No fresh tire tracks interrupted the area around the cabin. Their attacker hadn’t driven a vehicle straight up to the safe house. Too obvious. They would’ve heard him coming the moment he’d hit the head of the driveway, which meant he had to have come from the tree line. A snowmobile or an ATV? Either would get him on and off the property relatively quickly. Silence pressed on her from every direction. He had to know the area. Had to know the layout of the land and all the best places to attack from. He’d known exactly how to find them and when they’d been the most vulnerable.
Raising the flashlight to follow the trail, she struggled against the invisible lead in her legs as they headed into the woods. The hand-sewn stitches in her thigh wouldn’t last long, but they’d have to do for now. Benning seemed to be handling the bullet in his shoulder. Or maybe desperation had finally caught up with him and the pain didn’t matter. “I can’t decide if your daughter is a genius or if she’s read too many mystery novels.”
“Both.” Benning kept a safe distance from behind, but she could still feel him on her skin. Could still feel his chest pressed against her back as he’d held on to her, remembered the vibration of his words against her spine, and her body heat hiked a few more degrees. Then again, it could be the shock of losing so much blood finally starting to take a toll. Either way, she had to focus, had to keep moving. Because the longer they were out here, the higher chance Olivia would succumb to the elements. “You should see her room. She’s decorated it in crime-scene tape.”
Benning helped her as she hauled her injured leg over a fallen tree, still following the trail in the snow. Her toes and fingers had already gone numb from dropping temperatures, and she couldn’t imagine Olivia much better off. Had the girl even been wearing a jacket? Or shoes? Ana couldn’t remember. Stabbing pain had dulled to an ache around the wound, but there was still a chance the glass had nicked something larger. The possibility of not making it out of these trees alive, of failing Olivia, Owen, Benning, just as she’d failed Samantha Perry, pushed her harder.
There wasn’t a doubt in her mind she could’ve saved that girl if she’d been focused on doing her job and not the man at her side, but she couldn’t get his admission out of her head. He needed her, cared about her. Not the emotionally isolated investigator she’d presented to her team and to the world, but the woman hiding behind the mistakes she’d made. The real her, the one he’d claimed he’d fallen in love with before her world had been ripped apart. She leaned into his hard frame for support. Did that woman even exist anymore? She wanted her to, if for nothing else than to shed the guilt that had taken control of her life for so long, to carve her own path. To be the kind of woman Benning would be proud to have in his and his kids’ lives. The idea thickened the saliva in her mouth. She wasn’t sure that future was a possibility anymore. Not for her. “You were right before.”
This close, his body heat tunneled through her coat, and her exhales started crystallizing on the air as they moved as one. He took most of her weight, but even with the bullet in his shoulder, his control never broke. “About what?”
“I’ve been blinded by my mistakes. My...failures.” The word turned bitter on her tongue. “I detached myself from the people who care about me, from everyone, because it was the easy thing to do.” Her breath shuddered in her chest as they navigated through the trees. “I blamed myself for what happened to Samantha Perry. I thought since she didn’t get to be with the people who loved her, the least I could do is put myself in the same position to try to make up for my mistake, which doesn’t make sense, I know. But now I’m not sure redemption is an option. At least, not for me.”
He slowed, staring down at her with that unreadable expression. Mountainous shoulders blocked moonlight filtering through the trees, but she didn’t need to see him clearly to know what he was thinking. She’d memorized every angle of his features the first day they’d met, and while seven years had gone by, he hadn’t changed much. He’d become part of her, and there was nothing—no one—who could change that. Least of all her. “Caring about someone doesn’t limit your ability to do your job, Ana. It’s because you’re emotionally invested in the people you’re assigned to protect and recover that makes you such a good agent.”
He meant every word, conviction strong in his voice.
She raised her gaze with his. “You really believe that.”
