Hunted (25 page)

“It’s already daylight. He’ll be fine and the interstate is only a few minutes’ walk that way.” He nodded to the east. “Now come on.” He gestured with the pistol and she took a grudging step toward him. His free hand itched to touch her. That silken, golden skin, her shiny hair. He wanted her to look up at him with joy the way she used to, with trust and the knowledge that she was lucky to have him for her man. To have that chance, he’d have to let her kid go.

A sudden, terrifying thought hit him; that she’d never look at him like that again after this. No. He shoved it aside, using all his restraint to stay where he was and make her come to him. It was the only way. He’d start by using force, but to win her heart again he needed her to
want
to be with him.

As soon as she was within arm’s reach he lowered the pistol and grabbed her, hauling her into his arms. She gasped and pressed her hands flat against his chest, her entire body stiff with rejection. Ignoring that for now and the pain it shot through him, Carlos groaned and buried his face in her hair, breathing in her scent. Sweet, clean. His baby. Christ, he was shaking at just the feel of having her in his arms again. So soft and warm.

When he eased back she swallowed and looked up at him, her eyes full of torment he longed to erase. “Y-you swear you won’t h-hurt him.”

Xander. Always goddam Xander getting in between them. Carlos had never imagined resenting a ten year old so much.

The kid was standing now, watching them uncertainly in the spot Leticia had left him. But he’d fulfilled his purpose now. Carlos had needed his life as leverage for the most difficult part, getting Leticia to come to him. He didn’t need the boy anymore for the rest, he had Zoe, and letting him go now would go a long way with Leticia. Whipping his head to the side, Carlos scanned for the car. He couldn’t see much through the screen of trees. She’d better still be sitting where he’d left her.

He looked back at the boy. “Go,” he barked, and clamped a hand around Leticia’s upper arm to drag her with him back to the car. She didn’t dig her heels in, but it was clear she wasn’t in any hurry to follow him. She kept glancing over her shoulder at her son, her distress clear. “He’ll be fine,” he said gruffly, moving faster now, annoyed and frustrated by her devotion to her son when he wanted it all for himself. “He can go to the service station. And we’ve gotta be gone before he gets there and calls the cops. So move it.” It was implied that he could still make good on his earlier threat if that happened.

Leticia hitched in a breath and made a funny little sound in her throat. The grief in it sliced him. But it wasn’t like the kid was going to die out here alone, this close to civilization. It was going to be hard for her to accept life without him though. Maybe after things settled down and she was bound to him again the way she had once been, she’d see this was for the best. Once they were out of the country things would improve. First he’d have to get rid of Zoe though. She wasn’t going to stay quiet so there was only one way to silence her.

He planned to do that as soon as they got back to the hunting cabin. He’d kill her, dispose of her body, then take Leticia across the border while things cooled down. His Mexican friends were going to take them across the Gulf before first light tomorrow, and grant them entrance into cartel territory until things settled. Leticia would have plenty of time to adjust to her new reality then.

Moving quickly, he took Leticia to the edge of the trees and glanced toward the car. The front seat was empty and Zoe was nowhere to be seen. He swore, dragged Leticia parallel to the road so they were still hidden by the trees. How the hell had she gotten free?

There. Movement in the trees on the opposite side of the road. “Zoe!” he bellowed. “Get out here or I’ll do what I said!”

No response. He stilled, listened. Could he have misjudged her? No. There was no fucking way she’d leave and put the kid’s life at risk. Only birdsong and the sound of the leaves moving in the breeze surrounded him. Beside him Leticia was pale and stiff, darting her gaze around.

“You think I won’t do it?” he yelled, starting to sweat again. They were too close to the service station. If Zoe got there she would absolutely call the cops and he had no doubt that she’d memorized the license plate. He didn’t have time to find another ride and steal it. Not with an uncooperative hostage in tow.

Fuck. “Zoe!” He needed her for what came after this getaway. He’d planned on having her for a bargaining chip with Leticia, as a backup. From the rigid set of her features, he was going to need it.

A slight movement across the road caught his gaze. Zoe, trying to escape. “Freeze!”

