Atonement

by Winter Austin

  “I slept plenty at the hospital last night.”

  “Damn it, Nic, I promised the doc I wouldn’t let you do anything to possibly cause your untimely death.”

  “I didn’t break the barriers that prevented women from being snipers to be set back by a bump on my head.” She pushed him aside to leave.

  Con grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her back. “Not so fast. We do this right, properly. Too many rash decisions have led to Cassy being kidnapped and you coming close to it. I can’t risk having something happen to you again.”

  The sincerity in his voice undid her resolve. She reached up and brushed her fingertips against his bristled cheek. Despite being pushy and hovering on the point of utter annoyance, he’d been everything The General and Aiden hadn’t been: supportive, caring, determined not to let her fail—alone. She cupped his face, letting her thumb rub his lips.

  “Con, I don’t deserve you.”

  He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her skinned knuckles. “Don’t be a stubborn cuss about this. Agent Hunt is as scared shiteless as you are about Cassy, and right now he’s at Patrick’s apartment tearing it apart. I’m expecting a call from him any minute.”

  “What about Hamilton?”

  “The sheriff is there with Hunt. The police chief is sending uniformed officers out searching for any trace of an abandoned car, starting from the place where your cowboy rescuer found you.”

  “I can’t sit here and do nothing.”

  “Be patient. Running off half-cocked is only going to make this worse.” Con sighed and drew her close to him. “Don’t shoot me, but there is something you could do that’s going to be painful.”

  She tensed in his arms. She wanted to know, but a piece of her was telling her not to ask. She ignored the warning side. “What?”

  “Tell your parents. They need to know.”

  “Whoa.” Nic staggered out of his arms and shook her head. “Not in a million years … Maybe I’d tell Emma, but not The General.”

  Con reached for her, and she waved him away, stepping back further.

  “They need to know one way or another, Nic. Emma is Cassy’s mother—would you deny her that right?”

  “Were you not here this afternoon when I blew the lid off his dirty little secret? Once he finds out Cassy is missing and I’m at fault … ” She buried her fingers in her matted hair, her chest heaving with each breath. “I can’t do it.”

  “Nic—”

  “No! Someone else can tell them. Just not me. It can’t be me.”

  Nic had never been afraid of much in her life, but the thought of telling The General that his treasured daughter was missing, kidnapped by a deranged killer, and the daughter he despised was safe from harm made her sick.

  “He’ll blame me, just like he blamed me for my mother’s death.”

  Con took hold of her arm and tugged her back into the comfort of his embrace. “I’ll be right there with you.” He smoothed back her tangled hair. “I won’t let you out of my sight again.”

  “You don’t understand,” she said, her voice muffled by his chest. “We’re better off leaving my parents in the dark and looking for Cassy. Once The General knows, all hell will break loose.”

  “I know it’s not going to be easy, but, Nic, it’s got to be done, and it’ll be easier coming from you.”

  Was he that thickheaded? Were her words going in one ear and out the other? How could he be so blind as to the kind of man The General was and think that nothing bad would happen?

  A wet nose butted her hand. She peeked over Con’s bulging arm to look into liquid brown eyes gazing up at her in expectation. Cadno cocked his head to the side, and his eyebrows did a bob. Hmm. This dog had trekked through unknown territory to track her down in the rain. If the patrols failed on their own, would he be willing to do it? What was she thinking—of course he would, but she shouldn’t make him. He was retired and should stay that way.

  Yet, looking into his eyes, Nic saw Cadno’s courage and loyalty, and they were enough to spark some courage of her own.

  “I’ll call them, but you can’t go any farther than six inches from me.”

  Con kissed her forehead. “Promise,” he whispered.

  His phone rang, vibrating between the two of them. Nic backed away as he pulled the phone from his pocket.

  “It’s Agent Hunt,” he said. Perhaps the expected phone call would deter Con from making her confront her father and stepmother about Cassy’s abduction. She could only hope.

  Con grunted a few responses and then ended the call. “He’s got something we need to see. Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the bedroom.

