Dillon couldn’t find Jack. Where had he gone? They didn’t have time for games, they needed to force Kate to talk. Dillon had a feeling Jack would be good at that.
If only Patrick were here. He could decipher her damn computer codes. She’d been working on something. Her demeanor, her tone, her body language said it all.
She’d lied to him. Dillon tolerated a lot, but he drew the line at lies.
He called Connor to find out how Patrick was doing.
“He’s still in a coma,” Connor said, his voice sounding surprisingly close. “We’re in San Diego and they’re prepping him for surgery.”
“Surgery?”
“Pressure on his brain. They need to relieve it or there’s no chance he’ll survive.”
Dillon paled. “Peterson didn’t tell me that.”
Connor sounded both angry and helpless. “Tell me you and that Donovan woman know where Lucy is. Tell me where. I’ll be there.”
“We’re working on it.”
“That’s not good enough!”
Dillon let Connor yell at him. Dillon wanted to scream himself. “I know,” he said quietly.
“Is Lucy…is she okay?”
“Yes.”
“Peterson just left to go back to headquarters. He said you had a list of names that this Trevor/Trask character may be.”
“It’s a theory.” Dillon filled Connor in, knowing that the process would comfort him.
“Call me when you find Lucy. Peterson has a plane fueled and ready at Miramar. It’s all ours. I can be flying anywhere in less than thirty minutes.”
“Call me when Patrick is out of surgery. How’re Mom and Dad holding up?”
“Mom’s in shock. Dad’s being steadfast.” Connor’s voice broke. “He cried when he saw Patrick. I haven’t seen him cry since Justin’s funeral.”
“I’m going to find her,” Dillon said.
Connor didn’t say anything.
“I will,” Dillon repeated.
“We have twenty-three hours. Time is running out.”
“Have faith.” Have faith in me.
“When you get the coordinates send them to me. Don’t go after him yourself.”
Dillon tensed, rubbed his eyes. “I’ll send them to you, but I’m going.”
“You were right on the money about Kate Donovan and your profile of the bastard who took Lucy, but he’ll kill you. Fuck, Dil! I don’t know if Patrick is going to survive this surgery, but if they don’t go in he’ll definitely die. We can’t lose Patrick and Lucy and you.”
“I’ll call you. Tell Mom and Dad I love them.”
“Dil, you’re not—”
Dillon hung up. Connor was right. He had no business going after Trask and trying to save Lucy. He could end up dead, and Lucy would still die.
But sometimes brains beat out brawn. Sometimes knowing how the hunter thought, knowing what he felt, meant more than knowing how to kill him.
The more Dillon read of his file, the closer he got to understanding exactly who Trask was.
The man who had Lucy had been unusually bright and industrious from early childhood, quiet, focused, and studious. But because of his above-average intelligence, school bored him—even private school. He turned to challenging himself, probably by hacking into computers. Working with his hands. His parents were not involved with his day-to-day life, and he was an only child. If he had a sibling, that sibling was much older. That fit. Especially if the sibling had achieved a lot, been perfect in his parents’ eyes. He had big shoes to fill, and because he tended toward darkness even as a child, he messed up. He made mistakes and was punished for them. He was curious about his surroundings, so curious that he definitely got into trouble. Not with the law, but with his parents. Strict rules. Image. Wealth.
He thought back to his recent case where privileged teenagers killed for the thrill. Their parents were wealthy, focused on image and not the rules. In fact, the parents of the killing team had been emotionally distant and unconcerned about what their kids did—as long as they didn’t tarnish the family name.
Had Trask tarnished his family name? Had he made an unforgivable mistake in his parents’ eyes? Been disowned, like his friend Roger Morton?
Money was important to him. Hugely important. He thrived on moving money around, laundering it. He got a thrill out of making his fortune through the sex trade. Something that would embarrass his parents.
But he hadn’t used his real name.
Or had he?
