Authors: Grace Marshall
‘Oh, I think you are. There’s no one here but you and me, darling, and I’m much stronger than you.’ As if to demonstrate, he bent her arm up behind her back until the joint of her shoulder popped and she sucked a sharp breath of pain, but held very still. ‘And if you don’t do exactly what I say, I also have a very sharp knife, and it doesn’t matter to me, Kendra, it doesn’t matter to me how I have to carve you up to make you behave yourself, to make you sorry for leaving me like you did, you’ll still be beautiful to me, and I’ll still want you, no matter if a few … parts are missing and I’ve left my mark so neither you or anyone else will ever again doubt that you belong to me.’
He leveled a wet, breathy kiss at her ear and she dug her nails into her hands and forced herself to breathe deeply. None of that had happened yet, none of those things he threatened. Garrett knew she was here. Garrett knew where she was, and she was as sure as she was of her own breath that he’d find her.
‘I like your place,’ he said, tightening his grip around her waist. ‘Though I find it a bit claustrophobic. But then I suppose you don’t spend much time here, do you? Out at all the clubs, are you? Being someone different every night? Hmmm?’ The hand twisted her hair tightened but she refused to flinch.
‘I’m more of a homebody these days,’ she managed, uttering a gasp as his grip tightened and her scalp prickled with pain.
‘I don’t believe that for a minute, Kendra Davis. You could never be satisfied in one space in one body or fucking just one person for very long, not someone like you.’ He nodded to the door. ‘I saw the Mustang. Not a car a homebody would drive, would you say?’
‘It was a gift,’ she replied. ‘That’s all, it was a gift.’
He chuckled and his breath felt like it would scorch the skin off the side of her face. ‘But a gift from someone who knew your tastes, Kendra. Don’t deny it.’ He pushed in closer to her, so close that she could barely breathe in his smothering embrace, so close that she could feel his hard-on raking against the wet back of her denim skirt. She could feel the tight shifting and rocking of his hips rucking it up a little at a time. ‘Take me for a ride in it, Kendra. Come on, give me a peek at that wild woman who drove me insane with lust back in Santa Monica. I can force the issue, you know?’ He released her hair and reached into his pocket. She heard a crisp mechanical click, then felt the cold, sharp edge of a blade against her throat. ‘Don’t make me start with the knife just yet, sweetheart.’ He kissed her ear and nibbled at the lobe. ‘I believe in foreplay. Lots and lots of foreplay, and I think our courtship should begin with a ride in a very sexy car. Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen? Isn’t that romantic, Kendra? You and me in the Mustang out on the open road, anticipating all the fun we’ll have when the drive ends.’ He pressed the knife just hard enough for the blade to sting. ‘Now, where are the fucking
keys
?’
‘They’re in my bag,’ she managed, pressing back as tightly against his chest as she could to avoid the bite of the blade.
‘Good girl.’ He relaxed the tension on the knife just a little. ‘Get them, and let’s go.’
With hands made awkward by fear, she fumbled in the bag where she’d hung it on the peg next to the door and found the keys, wishing like hell there was something in there, anything she could use for a weapon. There might be a nail file somewhere in the bottom or an ink pen, but she’d never get the chance to use either of them at the moment.
Think, Kendra, think!
‘That’s a girl,’ he said again as she slowly, carefully pulled the keys from her bag and held them up for him to see. He took them from her hand and pocketed them. ‘And now there’s only one more thing we need to take care of and then you can take me for a ride.’ He reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the BlackBerry, and her heart sank as he tossed it onto the sofa. ‘You won’t be needing this anymore, darling. I’m the only one you have to speak to now, and I’ll never be more than a blade’s edge away.’