  Nic dug in her heels and slipped free. “Hang on. I need something.”

  “What could you need?”

  Getting down on all fours, she reached under the bed and pulled out the case. The locks popped, and she lifted the lid, revealing the gleaming three-oh-eight. The rifle was a cut above the Remington she normally used in long-distance shootings, and she’d only used it in target practice and to sight in the scope. Amazingly, when Cassy had gone through the house and hidden all the guns, she’d overlooked this weapon, which was a good thing, because Nic would have gone into meltdown mode. She’d put a mint down on this baby and its expensive scope.

  “What is that?” Con asked.

  Nic licked her lips and relocked the clasps. “My insurance policy.” She climbed to her feet, hefting the case onto her bed, and moved to the closet where she kept the special ammo—another thing Cassy missed, thankfully.

  “I swear you keep a small arsenal in this house.”

  Pulling five boxes out of their hiding spot, she popped the tops and counted two bullets per box. Five might be excessive, but better safe than sorry. She grabbed up her arsenal and turned to Con. “Let’s go.”

  • • •

  They didn’t go to Patrick’s apartment above the Killdeer Pub first. Nic wanted to disappear into the seat as Con pulled into the hotel parking lot.

  “You couldn’t have waited another hour or ten?” she asked under her breath.

  Con turned off the engine, then reached out and took her hand. “You never do things the easy way, so why would you think I’d let you stop now?”

  After giving her hand a squeeze, he released it and then vacated his truck. With a sigh, Nic followed suit. Twenty-four hours ago she’d entered this building and demanded The General leave. Twenty-four hours ago her sister was still safe, Nic’s secret was still locked away from those closest to her, and a killer was plotting to abduct the Rivers sisters. She paused to look back at the horizon where the first red and orange streaks of light were appearing through the near-skeletal trees.

  He was out there. Patrick was out there in those wooded areas with her sister doing God knows what to her.

  “So many trees,” she said, mostly to herself.

  Con squinted against the increasing glare of the rising sun. “What are you thinking?”

  “That he’s hiding her somewhere in the timber areas. How many abandoned farm buildings or places do you think are out there?”

  “It’s hard to say. Most farmers—”

  “Nic?”

  She turned at the sound of Emma’s voice. Her stepmother rushed across the lot and grabbed Nic by the shoulders, shaking her.

  “Where is he?”

  Wincing at the pain shooting from her injuries, Nic gripped Emma’s wrists and broke their contact. “Where’s who?”

  “Your father. He’s missing. He left the hotel hours ago to take a walk, and I can’t get a hold of him on his cell phone.”

  “Did you try the local bars?” Con asked.

  Emma’s gaze could have burned holes through him. “You don’t think I’ve already done that? According to them, he hasn’t stepped foot in any of them.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?” Nic insisted.

  “Would you have believed me?”

  No, actually she wouldn’t. Worst part of this
was, Nic had the to drop the “Cassy is missing” bomb on Emma.

  “Why are you here?” Emma asked.

  Nic glanced at Con, who gave her a curt nod, and then she shored up her emotional walls and braced for the breakdown her stepmother might have once the shock wore off.

  “Cassy’s been abducted.”

  Emma’s face lost its remaining bit of color, and she gaped at Nic. Her eyes turned watery. “No,” she said in a breathy voice.

  Nic hooked an arm around her stepmother’s shoulders, bracing for the collapse. “Emma, you need to sit down.” She tried to guide her to a bench outside the hotel, but her stepmother wouldn’t budge. Instead, she flung off Nic’s arm.

  “Don’t coddle me, Nicolette. You find those two, now.”

  It was Nic’s turn to gape. Here she was, expecting an emotional breakdown, but obviously Emma was made of tougher material.

  “I am trying to find Cassy. We stopped here to let you know.”

  “Now you have your father to locate.”

  Nic’s soul hardened at that thought. “You don’t even know that he’s truly missing. He could be holed up somewhere letting his transgressions eat away at his mind.”

