Chapter 16
Bel cursed, dropping the note on the table for Griffin to find when the police swept the room and bolted for the hallway. She couldn’t afford to wait for backup. Taron had a two, maybe three-minute head start. If Bel was fast, she might catch up with her before The Wolf whisked her into the woods. Was this how he’d killed Rossa and Roja? She’d assumed they knew their killer, but maybe they hadn’t. What if he’d threatened them with a bomb?
Bel
Explosives. Taron’s table? Call bomb squad.
She texted Griffin, not bothering to check for typos as she raced down the hallway. The distance was short, yet it felt like miles, the monotone carpet stretching endlessly before her feet.
“Taron!”She burst through the bathroom door,butshefelt the emptiness the minute she stepped inside.The restroom was freezing,the backwindow leading outsidewide open.The actress was gone.
Bel cursed under her breath and rushed to the window, thrusting her torsooutinto the winter air, but only the dirt-streaked snow covering the hotel’s property greeted her. Taron had vanished, and she cursed again, readying to call Griffin and lock the entire town down when movement caught her eye.She squinted at a solitary couple rushing for the sidewalk, and the stiffness in the woman’s body suggested she wasn’t aiming for the parked vehiclewillingly.Her haste was born of duress, and her familiar clothing warned that if Taron Monroe got into that car, the next time they’d see her would be in the woods with her intestines spilling from her shredded gut.
Bel glanced down at her phone. She had seconds to decide. Seconds beforeTaronvanished from sight, andshedecided. Bel vaulted out of the window, her feet sliding on the ice, and then she was running, unsure how she’d kept her balance. Her footfalls were silent as she raced toward the car, and just as the man escorting his prisoner eased out of his parking spot, Taron twisted her terrified gaze to meet Bel’s.
“Unlock the door,” Bel mouthed, pressing an imaginary lock button with her finger, but Taron had already arrived at that idea. She reached down and unlocked the doors, and as the kidnapper pulled into traffic, Bel flung the rear door open and dove into the backseat.
“What the—” the driver glanced back at her as the vehicle’s speed increased. “You’re that cop!”
Bel slammed the door behind her, the insignificant act binding her fate to Taron’s.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Taron, are you hurt?” Bel ignored him as she met the actress’ gaze in the rearview mirror.
“No—”
“Shut up!” the man shouted, his rage silencing Taron as she flinched. He was younger than Bel expected. Better lookingtoo, in a slightly unnerving way.Likehe’d never left the house as a child,sohe’d spent his entire adulthood yearning to fit in, yet always missing the mark.
“Shut up, both of you!” he ordered. “What are you doing here? You’re ruining this.”
“You are kidnapping a world-famous actress and a police officer.” Bel withdrew her sidearm. “You’re the one ruining things, so pull over.”
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“I said, pull over!” Bel aimed the gun at their captor’s skull, but the man jerked his fist into the air to reveal an old flip phone.
“Hand it over,” he demanded as he thumbed the device open and poised a finger over the call button. “Or I’ll blow that entire hotel to hell.”
Bel’s finger shifted to the trigger. If he didn’t have a thumb, he couldn’t dial the number to detonate the bomb.
“Don’t think about it,” the driver yanked his fist out of sight, stealing her only hope of emerging from this encounter unscathed. “I mean it, cop. Hand over the gun, or you’ll get to watch the hotel go up in flames through the rear window. I’m sure you have friends inside the building. Do you want them all to die?”
“Do it,” Taron begged, fear engulfing her like a death shroud. “Please, listen to him.”
“I don’t want to kill all those people, but I will,” he continued. “Give me the gun, or I’ll hit the call button.”
“Okay, okay.” Bel flicked on the safety. She hadn’t considered this outcome. She assumed she could force him to obey, but what good was a Glock when faced with a bomb? “Here.” She handed it over, praying he didn’t shoot her with it, but he thankfully tucked it out of her reach.
“You shouldn’t have done this,” he spat. “You’re ruining everything.” He stepped on the gas, and the vehicle picked up speed. What was she ruining? What did he have planned? And could she stop it unarmed in the back seat of a car that belonged to the kidnapper with her Glock and an explosive at his disposal?
“What am I ruining?” she asked.
“Shut Up.” The man swerved to avoid a pedestrian, and both women flinched at the near collision. If he didn’t slow down, he’d kill someone, and Bel couldn’t bear the prospect of being part of a hit and run, of hearing a body crack upon impact before they left it mangled on the asphalt. She also didn’t want to leave town, which, based on his directions, was their abductor’s plan. Chances of survival droppeddrasticallywhenvictims were movedto a second location…
But Eamon was tracking her phone.
