Over the Line (36 page)

It was the moment he'd been waiting for. With an echoing growl, he stood, chopped at the gun barrel with a swift, downward hack.

A burst of blinding light was followed instantly by the ear-splitting report of a rifle. Her eyes were still traumatized by the fire flash and her ears still ringing when she heard a groan, the thud of a body connecting with the cave floor.

Adrenaline pumped through her blood at the speed of sound—she could hear it in her ears along with the ringing, feel it in her throat. Finally, her pupils dilated and she could make out the faint glow of the flashlight, its beam cocked at an unnatural angle toward the ceiling of the cave.

Where hundreds of bats hung upside down and had started to stir.

Oh, God.

She dropped to her knees, shrinking herself as small as possible. She wanted to call out to Baby Blue. She wanted to run toward the light—and that's when she realized the flashlight was less than three feet away.

Holding her breath, she inched slowly forward on her hands and knees. Six inches. She could almost touch it. And she almost did. At the last moment, she pulled her hand back, followed the wide swath of the beam where it flared downward—and saw Grimm's dark silhouette standing over Baby Blue, rifle in hand, ready to fire.

She forgot all about the bats; she forgot about her fear of the dark. With a roar, she shot to her feet. Startled, Grimm swung toward her, but she was already in motion. She kicked high and hard, clipping him in the jaw.

He screamed in pain, dropped to his knees, and the rifle went flying. Sheer instinct had her scrambling for the weapon when it skittered toward her. She grabbed it and drew it to her shoulder.

"Don't move." Terrified, she hardly recognized her own voice. He stood and took a step toward her. "I said don't move," she shouted, near panic.

When he stopped and held his hands up above his head, her breath came out in a series of ragged hitches. She couldn't see his face in the dark. Couldn't distinguish anything but his hulking silhouette. She didn't have to see him. His face had fueled nightmares for four years; she remembered every inch of it. And now she had another nightmare to thank him for. Baby Blue lay lifeless at her feet.

Be alive; be alive,
she begged him. Just as she knelt to check, Grimm lurched forward. She raised the gun to her shoulder, fired wildly. The recoil knocked her backward, set her on her ass. She fired again.

Her ears were still ringing, her eyes still blinded by the fire flash, when she looked up, struggling to find Grimm, and fire again if she had to. But she couldn't see anything. And all she could hear was the horrible ringing in her ears. All she could feel was Jason Wilson's lifeless form beside her.

Long moments passed before she realized they were alone in the cave. Alone with the bats. Finally, her sight adjusted. And her mind clicked out of panic mode when she heard the distant roar of an engine.

She rose to her knees, bent over Baby Blue—and almost wept when she felt his breath against her face, his pulse against her fingertips.

She lifted his head and cradled it in her lap. It didn't take long to find the bump on his temple. But it took what felt like forever for her to rouse him.

"Grimm?" he mumbled.

"Gone," she said.

Then and only then did she cry. And curse. And laugh until she started crying again.

He lifted a hand, cupped her head, and shushed her.

"I'm okay. I'm okay, babe."

She'd thought he was dead. Because of her.

She'd thought they were both going to end up dead.

But they were alive.

Thank you, God, they were alive.

That was the good news.

The bad news: Somewhere out there, Grimm was still alive, too.

Chapter 20

One thirty a.m., Saturday, July 22nd

"I wish to hell I knew," Jase told No as he tossed his duffel on the bed in his old bedroom on the second floor of his parents' house.

His head throbbed like a bitch. But he wasn't seeing stars anymore, so that was a plus.

In Jeremy's room, Janey was also packing her things. Damn, was she something. He'd been out cold for the grand finale. Must have hit his head on a rock when he'd tackled Grimm.

That was the last thing he remembered. If Janey hadn't kept her head and gotten Grimm's assault rifle, they'd both be dead now. He'd deal with the ego hit later. Right now, he had to get her out of here.

"Somehow, some way, Grimm is tracking her," Jase told No. "And the sonofabitch has stepped up his game."

He wedged his cell between his shoulder and ear, checked the cylinder on the Ruger that his dad kept around to chase off coyotes.

"Her cell phone?" No suggested.

"I checked it. It's clean. Hell, I've checked everything I can think of. Her clothes. Her purse. Makeup. Nothing. It's spooky as hell."

"So is Dallas's latest find." No's voice was stone-cold.

Jase felt his stomach, which was still queasy from the blow to his head, sink like a stone. "Don't tell me we've lost another woman on the list."

"Make that two more. One in Florida and one in Texas. With Alice Perkins and the woman in Illinois, that makes four—all within a few days of each other."

Jase tucked the gun into his jeans at the small of his back and shouldered the duffel. "Still nothing to tie them together?"

"Actually, there is. We've traced them all back to Mississippi. They all lived within thirty miles of Alice Perkins about twenty-seven, twenty-eight years ago."

"So she might have known them. Anything else?"

