by Cynthia Eden
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It looked like the officer’s head had been bashed in. Blood soaked his temples and streamed down his face.
His throat had been cut open.
Kyle swore at the savagery. To bash the man’s head like that—to get close enough to easily slice his throat—the captain could have done that. He would have walked right up to the guy. The man wouldn’t have even tried to fight back, not until it was too late.
Poor sonofabitch.
“Where’s the other officer?” Cadence whispered. Her light cut through the tunnel. To Kyle, the light seemed so weak in the darkness.
“Help.”
A whisper floated from deeper within the tunnel.
Kyle tensed. He wasn’t sure the voice belonged to the other officer.
One man was dead. Why leave the other alive?
Bait.
Or maybe he was dead already, too, and the perp was trying to lure them into his trap.
“He came back here for a reason.” The place hadn’t been rigged to explode before, but maybe it was because their perp hadn’t been able to set his traps in time.
They’d followed Cadence too soon. Tracked her. Saved her. Before the SOB could destroy the place.
If he’d gotten rid of the evidence at the station, then hell, yes, he could be destroying evidence here, too.
Bait or killer? They had to find out. They advanced with careful steps. Cadence kept her light on the ground, checking for a trip wire, while Kyle shined his beam at eye level, making sure they weren’t about to face-plant into another wire.
“Please.”
The cry came from the right, from the same chamber Cadence had been trapped in.
Her breath heaved out, too loud in the silence. He could feel her fear.
Kyle didn’t want her back in that fucking room.
The big, wooden door was shut. It had been shut before, when Cadence had been trapped. He hadn’t thought of explosives then. He’d only thought of getting to her.
Was the place now rigged to blow if he opened the door?
“Help.” The voice was even weaker.
A man’s voice. The other officer had been a fresh-faced kid who Kyle only vaguely remembered. He’d been young, maybe in his early twenties.
Too young to die.
Weren’t they all too young?
Was that him? Or is it you, Anniston?
“We’re here!” Cadence called out, but Kyle noticed she didn’t open the door. “Identify yourself!”
“Officer Bailey. Ken Bailey…” The words were rasping. “Please…someone has cut me…”
He was being used as live bait.
But they couldn’t leave him in there to die.
Carefully, Kyle pushed open the door. Inch by slow inch. Checking up and down the door’s length for a trip wire.
There wasn’t one.
He slipped into the room.
And felt a knife shove into his chest.
“Please…” A voice grated in his ear. “Someone has cut me…”
It wasn’t the young cop.
Kyle shoved hard against the SOB who’d just stabbed him, but the man just laughed and twisted the knife.
“No!” Cadence’s scream. Then she was there, but she couldn’t attack.
Her light had fallen on Kyle and on Captain James Anniston.
“I’m close to his heart,” James whispered. “So close. All I have to do is yank up my blade. You think you can shoot me before I do that, Agent Hollow?”
She didn’t. Kyle knew it. If she had thought she could take the shot, then Cadence already would have done it.
“He can still survive if I don’t jerk my knife any more.”
The guy was taunting them.
“You won’t shoot,” James muttered. “Because you fucking love him, don’t you?”
Kyle hoped to heaven she did. But it wasn’t just about Cadence. If she didn’t take the shot, Anniston would still kill him. Still kill them both.
A numbness was spreading through Kyle’s body even as his blood soaked his shirt, but he lifted his weapon. Pointed it right at Anniston’s head. “I’ll…shoot.”
Anniston laughed. “Do it, and you’ll never find out what happened to that sweet sister of yours.”
Fucking bastard.
“I know.” Talking was so hard for Kyle. Maybe the SOB had already clipped his heart. The beating seemed off in his chest. “She’s gone. Maria’s…at peace.”
Cadence’s light was on Anniston’s face. Rage twisted his features as he shouted, “She’s not! She’s not gone!”
Kyle’s fingers tightened around the trigger. This was what he’d wanted. What he’d planned all along.
To kill the man who’d taken his sister.
Even if it was the last thing he did.
With the way he was bleeding, it damn well might be.
James jerked the knife from Kyle’s chest. Then he dropped the weapon. Put his hands up. “I can take you to her.”
Kyle locked his teeth against the pain ripping through him. He staggered forward and put his gun right at James’s chest. Payback.
“No!” Cadence’s shout. Her hands were on his shoulders, trying to pull him back.
“You can’t kill an unarmed man,” James whispered.
Yes, he could.
“That’s not the way the FBI works.” The bastard was taunting him.
Screw the FBI. This was how he worked.
“Kyle, there are still women missing. All of the victims haven’t been found.” Cadence’s voice shook with fear. So did the fingers holding him.
Those victims were dead. He knew it.
“You can’t shoot me because I’m not armed.” James’s voice boomed. His current voice, not the scared imitation he’d done of the young cop. The SOB was one fine actor.
“Don’t care if you’re armed.” Dead was dead.
His hands were still up. “Do you care about the others? If you let Agent Hollow come with me now, I can take her to Maria.”
He wouldn’t believe this killer’s lies. It took all of his strength to stand upright as the blood pulsed down his chest. “She’s…dead.”
