Chapter Twelve
“Adrial!”
A low-pitched ringing filled his ears. His vision wavered. What the hell had happened? Movement shifted in front of him, but he couldn’t make sense of his surroundings. Hell, his head hurt. He must’ve gotten hit… No. That wasn’t right. He’d fallen. Collapsed.
Needles stabbed through his right shoulder and sucked the oxygen from his lungs. Adrial tried to roll onto his front to relieve the pressure, but she was there. Holding him in place.
“Don’t move. You’ll make it worse. I’m calling for help.
” That sweet voice ticked up a notch, reminding him of wildness, red hair, gutting smiles and a stubbornness that could tear holes through logic in an instant.
“Come on. Please.” A growl of frustration replaced the ringing in his ears. “Come on!”
“Winnie.” Suddenly, understanding clicked into place, like his head had splintered into a thousand different directions and only her name had been able to make him whole again.
His shoulder barked as he pressed his hands into the frozen ground. It was then he realized he hadn’t fully collapsed. His upper body hung over Winnie’s legs. Like she’d caught him.
No. No, no, no. She wasn’t supposed to be here. He’d told her to run after… He’d been stabbed. The wound pulsed as though in acknowledgement, and he finally had enough clarity to register a second source of heat sliding down his back. Blood. “Go. You need to go.”
“There’s no service.” Winnie tucked something into her coat pocket, ignoring his pleas.
Warmth spread over his jaw and into his bones as she forced him to look at her.
Turning his face toward hers, she let her hair slip free of her shoulders.
So bright against the overcast sky that never seemed to break, a beacon that held him in the moment.
“It’s okay. You’re going to be okay. I just need to get you to the SUV before… ”
Something stole her attention over his shoulder.
Crystallized puffs formed in front of her mouth on a strong exhale.
Winnie tried to shift out from under him, but he outranked her in size by nearly double.
“I can hear them coming.” She licked her lips as she dug her fingers into his coat, centering those hazel eyes on him. “Can you walk?”
Who was coming? Who was out here with them?
He hadn’t told anyone he and Winnie would be visiting the crime scene.
Not even his team. Fish had died off years ago when water levels dropped well below normal levels, so there wouldn’t be any fisherman taking advantage of the chill day.
He hadn’t given anyone reason to want to throw a knife into his back, either.
At least, he couldn’t recall any unhappy clients at the moment, but that could be due to his vision wavering for an entirely different reason as his clothing grew wetter with every inhale. He was losing blood. Fast.
Focus. He had to focus. He had to keep his eyes open.
Whoever was out here… They’d followed him and Winnie for a reason.
They wanted to hurt him. Hurt Winnie. Stop them from working the case.
Which meant taking him out hadn’t been an accident.
They wanted to get to her, and with the thickness of these trees, they could be anywhere.
Adrial dragged the SUV’s keys from his coat pocket with a shaky hand and shoved them into her lap.
He could hold them off. Give her the chance to run.
“Take my keys. Get to my office. Tell Baxter what happened. He’ll know… what to do.”
Damn, breathing hurt. He didn’t think the blade had nicked his lungs, but it was getting harder to take a full breath.
“Stop trying to get me to leave. I’m not letting you bleed out.
No matter how much you deserve it.” She shoved the keys into her pocket and hefted him off her thighs with a strength he hadn’t known she’d possessed.
Getting him to his feet, Winnie took the majority of his weight against her hip, her hand tight into his side.
His head swam, and they both tilted to one side, but she somehow kept him upright and took a step forward.
“We’re going to get out of here, but I need your help.
You can start with not trying to act like a such a hero and sacrificing yourself.
You’ve been stabbed, and I can defend myself. ”
He knew that—knew Arthur had taught her self-defense and how to handle a gun—but his instincts screamed this was a threat she couldn’t fight on her own.
The ice cracked under their combined weight.
A jarring sensation shuddered through Adrial’s body a split second before the crack widened.
“Move!” Winnie dragged him against her as the ice broke beneath their boots, onto the shore.
The lake’s depth wouldn’t have submerged them here, but temperatures practically guaranteed hypothermia and frostbite if they weren’t careful.
Any exposure—wet socks and boots and clothing included—could end in a fatality out here.
This lake had claimed more than one life over the years, and Adrial couldn’t let her be next.
He hit the ground knees first, dragging her down with him.
Snow puffed around them as they got their bearings.
He could do this. He had to do this. He wouldn’t be the reason Winnie’s life was at risk.
He’d already hurt her enough, throwing off her entire life plan and leaving her to deal with the fallout while he moved on with his life.
Summoning any last ounces of strength, Adrial shoved her ahead.
“Get to the trees. They’re thick enough to hide you while I distract—”
Her attention cut to the trees. To the figure in black standing directly in the path he and Winnie had carved through the snow. The only way back to the SUV.
“You know, at this point, I just want to end your misery.” The son of a bitch twisted the tip of a second blade into the index finger of their black glove.
