Scream for Me (42 page)

There hadn’t been any booby traps there. Nothing to destroy—
his home
? Cadence sure seemed to think that was what the guy had meant.

He took the necklace—was he going to try to return it home?

The hell he was.

“If you don’t find the captain at his house, you meet us there.” Cadence reached for Heather’s arm. “Don’t let your guard down for even a moment, understand, Heather? Don’t think you can trust him. If he’s there, you put him in handcuffs and lock him in a cell until we can get to you.”

Heather whirled and ran for the stairs.

“He helped me look for Maria.” Kyle’s voice was strained. “No one else back then…no one else…”

“Maybe he helped you,” Cadence said grimly, “or maybe he just made sure you never found her.”

He flinched.

“I think he’s going to the caverns. To him, that’s home.”

There was only one way to find out if she was right.

In the darkness. With the girls. Only they weren’t there anymore.

During the interrogation, he’d seemed so controlled. But maybe the facade of control had been just that—a facade. With the recovery of the remains, with Susannah walking right into the police station, his world could be unraveling.

When a killer’s world unraveled, no one was safe.

They rushed back up the stairs. Cadence was already calling for Ben. They’d get as much backup on this as they could get.

Two dead. Two fucking dead. Ben glared at the bodies. At least the killer was one of the dead.

His phone rang. He grabbed for it, even as he turned and his gaze searched for Dani.

He needed her close.

She could have died
.

There was a reason Dani wasn’t in the field. It wasn’t just about her fear. It was about his. He hadn’t pushed her to go back, and he knew it was wrong but—
I need her
.

He glanced down at the number on his phone. “Cadence,” he said, “I’m with the bodies.”

“James Anniston could be our perp.”

Every muscle in his body locked down. He remembered Susannah’s face. Her voice. Her eyes.

Not on Dani. On the man behind her
.

“The evidence at the station has been destroyed.”

Fuck!
He’d only been gone an hour!

“The destruction happened
after
Jason was already dead. The tapes were burned and Maria McKenzie’s necklace was stolen.” His head was pounding. “And you’re sure it was the captain? You already had the guy in interrogation.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t asking the right questions.” Intensity hummed through her voice. “We need to bring him in, Ben.”

He nodded even though she couldn’t see the gesture. If Cadence wanted backup, he’d give it to her. Always. “Where are you?”

“Heading to the site where the SOB held me. I think that’s where he’s going. Either to destroy more evidence or—”

The line cut out on her. Crackled. Finally came back.

“…Kyle and I are almost there…”

The connection was
shit
. “I’m on my way.” He whirled for the door.

Almost ran right into Dani.

He realized she’d heard everything he’d said.

“
We’re
on our way,” she told him.

Ben shook his head. “You need to get back to the station.”

“I’m not hiding anymore.”

Dammit.

“I’m not asking you for permission,” Dani said.

“I’m the senior—”

“As the director, you should have ordered me back in the field long ago.” Her breath blew out. “As my lover, you let me hide. I’m not doing that anymore. I won’t.”

His jaw locked. As her director
and
her lover, he wanted her protected. Always.

“Now let’s get out there and give them backup.” She pulled in a shuddering breath. Straightened her shoulders. Hurt his heart. “I won’t let you down. I won’t let
them
down.”

“I know you won’t.”

He’d make absolutely sure
nothing
happened to her.

James Anniston. James fucking Anniston
.

Kyle could remember the first time he’d met the man. He’d raced into the station, fear like acid eating away at him.

“
My sister! Please, I need someone to help me find my sister!
”

The cops there had whirled in surprise, concern etched on their faces, but it had been James who hurried toward him.

“
Mister, slow down
.” James had been barely ten years older than him. “
I’ll help you
.”

Kyle slammed on the brakes. The headlights stayed on, cutting through the darkness. Shining right at the entrance to the caverns.

Two cops should have been there. Guards to make sure no reporters or anyone else wandered inside the gaping entrance.

They weren’t there.

“Where are the guards?” Cadence whispered, her thoughts obviously following his.

He pulled the flashlight from the glove box, then eased from the vehicle without answering her. His boots sank into the mud, thick mud still left from last night’s storms. The flashlight’s beam drifted around the area.

Two patrol cars were parked to the right. No sign of their drivers. His light swung back to the left. Yellow tape crisscrossed the entrance to the caverns, but nothing else was there.

“We need to check inside,” Cadence said as she exited the vehicle and came toward him.

She had a flashlight, too. A flashlight and a gun.

He stared down at her. She didn’t seem afraid. She was entering the place that had been her hell with the stoic determination that was just…Cadence.

I love you
.

This wasn’t the place to tell her. Not the time.

So he just nodded. As he got closer, as the light swept over the tape and edge of the cave, Kyle saw the blood.

Cadence’s light joined his. Then he heard her saying into her phone, “We’ve got possible officers injured at the cavern entrance on the northern side of the mountains. No, no, Ben, we can’t wait. We need to head inside
now
.”

It was a lot of blood.

Too much.

Cadence shoved her phone back into her pocket. She lifted her weapon and her light.

