Intrigue Books 1-6

by Delores Fossen, Rachel Lee, Carol Ericson, Tyler Anne Snell, Rita Herron

  Kate could still be a target. Adrenaline surged through him. He’d promised to protect her, and he’d keep that promise until the Hunter was in cuffs or dead.

  He’d seen the shadows in her eyes, the fear in her movements since he’d pulled her out of that damn pit. The nightmares haunted him, too. He wasn’t going to let that son of a bitch touch her. Not again.

  He hit the cabin’s front steps and followed the missing SUV’s tire tracks leading to the one-lane route down the mountain. Snow crunched beneath his boots as the light show of the aurora borealis lit the way. Cold worked through his thick layers and straight into his bones, tensing his muscles into a constant ache. Or was it the fact he’d only ever felt warm—felt whole—when Kate was near?

  Hell, he should’ve told her the truth before now, but it was too late. There was no going back, and he feared she’d never forgive him.

  He picked up the pace. No movement in the trees on either side of the road, but he wasn’t going to relax, either. Not until he found Kate.

  Dropping temperatures stiffened his fingers. Moonlight filtered through the trees ahead where the road disappeared. If she’d already gotten to the main road, he’d lose her forever. No. He couldn’t think about that right now.

  A flashlight beam caught his notice down the road. One hundred feet, maybe less. No other movement. No sign of Kate. Declan pulled the gun from his holster and slowed his pace. The hairs on the back of his neck rose. He stopped in the middle of the road, listened. Was that the sound of an engine? Taking cover behind a tree, he stared straight into the darkness on the other side of the road and tabbed off the safety of his sidearm.

  Keeping to the trees, he raised his weapon as he headed in the direction he thought the sound was coming from. But the outline of an SUV separated from the shadows, and something inside of him caught fire. He knew that vehicle, and there was absolutely no reason why it would be sitting there. “Kate.”

  He pumped his legs hard, lungs burning for oxygen. The driver’s-side door had been left open, the flashlight discarded on the ground. His fingers trailed over the freezing metal as he slid to a stop beside the driver’s seat. No, no, no, no. This was wrong. Kate wouldn’t abandon the vehicle in the middle of the night in these temperatures. She wouldn’t have walked away. Which meant...

  Declan searched the interior of the vehicle, recovering her phone and overnight bag in the passenger seat, and a syringe in the back. His mouth dried, his breath frozen in midair. The son of a bitch had been waiting for her in the back seat. He’d drugged her. Put his hands on her.

  Rage exploded behind his sternum. He snapped his attention to the tree line as he let it take control. “He took her.”

  It had been the sound of an engine before. The unsub was in the middle of making his escape. Pocketing her phone, Declan circled the vehicle, heading straight into the trees.

  One set of deep footprints had left distinct marks in the snow but disappeared only a few meters past the tree line. The smell of gasoline mixed with exhaust hung in the air. Impossible to drive a car or SUV through these trees. But an ATV? If the Hunter knew these woods as well as he knew the ones surrounding Michaels’s cabin, he could get in and out without anybody knowing.

  Declan swept the flashlight beam at his feet and spotted the two lines of a distinct tread pattern. The ATV would’ve had to have been in position before the suspect got into Kate’s vehicle. Question was, how did the bastard get her to stop at this precise location? Had he injected her with whatever was in that syringe while the vehicle was still moving? Seemed risky. She could’ve veered into any one of these trees, and she’d put the SUV in Park.

  He twisted his gaze back to the abandoned vehicle. Smaller footprints circled around the back of the SUV. No. The attacker would have had to get her to stop some other way. The only other option was sabotaging the engine somehow.

  Her abduction hadn’t been rushed or a moment of panic like before. Whoever had taken her had planned this out.

  Declan fanned his grip over the warming metal of the gun and headed deeper into the woods. The man would’ve wanted her separated from any kind of support or backup.

