The Bullet

by Iris Johansen

  “Not four. Five.” His lips drew back in a feral smile. “You’ve forgotten yourself, Cara. And they didn’t matter, they were only tribute for Anna and a notice to Kaskov of what was coming.”

  “Tribute?” The word suddenly triggered the rage that had been simmering since she had learned of those other women who had suffered at his hands. “Lives to be laid on the altar of your sister who had so little talent that she had to cheat to even be considered a decent musician?”

  “One more word, and I’ll break your neck,” he said hoarsely. “That’s not why I wanted to bring you to Kaskov.” He twisted her to face the TV again. “Look at her, Kaskov. Your granddaughter, your blood. I might let her live for a week or two if she amuses me. But I’ll more than likely kill her before that time. She’s really the best tribute of all because she’s such a complete bitch. But I promise I’ll give you a daily report on what I’m doing to her.”

  “I suppose you wouldn’t accept ransom for her? That would be a form of tribute.”

  Svardak chuckled in disbelief. “Not the kind I have in mind.” He lifted Cara’s cuffed hands to display them to Kaskov. “I’ve been thinking about doing the same thing to her hands as we did to yours. That would be a true tribute to Anna.”

  Kaskov stiffened. “That wouldn’t be—”

  “You monster.” Cara couldn’t believe it. He was reaching out, searching for the ultimate way to make her his victim. Then the anger exploded, she could feel the heat burning in her cheeks as she jerked her hands free and whirled to face him. “You’d do it just to hurt Kaskov? Because it wouldn’t hurt me.” She thrust her hands at him. “Go ahead and do it. Take away the music. I’ll find something else to make life worth living. I told you that whatever you take from me, I’ll find a way to cheat you. I won’t let you win.” She glared into his eyes, feeling as if her entire body was blazing as she said softly, “Not one victory. Not one damn tribute. Go ahead and try to—”

  His hand had shot out and struck her across the mouth with all his strength. She fell to her knees, but she was still glaring up at him.

  “Damn you.” He fumbled at the remote and turned off the Skype. He kicked her, and she crumpled backward onto the floor. Coppery taste. Blood. Her lip must be split, she realized dazedly. He kicked her again.

  Pain.

  His face was contorted above her as he dragged her toward Marian’s quarters by the chains of the cuffs around her wrists. He threw her into the bathroom. “You made a mistake. You’ll never win.” His voice was shaking with fury. “I’ll show you later tonight how much you can hurt. But I can’t touch you right now, or I’d kill you. I won’t spoil my pleasure of having Kaskov watch how far down I can take you. He has to see it.”

  He slammed the door.

  She lay there, breathing hard, the anger still searing through her. She had gone too far. She had lost control. But when she had been told about those other women, the shock and fury had been too great to suppress.

  Those poor women he had broken and killed. Victims. All of them innocent victims. And that’s what he had considered her. A victim. But isn’t that what she’d considered herself? She’d fought him, but she’d never thought she’d be able to overcome him. She’d just wanted to stay alive.

  Calm down. Breathe deep and regain control.

  It was several minutes before she was able to obey that self-admonishment. But the time allowed her to think. She must never lose her temper like that again. She had to be clever and begin to plan and watch for the right time. Because as she lay there, she had realized that Svardak had to be stopped any way possible. He couldn’t be permitted to ever do this again.

  She was done with being a victim.

  It was time to go on the hunt and kill the bastard.

  * * *

  The instant the Skype disappeared from the screen, Kaskov spun toward Jock who was sitting in the far corner of the library. “My God, you’d better be able to get her away from him soon. She was on the attack from the minute he turned on the Skype. I wasn’t expecting her to be the problem.”

