Harlequin Intrigue April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2

by Carol Ericson

  Out of the corner of his eye, Remi struggled to her feet, and within seconds Marrow was using Dylan as a shield.

  “Killing Cove isn’t going to make up for the past, Tad. If he could go back and change what happened, I’m sure he would.” She’d recognized the killer. Beams of soft moonlight passed through the trees and highlighted her every move. She peeled the Velcro straps away at her sides and tossed her Kevlar to the ground. “But everything that happened in Delaware? That was because of me. You said it yourself—one of us is going down.” Blood-tinged rain rolled down her face in uneven lines. She shifted her weight between both feet and raised her fists. “Let him go. I’m the one you really want.”

  She was baiting a serial killer, putting herself at risk in an attempt to save one of her deputies. Former deputies. Dylan struggled to keep the blade from penetrating his artery as Marrow increased the pressure.

  “What’s to stop me from getting everything I want?” Marrow asked.

  “Because there are five of us and one of you.” The muscle in Remi’s jaw ticked, and Dylan recognized the lie for what it was. There was no backup. No one else coming to save them. She was giving Dylan a chance to escape.

  “I like those odds.” Marrow released his hold and Dylan ducked out from his reach.

  The killer lunged forward, knife in hand.

  Remi pulled a small knife from her ankle a split second before Marrow struck.

  “No!” Dylan lunged.

  Catching Marrow around the waist, he held tight. An elbow connected with the hypersensitive nerves around his temple and snapped his head back. Wrenching Marrow over his midsection, Dylan propelled the three of them down a steep incline.

  In his next breath, cold water consumed all of them from head to toe. He lost his footing then kicked hard to get his head above water. Fisting Tad Marrow’s shirt with one hand to keep from being dragged under the surface, he rocketed his fist into the killer’s head. “Get your damn hands off of her.”

  Marrow fell back into the inky wet darkness, pulling Remi with him into the depths.

  Her scream cut off as she disappeared right in front of Dylan.

  Bubbles tickled along his face and neck as he dove. Weeds and algae clung to him as Marrow pushed Remi toward the bottom of the lake.

  He stretched to reach the killer, trying to wrench Marrow away from her, but the water slowed him down. Pressure built in his lungs. Remi and Marrow spun in circles, each trying to get the upper hand until Marrow’s blade carved through the water. Toward Remi.

  Dylan gripped both hands around Marrow’s arm and pulled him back. Time distorted into a cold fluid as Dylan wrapped his arms and legs around Marrow in an attempt to weigh him down. His heart threatened to beat straight out of his chest as dark outlines appeared above the surface. Stained water blossomed around him, and he realized he was still bleeding from the stab wound he’d sustained. Didn’t matter. He just had to hold on, had to give Remi a chance. He’d promised to keep her safe, and he’d do whatever it took to keep his word. For her. He pulled them toward the bottom of the lake, and his lower back finally hit silt and sand.

  Marrow’s attempt to free himself became sluggish. A series of jerks coursed through the killer’s body, but Dylan still wouldn’t let go. The man had somehow escaped death, killed twenty-seven people and attempted to kill two others, including Remi. He wasn’t going anywhere.

  Several flashlight beams filtered down from the surface, and then she was there. Right in front of him. Long black hair floated around her beautiful face. Remi slid her hands over his. Her eyes settled on him, and the pressure in his lungs and the pain in his side disappeared. There was only Remi.

  She smoothed her thumb across the back of his hand, silently pleading for him to let go. But Marrow had beaten death once. There were no guarantees he’d spend the rest of his life behind bars for what he’d done or if the DA could tie him to the other murders all across the country. Every second the bastard lived, Remi’s life would be at stake. Tad Marrow would never stop coming for her.

