01 A Cold Dark Place (24 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN
TEEN

M
allory paced the hospital corridor the way she’d been pacing it for the last hour.
So close.
She’d been so close to the bastard who ripped her sister from her life, she’d looked him in the eye for a moment before he’d run.

For a moment s
he’d wanted him dead, but more than that, she wanted him to tell her what he’d done with her sister. Where had he buried Payton?

The need to know was so intense it had crippled her ability to actually shoot the bastard.

Alex had nailed him square in the chest only to discover the guy had been wearing body armor. The killer had known they were there and expected they’d be armed so had planned accordingly. There was no mercy in his actions. He’d have killed Alex, left the injured woman for dead and taken Mallory for whatever twisted reason he’d given himself to justify rape and violation.

A burning heat warmed her from the inside
. Her fists clenched with anger and frustration. She should have used her Taser. Why the hell hadn’t she thought of that sooner?

They were running the injured woman
’s fingerprints through IAFIS but Mallory was almost positive from her general description that she was Kari Regent. Her face was unrecognizable, but if she survived there was a good chance, once the swelling went down, that her face would return to normal. Although Mallory knew the girl would never be the same.

Why were her prints on the murder weapon at a double homicide? Mallory had no doubt she was a victim in this, but what had the UNSUB made her do before he
’d beaten and strangled her?

Was he
local? The murders of the McCaffertys and the return to Eastborne with Kari tonight, suggested he was holed up nearby. Maybe he’d been at Lindsey’s funeral? Or watching the house?

She made a mental note to talk to the sheriff and
check the ID’s of the mourners. Maybe they should put surveillance on the grave itself as serial killers often revisited their victims after death.

She shivered.

Without Alex she’d have been a victim.

She
’d been taken by surprise in her old bedroom, which is exactly what the killer had intended. Finding the injured woman in her old bed had side-swiped her and changed her priority from hunting to rescue, and he’d damn well planned the whole thing to put her off her game. Smart. Organized. Ruthless. Sadistic.

Alex
’s instincts had saved them both. She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve him but she was grateful he was here. He sat on an orange plastic chair, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

“
You’re a hell of shot,” she told him with an absurd amount of pride. He hadn’t been crippled by emotion and adrenaline. She needed to ramp up her training. He was the civilian—albeit, one who’d earned one of their country’s highest honors for valor, she reminded herself.

He nodded like it was no big deal.

He’d also taken Frazer down without breaking stride. Thank goodness he hadn’t killed the man because her career prospects were already fried.

Speak of the devil. Frazer strode down the long
, white hallway toward them.

“
How is she?” Mallory asked.

Frazer opened a door to a waiting room, saw it was empty and nodded his head to indicate she follow him. She stepped inside and Alex was there beside her. Frazer shot him a look but didn
’t order him out of the room. Progress? She doubted it.  

“
She’s alive. Barely. The fingerprints are a match to Kari Regent.” His blond hair was flattened against his skull. Mouth grim. A scrape on his cheekbone, courtesy of Alex’s rough handling. He wasn’t looking as smooth as he usually did, but she’d noticed some of the nurses checking out the FBI agent. They’d barely glanced at Alex. Somehow he made himself fade into the background—probably because he didn’t strut about penis-first. As someone who avoided the limelight, it was another thing that attracted her to him.  

“
Did she say anything?” she asked.

He shook his head.
“They induced a coma until the intracranial pressure goes down and they are worried about internal bleeding. They might need to operate to relieve swelling.” He stopped and drew in a deep breath, clearly affected by the young woman’s injuries. “Her windpipe is bruised and very fragile. She’s been shackled, sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. Not to mention is suffering from hypothermia and a gunshot wound. It isn’t looking great but she’s stable and she’s here.” He ran his fingers over his eyes as if trying to remove some of what he’d seen. “We’ve got DNA swabs from her body, which have been rushed to forensics. Your father’s house is now a crime scene. We all need to give statements at the sheriff’s office, then I want to go back and see if we missed anything.”

“I don’t want to leave until I know she’s going to be okay.”
She felt protective of Kari, as if she owed her a personal debt.

Frazer shook his head.
“It could be days before she wakes up. Weeks even. There’s a deputy on the door—”

Alex cut him off.
“I’ve arranged round-the-clock protection. No one’s going to hurt her again.” The energy rolling off him was quiet fury.

“
The FBI can protect her.” Frazer eyed him down the length of his nose.

Alex took a step into Frazer’s space. “One of my partners specializes in personal security and she’
s sending two of her best people.” His upper lip curled and his eyes narrowed. “They’ll be here within the next hour. No one will get past them. How long before your guys show up? Long enough for Kari Regent to end up dead?”

Mallory’s eyes widened. Her boss and her boyfriend were headed for a pissing contest and she didn’t appreciate being caught in the middle.

“What’s the problem with additional security? What harm can it do?” She broke in quickly, trying to diffuse the tension that crackled through the empty waiting room.

“
I want background checks on anyone guarding her,” Frazer bit out between gritted teeth. “And they better not get in the way of law enforcement.”

“
They
know how to do their job.”

Frazer
’s mouth firmed at that.

Mallory was already in this guy’s bad books. Alex was making it worse.
“Why were you there, sir? Not that I don’t appreciate the back-up.” Although they’d had it handled thanks to Alex. He made a hell of a partner. Better than her so-called colleagues at the Bureau. SSA Danbridge
had
warned her the day she’d left Charlotte.

