Raintree: Haunted (Raintree 2)

“I wondered how you found out about the bomb so fast.”

They both spun to face the woman who stood by the kitchen door. She held a semiautomatic pistol in one hand, and with the other she removed a dark wig and shook out the long blond strands of her hair. Tabby was armed differently today, and she didn’t look at all inclined to run.

Gideon had one hand on the doorknob to the stairwell, the other gripping Hope’s arm. He smoothly placed his body in front of hers.

“Gideon Raintree,” Tabby said with a crooked smile. “This isn’t exactly what I’d planned, but I can’t say I’m disappointed. When I saw the bomb squad arrive I was disappointed, because I’d hoped to have a little time with your girlfriend before you showed up. Still, I suppose this will do.”

Gideon dropped Hope’s arm and pushed her aside as he smoothly drew his weapon. Her own weapon was in the other room, resting on the bedside table. She’d never thought she might need it here, and in an instant she understood the violation Sherry Bishop and Marcia Cordell and all the other victims had felt when Tabby had entered their homes.

Tabby’s aim never wavered. Her smile barely faded as she glanced at Gideon’s weapon. “Shoot me and you’ll never find out where the second bomb is, or when it’s scheduled to go boom.”

FIFTEEN

“What do you want?” Gideon tried to ease Hope toward the door, doing his best to place himself between the two women.

“First thing, I want you and your girlfriend away from that door.”

“She’s my partner, not my girlfriend,” Gideon said, knowing a close connection to him was a very bad idea at this particular moment.

“Liar,” Tabby said. “I can feel the connection rolling off both of you like the tide outside your window.”

Apparently the blonde had seen him and Hope together. She knew where he lived, too, which was more than a little disturbing. “You don’t need her,” Gideon said as he took a step toward Tabby.

“You don’t know what I need, Raintree,” Tabby snapped. “If your girl tries to leave before I say she can go, not only will I shoot her, I’ll make sure you don’t know where the second bomb is until it’s too late.”

He took another step toward the woman with the gun. “I’ll ask you one more time. What do you want?”

“I want both of you dead by the end of the day, and I want Echo. Where the hell is she?”

“You want Echo?” Gideon said calmly. “Is that all? Give me the location of the second bomb and we’ll talk.”

Tabby held the gun as if she were comfortable with it, as if she’d been in this very position many times before. “You’d give up your cousin so easily?”

He needed her to believe that he would trade his cousin’s life in order to save many others, so he remained calm as he answered, “Yes. For the bomb and Hope, you can have her.”

“You’re cold,” Tabby said. “Sensible and predictably noble, but cold. Stop right there, and very carefully put that gun on the floor.”

Lily Clark took shape beside Tabby and swiped vainly at the woman who had killed her. “There’s not another bomb. Don’t listen to her, Gideon! She’s trying to trick you. She tricked me, and she tricked other people, too. I know that now. Don’t let her trick you.”

Did Lily know something he didn’t, or was it a guess? Maybe there wasn’t another bomb, but he couldn’t be sure.

“None of this will make any difference if we don’t hurry up,” Gideon said as he dipped down to place his pistol on the floor. “How long before the bomb downstairs goes off?” He wanted to know how much time he had to get Hope out of here, if the bomb squad didn’t get the device neutralized. They were in the building working on the bomb at this very moment; he heard male voices and the hum of motorized equipment downstairs.

“We have a few minutes,” Tabby said, flipping her hair in a caricature of girlishness. “Long enough for us to finish our business. Much as I would love to spend a little time with you and your girl, I need to hurry. I have a party to go to tonight, and I want to make myself extra special pretty.”

Gideon knew there was a rarely used back stairway that was kept locked, except when Rainbow took the trash to the Dumpster in the alleyway. Obviously Tabby had entered the building that way. She could have shot them both in the back when she’d come out of the kitchen. They wouldn’t have known she was there until it was too late. Why hadn’t she? Why was she so intent on dragging out the confrontation?

And where the hell was the team he’d hired to keep an eye on this place? Dammit, someone should know Tabby was here. They should have been watching all the entrances to the building, locked or not.

The fact remained: if Tabby simply wanted him dead, he would already be dead.

“Let’s finish our business, then.” He could take Tabby down with one motion; he just needed her to move the weapon aside so Hope wouldn’t take a bullet if the automatic weapon the blonde was holding went off when she went down.

The psycho reached into the roomy pocket of her dress and drew out the knife she’d used to kill Sherry Bishop and Lily Clark and so many others. So that was the way of it. She wanted him dead, but not quickly and not from a distance. He could use that to get himself closer, to make sure Hope wasn’t harmed in any way.

“Tell me why,” Gideon said as he took a step forward. Since he was unarmed and she had two weapons, Tabby didn’t feel threatened, and she didn’t tell him to step back or stop moving forward.

“Who cares why?” Lily Clark said frantically, jumping up and down. “Just kill her! Don’t let her get away with this.”