Targeted

by Lori L. Harris

  Dream. That was what it was. She was just dreaming and was too tired to rouse herself to wakefulness.

  Tired from what? Had she gone to the beach? Drunk too many rum drinks? Was that why her head hurt?

  No. That wasn’t it. But something had happened. She couldn’t remember what, but knew that she needed to open her eyes and face whatever it was. Alec’s face, tight with passion, lingered in the darkness with her. She tried to lick her dry lips, but couldn’t. Something was over her mouth. But what?

  Then an odor intruded. A woodsy mustiness that she couldn’t place.

  A memory speared across her sluggish mind. A shower curtain being ripped back, a man standing there. Katie felt her body jerk once, twice, involuntary movements brought on by the man’s face.

  Rick Sekorra’s face.

  Even as the image faded, she could feel his hot breath brush her ear. “Katydid. You need to wake up. It’s time to play.”

  She kept her eyes closed, trying to clear her mind even more.

  “Katydid, open your eyes,” he whispered. Then louder, “I’m not going to ask again.”

  She forced her eyes open, but immediately squinted against the sudden pain caused by the blinding light. What she’d thought was sunlight was nothing more than a strong utility lamp clamped to the metal headboard of the narrow bed. She rolled her head away from the man leaning over her. Tasting bile at the back of her throat, she swallowed. If she got sick now, she’d choke.

  Though she already knew what she would find, she focused on the binding that lashed her left wrist—and presumably her other wrist and ankles—to the metal headboard and footboard.

  Surgical tubing.

  The effects of what he had given her were fading, but were just as quickly being replaced by a numbing fear. She was going to die. Panic clawed its way through her, tearing at her as if it were a wild animal trapped inside a canvas sack. Tears welled up hot and fast, immediately clogging her throat. She tried to move more than her head, but realized she couldn’t. It was as if her arms and legs were glued to the bare mattress.

  He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. His eyes were such a pale brown that they looked nearly amber. She remembered them, she realized. She would have known him by those eyes alone.

  The night of the accident came screaming back. Those cold snake eyes staring in at her as she sat trapped by her seat belt.

  The hair was different, though. His head was clean shaven now, as were his powerful chest and arms.

  His face was scratched up, as if some animal…

  Alec’s cat. The cat had attacked him as he tried to slide the needle into her arm that first time.

  But it was the locket swinging from his neck like a pendulum that she couldn’t seem to look away from. The one he’d taken the night he attacked her, the one with a photo inside of her sister.

  Sekorra squatted down next to the cot, so that he was even with her. He ran a finger slowly from the point of her chin down her throat. When he reached the first button of her blouse, he undid it. “Were you hoping I’d rot in prison, or maybe find God and be willing to turn the other cheek?” He undid the next two, pushed aside the material. Katie clenched her eyes. Everything inside her began shutting down. She wouldn’t let him see her fear. No matter what it took, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing just how frightened she was.

  Her eyes flew open, and she tried to jerk away when he brushed back a section of hair that had fallen forward onto her face. He chuckled and leaned closer. “Or maybe you didn’t think about me at all. Is that it?” He reached up and flicked off the lamp. “Think about this, Katydid. Think about what it’s going to feel like to die.”

  He closed the door after him, leaving her alone in the pitch-black room. The first hard sob racked her. She tried to move again, but couldn’t. What had he given her? How long before the effects wore off, before she could have any hope of fighting for her life?

  IT TOOK THREE HOURS, but finally Alec and Seth were back in Deep Water. The two men sprinted through the front doors of Deep Water’s police department. And down the hall to Jack’s office.

  From the moment they’d left the Daytona airport, they’d hit nothing but traffic. He’d spoken to Jack less than half an hour ago, and they’d agreed to meet in his office.

  Jack stood next to his desk. His hair was disheveled, as if he’d been shoving his hand through it repeatedly for the past few hours. Martinez and another young officer were reviewing some typed pages.

  “Did you get it?” Alec asked his brother.

  Jack handed him a photo.

