Bridal Reconnaissance (22 page)

If so, she was a helluva lot stronger than he’d realized.

When the deputy had reported her request to let Sullivan through the gates, Evan’s suspicions were confirmed. She planned to leave with Sullivan. She wouldn’t risk Christopher’s safety with the D.A.’s assurances of protection, but she would risk her own.

Did the woman have no idea how important she was to her son? That he needed her? That Evan needed her?

If he was too late, he’d track down Sullivan and the low-rent safe house where he’d stashed her. But if Evan had the means and influence to find her, so would Weering.

The deputy had added more to his report. The guard on the beach had spotted another suspicious boat on the water. Would Weering ever stop taunting her?

Evan resisted the urge to shiver.

He knew the only way Weering would stop. When one of them was dead.

Since the gate at the street was secure, the deputy had gone down to the beach to add extra security there. If Weering thought he could get into the estate by water, he would find himself stopped at gunpoint.

Longing for the rules of the wild west, Evan would have liked giving the order to shoot on sight. Wanted dead or alive. But he suppressed the need for vigilante justice.

They were closer to trapping him. Royce was tracking down leads in the old cases where Sullivan had
suspected Weering’s involvement. Most of the disappearances had taken place in areas close to where Weering’s parents had owned homes. Sadly enough, they had moved often, making the pattern hard to spot.

Evan had noted that one of Weering’s previous addresses had been the house Amanda’s mother had bought six years ago and subsequently lost in a divorce. The place where Amanda had last been, according to the wedding ring she’d left behind.

Wrong place. Wrong time. And her life had been destroyed because of it. Hell, so had his.

No wonder he wouldn’t mind if Weering was shot on sight.

But now was the time to concentrate on Amanda, to stop her from leaving, and to regain her trust.

He downshifted, taking the next curve fast. Almost home. He’d never thought of it as that before…not until Amanda and Christopher had come to stay with him.

The morning sunshine shone off the asphalt and over the bare branches of a tree that had been dropped across the road. To avoid a collision with the thick trunk, Evan wrenched the wheel of the Viper. The squeal of tires could be heard as the powerful sports car spun out of control.

S
TARING OVER THE STEEL
railing of the second-story landing, Amanda sought detachment from her body. Weering had broken her spirit once. She wouldn’t let him do it again. She would be no one’s victim.

When his fingers brushed over her bare back as he raised the zipper on the wedding gown, she ignored
the ripple of goose bumps on her flesh. She couldn’t feel revulsion. She couldn’t feel anything.

The knife blade pressed to her throat, he leaned close, murmuring in her ear, “I can’t wait to lower this zipper again, Amanda, when I make you mine for all eternity.”

She suppressed her fear, refusing to feed his madness. He wanted her scared out of her mind. He wanted her to beg for her life. She’d plot for it instead.

Detached, she informed him, “You won’t get out of here, William. The estate is a fortress. Mr. Sullivan is the only reason you got in. But you killed him, William, so he can’t help you anymore. No one will be able to help you if you hurt me. Evan will kill you.”

His deranged chuckle grated on the nerves she could barely contain. “That’s what I’m counting on, Amanda. That’s what I’m counting on.”

“You want to die?”

“All my life.”

“Then why haven’t you—”

“No one wants to die alone. But until you, I hadn’t found the one to share my destiny.”

“You’ve killed others, William. I know you have.” She fought against the shudder, the despair that washed over her when she considered the horrible fate of those other women. Those women who hadn’t been as fortunate as she had.

“Ah, Amanda, are you upset that you’re not my first?” Lips pressed against her hair, near the hard ridge of the scar he had put on the back of her head. “But you’re the only one I’ve felt this way about.”

Although she didn’t want to know, in order to stall him she had to ask it. “What way do you feel about me, William?”

He laughed as the knife blade bit into her skin again. “You’re the only one who hurt me, Amanda. You scarred me. Blinded me.”

Would he end it this quick, in a fit of temper and for revenge? She needed more time, time for help to arrive. For Evan to arrive. “I was fighting for my life and the life of my unborn child.”

“You fought to protect your child before he was even born. I admire that. I really do.”

“You’re going to hurt him, if you hurt me.”

