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

ran down beneath the collar of Dylan’s shirt as he climbed to his feet. The beam from the flashlight barely illuminated the room let alone highlighted his attacker, but Dylan had been in enough situations to learn to trust his senses.

“Ah, but the sheriff is more than a colleague, isn’t she, Cove? She’s the reason you stopped being a private investigator and came to Oregon.” Remi’s abductor swung a hard left, but Dylan was faster.

Blocking the strike, Dylan gauged the suspect to be around six-four, at least two hundred and twenty pounds. A high-pitched ringing filled his ears as he relied on everything but his vision. He kicked out, connecting with the suspect’s knee and forced his attacker to the ground. Dylan stood over him, battle-ready tension hardening the muscles down his spine. “Where is she? What did you do with her?”

A low, unsteady laugh bounced off the walls around them and solidified in the pit of his stomach. “You know, I’d tell you, but that would be cheating.”

A hard fist rocketed into Dylan’s temple and knocked him off balance. He slammed his forearm into the next hit, took a punch above the bullet hole in his gut and struck out. His knuckles met flesh and bone and knocked his attacker off balance. Momentum, exhaustion and blood loss took the strength out of his legs, and he hit the ground. Cold steel pressed into his shin under his weight. Dylan wrapped his hand around the gun and got to his feet. He brought his weapon up and took aim.

Only, the assailant had disappeared.

“Where are you?” His breathing ricocheted off the formation of stalagmites climbing from the floor toward the ceiling. Dylan crouched to collect the flashlight from the ground, every cell in his body on high alert for movement. Another tunnel took shape a few feet away.

“Do you think she knows, Cove?” a voice whispered from the shadows. “Has the good sheriff figured out the real reason you applied for the marshals?”

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Not possible. The killer’s words gutted him deeper than the bullet still lodged in his side. Remi had spent her entire life guarding—protecting—herself from the people around her seeing the vulnerability she denied existed, but Dylan knew better. He recognized the effort she put into carrying her division with her strength, of being the woman the team could rely on. Knowing the real reason why Dylan had come to Oregon and not the reason he’d given her when he’d walked into her office six months ago would only break the trust she’d built with her deputies. With him.

Dylan followed the voice one step at a time. Blood seeped from his wound and down his pant leg, his footsteps uneven. “Run all you want. Del Howe couldn’t hide from me, and neither can you.”

“I’m not the one running out of time, Cove.” Dirt cascaded from a nearby wall, and Dylan slowed. “You’re bleeding out. Soon, your body is going to go into shock just as the sheriff’s did after I stabbed her. So are you going to come after me with the last few minutes you both have left, or are you going to save the woman you’re lying to?”

Remi. His ears rang. Dylan pulled up short. He couldn’t leave her here to die. No matter how much he wanted to make up for the past, she needed him to get her the hell out of here. “I’ll be seeing you later, you son of a bitch.”

Taking the main tunnel around to the right, he pressed a hand over the bullet wound in his side and jogged as fast as he could. The toes of his boots dragged with every step, but blood loss, exhaustion and disorientation weren’t going to stop him from finding her. “Remi!”

His voice reverberated off the sides of the cave.

No answer.

She was alive. Because no matter the reasons he’d had coming to Oregon, applying for the marshals service, he couldn’t let her go. Not when they’d been together in Delaware, and not now. She wasn’t just a means to an end or a way to relieve stress from an impossible case. She was everything. His rock, his anchor, his purpose. Without her, he’d have lost himself in a haze of rage and guilt a long time ago, and he couldn’t become that person again. “Remi!”

Movement registered ahead, and Dylan slowed two steps before a wild swing of sharpened rock nearly sliced across his throat. He stumbled back, a throaty and desperate scream filling the cavern as she lunged at him. Dylan shot one hand out, catching her wrist midstrike, but he wasn’t fast enough to catch her other hand.

Pain arched through his face as her fist connected with his jaw, and he dropped the flashlight. Landing on his back, he kept her at arm’s length as she raised the rock over her head to strike a second time, pure survival contorting her features.

“Remi, it’s me!” He ducked one foot under her shin and rolled her with every last ounce of strength he had, pinning her beneath him, her wrists to the floor. She bucked her hips to get free, and Dylan released his grip. “It’s Cove.”

“Cove?” Her voice softened. The diluted beam from the fallen flashlight highlighted the overwhelming tension between her shoulders and neck. Sobs visibly racked through her as her head fell back against the ground. “I’m sorry. I thought you were him. I thought—”

“I know. It’s okay. You don’t have a damn thing you need to be sorry for.” He pulled her into him, holding on to her through sheer force of will as numbness swept through him, and set his mouth to the crown of her head. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

CHAPTER NINE

White light and muffled voices overwhelmed her senses. Survival automatically urged her to open her eyes, but a safe sensation of numbness and warmth spread through her and dragged her deeper. Only this time, she didn’t want