What Are You Afraid Of? (The Agency #2)(100)

Griff frowned. “Hunter?”

Carmen was suddenly crouched beside him. “He killed my parents,” she rasped. “And all those women.”

Griff kept his gaze locked on Ronnie’s shadow as it inched to the side of the blocks. He was angling for a clear shot.

“Tell me how you found me,” Ronnie commanded.

Griff hesitated. He needed to provoke the man into making a mistake.

“It was easy,” Griff finally said. He didn’t know much about Ronnie, but it was apparent that he was consumed with his delusion of grandeur. Which meant the easiest way to rattle him was to prick his bloated pride. “I followed the stench of your cowardice.”

The words easily pierced Ronnie’s thin skin. “I’m no coward.”

Griff made a sound of disgust. “What do you call kidnapping a sleeping woman?”

“Or killing the people who took you and your mother into their home?” Carmen called out.

“They betrayed me. I should have been the one who was treated as the beloved child. Instead, it was you.” Ronnie’s words held an edge of bitterness. “Always you.”

Carmen trembled. Her courage might have survived, but she’d clearly been through enough. She was reaching her breaking point.

“Griff, can we just get out of here?”

Griff shook his head, but he called out loudly, “Sure. Rylan is waiting outside with the cops.”

“Bullshit,” Ronnie growled. “If there were cops outside I would know.”

“I warned them not to use sirens and to park in the back,” he tried to bluff.

“You must think I’m stupid.” He gave a dramatic pause. “No, wait. You believe I’m a coward.”

Griff swallowed a curse. There had to be a reason Ronnie was acting so cocky. Which meant that any hope of finding out who might be involved was over.

They needed to get out of there. But how?

He aimed his pistol and took a shot at the top of the cinderblocks. He couldn’t kill Ronnie, but he wanted to freeze him in place.

The sound of the bullet hitting the block echoed loudly through the vast space, splinters of cement filling the air.

“I called you a coward because you are a coward,” Griff called out.

“Do you know how many people I’ve killed?” Ronnie demanded.

Carmen shuddered, but Griff refused to react. It was exactly what Ronnie wanted.

“It’s tacky to boast,” he instead chided.

“Why? If you have a talent you take pride in it.” Ronnie sounded like a petulant child. “Especially such a rare talent.”

“Being a nutcase isn’t a talent,” he deliberately taunted. “It’s a perversion.”

Ronnie laughed. Apparently, he was used to being called crazy. “‘We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’”

Griff frowned. The words were familiar. “Alice in Wonderland?” he at last guessed.

“You know, I’ve spent months anticipating my reunion with you. Brother and sister shouldn’t be parted from each other.”

Carmen glanced toward Griff with a horrified expression. “I’m not your sister.”

Ronnie chuckled, pleased he finally had the reaction he was hoping to get.

“I dreamed night after night about you,” he told her. “I could actually feel my fingers wrapping around your neck while I watched the life draining from your eyes.”

“You’re sick,” she accused.

“But now I see that killing you is going to give me just as much satisfaction, maybe more,” Ronnie said.

Griff could sense Ronnie’s perverted pleasure in taunting Carmen.

“As I said, you’re welcome to try,” Griff growled, desperate to keep the creep’s attention focused on him.

Ronnie didn’t answer. Instead, the shadow began to move again. Damn. Within a few minutes Ronnie would be in position to kill both of them.

Griff briefly considered his options.

They all sucked.

They could wait there and hope that Rylan magically showed up before Ronnie got into position to shoot them. Or they could try to make a desperate run for it. If they could reach the towering racks, there was a faint hope they could reach an exit. At least as long as they didn’t run across any of Ronnie’s partners.

Yeah. Really crappy choices.

Bending his head, he whispered directly into Carmen’s ear, “When I say ‘go’ I want you to run toward the front of the bay.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “But Ronnie—”

“I’ll distract him,” he promised.

She shook her head. “No, Griff. We go together.”

“Don’t be fools,” Ronnie called out, easily suspecting they were plotting to try to escape. “You don’t really think you can get out of this warehouse, do you?”

“You can’t stop me,” Griff said, his gaze carefully monitoring Ronnie’s shadow.

“If I don’t, my partner will,” Ronnie warned.

Griff reached to give Carmen’s arm a reassuring squeeze, his gaze scanning the opening while he strained his ears for any sound of approaching footsteps.

“What partner?” he demanded.

Ronnie released a mocking laugh. “You really are stupid. How do you think I found out about this warehouse? Or managed to get past the security?”