  Alec instantly recognized the face. The deep-set pale brown eyes that appeared to be tucked in beneath a pronounced forehead. A blunt nose, squared at the end. Clean-shaven head.

  It was the man from the political rally. The one who had stopped Paul Darby’s attacker two days ago.

  “I see you remember him. He was paroled just over a month ago. And we’re fairly certain that Katie wasn’t his only target.”

  Unfolding the Deep Water Times Union, Jack laid it in front of Alec.

  Politician Found Murdered In Hotel Room

  Alec met his brother’s eyes. “He stopped someone else from killing Darby because he wanted the pleasure of doing it himself.”

  “The rally wasn’t the only time your paths crossed. You actually had Sekorra in one of the National Academy classes. So it’s not surprising he would recognize you.” Alec had taught a behavioral science course at Quantico for state and local law enforcement personnel from around the country.

  Alec tossed down the paper. “You took his statement?”

  Jack handed Alec the report that one of his officers had taken several days earlier. “He’s been using the name Richard Sexton. The address is bound to be fake, but—”

  Alec looked up, realizing they might have just gotten their first break. “Maybe not. Everything he’s done up until this point has shown a strong degree of arrogance. Because he thinks Jill’s killer is still out there, Sekorra sees himself as invisible and invincible. He has no idea that we’re on to him. He has to make Katie’s…” Alec’s jaw hardened. “He’s got to make it look as if Jill’s killer is responsible.”

  Martinez, who had stood silently by, leaned down until his gaze was level with Alec’s. “What happens if he learns David Adams has been apprehended?”

  Seth, who had picked up the photo seconds earlier, tossed it back down on the desk. “Then he kills her and dumps the body where he hopes it will never be found.”

  KATIE DIDN’T KNOW how long she’d been lying there, listening intently for any sound, but it felt like hours. For at least the past thirty minutes or so, she’d been able to move her hands and legs, but had quickly discovered that even the slightest tug tightened the tubing around her wrists and ankles, cutting off circulation.

  Where was she? Where had he taken her?

  And what was he waiting for?

  Her head hurt, but the fuzziness had receded enough that she could think a bit more clearly now.

  He’d killed Darby. He’d bragged about it as he slid the needle into her arm. She tried to swallow, but her throat just tightened with unshed tears. Did anyone even know she was missing? And why hadn’t he killed her back at Alec’s house when he’d had the chance?

  The pain above her right eye expanded. Her breathing turned shallow and fast as she fought the burning and aching sensation. The fingers of her left hand already tingled from lack of blood flow.

  She glanced toward the door. The room’s only light came in beneath it. The floor was bare concrete, or maybe terrazzo, the one window covered over with plywood. Even if she could get herself free, she’d have to get past Sekorra.

  Trapped there in the dark, crime scene photos strobed across her mind. Jill’s body tied to a bed, the sheet beneath dark with blood. The box cutter resting on the nightstand.

  In an effort to close down those images, she forced herself to think about her parents, about the airline t
icket she’d bought. She’d never seen the Grand Canyon. Had never been west of the Mississippi. There were a lot of things she hadn’t done in her life. She’d always thought there would be more time. To travel. To find and marry the right man. With that thought, she saw Alec smiling at her, his dark eyes warm. Then a second image followed, of Alec again, but this time his features were drawn in con centration as he’d looked up at her, his tongue dipping into her navel briefly before moving lower….

  In Alec’s arms, she had felt alive for the first time in her life. Alive and safe and free.

  It couldn’t end now. Not like this. Before she’d truly lived. Before she’d truly loved.

  “HOW DO YOU WANT to handle things?” Jack asked Alec as they both pulled on soft body armor.

  “We go in hard and fast. Our best hope is to get to her before he moves her. Once he does, it becomes a crapshoot. Though if I had to guess, I’d say he’ll take her back to the bungalow.”

  Trying to stay focused on what lay ahead of them, and not the woman they were going after, Alec tugged on the shoulder holster over the armor. “He won’t be looking for us. He still believes himself to be invisible. It’s a face card, but it hardly stacks the deck in our favor.”

