Heart of a Hunter

by Sylvie Kurtz

  As he focused on the depressions in the snow, he tried to separate emotions from responsibility, but they were meshed as tight as chicken wire. This time, he could not separate Liv and work. He could not leave one to find the other. A failure now would cost him more than his life—it would cost him his soul. He shivered, hunched his shoulders and forced his mind back to the tracks in the snow.

  Liv, where are you?

  He’d find her. He’d protect her. He didn’t want to think beyond that.

  As he entered the woods, he spied a navy glove sugared with snow.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Cari,” Liv said as she tried to lift her niece’s unconscious weight. “Wake up.”

  Cari moaned, twisted her head from side to side and gagged. “Sick.”

  Great, Liv thought, just what we don’t need. They had to get out of here now. She’d had to spend too much time resting while she freed their hands and legs. On the other hand, throwing up would get the poison out of Cari’s system and maybe they could move faster. Liv reached for one of the sap buckets and supported Cari as she vomited into it. Sympathetic waves of nausea swirled in Liv’s stomach. She patted her niece’s back. “You’re doing fine, Cari.”

  Cari whimpered. “I told you to stay home.”

  “I couldn’t let you go alone.”

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “We’ll talk later. Right now we have to go.”

  Cari clung to the sides of the bucket as her stomach heaved more of its contents. “He said he understood. He knew what it was like to be accused of doing something you hadn’t done. Just like Daddy.” Her voice hitched. “He said he loved me.”

  “It’s okay.” Liv felt sorry for Cari, so young and trusting. An easy recipe for a broken heart. “We need to get out of here before he comes back.”

  Panting, Cari nodded and tried to get up. Her feet slid from underneath her. She sobbed. “I can’t. You go.”

  Liv tugged at Cari, attempting to find a hold on the slippery jacket. But Liv was too weak. Her muscles refused to clasp strongly enough to heft Cari. Had Olivia been this helpless before her accident? “Help me, Cari.”

  “You weren’t supposed to get hurt.”

  “I’m fine.” Liv shifted her weight, bracing. “Put your arm around my shoulders.”

  Cari whipped a slack arm. It slid right off Liv’s shoulders. “Sebastian. He was the one who was supposed to feel what it was like to be scared for someone you love.”

  “Come on, Cari, help me.” Liv braced her legs and pushed herself up, dragging Cari up with her.

  “He wouldn’t help Dad, Liv.”

  How could someone as slight as Cari feel as if she weighed a ton? Liv adjusted her hold. “Well, people like your friend don’t seem to help anyone but themselves.”

  “Sebastian. If he’d helped him, Dad would still be alive. Said it was too late. Dad had to face his mistakes.”

  Liv attempted to move forward only to have Cari list backwards. “Well, then, I’m sure that’s true.”

  “Daddy was a good man.” Cari grabbed on to the collar of Liv’s jacket. “It was just money, Liv. Sebastian should’ve helped him. He said he didn’t have access to your money. But he never asked you. You would’ve helped. Daddy died because Sebastian wouldn’t help him.”

  Liv used Cari’s tight hold to propel them forward. “Even good men can make mistakes.”

  “I miss him.”

  “I know you do, sweetie.” Liv prodded another step out of Cari. “Losing someone you love hurts.”

  “My fault.” Cari bent at the waist, nearly taking Liv with her as she dry heaved.

  “We can sort it out later. Let’s try to make it out the door. Just a couple more steps. Come on. There you go.”

  “I told Thor what Sebastian found. I tricked the security system like he told me. I let him in.”

  “That’s all in the past now, Cari. What’s important is that we get out of here.”

  “I can’t, Liv. The walls are spinning.” Cari slid right down the side of Liv’s body and landed in a heap at her feet, unconscious once more.

  The door of the sugar house squealed. Gasping, Liv turned from her pretzeled position as she tried to lift Cari and faced Cari’s friend. He leaned against the door frame, a dark silhouette against the gray haze of the storm. Her stomach pitched, surging a wave of acid up her throat.

  “Well, well, what have we here?”

  He uncurled himself from the door frame like a snake from a warm rock and struck her before she had time to react. She fell onto her back, as helpless as a turtle turned over on its shell.

