She’d spent most of the night sponge bathing him to keep him cool. She didn’t know which was worse; the raging fever that weakened him or the hard chills that tore at his body causing him to shake like a man with malaria.
The chills had struck intermittently while she’d bathed him. One minute he was burning up, the next his body covered with goose bumps. She’d ended up crawling inside the sleeping bag with him and pulling him close to her body. It had taken nearly an hour to get him warm, then the fever returned. Exhausted, she felt as if she’d been in a battle.
She wrinkled her nose at the stench emitting from one of the pathways that led deeper into the mountainside. The odor seemed stronger in the fresh morning air. God, whatever was stored back there had to be in poor shape.
The horses neighed, the high-pitched sound jarring. Rearing up, Diablo yanked at his tether. He pawed the ground, wild-eyed. Lacey leapt to her feet, her attention on the animals.
What disturbed them this morning?
Then she heard it, the same snuffling, rustling sound she’d heard the night before. Lacey whipped around and faced the entrance. An ominous shadow filled the opening of the cave, blocking out what little light there was. She stared at the dark form silhouetted against the dim lighting.
OhmiGod.
A bear!
She blinked. Holy, hell. It was a bear all right, a damned big one that weighed at least six hundred and fifty pounds. It wasn’t just any bear, but a mean-ass grizzly with rows of knife-like teeth and black, beady eyes. Deadly claws, long and razor sharp, jutted from the end of its furry paws.
Oh joy, the perfect killing machine and she stood between it and its food. The damnable stench from somewhere deeper in the cave had to be the bear’s cache of chow. Obviously, it was meal time.
Her mind whirled. Her heart pounded. She couldn’t move or breathe.
Definitely a grizzly and here to make her life miserable, probably not long out of hibernation, and like the rattler, hungry as hell. She bet she looked like a delicious, digestible snack.
Lacey snatched up the rifle. By God, the last thing she wanted to become was bear shit in the woods. Cautiously and slowly, she backed up a step. The bear reared up on its two hind legs. Oh boy. The thing towered over her, a gigantic monster with the power to rip her to shreds. She jumped as it let out a loud roar, dropped on all fours and charged toward her.
Oh, crap. Was that saliva dripping from its mouth, like—I’m hungry and you’re-a-juicy-looking-steak, mouth-watering saliva?
Behind her, the horses pawed the ground furiously and neighed wildly. She glanced at Danger.
Dear God, what was she going to do?
Smokey blocked any thought of escape. The animal halted its lethal charge and sniffed the air.
Lacey leveled the rifle, finger tight on the trigger.
“No, don’t shoot. Don’t shoot, Lacey!”
The shot echoed through the cave, the bullet pinging off the cave wall. She’d missed the mark by a good two feet. The bear roared and lurched forward.
Lacey looked toward Danger, startled he was awake and had yelled at her. He rose unsteadily to his feet and yanked the rifle from her hands.
“Free the horses. Now!” he shouted, supporting himself against the rough surface of the rock wall as she hurried to free the animals. The horses reared up, their hoofs pawing the air uselessly before they dropped back to their feet and raced toward the bear. Diablo and one of the packhorses made it past the bear, one didn’t. The one lagging behind stumbled and the bear attacked it in a furious blur. Claws slashed and ripped. Teeth snapped and bit. The packhorse went down beneath the bear’s weight kicking and squealing, eyes rolling with terror.
Danger grabbed Lacey’s arm. “Come on. We have to move.”
Lacey followed Danger down the narrow passage to their right. Pitch black closed around them, leaving them little choice but to feel their way along. The stench of the rotting animal grew stronger.
Lacey’s stomach roiled. “I think the bear hides his food back here. Can’t it follow us?”
“No, the path is too narrow. This end of the cave must belong to some other animal, a much smaller one. Why is it,” Danger asked, breathing hard. “The one time I tell you not to shoot, you shoot? How many times have I told you to shoot something and you didn’t do it? If you’d wounded the bear, he would have made mincemeat out of us.”
“I was already squeezing the trigger when you yelled not to shoot. I jumped when you shouted at me. I didn’t mean to shoot at it. I think the poor thing was just frightened.”
“Uh-huh. It was downright shaking it was so scared.”
“No need to be nasty.”
Lacey skidded to a stop behind Danger as he came to an abrupt standstill. They’d rounded a blind corner and were now in a huge, well lit chamber. Lacey looked around in disbelief. “Oh, shit!”
“Worse than shit,” Danger mumbled. “We gotta get outta here, Lace. Jesus, we’ve stumbled on to a serial killer’s lair.”
Lacey pressed her hand across her mouth to keep from retching. The macabre, grotesque scene was like something from a nightmare or a horror film and except by the Grace of God, she’d be one of those women in one of those chairs.
Danger stepped up beside her and put his arm around her. “Don’t look, baby.”
