by Desiree Holt
“Fuck.” Slade spat the word out. “How likely do you think it is that Glasgow’s the stalker and not his clerk?”
Again a momentary pause. “Four days ago I’d have said impossible, but now I’m not so sure. Her former boss said as soon as this Schreiber character was booked, the judge hotfooted it to his office to offer his apologies for this going on under his nose. He asked if Ross could tell him now where Kari is so he could apologize to her.”
“And no one suspected the fucking judge, right?”
“We’ll talk about that later. Right now can you track her, whoever she’s with?”
“I can. It would also help if you could use your prosecutorial muscle and find out who he rented a car from at the airport and what kind.”
“Done. I’ll call you back. Listen, Slade, we’re all sorry that—”
Slade cut him off. “Time for that later.” He disconnected and punched in Jamie’s number. Then he put the phone on speaker and set it in the holder on the dash.
“Okay,” he said, “we’re on our way. Give us what you’ve got.”
Chapter Twenty
He was there again, in her bedroom. Whatever had awakened her, she realized he had broken through her alarm system. How the hell did he do that? She lay very still, hardly daring to breathe, getting her eyes accustomed to the dark. Maybe this time she could see who he was?
Lying motionless, she listened for movement. There it was again, that whisper of sound. It came from somewhere near the foot of her bed. If she kept pretending to sleep, would he go away and leave her alone?
But then she felt a hand on her ankle, through the covers. It moved in a slow motion up the line of her leg to the curve of her hip and squeezed, oh so gently. She kicked, an automatic reaction, trying to dislodge his hand. Strange, the hand tightened its grip on her, despite her movement.
She forced her eyes open and—
She came awake, her brain fuzzy. Opening her eyes had been a bad idea, because even the soft light of the room stabbed at her pupils. When she realized she was lying down, she tried to sit up. That was when she discovered her arms were outstretched and her hands tied to the posts at the head of the bed. Her head pounded as if a jackhammer was trying to break out, and the hand—the hand—was stroking her calf through the fabric of her pantyhose.
“I know your head hurts.” The voice was male and familiar. “I am sorry about that, but it will wear off shortly. I just wanted to be sure you slept until we got to our little hideaway.”
Kari took a deep breath, let it out and forced her eyes open again, hoping this was all a dream and she was in her bedroom. Alone. The hand moved on her calf again and she tried to kick it away. Except it appeared her legs were tied in a similar fashion to her hands. Wherever she was, she was spread-eagle on a bed and some stranger was touching her body.
“Take it easy. Just relax.”
The voice was probably meant to be soothing, but she found it both irritating and frightening. Making another valiant effort, she managed to pry open her eyelids and focus her eyes. They were in a cabin of some kind, very rustic, with just basic furnishings. There were two doors against one wall and she hoped one of them led to a bathroom. A man stood near the foot of her bed. His features were still unclear, but she did see that he was tall, fairly well built and wearing only a pair of boxer briefs.
Panic surged.
Who the hell was this?
Then, as if a hand had slid across her pupils and wiped away the fog, the picture leaped into startling clarity and she nearly passed out again. Watching her expectantly, with a hungry smile on his face, was Judge Robert Glasgow. She tried to speak, but her throat was so dry and her lips wanted to stick together.
“I know you’re thirsty.” He spoke as if they were having a normal conversation. “I apologize for all the discomfort but as I said before, it was important that you not wake up too soon. But let me get you a little drink.”
This is a nightmare. I’ve had them before. I’ll wake up and this will all disappear.
But instead Glasgow moved to stand beside her head, bracing it with his hand while he fed her water from a cup with a straw.
“Little sips. We don’t want you to get sick.”
Kari didn’t know about him, but she certainly wasn’t anxious to get sick. He held her head until she’d consumed enough water to lubricate her mouth and her throat, then gently placed her head back on the pillows. She was grateful at least that he’d piled more than one pillow to support her so she wasn’t lying completely flat.
“Why are you doing this?” She hoped that as long as she kept him talking, he wouldn’t be doing other things, things she didn’t even want to think about. And there was Slade. She had to give him time to get here. She’d pressed the button so he had to be on his way. No matter how upset he was with her, he would never just turn his back on her. That wasn’t who he was.
And it wasn’t who they were either. She had been so idiotic and stupid. If she could she’d smack herself in the face. And maybe she’d have been on her guard about Judge Robert Glasgow. After all, it had been his law clerk who’d confessed to everything.
“Why?” He trailed his fingers over her leg again. She had to grit her teeth to keep from trying to jerk away from his touch. “Since the first day you appeared in my court I’ve wanted you. I looked at you, all that auburn hair, that gorgeous figure in those lawyer clothes. Saw your fire and passion as you prosecuted your cases. You have no idea how many nights I’ve dreamed of having you in my bed, naked. Showing you how I feel. Licking every inch of your body. Having you all to myself. Giving you my love.”
His love? The thought made her skin crawl. When he stroked himself through the fabric of the boxer briefs, she had to work hard to suppress a gag, as well as the fear still bubbling so close to the surface.
“You never spoke up,” she told him.
