“You survived.” Remi stilled as the rope around her wrists slackened with stretch. He couldn’t see her. Not without turning the headlamp on her again, and she had enough strength left to take advantage. Arching her back, she pressed her elbows as close to one another as she could and shimmied her hands up and down until the rope slid down the length of her fingers. The pain in her side intensified, but she couldn’t scream out. She brought her hands forward, relieved for the increased blood flow to her aching shoulders. Leaning forward, she stifled the groan building in her chest as agony tore through her midsection. Blood spread across her shirt and flowed into the waistband of her pants. Sticky. Warm. She couldn’t think about that right now. Couldn’t focus on more than getting the rope around her ankles loose. “How?”
“I still ask myself that same question. Somedays, I think it was basic survival. Adrenaline, faster reflexes, a basic instinct to live.” His voice had grown louder, closer, and desperation clawed through Remi at the realization. The headlamp hadn’t moved from its position about ten feet away, but her attacker had. He was closing in, using the darkness to his advantage. How? “Other days, I recognize what Del Howe brought out in me the day he stole my life.”
“And what’s that?” Silence descended all around her. Panic overtook her, and she rushed to get free of the rope at her ankles. Only the sound of her shallow breathing filled her ears. She pulled a strand loose, and the rest of the maze of rope around her ankles fell apart. Kicking the ties away, Remi stumbled to her feet, her back against the wall.
There wasn’t enough light produced by the distant headlamp to give her any idea of where the exit was, but she could follow the wall long enough to get the hell away from her would-be killer. Her nails dug into the soft stone as she sidestepped along the perimeter of the cave. Run. Hide. Escape. There was no other option in her condition. Particles of dirt fell around her shoulders and head with every step, and she covered her nose and mouth with the crook of her inner arm. She couldn’t afford to make a single sound. Not if she wanted to survive this.
“My own kind of monster.” A fist connected with the side of her face.
Lightning streaked across her vision, and she hit the cave floor. Remi barely had time to wonder how he’d found her in the shadows when his boot struck her ribs. Pain, unlike anything she’d experienced before, overwhelmed her nervous system and tore a scream from her throat. The headlamp’s dim light outlined her attacker enough for her to block the second strike to her midsection, and she latched onto his foot and twisted as hard as she could.
The hard drop of his body kicked up dust into her face and eyes. She couldn’t see, couldn’t think. Dirt and shadows had stolen her vision. She couldn’t rely on the light if she was going to get out of here. Remi scrambled to her feet, her fingertips using the cave walls as guidance. She pumped her legs as fast as she could and held one hand above her head to stop herself from running into lower sections of ceiling. Her palms burned with friction, but she wouldn’t stop. Couldn’t.
“You’re going the wrong way, Sheriff...” The taunting undertone in his voice echoed in her ears, but Remi only forced herself to keep going. “The faster you run from me, the faster you seal your own fate. You’ll never get out. Not without me. Oh, and mind the drop.”
Drop? The floor disappeared from beneath her feet, and her heart lurched into her throat. Her backside slammed against the angled cave floor. Rock and solid bubbles of cool stone tore holes through her pants and shirt as she fell countless seconds. Five? Ten? Her feet were the first to hit solid ground, and her legs collapsed out from under her. She rolled twice—three times—before settling flat on her back. A groan escaped her control as she clamped onto the stab wound in her side. The sob bubbling in her chest ached to break free, but she wouldn’t give in to the hopelessness churning inside. Not yet. She might be running in the wrong direction, but the alternative meant running toward her abductor’s knife.
Remi fanned her free arm out to one side and hit a rough formation sprouting from the ground like cairns of stones fused together. The floor here seemed to be constructed of the same bubble-like shapes as in the section of the cave her assailant had held her, reminding her these tunnels—these tubes—had once been molten lava. Cool air brushed against her overheated skin. She held her breath and waited for the sound of her kidnapper following her down the drop.
Only the fast-paced beat of her heart interrupted.
