in a chair at the table and tied her. “And I’m going to have to leave you for a while to do it.” He chuckled. “I see your eyes light up. Don’t be too eager. You’ll still have my full attention. But now that you’ve finished the reconstruction, you’re not going to be occupied. I’ll have to take care of that problem.”
“I can’t wait to learn how.”
“You won’t have to wait long.” He put the case containing Kevin’s skull on the table beside her. “And I’ll leave Kevin here to keep you company.” He opened the case and gently pulled the reconstruction from the box. “I know how much you like him to be close to you, to watch you.”
She didn’t look at the reconstruction. She knew every line, every curve of that face she’d rebuilt from the burned horror of the skull Doane had given her to re-create. It was a handsome face, but all she could see was the twisted soul beneath it. “If I get loose, the first thing I’ll do will be to light a fire in that fireplace and throw him into it. It’s where you should have left him instead of trying to resurrect him.”
Doane’s lips tightened. “And I’d throw you into the fire after him.”
“Would you? But then your plans to make Zander suffer by killing me would be ruined. Not that he would suffer anyway.” She looked at him. Questions. Find out as much as she could. “Where are you going?”
“I have to make sure that everything is ready and in place.”
“In place? Where is this nuke?”
“It’s safe.” He looked away from her as he straightened the reconstruction on the table. “I don’t have to worry about it. It’s quite safe.”
&n
bsp; He was being evasive. Why? “Safe from what? Where is it?” Her gaze narrowed on his face. “If you’re not afraid I’m going to escape from you, why won’t you tell me?”
“You don’t need to know. You’ll find out soon enough.”
A sudden, bizarre thought occurred to her. “Why, you don’t know, do you?” she asked softly. “Your wonderful Kevin didn’t trust you enough to tell you. All this time, you’ve been stringing Venable along and making him think he’d eventually be able to get that info from you, and you never had it.”
“That’s not true,” he said harshly. “My Kevin did trust me. He just died before he could tell me where he stashed those nuclear devices. But I’ll still be able to do it. I just have to talk to a few of Kevin’s contacts here, and we’ll be able to find it.”
She laughed. “Who? His al-Qaeda buddies evidently weren’t able to find those bombs in the last five years. Why should they be able to tell you now? Maybe no one knows where they are.”
“Someone knows,” he said curtly. “Kevin knew. And Kevin wanted me to know. He told me he put it all in his journal. But the message was so well hidden that I couldn’t understand it. I went through the journal a dozen times, but I still couldn’t see what Kevin wanted me to see. So I hid it away until I could spend more time on it.” He added harshly, “Last week, I told Blick to go back to the house to get it and bring it to me when I was afraid things weren’t going so well. But the fool had the journal taken away from him by your friend, Kendra Michaels.”
“Good for Kendra,” Eve said. “And now no journal and no nukes. You’d better take me to Vancouver and go back to plan one, Doane. Two deaths instead of millions.”
“The bombs are still where Kevin put them. Your Kendra won’t be able to figure out their location from the journal any more than I could.” He added sourly, “But there’s another way I can find out where they are.”
“How? By communing with Kevin? I don’t think so.”
“There’s another way,” he repeated.
“I think Kevin lied to you and just wanted to soothe your ego. He didn’t trust you, and he didn’t want to give up the chance to go down in demonic history if you failed him.”
“I haven’t failed him. Everyone else has failed him, but I’ve stood strong and steady.” He looked at the skull on the table. “Even Blick failed you, Kevin. But we took care that he didn’t get a second chance.” He reached in his pocket. “And I’m not going to give you a second chance either, Eve.” He pulled out a hypodermic. “I have to be gone a few hours, and I’m not going to have you becoming troublesome. I think you need a nice long sleep after our trip.” He rolled up her sleeve. “And there will be no opportunity of throwing my Kevin into the fire even if you managed to get free.”
“You appear to like to use drugs.” Eve felt the prick of the needle on her arm. “You must have become used to them to lure Kevin’s victims into his web.”
He shook his head. “He didn’t like them drugged. That’s why I had to use all my skill and persuasion to get them to come with me. I told you, I can be very persuasive.”
And Eve knew that to be true. At first, his kind, trustworthy face and gentle manner had made even Eve believe they mirrored an equally trustworthy soul. “I still find it hard to understand how you could do that just because Kevin—” She broke off. “You must not have any conscience at all, Doane.”
“Kevin says conscience is overrated. He needed release. I gave it to him. Everyone who knew Kevin ended up giving him whatever he wanted. He was special. That’s how it should be.” He bent to look into her eyes. “You’re getting drowsy, aren’t you? I’ll be able to leave you soon.”
She was getting drowsy. The room was swimming around her. “Leave me now. I don’t want to—have to look at you any—longer.”
“Not yet. I want to be quite sure.” He leaned back against the table. “You’ll give Kevin what he wants, too, Eve.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “Your blood, your life … your Bonnie.”
“He can have two—out of three. He’ll never have … Bonnie.”
“You say that, but it means nothing. He already has her, all that’s left is to break her connection with this world. That’s you, Eve. When you die, he takes you both.”
