Girl Undercover 8 & 9: Traitor & The Smiley Killer (19 page)

I pushed the disturbing voice away and turned to Ian.

“She fired both shots then?” I asked him.

“Yes. I only got a quick glimpse of her before she disappeared into the woods. She had long, dark hair and her skin was so pale in the moonlight, she reminded me of a vampire.”

“Did she come out of nowhere and shot at you guys?”

“Yes, and she disappeared as quickly again. I literally only saw her for a couple of seconds. She was all the way at the other end of the glade. I tried to block Nadja, but I wasn’t able to move quickly enough what with this bloody foot.” He nodded angrily at his foot.

Making sure the tree shielded me, I placed a hand on his shoulder and gazed calmly into his eyes. “I’m glad you didn’t manage to block her. Without you here, Nadja would have died anyway. You tried to save her and that’s all you could do. The world can’t afford to lose you. Without you, we will all die one way or another. If not physically, then spiritually. If Stenger and his followers get what they want, it won’t be worth it to go on living.”

I wanted to tell him that
I
would die spiritually right now if he’d been hit and killed. It scared me how much I knew this to be true, but it was. I needed this man who was standing before me—in more ways than I had ever imagined.

He pulled me closer and made me crouch down. “Be careful. She’s still out there.”

“Or she left and went back to the house, knowing that you’ll have to come back there eventually. A psychopath like her surely enjoys to drag out her hunt. Make you feel terrorized for a while before she makes her next move. I don’t think she knows that you’re not alone here.”

“Maybe not. How was Burt? Is an ambulance on its way?”

In the commotion, I had managed to block out the fact that Alyssa had stabbed my fellow trainer to death. I shuddered as I saw in my mind’s eye Burt sunken down in that corner, a knife buried almost to the hilt in his chest, penetrating his heart.

Ian must have sensed what was going on inside me, because he squeezed my arm.

“She got to him already?”

I nodded and gave him a summary of what I had seen in the house.

“Bloody hell,” Ian said, sighing. “Well, now I know where she got that gun from and why it sounded exactly like mine. I wonder how she got to him.”

“A few ways. We were stupid to think that she would only use the front door to enter the house. Surely she has several ways to get inside besides that entry. For all we know, she can climb walls like the Spider-Man hybrid.”

“That’s true.”

“I’m thinking she took him by surprise. My guess is she threw something at him from the second-floor landing that made him drop the gun. As we both know, he was not in great shape, so she probably got to the gun before he could reach it.”

“And you said there was a knife buried in his chest?”

I nodded.

“She probably used the knife to save on bullets. She must have figured she’d need them.”

“Good point.” I squatted down beside him next to the thick tree trunk, leaning against the mountain behind us. “What shall we do?”

“I think you may be right that she’s not here any longer. There’s no way of knowing, nor can we know what she’ll do next. It’s past two in the morning. It seems our best bet is to simply hang out here until it gets light out. That’ll happen in the next three hours. We’ll be an easier target in the darkness, with me holding on to you.”

“Yeah, I know. How’s the foot feeling?”

“I’ll survive.”

“You think it’s broken?

He shrugged. “Not sure. All I know is that it hurts like hell.”

***

A few hours later, Ian and I were still at the tree, having seen no more signs of Alyssa. When we felt surer she had disappeared back to the house, we took turns catnapping.

Ian’s loud yawn awoke me and I realized that the twittering birds had not just been part of my very vivid dream. There were several singing birds around us. Had it not been for the fact that we had poor Nadja still tied to the tree we sat behind, cold and dead, the moment could almost be described as pleasant, the way it is when you wake up in nature while camping.

“Rise and shine, honey,” Ian said and caressed my cheek. I stretched my arms over my head and yawned big myself, my gun still in my hand. I wasn’t about to let that one go anytime soon.

My gaze went over to Ian’s foot. He had removed his shoe and put the foot up high on a nearby boulder in an effort to combat the swelling. Swollen and red, the ankle didn’t look good.

He wiggled his toes and tried to make circles with the ankle. The action made him wince.

