When I Find You: A Trust No One Novel (31 page)

Walker would find her. He didn’t give up when he was following her on that mountain near Tillamook, and he wouldn’t give up this time either. She took comfort in that, although how he was going to find her she couldn’t imagine. He was forty miles away, looking for her in the forest. Against all odds, he’d found her once. Would he be able to do it again? A tingle of fear coursed through her at the memory of him facing her in camouflage and battle gear, his cold eyes gradually warming with concern. He was a warrior—but he was
her
warrior. The realization came with a shock, even as the possessiveness born in that instant engulfed her and chased the icy fear from her heart. He’d found her once—he
would
find her again.

Gingerly, she slipped the jagged ceramic fragment she’d plucked from the floor out of her sleeve and turned it in her fingers so she could work on the rope binding her wrists. Her plan didn’t go beyond that. Even if she managed to free herself, she had no phone, and Cooper would be watching for her to make another run for it. It didn’t matter. She’d be ready if given an opportunity. There had to be a way to let Walker know where she was. She just had to think of it.

After Cooper put a makeshift bandage on his wound, he took out his cell phone and came to stand in front of her. “We’ll call Walker now. I’ll put it on speaker so you’ll know exactly how worried he is about you. If he asks real nice, I’ll let you say a few words, but if you try to tell him where we are, you’ll be dead long before he shows up. Got it?”

Darcy nodded and tried to hide her excitement. She would get to talk to Walker. She’d been thinking of nothing else since this madman secured her to the chair. He dialed the phone and after two rings, Walker’s voice almost undid her resolve not to cry.

“Cooper, I was hoping you’d bled to death by now.”

“You should hope I stay healthy if you ever want to see your girlfriend again. You might even want to put one of those deals back on the table.”

“I’ll need some proof she’s alive. I can’t just take your word for it.”

“Of course.” Cooper moved the phone closer to her. “She’s right here. I’ll see if she wants to talk to you.”

She waited for Cooper to remove the gag, but he wrapped his hand in her hair and yanked on it cruelly, then jerked the gag from her mouth. The cry escaped her before she could stop it.

“Cooper, if you hurt her again, you’ll wish I would kill you,” Walker growled.

Her captor laughed but soon grew serious. “Say something to the man, sweetheart.”

Darcy groaned, then cleared her throat. “Walker, I tried to get away. The ground was just too wet . . . and squishy. I’m sorry to be so much trouble.” Her throat hurt, making her voice thick and raspy, and she didn’t dare hope he’d understand what she was trying to tell him.

“Your trouble is my trouble. Remember, Darcy?”

“Very touching.” Cooper pulled the phone back toward him and stared at her. “I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know where to meet me. If you want Darcy back alive, you’re going to kill Johnny for me.”

“No!” Horror twisted her stomach in knots. “Don’t do it, Walker. You can’t. I mean it. Please . . .”

Cooper shoved the gag back in her mouth and cinched it down tight. “Women . . . so emotional. Do we have a deal?”

“We’ve got a deal, but let’s get it done today. Why wait until tomorrow?”

“Patience, Walker. What are another few hours?”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Y
ES!”
W
ALKER SMILED
in spite of the frustration and fear that still gripped him. His friends watched him with no small amount of worry on their faces. Rightfully so. If not for one thing Darcy said, he’d be breathing fire right now. He grinned, and by the glances Joe and Cara exchanged, they no doubt thought he was losing his mind. Johnny looked on in silence.

“Let’s get going. I know where she is.” Walker started for the chopper.

“How?” Confusion reflected in Joe’s eyes.

“She told me. The entrance to your safe room . . . when I showed her, she said it was squishy. I gave her a hard time about her choice of words.”

Joe nodded. “He took her back to my house.”

“Yep. We’re going to need ground transport to get up on that hill. I don’t want to spook him with the chopper.”

Walker fumed and forced himself to be patient while they hunted up a car rental outlet and secured their transportation. The time seemed to drag, but thirty minutes later they were on the road.

“Do you have a plan?” Joe leaned toward him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Working on it.” Walker darted his gaze toward the back where Johnny sat beside Cara. Darcy’s reaction to the possibility he might kill her boss had been fierce and immediate. Would she forgive him? Probably not, but it didn’t matter. He’d gladly trade her friendship for her life. The point wasn’t worth arguing, but if they could surprise Cooper and take him out without endangering Darcy, maybe it wouldn’t come to that.

