Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
A knife flashed before her. Wren didn’t even have the breath to scream. Something wet dripped down the side of her face.
The air bag that had been pinning Wren in place deflated with a hiss. The knife came at her. A fast slash as she tried to turn her face away.
Nothing I can do. It’s going to cut me.
Only it didn’t slash her in the face. It slashed away her seatbelt.
The Jeep was on its side. She blinked blearily. Jake? Was Jake cutting her free? She tried to angle her head toward the driver’s seat.
Another air bag was in her way. She reached out, pushing against it.
“Say goodbye,” a voice growled.
Then hard hands were grabbing her and hauling Wren out of the vehicle. And those hands weren’t Jake’s. Because she’d just seen Jake beyond the airbag. Slumped. Unconscious? “Jake!” she screamed.
“You’re gonna pay,” the man told her. The knife was gone. Where had it gone? He dragged her out of the Jeep. What was left of the Jeep. Smashed and crumpled. Broken. The way she felt. Her feet kicked out over the street. She heaved in his hold and twisted.
“Help!” Wren cried.
“The hero can’t help. No one can help. You are?—”
A dark SUV flew down the street, coming right toward them. The man hauling her swore. His grip slackened for just a moment, and Wren tore free.
Only she didn’t get far. He grabbed her again. Whirled her toward him. She punched at him, as hard as she could.
He hit her back. A fierce upper cut to the jaw that had her seeing stars and weaving on her feet.
“Get away from her!” A roar. A roar that had come from the SUV. Dazed, she glanced toward it. Saw…
Hunter? Yes, Hunter. He’d been following them. He’d help. He’d?—
The man who’d just hit her yanked a gun from the side of his coat. He fired toward Hunter. Quick blasts.
“No!” Wren yelled. She threw her body against the shooter. He staggered beneath the impact, but didn’t fall. Instead, he just grabbed her with his left hand and with his right, he shoved the gun against her side.
“Come with me or die here.”
You were never supposed to go to a secondary scene. How many times had Honey drummed that important fact into her? Wren knew her odds of survival would plummet if she left. She’d never see Jake again.
She shook her head. No.
“Fuck it then.” He smiled at her. A round, soft face. But his brown eyes glinted with hate. “Die here.” Sweat trickled down his temple. He licked his lips.
“ She’s not dying. ” A bellow from Jake.
Her breath shuddered out.
Jake had made it out of the Jeep. Jake was okay. Everything was going to be okay.
Um, or, judging by the fact that she had a gun jabbing into her and she was still seeing spots from that punch to the jaw, maybe…not?
“You’re surrounded, bastard,” Jake thundered as he stalked closer. Her gaze skated to the left. Jake paced forward, and he had his gun up. His paint-splattered fingers held the gun in a rock-steady grip and his face—ice cold and terrifying. “You’ve got me here and you’ve got my buddy coming in behind you.”
The shooter stiffened. “No one is behind me.”
“Yeah, he is. My friend Hunter is closing in. You missed him with your shots. Now you have me and you have him to deal with, you dumb prick. And we’re both pissed and planning to shove bullets into your brain. So there’s that fun future waiting for you.”
A siren wailed. They hadn’t made it very far from Makayla’s crime scene. Makayla. “What did you do with her?” Wren whispered. If Hunter was closing in, she had to keep the jerk distracted. She also had to help her friend.
The attacker’s brows whipped up. “What in the hell are you talking about? Do with who?”
“Makayla,” she breathed her name. Her jaw ached from where he’d hit her. “Is she still alive? Please…” The tremble in her voice was real. “Makayla hasn’t hurt anyone. Let her go.”
“I don’t know who the hell Makayla is,” he yelled back as spittle flew from his mouth, and panic filled his eyes. “I’m here for you! You and that freak father of yours killed my sister! You are going to pay! You are?—”
“Freeze, bastard!” Hunter snarled. “What you feel right now? It’s a gun pressed to the back of your head. So much as twitch, and the trigger gets pulled and that means— bam. Your brains go everywhere, though I’m really not convinced you have a lot of those.”
The attacker’s eyes widened. A spattering of freckles covered his nose, and his pale skin seemed to whiten even more. “She has to pay.” His red hair was tousled, as if he’d raked his fingers through it again and again.
Jake grabbed Wren and wrenched her from the other man’s hold. Then he put himself in front of her, shielding her with his body. “For my crimes?” Jake demanded. “Screw that.”
