A body.
“I’d say she died around the same time Kate pinged us with her phone. Six hours, give or take thirty minutes.” Vincent moved his flashlight over a woman partially hidden beneath a bed of leaves and pine cones. Tossing something at his boss, the forensics expert crouched beside the victim and pointed west. “I found Kate’s phone a few feet away in the grass over there. Must’ve hit the emergency signal when she found the body.”
Sullivan checked the phone. “Then we can’t track her with her phone. We’ll have to go in blind. Anthony, you’re with me.” Sullivan tapped his earpiece and searched the tree line where Declan had been hung up to die. “Elliot, quit messing with the damn trap and find something we can track. Vincent, stay with the victim until Anchorage PD or the FBI can take custody. Liz, I want a map of this area on my phone in the next thirty seconds. We’re going after Kate.”
“I’m...coming, too,” Declan said.
Blond hair, green eyes staring straight into the sky, athletic build. Declan’s stomach lurched. He didn’t give a damn how much blood he’d lost. This victim was one of the Hunter’s. Serials usually had a cooling-off period, a time frame while they enjoyed their latest conquest. But not this one. Both this woman and Michaels had died at the Hunter’s hand today. Kate wouldn’t be next.
Blinking through another round of dizziness, Declan accepted Elizabeth’s offered water bottle and downed as much liquid as he could take. “He shot her with an arrow. She’s bleeding. You need as many eyes as you can get out there.”
“Why do I have the feeling you won’t take no for an answer?” Sullivan pegged him with that sea-blue gaze, then extracted a backup weapon, handing it to Declan grip first.
“Let’s roll out.” Declan checked the weapon, loaded a round into the chamber. One way or another, he was getting Kate back. “She’s been gone too long as it is.”
The team didn’t need any more motivation than that, taking positions. Declan headed for Elliot’s flashlight beam at the edge of the woods, checking the time on his wrist. Six hours. That was how long she’d been gone. Anything could’ve happened in that time, but his gut said she was still alive. She was out there. He ignored the burn of his damaged skin thawing around the wound. Nothing would stop him from finding her.
“Over here! Looks like she put up quite the fight.” Elliot swung his flashlight beam straight at them, then back into the heavy shadows as they approached. “Into the woods I go, to lose my mind—”
“—and find my soul,” Declan finished.
An apt quote. Because Kate wasn’t anything less. She’d been part of him from the beginning, the missing piece. Always would be.
Declan studied the tracks, fresh drag marks leading deeper into the wilderness. He avoided stepping directly on them to preserve the evidence. The minute the news of the Hunter’s latest victim hit, the FBI would descend. And he wasn’t about to mess up any chance his former employer had of taking this suspect down.
The drag marks disappeared about fifty feet in from the field, leaving only one set of boot prints. The Hunter had carried her from here, but he had rushed this one. Her abduction hadn’t been planned, and he’d made mistakes along the way. He’d left evidence. “This way. Stay sharp. This bastard...is good at what he does.”
Declan took point at the head of their pack. Every sound, every movement raised his awareness to another level. This was what the FBI had trained him for, what he’d been good at before the shooting. There were some things he’d never forget. Hunting was one of them.
A few branches off to his right had snapped at the ends, as though someone had broken them on the way through these parts of the woods. He headed that direction.
“You sure you know where you’re going?” Sullivan asked.
“Yes.” Positive. Kate was counting on him. And there was no way in hell he’d let her down again. Declan slowed as silence descended. What were the chances every animal had vacated the area at the same time? Unless... He pulled up one hand, signaling the team to stop. And listened.
“Help!”
He jerked at that scream, as if he’d been struck by lightning.
“Kate.” Declan surged straight ahead, leaving the Blackhawk team behind. Lights swept the area ahead of him and reflected off what looked like a tarp buried with leaves. Fresh snow crunched beneath his boots as he slid to a stop at the edge of a man-made pit in the middle of the woods.