“It would have been improper. After all, you tried so many cases in my court. There would have been rumors of favoritism. At first I contented myself with sending you little gifts, flowers with special meaning, other things. But pretty soon that wasn’t enough.”
“You broke into my house.” God, how many times had he been there? “How did you do that? I had an alarm installed.”
“Easy enough to bypass,” he bragged, “if you’re as smart as I am and know what you’re doing.”
“You touched my things,” she cried, unable to stop herself. “Why did you invade my privacy like that?”
“You’re sharp, Kari. You know the satisfaction a man can get just from touching the intimate things of a woman he…loves.”
Love? This was far from any kind of love.
“You broke in while I was sleeping.” She tried to steady herself. “You scared me half to death.”
He nodded. “I know and for that I’m very sorry. I couldn’t restrain myself any longer. I just wanted to…see you, when you were vulnerable. To see how you’d be when we were together at last. Intimately.” His whispered the last word.
At the thought, her stomach heaved. Still, she had to keep him talking. The longer she held him off, the greater the chance Slade would have time to find her. If he still cared after she’d acted like such an idiot. If he still wanted her after she’d argued with him the way she had.
“But if we couldn’t be together forever, what good would it be?”
He smiled, a smile so smarmy she wanted to smack his face. On a different man it might have been warm, or exciting or even sexy. With Glasgow parading around in his boxer briefs that barely restrained a hard-on, it just creeped her out.
“Oh no. If we worked it properly, we could have. Eventually I’d find a way so we could come out in the open, so to speak. By that time our love would be sealed forever and I’d have you to myself all the time.”
Holy God! The man wasn’t just obsessed with her. He was insane. Real fear threatened to paralyze her and she couldn’t have that. She needed to keep her wits about her until Slade could find her.
She was pinning a lot of hopes on that watch with the panic button.
“You got John to admit to this, didn’t you?” It wasn’t even a question. “How did you manage that?”
There was that nauseating smile again. “It seems John has a bad gambling habit and was in need of a great deal of money. We agreed that I would provide the funding and he would confess to the situation. I refuse to call it a crime. I gave him every detail so he could pass muster in the interrogation.”
Kari frowned. “And he would go to jail for you?”
“Oh no, no, no. This was never about anyone going to jail. I had to find out where you’d disappeared to. It was driving me crazy. I’d phone in the tip, John would confess, I’d tell Ross how very sorry and embarrassed I was. Then I’d ask him where you’d taken yourself off to, reminding him he could tell me now that the danger was passed. It was the only way I could think of to find you. I tried everything else. You’d done a very professional job of disappearing.”
How devious and clever he’d been. And his plan had worked, damn it.
She wet her lips. “Where are we? I know we aren’t in the city.”
“That’s correct. I arrived here a few days ago to scout the area. There is a group of cabins on a side road up on one of the many hills for which the Hill Country is named. Every cabin has a separate path leading up to it. We’re completely alone, Kari. Just the two of us.”
No wonder he hadn’t wanted her to tell anyone where he was going.
Slade! She had to focus on Slade. He might be upset with her, but he wouldn’t ignore the danger signal. He was her secret weapon. He’d find her. He had ways. And she’d spend the rest of her life apologizing to him, if he let her.
She swallowed, aware that her throat was dry again and scratchy. “What about your conference? They’re expecting you.”
“I can work that out. I’m sure you won’t mind being left here when I have to go into town. But I’ll return each night and we can have more time together.”
He stroked his fingers along her cheek. Kari had to clench her fists to keep herself from shuddering. But when he pressed his open mouth to hers, she couldn’t keep herself from gagging.
Glasgow recoiled and before she could try to shift her head, he lifted his hand and slapped her with such force it made her teeth rattle.
“Perhaps,” he said in a soft voice, leaning down so his mouth was close to her ear, “I need to teach you some discipline first.”
Kari closed her eyes and prayed.
* * * *
Slade pushed the SUV as hard as he could, ignoring Trey’s caution that they didn’t want to risk getting stopped for speeding. In between steadily cursing, he bugged the shit out of Jamie every two seconds to make sure the GPS was still transmitting.
“Slade,” Jamie grumbled. “Fuck! If it changes I’ll let you know.”
But Jamie knew him and reported to him every few minutes, sometimes every few seconds.
“They turned off Interstate 10, Shadow. They’re off on one of the Farm to Market Roads. Hold on. Okay, here’s the one.” He rattled off the numerical designation of the two-lane country road that broke off from the Interstate. “I’ve still got the GPS signal. Let me bring up my topographical map.” Another pause. “They’re heading up into the area of those twin hills. Damn, Slade, there isn’t shit up there.”
“Just keep following the signal,” he told the man through gritted teeth.
“I am. No sweat.”
“Have you been up this way, Slade?” Beau asked.
“Yeah. There are a few ranches out this way I’ve visited, but for the most part it’s just raw nature.”
Where the fuck is he taking her? Does he know someone up here? How the hell could he have made contact so fast?
Then he realized it had been four days since the fake stalker had been caught. Four days since Glasgow could have flown down here and made whatever arrangements he needed. Four days to plan.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
At that moment his phone dinged.
