A small outcropping caught her attention, and she squeezed between two rocks. She made it through, then realized she was trapped. Rocks stretched high on all sides.
She quickly hunkered down, sliding into the shadows at the base of the rocks.
Bill pounded past, then stopped.
Silence.
Listening for her.
She covered her mouth, fighting not to pant from the exertion, but her breath sounded so loud.
“I can outwait you,” Bill called, his voice singsong. “I’ve been waiting for thirty years. A little longer is nothing.”
She closed her eyes against the onslaught of rain. Dear God, how long would he wait? The longer she sat there, the closer her brother came to death. If she continued to sit there and hide, Mason would die.
And so would she.
The only chance either of them had was for Kaylie to face the situation.
No more hiding.
That wasn’t her anymore. She took a breath, then stood. She allowed the rocks to shift under her feet. They rattled along the ground, giving away her location.
Footsteps raced toward her, and she fisted her hands, forcing herself not to run.
A rock slid, and then another, and then a light shone down on her. A creepy chuckle drifted down to her. “There aren’t that many places to hide out here, love. You knew I’d find you, didn’t you? Teasing me like you used to do?”
She shaded her eyes against the light, but she couldn’t see Bill. He was blinding her with the light. “Where’s my brother? I need to see him.”
“Oh, he’s here. Don’t worry. You’ll see him. I think it would be good for you to see what you’ve forced me to do to him by toying with me. All his suffering is your fault. If you hadn’t tried to hide from me, I wouldn’t have had to use him against you.”
Trying not to shudder, she took advantage of the light to look around. To see what weapons she could use. She picked up a rock, tucked it into her jeans. “Where are we?”
“Devil’s Pass, of course.”
Devil’s Pass. The place where Cort’s parents had died. The place where their plane had crashed.
No wonder Bill had chosen this spot.
Even if his plan to crash Cort’s plan hadn’t worked, Bill would have known Cort wouldn’t come in here after them.
There was no chance anyone was coming for her.
There was a light thud, and a rope fell down beside Kaylie. “You know I have to punish you for being with another man, don’t you? It will hurt me more than it hurts you, but once it’s done, you will be cleansed, and we can be together.”
She swallowed, staring at the rope.
Climbing mountains used to scare her.
Now she was going to climb right into the arms of a madman?
“Now, bitch.” His voice had suddenly become dark, lethal, furious.
She thought of her brother somewhere out there in the darkness.
And she grabbed hold of the rope and started to climb.
Cort was halfway up the climb back to his cabin when he heard the distant roar of a plane.
He paused, listening. His muscles were aching, and he cocked his right leg to rest it. Something was wrong with his right hip, but he refused to acknowledge it. And his legs were still burning from where they’d been assaulted by the fire.
But he hadn’t bothered to inspect them.
The plane grew closer, and he recognized it as a Cessna 206. The plane Bill had taken off in—and the plane that Luke was flying tonight.
Tensing, Cort began to haul ass up the hill, not wanting to be caught exposed if it was Bill. Needing to be there to meet Luke if it was him.
The plane landed right outside the cabin, and Cort fell to the side behind a rock as he heard footsteps racing to the edge.
“Cort!”
Luke’s voice rang out over the side of the cliff, and Cort stood. “Where the hell have you been?”
Luke whirled toward him. “Son of a bitch. You’re not dead. I saw that plane—”
“He got Kaylie.” Cort started to climb again. “Took off in Old Tom’s plane.”
“Shit. Seriously?”
“Yeah.” Cort made it to the top and swung himself over the edge, ignoring Luke’s outstretched hand. “I have to find him.”
“You know where he went?” Luke followed as Cort limped back into the cabin.
A photo stared at Cort from the ground, and he picked it up. It was Kaylie’s brother again. More cut up than before.
On the ground this time, and—
Cort swore as he looked more closely at the photo. Behind Mason was the burned-out husk of a plane. Weeds had grown up around it, but other than that, it was exactly the same as it had been seventeen years ago, as if time had stood still. He went cold, stunned at the sight of the thing that had been haunting him for seventeen years. “Son of a bitch.”
Luke looked over his shoulder. “What’s that?”
Cort crumpled the photo in his hand. “My parents’ plane. The one that went down.” He threw the photo down. “Bill took Kaylie to the crash site.”
Luke picked up the photo. “You sure that’s it?”
“Oh, yeah.” Cort would never forget the triple outcropping of rocks right behind the downed plane. The rocks they’d peeled Cort’s dad off of.
Cort went to the broken window and leaned on the windowsill, fighting back memories of that day as he stared out at the cliff. “Bill took Kaylie to Devil’s Canyon.”
“I’ll go,” Luke said.
Cort fisted his hands and turned. “Fuck that. This is my battle.”
Luke raised his eyebrows. “You don’t have to do this.”
Cort didn’t answer. He just picked up his guns and walked out.
By the time he made it to Luke’s plane, his partner was right behind him. Cort climbed into the pilot’s seat and strapped in. Luke glanced over at him as he sat in the passenger seat. “I can fly—”
“No.” Cort’s hands were cold, sweat trickling down his temples, but it was the god-awful pain in his gut that had him starting the plane.
