by Cynthia Eden
“Was that so hard?” she whispered as her heart ached. She wanted to smile. In the midst of the hell that was happening, her lips were trying to curl. “When we have Ross and Maggie back, when Valentine is locked in jail, I’m going to want to hear those words again.”
“You’ll get more than just the words.” A promise. She knew Dane wasn’t the type of man to easily promise anything. Only when he meant his vow. “I want to be with you, Katherine. I want us to have a chance together.”
She wanted that chance.
Nodding, she turned from him and curled her fingers around the doorknob.
“Don’t you have something to tell me?” His breath blew against the shell of her ear.
For an instant, her eyes squeezed shut. She thought of all the wonderful things that could be. Her. Dane. A house. Maybe even one with that perfect white picket fence. Laughter and love as the years slid by.
Then she thought of what was. A killer. Victims trapped. Death coming. Clearing her throat, she said, “You already know.” And she opened the door.
Cops were bustling in the hallway. Hurrying. Voices rose and fell.
But Dane’s voice was quiet behind her. “Yes, baby, I do. Because you said you trust me.”
He understands.
And whatever happened next, they would deal with it together.
They joined the other cops heading toward the tech room. Dane, Mac, and Katherine were all given GPS tracking watches, a precaution in case the helicopter lost visual on them.
“The patrol car will be tracked, too,” Meadows said, “but we want to have a handle on you when you’re on foot.”
Then Dane gave Katherine a bulletproof vest. She slid it on, and the weight should have reassured her, but it didn’t. “He didn’t use bullets before,” she said.
“And he didn’t always use bombs, either. There’s a first time for everything.” Dane pulled on his vest. “And the vest will make it harder for him to come at your heart with a knife.”
“Please…” Harley had come into the room, slumped shoulders, bruises and cuts all over his face. His desperate gaze locked on Katherine. “Bring back Maggie.”
They would. Be alive. Because, like Dane, Katherine wasn’t sure that the woman was still living.
He didn’t hurt me. Maybe he didn’t hurt her.
They had to cling to that hope.
Harley’s gaze swung to Dane. “So…sorry.” A hoarse whisper.
The others were quiet. Watching with avid eyes.
Harley whispered, “I should have…helped you…”
Dane shook his head. “He was good at hiding who he was.”
“I should have helped you!” Harley’s breath was loud and heaving. “But James was my partner, and I didn’t want to believe—I didn’t want to think—”
“That you’d trusted a monster,” Katherine finished for him.
“Yes.” Harley’s hands were shaking. His whole body trembling. “I tried to make up…for it…tried to help…but the damage was done.”
Dane wasn’t damaged.
Neither am I.
“No, it wasn’t,” Katherine snapped as her spine straightened. “We aren’t who our pasts say we are. Damage doesn’t define us. We define ourselves.”
Dane caught her arm. Pulled her close and kissed her, right there, in front of all the assembled cops. “I love you,” he said against her lips.
She’d never get tired of hearing those words. “Good,” she whispered. “Now let’s get Ross and Maggie back.” Valentine might think he was playing a game, but they would dictate the rules.
And he would lose.
“The car’s been wired,” Meadows told her and Dane. “Got a video and audio linkup. We’ll hear and see everything that happens. You aren’t going to be alone out there.”
Then they walked to the back of the station. A patrol car was waiting. Mac had already slid into the driver’s seat. Katherine hesitated near the passenger-side door.
Then she saw Valentine. Being led toward them. Cops all around. His hands were cuffed in front of him now, and a line of red dripped from his busted lip. He had shackles on his ankles, and they were connected to his handcuffs by a silver chain.
“Forrest…” Dane growled.
The cop on the right smiled.
Dane went toward them. Stared at Valentine. “You try to attack anyone in the car, you make any move to escape, and I’ll put a bullet in your head.”
“I wouldn’t expect any less,” Valentine murmured.
No, Katherine knew he wouldn’t. The guy was counting on Dane to follow through with his promise.