Lacey sank into the warmth, pressed her face into his broad chest and inhaled his scent, blocking out, however briefly the carnage around them. Danger grounded her, making the insane, impossible situation more bearable. She saw him wipe the sweat over his lip and knew he was just as moved and sickened by this awful sight as she.
“You okay?” he asked huskily.
She nodded and let go of him. “Yes, it’s just so—so—”
He squeezed her arm. “Yes, it is.”
Lacey turned her attention back to her surroundings. In the middle of the chamber, a big, round stone served as a dining table. There was a complete serving of dishes and cutlery set on the stone along with place mats and napkins. A fancy candelabra set in the center with black candles coated with strings of melted wax. A silver bucket with a bottle of wine set on one end. Wine glasses sparkled and waited to be filled. It was a scene right out of a horror movie.
Chairs of different sizes and styles ringed the stone table, six in all. Lacey swallowed hard, unable to take her gaze from the bodies that filled those six chairs. Four empty chairs waited to be filled.
The bodies were everyone female and in different stages of decomposition.
Lacey couldn’t pull her gaze away from the scene. “That’s her! On the end, the woman I saw murdered. I can’t believe it. It’s her!”
Danger braced himself against the wall. Perspiration dripped off his chin. His hair hung in damp strands and his lungs chugged. He swayed unsteadily. “I know. I realized it must be her. Her body is the most recent one.”
“You recognize her?”
“Yes. I’m pretty sure she’s the waitress whose been missing from Rimrock for a couple of weeks, but all of them will have to be identified and autopsied by the medical examiner to be certain who they are and cause of death.”
Danger let go of Lacey and moved carefully around the table. He held an arm across his nose and made a point of not touching anything. He eyed each item carefully.
Lacey flinched when he finally picked something up from a plate and eyed it. “What is it?” She couldn’t bring herself to move closer to the bodies. “What did you find?”
“Driver’s license. Every plate has a driver’s license on it. I’m assuming it belongs to the victim in front of the setting, but it’s impossible to be sure.”
“How did he get them to remain upright?”
“They’re tied to the chair.”
“You recognize any of the names?”
“Yep.” He grimaced. “I’ve been staring at their posters on my bulletin board for months.”
“You mean those five missing women I saw pictures of in your office?”
&
nbsp; “That would be the ones. Oh, Jesus Christ.”
“What?” Lacey craned her neck, but had no idea what had upset him at this point.
“Aw, shit.”
“What?” Lacey saw the horror on Danger’s face, saw him hesitate about answering her. “Tell me,” she said.
“Some of these women are in obvious stages of pregnancy.” He inhaled deeply, slowly exhaled. “They’re naked from the waist up and have bite marks on their breasts. Uh, shit, their nipples have been severed or bitten off. I’m not sure which, but I’m betting it’s safe to assume they were bitten off.”
“Jesus, that is sick.”
“Yeah. This is way over my head. Hell, I’m just a small town sheriff. I need the FBI. I’m sure they’ll want a profile on the perp. No wonder he wanted to shut you up so badly. We have to get help, Lace before he comes after us again.”
“I think Smokey must have messed up his plans.”
“Smokey?”
“The bear?”
“Ah.”
Danger leaned closer to the table. “Uh, good God. I think I found your camera.”
He held up a brand new camera with a busted lens. “Is this familiar?”
Lacey nodded. “That’s mine. Check the film.”
“Uh-uh. It’s gone.” He set the camera back on the table where he’d gotten it. “It will have to stay here. I don’t want to take anything until a crime scene unit has been here.”
Lacey swore beneath her breath. “The bastard took my roll of film.”
“Yeah. Let’s see if we can find a back door outta here, sweetheart. There has to be one. Most animals have an escape route.”
Danger stumbled as he headed toward her. Lacey jumped and grabbed him by the arm. “As gruesome as this is in here, I don’t think you’re in any shape to walk. The horses are lost—”
“I’ll be fine, Lace.”
“You need to rest.” Lacey touched his arm. “You lost a lot of blood. You shouldn’t be moving around.”
“I have to get you to safety. It isn’t me he’s after, sweetheart, although he’ll have to go through me to get to you.” He squeezed her hand lightly. “Let’s go back this way. I think I saw a path that might wind up, hopefully outta here.”
Lacey sighed and gave in to his tugging on her arm. Unless something happened soon to change their luck, they were going to be setting ducks when they left the cave. With Danger barely able to stand and walk, she could only pray help arrived in some form or the other...soon.
In The Arms Of Danger
Chapter Twenty-Six
Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
Cowboy Quotes
Montana Backcountry Tues. 8:00 a.m.
They were little more than an hour’s slog from the cave when Danger collapsed exhausted at her feet. Fresh blood oozed from the wound in his chest.