Because that pain wasn’t about finally facing the crash that had stripped him of his belief that he could beat all odds.
That agony in his stomach came at the thought of what was happening to Kaylie right then, and for every second of the one-hour flight it would take to get there.
Kaylie got to the top of the rope, and Bill grabbed her under the arms and hauled her the rest of the way to her feet.
He pulled her close, and she recoiled, jerking back as he tried to kiss her.
He swore and backhanded her, nearly sending her back down into the hole. “Don’t fuck with me,” he snarled.
Staggering to keep her balance, Kaylie tasted blood as he dragged her down the side of the rock. There was a bloodstain on the front of his shoulder—from when Cort had shot him? But Bill was so crazed, he clearly didn’t even feel the pain. He just slogged onward, dragging her along with him. For what felt like hours, he hauled her through the raging wind and rain, then threw her to her knees. “That’s what you’ve done to him.”
She gasped at the sight of her brother.
Mason’s face was bruised and battered, his chest…cut up…bleeding…so infected…. And his leg…“Mason!”
His body jerked and his eyes opened. He took one look at Kaylie and swore. “Goddamn, Kaylie. You weren’t supposed to get caught.”
“I had to come for you.” She crouched next to him, but he caught her hand and shoved her back.
“Fuck! You’re supposed to stay alive!” He swore again and sat up, his face paling at the effort. “Get the hell out of here. I’m done. My leg’s so damn infected, I’m toast.” He pulled her close, his bloodshot eyes glazed. “You have to survive,” he whispered. “Someone has to.”
“Enough!” Bill yanked her back from him. “Every time you resist me, he suffers more. And it’s your fault.”
“No!” Mason shoved himself to his feet and char
ged.
Kaylie dove out of the way as Bill braced himself for Mason’s assault. He caught Mason’s head with his gut and the two men went down. “Run, Kaylie!” Mason’s bellow echoed across the rocks.
But she saw a small tent—Bill’s campsite. She raced toward it, dove through the opening. She saw a small bag and ripped it open. Inside was a knife much like the one she’d found in her seat. She grabbed it and raced outside to help her brother.
A heavy weight smacked her in the face, and she flew backward, crashing into the tent pole. She tried to roll to the side, and then there was a heavy weight on her.
A strong, wiry body, pinning her down.
She fought against Bill, but she had no chance as he dragged her out of the small tent. He threw her down, using his body to pin her to the ground.
It took less than a minute, but by the time he was done, he’d staked her out on the dirt.
She stared at him, felt the blood cascading down her forehead, the ache in her side from where he’d kneed her in the ribs.
He stood over her, his face snarled with anger. He wiped blood off his upper lip. “You’re really pissing me off.” He picked his knife off the ground where she’d dropped it. “I was going to take you to the river to cleanse you, but you’ll try to run again, won’t you? Stupid female.” He crouched beside her and slid the knife under the collar of her shirt. “Option number two is a sponge bath.” He smiled, leaning closer as he trailed the back of his other hand across her collarbone. “You will learn to love me, bitch.” He stood, his eyes raking over her. “I’ll be back with the water.”
And then he was gone.
Quickly, she lifted her head. Saw Mason sprawled facedown on the rock nearby, blood oozing from a wound on his head. “Mason!”
He didn’t move.
She turned her head to look at the ropes binding her wrists. Thick, the stakes anchored in the rocks.
She realized then that he’d set it up like this. For her.
There was a groan from Mason, and she lifted her head to look at him again. “Mason!”
His eyelids flickered, but he didn’t open them.
Frantically, she looked around, trying to see if there was anything she could use to get free.
And then her blood went cold.
Carefully folded up on a rock beside her was a dingy white lace teddy, yellowed with age. As if it was thirty years old. As if he’d been hanging on to it all that time. Dark stains dotted it, as if he’d dripped blood on it and let it dry.
And next to it was a large knife, like the one they’d found in Cort’s truck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The wind was battering the small plane. Rain was hammering at the windshield.
Just as it had seventeen years ago.
Cort’s grip on the control stick tightened as he approached the entrance to Devil’s Pass.
“You okay?” Luke’s voice was quiet.
“Yeah.” Cort banked the plane and came in low, aiming for the narrow passage between the two cliffs protecting the entrance. For a split second, he let off the throttle, staring at the mouth of hell.
So many times he’d tried to fly through there when he was alone.
Testing his resolve.
And every time, he’d pulled away at the last second.
Unable to face the grim memories. The raw statement that he could be broken. Die. Crash. Things a bush pilot had no business thinking.
The plane bucked against him, and Cort gripped the controls more tightly, his palms getting sweaty. This pass, this place, this was where mortality had hit him. The only place he’d fully comprehended the fragile nature of life. It was back. That feeling. That awareness that one mistake could doom them all.
The entrance was approaching fast. Another minute and he’d have to pull out or commit himself. He watched those high cliffs stretching up, a crevasse barely wide enough for the plane to pass through.
But as he neared it, thoughts of his mortality, of the death of his parents…all faded away until there was only one thing in his mind.
Kaylie.
