01 A Cold Dark Place (23 page)

She wrapped her legs around his waist, nails bit into his flesh. “Harder.”

He drove into her, again and again, nothing but an animal
who needed to satisfy a primal urge.

“
Oh, God,” she groaned and twisted on top of him and he held on tight, trying to lock her in place as she came undone. Muscles clutched at him. He pinned her arms over her head, reveling in the pressure that was building and building and building. Heat and pleasure lashed and she was with him all the way. She cried out and he followed her over that edge like a buffalo on a stampede as his head exploded. Pleasure obliterated everything except this act, this need to take and brand and make her his.

He pried his eyes open.
Became slowly aware. Wondering what the fuck was wrong with him when a serial killer was after Mallory. He wasn’t fucking Superman and getting caught with his pants around his ankles was a pretty fucking stupid way to die.
Asshole
. His heartbeat slowed. Their breathing quieted and silence roared. He leaned his forehead against hers. “I’m pretty sure I should apologize for that.”

“
I’ll slap you if you do.”

“
You make me lose control.” His words caught and tumbled.

She touched his face and stared into his eyes.
“Control is overrated and you just made something right with my world.” She grinned, those tilted eyes of hers sparkling. “Now put me down, lover, and let’s get some food. I’m starving.”

***

“Is this giving you the creeps?” She stood in her old bedroom looking at the same duvet covers and blue painted walls they’d had when Payton was alive. Pictures she and her sister had done at school were tacked to the wall, curled at the edges. “It’s giving me the creeps.” She shuddered.

They
’d unearthed frozen pizza and ignored the wine collection and opted instead for soda. Neither wanted to be impaired by alcohol because this guy could turn up to try and kill both her and Alex. She was glad they’d had fast furious sex when they’d first arrived. It had taken the edge off her ramped up tension and no way would they be spending the night tearing up the sheets. They’d take turns keeping watch. It was the perfect opportunity to catch this guy. They were both armed. She definitely felt dangerous.

“
Your parents never changed the room?”

Mallory shook her head.
“Mama wouldn’t let anyone touch a thing. Bought me a new wardrobe and replaced every toy I said I wanted. Parental guilt and the need to honor the dead. It was a messy combination.” She propped her hands on her hips. It felt weird being back here. The room smelled musty and airless. “I moved to a bedroom two down from where they slept after that.”

“
In another wing of the house?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Any idea why you kids were camped out so far away?”

“
My mother liked her peace and quiet. I was neither peaceful nor quiet.” More guilt. She dropped to her knees and crawled under the bed.

“
Something I should know?” Alex quizzed. “A portal to Narnia, perhaps?”

She choked on dust bunnies. Nothing else remained. Not her pillow or her flashlight. Alex squatted down to peer at her curiously.

“When Frazer hypnotized me I remembered I used to sleep under the bed a lot because I was scared of monsters. I saw the kidnapper’s feet. Green converse trainers.”

“
Frazer said being back here might help trigger some memory recall?” Alex asked dubiously.

“
Yes.” She sneezed.

“
Bless you.”

She laughed. Then closed her eyes, but she was too aware of this man who
’d totally invaded her life and made her feel so safe she was willing—no,
eager—
to take on Payton’s abductor.

“
Male, female? Young or old?” asked Alex softly.

She closed her eyes and visualized that night long ago. She practiced the deep breathing techniques Frazer had shown her. Felt her heartbeat calm.
“Male youth.”

“
What about scent. Can you smell anything?”

She went to shake her head and stopped.
“Rain. It smelled like rain...”

“
It rained the night she was abducted?”

“
Yes. It did.” She frowned. A window or a door must have been left open nearby. There was something else just teasing the edges of her mind. “He said something.” The memories were indistinct, like trying to hear underwater. “I think he said not to worry. ‘We’re not going to hurt you’.”

“
We?”

“
We.” She opened her eyes and scrambled from the tiny space that had seemed so comforting as a child. Now it was dusty and claustrophobic. She brushed herself off. Alex stood back.

“
So there was more than one of them?”

“
I only saw one guy but that’s what he said.” She rubbed her eyes. “I think. Maybe. Perhaps.”

Alex was watching her closely.
“Come on. You need sleep.”

“
Shower first.”