The mask failed to hide the feminine quality in the attacker’s voice, but managed to dull any identifying features.
He couldn’t tell her age or give any kind of description based on the layers protecting her from the cold rush of wind cutting down the mountain and across the ice.
“But watching her—” that blade was pointed directly at Winnie and triggered a predatory response inside him “—try to carry you and fail has been wildly entertaining.”
Adrial struggled to his feet, holding on to his injured arm.
The blade dug deeper into his shoulder. He couldn’t stop the body-wide flinch as pain tendrilled through his nervous system.
Cold burned down his throat on his next inhale as Winnie positioned herself between him and the threat.
Damn woman. She was going to get herself killed trying to prove a point. “I take it this belongs to you?”
The mask shifted, as though layering a wide smile. Lean curves came into focus as their attacker blocked a clear path back to the SUV. Toward them. “I was aiming for your spine.”
“What—what do you want?” Winnie’s breathing had sped up. Holding one hand out toward the approaching suspect, she backed into his chest. “Why are you trying to kill us?”
Adrial circled his good hand around her waist, holding her to him as though he could calm her racing pulse.
“Did you really think looking into the Lila Mercer case wasn’t going to cost you?
It already cost your father, Winnie. I would think you’d want to avoid his fate.
Lila is dead, and she’s going to stay that way.
” Their attacker took another step. Then another.
Crowding them onto the ice. “If that means I have to kill you both—” thin shoulders rose on a shrug, and the knife dropped to the suspect’s waistline in a loose grip “—it won’t cost me my beauty sleep. ”
Adrial straightened. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
The mask shifted again, the attacker’s head cocking to one side. “It means Arthur Hutton didn’t listen when I warned him to back off, and I’ve lost my patience.”
Disbelief cracked Winnie’s expression, and Adrial could only tighten his hold on her to keep her from lunging directly toward that knife. “You—you killed him? You killed my dad?”
“Not much for me to kill, was there?” Another step closer.
Now just mere feet between them. The ice wouldn’t hold both his and Winnie’s weight.
They would either have to fight their way out, or risk the lake.
Neither option guaranteed their escape, and he wouldn’t do anything to put Winnie in a position of choosing him over her own life.
Ever. “Your dad had already lost everyone he cared about. No friends to speak of. Neighbors who couldn’t stand him.
An entire town tired of listening to the ramblings of an old paranoid has-been, but yes.
I’ll take credit for his final breaths. It was the least he deserved for what he’s done to my family. ”
What Arthur had done? Adrial squeezed Winnie against him, his mind made up.
His heel caught the edge of the ice. The once solid surface cracked, and it was only the start.
One wrong move, and he’d lose Winnie all over again.
He hadn’t been able to protect Katie and their baby.
He wouldn’t fail Winnie. All he had to do was get her out of here.
And he had the perfect weapon to do it. Lowering his mouth to Winnie’s ear, he ignored the sensation of rightness slithering through him.
Of familiarity of having her scent in his nose and her body pressed against his.
“You’re going to have three seconds to get clear.
Go for the SUV. Don’t stop. No matter what you hear. Three.”
She jerked in his grasp. Her hair tickled the underside of his chin, every muscle in her back strung too tight. “What are you—”
“Two.” He angled his mouth over the shell of her ear, closing his eyes as she shivered in his hold.
He’d missed this feeling. Of her in his arms. How she fit against him so perfectly.
Like she was the missing half he’d been searching for since leaving Black Hollow all those years ago.
Or maybe that he’d finally found the pieces he’d left behind.
That feeling didn’t cheapen the love he’d felt for Katie or their future, but it was never more apparent than right now.
With her. What he’d been missing on a cellular level.
The perpetrator shifted forward, like a leopard waiting in the grass to pounce on its prey. Adrial kept his eyes on that blade as he shifted his weight to his back foot.
Winnie’s fingernails dug into his gloves, making an impression past the leather.
But she’d always left an impression on him.
From the moment he’d followed her sobs to that locker in middle school, to the second he’d put eyes on her again in his office a few days ago, she’d taken up residence in his soul.
“One.” Adrial didn’t give her a chance to fight him, and threw Winnie behind him.
A hard thud registered as she hit the ice, but he was already moving, putting himself between her and a killer.
Sucking in a sharp breath, he grabbed for the blade in his shoulder and pulled it free.
A gush of blood flowed freely, soaking his shirt as he charged.
He didn’t make it more than two steps.
As the second blade lodged in his thigh.
Adrial dropped, his grip on the weapon too loose. The blade hit the snow as he sank onto his hands and knees.
“I feel like I should be thanking you.” The killer crouched in front of him, retrieving the knife he’d lost. Swiping the metal against his jeans, she cleaned his blood from the surface before standing. “You’ve just made this a lot more fun.”
Craning his gaze over his shoulder, he followed Winnie’s escape across the ice. She wouldn’t be fast enough, and he… He wouldn’t be there to protect her. Adrial held on to consciousness as long as he could. But was consumed by the darkness.