Gone (Deadly Secrets #2)(79)

Turn around. Don’t fall for his games. Don’t look.

His heart beat hard and fast as he crept closer. As he narrowed his gaze to see through the dark glass. As he spotted what looked like a plastic bag on the round table.

Raegan’s hushed voice drifted from the other room, but Alec couldn’t make out her words. Reaching the wall, he flipped the outside light on. A scrap of fabric in a sealed plastic bag sat in the middle of the small table.

The blood drained from Alec’s face as he stared at a scrap of white fabric dotted with tiny pink hearts. Fabric stained red with dried blood. Fabric that matched the dress Emma had worn to the park the day she’d gone missing.

“I killed her,” Gilbert said in his ear. “Your daughter is dead. You said you always wanted to know the truth. There’s your fucking truth, son.”

“No.” Alec’s throat closed as he struggled for an explanation like a drowning man fights for air. It was a trick. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. Gilbert was fucking with him. Just like every other time he’d fucked with Alec. The phone shook in Alec’s hand, and his legs grew weak. But the roar in his ears was all he heard. “No, I don’t believe you.”

“Oh, you will,” Gilbert growled. “I told you I’d make you pay, son. You’re about to. There’s a logging road off Highway 26, just past Elsie up in the mountains. At the end you’ll find a shallow grave and all the fucking answers you deserve.”



“They’re not going to find anything,” Raegan said out loud, more for herself than for Alec. She shivered beneath the thick jacket and watched the team of FBI agents ahead, excavating through the snow at a spot near the end of the gravel road. “He was taunting you. The same as always. It’s what he does. You said it’s what he does.”

Beside her, Alec didn’t respond. Just stood stoic and silent as he watched the men digging beneath the spotlights.

Fear tightened Raegan’s throat. He’d barely spoken since finding the bag of bloody fabric on her deck. Hadn’t once turned to her the way he had after they’d left that trailer park. She tried not to read too much into that. She knew he was scared, just like her. But she couldn’t stop the fear from turning to terror as it slid into her chest to wrap an icy hand around her heart.

It was happening. Oh God . . . She swayed on her feet, not to fight the cold but to keep her legs from buckling beneath her. Anger whooshed in, and she fought back the terror. She wasn’t going to give up. She’d done that before. Walked away. Let Alec spiral. She wasn’t going to do that again.

“Alec.” She gripped his arm hard and turned him to face her. “Alec.” She wanted—needed—the Alec back from a few hours ago. The one who’d been so full of hope he’d made her believe anything was possible. “Look at me, dammit.”

His gaze slowly slid her way, but when his blue eyes met hers she didn’t see fear or stress or even heartache as she expected. She saw nothing. Just a flat, blank stare she recognized from three years before.

“Don’t do this,” she whispered, gripping tighter to his coat. “Don’t let him do this to you. Don’t think the worst.”

“McClane!”

Alec’s gaze shot past her, and Raegan’s heart pounded hard as she glanced over her shoulder toward Jack Bickam, striding toward them from the site.

Her stomach pitched. Bickam’s face was drawn and tight as his boots crunched across the snow. Shrugging deeper into his tan coat, Bickam lifted the satellite phone in his hand. “Just got word. Washington State Police spotted Gilbert in that stolen F150 about thirty miles south of Olympia. He ran, of course. They pursued. He lost control of the vehicle. Flipped three times. He’s being transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital as we speak.”

“Is he alive?” Raegan’s hope rushed back. If Gilbert was alive, he could tell them he’d been lying to Alec. This could be over. They could go home. Forget this had happ—

“For now,” Bickam answered. “But he’s not conscious. EMTs aren’t sure he’ll make it.”

Raegan’s stomach dropped again, and she looked back at Alec. Still no emotion passed over his face. Just that same blank stare she remembered all too well as he gazed past Bickam toward the lights.

Please, Alec . . . She squeezed his arm through the thick coat, hoping he could feel her. If he wouldn’t look at her, she’d find another way to reach him.

“Look,” Bickam said on a sigh. “This could take days. If there’s anything out here, we’ll find it, but I guarantee we’re not going to find it tonight. Let me get someone to take you both home. I’ll call you right away if anythi—”

“Here!” someone yelled beneath the lights. “I’ve got something here!”

Bickam turned and jogged away from them. Without a word, Alec pulled free of Raegan’s grip and followed. Sweat broke out all along Raegan’s spine, and her heart thundered in her chest as she rushed to catch up with him.

It’s not her. It’s not her. It can’t be her, she repeated in her head as she drew close to the group of men staring down at a shallow hole in the frozen ground.

The voices turned to hushed whispers. The balding FBI agent who’d driven her and Alec up here turned and stared at her. The group slowly stepped back. Vaguely she heard, “Don’t contaminate the scene,” and, “We need to cordon off the area. No press gets in or out of here.”