Joe’s lids slowly lifted. He looked down at Michael. “Of … course … I … do … I was just … resting … Nag … Nag … Nag…”
Michael nodded. “Yeah, but only until we get you to the hospital. Then we’ll all be safe, and you can take over again.” He watched Cheknof and Eve pick Joe up and place him carefully in the canoe, with his head on Eve’s lap. Then he untied the boat and jumped in the canoe himself. “I like that much better, Dad. Mom will, too. I’ve been doing all kinds of things that she worries about.”
“Bad…” Joe murmured. His eyes were closing again. “Have to … keep you … in line…”
Michael nodded. “You do that.” He wiped his damp cheeks on the back of his hands. “Mom will tell you I’m getting out of hand. She needs you.”
“Yes, he’s right,” Eve said huskily as she looked down at Joe’s face. “How do you expect me to get along without you? Not fair, Joe.”
He nodded. “Not … fair. Together.”
“Right.” Eve was reaching for her phone. “And we’re almost on the other bank, so I have to call and get you some help. First, I’ll call 911, then I’ll call Kaskov as a backup.”
“Kaskov first,” Cheknof said. “He has to know what superior work I’ve done. If we can keep him alive…” He frowned. “Though we should really have gone after Kaskov’s granddaughter before we—”
“Shut up, Cheknof,” Eve said. “Or I’ll drop you into this lake.”
Michael was looking back over his shoulder at the burning ranger station and the black smoke rising into the sky. “Cara, Mom?”
“She’s not in that fire.” But she wasn’t going to lie to him. “And Svardak didn’t have her yet when we got your father out of that station.” But the memory of that twisted metal smashed against the oak tree was still before her. “But other than that, I don’t know, Michael. I guess we’ve just got to trust Jock.”
* * *
“Where are you, bitch?” Svardak’s shout was almost a screech of rage in the darkness behind Cara. “Do you think you can get away from me? Lacher told me that you killed Abrams, but I’m no Abrams. I don’t know how you did it, but I’m going to hunt you down and slice you to pieces.”
She ran faster, deeper into the forest.
She had to keep going.
Svardak might be alone now, but she was remembering Svardak’s guards, who had been streaming from the ranger station toward the wreck. And Abrams’s men picking themselves up after being thrown from the bed of the truck. Svardak would have help soon.
Jock would come.
Jock would help her.
But she didn’t know what was happening to Joe or how much help he’d need. She had to try to help herself.
“Ah, there you are,” Svardak called. “You look like a ghost in this darkness. Run, rabbit. Run.”
A shot hit the boulder ahead of her! She darted left, down another path.
The dark trees loomed on either side of Cara like the drawings from a child’s macabre Halloween coloring book as she tore through the woods. She had felt the explosion that had rocked the earth only minutes ago, and she could smell the acrid smoke of the fire that had demolished the ranger station. But Svardak wasn’t even mentioning the explosion, it was as if he hadn’t even heard it. He was so obsessed by the sheer rage that had consumed him when he’d realized that she had escaped him that he could think of nothing else.
“Was it Kaskov who gave you one of his toys to kill Abrams?” he asked mockingly. “He meant it for me, didn’t he? He didn’t really fool me. But nothing mattered as long as I got my hands on you. I was so tired of waiting. He sent you into the lion’s mouth and abandoned you. Did he tell you he was going to follow you and save you? He lied to you. No one followed Abrams. I had him check from the minute he left Copper Flats. You’re alone, Cara. As alone as you were at Lost Canyon.”
A bullet suddenly tore into the pine tree next to her!
“Almost got you.” Svardak was laughing. “I caught just a glimpse…” Then he snarled. “But you’re gone again. I’m getting tired of this.” He was panting now. “This damn wound is starting to bleed again. I’ll make you pay when I catch up with you.”
His wound …
He was sounding weaker. She probably had more strength than he did. But he had that gun, and that last bullet had been very close. If she kept on being his prey, then he might be able to get off a shot that would take her down.