  Emma scowled, her narrowed eyes making Nic want to actually back away. Nic hadn’t seen her stepmother look like this before. “You and I both know you’re just feeding yourself a bunch of crap to keep from acknowledging that he’s truly missing. I understand you and William don’t get along and never have, as long as I’ve known you both. But that is no excuse to shirk your duties as an officer of the law.”

  A gentle, heavy hand on Nic’s shoulder startled her a little. She’d momentarily forgotten Con was still there.

  “Emma’s right, Nic. There might be a connection to his disappearance and Cassy.”

  “Say there is—the longer we stand here debating the issue, the more time he has to brainwash Cassy.”

  Chapter Thirty-four

  “Patrick Keegan is an alias.”

  Nic wanted to grab Agent Hunt by the neck and choke him. “You knew this how long?”

  “Since the night we all went to the pub. I’d put in a request to have a few names checked, and his name popped. None of the known Patrick Keegans in the country look anything like him.”

  On that night, he’d gotten a mysterious phone call, which he had to leave to take. The urge to throttle him nearly put Nic in motion to go through with it.

  “You didn’t say a damn thing to anyone, including when we were considering him in the list of potential suspects.”

  “I told Cassy. She was trying to get close to him to either rule him out as a suspect or confirm it.”

  “What the hell? That’s what she was hiding? We didn’t even realize there was anyone assisting in the suicides until the day after.” Nic moved closer, ready to grab the arrogant FBI agent. “You put her right into the line of fire while you let the rest of us chase our asses? You stayed two steps ahead, which put Cassy in harm’s way and allowed two more people to die.”

  “Don’t get self-righteous with me, Deputy Rivers. I was here only in the capacity to assist when asked, and you didn’t ask.”

  What did her sister ever see in this man? It was a damn good thing she left her stepmother at the hotel under orders to stay locked in her room, because if Emma had heard what Agent Hunt had put Cassy up to, she might’ve ripped the man’s heart out. And that was what Nic planned on doing.

  Con gently put himself between her and Agent Hunt. The old Nic might have taken offense from the maneuver, but her rational side saw the reasoning. If her face showed even a hint of her murderous thoughts, Con had the right to be the buffer.

  “We need to move on. There is a woman in danger and a man missing, and both could be related. Agent Hunt, what have you found?”

  Nic watched as Agent Hunt produced a plastic evidence bag and tossed it onto the small folding table. She moved around Con to pick up the bag before he could. Inside was a rosary, a well-worn and broken one. She peered at the cracked beads.

  “It looks like he was mad about something and tried to break them,” Hunt said.

  “These match the bead we found at the Tomberlin scene. This puts him there.” Nic crumpled the bag in her hand. “Is that all?”

  “The sheriff is at the courthouse going through property holdings. We found some old surveyor maps and think he’s found some abandoned building to hole up in.”

  “Nic suspected he might be doing that,” Con said, “but we’re going to run into a huge problem there. If it’s abandoned, then the owner is either laid up in a nursing home somewhere with no memory of it or dead. And if there are any family members, they probably don’t live around here. We won’t have anyone to give a search warrant to.”

  “We’ll make do,” Agent Hunt stated and held out his hand for the evidence bag. “Right now, we worry ourselves with building a case against him. We can’t do much until the sheriff finds what we need and we narrow down our options.”

  “Bullshit,” Nic spat. “I’m not sitting around here waiting for some miracle to appear to light our path to him.” Using the MWD, which she vetoed earlier, looked pretty good right now. She gripped Con’s bicep. “If Cadno could find me in a drenched forest, he could track down Cassy.”

  “Using a tracking dog only works when you have a pinpointed area to start from,” Agent Hunt countered.

  Nic put her back to the man and looked into Con’s eyes. “He can do it, and I know where to start.”

  Indecision played across his face. Was he, too, thinking they were pushing it to make Cadno work like this? But he was an MWD, trained to do what no other dog could do. And he was their most valuable asset.

  “Con, he can do it.”