She couldn’t stay here. Even without the added pressure of a killer on her trail, she needed food, water, medical attention. Dylan had been shot. As much as she was certain Gresham PD had gotten him the help he’d needed, she couldn’t leave him with the uncertainty. She couldn’t let him spend the rest of his life trying to find her as he’d spent the past two years hunting for the New Castle Killer. That wasn’t the life he deserved.
He deserved more. A partner, a family, someone he could trust and rely on. Someone to ease the burden he’d carried all these years trying to right the mistake he’d made. He deserved to be happy.
Hell. She wanted to be the one to make him happy. The gut-wrenching realization punctured the protective layer she’d held on to since losing her family in that fire. But if the killer believed she’d died in theses tunnels, he’d go after Dylan next, and she’d never forgive herself. Emotions led to vulnerability. Vulnerability led to mistakes and losing the people she cared about, and she couldn’t lose him.
Remi rolled onto her uninjured side and forced herself to sit up. Her head collided with a low section of cave ceiling, and she automatically brought her hand up to test the extent of the drop in height. It seemed to go on forever. She maneuvered onto her hands and knees and crawled forward. These past six months, Dylan had forced her to confront her failures and shame. No matter what happened, she wasn’t going to run this time. Not from him.
* * *
TIRES SKIDDED ACROSS the dirt as Dylan slammed on the brakes in front of the cave entrance. The call for backup had gone out a few minutes before, but he wasn’t going to wait. Remi didn’t have that kind of time. He reached into the glove box for a flashlight. Exiting the SUV, he unholstered his weapon and rounded the front of the vehicle. Knee-high weeds rustled as he moved into position.
The sun had gone down hours ago. It would be a maze inside with or without the flashlight, but that wasn’t going to stop him from getting to her.
Cool air brushed against the underside of his jaw as he pressed his back against one wall and craned his neck to search inside the entrance. No movement. Nothing to suggest an ambush. Yet. Barely more than four feet wide and five feet tall, the entrance to the cave seemed to breathe on its own. If the map hadn’t told him exactly where the entrance had been located, he would’ve missed it completely, but his instincts and a fresh set of footprints in the dirt confirmed he was in the right location.
His harsh exhale echoed back to him as he heel-toed it along one wall. He clicked the flashlight to life, scanning the ground in front of him. Rough, bubble-like formations threatened to throw him off balance with each step. Cracks spread out from sections of rock, indicating the ground itself had settled over time.
What appeared to be yellowing stalactites clung to a large section of the ceiling to his left. He managed to avoid a dip in the ceiling height as the entrance tunneled in four separate directions. Dylan paused. Remi could be down any one of the tunnels. One wrong choice, one mistake, and he’d lose her forever. Not an option. Searching for the footprints he’d noted in the dirt at the entrance, he followed a path to the tunnel on the far left. “I’m coming, Sheriff. Hold on.”
The hairs rose on the back of his neck as he ducked into the largest of the four tunnels. If Remi’s abductor had had to carry her in here, Dylan imagined this was the tunnel he’d used, but there was still a chance these passageways were empty, and he was on a scavenger hunt that would end in his own death.
The cave floor declined und
er his boots, and thousands of tons of rock suspended above him bled into focus. Goose bumps prickled across his arms as temperatures dropped. Caves had their own climates. Species of animals and organisms never found anywhere else on the planet. Glancing back toward the entrance, he calculated he’d walked about one hundred feet. How far would the killer go to ensure Remi was never found?
A brush of something against his arm twisted him around. His stomach rocketed into his throat as the flashlight worked to reveal whatever’d run into him. Small squeaks reached his ears and echoed off the walls. Bats. He must’ve clipped one when he’d—
A wall of muscle slammed into him and anchored him against the opposite wall. His weapon fell from his grasp, lost in the darkness. Shards of rock dug into the muscles between his shoulder blades as he struggled to refill his lungs. Dylan gripped the flashlight, braced the underside of his fingers with the cylinder and shoved away from the wall.