She didn’t. He raised his pistol, took aim and fired just ahead of her trajectory. The sound of the shot was loud in the quiet. Bark exploded from a tree trunk right in front of Zoe. Leticia cried out and cringed away from him. The movement stopped.

“Next one’s going through you,” he threatened, meaning every word.

A moment later Zoe materialized on the opposite side. Hands bound in front of her, eyes shooting poison arrows at him. A shitload of tension drained away inside him. Everything was going according to plan. This was still going to work.

Expelling a hard breath, he jerked his head toward the car. “Get in.
Now
.” He kept his pistol trained on her, tracking her progress to the vehicle as he and Leticia rushed over. He put Leticia in the front seat and quickly bound her hands to the door handle so she couldn’t try to escape or interfere.

Zoe edged closer, wary as a wild animal, features pinched. Rounding the back with his weapon aimed at her, Carlos seized her by her bound wrists, twisting them down and to the side at a sharp angle. Zoe yelped and rose on tiptoe to try and lessen the pressure, the binding making it impossible for her to get free. He tucked the pistol back into his waistband and secured her hands behind her this time, then opened the trunk and roughly shoved her into it. Slamming it shut, he hurried around to the driver’s side, got in and fired up the engine.

He slung the car around and headed south down the deserted road. Once they crossed back over to the south side of I-10 it was an easy twenty minute drive back to the cabin. It was isolated enough that the cops would have trouble finding it. He’d take the women there, get rid of Zoe, and start wooing Leticia before it was time to leave and begin their new life together.

Tuck’s voice came through his earpiece. “You guys got anything?”

“No,” Clay answered from his position in the front seat of the SUV he and Schroder were sitting in. They’d parked it on the other side of the construction zone beside Nairn Park, next to the trailer that served as the contractor’s office on site. His team’s job was recon only, to assist the other agents on scene. He and the others had their fatigues on and their kit handy, their weapons stowed in the backs of the vehicles they occupied.

Going by the burning sensation in his gut that wouldn’t ease up, he was going to have a fucking ulcer soon. Not knowing where Zoe was or what had happened to her was eating him alive from the inside out.

He lowered his binos to glance around. Schroder was watching the opposite side. It was quarter to six already. None of the agents posted in the surrounding area had reported any sign of Leticia yet, let alone Ruiz.

Pushing out a breath, Clay rubbed at his eyes. He hadn’t slept much. He’d spent the late afternoon and evening getting the insurance thing rolling with Celida’s help, then replaced Zoe’s exterior and bedroom doors himself and put on sturdy new locks. The project had helped save him from losing his mind with worry, but only just barely.

He’d added something to secure the front gate as well, had intended to strip the bed and put on fresh sheets for her but he’d caught her scent on the pillowcase and decided to leave it. Throughout the night he’d kept checking in with Tuck and DeLuca, and each time they’d had no updates.

At first he’d sat out on the balcony, but that only reminded him of what they’d done on the daybed. When he’d finally turned in for the night at one in the morning and crawled into her bed, the faint scent of her perfume on the sheets, all he could think about was her and what might be happening to her. He’d dozed off and on, lying on her side of the bed with her pillow hugged to his chest, thinking he’d have given anything for it to be her in his arms instead.

Now they had a whole taskforce of agents and cops out looking for her and Ruiz, and so far had dick-all to show for their efforts. It was driving Clay fucking insane.

Settling back into the seat once more, he raised the binos and scanned his sector. The other agents were doing a pretty good job of staying hidden out of sight because he could only spot a few of them. One was doing stretches on a yoga mat spread onto the grass and another was doing laps around the field with a little dog. Celida was with her boss and a couple other Feds half a block away, and Tuck was with Evers, Vance and Blackwell about an eighth of a mile from them.

Schroder was silent as he kept watch. The minutes kept ticking past and the only new arrivals to the park were a couple of joggers and one person walking their dog.

Normally Clay could wait for hours in position without moving or getting antsy, even in extreme weather. This time it took all his discipline to sit still. At twenty-five minutes past six, he was all out of patience, frustration eating at him from the inside like acid. He tapped his earpiece. “What’s the word,” he asked Tuck.