Dillon needed to look back at those original files from Trask Enterprises. There was something there, and since Kate had interviewed virtually every employee, the answer was probably trapped in her brain.
As soon as he entered Kate’s room, he knew she was gone. Her essence had disappeared.
Along with her laptop, her backpack, and her PDA.
“Dammit, Kate!”
He picked up a piece of paper with his name on it.
Dillon—
I know you won’t understand, but please try. I can save Lucy, but only alone. You have no reason to trust me, but please, on this, you have to.
I won’t let you bury Lucy. If you have a chance to put flowers on my grave, I’ll know. If you curse me, I’ll understand.
Tell Lucy when she comes home that she’s the bravest woman I’ve ever seen and I wish I could have known her.
—Kate
She knew where Lucy was and was going after her alone. Damn her! Renegade? Maybe idiot was a better word.
Dillon ran from the room. “Jack!” he called, not knowing where his brother had gone, but figuring he’d be invaluable in tracking Kate in the middle of the night on this mountain. “Jack!”
“Over here.”
Jack was in a grove of short, stubby trees, doing what Dillon didn’t know, and at this point didn’t care. “Kate went after Trask. Dammit, I knew she was lying to me. Have you seen her? You’ve been all over this observatory. She has to have some sort of vehicle.”
“Vehicle? You could say that. She’s probably headed for the plane.”
“Plane?” Dillon panicked. “We’ll never catch up to her in time.”
Jack pulled a large square device from his backpack. “She’s not going anywhere without this.”
“It looks like a car battery.”
“It goes to that fine little Stationair she has hidden about a mile away. The plane won’t fly without it.”
SEVENTEEN
KATE LOOKED AT HER CONTROLS for the third time. What was wrong? She had fuel, but the plane just wouldn’t start. She had no power.
Damn, damn, damn! She had just checked the battery last week. It couldn’t be dead.
What was wrong with the damn plane?
The door opened. She swallowed when she saw Dillon Kincaid. She hadn’t thought him capable of fury, but his face said it all.
He’d never been as angry in his life.
He held the plane battery in his hands. “Looking for this?”
“Let me go.”
Dillon climbed into the turbocharged Cessna 206. He sat in the copilot seat, his tall frame filling the small cockpit.
“You are going to get Lucy and yourself killed. Maybe you deserve it. You think you do, so who am I to question it? But I will not have you getting Lucy killed in the process.”
“It’s not like that! He’ll kill her if he sees me with anyone—”
“You’ve been talking to him?” The words were quiet, but the fury vibrated in the plane. He dropped the battery at her feet.
“He contacted me. I told him if he pulled Lucy off-camera I would meet him. I’m trading myself for her! Don’t you see that this is the only way? One hint of the feds anywhere and he’ll kill her. I can’t risk it.”
Dillon grabbed her arms and lifted her from her seat. “You’re not stupid, Kate! You think he’s going to let Lucy go just because you walked into his lair? What are you thinking? You’ll both be killed and he’ll walk again! He wants you because you attacked his l
egitimate business. You embarressed him. He’s not going to give Lucy up. It’s a game to him. It’s fun. He wants to kill her.”
“I know things he doesn’t know I know.”
“Oh, for shit sake.” Dillon dropped her arms, leaned back into the seat, and held his head. “You’re a fool, Kate. You’re not going anywhere without me.”
Kate was trembling when she pulled the gun out of her vest pocket. “I’m sorry, Dillon. I don’t want to hurt you. Please leave my plane.”
“You’re going to shoot me and fly away? You wouldn’t.”
She nodded. “I’m not noble, Dillon. I’ll take justice any damn way I can get it. I’m already going to Hell. One more death isn’t going to change that.”
Dillon leaned forward. His green eyes burned. “But you’ve never killed anyone in cold blood.”
He snatched the gun from her hand. She couldn’t have been more surprised.
“Impressive.” Jack Kincaid stepped into the plane, sank into one of the two seats in the back. “I thought I’d have to intervene.”
