by Cynthia Eden
“Dr. Peters!” She called out his name over the rising storm. The rain drove down in a hard blast now. Her hair stuck to her; her clothes were already drenched.
He looked back, water streaming down his face.
“It doesn’t do any good,” she called out to him. “To think about the coulds.” On all the things they both could have done differently. On what could have changed. “Just focus on what you can do now.”
He stared at her a moment longer, then gave a hard nod.
Maybe her words would make it easier for him to sleep at night.
Maybe not.
They didn’t usually help her. It seemed all she could ever think about was the coulds in this world. She’d just given him advice she’d never be able to take on her own.
They’d all run away. Leaving the caverns. The woods.
Fleeing the storms that promised to beat so hard and long against the town.
There would be no searches that night. No one stumbling where he or she shouldn’t for the next ten hours or so.
He watched Cadence’s SUV disappear around the bend. She was on her way back to the motel. Back to the little place at the edge of town.
Only McKenzie wasn’t with her. Not yet.
Not. Yet.
It was a terrible mistake for the agent to make.
She’d driven about ten minutes when her windshield wipers stopped working.
Cadence’s hold tightened on the steering wheel. The rain battered down in a torrent that just wouldn’t stop.
She couldn’t see a damn thing.
There were more curves up ahead. Twisting, sharp curves. Drops at the edge of the road.
I can’t see them.
She pushed on the brakes, trying to carefully guide the car to the right-hand shoulder of the pavement. Her heart was pounding in her chest, so very fast. The damn wipers.
The others had pulled out of the parking area first, leaving the base before her. That was what I wanted. I wanted to be prey.
She knew this growing fear churning in her stomach. This was exactly how the others had felt when they’d realized they were stranded.
Only it was still early. Barely past nine. The killer didn’t normally hunt at this time.
He also doesn’t normally shoot his prey, but that’s exactly what he did to Sheriff Coolidge and Christa.
The glow of headlights lit up her vehicle from behind. Cadence checked her weapon. Pulled in a deep, steadying breath.
Had that been a car door slamming? It was so hard to be certain. The rain was so loud.
Cadence turned, trying to see through the driver’s-side window.
Someone rapped against the window.
She jumped. Dammit, she was an FB-freaking-I agent. This was her plan.
And she’d jumped.
She’d also curled her fingers around her weapon. There was a shadow on the other side. She couldn’t tell much about the person.
“You okay?”
She caught the faint words, barely, and realized…That’s a woman’s voice.
Cadence rolled down her window. Rain and wind rushed inside her rented SUV.
A woman stood there, pale, too thin, shaking, in the storm. She had a small umbrella clutched tightly to her. “I saw you pull over,” she said, frowning as she peered into Cadence’s car. “Are you okay?”
Cadence made sure to keep her gun out of sight. “I’m fine. Just some trouble with my wipers.” The rain might ease soon and then she’d be able to drive again.
The Good Samaritan frowned. “Do you…do you want me to call someone for you?”
“No, thank you.” Cadence forced a smile. “I have a phone. I’m fine.” You need to get out of here. Hurry home. Lock your doors.
But the woman wasn’t moving. “I—I saw on the news.” She bit her lip. “It’s not safe for you to be out here. Why don’t you let me give you a ride?”
“I’m good, but thank you.” Cadence turned on the car’s interior light and pulled out her FBI identification. “Thanks for stopping.”
The woman, who had dark-brown hair falling heavily down her back, reached for the ID. She held it a moment, and after a quick scan, handed it back to Cadence.
Then she just turned and walked away. The woman didn’t say another word.
“Okay,” Cadence muttered. Not weird at all. She rolled up her window.
The car’s headlights were still on behind her. But the lights were moving as the woman began to pull away.
She started to put her ID up, then she realized…
There was a piece of paper stuck to the ID. Her interior lights blazed down on the small scrap of paper. And the words that had been written there.
Help me.
Cadence shoved open her car door and leaped out, but the woman was already driving off.
No!
Cadence jumped back in her vehicle and yanked out her cell phone. She had the sheriff’s office on the line instantly. “This is FBI Agent Cadence Hollow. I’m on County Road Four, and I need assistance. I’m in pursuit of a—” Hell, she hadn’t even been able to make out the vehicle in the downpour. “A possible victim” was all she could say. She rolled down her window and shoved her head out. It was the only way she could see. She took off after the woman.
Help me.
Cadence was sure going to try.
She let the phone fall from her fingers as she tried to keep her vehicle on the road, and see what curves waited up ahead.
“Agent Hollow just called!” Heather Crenshaw ran up to Kyle as he entered the Paradox police station. “She said she’s out on County Road Four. There’s a victim who needs help!”
He immediately whirled back toward the front door and out into the rain. The wind was pushing harder now, gushing fiercely and howling.
As he ran for his vehicle, he yanked out his phone and tried to get Cadence.
She didn’t answer.
One of the perp’s victims? Had she found him?
Danielle was hurrying toward him, clutching an umbrella. “What’s happening?”
