Once Hunted

by Blake Pierce

  “Quiet! He’s still in the house!”

  Riley nodded with understanding. She saw Ryan’s head was still bowed, and he seemed to be unconscious.

  “How’s your father?” Riley asked in a whisper.

  “I dunno,” April said. “He beat Daddy up pretty bad after he got us bound and gagged.”

  Riley stepped over to Ryan and leaned toward him. To her relief, she found that he still had a pulse and was breathing softly. Then Riley knelt down beside April.

  “Where is he now?” she whispered.

  “I dunno that either. He went out to the hallway. He hasn’t come back since.”

  Riley stood up and listened. She couldn’t hear anything. She walked back into the hallway, checking the kitchen and dining room again. Then she went back to the stairs. Looking around carefully, she spotted a thin trail of blood on the way up to the third floor.

  The door at the top of the stairs opened into another hallway. The lights were on.

  And there, to her complete shock, lay Orin Rhodes, lying on his side on the floor.

  His wrists and ankles were hog-tied behind him with duct tape, and he was also gagged with the tape. A length of chain was wrapped around his neck. It rattled as he began to writhe in pain and terror. Riley could see that he’d been badly beaten, probably with the chain.

  A butcher knife was lying nearby. But there was no blood on it, and Riley doubted that any of Orin’s injuries had come from it.

  At first, Riley couldn’t process what had happened.

  But then, staring at the battered killer, she began to realize.

  Shane had been here.

  He had distracted Rhodes from his prey and done this to him.

  But was Hatcher still in the house?

  Strangely, Riley found it hard to really care.

  Just a little while ago she had vowed vengeance against Orin. And now he was lying helpless at her feet.

  She picked up the knife, crouched down, and peered grimly into Orin Rhodes’ eyes. She couldn’t remember ever looking into the heart of such sheer terror. And he had good reason to be terrified.

  Riley remembered the words she had said to him.

  “Believe me, you’ve got no idea what the word pain even means. You’re going to find out, though.”

  She felt her rage rising again—that bloodlust that she felt not only toward Rhodes, but all the monsters she had ever faced.

  She could do it right now. She could hack Rhodes limb from limb. Perhaps she could even cut out his still-beating heart and show it to him before he died as she had threatened. She knew it wasn’t impossible. Hundreds of years ago, executioners had routinely done that very thing in front of jeering crowds.

  The thought was delicious. And the best part was that she could carry out her revenge with impunity. All she’d have to do was say that Hatcher had gotten here first and done it himself.

  And who wouldn’t believe her?

  Why not? she thought.

  She brandished the knife, looking for a place to make him hurt.

  CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

  With the knife in her hand, Riley hesitated. Something in Orin Rhodes’ expression had changed.

  She pulled the tape loose from his mouth. He gasped for air, then spoke.

  “It’s what he wants you to do, you know,” Rhodes said. “It’s why he left the knife here. He’s testing you.”

  Riley realized that Rhodes was right. Hatcher meant this as a test of her character. And it had to do with that question he’d told her to ask herself.

  “Am I already? Or am I becoming?”

  Orin was smirking now. He didn’t look scared anymore.

  He doesn’t think I’ll go through with it, Riley thought.

  The truth was, she was starting to have doubts herself.

  “You’d better do it,” he said. “Because if you don’t, I swear to God, I’ll get back at you. If it takes me the rest of my life, and if I have to escape from every prison on earth, I’ll get my revenge. I’ll make sure you suffer and then die.”

  Riley’s fury was rising again. She gave Orin a sharp kick in the stomach. A groan burst out of his lungs. But then he laughed.

  “Is that all you’ve got?” he said. “Because you told me you were going to teach me what pain means. And I barely felt that. You see, I’ve lived my life in pain. It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than that to hurt me.”

  Riley savored his invitation.

  She leaned back and kicked him hard across the face, so hard that he groaned for real this time as a tooth fell out.

  His smirk was gone now.

  She stood there, breathing hard, and didn’t feel an ounce of pity or sympathy for him. She could easily imagine herself inflicting a slow, painful death on this animal, and never regretting it.

  So why not? she asked herself again.

  There was a good reason why not. She’d never be able to conceal what she’d done from Ryan and April. She knew they wouldn’t contradict the lies she’d have to tell to get away with this. Nevertheless, they would also have to live with what she had done. They would be complicit. They didn’t deserve that.

  She set the knife aside. Still peering into Rhodes’ eyes, she said, “Orin Rhodes, you are under arrest.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Rhodes’ expression changed from one of unspeakable horror to sheer perplexity.

  Riley took out her cell phone and dialed 911.

  “This is Riley Paige, FBI. I need police and paramedics. I’m bringing a dangerous criminal into custody. Another agent has been killed. The killer is injured, and so is another man.”

  The 911 operator dutifully took down the address.

  Riley then hurried back down the stairs to help April and Ryan. But when she reached the landing, she saw a man standing at the bottom of the stairs.

  It was Shane Hatcher, smiling up at her.

  Instinctively, Riley drew her weapon and aimed it at him.

  Hatcher held both hands out to his sides, palms facing her.