  “I’m going to find you, Kate.” Digging her phone from his jacket pocket, he sent her team an SOS message and tossed the device back toward the SUV. Blackhawk Security had the tech to track her phone. They’d do their jobs, and he’d do his. Gritting his teeth, he left the vehicle and her belongings behind.

  His eyes adjusted to the shadows. Every instinct flared warning, but he pushed them to the back of his mind. The Hunter had taken his life from him, and he’d do whatever it took to get that back. “I’m not letting you go.”

  Branches scratched at his face and neck as he followed the treads in the snow. Thick trees barely allowed any moonlight through, but Declan wasn’t afraid of the dark. He’d lived there long enough, and he’d keep living there until Kate was back in his arms. Where she belonged.

  A few hundred feet past the tree line, his boot hit something solid and metal. The device snapped closed at his feet. A bear trap. Crouching down, he flipped the mass of metal upside down and moonlight glinted off another rig a few feet away. Over two-hundred pounds of force waiting to break one of his legs. The ATV’s tire treads had swerved around what look like an entire minefield of bear traps. How long had the bastard been planning this?

  A gruff laugh burst from Declan. He stood, shouting into the blackness ahead, “Is that the best you’ve got!”

  Silence.

  “That’s what I thought.” As long as he kept inside the tracks, he’d avoid getting his leg snapped in half. Question was, how many other traps had the Hunter set?

  In reality, it didn’t matter. He’d stay the course. He’d get Kate back. That was what partners did for each other. They protected one another, had each other’s backs. He couldn’t go back to the way it was before. In the dark without his memories. Alone. She’d changed all that, and he wasn’t ready to let her go.

  His Kate. His past. His present. His future.

  The aurora above shifted, greens and purples reaching down through the trees, outlining the single man standing in the ATV’s treads ahead. Black clothing, black hood over his head and the gleam of a silver blade in his hand.

  “Kenneth Winter.” The stitches in Declan’s side stretched with a deep inhale.

  The scent of gasoline strengthened, and he slowed, twisted his wrist to make the gun in his hand more visible. This wasn’t going to be a fair fight. Where was the ATV? Where was Kate? She was the unsub’s most prized possession. The son of a bitch wouldn’t let her out of his sight for long. She had to be close by. Declan stepped forward. “I warned you not to touch her again. Now you’re going to pay for what you’ve done.”

  “Care to make a bet, Monroe?” The distorted voice echoed off the surrounding trees, and Declan froze. Bet?

  Brandishing the knife in filtered moonlight, the bastard cocked his head to one side. “You lost the last round. Would be such a shame if you lost two times in a row. Especially with Kate’s life on the line.”

  “This isn’t a game to me.” Declan raised the gun and aimed, pulling the trigger.

  One second, the suspect had been there. The next, the bullet penetrated a tree right where the Hunter had been standing. Damn it. Where was the son of a bitch?

  Declan scanned the trees, taking cover behind a large pine to his right. Freezing air burned going down his throat as he listened for movement. “All right. You want to play? Let’s play.”

  The hunt had only begun.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The more she swallowed around the gag in her mouth, the drier her throat seemed to get. Kate pulled at her wrists but only managed to tighten the rope around her neck. The last thing she remembered before waking up hog-tied to this chair...

  The SUV had died on the way to her meeting with Dominic. Her abductor had bee
n in the back seat the entire time.

  She blinked against the brightness of the single bare bulb above her head. He’d drugged her, and she couldn’t remember anything after that. Not how he’d gotten her here. Not where they were.

  Studying the medium-size cabin, she memorized the layout. She’d been placed with her back to the door at one end of the main room, a table straight ahead holding a crossbow a few feet away. Exposed roof slats, cobwebs, wood-burning stove, old furniture covered in nothing but dust. Shelves lined with food cans showed their age. Nobody had lived here in a long time.

  Which meant nobody would have reason to look for her here either.