“We’ll set up surveillance outside . . . try to find out where they are in the house. If we can separate them, we’ll go in and get Cooper while Johnny and Cara get Darcy out. I wish we had some sophisticated surveillance equipment.”

Joe looked at him with a Cheshire grin. “My friend, I’ve got a little surprise for you.”

D
ARCY FLINCHED, THEN
bit her lip as she glanced at Cooper. Had he noticed anything? She’d worked the jagged strip of pottery against the rope for over an hour and all she’d managed to do was scrape the skin off her wrist several times. As far as she could tell, the rope was as sound as ever.

“If I untie you to eat, will you behave yourself?” Cooper set two bowls of soup on the table.

She nodded and quickly concealed the contraband under the cuff of her sleeve again. He moved behind her, released her hands, and pulled the gag from her mouth.

“I need to use the bathroom.” She stretched her arms above her head.

“You can wait.”

“No, I really can’t.”

He glared at her for a moment. “Aw, shit. You’re more trouble than you’re worth. I’ll be glad to be rid of you.” Retrieving a knife from the kitchen counter, he severed the tape that held her legs in place. “There’s nowhere for you to go that I can’t find you.”

“You won’t mind if I test that, will you?”

“Go ahead. Let’s see what happens.” He sank the knife blade into the table with a vicious thrust and laughed as she shrank back. “Use the john down the hall, and I’ll be watching the front door. If you’d like to live through the night, don’t try anything.”

Darcy almost skipped from the room and down the hallway. What a stroke of luck that he hadn’t thought it necessary to escort her. Thank goodness Walker had insisted she not tell Cooper about the safe room. At the bathroom door, she rested one hand on the knob, glanced toward the kitchen, then turned and bolted the twenty feet to the study. At the far wall, she drew up, slowly running her hand across and then up until she felt the squishy texture she remembered, and pushed as hard as she could.

Nothing happened.

Sweat ran down her back, and her breathing came quicker as her heart pounded out of control. Breathe—in slowly and out. She concentrated on just that until a semblance of calm returned. Fear and panic would not spoil the only opportunity she would have to escape. She could do this. The sound of Cooper pushing his chair back in the kitchen spiked her heart rate again. With another deep breath, she closed her eyes and envisioned Walker standing behind her, his fingers laced through hers, patiently waiting while she found the spot that would open the secret door. Eyes still closed, she raised her hand and began again.

Footsteps echoed down the hall. She tried to block them out, her attention on the wall in front of her. Across, until the texture felt right, then up. Find the soft spot and press. Silently, the door slid open.

“Darcy, time’s up.” Down the hall, Cooper knocked on the bathroom door before he pushed it open. “Goddamn it, I warned you.” His footsteps hesitated in the hallway before they moved quickly toward the study door.

Darcy slipped through the opening and down the dark stairs, holding her breath until the door sealed shut behind her. Did he see her? Did the door close in time?

Fifteen . . . sixteen . . . seventeen steps . . . the lights dispelled the darkness, and she pushed through the narrow corridor until the safe room opened up before her. She’d made it. What was more, she could watch to see what Cooper would do next from the safety of this room. She stepped to the bank of monitors and flicked them on.

Her stomach tightened in dread as soon she saw Cooper in the study, moving slowly from wall to wall as he scrutinized the bookshelf, the fireplace and the pictures. He stayed the longest in front of the girl looking out at the ocean, a hand shielding her eyes from the sun—the painting that hung above the secret entrance. Finding nothing, he moved away only to return twice more.

It was just a matter of time. He would have seen her if she’d left the house through a door, heard her if she’d broken a window. The bathroom, a small utility room, and the study were the only rooms in the corridor. Her heart sank as he began knocking on the walls. Would the empty space behind the secret door give her hiding place away? The gloating expression on his face answered her question, and she saw his lips move. She couldn’t hear what he said, but his meaning was quite clear.

