Chapter 46
FORTY-SIX
Maddy had read something about how a kidnapping victim had kicked out the taillight of a car to attract attention when she’d been trapped in a trunk. But all she could see was a glow-in-the-dark latch she couldn’t pop open with her feet.
The car drove for a while—at least ten minutes—before making a turn and parking.
The engine stopped. In the sudden silence, Maddy could hear the cry of gulls and the low, haunting call of a foghorn somewhere in the distance mixed with the rain drumming on the trunk.
She was battered and bruised, the cut on her side stinging where her sweater stuck to it.
A door opened and shut. Footsteps crunched on gravel as they approached the trunk.
She braced herself. The lid popped open. Bright light blinded her for a moment, then she was unceremoniously hauled out by the hair and dumped on the ground, the hard, sharp edges of the gravel gouging her knees.
“Up. And just to make sure you cooperate fully, I upgraded my kit for this,” Lindsay said.
Maddy’s insides shriveled at the sight of a black pistol in the woman’s grip. Then she looked up into her face. There was something familiar about her eyes and voice, but she couldn’t figure it out.
“We’re on a tight timeline. And don’t bother trying anything, or I’ll put a bullet in a non-lethal spot just to watch you bleed.” She jammed the muzzle of the pistol against Maddy’s spine. “Go.”
Maddy had no choice but to comply. She stole a few quick glances around to try and get her bearings. The gravel lot bordered a stretch of secluded rocky beach. A small speedboat was moored to a short dock jutting out into the water.
Lindsay forced her toward it. Kept the pistol trained on her as Maddy got in, then undid the line and went to the helm station to fire up the engine with a throaty roar.
Maddy huddled on the deck near the stern as the boat spun in a tight one-eighty and shot out into the open water.
Driven by the wind and the speed of the boat, rain pelted her face like icy needles.
She ducked her head, tucked her chin into her shoulder, and shivered as she closed her eyes against the unrelenting wind and rain.
Endless minutes passed while she grew colder and wetter. By the time the wind finally eased and the boat slowed, she was drenched and half-frozen. She opened her eyes to take in their surroundings.
Lindsay cut down a narrow channel between two small islands covered in thick evergreen forest. Maddy spotted two small wood cabins perched on the edge of the rocky cliffs above the shoreline.
They hugged the shore until they came to a small cove sheltered by tall mounds of boulders. Lindsay pulled the boat up to what looked like a private dock. As soon as she tied them up she came for Maddy, wrenching her to her feet and dragging her to the bow.
Maddy’s wet socks slipped over the rain-slick rocks, crusted with sharp-edged barnacles near the waterline. Lindsay forced her to the base of a wooden staircase that climbed the cliff in short switchbacks.
“Hurry,” she snapped when Maddy slowed, jabbing the gun harder into her back.
At the top, she saw the small cabin set back from the cliff against the dense forest. She shivered uncontrollably as they stepped inside. It was clear Lindsay had been here before. Supplies were set up on the counter in the small galley-style kitchen.
Lindsay shut the door and switched on a generator. Seconds later the dim lights in the kitchen came on.
“Who are you?” Maddy finally demanded.
“Don’t recognize me?” Lindsay’s face twisted into a sneer. “Well, you shouldn’t. Not after all the money I paid the plastic surgeon and the pain I went through to look like this.”
That still hadn’t answered her question. She tried another angle, desperate for information. “Why are you doing this?”
Lindsay’s eyes burned with pure hatred. “Because you took him from me.”
What? “Who?”
“Elliot.”
Maddy stared in disbelief as the pieces finally clicked into place. She hadn’t done anything to Elliot. But Elliot had done plenty to her. He’d reaped the consequences for his actions. “Eve?” Elliot’s girlfriend. They’d been so intense together, Eve had almost seemed obsessed with him.
“Eve’s dead. She died the same day he did.”
My God. She’d done this for revenge? Jealousy? Somehow tracked her all the way across the world to Skeleton Island of all places, to get even? “But you—he said—”
“He said what? That we were done? Ancient history?” She gave a bitter laugh.
“Not even close. What else did he tell you? That you were special? That you were the only one who understood him? You’re pathetic.
He played you like a fucking fiddle to lure you into the trap we set together.
He was my world, and he died because of you. ”
The words hit Maddy like a kick to the gut, Elliot’s betrayal as fresh as if it had just happened.
But the pain in Eve’s voice was real and raw, her thirst for vengeance evident after everything she’d done to plan and carry this out.
“What do you want with me? I gave you the drive.” Why Eve wanted it, she still had no idea.
“You’re going to give me what should have been mine all along.” Eve plugged in the thumb drive, shoved Maddy into a chair and slid a laptop in front of her. “You’re going to find that passkey and access whatever software you need to decrypt this piece of code.”
She pulled out her phone and showed Maddy several lines of what looked like encrypted code. “And you’re going to do that now.” She jammed the pistol into the middle of Maddy’s back. “Get to work.”
Maddy hesitated, unsure where to begin, still in shock and scared out of her mind as she began typing.
It was so hard to think as she scanned what popped up on screen.
“The software I need is behind a firewall. It’s all encrypted.
I need to find an existing weak point like misconfigured rules and unencrypted traffic—”
“I don’t give a fuck what you have to do, just do it.” She shoved the muzzle of the pistol harder into her spine.