Catherine felt a hand grip her shoulder.
Luke’s hand.
She glanced back at him. He was leaning forward and his expression … intent, thoughtful, gentle.
“It’s going to be all right, Catherine,” he said quietly. “You know that Kelly’s smart, and she sees patterns and kind of feels things. That will help her. And we’re smart, too. We’ll find her.”
She was unbearably touched. She reached up and covered his hand with her own. “You keep getting it wrong, Luke. I’m supposed to be comforting you.”
“But things are piling up on you, and it’s hard to see stuff.” His voice was grave. “I know people die. I’ve seen it. I know things go wrong. But this won’t be one of them. We won’t let it.”
“Of course we won’t. But do me a favor. Don’t get too much ahead of me in those woods when we’re searching for her. You may not think I need to look out for you, but what about sticking close enough to look out for me?”
He chuckled. “Hey, are you trying to manipulate me, Catherine?”
“You bet I am.”
“And doing a good job,” Sam said, amused. “How can you refuse, Luke?”
“I can’t.” He took his hand away from her shoulder and leaned back in his seat. “The helicopter is beginning to go down.” His dark eyes were shining with excitement. “It’s all starting, isn’t it, Catherine?”
“Yes.” And Luke was ready to go with it, embrace the adventure, embrace the thrill of the danger. Luke was so much like her. His captivity with Rakovac had torn away any hope she would have that he would be a normal child. And if she hadn’t been so concerned about both Kelly and him, she would have had the same reaction. Luke was still young enough to believe in his own immortality, and that could be fatal. “For us. I only hope it’s not already started for Kelly.”
CHAPTER
5
VIRGINIA
Was she being followed?
Kelly stopped on the trail and listened.
No sound behind her.
But she had heard … something … a few minutes ago.
A voice? The sound of breathing? Maybe it was only the wind in the trees.
Stop being paranoid. It’s not as if she owned these woods. It could be another student, just trying to get away from the pressures of the classroom.
“Hello,” she called. “Anyone there?”
No answer.
A chill went down her spine.
Because she knew someone was there.
She started walking down the trail again.
Quickly.
She reached for her phone.
Whoever was behind her could be a practical joker. Some kid who thought it would be funny to scare her. But there were always stories about students being attacked by creeps who hung out around the colleges. She’d call campus security and give them her location. She’d speak clearly and loudly, and it might scare off anyone following her. At least she’d feel less alone in this—
Her phone was dead.
She felt a bolt of panic. It couldn’t be dead. Her cell had been fully charged before she’d started on her hike. She wouldn’t have gone into the woods without taking the precaution.
It was dead.
And she was definitely hearing the brush moving somewhere behind her.
Okay. Smother the fear. It wasn’t as if she was helpless. She had a Mace gun in her jacket pocket, and she’d had karate training last year after she’d been rescued by Catherine from those beasts who had killed her father.
I didn’t expect this, Daddy. I was just so sad and wanted to get away by myself and think about you. I don’t know what’s happening, but I could use a little help if you have any influence where you are.
There was only one trail on this stretch of the woods. She couldn’t turn and backtrack toward the college. She’d run right into the person who was following her. But after she passed the dam two miles up the trail, it split and circled. It would be a good place to lose herself in the shrubs and trees and take that other trail back to the campus.
It was getting dark, the trees casting grotesque shadows on the trail. She had meant to camp for the night when she reached the dam.
Her pace instinctively increased at the thought of how vulnerable doing that would make her.
No way.
* * *
Blood gleaming in the moonlight, seeping into the dirt of the trail.
A dark-clad body crumpled in the bushes.
Catherine’s pulse stopped, then jumped with panic. In the half darkness, she couldn’t tell if the body was that of a man or woman.
Kelly?
“Sam, stay with Luke. Cover me.” She drew her gun as she ran toward the body several yards up the trail.
Not Kelly, she realized with relief as she drew closer. Dark hair, not fair.
But that dark hair was matted with blood. She darted into the brush beside the body and did a quick scan of the area before she came back to the trail.
“It’s safe,” she called to Sam. She knelt beside the blood-soaked body. “Male. Throat cut.” Her hands moved inside his jacket and dark trousers. She drew out a brown leather wallet and ID and flipped it open. “Lawrence Weber. CIA. He must be the agent Venable sent after Kelly.”
“Shit,” Sam said as he came close. “Ambush. Poor guy.”
“Yes.” She put Weber’s ID and wallet back in his jacket. “And whoever killed him didn’t want him to find Kelly.”
“Or interfere with what he wanted to do to Kelly.” Sam shook his head. “How long ago?”
“Enough time for Weber to bleed out.” She looked at Luke, who had come up the trail and was staring down at Weber. She had to get him away from here. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen wounded and dead before while he was with Rakovac. She was the one who felt a passionate desire to protect him, keep him from ever going through that horror again. Right, she thought in self-disgust, so she had allowed herself to be railroaded into taking him here where he had every chance of doing it. She got to her feet. “Come on Luke. We’ve got to get moving. Sam, call Venable and tell him what happened and see if he can get the State Police out here to search the forest and find that killer.”
“We can find him,” Luke said quietly. He was looking down at the ground. “He’ll be easy.” He pointed to the pooled blood on the trail. “He walked right through that blood.” He went a few paces farther. “See, he was wearing boots, and he’ll leave traces of it wherever he walks.”
“Yes, I see.” Now she was worrying about Luke’s being too callous.
Luke looked back at Weber. “He was CIA. One of the good guys. I think he’d kind of like the idea of pointing the way toward the man who did that to him, don’t you?”
Not callous at all. “You may be right.” She moved down the trail, the light from her flashlight picking out the bloody footprints. “And he’d also be glad that he could show us the way to find Kelly.”
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Home.
She was going home.
Jane MacGuire looked down at the clock on the dashboard of the Toyota rental car.
Fifteen minutes more, and she should be at the lake cottage, which had been home to her since Joe and Eve had adopted her when she was ten years old. As an artist, she had traveled the world, but she always came back because family was everything. But she didn’t look forward to what was waiting for her at the cottage today. She had won the first battle with Eve, but that didn’t mean that Eve would give up. She had always been superprotective and would try to find a way to keep Jane away from any possible danger.
But danger happened.
Death happened.
Death had happened to Trevor.
He had taught her to love and trust, then death had taken him.
Don’t think of that right now. She had thought she’d worked her way through the first agonizing stages of grief in the past months. But all of a sudden it was back again, and her hands clenched on the steering wheel as she tried to push it away.