  “Do you really think there’s an outside chance he hasn’t harmed her yet?”

  “He could have done it at my place and didn’t.”

  Jack fastened the duty belt around his waist. “Maybe he was worried someone would show up.”

  Alec slipped a magazine into the Glock, then glanced up again, his expression grim. “Perhaps he’s not as comfortable with killing as he thought.”

  If Sekorra had harmed Katie, Alec was going to take him apart. Nothing would be able to stop him. Not even Jack.

  “Tell that to Darby,” Jack said bluntly. He had bent down to shove the small revolver into the ankle holster.

  “Killing a man by injecting him with Valium, then sliding a couple of rattlesnakes in bed with him isn’t quite the same as slicing open a woman while she’s still alive. Maybe he doesn’t quite have the stomach for it, but he knows that taking any type of shortcut will be a dead giveaway.”

  Swinging back around, the assault riffle he’d picked up from the rack in his hands, Alec leveled his gaze on his brother. “Are you about ready?”

  Jack straightened. “We’ll get him.”

  Wordlessly, he grabbed half a dozen magazines for the assault weapon and rejoined Martinez and the two officers in the other room.

  Jack had chosen two young recruits to round out the team. Alec didn’t question his brother’s decision. Jack knew his men. But Alec wondered how they were going to handle themselves in the next few hours.

  The tall redhead had taken some SWAT training. The other, a short Rambo look-alike, had the best time and scores on the gun range. But they weren’t going to be running drills or punching holes in paper today. Today they’d both be losing their virginity.

  Alec walked to the window overlooking the back parking lot. Was he kidding himself about the possibility that Katie was still alive? He wasn’t infallible. And Rick Sekorra wasn’t your typical offender. He’d seen the system from the inside, knew how law enforcement worked, how law officers thought. He’d attended courses that Alec had taught on profiling and on crime scenes. He would have learned more by his firsthand observation.

  If anything, Alec was the one at a disadvantage.

  In an effort to control his nerves, he shoved his hands into his pocket. He knew how important preparation was, but he was having a hard time coping with even the smallest of delays. Because this time, the stakes were so high.

  For the first time, he allowed himself to put a name to it. To admit to himself, if not to anyone else. He loved her. He had fallen in love with Katie the moment she had walked through his front door. Beautiful and defiant. Intelligent. A woman strong enough to stand up to a man and strong enough to stand beside him. It was that very strength that he was counting on to keep her alive until he could get to her. Until he put Sekorra into a well-earned body bag.

  Hearing someone enter the room, Alec turned.

  Seth folded his cell phone. “That was Detective Evans. He’ll continue to keep David Adams’s arrest out of the media until he hears from us.” Seth shoved the cellular phone into his pocket. “And we finally have the connection between you and Adams. His mother dated Dick Bartow for several years.”

  Alec knew the name. Bartow had brutally raped and murdered five women in Cincinnati back in the late nineties. Alec had been called in to provide a profile, and it had been his testimony that had put Bartow on death row. Bartow had died there, but not at the hands of the state. Cancer had taken him.

  Seth wandered over and stood beside Alec, both men looking out the window. “Evidently, Adams considered him a father figure.”

  All Alec could think about was the waste of life. Of David Adams’s life and Jill’s life—and perhaps most of all, the life of the unborn child Jill had been carrying. His child. And all because he’d done his job.

  Jack came in, his officers right behind him. “Cars are out back.”

  They climbed into a beat-up Ford Taurus and a 1991 Chevy Blazer that was so covered in mud and scrapes that it was difficult to tell the paint color. Where they were headed, even an unmarked police vehicle would stand out.

  The address Sekorra had given on the report wasn’t far from the springs and down an unpaved road. The homes in the area were a mixture of squat cement block structures or older trailers. Instead of lawns, there were cars on blocks and dogs tied up, their only shelter a rusted fifty-five gallon drum. It was the kind of area where neighbors kept to themselves, where you expected to find illegal migrant workers or meth labs. And Alec knew it was for that reason that Sekorra had chosen it. No one would bother him. And if they noticed anything unusual, the last thing they’d do was call the cops.

