He’d never hated anyone more than Driscoll. He didn’t see a man; he saw a monster.
“Dammit, Travis!”
Quinn pushed Zack off Driscoll and he hit the ground with a thud, a rock scraping his back.
He blinked, remembering where he was.
The Cascades. The car chase. Chasing Driscoll.
Driscoll moaned, half conscious. Quinn handcuffed the killer.
“Shit, Zack, you could have killed him.”
Zack stared at his bloody fists. His blood mixed with the killer’s. He rubbed his hands on his jeans over and over, hating what he’d done. The anger that still embraced him had almost turned him into a killer himself.
Making him no better than Chris Driscoll.
He could barely catch his breath.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled.
Olivia.
He jumped up, stumbling as he scurried up the slope.
“Olivia!” he called, running back up the road.
Inner rage turned to bone-numbing fear. If anything had happened to her… no. No. If Driscoll had killed Olivia, Zack would never recover. He loved her. He needed her in his life.
He retraced his steps, passing the crashed police car, Quinn’s sedan. “Olivia!”
He ran around the sharp bend. She lay by the side of the road. Blood soaked her white blouse. Her throat… dear God, he’d slit her throat. Blood smeared her neck, her collar.
Stumbling, he half ran, half crawled to where she lay, not noticing the tears streaming down his cheeks.
“Liv, oh God, Liv.”
Then he saw her chest rise and fall. Rise and fall. Gently, he gathered her into his lap.
“Liv?”
He stroked her cheek and her eyes fluttered open.
“Hi.”
Her voice was faint, but a smile curved her lips.
Zack kissed those lips, his tears falling on her face. “Olivia, I thought you were dead. The blood.” He stared at her neck.
“It’s not deep. I’m okay.” She reached up and cupped his face in her hand.
He kissed her again, urgently. She was alive. Whole. He shuddered as his heart rate finally began to slow, holding her tightly in his arms. He didn’t want to let her go.
“Did you get him?” Olivia asked.
“Yes. He won’t hurt anyone else.”
“It’s over,” she murmured into his chest. “Missy can rest in peace.”
“And so can her sister.” Zack stroked her hair, closed his eyes. Olivia was alive. Safe.
The past could finally be buried.
CHAPTER 30
Zack and Olivia went back to the lodge while Quinn stayed at the crash site to help the sheriff process evidence; then he would pick Zack up and take him to the Cascades sheriff’s substation, where they would interview Driscoll.
An ambulance was already at the lodge and Zack brought Olivia to the EMT to be checked out, since she’d refused to go to the clinic herself.
“You should go to the hospital,” the EMT, a burly guy named Trent, told her. “Just to be on the safe side.”
“See, I told you,” Zack said.
“I’m fine,” Olivia said. “Just clean the cuts.”
Zack winced as Trent sanitized the cut on her neck and applied a bandage.
“Um, do you want to unbutton your blouse?” Trent asked, glancing from Zack to Olivia.
Olivia frowned and looked at Zack. “Are you sure you don’t want to check in with Quinn?”
Zack looked at her, his heart thudding. She was worse off than she’d told him. “Unbutton your blouse, Liv. Or I’ll do it.”
She hesitated, then complied, wincing as she pulled the material from the dried wound on her chest.
Zack stared, feeling the rage building again. Her left breast had been stabbed, the cut at least an inch wide. The blood had dried, but in pulling the blouse off the wound had restarted a light flow.
Saying nothing, the EMT efficiently and discreetly cleaned and dressed the wound. He then turned to the cut in her side, shook his head, and took care of it.
Zack stared at Olivia. That he’d come so close to losing her affected him a million different ways. He wasn’t comfortable examining his feelings under such circumstances. He wanted to step back, think logically about what had happened, accept it, and move on. But he was stymied, unable to rid his memory of the image of Olivia jumping from the car, and now the obvious signs of violence on her body.
“Trent, could you give us a minute?” she said quietly, not turning her eyes from Zack’s.
Trent said, “Ms. St. Martin, you need to see a doctor when you get to town, okay?”
“I will,” she said.
The EMT left and she took Zack’s hand. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the scraped knuckles.
“I’m fine, Zack. Really. I’m fine.”
Zack ran a hand through his hair. “I thought he’d killed you,” he said quietly.
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m sore, but I’ll be okay.”
He nodded, unable to speak, and sat heavily next to her on the bumper.
“Don’t. Don’t think about it,” Olivia said.
“I love you, Liv. I don’t want to lose you.” He choked up and closed his eyes, bending his forehead to hers.
“Oh, Zack.” She touched his cheek. “I need to tell you something. It’s important.”
He opened his eyes and looked at her. Something was wrong, but he had no idea what. He rubbed the back of her neck, kissed her lips, her cheek.
“What, Liv?”
“I’m not an FBI agent.”
He blinked, his body tensing. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m a scientist. I used to be a field agent, nearly ten years ago. But now I’m director of the Material Analysis and Trace Evidence lab.”
Zack dropped his hands. What?! Conflicting emotions battled within him, raw from the turmoil he’d just gone through.
She’d been lying to him since the minute they met? He found that hard to believe, but she’d just said it.
“You’re not an FBI agent,” he repeated.
“Please listen. Try to understand,” she began, speaking quickly. “When I found out Brian Hall was being released, my entire world fell apart. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t do anything. I had helped put him in prison. I had testified against his parole six times! I called him evil to his face. But the evidence proved years later that he hadn’t raped Missy.
“So I used every resource at my disposal. I spent two weeks putting together similar cases from around the country. And when I read about Jenny Benedict’s murder, then Michelle’s abduction, I went straight to my boss.”
“And he told you to lie about your identity?” Zack felt sucker-punched. He found it hard to breathe.
She shook her head. “He said the evidence was circumstantial and until we were asked to help, his hands were tied. But,” she said before he could open his mouth, “I couldn’t stand back and do nothing! So I brought the evidence to you. I knew that if you had the information it would help. And it did, didn’t it? I know it did.”
“You haven’t heard of a fax machine?”
Tears welled in her eyes, but Zack shut off his feelings. To protect himself, he had to. He would not allow her past the wall he was building inside. She had deceived and lied to him, manipulating him from the minute they met.
“You know as well as I do that my familiarity with these cases helped. The raw data wouldn’t have given you as much as my interpretation.”
“You could have told me any time, Olivia. Why didn’t you? Why didn’t you come clean when you told me about your sister?”
“I-I-don’t know. I was scared I’d be removed from the case.”
He barked a humorless laugh. “Removed from a case you were never assigned to? You’ve started believing your own lies. Have you had a lot of practice? Because you sure had me fooled.”
She looked stricken, as if he had slapped her, and he had to force his attention away from her.