Careful not to makeanysudden moves and alert their kidnapper to her betrayal, Bel slipped her cell from her pocket and laid it on the seat beside her. She turned the volume down instead of muting it. She needed him to hear her, not the other way around, and then she dialed Eamon’s contact.
“Isobel?” Eamon practically shouted into the phone when her number lit up his screen. Cops swarmed the hotel as they evacuated the hundreds of occupants, but he hadn’t been able to find her. He’d hung back during the signing to give Taron a chance toact,ifshe was the guilty party, and he cursed himself for his stupidity. Bel was missing, and Bajka didn’t have a bomb squad. They’d have to wait for experts to arrive from out of town unless he handled the explosive himself, but he refused to risk setting off the explosion while she was unaccounted for. She’d stepped on an IED once, and the sound of that pressure plate still haunted his nightmares. He was the son of the devil. Monsters like him never dreamed, yet when the darkness swallowed him, his mind forced him to watch Bel explode into nothing but tissue and fat until the terror woke him. One IED was enough. He wouldn’t risk blowing her to shrapnel ever again.
“Where are you?” he demanded into the phone, nausea curdling his stomach. He couldn’t scentheramidst thehorde of sweating bodies exuding their fear. He couldn’t see her. He couldn’t hear her, and the overwhelming panic threatened to render him unconscious. He wouldn’t survive her second death. He refused to pick up her splintered bones until he had enough to fill a coffin.
“Isobel, where are you?” he repeated when she didn’t answer. “Are you okay? Are you safe?”
“Where are you taking me and Miss Monroe?” Bel asked, her words distorted as if she’d dropped her phone onto the floor after dialing.
“Isobel? What’s going on?” He charged toward Griffin.
“Are you The Wolf?” Bel asked, but a muted male voice shouted for silence.
“He has her,” Eamon growled as he seized the sheriff’s biceps. “The Wolf has Isobel and Miss Monroe.” He tapped the speaker button so Griffin could hear Bel’s inconspicuous communication.
“Are you The Wolf?” her muffled voice repeated. “Are you the one who wrote all those beautiful letters?”
A car horn drowned out the man’s response, and atthe sound, Eamon clicked on Bel’s location.A map loaded, and the moving blue dot was all the confirmation he needed. “They’re in a car, and he’s leaving town… fast.” He tugged Griffin toward the exit.
“What?” The sheriff dug in his heels, forcing them to a halt. “There’s an active bomb threat in this hotel. I can’t leave,”
“There’s no bomb,” Eamon said. “The Wolf knew Isobel was watching Miss Monroe, and he needed a distraction to isolate the actress. Only now he has my girl too, so move.”
“Despite your convictions, I abide by the law,” Griffin protested. “A bomb threat is not something I can abandon.”
“And I can’t let Isobel get gutted in the woods.”Eamon dragged the sheriff outside, and thistime, the mortal couldn’t resist his ancient strength.“Gold, you take over,” he shouted at Olivia, and she scowled at him, readying to bite his head off for ordering her around when she saw Griffin’s face.
“Yes, sir,” she aimed the answer at her boss, and then Eamon shoved Griffin into the driver’s seat of his sheriff’s truck.
“Drive.” Eamon jumped into the passenger side. “I’m tracking Bel’s phone, so I’ll guide you.”
“Bomb threats and kidnappings,” Bel said, praying that the more damning her sentences were, the faster Eamon would understand her meaning. “This won’t end well for you.”
“Shut up,” The Wolf shouted. “I said shut up!”
“Bel, please,” Taron sobbed, recoiling against the car door to get as far from their kidnapper as possible.
“Listen to her,” The Wolf said. “And I’m so sorry, Taron. She’s ruining it. Ruining it, ruining it .” He repeated the phraseover and over, and Bel crossed her metaphorical fingers. He hadn’t planned for two victims, and she was digging her way under his skin. Aggravated criminals often got sloppy… or started pulling the trigger.
“You’re ruining it!” The Wolf exploded, slamming his palm against the steering wheel. At that exact moment, another car swerved in front of them, and he slammed on the brakes to avoid a collision. Bel flew forward, the seatbelt choking her as it jerked her to a halt, and she watched with horror as her phone catapulted off the seat.
“What was that?” he asked, straining his neck to see what had wedged between the seats. Bel lunged to recapture her device, but their kidnapper aimed herownweapon at her.
“Hand it over,” he demanded, and Bel wondered if she was fast enough to unbuckle her seatbelt and attack before he figured out that he needed to switch off the gun’s safety.
