by Cynthia Eden
Dani paused, then she glanced up at Cadence. The watch around Cadence’s wrist was a GPS tracker. It would send her location back to Dani every five seconds. Dani always kept her tech toys close, so Cadence hadn’t been surprised when Dani had brought out the equipment.
Having it so close saved them time.
“You think so, huh?” Anger pulsed beneath Dani’s words. “What happens if this grand plan of yours goes wrong?”
Cadence lifted a hand and stroked the earring on her right ear. Another tracking device. Hidden so easily in plain view. “I’ve got you keeping tabs on me, what could go wrong?”
“Plenty,” Dani snapped. “Maybe he takes you to a place where I can’t get your signal. If he goes underground again, if there are caverns or caves near here that he uses…” She shook her head. “I’m not sure the signals will transmit back to me. I could lose you.”
Cadence wasn’t going to let fear hold her back. Judith was alive a week ago. She had to offer herself. Had to be bait for the killer. “If the transmission stops, then you follow the last signal. Every five seconds, remember? You follow it and you’ll get close enough to find me.”
“Why?” Dani demanded, voice low. “Why are you doing this? For him, obviously, I get it. I see the way you keep staring at Kyle.”
I see the way you keep staring. She’d have to watch that. “The women could be alive. I’m doing this for them.”
“Not just for them,” Dani argued immediately. “Tell that to someone who doesn’t know you that well.”
Fine, she was doing it for Kyle, too. “If it were your sister, would you want her left with him? Left for all of those years while he tortured her, again and again?”
She wasn’t even sure how Kyle was keeping it together. After he’d found out about Judith, she’d expected more of a reaction. Alive. For four long years.
They hadn’t told Judith’s family the news yet. Cadence knew it would devastate them.
“You have your gun?” Dani asked her, not answering Cadence’s question.
She lifted her arm, revealing the holster.
Dani’s breath huffed out. “And a backup? You have your backup, right?”
“Strapped to my ankle.” Her right ankle had a gun strapped to it. Her left, a knife.
“Two transmitters are in place on you now.” Danielle’s breath exhaled slowly. “A third is on the way. It’s shipping from Quantico and should be here in a few hours.” Her right eyelid twitched. “This had better work, or I’m gonna kick your ass when I see you again.”
Cadence nodded. “Fair enough.”
Dani backed away from her. “You know I can take you out. I did it plenty of times in training.”
When she wanted, Dani could be vicious.
She moved to stand near the small window, one that looked over the line of trees in the distance. “So,” Dani’s musing voice began. “When did you start sleeping with him?”
Yes, she’d figured her friend would pick up on that.
Dani glanced over her shoulder. “The guy’s looked at you like he wanted to eat you for months. He still looks that way, but something’s different.”
It was. “In Paradox.”
“You know you won’t be able to keep working with him. Not when Ben finds out.”
She thought the guy already knew. “Why not? You and Ben seem to get along just fine.”
Silence. Dani’s lips were parted, her stare startled.
Cadence almost smiled. “Did you think I didn’t know about you two?” Her friend wasn’t that good at keeping secrets.
“We don’t usually work in the field,” Dani said, but her words were halting. “You and Kyle, with this case—”
“I don’t know what’s happening with us. I don’t know if there’s a future or if there’s only now.” She couldn’t think past the moment. “We’ll figure it out after we stop this asshole.”
“The Night Hunter.”
So the media kept calling him. Since he only hunted at night, the news folks thought they were being clever.
The moniker would just feed the killer’s ego. Make him think he was larger than life.
He already thinks that.
Cadence adjusted her watch. “If we’re set, I want to check in with Kyle. See if he’s heard anything else from the police captain over in Paradox.” She headed toward the door.
“Ben doesn’t.”
Her words had Cadence pausing.
“Ben doesn’t look at me the way Kyle watches you. When he stares at you, it’s like nothing else matters.”
At those words, Cadence’s heart beat a bit faster. Her hands wanted to tremble, so she made sure that Dani couldn’t see them. Sometimes, she did catch a look in Kyle’s eyes that was…intense. No, consuming. She’d never had another man look at her with that kind of need.
But Dani was wrong. Something else did matter. Someone else.
Cadence opened the door and hurried into the bustle of the station. The watch on her wrist was no bigger than any other watch, but it felt too heavy to her.
Only the FBI agents knew about her plan. They didn’t trust the locals not to leak information. Accidentally or even on purpose, they couldn’t be trusted with the plan Cadence was putting into motion.
Not yet.
Her gaze searched the station’s open area, but Kyle wasn’t there. She turned, heading down the hallway that would lead to the back offices. Kyle and Ben had disappeared that way before.
“Are you looking for me?”
Kyle sat at a desk inside the last office. His gun was on the desk. His jacket behind him.
She entered the small room. Closed the door.
His gaze rose to pin her. “Are you set?”
“Yes.” Mostly.
“I told you this was fucking crazy, right?”
Her jaw locked. He’d mentioned that a few times. He wasn’t changing her mind. Why risk innocent civilians if the killer already wanted her?