He
smiled sadly. “As much as I’d like to join you, I’ll keep watch.” Because a monster might come for her. Might come for them both. His eyes hardened as he read her thoughts. “I won’t let him get you, Mallory.”

A shiver skipped up her spine and she couldn
’t speak. Payton’s abductor was out there, waiting for her. She could feel him. But she wanted him to come. She had no intention of letting him get away.

***

He trudged through the woods with the girl’s naked body over his shoulder. He’d planned to make Kari pay long and hard over the next few days but having Mallory stay at the big house with just that prick of a boyfriend was too tempting. The bruises on Kari’s face were testament that he’d made up for lack of time with some serious dedication to the task.

She hung limply, dark hair falling almost to
the back of his knees, her skin as white as milk and cold to the touch. He slapped her bare buttocks. The power of having a human being at his mercy was addictive. It hadn’t been like that with Payton. He’d loved her. But these bitches? They were like animals. Worthless. Meat. They meant nothing to him.

He
stumbled slightly. He was worried no one would ever mean anything to him again. That was why he had to keep looking until he found the perfect replacement.

He skirted the edge of the woods where he remembered watching Payton and her sister play all those years ago. His uncle had planned to kidnap both girls and ransom them off. The parents could afford it. He
’d lied about his intent to hurt them though. Hell, he should have known the bastard would rape Payton as soon as he’d got her at his mercy. The old man had done the same to him before he’d been old enough to stand up for himself.

It had been a stupid idea and he
’d gone along with it because back then he’d been dumber than a rock. His uncle had slapped him when he’d come out with just one girl and sent him back to find Mallory. But she hadn’t been in bed and he sure as hell wasn’t searching every room in that giant house for a second girl when they already had one.

While he
’d been pretending to go back to get Mallory, his uncle... He swallowed and sweat broke out across his shoulders at the memories. He’d gone back to the chamber horrified to see Payton lying there all bloody and broken and his uncle wiping a sly satisfied grin off his face.

He
’d let the bastard think he’d got away with it. He’d had to wait six long months before he got his revenge and the wait had almost driven him out of his mind. But finally, in the spring, he’d managed to pin the rat-bastard underneath the tractor and he could still hear the sounds of his pig-like squeals as he’d been very, very slowly crushed to death. The memory filled him with a sense of righteous satisfaction.

The cops had said it was an accident.
His first kill. And the most gratifying.

After that he
’d taken care of Payton’s every need and he hadn’t touched her until she’d been much older and they’d been in love. If he could have released her he would have, but her mind was fragile and she’d been terrified of everything except him. No way could she have lied about how much she loved him. And the world wouldn’t have understood. They’d have been separated and he’d have gone to jail.

He shifted Kari
’s weight. Hell, she was heavier than she looked. He approached the house from the eastern side. No lights were on and a thick mist hugged the ground, clinging to frosty stems of grass. He wore a bulletproof vest, gloves and a ski mask and he had a pistol strapped to his ankle. He went to the door of the mudroom and used the key he’d stolen years ago to open it. He entered the alarm code—the housekeeper was pretty liberal with security and half the town knew the code. Hell, the judge had given him a spare key for the front door but he had no intention of using that today. Dead giveaway. Standing in the darkness he listened intently to the silence. The house was vast, and the idea anyone heard the alarm beeping was unlikely. Still he waited.

H
e reached down for his gun and headed cautiously into the kitchen

When he
’d taken Payton all those years ago, he and his uncle had propped a ladder against one of the upper windows. She’d weighed nothing at all and it’d been easy to carry her out. Kari was making his shoulder throb like a bitch.

He
’d thought about where he was going to leave her. He’d toyed with the idea of dangling her from the staircase which would be quite the sight, but there was no symmetry in it. The drama was all for effect with no subtlety. He moved quietly through the rear of the house where he occasionally had coffee with the housekeeper, glad she was away so he didn’t have to kill her too.

He went up the back stairs
—the servants’ staircase—and trod softly, grateful for the thick carpet over old, thick boards. A slice of light under a door to the right pinpointed where Mallory slept. Presumably with her asshole boyfriend. One of the boards creaked beneath his feet and he moved more cautiously. He wanted them to find Kari’s body here—back where it had all started. Then he’d put a bullet in the guy and take the girl he’d wanted all along. No more substitutes.

CHAPTER SIX
TEEN

A
lex stood beside the bedroom door, listening.