“I said hand it over.” The Wolf thumbed off the safety, and she sagged in her seat. So much for that idea. “Now, cop, or I will shoot you.”
Bel handed him her phone,thecall disconnected from the fall. It didn’t matter, though. Eamon had excellent hearing. He knew she needed him, and he could track her cell regardless of who’s hands held the device?—
“No!” Bel shouted, but her alarm was too late. The Wolf rolled down the window the second she placed her phone in his palm and launched it into the snowbanks. He increased his speed to a reckless pace, leaving her phone behind in his proverbial dust. And for the first time since she climbed out of the bathroom window, Bel felt the sharp claws of terror fist her gut. Eamon wouldn’t know where to search, and the cops were too busy with the bomb threat to care about a speeding car. No one was coming for them, and if Bel didn’t find an escape, she and Taron might end the day wearing red cloaks.
“She stopped.” Eamon grabbed the steering wheel to steady the car before holding the GPS up for Griffin to see. “She’s close. Turn here.”
Griffin expertly guided the truck around the bend before accelerating through the empty town.
“Make this right,” Eamon said, impressed with how the mortal sheriff handled the vehicle.
“Where to now?” Griffin asked as he followed his directions.
“There.” Eamon pointed to the side of the road. “Up ahead.”
“Why is the GPS taking you to the snow?” Griffin’s voice sounded how Eamon’s chest felt.
“Maybe she escaped” Eamon leaped out of the truck before it even skidded to a stop and raced over the deep snow, nausea fighting for control of his body, especially when he saw the rectangle hole in the drifts. “No.” He snatched Bel’s cell from the white, but there was no mistaking it was hers. He’d bought this model, and Cerberus’s meaty face grinned up at him from the lock screen. The Wolf must have tossed it so the police couldn’t track her, but there was one silver lining. The phone’s location had onlyjuststopped moving, meaning they were close, but with every passing second, Bel slipped further and further from his grasp.
“Get out.” Eamon seized the sheriff and hauled him out of the driver’s seat. “I’m driving.”
“This is my truck,” Griffin protested.
“And Isobel just angered The Wolf.” Eamon slid behind the steering wheel, barely pausing long enough for Griffin to scramble to the passenger side. “He threw her phone out of the car, which means I can’t track her. We’re close, though, so the only way we’ll find them is if I drive. You don’t have the reflexes for this.” He hit the gas pedal, and Griffin’s head bounced off the headrest before smacking the window.
“Put on your seatbelt,” Eamon ordered as their speed increased to a dangerous acceleration. “It’s only going to get worse.”
Bel glanced out the rearview mirror as they left Bajka behind in favor of the lonely tree-lined roadsthat woundthrough the surrounding forests. Between the multitude of side streets and the highway entrance, Eamon wouldn’t be able to predict which route they’d taken. He couldn’tscentthem locked away inside the vehicle. He couldn’t track them without her phone. But he’d answered her call, so he’d heard her pointed questions. He was coming for them. Shejustneeded to delay their trip long enough to allow him time to catch up.
Bel scanned the back seat, but there was nothing she could use as a weapon besides herself… and a crash. The Wolf was armed with both her Glock and a bomb, but he was also preoccupied. As the car sped through the snowy woods, his focus was divided between his captives and the poorly plowed roads. Driving at this speed took concentration, and he’d be slow going for the gun. His distraction was the only advantage she had, and she’d lose it the minute they parked.
Bel slid her fingers between the door and the front seat to hide her movement and tapped Taron’s arm.
“Seatbelt,” she mouthed when the actress met her gaze in the rearview mirror, and Taron nonchalantly buckled the strap into place. The moment she was locked in, Bel lunged sideways, curled her legs against her chest, and kicked. Her heel connected with the driver’s skull, the car swerving wildly as he lost his grip on the steering wheel, and she dove forward. The pitching vehicle almost knocked her to the floor, but with a growl birthed from a primal need to survive, she jammed her fingers against his seatbelt’s release button. The lock gave way, and she seized the loose belt like a garrote, wrapping it around The Wolf’s throat as he fought to regain control of their speed.
“What the—?” he shouted as the seatbelt cut off his oxygen supply. Bel threw herself into the back seat, planted her heels against his chair, and heaved. He choked as the belt strangled him, and instinct forced him to release the steering wheel in favor of freeing himself. Bel grinned at her good luck and opened her mouth to order Taron to steady the swerving car, but they hit an ice patch before she uttered a single syllable. The vehicle veered sideways as The Wolf clawed at his throat for air, tilting dangerously, and Taron screamed. As if she read Bel’s mind, she lunged across the center console to grab the wheel, but she miscalculated. She over-corrected in her panic, and the car slid for the snow bank at an alarming speed.