“Yeah, I do.” His voice dipped into dangerous territory, the scent of pine and soap diving into her lungs as he inched closer. “I know you, and I know despite the effort you go through to prove nothing gets past that guard you’ve built, you’re one of the strongest, most caring and competent women I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. Of all the agents I could’ve requested to recover my son, I chose you. Because you’re all I need.”
Her throat swelled. All he needed? “I—”
A scream turned her blood cold.
“Olivia.” Benning ran toward the sound, his back slightly hunched as he clamped a hand on his wound in his shoulder.
The darkness seemed thicker then. She raced after him, every cell in her body focused on getting to his daughter. They’d made it about fifty yards—maybe a bit more—into the wilderness, but it sounded as though the scream had come from the cabin. The possibility they were walking straight into a trap crossed her mind, but she struggled through the snow in spite of that. They had to take the risk. Thin twigs and branches caught on her coat sleeve as she tried to keep up. She hit the button on the flashlight and threw them into complete blackness. If the shooter saw them coming, he might do something rash, irreversible. Sweat built along her hairline as she forced one foot in front of the other. The pain was back, stitches stretching with every step. She couldn’t stop. She had to find Olivia, had to bring her brother home. Blood soaked through her jeans and T-shirt, but the clock hadn’t stopped because she was on the verge of passing out.
They cleared the tree line. Motion-censored lights kicked on, blinding her for a split second. She raised her hand to block the light, and there, positioned near the stairs, Ana made out his outline. The man who’d kicked her through a second-story window waited, his weapon in hand. And beside him, the shape of a six-year-old girl who’d known nothing but fear and loss these past two days.
“Didn’t think you had what it took to survive a fall like that, Ramirez.” The way he said her name, as though they knew each other, grated on her nerves. A gloved hand rested over Olivia’s shoulder, pulling her into his side. “You’re going to need to have more than that leg looked at when we’re finished here, though.”
“You say that like you think I’m going to let you walk away.” Not happening. She raised her gun, taking aim with both hands gripped on steel. Benning shifted beside her, but didn’t protest the fact with one wrong move, one pull of the trigger, she might accidentally hit his daughter. Tension rolled off him in waves, but she’d promised to protect his girl. That was exactly what she was going to do. “Hand over the girl, give me the location on her brother and I’ll consider not pulling the trigger.”
The mask covering his face shifted as though he couldn’t help but smile despite the brand-new bullet hole in his own shoulder, courtesy of Benning. The shooter fanned his gloved grip over his gun, and a rush of nervous energy shot down her spine. “Tell you what. I’ll make you a deal. Seeing as how I don’t particularly enjoy hurting kids, I’ll make a trade. I’ll give you the girl and the location of the son, in exchange for Mr. Reeves.”
“And what’s to stop me from shooting you right now and putting an end to all of this?” she asked.
“Because I’m the only one who knows where the boy is.” Slowly, the shooter reached into his pocket and extracted his phone. Turning the screen toward them, he tossed the device at her feet. “Kill me, and you kill Owen Reeves, Agent Ramirez. Is that what you want?”
Forcing herself to keep her expression blank, Ana braced her feet apart and picked up the phone. H
er insides jerked as she recognized the little boy from the file Director Pembrook had handed to her less than twenty-four hours ago. Owen Reeves. The footage looked as though it’d come from a hidden camera tucked into a corner of a small, dark room. And there he was. Alone. Afraid. Tears cutting streaks through the dirt on his cheeks.
Benning in exchange for his children.
No. There had to be another way out of this. She just had to find it. Olivia’s sobs broke through her racing thoughts. She shook her head to clear out the chaos, but the answer was there, right on the tip of her tongue. The bastard had been playing games with them this entire time. Bringing the Samantha Perry case into this, leaving the charm at the crime scene on Benning’s property, destroying evidence. He was trying to manipulate her. Offering a deal had to be another move in a long line of manipulation he’d put into play from the beginning, and she couldn’t let herself fall for it. “No. No deal—”
“I’ll do it,” Benning said.