“
What was that?” Mallory shot upright in bed.

He held up his hand to tell her to be quiet. He was sure he
’d heard something out there in the corridor, but it was so subtle it might just be the house creaking as the temperature dropped.

It was two AM. Mallory had been stretched out fast asleep in bed, fully dressed except for her boots. The urge to curl up next to her had been
tempting, but he hadn’t wavered from his guard position.

She slipped out of bed, toed on her boots and scooped up her Glock from the bedside table. She came to him and put a hand on his back, holding her weapon pointed at the floor.

“I heard something,” he told her quietly.

“
Let’s check it out,” she whispered urgently.

He could
practically see her excitement crackling in the air. She wanted to catch this guy. He wanted her safe. He hesitated. If it had just been him he’d have already gone hunting, but
if
this killer worked as part of a team he couldn’t risk leaving Mallory alone.

“
We stick together. We do
not
split up.”

“
Okay.” Her fingers rubbed his back in reassurance. This hyper-awareness of danger felt a lot like combat.
Okay
. He was better equipped than most to catch this fucker and end this nightmare. But the idea of putting Mallory at risk wrapped around his gullet like barbed wire.

Pistol
in hand, he opened the door, looking right and left for targets. Nothing. The corridor was dark and empty. He flicked on the light.

“
What did you do that for?” Mallory hissed.

Because if the killer
was
here he wanted the bastard to know they were onto him and run rather than attack. He shrugged.

He moved swiftly along the corridor, Mallory at his back. She kept a firm grip on his shirt, a physical reference point as he concentrated on figuring out exactly what he
’d heard earlier. Could have been a cat. A vagrant. The housekeeper returning home unexpectedly. The judge. The senator. He didn’t want an innocent caught in the crossfire.

Something drew them
toward the room Mallory and Payton had shared as children. Soundless. Cautious. Every sense ramped to high alert. The atmosphere of the house had changed, turned malevolent and hostile. Dangerous. The temperature had dropped.

“
Someone’s opened a window...” said Mallory.

Someone was here. He could
feel
them. But his pulse never wavered. Hell, the only thing that got his heart racing was sex with Mallory.

He
’d trained so well and so hard for combat, killing didn’t even affect him anymore. It took years to perfect this sort of combat physiology. He needed that coldness and focus to operate. To kill without hesitation. He didn’t want to do it anymore, but if it stopped bad guys like this, maybe it was worth sacrificing his soul.

A breeze tickled his cheek.

All these closed doors were a nightmare, but they didn’t have the manpower to search every room.

“
I should lead,” Mallory murmured into his ear, her fingers tightening on his shirt.

Yeah.
No. Way.
He used one hand to keep her behind him. They turned another corner. It was like living in a goddamn hotel. Up ahead, there was a light on inside the girls’ old bedroom.

Mallory froze behind him. He paused as he surveyed the corridor.
Glanced behind him. Nothing. Everything was silent except for the ruffle of a breeze through an open window at the end of the hallway. Was that what he’d heard earlier? Someone lifting the sash?

Once again they moved forward, Mallory a shadow against his back.

He could smell the fear and excitement rolling off her in waves, knew her pulse would be pounding. The predator was near. But where? No sound, no smell, no sign gave the bastard away.

Making sure Mal was to the side of the bedroom door
, he pushed it wide.

Christ
.

A dead woman lay on the bed.
Naked. Battered. Hands resting low over her pubic hair just like photographs of all the other PR-Killer victims. A bloody smear coated her chest where, no doubt, the letters PR had been carved in a macabre love heart. The wind ruffled the yellow drapes and it was bitterly cold.

“
There’s a drainpipe.” Mallory rushed forward to look out the window but he grabbed her arm, checked behind the door and any hiding places without touching a damn thing. He had no desire to put his DNA on this scene. He leaned forward through the open window to check the drainpipe when instinct had him whirling, bringing his gun up as an armed, masked figure in black appeared behind him in the doorway. Alex nailed him twice in the chest and the man fell backward, his shot going wild. It was the same guy who’d broken into Mallory’s house in Charlotte.

A woman
’s low pain-filled squeal made them all startle as the dead woman suddenly rolled over on the bed—
okay, not dead
.

