Lethal (Small Town Secrets Book 1)

by Ann Voss Peterson

  A bevy of cars lined the driveway, their roofs and hoods glistening in the now-steady rain. Deputies and FBI agents swarmed house and grounds.

  Trent pulled the car up to the garage. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  They climbed the steps to the front door of the raised ranch, cold rain falling steadily on their heads and shoulders. Two agents flanked the door. “They’re waiting for you in the living room,” one of the agents said.

  Trent nodded, and he and Rees ducked inside.

  The overcast sky was bright compared to the gloom inside the house. Trent paused for a moment to let his eyes adjust. Dark paneling covered the walls of the entry and stretched up the half-staircase to the living room. A small collection of fishing rods and tackle gathered in a pile just inside the door. A glass gun case displayed an impressive assortment of hunting rifles.

  Trent and Rees circled the fishing gear and climbed the stairs to a room decorated with photos of men proudly showing off their catches and kills. A typical Wisconsin fishing cabin stood behind them, raised on blocks to avoid spring floods.

  Young stood in a dim corner of the room. Hands secured behind his back in cuffs, he towered over the agents around him. Only Subera came close to matching the hulking guard in height.

  Young stared past Trent and focused on Rees. A look of shame so deep it was painful to witness passed over his face, then he dropped his gaze to his feet. “I’m sorry, Professor.”

  “What happened, Gordy?”

  The guard shook his big head. “I didn’t mean for him to get anywhere near your sister. You got to believe I never meant for that to happen.”

  “I know,” Risa said, her voice tight. “What I don’t know is why you helped him.”

  Young gnashed his teeth so hard Trent could swear he heard the enamel creak with the pressure. “I didn’t help him. I would never help him.”

  “You helped him escape, Gordy.”

  Color bloomed on the guard’s cheeks, but he kept his mouth shut tight.

  “Why did you do it?” Rees prodded. “So you wouldn’t go to prison yourself when you killed him?”

  Young raised his eyes to hers. Tears glimmered on his lower lashes. His chin trembled. “Ashley didn’t deserve what he did to her. I wanted to make him pay. He should pay.”

  “He was in prison, Gordy. He was paying.”

  “You call that paying? Three squares a day, television, exercise equipment, books? Special favors from the guards? A beautiful girl to marry him?” Breath chugged in and out of his flared nostrils. “He deserves a little of the hell he put Ashley and those other girls through. He deserves to die.”

  “Maybe so.” Rees shook her head, her eyes sad, dark as bruises. “All I know is that while he was in prison, Nikki was safe.”

  “I didn’t mean for him to get loose. I didn’t mean for him to kidnap your sister. I wanted him in pain. I wanted him dead.”

  “So what went wrong?”

  “I let him into the garbage area, and then I waited for him at the garbage truck’s first stop after the prison.”

  “And the truck never arrived,” Risa said.

  “It didn’t occur to you that he might not wait for the first stop?” Trent didn’t even try to keep the disbelief from his voice.

  “I’m sorry.”

  A bitter taste tinged Trent’s mouth. He understood what Young had done. Understood the reasons behind it. The hatred, the regret, the failure. He understood all of it. Far too well. “Do you have any idea where Dryden might be now?”

  The guard closed his eyes in defeat. “If I did, I would have killed him already.”

  The chirp of a cell phone cut through the heavy thud of disappointment in Trent’s stomach. He reached for the phone clipped to his belt, but the light indicating an incoming call wasn’t flashing. “It’s not mine.”

  Subera looked up from his own phone and shook his head.

  The phone chirped again. This time the sound seemed clearly to be coming from Rees’s direction.

  “Sorry.” She dipped her hand into her jacket pocket and retrieved her phone. Turning it on, she held it to her ear. “Hello?”

  Unease pricked Trent’s skin like a thousand tiny needles.

  Rees swallowed hard. Color drained from her face. “Nikki? Is that you?”

