Safe In His Arms (Manhunt) (17 page)

“Are you certain he had her murdered?” Mia asked. “Not my ex-husband?”

“It looks that way,” Henry said. “Coolidge said Wilson had confided in him. We’ll know more after the sheriff interrogates Wilson and Sutter.”

Mia bit her lip. So Geoff still could have killed the cook.

Either way, Joleen had been an innocent victim. Grief nearly overwhelmed her again. Joleen’s death was so senseless.

Mia’s cell phone buzzed.  Anxious to speak to Alex, she stepped into the hallway and connected the call.

“Hello, Mia. I’ve missed you.”

It wasn’t Alex’s voice on the other end of the line. It was Geoff’s.

Mia’s fingers tightened around the phone. “You have to stop this insanity,” Mia said. “Turn yourself in before you get killed, Geoff.” And before you hurt anyone else.

“You know I can’t do that, Mia. I have grand plans for our future.”

“You’re a fugitive,” Mia said tersely.

“Not for long.” His tone went from flirty and taunting to menacing.  “I’m your husband and you betrayed me.”

“I’m not your wife anymore,” Mia said. “The divorce was final months ago. I know you received the papers.”

Of course he had. That was probably what triggered him to plan an escape.

“Our vows said till death do us part, Mia. Have you forgotten?”

“They also said to love, honor and cherish. You didn’t keep those promises, Geoff.”

“Yes, I did, and you’re going to keep yours.”

“You can’t make me love you, Geoff.”

“No? Why not? Are you fucking that Texas Ranger? Do you love him?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Actually it is,” he said darkly. “In fact, he and I are having a nice little visit.”

Mia froze, her blood running cold. “What are you talking about? Are you with Alex?”

“Alex? Not Sgt. Townsend?”

Panic seized Mia. ‘Where is he? Let me speak to him.”

A sinister chuckle reverberated over the line. A low moan followed.

Alex?

“I’m afraid he’s all tied up at the moment, Mia.”

Mia closed her eyes, every muscle in her body tensing. “What have you done to him?”

“He’s losing blood fast,” Geoff said in a low tone. “Do you want to save him?”

“Yes,” Mia said, knowing she’d do anything to keep Alex alive. “Just tell me what you want.”

“You know what I want, Mia.”

“Yes, I do, you bastard.” She sucked in a sharp breath. “Just release him and tell me where to meet you.”

“Meet me
then
I’ll let him go,” Geoff said.

Mia didn’t trust Geoff for a second. He was setting up a trap and might kill them both. But she had to do something. She couldn’t just stand by and let Alex die.

So she struck a deal with the devil. She’d do anything to keep Alex alive.

Alex slowly roused from the depths of hell to consciousness. His memory was foggy, but pain throbbed in his shoulder and leg.

 He’d been shot. Twice.

By Geoff Jones. At the damn prison, the last place he’d have expected the man to be.

Where was the son of a bitch?

He blinked rapidly and tried to move but realized he was bound to a stake in some dark building, arms tied behind him, feet bound to the wooden post which held him hostage.

Sweat dripped down his hair and into his eyes, and he squinted, searching for the man who’d ambushed him.

But shadows plagued the corners, and the building was so dark he couldn’t see a damn thing,

Was Jones hiding in the corner? Taking pleasure in watching him struggle to free himself while he bled to death?

Because the bullets hadn’t struck any major arteries. They’d only pierced muscle, flesh and tissue, deep enough to cause a good deal of bleeding.

Enough that eventually the blood loss would kill him.

Was that Jones’s plan – to make him suffer a long slow death?

Panic stole the air from his lungs. He didn’t care if he died, but with him out of the way, Jones would probably get Mia. Did he have her now?

God, please no. He’d promised to protect her …

He couldn’t allow his mind to go there. He had to think. Come up with a plan.

Figure out how to escape.

Because there was no way he’d let Jones kill the woman he loved.

Footsteps crunched. The smell of gasoline wafted toward him.

A board creaked, the hiss of a breath whispered through the air, and Alex knew he wasn’t alone.

“You coward, untie me and fight me like a real man,” Alex said through clenched teeth.

Something hard slammed against his jaw, then another blow came. He spit out blood as Jones began to beat him until the world turned gray, then black and slipped away again.

Mia debated whether to ask the sheriff to go with her. She wasn’t a fool. She knew she was walking into an ambush.

But before he’d hung up, Geoff had warned her she’d better come alone. That the moment he spotted a second person, he’d kill Alex.

She couldn’t take the chance.

Besides, what did her life matter if Alex died because of her? She’d never be able to live with the guilt. 

Because she loved him. 

Dammit. She hadn’t wanted to. She’d fought her attraction to the sexy Ranger, and knew loving him was insane.

But her rational side had avoided the warning, and she’d fallen for him anyway.

Mentally reviewing tips from her self-defense class, she tugged on a jacket, and stashed a canister of mace in her pocket. She tucked her revolver into her bra, then strapped a small switchblade to her ankle beneath her jeans.