  “I’m unarmed,” he said. “What do you want to do?”

  Riley stood there, paralyzed with indecision. It was her assignment to arrest him—or at least it had been until she’d been suspended. She could take him right now, alive or dead. In order to take him alive, she’d at least have to wound him. All she’d need to do was aim at his thigh and pull the trigger.

  But she couldn’t do it. Monster though he might be, he’d been a weird sort of ally. And if he hadn’t stopped Rhodes just now, what might have become of April and Ryan?

  “You’ve got questions you want to ask me,” he said.

  Riley nodded. Her head was buzzing with questions.

  “Go ahead, ask them,” Shane said.

  “You’ve been on his trail all along,” Riley said. “You could have killed him several times over. You could have killed him just now. Why didn’t you do it?”

  Hatcher shrugged.

  “Why didn’t you do it?” he said. “That’s the real question, isn’t it?”

  Riley was trembling now, but she didn’t know why.

  “I didn’t do it because I’m not like you,” she said. “I’m not a monster.”

  Hatcher startled her with a burst of laughter.

  “Oh, come on, Riley. Are you really going to try to tell me that you spared that bastard’s life out of the goodness of your heart?”

  The question brought Riley up short. She knew that he was absolutely right. The only reason she hadn’t tortured and killed Orin Rhodes was out of concern for April and Ryan. She still more than half wished she could make him scream with pain.

  Hatcher said, “Remember that question I told you to ask yourself? Are you already, or are you becoming? Well, I think you know the answer now. You’re becoming. You’re becoming what you’ve always been deep down. Call it a monster or whatever you want. And it won’t be long before you are that person.”

  Riley wanted to tell him he was wrong. The words wouldn’t come. />
  Hatcher’s smile broadened.

  “You owe me, Riley Paige,” he said.

  Then he turned slowly and disappeared down the stairs.

  She knew she should chase him, apprehend him.

  But she could not bring herself to.

  And she did not know if she ever could.

  And that, in some ways, scared her most of all.

  *

  Riley rushed back into the living room.

  “Everything’s going to be all right,” she told April. “He can’t hurt you.”

  Her hands were shaking as she tried to pull the tape that bound April.

  “Check on Daddy first,” April said.

  Riley knew that April was right. She hurried over to Ryan and removed the gag from his mouth. To Riley’s relief, he groaned softly. He was regaining consciousness.

  She went back over to April and pulled the tape off of her. Unsteadily at first, April got up and helped Riley unbind Ryan. He was still barely conscious, so the two of them laid him out on the sofa.

  By then, Riley could hear approaching ambulance sirens.

  She also heard a clatter of footsteps coming up the stairs. Riley reflexively reached for her weapon. Then she breathed a huge sigh of relief as Bill burst into the room. As she’d expected, he’d found out where she was and had come to help. She hadn’t thought he’d get here so fast.

  “Are you OK?” Bill asked.

  For some reason, Riley couldn’t say a word. All she knew was that she didn’t have to be strong—not anymore, not right now. She fell into Bill’s arms and sobbed.

  A few minutes later, Riley was standing beside an ambulance gurney watching a paramedic examine Ryan.

  “How is he?” Riley asked.

  “He’s going to be all right,” the paramedic said. “There’s been some concussion, but I don’t think his skull has been fractured. It could be a lot worse. My guess is he’ll be out of the hospital in a few days.”

  Relieved, Riley took hold of Ryan’s hand. He was still foggy and seemed to be having trouble focusing his eyes on her. He moved his mouth as if he wanted to say something to her. Riley bent closer to listen.

  “Riley, I never knew,” he whispered. “I never knew.”

  Before Riley could reply, the medical team lifted him into the ambulance.

  Riley stood there, wondering what he’d meant. Was he trying to say that he had a new appreciation of the work Riley had to do in the world? Or was he trying to say that he had never comprehended the horror of her job until now?

  She comforted herself with the thought that he wasn’t badly hurt. And April seemed to be OK as well. The problem she faced right now was making things straight with her bosses in Quantico.

  Will I ever be allowed to work again?

  CHAPTER FORTY ONE

  Riley gave her report at the meeting the next day in Quantico. She knew that the stakes were high. Carl Walder and Brent Meredith were both there. So were Bill, Emily Creighton, and Craig Huang.

  Riley described the role that Shane Hatcher had played at Chincoteague—especially the way he had bound and gagged Orin Rhodes.

  But she didn’t relate what she and Hatcher had said to each other on the stairway. Riley was still haunted by what he’d told her.

  “You’re becoming what you’ve always been deep down. Call it a monster or whatever you want.”

  When Riley finished talking, everyone was silent for a moment.

  “One thing seems certain,” Brent Meredith said. “Hatcher was not Orin Rhodes’ accomplice. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

  “Not so fast,” Walder said with a growl. “Hatcher is still at large, and he’s dangerous. He’s killed one man already—the driver of the book truck at Sing Sing.”

  “I have reason to believe otherwise, sir,” Riley said.

  Walder gave her a baffled look.