Her heart plummeted as she realized he’d seen the footage from the phone. She couldn’t take her eyes off the shooter but kept Benning in her peripheral vision. This was not up for discussion. “No. We will figure this out together. The second he gets what he wants from you, he’ll come back for your children to cover his tracks, and I’m not going to let that happen. My job is to protect you—”
“Your job is to recover my son.” Benning tossed the gun he’d taken from her duffel bag a few feet away. Hands raised in surrender, he stepped away from her, toward the shooter. Shoulder-length hair hid his features as he increased the distance between them. “I’m counting on you to do it.”
* * *
ONE STEP AT a time. Benning tensed as the bastard holding his daughter hostage slid his hand off her shoulder. With a nudge, the man who’d shot him forced her forward but kept in line with Olivia’s every move. The weight of Ana’s attention from behind tunneled through his coat and under his skin. His heart rate throbbed around the site of the new hole in his shoulder, but knowing she’d be the one protecting Olivia and that she’d do whatever it took to find Owen, eased the uncertainty tearing through him. The SOB behind the mask hadn’t given him a choice. Not really. This was the only way to ensure his mistake didn’t haunt his children forever. The spotlights positioned around the cabin reflected off the tears streaking down Olivia’s face as he closed in on her. “It’s going to be okay, baby. Ana’s going to watch you for a little bit until I can come get you. Okay? Everything’s going to be fine.”
“Daddy, I want to go home.” Her sob broke through her tough personality, and she suddenly became the defenseless, vulnerable little girl he’d held after she’d been born, who’d cried until he’d picked her up.
“You’re going home, Liv. You just have to be strong for a little bit longer. This will all be over soon. I promise.” The words choked in his throat. He’d never lied to his kids, but this lie had slid from his mouth easily enough. He wasn’t coming home. Ana was right. As soon as the shooter got ahold of the skull Benning had taken from that wall, all of this would be over, and his children will have lost both parents before they turned seven. But he couldn’t watch them suffer for his sins any longer. Not when he could end this nightmare right now. Curling his hands into fists to keep himself from reaching out for her—to keep himself from doubting his decision—he faced the bastard who’d ripped his family apart. “You can take your hands off my daughter now.”
Wrenching free, Olivia ran straight for him and wrapped her arms around his neck as he crouched to catch her weight. “No, Daddy! No. You have to come with me.”
“So very touching,” the shooter said. “But I’m starting to run out of patience, Mr. Reeves. The more time you waste here, the less time your son has.”
His heart threatened to shatter into a thousand pieces right there in the snow between a federal agent and an armed gunman. He turned slightly, and, raising his gaze to meet Ana’s, he straightened with his daughter in his arms. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. “You have to go with Ana now, Liv. You have to go. I love you, but you have to go.”
“You can do this, Olivia.” Ana kept her gun trained on his kids’ kidnapper, every bit the federal agent he’d relied on to get him and his twins through this. “Think of all those times the investigators in your favorite books had to make a hard choice, but in the end, the hard choice is what moves the story forward and solves the case, isn’t it? Otherwise, the characters wouldn’t find out how strong they really are.”
Olivia unwrapped her arms from around his neck. She sniffled, her big blue eyes holding on to unshed tears, but he couldn’t release her. Not yet. “Yes.”
“In the end, the investigator always gets the bad guy, right?” Ana glanced toward him, a single nod all the warning she gave him a split second before understanding hit. She wasn’t talking about him or Olivia. She hobbled between the shooter and Benning, weapon raised. “They always get justice.”
“You’re making a mistake, Agent Ramirez.” The shooter took a single step forward. “If I leave empty-handed, Owen isn’t the only one who will suffer.”
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes over my career. This isn’t going to be one of them.” Her shoulders rose and fell on steady inhales. Right before she pulled the trigger.
Benning twisted away from the fight, his hold on his daughter tight. Pumping his legs as hard as he could, he took cover behind one of the trees with Ana close on his trail. Bark exploded to his right as a bullet impacted mere inches from his head, and he slid to his knees, shoving Olivia behind him. Ana pressed her back into the tree beside him. “What the hell are you doing? He’s the only one who can tell us where Owen is!”