They slid under the police tape. Went five feet in the darkness.

And found the first body.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

It looked like the officer’s head had been bashed in. Blood soaked his temples and streamed down his face.

His throat had been cut open.

Kyle swore at the savagery. To bash the man’s head like that—to get close enough to easily slice his throat—the captain could have done that. He would have walked right up to the guy. The man wouldn’t have even tried to fight back, not until it was too late.

Poor sonofabitch.

“Where’s the other officer?” Cadence whispered. Her light cut through the tunnel. To Kyle, the light seemed so weak in the darkness.

“Help.”

A whisper floated from deeper within the tunnel.

Kyle tensed. He wasn’t sure the voice belonged to the other officer.

One man was dead. Why leave the other alive?

Bait
.

Or maybe he was dead already, too, and the perp was trying to lure them into his trap.

“He came back here for a reason.” The place hadn’t been rigged to explode before, but maybe it was because their perp hadn’t been able to set his traps in time.

They’d followed Cadence too soon. Tracked her. Saved her. Before the SOB could destroy the place.

If he’d gotten rid of the evidence at the station, then hell, yes, he could be destroying evidence here, too.

Bait or killer?
They had to find out. They advanced with careful steps. Cadence kept her light on the ground, checking for a trip wire, while Kyle shined his beam at eye level, making sure they weren’t about to face-plant into another wire.

“
Please
.”

The cry came from the right, from the same chamber Cadence had been trapped in.

Her breath heaved out, too loud in the silence. He could feel her fear.

Kyle didn’t want her back in that fucking room.

The big, wooden door was shut. It had been shut before, when Cadence had been trapped. He hadn’t thought of explosives then. He’d only thought of getting to her.

Was the place now rigged to blow if he opened the door?

“
Help
.” The voice was even weaker.

A man’s voice. The other officer had been a fresh-faced kid who Kyle only vaguely remembered. He’d been young, maybe in his early twenties.

Too young to die
.

Weren’t they all too young?

Was that him?
Or is it you, Anniston?

“We’re here!” Cadence called out, but Kyle noticed she didn’t open the door. “Identify yourself!”

“Officer Bailey. Ken Bailey…” The words were rasping. “
Please…someone has cut me…
”

He was being used as live bait.

But they couldn’t leave him in there to die.

Carefully, Kyle pushed open the door. Inch by slow inch. Checking up and down the door’s length for a trip wire.

There wasn’t one.

He slipped into the room.

And felt a knife shove into his chest.

“
Please…
” A voice grated in his ear. “
Someone has cut me…
”

It wasn’t the young cop.

Kyle shoved hard against the SOB who’d just stabbed him, but the man just laughed and twisted the knife.

“No!” Cadence’s scream. Then she was there, but she couldn’t attack.

Her light had fallen on Kyle and on Captain James Anniston.

“I’m close to his heart,” James whispered. “So close. All I have to do is yank up my blade. You think you can shoot me before I do that, Agent Hollow?”

She didn’t. Kyle knew it. If she had thought she could take the shot, then Cadence already would have done it.

“He can still survive if I don’t jerk my knife any more.”

The guy was taunting them.

“You won’t shoot,” James muttered. “Because you
fucking
love him, don’t you?”

Kyle hoped to heaven she did. But it wasn’t just about Cadence. If she didn’t take the shot, Anniston would still kill him. Still kill them both.

A numbness was spreading through Kyle’s body even as his blood soaked his shirt, but he lifted his weapon. Pointed it right at Anniston’s head. “I’ll…shoot.”

Anniston laughed. “Do it, and you’ll never find out what happened to that sweet sister of yours.”

Fucking bastard
.

“I know.” Talking was so hard for Kyle. Maybe the SOB had already clipped his heart. The beating seemed off in his chest. “She’s gone. Maria’s…at peace.”

Cadence’s light was on Anniston’s face. Rage twisted his features as he shouted, “She’s not! She’s not gone!”

Kyle’s fingers tightened around the trigger. This was what he’d wanted. What he’d planned all along.

To kill the man who’d taken his sister.

Even if it was the last thing he did.

With the way he was bleeding, it damn well might be.

James jerked the knife from Kyle’s chest. Then he dropped the weapon. Put his hands up. “I can take you to her.”

Kyle locked his teeth against the pain ripping through him. He staggered forward and put his gun right at James’s chest. Payback.

“No!” Cadence’s shout. Her hands were on his shoulders, trying to pull him back.

“You can’t kill an unarmed man,” James whispered.

Yes, he could.

“That’s not the way the FBI works.” The bastard was taunting him.

Screw the FBI. This was how
he
worked.

“Kyle, there are still women missing. All of the victims haven’t been found.” Cadence’s voice shook with fear. So did the fingers holding him.

Those victims were dead. He knew it.

“You can’t shoot me because I’m not armed.” James’s voice boomed. His current voice, not the scared imitation he’d done of the young cop. The SOB was one fine actor.

“Don’t care if you’re armed.” Dead was dead.

His hands were still up. “Do you care about the others? If you let Agent Hollow come with me now, I can take her to Maria.”