“DeLuca said no one’s reported any sightings yet.”

His jaw tensed. Somebody should have at least spotted Leticia already. “They’re not gonna show. Something’s wrong.” He just prayed it didn’t mean Zoe was already dead. The thought alone made his stomach lurch.

“Stand by.” Clay didn’t know who Tuck had gone to talk to, but he’d bet it was either DeLuca or Celida. He came back on a few minutes later. “We’ll withdraw and head back to the local field office.”

Clay didn’t want to leave in case someone did show up, but he also knew it was just wishful thinking. Either Leticia had gotten cold feet and bailed, or Zoe hadn’t told Ruiz about the meeting. If the latter was true, it meant there was a good chance she was still alive. “Roger that.”

Clay started the engine while Schroder slid from the back into the front passenger seat. Only part of Clay’s attention was on the road as he drove, his mind filled with images of Zoe.

Please be okay, raven. We’re doing everything we can to find you. I need you to hold on.

Fuck, his throat was starting to close up.

Swallowing, he gripped the wheel tighter and drew in a deep breath. It didn’t help ease the pressure in his chest any.

“You need anything?” Schroder asked as Clay turned onto the highway. “Want me to grab some coffee, something to eat?”

He shook his head. “No thanks.” He’d forced himself to eat a piece of toast before leaving Zoe’s. It was currently sitting in his stomach like a piece of concrete. He didn’t want to eat or sleep or do anything but find her. All they needed was one good piece of intel that gave them a decent lead. Just one fucking decent tip to point them in the right direction.

They were a mile away from the local field office when Tuck spoke again. “Get back to the RV point. Locals just got a tip. How far out are you?”

Schroder answered. “About seven minutes.”

“Four,” Blackwell answered from the other vehicle.

“Okay. I’ll get more details and brief you all when you get here.”

Clay shifted against the seat, his fingers tapping an anxious rhythm against the steering wheel.
Come on, come on
, he urged the driver in front of him silently as he sped along, weaving his way through the traffic on the highway. When they arrived at Tuck’s location, he and their other teammates were standing with Celida and DeLuca. Clay and Schroder jumped out and hustled over.

“What’ve you got?” Clay demanded as he reached them.

“Local cops just picked up Leticia’s son,” Celida answered, the shadows beneath her eyes telling him that she hadn’t slept for shit last night either. “He says he and his mother were walking down a road when Zoe called to them from a car.”

Clay’s heart kicked into overdrive at the mention of her name but before he could ask more questions Celida continued.

“It was a trap. Ruiz chased Leticia and the kid into the forest, held them at gunpoint and threatened to shoot the kid if she didn’t go with him. She did, leaving her son there. The boy said he heard Ruiz shout Zoe’s name and then a single gunshot before the car drove away.”

For a moment Clay couldn’t breathe.
Oh, shit. Shit, no, not Zoe.

“Kid waited for a few minutes and went back to the road, then found his way to a service station. He didn’t get a look at the plates but he gave a general description of the car. Four door sedan, older model, dark gray.”

Clay shifted his stance, growing more agitated by the second. “Any word from the people on scene?” Authorities would be using various programs right now to search for the vehicle.

“Nothing yet. They’ve got a team out now to search the area and—” She stopped talking as her cell rang, stepped away to answer it. Clay didn’t take his eyes off her.

His heart was fucking pounding as she talked to whoever had called, imagining Zoe either bleeding or dying in the woods from a gunshot wound, or wounded and dragged back into the car with Ruiz. His teammates stood silently while she finished the call and hurried back to them, her face tense.

“They found a bullet hole in a tree but no traces of blood anywhere, and they’ve got a set of prints leading back from that side of the road to where the tire tracks stop.” She met Tuck’s gaze, then Clay’s. “Zoe was still alive when they drove off.”

But that didn’t mean she was still alive now.

Celida didn’t have to say it, and Clay knew everyone here was aware that her chances of survival dwindled with every passing minute. If Ruiz had Leticia, he no longer needed Zoe, making her expendable.