  Remi set her fingers over Dylan’s mouth and shook her head. Bubbles sped toward the surface as Marrow went still his grip. Fisting her hands in his shirt, she closed the distance between them and turned his head toward her. Her lips met his, and the past two years, the New Castle Killer investigation, the scene at Del Howe’s cabin—it all faded until one moment remained. He and Remi sitting at the kitchen table eating the peanut butter, jelly and chip sandwiches, her smile brighter and more freeing than anything he’d ever experienced. He’d known then. He’d known, no matter what happened between them or if she’d discovered the truth, he wouldn’t be able to let her go. Not again. She’d become more than his chief over these past six months.

  She was everything.

  Dylan released Marrow, his arms and legs heavy. His chief shoved the killer toward the surface. Kicking off the bottom of the lake, Dylan followed, and the pain returned. Blood stained the water around him as hints of sunrise broke through the surrounding woods. Reality sped up as he crashed through the surface and clawed his way toward shore. He collapsed onto his back, staring up at the last remnants of storm clouds.

  Reed dragged the killer’s unconscious form from the water and started counting off chest compressions. Watson breathed into his mouth, and within a minute, Marrow choked up fistfuls of water. Foster turned the man onto his side, his expression guarded as he pulled a set of cuffs from his lower back.

  And Remi... She stood over them all, every bit the woman and deputy chief who’d gone out of her way to protect her team. She wiped a trail of blood from her mouth before helping Reed roll the killer to his stomach. “Tad Marrow, you are under arrest.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “Madison has been able to tie thirteen of the twenty-seven murders to Tad Marrow.” Watson handed Remi a manila file folder, the contents of which laid out the FBI’s case against the only victim who’d ever escaped the New Castle Killer. Once they’d been able to prove Tad Marrow had crossed state lines, the Bureau had taken full jurisdiction. “She’s still working through the rest. The baby might be trying to destroy us through sleep deprivation, but she’s got a good set of deputy district attorney’s taking on some of the work.”

  Remi set the folder across her lap, careful not to let the crime scene photos slide from the hospital bed. Stinging pain spread through her side. Torn stitches, recovering concussion, additional bruises and lacerations.

  She sifted through the evidence log pulled together from the FBI’s detailed search of Annabell Ross’s home which Marrow had used as a stronghold after killing the woman. Rope matching the strands used in half a dozen of the murders, including the marks left behind on Annabell Ross, Dylan and Remi’s own wrists. A sheath for the blade recovered from the bottom of the lake following the fight in the woods with DNA embedded in the leather. Fingerprints. The documents Sergeant Nguyen had reported stolen after the break in two years prior with a driver’s license using Marrow’s photo. The credit card used to book reservations in six of the cities where several of her former colleagues had been murdered. It was all there, and it would be enough to put the bastard away for the rest of his life. “Is Marrow saying anything about the deaths Madison hasn’t been able to tie to him?”

  “Not yet, but I’m sure she and her team are working on some kind of deal that might loosen his tongue.” Watson sat back in his chair beside the bed, his gaze more intense than a few minutes before. “But that’s not what you wanted to ask me about, was it?”

  She flipped the file closed and set it on the table to left, heat climbing from her chest into her neck and face. No. That hadn’t been the question she’d wanted to ask, but she was still the chief deputy of the Oregon division and Watson’s superior officer, for the time being. Personal questions clouded that relationship. “I might have been injured in the line of duty, Deputy Watson, but I can still make sure you never walk
again for prying.”

  “My lawyer might have a problem with that,” he said.

  “The district attorney is not your personal lawyer.” She swallowed a laugh threatening to pop her new set of stitches.

  “I’m pretty sure it became part of the deal when we had a kid together.” Watson’s smile drained from his expression. The former FBI bomb technician had been trained to spot the details, to make sure nothing had slipped his attention during an investigation. It was one of the things that’d initially impressed her when he’d applied for the marshals, but Remi suddenly felt as though she’d become the next puzzle for him to solve. “Reed informed me Cove is out of surgery. He and Foster are standing guard outside his room. He’s awake and talking.”