“Judith wasn’t.” His hands were still up. His eyes glinted under Cadence’s light. “Susannah…was alive. I don’t like to kill my girls, despite what you may think.”
“No,” Cadence’s voice. “You like for them to kill each other, don’t you?”
James’s face tightened. “I have to punish the ones who don’t obey. If they just followed my rules, then they wouldn’t have to get hurt.”
“Bull,” Cadence snapped at him. “You love hurting them, that’s why you keep them bound in the dark. You love having the power over them.”
A grim smile curved his lips. “That’s true for some. But Susannah lived, didn’t she? I let her keep living because she followed my orders. She checked in with me every single day. Always did exactly what I ordered…”
“Until…” Pain pulsed through Kyle. “She came after you…with a gun.”
“She lived!” Fury beat in James’s words. “So how do you know others didn’t, too?”
“You’re not going to take us anywhere else in these caverns.” Cadence had her gun locked right under her light. Aimed at Anniston. “We’re all going to walk out of here. I’ve got handcuffs in my back pocket. I’m about to put them on you. So get your hands up and keep them up!”
Kyle staggered.
“I hope I didn’t nick his heart,” Anniston murmured, the fury seeming to vanish. “He’ll die if I did. Bleed out before help can arrive.”
The gun was sagging in Kyle’s hand.
“Did you ever find that second guard?” Anniston asked, cocking his head. “Ken Bailey…?” Then his voice rose, changed. “P-please…someone c-cut me…”
It was another perfect imitation of the desperate call they’d heard before.
Anniston smiled. “Someone did cut him, you know. Cut him, hid him. If you won’t go and
find Maria, then maybe you’ll want to find him. He’s still alive.” A pause. “But then, Maria could be, too.”
The sick fuck just wanted them to keep walking in his darkness. He had a trap set for them.
“You want us all to die here,” Cadence said as she grabbed Anniston’s hand. She locked a cuff around his right wrist. Then his left. “But we aren’t. You’re not getting away with an easy death, no matter what you want.” Her body was between Kyle’s gun and Anniston’s black heart. “When you go to prison, the others will know you’re both an ex-cop and a freak who got off on torturing women. Just imagine all they’ll do to you. ’Cause I’m imagining it.”
Anniston laughed. “Your partner is going to be dead in the next two minutes.”
Cadence glanced over her shoulder at Kyle.
“Shine your light on his chest.”
Cadence’s light dipped to Kyle’s chest. He heard her sharp inhalation.
“I didn’t lie about the stroke, you know. It changed things for me. Made me realize…the world needed to know about the legacy I’d left. I was in the hospital, recovering, thinking about my girls…”
Sick fuck.
“And I opened the newspaper.” James’s voice had flattened. “There was a picture of you, Agent McKenzie. The big, tough agent who’d taken down another serial. Maria’s hero. You were on the cover of that paper. In the news, and I was trapped in that hospital bed!”
“You’re going to be trapped in a cell soon enough,” Cadence promised him.
“No, that’s not the end for me.” James was still too damn confident and cocky. “I wanted the world to know how smart I was—and how clueless the FBI was.” He rolled back his shoulders. “The Night Hunter.” It even sounded like a touch of awe was in the man’s voice. “That’s who I am, who everyone fears.”
Kyle didn’t fear him. He wanted to kill him.
“I won’t be forgotten. Everyone will remember. They’ll whisper about me. They’ll drive faster down dark roads…because of me.”
Big fucking deal.
“I got the fame. I’m the one who killed and killed, and no one knew. Now, they know.”
So the bastard had started the killing cycle over again. He’d taken Lily in Paradox. He’d called Kyle down first thing, all so he could get attention. Could get his fame before death.
Death is coming.
“I chose my own end.” James said. “I’m not going out slowly, my body failing on me. I’ll be remembered for my power.”
Because it was all about the damn power. Kyle’s breath sawed in and out of his chest. He gathered his strength for an attack.
“Do you know why I came back?” James asked.
Cadence’s eyes were on the captain. “To destroy any evidence we hadn’t found yet.”
“Yes.” He seemed so pleased. Too pleased. “How long have we been talking?”
How long…?
“Get out,” Kyle gritted to Cadence as he understood just what was happening. There didn’t have to be trip wires.
Timers.
James wasn’t going to let another stroke debilitate him. He was choosing his own death, a death with his girls.
She stumbled away from Anniston.
“One way in,” the captain whispered. “No trip wires, but I planted the explosives just the same. You won’t be getting out of that mountain entrance.”
He was sealing them all inside.
“One way in,” Anniston muttered again.
Then the tunnel rocked with an explosion.
The blast threw Ben and Dani twenty feet. They’d just reached the mountainside entrance when the explosion hit. A fiery eruption sent the side of the mountain falling down and sealed the entrance.
“Dani!” He screamed her name as he lurched to his feet.
“Here.” She was pushing up, wincing, a few feet away.
He grabbed for the flashlight he’d dropped. The light hit her, and he could see the fear on her face.
“They were inside,” Dani whispered.
He pulled her to her feet. The rocks were still tumbling down. The area too unsteady to get close.
“He buried them in there.”
