“You’re a sick ba—”
He moved his arm to the right and pulled the trigger, the warning shot embedding into the asphalt a foot from Zander’s rigid body. Shocked into motion, her mind forgot the instructions Adam had given, and her legs propelled her toward Detective Vonn faster than they should have considering she had zero control over her muscles.
She couldn’t let another person die in her place.
Not Zander.
Not anybody.
Shouts sounded behind her. Vonn aimed her way and pulled the trigger, the rapidbang, bang, banga percussion that reverberated in her chest.
A terrified glance over her shoulder, and she saw Doc go down.
Oh God! No!
She reached the killer, and he smashed the butt of his gun to Zander’s temple. Her friend crumpled to the ground. Out cold. She cried out. Never in her life had she wanted to hurt someone the way she wanted to hurt Vonn.
Before she could act on her murderous impulse, he had her by the arm, and with a hard tug, he pulled her through the pedestrian gate. Seconds later he shoved her into the trunk of a waiting car. With a rough grab, he ripped the comm link from her vest, and the briefcase from her hand. Then the lid crashed down, locking her inside.
A door slammed. An engine revved. Tires squealed.
The vehicle accelerated, her body rocking as they took a sharp right, her head hitting the metal side panel. She had no phone. No way of communicating with Adam. No way of finding out if her friends were okay.
Fear for herself, and worry for the others, froze her lungs. Her heart pounded. Her ears rang. Yolande and Carlos were dead. The judge dead. Bryan dead. The murdered women still missing.
Anger swelled.
No.
Hell no. Let Detective Vonn think he had his next victim. Let him think she’d be easy to kill. She took a deep breath, and another, raw determination pushing her panic aside.
Yeah, she might die.
Vonn was bigger. Stronger. Had police training and experience.
Didn’t matter. She wasn’t going down without a fight, and one way or another, Adam would make sure the motherfucker got what he deserved.
In the end—nothing else mattered.
Adam shiftedin the passenger seat of the lead van. Chest tight, he watched the flashing red dot of Eve’s tracking signal follow the curve of the road ahead. Two hours. She’d been alone in the trunk of Vonn’s car for two fucking hours while the bastard sped through the night.
The thought of her scared for her life, trapped in that small space, felt like a physical punch to the gut. Unfortunately, under the circumstances, it was the safest place for her to be. As long as Vonn kept driving, he couldn’t get to her. And when he stopped, Adam planned to be there, his sights trained on the serial killer, his finger on the trigger.
After tonight, Vonn wasn’t going to be a threat to Eve, or anyone else—ever again.
“You got anything, Jay?” After passing through San Bernadino, Vonn had taken Highway 330 north until it changed to 18 and veered east through the mountains.
Through the speakerphone, Jay responded from the vehicle behind. “One property registered to a Marie Vonn Henein. North side of Big Bear Lake. Pulling up satellite now.”
Cody accelerated, and Adam ordered him to slow down. He understood the desire to get as close to Eve as possible, but they couldn’t tip Vonn off to their presence. For now, they had the advantage of surprise, and he intended to keep it.
“Here we go,” Jay said. “Looks like we’re headed to a small cabin twelve miles off Delamar Mountain Road.”
“Approach?” Chase asked, keeping the van he drove tight to their bumper.
“One lane. Dirt road. We’ll have to go the last quarter mile on foot to avoid detection.”
“Terrain?” Cody slowed to a crawl and followed Adam’s nonverbal order to take a left onto Highway 38.