Up ahead, somewhere, needing him. They’d called the state troopers, but those planes were about an hour behind them. It was up to Cort and Luke. A sense of calmness settled on him.
Death wasn’t an option.
Not now.
Not here.
He leaned on the throttle and the plane leapt forward, dashing between the rock towers guarding the entrance. The sheer stone pillars whipped by, and then they were inside. Only a few feet of clearance on either side of the wingtips. The wind was raging, but Cort kept the plane steady. A faint memory of how his dad had slipped up, let the wingtip brush against the wall, passed through Cort’s mind, and he released the thought from his mind.
Instead, he focused on the present. On his assault plan. “Bill’s going to hear us come in,” Cort said with a calmness he didn’t feel. “He’ll know we’re here, so we have to go fast when I land.”
Luke reached into the back and pulled a couple guns onto his lap. “How close can you land to the crash site?”
Cort thought back to that day, to catapulting through the air, rigid silence in the plane while his dad fought for control. He shut out the feelings of dread, of horror, and instead concentrated on the landscape whipping past beneath him. “The canyon widens out about two hundred yards before the crash site. There’s a clearing about a hundred yards south where they’ll be.”
Luke shook his head. “Too far. It’ll take us too long to hike to the crash site after we land. Bill will have too much lead time, and he’ll have time to—”
“I know.” Cort cut him off, all too aware of what Bill had done to that seat, to Mason, to Jackson and Sara. He replayed the terrain in his mind, but there was nowhere closer to land. He looked over at Luke. “I’m going to jump.”
Luke shot him a sharp glance. “Changing pilots in the air in the middle of a storm in Devil’s Pass is suicide.”
Cort shrugged. “Yeah, the odds of surviving it aren’t high.”
“I knew you were a crazy bastard. Christ, Cort, is this the only way for you to live?”
Cort looked out the windshield at the rain battering the plane. “No, not crazy. Not anymore. Just focused. Got a lot at stake here. I’m not going down.” It was tough enough flying straight up in these conditions. Doing a pilot switch? It was beyond even what he would attempt. He thought of Kaylie and knew he had no choice. “She needs me.”
“And you need her.”
“Yeah.”
They looked at each other, and something passed between them.
Then Luke began unbuckling his harness. “For seventeen years you won’t fly this pass, and now you’re going to pull this shit? You’re insane.”
Cort jerked his harness off. “I know. But my insanity’s going to come in handy this time.”
Luke freed himself and set the guns on the dash. Met Cort’s gaze. “All I can say is that it’s a damn good thing you trained me to fly.”
Cort smiled this time, knowing that there was only one pilot in Alaska he would trust with this move. “Learn from the best and the craziest, and it rubs off.”
Luke shook his head. “Try not to sneeze or breathe or do anything else that’s going to make us crash.”
Cort nodded, settling his attention on the bucking plane as Luke eased across the seat. Poised beside him.
The two men went still, the energy tense in the cockpit. The wing lights were so close to the canyon walls that they were reflecting off the wet rock. It looked like inches, but it was probably a couple feet. At least.
“On three.”
Luke nodded. “One.”
“Two.”
“Three!”
Bill rubbed his palm over her wet stomach, his hair slicked back from the rain, water beading off his jacket. “Doesn’t that feel better, my love?”
Kaylie clenched her jaw, her body shaking uncontrollably. She was so cold, so wet. He’d dumped bucket after buck
et over her until she was so cold and frozen she couldn’t stop trembling. Her muscles were aching from the cold, and her teeth were chattering.
Bill hadn’t touched her sexually, but the way he’d looked at her while he’d been cleaning her…
Dear God, she had to get away before he could get her clothes off.
She’d tried everything she could think of to get him to let her go, and nothing had worked. He’d been in his own world, not even hearing her. Calling her by her mother’s name, replaying scenarios that he’d either imagined or recalled from his time with her mom thirty years ago.
And the whole time, Mason hadn’t moved.
Just lying there.
Dead…or unconscious?
Bill picked up the old, yellowed lace and held it up by the straps. “You looked so lovely in this.”
Mason shifted slightly behind Bill, as if he was starting to come around, and she jerked her eyes back to Bill. “I can’t put it on if I’m tied up. I promise I’ll put it on.”
Bill scowled, looking at the teddy, then back at her. Finally, he walked over to her and untied her ankles. Kaylie forced herself not to pull her legs up to prepare to run. She had to keep Bill calm until he untied her arms. Her heart was thundering when he walked over to her head and reached for her left hand to release it.
Yes, please. Let me go. One chance, one time. That’s all she wanted.
Mason shifted again and groaned.
Bill glanced over at her brother, then looked at Kaylie. “You try anything and he gets hurt.”
She nodded, her mouth dry. “Yeah, okay. I get it.”
He narrowed his eyes, then picked up the knife, the one that had been paired with the yellowed lingerie. Slowly brought it over her and traced the flat of it across her belly.
Kaylie froze, her muscles trembling. “Please…I promise I’ll get dressed for you.”
“Put it on.” And then he released her hands.
Kaylie staggered to her feet, sneaking glances at the knife. She saw Mason’s eyes slit open. Their gazes met, and then he looked at the knife as well.
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