  Sekorra’s frame house sat back from a dirt track that was nearly overgrown with weeds. A chain stretched across the entrance with a rusted No Trespassing sign hanging from it. They left the two cars out of sight and hiked in.

  As dusk deepened, a slow, steady drizzle began to fall.

  Alec motioned for Jack to work his way around back. Martinez was to wait outside while Alec and the officer with SWAT training went in. The second young cop would wait with Martinez. As they were positioning themselves, a light came on inside.

  Seeing it as a fairly reliable indication of Sekorra’s position in the house, Alec moved in, keeping low to the ground. Adrenaline screamed through his veins, and his chest was tight with it. The night was cool, the ground muddy from recent rains.

  Alec kicked in the door. “Police!”

  SEKORRA LEANED IN and, picking her up out of the trunk, slung her over his shoulder. Blood rushed downward into her head, and everything seemed to spin as he swung back after closing the trunk lid. She was wearing a man’s T-shirt, but nothing beneath it.

  He was going to kill her. Clenching her eyes, she silently dragged in as much air as she could.

  Don’t panic. Stay limp.

  But how? Panic sizzled through her veins, the instinct to fight for life nearly impossible to deny. And her muscles screamed for freedom. The zip ties around her wrists bit into the already bruised flesh. Her hands felt nearly as numb as her head.

  Somehow, she managed to control herself. Hanging over his shoulder, she couldn’t tell where he was taking her, but they seemed to be cutting through a small hammock of oaks. Tree frogs filled the night with their endless chigg…chigg…chiggering. The sound suddenly seemed to be mocking. Sinister. As if they were in collaboration with the monster who carried her.

  She’d been wrong. She shouldn’t have forced Alec’s hand. How arrogant it had been to think she could outwit a maniac. And so stupid. Alec would blame himself. See it as his failure. But it wasn’t. Oh, Alec! She wished she could see him one more time, if only to tell him that he wasn’t to blame.

  He’d done everything he could to keep her
safe. He’d been right. Running wouldn’t have changed anything. Sekorra would have followed. But she wasn’t going to get a chance to say any of those things. Just as she wasn’t going to get the opportunity to tell him that she loved him…had loved him from nearly the first moment he’d looked up at her in the diner, as she waited to take his order.

  How simple things had been then.

  She should have told him this morning, when she’d had the chance. But she’d been afraid of the words. She hadn’t wanted to risk anything, especially her heart. But life was nothing but risks and dreams—some of which, if you were lucky, actually came true. She’d recognized that too late.

  Sekorra stopped and, rotating his upper body right and then left, seemed to be scanning the way they’d just come. As if he worried about being followed.

  Cautiously lifting her head, she got her first look at where they headed.

  Oh, God, no…Any place but here. It was too cruel. Alec had been hurt enough. If he found another bloody body in his own bed, laid out carefully for him, like a gift from hell…

  Sekorra used a key to open the front door. Where had he gotten it? And why wasn’t the alarm going off?

  Once inside, he hesitated. “Honey, I’m home!”

  The sarcastic words echoed through the house. When they had nearly died away without any answer, he shifted her weight higher on his shoulder. Don’t tighten up. He’ll feel it if you do. She closed her eyes.

  Hold steady. She could hear her father telling Karen to hold the small fishing boat steady. Oh, Karen… This man…this monster…was he really going to kill them both? And then, she felt her heart buck. Did he intend to kill her parents next?

  Sekorra climbed upward into the darkness, the combination of his weight and of Katie’s making the treads groan beneath him. At the landing, he hesitated again, looking up, and then back down the way he had come. Through the landing window, she could just make out the moon beginning to rise. A deep orange that seemed to sit among the branches of the distant trees. A blood moon.

  With a grunt, he dropped her on Alec’s bed. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel that ugly face and those amber eyes staring down at her.