“You’re insane,” he heard Kate say.
She said the words, she hadn’t yelled them. But he’d heard them plainly.
He froze, realizing Kate and Fenton were close. Now he crept, rather than racing, knowing if he was heard, he would lose any advantage.
Another five steps, and the tunnel began to angle up again. He kept the flashlight trained on the dirt ground, not wanting to reveal his presence. That left him blind beyond a foot or two in front of his feet. More roots and rocks hit his head, and dirt sifted down with every step. He actually hit a pile of loose soil almost as high as his knee in one spot. Wondering where it had come from, he noticed a steady dribble down each side wall.
His tension increased as a mental clock began to tick. This place was ancient. He half-wondered if it had been dug by prisoners trying to escape when the land had been used for a prison camp. Nothing clawed by the hands of desperate men could stand forever. This tunnel was going to come down. If Fenton and Slate had been using it regularly, it might even happen soon.
“You’re demented, you know that, don’t you? Killing boys because of that?”
“Only the strong survive in this world, Dr. Lincoln. The world needs the strong. The weak must be culled out.”
“Like William? Your own brother?”
“Exactly.”
“And Charlie?”
“Of course. Whiny, weak Charlie.”
“He’s dead then?” She sounded as if she already knew the answer.
“Oh yes, definitely dead. That massive red stain you’re sitting in is probably still sticky.”
Hearing Kate’s moan, Derek ground his teeth, mentally adding another reason to crush Fenton. Poor Charlie.
“Now you’ll be leaving a bloodstain of your own.”
Derek didn’t have time to evaluate anymore of what he was hearing. Fenton might be doing a big bad-guy reveal, and he was grateful for that. But he wasn’t going to count on it lasting long.
The tunnel continued to go up, a slow, steady rise, as if it were going to lead to a door that would take him right outside. It was also more watery. He sensed they had to be near the bogs, and was surprised the swamp hadn’t retaken this passage yet.
“So you really blame your brother for his own death?”
“He was a weakling, I tried to strengthen him up, but no matter how hard I pushed him, he was beyond hope. He had a nervous breakdown at fourteen, and my father separated us, sending him here and me to Europe. This place did what I hadn’t been able to. It tested him. He failed that test. I simply do the same to the boys who are put in my care now. The strong survive it. The weak do not…and they are removed.”
“Isaac wasn’t.” Her voice shook. “My brother was no weakling.”
“Isaac was meddlesome. He was snooping around, asking questions. He didn’t learn his place.” His chuckle held sheer malevolence. “I can’t recall which bloodstain was his.”
“You bastard,” Kate snarled.
Close now, Derek turned off his flashlight. The ceiling was so low he had to get on his belly and slide. He ignored a snake’s hiss and kept going, drawn by the voices, and by an obvious light bouncing off the walls.
Suddenly, that light became a lantern, similar to Slate’s. It shone from the center of a small chamber, like the one below Fenton’s office. The headmaster stood in the middle of it. Kate was on the ground beneath him, filthy, her hands constrained behind her back and her feet tied together. Nothing mattered, though, except that she was alive, and, as far as he could tell, uninjured. The realization that she’d been forced to take the same filthy path he’d just come through—probably with a gun aimed at her head the entire time—added to his fury.
The hunched run, the crawling, and now being in a narrow tube on his belly left him at a disadvantage. He couldn’t leap to his feet and take Fenton by surprise. There was no room. He had to continue a stealthy approach and hope the man didn’t turn around.
Derek shifted his shoulders, feeling pebbles and dirt fall in a gentle landslide. Fenton was ranting again, and he didn’t even notice. So he kept going, emerging from his hole into the room, keeping his eyes on Kate. If he was spotted, she would see him first, and he didn’t want her reaction to signal Fenton.
“I’m sorry it came to this, but you really should have minded your own business. I’m afraid you will just have to stay down here.”
“I’ll be missed.”
“Of course you will. But you won’t be found, you know that, don’t you?”
Kate looked terrified, but she also looked furious. That was good. He needed her fury, and so did she.
Rising to his knees, and then to his feet, he finally caught her attention. Kate’s eyes met his, and widened only slightly. She had no other reaction.
Smart, smooth, confident Kate.
Christ, he loved her.
He’d been a fucking moron to push her away, but he swore by everything he’d ever cared about that he was going to do whatever it took to get her back. More: to get her to stay.
When he was finally on his feet, just a couple of yards behind the headmaster, he gave her a slow nod.
“Before you leave me down here,” she said, keeping her captor distracted, “can you at least tell me how this tunnel came to be?”
Fenton, the blowhard who had never learned to shut up, answered her question. Something about a hiding place. Something about prison escapes. Nothing Derek gave a shit about right now.
His moment came. While Fenton droned on, Derek made his move, crossing the room in two quick strides and diving on the man before he even knew anyone else was there.
This wasn’t like when he’d landed on Slate. Slate had been wiry but strong, crazy, and determined to fight back. Fenton just hit the ground and laid there like a lump. He groaned and asked if the tunnel was coming down.
“The tunnel didn’t land on you, you bastard,” Kate snarled. “The wrath of God did.” She looked up at Derek. “He has a gun. It’s in his jacket pocket.”