  “I have reason to believe that the driver was an accomplice in the escape,” Riley continued. “I’m pretty sure that he was paid handsomely, and he’s now out of the country.”

  Walder squinted at Riley.

  “You have reason to believe all that?” he asked.

  Another silence fell. Riley wondered if she was going to have to produce the photo Shane Hatcher had sent her of the driver relaxing on a beach.

  Instead, Walder said, “Agent Paige, you consistently disobeyed my direct orders.”

  Riley gulped. Was she about to be fired?

  Bill spoke up. “With all due respect, sir—would things have turned out better if Agent Paige had obeyed your orders?”

  It was the perfect response, and Riley resisted the urge to smile. Walder had been consistently wrong all along. If she had followed his orders every step of the way, Rhodes would probably still be at large. Walder had no good answer to Bill’s question.

  “Agent Paige, I’m taking you off the Hatcher case,” Walder said. “You’re too close to it. Agents Creighton and Huang, you take over the hunt for Shane Hatcher.”

  Although Riley didn’t say so, Walder’s new orders suited her fine. He was right—she really was too close to Hatcher. She wasn’t even sure her heart was fully into trying to capture him. Besides, it was an impossible task. Shane, she knew, would not be found unless he wanted to be. On his terms. Creighton and Huang, of all people, hadn’t a chance in the world.

  “What do you want me to do, sir?” Riley asked.

  Walder drummed his fingers on the table for a moment.

  “Await further orders,” he finally said. “I’m sure you’ll be needed on another case soon.”

  Then to the whole group, Walder said, “That will be all for today. Thank you all for the good work.”

  As the meeting broke up, Riley exchanged glancing smiles with both Bill and Meredith. They looked as relieved as she was that she still had a job.

  More than that, they seemed proud of her. Once again, she had managed to achieve what all the other agents couldn’t.

  And despite all the nonsense, all the internal politics, that silent look of approval, from people she truly respected, sustained her.

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO

  The next night, at home in their townhouse, Riley and April huddled together on the couch. They were gobbling popcorn and watching the most trivial programs they could find on TV.

  Riley was amazed by April’s strength and resilience. She had some bruises from her ordeal, but showed little or no emotional trauma. She’d come through this experience stronger than she had been before. Somehow, beating Rhodes on his first attack had given her greater confidence.

  Riley was more worried about Ryan. He was in the hospital now, recovering from a concussion. He was going to be all right, but he’d definitely been traumatized.

  Riley remembered what he’d said to her.

  “Riley, I never knew. I never knew.”

  Riley still wasn’t sure what he’d meant. And she had no idea what their relationship would be like now. Was there any way of bringing back the small bit of trust they were starting to feel together? And what about Blaine? He, too, had been traumatized and nearly killed.

  She remembered what Blaine had said to her in the hospital.

  “There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for you and April.”

  How far did Blaine mean that, really? Would he have second thoughts about getting close to her? She couldn’t blame him if he did.

  All Riley knew for sure was that she felt terrible about putting two of the most important men in her life in such danger. Bill was able to deal with the risks that came with the job. She couldn’t expect the same from Ryan and Blaine.

  Another thought was lurking in her mind, making her feel sad.

  April seemed to pick up on her mother’s melancholy.

  “What’s wrong, Mom?” she asked, snuggling close.

  Riley sighed, trying to think of how to put it into words. She had recently told April all about what had happened in New York sixteen years ago. Maybe now April could help her come to terms with it.
r />   “I keep thinking about Heidi—Orin Rhodes’ girlfriend.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Mom,” April said.

  “Wasn’t it?” Riley said. “When I killed her, I set Orin Rhodes on a long, twisted path. And now four more people are dead.”

  April pulled out of their embrace and looked her in the eye.

  “Mom, think about it. If you hadn’t killed her and arrested him, they would have kept right on killing. Believe me, I know. I got a real taste for how cruel he could be. Who knows how many more people would have died?”

  Riley didn’t reply. She tried to let April’s words sink in.

  “Besides,” April said, “if you hadn’t killed Heidi, she’d have killed you. Then I wouldn’t have been born. Believe me, I really don’t like that idea.”

  Riley smiled. “Well, maybe you would have been born—only with a different mother.”

  April shook her head.

  “You mean I’d have wound up with one of Daddy’s bimbo socialites for a mom? Huh-uh. If you think I’ve been rebellious in this life, it’s nothing compared to what I’d have been like if things had gone that way.”

  Riley chuckled a little, and so did April.

  Riley realized that April was right in a way. The strong young woman sitting here beside her had actually benefitted from the clash of values between herself and Ryan. April was learning to make choices, not just accept whatever seemed cool. And she was learning to take care of herself.

  *

  Riley had just relaxed again and was trying to focus on some silly TV show when the phone rang.

  It was Garrett Holbrook, her FBI colleague in Arizona, the one who had found a home for Jilly with his sister, Bonnie Flaxman. Riley’s heart sank as she prepared for bad news.

  “Riley, I’m afraid Jilly has run away again,” Garrett said.

  “Why?” Riley asked. “What happened?”

  “Bonnie and her husband found out that Jilly had been going back to the truck stop where you first found her.”