She looked down at the rope in her hand. She also had a weapon, and it had worked before. But she had taken Abrams by surprise. She wasn’t sure that she could do the same with Svardak.
She heard shouting coming from the direction of the road. It wouldn’t be long before Svardak would be reinforced.
No choice. Go on the offense before he had any of his men to join the hunt. Lure him. Then strike him down.
Lure him where?
The thick stand of brush near the boulders bordering the lake. It should give enough cover …
She started running toward it, darting back and forth through the shrubs. Talk to him. Make him angrier. Bring him to her.
“That wound may kill you yet,” she called back to him. “It’s what I meant to do. I can still feel your blood on my hands. Did it hurt, Svardak?” She jumped over a log on the path. “I wanted it to hurt. I was remembering Marian and what you did to her. All the torment…”
“I only told you bits and pieces.” His voice was a vicious growl. “I’ll show you the rest when I have you. Like I’ll show you what I do to Quinn.” She could hear him pushing through the bushes on the trail behind her. “He’s almost gone, but there’s still time for pain. You’ll see every minute of it.”
Pray that wasn’t true. Pray she’d given Eve and Jock enough time to free him.
“If you live that long,” she taunted. “Are those stitches breaking open yet? I told you that I’d win. It just took a little longer than I thought.” She was almost at the boulders. “If I keep you running long enough, I’ll only have to stand and watch you bleed out.”
She heard Svardak’s growl of sheer fury as his pace increased. “Bitch!”
Two more yards until she got to that tall stand of grass.
“Do you think your Anna will be there waiting in hell for you? Since she was the ringleader of all that ugliness that brought down your family, I’d think it only fair.”
She heard his cry of sheer rage as she ducked behind the grass.
Wait.
Hold her breath.
He was only yards behind her.
Then he was on the trail, right beside her.
She leaped forward, swinging the rope around his neck.
He screamed, his hands clawing wildly at the rope, as he dropped his gun to the ground. He screamed again, jerking his hands away in agony as he felt them burning. Then his hands were back on his throat, and he jerked the rope away from his neck and dropped it to the ground.
The sickening smell of burnt flesh. His eyes glaring fiercely at Cara as he looked down at his scorched hands. “You stinking whore.”
Then he dived to the ground for the gun he’d dropped.
No! Cara dived after him.
But he’d already retrieved it and was swinging the butt at her head!
Pain.
Svardak was on his feet, looking down at her. His eyes were blazing crazily with agony and rage as he aimed the gun. “Win? You’ll never win, you demon from hell. I won’t let you—”
A dark figure hurtled toward Svardak before he could pull the trigger!
Kaskov, Cara realized dazedly.
Kaskov between her and that bullet.
A shot.
Kaskov was falling to the ground.
Dead?
Svardak was lifting his gun once more.
He was going make certain Kaskov was dead.
“No!” She was leaping toward the gun in Svardak’s hand.
“For God’s sake, Cara! Don’t do it! Get away from him.”
Jock?
Only a few yards behind Svardak, she saw Jock moving with that deadly speed and precision toward him.
But Svardak still had that gun in his hand and he was whirling to face the new threat behind him.
Not Jock. Never Jock.
She snatched up the rope Svardak had jerked from around his neck. She threw it over the hand gripping the gun.
That horrible cry. The acidic smell of burning flesh.
And the gun was no longer a threat, it was falling nervelessly from Svardak’s hand.
Then Jock had reached him.
Jock’s face, ice cold, filled with fury and a terrible lust for pain and vengeance. It was the expression she always hated to see on his face. She still hated it. But now she understood it. She only wished that she could be the one to mete out the final punishment to Svardak.
But it was too late. Jock’s hands were on Svardak’s throat, squeezing slowly, choking, causing maximum pain. His eyes were bulging as he gasped helplessly for air. She didn’t look away. She stepped closer so that he could see her. He knew he was going to die. She wanted to be the last face he would see on earth.