  “That’s good.” She couldn’t deny the flood of relief coursing through her, and neither could Watson, she was sure. Lowering her gaze to an invisible thread in the hospital bedsheet, Remi forced herself to breathe evenly through the pain suctioning to the black hole in her chest. “You know, I hired Cove to work the New Castle Killer case in Delaware. He was the best investigator I’d worked with, including some of the men and women in my own department. He’s always had this...responsibility inside him. Like it was up to him to solve every case he took on, and I admired that.”

  Watson didn’t answer.

  “But now...” Remi cleared her throat. “I suspended Cove after Gresham PD searched his apartment. They uncovered evidence he was using USMS resources to fund his own investigation into the New Castle Killer, and the forensic report from the cabin placed him at the scene before Del Howe was murdered.”

  She stared at the bag of her belongings resting on the bench below the single window to her right. Her boots, clothing, two badges side by side. Hers and Dylan’s. She’d had both in her possession when she’d confronted Tad Marrow, but now the space between those two chunks of metal seemed impossibly wide.

  “To be honest, Watson, I wasn’t surprised. His determination to uncover the truth was why I’d manipulated the system to get him into this division in the first place. I wanted him to apply the same methods he’d taken on in Delaware to our cases here, but then I found out he lied. That he used my position as chief deputy to catch a killer. So I took his badge and his weapon and everything they represented away from him. I made it personal so I could hurt him as much as he’d hurt me.” She shook her head as though the simple motion could rewind time. “I left Delaware and the New Castle Killer case—I left him—behind to take back some tiny part of control in my life after I was forced out as sheriff, but now that the case is solved, I feel more out of control than ever. How is that possible?”

  “Love is like that. It has a funny way of making us feel in control and lost at the same time. Anchored and desperate. Strong and exposed.” Watson leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I’ve watched the way your eyes get lighter when he’s around, Chief. I’ve seen how hard it is for him not to touch you while we’re on assignment. I’m not sure you even notice, but the rest of us have, and me, Foster, Reed—we all had to learn the same lesson when we fell for the women we were meant to love.”

  “What lesson?” The words slipped past her lips without permission.

  “Loving someone completely isn’t about control.” The marshal stood, turning toward the door. Setting one hand on the handle, he faced her. “It’s about trusting them with your weaknesses—your mistakes—and having the guts to accept what comes next.”

  Watson wrenched open the door and disappeared into the hallway.

  Love wasn’t about control. The words echoed in her head as Remi pulled back the sheets and set her bare feet on the cold tile. She peeled off the blood pressure cuff from around her arm, the Velcro too loud in her ears, and ripped the sticky monitors from her skin. Leaving the mess of tubes and wires in the bed, she went to the window. Watson had been right. She’d spent every day of her life since the fire determined to prove that emotions, weaknesses and mistakes hadn’t affected her climb out of the past, and she’d paid the physical, mental and emotion price in return.

  Her family was gone because she hadn’t been strong enough to pull them from the fire. The New Castle Killer had escaped because she hadn’t been intelligent enough to stay ahead of him. A serial killer had nearly murdered her entire investigative team because she hadn’t been brave enough to face her mistakes.

  But Dylan had made her feel like...she was enough.

  She’d tried to keep him at an emotionally safe distance, but the truth was she needed him. More than she’d ever needed anyone in her life. To surprise her with mac and cheese, to take away the nightmares, to force her to break through the numbness and unshoulder the weight she’d carried all these years. He’d witnessed her weaknesses and embraced them for what they were: part of her. And despite her parting words when she’d suspended him, she trusted him.

  Remi discarded the gown and dressed. After collecting both badges from the bench beneath the window, she ignored the slight dampness of her pants and boots and left the room.

  Dylan had taken on one of the most dangerous killers in the history of the country to protect her. She wasn’t sure she could ever repay him, but he deserved to know about the good he’d done for Del Howe’s and Tad Marrow’s victims. The families would have justice. They’d have closure. They could move on with their lives, and it was time for her to do the same.