He rose from the chair. It rolled back with a squeak of its wheels. “I get it, okay? I know what you’re trying to do.” He came toward her with slow, deliberate steps. “Part of me is grateful because it is a way to draw him out.”
With every step he took, her heart pounded faster.
“But I don’t like it.” Grim. Hard. “I don’t fucking like having you in his sights at all.”
Hadn’t she been in his sights ever since she’d gotten off the plane in Paradox? “Our job always puts us in the path of killers. I told you before, if I wanted safety, I wouldn’t have joined the FBI.”
He was just a foot away from her now. Plenty close enough to touch. She wanted to touch him. She knew the plan that was coming. She was supposed to head back to Paradox. Go back out to those caverns. Make sure she was seen moving around in the open, on her own.
Kyle would follow her, slowly. He’d stay in her vicinity, just as Dani would. Ben was remaining in Maverick a little longer, running down a few more leads.
It was time for the next stage to begin.
Only she wasn’t ready to walk away from Kyle.
Her hand slid down. Found the small lock on the door. The click seemed incredibly loud in the narrow room.
His gaze held hers.
“Kiss me before I go,” she whispered.
His hands flattened on either side of her head, pushing against the door frame. His mouth lowered, paused just above hers. “When this is all over, we won’t go back to the way things were.”
She’d told Dani she didn’t know their future.
“I had you, and I can’t let that end. I won’t,” he said, the words dark and rumbling.
She wasn’t ready to let go of him either.
His lips brushed over hers. The faintest of touches. Not what she needed.
“I had you all wrong.” He growled the words against her lips. “I thought I knew what you wanted.”
She kept her secrets close.
“It’s not gentleness. Not just a lover in the dark.”
> His mouth pressed harder to hers.
Lifted.
“What you really want is to lose that control you keep so closely. To let go. To burn.”
She was burning right then. Her breasts ached, the nipples tight peaks. Her hips were pushing toward him, toward the thick bulge of arousal pressing against her.
“You make me burn, Cadence. You make me crave.”
His mouth wasn’t on hers. His lips were on the curve of her neck. His tongue rasped over the skin. She felt the faint edge of his teeth. Then he was licking, sucking that sensitive flesh.
She held back the moan trying to break from her. She didn’t want anyone in the hallway to hear her.
“I want to take you every way I can for as long as I can.”
Heat pooled in her sex. She knew her panties were getting wet.
“And I will.” Kyle’s mouth came back to hers. His lips were open, and his tongue thrust into her mouth. Yes. This kiss was what she wanted.
Only it didn’t stop the ache she felt.
The kiss made it so much sharper.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Voices called out just beyond the door. She lifted her hands, wrapped them around Kyle’s broad shoulders, and pulled him closer.
She loved his taste. Talk about craving.
But he was lifting his head again. Dammit. Putting those inches between them that she hated. “You make sure you come back to me, baby.” A hard order. “You make damn sure.”
She would.
“I won’t let you disappear.”
Then he kissed her the way she’d wanted—completely, totally, sending her heart thundering and her body trembling because there was power and passion and so much need in that one kiss.
She’d be coming back for this. For him.
The bastard out there wasn’t going to stop her.
If there weren’t others a few feet away, if she didn’t hear them coming toward the door—
Kyle’s hand slid down her body.
His fingers were over her breast. Stroking.
She jerked against him. Feels so good.
She wanted his hand even lower. On her sex.
In her.
Not now. Not here.
If she didn’t stop soon…
Her hands pressed against his shoulders.
Their eyes met.
“Come back to me,” Kyle demanded.
She nodded.
He let her go.
Time for me to be bait.
The killer was keeping close tabs on the FBI. He could be watching her, right then. But just in case he didn’t have her in sight at that moment, she knew exactly where to go in order to draw him out.
The caves.
The caves were special to the killer. Those tally marks had been left in the cave with Lily because the killer had been marking his territory. He felt safe there, so he’d left a record of his victims.
They’d found the remains of one woman there. If there were others, then the killer would feel compelled to go back…
And he’d find me.
Since the FBI team suspected the killer was closely monitoring the investigation, Cadence had made a point of informing all the local officials that if they needed her, she’d be back at the caves. She’d even told a local reporter that she was focusing most of her attention on the dark caverns to learn more about the killer.
She’d put out the bait, now the killer just had to act.
“It’s not exactly easy to move several tons of rocks.” Dr. Aaron Peters gazed at the entrance to the caverns. He didn’t look like a buttoned-up professor anymore. Dirt stained his cheeks and hands, and his jeans were ripped in a half-dozen places. He shook his head. “Every time we advance, it seems like we wind up taking five feet back. The place is too unstable. Those detonations—hell, we’re lucky the explosions didn’t create a fifty-mile sinkhole. The bastard could have destroyed everything.”
Dark clouds swirled in the air above Cadence and Aaron, blocking out the evening sun. Wind pushed against her cheeks.
“My team can’t stay down there during storms like the ones coming. It’d be too dangerous.”