Declan ripped back the tarp, shone his light down into the hole. And there, at the edge, Kate frantically tried to scramble out of the trap.
“Get her the hell out of there!” he yelled.
“Help!” She strained again. “Help, help, help...”
“I’m coming, angel.” The team circled the pit, but he couldn’t wait anymore. The anguish in her voice pulled him down the steep side. He clutched thick roots and rocks to make it to the bottom, and within seconds Declan ripped her away from the wall and into his arms.
Her bloodied fingers locked on his borrowed shirt, the sobs racking her.
“I’ve got you.” His hands shook. Declan scanned the bottom of the pit; one of the team’s flashlights pointed at a mass of clothing and flesh a few feet away. The Hunter had put her in the hole with Michaels.
Turning her away from the remains, he held her until Sullivan, Anthony and Elliot pulled her from the Hunter’s trap.
Anthony then hauled Declan up to the edge of the hole and pulled him from the pit.
Declan wrapped her in his arms again.
“I thought you were dead.” Her voice rasped. How long had she been screaming down there? How many times had she tried to climb the walls? Had she lost hope he’d come for her?
“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” He needed to get her to a hospital. The blood blooming across her shirt was still wet, sliding down her side. He’d nearly lost her, and there hadn’t been a damn thing he could’ve done about it. Never again. She was his priority. Not recovering his memories. Not tracking down the Hunter. Kate.
“Michaels...” she said. “He was in there with me.”
“You never have to worry about him again.” Declan strengthened his hold on her as they trekked back the way they’d come. The ambulances would be arriving soon if they hadn’t already. Intertwining his fingers with hers, he planted a kiss on the back of her hand.
As for the Hunter, Declan was only getting started.
Chapter Nine
She was going to die.
“No!” Kate shoved herself up to sit. The sudden brightness of overhead lights and incessant beeping of machinery forced panic—greedy and dark—up her still raw throat before familiar blue eyes filled her vision.
“I’ve got you, angel.” Declan’s voice triggered an automatic chain reaction within her body, urging her to relax, to trust, but the nightmare had been so real. No. Not a nightmare. A memory.
Calluses caught on her skin as he smoothed his hand down the only part of her that didn’t ache. “You’re safe.”
“Declan.” She hurt. The beeping wouldn’t stop. She blinked to clear her head. She wasn’t in the pit anymore. Broken pieces of memory clicked into place the longer his touch anchored her to the present, and she slipped back against the pillows of the hospital bed with his help. Her heart pounded hard behind her rib cage. “How long have I been unconscious?”
He traced the veins in the back of her hand with the pad of this thumb. A bit more color had returned to his skin, but the bruising across his face and hands stood stark against white hospital sheets. It’d been a miracle the damage hadn’t been worse. Left for dead in a snare trap, stitches torn open during the fight with the man who’d shot her, but the small butterfly bandages said he’d at least seen a doctor while she’d been under anesthesia. “You got out of surgery a few hours ago. The surgeon was able to repair the damage in your shoulder, but you’ll be in a sling for a few weeks.
”
A few hours of her life. Gone. She’d already lost so many after the surgery to remove the bullets the first time around.
Kate studied him at her bedside. He was alive. After what happened—after accepting the reality she’d never see him again—he was alive. She wasn’t going to waste any more time. The brightness wouldn’t lessen, but focusing on him helped the throbbing in her head.
Declan hated hospitals. Had he been by her side the entire time? “You don’t have to stay here. I know how uncomfortable hospitals make you.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I almost lost you, and it was worse than any trauma I’ve ever endured,” he said.
Pressure released in her chest.
Pulling the back of her hand to his mouth, he planted a kiss on the thin, oversensitive skin. Stubble prickled against her hand, but it was the guilt in his gaze that hollowed her from the inside out. “I never should’ve lost track of you when you went after Michaels. I—”
“Don’t.” Kate moved her fingers to his mouth. He had no reason to apologize. Flashes of those terrifying seconds when she wasn’t sure he’d live or die as the Hunter closed in sprinted into reality. She tried shoving it into the tiny box she’d created to survive over the last year at the back of her mind, but there were still so many unanswered questions.
