As he ran for his vehicle, he yanked out his phone and tried to get Cadence.
She didn’t answer.
One of the perp’s victims? Had she found him?
Danielle was hurrying toward him, clutching an umbrella. “What’s happening?”
Heather had already made it to her patrol car.
“We’re going after Cadence,” he said grimly. Cadence and her victim.
Her phone was ringing again, but Cadence couldn’t take her hands off the wheel to answer. She was driving too fast, the curves were too sharp, and she could barely see.
She kept shoving her head out the window, staring into the night, trying to find the black edge of the road.
Who was that woman? Doesn’t matter. She needs me.
You didn’t turn away from someone who needed help.
You never did.
Cadence saw the next curve coming up toward her.
She slowed down, went into it—
And never saw the vehicle that slammed into her. She only felt the impact. Heard the horrible crunch of glass and metal.
And heard her own scream.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Cadence’s voice mail picked up. Again.
Kyle shoved his foot down on the accelerator. The vehicle cut through the night, sending rainwater spraying in its wake.
“She didn’t say the victim was related to the Night Hunter,” Dani said as she sat beside him, her body as tense and alert as his own.
They slid into the curve. His headlights fell on the wreckage.
His heart f**king stopped.
He knew that SUV. When Cadence had left Maverick hours before, she’d been driving that vehicle.
Now it sat on the side of the road, its headlights cutting through the rain, the driver’s side door hanging open and the passenger side of the vehicle completely smashed in.
He braked and jumped from his own vehicle.
“Cadence!” He yelled her name as he reached the crumpled SUV. Dani’s footsteps clattered behind him. An air bag had deployed on the driver’s side, an air bag that now looked like a deflated flag. Cadence’s phone was in the front seat. Her purse. Her gun and holster. Her FBI ID. All still there.
And a note…
The rain beat down on him as he bent into the vehicle to read the note.
Help me.
“There’s blood.” Dani’s voice shook as she shone her light at first the steering wheel and then at the open driver’s side door.
“And no Cadence.” The plan. The plan. His jaw locked as he spun to face Dani. “Get the tracking system up!” Their prey had taken the bait.
They’d better not f**king lose him.
Or her.
I’m coming, Cadence.
She trusted him. He wouldn’t let her down.
Her head hurt. The pain was what brought consciousness back. The throbbing. The nausea. Cadence opened her eyes. She lifted her hands, trying to touch her aching head.
Her hands slammed into something.
Dark. Why is it so dark?
She stretched out with her hands, searching. The surface above her was cold, hard metal, but ridged in places.
She realized she was moving.
Her breath froze in her lungs then. The perp had kept his word. He’d come for her.
He’d taken her.
The woman. How the hell did she fit into the mix? Cadence and Kyle had both been so sure they were looking for a man who worked alone.
Cadence tried to stretch down, reaching for her ankle. Her knife wasn’t in the strap on her left ankle. No gun on her right.
He’d taken away her weapons.
Kyle found the gun first, tossed away, and when he found the gun, he found the knife.
Cadence’s backup weapons.
The SOB had made sure she was defenseless.
No. The thought immediately snapped through his head. Cadence was trained in self-defense. He’d seen her take down guys twice her size.
Only her blood had been in the vehicle. Cadence was hurt. How badly? Would she be able to defend herself when she was hurt?
His phone hadn’t rung. Shouldn’t the SOB be calling to taunt him?
Police lights lit up the scene, some swirling in a sickening blur from the patrol cars braking nearby. This was a crime scene, and they were all treating it as carefully as they could.
“Kyle!” Dani’s shout.
He ran back to her side. She was in his vehicle, her tablet out as she tried to connect with Cadence’s tracking signals.
Dani looked up with a cold smile. “We’ve got her.”
Hell, yes.
Her weapons were gone, but her watch wasn’t. A frantic grab assured her the earrings were in place, too. So was the small pin, the third tracker, that had been attached to the back waist of her jeans.
Come find me.
The vehicle slowed.
Cadence sucked in a low breath. She knew what was going to happen next. When the trunk opened, she’d see the man who’d abducted all of those women. She’d finally have a face for the monster.
Except…
When the trunk opened a few minutes later, when the rain and wind poured in, she didn’t find herself staring up at a man.
The brunette was before her. The brunette with the sad eyes. The pale skin.
And the gun in her hand.
Help me.
Cadence had thought she was looking at a victim.
So damn not.
Cadence prepared to lunge at her, gun or no gun.
“He wants you inside.” The words were a whisper. The gun trembled in her shaking grasp. “If you try to get away now…”
Cadence had to strain to hear the words.
“He’ll kill me.”
Cadence wondered just who this was as she stared up at the brunette.
“He’s using dirt roads,” Dani said as she directed him after Cadence’s signal. “Cutting right through the woods.”
The roads weren’t easy to follow because the storm was washing them away.
The vehicle lunged forward. The wheels spun, losing traction in the thick mud.
“Left up ahead. Then straight. He must have a cabin in these woods, a place he’s using.”
A place they hadn’t found in their searches.
Two cop cars were behind him. Randall Hollings was in the lead patrol car. Heather Crenshaw was rushing after them.
Faster, faster…
“Her signal isn’t moving anymore,” Dani whispered. “Wherever he was taking her, she’s there.”
They weren’t. Fuck. He shoved the accelerator down harder, just as part of the road seemed to fall away.
Cadence didn’t move from the trunk. Her hair was soaked, her clothes clinging to her, but she didn’t move. “What’s your name?”
The woman glanced over her shoulder. “We have to hurry. He wants us inside.”