It happened so fast, yet Bel witnessed every second as if time had stopped just for her horror. She saw the car aim for the sky. She saw the world outside invert as they flipped with nauseating speed, and she braced for the impact. She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, but she refused to let go of the belt choking The Wolf. He wasn’t getting away on her watch. If he survived the crash, he’d shoot them both. So she wedged her legs against the front seat, praying the position would save her neck from snapping, and then waited for the pain.
The vehicle hit the ground with a cacophony of violence. Glass shattered. Metal groaned. Asphalt shrieked, and the mangled wreck skidded onto the cushion of unblemished snow.The world was alive with chaos, and then Bel was on the car’s roof,thepast few seconds erased from her memory as the air fell eerily silent.
“Bel!” Taronwas screaming, and Bel blinked at the upside-down woman. They weren’t dead. Not yet, at least. They’d survived her suicide of a plan.
“Bel, wake up!” the actress shouted from where she hung, and Bel realized she must have blacked out.
“Can you undo your seatbelt?” she asked, her head thundering an uncomfortable rhythm.
“Oh thank god.” Taron started sobbing.
“Can you?” she repeated.
“I think so.”
“Brace yourself first so you don’t fall.”
“Okay.” Taron wedged her arms and legs against the dashboard and undid her belt. She plummeted to the roof despite her efforts, and Bel finally got a clear look at her. Besides the scrapes on her face from the broken glass, she wasn’t seriously injured. Bel, on the other hand? She couldn’t tell if it was merely an impact bruise or something worse.
The Wolf groaned as he woke, and Bel cursed. Her fear over her aching ribs would have to wait.
“Where’s my gun?” She scanned the wreckage for her weapon, but it was nowhere to be seen. “Taron, do you see my gun?”
“Um…” Taron’s eyes flitted about, an unhinged edge glazing her sight. “It probably flew outside when we crashed.”
“Can you climb out of that window?” Bel asked. She needed the actress out of the car before her panic escalated their already dangerous situation.
“I think so.”
“Go. Get out and find help.”
“No, I can’t,” she protested.
“Go, now!” Bel ordered. “Run back the way we came. Get Eamon.”
The Wolf groaned again as he fumbled to sit up.
“Run, Taron!” Bel screamed, and the actress finally obeyed. She crawled out of the broken window, their captor clawing at her heels, but she was too fast. She wriggled free of the crash and took off running, and Bel prayed Eamon was driving with the windows down. Taron was barely bleeding, but it was enough to alert the Impaler. He’d find her. She’d be safe. Beljusthoped he picked up the scent in time to help her too.
“I’m gonna kill you,” The Wolf coughed as he turned his rage on Bel, and she took that as her cue. The back window had shattered, and its frame had collapsedin on itself. Crawling out would prove difficult, but she refused to remain locked in this metal cage with a predator. Flattening her body, she slid over the glass shards until her head slippedoutinto the snow. The Wolf captured her ankle, but his grip was weak. He’d suffered the most in their crash thanks to her, and she kicked his hand off with ease.
The broken glass stung as her stomach grated over it, but then her shoulders were free of the car, then her chest, and then her hips. As soon as her thighs hit the snow, she curled her legs below her and started crawling. Her every muscle ached, but she refused to stop. The news had falsely reported her death thanks to a car crash once before. She wasn’t about to make that a reality.
“You’re going to pay for ruining everything,” The Wolf shouted behind her, and before she could register the closeness of his voice, his body crashed into hers. She collapsed face-first into the snow as his weight crushed her. Her world blurred white, and she was instantly back on that mountain. Blaubart’s gunshots echoed so harshly through her memory that her ears rang. She sputtered into the cold, the snow flooding her tongue, her eyes, her sanity, and terror vaulted through her limbs. She dug her bare and freezing palms into the razor-sharp cushion below her and shovedontoher back. The Wolf rolled with her, but she only landed one decent punch before his fists found her throat. And then he squeezed. Bel choked as he strangled her, the force crushing her windpipes. She flailed below him. Her nails clawed at his fingers like a wild animal, but her will to live was nothing compared to his grip. It tightened mercilessly as he straddled her waist.
“You’ll pay for this,” he snarled, smiling at how her face changed color. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t fight back. Everything hurt. She flailed and sobbed and choked, but it was no use. She had seconds before his fists crushed the life out of her.
“I’m going to—uff!” The Wolf flew sideways as something hard connected with his skull, and he crashed to the snow unconscious, blood dripping from his forehead.
