Magnum Force Man

by Amanda Stevens

  Not wanting to give away her jitters, she thrust her hands into her pockets. “So…how do we go about this?” she asked Jack. “How do we find this kid?”

  His gaze swept out over the valley. “We need to go back to the trail. That’s where he’ll be.”

  “If you say so,” she muttered once again following him down the stairs.

  The crowd at the bottom was twice as thick as it had been the day before, and there was a lot more foot traffic on the boardwalk. Claudia tried to figure out if this was a good thing or not. It might make it harder to find the boy, but from a personal standpoint, blending in with a crowd could be advantageous.

  They strolled along the shady trail, as if taking the time to observe the monument from various angles. At one of the viewing areas, Jack pulled her aside and they pretended to study the faces while surreptitiously watching the parade of tourists on the walkway.

  They were standing at such a degree that Claudia had a full view of Lincoln. As she lifted her hand to shade her eyes, she caught the twinkle in his eyes and said excitedly, “Jack, look! The twinkle! Just like in your vision.”

  He’d turned away and was studying the boardwalk behind them. Reluctantly, Claudia followed his gaze and her heart catapulted to her throat. There, walking toward them on the trail, with the faces highlighted in the background, was a woman and a boy of about ten. He wore a blue coat and a red cap, and even though they were still some distance away, Claudia could see an uncanny resemblance to Jack’s sketch.

  “That’s him!” she whispered.

  “Yes.” Slowly, Jack turned and scoured the countryside.

  “What are we going to do?” Just as Claudia tore her gaze away, she caught a glimpse of someone in a small group of people who were sauntering along the walkway behind the woman and boy. It was the bald man she’d seen in Rapid City the day before. Maybe his presence was merely a coincidence, but somehow Claudia didn’t think that was the case.

  She put her hand on Jack’s sleeve. “See the bald man in the long black coat? I saw him in town yesterday.”

  Casually, Jack bent as if to tie his shoe. When he straightened, he said, “Don’t stare at him. You’ll give us away.”

  Claudia turned back to the faces. “What are we going to do?”

  “You wait here.”

  “Where are you going? Jack?”

  He strode down the walkway toward the woman and boy. When he was halfway between them and Claudia, he froze, spun and his gaze widened as their eyes met. He took a few steps back toward her. Over his shoulder, Claudia saw the bald man break from the crowd and lunge toward the boy.

  “Jack!” She pointed behind him. What was he waiting for?

  His eyes met hers yet again and he screamed, “Get down!” as he turned and rushed for the boy.

  She made an involuntary move toward him just as a shot rang out behind her. A portion of the boardwalk shattered and people started screaming in panic. Claudia dropped to the ground and scurried for cover as she scoured the trail for Jack. She saw the woman and boy. They were cowering at the edge of the trail. The woman had her arms around the child, holding on for dear life. Behind them, the bald man sprinted for the woods.

  Claudia finally spotted Jack. He was glancing back at her, and when he saw that she was safe, he turned in pursuit.

  Keeping her head down, she scrambled over to the woman and boy. “Are you two all right?”

  The woman had the boy wrapped so tightly, Claudia wondered how the poor kid was able to breathe. “Did you see that man? He tried to grab my son—”

  Just then, a small army of park rangers descended on the area. Claudia could already hear sirens in the distance. As the rangers set about trying to restore order and safely clear the area, Claudia stayed with the woman and her son. By this time, the initial shock had worn off and now the terrified mother grew hysterical. A ranger saw the commotion and came over to take charge of the situation. Between the woman’s sobs and Claudia’s explanation, they managed to convince him that the boy needed protection.

  Two of the rangers rushed mother and son back along the trail while Claudia followed.

  “Miss?”

  She turned to find another ranger behind her on the path. The first thing she noticed was how tall the man was, how broad his shoulders were. And then beneath his cap, she saw a few strands of unnaturally red hair.

  Heart pumping, she turned to call to the rangers, but the man beside her grabbed her arm and said quietly into her ear, “There’s a sharpshooter up in those hills with a rifle trained on the boy’s head. Unless you do as I say, that kid’s as good as dead.”

  FROM HIS VANTAGE ON the slope above the trail, Jack watched as Claudia followed the tall man back into the woods. He had on a uniform, but Jack wasn’t fooled. He could barely see the man’s features from so far away, but he recognized him just the same. His name was Red. He was a killer. And he had Claudia.

  Jack tracked them until they were out of sight, and then he rose and took off in the opposite direction.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  They had walked for hours it seemed up into the mountains, so far off the beaten track that Claudia doubted even Jack would be able to track them. The air grew thinner and colder, and even though she wore her parka and gloves, Claudia couldn’t stop shivering.

  Where was he taking her? And why was she following along blindly as though she had no will of her own?

  At first, her compliance had been to protect the boy, but the farther they got from the trail, the more frantically Claudia had cast about for a means of escape. She’d tried making a break for it once, but the man had easily overpowered her, twisting her arm behind her back until she’d screamed in agony.