“It’s that guy Kip,” Trey told him.
Slade was grateful he’d had the new radio with Bluetooth and cell phone capabilities installed in the vehicle. He pressed the button to connect the call.
“Go ahead,” he barked.
“He rented a black four-door sedan, an Infiniti. And get this. He rented the car three days ago. He’s been here all this time.”
“He must have hotfooted it down here the minute he found out where she is. Damn.” Slade pounded his fist on the steering wheel.
“Right after he went to apologize to her boss and get her location.” Kip’s voice was tight with strain.
“Where is she now, Jamie?” Slade demanded, disconnecting his call with Kip.
“About five miles from the Interstate. Hold on, I’m pulling up Google Maps on one of the other computers.”
Slade thought he’d grind his teeth to dust waiting for Jamie to get back to him. Beside him Trey checked his weapon and made sure the clip was loaded. The clicks in the back seat told him the others were doing the same. He cursed himself a hundred times over for the way he’d handled the situation with Kari. He should have ignored her anger at him and her need to know the stalker was actually in jail. No, he should have brought it up when she’d first told him about it. So maybe they wouldn’t have had such an incredible weekend, but if he’d insisted she call her boss right away, at home, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. She wouldn’t have gotten into a car with a man she trusted.
“Okay.” Jamie’s voice crackled from the speaker. “You know that road, Slade. There’s mostly nothing on there for miles except a few scattered ranches.”
“Mostly?”
“Except for a collection of cabins someone built on top of one of the big hills. Got a picture of them. I’m sending it to your phone.”
They had exited the Interstate by now and were speeding along a narrow two-lane highway. The terrain was a mixture of rolling land dotted with oak and cypress and mountain cedar and what the locals called small mountains but were really the hills that gave the Hill Country its name. Where the hell could someone build cabins? There weren’t even roads going up most of these rises.
His phone beeped with an incoming email. He depressed the button to open it and a photograph filled the scene.
“Got it,” he told Jamie. “Trey, describe it to me.”
“Near the top of one of these hills, or whatever you call them. Seven cabins, pretty rough looking. There’s a level place for parking and then narrow paths leading up to each cabin. They’re pretty far apart, Shadow. Kind of like spokes in a wheel.”
“Jamie, is there an entrance from the highway? How the fuck do people get up there?”
He took a sharp curve in the road so fast the SUV rocked up onto two wheels. Then they landed with a thud and he goosed it even more. No one said a word about his driving.
“I got it, Slade,” Trey told him. He was moving the picture around with his finger to take in all the details. “There’s a narrow dirt road. Lots of trees. You could miss it if you didn’t know it was there. Who the hell would stay in a place like this?”
“People who don’t want to be bothered.” Slade grated out the words.
“There it is,” Beau called from the back seat. “Right up there. Turn, Slade.”
“All the signals still beeping, Jamie?” he asked.
“Yeah, but we got a slight problem.”
What the fuck?
“What kind of problem?”
“Her GPS has been stationary for the past few minutes but it indicated the car is stopped in the parking area.”
“Not in front of one of the cabins?” Beau asked.
“Nope. That’s the closest I can pinpoint.”
Slade hung a sharp left onto the dirt road that was barely more than a cart path. The mountain cedar was thick on either side of them.
“We’re almost at the parking area,” Trey announced after a few seconds.
Slade spotted a small clearing just to the left and he yanked the wheel hard, nosing the SUV into the space.
“Jamie, we’re going silent. Thanks for everything.”
“Good luck,” the man said. “Jamie out.”
Trey had the binoculars out, focused on the parking lot, visible through the trees.
“The car’s there all right.” He read off the license plate number.
“That’s it,” Slade confirmed.
They planned this like a mission, because no one doubted for one minute that was exactly what this was. They’d done hostage rescue more times than they could count. They might not have all the sophisticated tools this time, but they had enough and they had what they needed.
“You all know the drill,” Slade began. “We’ve done something like this a thousand times before. Ease out of the vehicle, as little sound as possible. We can make our way up there through the trees. I don’t want to risk him spotting us pulling in to park and wondering who the hell we are and what we’re doing. If he feels trapped he could kill Kari.”
“Okay,” Trey agreed. “Then let’s split up, two of us to the left two on the right.”
“That way we can scout the cabins one at a time,” Slade agreed. He took the binocs and focused on the area of the cabins himself.
“What do you see?” Beau asked.
“We’ll have to be careful as we approach each unit. The ones I can see all have a window in the front and where I can see the sides I also see a small window. They’re high enough we can crouch beneath them. Let’s number them left to right.”
“We don’t have the comm gear we use on our missions,” Marc reminded him. “We’ll have to improvise.”
“Right. Okay, Beau, you’re with me,” Slade ordered. “Trey, you’re with Marc. Everyone set your phones on Vibrate. Whoever finds the right cabin first signal me by speed dialing me with the cabin number. I’ll respond. If I’m the one that finds it, I’ll signal Marc. We’ll respond.”
They made one last check of their firepower and their phones. Then they were ready.