Harlequin Intrigue April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Carol Ericson (short books to read TXT) 📖

No. This wasn’t how he was going to die. “You killed Del Howe to show you were better than him?”

“The New Castle Killer was weak.” Rounding in front of him, Marrow crouched, the blade between his hands. “The day I escaped that van, I’d somehow lived through another day of bloodletting. I couldn’t swallow, couldn’t even seem to blink. While Howe was cleaning the blood off the floor, I managed to get one hand free from the rope. He had his back to me, convinced I wasn’t a threat. He never heard me untie the other ropes, never saw me coming. I grabbed this knife—” Marrow set the tip of the blade against his finger and seesawed the handle side to side “—and I thrust it into his back. I could tell he was just waiting for me to finish the job, but at the time, all I could think about was escape. Even at my lowest, I was stronger than he was, and I showed him that. Although, I can’t deny how good it felt to make him suffer as I had, to hear him scream.”

“You used Sergeant Nguyen’s identity and police resources to track Del Howe.” The pieces were starting to fall into place. “You registered for law enforcement conferences in his name so you could hunt and kill anyone involved in the original case in those cities. But what about Annabell Ross? She didn’t have anything to do with the New Castle Killer case. She was a hiker who loved the outdoors. You used her for her knowledge of nearby caves, and as an alibi that day at the scene, then strangled her when you didn’t need her anymore.” Dylan worked his hand back and forth, back and forth, to gain some slack in the rope. “She was innocent.”

“Every master needs a set of tools to complete his work, Cove.” Marrow tipped the blade straight up in the air between them. “You should know that better than anyone considering you used Remington Barton and her position with the marshals for your own investigation.”

“We’re nothing alike.” Rage coiled hot and fast in Dylan’s gut. He stretched his right hand away from the chair to feel the earth around him. He had to find something—anything—strong enough to cut through the ropes or to be used as a weapon.

Marrow had ambushed him in Annabell Ross’s house. He wouldn’t let the perp get the upper hand again. Not when he was the only one standing between Remi and the SOB in front of him. The tip of his middle finger hit the edge of something rough and solid. A rock. He pushed back the pain in his shoulders as he contracted the muscles in his spine and stretched even farther. The stitches in his side screamed as he pressed the raw edge of rock into his palms.

“I can see why the sheriff likes you. I bet that aggressive streak you show off is what drew her in back in Delaware. But it wasn’t enough, was it?” Marrow’s low, menacing laugh cut through him. “She figured out who you really are, and now you’re more like me than you think. Unbalanced, defective. Alone. Don’t worry, once I’m finished, she won’t live long enough to hold it against you.”

“Go to hell.” Dylan used the rock to cut through the rope around his wrists. Straightening his legs, he slid the cables at his ankles over the ends of the chair. He shot forward, colliding with his attacker, and wrapped his grip around the blade’s handle before Marrow could take his next breath. They hit the ground as one and struggled for control of the weapon.

Only, Dylan wasn’t fast enough. The knife pierced through skin and muscle and collided into bone. Voices echoed from the trees, and Marrow placed a strong hand over his mouth, stifling his call for help.

“Looks like we have company, Cove.” Marrow withdrew the blade from Dylan’s gut, straightened and wiped the steel on his pant leg. He stepped over his prey, but Dylan couldn’t force his hands to reach out to stop him. “Don’t worry, I’ll be the perfect host.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Fan out. Foster, you’re with me. Reed and Watson, head north.” Remi faced the tree line, weapon in hand, and hit the power button on her tactical flashlight. Four beams pooled on the ground as the remaining three members of her team split off from her side and disappeared into the shadows. Dylan was out here. Alone, in pain. His scream echoed through her head as she headed into the woods. Her heels sank into the damp grass as she crossed Annabell Ross’s backyard. She pinched the push-to-talk button on the radio strapped to her Kevlar, the atmospheric scent of rain thick in the air. “Comms check.”

“Watson.” The deputy’s light gave away his position off to her right and a few meters ahead. “Nothing yet.”

“I’ve got something that looks like drag marks here. Approximately twenty meters north of your position, Chief.” Static interrupted the constant pattering of rain against her shoulders as the signal broke up. “This is Reed, by the way.”

“Damn it, Reed, we know it’s you.” Deputy Beckett Foster’s outline slowed to her left. Of the five members of the team, she trusted his experience hunting fugitives over her own instincts to race through the woods, blind and half cocked, until she found Cove. “Watson, you and Reed follow those tracks. Could be our guy or an animal.”

“Report back if your situation changes.” Hair clung to her face as Remi craned her mouth toward the radio. “Our suspect has now killed twenty-seven people we know of, guys. Stay alert. Watch each other’s backs. Cove is one of ours. I want to keep it that way.”

She wanted to keep him for herself.

“We’ll bring him home, Chief,” Watson said.

Remi forced one foot in front of the other, mud suctioning her boots into the earth. Visibility dropped the farther they left Annabell’s home behind. Their suspect preferred to work in