If there was evidence in that place, more bodies…
Anniston was trying to cover his tracks.
He’d do anything to keep his secrets, even if it meant sending more people to their graves.
“There’s another way.” He made himself say the words. Because they had to be true. “There’s another way inside. All of the caverns connect here. We’re gonna get that damn professor, and we’re gonna find them.”
There had to be a way inside.
If there wasn’t, then he’d carve a way in. He would get to his agents.
Cadence coughed, choking on the dust and soil that had fallen down on her. But…
She wasn’t hurt.
The dust and soil also weren’t the only things that had fallen on her.
“Kyle?”
He’d grabbed her, even as the explosion had thundered. He’d yanked her close. Thrown his body over hers.
His blood soaked her shirt.
“Kyle!” She twisted, pushing against him.
Where was her light? The chamber was pitch-black.
She fumbled out with her fingers, looking for her gun or light.
Her fingers curled around the rim of the flashlight. Kyle was a dead weight on top of her.
No, no, not dead. Not Kyle.
He couldn’t be dead.
She hit the button for the flashlight. The beam flew across the room and caught Anniston’s back as he ran from the chamber.
If there’s only one way in, then where the hell is he going?
She saw her weapon. Stretched for it. Got it. Hell, yes. “Stop!” she yelled as she took aim.
Anniston didn’t stop.
She didn’t shoot. If she missed him or if the bullet went through him, more rocks could fall.
“Stop him,” Kyle growled as he heaved himself off her. “Go.”
Cadence didn’t run after him. Instead, her fingers flew over Kyle, checking his injuries.
The stab wound was vicious. Too deep. Too close to his heart.
“He can’t get away…”
“I can’t just leave you!”
“Get help…” Kyle’s fingers grabbed hers. “Dammit, please! Stop him. Don’t let him get away.”
Cadence leaned forward. Pressed a hard, quick kiss to Kyle’s lips. “I love you.”
Then she looked around the chamber. Found his light. Shoved the flashlight in his hand. One for him. One for her. “I’m coming back. We’re getting out of here. Keep the light—” So I can find you. She was afraid Kyle would pass out before she could return. Too much blood loss.
The light would guide her back.
Cadence stumbled to her feet and rushed after Anniston.
He hadn’t headed back to the entrance she and Kyle had used. One way in, my ass. The guy was rushing even farther down the main tunnel, away from the cave-in.
His light was shining, bobbing.
She raced after him. He wasn’t getting away from her. There was no way he’d escape after the hell he’d unleashed on them.
That’s your plan, isn’t it? To bury us in here. To destroy any remains from your victims and then to disappear.
Only he wouldn’t really disappear. A guy like him wouldn’t be able to stop killing. He’d go someplace else. Start hunting again.
She wasn’t going to let that happen.
Cadence pushed forward.
And Anniston’s light vanished.
Kyle’s fingers sank into the dirt. His chest burned, his blood soaked him, but he wasn’t giving up. Inch by slow inch, he dragged himself up.
The light shone beside him, revealing the location of his fallen weapon.
He should have killed the bastard while he’d had the chance.
Kyle, I want to come home!
His sister’s cries seemed to echo through his mind as h
e rose to his feet.
Cadence was gone. Hunting Anniston.
She wouldn’t kill the man, though. She’d catch him. Try to turn him in.
I don’t want him in a cage.
Kyle wanted the bastard in hell.
He pushed the gun in his holster. Staggered to the wall. The light trembled in his shaking grasp.
One step.
Two.
He held onto the rocks as he advanced.
He knew Anniston had sealed the main entrance to the caverns. He’d heard the thunder of the rocks falling. The SOB wouldn’t have retreated that way.
Kyle turned to the left when he eased out of the chamber. His steps were slow. He knew he’d be leaving a trail of blood as he walked.
But he wasn’t going to miss the endgame.
He wasn’t going to let Anniston win.
The tunnel was empty.
Cadence jerked to a stop. Her light swung to the left. To the right. The man couldn’t just vanish.
“Anniston!” she yelled. Her voice echoed back to her.
No other sound.
He’d just been there. He was cuffed.
“Help me!” A woman’s scream. Coming from what sounded like straight ahead.
Dear God, was he telling the truth? What if Anniston had come back because someone else was still in the tunnels? Someone they’d missed on their initial search?
Don’t scream. Maybe she’d been too afraid to call out.
Or maybe…dammit, maybe it was Anniston. Using another recording to trick her. Her breath heaved out. She couldn’t leave a victim—and she also couldn’t let a killer get away. Cadence tightened her hold on her weapon and moved forward.
Anniston slammed into her, leaping from the darkness. He lifted his hands and drove them—and the cuffs—right at her weapon.
The gun discharged as it flew from her fingers.
Ben’s head jerked up.
“That wasn’t an explosion,” Dani said, voice definite. “That was gunfire.”
Yes, it was. Ben was already running toward the fading sound. It had come from the east, back in the trees. He slipped and fell, but jumped right back to his feet.
Dani was with him, rushing as quickly as she could.
A gunshot. Either that was his team, trying to signal him—
Or Cadence and Kyle were in trouble.