by Dale Mayer
She smiled. “You’re a nice man.”
“Ouch.”
She looked at him in surprise.
“For a guy, that’s not exactly a compliment.”
“No,” she said, frowning. “Being nice is a huge compliment.”
“Doesn’t sound that great to me,” he grumbled.
“Why? Because you want to hear that you’re sexy and cute and all the rest of that?”
“Everybody wants to hear that,” he said.
She started to laugh. “I can’t imagine that you have a small ego,” she said. “You have an enormous ability to handle stress, dangerous situations, rescues, and things like that, in a way that I’ve never seen in anybody else. So you’re a very special person.”
“Well, I try to be. And someone with this skill set,” he said, “is custom made specifically for these situations.”
“See? I didn’t even realize people out there did this,” she murmured. “I would have felt a whole lot better the whole time I was being held hostage if I had thought there was any hope of somebody being out there, looking for me.”
“Well, in this case, you still needed somebody who cared for you,” he said. “Cared enough to make that phone call.”
“And Dad does. Which is why I have to make sure that we get him back safe.”
“We’re on it, remember?”
She nodded.
“And, by the way, we found several more cases, looking like your second kidnapper.”
She shook her head. “That bastard needs to pay for his crimes,” she said. “Somebody needs to slice his legs wide open and leave him for the rats.”
“There’s the spirit,” he said. “Better to feel anger than to feel fear around people like him and Max.”
She looked up, smiled, and gave him a big hug. “I don’t know what it is about you,” she said, “but I seem to be feeling better and better all the time.”
“It’s because you got some rest and relaxed a bit and let that leg of yours heal.”
“It’s coming along,” she said.
“Maybe, but it’s still got a long way to go,” he said.
“Well, it’ll just have to wait,” she said. “You can argue with me about that when my father is safe.”
“Well, I won’t be arguing with you then either,” he said. “I’ll have you tucked into bed, on strict bed rest.”
“Are you coming to bed with me too?” she teased.
He looked at her in surprise.
She flashed him a smile and said, “Of all the things that I’ve learned with this series of events is that you don’t know from one day to the next just what the hell’s coming your way. So, if this is something I want, I should probably ask for it.”
“You know what? I’m not against the idea,” he said. “Believe me. I’m not. I just want to make sure that it’s got nothing to do with gratitude or something along those lines.”
Chapter 9
“Oh boy,” Stacey said. “I get how you wouldn’t want a personal relationship based on gratitude in your world. I hadn’t even considered it though, since that’s not how I see you.”
“Good, because I’m not any kind of knight in shining armor.”
“Absolutely,” she said firmly. “How about my shiny knight in armor instead? And I hope you stay that way.”
“Don’t put me on a pedestal,” he said seriously. “It’s too hard to stay up there.”
She looked at him with genuine surprise, then nodded. “You’re right, and I didn’t mean to make you feel like I wasn’t grounded in reality here,” she said. “I’m just, you know, if I say I’m grateful, then you’ll think it’s a matter of gratitude all over again.”
“Well, it is,” he said.
“It is, and it isn’t. I can be grateful for all you’ve done, yet still have an interest in you on a completely different level. Of course, other factors should be considered also—the pain, fear, head injury, adrenaline, guilt. All of that weighs in somehow as well.”
“Good,” he said. “In that case, hold that thought.”
“What thought was that?” she asked in confusion.
He laughed and said, “Don’t tell me that you’ve already forgotten? You know—your invitation, to, uh, go to bed.”
“Oh that,” she said and then burst out laughing. “I haven’t forgotten. The offer still stands.”
“And I’ll take you up on it,” he said, “but not until all this is over.”
“That works for me too,” she said. “Maybe we should go away for a few days and really get to know each other, without all this in the way.”
“Hey, I’m all for that,” he said. “A few days somewhere warm, with a beach, where that leg can get lots of sunshine.”
“I’m good with that too. I have access to a cabin close to Redding,” she said. “So, if that appeals?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “How about a weekend?”
“How about a week?” she said.
“Even better.”
“Okay, so if you two are done arranging your futures or whatever,” Hatch said, with a teasing glint in his eye, “do you think we could get at it?”
She glared at him. “We weren’t ignoring where we are.”
“No, of course not,” Hatch said, chuckling. “But all of us just heard you make arrangements for a week away. We even know where you’re going.”
She flushed. “I guess we weren’t exactly keeping things private, were we?”
“It’s all good,” he said cheerfully. “I’ve been telling Killian that he should be doing just what you did.”
“What did I do?”
“Made a move and hooked yourselves up together,” he said. “I told him that he should have done that a while ago.”
“Really?” she said in delight.
“Yep. It’s obvious to me that this is a relationship that needs to be explored.”
“Well, I think you’re right,” she said. “I just hadn’t really seen it, until I woke up this last time.”
“Right,” Killian said, with a roll of his eyes. “How the hell does that work?”