Fenton was groaning, rubbing his head. Derek wondered if he’d slammed into a rock when he went down. Whatever the case, it made retrieving the gun easy.
Tucking the weapon into the back of his pants, he went to Kate and knelt in front of her. “Are you all right?”
She’d been so strong talking to that asshole, confronting him with his crimes, buying herself more time. He’d heard her all the way through that tunnel of hell, right up until thirty seconds ago. Now—now that he was here, and she was safe—was when she sniffed loud and long, and then burst into tears.
“It’s okay, baby. I’m here. You’re fine,” he promised as he clumsily wiped the wetness off her face.
“No I’m not,” she wailed. “I have to pee, and my feet are asleep!”
He tried not to laugh, loving that Kate could even make him consider it, given the circumstances. There was a killer rolling around a few feet behind them. They were in a subterranean cavern that looked like it might collapse any minute, and he had no idea if there was any way out other than a long crawl back. She was bound, filthy, and had been in the grip of a monster. And he’d just crept on his belly like a snake through mud and rot to rescue her.
“We’ve really gotta stop hanging out around here, Katie,” he said as he pulled a short utility knife from his pocket. He sawed through the ropes that bound her, pulling them away.
After he had a few long pieces, he said, “Let me go make sure Mr. Fenton stays put. This should hold as well as thorny vines.”
“He deserves the thorns,” she muttered.
He didn’t disagree.
Fenton was still wriggling a little, prone, and mumbling. Derek suspected he really had hit his head and was injured, but he wasn’t going to bet on it by leaving Fenton unbound. He did not want a knife in the back. He’d seen that happen too many times to other people…including to a good man killed at this motherfucker’s command, or even by his hands. After all, Slate had dismembered the bodies, and he’d dumped t
hem. That didn’t mean he’d been responsible for the actual killing, too.
That was for the cops and lawyers to figure out. Frankly, he didn’t want to know anything else about this prick, other than that he was going to prison for the rest of his miserable life.
He quickly tied Fenton’s hands and feet, looping a rope from one to the other to tighten the bond, and went back to Kate. She was pulling off the last of the twine to free her ankles. Sighing in relief when they were gone, she kicked off her shoes and began to wriggle her toes.
“Let me do it for you.” He gently took her feet in his hands, and rubbed warmth, and hopefully sensation, back into them.
“How on earth did you find me?”
“I told you I was coming for you, Kate. Now let me say that again—I will always come for you.” He let go of her feet, rose to his knees and leaned close. Brushing his fingers across her chin, he stared into her eyes. “Always.”
She blinked a few times and whispered, “Not just to get me into bed?”
“Not even just to get you into the shower.”
She didn’t smile. “I thought…you said it was nice, and you’d never forget. One and done, in other words.”
He shook his head, hating that he’d made her believe that. Now that he’d experienced the terror of not knowing where she was, or if he’d ever see her alive again, he knew he wanted anything she cared to give him, for as long as she cared to give it.
“No, Kate. I lied. I was trying to save both of us from the difficulty of trying to make it work.”
“What’s changed?”
“What’s changed is that now I know that no matter how difficult it is, we can make it work. If you move back up north, I’m coming for you. If you go back overseas, I’ll come for you there, too. If your crazy parents try to take you away, I’ll rescue you from them.” He brushed his lips across hers, not caring that they were both filthy, achy, and in a pit. “I’m crazy about you, Kate Lincoln. I’ve never loved anyone, and I never thought I would. But I was wrong.” He kissed her again, his lips lingering. “I do love you. And if you want me…as long as you want me…I am coming for you.”
Two more tears fell from her eyes, carving lines through the dirt on her cheeks. They disappeared into her smile, and she finally spoke.
“I think I can handle that. I love you, too, Derek. I’ll be happy for the rest of my life as long as you’re in it…or you’re at least on the way.”
CHAPTER 15
Because of Richard Fenton’s love of the sound of his own voice, they did not have to crawl all the way back to the ladder beneath his office. While he’d been shoving her along that route at gunpoint on the way in, he’d mentioned he would be leaving by way of a very short passage on the other side of the chamber. When he’d dared her to guess where it came out, she hadn’t even tried.
Building 13. Of course.
The investigators working inside that horrible place had reacted with shock when a panel in the floor flew open and Derek and Kate’s faces appeared. For a second, she’d thought they might be shot, but Derek immediately put his hands up, identified them both, and everybody calmed down.
There was only one good thing about emerging from the dark pit that far into the swamp: Nobody at the school had seen them. They didn’t have to walk a gauntlet, deal with the press, or be gawked at by the kids and faculty.
All Kate wanted to do now was go home. All Derek wanted to do was whatever she wanted to do. They were both determined to have their way. Gabe, who had come out as soon as his officers radioed him, agreed. But not until after he’d gotten a quick rundown, including the fact that the police were on a recovery mission and not a rescue one. Poor, poor Charlie.
“You know you’re gonna have to talk eventually and give the whole story.”
Derek, his arm around her waist, said, “I know. Tomorrow.”