Dane always keeps his promises.
“You want to die, don’t you?” Katherine asked him.
Valentine didn’t answer.
Dane pushed Valentine into the back of the car. Kept his gun out and aimed at the killer the whole time.
Katherine was conscious of her own weapon. So close.
She slid into the passenger seat. Glanced back through the protective glass to see Valentine smiling.
“Are the medics coming in the helicopter?” he wanted to know.
“The chopper’s coming,” Mac noted as he cranked the car.
“Then we’re all set.” Valentine’s voice was mild. “Start driving, Detective, and I’ll tell you exactly where to go.”
Katherine already knew where he wanted to take them. Hell.
“Be sure to buckle your seat belt, Kat,” Valentine murmured. “Cops can be such terrible drivers.”
Mac cursed under his breath.
Then they started driving. And driving. Valentine gave directions in a low, calm voice. They left the city. Drove toward the swamp. The road narrowed to just two lanes, an old highway filled with potholes and heavy cracks.
“So far away,” Dane said from the darkness of the car’s backseat.
Katherine’s sweaty palm curled around her door handle.
Dane sighed. “You wouldn’t just be leading us on a wild goose chase, would you, Michael?”
Michael. Katherine flinched at the name.
“No, Detective,” Valentine said in that same calm voice. “After Boston, I learned the importance of not shitting where I eat.”
Her jaw dropped.
“So I keep my kills far away from my house now.”
Katherine glanced back, but in the heavy darkness, she couldn’t make out more than the outline of his features.
“Go about thirty yards, then turn right, Mac,” Valentine said.
The car began to slow.
“You’re both incredibly trusting, for cops.” Now a rougher tone had entered Valentine’s voice. “You let me lure you both out here, with Kat. And, Dane, I’m betting you even gave her a gun before she climbed into the car.”
Katherine felt the gun in her jacket pocket.
“How do you know,” Valentine asked, tone curious, “that Kat isn’t working with me? That the goal wasn’t to pull you both out here, and when we make that turn in a few minutes, when Mac is working hard to control the wheel because there’s going to be one huge dip up there—how do you know Kat won’t pull out her gun then and blow a hole in Mac’s head?”
Silence.
The car was still slowing as Mac prepared to make that turn.
“When she shoots Mac, I can ram my head into your face, breaking your nose the same way I did that prick’s at the station. I’ll disarm you, and, while we’re fighting, Kat will come around to the back of the vehicle and open the door. When you look up, my Kat will have the gun pointed dead-center at your forehead.”
She didn’t speak. Her heart was racing, the thunder echoing in her ears.
“All along, Kat could have been secretly working with me. We lived so close to one another, saw each other every single day…”
Mac was turning onto the dirt road.
“Does a part of you suspect her, Dane?” Valentine’s dark question poured through the car. “Inside, deep down, are you one hundred percent sure that you ca
n count on her? Is your heart racing fast? Are you nervous, are you wondering—”
Dane was laughing.
The car hit the heavy dip, jostling the whole vehicle. Swearing, Mac fought to keep the car steady.
“Save your bullshit,” Dane rasped. “I trust Katherine.”
“Funny. I trust her, too.”
The weird part was Katherine knew it was true. Valentine did trust her.
“But what about you, Mac?” Valentine asked.
Katherine glanced toward Mac. The light from the dash barely illuminated him.
“Do you also trust Kat? Or do you keep glancing at her from the corner of your eye, every few moments?”
He had been looking at her. She’d felt his gaze slide to her more than a few times during the drive.
“Dane’s fucking her, so, of course, he’ll say she won’t turn on him, but what do you think? Do you think she’s just waiting? That she’s going to attack when she has that perfect moment?”
“Stop,” Dane snapped at him.
“Kat is the one who got your girl to talk in the hospital.” Valentine’s voice was even deeper now. “Kat is the one who sealed Ronnie’s fate. I told Ronnie that she could live as long as she didn’t talk, but she had to go and break the rules.”