  That’s when she knew what she was up against. If the memory of Dr. Lasher’s mutilated body wasn’t a graphic enough reminder, the slow smile of pleasure that had spread across his face at her agony told Claudia all she needed to know about her captor. He was a sadist who got off on inflicting pain.

  As they struggled up to the summit, he paused and glanced around. At any other time, Claudia would have been struck by the vista—craggy cliffs, purple-shrouded valleys—but now all she could do was nurse her wounded arm and bide her time.

  She lowered herself to the ground and leaned back against a rock, closing her eyes at the shooting pain in her arm. She couldn’t tell if it was broken or not, but she suspected it might be.

  After the man had searched the area, he came back and knelt in the dirt, eyeing her with utter contempt.

  “You’ve put me to a lot of trouble,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

  Claudia flattened her hand on the stone. The sharp ridges prickled her skin like a burr, bringing her instantly back into the moment. “Why did you kill Dr. Lasher?”

  He shrugged. “He was being uncooperative. Not at all a team player.”

  “You tortured him,” Claudia said hoarsely.

  A smile. “A weakness of mine, as you shall soon find out.”

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “You ask a lot of questions,” he said. “Questions try my patience.”

  She moistened her lips and tried another tact. “You don’t have to do this, you know. I don’t know anything. Dr. Lasher never confided in me. Whatever secrets he had of your…employer, he kept them to himself. I’m not a threat to you.”

  He gave her an amused look. “Do you think this is all for your benefit? I could have taken care of you that same night. This isn’t about you.”

  “Then what do you want from me?”

  “You still don’t get it yet, do you?” He got up and walked to the edge of the canyon, glancing down. Claudia measured the distance between them. Could she fling herself at him, knock him off the cliff?

  He turned with a smile that set her to trembling. “You’re a lab rat, Claudia. A guinea pig just like all the others. You may not have been in a cage for the past two years, but we’ve tracked your every move.”

  She tr
ied to mask her terror. “Then why wait until now to make your move?”

  “Because like I said, this isn’t about you. It’s about Jack.”

  “Jack…” His name came out on a whisper.

  “He has powers that even he hasn’t fully realized. Only so much can be done in the lab. We needed to observe him in the real world. We needed to find out exactly what he’s capable of when he’s been pushed to the limit.” He walked away from the edge of the cliff and came to kneel again in front of her, so close this time that Claudia imagined she could smell the scent of blood on his hands. “He’ll come for you, you know. He’s already on his way.”

  “No,” a voice said from behind him. “I’m already here.”

  The man was still facing Claudia, and she felt a sharp, cold thrill run up the length of her spine at the look of cruel satisfaction on his face.

  His hand shot out and he grabbed her, pulling her to her feet as he rose swiftly and twisted the already mangled arm behind her. She bit down hard on her lip to keep from screaming in agony as his other arm wrapped around her throat.

  He two-stepped her toward the edge of the cliff. She tried to fight him, but his strength seemed almost supernatural. Her feet dragged along the ground like the boneless limbs of a ragdoll.

  Everything that happened after that was a blur. A split second after Jack appeared, the man flung her aside with a brutal laugh. She teetered on the edge of the cliff, arms flailing, her eyes going wide as she met Jack’s gaze. She tried to scream his name as she tumbled backward, and for a moment, as her feet left the ground, she seemed suspended in mid-air. Before she could go into a freefall, Jack caught her arm and she cried out in torment.

  Eyes locked, he clung to her.

  “Don’t let go of me,” she pleaded.

  “Never.”

  The man came at Jack then before he could haul her up. Jack was looking at her so he couldn’t see the man hovering behind him. Claudia tried to scream a warning, but Jack was ready for him. She hadn’t noticed before her revolver in his left hand and now he swung around and fired. The bullet only grazed the man’s cheek, but the shock stopped him dead in his tracks.

  It was enough to buy them some time. Jack hauled her up and she scrambled away from the edge just as Red flung himself at Jack. The impact nearly sent them both over the cliff, and Claudia gasped in terror as they balanced on the precipice for what seemed an eternity.

  Then they hit the ground and rolled toward her. Using her good arm, she pulled herself away and crouched in the dirt, shaking and trying to catch her breath, steady her nerves. She had to somehow get a grip because she needed to help Jack.

  Where was her gun? One moment he’d had the revolver in his hand and now it was gone. Claudia cast about frantically for the weapon while the two men locked arms in a life and death struggle.

  The redhead had size on his side, but Jack was quicker. And he had the advantage of intuiting the bigger man’s every move, although this didn’t seem to buy him an advantage. As the fight wore on, Claudia began to realize that Jack wasn’t the only one whose special abilities had been maximized to the fullest. The superhuman strength she’d sensed earlier was now on full display.

  The bodies on the ground writhed and shifted positions so quickly, Claudia could barely tell who was who. They were both bleeding and covered in dirt, and she could hear the gasping breaths as blow after blow connected.