  Neither had Jock. Cara had been all flame and boldness and reckless defiance. It had scared the hell out of him. When she had held up her hands and dared Svardak to try to destroy her, it had been his worst nightmare. And when Svardak had struck her, he had nearly exploded. “We don’t know what she’s gone through. We’ve just got to hope that she won’t challenge him like that again until I can get to her.” He jumped to his feet and headed for the door. “You be ready if I need you,” he said harshly. “I’ll probably need reinforcements at some point. I don’t know what I’m going to run into tonight.”

  “You’re sure that she’s in that canyon?”

  “I saw Edding in a sleeping bag at that second campfire on the cliff trail. Why else would he be there?”

  “Then I could send Nikolai and some men with you now.”

  “No way. If Svardak feels overwhelmed, the first thing he’ll do is kill Cara.” If he hadn’t already done that after the screen had gone blank, Jock thought desperately. The memory of her falling to her knees with Svardak standing over her was chilling him to the bone. “I’ll take Joe Quinn. I spent the afternoon on that ridge and cliff, and I have an idea how we can work it if Svardak doesn’t have too many men stationed in that thicket at the top. I need him to either be totally surprised or feel he has a chance to escape with her. Or both.” He looked over his shoulder. “I’ll take anything I can get. What I won’t take is your screwing up if I call you.”

  “If I didn’t need your services, I’d make you pay for that insult,” he said with silky menace. “I don’t screw up, Gavin.”

  He opened the door. “The hell you don’t. You left Svardak alive.”

  “True.” The threat was gone. “I stand corrected. It won’t happen again.”

  “You won’t get another chance,” Jock said as he strode down the hall. A moment later, he was out of the house and heading for his car. He called Joe as he reached it. “I’m on my way to pick you up.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “No. But she was alive when the Skype ended. It depends on how angry she makes him whether she stays alive. We have to get her out of there tonight.” He pressed the disconnect.

  Ten minutes later, he pulled up in front of the Holiday Inn Hotel and jumped out of the car. Joe was walking toward him across the parking lot. His expression was not pleased.

  Shit.

  Eve was two steps behind him.

  “No, Eve,” he said flatly, as they reached him. “Go back inside.”

  “Go to hell.” She got into the backseat. “I’m not arguing with you, Jock. I’ve done enough of that with Joe since I got here. I’m not going to be crawling all over that canyon and risk getting in your way. But I am going to be sitting in this car if you need a driver to get Cara away while you two are busy trying to keep that monster at bay.” Her lips thinned. “And from what you told Joe, it sounds like you don’t have time to do anything but say yes and thank you.”

  Jock muttered a curse and got into the car. “You don’t move from this car once we get to the canyon.” He glared at Joe, who was getting in the passenger seat. “And you concentrate on Cara and what we have to do and forget Eve’s here.”

  “Not possible,” Joe said. “But she’ll keep her word, and we might need her.” He made a face. “Either way, we’re stuck with her. I did everything I could. She won’t budge.”

  “Stuck with me?” Eve said coolly. “I won’t address that at present, but I will later. Right now, it doesn’t seem as important as getting to Cara. Suppose you focus on doing that, Jock.”

  But he was already backing out of the parking space and driving off the hotel parking lot. “No, nothing is more important,” he said curtly. “Remember that, Eve. I like you, I don’t want anything to happen to you. But I’m not going to let you get in my way.”

  “Fair enough. Now tell me what to expect so that won’t happen. Joe said that you’re almost sure she’s
being kept in some kind of shack or cabin in the thicket at the top of that cliff bordering the north end of the canyon. How do you get her down?”

  “I go up the cliff trail and take out the guards at the first encampment, then I move on to the second. That’s where Edding is located. I take out his partner, but I make sure I keep Edding alive to get information about the number of guards in that thicket and exactly where Cara is being held. Joe is going up the mountain trail to locate the two camps there.” He paused. “Then, depending on what Edding tells me, Joe will either cause a major diversion on the mountain to draw Svardak away from Cara while I take her down the cliff trail, or I’ll go in and get her while Svardak is still there.”

  Eve’s gaze flew to Joe. “What kind of diversion?”