  Reed turned from his position beside what she assumed to be Dylan’s hospital room door as she approached. A deep laceration across his brow had been stitched—most likely with Reed’s own two hands—but a few drops of blood remained on the collar of his superhero T-shirt peeking out from beneath his Kevlar vest. “Looking good, Chief. All the blood is gone.”

  “Can’t say the same for you.” She pointed to the stains as she stopped in front of the door.

  “Camille is bringing me a new one as soon as she finishes up photographing the scene for the bureau.” Chiseled cheekbones and boyish blue eyes radiated pure adoration at the mention of his witness-turned-fiancée. “Seems they were so impressed with her work tracking down and photographing what was left of The Carver’s victims, they want her to join their team full-time for this case. She’ll get to travel again and use her photography for something good. Just like she wanted.”

  “I don’t blame them for wanting to keep her on. She’s an impressive woman.” To have a passion destroyed by a serial killer’s obsession to becoming one of the most sought after serial crime scene photographers in the county took guts, and Remi couldn’t help but admire Reed’s support and admiration for the woman he loved.

  She set her hand on the door leading into Dylan’s room. Dylan had used her and the USMS to solve the New Castle Killer case, but he’d never questioned her innocence in Del Howe’s death. He’d followed her every lead, believed in her, supported her. Whether he’d done it to advance his own investigation, she didn’t know, but there was only one way to find out. “Well, whatever you two need—days off to travel with her, transferring to a new district if they want her in DC—let me know.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, Chief,” Reed said. “None of us are. We’re a team. You, me, Foster, Watson and Cove. Where you go, we go. Besides, who are you going to have to save when we’re all getting picked off by a psychotic killer looking for revenge if we’re gone?”

  “I’m glad you’re okay, Reed. Even if I wish you had an off button I could hit sometimes.” She caught sight of Beckett Foster headed down the hall, two coffees in hand.

  The fugitive recovery expert nodded, handing one cup off to Reed before he offered her the second. Circles had deepened under his eyes. Another case of sleep deprivation brought on by a tiny human. “Figured I find you here instead of obeying your doctor’s orders to take it easy. Coffee, black.”

  “Thanks. For everything.” The warmth penetrated through her foam cup and into her palms, but it wasn’t anywhere clo
se to the heat she craved from the man on the other side of the door. She had her team’s backs, and they had hers, but right then Remi wanted more. “We wouldn’t have been able to take down Tad Marrow without either of you, but now, if you don’t mind, I’m far more interested in the deputy on the other side of this door than either of you.”

  She pushed into Dylan’s room.

  * * *

  “GOING SOMEWHERE?” THAT VOICE. Her voice. It penetrated through him, more determined than ever to reach past the pain and soothe the rough edges left behind by their last conversation.

  The muscles down his spine constricted one by one. Dylan hiked his jeans around his waist, careful of the new set of stitches and gauze in his side. Jagged shards of pain sliced into muscle and stole the air from his lungs. He leveraged his weight into his hand against the end of the bed frame. Facing her, he maneuvered back onto the edge of the mattress and raised his gaze to hers for the first time since she’d taken his badge. The world tore through him in an instant, hours speeding up and combining into mere seconds. Muffled orders and flashes of light infiltrated the shadows then narrowed to a mere brush of her voice.

  Remi had been in those woods.

  She’d come for him despite the fact the evidence had revealed he’d used her and the marshals for his own agenda. She’d put herself between him and Tad Marrow to save his life. “That was the plan. Figured I’d be able to make it down the hall, but I’ve got to tell you, putting on pants has never been so damn difficult.”

  “It took me three tries to tie my boots.” Iridescent blue eyes lowered to the floor as one corner of her gorgeous mouth pulled into a half smile. “Seems surviving a knife wound isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

  He laughed and pressed both hands into the top of his knees in an attempt to stay upright, but the room was already spinning. Not from any injury. Although, he’d lost an excessive amount of blood. Because of her. “What are you doing here, Sheriff?”