Hunting (32 page)

Jules did love him. She’d
known that the moment he’d taken that bullet aimed at her. Seeing
him bleeding, knowing he could have been killed had been a
nightmare for her.

But she’d survived it. And
she still loved him.

Staying apart from him yet
still seeing him every day at work would not change that. And she
wasn’t about to run away, not now. She had too much at stake here
in St. Louis. At PAVAD.

But hadn’t she already done
just that by pulling away from him? Telling him she didn’t want
him? Hurting him before she could be hurt by losing him
later?

That’s exactly what she had
done.

Jules pulled in a deep
breath, then slipped the three piece wedding set Rick had given her
off her hand. Her fingers trembled.

She unhooked the chain and
slipped the rings over one end, just as the back door
opened.

Her breath caught; she
wasn’t ready to do this...not now. She needed time to regroup, to
process.

But it wasn’t Malachi
standing in the door. The man was about Malachi’s size, with hair
just a few shades lighter. His eyes were a much paler blue. He even
wore a coat similar in style to Malachi’s.

The gun was pointed right
at her heart. “Well, my dear, this was not how I intended things to
be between the two of us.”

He held three chess pieces
in his hand. Pieces similar to those that Jules had seen before.
From the same wooden set.

“
You!”

Why hadn’t they suspected?
He’d been at the party; he’d been in Meredith’s home. He’d even
been in her hospital room after the rescue. Why hadn’t they put it
together?

He quietly put two chess
pieces on the center of Malachi’s kitchen table. Right next to
Ruthie’s stuffed Curious George.

Oh, God. Ruthie.

Ruthie was with Malachi’s
mother. She’d be safe. And Al and Malachi, Georgia and Ed—they
would all see that Ruthie was somehow taken care of if Jules
couldn’t...

How stupid of them. How
stupid
of them all for not seeing past the
obvious.

It hadn’t been Agent
Knight
at all. The chessmaster’s MO was that he never killed
in the same manner twice. He’d shot Knight, and made it look like
attempted suicide. And they’d just thought Malachi had won the
game. Stupid. They’d jumped the gun, and now…“What do you
want?”

“
Several things. Come. We
need to be going. I’m sure Malachi will be arriving soon.”
Nathanial wrapped long, strong fingers around Jules’ upper arm, and
pulled her to walk in front of him. His breath brushed against her
hair as he leaned closer. He kept the gun aimed right at her. Could
she get away from him? Should she run once he got her outside? If
she let him take her away, she’d probably never get a chance again.
If she could get away from him, she could run. Might even be able
to outrun him, if she was quick enough. “That’s a smart move, my
dear. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was going to leave the
little pieces then walk away for a while. I have quite a few other
plans. Even had plans for you. Plans that will have to change now
that you’ve disrupted my outline.”

“
Gee, should I apologize?”
She’d get one chance, at the most. And he’d most likely put a
bullet in her back. She’d seen the results of this man’s kills. She
would do her damnedest not to end up on Mia’s autopsy
table.

“
Yes, you do have a wit
about you, don’t you? I was so looking forward to enjoying you. But
there is still plenty of time for that, once we’re
alone.”

He dragged her out the
front door, and Jules bit back a scream. The snow was saturated
with blood. And there was a body just a few yards from the front
door, a few feet from her car. Just left there, carelessly. But it
wasn’t Malachi’s. “Let me help him. Please.”

“
I’m afraid we don’t have
time for that, my dear. Pity. It was nothing personal. He just
happened to arrive as I was about to use my key. I was forced to
use my gun instead.”

Jules stumbled in the snow,
right by Mick’s shoulder. Nathanial jerked her back to her feet.
“Keep moving. Or I’ll put another bullet in him, this time in his
head. As it is, Malachi may still find him in time to play the
hero.”

“
What are you going to do
with me?” Had Mick moved? Jules looked at him again. Malachi’s
brother was staring at her. He was awake. Thank God. And he knew
who was responsible. Knew she was there. “Let me just put something
over the wound. Anything. Please?” She didn’t wait for permission,
but grabbed the scarf she still had around her neck and dropped to
her knees. Why hadn’t she taken her coat off once she’d arrived at
Malachi’s earlier? Had she been that caught up in her thoughts of
him? Now she just thanked God she still had it. And the
scarf.

She balled the blue knit
cap up as tightly as she could and pushed it against the wound. She
used her scarf to hold the scarf in place.

Mick was watching her, but
he’d lost so much blood and was losing more fast. “I’m so sorry...”
she whispered to him.

Not that it mattered, Mick
was past the point of hearing her. Was he already gone? Jules
checked for a pulse, and sobbed when she found only a faint
one.

The man pulled her to her
feet by her hair.

Hopefully Malachi would
come home early. Hopefully he’d find his brother in time. Hopefully
the wound wasn’t as severe as it looked. Hopefully…

Dear God, hopefully…this
wouldn’t end for Mick like it had for Bryan.

Nathanial Collins, pushed
her toward his car, a dark sedan she’d seen a few times. So he had
been following them. Why hadn’t she put it together? She wasn’t
stupid, was a fully trained agent. Why hadn’t she seen?

“
Get in. Front seat. I’ll
be cuffing you to the door, so don’t be stupid.”

Jules looked over her
shoulder once. Mick was still there, still dying in the snow. And
Nathanial could end his life with just a single shot. Malachi would
find his brother dead in the snow, and know that he died because of
him. Just like Rick and Bryan had died because she’d wanted to go
shopping for baby things.

Her decision was easy to
make.

She got in the
car.

And nearly screamed when
she saw the dark-haired woman unconscious in the back
seat.