Frazer blinked at her. His eyes shifted and a weird shiver slip
ped down her spine. “I decided to come up and talk to the sheriff about that double homicide—”

“
You set her up as bait and turned up late for the party,” Alex snapped.

Mallory backed up a step.
What?

Frazer didn
’t deny it. He smiled tightly. “At least she had
you
, Mr. Parker. Championship marksman, Indy 500 driver. Not to mention hand-to-hand combat aficionado.” Frazer’s expression turned murderous as he looked down at his torn thousand dollar suit. “I’d say the UNSUB definitely underestimated Special Agent Mallory Rooney’s new boyfriend.”

And so had he.

Mallory felt winded.

Alex
sneered. “I’ll repair the car and replace the suit but you are still an asshole.”

Definitely not intimidated by the FBI.
She’d noticed that trait the first time she’d met him in Charlotte. And civilians were
always
intimidated by the FBI.

“
You let an inexperienced field agent take on a serial killer but didn’t even have the skills to arrive on fucking time? Were you hoping he took her? Raise your profile on the media stage?”

Mallory froze.
Was Frazer disappointed the UNSUB hadn’t taken her? The thought gave her goose bumps. If Frazer was helping the vigilante he might have reason to hope someone shut her up. A serial killer would do it without casting any suspicion on himself. She crossed her arms over her chest. She was inexperienced but she wasn’t stupid and things weren’t adding up. “Is it true? Did you use me as bait?”

Flinty eyes turned on her
. “Are you questioning my decisions, Special Agent Rooney? Or just my ability?”

A wave of uncertainty
hit her. “Considering what happened tonight I think we—the FBI that is—could have handled this whole situation a lot better. We should have known he’d turn up tonight. We should have set a trap.”

Frazer closed his eyes and held tight to the bridge of his nose.
“Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, Agent Rooney. Don’t question my authority again.”

Right now
, Mallory wouldn’t trust him as far as she could throw him.

Alex looked ready to punch
him but Mallory touched his wrist, reassured by the strong steady pulse beating beneath her fingers. “Yes, sir.”

She backed off. Because s
he’d figured out a way to end her hunt for the vigilante and move on with her Bureau career. She just hoped Alex was there when this was all over.

***

Alex sat in the main hub of the Greenville Sheriff’s Office being interviewed about what happened last night. Inside Sheriff Williams’ glass-walled office, Mallory was making her own statement. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Except for a bright patch of crimson over each cheekbone, her skin was ice-white. There was a suggestion of fragility to her face that hadn’t been there when he first met her. A hint of vulnerability. Whatever the feelings that had been growing inside him these past few weeks, they had amplified to staggering proportions after the attempt to steal her away last night.

If he hadn
’t insisted on accompanying her yesterday, chances were Mallory would right now be at the mercy of a sexual predator. The idea made him want to put his fist through something solid. Preferably SSA Frazer’s face.

“
What happened then?”

Alex glanced at the deputy taking his statement.
Deputy Sheriff L. Chance according to his nametag. He fit the general size and shape of the attacker. So did the sheriff and half of his deputies.

“
There was a noise in the corridor.”

The bodyguards
that his partner, Haley Cramer, sent had arrived via company helicopter less than thirty minutes ago. They were taking shifts to watch over the best chance they had of catching this bastard. If Kari Regent survived she could give them a sketch of the bad guy and maybe a description of where she’d been held. Then they’d have a place to begin. Alex was more and more convinced the starting point was somewhere near Colby, and tied back to what had happened there eighteen years ago.

“
You were in bed asleep?” Deputy Chance asked him.

Alex shook his.
“I was sitting in a chair, wide awake.”

“
You sat in a chair while Agent Rooney slept?”

“
That’s what I said.” Alex stared at Mallory through the glass. He couldn’t relax since that bastard had made a grab for her. There was no doubt in Alex’s mind it wasn’t the first time he’d tried, and wouldn’t be the last. So far Mallory had been lucky, but she couldn’t be on guard forever. The only way to end this thing was a bullet in that animal’s brain. He drummed his fingers on the desk. The cop was still watching him as if expecting an answer. “We were taking turns keeping watch.”

“
So you were expecting trouble?”

Alex nodded. Frazer
had also been expecting trouble but the sonofabitch had done nothing to prevent it. Why? Alex’s eyes narrowed. Was he part of The Gateway Project? The part that had almost gotten him caught last time?

Or maybe he
genuinely believed Mallory—a trained FBI Special Agent—could take the guy alone. Alex frowned. He wasn’t sexist. He’d figured out one of his fellow assassins was a female and she was one of the best. Women could be operators, damn good operators. But Mallory wasn’t there yet. She needed more training, more physical fitness and more ruthless determination to hurt someone.

That
’s what gave predators and operators the advantage over “normal” people. They worked outside society boundaries and went in fast and hard. No one expected another human being to attack them. It violated all sense of security and made intelligent people freeze and comply when usually they’d fight for their lives.

“
Ms. Rooney has stayed in that house many times over the years. Why did she think last night would be any different?”

Alex
didn’t know what the FBI had shared with the locals about the new evidence turning up. If this guy was supposed to know about the case other law enforcement people could do the honors. He shrugged. “I like to be prepared.”