  Risa

  Risa’s pulse thundered in her ears. She clutched the phone tighter, as if it were Nikki herself and if Risa were to let go, she’d lose her sister forever. She lifted her eyes to Trent’s.

  He made a few gestures to Special Agent Subera, and then moved to her side. Putting an arm around her shoulder, he pulled her close and pressed his head next to the phone.

  She angled it away from her ear so he could hear. “Where are you, Nik? Tell me. I’ll come and get you.”

  A sob, followed by another, sounding some distance from the phone. “I have to… He’s coming for you, Risa.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Did you call 911? They can locate—”

  “No. No. I had to call you. I had to tell you I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry? Nikki, you need help. You need—”

  “I need to save you. He wants you, Risa. He’s after you.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Is he in the house with you?”

  “I… I don’t know. He didn’t know I could reach the phone.”

  Horrible images of what Dryden would do if he found Nikki on the phone hovered at the edge of Risa’s mind. “Are you sure he won’t walk in on you?”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Can you get out of there, Nikki? Can you run?”

  “No. No.”

  “Can you try? Reach a neighbor’s house?”

  “No neighbors.”

  “Okay, a highway? Someplace where you can get help?”

  Her breath came hard over the phone. “I’m… I can’t get away. I can’t. I’m tied, and I reached the phone, but it’s still too tight… I can’t…”

  “Slow down, Nikki…”

  “I could have gotten away before, but… but I didn’t. I couldn’t. I knew he would… hurt me. Hunt me down. That’s what he likes to do. That’s what he did to—Oh, Risa.” Her voice erupted in anguish. Sobs broke through the static. “I screwed up.”

  “It’s okay, Nik.”

  “I thought he loved me. He told me he loved me.”

  The agony in her sister’s voice ripped her heart. Poor Nikki. Just out of high school, and she’d been through so much. Guilt throbbed in Risa’s chest. “I know, Nik. I’m so sorry. If I hadn’t—”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Risa.”

  “I should have stayed. When we were kids.”

  Nikki was quiet so long, Risa wondered if the call had disconnected.

  “Nikki?”

  “I wanted to hurt you, Risa.” Nikki’s voice faltered. “I wanted Eddie to love me so badly, and I was so scared, but I also wanted to hurt you.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “It’s not.”

  “We’ll make it okay. In time. But first, you have to tell me where you are.” Risa glanced at Trent, willing Subera to have located the phone call.

  Trent shook his head.

  “It was all about you, Risa. Eddie never loved me. You were right. It was always about you.”

  “Where are you? Do you know?”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Nikki. Tell me where you are.”

  “Promise you won’t blame yourself. No matter what happens.”

  No matter what happens. Risa closed her eyes, trying to beat down the images that phrase evoked. “I promise. Now where are you?”

  “I can’t tell you. You’ll come after me. That’s just what Eddie wants.”

  “Nikki, please.”

  “Give me the phone.” Trent held out his hand.

  Risa hesitated. Trent would know what to do. Trent could help.
But for a second, she felt that if she let go of the phone, she’d never hear from her sister again.

  “Is that Trent?” Nikki said. “Put him on.”

  “You’ll tell him where you are?”

  “Just put him on the phone. And Risa?”

  “What, Nik?”

  “I love you.”

  Risa’s throat tightened, and tears stung her eyes. “I love you, too, Nik.” Swallowing hard, she handed the phone to Trent.

  “Nikki? Where are you?” Trent’s steel-gray eyes drilled into Risa, penetrating, assessing, as if he knew how much turning Nikki over to him cost her.

  “Okay, okay. What if I take Risa to the Lake Loyal police station? She’ll be safe there. She won’t come after you.”

  “Trent.” Risa reached for the phone.

  He twisted away, blocking her with his shoulder. “I promise. It will just be me, the FBI and the sheriff’s department. Now, what can you tell me about the house?”