Heather had already made it to her patrol car.
“We’re going after Cadence,” he said grimly. Cadence and her victim.
Her phone was ringing again, but Cadence couldn’t take her hands off the wheel to answer. She was driving too fast, the curves were too sharp, and she could barely see.
She kept shoving her head out the window, staring into the night, trying to find the black edge of the road.
Who was that woman? Doesn’t matter. She needs me.
You didn’t turn away from someone who needed help.
You never did.
Cadence saw the next curve coming up toward her.
She slowed down, went into it—
And never saw the vehicle that slammed into her. She only felt the impact. Heard the horrible crunch of glass and metal.
And heard her own scream.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Cadence’s voice mail picked up. Again.
Kyle shoved his foot down on the accelerator. The vehicle cut through the night, sending rainwater spraying in its wake.
“She didn’t say the victim was related to the Night Hunter,” Dani said as she sat beside him, her body as tense and alert as his own.
They slid into the curve. His headlights fell on the wreckage.
His heart fucking stopped.
He knew that SUV. When Cadence had left Maverick hours before, she’d been driving that vehicle.
Now it sat on the side of the road, its headlights cutting through the rain, the driver’s side door hanging open and the passenger side of the vehicle completely smashed in.
He braked and jumped from his own vehicle.
“Cadence!” He yelled her name as he reached the crumpled SUV. Dani’s footsteps clattered behind him. An air bag had deployed on the driver’s side, an air bag that now looked like a deflated flag. Cadence’s phone was in the front seat. Her purse. Her gun and holster. Her FBI ID. All still there.
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And a note…
The rain beat down on him as he bent into the vehicle to read the note.
Help me.
“There’s blood.” Dani’s voice shook as she shone her light at first the steering wheel and then at the open driver’s side door.
“And no Cadence.” The plan. The plan. His jaw locked as he spun to face Dani. “Get the tracking system up!” Their prey had taken the bait.
They’d better not fucking lose him.
Or her.
I’m coming, Cadence.
She trusted him. He wouldn’t let her down.
Her head hurt. The pain was what brought consciousness back. The throbbing. The nausea. Cadence opened her eyes. She lifted her hands, trying to touch her aching head.
Her hands slammed into something.
Dark. Why is it so dark?
She stretched out with her hands, searching. The surface above her was cold, hard metal, but ridged in places.
She realized she was moving.
Her breath froze in her lungs then. The perp had kept his word. He’d come for her.
He’d taken her.
The woman. How the hell did she fit into the mix? Cadence and Kyle had both been so sure they were looking for a man who worked alone.
Cadence tried to stretch down, reaching for her ankle. Her knife wasn’t in the strap on her left ankle. No gun on her right.
He’d taken away her weapons.
Kyle found the gun first, tossed away, and when he found the gun, he found the knife.
Cadence’s backup weapons.
The SOB had made sure she was defenseless.
No. The thought immediately snapped through his head. Cadence was trained in self-defense. He’d seen her take down guys twice her size.
Only her blood had been in the vehicle. Cadence was hurt. How badly? Would she be able to defend herself when she was hurt?
His phone hadn’t rung. Shouldn’t the SOB be calling to taunt him?
Police lights lit up the scene, some swirling in a sickening blur from the patrol cars braking nearby. This was a crime scene, and they were all treating it as carefully as they could.
“Kyle!” Dani’s shout.
He ran back to her side. She was in his vehicle, her tablet out as she tried to connect with Cadence’s tracking signals.
Dani looked up with a cold smile. “We’ve got her.”
Hell, yes.
Her weapons were gone, but her watch wasn’t. A frantic grab assured her the earrings were in place, too. So was the small pin, the third tracker, that had been attached to the back waist of her jeans.
Come find me.
The vehicle slowed.
Cadence sucked in a low breath. She knew what was going to happen next. When the trunk opened, she’d see the man who’d abducted all of those women. She’d finally have a face for the monster.
Except…
When the trunk opened a few minutes later, when the rain and wind poured in, she didn’t find herself staring up at a man.
The brunette was before her. The brunette with the sad eyes. The pale skin.
And the gun in her hand.
Help me.
Cadence had thought she was looking at a victim.
So damn not.
Cadence prepared to lunge at her, gun or no gun.
“He wants you inside.” The words were a whisper. The gun trembled in her shaking grasp. “If you try to get away now…”
Cadence had to strain to hear the words.
“He’ll kill me.”
Cadence wondered just who this was as she stared up at the brunette.
“He’s using dirt roads,” Dani said as she directed him after Cadence’s signal. “Cutting right through the woods.”
The roads weren’t easy to follow because the storm was washing them away.
The vehicle lunged forward. The wheels spun, losing traction in the thick mud.
“Left up ahead. Then straight. He must have a cabin in these woods, a place he’s using.”
A place they hadn’t found in their searches.
Two cop cars were behind him. Randall Hollings was in the lead patrol car. Heather Crenshaw was rushing after them.
