H
eadlights off, Alex followed tire marks through the snow, wishing the girl from the motel had been driving something more substantial than a compact. The rear end kept sliding in the six inches of fresh snow that covered the ground. He corrected the skid, and then again as he forced himself to slow down going up the single-lane track through the bush. He got to a narrow spot between dense bush and stopped, getting out and locking the vehicle to block the guy’s escape.
He
jogged up the road, sweat starting to form on his back. Up ahead was a tidy looking cabin built in the middle of nowhere that his GPS told him was where Deputy Sheriff Leo Chance lived. On the southern tip of the forest that bordered both the McCaffertys’ property and Mallory’s dad’s estate. It had previously belonged to Leo’s uncle who’d died in a farming accident six months after Payton Rooney had been taken. Leo had been seventeen and the only witness to the man’s death. Alex didn’t think it was a coincidence.
He listened for a moment but the silence told him no one was here.
There was a police cruiser parked to one side, and an SUV with the trunk wide open, a thin layer of snow coating the black carpet inside. Several sets of footprints led in and out of the cabin, and also into the woods. Instinct made him want to search the woods first but the cabin made more sense. First, he quietly disabled the SUV by disconnecting the battery and did the same with the patrol car. It would slow the bastard down, and all he needed was one clear shot.
He tried the cabin door, which was unlocked. Inside he found a meticulously neat ho
me. Big ass TV. Men’s clothes in the dresser. Men’s size twelve shoes near the door. He cleared each room. There was no attic, no basement. No “guest” room.
There was a noise outside the front door and Alex moved into position ready to take the fucker out.
Supervisory Special Agent Frazer stepped inside the cabin, gun drawn.
“
Don’t shoot,” said Alex, moving into view.
Frazer lowered his weapon.
“Where’s Rooney?”
“
I’m not sure.” Alex ignored his dry mouth, pulled out his cell phone and tried dialing. No reply from Mallory and no tracking data. Shit. “What are you doing here?”
“
Mallory called Hanrahan who is on his way here in a chopper along with Senator Tremont.” Frazer sounded pissed. “I was on my way to visit Kari Regent, hoping to get more information out of her when Hanrahan said Mallory had identified Deputy Leo Chance as the PR-killer and to get my ass out here.”
So she’d got his text about Leo.
Good
. At least she knew who she was dealing with. Alex wondered what else she’d told Hanrahan but right now, as long as the FBI didn’t try to stop him, it didn’t matter.
“Where are the locals?”
Frazer narrowed his gaze along that fine blade of a nose. “I don’t know if they’d take my word or warn the son-of-a-bitch.”
“You didn’t tell them?”
Frazer shook his head.
“
We need to search the woods.”
“
We should probably wait for back-up.”
“
And yet you’re already here, Agent Frazer. Hero complex?”
“
Just want to catch a killer, Parker.”
He moved past Frazer.
“Then let’s go.”
Frazer gave him an assessing stare as he followed him outside.
“Who the hell are you? Really?”
Cold
air hit him afresh. Mallory wasn’t dressed for a winter storm. His fault. He’d fucked up and never expected her to Taser him. He’d smile if he wasn’t so damn scared he’d never see her again. “I’ll tell you everything
after
we find Mallory.”
“
Fine.” Frazer followed him out of the cabin. “What makes Mallory think Leo Chance is the PR-killer?”
“
Kari Regent ID’d him as the killer.” That gave him an idea. He called the bodyguard standing outside Kari’s room. “I need you to ask Kari a couple of questions for me. Did he keep her in a building?”
The bodyguard relayed the questions.
“No. She wrote ‘underground’.”
“
Underground? Like in a mine shaft?”
The bodyguard
answered, his voice gruff. “No, she says in a chamber, in the woods.”
It turned Alex
’s stomach to think about what she’d endured. He hung up and turned to Frazer. “He’s got some sort of underground hidey-hole out here. We need to find it.”
The
footprints through the snow were their best bet. Alex walked to the side of the tracks, trying to preserve the integrity of the evidence. Frazer was in dress shoes but didn’t baulk. He went up a tiny notch in Alex’s estimation.
“
I did a little digging on the drive over from the hospital. Leo inherited this place from his uncle and moved in when he was seventeen. Never left the area, never went on vacation until January this year when he went to Cancun. Guess what else turned up in Cancun at the same time?”
Frazer raised his brow.
“Couple of dead brunettes.”
Away from the cabin they were plunged into
a snow-lit darkness and neither had a flashlight. They moved cautiously. Mallory was somewhere nearby with this sonofabitch. He knew it. He could feel them out there in the darkness. What would happen if she shot the guy in cold blood and Frazer witnessed it? He grimaced because the idea of them both being on the run held a grim appeal and he didn’t want her to have to live like that. And not that she’d want him now, not after he’d lied to her about something so horrific.
But she wouldn
’t kill this bastard. She might think she would, she would be tempted, but Alex recognized her pure heart. She was a good person. An amazing person. He was not. He’d kill anyone who got in the way of protecting Mallory, which made him no better than the scum he hunted.
He heard someone cry out and they started moving swiftly through the woods
toward the sound. He pulled Frazer to a stop and listened intently. To have any hope of surprise they needed to circle around and approach from the other side. And they needed to do it quietly because he wasn’t about to watch the woman he loved die at the hands of a maniac.