  He smiled. “Stop worrying. Nothing close-range. Jock managed to get a few very powerful and efficient explosives from Kaskov that should do the trick. Explosives are never a problem for me.”

  “I know they aren’t. But it sounds to me like a problem however it’s handled,” Eve said curtly. “Can’t you delay it just a little longer and find another way?”

  “Not a chance,” Jock’s voice was clipped. “Not after what I saw on that Skype tonight. I have to get her away from him.”

  “That bad?” she whispered.

  Jock eyes were fixed on the canyon looming ahead. “Aye, every bit that bad.”

  * * *

  Cara slowly sat up and pushed the hair out of her face. She took a deep breath as she leaned back against the vanity. She had to prepare herself. She might be able to talk her way out of the punishment Svardak was going to inflict, but she doubted it. She could force herself to endure it, but she wasn’t sure that she might not break and say something to make it worse. The fury inside her was violent and still seething.

  The only other way out was to take the route that she’d already chosen. He had to die.

  She had never realized she could be that calm and cool about a decision to take a life. Even when she had been hunted and growing up with danger around every corner, the idea had never occurred to her as an option. Life was too precious a gift to destroy it.

  But the thought was here before her now. And Svardak’s life was not too precious to destroy. Marian and his other victims would have had no problem if they’d had the opportunity.

  But how to do it? He was far stronger. She had the basic skills Joe had taught her, but he was keeping her cuffed. She had no weapons.

  But neither had Marian Napier. She had taken his punishment until she could take it no longer. Then she had made her move.

  Cara looked over her shoulder at the splintered corner of the mirror. Suicide? Or weapon? She still couldn’t be sure of Marian’s intent. But she knew what her own intent would be. “Help me out, Marian,” she whispered as she got to her knees and pulled herself to her feet. “You got that splinter started, I’ll take it the rest of the way…” She grabbed a washcloth from the shower and climbed awkwardly onto the vanity. Balancing on her knees, she could just reach that shattered corner. She used the bracelet of the handcuffs to work at the broken lower edge of the glass.

  A small piece abruptly broke off and fell into the sink!

  She froze.

  Had he heard it?

  She waited. No sound from the other room.

  She started working with the handcuffs again.

  So damn awkward …

  She finally managed to get the edge of the cuff bracelet under the broken mirror again.

  She pulled up …

  And it broke again! She frantically tried to catch the jagged piece with the washcloth as it fell, but she wasn’t in time and had to grab it with her hand instead.

  Pain. She inhaled sharply as the jagged glass sliced her palm.

  But she managed to hold on to the piece until she could slip it into the washcloth.

  She was bleeding … Forget it. Worry about it later. Was that sliver of glass large enough to use as a weapon or would she have to try again? She looked down at the triangular glass reflecting up at her. It was about four inches long and two inches wide. Not perfect, but it might be okay. It was too dangerous risking another attempt. She carefully wrapped the glass in the washcloth again and put it on the sink. Then she turned on the cold water and ran it over her hand. It stung, but the bleeding had stopped. The cut was little more than a scratch.

  Relief. After years of taking care of her hands to make sure she would never hurt them, she had broken the cardinal rule tonight. Worse. She had risked the end of her music when she had taunted Svardak earlier. And she wasn’t sorry. She couldn’t let him win because she wasn’t brave enough to risk what was most important to her.

  “We did it, Marian,” she murmured as she looked up at the corner of the mirror. “But I made a mess of it. There’s no way that he’s not going to notice that chunk out of it. I’ll have to do something to distract him…”

  * * *

  Jock silently pulled the knife out of the guard’s back and let him fall to the ground. One down.

  But where was Edding?

  Then he saw him standing on the edge of the trail several yards away, looking down at the canyon below. He had his automatic weapon cradled in the crook of his arm. “I’m bored as hell, Nelson,” Edding said without looking away from the canyon. “When do you think we’ll get out of here? I have a woman waiting back in Nassau. Money isn’t everything.”