Desperation burned through her. They’d almost died out there. She’d almost lost him—again—and she couldn’t stand to not be touching him for another moment. Kate fisted her hand with what strength she’d managed to hold on to and pulled him into the bed.
Declan shifted closer, and she nearly collapsed into him. Settling back into the pillows, he positioned her along his side. She slipped her hand over his chest.
He pushed a strand of her hair out of her face, then framed her jaw with the palm of his hand. “I would’ve killed him if I hadn’t found you.”
“None of this is your fault. There was no way we could’ve known he was out there, waiting for us to spring his trap.” Kate set her forehead against his and closed her eyes. His scent clung to her, spread through her system, got into her head, revitalized a part of her she believed she’d buried in his casket over a year ago. The need to be close to someone else. “The Hunter got away.”
Which meant he’d be taking another victim. Their killer had shown he didn’t have any sort of cooling-off period between kills. He could’ve already started drawing in his next prey.
“He knows those woods. He knew exactly how to vanish after stringing me up for dead. Knew where to set his traps.” Declan smoothed his knuckles along her bare arms, raising goose bumps in his wake. “He had everything planned out. Even using and killing Michaels to get our attention was part of the plan.”
The memories of being in that pit with Michaels’s remains, of his blood on her hands, tightened the muscles down her spine. Burying her head between Declan’s neck and shoulder, she counted off his heartbeat. She’d come so close to never hearing that sound again. “I tried to get out. I kept falling and the pain in my shoulder... If you hadn’t pulled me out—”
“He’ll never lay another hand on you.” He pressed his mouth to her ear as the flood of panic rose. “You’re safe now.”
Safe.
Such a simple word. But for the first time in over a year, she felt it down to her bones. Because of him. Because he’d fought off death for the slightest chance of saving her life. Because he’d risked everything to ensure she’d made it out of those woods alive. With Declan, she was safe. He’d earned every ounce of trust she could give.
“There was so much blood.” Kate wiped at her face. She set her head back against his shoulder, stroking her thumb across his jaw. “How did you get out of the trap?”
“Your SOS. Blackhawk Security got the signal and responded. They cut me down, found your phone. They helped me find you.” Trailing his fingertips down her back, Declan planted a kiss into her hair. “Without them, I would’ve died out there. You have a good team.”
“They’re okay.” A laugh escaped her control. If she didn’t have this one release, she feared she might fall apart completely. Truth was, her team was more than okay. They’d kept her going. They had her back. Declan was alive right now because of them. Kate lifted her head, studied those familiar blue eyes. “Thank you for saving my life. Again.”
A smile pulled at one corner of his mouth, and her insides flipped. “That’s twice now. We’ll have to see what we can do to start making up the difference.”
Kate studied him. Would it always be like this between them? This fire? This...need to have him close? She’d loved her husband. She’d worked hard at their marriage, but because of the things they’d dealt with in their individual careers, there’d always been a distance. Out of necessity. Otherwise the darkness of their careers would’ve corrupted their relationship from the inside. But now... Now she saw nothing but light. Nothing but hope.
“Are you trying to hook up with me?” she asked. “I was literally unconscious three minutes ago.”
The hospital room door opened with a long slow creak.
“Look who survived a serial killer. How you doing, Doc?” Sullivan Bishop flashed a bright, straight smile before moving aside for the familiar face at his back. Hiking a thumb over his shoulder, her boss scanned the room for threats like the good SEAL he was supposed to be. “Right. This guy followed me here.”
“Damn right, I did. You should’ve called me the minute she got out of surgery.” Special Agent Ryan Dominic focused on her, then Declan, and back to her. Was that concern etched into his expression? Anger? He’d spent a good amount of time over the last year helping her through the grief, but Kate had never really been able to crack the carefully modulated control the agent kept in place.