  He smiled down at her. A flat, mean smile. “I leave for a few minutes and come back to this.” He wound a fresh length of rope around her wrists. Interlacing her fingers, she pressed against the cruel pull of the rope, creating a pocket of space between her wrists, yet letting him think the knot was tight.

  “It won’t be long now,” he said. “I saw your husband coming home. He’ll join us in no time.” His cold smile widened. “He won’t be able to miss the crumbs I left behind.”

  He pulled the rusty card chair from its position against the evaporator pans and plunked it before the front window. From the corner, he watched the trail. “I expect he’ll try to circle around to catch me unaware. But I didn’t leave him a choice. He’ll have to come out front.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Liv struggled to find a way to keep her heart from jumping right out of her chest.

  He shrugged. “They owe me.”

  “What does Sebastian owe you?” She flattened her hands and tried to wriggle out of the loosened rope, hoping the sound of her voice would mask her activity.

  With narrowed eyes, he turned on her. A gun appeared in his hands—a black, unblinking eye pointed right at her head. “Shut up!”

  “I’m just trying to understand.” Her knees rattled one against the other. She draped the rope over her freed wrists and held the loose ends in her fists.

  He waved the gun. “And I said shut up.”

  She ought to fight. She ought to do something, not just sit there like a lump. But her heart was thundering, her pulse was all out of kilter and her muscles felt like overcooked noodles. And he was armed. What could she do against a gun? Dead, she wouldn’t do Cari any good. Dead, she couldn’t warn Sebastian. Tears burned her eyes. She blinked them back. Stay alert. Stay alive. Whatever it took. She would not let him hurt the people she loved. She’d lost too much of herself already.

  Minutes later, Cari’s friend rose from the chair and lifted the gun in a shooting stance, aiming it at the door.

  “Right on cue.” He smiled a jackal’s smile. He pulled on the rope he’d rigged to the door handle.

  Sebastian. A spurt of joy gushed through her, quickly replaced with a bloom of dread. “He has a gun,” Liv yelled and dropped the rope from her wrists.

  “Come on in, Deputy Marshal. We’ve been waiting for you.”

  “Put the gun down, Nathan. You’re surrounded.”

  Sebastian’s voice came from outside, but Liv couldn’t see him. “He’s going to kill you.” She glanced at the ax near the woodpile. Could she get to it before Nathan turned his gun on her? She inched sideways. “No matter what you do, he’s going to kill you. Run!”

  “I know you’re alone.” Nathan whipped his arm around and pointed it at Liv, stopping her in her tracks. He stood sideways, invisible to Sebastian on the other side of the door. “Drop your gun or your wife dies.”

  Liv did not want to die. She didn’t want Sebastian to die. She didn’t even want this hard-hearted man to die. Springing up with energy she didn’t know she possessed, she lunged at Nathan’s legs. But he anticipated her clumsy effort. His steel-toed boot connected solidly with her rib cage. Cari’s unconscious body broke her fall. Dust rose from the feed bags, making her cough and blinding her for a second.

  “Next time,” Nathan said, eyes narrowed and gaze lethal. “Straight to the heart.”

  Liv
heard the clatter of Sebastian’s gun hitting the wood floor. “No, Sebastian, don’t listen to him!” Holding her aching ribs, she scrambled up.

  “Kick it toward me,” Nathan said. The gun slid into view. He picked it up and tucked it in the small of his back. “Now hands up and come on in. It’s not polite to stand outside when you’ve been invited in. Even white trash has some manners.”

  Sebastian walked in, and her heart sank. Fear was a live fire in her blood. All the hope she’d held close to her heart evaporated.

  Liv watched Sebastian pick out shades of possibilities. He was all muscle, adrenaline and determination. He was Atlas, shoulders bent and curbed, against the weight of the world. He was Zeus with the lightning of judgment in his hands. And just as she’d known that day in the parking lot in the hospital, he would die to see her safe. She couldn’t let him. Nathan had no intentions of letting any of them live.

  “Sit.” Nathan waved the gun in the direction of the rusty card chair in the corner.

  Sebastian took a backward step toward the chair.

  Liv coughed to get Sebastian’s attention. When their gazes connected, she silently drew it down her arm to her hand. Slowly, she reached her hand toward the burlap bag wedged beneath a box of bottles on the workbench.

