Vow to Protect (13 page)

For the first time in his life, he could actually hope.

The pitch of the boat's engine dropped, slowing as if approaching a dock. Scooping in one more glance at Mel's face and breath of her scent, he slipped out of the cabin and found his way to the deck.

Bryce Walker sat alone behind the wheel. He
piloted the vessel along a row of houses and through the no-wake zone leading to a park—a different park than where they had boarded the boat last night. McCaskey and Diana stood at the end of the pier that ran alongside the boat landing.

Cord stepped up behind Walker. “What's going on?” he yelled over the engine.

Walker whipped around. Seeing Cord, he let out a relieved breath and turned his focus back to the approaching pier. “Change of plans.”

So Walker was as tense as he was. “I see that. Why?”

“Reed's call. That's all I know.”

They closed the distance to the pier. Grabbing one of the tie lines, McCaskey pulled the boat close, and he and Diana climbed aboard.

“Take us out,” McCaskey said to Walker. “I don't want to take any chances.”

The bad feeling that had assaulted Cord at the first sound of the engine grew stronger. Something had happened. Something big.

After heading out to deeper water and rounding a peninsula, McCaskey held up a hand. Walker set the anchor and switched off the engine, and the four of them took seats on the horseshoe bench where Melanie and Cord had made love just a short time ago.

Cord focused on McCaskey, trying not to think
of what he and Mel had shared. As wonderful as their night together had been, as warm as the hope was blossoming in his imagination, they wouldn't be able to share anything unless the problem of Dryden Kane could be solved. He had to stay focused or he wouldn't have to worry about the future. He wouldn't have one.

None of them would. “What happened?”

McCaskey leaned forward, elbows on knees. “We found another body.”

Walker sat back in the bench and raked a hand through his brown hair. “Kane's handiwork?” He looked tired, as if Kane's relentless evil was getting to him, wearing him out.

McCaskey gave a nod.

Cord balled his hands into fists. It was hard enough to protect Melanie, Ethan and his sisters. It was impossible to protect every woman in the area. Kane would always be one step ahead of police. That's why Nikki Valducci's idea of setting a trap for him had made so much sense. “So are you ready to help Kane with his reception?”

McCaskey's head dipped. When he returned his gaze to Cord's, his jaw was hard with determination. “Yes. But we have a slight change.”

“Change? Why?”

“The body we found. It was Janet Blankenship's.”

Foreboding slid through Cord's veins.

Walker looked from one to the other. “Are you planning to fill me in? Who's Janet Blankenship?”

“Her car followed us last night.”

“Her car.” Walker nodded, mental wheels turning. “So it was Kane behind the wheel.”

McCaskey gave a nod.

“He didn't see the boat, did he?” Walker asked.

“He kept going on the highway when we turned off,” McCaskey explained. “He must have realized we'd spotted him. But he might have recognized the car in the parking lot. From there he could have figured out we were out on the water. Whatever he knows or suspects, he came too close.”

Cord shook his head. “An understatement. It's like the bastard is invisible or something. Like he can go anywhere he damn well pleases.”

“You ready to move up the timetable, Turner?”

“Hell, yeah.” But he had the creeping feeling that moving up the timetable wasn't going to be enough. “What do you have in mind?”

“You get off the boat with me back at the park. Nikki will drop off a rental car at a different location for Melanie and Ethan later this afternoon.”

“Why the change?”

“If Kane does suspect we're using a boat, I don't want him to be able to figure out where that boat will dock. And I want to keep him busy during the
time Melanie and Ethan fly out. I moved their flight to this evening.”

“When I'll be meeting Kane. I'm the decoy.”

“Exactly.”

So the time to leave was already here. Cold burrowed into his chest. He sucked in a breath, trying to push the sensation away. He couldn't think of what could have been or even what might be in the future. He had to concentrate. He had to pull off this wedding reception plan. The future of everyone on this boat hinged on that.

“Meredith Unger told you the flowers and cake would be ready by four, right?”

“Right. And from there, I'll receive instructions about where to take them.”

Reed nodded. “Okay. As soon as you know the location, you tell me. Kane might be watching you, so don't use your cell phone. Just talk into this.” He pulled a small microphone from his briefcase.

“I wear that?”

“It clips to your shirt. You won't be able to hear us, but we can hear you.”

Cord took the tiny device between thumb and forefinger. “What about an earpiece to go with it? Don't you have something tiny that would fit into my ear? They have them on television.”

“Detectives on TV can solve complicated crimes in an hour, too.”

“Work on that, will ya?”

“Sure thing.”

Cord let out a chuckle. If someone had told him just a few days ago that he would be spending a Sunday morning sitting on a small yacht joking around with a cop, he wouldn't have believed it. But the levity felt good. As if he wasn't about to embark on a potential suicide mission.

