Fuck him. I fumed. An idea clicked into place. It would slow him down, if nothing else. If he took the bait.
“My husband is coming back up the north road right now. I phoned him. You wait! He’ll be on you, mister!”
I pulled out the gun and fired a shot in the air.
He ran. He ran like hell, and a few minutes later I watched his car tear down the road. I was pretty sure he didn’t take the north road, though he must’ve come up that way. What a putz.
Maybe I was a little nasty and a lot hasty, but I had worse things to worry about. Someone in the past had killed Amelia. Maybe bitten off her fingers then burned them.
If it was just some ancient killing, it was tragic and sad, but not terribly relevant.
Except...I guess I had this hunch. Which was why I kept cleaning off that heart, rubbing away the grime over the engraving on the back.
Once I shone it up with my thumb and some spit, what I saw there made my stomach churn. Bile spilled into my throat.
With love, from Magnus W.
There hadn’t been room to engrave his full name.
It might be Williams or Wood or any number of W names.
Might be...
Or Wolfe.
I squatted and stared at the grave, thinking, or trying to, but it was hard to do that when I felt so sick. I might’ve sat there for ten or twenty minutes.
What if Wolfe had done this?
Was it such a surprise?
No. Not really. He wouldn’t remember it, if he had.
I should do something.
I rose to my feet, though my body felt empty with a frigid wind whistling through me, pushing me off balance.
Something cold and hard, and made of metal, pressed on my temple.
“Do not move, Miss. This is a Glock at your head. A gun that can easily blow your brain out the other side of your skull. Raise your hands.” A man’s voice. I raised my hands, trembling. “I will take your gun and then we will go somewhere to talk. Be good and you will not be hurt. Okay?”
I felt someone’s hand at my waist remove the revolver. When they stepped away and the gun remained at my temple, I knew there were two of them.
They’d been so silent. Like fucking ninjas. It was a clue. I figured these were professional hunters. My Russian colleagues.
I swallowed. “Okay.”
“Good.”
Chapter 31
Kiara
They took me a few hundred yards up the mountain, to a hideout inside a thicket of trees and shrubs. From here I could see downslope and even glimpse the roads in places, where they wound upward and the trees had been cleared.
An observation place, a hide.
How long had they been watching us?
The zip-ties at my wrists were impossible to break, but then I guess they knew that.
“Put your ankles together, Kiara.”
The woman kneeled a yard away, waiting.
I obeyed as I couldn’t see the point in the opposite. They both had guns and I was sure could take me down in a fight in one second, flat.
Her man trained his Glock on me while she circled each of my ankles, linked them, and adjusted the fit. Great. No running. Not that I could out-sprint a bullet.
They’d found Lily and leashed her with rope. She lay near my feet, watching us, her ears twitching whenever he talked.
Wolfe was coming back, and I couldn’t warn him.
But he was a murderer, wasn’t he?
“Hello, Miss Kiara,” the man said. “You know who we are? You were supposed to hand Mister Wolfe over to us.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. If they asked me more about Wolfe, I wasn’t sure I could speak of him. I could feel this potential roadblock.
The male accomplice was a slightly balding, lean man of average height, average looks really. Nondescript was probably best for their line of work. Though the woman was quite beautiful. Her white hair set off her perfect bone structure.
“You may call me Z, just so we have a label. My partner, she can be A.” He made himself comfortable, leaning on a crooked tree trunk, with the gun drooping and pointing to the right. “Why didn’t you?”
I raised my eyebrows.
“We expect you to talk. If you don’t, you know things will happen to your family. Yes?”
Oh god.
“You know we know of Wolfe’s powers? That he can make you do things. Hmm?”
The roadblock evaporated. His simple words, telling me he knew, seemed to have accomplished that. I cleared my throat.
And yet, I didn’t want to betray Wolfe. I frowned at the dirt before Z. Why?
“You know also his full name?”
I jerked my head up and stared at him. Was he –
“His name is Magnus Wolfe.”
Oh hell. Then he’d owned the cabin in the past. Amelia had been his. The bracelet, he’d given her that, taken the photos, and probably killed her. That terrible thing he’d written of would be him killing her?
Surely he was evil?
I raised my head and found Z and A staring back.
“What?” He leaned forward. “Did that come as a shock? Why?”
I bit my lips. If I told them things, maybe my family would be okay. I could. Wolfe had said I was free. There was nothing, at all, stopping me.
“I didn’t know his name,” I croaked. “That’s who first owned the cabin.”
“Oh? The cabin’s old owner was not supposed to be Magnus Wolfe, but that is interesting. The body down there.” He twitched the gun. “The skeleton. Do you know who that was?”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to think. Would this hurt Wolfe?
If it did, I’d feel bad.
Tears filled my closed eyes. Stupid. He’d killed.
Not a surprise. Maybe that was why I wasn’t reacting as I should be.
The writing he’d done, what he’d said, what if that was when he first became who he was now?
That revelation ticked in, cogwheels turned. It fitted. He’d forgotten being Magnus, wouldn’t even remember anything from then, except that he’d once stayed here.
That was the truth.
