Ultimate Prey (Book 3 Ultimate CORE) (CORE Series) (31 page)

“Well, I hope you kept the phone numbers of those women in your little black book, because I don’t plan to speak to you again.”

“You’ve made that clear.”

“I hope so, because if you even think—”

“Enough already. I get it, you’re breaking up with me.” He glanced to her left hand where the two-carat diamond ring sat next to her broken pinky. “Keep the ring. Hock it for all I care. I don’t want it back.”

“You’re such a jerk, you know that?”

He did. “If you’re through calling me names, I want to know what else Steven told you.”

“How about what he
showed
me?”

“Showed you?”

“Mmm-hmm. He pulled out a cell phone from his backpack and showed me pictures of what he did to his wife and her fiancé. He even took a few pictures of me hanging from the tree.”

She let out a breath, then relayed everything Steven had said to her. By the time she was finished, Ian had lost his appetite and no longer thought about dining on insects, snakes or turtles.

“He wanted you to find me,” she continued. “Because he wants to watch you watch me die. He said he wants to see you grieve and suffer.” She shuddered. “After the pictures he showed me, I can’t imagine what those two people went through when he tortured them. I don’t want to, because I’m so damned scared he’s going to do the same to me.”

He stopped and grabbed her hand. “Cami, I will do everything in my power to make sure he doesn’t do to you what he did to his ex-wife.” He took her by the chin, and forced her to look at him. The fear and hurt in her eyes made him want to drop to his knees and grovel for forgiveness. She was right. This was his fault. If it hadn’t been for him, if she’d never met him that night at the theater after she’d given a stellar performance, she could be in the arms of another lover, or sitting at the dining room table enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with Lola. “I love you, Cami. You have no idea how much I would suffer if he hurt you.”

Her eyes welled with tears. She looked away and sniffed. “It’s getting late. We can’t hike through here in the dark.”

He looked to the sky, which had turned into a gorgeous shade of magenta and orange. “Let’s keep going. We probably have another hour before we won’t be able to see much of anything. Hopefully we’ll find a dry area where we can rest.”

They continued on in silence, crossing over a small patch of mangroves, then a shallow creek, before they came to another area of dry woodland.

“Is my mind playing tricks on me, or am I really seeing light being reflected?” she asked, pointing to the left where the woods met with either a clearing or a marsh.

“It’s hard to tell. Let’s check it out.”

“Can you see what’s beyond the clearing or whatever? It looks really dark. Do you think that’s water?”

“Don’t know,” he said. The more they walked, the more his head pounded. At this point, he didn’t trust his judgment.

Minutes later, they approached what ended up being a clearing, then they veered toward where Cami had noticed the reflection. When they entered the woods, his heart rate sped and his aching empty stomach filled with hope. He’d heard that there were places deep in the Everglades where people, during the Prohibition era, had constructed moonshine stills. If this was one of those places, it would likely be in rough shape, but it would serve well as shelter for tonight. There might even be supplies they could use.

She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Oh, my God, Ian. Is that a house?”

Covered in moss and nestled between trees stood what looked like a small dilapidated shack. He grinned, then turned and kissed her. “Welcome home, baby.”

Chapter 12

Somewhere in the Everglades, Florida

Thursday, 5:42 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

“YOU’VE BEEN QUIET since the call from Dante,” Ryan said, searching for more of the notches they’d found in the tree bark. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“What’s there to say? Dante’s made it clear what they plan to do.”

“But how do you feel about that?”

“I thought your major was business before you’d joined the Navy, not psychology.”

Never in his life had he spent this much one-on-one time with a woman without having sex to kill the hours. Because sex wasn’t going to happen, they’d been forced to talk. Now that he thought about it, he’d been doing most of the talking. Whenever he’d ask a question, she’d either change the subject or counter him with another question.

“Well,” he began, “it’s not every day you find out that your job is to either kill a man or detain him so someone else can do it. So, again, how do you feel about that?”

“There’s another notch in that tree,” she said, moving past him. “We also have a boot print.” She looked up and smiled. “And a footprint.”

Since they’d lost Ian’s prints about thirty minutes ago, finding this was definitely worth smiling about. “Which way is the print heading?”

Staying low, she moved a few feet. “This way,” she said, pointing south. “How much longer before we lose daylight?”

He glanced at his watch. “It’ll be dark in about an hour.”

“Then I guess we better pick up the pace.” She flashed him a smile. “Race ya,” she called, then took off running.

He sprinted after her, periodically slowing to make sure they were still following Ian and Jackass’s tracks. Even though Dante had told them that the hunter was Steven Weir, to him, the man was still a jackass. A sick and twisted jackass, who’d already killed three people.

Ryan had a feeling Dante had left out a bunch of details, but it hadn’t mattered. Jackass was a murderer who wanted Ian and Cami dead. The fact that Dante and a couple of other CORE agents were heading to Everglade City to off the guy hadn’t surprised him. From the moment Dante had given him permission to compromise the crime scene at Ian’s rental house, he’d suspected what Dante intended to do. He’d even brought it up with Lola right at the beginning of the hunt. She hadn’t said much, but they had also just started out. She’d been worried about her mom and she probably had no idea CORE even had a plan.

They did now.

What bothered him about
this
plan was being told to detain the man for his execution. It screamed wrong. If Jackass fired on them, Ryan could justify shooting to kill. But to hold the man hostage and wait on his executioners? That broke too many of his moral codes.

He wanted Lola’s take on what Dante had asked of them. Granted, her mom could wind up being one of Jackass’s victims, so he had a pretty good idea of how she felt about his impending execution. He might not know her that well, but he knew enough to say, with confidence, that Lola wasn’t someone who took death lightly, even if it was that of someone she hated.

