Cross My Heart (Detectives Kane and Alton)

He said nothing.

Dragging her into a stinking cave, he pushed her over onto her face with one large boot. Trembling with fear, she froze in the pitch-black darkness until he turned on a lantern. He remained silent and just sat at the entrance staring at her as if deciding her fate. In agony, she looked down at the bolt piercing her leg and dry retched as her abductor rested his back against the entrance, opened a backpack, and feasted on hot coffee and sandwiches as if they’d been on a picnic. Horrified, she lay in shock, too frightened to close her eyes, until the early morning rays of sunlight pierced the gloom.

The cave had metal boxes stacked in one corner, and a crude attempt had been made to sweep the animal scat and small bones into a corner. Cool mountain air rustled the bushes covering the entrance, raising chill bumps on her exposed flesh. June stretched a little, testing her muscles. An explosion of agony shot through her calf. She bit down hard on her cheek, refusing to give her captor the satisfaction of seeing her in pain, and peered at the man rolled up in a sleeping bag blocking the entrance. The cave reeked of his sweat as if he hadn’t washed for a week. She had no chance of escape, now he’d shot her. The searing torment would make it impossible to walk, let alone run.

Panic gripped her and, dizzy from lack of food and water, she stared at her injury. Exhaustion soaked through her, but if she had any chance at all she’d have to remove the bolt wedged through her flesh like a giant silver splinter. With trembling fingers, she pulled gently on the feathered end of the bolt and then gritted her teeth and slid it back through the muscle. Her cry had caught the stranger’s immediate attention, and he watched her with an amused expression as if she’d become an exhibit in a zoo. A rush of nausea and light headedness made her sway but she refused to allow him to win. Sucking in breaths between clenched teeth, she searched her jacket pockets and found her cotton scarf. After tying it around the wound, she leaned back against the wall. Sweat ran down her face and stung her eyes, but she forced herself to meet his hard, cold gaze. “What do you want with me? Why are you keeping me here?”

“Get some rest.” He closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall of the cave. “It’s just more fun trying to catch you when you’re fresh. It gets boring real fast if you’re too exhausted to run.” He wet his lips. “You’ll get a chance to escape again soon enough.”

June nodded. She understood what he wanted. He craved the chase of the hunt. “Then shooting me and not giving me anything to eat or drink is cheating. How can I run? I can hardly stand up right now. Or is it you can’t handle the challenge?”

“You have a smart mouth, you know that?” He reached for a backpack, removed a bottle of Gatorade, and tossed it to her. “There you go.”

June grabbed at the bottle and sipped the drink, then stowed half of it in the pocket of her jacket. If she managed to escape him, she’d need it later. She planned the way through the forest in her mind. During her last escape she’d run blindly, but as he dragged her to the cave, she’d become wiser and scanned the area for an escape route. If she could reach the trail, she’d have a chance of someone hearing her call for help.

As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t close her eyes and rest. The image of Payton with the arrow protruding from his head was burned into her retinas, and her leg throbbed along with the rapid beating of her heart. Trying to control her breathing, she eyed the man from beneath her lashes. He was toying with her and trying to prove he could catch her no matter how many times she escaped. He was as cunning as a fox. There was no reasoning with him. She might as well be talking to a robot with scripted replies. It was as if she’d become a player in a video game running on a loop inside a crazy man’s head.

June stared at him, waiting for him to pounce. When he went through his backpack and tossed her an energy bar, she frowned, unable to understand his logic. Had she finally gotten through to him? “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.” He pointed at her. “I don’t hunt down wounded prey. It’s no challenge to me. I’ll make a deal with you. Play the game and if you make it to the river, I’ll let you go. If not, you’ll be spending a long time in this cave.” His dark eyes, like bottomless pits, moved over her. “I’ll even give you a minute start to make it interesting. Rest up, Little Piggy—the Big Bad Wolf is locked and loaded.”

Two

The early hours of Monday morning

Black Rock Falls, Montana

Sheriff Jenna Alton ignored the sinister howling of the wind, shoved her feet into her boots, and wrapping her coat around her, headed for the front door. She stared at Duke, the bloodhound owned by her deputy, an off-the-grid special forces sniper, Dave Kane, and sighed. “Two in the morning? Since when have you needed to go potty at this time of night?” She paused to disable the alarm. “Come on then.”

Freezing air rushed to meet her. It was late October, and with Halloween just around the corner, the first snow wouldn’t be too far away. Floodlights spilled across the driveway of her isolated ranch to the dark cottage where Kane lived. A strange loneliness crept over her whenever he went away. She’d gotten used to him being around. He’d been seriously injured recently and unable to cope alone, had spent time recovering in her spare room. Kane was an old-fashioned kind of guy and once he was back on his feet had returned to his cottage. Now the house was so dreadfully quiet she could hear herself breathing.