  Nikki

  Nikki told Trent all about the cheery farmhouse, the view of Lake Loyal in the distance through the front windows, the wooded bluff to the northeast. Was there a barn? No. Was there a house nearby? No. She told him about the elderly couple and what details she remembered of the drive there from the musty little river cabin. She told them the name of the highway, County PF… or maybe it was FP… or possibly something else entirely.

  Trent told her they had a lead on where she was. He promised he would find her. He promised to keep Risa away, keep her safe.

  Nikki could count on Trent, she knew. He was a good man. He loved her sister. He had been the one to catch Eddie the first time.

  And yet, when Nikki heard the low battery warning on her phone and let her throbbing head fall back against the mattress, she had the chilling sense that she’d just made the biggest mistake of her life.

  Trent

  Trent pulled the car in front of the police station’s front door and stopped. He stared straight out the windshield, careful not to let his eyes stray to Rees sitting beside him in the passenger seat.

  Jaw clamped shut and arms folded across her chest, she sat stone still.

  “Schneider is waiting for you.”

  Risa didn’t answer. She also didn’t move.

  “Subera and the county SWAT team are going to be waiting for me.”

  “Damn you, Trent. I need to be there.”

  “No, you really don’t. Even Nikki sees that.”

  “I need to be there for her. Who knows what she’s been through. She’s bound to be half out of her mind.”

  “I’ll take care of Nikki. And I’m going to take care of you, too.”

  “By shutting me away where I can’t get hurt.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I never should have told you about what Dryden said.”

  “About you not being willing to sacrifice yourself for your sister?”

  “Now you think I’m going to go out of my way to prove him wrong.”

  “Are you?”

  “Of course not. So why are you trying to keep me from going with you?”

  “To keep you safe.”

  “I’ll be surrounded by law enforcement. How much safer could I get?”

  She might have a point, if that was what was really worrying him. But Trent was focused on Nikki, on the strong possibility they wouldn’t find her alive. “I don’t want you there, Risa.”

  “And that’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? You don’t want me with you. Even after all that’s happened.”

  “I want you with me always. It’s just not possible. I need to know you’re safe. Nikki does, too.”

  “Away from you.”

  “Yes.”

  “So last night didn’t change anything?”

  “Last night was a fantasy. Bullets are reality.”

  “And this morning with the files, with questioning Gordy... It was all just to keep me quiet?”

  “I’m grateful for your help.” He was even more grateful he was with her when she’d received the call from Nikki.

  “So you didn’t feel stronger when we were together? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “You believe that. Not me.”

  “And you never will.”

  A cold chill spread over his skin. “I guess not.”

  She nodded slowly, staring into his eyes as if searching for a sliver of hesitation, a shred of a chance that she could change his mind.

  She wouldn’t find what she was looking for.

  “I have nothing to offer you, Risa. And no matter how much both of us wish things were different, we can’t change the way things are.”

  Risa opened the car door, climbed out into the steady rain, and closed the door behind her. Turning back for a moment, she peered at him through the rivulets of rain running down the window. The light still burned in her eyes, as strong and pure as ever before. But he could no longer feel its warmth, no longer bask in its brilliance.

  He swallowed into an aching throat and watched her walk into the police station.

  By the time he was back on the road, Cassidy and Mylinski had narrowed down Nikki’s location to an old house perched on the edge of a bluff overlooking Lake Loyal. The place was the home of a couple named Werner; a retired plumber and teacher whose children had long since grown.

  Trent hated to think of what the poor couple had suffered. Or what Dryden had done to Nikki after her phone battery had run out. All he could focus on was trying to save the girl and bring down Dryden.

  Those were the only things that mattered.

  Trent reached the house at about the same time as SWAT, rain falling steadily now. As part of the Behavioral Sciences Unit, he didn’t take part in too many building breaches, although he trained regularly. Even now, he wouldn’t be the first to flow into the isolated farm house. The county SWAT team owned that honor. But he’d be right behind.