  Heavy footfalls shook the hardwood floor beneath her, then a gust of wind burst through the front door as it swung open. Speckles of dust clouded the air around her. “I was starting to wonder if I’d given you too much sedative.”

  That voice. His voice. The man who’d taken her.

  Nausea churned in her gut as the door slammed shut. As far as she could tell, there was one way in and one way out. She’d have to go through him to get to it.

  Kate twisted her head as far to one side as she could, but the rope around her throat only cut off her air supply further. A shiver chased up her spine, raising the hairs on the back of her neck as he moved into her peripheral vision. The fabric gag had gone soggy in her mouth, impossible to move. She forced herself to breathe evenly, to study him. To find his weakness. Because she wasn’t going to die in here. She tugged at her wrists again when the gag suppressed her question. Where was Declan?

  “Promise not to scream?” The Hunter crouched low on his haunches in front of her, like the predator he was, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

  The evidence suggested Special Agent Kenneth Winter had worked all four of the missing persons cases the Hunter’s victims were tied to. He’d taken those women, seduced them and set them free in the wilderness before he started his hunt. The man had been in her office, gotten to know her when she and Dominic had met to discuss cases. Had it all been a means to an end? A way to get close to her?

  He reached toward her, and she jerked away. “Up to you, Kate.”

  A groan escaped up her throat as the rope burned across the delicate skin over her neck and wrists. She wouldn’t scream, but she’d do far, far worse when she got free of these ropes. The psychopath in front of her had killed four innocent women that she knew of as well as Michaels. Her former patient had been a pawn in his sick game. She wasn’t going to let him get away with it.

  She had to focus, had to plan. The predator in front of her matched Agent Winter’s build, same low tone when he spoke, same dark eyes. This was the man who’d thrown her in that pit and hung Declan from his feet to die.

  The Hunter had stayed one step ahead of her and the FBI this entire investigation, but there was a reason Sullivan had handpicked her to profile killers for his team. Kate had the ability to know exactly what they wanted. Nine times out of ten it was simply control—over their victims, over their emotions, over their own traumatic pasts. But this one... He wanted to prove himself. Prove he could beat her.

  With her attention on that damn ski mask and the slight bulge of the voice distorter over his neck, she wrapped her fingers into fists. And nodded.

  “That’s my girl.” He raised his hand again, the brush of his coarse knuckles against her cheek nauseating. The tang of cologne worked deep into her system, and her nostrils burned. Too sharp. Nothing like Declan’s subtle, masculine scent. Her bottom lip rolled with the gag as he slid the soaked rag beneath her chin.

  She needed him closer. Mouthing her question, she closed her eyes as though she were still affected by the drugs, and he leaned in slightly. Another inch, and she’d get her shot at knocking him out cold. The overhead light reflected off the blade holstered to his hip, but until she had her hands freed, it wouldn’t do her a damn bit of good. There had to be something else she could use to cut through the rope.

  “You know, I’ve studied you, Kate. I’ve gotten to know you over these past few months. I know your routines, the way you profile your targets, watched you grieve after losing your husband.” The Hunter closed the small space between them as heat built in her chest. “Do you really think headbutting me is going to give you an advantage?”

  “I wasn’t going to headbutt you.” Shoving down through her toes, she pushed herself and the chair off the hardwood floor and launched herself straight into him. They landed in a heap on the floor, but the wooden chair she’d been tied to didn’t even splinter. She hit the floor hard, landing on her side. Panic flared as he stood and took position above her, one foot pressed against her shin bone tied to the chair.

  Pain screamed up her leg and down into her toes, but she had to find something—anything—to cut through the ropes while she had the chance. Her fingers splayed out, grasping into thin air, desperate for contact. All she needed—

  “A few more pounds of pressure is all it would take to break your leg, Kate, but I don’t want to hurt you more than I have to. So, please, don’t give me a reason.” A deep, evil laugh penetrated the ski mask as he wrenched her upright. Fisting one length of rope, he leveled his face with hers and pulled until the coarse strands cut into her. “You know why I killed them, don’t you? All those women.”

