They were driving through a blizzard in the dark because they needed the odds to be stacked against them even more than they already were. Why couldn’t something be easy for once? Why couldn’t that poor traffic cop have arrested EG rather than becoming another tragic victim?

  Yael wanted to tell Alex to hurry but the back wheels were already fishtailing dangerously. Crashing would destroy their chances of getting to Laura in time.

  The auction had started ten minutes ago and Yael’s stomach revolted every time she thought about her friend suffering.

  Ethan Grice had again muted his mic on the live video but was presumably recording the sound on another device. Laura’s blood already stained the white sheet beneath her. Her screams had been silenced, replaced by the dulcet tones of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite. Yael would never be able to listen to that music again. The comments box was cheerful and lively and the suggestions there made Yael gag. Viewers were paying thousands of dollars to watch EG inflict pain on a woman who’d never hurt anyone.

  EG had put Yael’s stolen family portrait on a table in view of the main camera and there was no way the world wouldn’t figure out who she was and what her link to both the school and Laura was in the next few hours. No doubt the crazies would be blaming her for all Evi1Geni-us’s crimes in the next news cycle.

  She ground her teeth. As long as they could save Laura it didn’t matter. She’d lived through vilification before.

  What didn’t kill you made you stronger…

  Yeah, if that old adage was true her bones would be tungsten steel by now.

  When would this end?

  From the looks on her companions’ faces it ended today, but what if they were in the wrong place? Or what if one of them was hurt in the process? She didn’t think she could bear it if that happened.

  Did EG truly expect to get away with this?

  Alex had taken EG’s money, but he was about to make a whole lot more if they didn’t stop him in the next hour. And maybe he carried more crypto on him. Probably. Enough to escape and start a life with a new identity. Maybe they hadn’t found the motherlode they’d presumed or he had so much it didn’t bother him to lose a few million.

  Shane sat beside her giving Alex directions to her old high school, a place she hadn’t visited since the day of the shooting. A day when her own brother had pointed a gun at her and then laughed, instead shooting the boy she’d been sweet on who was standing beside her.

  A boy who, minutes earlier, she’d invited to the school’s Sadie Hawkins dance, and he’d said yes.

  She shook her head to clear the image. The boy’s parents had been some of the most vocal in their condemnation of her and she didn’t even blame them.

  Shane had removed his arm from his sling which he’d tucked inside his ballistics vest.

  The three of them were ready to take this bastard down. Yael’s own contribution felt weak at best. She’d isolated which transformer to turn off to kill power to the school.

  Ashley had her laptop open in the front passenger seat and was mirroring Yael’s screen. “I’m afraid this isn’t looking good for Laura,” she said grimly.

  Ashley’s evil online alter-ego had received an invitation as she’d anticipated. Yael recognized the moniker and had honestly never imagined the seemingly depraved individual was actually a beautiful, uptight, badass federal agent, which was probably the point. You didn’t send a kitten into a lions’ den and expect it to come out alive.

  Speculation in the comments proved it was only a matter of minutes until viewers identified Yael and her family. And maybe Ethan Grice had overplayed his hand because it wouldn’t take long for the location of the crime to be discovered and presumably someone in the law enforcement community watching would call in the cops.

  “What can you see now?” Alex asked.

  “EG is in the frame wearing his usual get up. He’s draped large white sheets around the place as backdrops,” Yael stated. “Laura is duct-taped to a table on top of another white sheet. He has the second camera situated above her following his usual MO.”

  “The way his pants sag to the right suggests he’s carrying a gun in his pocket and we can assume he still has his assault rifle nearby. Look at that flooring.” Shane pointed out. “That worn paint line on the edge of the field of view looks like the sort you’d find in a gym.”

  “I agree,” Ashley said. “Does it look familiar at all, Yael?”

  Yael bit her lip. “It’s been a long time, sorry. I don’t remember the floor of my old school gym.” Even as she said the words, flashes of running screaming through the bloodstained cavernous space bombarded her.