Alex had dropped her off at the hospital so she hotwired Henry’s pick-up, then called and left him a voice mail telling him she’d borrowed it because of an emergency.

Somehow, someway she’d make all this up to him and Joy.

That is, if she survived.

Her heart roared in her chest as she sped down the old highway toward the deserted lodge where Geoff had told her to meet him. The place had been closed for two years for renovations, but the owner had filed for bankruptcy and the property hadn’t been touched or visited in months.

A good place for a criminal to hide.

She just prayed Alex was still alive.

The pick-up chugged and churned over the ruts in the graveled road, gears grinding as she hit pothole after pothole and dirt spewed from the tires.

Woods surrounded her, the road narrowing through the thick foliage, an area known for hikers and hunters, and those who sought seclusion for days.

Tendrils of fear clawed at her insides as she slammed over a rough patch, and the truck vibrated so hard the impact jarred her teeth. But she clenched the steering wheel tighter, keeping the vehicle on the road as she barreled around a curve and skidded down a hill.

Ahead the foliage broke, and a sliver of moonlight streaked the battered rundown wooden building, which looked like it should be condemned.

She braked, slowing and steering around a pile of rocks and a pothole, then cut the lights on the truck and shoved it into park.

To the side of the lodge, tucked between a copse of trees, sat a black SUV. Alex’s SUV.

The sound of the rusty pick-up screeching as she opened the door echoed in the silence.  She automatically checked left and right, and the periphery of the house, her senses alert. Geoff was here. Waiting. Watching.

Ready to jump her any second.

She had to be ready. To fight.

She grabbed the flashlight from under Henry’s seat, flipped it on, and slid from the driver’s seat.

Her boots crunched gravel and twigs, an animal foraging in the woods nearby growled, then a noise sounded from behind her. She whirled around, her stomach lurching when she spotted Geoff aiming a gun at her head.

C
HAPTER
F
OURTEEN

Every muscle in Alex’s body throbbed from the beating Jones had given him. Prison had obviously enhanced his physical skills.

He blinked, the world a blur as he searched the darkness for the creep. But he didn’t see or hear him in the room.

He had to find a way to escape.

He struggled against the ropes binding his wrists. Pain ripped up his arms as he jerked and twisted, but the damn rope was so tight, he couldn’t pull his hands through. Heaving a breath, he turned one hand to the side, using his fingers to work at the knot.

But a noise sounded from a few feet away, a faint stream of light seeping in, cloudy with dust motes, then he heard Mia’s voice.

“Where is he, Geoff?” Mia asked.

“Keep walking, sweetheart,” Geoff said in a menacing tone.

Footsteps echoed across the wood floor, the sound of Alex’s own breathing punctuating the air. He strained for control, working more vigorously to free his hands.

“Alex,” Mia called.

The door slammed shut, blocking out the light. Alex swallowed hard, trying to orient himself, but one of his eyes was swollen shut, the other blurry.

“Get out of here, Mia,” Alex shouted. “It’s a trap.”

Suddenly the sound of a match being lit struck the air, then Alex looked up to see Jones holding the flame in front of him with one hand. His other held a gun to Mia’s head.

Terror for Mia filled him.   “Let her go, Jones.”

Jones’s sinister laugh reverberated off the walls. “Why, because you want her?”

“I want her to be safe,” Alex growled. “Safe from you.”

Alex gave Mia a pleading look, praying she’d understand and run. But her gaze rested on his face with a weary kind of resignation and fear blended with some other emotion he couldn’t quite define.

He jerked his head toward Jones who looked wild-eyed and crazed with bloodlust. “Do whatever you want with me, but don’t hurt her.”

Jones answered with a cynical smile while tears filled Mia’s eyes. She spun toward her ex husband and touched his arm. 

“I did what you asked, Geoff. I’m here. Now leave him alone and let’s leave.”

Geoff shook his head, his lips twisting into a snarl while Alex continued working the rope. He had one end through and was tugging it through the loop.

“If I leave him, he’ll just come after us. Besides,” he said with a victorious smile.  “I need his name for us to escape. There can only be one Sergeant Alex Townsend.”

A heartbeat passed. “You can kill me, but you won’t get away with it,” Alex said.  Hopefully the authorities had already been alerted to Jones’s plan.

“Geoff, please. He’s tied up, and no one knows where we are or that he’s here.” Mia tugged at Geoff’s arm. “We can be out of the country before anyone realizes the truth.”

“Shut up, Mia,” Geoff said. “He’s going to die, and it’s your fault. You have to be taught a lesson.”

“Like you tried to teach her when you beat her half to death,” Alex muttered.

“She needs to learn to be an obedient wife,” Geoff said as if his logic made perfect sense. He jerked Mia by his side, then tossed the match onto the floor.

It had been too dark to see earlier, but now Alex noticed that the man had crumpled newspaper around him in a circle. The fire caught the papers, fire crackling as it quickly spread around him.

“Geoff, no!” Mia reached inside her pocket, and Alex saw her pull out a canister of mace. But she wasn’t fast enough, and Geoff karate chopped her wrist and sent the mace flying across the room.