"Yeah—Dallas has a lead on the fourth woman. In South Dakota of all places. He's catching a plane in the morning—with some luck, she'll be able to fill in some blanks for us."

"Okay, look." Jase checked his watch—it was almost one-forty-five—and zipped up his duffel. "I'm getting Janey out of here. I didn't have much choice but to fill my old man in a few minutes ago. He can handle himself if Grimm shows up after we leave, but I don't think that's going to happen. The bastard wants Janey. He backed off tonight, but I have no doubt that he'll come after her again."

"Where are you going?"

Jase grunted. "People keep asking me questions I don't have answers for. All I know is I've got to get her out of here and away from my parents. I don't want them caught in the middle of this."

"I've got an idea," No said.

"I'm all ears, man."

"How far are you from Chicago?"

"Three, three and a half hours with a tailwind."

"Head for O'Hare. Grimm wouldn't dare make a move with airport security as tight as it is."

"Which means I'll have to ditch my piece."

"Don't worry; where you're going, there will be plenty of weaponry and ammo."

"And where might that be?"

"On the off chance Grimm's got a line on this conversation, let's just keep that part a surprise for now."

"Let's keep something else a surprise, too," Jase said, in complete agreement with No. "Our mode of transportation. I'm beginning to think there might be a GPS transmitter planted on Janey's jet."

"Fine. You'll fly commercial. I'll arrange to have tickets waiting when you get there. When you get to O'Hare, call. I'll let you know what airline. You'll be long gone before Grimm can catch up."

"Roger that." Ignoring the headache, Jase shouldered the duffel, and headed out the door toward Jeremy's room.

"Jase—there are a couple of other things."

"Of course there are," he said wearily, and sagged against the wall in the hallway. Something told him he didn't want Janey to hear all of this. "Okay. Shoot."

"Has Janey ever said anything about Max Cogan having a gambling problem?"

That stopped Jase cold. "Whoa. Max? No. She's never mentioned it. I'm not sure she would though, even if she knew. She's pretty loyal. Come to think of it, I did notice that Max hit the casinos pretty hard when we were in Atlantic City."

"Yeah, well, he likes the horses, too. And sports bets. Word is he dropped a bundle a few weeks back and some not-so-nice guys have been leaning on him pretty hard to pay up."

Just what Janey needed. To find Max floating facedown in a river somewhere. No wonder Jase had sensed Max was off his game lately. And Max had been eating antacids like they were candy.

"Max loves Janey," Jase said aloud. "I can't see him putting her in the middle of his problems."

"Maybe he didn't have a choice. According to his bank records, he's tapped out. His condo is mortgaged to the hilt and his credit is for shit. The big boys might figure Janey is Max's ticket to pay them off."

"Christ." Jase felt weary to the bone suddenly. "I don't like the direction this is going."

"Then you're not going to like this, either. Janey's friend? Neal Sanders?"

"Yeah?"

"As of last night, Sanders is missing."

"Missing?" Janey felt marginally better after she had taken a very quick shower and dressed in clean jeans and a tank top. At least she
had
felt better until Wilson had made his announcement about Neal.

"What does that mean? Everybody scattered after Boston to take advantage of the two-week break. I think Neal said he was heading back to NYC."

She ran a pick through her damp hair as she sat beside Baby Blue in Bruce Wilson's borrowed truck. The Mustang wasn't drivable—something, Baby Blue had announced with a dark scowl, that Grimm was going to pay for, big-time.

He checked his rearview mirror and pulled out onto I-80 heading east. In the pale light of the truck's cab, she could see the bump on his temple. A reddish-purple bruise covered a knot the size of a quarter and radiated down to his eye. After fussing over his arm and head injury, Bev Wilson had helped Janey clean and dress the cuts on her ankle.

"Yeah. Well, he didn't show. Didn't make his flight. Never checked into the hotel he'd booked."

"So he had a change of plans. He does that sometimes."

"Janey—he never checked out of the hotel in Boston, yet all of his things were left in his room. The maid alerted management when she went to clean, because he was supposed to have checked out."

It was easier, sometimes, to avoid the truth than to deal with it. "He's probably holed up with his woman of the week somewhere." But even as she said it, she knew she was reaching.

Jase shook his head. "Apparently the room was trashed—and not just because Sanders is a slob. Seems there might have been a little scuffle. It's starting to look like maybe he didn't leave willingly. He left his wallet behind, his stash of weed, all of his clothes."

She closed her eyes, dropped her head into her hand. "So you're thinking what? That someone abducted Neal? That's crazy."

He was quiet for a while, then glanced her way. "Okay, I know you don't see this, probably don't want to hear it, either, but Sanders isn't a very nice guy."

"I'll admit that he's changed some lately," Janey said reluctantly. "And not for the good. But he was my friend when I needed one most. I'm not going to forget that. Besides, you don't understand him," she said, automatically coming to Neal's defense.