Blood and Fire (McClouds & Friends #8)(123)

No Lily. Unconscious in the backseat or in the trunk.

He ran faster, squinting for the license plate, but somebody had obscured it with spattered mud. He started to close the gap as they paused to merge with traffic. He drew his gun but hesitated to shoot on the run at a moving target with Lily in the back or the trunk.

The tire. He slowed, aimed . . . and the car slewed through a huge mud puddle. Icy water splattered into his face as he pulled the trigger. The shot zinged against the back of the car. It surged ahead unchecked. He wiped mud out of his eyes.

Jesus, no. Please don’t let that bullet have perforated the trunk. Please don’t let that bullet be lodged inside of Lily. Please.

He pounded after the Mercedes, shoving the nightmare thought away. They had a straight stretch now, no lights, no turns. The gap lengthened. He couldn’t catch up, but he kept chasing, like a stubborn dog. Failure was unacceptable. Same old clusterf*ck. Goddamn him for getting involved. He knew this would happen. It always did. He worked alone, he stayed alone, he kept it simple so he could avoid this scenario.

This clawing, frantic feeling he got when he let people down.

The front window came down. The fake nurse stuck out her hand, fluttered her fingers at him, a taunting little wave. Buh-bye!

They hung the curve and were gone.





“I’ll kill the bastard.” Bruno jittered on the car seat, fists clenched. Trying to breathe, trying not to vomit. “I’ll rip his limbs off.”

“It’s not his fault.” Kev’s tone had the flatness of one who had repeated the same phrase many times. “He’s not the one who needs killing.”

“What the f*ck was he thinking?” The words exploded out of him. “Letting the drunk guy within fifty feet of her? Letting someone drag her into a locked room? Was he on drugs?”

Connor spoke up, hesitant. “I can see it,” he said. “They were good. The place was understaffed. Conditions were perfect. Taking out the receptionist and nurse while the doctor was busy with Tam. The woman established herself multiple times as the nurse, fabricated a legitimate job—Christ, they’d have fooled me. Give Aaro a break, man.”

“No!” Bruno yelled. “I can’t! I will not swallow this!”

“Nobody’s asking you to, Bru,” Kev said softly. “I’m sorry.”

He stared out the window at the raindrops against the glass, jittering his leg while the next outburst built. “How the hell did they know?” he demanded. “About Tam’s bleeding? That was random! Impossible to predict! How could they have known about the choice of Rosaline Creek? They could have gone to the Urgent Care in Craigsville, or Dawson Falls—they’re all more or less the same distance! But those f*ckers were in exactly the right place, lying in wait! How?”

Con rubbed eyes that were deeply shadowed with exhaustion. “They have tracers planted somewhere? A bug?”

“In Tam’s house?” Kev let out a sharp laugh. “No way.”

Con shrugged. “So? What else could it be?”

“I’m going to kill him,” Bruno said again, though the words were empty, they did not release any of the tension. He rocked forward, folding over that stone hard lump.

“Bad as Aaro feels, he just might beat you to it,” Davy murmured.

Bruno looked at him, and Davy glanced swiftly away. “Don’t try to make me feel sorry for that incompetent f*ck,” he said harshly. “He’d better not. I want that satisfaction for myself. If nothing else.”

Heavy silence. There was nothing anyone could say to this catastrophe. No comfort, no help possible.

They passed signs for an exit off the freeway, and Connor leaned forward. “Get off at the next exit,” he said, looking at Bruno. “There’ll be a car rental on the strip. Head east in this car. Just for God’s sake don’t get stopped in it. With the firepower packed in here, they’d take you for a domestic terrorist, and you have enough problems.” He turned to Kev. “Assuming you didn’t rent this car in your own name.”

“Hell, no,” Kev said. “With all the stuff going down? I knew we were going to need an invisible car.”

“Wait a minute.” Bruno looked around at the four men. “How am I just supposed to drive away from this? I have to follow Lily!”

The others wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“Follow her where, Bru?” Kev said. “You’ve got nothing else to do. Rosaline Creek is crawling with cops. They’ll do their job without your help. And you’re a wanted man. Remember? That little detail?”

“We’ll follow every lead that we can from here,” Davy offered.

“But what could they be doing to her? I can’t . . . I don’t have time to road-trip across the damn country! While they hold Lily captive!”

“You can’t fly,” Con said. “You’d never make it onto a commercial flight. Unless you have a good disguise and a fake passport. Do you?”

Kev’s brothers looked at him hopefully. “Vaffanculo,” Bruno muttered, disgusted. “Of course not. I don’t play paranoid games with myself like you McCloud boys. I can’t just drive away from Lily!”

“You’re not,” Kev argued. “You’re driving toward the only clue in the whole f*cking world that we have. You’re going where it all started. If you don’t get a lead there, you’re not going to find one anywhere.”