“For what she and her father did! They took Carrie! She has to pay! ”
Carrie. The name clicked for Wren. Carrie Carpenter. Wren stumbled back. Carrie Carpenter had been that terrible, final victim. Wren had put her hands on Carrie’s neck, and she’d tried to stop the blood flow, but it hadn’t helped. Carrie had been staring at Wren as all the blood left her, and Carrie had been trying so desperately to talk. To form one final word. But her throat had been savaged, and she’d never voiced another sound. Her lips, though, they’d formed… “Adam?” Wren rasped the name.
Adam was Carrie’s brother. I know…because I had to research her. I had to know more about her. The woman I couldn’t save…
Carrie’s husband had died before her, killed as part of the sick experiment. Carrie’s final thought hadn’t been for the man she’d married. The man whose cold body had been dumped near her. It had been for the young brother she’d left behind. Her final thought had been of Adam.
An inhuman shriek burst from the attacker when Wren said his name. He flew forward, trying to shove past Jake so he could take aim at Wren and shoot her.
Jake didn’t speak. He just grabbed the redhead. Twisted the man’s arm fast and hard and something near the man’s shoulder seemed to pop, and in the next breath, Jake had him on the ground. One of Jake’s feet was planted at the base of the man’s head, and he had the guy’s arm extended up in a wrenching position that was making the guy— is this Adam?— howl in pain.
The attacker’s gun had fallen to the ground. Hunter grabbed it and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans. Then Hunter was in front of Wren. “You good?”
No. She’d just been hit by a freaking truck and her jaw ached. Her friend was missing, and the howling man had tried to kill her. Not a good day.
Hunter winced when he looked at her face. “Jake will freak out when he sees that.” His left hand lifted, and, carefully, he raised her chin.
She flinched.
The wailing siren was close. Super close, and when she pulled away from Hunter and turned her head to the side, she saw the cruiser rushing toward them. Not just a cruiser, though. Other cars were following in a parade-like line.
Wren stepped back. The man on the ground was screeching and twisting, but there was no way he was getting out of Jake’s hold.
“I called the cops when I realized what the hell was happening,” Hunter revealed. “The bastard was lying in wait. As soon as he spotted the Jeep, he tore for it.”
For her side of the vehicle. Her body ached and fear had her heart racing far too fast. She scrambled toward Jake and the struggling man.
Hunter grabbed her from behind and held her back. “How about we don’t go running for the man who just tried to kill you? Great plan, huh? Am I a genius or what?”
The man looked up. Tears streamed from his eyes. “I hate you!”
Yes, she believed that he did.
“You should be dead. Carrie should be alive! Carrie should be here, not you! Not you!”
Jake wrenched the man’s arm up higher. A high-pitched shriek of pain erupted from the guy.
“Where is Makayla Lane?” Jake demanded.
“Who the… ah, my arm! Who the…who the fuck is M-Makayla?”
“She’s the woman you abducted last night. The bride to be.” Jake’s voice was flat. “You broke into her house, and you kidnapped her.”
The cruiser screeched to a stop. Wren didn’t even glance that way. She couldn’t take her eyes off Jake. And the panicked man in his grip.
“I didn’t kidnap anyone!” The man heaving on the ground shook his head. “Just came for her.” His head angled up so he could glare at Wren. “Got the call that you would be here. Came for you. Waited. Saw you drive in. Knew you’d come out. One long road in, one long road out. So I waited . I waited. All this time. All these years. Only no more waiting now. You’re going to die!”
“The hell she is,” Jake told him.
“ Let him go!” Honey’s sharp order. She slipped forward, with her gun drawn. A deputy shadowed her movements to the right. “Jake, let that man go and back away!”
“This bastard just tried to kill Wren! He plowed into my Jeep. Hit us again and again.” Jake wrenched the guy’s arm up a bit more.
Another howl.
“ Let him go.” Honey didn’t lower her gun, but Wren realized it wasn’t aimed at Jake. It was pointed at the man on the ground. “I’ve got him,” she promised, “and I am not going to let him hurt anyone.”
Jaw locking, Jake slowly let go of the man. Jake took a step back. Honey crept forward.
The man who’d been on the ground leapt to his feet. With an inhuman scream, he flew toward Wren.
Hunter’s grip tightened around her stomach.
“Freeze!” Honey bellowed.
The man didn’t freeze.
Jake launched at the man’s fleeing back. He tackled him, even as a thunder of gunfire exploded. Jake and the redhead hit the ground.