When the driveway was at
last visible Al sighed. Today had been a long day for her even
though she was actually getting off a bit earlier than her usual
four o’clock, culminating in testimony over in Kansas City. Someone
from their team had to give deposition and she’d drawn the short
straw. Everyone else had stayed at PAVAD working cold cases—which
meant
they’d
gotten out even earlier than Al. Probably.
Including Paige. Lucky dog.

Al went in the driveway
slowly, half afraid her brothers hadn’t salted the concrete before
they’d left that morning. The snow had started coming down harder
than ever on Al’s drive home. She hated winter, and half wished
she’d never transferred from her last assignment in Arizona. Still,
when St. Louis had come open she’d jumped at the chance, with at
least one of her brothers was assigned to the field office. She’d
missed her family more than she’d cared about the snow. And now St.
Louis was just home.

Her headlights illuminated
the red stain on the snow. Al slammed the car into park and grabbed
her gun. She knew what that stain was. Had seen too much like it in
nearly that same spot before. Had Lois or Clark been hit by a car?
Sometimes they escaped the fenced backyard, and Border collies—even
well behaved ones—sometimes liked to chase cars. If anything had
happened to those dogs Mal would be devastated.

Her heart froze when she
saw her brother. “Mick!”

She fell to the ground
beside him, still gripping her weapon. He was cold, and had lost a
lot of blood. But thank God there was a pulse. She dialed 911,
reminded of the last time she’d found someone she loved lying
injured in the snow.

Mick opened his eyes. “Al.
Jules.”

“
What?” She looked around,
searching for others hurt or injured. Just like she had done when
she found Paige.

Jules’
car was in
the driveway. Was she inside? Was she dead?

His hand shot out, wrapped
around her wrist. He coughed. “Jules…few minutes…ago. He
took...her.”

Al searched him for the
point of injury, and found it. Beneath a bloodied blue scarf. One
she recognized—her mother had given it to Jules as a gift. Jules
had obviously tried to help Mick. But where was she now?

He hurt. Malachi knew it
would take time for him to get over it. But no matter how much he
loved that woman, he would get over her. Even if he had to force
himself to do it.

But she did love him, he
had no doubt of that. She was just too afraid to ever act on that.
And that was what hurt him the most.

He crossed the bullpen,
headed to file the last of his paperwork on the chessmaster case,
now the
Knight/Brockman case
—copies went into a master paper
file in a general storage room—when someone shouted his name.
Shouting in the bullpen didn’t happen often. That the one yelling
was Ed Dennis had Malachi’s blood freezing in his veins.

Ed wasn’t a
yeller.

Malachi met him halfway.
“What’s wrong?”

“
Your sister called. Your
brother’s been shot and they’re on their way to the hospital. It
doesn’t look good.”

“
Who? How bad?” It was one
of his biggest fears, losing his brother or sister line-of-duty.
How could it not be?

“
Bad. He’s unconscious. But
there’s more...”

How could there be more?
“What?”

“
There’s evidence that
Julia
was at the house when it happened. Al will tell you
more when we get there. I’m sending Fin’s team to your house now,
along with Marianna’s people from forensics.”

***

Malachi only half-breathed
on the eight minute drive to the hospital. Al met them in the
lobby. She threw herself into Malachi’s arms and he held her,
trying to block out the sight of her bloodied blouse. “Oh,
Mal...”

“
Al, tell us.
Mick?”

“
He’s unconscious and has
lost a lot of blood. They were prepping him for surgery. They think
the bullet or bullets are still in him.”

Malachi tried to reassure
himself that his brother was a big man, and had a lot of blood to
lose. Mick was big, strong, and in perfect health.

“
What happened?” Ed asked
from behind Malachi. “Start at the beginning.”

“
There isn’t much. I pulled
in, parked behind Jules’ car. I thought she was inside with
Ruthie.”

“
No. I don’t know why she
was there; she wasn’t supposed to be. Mom has Ruthie. She and Dad
were taking her to see the latest Disney movie.” His parents. Did
they know? “Mom and Dad know?”

“
I called them after I
called PAVAD. They’re safe and on their way.”

“
Where was Julia?” Ed asked
as the waiting room began to fill with agents from PAVAD and the
local field office, and even the local and state police. When an
agent-down call went out there was immediate support. Malachi had
seen it before.

“
I don’t know. She wasn’t
inside, we know that much. But I found her scarf—the one my mother
gave her for Christmas—pressed against the gunshot wound on my
brother. And this was in the snow beside Mick. I didn’t give it to
the responding officers. I didn’t want it going into their evidence
lockup. I know what it means to...”

She dangled something
between them. Malachi immediately recognized it. His grandmother’s
necklace. But what froze his heart were the three rings hanging
with it. He reached for those rings. “It was in the snow? She
wouldn’t…”

“
Beside what I think were
knee prints in the snow, right beside where I think she knelt.
Mal...there was an awful lot of blood in the snow. I’m not sure it
was all Mick’s.” Al wrapped her fingers around his where he
clutched the trio of rings.

Rings that meant so much to
Julia. No, she wouldn’t have just left them, not purposefully.
She’d done so deliberately, so he would know. So he would realize
she was in trouble. And he’d failed her.

“
Excuse me? Miss?” A male
police officer interrupted and Malachi turned toward him. Al
answered.

The police officer
continued. “Do you know the possible significance of these? One was
found near your brother, and these two were found inside your home,
on your table.”

In his palm rested a clear
evidence bag. Containing black and white chess pieces.

Malachi’s curse had
everyone in the waiting room looking his way. “
He’s
got
her!”

Ed grabbed him by the
shoulder. “We’ll find her, son. I swear. We won’t stop until we
do.”