  Her mouth flooded with saliva and she swallowed repeatedly.

  “You all right?” Shane’s warm hand splayed over her back.

  Her heart pounded and she took in a deep breath and held it until her lungs felt as if they’d burst, then she released it slowly and gave him a quick nod.

  She was barely hanging on, but the scent of Shane supplanted those older memories with images of the two of them together. Bittersweet, as she’d already lost him.

  The warmth of him engulfed her as he peered closer at her screen. It made her want to sink into him and beg him for another chance but she knew it would only prolong the agony.

  She held herself stiffly, not responding or allowing herself to be coaxed. The temptation of Shane Livingstone was addictive and seemingly never-ending.

  Her mouth went dry as the enormity of the truth hit her. She was more than halfway in love with this man already. The pain of losing him would not be worth the short pleasure of a fling. Pushing him away was an act of self-preservation, not self-pity.

  She shoved thoughts of the two of them out of her mind. Saving Laura and catching this bastard were all that mattered. Afterward she’d find a way to avoid Shane for the duration of this case.

  She homed in on the signal data. “I think he’s there. I’m seeing a lot of internet activity coming out of the school.”

  “Could be kids doing extracurricular activities or the janitor streaming porn so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Shane glanced out the window. “Weather conditions mean we have zero drone or satellite availability and zero backup until SWAT arrives.”

  “What do we know about the gym?” Alex asked, concentrating on the road and driving so fast Yael wanted to close her eyes.

  “Assuming it hasn’t changed, old media reports suggest there are two inside exits plus two exits via the locker room,” said Ashley, “and a double door that opens to the outside.”

  “He’s not going to get far if he makes a run for it on foot in this storm.” Shane checked his handgun and Yael flinched. He caught her gaze and suddenly seemed to understand her hatred of firearms. “I’m leaving you with a weapon.”

  Or maybe not.

  She shook her head. He ignored her and placed a lethal-looking black handgun down the back of the seat pocket in front of her.

  “I don’t want it.”

  “It’s there anyway. No safety but the first shot requires a lot more force on the trigger than the rest. Point and shoot. That’s all you need to do. It’s for self-defense.”

  She held his green eyes. The idea of touching the weapon was an anathema to her.

  “You shouldn’t need it, but it will make me feel better to know you have some way of protecting yourself should this guy slip past us, okay?”

  Reluctantly, she nodded. She didn’t want Shane to be worried about her when he was facing an armed and dangerous suspect. She knew her apprehension was founded on old fears and neurosis. She wanted Ethan Grice stopped so he never hurt anyone else ever again.

  From the determined light in Shane’s eyes, he clearly wanted the same.

  But the idea of shooting anyone, here…

  “I’ll give you a signal when we want the power to go off. Three clicks in your ear if I’m unable to speak,” Shane said. “We don’t want it to go off too early and warn him we’re coming.”

  “If he’s here we don’t want him to suspect we’ve found him,” agreed Alex.

  Yael went back to the screen. Armed with the knowledge of where EG was, she should be able to track his signal faster and maybe hijack the Wi-Fi or figure out his IP address and maybe hack his machine directly while he was busy with his torture fest. She could cut off the feed to the spectators.

  They were almost at the school now. Yael recognized the neighborhood and the play structure she’d used as a kid.

  The others pulled their weapons and prepared to exit as Alex drove to the back of the building. They all spotted a green SUV partially covered in snow.

  Alex reversed until their SUV was out sight of the other vehicle.

  “Even if this isn’t Ethan Grice it is most likely our cop killer,” Shane stated.

  And no one believed in that level of coincidence.

  “Make him an offer of two million to keep the woman alive,” Ashley ordered. “See if that will distract him long enough to prevent him killing her in the next few minutes. We should be inside by then. Let’s go.”

  Alex got out but, thankfully, left the engine running. He tossed Yael the evidence bag with EG’s fortune. “Look after this.”