His eyes were glazing over. Jock was letting him slip slowly from his hands to the ground. He was barely alive when she stepped still closer to look down at him. “Listen to me, you monster,” she said fiercely. “This is the end for you. You failed in everything you’ve ever done, and your Anna knows it. She’ll turn her back on you in hell because she’ll hate you for being so weak.” His eyes were wide as he stared up at her in horror. He was struggling desperately to speak as life was leaving him. “Can’t you see? We’ve all beaten you. No matter what you did to us, it’s all come down to this moment. Marian. All those other poor women you tortured and killed. Joe. Kaskov.” She paused. “Tribute. And retribution.” She bent still closer, and whispered, “I win, Svardak.”
* * *
“Cara.” Jock was behind her, his hands on her shoulders. “For God’s sake, are you okay?”
She whirled and went into his arms. “Jock.” She buried her face in his chest. “I was afraid he was going to kill you.”
His arms tightened around her. “You didn’t answer me. I saw that damn truck crash into the tree. And by the time I got here, I had to track you through the forest. Are you hurt?”
“No. I don’t know. Maybe a little sore.” She couldn’t let him go. She never wanted to let him go. “Joe?”
“I haven’t heard from Eve yet. But I know she got him out of the ranger station.”
She suddenly stiffened. “Kaskov!” She whirled and ran to where he was lying. “Is he dead? He can’t be dead. He saved me, Jock. He just appeared out of nowhere and took Svardak’s bullet for me.”
“I know, I saw him do it.” He knelt beside Kaskov and started to examine him. “He’s not dead. But he’s unconscious.” He opened his leather jacket. “Blood. Wound in the rib cage or upper chest. But I don’t know how serious it is—”
“Not … serious.” Kaskov’s eyes had opened. His voice was hoarse. “Do you think I’d allow that … scum to ruin my reputation? But you could have performed more efficiently, Gavin. I’m … disappointed in you.”
“Why? It gave you the opportunity to be a hero. I had to eliminate those three sentries before they reached Svardak and gave him additional backup.”
“Excuses. Excuses.” He inhaled sharply as Jock cleared the blood to look more closely at the wound. “Or did you decide this would be a good way to finally get rid of me?”
“It’s a thought.” Jock was putting pressure on Kaskov’s wound to stop the blood. “But you ruined any hope of its working by stepping in front of that bullet Svardak was aiming at Cara. Now I have to find a way to save you.”
“True.” His gaze shifted to Cara. “Look at her. She’s in agony because … she thinks that I might have … given my life for her. When I feel a little better, I’ll have to think of a way to … use that angst.”
“Be quiet.” Cara’s voice was unsteady. “For all I know, you could be breathing your last breath. You’re both so twisted that you think the fact that I’d care about it is funny. Well, it’s not funny.” She was reaching for her phone. “And I won’t laugh even after the doctors tell me that you’re not dying.” She was dialing 911. “And, Jock, don’t you let him die. I won’t have Svardak sending me ghostly messages from the great beyond to tell me I didn’t win, after all.”
“Oh, you won,” Kaskov said softly, his eyes closing. “For a novice you … did … very well … Indeed.”
CHAPTER
19
BLUE RIDGE HOSPITAL 4:30 A.M.
“He has not regained consciousness yet?”
Cara turned her head to see Nikolai standing in the doorway of Kaskov’s hospital room. His gaze was on Kaskov in the bed across the room. “He should not have taken this long. He’s very strong. Have there been any strangers in the room?”
He was in protective mode. Suspicious of everything and everyone. “You should know better than I,” Cara said. “You’ve been hovering in that hall since the ER assigned Kaskov a room tonight. I’m sure you’ve checked everyone out.”
“I am good. I am not perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. I could have missed someone.” He inclined his head in her direction. “But you are no fool. You’ve been sitting there next to him all evening, and I don’t believe you would have let someone slip past you.”
“How kind of you to give me your seal of approval,” Cara said solemnly. “You didn’t even search me for weapons.”