  “Me...” She struggled to breathe. She couldn’t push the air out her mouth fast enough. Her dull rasping reached her ears. A wave of dizziness washed through her head, and all she could think about in that moment was her own survival.

  And Declan. He’d lied to her, made her believe he was someone he wasn’t, but every cell in her body screamed for him right now. She’d trusted him. Hell, she’d fallen for him, and she didn’t want their conversation to be the last thing she ever said to him. Because when it came right down to it, he’d been the one to pull her from the soul-sucking agony of grief, to make her feel again, to care. He’d taken a bullet for her, rescued her from the bottom of that pit when she believed nobody would find her. Loved her when she was at her darkest. And she loved him, too. “To beat...me.”

  “No, Kate.” Another laugh pooled dread at the base of her spine. He loosened his grip on the rope, and she was able to take her first full breath since slamming him to the floor. Grabbing the ski mask at the crown of his head, the Hunter pulled the fabric from his face. He peeled the voice distorter from his throat. “I killed them to show you I’m the one who can protect you from the monsters out there in the world. Not Declan. Not Blackhawk Security or your team. Me.”

  No longer framed by the ski mask, familiar brown eyes stared back at her. Confusion tore through her. No. It wasn’t possible. The sedative had to still be in her system. It was messing with her head, making her hallucinate. There was no way he’d been behind all those attacks. “Ryan.”

  “Surprise.” The small mole on the left side of his chin shifted with a smile, but where she’d been comforted by that smile in the past, only fear built in her gut now. “Gotta tell you, Kate, feels good finally letting you in on the truth. Now we can start fresh.”

  “You sent Michaels to the house.” She licked her dry lips. The pieces were slowly falling into place as the sedatives burned off. She had to keep him talking. Long enough for her to form a new plan. “You made him obsessed with me to the point he’d kill Declan. Then you sent him again when you discovered Declan was alive all this time.” She didn’t understand. “You were my friend. You helped me through my grief, you were—”

  “I was there for you, Kate. For over a year while you grieved. Then I discovered my former partner—a man who was supposed to be dead, by the way—had been walking around the city without a damn clue who he was, but I knew. I knew he’d make his way back to you and destroy all of the progress I’d made.”

  His voice rose. “I was the one who checked in on you every night after work. I was the one who brought you takeout when you couldn’t bring yourself to get
out of bed. I was the one who convinced you to go back to work, to take off that damn wedding ring, to put yourself first for once. Me. Not him.”

  Dominic straightened, turning toward the old woodstove, the butt of his knife within reaching distance. He took a deep breath. If she could only get her hands free...

  “You know, I was so nervous when I saw Declan in your office a few days ago, I almost drew my weapon and finished the job right then and there.” Glancing back at her, the special agent tossed the mask and distorter into the burning stove. “See, he suspected me back before that first shooting. I could tell. It was this look he gave me during one of our other serial cases, the kind that said he’d figured out what I like to do in my spare time, and I couldn’t afford him interrupting my plans for you. Turns out, I didn’t need to worry. Declan can’t remember anything, and that leaves us all the time in world.”

  For what?

  “You found the women through missing persons cases you and your partner worked,” Kate said. “You got close to them, seduced them. Then you set them free in the woods and hunted them down like animals.” The last word sneered from her mouth. Kate tugged at her wrists, careful not to pull too hard to engage the rope around her neck. Was that the rope loosening? Her teeth clenched against the groan working up her throat as the burns around her wrists protested with each movement. “You’re a coward. That’s why you brought in Michaels to do your dirty work, isn’t it? You were too afraid to confront Declan on your own.”

  “You’re trying to make me angry. Maybe hoping I’ll lash out and knock you over so you can search for something to cut through your ropes,” he said. “It’s very clever, but you’ve already forgotten, I know your strategies, Kate. I know you. And I’ve waited too long for this to spoil all the fun in one night.”