  Her throat swelled. That he trusted her so much was humbling.

  Shane gave her a stern look. “Lock the doors. Use the gun if he tries to get in here. Point and shoot.”

  “Be careful,” she whispered.

  He leaned over and kissed her quickly on the lips, as if he was done pretending they meant nothing to one another. He pulled back, his eyes smoldering with the heat of wanting something so badly you burned for it.

  The side of his mouth kicked up. “Always am.” And like that he was gone.

  Her mouth went dry with fear. Fear and self-loathing, and the agony of what she was terrified might be love. That she didn’t have the nerve to tell him exactly how she felt made her clench her fists in frustration. Did they have a chance of rescuing what was between them after all?

  She watched her colleagues run toward the school in the snowy darkness, hating the worry that now started to bloom—for Shane, Alex, and Ashley. On top of the all-consuming fear for Laura. All because of one man’s twisted actions.

  If any of them died she would be devastated. She shook herself out of her inertia. Stared at the code in a side panel on her laptop screen.

  If she could tap into Ethan Grice’s system or even slow him down by trying to penetrate or disrupt the live feed…

  Her machine suddenly got a hit on his IP address. Shit. She started typing furiously and opened a program to probe his machine for possible vulnerabilities in the background.

  She typed in the offer Ashley Chen had outlined. “Two million for the woman alive. I want her for myself. I’ll give you three others in exchange.”

  It took a moment for EG to see the comment and respond. When he did, he tilted his head to one side, then gave an exaggerated shrug and shake of his head in rejection. He moved on to creating the next torture poll instead.

  Dammit.

  Yael shivered. Laura wasn’t leaving that place alive unless the others saved her.

  And suddenly she was inside his machine. Oh my god.

  She desperately wanted to shut him down, but if she did that he might panic and run. He might escape when he was so damn close, she could almost smell him.

  Instead, she inserted a trojan into his operating system. If he got away this time, she’d track him down and paralyze his machine at will.

  She smiled grimly. Not so clever now, EG. They were closing in on him from every direction.

  “Hold on, Laura. We’re here. We love you.”

  33

  The first thing Shane did was run over and punch his KA-BAR knife through the front tire of the Subaru. This motherfucker wasn’t going anywhere and if it was a case of mistaken identity, he’d go buy the owner a new tire and fit it himself.

  He scanned the area before he dashed back to the others. There were no obvious footprints but the wind was fierce, driving the snow horizontally into his face and blinding him. Visibility was twenty feet and closing. The storm was forecast to become a whole lot worse in the next couple of hours.

  Shane, Ashley, and Alex entered the building around the corner from where their SUV was parked, away from the entrance closest to the Subaru. Alex made short work of the lock and Shane was impressed. He planned to expand his current skillset from explosives and breachers to include lock picks and add a little subtlety for those occasions when stealth was paramount.

  Presumably Ethan Grice had similar locksmith skills. The alarm inside the school was also disarmed. Shane eased open the door a crack before checking for explosives using a small, red-beamed flashlight.

  “Clear,” he murmured quietly. “You two head that way and cover the south and east exits. I’ll take the west.” Which Shane figured was closest to EG’s vehicle. They took off at a quiet jog through the darkened corridors while Shane headed in the opposite direction. A fire exit sign gave off enough of a glow that he could easily make his way without the NVGs. The gym was in the middle of the building with the north wall abutting the playing field.

  Shane moved silently along the corridors and forced himself not to think of Yael walking these same halls the day her brother had sacrificed his humanity and condemned his sister to a lifetime of pain. He loved his family but if any one of them pulled a stunt like that, he’d put a bullet in them himself.

  A scream rang down the hallway and ice sped along his veins. He had no doubt they were in the right place this time. He forced the need to hurry out of his mind. He couldn’t afford to rush. He worked his way through the maze of school passageways until he found the gym.

  Another soul-chilling scream of pain pierced the air.