  Sebastian took another step back.

  “Let’s hurry it up,” Nathan growled. “I don’t have all night for this.”

  Sebastian reached the chair, but didn’t sit. Every muscle was poised for action. With eye movements, Liv communicated her intentions to him. Nothing in him moved. He gave her no acknowledgment except a flicker of love quickly replaced by a flutter of fear in the dark intensity of his eyes. Each gave her courage.

  Nathan waved the gun. “Sit.”

  Sebastian sat.

  “Pull out your handcuffs. Slowly.”

  While Sebastian reached for the cuffs at his belt, Liv silently counted down from three to one with the fingers of her left hand so Sebastian could see. The look in Sebastian’s eyes hardened to a No as loud as if he’d shouted it. But she had to keep going. She had to give them a fighting chance before Nathan handcuffed Sebastian to the chair. As her last finger curled back into her fist, she yanked on the burlap.

  The box whispered against the wood of the workbench. It hung for an eternity on the edge. Then it bounced against her shoulder and crashed against the floor, spilling shards of glass halfway across the floor.

  Instinctively, Nathan jerked his head to look at the commotion.

  In a flash, Sebastian was out of the chair and parallel to Nathan’s gun. He locked Nathan’s wrist with his left hand, grabbed the gun barrel with his right hand.

  He was going to get shot. He was going to die. Frantically, she scampered toward the ax on her hands and knees.

  Sebastian pushed down on Nathan’s wrist with his left hand while pulling up on the gun barrel with his right hand, breaking Nathan’s trigger finger.

  Liv grasped the ax with both hands and rushed at Nathan.

  Folding over at the waist, Nathan screamed. Without wasting a second, Sebastian thrust the gun straight down toward the ground. The gun slipped out of Nathan’s hand. With a quick side step, Sebastian scooped up the gun and moved out of Nathan’s reach.

  Relief seemed to turn her bones to jelly. The ax slid from her hands.

  “On the ground,” Sebastian yelled, holding Nathan at gunpoint. “Now.”

  Breathing heavily and holding his limp hand against his waist, Nathan spat in Sebastian’s direction. “You think you’ve won.” He laughed with the glee of a hyena. “You can kill me now, and I’ll still get the last word.”

  “I’m not the one looking at the wrong end of a weapon.”

  “I’ve got nothing.” Nathan was hyperventilating now. “And nothing’s what I’m going to leave you with.”

  “On the ground. Now.”

  “Five years.” Nathan shook his head. “That’s what you cost me. Probation. They told me I’d get probation if I said I’d done what Bernie did. I was going to get out of here. Start all over. A fresh new life. She promised. All I had to say was that Bernie was innocent.” He sneered. “I believed her. I believed him. I believed that greaseball lawyer.” Nathan swore. “Then you caught Bernie, and she spent the money she’d promised me on Bernie’s appeals. An example, the judge said when he sentenced me. You have to pay.”

  Sebastian seemed to have the situation in hand, but Liv wasn’t taking any chances. Moving as surreptitiously as she could, she grabbed the metal card chair by the legs. Pinching her lips between her teeth against the pain in her ribs, she heaved the chair up, then brought the chair’s back down on Nathan’s head.

  He crumpled like tissue.

  Gun still pointed at Nathan, Sebastian reached for her and drew her close. “Are you okay?” he asked, kissing the top of her head. Nothing had ever felt so good.

  “I’m fine.” She shook so hard her teeth rattled. “He drugged Cari.”

  “Reach in my coat pocket and get my phone out. We’ll get some help out here.”

  Just as her hands wrapped around the cold plastic of the phone, Skyralov and Reed burst through the sugar house’s front door.

  “Figures,” Sebastian said, smiling. “The hard work’s done, so you guys show up.”

  “You know Hollywood,” Skyralov said, gun drawn, gaze taking in the whole situation. “He doesn’t like to get his suit dirty.”

  “We’d have been here sooner—” Reed whipped handcuffs from his belt and cranked them around Nathan’s wrists, “—but Cowboy had to stop for lunch. Two cheese-burgers with fries, a chef’s salad and apple pie. And you know what he orders to drink?”