‘Detectives in Santa Monica say that though the dead man they found in Edge’s burnt-out house could have been someone else, it was assumed to be him. Apparently the body was so badly burnt that 100 per cent identification was impossible without DNA testing.’ Wade turned off his BlackBerry. His half of the conversation had had everyone’s full attention, and now he filled them in on the rest. ‘They had no real reason to doubt. Besides, after the body was discovered, there was no sign of the man again. After all, he was dead.’ Wade turned his attention to the big screen of the computer and pulled up a satellite map of the Northwestern US. ‘There was no reason to suspect anything, no reason not to think Edge was dead. Fredrick Parks, that’s the man’s real name, and he’s from North Dakota. But look at this.’ He zoomed in on the map. ‘Two weeks after Edge’s supposed death, a liquor store was robbed in Priest Falls, Idaho. Look at the CCTV footage.’
Carla wondered how anyone could get hold of this kind of information. She wasn’t sure whether to respect Wade Crittenden or fear him. She was certainly glad he was on her side.
Garrett, who was struggling through construction on
I-5, had Kendra’s BlackBerry on, listening.
‘Sure as hell looks like him,’ Harris said.
‘But he’s dead,’ Wade said, ‘so no one cares. No one bothers to check. Then –’ a few more key strokes ‘– a couple comes home to Kalispell, Montana after spending the winter in Florida to discover their house on Flathead Lake has been squatted in all winter. Another couple who had rented out the cabin up the lake gave Edge’s description. They said he told them he was renting the place for the winter. Since they weren’t residents, they had no reason to doubt his story.
‘About that same time, a couple from Yakima, Washington came back early from spending the winter in Australia to find their Jeep Cherokee missing. It turned up two months later in a deserted parking garage of a high-rise in Seattle. Again, very grainy CCTV footage shows a man that looks like Edge. The trail goes on, with every incident just far enough apart, time wise and distance wise, so that no one ever quite connects the dots.
‘And then, two days ago, a dental hygienist in Nevada comes back from a holiday in Europe to find her Ford Focus stolen. And this was the footage at an all-night supermarket maybe an hour after the incident in the woods behind Ellis’s house.’
‘Same man,’ Ellis said.
‘He tried to walk out without paying, not sneaky or anything, the clerk said, but just like his mind was on something else. When the clerk confronted him he paid and made light of it, no problems. But the clerk called it in because he was suspicious. Said the man’s jeans were wet up to his thighs and he looked like he’d been rolling in pine needles.’
‘OK, I just got through the last of the construction,’ Garrett’s voice came over the speaker phone. ‘I’ll be at Kendra’s in – Hold on. I’m getting a text. It’s from Kendra!’
Everyone gathered around Wade’s desk, where the speakers were rigged up.
‘What does it say?’ Dee asked, pressing in close.
The sound that came from Garrett’s end of the phone was a desperate animal cry. ‘He’s here. That’s all it says. He’s here.’ He cut the connection and all hell broke loose in Wade’s boudoir.
Edge held her close to him in the elevator all the way down to the parking garage. The knife was under a jacket he had folded over his arm, and he knew exactly how to ease the point in close and threatening between her ribs. Kendra breathed from her diaphragm like Dee had taught her, like singers were supposed to do. That assured her enough oxygen and kept the knife from piercing her skin. He gave her no room, not an inch, and she yielded, yielded for her own protection. But only physically. Inside she held her ground, inside she’d drawn the line in the sand. She wouldn’t allow him the space inside her head. Not this time.
In the parking garage, she walked to the Mustang, with him holding her close to his side like he was the most caring, most tender of lovers. He nodded to the driver’s side. ‘You drive, darling. I want to sit next to you, bask in your brightness, savor the moment.’
He stood over her while she buckled in, then he brushed the hair away from her forehead and settled a kiss just above the bridge of her nose. She forced herself not to stiffen. ‘Don’t think you can escape before I get around the car and into my seat.’ He breathed the words against her throat. ‘I’m as good with a knife from a distance as I am up close and personal. My aim won’t be fatal, but I promise it’ll be painful, debilitating, and marring. And if I decide I’m bored with the knife, there’s always this little baby to make things more interesting …’ He leaned forward and slipped a gun from the waistband of his trousers, just enough for her to get a good view of it. ‘And yes, I’m as good with it as I am with the knife. You’re mine, Kendra. Best get used to it now, and things will go easier.’
