Hot for You (22 page)

He covered his face with his hands and
sobbed.

The fury that overtook him was so great that
he started shaking with it. He pulled the cell phone out of his
pocket and raised it up to show Carilyn.

Her eyes widened with terror and she
violently shook her head while crying out at him behind her gag. He
watched her as he entered the number to the cell phone at the
warehouse and she gave a wordless scream.

***

The urgency Cody felt was so intense that he
couldn’t explain it. He had to get to Carilyn.
Had to.

He started to reach for his cell phone to
call Carilyn when something caught his eye on top of a stack of
crates. He frowned. It looked like it was probably nothing. But his
gut told him to check it out.

Cody jogged to where he thought he saw the
unusual object while Reese followed him. Cody went to the pile of
old wooden crates. He peered on top of a crate and froze.

A cell phone detonator was strapped to enough
C-4 to take out the entire warehouse.

“Clear out!” Cody shouted. “Bomb!”

Reese backed up. “Shit.”

Cody and Reese shouted and waved everyone out
of the building. Cody’s heart pounded harder and harder and his
throat went dry.

The moment the place was clear, Reese and
Cody ran from the building.

Cody had just made it to the opposite side of
a police cruiser, Reese close behind, when the world exploded.

Heat and noise filled the air as the
warehouse went up. Reese gave a shout of pain, and when he landed
on the ground beside Cody, he was cradling his hand to his belly,
blood soaking his white shirt, his face contorted with pain.

“Reese.” Cody tore off his T-shirt as fire
boiled up into the sky. “Where are you hurt?”

“My hand.” Reese grimaced then raised his
hand. The last two fingers on his hand had been sheared off. “At
least it’s my left.”

“Damn.” Cody wrapped his T-shirt around
Reese’s hand. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“Don’t think so.” Reese gritted his teeth.
“We’re going to get that sonofabitch.”

“You’re damned right we are.” Cody squeezed
his cousin’s shoulder. “Stay here while I check to see if anyone
else needs help.”

Reese waved him off. “Don’t worry about
me.”

Two police officers were seriously wounded
and Reese’s partner, Detective Petrova, had been knocked
unconscious, but she was coming around. One of the injured officers
had taken a piece of shrapnel to his shoulder where it had lodged.
Another had a deep cut across his face. A couple of others had
minor wounds, but overall they’d made it through relatively
unscathed. Thank God he’d taken notice of the bomb.

“Is everyone accounted for?” Reese asked John
as he came to stand beside Cody.

John gave a grim nod. “We’re all lucky to be
here.” He focused on Cody. “Thank God you were with us.”

Reese clapped his good hand on Cody’s
shoulder, as the sound of sirens grew louder in the distance.
“Thank you,” Reese said.

“Damned lucky was it,” Cody said, his
expression grim. “I need to get back to Carilyn. I’ve got a bad
feeling and I want to make sure she’s all right.”

“Go on.” Reese gave a nod. “I’ll catch up
with you later.”

Still shirtless, Cody turned and hurried to
his truck, pulling out his cell phone and dialing Carilyn’s number
as he ran.

The phone rang several times and the call
went to voice mail. He tried again then jammed the phone back into
its holster. The drive to the hotel took too long as far as he was
concerned. He couldn’t get there fast enough. When he arrived, he
brought the truck to a hard stop, parking haphazardly near the
front entrance of the hotel and bolted inside. Instead of waiting
for the elevator, he took the stairs two at a time to the second
floor where their room was.

When he reached their room, he pounded on the
door with one hand while digging in his pocket for the keycard.
“Carilyn, it’s me,” he shouted. He pulled the keycard out of his
pocket and swiped it in the card reader.

A loud click and the door unlocked, and Cody
shoved the door open. He didn’t see her. He shouted her name and
went into the bathroom. She wasn’t there. His heart pounded and he
tried to calm his breathing. She could have gone down to the coffee
shop and he just hadn’t seen her as he tore through the lobby.

Her purse and wallet were lying on the bed.
He checked her wallet and saw that there wasn’t any cash in her
wallet. Everything else looked undisturbed.