“All right.” The detective beckoned one of his officers over. “Put ’em in your car and take them all the way out.”
Derek looked at Kate and lifted a brow. “Feel like taking a fast ride?”
She suddenly remembered his motorcycle was still parked out on that dirt road, far from prying eyes. “That sounds perfect.”
As they were getting into the officer’s car, they saw a crew bringing Richard Fenton up out of the hole. He was still rambling, but louder now. He demanded to be taken to his office, and then insisted the officers line up and salute.
Kate turned her head and looked at the lily pads, and they drove away, leaving the man and his ugly vision of the world behind them.
Riding back to town on Derek’s motorcycle, she ignored the looks they got from people in cars all around them. Their clothes were filthy enough to stand on their own, she had worms in her hair, and mud on every inch of her body, but she just didn’t care.
A monster had taken her down into that dark tunnel.
Derek had come for her. He’d brought her back into the light.
There they would stay.
“You willing to share another shower with me?” he asked when they reached her place and went inside.
“Only if you scrub all the mud off my back.”
Following her toward her bedroom, he muttered, “Hope you have sandpaper.”
They went to bed wet, made love to replace every dark memory with hot pleasure. Then they slept…woke up and ate…slept some more.
It was exactly what they needed. But they should have known nothing good lasted forever. Because, at ten o’clock that night, somebody banged on her front door.
She and Derek exchanged a look from over the kitchen table, where they were eating ice cream right from the container, sharing a single spoon.
“How much do you want to bet that’s Julia?” he muttered.
“No bet. If we don’t answer, will she go away?”
“I doubt it.”
She got up and handed him the mouthful of ice cream she’d just scooped out. He licked the mint chocolate chip, and the sight of that tongue and that mouth savoring something sweet and cold made her want to bathe in ice cream and invite him to indulge his hunger.
Sex. God, did she love having sex with the man. He only had to look at her with that intensity in his dark eyes and she was ready to have him all over again.
Hearing another hard knock, she called, “I’m coming.”
Opening the door, expecting to see Derek’s energetic boss, she was shocked to see two other people instead.
“I should have taken your bet,” she yelled, knowing Derek would catch her meaning.
“Kate! You’re okay? We’ve been hearing bits and pieces, we’ve been so worried!”
Taylor Kirby grabbed her hands, and Vonnie Jackson rubbed her arm. She didn’t know the two girls well, but she’d liked them from the start, and found it very sweet that they’d stopped by to see how she was.
“Wait,” she said, something occurring to her. “How did you find out where I live?”
“Julia told me,” Taylor said.
Derek had come out of the kitchen to join her. “That was really inappropriate.”
Taylor and Vonnie both dropped their jaws when he walked into view under the overhead light in the foyer. Glancing at him, she understood why.
He was wearing a towel slung low around his hips. And nothing else.
Holy mother of God, that body would make a ninety year old drool—even with the bruises that showed what the past few days had been like.
No, especially with the bruises, because they took the word male and turned it into man.
“Umm, sorry, we didn’t know you were here,” Taylor whispered. Her face had turned red. Vonnie’s eyes were so wide they looked ready to pop out.
Kate looked at Derek. “Please go get your pants out of the dryer and put them on before you put these girls into a state of shock.”
He grinned, nodded to the co-eds, and walked away. She turned her head to watch, knowing Vonnie and Taylor were staring too, right up until he turned toward the small lau
ndry room. Three sighs followed.
“Okay,” she said, stepping back, “would you like to come in?”
Taylor pushed right past her. Vonnie grimaced in apology and followed. As Kate sat on the couch, Vonnie took the chair, and Taylor plopped onto the floor, criss-crossing her legs.
“Don’t get mad at Julia for giving me your address,” she said. “She knows I’ve been trying to reach you. I think I’ve called her twenty times since yesterday.”
Vonnie rolled her eyes. “She’s called you at least fifty.”
“I lost my phone.”
“I couldn’t wait anymore for you to get back to me. Especially when I saw on the news what was going on.” Taylor was jittery, almost bouncing. Her fingers twisted into her shorts. Then there was the expression on her face. Far from being worried, or heartbroken, she looked…excited.
Not understanding her mood or the reason for their visit, Kate asked. “What exactly is this about?”
Taylor shimmied closer, until she was sitting at Kate’s feet. Taking a deep breath, she tilted her chin and looked right into Kate’s face. A big smile appeared.
“I’ve got something to tell you.”
Kate’s heart skipped a beat. The young woman looked like someone who’d stumbled into Santa’s warehouse and was told she could have every toy. She was…joyful. That was the only word Kate could come up with. The only thing she couldn’t understand was why.
“I found him.”
No longer just skipping, her heart danced right over several beats, twirling in her chest, but not sending out any oxygen. She felt dizzy and lightheaded, and had to remind herself to breathe. Eventually, she managed to whisper, “Taylor, what are you talking about?”
The pretty girl rose onto her knees and clasped both of Kate’s hands with her own.
“I found Isaac, Kate. He’s alive.”
Derek had really thought he’d live the rest of his life without ever hearing Kate scream again. Truth was, he’d only gone about seven hours.
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