“I don’t know,” she said, facing him. “Just, when I woke up, I saw the tilt of your lips and the shape of your profile, and suddenly I felt like I was home or something. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“No, I get it,” Killian said quietly. “It’s just one of those things.”
“It is, indeed. And it feels good. I’d like to see where it goes.”
“Me too.”
With that, Hatch said, “Hello, I’m still here.”
She grinned at him. “Yep, and that makes it even more special.”
He rolled his eyes and said, “Okay, that’s … Let’s go.” He followed them off the cargo plane, heading toward some SUVs parked nearby.
“I thought we’re going in different vehicles?”
“We are,” Hatch said. “Killian is driving you guys in that one, and I’m taking this one.” With a casual wave, Hatch lifted his hand and hopped into the driver’s seat.
She looked over at Killian, as they kept walking. “Seriously, he’s leaving us?”
“He will follow us,” he said. “Just on a different avenue.” He pointed at the vehicle up ahead. “This is ours.”
“I don’t know how you guys keep all this stuff straight,” she confessed.
“It’s not that hard, but it’s not easy either. It just takes practice, and I’ve been doing this a long time.”
“How long?”
And that started off a stream of questions that she couldn’t seem to stop asking.
Finally he laughed and said, “Hold on. I need to pay attention here. We’re coming up on where we want to go.”
At that, she stopped, looked at him, and asked, “Where’s that?”
He smiled and said, “A rendezvous point for your father.”
She gasped. “Already?” Just that quickly, the color drained from her face.
“Yep, already.”
“Because there’s no way to make it easy,” he said. “This is what we’re facing right now.”
“Okay,” she said, but her voice was faint.
“Don’t pass out on me now,” he said.
She shook her head and replied, “Never. I wouldn’t give that bastard the satisfaction.”
“Well, hopefully you won’t have to see him or deal with him,” he said. “We have several other men in play this time around.”
“Good,” she said. “I feel better, knowing that we’re not going into this alone.”
“Nope, we’re not,” he said. “I have to ensure we have as much going for us as we can.”
“Got it,” she said, as she took a deep breath. “As long as my father is still alive.”
“He is, as far as we know, and that’s what we must hang on to.”
“Got it,” she said. “Then let’s go. Let’s go rescue my dad.”
If only it were that easy. It sounded good, but, at the same time, Killian and Hatch and the team were painfully aware of a few hiccups. And one was that there was a good chance her father was already gone.
Killian parked the SUV and got out, coming around to open her door. She stood beside him and now faced Killian. “What’s the plan?” Meanwhile Hatch jogged off on his own. She frowned at that.
“We need more than a plan to just hand you over,” he said. “I don’t trust that Max is coming alone with your father.”
“Not in any way, shape, or form,” she said quietly. “I never thought he was the kind to get his hands dirty, until he started beating me,” she said. “And then I realized he just saved the best ones for himself.”
“Meaning that, he will be there in person when we supposedly hand you over?”
“Absolutely, and then he’ll take me off someplace else, where he can take his time.”
“Well, that won’t happen,” Killian said. He saw the hope, and the fear, warring in her expression. He reached over with a muffled exclamation and pulled her into his arms and just held her. “I promise.”
She nodded, but he could tell she didn’t believe him. She stepped back a moment, looked up at him, and said, “I know that’s what you believe,” she said. “But, the truth of the matter is, sometimes things happen out of our control, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it.”
“That’s true, but an awful lot that we can do is within our control,” he murmured. “And that’s what I’ll focus on.”
She sighed. “Do we have any more details?”
“Yes,” Killian said, lifting his phone. “Apparently a wooded area is about ten miles from here,” he said. “I’ll bring it up on the GPS. Hunting…”
“Huntington Woods,” she said instantly.
He glanced at her and nodded. “You know it?”
“I do. We’re in Texas? I thought we were going to Dad’s house in Florida?”
Killian shook his head. “Max brought your father here, on Max’s home turf.”
“Figures. My husband and I used to walk there all the time. It’s fairly close to his house, and the woods are wild looking, with lots of trails and pathways through the brush. One time we saw coyotes and a few other critters. So it’s definitely got that wilderness edge to it.”
“What else can you tell me about it?”
“Not a whole lot. Not really anything to tell,” she admitted. “Let me think though.” Closing her eyes, she said, “There’s an entrance off Parkway Avenue, with a little bit of a parking lot, room for maybe three vehicles,” she said, keeping her eyes closed. “As you walk in, a sign with a direction arrow points out the path.” Mentally, it looked like she was walking forward, as she said, “When we get to the far side of the path, there is another entrance and another exit, and it goes to Wilbur Street on the other side. Then, as you come back and around, it leads you up to Huntington Woods again.”
“Okay,” he said. “Good job. So three entrances and exits. Any idea how big the wooded area is?”
Her eyes flew open. “I’m terrible with size and distance,” she said apologetically.
“Okay, don’t even think about that. Let’s look at it differently. How long does it take you to walk it?”
