He doesn’t know about the note.
“Fiona?” he prompted when she said nothing.
“I got her,” Fiona whispered. “I proved myself, didn’t I?”
“Oh, yes, you got her. But you haven’t proven yourself yet. Come here, Fiona.”
She shuffled toward him, the brightness growing around her as she neared the light.
Cadence didn’t move.
“You said she’d take my place,” Fiona mumbled, rubbing her arms. “Can I go? I want to go.”
“Not yet. You have to do one more thing first.”
He’ll never let you go! Cadence wanted to scream those words, but she bit them back. She understood how to play this game.
Then she saw the knife in the light. The knife he held in his gloved hand. “First, you have to drive this into the agent’s heart.”
Fiona froze. “She can’t take my place then.”
“You’ll prove yourself to me. Prove you will always obey me. That you love me.” No emotion or accent filled those dark words.
Cadence’s body tensed as she prepared to lunge at him.
That sonofabitch. This was how he exerted his ultimate control. He turned his victims into killers.
“Take the knife,” he told Fiona. “Shove it into her heart.”
Fiona shook her head. “I can’t.” Tears clogged her voice.
He lowered the knife. His other gloved hand came up. Curled around Fiona. Brought her closer to him.
Cadence couldn’t see his hands clearly. Couldn’t see Fiona clearly as the light focused—on me.
“When you first saw me, you were thinking about charging me, Agent Hollow. Fighting me. Killing me,” he said as the light shone onto her. “Know that if I die, no one will ever find the others.”
The others—alive or dead? She didn’t let the question slip free.
The longer you stay quiet…
“I said she’d take your place.” His voice had changed, softened. He was talking to Fiona once more. “I meant that.”
“Thank you!” Hope filled Fiona’s words. A hope that was painful to hear. “I want—”
When a knife sinks into flesh, it makes a wet sound that is both unmistakable and horrifying.
Cadence heard that sound in that instant. Then she heard the gurgle. The desperate gasp that came from Fiona.
“No!” The word was ripped from Cadence.
She sprang forward, her cuffed hands up.
She caught Fiona. The woman’s body came at her, and they fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs.
Fiona was shaking so hard. Cadence tried to ease her to the side. Tried to search for a wound.
The light hit the handle of the knife. The knife embedded in Fiona’s chest.
“Now you take her place.”
His footsteps scraped away.
She understood. Too late. If they won’t kill for him, then they die for him.
Fiona’s hand locked around Cadence’s wrist. “Help.”
There wasn’t anything she could do. Not with her hands cuffed. In the darkness.
Just then, she heard a creak.
It was the sound she’d heard before, when she was first pushed toward the flickering candle.
A door. Only it wasn’t closing this time.
“I’ll be back.” His voice drifted to her.
“Home,” Fiona begged. “T-take me.”
“I will,” Cadence promised. “I will.” Without his light, she couldn’t see the wound anymore. Could only curl her fingers around the knife’s handle. If she took out the knife, she could do more damage to Fiona. The blood would pump from the woman even faster. She had to leave it in place. “Help’s coming.” Kyle would be there. “We’ll get you to a hospital. We’ll get you home!” She didn’t want the words to be a lie. You weren’t supposed to make a promise to a victim, not one you couldn’t keep. You weren’t supposed to. “We’ll get you home,” Cadence said again.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just live, okay? Live. Fight and stay alive, and we’ll get out of here.”
“No.” His voice drifted to her, but sounded more distorted. Because he’d shut a door and sealed them inside? “You won’t.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
He saw the abandoned car. The trunk was still up.
You put her in there, didn’t you, you bastard?
Kyle shined his flashlight on the trunk, then he searched the ground. The storm was in full force, blowing so hard that Dani staggered beside him.
“They’re in the area,” he said. The car was still there. If the guy had rushed away, he would have needed the vehicle. The question now was…
Where exactly?
His light swept the scene. Twisting pines wrapped around the woods. If Cadence had gone through those trees, maybe she’d been led toward another cabin. A place like the one they’d found in Maverick.
He ran forward, his boots sticking in the mud. The mud. His light was shining on the ground then because he’d just seen the telltale sign of tracks in the mud. Tracks that didn’t head toward the pines, but instead toward a thick patch of bushes, a patch that had to be at least five feet tall.
Some of the bushes were broken. Bent. From the storm? Or from someone passing through them?
He grabbed for them even as he heard the sound of car doors slamming behind him. Their backup.
“Here!” he yelled. His hand had just shoved through those bushes and touched nothing. Absolutely f**king nothing.
Dani helped him to yank those bushes aside. The yawning entrance of a cavern stretched before him.
Dani’s hand reached out and locked around his arm. “Our girl’s in there.”
“Get lights!” he barked to the others. “As many as you can find! And rope!” They’d have rope in the back of their police cruisers. If this tunnel snaked out like the others had, they’d need to be able to find their way back outside.
“What if he’s set this place to explode, too?” Dani asked, having to shout to be heard over the storm.
The perp probably had set his traps. But the threat of an explosion wasn’t keeping Kyle back. “Watch your step!” he yelled to the others. “Every move you make, check! Look for trip wires. Look for any sign of a trap. We know how this SOB works.”
Kyle grabbed a flashlight. Checked his weapon. Then, because he couldn’t hold back any longer, he headed into the darkness.
With every step he took, he prayed Cadence was still alive. Trading her life for his sister’s—