Cord forced his mind back to Kane's reception. “So once I tell you the location, what are you going to do?”

“Madison's SWAT and the county's TRT will search the surrounding buildings, and we hope to find out where Kane is before you arrive.”

“That's not going to work. Kane has to have thought of that. He's going to be gone as soon as he sees the first blue vest.”

Diana sat forward on the bench and nodded. “He's right, Reed. You just don't want to hear it.”

“I don't want a repeat of last time.”

“It worked.”

“We were lucky. I don't want whether you live or die to be decided by luck this time.”

Cord shook his head. Obviously McCaskey and Diana's discussion was still going on this morning—a discussion that must have started with her experience with Kane in Banesbridge Prison. “We decided this last night. I go. Alone.”

Diana shook her blond head. “Meredith Unger said you were supposed to bring us with you.”

“I don't care what she said. I'm not bringing either of you. I'll face Kane alone.”

Walker held up his hands. “Whoa. You're not going to walk in without police, are you?”

“Damn straight, I am. As soon as Kane sees cops, he's gone.” He held up a hand to silence his sister before she started. “And there's no reason to risk your life, Diana. Kane chose me because he thought he could use me to get to you. I think it's a bad idea to do anything Kane wants. Don't you?”

She frowned and leaned back.

“You're a good man, Turner.” McCaskey gave him a nod that conveyed respect and admiration and gratitude all at once. The type of nod Cord had never gotten from anyone but Mel, certainly not from a cop. “You pick up the flowers and cake, then head to wherever the hell Kane sends you. As soon as we hear from you, we'll be ready to roll.”

Since McCaskey's little speech that night in the hotel, Cord had tried not to think too much about killing Kane. He couldn't avoid it any longer. Every time he turned around, Kane was right next to him. Every time he took a breath, Kane was within striking distance of Mel and Ethan, Diana and Sylvie. Today it was all going to end. What
ever it took. “As soon as I learn his location, I'll let you know where to pick him up.” And if he had to pump a couple of bullets into the serial killer's skull to restrain him until police arrived, so be it.

Melanie let the hot water cascade over her in the boat's cramped shower, rinsing off shampoo and soap as quickly as she could. The boat's motor thrummed through the cabin like a steady heartbeat. She couldn't believe she'd slept so long. She'd been tired, exhausted really, but that didn't make sleeping until midmorning a good idea. When she awoke, the bed next to her was empty. Cord was already up.

She jumped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. Just the thought of Cord brought a smile to her lips. Her body was deliciously sore from their time on the deck together. And for a moment she just stood in the steam, reliving the feelings. The rasp of Cord's stubbled chin on her tender breasts. The thrust of him inside her, stretching her, completing her.

She wanted to see him. The need to talk to him
this morning pressed down upon her like a gnawing hunger. Soon she and Ethan would be flying out. Until then she wanted to be with Cord every second she could.

She walked back into the cabin where Ethan still slept. After she was dressed, she'd wake him. She hated to do it. They'd gotten so little sleep lately, they would have to sleep away the first two days of Disney World to catch up.

She stepped to the corner where Cord had piled their duffel bags. Reaching for hers, she realized something was missing. Her bag was there. And Ethan's.

But Cord's was gone.

He was supposed to take them to the airport before he lured Kane to the police trap. So why was his bag missing?

She pulled on a light sweater and clean pair of jeans. Shoving her feet into shoes, she struggled to remain calm.

He wouldn't leave. Not without saying goodbye.

She closed the door of the cabin and raced up the stairs to the deck. A cool breeze hit her face. The scent of autumn lurked in the air even though the trees were still summer-green. She scanned the deck, her gaze landing on the group assembled in the bow of the boat. Gripping the rail, she made her way toward them.

The boat closed in on the shore. A different park from last night. Bryce shut off the boat's engine, letting the forward momentum carry them to the dock.

Melanie reached Cord just as he prepared to get off the boat. “You're leaving?”

He turned around fast, as if he'd been caught doing something he knew was wrong.

“You were going to leave without saying goodbye?” She couldn't believe it. She looked at Reed standing with Cord. Bryce and Cord's sisters stood to the side, obviously not planning to disembark. “What's going on?”

Cord focused on her with serious eyes. “That car following us last night. It was Kane.”

She sucked in a breath. “Does he know where we are?”

“There's a chance,” Reed said. “So I booked you a later flight.”

Cord nodded. “A flight that leaves while Kane is meeting me.”

The details shifted and fell into place. “So this is goodbye.” The last word caught in her throat, almost too painful to say.

Cord glanced at Reed. “I need a few minutes.”

Reed nodded.