As they had no cases to solve, Kane had taken the opportunity of attending a criminal profiling seminar out of Helena, with Special Agent Jo Wells, a behavioral analyst, and her partner, Special Agent Ty Carter. The seminar had speakers from all over the world, and she’d encouraged Kane to go. His skill in the field was substantial, but he craved more information and she would manage for one weekend. In fact, she’d spent the entire day hanging new drapes over the picture window in the family room. Apparently, changing the drapes to a more modern look had proved to be a little more challenging than she’d expected. Previously she’d unhooked one pair and replaced them, but the new ones required a rod of huge proportions. Determined to complete this not so simple job herself, she’d found a way around the obstacles that had plagued her and, after many trips back and forth to town to collect the tools she needed, had the new rod attached to the wall and the drapes in po

sition.

Leaning against the porch railing, she waited for Duke to run around. She inhaled the fresh night air. Cold and invigorating, it carried the scent of pine trees and a hint of snow from the mountains. Lightning zigzagged across the horizon, followed by a low roll of thunder, and Duke let out a yowl and scampered back inside the house. A brave dog most times, he had his Achilles heels: storms, the vet, and baths. She watched him head into her bedroom and crawl under the bed and then turned to stare at the sky. The weather had been strange of late: high winds and dry thunderstorms that yielded no rain. After a dry summer and with no rainfall so far in fall, the frequent lightning strikes had become a threat to Stanton Forest. A fire could burn out of control in no time and although the forest wardens had maintained the firebreaks, everyone was holding their breath and waiting for the first snow. Shivering as a blast of ice-cold wind flapped open her coat, Jenna turned inside, reset the alarm, and fell into bed. At least she’d have a few hours’ sleep before rising at five-thirty to tend the horses before heading into work. Deputy Rowley and Deputy Rio were quite capable of running things in her absence, but she liked to keep busy and her new office still needed arranging.

Sleep came easy until her black cat, Pumpkin, let out a snarl and jolted her awake. She rolled over to stare at the cat. Outlined in the window, she was doing a great impersonation of a Halloween decoration. Back arched, fur fluffed out, and her ears flattened to her head. With every yowl, her tail swished back and forth. The next second, a low growl came from beneath her bed. “Oh, for goodness’ sake, what’s wrong with the pair of you now? It’s just a storm. Lie down, Duke, and go to sleep.”

She covered her head with the blankets and ignored her pets. This time of the year, when people’s minds turned to Halloween and all the spooky legends around it, everyone including animals were on edge as if waiting for something to happen. Her cat had arrived last Halloween splashed in blood, and the entire week had been consumed with death and destruction. This year the weather had gone bananas and was lighting up the sky with dry storms. She dozed on the edge of sleep, that lovely place where the body relaxes into the warm hug of tranquility, when a noise came from the direction of the porch. Duke shot out from under the bed. Pumpkin spat and hissed, walking sideways along the windowsill, her head turned and eyes slits in the moonlight.

“It’s just the wind.” Jenna patted the side of the bed. “Come here, boy. It’s probably just a branch hitting the steps is all.”

Duke’s growl was deep and menacing. Jenna pushed back the blankets and yawned. “Okay, you win. Come on then, I’ll show you everything is okay. No one can get in here, Duke, we’re safe.”

Thump.

What was that? Suddenly wide awake, Jenna sat up and shook her head. “Now I’m getting spooked.”

It’s just the wind. When Duke growled again and scratched at her door, she reached for the bedside lamp. “Okay, I’m coming.” She flicked on the switch. No pale glow flooded the room. She ground her teeth. Just her luck. The bulb needed replacing. Reluctantly climbing from her warm bed, she went to the door and hit the switch on the wall.

Nothing.

A flash of lightning followed by a roll of thunder shook the house, sending Duke running for cover. Jenna bit back a laugh. “It’s okay, the lights will be back on soon and we’ll check the house.”

As the house had a backup generator, if the storm had knocked out the power it would come right back on. She went back to her bed and sat waiting, counting for the few minutes it took to kick in. Time seemed to drag by and she reached for her cellphone. It lit up, fully charged, and she watched the clock; five minutes went by and the house remained in darkness. The last time the generator failed, someone had entered her home and tried to kill her. The cat yowled again. Its orange eyes fixated on something outside and the hairs prickled the back of Jenna’s neck, echoing Pumpkin’s warning. She’d never seen a bear on her property but it wasn’t beyond reason, or perhaps a bobcat had ventured inside her boundary. When Duke came out from under her bed, braving the storm to bare his teeth at her bedroom door, she had no doubt that someone was in her yard. Heart thundering, Jenna slid out of bed and took her Glock from the bedside drawer, checked the clip, and slid one into the chamber. She had the best security money could buy, but without power it was useless. But whoever was out there had underestimated her. She might be alone, but she’d fight back like a wildcat.

Three