“Shut up,” Dillon said.
“Don’t do this,” Kate whispered. “Please, I know what I’m doing.”
“Don’t talk to me right now. Just get this plane off the ground.”
Jack grinned, stretched his legs as best he could in the small craft, and put his left hand behind his head, his right hand holding a pistol loosely pointed at Kate.
She hated having the gun aimed at her, but she could hardly say anything. She’d had a gun on his brother.
“I’ll get a little shut-eye,” Jack said and closed his eyes, but Kate didn’t think they were really closed. “You two work out the details of the operation. Wake me when we get there.”
“No.” Kate shook her head. “No! You don’t understand!”
Dillon grabbed her chin, turned her to face him. She didn’t want to face his fury. He was too good for her. He wouldn’t compromise his soul. He wouldn’t kill in cold blood. And the only way to stop Trask was on his terms. Morals meant nothing. All that mattered was the end result.
Killing him.
She hadn’t believed men like Dillon Kincaid existed. Yet here he was, handsome and smart and angry at her. With very good reason.
She so badly wanted to trust him. But he was a novice—a shrink, for Pete’s sake—and not someone who could walk away from a gunfight. Jack Kincaid? Yeah, he might survive. But not Dillon.
Kate didn’t want his death on her conscience.
“Tell me exactly what’s going on,” Dillon said, voice low. “I will know if you’re lying.”
And he would. She had no doubt that he could see inside her mind.
“My trace program found his Internet server but I didn’t know it. He’s been tracking my every online move. He sent me a message, directing me to the proper time stamp in my program, and I saw the satellite route, traced it to a location northeast of Seattle, in the Cascade Mountains near Mount Baker.
“Then I received a secure transmission off the same feed. It gave me time and degrees—essentially, all the information I needed to determine longitude and latitude. I looked it up and the coordinates were eighty miles away from where Trask wanted me to meet him. An island, west of the rendezvous point, just north of the San Juan Islands on the Canadian/Washington border.”
“What game is he playing?” Dillon wondered out loud.
“It’s not a game. The information was coded using an FBI Academy code. Something only agents would know because we learned it at the Academy.
“I realized that Trask was planning on meeting me away from where he has Lucy. Probably because he believed I would tell the FBI. So I have the element of surprise. I’m going to the second coordinates. Lucy said she was on an island.”
“You need backup.”
“Yes, but who’s going to believe anything I say now? Your brothers and Quinn walked into a trap. If the feds go to the island, they’ll most assuredly get Lucy killed. If they go to the mountain, Trask will know. He’s expecting them, but he’s not expecting me to come in alone. It’s the element of surprise. Don’t you see? I have to go to the second location first, get there faster than I told him I’d meet him. To see if Lucy is there. If she is, I can rescue her and then still have time to meet Trask on the mountain. If she’s not there, then he kept his word and brought her with him. He promised to trade Lucy. I’ll have enough time to get to the mountain location and save her.”
“You can’t believe him.”
“I know that! But I can kill him.”
“And he knows you want to kill him! You’re blinded by revenge. You’re not seeing the big picture, Kate; you’re going to get yourself and Lucy killed.”
Dillon stared at her, his eyes bright and almost wild. “Is that what you want? Do you want to look into that man’s eyes as he rapes you? Do you want to give him the pleasure of strangling you? Or slicing your neck open? Because believe me, he gets extreme pleasure out of killing. It fuels him, satiates him, makes him feel like he has power. And because you screwed up his plans five years ago, revenge will drive him even further. You will not get off lightly. He’ll bring you to the brink of death and back again, and never even let you beg for mercy.”
Kate’s eyes burned but she refused to cry in front of Dillon Kincaid or his arrogant military brother.
She turned from him, picked up the battery, and left the plane.