But she wasn’t. She wasn’t his. She’d never be his. She said the words in her head, enunciating every one clearly over and over like a mantra, reminding herself that she was still in control. That there were things he could never ever take from her. This time she knew that. This time she was certain.
He slid in next to her, handed her the keys, then shifted in the seat expectantly. ‘Well, what are you waiting for?’
‘Where shall I go?’ she asked.
‘To my place, sweetheart. I’ve prepared it especially for you.’
No!
she screamed inside her head. No matter what she had to do, she would never go to his place. She knew in her gut if she did, she’d never escape. She didn’t mind dying. That was inevitable, but she wasn’t about to endure the long suffering and the humiliation he had planned for her before she got there. She knew that ultimately he had been responsible for Lila’s death, and she wasn’t about to give him time to drive her to such an end. She didn’t know what she’d do, but she’d end it all before she got to his place. One way or another.
As she pulled out of the parking garage and made her way toward the freeway, he rested a hand on her thigh and heaved a sigh as he admired the Mustang. ‘Don’t worry, Kendra, I’ll take very good care of it after you’re gone. I promise.’
She shivered at the thought, but steeled herself. She had to concentrate. She had to find a way out of this. As she approached the entrance to the freeway, he shook his head.
‘Not on the freeways, darling. I hate freeways. They’re no way to put a fine car like this through its paces, and really, it would be a shame for me not to let you put this lovely vehicle to the test one last time. We’ll take the back roads.’
Garrett recognized the stolen Ford Focus in the parking garage not far from Dee’s Audi, and his hopes soared only to crash again when he found the door to her flat unlocked. Kendra would never leave her home so vulnerable. He pushed it open quietly, hoping against hope that they were still inside. But he could tell by the feel that the flat was empty. He gave the door a hard kick with his foot and cursed out loud. Goddamn it, she’d been through enough, and he’d opened her up to all of it, all over again. He grabbed Kendra’s BlackBerry from his pocket.
‘Wade, they’re not here!’ he yelled into the phone as soon as he heard it connect. ‘They’re not fucking here!’
‘What do you mean they’re not there?’ Wade yelled back ‘The signal indicates they’re right there in her flat.’
‘Well they’re not. I don’t know what the hell’s going on and … Fuck!’ Garrett’s eye caught the bright plastic of his own BlackBerry where it lay discarded on the couch and suddenly he felt like he was being swallowed alive by the horror of what that meant. ‘The BlackBerry.’ He forced the words up through the cold fear clenching at his throat. ‘She left it. It’s on the sofa.’
‘What the hell do you mean she left it?’ He heard Harris’s panicked voice. ‘She wouldn’t leave it.’
‘Only if she were forced to,’ Wade replied.
‘Goddamn it!’ Garrett ran a frantic hand through his hair. ‘There has to be something else we can do, there has to be.’
‘We’ve got to have something we can track,’ Wade said. ‘I can extrapolate from the places where Parks has been spotted, but without some way of tracking her, I can’t narrow it down any more than that.’
‘Damn it! That means they could be anywhere. He could be taking her anywhere.’ Garrett could hear Harris on the speaker phone.
Frantically he looked around the room for something, for anything, and his eyes came to rest on a photo of Kendra dressed in jeans and a black tank top standing next to a bright red Shelby Mustang. ‘Wait a minute.’ He picked up the photo and squinted at it. ‘Can you track a car by that satellite?’
‘Only if it has a transponder,’ Wade said.