I’d forgiven his beast behavior before. This didn’t change that.
And telling Z some of this might help my cause. “What...” I swallowed. “Do you intend to do to Wolfe?”
The woman spoke. “We’ll be killing him. He was a subject in a research trial in Thailand – an experiment that escaped. The locals thought he was a monster who ate people. He is not very nice man, Kiara. We need a sample of his brain tissue. You will die too, if you don’t co-operate.”
Crap. And a row of fucks.
That history added a whole other layer to Wolfe and I couldn’t sort it out now. Poor man. What could I do?
“Does he have weapons? Can he fight? Did you tell him about us? And who is the buried person?”
I rocked back and forth a tiny amount. Helping Wolfe would hinge on yelling at the right time, to warn him. What I said now probably would do nothing, either way. Lying a little might help.
“She was a woman called Amelia, I think. A friend of Magnus, long ago. I don’t think he remembers her.”
“Do you know how she died?” Z asked.
“Not really.” I sucked in a breath then went on. “Wolfe has a gun, yes. He’s good with it. Very good. He’s big and can fight as far as I know.”
They both shrugged.
Scaring them wouldn’t be easy, but they might be warier. They wanted a god-damned brain tissue sample? That was diabolical and somehow worse than merely killing.
I lowered my voice to a menacing level. Or tried to. “He knows about you.”
“Hmmm. This phone...” He had turned on my cellphone. “No password, good. He’s in the town?”
I nodded, feeling the lie screw into my chest. I had an aversion to lying.
He’s coming here, you asshole.
“Good. I will text him and tell him to return from the town because you have
lost the dog.” He flashed me a smile. “We have seen how you both love Lily.”
He tapped in the message. Not long after sending it, the cellphone signaled a return text.
“I am coming ASAP. Will be an hour and a half. Be careful. I will find you.” Z smiled. “Hook, line, and sinker.”
Wolfe knew something was wrong. I nearly smiled too but wrestled my mouth into a glum line.
“Now then, Guera, what else should we ask her?”
“First,” she said, from under her brow. “We don’t say our names.”
Z only grunted.
That was when I was sure he meant to kill me. I tugged at the ties, in vain, but it made me feel productive. I glanced at Lily who was now snoring. If only she was a trained attack dog, I’d have her rip their throats out.
“You know,” I began in a whisper, having remembered something vital. Could I make them leave by saying this?
But they’d still kill me. Now I knew what fatalism was. If they left, at least Magnus might escape.
“What? Useless.” He was still looking at my cellphone. “You don’t have Pokémon on this?” He placed it on his thigh. “What is it?”
“The cops will be here soon. I chased a man away with my gun. He’s gone to get them.”
“Pfft.” Guera puffed out her lips. “No. Don’t you worry about him. They aren’t coming.”
How could she know this? I switched my gaze from one of them to the other, and back. “What?”
“They aren’t coming. Tell me about Wolfe’s powers. How he makes you fuck him. I wouldn’t mind that one.” Z stood and came to me, looked down.
“Stop intimidating her. She’s nice. I don’t like threats. You know that.”
He looked back at Guera. “On this you are wrong. I think she’s being reticent and lying.”
Then he whipped around and smashed the flat of his hand across my face. While I recovered, gasping and feeling the sting throbbing into my cheekbone, he squatted beside me, shifting his feet to get comfortable.
“I don’t like threats either, but sometimes we need them. Understand? Tell me something good about him. Something that helps us. Otherwise you will die in great pain.”
He trailed the muzzle of the gun across my breasts, pressing the T-shirt into my nipples and miming bang, bang.
Jesus. Eyes wide, I found I couldn’t stop looking at him.
I spewed information.
I told him my theory about Wolfe murdering Amelia. It made him excited about the possibility of framing Wolfe for any murders they did. I kept talking, blurting out stuff that they probably didn’t need to know, talking louder, more panicky. Definitely louder. Deliberately so.
Z smacked me again, rocking my head sideways. “Not so crazy!”
Blinking away tears, I stayed quiet because, minutes ago, I’d felt a presence.
Wolfe.
Just as Wolfe had said he could find me by feel, I could feel him. He was nearby and coming closer. A man who had murdered, but I believed in who he was now. That was what mattered.
I strained to hear but there was nothing that said a man was out there.
Nothing.
Lily kept on snoring in gentle bursts.
Maybe that was why I couldn’t hear him. He wouldn’t be armed, unless he had a gun I’d not seen. Him against these two professional killers.
Nothing out there...
Until Guera rose and looked around, with her gun in her hand.
Z stood too. “What is it?”
“A noise?” She pointed toward the peak of the mountain, higher upslope, and my throat squeezed in, my blood pounding in my temples.
My hands were sweating but the slickness didn’t let me slip them loose from the ties.
“There,” she repeated softly.
Z made a hand signal and crouched, moving aside a branch, as if to worm his way out of the hide.
And Guera slammed her gun into the back of his head and ripped his weapon from his hand as he sprawled in the dirt. “Don’t move,” she spat.
The branches behind me crackled and rustled. Shadows wavered. Wolfe stepped into the hide, filling the space with his bulk.