Dillon caught Jack staring at him. He rubbed a hand across his face, his temper still high. He didn’t normally lose his temper. He didn’t attack vulnerable women. And that’s exactly what Kate Donovan was. For all her physical strength, her mental prowess, her training, and her determination, at her core was a vulnerable, lonely woman who was crying out for help. And he’d intentionally terrified her.
“What?” he snapped.
“Nothing.”
Dillon didn’t want the respect he saw on Jack’s face. Instead he stared out the dark window. A flash-light bobbed around the plane and he heard Kate mumbling something. A metal door clicked shut. A minute later Kate jumped back into the plane, slammed the door closed, and locked it.
“Your death will not be on my conscience,” she said. She sat down, flipped switches, and started the plane.
“What’s your plan?” Dillon said, ignoring her comment.
“We have a full tank. I can go eleven hundred miles. There are a couple small airports I can stop at to refuel in northern Arizona. Might be a little tricky, but I’ll figure it out.”
“Tricky?”
“Avoiding customs, the fact that my license expired, little things like that. But I can talk my way around it.”
“Shit,” Jack mumbled from the back.
“You have a better idea?” Kate snapped.
“I know a place south of Red Rock where we can refuel.”
“And they’ll just refuel with no questions?” Kate smirked. “Good friends.” She glanced at a map. “That’s over eleven hundred ten miles. Cutting it really close on the fuel.”
“It’s twenty miles south of Red Rock. Take it or leave it. Even with our added weight, you should be fine.”
“Doesn’t make me feel much better.” She looked at the map. “Still, that’s nine hundred miles from Seattle. We’ll make that leg easy.”
“How fast does this little prop go?”
“The Stationair is one of the best ‘little props’ Cessna makes. The 206 cruises at 164 nautical miles.”
Jack did a mental calculation. “That’s 188 miles an hour? That makes it about eleven hours when you factor in one stop to refuel. When does that put us in Washington?”
“About eleven thirty a.m.”
Dillon said, “And you arranged this meeting with Trask when?”
“Two p.m.”
“Where?”
She hesitated.
“Dammit, Kate!” Dillon slammed his fist on his knee, took a deep breath. “No more secrets. We’re in this together, got it? Jack and I are not leaving your side. We
need to find Lucy. That’s our number one focus. Not Trask.”
“You’d let him go to kill again?” she spat out.
“It doesn’t have to be either/or. But the most important thing is to save Lucy. Or do you not agree?”
She stared at him, eyes wide. He saw when she realized what she had been saying. “Of course I agree,” she said quietly, looking down.
Kate finished her preflight check. They started moving forward, rapidly increasing speed. The plane bumped and bucked on the uneven runway. Dillon had no problem with flying, but he couldn’t see anything. The plane’s lights only lit up the ground immediately in front of him.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked.
“I’ve flown this plane a dozen times.”
“But there’s a cliff—”
“I know.” They were going faster.
Suddenly the ground gave way. They were airborne. Kate made a sharp turn to the right, turning a full 180 degrees. She checked her instruments as they continued to ascend.
“We don’t have oxygen on board,” she said, “so I’m going to keep it under twelve-five.” She glanced back at Jack. “Red Rock?” she said, skeptical.
He nodded. “Straight as an arrow. When you hit the Nevada border, wake me.”
“It’ll take six hours.”
“I haven’t slept in two days.” He closed his eyes.
“What’s your plan?” Dillon asked Kate.
“I had planned on meeting Trask at a campground near Mount Baker, until I got the second coordinates. They’re nearly two hours apart. I was going to check out the island first, but now that you’re here you and your brother can go to the island and I can meet Trask on the mountain. It actually works out better.”
Dillon shook his head. “You care about one thing. Killing Trask. Jack and I care about saving Lucy. If he brings her to the mountain, I want Jack there. And if she’s on the island, I’ll be there.”
“Trask isn’t going to screw with me. Not on this. I told him I wouldn’t come unless he took her off-camera. Remember when Denise went on? He stood by his word.”
“Yeah, but for how long?” Dillon asked.
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