  This case was different. This case was personal. And Trent wasn’t about to sit on the sidelines and watch.

  Rain dripped off Trent’s hair and trickled down the back of his neck, under his body armor. The dribble of cool felt welcome, like a refreshing slap. The strong tang of cow manure from a dairy farm in the valley sharpened his senses. Or maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream.

  He stifled a shiver, training his eyes on the non-descript, two-story house barely visible through the new sprouts of leaves on the bushes he crouched behind. No sound came from the house or surrounding yard or trees. Nothing but the patter of cold rain on leaves.

  Damn fine day for a hostage situation.

  Damn fine day, period.

  But if there was any chance of getting Nikki out alive, at least he could keep it from getting worse.

  Sheriff’s deputies decked out in SWAT gear silently moved into place, one team stacked at the back door, one at the front.

  Trent moved into position near the front door. He quieted his mind, walled off his emotions. Training would guide him now, breaching drills and muscle memory, not fears about what he’d find. Not worries about breaking the news to Risa and snuffing the hope from her eyes.

  Drawing his Glock from his shoulder holster, Trent fitted it into his hand. The grip felt comfortable, secure.

  Subera fell in behind him, a radio in his hand.

  A deputy positioned the battering ram, those behind him armed with assault rifles. At Subera’s signal, the crash of breaking glass came from the rear of the house.

  Bam!

  Trent tensed at the explosion, an incendiary device used to divert Dryden’s attention from the front door. The deputy drew back the battering ram. With a single heave, he drove it home. Wood cracked. The door flew open. Armed men flowed in behind him, Trent and Subera following on their heels.

  Trent’s heart thundered in his ears, pumping adrenaline. He squinted, willing his eyes to adjust to the darkness in the house. He walked deliberately, his weight centered over bent knees, his gun up and ready. Taking turns advancing while the other
s provided cover, he, Subera, and the SWAT officers moved down the hall.

  Kitchen. Clear.

  Living room. Clear.

  Bathroom. Clear.

  They climbed the stairs, the most dangerous area of the house, then headed down the hall. Trent was the first to round the corner into what appeared to be the master bedroom. A prone form lay spread-eagle on the wide bed, wrists and ankles secured to the headboard and footboard by speaker wire. Naked skin. The shocking red of blood.

  No, no, no…

  “We have the hostage,” he shouted and moved into the room, checking the corners, refusing to let himself feel.

  Subera flowed into the room behind him, leading with his weapon. He checked the closet and peered under the bed. “The room is clear.”

  Lowering his weapon, Trent rushed to the bed, panic pressing at the back of his eyes. “Nikki.”

  Her skin was deathly pale and pocked with bruises. Blood covered the side of her face, sticking her hair to her neck and shoulder. Her lower lip was swollen and red. She stared up at Trent with glassy eyes.

  Was she alive?

  She blinked.

  She was alive.

  “Nikki!”

  “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay, honey. It’s okay. You’re alive. Thank God, you’re alive.” He grabbed a knitted blanket draped on a nearby chair and covered her. Then he started on the wrist closest to him, adrenaline making his fingers shake as he struggled to untangle the bloody wire. Her dead cell phone lay on the bed.

  Nikki let out a sob, and when he finally managed to free her hand, she cupped it to the bloody side of her head.

  “My ear… Eddie… he bit my ear.”

  Dryden had done it before, to the young woman he’d killed before his wife. Trent shouldn’t be surprised, shouldn’t be repulsed, but the idea that the bastard had done it to Nikki...

  He finished untying her other wrist and helped her into a sitting position while Subera worked on freeing her ankles. Nikki was thinner than Trent had ever seen her. Frail. And she clung to him like a frightened kitten. Subera threw him a robe from the closet, and Trent helped her into it, draping the blanket over her as well to help ward off shock.

  Shouts of all clear echoed through the house. All clear. Nikki, but no Dryden.