She knew they couldn’t. The local weatherman had been predicting the severe surge of storms for days. Now the storms were almost on them.
“I heard about what happened in Maverick.” Aaron’s voice was lower now. Sympathetic. “Is the sheriff gonna make it?”
“I think so. He was stable when I left.” She’d never forget the gurgles he’d made as he lay on the sidewalk, drowning in his own blood.
Aaron turned away from the caverns. Focused totally on her. “What makes somebody do this? I mean, how do you get so messed up that you keep women as your prisoners in caves? That you shoot sheriffs and kill without hesitation? Why do you do that? How do you do it?”
Her gaze slanted toward him. Cautiously, she began to explain, “There are lots of different theories.” The wind had kicked up even more, tossing her hair. “Some folks think serials are born bad. That’s the nature idea. You’re born evil, and no matter what happens, you’re meant to grow up and kill.”
It sounded like the wind had started to howl.
“Others say it’s all in the environment. Events that shape people into becoming who they are. Things happen. They twist good people and turn them into—” Monsters. “Killers.” She paused, intent on gauging what sort of reaction he might have at her words.
Aaron just shook his head, as if he couldn’t understand how a person could be so twisted. “But becoming someone like this?” His lips twisted in a grimace. “Why?”
A flash of lightning lit up the sky behind him. “We believe this individual is a collector, of sorts.”
“When I was a kid, I collected rocks, not people.”
But their killer did collect people. “He’s not quite like you.” Their perp wasn’t like anyone she’d ever met or profiled before. For most of the serials she encountered, the kill was the end goal for them. They received satisfaction—fulfillment—from the act of killing their prey. But this guy actually kept his victims alive. Multiple victims, seemingly alive at the same time. Death wasn’t the end goal for him.
Control was.
“How do you do it?” Aaron wanted to know as he narrowed his eyes. “How do you go after these guys without the nightmares driving you crazy?”
Behind him, Aaron’s team and the authorities on hand were leaving the caverns. Securing the area.
How do you do it?
Late at night, she wondered the same thing. “I put them in cages. I lock them up. When I know the killers are off the streets, I sleep much better.” Not the total truth, but Aaron didn’t need to know about her nightmares.
Thunder rumbled in the distance.
Aaron turned away. “All right, guys!” His voice rose. “I’m calling it for today! Let’s get out of here before the first storm comes through!”
The local weatherman had predicted the line of thunderstorms would roll in just before sunset. They were supposed to last all night.
The storms would slowly make their way up to Maverick, Tennessee.
The wind and rain would wash away any recent evidence the killer had left behind. Now they even had Mother Nature working against them.
She glanced toward their makeshift parking lot. Search teams who’d been in the woods were already piling into their vehicles. Getting ready to go home.
She headed for the line of trees. Voices floated behind her. Aaron, talking to his team.
She knew the path led back to Death Falls—the falls that had offered her freedom before, when she’d been trapped in the darkness.
Her steps were fast as she hurried toward them. The woods were silent, the voices of the men soon disappearing behind her. The trees swayed. Lightning lit up the sky in hot flashes every few moments.
Then the thunder of the falls reached her. It seemed louder, stronger than it had been before.
She stopped and stared at the water. It was beautifu
l, but when she saw it, Cadence could only think of death.
The name of the falls was damn fitting. Swallowing, she glanced away from the thundering water. Cadence looked to the left. The right. She was sure the killer had used this exit from the caverns. Sure he’d come here, over and over.
Awareness pushed through Cadence. There had been no sound to alert her to someone else’s presence. But…
I’m not alone.
Cadence spun around, her gun out and aimed in an instant.
The gun was pointed just a few inches from Aaron’s face.
He blinked. “I was just making sure you were okay.” His cheeks flushed. Even in the weak light, there was no missing the bright red. “I saw you come over here by yourself. You don’t want to get trapped up here during a storm. The water there”—Aaron inclined his head—“it gets rough pretty quick. One misstep, and you could be in trouble.”
She lowered the weapon. Lowered it, but didn’t holster it. “Sorry.”
He took a few quick steps back, putting some distance between them. “The crew’s leaving. You heading back with us?”
For now, she was.
More thunder rumbled.
Or was it just the falls?
She stepped toward Aaron.
His hands had clenched into fists.
Her own body tensed.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “What you’re all thinking.”
Lightning flashed over him.
“I was here, just a few years ago, I should have seen something.” He shook his head. “But I swear, I didn’t. I searched those caverns as much as I could. I searched in the area where you found Lily. There was nothing.” His breath heaved out. “I keep wondering—dammit, did I miss something? Could I have stopped this?”
Rain began to pelt down on them.
Aaron swore.
They both began to jog back to the base, back to the waiting cars.
She knew guilt ate at him.
It ate at her, too.
For her mother.
For all the victims she hadn’t been able to save over the years.
They stopped at the cars. She had an SUV of her own now. She’d picked the rental up on her way out of Maverick. Aaron waved to her once she was at her vehicle, then he headed over to join his group.