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

“You’re saying he’s not in the city. He’s just outside of it.” The on-ramp to the interstate that would take him west out of Gresham then north when it connected to the 205, out of the city—that would be the fastest way to escape. His instincts said Reed was right. The previous victims might’ve been a job as Reed had suggested, but whoever’d taken Remi had been building to this for years. Blamed her. He wouldn’t kill her quickly. He’d make her suffer. He was sure of it. That the killer needed privacy and time to exact his revenge on the investigators involved in the case, but that left a lot of options in the way of location.

Dylan maneuvered ahead of a group of vehicles and accelerated onto Interstate 84. He searched every lane ahead of him for the familiar SUV. The killer only had a few minutes of a head start, but Dylan knew from experience a few minutes was more than enough to seal Remi’s fate. “I need more, Reed.”

“According to CCS, Remi’s phone just pinged from a tower near Burton Ridge in Vancouver, north of the city,” Reed said. “But it hasn’t moved in a few minutes.”

Across the Columbia River. The killer had gotten farther than Dylan had originally thought. Determination burned through him. She wasn’t dead yet. He had to believe that. He had to believe the killer would take his time with her and give Dylan a chance to make it. “Send me the coordinates.”

“Camille and I will dive back into the files Watson recovered and narrow down a location where he might’ve taken her. Keep me updated.” Reed ended the call.

His phone pinged mere seconds after the line went dead. The small red dot on his screen assigned to Remi’s phone wasn’t moving, and he pushed the SUV harder. The dull sound of tires against cement droned in his ears as he sped across the bridge into Washington State. She wasn’t going to die. He wasn’t going to make another mistake.

Maneuvering between eighteen-wheelers and civilian vehicles, he spotted the exit leading to Burton Ridge and crossed three lanes of traffic to take it. His heart lodged high in his throat as miles of rolling black mountains and shadowed trees materialized through the windshield. If the killer had taken Remi into the wilderness, it’d take days for Gresham PD and USMS to search the woods.

He was catching up to her signal. Soon, he’d be directly on top of it. Dylan tightened his grip on the steering wheel as his eyes adjusted to the darkness along the off-ramp. His headlights illuminated the stop sign at the bottom of the decline. Bright lights from a convenience store right off the interstate honed his focus as the signal identifying his phone rolled over Remi’s.

Dylan slammed on the brakes. The bullet in his side jerked deeper into muscle with the added momentum and pried a muted scream from his chest. No sign of another vehicle. No sign of a body. Darkness closed in around the edges of his vision as he put the SUV into Park. He called in his position to the Gresham PD officers he’d lost in the chase. His weapon sat heavy in his holster. Shouldering out of the vehicle, he stepped out into nothing but fine dirt and shadows. Headlights illuminated a narrow path straight ahead of him but failed to alleviate the dread pooling at the base of his spine as he searched the tree line.

The killer had crossed state lines. He could’ve gone anywhere with Remi by now, but something inside—some part of him that’d been connected to her these past few years—said Dylan was on the right path. Dirt kicked up in front of his headlights as he rounded the front of the SUV. The GPS on her phone placed her right here, but suddenly, the red dot indicating her phone’s signal was moving. She was here. Hand resting on the butt of his weapon, Dylan approached the trees. He hadn’t come all this way to lose her. They hadn’t survived this game only to be separated again. That wasn’t how this would end.

Movement shifted in the trees to his left, and every sense he owned honed on the break in the leaves. “Deputy US Marshal Dylan Cove. I need you to come out, slowly, with your hands where I can see them. Now.”

A soft whimper reached his ears then another shift of the branches ahead. “I’m sorry!” a frightened voice said. A woman appeared from the surrounding shadows and stepped into the peripheral of his headlights. Dirty red hair dulled in the light, her clothing stained and torn in places. “I wasn’t trying to steal it. It was lying there on the road, and I didn’t think anyone would miss it. You can have it. I won’t tell anyone. I promise. Please.” Wide eyes lowered to Dylan’s weapon as the woman stretched her hand forward and offered him a phone. Remi’s phone. “Please, don’t hurt my son.”

Dylan loosened his grip on his firearm as a pair of small hands appeared from behind the woman’s leg. He holstered his sidearm and presented both of his palms straight out toward the woman and her kid. “It’s okay. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m a US marshal. I’m not here to hurt you. That phone you have? It belongs to another marshal who was abducted about thirty minutes ago. I tracked it here. Can you tell me where you found it?”

“Over there at the edge of the road.” The woman used her chin to indicate where she’d picked it up. She slid her hand down her son’s back to press him closer. One wrong move on his part and she and her son would disappear, and Dylan didn’t have the time to chase after her. The clock was already counting down for Remi. “He threw it out the window before he sped off.”

“Did you see if he was