Taking her hand, Cord led her to the back of the boat where they were alone.

She leaned against the back rail, propping herself against the cold steel for support. She knew that after last night, saying goodbye to Reed today was going to be tough. But at least she'd thought she would have a little time to work up to the moment. “What about Ethan? What should I tell him?”

“I suppose you should tell him the truth.”

He was right. She couldn't lie to her son. Not after all they'd been through. But she would have to choose her words carefully. He was still only ten years old. Too young to deal with the fear of knowing what his newly discovered father was about to face.

She wasn't sure she could deal with it. “Do you really have to do this? I mean, isn't there another way?”

“I have to end this, Mel. I'm not going to take the chance that Kane will reach you. Any of you. I have to stop him now.”

She studied his squared shoulders, the hard set of his mouth, the regret in his eyes. A tremble filled her, making her feel sick, making her feel weak. “You don't have to take him on yourself, though, right? Reed will be there. The SWAT team.”

He hesitated, then nodded.

Why the hesitation? What was he not saying? “The police
are
going to be with you the whole time, aren't they Cord?”

“They'll be there.”

“But not the whole time?”

“Kane is not going to hurt me. That I can promise you.”

“Because you're going to hurt him first?”

“If I have to.”

If he had to. That was self-defense, right? The only problem was that she knew Cord. She knew how he'd handled things before. On his own. Not trusting others. He'd been working with Reed the last few days, working with the police, but that didn't mean he'd changed. It didn't mean he wouldn't take things into his own hands again. “I don't want to lose you again. Not to Kane and not to prison.”

“I know. I don't want to lose you, either. Or Ethan. That's why I have to do whatever it takes.”

Even if Kane isn't an imminent threat? Even if the law sees it as murder?

She couldn't panic. She couldn't jump to conclusions. She couldn't expect the worst of Cord before even giving him a chance. Wasn't that what his mother had always done? Wasn't that what Mel herself had done with Ethan? She'd expected the worst without really giving him a chance. Without trusting him.

If she really loved Cord, she would have to trust him.

She reached a shaking hand to Cord's shoulder.
She stroked his neck with her fingertips. “Remember us, okay? You have a bright future.
We
have a bright future together. Come back to us.”

His eyes glistened. Swallowing hard, he nodded. “I love you, Mel.”

“I love you too, Cord. And I trust you to do the right thing. I believe in you. Please believe in yourself, too.”

He leaned down and fit his lips to hers. And when the kiss was done, he turned and walked to the front of the boat without looking back.

“Goodbye, Cord,” she whispered. Then she headed back to the cabin.

Back to her son.

 

N
IKKI
V
ALDUCCI KNEW ENOUGH
not to ask why Reed wanted her to drop off a rental car at the University of Wisconsin's Memorial Union. She didn't want to know. Not with the investigation into the media leak at the police department.

She felt horrible about the suspicion coming down on Stan Perreth's head. God knew the detective was a prick with a capitol
P,
but he wasn't responsible for the leak. She knew it.

Because she was.

She switched off the car's ignition and leaned her head against the steering wheel. Of course, the whole thing had backfired horribly. She'd done it
to catch Kane, not help him. She'd used the media to draw him to the police so they could nail the son of a bitch. But no one would believe that now.

She'd been trying to be the hero. She'd been trying to skirt around Reed's stubborn refusal to do anything proactive to nail Kane.

And she'd screwed the pooch.

Her head ached and her stomach writhed, but there was nothing she could do about it now. Nothing but do everything she could to make sure Reed's plan was successful.

That and pray the leak investigation dried up as thoroughly as the Brewers' World Series hopes.

She opened the door. If Reed asked her to drop off a car and hike back to State Street to meet her ride, it was the least she could do. She stepped a foot onto the pavement and started to climb out.

A hand grabbed her wrist.

She reached for her gun. Cold pierced through her right shoulder.
A knife.
Cutting. Slashing. Pain jetted down her arm. She tried to grip the gun. Tried to pull it from her holster, but her fingers wouldn't grip.

He must have severed ligaments. Nerves. Damn, damn, damn. How had she let herself get so distracted? How had she been so deep in her own thoughts that she hadn't seen him?

It didn't matter. Screw him. She wasn't going down without a fight.

She brought her left elbow back and hard into his gut.

Air exploded from his mouth. His grip on her left wrist tightened, he jammed her hand back.

The bones crunched as they snapped. Pain seared up her left arm and spun in her mind. Hot. Cold.

She threw her body toward him, slamming her forehead against his. The force stung her mind and vibrated down her neck.

He stumbled back. For a second he released her shattered wrist.

She brought her knee up.

He blocked her with his thigh, but the blow still brought a grunt.

She didn't hesitate. She launched into him again, battering with her useless hands, driving her boot into his shin.