“Shut up,” Mac gritted out.
“When I found her in that basement, she was crying. Tears were tracking down her cheeks. She had duct tape over her mouth and—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Mac was screaming now, his hands locked tightly around the wheel.
“Mac…” Katherine began. “Look at the road.” Because it was dark. Bushes and branches were beating at the vehicle, and Mac was driving faster now. Faster.
“Don’t say another word,” Dane warned Valentine.
But that was just going to make him want to say more. She knew it would.
“The ropes were around her arms and legs. Her skin was slashed open. Her blood was dripping off the table. At first, I thought about just shoving my knife in her chest. That would have been so easy.”
Katherine glanced back. Saw the shadow of Dane’s gun. It was rising toward Valentine.
“But I decided to let her live. Then. I won’t make the same mistake again. I’ll go for her. I’ll slip into her bedroom. I’ll tie her up. Maybe leave the tape off so she can beg.”
Mac spun toward him. “Shut him up, Dane! Or I’ll fucking—”
“Then I’ll drive the knife into her chest.”
Katherine was looking straight ahead, staring in horror because she’d just tried to grab the car’s steering wheel, and she realized that dark spot in the dirt up ahead…it wasn’t just hard mud or a big crack in the surface of the area.
“Spikes!” she cried as they came into focus beneath the glare of the car’s headlights. “Stop!” Her scream.
But it was too late. She couldn’t reach the brake from her position. Mac wasn’t even looking at the road. He turned back, too late, and jerked the wheel to the right.
The car hit the spikes. The front wheels blew out instantly. Mac was trying to control the car, just like he’d done minutes before, but this time there was no saving the vehicle. He’d yanked the wheel too hard to the right. The vehicle was spinning now, hurtling over onto its side, and the bushes had hidden the fact that on that right side was only swampy water waiting below. They were up on an incline, and as the car tumbled over and over again, it rolled down that incline.
Metal was screeching. Glass shattering. Katherine’s seat belt bit into her shoulder, and the gun she’d grabbed flew from her fingers.
Someone was calling her name. Someone was screaming.
A trap. A deadly trap. One last punishment to send us all to hell.
Then the car hit the water. And the screams stopped.
“What do you mean, you ‘lost them’?” Meadows demanded as he crouched behind John. “There’s a brand-new tracker on that vehicle. It was installed five minutes before they left!”
“It stopped sending a signal.”
“Get me someone on that chopper.”
The transmitter flashed on. The call was routed through the center, then pushed into the microphone speakers. “Sir?”
Meadows stood at attention. “Tell me you have a visual on our car.”
“Negative.”
No fucking way.
“They turned down a heavily tree-lined road a few moments ago. We should regain aerial visibility momentarily.”
No, they wouldn’t regain that visibility. Because Valentine was playing his games. Trying to kill his detectives.
“The watches,” he said, the word close to a snarl of desperate frustration,. “Tell me you’re getting a signal from them.”
“Not from Detective Mac Turner,” John told him.
Shit, shit, shit.
“But I’m reading a signal from Katherine Cole and Detective Black,” John continued, voice cracking with excitement.
Damn straight.
“Get patrols out there right now.” Meadows sucked in a deep breath. His gut was twisting. “Get SWAT, get whoever the hell we need. And you, flyboy,” he added, because he knew the helicopter pilot could hear him, “you get these coordinates we’re sending you, and you find a place to land that chopper. Give those men on the ground backup!”
Before they’d lost the radio signal from the car, Meadows had heard the screams. Heard the shriek of metal. And he’d also heard…
Laughter.
You aren’t killing my men, Valentine.
Because if he did, those deaths would be on Meadows. He’d made the deal. He’d sent the detectives out with that bastard.
Had he sent them to their deaths?
Water was filling the car. Hell. Dane felt it sloshing around his legs. His head hurt like a bitch—it had slammed into the side window, and a chunk of metal dug into his side.
“Katherine?” There was so much silence…and darkness. “Katherine!”