The assailant
pointed his gun at the bed and fired. He shot again but his weapon jammed. Alex aimed at his head this time, but the bastard darted out of sight and ran like the chicken-shit he was. The woman screamed in agony. Alex checked to make sure Mallory hadn’t been hit, but the victim had been shot in the shoulder and there was blood everywhere. Mallory rushed to her aid and Alex was torn. Leave Mallory alone or end this thing by chasing down the asshole who’d done this?

He went after the killer, running flat-out down the plush corridor, only to be thrown into darkness as the fucker flipped the switch at the other end
of the hall.

His legs pumped and his lungs
burned as he ran as fast as he could.

Alex had nailed the guy squarely in the chest. He should have been dead but the guy wasn
’t even bleeding.
Kevlar
. And some grim determination because there was a good chance those shots at that distance had broken a couple of ribs. He should have gone for headshots but had hoped a dying man might reveal Payton Rooney’s final resting place. He heard the guy running through the darkness and followed. He didn’t want to leave Mallory but this was a chance to get this bastard.

Rounding the corner that led to the main staircase he saw the shadow racing ahead of him. The guy stopped and fired off a few shots. Alex didn
’t pause, he legged it, full belt, sliding down the banisters and flying after the sonofabitch who was out the door. Big, fit, fast. Running on adrenaline.

Alex burst out the front door
in time to see the attacker skidding around the corner of the house. Gravel spit behind his trainers as he ran. He was about to take a shot when the guy dodged behind the eastern wall. He didn’t waste time cursing.

He took off running, moving cautiously around the corner. Shots fired, hitting where his head would have been if he hadn
’t crouched down. He returned fire, heard a grunt, chased the guy’s shadow behind an old garage and past an empty pool. He came to an abrupt halt, standing there in the darkness. The trees in the woods rustled at the edges of the wide lawn, beckoning him to give chase. He looked back at the house.
Shit
. No way could he leave Mallory longer than he already had.

What if the guy had circled back? Panic bit into his chest and he started sprinting the way he
’d come. He sped around the corner and was abruptly blinded by headlights. He shielded his face with his arm.

“
FBI, put the gun down!”

Alex shot out both headlights and dodged to the side. He had the
“agent” disarmed, on the ground, face in the gravel when he heard a sound behind him and whirled.

“Oh,
God, Alex. That’s my boss.” It was Mallory. She’d turned the entranceway light on.

“
Shit.” Alex took his knee out of the fed’s spine and stood back. The guy was wearing what had probably been a very expensive pale gray suit and, now Alex had the chance to see, the headlights he’d shot out belonged to a very expensive Lexus that hadn’t been there earlier. The guy must have driven up while he was chasing the attacker around the back of the house.

He held out his hand to the man on the ground
who was looking a bit shell-shocked. “Sorry.”

“
No time for that.” Mallory grabbed his arm. He holstered his gun while she spoke. Her boss picked himself up off the ground, looking pissed.

“
The girl is alive but she’s lost a lot of blood. We can’t afford to wait for the ambulance. I need help carrying her and we’ll drive her to the ER.” She pulled him with her.

“
There’s another victim?” Mallory’s boss dropped the attitude and jogged swiftly up the stairs with them.

“
Yes, but the UNSUB shot her before he ran away. She was already in a really bad way.” Mallory was running up the stairs and both of them stuck to her like honey on bread.

Alex took a quick detour.
“Grabbing car keys,” he yelled to the feds. He also wanted to get their gear. It took under twenty seconds to stuff everything together and race back out of the room. He met them on the landing with Mallory’s boss carrying the battered girl, wrapped in blankets. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and she sobbed in pain and anguish. Alex couldn’t imagine what she’d been through and he’d spent plenty of time in hell. Mallory pressed a towel against the gunshot wound which stopped the bleeding a little. Alex strode ahead and opened the car door so the guy could slide in with the girl on his lap. He threw their luggage in the trunk.

“
I’ll drive,” said Mallory.

“
Not this time.” He got in the driver’s seat and started the engine. He caught the other man’s cold, blue gaze in the rear view. “Buckle up.”

As soon as Mallory had her door closed and belt on, he started driving, foot to the floor,
maneuvering the gravel road at extreme speed. “Hang on,” he told them, taking a left out of the driveway that had the tires screeching. Getting Mallory out of danger, getting this critically injured young woman to the hospital was all he gave a damn about. Despite the white-knuckled ride he wasn’t about to let anything bad happen to either of them ever again.