Hunted, A Romantic Suspence Novel (28 page)

Fighting his rising panic, he swung his feet over the bedside, and pulled on his jeans. “Damn the woman. She knows how much danger waits for her there. Why did she go alone?”

He reached for his boots. An envelope lay on top, addressed to him.

Matt,

Please don’t be mad that I’ve gone to the compound by

myself to get the papers. You can’t protect me from

this. I have to stop Gideon from killing more people

for Strict. No matter what I have to do. Thank you

so much for last night. It was the most beautiful

night of my life. I will treasure it as long as I live.

All my love,

Katie

“She loves me.” Matt stared at the last line of the letter. “She tells me she loves me then leaves me?”

A sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach joined the panic in his heart. She didn’t expect to come out of that compound alive. Dammit, didn’t she know she’d become his life?

He thrust his feet into his boots, grabbed his coat and searched for his keys. No keys. No cell phone. She’d left him stranded. Only his gun and wallet remained in his pockets.

Man, he wanted to shove his fist into something. Instead he thrust both hands through his hair. He glanced at the bed. The sacrifice of the virgin. Had that been all last night had meant to her?

He read the letter again. No, it had to have meant more to her. She gave him “all her love”. Katie had never used that word about anything.

Think. Did she leave any clues where this place really was?

“I can’t let another innocent person be hurt because of me.”
Her words echoed in his head.

“No. She knew I’d come after her. She planned this. She’s willing to be the martyr if it stops Strict.”

And she still didn’t trust him enough to let him help her. That’s what hurt the most. All the conversations, the kisses, making love, none of it had gotten through to the core of her, to her heart. She might think she loved him, but if she couldn’t trust him to be there for her, then she truly hadn’t learned to love him.

He paced to the window. In the fresh layer of snow he could make out tire tracks on the drive. They headed west on the road.

To his left, in the periphery of his vision, the garage caught his attention.

Thrusting one arm into his jacket he ran out of the room. He had the other arm in the jacket when he found Mr. and Mrs. Watts in the kitchen enjoying their morning coffee.

“Mr. Watts, do you have a car I can borrow?”

“No. Don’t have a car.”

Matt looked out the window and cursed. He needed transportation and fast.

Charlie took a big gulp of his coffee. “But if you’re wantin’ to go after that little woman o’ yours, I’d be happy to loan you my truck.”

When the older man handed him the keys, Matt could’ve kissed him. He ran out the door toward the garage, only to stop a few feet from the door. Small footsteps in the snow led from the front of the house to the garage.

Oh she wouldn’t. She didn’t.

Inside the garage he lifted the truck’s hood.

His heart fell to his feet.
Shit.

She’d taken the distributor cap and some wires.

After slamming the garage door in frustration, Matt stomped back through the snow to the bed and breakfast. She’d left him little choice but to contact the sheriff. He hated the idea of involving the local police, especially complete strangers, because he’d promised her he wouldn’t, but he needed to get to her before Gideon did.

As he rounded the corner, a black SUV pulled into the drive. Matt stopped in his tracks, his hand sliding into his jacket pocket to curl around his weapon. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Charlie step out the porch as the vehicle neared.

“Friends o’yours?” Charlie asked, puffing out a ring of smoke from his pipe.

“I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Matt replied, his attention fixed on the car.

A moment later the car stopped. The front passenger door opened. Luke climbed out and held the door.

“You gonna go with us to rescue your damsel in distress, or stand there like an icicle?”

Relief flooded Matt. For the second time in his life, both in the past hour, he felt like kissing a member of his own gender. “Just a second, I have a bill to pay.” He pulled out the cost of one night’s stay and an extra five twenties, handing all the money to Charlie.

“This is too much, young fella,” the older man said, trying to hand him back some of the money.

Slinging his duffle over one shoulder, Matt dodged his hand and jumped off the porch and ran to the car. “No, sir. You’re gonna need a mechanic to fix your truck,” he yelled before climbing into the back of the SUV.