“If we go at a stroll all the way around, it’s about forty-five minutes,” she said, as she tilted her head, thinking about it. “If we get angry and have a fight on the way, it takes about two-thirds of that time,” she said. “A creek runs through it, with a little bridge over it. Every once in a while, ducks are there. I always like to stop and enjoy the birds and various wildlife,” she said.
“Okay, that’s helpful,” he said. “Is it heavily wooded, as in blocking out the sunlight, or is it thinly treed, with a little bit of cedar or a little bit of, you know, evergreen here and there?”
“Thick,” she said immediately. “It’s often very hard to find your way through it because it can be quite dark. If you don’t stay on the path, I imagine it would be very easy to get lost, but the park’s not that big. So you could walk from one side to the other, without any trouble, and eventually find your way out.”
“So, in other words, it’ll be full of natural hiding places.”
Her mouth formed an O, as she looked at him and then nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Plus I have some memories there that are likely to throw me off.”
“Why is that?”
“Max hit me there once and chased me, and when he, … when I finally collapsed, he acted like I had been the one completely out of control. Like he was wondering what was wrong with me, why had I taken off.”
“You said he hit you?”
“Well, I thought so at the time, but then he had me convinced that it was a limb that came out and smacked me across the jaw. That I jumped to conclusions and overreacted when I bounded to my feet and bolted,” she said. “Just call it a Neanderthal reflex. It wasn’t until later, another time that he was punching me, that he’d admitted that it wasn’t a branch and that he had hit me that day and what an idiot I was for being so gullible as to believe him. Besides, how could I have not seen him punch me right in the face?”
“He’s quite the bastard, isn’t he?”
“He was very much into mind games,” she said quietly. “At one point in time, you’re not even sure what is a game and what isn’t.”
“It’s hard to discern the truth because you’ve been tangled up listening to him go back and forth with his lies for so long that you believed him, at least partially. And that’s pretty normal. It’s also how abusers groom their victims, so stop taking that on yourself.”
“Anyway,” she said, “I’m sure that’s why he chose that location deliberately. Just to mess with my head.”
“So, if we were to look at that, do you think there’s any hidden meaning?”
“Sure,” she said. “Do I think that he’s likely to be playing another mind game? Absolutely. What about a shooter in the trees?”
“Well, that’s always possible,” Killian said. “I just don’t know.”
“Why wouldn’t he? He’s not the kind of guy who’ll lose,” she said.
“But is he this kind of guy who wants the world to find out that he beats up women?”
“Well, his buddy knows absolutely. Did you ever find James?”
“No, but we have people out looking for him.”
“If he knows I had anything to do with that bull’s-eye on James’s back,” she said, “Max will be furious.”
“On his own behalf or on his friend’s?”
“Both,” she said. “They’re very close. He seems very protective of James Dean, and I think they both have a kindred mind-set. I’ve never seen James with a girlfriend, and I think that’s because he’s the kind of guy who … likes to beat them up. And probably overnighters only.”
“Interesting.”
“Yet he has friends. Don’t ever doubt that.”
“Sure, but I can’t imagine that he has too many, with that mind-set,�
� Killian said. “He doesn’t need anybody else. He’s already a sadist, and the fact that the sadist has found Max, another friend of the same ilk,” he said, “well, that’s bad news for the world. They don’t need anybody else. They’ll feed off of each other and each other’s deeds. So you would just likely be a starting point.”
“Oh,” she said, “I’m not even sure about a starting point.”
“Mary, right. You said he’d been married before.”
She nodded slowly. “Yes, I did. We might need to look into what happened to her.”
“We’re already waiting for information on that,” he said quietly.
“I really was a fool, wasn’t I?”
“You were blinded by love and believed what was in front of you,” he said. “That isn’t what makes you a fool.”
“Oh, you mean something else does?” she said in exasperation.
He burst out laughing.
She shook her head. “How can we be laughing at a time like this?”
“Because it’s good for the soul,” he said. “You have to relax and let some things happen, the way they have to happen.”
“None of that makes any sense to me,” she said.
“I get that.” Just then, his phone rang. He answered Hatch’s call and put it on speaker.
“We have two men in position,” Hatch said.
“Where?”
“Huntington Woods,” Hatch replied.
She nodded. “Let’s go then,” she said. “No time like the present, and I don’t know how much time my father has.”
Both men were silent for a hair too long, and she was on to them. “You don’t think he’s alive, do you?” she asked.
“I think he is alive,” Killian said, with that note of surety because he really did believe it.
She looked at him in surprise. “So what was that silence for?”
“We don’t think he’ll stay that way for long,” Hatch said, then ended the call.
Chapter 10
Stacey’s heart pounded as Killian drove her toward Huntington Woods. Something about Hatch’s voice, that note of finality in what he had said, made her want to throw up. Especially since she knew Killian felt the same way. Yet she wanted to get on with it, to get her husband’s throat in her hands, and to squeeze the life out of him for what he had done to her and now her father. But, for her father, she felt terror and worried that he had been taken to the point where he could never recover. Even mentally, she knew it would be hard for him, no matter what happened physically.