“He’s young. He’ll get over it. After a while he won’t remember you at all.”

Pain lanced through her with the truth of his words. Was Christopher too young to remember her into adulthood if she left him now?

“It’s when you’re a little older, when things hurt you, that you carry them with you. That you have to make things even.”

“Hurting me won’t make things even, William. You’ve hurt so many others, and it’s brought you no peace.”

“Only death with you at my side, Amanda, will bring me the peace I’ve been seeking. All those years you had me locked away in prison, I realized that this was how it had to be. You and I…together for eternity.”

His free hand gripped her arm, tugging her closer toward the stairs. “It’s time to begin our ceremony, Amanda, to seal our fates.”

“Where did you seal the others, William?”

“This is about us, not them.”

“No, I have to know. You’re just going to leave us here like you did Snake and that other poor man at the pier, but the others… No one found them.”

“And no one ever will.”

“Okay. But what about my car. My suitcases. My identity. Where did you hide all of that? With them?”

He uttered a short sigh. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I want to know. We’re one, you and I.” The words nearly gagged her, but she called to mind an image of Christopher, yesterday, riding atop Evan’s broad shoulders. She had to be strong for them.

“We’re going to be together for eternity, right? I need to know it all, William. Everything.”

He laughed again, the sound as soul searing to Amanda as the screams she’d heard from the wreckage of the car Weering had forced off the road on their way to Winter Falls. The sound brought her nothing but despair, an utter sense of helplessness. She couldn’t give in to it.

“William, I need to know,” she pressed.

“You’re stalling, Amanda. We both know it. Don’t think you’re smarter than me. Nobody’s smarter than me. Not even Evan Quade.” He chuckled some more, as if he were the only one privy to the punch line of a private joke. “He can’t get here, Amanda. He can’t help you.”

Detachment gone, paralyzing fear assailed Amanda. “You’ve hurt Evan?”
Please God, no!

“Not yet. He won’t be hurt until he gets here, until he sees what I’ve done to you. But getting here won’t be that easy for him. He’s going to be detained.”

“How?” She knew Evan, remembered him com
pletely, his passion, his ambition, his unwavering determination. “He won’t be stopped.”

But neither would Weering.

“Money, Amanda. It’s amazing what people will do for money. Keep dirty little secrets. My parents paid out a lot of money over the years to protect my secrets and theirs.”

“Not everyone can be bought, William.”

“Amanda, dear sweet Amanda.”

She shuddered at the endearment coming from his sick lips. She’d loved it when Evan had said it, had wanted to believe he’d meant it.

“Were you always so naive, or is this innocence from losing your mind?” he asked.

Innocent? After what she’d been through, the last thing she possessed was any innocence. She knew how much evil existed in the world, how much bad. But through loving Evan and seeing the loyalty of his friends, she knew good existed, too.

“The man you killed at the dock? He refused your money, didn’t he?”

He sighed. “Fool. I wanted to buy his boat. Then when he recognized me from news footage, I wanted to buy his silence. He refused—nobody refuses me, Amanda.”

“And Martin Timmer?”

He chortled. “Snake? Killing him was always part of the plan. He was supposed to warn you and leave town.”

Evan had been right. William had been trying to send her into a panic, to get her defenses down and send her running. “But he didn’t.”

“He wanted more money. And I would have paid
him, gladly, if he would have stopped there. But I think old Snake had a conscience. And that’s just too much of a liability. So he had to die.”

“Like the others? The other women you killed? How many, William?”

He shrugged, and the blade nicked her throat, the thin scratch burning like a paper cut. “I could give you names, Amanda. But they don’t matter. They’re gone now.”

“Buried?”

“At sea. I always thought that would be peaceful.”

“At sea?”

“I’m a romantic, Amanda. Your Evan would probably call it what it is—a gravel-pit lake, bottomless due to people’s greed for more and more.”

“Where?”

“Does it matter? I can’t put you there with the others, with your car and belongings. That had been the plan but you ruined it, Amanda. I had you locked in that trunk for hours, gagged and bound. But you worked your wrists free. When I opened that trunk, you attacked. Clawing, kicking. Smashing your head against the trunk didn’t even faze you. Hitting you didn’t stop you.”