Honey wrenched her head toward the deputy. “What did you do?”
He’d fired his weapon, that was what he’d done. Had he hit Jake with the bullet? Wren tore from Hunter’s grip and hurtled forward.
But Jake was already moving. He shoved back and up and flipped over the attacker. Then Jake’s fist flew into the man’s face. One hit, two, a third and?—
Wren stumbled to a stop. “Jake?” Was that blood on him? Or the paint from before? Be paint. Be paint.
Hunter blew past her. He caught Jake’s fist and stopped him mid-blow even as Honey and the deputy swarmed in.
“He’s out of commission,” Hunter said. “Get your control back, man. Now.”
Jake’s breath sawed in and out. But he nodded grimly and rose to his feet. Instantly, his eyes locked on Wren. And that blazing gaze narrowed.
Honey and the deputy bent near the fallen figure.
Jake came straight to Wren. His gaze drifted over her. Locked on her jaw. “Baby…” Lethal. “You’re hurt.”
Her hand skimmed over her jaw. It ached, but nothing was broken. “He, uh, hit me when he pulled me out of the Jeep, and I was trying to get away— Jake!”
Jake had whirled away and stormed back for the man she fully believed was Adam. Jake knocked the deputy out of the way. Adam balled up his fist and tried to take a swing at Jake.
Bad move.
The blow missed, and Jake pounded at him with fast and furious hits. Adam screamed and blood flew from his busted lip. Adam fell back even as Honey surged between the two men.
Jake froze with his hands fisted.
“I am taking it from here!” Honey blasted. “Jacob Jones, you get back. You hear me? You get back! You go to Wren, and you protect her.” She pointed at the deputy who lurched to his feet. “Timothy, cuff this bastard!”
Timothy hurried to cuff the bastard.
Jake drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Then another. His glare remained on the attacker. One moment. Two. Three. Then, slowly, his head lifted. His head turned. His eyes found Wren.
Another deep breath. He strode toward her. His hand rose, and his fingers lightly skimmed over her jaw.
She caught his hand. “I’m okay.”
His gaze burned down at her.
“I am.” A little bruised, but this was hardly the worst she’d been in her life. Giving in to instinct, she closed the last bit of distance between them and wrapped her arms around him. He was warm and strong and when he pulled her tightly against him, some of the hard terror around her heart finally eased.
“Where is Makayla Lane?” Honey demanded to know. “You tell us right now!”
“She should die!” Adam cried out. “She should die for what she did!”
For just an instant, Wren squeezed her eyes shut. But there was no hiding from some things in this world, no matter how much you tried. And she’d tried hiding already. For such a very long time. She pulled from Jake. At first, his hold tightened, as if he wouldn’t let her go.
But then he eased his grip.
Wren stepped back. “Makayla has done nothing wrong!”
“Not talking about her! Don’t know her!” Blood dripped from Adam’s busted lower lip. “You! You should die! You’re the one I’m after! You should die! ”
Jake twined his fingers with Wren’s. “That’s not ever gonna happen.”
Honey grunted.
“This SOB slammed his car into my Jeep,” Jake stated in a chilling voice that promised retribution would come. “He tried to kill us both.”
“Just her!” A shout from Adam. “She is evil! She doesn’t get to live! She doesn’t—Carrie is dead. We buried her and all I get is a cold headstone. She doesn’t get to live while my sister is gone!”
Jake’s fingers squeezed her hand. “After the crash, the bastard took Wren. He hit her. He attacked her, Honey.”
Honey’s stare slid over Wren’s face. “I see the bruise coming already.”
Adam had already been cuffed. Timothy stood behind Adam, and when he gripped the suspect’s right shoulder, the redhead screamed in pain. “Be careful!” Adam cried.
Timothy’s jaw tightened. Hunter watched from just a few feet away. Silent. Menacing.
But, glancing over her shoulder, Wren saw that Hunter wasn’t the only watcher. More cars had been following Honey from Makayla’s place. That whole would-be parade. Not just other deputies. The woman in red was there. And the guy who’d been filming Wren before—he had his phone up and was recording this whole scene.
Timothy and Honey started reading the suspect his rights, but he went right on screaming over them.
“She has to die! I won’t stop until she is dead! ”
There was such hate in his voice, and, when she looked back at him, the hate filled his eyes, too.
He stared straight at Wren, and he promised, “I will kill you.”