He sat in the middle of the bench, leaning in between the two front seats, tapping the leather upholstery in a nervous rhythm with his hands. “She’s headed west. I don’t know exactly where the compound is, but that’s where she’s gone.”

“I know where the Bunker is,” Castello said, pulling the car out of the drive and back onto the road.

“Tell me you’ve been there.” Matt needed a break.

“Twice. Both times about ten years ago.”

“Think you can find your way back?” Hope grew inside Matt.

Castello nodded. “This area hasn’t changed much in all that time. If the government didn’t do too much to the compound itself, I think I can find it.”

His answer satisfied Matt. He sat back in the seat. “Just hurry, okay?”

“It’s snow on top of ice, Edgars. I’ll get us there as fast as the damn road lets me.”

Matt nodded, tapping his foot in frustration. His heart and mind both raced. What if they didn’t find her in time? How could she just leave him after last night? That still stung.

She thought she was protecting me.

The idea shook him. She wanted to safeguard the person she loved. Hadn’t that been what he’d been trying to do for days? Protect her?

In order to shield him, she’d made sure he couldn’t follow her. If Luke and Castello hadn’t arrived, he’d still be sitting in that house, waiting.

“How did you find me?”

“Katie called and told us where she left you,” Luke answered.

What the hell?
“She left me stranded, even disabled that old guy’s truck, then called you to come get me? What kind of game is she playing?”

“I don’t think she’s playing any kind of game, Matt.” Luke turned in his seat and looked at him, all teasing gone. “The lady believed we were four hours away, back in Columbus. I think she has every intention of dying to keep you and anyone else safe from these crazy bastards, but especially you.”

His brother’s words sank in. The idea angered and overwhelmed Matt. She valued her life so little she planned to throw it away to stop this madman. Yet, she’d cared enough about him to try and keep him safe.

Something Luke said seeped past Matt’s emotions. “Luke, where were you when Katie called?”

His younger brother flashed him a grin. “About an hour east of here, headed to find you.”

“What were you doing east of here?” That feeling of dread tap danced across Matt’s spine.

“Funny you should ask. The Marshal here and I had a long talk with a lawyer.”

He paused, and Matt knew he’d have to drag it out of him. “Luke, cut to the chase. I’m not in the mood for twenty questions. What lawyer and why?”

“Strict’s lawyer in Harrisburg,” Castello added, apparently as irritated with Luke as Matt. “The slimeball knew about the plot to kill Katie and never reported it.”

Matt surged forward in his seat. He wanted blood—anyone’s. The lawyer’s would do. “Tell me you beat the confession out of him.”

“For a minute or two I thought I’d have to. Believe me, I would’ve liked nothing better.” Castello gave him a knowing look in the rearview mirror then concentrated on driving. “Then Junior there,” he pointed to the passenger seat, “gave him a reason to sweat all on his own.”

Luke laughed. “You’re just pissed a Treasury agent had him squealing like a baby more than the big bad Marshal.”

“Would’ve been nice to know I had an IRS investigator with me, not just someone’s kid brother,” Castello muttered.

Matt stared at his brother. “You threatened him with an audit?”

“You’d be amazed at my powers, big brother.” Luke suddenly grew serious. “What we found out was worth the effort. It seems Strict doesn’t want Gideon to kill Katie, yet.”

“What the hell do you mean by yet? He’s firebombed her car, shot out her tires, tried to kill us both with that shotgun, and even took a shot at her downtown.” Suddenly, Matt slapped the front seat’s leather. Now the whole picture made sense. “It’s an ambush. The bastards wanted her to go back to the bunker to find their papers she hid. It’s a trap.” His chest hurt with the knowledge. “And she’s walking right into it.”

Luke and Castello both nodded.

“Did the lawyer say what they needed the papers for? What their plans were?”

Castello shook his head, his eyes meeting Matt’s in the rearview mirror. “He claims no knowledge about that. Only that they wanted to force her to return to the compound and find the papers for them. He also said it’s important they be found before Strict’s execution tonight. After he gets the papers, Gideon is to kill Katie.”