Hands on his hips, he gave them a glimpse of that federal gun and badge he was so eager to display anytime Blackhawk Security came into the equation. “Seems not a moment too soon, either. Everyone out. I’m taking Kate into protective custody.”
“Like hell you are.” Declan’s growl reverberated through her a split second before he stood. “The only reason she’s alive is because of Blackhawk Security. You’re not taking her anywhere.”
She reached for him, using him for balance, and stood on shaky legs. “Ryan, I’ve already told you. I’m not going into hiding. You hired me to profile the Hunter, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“Kate, you’ve been through hell. I understand that, but you are the only surviving witness in my serial case,” Dominic said. “I need to know everything you remember about this guy. I need answers. Now.”
She felt Declan tense beside her at the agent’s tone. He dropped his hold on her, took a single step toward Dominic. “You have no idea what she’s been through and pushing her to give her statement is going to do more damage than good. I don’t give a damn if you need answers. She needs rest.”
They didn’t have time for a testosterone showdown.
“Declan, give me a minute with Special Agent Dominic.” Her words were crisp. She might’ve survived an attack from one of the most complex killers she’d ever profiled, but she wouldn’t play the victim card. She’d wasted too much of her life on that path. “You, too, Sullivan.”
“I wouldn’t piss her off if I were you. She’s studied a lot of killers. She knows how to get rid of a body if she has to.” Sullivan targeted his shoulder into Dominic’s on the way to the door. “Agent Dominic.”
The heat of Declan’s touch ran through her as he traced the column of her spine. His gaze narrowed in on his former partner. The tendons between his neck and shoulder strained as he maneuvered toward the door. “I’ll be right outside if you need me.”
Kate waited until the door closed before she let the exhaustion pull her to the edge of the bed. Declan didn’t need to see how weak the Hunter had made her. It would only worry him more. But with Dominic? He’d already s
een her at her lowest. There wasn’t much that could surprise him after what he’d helped her through.
“What are you doing, Kate?” Dropping one hand to his side, Dominic scrubbed his palm down his face with a glance out the small window next to the door. His voice lowered an octave as he studied her. “The guy comes back, and within two days you’re already climbing into his lap?”
They didn’t have time for this.
“Did you find her?” Kate attempted to cross her arms, but the pain in her shoulder spiraled, and she flinched before setting her arms at her side. “The other woman out there? Mary?”
Dominic sobered instantly, lowering his gaze to the floor. “Yeah, we found her. Mary Lawson. Twenty-nine. Same MO as the other three. Same similarities.”
“She’s one of the Hunter’s.” Kate sank farther onto the bed. How many more were out there in those woods? How many more would be recovered in the coming weeks? Closing her eyes, she fought back the echo of Mary’s shaking voice in her head. It was time to end this.
“You’re looking for a white male between the ages of thirty and thirty-five, one ninety to two hundred pounds,” she said. “He knows the area and might have property nearby. It’s no coincidence we recovered his first victim and Mary in the same location. Those woods are his hunting grounds. He’s too intelligent to leave a paper trail, so you’ll have to dig into possible aliases. The Hunter isn’t leaving a whole lot of evidence behind. He’s familiar with crime scenes. Could have a job or career in law enforcement or is a huge fan of true crime entertainment. Have you discovered the connection between the women aside from their appearance? Where he’s finding them?”
“No.” Dominic shook his head. “I have Anchorage PD canvassing around their residences so we can work up a timeline and trace their last known locations. None of the women had their phones on them when we recovered them. Unfortunately, GPS is out of the question.”
He slid his hands into his pockets, his shoulders deflating on a heavy exhale, and suddenly, he looked ten years older. “Let me take you into protective custody, Kate. You need to lie low until we find this guy. The Hunter is highly organized and has been a step ahead of the FBI the entire time. He knows who you are, where you live. Hell, he probably knows the route you take to work, and your running routine. And he’s not going to let you walk away.”
Caught in the Crossfire Page 10