  Her arm throbbed and she had to bite back a wave of nausea as she pulled herself along the ground, searching for the revolver. She saw it then, as sunlight sparked off the metal, and she staggered to her feet and lunged toward her. She grabbed the weapon, locked both hands around the grip and whirled.

  What she saw took her breath away. Jack was on his back in the dirt with Red’s huge hand clamped around his throat, squeezing and squeezing while Jack pounded helplessly at the man’s massive arm. With the other hand, Red reached out and grabbed a rock, lifted it over his head with a grinning snarl.

  The gun was steady in Claudia’s hands. Never put your finger on the trigger unless you are prepared to shoot. Without hesitation, she fired.

  The punch of the bullet toppled him backward, but he was instantly on his feet, gazing down at the bloom of blood on his shirt. He glanced up, locked eyes with Claudia and took a step toward her.

  She lifted the gun. “Don’t move.”

  Jack got to his feet, eyes still blazing. He moved over beside Claudia.

  “What should we do with him?” she asked as the aftershock set in and her hands began to tremble. She clutched the grip even harder.

  “Where’s Jared?” Jack asked coldly. “Where’s my brother?”

  The blood was gushing from the man’s wound. He swayed dizzily, but somehow remained on his feet. Somehow managed to grin. “He’s dead.”

  Jack started toward him, but Claudia grabbed his arm. “Don’t. He’s baiting you.”

  “Shoot him,” Jack said.

  Claudia glanced at him. Shooting a man to save Jack’s life was one thing, but putting a bullet in him in cold blood was quite another. “We have to take him in. He’ll have to talk to the authorities to save his own skin. It’s the only way, Jack.”

  Before he had time to argue, the man had propelled himself backward to the edge of the cliff. He stood there for a moment, head turned skyward, eyes closed. Jack rushed toward him, but this time he was too late. Still grinning, the man spread his arms wide and tumbled backward over the cliff.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Special Agent Bill Elliot’s brown eyes blazed with anger as he stared at them from across the desk. Claudia might have been more than a little intimidated if she hadn’t been sailing so high at the moment on painkillers. She glanced down at the new cast on her arm. Her first broken bone—

  “Miss Reynolds? Do you have anything you’d like to add to your statement?”

  Why did he make it sound like an accusation? Or was that just her imagination. “Uh, no. Not at the moment.”

  He turned to Jack. “You say this facility is somewhere underground, somewhere remote but you have no idea where.”

  “That’s right. I’ve told you everything I remember about the place.”

  “Which isn’t much,” the agent said impatiently. “We’ve been on this guy’s trail for years. It would have been helpful if you two had managed to bring him in alive.”

  “Sorry,” Claudia said, although when she remembered the guy’s grinning face and what he had done to Dr. Lasher, what he might have done to her and Jack, she couldn’t muster up much genuine regret.

  Special Agent Elliot handed them each a card. “We suspect this guy was responsible for the abductions in this area. And my guess is, he wasn’t working alone. I want to nail these bastards to the wall. If you think of anything else, I don’t care how trivial it may seem, you call me. You got that?”

  After they left the local police station where Elliot had conducted the interrogation, Claudia let out a breath. “Wow, that was pretty intense.” He didn’t seem to hear her. “Jack?”

  She knew what he was thinking about.

  She put a hand on his sleeve. “He could have been lying, Jack.”

  He glanced down at her with tormented eyes. “What if he wasn’t? What if my brother really is dead?”

  “Then we’ll get through it. Right now, let’s just go home.”

  “Home?”

  She squeezed his arm. “You got someplace better to go?”

  SOMETHING AWAKENED Jack that night, and he got up from Claudia’s warm bed and strode outside in the cold. The night was clear and crisp, and as he stood with his head upturned to the starry sky, he emptied his mind and waited.

  It was a long time before he felt the soft probe inside his head, the whisper of a thought that was like the stroke of a feather.

  Jack?

  Nothing else came through. Whether he’d actually heard his brother’s voice or it was merely wishful thinking on his part, Jack had no idea. He stood in the cold fo
r the longest time, unwilling to sever whatever fragile connection might still exist between him and his twin.

  “Jack?”

  It was Claudia’s voice he heard this time, calling softly to him from the porch.

  He turned. She stood on the top step, shivering in her diaphanous nightgown. Starlight sprinkled down between them as the wind chimes stirred on the porch. The night suddenly seemed magical. Who better to believe in the impossible than he?

  Claudia came down the steps and crossed the yard toward him. He met her halfway and wrapped his arms around her.

  “My brother is still alive,” he whispered against her hair. “He’s out there somewhere and I have to find him.”

  She drew back, gazing up at him. “Then you will. You found me, didn’t you?”

  “I had no choice,” he said.

  “Nor did I, as it turns out.” She reached up and trailed her fingertips down his cheek. “I’m here because of you.”

  He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. “I am because of you.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-4318-1

  MAGNUM FORCE MAN

  Copyright © 2009 by Harlequin Books S.A.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.