Chapter 42
CHAPTER 42
SAWYER
T he Zodiac zipped over the waves as Daniel brought us around the south end of Hatterwick, past the lighthouse, then opened the throttle. I kept my weight low, instinctively balancing with the bounce of the boat and willing him to find some extra speed.
Something was wrong. I knew it down to the very marrow of my bones. I just hoped I’d guessed right. If O’Shea hadn’t taken her to Osprey Beach, I didn’t know where to look next. I didn’t think he’d be able to get her off-island without someone seeing. But if he had his own boat, all bets were off. He could get her away, and no one would have any idea where they’d gone. But then what? The moment he showed back up in Sutter’s Ferry, there’d be questions. He had a life here. A respected place in the community. He wouldn’t want to jeopardize those. So he probably wouldn’t take her off-island.
I just had to hope that he chose the same area for all the reasons he must’ve chosen it years ago. I had no idea what the hell he’d been doing out there. No idea what connection he might have had to Joe Anderson’s murder or Gwen Busby’s disappearance. But if he’d gone so far as to see Willa effectively tortured and brainwashed to keep from remembering what had happened, chances were that whatever was trapped in her mind was incriminating as hell.
As I tried to wrap my brain around all of it, I began to question and doubt myself. What if I was wrong? What if he was exactly what he appeared to be? What if his connection with Collin Caswell was a total fluke? What if the danger was really from some other quarter, and O’Shea had simply taken Willa home?
The sight of his car right at the edge of Osprey Beach put those doubts to rest. It was parked cattywampus, with the doors hanging open, as if he’d gotten out in a hurry. Like maybe his captive had run.
I waved Daniel toward the beach, and he took us in.
The moment we’d landed, I was over the side, sprinting toward the car. A warning bell dinged, indicating the keys were still in it. Peering inside, I spotted Willa’s purse in the backseat.
“She was here.” But there was no sign of her now, nor of O’Shea. “I don’t think the doors would be open like this if he had her under control. I think she bolted.” Which meant she’d gotten away from him, at least for a little while.
Use that big brain of yours, Wren. Stay ahead of him.
“What you want us to do?” Daniel asked.
I tried to put myself in Willa’s shoes. If she’d run from him, she’d realized she was in danger. We were right by the woods that had always been her safe place. She’d have gone there. Probably found a place to hide.
I had no idea if O’Shea was armed. It seemed safer to err on the assumption than he was. Daniel could handle himself, but I didn’t want Gabi put in harm’s way. No way would she stay behind. We were losing the light fast. If Willa was thinking clearly, she might try to double back or lose O’Shea. But if she was riding instinct, I suspected she’d aim for where the horses might be.
“Split up. You two head north by the beach. Aim to cut into the woods where the crime scene tape is. I’ll go in from here. Be safe. We don’t know if he’s armed.” And we had absolutely nothing on us.
But I couldn’t think about that as I plunged into the woods, praying I’d made the right call.
How much of a lead did they have? Five minutes? Half an hour? My brain was all too happy to offer up a multitude of terrifying things that could happen in that span. I wanted to run. To pour on all the speed until I found them both. But I forced myself to maintain a steady pace, hunting for the trail in the failing light. Racing through here like a bull in a china shop would just announce I was coming. If O’Shea was paying attention, that seemed like a good way to get shot, or worse.
I was on Sutter land by now. There were no formal trails here, only what amounted to game trails worn in by the horses. Would Willa take the path of least resistance? Or would she stay off them in hopes of confusing her pursuer?
Instinct drove me north, toward the deepest part of the woods, and it was finally there that I heard it.
“Willa. Come out now. I know you can hear me.”
O’Shea. And he hadn’t found her yet.
I crept carefully toward his voice. If I could get the drop on him, I could immobilize him before he could do worse than whatever he’d already done.
“Come now, Willa. You don’t want one of these horses you love so much to get hurt on your behalf, do you?”
I’d reached the edge of the clearing. The same one where Willa had brought me after the hurricane. O’Shea stood in the middle, near the pond. The dull gleam of a gun barrel flashed in his hand. With all the limbs down from the storm, there’d be no sneaking up on him. There was simply too much debris to step on or try to dodge. Beyond him, I could see part of the herd, with several of them clustered in the trees. Because I’d seen them with Willa before, I suspected she was in the center, crouched down between equine bodies. They shifted uneasily, focus on O’Shea.
“What did you do with Gwen?”