“Well, it might not be great, but at least it’s not getting any worse,” he said.

“That’s good.” Leaning carefully around the trunk, I took in our surroundings. It had been wise of us to stay here until it got light out. As the sky kept brightening, one could see farther and farther between the trees that outlined the glade. I spotted the creek and felt thirsty. However, we’d both had water right before arriving last night, so we’d be fine for a few more hours. There was plenty of time to drink and eat after we’d gotten back to the house and attempted to find Alyssa. If she was there.

“Do you think we’ll find her there?” I asked Ian.

He shrugged. “Who knows? All I know is that in order to get out of here, we need to get to my car. Let’s hope she hasn’t done anything to it. We should try to find her and kill her rather than sending the authorities on her. To be sure she’s eliminated once and for all. When we’re through with her, we’ll give them an anonymous tip to go out here. I’m sure there are plenty of grieving friends and relatives who’d like to know what happened to their loved ones.”

“You’re right. If she managed to escape once before, she might be able to do so again. But as much as I’d love it if we could eliminate her on our own, I’m not sure it’s possible what with your foot being so messed up.”

Ian sighed. “True. Let’s get out of the woods and then see how we feel about it. Maybe we can figure out a way to work around my foot. We might even spot her.”

“Okay.” I got to my feet and extended a hand to Ian. “Are you ready?”

He grabbed my hand and was soon standing up next to me. He took a step with the foot and grimaced with pain. I wrapped an arm around his waist and he wrapped one around my shoulders.

“You can lean on me, darling,” I said, giving him a smile. “As you know, I’m quite strong.”

He pressed a kiss to my cheek and smiled back. “That I do know. Thank God for that.” The good-natured expression on his face was soon exchanged for a serious one, however. “Listen. Even though I think it’s extremely unlikely, remember that she
could
still be out here in the woods. We can’t just assume she’s left. So let’s be as quiet as possible.”

“I won’t say a word.”

Chapter 8

“Well, at least she hasn’t slashed my tires,” Ian said. We were standing behind the storage shed now, peeking out from behind the corner closest to the woods.

From our vantage point, we had a good view of the house and its front yard where Ian’s Honda was parked. It had taken us fifteen uneventful minutes to get back, and by now the sky was so light and the rising sun shining so brightly that we could see everything clearly. Which meant Alyssa would be able to see us too, so we’d better stay hidden and keep as low a profile as possible.

“Finally something’s going our way,” I said, wiping away the sweat coating my face with the back of my hand. I might be strong, but I wasn’t used to supporting a man who weighed two hundred pounds and measured six foot two. Helping Ian back to the house through uneven terrain in which the trees sometimes grew so closely we had to push the branches aside had been a test of my fitness levels for sure.

I wasn’t looking forward to more of that, and I truly couldn’t see how we’d be able to catch and kill Alyssa on our own. “Hey,” I said. “I really think we should call the authorities and have them come here to help us.”

“Fine. Why don’t you call them?”

“Sure.” I found my burner phone in my pocket and dialed 911. As I waited for the rings to go through, I asked Ian for the address to the house and he gave it to me right before the operator answered. Pretending to be a hysterical civilian, I explained our emergency, stressing the seriousness of the situation by saying there was at least one, possibly two maniacs out here, killing people. I told her we needed lots of cops as soon as possible or there would surely be more dead folks out here.

“Please make them come soon,” I begged the woman, “I don’t want to die…”

She promised that they’d be there soon and then we disconnected.

“Perfect,” Ian said, smiling as he ran slow circles over my back with his fingertips. It felt great. After all the stress we’d been through in the last several hours, it was amazing we were able to function as well as we were.

“Thanks,” I said. “I’m hoping my little act will yield a few squad cars, not just one with a couple of cops in it. Alyssa might be able to take down two cops.”

“As terrified as you appeared, I’m sure they’ll dispatch several cars. You sounded like a mass murder was happening right now.”

“How long do you think it’ll take them to get here?”