  Jock moved silently forward. The gun first, there couldn’t be any noise.

  Then Jock was on him. The next instant, he karate-chopped Edding’s wrist, then followed it with a blow to the back of his neck.

  Edding’s knees buckled as Jock grabbed his rifle. “Quiet and you may live.” He dragged him over to the campfire where he’d killed the other guard. “But the chances are slim. They’d be nonexistent if I had more time. I’d much prefer torture to bargaining.” His knife was at Edding’s throat. “But I do keep my word, so you might be lucky.”

  Edding’s stunned gaze was on the glassy, staring eyes of the dead guard only two feet away from him. “You killed Nelson.”

  “He was in my way. So are you. But if you talk, I might forget it. Though I don’t know why I should. You helped Svardak get away after he killed that girl in Bermuda.”

  “It was only business.” He moistened his lips. “Was she a relative or something? I didn’t do nothing to her. It was all Svardak. He’s kind of crazy.”

  “Only business? I’m more interested in what you did here. Tell me about it.”

  “He’d kill me.”

  “No. I’m the one you have to worry about.”

  “You can’t get away with it. We weren’t the only guards, and this isn’t the only camp. There’s another one farther down the trail.”

  “Not anymore. That’s where I came from.” He pressed the blade and drew blood. “I want to know about the other woman, the one you’ve been guarding here.” His gaze went up to the top of the cliff. “She’s still there, right?”

  “As far as I know. I’ve only heard talk from the guards on the hill when they brought me up there to relieve them. I haven’t seen her.”

  “How many guards?”

  “Four.”

  “Where are they?”

  He was silent.

  Jock pressed down harder. Blood spurted.

  Edding said quickly, “Two guarding the mountain trail. One patrolling the area around the cabin. One watching the back road.”

  “Vehicles?”

  “A Jeep parked by the back road.”

  “How close are the guards to the cabin?”

  “The man on patrol, fifteen to twenty feet. The others, within view, but at least thirty or forty feet.

  “You’re being very precise. You’re sure?”

  “It’s boring up here in the mountains. The guys talk, I’m probably pretty close to correct.” He added defiantly, “And why should I protect Svardak? I want to live. The first thing the bastard did when I got here was have me and Nels
on bury some woman he tossed off that cliff. I didn’t hire on to be a gravedigger.”

  “No, you’d rather keep another woman penned up until he got ready to do the same thing to her,” Jock said softly.

  “I never even saw her. I didn’t have anything to do with what went on at the cabin. The chances were that I’d never have seen her. The guys up there said that they didn’t think she’d make it past the first night when Svardak put her outside all night.”

  Jock went still. “Really? But no one did anything about it, did they?”

  Edding didn’t answer, his gaze on Jock’s face. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”

  “I’m thinking about it. No one in that house but the woman and Svardak?”

  “No.”

  “Do you know anything about where that back road leads?”

  “How could I? No one but Svardak is allowed to use it.” His voice was shaking. “I don’t want to die. How can I save myself? I’ll do anything.”

  “I think you’ve done it.” He sheathed his knife, pulled out duct tape, and taped Edding’s mouth. “At least a reprieve from me. But that doesn’t mean you’re home free. I’m very irritated that you closed your eyes about what he was doing to her.” He bound his wrists behind him. “So I’ll give you to Kaskov to decide what he wants to do with you. Warning. He’s not likely to be lenient.” He got to his feet. “And that suits me fine.” He heard Edding grunting and struggling behind him as he turned and walked away.

  He called Joe as he headed up the trail toward the thicket at the top of the cliff. “Use the explosives. There are guards within ten or fifteen feet of the cabin where they’re keeping Cara. I can’t get that close without risking Svardak’s knowing I’m there and killing her. Give me fifteen minutes to get into position and take out at least one of the guards. Then blow the hell out of that encampment on the mountain.”