“He was never going to reveal that information, Benning. He’s a killer. Killers only want one thing—to keep from getting caught.” She returned fire as the SOB took cover behind the pile of firewood Benning had been chopping that stood between them and their only way out of here. The SUV. “Wherever Owen is, there’s too much evidence that could point back to him. The only way to find your son is to identify the owner of the skull you pulled out of that wall, and we can’t do that here.” She fired another three rounds, then the gun clicked empty. They were out of ammunition. Tossing her weapon, she double-checked the shooter’s position. Pain contorted her features as she placed both hands against her thigh, and his heart jerked in his chest. “We have to get to the SUV.”
“How?” Damn it. She wasn’t in any condition to go up against this guy again. Neither of them was. He bit back the agony tearing through his shoulder. Olivia huddled into his side as another bullet ripped past them.
“There’s nowhere you can run, Mr. Reeves,” the man in the mask said. “Nowhere you can hide that I won’t find you. One way or another, I will recover what you took from me, and when I do, I’m going to enjoy what comes after.”
“This guy is so full of himself, but he is the one with the gun.” She shook her head, keeping tabs on their attacker. “Do you trust me?”
Benning slowed his hand’s path along Olivia’s back. Despite the fact Ana had walked away from him all those years ago, she’d nearly died protecting his daughter from the madman on the other side of that woodpile, stepped between him and a loaded gun and calmed Olivia through this whole thing. Trust her? Hell. He’d take another bullet if that was what she needed of him. “Yes.”
“Then I’m going to go for the gun you tossed when you decided to surrender yourself over to this psychopath.” She shoved the phone the shooter had handed over into her coat pocket. Her voice remained level despite the lack of color in her face and the fact her hands were shaking as she repositioned herself behind the tree. “When I give you the signal, you and Olivia make a run for the SUV. A spare set of keys are in the glove compartment. The SUV has a tracking device. My team will be able to find you.”
Warning screamed through his system. “Ana, wait. You don’t know how many rounds are lef
t in that gun. You’ll be exposed for however long it takes you to find where I dropped it.”
She crossed the open space between the trees they’d taken cover behind, staying low. Another bullet flew over their heads, but with those mesmerizing hazel-green eyes locked on his, the world around the three of them disappeared. “No matter what happens, I need you to promise me you won’t come back for me. Take your daughter and get as far from here as you can. Understand?”
Blood drained from his face and neck as her words registered. She didn’t think she was going to make it out of here alive. “Ana, no. You’re not—”
“Yes, I am.” Fisting her hands in his T-shirt, she crushed her mouth to his. She pierced the seam of his lips with her tongue, and, for a brief moment, they were back in the cabin. Her covered in cookie dough, him desperate to taste her one more time. In those short seconds, everything had felt so...right between them. As though she’d never left. He’d been complete. But sooner than he wanted, Ana pulled away, and the cold crept back in. Releasing her grip from his shirt, she stood as best she could with the wound in her thigh. “You promised Olivia she could tour TCD headquarters when this was over.”
He hugged his daughter tighter as he stared up at the woman who’d saved his life, saved his family. “Thank you.”
“Don’t come back for me.” She took a deep breath, almost steeling herself, and charged from the tree line.
Gunfire exploded around them as Benning hauled himself and Olivia to his feet and raced as fast as he could through the trees. His daughter’s weight tugged on the bullet wound in his shoulder as snow threatened to trip him every step of the way. He couldn’t look back, couldn’t slow down as his daughter’s tears soaked into his neckline, couldn’t stop the hole in his chest from splintering wider. His instincts screamed for him to turn around, but Ana had ordered him to get Olivia as far from here as possible. He had to keep going. He had to leave her behind. He curled his hands tighter in his daughter’s pajamas. This was the choice Ana had asked him to make. “We’re almost there, baby. Close your eyes. We’re almost there.”
Midnight Abduction Page 10