But what the hell did he know? He’d met the woman twelve hours ago. She came off sweet at times and playful at others. She wasn’t shy, but had a secret side to her. She could be brave, yet carried a refreshing quality of innocence. She—

He seriously needed to get a grip. Christ, they’d just met and he knew nothing about her. So she had legs he’d like to have wrapped around his back and an ass he’d love to—

Back off Monahan. She’s too good for you.

Maybe. Probably.

Definitely.

He ran an airboat tour company. Sure, his business brought him quite a bit of cash, which had allowed him to dabble in real estate. But Lola didn’t come off like the type of woman who cared about how much was in a man’s wallet. Then again, her mom was a movie star, so maybe she did. He could offer her fancy things and make her happy, too.

Good God. What the hell was wrong with him? Since when had he let a woman, a total stranger, go to his head?

He needed her talking to him again. Talking and distracting him. Soon they would be forced to camp for the night. In a single-person tent, with only one sleeping bag. In order to keep their location secret, they wouldn’t be able to make a fire. The temperature tonight was supposed to drop to around fifty-seven degrees, which wasn’t freezing, but without sufficient warmth, it wouldn’t be comfortable. They might be forced to share body heat, which—damn it—would only have her back in his head again.

She slowed her pace. “There’s another marsh,” she said, breathing hard. “No sawgrass, thank God.”

“Got us a gator, though.” He dragged in deep breaths, too, and nodded toward the alligator slowly cruising about thirty yards east. “She’s about the same distance from us as we are from the opposite shore. You okay with risking it?”

She stared at him as if he had two heads. “This is your neighborhood, not mine. You tell me.”

“Keep your boots on this time. If we get wet, we’ll let them dry out during the night. If she gets too close, run your butt off.”

“What about you?”

“I’ve got a gun.”

“So do I.”

“Okay, so you shoot her if she comes too close.”

She pursed her lips, and raised a brow. “Maybe I will,” she said, then inspected the reeds and cattail before entering the water.

“Let’s go back to what Dante plans to do about Jackass,” he suggested.

“I told you how I felt about it.”

He caught up with her and moved to her right, where he could keep a better eye on the gator. “No, you changed the subject.”

“I did? Hmm. Sorry. You know, it doesn’t look like this marsh is going to get any higher than—”

“Damn it, Lola. What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you answer a simple question?”

“Because it’s not so simple. We’re talking about killing a man.” She let out a sigh. “Do I think any one of us should have the right to decide his fate? I don’t. But I also don’t want him hurting anyone else. And I also know in my gut that, given the chance, he’d kill you and me without thinking twice. Does he deserve to be punished for his crimes? Absolutely. But I don’t want to be that judge.” She half-laughed, and swept the hair that had escaped her ponytail from her face. “Did I avoid answering the question again?”

“Were you trying to?”

“No. At least, not really,” she said, and looked away. “How about you? I mean, you were in the military. Isn’t there some sort of code about unsanctioned kills? If you think about it, that’s what Jackass would be. CORE doesn’t have the authority to execute. Only certain states and the federal government can determine that, but
not
without due process.”

“Looks like the gator is moving toward where we just came from.”

She looked over her shoulder. “It does. It also
sounds
like you’re the one who’s now avoiding questions.”

“Not one U.S. military branch or our government condones unsanctioned kills. If it happens, swift measures would be taken. The person responsible for the kill would be dishonorably discharged and face prison.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the only one I have.”

“I don’t believe you. But that’s okay. I’ve obviously never been in the military, or in some hot-spot halfway across the world where people hate me on sight. For whatever it’s worth, I admire you for serving our country.”

He smiled. “I appreciate the compliment, but I think it was given with the hope that I’ll give you more information than I care to share.”

She touched his arm. “I actually meant what I said. It’s none of my business what you did when you were a SEAL. What Dante wants to do…I’m struggling with my conscience.”

He understood more than she could ever imagine. Eight years ago, he’d been in her boots, only instead of hiking through the Everglades, he and his team had been hiking through the mountains of Pakistan. Although what had happened that hot March day was no longer considered classified, it was something he didn’t talk about. Outside of the prosecuting officers who’d forced him to stand as a witness against his captain and his brother, Shane, he’d never discussed that day. Dante knew about it, so had plenty of the other men he’d served with, but what they’d heard were bits and fractured pieces of a sad and unfortunate story.

When they reached the shore, Lola immediately located Ian’s footprints. “I can’t find Jackass’s boot prints,” she said, walking right.

He glanced to the ground and noticed Ian’s prints also went to the left. “Come this way,” he called. “Looks like Ian traveled west.”

“At least we have his tracks. I’d like to know where Jackass’s are, though.”

As they walked along the shore, he glanced to the sky. The burnt-orange sun was now half-covered by the trees. In another thirty or forty minutes, they were going to be forced to set up camp for the night. But his mind wasn’t on sleeping in the tent with Lola. Guilt had dowsed all thoughts of using her sexy body to keep warm. “Captain Cole Bateman was one of the greatest guys I’d ever met.”

Lola stopped and stared at Ryan. Sensing whatever he had to say was difficult and likely not of her business, she said, “You don’t have to tell me—”

“I know. But maybe I’m selfish and want to clear my conscience, and at the same time, ease yours.”

She blinked a few times. From the little she knew about him, selfish wasn’t a word she’d use to describe Ryan. But, if what he had to say could help her figure out what to do about Jackass, she was all ears. “What happened to him?”