“Go on. You need to go on and get as far away from here as you can.” His eyes fluttered shut.
She shook her head at his whispered words as she knelt to staunch the bleeding. “I’m not leaving you, you hard-headed excuse for a man!” Tears blurred her eyesight. She blinked them away. “I told you, you’re in no shape to walk out. But you wouldn’t listen. Now look what you’ve done! God save me from macho males. If your stiff upper lip gets any stiffer you’d be dead.” His blood was warm and sticky on her fingers. “God, I could kill you myself.”
Above her head, someone racked a cartridge into the chamber of a rifle.
Lacey grabbed her rifle off the ground and swung it around, leveled on the intruder. She did a double take. Jesus. The man astride the horse stared back at her with Danger’s piercing gray eyes. His lips were tight, his finger on the trigger of the rifle he held.
Seeing Danger’s twin for the first time knocked the breath from her lungs. She glanced down at Danger, then back to his identical twin. It wasn’t fair. No woman should have to deal with double dangers.
“What have you done to my brother?”
“Nothing! He passed out. The least you can do is get off the damned horse and help me.”
“I swear if you’ve hurt him in anyway, you’ll regret the day you were born.” Danger’s brother slid off his horse and took a step closer. “Drop the rifle,” he ordered.
“Drop yours.”
Coe hesitated. Damn, his brother had found his tiger all right, and from the fierce glow in her eyes, and the way she held the rifle aimed on him, she’d shoot him to protect his twin.
“Okay, the name’s Coe. I’ll lower my gun, just don’t shoot me. I’m here to help.”
“You found Danger’s horse.”
“Actually, Diablo found me. He nearly ran right over me. What scared him so bad?” Coe let go of the reins of the four horses.
“Bear, seems it didn’t like sharing its home.”
“What happened to my brother?”
The woman hadn’t lowered her rifle. Instead, she stood up and backed away, giving him room to check Danger.
“He was shot yesterday.”
Coe cut his eyes at her.
“I didn’t shoot him, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I didn’t shoot him, either,” Coe replied, “so stop pointing the gun at me. I don’t like it.”
He drew his revolver from his holster, a weapon the woman had overlooked, and fired three times in the air.
“What are you doing?” Lacey yelped. “You’ll bring the murderer down on us.” As an after thought, “and drop the gun. Don’t even think about placing it back in the holster. Drop it on the ground.”
Coe grinned. By damn, Danger had him a feisty one here. No wonder he’d gone after her. She was perfect, for his brother. Danger needed someone. His brother had spent his life looking after him and Anna Leigh and their grandparents. In his opinion, it was way past time Danger found some happiness for himself.
“Jace Remington and his brother Duel are just over the next rise with a search party. They have a Jeep. We need to get Danger into town, to Doc Snelling.”
A million thoughts filtered through Lacey’s mind. Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision. Danger’s harsh breathing rasped loudly. Would help be too late?
Then there was no more time for thoughts. A red Jeep lumbered over the rise and straight toward them.
“Thank you,” she said and lowered the rifle to her side.
Coe winked. “You bet. I love him, too. We all do. He’s—well, he’s always been there for us.”
“I know.”
Coe looked at her, surprise on his face. “Yes, I imagine you do.”
A man, his face tanned to the shade of leather, halted the Jeep a few feet away and strode toward her.
“Who are you, lady” he asked suspiciously. “What’s going on?”
He hadn’t seemed to notice Danger on the ground at her feet, but kept a wary eye on her and the rifle in her hands. Then his attention focused on the blood staining her shirt. “You hurt, lady? What have you done to Danger?”
“Jace, is something wrong?”
Lacey’s eyes widened. Ohmigod! She knew this man, the brother to the big rancher. He was the agent who’d saved her life in Africa. What was he doing on a ranch in Nowhere, Montana?
His steps faltered as he recognized her at the same instant. The surprise in his bottle-green gaze turned quickly to one of silent warning. He gave a slight negative shake of his head, telling her without words not to betray his secret. “I’m Duel Remington,” he said. “And this big brute is my older brother, Jace. Pay him no mind. He tends to stay in a mean mood most of the time.”
Diablo shied back, snorting and tossing his head in disapproval as Duel grabbed the reins. “I’ll ride Diablo back to the ranch,” he said. He eyed the wolf. “Pagan can make his own way back.”
Once Duel left with the horses, Coe turned to Jace. “Christ, Jace. We need to get Danger out of here.”
“Be careful with him,” Lacey instructed the men as they lifted Danger off the ground and headed
toward the Jeep. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”
Lacey hopped in the Jeep, and gasped as Danger’s limp body started to slide to one side. She watched in horrified fascination, unable to stop his slow sideways descent.
“I’ve got him.” Coe gripped Danger with firm hands, then pressed him closer to Lacey.
In The Arms Of Danger Page 31