His attacker ducked his shoulder into Dylan’s midsection and spun to squeeze his arm around Dylan’s neck.
Dylan hauled his fist into the bastard’s kidney. Once. Twice. A groan filled his ears. The flashlight beam grazed his dropped weapon, and Dylan lunged to collect it. Pulled back by his clothing, he swung his elbow up and over and connected with the son of a bitch’s face. The slack between him and his opponent disappeared as the suspect hauled Dylan straight back into his spine and flipped Dylan onto his stomach.
Pain exploded from one side of his rib cage and aggravated the bullet still ripping through the soft tissue in his side. Dirt caked his mouth as he struggled to take a full breath.
“You’ve come to take my prize from me,” the outline above him said.
“What can I say? I’m a selfish bastard.” Dylan launched himself toward the gun, knocking it farther out of reach just as a heavy boot slammed into his lower back. Sweat built at the base of his neck and ran down beneath the collar of Dylan’s shirt as he climbed to his feet. The beam from the flashlight barely illuminated the room let alone highlighted his attacker, but Dylan had been in enough situations to learn to trust his senses.
“Ah, but the sheriff is more than a colleague, isn’t she, Cove? She’s the reason you stopped being a private investigator and came to Oregon.” Remi’s abductor swung a hard left, but Dylan was faster.
Blocking the strike, Dylan gauged the suspect to be around six-four, at least two hundred and twenty pounds. A high-pitched ringing filled his ears as he relied on everything but his vision. He kicked out, connecting with the suspect’s knee and forced his attacker to the ground. Dylan stood over him, battle-ready tension hardening the muscles down his spine. “Where is she? What did you do with her?”
A low, unsteady laugh bounced off the walls around them and solidified in the pit of his stomach. “You know, I’d tell you, but that would be cheating.”
A hard fist rocketed into Dylan’s temple and knocked him off balance. He slammed his forearm into the next hit, took a punch above the bullet hole in his gut and struck out. His knuckles met flesh and bone and knocked his attacker off balance. Momentum, exhaustion and blood loss took the strength out of his legs, and he hit the ground. Cold steel pressed into his shin under his weight. Dylan wrapped his hand around the gun and got to his feet. He brought his weapon up and took aim.
Only, the assailant had disappeared.
“Where are you?” His breathing ricocheted off the formation of stalagmites climbing from the floor toward the ceiling. Dylan crouched to collect the flashlight from the ground, every cell in his body on high alert for movement. Another tunnel took shape a few feet away.
“Do you think she knows, Cove?” a voice whispered from the shadows. “Has the good sheriff figured out the real reason you applied for the marshals?”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Not possible. The killer’s words gutted him deeper than the bullet still lodged in his side. Remi had spent her entire life guarding—protecting—herself from the people around her seeing the vulnerability she denied existed, but Dylan knew better. He recognized the effort she put into carrying her division with her strength, of being the woman the team could rely on. Knowing the real reason why Dylan had come to Oregon and not the reason he’d given her when he’d walked into her office six months ago would only break the trust she’d built with her deputies. With him.
Dylan followed the voice one step at a time. Blood seeped from his wound and down his pant leg, his footsteps uneven. “Run all you want. Del Howe couldn’t hide from me, and neither can you.”
“I’m not the one running out of time, Cove.” Dirt cascaded from a nearby wall, and Dylan slowed. “You’re bleeding out. Soon, your body is going to go into shock just as the sheriff’s did after I stabbed her. So are you going to come after me with the last few minutes you both have left, or are you going to save the woman you’re lying to?”
Remi. His ears rang. Dylan pulled up short. He couldn’t leave her here to die. No matter how much he wanted to make up for the past, she needed him to get her the hell out of here. “I’ll be seeing you later, you son of a bitch.”
Taking the main tunnel around to the right, he pressed a hand over the bullet wound in his side and jogged as fast as he could. The toes of his boots dragged with every step, but blood loss, exhaustion and disorientation weren’t going to stop him from finding her. “Remi!”
