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

families closure. Not out of a sick sense of revenge for him hurting someone you loved. Who was it then? Whose name do you use to convince yourself you’re doing the right thing by executing the team who devoted their lives to bringing him justice?”

A fist slammed down directly in front of her face. Her abductor’s hand trembled with the tension running through it as blood spread across his knuckles. Thin raised lines crisscrossed the back of his hand, scars, but he pulled back as quickly as he’d struck. “Was taking the private investigator you hired to find Tony Rasmussen, Brett Smith and Tad Marrow to your bed part of that devotion, Sheriff? Is that what you call it? From what I can tell, you were far more invested in your own selfish pleasure than bringing Del Howe’s victims home.”

A short laugh burst past her lips.

“You think you know me, but I did my job. I did everything I could to find those victims and stop him, and I lost everything because of it. We all did. You’re not going to convince me I could’ve done more. None of the people you’ve murdered these past two years could’ve done more.” Remi pulled her head off the ground and faced off with her assailant. A man who’d killed innocent people for his own perverted cause.

“You might not call this little crusade of yours revenge, but you’ve blinded yourself to the truth. No one could’ve saved those victims. Not even you.” The rope around her right wrist slackened, and she set her head back against the ground to get a better angle from her shoulder. “You’re no savior. You’re nothing but a cold-blooded killer, just like Del Howe.”

One second. Two.

“I think I would’ve liked you in a different life, Sheriff. We’re alike, you and me. More than you’d imagine. Only, I’m the one who’s facing the truth now.” The light ascended closer to the ceiling of the cave as her abductor stood then disappeared altogether.

Darkness settled over her in a unforgiving, relentless cloak of uncertainty. No sign of him, except the faint echo of his breathing. “You were right about one thing, though. I am a killer, and tonight, you’re going to know exactly what it’s like to be a victim.”

Remi heard his quick approach and rolled as fast as she could toward the wall illuminated by his headlamp earlier. Loose rock and wide breaks in the ground cut into her arms as she wrenched away from his attack. She couldn’t see, could barely hear over the pounding of her heart, but her survival instincts would get her through the next minute, the next hour. She had to believe she’d make it out alive. Her shoulder hit the wall and she pressed her back into it to make herself as small of a target as possible. She tugged at her ankles, but the rope wouldn’t give. She’d have to free her hands if she had any chance of getting the hell out of here.

“This is my favorite part. The hunt. The fear, the rash decisions you’ll make in order to give yourself the slightest chance of survival. I made a lot of your colleagues’ deaths look like accidents, but we both know how this is going to end, Sheriff.” Her attacker’s headlamp came to life, and she ducked her head to avoid the assault on her senses. “You can’t hide from me. Even if you manage to run, you’ll be lost in these tubes for days. No food. No water. No calling for help. No chance of saving your deputy.”

Dylan.

“You shot Deputy Cove in the process of abducting me. If you’ve done as much homework on him as you have on me, how long do you think you’ll last before he catches up to you?” Because if there was one thing she could count on, it was Dylan’s need to make things right. For the victims of the New Castle Killer case. For the teammates he’d let down. For her.

She pressed the backs of her hands into the wall of rock behind her and gasped at the sharp slice of pain near her wrist. Blood trickled across the sensitive skin. Would the shard be sharp enough to cut through the rope? Even then, how fast could she counter an attack with her feet still bound?

Remi maneuvered the small section of rope between her wrists against the rock and jerked her hands down, but the rock fell away. Despair slithered through her as her abductor approached, and she pressed her heels into the ground to sit straight against the wall.

“I think the more relevant question, Chief Barton—” he reached out, fisted a handful of her hair and forced her to stare straight up into the light from his headlamp “—is how long do you think you’ll last down here with me?”

“WHAT DO YOU mean I’m too late?” Dylan didn’t dare approach the woman or her son. They were the only leads he had to finding Remi. He couldn’t risk spooking them and them taking off with the information he needed to get to his chief. “What did you see?”

“Your friend, the marshal you’re looking for, she tried to escape, and he stabbed her.” Tremors racked the woman’s hands and up her arms. “She wasn’t moving when he forced her back into the SUV.” She shook her head and hugged her son closer. “I’m sorry. I can’t help you. He can’t know I was here.”

“She...” Remi had been stabbed. No. He shook his head in an attempt to come up with another explanation, something that didn’t involve a murderer once again taking the only person he cared about. No, no, no, no. That wasn’t part of the plan. The killer wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble of abducting her from the Gresham PD parking lot if he’d planned to finish what he’d started in Delaware so quickly. He was supposed to take his time with her. He was supposed to give Dylan