* * * * *

The cold eventually penetrated the pain surrounding Katie. The sun wasn’t too high in the sky, but she didn’t know how long she’d lay there, reliving every beating she’d taken in this place. After all these years, her body had decided it couldn’t function until her mind purged itself of the pain and anguish she’d buried so deep inside.

Great, what a wonderful time for repressed memories to rear their ugly heads.

Slowly, she uncurled her body. She needed to get a grip on her nerves. Nothing but ghosts lived here. Nothing in this place could hurt her anymore.

“Suck it up, Katie,” she ordered. “A job needs doing, and you don’t have time to wallow in self-pity.”

Forcing all the memories back to the past, she shoved herself off the cold ground and rubbed her hands together to warm them. Despite the urge to stare at the whipping pole longer, she skirted the meeting hall and headed for the munitions shack. The government probably carted off all the weapons and explosives, but she hoped they’d left behind the one thing she needed today. Rope—hundred-foot rappelling rope to be exact.

The doors creaked open, and musty air from a decade of disuse wafted out to greet her. In the gray, dust-mite filtered light she studied the building’s interior. Every time she came into this place, the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. She’d received her first bloody lip from Strict here, quickly learning the penalty for failure.

She shook off the eerie feeling that Strict lurked in the corner ready to jump out at her any moment. It wasn’t doing her any good to remember any of this. She headed to the back cabinets.

Nylon ropes hung like long colorful loops of spaghetti inside. She pushed on the cabinet’s rear wall. It sprung open. Strict’s paranoia led him to build hidden compartments for weapons storage.

Luckily, the government hadn’t found this one. Still hidden from unknowing eyes hung several knives. She took one out of its scabbard. Man, she hadn’t held one of these in years. The weight still felt balanced lying in her palm. Another lesson she’d learned at this hellhole. It had taken her a few months of practice, but eventually she’d been able to hit a target the size of a fifty-cent piece from more than fifty yards away.

The feds must’ve been so busy taking out the big weapons—the explosives, assault rifles and semi-automatics—that they missed finding this stash of small knives.

Might as well take this with her. Who knew what she’d encounter the rest of the way to the papers.

She slipped off her coat, put her arms through the scabbard’s leather straps and felt the knife’s weight settle between her shoulder blades as she pulled her coat back on. “Just like old times.”

At the cabinet’s base lay drawers containing miscellaneous items, including flashlights and batteries. With practiced movements, she put the batteries into the flashlight then switched it on.

“Let there be light,” she said as a thin beam cut through the room’s murky darkness. She snapped the flashlight off and shoved it into her other coat pocket, opposite the one holding her Glock. Then she took two lengths of rope, slung them over her head and thrust her arm through the loops.

Fully rigged for what she needed to do, she hurried out of the shack, and headed for the back fence. If luck was with her, no one had filled in the ditch beneath the fence where she’d crawled through the night of her escape.

The thin layer of ice underneath the snow crunched beneath her feet as she trekked through the pristine woods. She paused at the fence to listen for anyone following her. Not a sound. The eerie quiet surrounded her. She’d give anything to see Matt coming through the snow toward her. Even angry, he’d be a welcome relief to the quiet solitude.

No use in wishing for something that wasn’t going to happen. He was back at the bed and breakfast, probably so pissed off he never wanted to see her again. She couldn’t blame him. What she’d done was unforgivable, but she’d do it all again if it kept him safe.

At the fence, she edged her way along to the farthest corner, near the tree line. Kneeling, she pulled on the fence, yanking the edge up from the snow.

Great.
At least she wouldn’t have to waste time going back for wire cutters. Removing the ropes she shoved them under the fence, then lying on her back, she wiggled beneath the chain-link. A metal snag caught on her injured hip, tearing at the material and bandage beneath.

“Oh, damn,” she said with a growl as pain shot through her. She’d gained weight in her hips and thighs since leaving here.

Once through the fence, she leaned against it, panting. She pressed her gloved hand against her thigh. Small spots of blood appeared on her palm when she lifted her hand. Probably tore a stitch or two, nothing major.