“Hopefully no more than fifteen minutes. And when they do get here, you should leave and walk to the city and let me deal with them. It’s only a couple of miles, maybe three, and all you need to do is stay on that road to get there.” He nodded toward the gravel road winding up to the house’s front yard. “That is, if you still care about your captain back home finding out about you not being in Hungary.”

I glanced at him with a cocked brow. “What do you think?”

“I personally don’t think it’ll matter any longer given what’s going on with Adler, but I don’t want to assume anything.”

“I don’t think it matters any longer, either. Captain Brady will surely not only understand, but is also the one person I think might be able to help us figuring out who we can trust in law enforcement all across the country. He has lots of contacts both locally and federally.”

“Are you sure you can trust him?”

I frowned at him, not liking the implication he was making. “Of
course
I can trust him. He’s a solid cop and a great man. I don’t think I’ve ever met a person with more integrity than him.”

Ian regarded me with those chameleon eyes that had turned a pale green in the morning light. Nodding slowly, he removed his gaze from me and glanced at the house before us.

I was about to open my mouth and say that he’d understand what I meant the day he met Brady when I felt him stiffen. His arm around my shoulders clutched them more tightly. I looked in the same direction as he did, but I couldn’t see anything worthy of having such a reaction there. So why did it feel like I was supporting a wooden doll all of a sudden?

“Well, hello, hello,” a female voice at the other side of Ian said in a glib tone. “How does that gun feel against your head?” the female asked Ian. “I hope I’m not pressing too hard, but I need to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

Tilting my head slightly backward, I spotted a tall girl with long, dark hair flowing down her shoulders standing beside him.

She tilted her head sideways then and our eyes met. She must have been the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life, but also the one with the most deranged gaze. As I looked into her eyes, I felt like I was literally gazing into her soul. What I saw, all the pain and anger inside her, terrified me at the same time as it made me heavy with sadness. I had looked into plenty of narcissistic, even sociopathic criminals’ eyes before, but none of them had looked like this. None of those had been as complicated, as torn as this girl was about what she was doing. The nonchalant tone of her voice couldn’t be farther away from all those conflicting feelings mirrored in her eyes.

“I didn’t realize you had a friend with you,” she said to Ian, smiling now, partly revealing a set of perfect, milky white teeth. “Burt made it seem like there was only one of you. But that’s okay. I can take care of you both.” She gazed at me again. “Unless you want me to blow your studly companion’s head off right here, don’t do anything stupid. As you probably heard, I have a gun pressed right at his temple. In fact, what you should do is drop that gun in your hand and kick it over to me.” She must have seen with her peripheral vision how I’d been about to raise my arm with the gun.

I dropped the gun and kicked it over to where she was standing. With a powerful sideways kick, she made it fly all the way into the forest that began a couple of yards away from us.

“And the knife in your pocket, too,” she said to me. I removed the bread knife that I’d stuck into my back pocket and threw it over to her. She gave the knife the same treatment as the gun.

My heart pounding violently in my chest, I thought,
How did she manage to sneak up on us like that?
How could we not have heard her approaching?

The edge of the woods was right next to us. The way the trees with the thick trunks grew behind the storage shed had provided us with a great hiding spot where no one could attack, not to mention shoot us in the back. Several yards away from where we stood was the house and its front yard. We had figured that the only way Alyssa would be able to reach us was if she came straight at us or from the side, in both cases we’d spot her long before she’d leave the actual woods as the vegetation was less dense there. We weren’t too worried that she’d try to shoot at us from somewhere inside the woods. The risk of missing her target would be too great as it was far away. Plus, by shooting, she would reveal where she was.

“We’re now going into the house and have a nice little chat,” Alyssa said, nodding toward the house. “You go first.” She looked at me. “What’s your name?”

“Gabi,” I muttered.

“Gabi, nice to meet you. I’m Alyssa. Let’s get moving.”

I walked ahead of her and Ian, suddenly remembering that he could barely walk.

Turning my head toward them, I said, “He can’t walk. His foot is broken. He’s in extreme pain.” It wasn’t quite as bad as I made it sound, but I knew instinctively that it was better if we played up his handicap. Ian didn’t say anything to contradict my statement.