“Then he can’t have me either.” The darkness was weaving in and out around her. “Go away, Doane. Or if you want to stick pins … in me, use the real thing. Your words … are useless. You and Kevin … bluff … only bluff.”
“Are we?” He was suddenly snarling. He jerked her closer to the table and set Kevin’s skull directly in front of her. “Then why are you afraid to look at him? You may not be afraid of me, but you’re afraid of Kevin. And soon you’ll fear both of us.”
He meant when they merged, she thought hazily. When Kevin crossed back and became—
Blue eyes staring at her from the skull only inches away from her.
Cold.
Nausea.
And then the panic.
They were only glass eyeballs, nothing else.
No.
Kevin’s eyes, reaching out for her.
And for Bonnie.
Her chest was tight. She couldn’t breathe. She could feel the perspiration bead her face as she fought the fear.
“Yes, that’s what I wanted,” Doane said softly, his gaze on her face. “I couldn’t do it to you, but Kevin managed, didn’t he? I keep telling you he’s special.” He straightened away from the table. “And now I’ll leave you to him. He’ll be sorry I gave you the shot. He always enjoyed the delicious sharpness of the response to whatever he did.” He paused at the door. “But perhaps you’ll be so afraid that the narcotic won’t take effect, and you’ll have him with you all the time I’m gone. Or maybe he’ll follow you down and bring the nightmare with him. All kinds of interesting possibilities…”
Doane was gone.
But Kevin was here. Eve had carefully mended the ugliness of the burned and blackened skull, but the sight of it was abruptly before her.
Only a memory, she told herself. A memory heightened by the effect of the narcotic Doane had given her. For all she knew, Doane could have given her a hallucinogenic to mentally torture her.
It wasn’t the drug.
It was Kevin.
Hate you. Take you. Take her.
“The hell you will.” Her voice was slurred. “You’re only bone and clay and glass.”
Blue eyes staring …
She closed her own eyes, which were unbearably heavy. “And now I’m going to go to sleep and you … may go back to hell … where you belong.”
Take you.
“No way…”
She could no longer see him, but she could still feel him there.
Frustrated? Good. She was tired of dealing with monsters and filthy perverts who were incomprehensible to ordinary human beings. She just wanted to go away …
* * *
“YOU HAVE GONE AWAY. No one can touch you now, Mama.”
Bonnie?
She opened her eyes, but Kevin’s skull was no longer on the table before her.
Bonnie was sitting in the chair at the end of the table, her right leg tucked beneath her. Same Bugs Bunny T-shirt and jeans, same curly red hair, same beloved, radiant smile.
Oh, God, how Eve had missed that smile.
“And just where have I gone, baby?” she asked shakily.
“You’re still in the cottage, but the drug Doane gave you took you deep enough so that I could break through the barriers Kevin put up. I was able to reach you. I told you that was the only way I’d found to come to you.”
“I’m surprised you were able to get through. This was Kevin’s place, and it’s full of him. It’s as if he’s still here.” She grimaced. “Even that hideous graveyard of driftwood out front. It’s kind of fitting that Doane gave me a drug to knock me out. It’s like that sleeping-beauty tale, only instead of a garden of thorns keeping everyone out, there’s that graveyard of driftwood.”
“I had to work hard on it. This is a bad place.” She suddenly grinned impishly. “But I was even able to get rid of that nasty Kevin’s skull from your mind. I knew you’d be happier if he was gone. And Kevin was perfectly furious at both of us. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Wonderful. But he’s still there?”
“Not as long as you’re asleep. Everything is fine as long as you’re deep under the influence of that narcotic. Doane did us a favor when he gave it to you.”
“I don’t believe that was how it was meant.” Her gaze was running hungrily over her daughter. “But I don’t care. May I say how glad I am to see you. It’s been too long, Bonnie.”
“I did the best I could. Kevin is very strong. But you know that, Mama, he makes you afraid.” She tilted her head. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you afraid.”
“Only for you, Bonnie.”
She nodded gravely. “I know that. Everything for me. That’s how it’s been since I came into your life.”
“That’s how all parents feel, baby. It goes with the territory.”
“But now you should think about yourself, Mama. Let me fight for myself.”
Eve went still. “And is it a fight with Kevin? Not some kind of spiritual suppression or—”
“Of course, it’s a fight,” Bonnie said bluntly. “Forget all those big, fancy religious or psychological ideas. There’s nothing but evil about Kevin. He’s … full of silences. I don’t know what a demon is like, but he may show us if he’s allowed to survive. He somehow managed to slip over the line, and now he won’t go back.” She paused. “He wants to cross another line.”
“I know,” Eve whispered.
Bonnie nodded. “I thought you did. So you have to fight him, too.” She added, “But we can beat him. We have to do it.”
She remembered something Bonnie had said. “Full of silences,” Eve repeated slowly. “What do you mean?”
“He … smothers … everything. I don’t know how he does it. Maybe it’s something he brought with him.” She bit down on her lower lip. “But it’s … bad. Terrible. Final.”
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