“I’ll take care of her,” a voice whispered from the darkness.
Valentine.
Couldn’t the SOB have just died in the wreck?
The metal twisted in his side. Dane groaned at the pain and realized Valentine was the one twisting the metal. No, not metal. Broken glass. Valentine’s cuffs were gone. He’d shoved Dane’s bulletproof vest to the side, and the psycho was using a giant piece of glass to saw into Dane’s flesh.
“The…fuck…you…will…” Dane growled. He reached down, jerking under the water to try and find the gun he’d had before. He ignored the pain. His fingers closed around the weapon. The gun had still better fire.
The car was tilted on its side, sending all of the water pooling toward Dane. He was sinking, but Valentine was protected, his side of the vehicle was still elevated and—
Valentine’s door flew open. “Get away from him!” Katherine screamed.
The glass was gone from Dane’s side.
“Katherine, you’re hurt!” Valentine’s voice was dripping with concern. “Didn’t I tell you to put on your seat belt?”
Then Valentine was out of the car and lunging toward her. Valentine had the glass. Katherine was stumbling back as Valentine rushed through the water toward her.
Dane’s fingers closed around the gun. “Get back, Katherine!” he yelled.
Then he fired. The bullet plowed into Valentine’s body and the man fell, face-first, onto the bank.
Dane realized that the impact of the crash must have knocked him out for a bit. Valentine—the bastard—had stayed conscious and gotten out of his cuffs, and he’d been working on him with that glass. “Mac?” he called.
No answer.
“Dane…” Katherine was there, pulling him from the car. There was no moonlight to spill down on them. Clouds blotted out the sky. But he could just make out Valentine’s body, slumped over on the small bank area.
“Where’s Mac?” Dane managed to ask. His left arm was wrapped around Katherine’s shoulders. He was holding her tight. His right hand gr
ipped the gun.
“He’s in the car. I couldn’t get him to move.”
Fuck.
His gaze flew over the killer. Valentine was still slumped on the bank. Not moving.
The car was sinking deeper into the water. Dane backed away from Valentine and tried to open Mac’s door.
“It won’t open,” Katherine said. “I tried. Mine wouldn’t either. I had to crawl out. The windshield was smashed. I got out that way.”
Dane wasn’t going to let his partner sink. He gave Katherine the gun. Tightened her fingers around the weapon. “If Valentine so much as twitches, shoot him in the head.” He ignored the pain in his side and didn’t tell her about it. She hadn’t seen the wound, couldn’t see it in the dark.
He pushed deeper into the water. Prayed there weren’t any gators swimming around because he couldn’t deal with that shit, too. He climbed onto the hood of the vehicle. Made his way through the broken glass. Wrapped his arms around Mac. “Buddy, you’re gonna owe me,” Dane muttered as he started to pull Mac out.
The car shifted beneath him. More water rolled in, and then—
Then metal groaned. Screeched.
And the whole fucking car went totally under the water.
“Dane!” Katherine screamed when the car lurched and sank beneath the water. She ran for the bubbling water.
“You don’t want to do that.” Hard arms wrapped around her stomach, and Katherine was hauled back against a big, muscled body.
Her fingers clenched around the gun.
“That water is so much deeper than it looks from up on that incline, and someone might have set up some small detonations in that spot recently, to weaken things more, to make it easier for a big object to sink fast.”
He’d planned everything?
Valentine’s hand slid down and curled around the gun. “Just give this to me, Kat.”
“You never intended to let Maggie and Ross go.” Her lips felt numb as she spoke. “You set this whole road up as a trap for us.”
“Not just for you. For any cop who tracked me. Got to have that exit strategy.”
The water looked pitch black. She didn’t see Dane.
She would only have an instant…
He laughed in her ear. “I know what you’re thinking. You’ll hit back at me with your elbow. Catch me off guard because I won’t expect you to fight. Then you’ll go and jump into that water. You’ll save your hero—and go out for a fucking candlelit dinner to celebrate—on Valentine’s Day, on my day.”