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

wearing gloves?” If he could pull a print from the phone, Reed would be able to narrow down the perp’s identity. Dylan took a step forward, keeping his hands raised as he approached the duo. “Did he say anything, or did you happen to see the marshal he’d kidnapped? Do you know where I can find her?”

Fear contorted her features and the woman hugged her kid tighter. Staring down at the ground, she seemed to disappear into a memory right in front of him before lifting that hesitant gaze to his. The woman shook her head. “You’re too late. She’s already dead.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Her head pounded in rhythm to the chaotic rush of blood behind her ears.

Dust caked the inside of her mouth as she struggled to open her eyes. Smooth rocks pressed against her abdomen and chest as she rolled her head to rest her opposite cheek against the hot ground. Sharp pain rocketed through her skull, a dried, crusted layer of something wet and sticky clinging to one side of her face. Blood. Pitch black surrounded her, the ground uneven and sloping. Thick humidity clung to the skin of her face and neck. She heard her own rapid heartbeat—fast and flighty—along with the whisper of her breath. Heard everything except what she wanted to hear the most: Dylan. He’d been shot trying to stop her abductor from taking her. Where was he now? Had he been found? Was he alive?

An agonizing ache set up residence in her shoulder sockets as she tried to bring her hands forward, but her kidnapper had bound her wrists behind her back and her ankles together. Coarse, fraying edges brushed against her fingers. Rope. Whoever’d hunted down and targeted her former officers and investigators had caught up with her, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Not with Dylan’s life in the balance.

“These lava tubes extend for miles underneath the earth, all throughout Oregon and Washington. You’d be amazed how easy it is to get lost if you don’t know what you’re doing.” The faint voice rolled along the corridor, bombarding her from every direction to the point Remi wasn’t sure where her abductor stood.

An onslaught of blinding light filled the chamber and forced her to look away from the figure standing directly over her. She hadn’t heard him approach. Hadn’t even heard him breathe. “I’ve spent months mapping as many of them as I could, but there doesn’t seem to be an end.” He paused. “Well, not for you, Sheriff.”

Caves. Lava tubes. He’d brought her underground. She tried to swallow past the dirt caked around the inside of her mouth as her vision adjusted to the new source of light. The headlamp blacked out his features, leaving only a silhouette of the man above her. She didn’t recognize his voice, his outline. Nothing at all that would give her an ID. But the fact he’d attacked her outside the Gresham police station while Nguyen was still in custody said the sergeant had been telling the truth all along.

Remi squinted up toward the light, her shadow casting a dark pool around her. Then the pain surfaced. The dirt had been stained with blood. He’d pulled off the freeway, taken the exit and maneuvered to the side of the road. It’d been an opportunity to run, but when she’d climbed over the back seat into the cargo area, he’d been there. Waiting. The flash of metal was all she’d seen before the blade had embedded into her side. Now she was on the verge of going into shock, bleeding out, somewhere no one would be able to find her. Remi spit the dust from her mouth. “It’s chief deputy marshal now, but you already knew that, didn’t you? You’ve been looking for me, trying to find the perfect opportunity to get to me. A year, right? That’s how long it’s been since the last murder.”

“Would’ve been sooner if you weren’t so much of a workaholic. I couldn’t exactly kill you in your office with the rest of your team in the building, and when you weren’t falling asleep on your keyboard, you seemed to take added security precautions. Always armed, sleeping less and less these days, pushing yourself harder with each assignment, and then there was the added problem of Deputy Cove following you like a good little guard dog.” Her abductor’s knees popped as he crouched beside her, his voice even and unemotional. “It’s almost as though you knew this day would come, that you knew you couldn’t hide from your mistakes forever.”

A rock settled in her stomach as she realized how thorough the man balancing her life in his hands had been. Both he and Del Howe had been following her all this time? Remi settled her left temple against the ground. What were the chances? “The surveillance photos. You were using Del Howe to watch me. You knew who he was, what he’d done, and you used it for your own agenda. When he served his purpose, you killed him in the same manner he’d killed his victims.”

“What’s a little blackmail between killers?” A laugh penetrated the buzzing in her ears. “Besides, you know what they say about payback. But look on the bright side, at least now the families will know who killed their sons, brothers and nephews. Thanks to me, the victims of the New Castle Killer finally get the closure they deserve.”

Remi closed her eyes against the piercing pain at the back of her head and tried to focus on the rope binding her wrists. If she could loosen it enough, she’d be able to escape. She could run. Pressing her left side into the ground, she realized her abductor hadn’t only taken her weapon, he’d removed her holster completely. She opened one eye to face the blinding light spilling over her as she pried one thumb underneath the binding around her opposite wrist. “Right. Because I’m sure that’s why you’ve killed twenty-six people—to give the victims’