I closed my eyes at the sound of her voice, both relieved and terrified that she’d revealed herself.
“I did nothing with her. I just saw that she was delivered where she was supposed to be delivered.”
Delivered? What the hell did that mean? Had Willa remembered something, or was she guessing?
“Delivered to who? For what?”
“That was never my concern. I just handled logistics. Look, I told you, I never wanted to hurt you. But I’ve worked too long and too hard for the life I have, to lose it simply because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better? I thought you were a friend. Someone that I could trust.”
“Well, I was. So long as you couldn’t remember, I was happy to continue on as advisor to you about the family estate, exactly as I have for your grandfather for decades.” He paused, his lips curving a little. “And I truly did enjoy going toe-to-toe with your family’s lawyers to hand your father his ass. He had a long-standing deal with Anthony Strand, you know. Full development of all this beautiful land. They tried it before, years ago, but of course Henry wouldn’t go for it. So John thought he’d simply wait the old man out and pounce when he died. But he didn’t count on you. Well done there.”
“And what’s supposed to happen to the estate if you kill me?”
“Oh, well, I’m not actually sure, since Sawyer signed that post-nup. I don’t suppose you’ve already written up a will? Young people never think to do such things so early in a marriage. I expect it’ll be up to the courts to decide whether it goes to your parents or to your brother. But don’t worry, I’ll do what I can to try to save it from the vultures. I don’t want this land developed any more than you do. It’s really beautiful here.”
He lost the conversational tone. “Now, come out, or I’m shooting this foal here in the front.” Pivoting, he took aim at a baby that couldn’t be more than a few months old, who huddled around its mother’s legs.
Fuck.
I kept edging around the clearing, trying to get behind him and find an angle I could rush him. But there were so many downed trees, I didn’t think I could move fast enough to approach undetected.
O’Shea pulled back the hammer on the gun.
“Okay, okay. I’m coming out. Don’t shoot.” Willa eased out from the middle of the herd, putting herself firmly in front of the baby. “Leave them out of this.”
Of course she wouldn’t allow one of them to suffer to save herself. Brave, stubborn, infuriating woman. She didn’t balk at the gun trained directly on her. At this range, O’Shea couldn’t miss hitting something vital.
“Goodbye, Willa. I truly am sorry.”
“No!” I exploded out of the trees.
The gun swung in my direction, and I braced for the burn of a bullet.
Something screamed. An unholy shriek of fury that was anything but human. A blur of gray exploded into the clearing, moving almost faster than I could see. O’Shea screamed as the stallion barreled into him. Triton reared with another scream and brought his hooves down, down, down, trampling him until O’Shea had gone silent.
Jesus Christ. There was no question he was dead.
I wanted to run to Willa, but given the enraged animal between us, I stayed exactly where I was, not moving.
Triton tossed his head, pawing at the body, as if to make absolutely sure the threat was dealt with before he turned in the direction of the rest of his herd and Willa. He took a few dancing steps closer, finally settling under her touch.
“I wasn’t going to let anything happen to your baby.” She pressed her cheek to his. “Thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving him.” Looking at me, she held out a hand, wiggling her fingers in a come here gesture.
Remembering how she’d approached him, eyes averted, I eased my way toward them until I was close enough to close my fingers around hers. She pulled me in.
“This is Sawyer. He’s mine the way they’re all yours.”
I held perfectly still as the stallion sniffed me, then finally bumped my shoulder.
“That means he wants a scratch,” she murmured.
The hand I lifted to Triton’s neck shook with adrenaline. “Thank you for protecting her. Again.”
The stallion bobbed his head as if to say, “Anytime.” Then he called to the rest of his herd and led them away through the trees.
As they disappeared from sight, I pulled Willa into my arms. “Fuck. Are you okay?”
I could feel her shaking against me as her own arms wrapped around me. “Yeah. God. What are you even doing here?”
“I came to find you. Jace finished looking into your doctor off-island. He was former military, with some kind of PsyOps specialty. O’Shea was the connection to the island.”
“PsyOps? So that’s what he meant about me being conditioned not to remember.”
“Did you remember? All that stuff you said about Gwen?”
“Some of it. I?—”
Gabi and Daniel emerged from the east side of the clearing. Gabi’s eyes were wide, trained on the bloody mess that was Roland O’Shea’s body. “Holy shit. What the hell just happened?”
“Karma,” Willa said flatly. “And we got another piece of the mystery. Rios wasn’t the last person to see Gwen alive. I think I was.”