‘It’s a fucking Shelby Mustang, for Chrissake!’ Garrett yelled. Over the phone, he could hear Dee and Harris practically screaming to Wade that it was a gift from Devon Barnet. He talked over them. ‘I saw Dee’s car in the parking garage, and the Ford Focus was there, but no sign of the Mustang. And Edge mentioned it in the email. Maybe he took it. It’s a lot nicer ride than a Focus. Plus, the asshole had to know what it means to her.’
‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute.’ Wade’s voice came in tight little bursts. Garrett could hear his keystrokes against the computer keyboard. ‘It’s a vintage car, a one-off. I can’t imagine there not being a transponder, in case it ever got stolen. Surely Barnet would have given Kendra those details. Hold on, I’ve got her iPhone here for safe keeping. If it’s there, I’ll find it.’
‘I’ll look on her laptop.’ Garrett was already trying to navigate Kendra’s computer for the information. On both ends of the phone connection, there was complete silence except for the dual tapping of the keyboards.
It seemed like an eternity went by before Wade yelled into the phone, ‘I’ve got it. I’ve got it! And the Mustang’s on the move. I’m transmitting the details to the police.’
‘Tell me where they are, Wade,’ Garrett yelled. ‘I can’t be very far behind them.’
‘You’re not, Wade replied. ‘They’re off the freeway. It looks like he’s taking the slow route, probably to try out the Mustang on the winding roads. I can get you there faster, Garrett. I’m about to become your sat nav. Are you ready?’
Garrett grabbed up both BlackBerries and charged out the door. He didn’t wait for the elevator. He bolted down the stairs, the photo still clenched in one hand.
Edge was rattling on and on about how he had suffered without her, how badly she had hurt him, how hard the year had been for him, scheming and planning how he would be with her again. But Kendra was only half listening.
She was thinking of Garrett. She had the rudiments of a plan forming in her mind now, but it was a plan she probably wouldn’t survive. That was all right. It had been a good life, and the last few days with Garrett Thorne had been the best ever. He had been the bright spot; he had almost convinced her she could have her happy ever after, and that she could have it with him. If she kept him in her head, if she focused on memories of him, of being in his arms, of laughing with him, of dancing with him, of making love with him, then she could stay safe from the terror with which Edge surrounded her. She could stay focused on what she had to do, and she would have the courage to do it.
She loved him, she loved Garrett Thorne! Suddenly, the darkness that threatened to close around her was run through with the brilliance of that one thought. She loved Garrett Thorne. She loved him with all of her heart, and loving him, being with him, made her more herself than she had ever been in her whole life. She could die knowing that. She could die knowing that he was right, that she could love, that love was as much for her as it was him, or Jessie and Amanda in
Texas Fire
, or Dee and Ellis. Her only regret was that she hadn’t allowed herself to realize it while she was still with him, that she hadn’t told him. God how she wished she had told him!
She couldn’t bear the thought of how he would suffer because of what she was about to do, but she saw no way out. Without the BlackBerry Wade had given her, there was no way they would ever find her in time, and she wasn’t brave enough to endure Edge’s torture passively and wait, hoping against hope that Garrett would find her before Edge drove her insane. Garrett had people who loved him. He had people who understood how amazing he was, even if he didn’t. They would help him heal. And she wanted that for him. She wanted him to heal. God, she wished she could tell him, and now she didn’t even have that option left to her. The ache of loss was pushed aside by rage, rage that Edge believed it was his right to take this from her. He might take away her chance to tell Garrett how she felt, he might take away her chance to try for her happy ending, but her rage he couldn’t take from her! And, in the end, it would be enough to help her do what she had to, to deny the bastard what he most wanted.