His voice reverberated off the sides of the cave.
No answer.
She was alive. Because no matter the reasons he’d had coming to Oregon, applying for the marshals service, he couldn’t let her go. Not when they’d been together in Delaware, and not now. She wasn’t just a means to an end or a way to relieve stress from an impossible case. She was everything. His rock, his anchor, his purpose. Without her, he’d have lost himself in a haze of rage and guilt a long time ago, and he couldn’t become that person again. “Remi!”
Movement registered ahead, and Dylan slowed two steps before a wild swing of sharpened rock nearly sliced across his throat. He stumbled back, a throaty and desperate scream filling the cavern as she lunged at him. Dylan shot one hand out, catching her wrist midstrike, but he wasn’t fast enough to catch her other hand.
Pain arched through his face as her fist connected with his jaw, and he dropped the flashlight. Landing on his back, he kept her at arm’s length as she raised the rock over her head to strike a second time, pure survival contorting her features.
“Remi, it’s me!” He ducked one foot under her shin and rolled her with every last ounce of strength he had, pinning her beneath him, her wrists to the floor. She bucked her hips to get free, and Dylan released his grip. “It’s Cove.”
“Cove?” Her voice softened. The diluted beam from the fallen flashlight highlighted the overwhelming tension between her shoulders and neck. Sobs visibly racked through her as her head fell back against the ground. “I’m sorry. I thought you were him. I thought—”
“I know. It’s okay. You don’t have a damn thing you need to be sorry for.” He pulled her into him, holding on to her through sheer force of will as numbness swept through him, and set his mouth to the crown of her head. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
CHAPTER NINE
White light and muffled voices overwhelmed her senses. Survival automatically urged her to open her eyes, but a safe sensation of numbness and warmth spread through her and dragged her deeper. Only this time, she didn’t want to go deeper. Pure, comforting numbness was all that waited—no nightmares, no pain, no guilt—but where she’d retreated to that space over and over again in the past, it wasn’t good enough anymore. Not after her abductor had nearly taken his revenge.
“Take it easy. Wouldn’t want to have your nurses have to restrain you again.” That voice. She knew that voice. Coaxing and dangerous at the same time, a perfect combination that promised to bring her back to the surface.
Remi clung to it,
battling to bring herself past the drugging haze of unconsciousness. Piercing fluorescent light intensified the stiffness in her neck and shoulders, and flashes of the headlamp that’d kept her attacker’s identity in shadow scored across her mind. She turned her face from the outline above her and tried to raise her hands to block the light. Stinging pain shot along her arm.
“You’ve got an IV in your arm, Sheriff. Try not to tug it too hard.” Warm, callused fingers coaxed her arm back to her side, and it took everything inside her not to pull away at the physical touch. Steel-gray eyes came into focus before Dylan looked up at something across the bed. “Dim the lights for me, would you? They’re bugging her eyes.”
Movement shifted from somewhere within the room as the brightness eased. Coarse sheets, white tile, a door with a bright silver handle. A hospital room. Soft beeping filled her ears from one side of the bed. A loose blood pressure cuff encapsulated one arm, the catheter for her IV line in the other. Bubbles floating in clear liquid filled the thin plastic tube. Fluids. She must’ve been in worse shape than she’d originally estimated. “How long...?” Rawness coated the entire length of her throat, hints of dirt still clung to the inside of her mouth. Her voice had lowered an octave, unrecognizable even to her own ears. “Unconscious...?”
“You came out of surgery about four hours ago.” Dylan smoothed a section of her hair away from her face, and a buzz fizzled across her over sensitized skin. That was the second time he’d touched her in as little as two minutes. “The surgeon was finally able to stop the internal bleeding and sew up your wound, but you lost a lot of blood between the caves and the hospital. You lost consciousness right after I got you into the SUV. Your doc wants to keep you overnight to make sure your vitals stay stable. Then there’s the cut at the back of your head and the concussion you endured when your kidnapper took you from the station.”
Harlequin Intrigue April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Page 28