“Kaskov would not have approved. He makes exceptions for you.” He was frowning as his gaze returned to Kaskov. “But he should not be here. It’s too difficult to keep him safe. I could have arranged treatment be brought to him in a place where I could have controlled it.”
“It was my decision. I didn’t know how badly he was hurt. It might have taken too long to whisk him away and wrap him in the cotton wool that would have met with your approval.” She paused. She could see he was troubled, and added gently, “I wouldn’t let anything happen to him, Nikolai.”
“Not if you could help it. But he is more of a target than you can imagine. He would be much safer if he did not constantly insist on your presence.”
“I have a very good imagination. And you can discuss your opinion with him as soon as he recovers. Until then, he belongs to me.”
“And on that remarkable statement, I feel forced to stop eavesdropping.” Kaskov had opened his eyes and was gazing at Nikolai. “Interference, Nikolai?”
“It is true, sir.” He inclined his head. “But I apologize for expressing it. It was not my place.” He turned and headed for the door. “If you can forgive me, I will start planning to get you away from this hospital before your enemies find out how vulnerable you are.”
“Oh, I believe I can forgive you.” He smiled mockingly. “But you’ll have to consult with Cara on the timing. She appears to have taken charge.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cara said crossly. “I only meant that I wasn’t about to let you be taken away from me until I knew you were on your way to getting well. You saved my life. It was my fault Svardak almost killed you. I won’t let Nikolai take you to some high-priced surgeon who could still be crooked as a dog’s hind leg until I’m certain that you’re on your way to recovery.”
Kaskov’s brows rose. “And at that point if I start to fail, Nikolai will know the crooked physician is to blame and take action?”
“Exactly.” She shrugged. “Because the ER doctors said that your wound wasn’t serious. The only reason it took you so long to regain consciousness was that they gave you a shot to keep you out while they stitched you.”
“And Nikolai permitted that to take place?” he said silkily.
“Gavin was with her at the time,” Nikolai said quickly. “I judged him to be sufficient and that you would not want me to draw attention to myself.”
“Yes, Gavin would be quite sufficient to handle anyone who might prove to be suspect.
I’m just surprised he would bother.” He glanced at Cara. “Your influence?”
She didn’t answer. “Start making plans to get him out of here, Nikolai. And tell the head nurse at the nurses’s station that he’s awake.”
Nikolai hesitated, gazing at Kaskov.
Kaskov was nodding. “It seems you have permission.”
The next moment, Nikolai disappeared from the room.
“It was bewildering to have you here when I woke,” Kaskov said. “I immediately thought of angels, and I knew that wasn’t my destination. And, since you look amazingly healthy, I assume that Svardak did you no damage after I took that bullet. Were you hurt at all?”
She shook her head. “You gave me the chance I needed.”
“You killed him?”
“No, it was Jock. But, yes, I certainly contributed.” She did not want to dwell on that moment, and went on quickly, “So it’s over, Kaskov. For you and for me.” She drew a deep breath. “And Joe is doing well. Though not nearly as good as you. The infection will take time to heal. He’s still having to fight that fever. But the doctors told Eve that he’d probably be able to go home in a few days if he kept improving. He’s down the hall in the next wing.”
“Then why aren’t you with him?”
“I was there earlier. But he doesn’t need me.” She made a face. “And Eve certainly doesn’t need me right now. She doesn’t need anyone but Joe and Michael. She barely knew I was in the room.”
“So you decided to come where you’re appreciated? Sound decision.”
“The only time you appreciate me is when I have a violin in my hands,” she said dryly. “I just didn’t want to be in their way. I’ll see enough of them when we take Joe back to the lake cottage.”
“The violin is always a definite plus, but I have found a few other qualities that I find tolerable in you.” He tilted his head. “Think about it. How could we not form an attachment that’s much more cerebrally based than an ordinary relationship? Our little jaunt tonight was intensely interesting and revealed that we had common goals.”
Dark Tribute--An Eve Duncan Novel Page 37