He shoved her, back against the car. Clutching at her waist, he pulled out her gun. He thrust the barrel against her head.

She froze and looked at him for the first time. It could have been a mugger. A rapist. But somehow she knew it wasn't. Without looking, without thinking, she'd known her attacker was Dryden Kane.

His cold blue eyes stared at her, inches away. His minty breath fanned her cheek. He had dyed his hair again, this time blond, and shaved his
beard, but she couldn't help recognizing the face she'd been obsessed with for more than a year.

The face she'd planned to build her career on. “I'm a cop, you bastard.”

“Should I be afraid?”

She scanned the parking lot with her periphery vision, trying to spot someone, anyone who could help. A group of girls headed along the lake on their way to the Union Terrace. A few others made their way down Langdon toward State Street. No one seemed to notice the serial killer, the gun at her head. It was as if they were invisible.

Or maybe the kids were too scared to risk getting involved.

She looked straight at him. If he wanted to see fear from her, he was out of luck. If he wanted her to beg for her life and scream loud enough to turn him on, he'd come to the wrong woman. She glanced at the bruise blooming on his forehead and smiled. “You're going down, Kane.”

“I see what you mean. My situation looks pretty dire, doesn't it?” He gave her a shove, pushing her into the car and facedown on the console between the bucket seats. He shoved his knee into her back and leaned on her with all his weight.

Pain shot up her spine. She sucked in a breath and tensed her abdominal muscles, trying to compensate for the downward pressure.

“The people in this town are so damn dumb. They don't think anything can hurt them. They're looking at us now and thinking that we're playing some sort of sex game. And you know what? They're right.” He rummaged at her waist and pulled out her handcuffs. Wrenching each arm behind her back, he tightened them down.

Pain rocketed through her broken wrist and up her arm. She breathed hard through her mouth, in and out like a woman in heavy labor.

“It's not just the people who are so damn dumb. You cops think you can fool me? You think you can dangle a little meat in front of me and I'll bite like some kind of animal?”

The trap Reed and Cord Turner had set. He must be talking about the trap.

“You cops are so predictable. Always trying to get something for nothing. I name a location, and you all jump. But McCaskey can't bring himself to take a risk. He can't bring himself to bait his trap with something I really want.”

He let up on the knee. Grabbing a handful of hair, he pulled, lifting Nikki up and forcing her into the passenger seat. He climbed behind the wheel. “I knew he wouldn't risk letting Cordell bring Diana to me. I knew he would try to outsmart me. Idiot. Hasn't he figured out anything?”

Her scalp stung. Her wrist throbbed, pinched
behind her against the seat. Pain rushed hot and real into her shoulder.

“All I had to do was watch. All I had to do was wait for someone to make a move. McCaskey. You.”

So he'd targeted her. He'd been following her from the very beginning.

“All I had to do was keep my eye on the ball. Or should I say, the boat?” He looked out at the lake, calm and black in the dusk. “Who are you meeting here, Detective Valducci?”

She clamped her mouth shut. She wouldn't tell him even if she knew.

“I know it's not Cordell. He's setting his pitiful trap. Could it be my grandson? Could it be Sylvie or her husband the counselor?” He smacked his lips. “Or is it Diana? Daddy's little girl.”

Nikki thought she might throw up. “You are one sick bastard.”

He gave her hair a yank.

A groan escaped from her lips despite her efforts to choke it back.

“Does that hurt?” The glow of excitement lit his face, though his eyes were dead and cold as ever.

He was trying to scare her. Hurt her. Fear and pain and domination. That's what he got off on. She set her chin. He wasn't going to get off on her. “It just takes my mind off the other pain. I hope you're not waiting for a scream. I hate to disappoint.”

He leaned close to her ear, as if ready to whisper an intimate secret. “Try this.” He took her lobe between his teeth and bit down.

She could hear the layers of skin pop. Heat trickled sticky down her neck.

He pulled back and watched her face as if soaking in her expression. Her blood glistened on his lips. “Who are you meeting? Diana? Sylvie? The boy and his hot little mother?”

Pain screamed through her nerves, so loud it made her numb. He could do whatever he wanted, but she wasn't going to tell him a thing. She'd already helped him when she hadn't intended to. She wasn't going to help him knowingly, not even to save her own skin. “Go to hell, you miserable, inadequate worm.”

A vein throbbed on the side of his neck, but his expression still didn't change.

It didn't matter. She knew she'd hit bone. She'd lived and breathed this bastard for too long not to know how to hurt him. And if she hurt him badly enough, maybe he would forget to wonder why she was here. Maybe he would drive her to some remote location to prove his manliness
before
Diana or Sylvie or Melanie and the kid arrived for the car.