Faster, faster…
“Her signal isn’t moving anymore,” Dani whispered. “Wherever he was taking her, she’s there.”
They weren’t. Fuck. He shoved the accelerator down harder, just as part of the road seemed to fall away.
Cadence didn’t move from the trunk. Her hair was soaked, her clothes clinging to her, but she didn’t move. “What’s your name?”
The woman glanced over her shoulder. “We have to hurry. He wants us inside.”
“Were you driving the car?”
A nod. Sad. “I’m s-sorry.” Hoarse. “Please…don’t make me sh-shoot you. Y-you have to…come inside.”
“Did he take you?”
The gun jerked in the woman’s hand. The bullet blasted out, burning a path over Cadence’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry!” The woman gasped out. “I—I didn’t mean to do th-that!”
“It’s okay,” Cadence whispered. No, it’s not. She freaking just shot me. Cadence climbed from the trunk, trying to move as carefully as she could. Her gaze tracked across the area. She couldn’t see any kind of landmarks. Just trees swaying too hard in the storm.
They’d driven up as they traveled. She’d felt the incline and she could see the trees slanted, drifting below her.
The gun shoved into her back. “Just…walk st-straight ahead. Please.”
It sounded like the woman was crying. Cadence started walking. “You didn’t answer me before.” She ignored the blood dripping down her arm, and the throbbing in her head that seemed to get worse with every step. “Did he take you, too?” The brunette was the right age for his victims, and Cadence tried to run through all of the images in her mind. Could she be Bridgette or Melanie? The hair color could have been dyed. The woman’s face was so thin and pale. Ravaged.
“Push through the bushes.”
Heavy bushes were in front of her. Cadence pushed through them, and saw only darkness.
Not another freaking cave.
It was.
Goose bumps rose on her arms. “This connects with the other caverns, doesn’t it?” Jason had said the caverns stretched for at least fifty miles.
“Go inside.” The woman’s voice was even weaker now.
Cadence stepped inside.
Her captor—victim—followed her. The bushes seemed to spring right back into place, sealing them in the thick darkness of the cave. A darkness that deepened with every step.
“How can you see?” Cadence whispered.
“I’ve been d-down here…” The words broke. “A very long time. I don’t n-need to see anymore.”
Those words made her heart hurt.
Cadence stopped walking. Screw going farther. This woman’s safety took priority. Cadence would get her out, then she and Kyle would come back to hunt for the others in this cave. “I can help you,” she said to the woman. “Let’s go now. Let’s get into the car and I can take you to the police station.”
“No!” Her shout echoed through the cave.
There was fear in that denial. So much fear.
“Y-you can’t h-help me,” the woman said. Softer once more. “B-but you can…take my place.”
Cadence stiffened. When she’d first started the case, she’d believed that the killer abducted a new victim when he killed his previous prey. But to discover that the victims were actually helping him…I didn’t expect that.
She should have seen it. Dammit. She should have seen it.
“Now, walk. Please.”
“I can’t see in front of me. I need a light.”
“The l-light’s gone. You learn that.”
She didn’t plan to learn anything.
But Cadence put one foot in front of the other. She walked in the darkness. The gun was still behind her. It pushed into her back every few mom
ents. She could try to take the weapon away from the woman, but in the struggle, Cadence couldn’t be sure the gun wouldn’t go off.
The plan was to save the victims. Not kill them.
She walked. One foot. The other. Her eyes couldn’t adjust to the perfect darkness. There was no seeing. Just an endless night.
Her arm throbbed. Her head ached.
She walked.
The tires were spinning in the mud.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Kyle snarled as his hands slammed into the steering wheel. He jerked the gearshift, pushing the vehicle into reverse.
The SUV heaved back.
The lights shone ahead of them. The road had been washed away. If he tried to advance, the vehicle would just get trapped again.
“There’s got to be another way to her,” he said, fury and fear knifing through him. They were losing too much time.
Time that Cadence didn’t have.
Dani was pulling up aerial maps on her tablet. “We need to go back, about two miles. Looks like there’s another turn we can take back there. As long as”—she exhaled slowly, the sound ragged—“as long as the road is still intact.”
Not a road. His gaze narrowed on her tablet screen. Another damn dirt trail. “If it’s not?”
She glanced up at him, the screen’s light shining on her worried face. “Then we go back to the highway. We circle around. It will take maybe forty-five minutes that way.”
Going by the time Cadence had made the call to the station, she already had at least a forty-five-minute head start on them.
He yanked out his phone. Called Heather. “Reverse the team,” he ordered. “We’re hitting the trail two miles back.”
They would get to Cadence, even if he had to get a fucking helicopter out there to take him in to her.
“How long have you been with him?” Cadence asked. She couldn’t stand the silence. The dark.
“Always,” was the soft answer behind her.
“That’s not true. How long?”
Stockholm syndrome. The words beat through Cadence’s head. This woman had been held by her captor for so long.
“I don’t remember anything…before him.” Stilted.