  At the doorway to the gymnasium, he paused and texted Sloan an update. Presumably she’d roust the troops now they had a confirmed location.

  Laura screamed again and the sound stabbed into his spine like nine-inch nails.

  Fuck that asshole.

  EG had covered the glass of the doorway with sheets, but lights were visible inside. The smell of gasoline made Shane pause.

  He pressed his comms and said in barely a whisper, “You guys smell gas?”

  “Yep,” Ashley answered.

  “Any visual on EG?” he murmured.

  “Negative. He’s nailed sheets to the doors,” said Ashley.

  “Negative.” Alex.

  “Fuck.”

  “I’ll check the locker rooms entrances,” Alex said. “There’s no way this guy doesn’t have an escape route mapped out.”

  Shane texted Sloan again, this time to have cops secure the perimeter and have fire trucks on standby and to have everyone approach without sirens.

  “EG looks like he heard something,” Yael’s voice warned through his earpiece. “He’s stopped doing what he was doing and walked to near the camera. Want me to cut the power now?”

  “Yes. Let’s get inside as fast as possible,” Shane said in an undertone. And hope the fucker hadn’t wired the place the way he had last time.

  “On three.” Shane counted down and as soon as the lights went off he shot the lock off the door. The gunshots echoed through the space, but Shane was used to it and didn’t even flinch. He kicked open the door but a sudden whoosh of flames forced him back.

  “Christ, he lit up the place.” He held up his cast to shield his face. He certainly didn’t need his NVGs now. “I can’t see anything through the flames.”

  “Same here. He spread gasoline on gym mats all around the room,” said Ashley.

  “EG has disappeared. Oh my god, Laura!” Yael exclaimed. “The sheets behind her just went up. Quickly, she’s going to burn to death.”

  Motherfucker. Shane kept his rifle up and ready as he rushed through the flames toward a small piece of the gym floor that hadn’t yet ignited. The smoke was thick and the dry wood was starting to catch. The gym mats were releasing thick noxious clouds of gases. He smothered flames that had caught on his pants and singed his leg. He kept moving, searching for Ethan Grice, searching for a safe space amongst the heat and fire, trying to figure out how to get across the wide expanse to Laura.

  The heat was intense and made him want to retreat but he kept pushing forward.

  The sound of gunfire ripped through the air. “Alex, Ashley, report.”

  Then he spotted Laura near the edge of the gym as the sheets burned to nothing.

  But there was no clear path through the flames. An ember singed his cheek. Fuck. He was going to burn to death. Great. This fucker was going to escape and he was going to roast.

  Yael’s face flashed before him and he knew he wanted more than a few nights of stolen passion.

  No way was he going to die. No fucking way.

  He caught a glimpse of a red fire extinguisher on the wall out of the corner of his eye and lunged for it. Turning it on, he sprayed the floor in front of him and started walking toward the bound woman.

  “I found Laura. Alex? Ashley?” he yelled because the asshole already knew they were here and the fire was so loud he couldn’t hear a thing.

  Shane drew his knife and cut the tape securing the naked woman to the table. Her eyes were massive with fear and horror. Wounds bloody. She was screaming incoherently but he couldn’t make out the words over the roar of the fire.

  He couldn’t worry about any potential damage as he hoisted her over his right shoulder. The risk was less than the almost certainty of burning to death. The smoke was choking him, his throat raw as he coughed incessantly. He twirled around to look for a way out through the flames. EG wasn’t here so how had he escaped?

  Shane’s injured arm ached but he kept the rifle strap on his shoulder and finger on the trigger as he made his way through a snaking path of heat and flames. He found a door to one of the locker rooms. It was locked from the other side. Shit. The fire was building behind him and his skin sizzled.

  He stood back. “If anyone is in the male locker room unlock the door or get the hell away from it.”

  “Negative. We’re heading that way though,” Ashley’s strained voice came through his earpiece.

 

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