The new laptop she’d been working on when
he’d left was open. He went to it and saw that a program was open
and lines of code were rolling by. He wasn’t a computer techie so
he wasn’t sure exactly what it was doing. It was probably the
tracking program she’d said she’d be working with.

He’d worry about the program later. Right now
he needed to find Carilyn. As he pulled on a clean T-shirt, he
dialed her number again. He rushed out of the room and skipped the
elevator again. He hurried down the stairs, burst out into the
lobby and practically ran to the coffee shop.

A young barista with
Dahlia
on her
nametag was at the cash register, and she looked up and smiled as
Cody came in. Her smile faded into a look of concern when she saw
his expression. “Can I help you?”

Cody went up to the counter. “Did you see a
redheaded woman, about five-five, wearing jeans and a T-shirt?”

“Yes.” Dahlia didn’t hesitate. “She ordered
coffee and a cheese Danish, but only took a bite out of the Danish
and left her coffee behind when she left.”

His heart was pounding hard as he spoke. “Did
you see where she went?”

“She left with some weird looking guy,” the
barista said. “I would never have guessed that she’d be attracted
to a man like him, but they walked out with his arm around her
shoulders. She didn’t look happy. He did have a red mustache,
though, so maybe they’re related.”

Cody tried to calm himself. “What did the man
look like?”

Dahlia tilted her head to the side. “I’d say
he’s around five-nine because he wasn’t much taller than me and I’m
five-seven. He wore a funny felt hat and a tweed jacket with
leather on the elbows, and a white T-shirt under that. I didn’t see
his eyes.”

“Anything else you can think of?” he asked,
his whole body vibrating. “Was he wearing a ring?”

“Yeah.” She screwed up her face, clearly
thinking about it. “I noticed it because the stone was such a
pretty blue. It looked like silver snakes or something around the
stone.”

Cody’s blood had gone colder with ever word
she spoke. “Did you see which way they went?”

“All I saw was them walking out the door to
the left. So they either went to the elevators or out the back
exit.” Dahlia was frowning. “Is something wrong?”

Cody’s body was as tight as piano wire. “How
long ago did they leave?”

Dahlia thought about it a moment. “I’d say
close to an hour.”

Cody bolted out of the coffee shop and headed
toward the back exit, pulling his cell phone out of its holster as
he ran. He pressed the speed dial number for Reese and held the
phone up to his ear. “He’s got her,” he said as soon as Reese
answered.

“What happened?” Reese asked in an urgent
tone.

Cody explained all that he knew and gave the
man’s description as he burst out the back exit into the warm
sunlight. He hadn’t expected to see anyone, but he’d had to
look.

“She left a tracking program running in the
hotel room,” Cody said. “Maybe one of your computer guys can see if
it managed to find the bastard.”

“Right away,” Reese said, his voice sounding
grim. “I’m at the hospital but as soon as they get my fingers,
what’s left of them, taken care of, I’ll be right there. In the
meantime I’m sending my guys to the hotel and we’ll put out an
APB.”

After Reese disconnected the call, Cody stood
in the back parking lot and dragged his hand down his face. His
whole body felt cold and his heart pounded a mile a minute. He
turned and headed back into the hotel, back to his and Carilyn’s
room to look for more clues while he waited for the police.

A sick feeling made his gut feel like it was
weighted by a boulder. Firebug had taken Carilyn, the one woman he
loved more than anything in this world.

So help him, when Cody got hold of the
bastard, he was going to rip him apart. And if anything happened to
Carilyn, Firebug was as good as dead.

* * * * *

Carilyn’s entire body felt numb as she
slouched in the chair against the ropes. Had Cody or anyone else
died from the explosion that Firebug had set off? She had no doubt
that he had triggered a bomb, no doubt at all.

The rage he had shown, his inhuman screams,
had scared her even more than she’d already been. When he’d punched
in the phone number for the bomb, her own rage had magnified, but
there had been nothing she could do about that but scream behind
her gag.

The sound of her phone ringing in her pocket
broke the silence and she listened to it helplessly. It had been
ringing regularly ever since Firebug had left. She wondered if it
were Cody. Prayed it was him, which meant he’d made it and hadn’t
died in the explosion.