Instead of anger, his voice rang with pride. “You’re the only one strong enough to be my bride, Amanda. The only one strong enough for me to spend eternity with. Now stop stalling. It’s time for us to seal our destinies.”

She suppressed a shiver of revulsion. “William…”

“I had thought of having you descend the stairway to me, of how romantic that would be. But I have a feeling you would spoil it, Amanda. I have a feeling
you would run if I took this knife away from your neck. Would you do that, my bride?”

She had no compulsion about lying to him. “No. Of course not.”

“Of course not? You’re thinking again that I’m stupid. I’m not stupid, Amanda. And I’m not taking any chances or playing any games anymore.” He laughed shortly. “But the games were fun while they lasted, weren’t they?”

“Too many people got hurt, William. You’re right. You need to stop playing. You need to get help.”

“You’re trying to save me now? Did any of those shrinks you saw help you, Amanda? Did they bring back any memories of the life I took from you? They’re worthless. They can’t save themselves. Nobody saved me when I was a little kid. Nobody can save me now.”

“That’s not true.” She placed her hand over his again, on the knife. “Evan has experts. People who can help you work through your past.”

“No!” His free arm slid around her waist, shaking her as he pulled her against him. “It’s time, Amanda. Time to pledge your life to me.”

“I’m not your bride, William. I’m already another man’s wife.”

“No!” His arm tightened around her waist, hurting. “You’re mine now. I pledge my life to you, Amanda, for the little while we have left on this earth. I do. Now you say I do.”

“No, I already said the only vows I intend to ever speak…to Evan.”

He snickered. “Yeah, you promised to love, honor and forget him. You forgot him, Amanda. You won’t
ever forget me. Now promise to love, honor and cherish me. Say
I do.
”

“Never!”

She flinched as the blade nicked her throat again, this time deeper. Blood trickled over her skin to the neckline of the wedding gown, staining the white fabric bright red.

“Don’t make me hurt you now, not before we consummate our union, Amanda.”

“I’d rather die!” She tightened her grasp on his hand, digging her fingers into his flesh. But she wouldn’t die without a fight. A fight not only for her life, but for a life with her son and Evan.

Chapter Thirteen

Evan pulled up to the gate at the entrance to his estate. His palms, scratched from wrestling with the tree, oozed blood over the leather-wrapped steering wheel.

The deputy at the gate lifted a hand in greeting. “Mr. Quade.”

“Is she still here?”

“Yes, Mr. Sullivan drove up to the house some time ago, and nobody’s left.”

“And the trouble on the beach?”

“Deputy Jones and the Murphys are waiting for the coast guard to check out the boat anchored in the water off the beach, but they haven’t arrived.”

“But they’re on guard?”

The young man nodded. “Yes, if it’s Weering, he won’t get ashore. Mrs. Quade is safe.”

Why did Evan doubt that? Why did fear for her churn in his stomach and dampen his hands, the sweat burning in his cuts. “I’m going up to the house to make sure.”

“Do you want me to come along, Mr. Quade?”

Evan glanced around, taking in the surrounding
countryside, the trees barren from the long hard winter. “No, you better stand guard here.”

From the smooth cut, Evan had discerned that nature had not dropped the tree across the road. A chain saw had. Someone had intentionally set up a roadblock, trying to keep him away from the estate. Why?

As he edged the dented Viper through the opening gate, he vowed to find out. The nondescript sedan, the one Royce had immediately pegged as a government vehicle, was parked near the front door of his house. The plate numbers matched. This was Mr. Sullivan’s car.

Why did anxiety gnaw at Evan? The feeling that something was very wrong, that Amanda was in danger. He couldn’t shake the sensation.

He’d had that feeling when she’d left him six years ago, and his frantic search for her had been unsuccessful because of the attack by William Weering III. The attack that had stolen her memory. And again, just recently, he had had the same sensation and with expert help had tracked her down to discover her once again in danger from William Weering III.

Nervous for her safety, he alighted from the Viper, passing close behind Sullivan’s car on his way to the door. A bloodied handprint on the trunk drew his attention. The lid was unlatched. And when he stepped closer, he figured out why. Someone had jimmied the lock.