  “What?” Liv asked, suddenly feeling so alive the whole world looked bright in spite of the gray skies.

  “Green tea.” Reed shook his head. “For digestion, he said.”

  Laughter rumbled through the room, cutting the tension.

  “Let’s go home.” Sebastian held her as if he never intended to let her go. That was just fine with her. She had no intention of letting him out of her sight for a long, long time.

  Liv smiled up at him. “Let’s.”

  Skyralov slung a shackled Nathan over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Reed hoisted a moaning Cari into his arms. Sebastian closed the door of the sugar house with a decisive click.

  Liv sighed as she sunk contentedly into his embracing hold. It was over. Now they could move on. They could bury Olivia and start their new life as a team.

  “Where’s your wedding ring?” Sebastian asked, frowning as he rubbed his thumb up and down her finger.

  She glanced down at her bare finger, thought of the trunk filled with pieces of Olivia. “Long story.” She smiled up at him. “But I was hoping we’d renew our vows.”

  A long sigh escaped him and a smile shone on his face. “I think we can arrange that.”

  As they stepped onto the trail back home, a boom shook the ground. Then the whole sky lit up in a blaze of orange fire and black smoke.

  Liv’s grip choked Sebastian’s arm. “Paula.”

  Epilogue

  Wind whipped around Sebastian. He welcomed its bite. The bright blue of the sky was insult enough to the blackened wreckage that was his home. The last thing he wanted was the caress of a warm breeze.

  It was over. All of it.

  Yesterday afternoon, Skyralov and Reed had left Paula in Mario’s care at the gatehouse, then followed his tracks to the sugar house. They’d asked Paula to divert Kingsley their way when he got back from the hospital. When Sebastian and the rest of his group had emerged from the woods, they’d found Paula and Mario huddled together outside the gatehouse, staring at the spectacle of the Aerie burning. The local volunteer firemen had done their best but the blast Nathan had set was too strong to salvage any part of the house. Even the stone fireplace lay crumbled on its side as if someone had broken its spine.

  Mercer would spend one more day at the hospital. He’d suffered a concussion when Nathan had c
racked a branch over his skull. When Nathan had dumped Mercer’s body down a narrow crag, Mercer had broken an ankle and a wrist. As he’d fallen, he’d bounced off the granite wall and landed on a ledge. If he hadn’t, Kingsley might not have found his body until it was too late. From what Kingsley had gathered, Nathan had caught Mercer by surprise as he released a deer from a plastic six-pack-ring hobble.

  Wiser and sadder, Cari had revived quiet and contrite. She would have to deal with her part in Olivia’s accident. Paula would have to deal with her failure toward Cari. They were both back home in Nashua, unable yet to accept Liv’s forgiveness. It would come with time. The ties between these women were too strong to snap so easily. He could see that now and was no longer jealous of their shared history. At Liv’s urging, Mario had packed his remaining hawk and had gone to watch over Paula and Cari. They were in good hands.

  Sebastian and Liv now occupied the gatehouse—until he could decide what came next.

  Alone for the first time in weeks, he was feeling adrift, torn between wanting to be here with Liv and the need to put people like the Kershaw brothers in jail where they belonged.

  The hiss of snow as a charred supporting beam shifted brought Sebastian back to the ruin of his home.

  He was no stranger to the sight of devastation. That was the territory he entered when he hunted. The lowest of the low. The baddest of the bad. The filthiest of the filth. But he hadn’t stood by and watched life pass him. He’d done something. He’d made a difference. Being idle, that was something new.

  The Aerie had made it possible to seek out evil and remain sane. The Aerie and Olivia.

  They were both gone now. The Aerie lay in smoking ruins. Olivia was locked in some broken place of Liv’s brain.

  And his career was finished.

  He could no longer pretend that things would go back to the way they were before.

  If he’d bent the rules and regulations to further an investigation, Sutton would have stood behind him. But Sutton had warned him off, ordered him to close the case, and given him a directive to silence Weld. And Sebastian had kept pushing—strictly for personal reasons—and he’d chosen to disregard orders. He’d put his duty to the Service second to his own. Not only that, he’d involved a whole team of good men and jeopardized their careers. They would all have to face an internal investigation.