“Don’t turn around,” Megan Law said, staring at their guide as he told the story of a park ranger who had seen strange things. “I mean it—don’t turn around.”
Mark didn’t turn. Neither did Ragnar.
“What?”
“Something is happening. Someone has another girl. Whoever it is, he knew Colleen, and he ‘talked’ to her. Don’t be obvious; we’re talking just seconds. She went up toward town, but she took the higher road there, where there are bushes, homes.”
“She left again without her team!”
Another Embracer acolyte was moving more quickly than they had thought.
More closely than they had imagined.
“No. She left knowing I was here, and that I would tell you what’s going on,” Megan said. “And if this guy has taken someone as I was taken, she did what she had to do. Don’t turn. Laugh, talk to the guide, then get to the stone steps there and circle around and find her!”
“Right,” Mark said, still feeling the ice around his heart invading his soul. “But you stay with this tour, with people. Do not leave.”
“Right. I swear,” Megan vowed.
Mark and Ragnar started to make their way to the edge of the crowd, pretending to laugh at the tour guide’s jokes.
It was only then he realized that Red wasn’t with him either.
Red had become as loyal to Colleen as he was to Mark.
He prayed the dog was following his training by instinct, and he’d save both Colleen and this killer’s victim...
And himself.
At the far end of their tour group, he looked back at Megan, who nodded.
They couldn’t be seen from the road Colleen had taken.
They headed for the stone steps and the upper levels of the town, desperate to move quickly, circle back around, and cut off the killer before he could whisk another young woman and Colleen off into the darkness.
“Seriously? You walked through town like that?” Colleen said.
Gary Boynton was wearing a ski mask, black cap, and hoodie. He looked as if he was about to climb Everest.
All she could see against all the black covering his face were his eyes.
But she knew who it was.
“I didn’t walk through town. I caught this little cutie when she was just going down to join your group. We’ve been hugging the shadows, right, cutie?” he asked the girl he held close to his body with his left hand.
In his right, he held the knife that had glinted so briefly in the moonlight. The blade was touching her skin beneath the jaw.
With a thrust, he could push it through soft tissue, her mouth and on upward.
“I’m here. Let her go,” Colleen said.
“First, I need your gun,” he told her.
“I was on a tour. I’m on vacation!”
“Oh, right! Yes, the brilliant, gifted agent who dug Dierdre out of the woods. But that hearing thing of yours must be real. You heard me!” He pressed the knife closer to the terrified young woman’s throat drawing a trickle of blood. She let out a little sob, caught quickly. “Your gun. Or she dies.”
The woman he held was young, maybe in her early twenties, if that. She had shoulder-length, honey-colored hair and enormous dark eyes that were filled with terrified tears.
Boynton had probably warned her to silence, and only the pain and fear had allowed her to make the little squeaking sound.
“I have to admit, you guys are way sicker than I’d imagined. Because it was Ayers who put his own daughter in the box, right?” Colleen said. “And I’m starting to think that while you may not be as...talented at torture and murder as your mentors, you are a bigger idiot. Two people have been captured. Cops and agents are everywhere.”
“No, I am not an idiot. I am the best—I’m young and able and I’m the best and I will prove it. Yes, Ayers put Dierdre in the box, but he hasn’t half the talent I have. We should have gone on and on except...you! You just had to find her!” Boynton said.
“But it was all a business deal. For a business deal, didn’t you need to marry her?”
“No. My relationship with Dierdre...just a performance. I am an amazing performer. Rory and me, well, we just hit it right off when we met. And the relationship with Dierdre seemed like a good reason for me to be around so much. I mean, naturally, her husband-to-be and father could join in a partnership. Rory really hates Dierdre. His wife too, but it was the kid he hated most. But that’s the thing. We all need to be careful. Play the game. I really am the boy next door! Rich, charming...never mind. You screwed it all up. This will be my crowning achievement. Where they failed, I will prevail. And they’ll get to know. Okay. I’ll take that Glock.”
She lifted her arms.
She really wasn’t carrying the Glock. She was, however, armed. She had a tiny 9 millimeter Ruger at her back, but it was so small, it was in its holster beneath her jeans and the tunic she was wearing—a truly concealed weapon.
And this time...
It was Gary. Just Gary.
“What in the good Lord’s name?” she heard.
Looking past Gary, she knew the man hadn’t heard the words. They were being spoken by a dead man.
Rickie.