When the phone stopped ringing, she leaned
back in the chair, doing her best to swallow the spit that pooled
in her mouth behind the gag. Firebug had left through the front
what seemed like hours ago. She’d heard the car starting, had heard
the crunch of stone beneath tires, and then there was nothing once
the sound of the motor had faded. She wondered what he was going to
do. Torch the cabin with her in it?

With a shudder, she looked around the cabin
yet again. It was a simple place with a great room that was living
room, kitchen, and dining area. There were two doors leading from
the room—four if you counted the front and rear doors. She assumed
the other two led to a bedroom and a bathroom.

On the fireplace mantel was a picture of a
large family as well as pictures of children and adults. She
wondered if they were related to Firebug, or if he’d picked out a
random spot to bring his victims to play with them, or had selected
this spot in which to kill her.

In one corner she saw what looked like
supplies someone might use to make bombs or something. She’d
watched a show on TV where they used lots of C-4 to blow stuff up,
and she guessed that’s what those clay-like blocks were. There were
also wires, a couple of cell phones, and tools, including a pair of
pliers, and two duffel bags.

She tried to wriggle in the ropes yet again,
hoping for some kind of give, but he had bound her far too tightly.
He’d also left the zip ties on her wrists and ankles, and she knew
there was no way she’d get out of those. Still she’d squirmed and
wriggled, chafing her wrists. Somehow she’d have to convince him to
take them off and she was willing to bet there was no chance in
hell that he was going to do that.

The sound of an engine met her ears and she
perked up. It sounded more like a car than a truck. As it came
closer she fantasized that it was someone who could help her. Maybe
the owners had returned or somehow Cody had found her. She had to
hold out hope.

Rock crunched beneath tires again as the
vehicle approached, then the engine was cut and all went quiet.
Moments later the front door to the cabin opened and Firebug came
in, and her hopes vanished.

He slammed the door behind him with one hand.
In his other he had a water bottle that he drank from. The bottle
slipped from his hands and bounced on the floor, water spilling
over the chalk line he’d drawn. He frowned and picked up the bottle
before setting it aside.

The man put his hands on his hips again as he
stared at her. The fury he’d exploded with earlier seemed to be
gone and he had what might be considered to be a pleasant
expression on his face. Pleasant if he wasn’t such a sicko and if
she didn’t hate him so much.

“Comfortable?” he asked almost jovially. He
gave a sick smile. “I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Nathan. I’m
going to have fun with you.”

The anxiety crawling up inside her like
clawed hands was sky-high. Her stomach turned even queasier than it
had been. She tried to focus her oncoming panic attack and turn it
into anger. She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. There was
nothing else she could do considering she was gagged and bound.

“Sorry to leave you so long, but it was time
to visit my mother.” He went to her and she fought to keep from
shrinking back as he reached for her. She put every bit of hate she
felt into her glare. He reached behind her and untied the gag
before tossing it on the floor. “She gets upset if I don’t visit
her regularly.”

Her jaws felt sore as she clenched her teeth
and looked at him.

“Not so perky now, are you?” he said with an
amused look. “I’ve got you where I want you.”

“Let me go.” She croaked the words.

His mouth split into a grin. “Yeah, right.
And I’ll order a limo to take you to your door with a bottle of
wine, a box of chocolates, and a dozen red roses while I’m at
it.”

Her face flushed at his sarcasm and she
clenched her hands into fists, wishing she were free so that she
could lunge at him and claw his eyes out.

“Oh, let’s see.” He went to the duffel bags
and pulled out a pink box. “Yes, we’ll start with this.”

Her skin went from hot to cold as she saw
that the box was about the same size as one that a Barbie would
come in. He busied himself opening the box and eventually pulled
out a redheaded doll.

Her heart pounded in her throat as he brought
the doll to her and set it on the arm of the chair that she was
sitting in, so that it was beside her.

“What are you going to do?” Her voice
trembled. She’d asked even though she was sure she knew, but he
ignored her question anyway.