With growing fear, she watched him leave the room, then stared at the monitors until he appeared again, passed the stairs, and opened the door to the garage. He disappeared from one monitor, only to appear on another and stopped in front of a tool rack where he selected a vicious-looking axe.

Her breath caught in her throat. He was going to break through the wall, and this time she was sure he would kill her. She’d already talked to Walker and proved she was alive. Cooper didn’t need her anymore. Fear clawed at her throat. Grappling for control, she took deep breaths, counted slowly to five, and pushed back against the panic. She wouldn’t give up without a fight.

There had to be something here she could use as a weapon. Her Walther P22 was on the nightstand by her bed upstairs. She’d left it there in her haste to meet Johnny this morning. Was it only just this morning? Was it really last night she and Walker made love? She shook her head, dismissing the sensual images that flooded her mind.

She flew to the gun cabinet and turned the handle. Locked. What was the combination Walker had given her? She tried two different sets of numbers before the first blow of the axe splintered wood at the top of the stairs. Frantically, her gaze raked the room and finally fell on the books on the headboard, held between heavy cast iron bookends shaped like dragons.

The axe fell again.

Hefting one of the figurines, she considered its weight and decided it would have to do. She flipped the monitors off, followed by the lights, except for the ones that lit up the stairwell. He would only see blackness beyond the stairs, but she’d be able to see him. It wasn’t much of an advantage, but she’d take whatever she could get. A strange calm settled over her as she pressed her back against the wall just inside the safe room and waited.

The blows were coming quicker now, wood splintering and Cooper grunting. He’d be through the wall soon and down the stairs. Darcy would only get one chance, and she’d have to be right on top of him to make her blow count. She moved the dragon from one hand to the next, drying her sweaty palms.

The axe stopped falling. She waited to hear his footsteps on the stairs, but the room was silent. Where was he? Why did he stop? She longed to rush to the monitors, turn them on, and find out where he was, but she couldn’t leave her hiding place now. He would come. She knew he would.

Each minute stretched agonizingly to the next. Her arm muscles protested their long siege, holding the heavy bookend at the ready. When she could no longer stand the silence that suffocated her, she lifted her foot to take a step forward but stopped midstride. A loose board creaked. The shuffle of unseen feet. She stiffened, cocking her head to get a handle on where the sound came from.

Abruptly, the twisting and tearing of splintering wood preceded heavy footfalls rushing down the stairs. With no time to think, Darcy raised her weapon. As soon as Cooper’s head and torso passed the entryway, she swung with all her strength. At the last second, his arm came up and deflected the blow.

He staggered back but grabbed for her and missed as she scooted away and raised the dragon again. “Uh-oh, what are you going to do now, Darcy? You had surprise on your side, but you blew it. That hunk of metal won’t do you much good from over there. I’ve got a gun, so I don’t need to get close enough to give you another chance with that thing. I can kill you from here. The question is—do you want to live or not?”

Light from the stairwell threw half shadows across his face while semidarkness swallowed the rest of the room. The silky tendrils of his evil words drifted across the intervening space and seemed to tighten around her throat, impeding her already labored breathing. God, she was so tired. How much longer could she fight to stay alive? She’d eventually lose anyway. For just a second, she wanted to give up—probably would have if he hadn’t picked that moment to rush her. She only had time to raise the bookend over her head and bring it down on his back as he tackled her and sent them both sprawling on the floor. The next instant, he sat on her. One hand held her arms down while the other drew back in a fist to punch her. Unable to move, she closed her eyes and braced herself.

As if from somewhere far away, there were more footsteps. She must be losing it—dreaming, but the dream was better than her reality, so why fight it? Abruptly, Cooper’s weight lifted off her and a strangled sound escaped his clenched teeth. She sat up and pushed herself against the wall, the bookend clutched to her chest. It took a couple of seconds to make sense of the scene before her.

Walker flung Cooper against the adjacent wall, stripped the gun from his hand, and let it clatter to the floor, then grabbed him by the throat. Judging by the gurgling noises emitted by the fake deputy and the way his hands clawed ineffectually at the ones that pinned him, Walker was enraged and dead serious. He was going to kill Cooper. Joe stood a few feet away, but made no move to intervene. Fear for Walker overcame everything else. She dropped the bookend, scrambled to her feet, and stumbled toward them.