She pressed down a little harder on the accelerator. She’d been doing it gradually since they’d left the apartment so he wouldn’t notice. She had the advantage of growing up near here. It meant she knew the place like the back of her hand. She knew where they were and had a pretty good idea of where they were heading. That meant she knew exactly what to do and where. Dee and Harris and she used to put Harris’s old beater of a pick-up through its paces out here. The place was hilly, pocked with scrub evergreens struggling on the edge of survival. The main road was paved, but narrow and old, but from it muddied gouges of trails used by motorbikes and four-wheelers snaked off over the rutted hills in all directions. It was also bisected by several disused logging roads. Not far up the road, there was one spot that had just what she needed for her plan to work. She pressed just a little harder on the gas, and Edge whooped.
‘Goodness, Bird Woman, you really do know how to fly, don’t you?’
‘You said you wanted to see what she could do,’ Kendra said. ‘I’ve had her long enough to know. Best gift I ever received.’ And at the moment, she meant that with all her heart.
‘This route should put you out ahead of them,’ Wade yelled into Garrett’s BlackBerry, which lay on his seat with the speakerphone on. ‘But just barely, so you’ll have to haul ass. You in the Jeep?’
‘I am,’ Garrett said. ‘Just get me there.’
‘You need to make a right just ahead. It’s an old logging road, and not much of one, but it’ll do the trick.’
‘I see it,’ Garrett said, sliding into the sharp corner and banking hard to make the turn, barely managing it without turning the Jeep over. The rain had let up for the moment, so it didn’t affect the visibility. He sped down the road, bouncing and jostling against the seatbelt ‘How am I doing?’ he shouted at the device.
‘You’re fine. You’re all right, just don’t slow down.’
The words were barely out of Wade’s mouth before he hit the first major mud puddle. Water splashed in waves all around him. He cursed and turned on the wipers. ‘Christ, Wade, it’s a muddy mess up here.’ The Jeep slid dangerously to one side, and he felt the back wheel on the driver’s side sink.
‘Can you drive off the road, on the side?’ Wade yelled.
But the wheel dropped with a sickening lurch, and the tire spun.
‘No! Goddamn it, no!’ Garrett cursed and downshifted. The engine groaned and the wheel spun, slinging mud out in a high arc behind the vehicle.
‘Garrett, you’ve got to go. Now!’ Wade yelled. The sound of his voice was drowned out by the revving of the engine as Garrett threw the Jeep into reverse and eased off the gas, struggling like hell to control the panic rising in his chest.
But the Jeep wouldn’t budge.
Ignoring Wade’s rising panic on the speaker phone, Garrett undid the safety belt and practically threw himself from the driver’s seat, frantically looking around in the scrub and deadfall until he found what he needed. He made a mad squelch and lurch of a dash for several limbs about the size of his arm, blow-down from the wind that had accompanied the rain in the early hours. There were plenty of needles still on the branches. Slipping and sliding in the mud, he lunged for them, tugged them with all his strength until they were free from the undergrowth. Then he nearly lost his balance as he slid back to the rear of the Jeep, shoving and stuffing and cramming the branches down into the hole that the spinning of the tire had created, angling just right to create traction. Dear God, it had to work! It just had to! Back in the seat, he belted in and ignored Wade, who was still yelling, along with everyone else in the dungeon. Then he carefully reversed only slightly. It took every ounce of patience to go slow and easy, just enough for the limbs to settle into the hole. Then, even though every nerve in his body was screaming for him to hurry, he eased the Jeep back in gear and carefully, gently pressed on the accelerator. The Jeep jerked hard and sank dishearteningly into the mud with the tire spinning. But, just when Garrett was ready to jump out of the Jeep and run for it, it inched forward, spun, and then juddered and jostled up out of the rut.
‘I’m out! I’m out,’ he yelled above the roar of the engine. But hope was short-lived as he looked up at the road in front of him to see nothing but a sea of mud. ‘Wade, we’ve got to go cross country. The road’s a mud bath.’
‘All right.’ Wade’s voice was tight, his words clipped. Garrett could hear him frantically typing on the keyboard. ‘I’ve got the contour map. It’s not too steep or rocky. If you can get through the woods, you can get there, and still join the road just ahead of the Mustang.’