“Oh my god!” Taron screamed, throwing the bloody tree branch to the ground as if it was on fire. “I killed him… Bel? Oh god, Bel, please be alive.”
Bel could barely move, her voice useless, but shemanaged to offerTaron a weak thumbs up. The woman heaved a dramatic sigh at the proof of life before collapsing into a heap of tears beside her, and Bel felt guilty for ever suspecting the actress. She wasn’t the killer, nor had she lied about The Wolf’s letters. And for all her talk about not wanting to be a real cop, she’d just saved Bel’s life.
“I can’t believe I killed a man,” Taron sobbed, and Bel slid her hand over the freezing ground to grab the woman’s leg. She hadn’t killed The Wolf. His chest still moved, but Bel couldn’t find her voice, so she gripped the actress’s knee.Clearlyneeding the reassurance, Taron captured her fingers in a death grip, and the women lay side by side in the snow until the melody of skidding tires filled the air.
“Isobel!” Eamon’s fear ripped through the cold, and Bel burst into tears, the dam in her chest finally breaking free at the safety that whiskey-rough sound heralded. “Isobel!” He collapsed to his knees and slid his arms beneath her, yanking her against his chest, and compared to the freezing snow, his cool skin was a welcomed fire.
“She’s alive,” Taron sobbed. “She crashed the car so I could escape. He tried to choke her to death, but I killed him. Oh god, I killed a man. I’m a murderer.” She dissolved into tears again, throwing herself against Eamon for support, and he stiffened. It hurt to laugh, but Bel’s spirit chuckled at the interaction. He terrified most people, yethereTaron was hugging him like a little kid. Eamon awkwardly patted her back, and the rattle of handcuffs told Bel Griffin had wisely heeded her boyfriend’s warnings.
“He isn’t dead, Miss Monroe,” Griffin said as he locked The Wolf’s hands together. “You just knocked him out, and good thing you did.Seemsyou saved our detective here.”
“I didn’t kill him?” Taron jerked off of Eamon’s shoulder. “Oh thank god. She stayed behind to save me, but then I saw him choking her. She wasn’t getting up, so I found that branch and hit him. I didn’t know I could hit anyone that hard.”
“Thank you,” Eamon said. “You saved the woman I love. I’m forever in your debt.”
“She told me to find you when we crashed.” Taron glanced between the couple and the sheriff. “Not the cops.”
“The Bajka Police Department is a little preoccupied at the moment. Plus, Emerson knows ifthere’s one person who’ll drop everything and drive like a lunatic, it’s this guy.” Griffin thumped Eamon’s back. “Yes, Eamon drove my truck,” he added when a string of questions flooded Bel’s eyes. “And no, I never want to get in a car with him again.”
“Thank you,” she mouthed, and the sheriff reached down to cup her cheek before dragging the barely conscious driver off the ground.
“You have the right to remain silent,” he started as an ambulance siren filled the air.
“And thank you,” she whispered, meeting Eamon’s gaze.
“Don’t thank me,” he growled. “I was too late… again. Taron saved you.”
“After she saved me first,” the actress said. “I never want to be a cop. Playing one is fine, but don’t ever make me get a real badge. Your girl here is something else. Sheliterallydove into a kidnapper’s car to save me and then beat him up so he’d crash. We need to write an episode like this into the show… if you’d be okay with it?”
Bel smiled weakly to give her approval before wrapping her arms around Eamon’s neck so he could carry her to the waiting EMTs. “Don’t feel guilty,” she whispered with a raw throat, praying this incident didn’t trigger the guilt he’d felt at the hospital. “We caught the guy. I’m just annoyed at myselfthat I lethim take my phone.”
“Calling me was smart, and your phone’s fine. It’s in my pocket, but you shouldn’t be talking right now,” Eamon said. “Let’s get you to the hospital first.”
“I love you,” she said as he loaded her into the ambulance.
“I love you too, Detective. More than you know.” He lifted her knuckles to his lips before threading his larger fingers through hers. Their intertwined hands fit together like a key sliding into its lock, and by the expression he wore while staring at them, the sight had a profound impact on him. “But please stop talking. I don’t want you to damage your throat.” He kissed her forehead before moving out of the EMTs’ way. “Don’t worry. I’ll be with you the entire time.” He tightened his grip on her fingers. “I’m not going anywhere, remember?”
Bel grimaced as she sank into the stretcher. Everything hurt without the adrenaline pumping through her veins, and its absence signaled her body to crash… or maybe it was because Eamon was with her, and if Eamon was here, she was safe. He wouldn’t let the wolves near her.