  “That’s not the problem.”

  She frowned. “Then, I don’t see—”

  “Nic, we have procedures for a reason. We have orders.”

  Anger coiled through her. Had he not been listening when she revealed what happened to that squad? Swallowing hard, she let go of the anger. No, she wouldn’t take her frustrations out on him. She just had to convince him of the opposite.

  Gently placing her hands on his shoulder, she felt the tension in him. Licking her lips, she stared into his eyes. “You’ve asked me to trust you, several times, and I’ve … done the impossible. Now I’m asking you to give me the benefit of the doubt here. Once upon a time I followed orders to the letter, and in the end I got shafted for it. I promised myself if I were ever put in a situation like that again, I’d go with my gut, do what was right over the orders of someone who wasn’t there. With Cadno, we can find Cassy and The General before our fellow officers will. Trust me.”

  The tension left Con’s shoulders, and his eyes cleared. Her reasoning had to be getting through to him.

  “Detective O’Hanlon, let the police do their work. She’s not even supposed to be on duty.”

  Nic pointed at Hunt. “Shove it. If you cared for Cassy half as much as you claim, you’d agree to this.” Desperation took hold of her. She clenched Con’s shirt in her fists. “Please. He found me, he’ll find her.”

  Slowly, Con dipped his chin down, and he gave her a slight nod. “Promise you’ll have his back?”

  She smiled. “Promise.”

  • • •

  As Con drove, he seethed. Patrick. Bloody Patrick Keegan was their suspect. All this time, the bastard had been hiding in plain sight. Right under Con’s nose. It made Con sick to think how close his mam and Farran had been to the mental case.

  He glanced in the rearview mirror at the woman in the back of his truck. Unlike Nic, his family had been spared. Guilt pricked his conscience for his relief at that thought; still, he didn’t want to be in her position. As much as Nic hated her da’, it still had to be eating at her that her old man could be in the clutches of that twisted bastard.

  Nic was prepping her three-oh-eight by putting on the sling and pocketing the bullets in her pants and the pouches on her belt. From his perch in the p
assenger seat, Cadno was watching her, his tongue lolled out and his eyes gleaming. If Con could read his dog’s mind, he was sure he’d see Cadno was remembering his days on patrol.

  Cadno leaned forward when Nic reached out. Con smiled as Cadno gave Nic permission to pet him. She stroked his head and gave him a good scratch behind the ear. Those two had bonded. Most likely in a way that Con and Cadno had not. They were both warriors, veterans, and Cadno had to have sensed that in Nic. Con caught her eye when she glanced at the rearview mirror. Worry mingled with something else in her gaze, and it made him tense. He wasn’t settled on her doing this. Every ethical fiber of his being wanted to turn this damn truck around and send her back home. But she’d asked him to give her what no one had before: trust in her capabilities.

  Three Eider police cars were parked haphazardly along the side of the road. He pulled his truck up behind the closest and parked. Cadno spun to face him, standing on the console. The German Shepherd’s entire body quivered, his anticipation sending out waves. Con didn’t know what Patrick was planning or why he hadn’t contacted Nic to demand she find him, but whatever the case might be, they weren’t about to let Patrick keep the upper hand. It ended here. Even if it meant him putting a bullet in Patrick’s head.

  Con exited the truck, waited for Cadno to jump down, and grabbed the leather leash. From the back, Nic slid out of the truck and slung the rifle sling over her shoulder. Con led the way toward his fellow Eider police officers.

  “Detective O’Hanlon, I don’t know if you’re going to have much success. We went over this area five times and couldn’t find a thing.”

  Con clapped the man’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll see what my dog can do.” He pressed his keys into his fellow officer’s hand. “If it’s not too much trouble, could you move my truck further up the road if we go out of sight?”

  “Sure thing.”

  The officer’s features tightened when he noticed Nic. “That FBI agent had the chief radio us to tell you he wants Keegan alive, if possible.”

  Nic’s smile held a hint of venom. “That might prove more problematic.”