“Mine.” He put out his hand and Guera tossed the Glock to him then went back to guarding Z, who was on his hands and knees, groaning. “Thank you, Guera. I didn’t catch most of the conversation. What’s his name?”
“Damian.” There was a trapped look in her eyes. I knew it well. She’d be feeling confused, scared, and maybe turned on. Wolfe had that effect.
If he tried to fuck her, I would kill him.
“I won’t,” he whispered in an aside. Then he said, louder, “A knife? Please. So I can cut Kiara loose.”
Without fanfare, Guera slipped a knife from a waist sheath and threw it over. It landed point first in the log, a few inches from where I sat, and stood there quivering.
“Tie him up. Hands and feet, and hogtie him too, please.”
All these pleases, as if we were guests at a dinner party.
By the time my wrists and ankles were free, Damian was not.
“What are you going to do with them? They were going to kill you, and me.”
“I don’t know, yet.” His lip curled. “Are they your associates?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” He squeezed my shoulder. “We’re going to have to leave, after all. The question is, do we leave two dead people or two live ones behind us?”
“It depends,” I said, slowly. “On whether you want to be a murderer or not.”
A loaded question.
I looked at Guera and Damian. One furious and tied up, the other sad, with her mind in a muddle and under Wolfe’s control. “Both of them must have killed before.”
“Meaning?” He gave me a thoughtful look.
“Maybe it would do the world a favor to kill them...” I let that fall away.
Where had that come from? I was a nurse, a saver of people. It’d come, I realized, from that investment I had in Wolfe. I’d rather they die than him.
“Which would be best for my family?”
“Hmmm.”
“Also,” I let my forehead wrinkle up. “That visitor I had. I made him angry and he said he’d fetch the cops, but these two said it wasn’t a concern.”
I’d sent him down the landslide road. Had they seen something happen?
“So many questions. Keep him here, Guera. We’ll be back.” Wolfe took my hand and led me out of the hide. “I’m taking you back to the cabin.”
“But...” I almost skipped backward. “What about them?”
“They aren’t going anywhere. The walk will let me figure out what to do with them. And whatever I do, you’re not going to be here when I do it.”
“Oh.”
The firm set to his mouth and tone of his voice said either justice or vengeance was on his mind. I held his hand more firmly. “Okay. Whatever you decide, I believe in you.”
“Good. Because I heard you call me Magnus Wolfe.” He stopped and turned to me. “How long have you known?”
“Today. I swear.” My mouth trembled. “I wouldn’t lie.”
“I know. Come.”
Then he stalked onward.
When we reached the cabin, I thought he would tell me to quickly pack whatever we might need but instead he took me down to the basement and collared me then leashed me to a point on the wall.
This wasn’t freedom, but I dared not ask his reason. He was angry, and perhaps didn’t know why. They’d said he might’ve eaten people. Which was so fucked up.
“Magnus Wolfe?” he said again.
“Yes.” Though there seemed more to that question than name verification.
“I’ll be back, soon.”
I hoped so, though I was afraid. I had lied to him by omission and then again by swearing I wouldn’t lie. I hadn’t told him everything, especially not about Amelia or my suspicions, or the rumors about what might have happened to him in Thailand.
Wolfe wasn
’t normal, and I’d known that, but I did believe in him.
I’d been afraid he might kill me, because the potential was there when he sank deep into his crazy animalistic phase. Now I knew he’d killed a woman. Nothing had altered. The risk had always been there if the drug failed.
And I’d already accepted that.
He might kill me, one day. I could either cut loose from him, when I had the opportunity, or I could stay with him, help him be the good man that he was when sane, and pray like mad that he never became that animalistic again.
Yeah. I nodded and took a calming breath then sat on the rug, arranging the chain leash so it didn’t pull on my neck. Beneath the rug was hard, cold floor.
I would wait for him, in good faith.
Chapter 32
Wolfe
Chaining her to the wall was rough after saying she was free. I didn’t care. I’d wanted to do it – better than shaking her until she fessed up. She was lying to me, in some way. She was lying.
That was all I could think as I retraced my steps to where the two Russians waited.
I had to determine their fate, based not on what was good for them, but on what was good for me and Kiara.
That was the key. What was good for us both.
I paused to rub my forehead.
I cared for her so much that a lie should be allowable. I hated the idea of forcing her to say what she’d lie about. Either she would tell me, or she wouldn’t.
I’d chained her up because I was angry. Everyone got angry at their partner at some point. Everyone lied too. Honesty was a hard gig to follow.
When I ducked and pushed aside the branches so I could enter the hide, the answer hit me.
Whatever I did to these two, I might not tell Kiara the truth about it either. Or not all of it.
And I would be doing that so as not to hurt her. She wouldn’t like me killing them.
A lie could sometimes be the best choice. Perhaps her lie was for my benefit.
Yes. That was it.
With my anger lessened, I could now judge what to do.
I sat on Kiara’s log and beckoned Guera over. “Bring more of those zip ties.”
A strong-willed woman – new to this, she was wriggling in her head, trying to shake me loose.
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