***
The sensation of wetness seeping into her clothes roused Mallory from her daze. Someone grabbed at her wrists and started binding them together. No way. She leveraged her legs up and kicked him hard in the balls, twisting and springing to her feet. He toppled face-first to the ground and she used one foot to immobilize an arm, her other foot pressing hard across the side of his throat, both her hands grabbing his other wrist, twisting his arm behind his back.
He started to buck and she pressed harder
with her foot, cutting off his air supply. The flashlight he’d dropped on the ground showed his features half-buried in snow, contorted as he started to choke.
“
How do
you
like it, Leo?”
Maybe Alex was right. Maybe vengeance was the only form of
true justice in a world full of sadists and killers who showed no mercy to those under their control. She pressed her foot down harder, watched him gasp for air as his lips started to turn cyanotic. Hatred surged inside her. This was a fraction of the pain and suffering he’d caused. He went still and silent. Crap. She released the pressure, thankful when he drew in a shallow breath. A flash of realization shot through her and she shuddered in relief. She didn’t want him dead. Personal retribution wasn’t her idea of justice. The idea of the government sanctioning such a thing was unbelievable, but she already knew the CIA and NSA, even the military, did things she’d never condone.
So, i
f Alex was telling the truth, what did it make him—vigilante or soldier?
S
he spotted her gun in the snow and grabbed it before Leo Chance decided he had nothing left to lose by fighting back. She pointed it at the man who lay hacking in the snow. Finger on the trigger.
“
Don’t do it, Mallory.” A quiet voice in the darkness.
Alex
. He’d come for her when he should have run. “He isn’t worth a piece of your soul.”
She barked out a laugh to cover her sorrow.
“A little ironic coming from a government assassin don’t you think?”
“
I understand the cost better than most.” Alex walked up to her.
She swore when she saw Frazer behind him.
Sent Alex a wry smile as if her heart wasn’t shattered. “Guess I blew your cover, huh?”
“
I promised to tell him everything after we found you anyway. I told you I wasn’t going anywhere.” Leo Chance lay on the ground panting and cradling his neck. He watched them carefully between slitted eyes. “Want me to kill him for you?”
“
Frazer?” she joked. Frazer’s eyes went wide at her quip. If she had to make a guess she’d bet Frazer wasn’t The Gateway Project’s inside man.
“
Funny.” Alex seemed unperturbed.
S
he knew Alex would kill for her if she asked him to, but she didn’t want blood on her conscience. The knowledge made her stand a little bit taller.
“
I want the justice system to do its job. I want this man who betrayed his uniform to stand trial for everything he’s done, and to get justice for all the women he hurt. For Payton.” Alex took the gun from her hand so she could bend down and cuff Leo. The guy lay meekly on the ground. Alex held two weapons at his head and the man seemed to realize Alex would have no hesitation pulling the trigger if need be.
Coward
.
When she was done
, Alex handed her back the weapon and then shrugged out of his jacket. She shook her head but he wrapped it around her anyway. It was still warm from the heat of his body. He might be an assassin, but since the moment she’d met him he’d been nothing but supportive and protective of her. Not in a smothering sense, but as though she was the most important person in his world. She knew that Alex Parker would make the best father a child could ever hope for. The fact struck her like a knife in the heart because she was still going to lose him.
It had stopped snowing and
the clouds had cleared. Silvery moonlight hit the snow, bouncing back to light up the whole woods.
In the distance f
lashlights bobbed. Anxious voices drifted. Cops? The crunch of footsteps got louder as people drew closer. She tensed with anticipation. Mallory shone her flashlight over the new arrivals.
Christ, was that her mother?
Her mother ran toward them, breathing heavily as she lugged herself through the thick snow. Agent Hanrahan followed at a slower pace.
“Mom?”
What the hell?
“What are you doing here?” asked Mallory.
But her mother wasn
’t looking at her, she was staring at Alex, fury blazing in her eyes. “I order you, Parker, make him tell me where my baby is.”
And then Mallory got it. Her mother was the powerful figure who
’d got him out of that Moroccan prison. Her mother was the reason he’d never give up his superiors. Not because of his loyalty to The Gateway Project, but because of his loyalty to
her
. “Jesus Christ, Mom. You started your own private vigilante organization?” Crap.
“
I was doing what law enforcement failed to do for eighteen years—find justice for my baby!” Her voice rang out for miles. Her mother looked like she was about to lunge for a weapon and Mallory kept a close eye on her, and the others. The only person she really trusted was Alex who guarded her back like a shadow.
“Is this the man who stole Payton? Where is she? Is she alive?” Mallory grabbed her so she
didn’t get too close to the deputy.
“She died you stupid bitch!” Leo cried out from the ground. “She fucking died and it wasn’t my fault.”
The senator’s gaze never left the man in the snow. “Parker, if you don’t shoot that bastard, I will—”
Alex said, “It’s over, Senator Tremont.”
“What’s going on, Agent Rooney?” SSA Frazer asked carefully.
“Come on, Margret.” Hanrahan tried to comfort her mother
but the senator made a grab for Hanrahan’s gun and the two ended up grappling.
Frazer stepped in and
jerked her mother away from the other agent. “Someone needs to explain to me exactly what is going on or so help me...”
Mallory
squirmed. Her explanation might get the people she loved most facing the death penalty. “It’s complicated.”
His eyebrows rose.
“I can usually keep up,” he said wryly.
Alex touched her shoulder. “He needs to know what’s going on, Mallory. This thing has to end.”
She touched his fingers for just a moment and then let her hand drop away. “The reason I was recruited to the BAU was because SSA Hanrahan and I both suspected someone inside the FBI was leaking information to a vigilante group who were systematically murdering serial killers.”