Into the Night(59)

Tucker barked orders to the local agents, and then they were rushing for Tucker’s rented SUV. They jumped inside and sped down the mountain.

“Do I need to remind you that you don’t have a fucking gun?” Tucker snapped at him. “You can’t go running into that place—”

“Then I’ll make sure he doesn’t run out,” he replied grimly. “You go in with Macey and Jonah. You watch her back.”

They rounded another curve. As they went down the mountain, Tucker could feel his ears popping. The road was steep and small, and dotted with cabins to the left and to the right.

“We checked that list of employees,” Tucker said as he held tight to the wheel. “No one came up as raising a red flag.”

“Then our perp just doesn’t have a record. He’s been good at hiding in plain sight.” But not good enough. “He didn’t count on Jonah.”

Tucker’s hands tightened around the wheel. “Right, Jonah.” But there was a note in his voice. A hesitation when he said the other agent’s name.

Bowen’s eyes narrowed. “Something you need to say?”

Tucker was silent.

“The guy is with Macey right now. She’s about to confront a killer. I need to know that the man with her can be counted on.” Wait, what was he even saying? Of course, Jonah could be counted on. The guy was FBI.

“I was the one who didn’t want Jonah on the team.” Tucker paused at the stop sign. Darkness was falling fast and his headlights flashed onto the road up ahead. “He doesn’t have enough field experience.”

Shit. Bowen had expressed that same worry—

“He’s done the training, yes, but then the guy sat behind a computer for years. When he’s confronted by a guy with a gun... I just wasn’t sure what he’d do.” He exhaled on a rough sigh. “Macey pulled for him,” Tucker continued as the vehicle accelerated. They’d left the subdivision of rental cabins and were snaking down the twisting mountain roads that would take them to Gatlinburg. “She worked with him on a few cases.”

And she got him to try to find Haddox.

“She knows more about his past than I do, and she convinced Samantha that the man would be an asset.” They crossed a bumpy, wooden bridge. “I have no doubt that Jonah Loxley is smart as hell, but I wanted to know that his instincts in the field were good.” Tucker slid him a quick glance. “You shot a man less than twenty-four hours ago. And it’s like you have freaking ice in your veins.”

No, that wasn’t what was in his veins.

“I would trust you under any high-pressure situation, any day of the week. Because I know you’d get the job done. You’d do anything necessary to protect your teammates and to protect any victims out there.”

Bowen cleared his throat. “You’d do the same.”

“Yeah, because you and I...we’re alike inside. We’ve seen the monsters, and we’ve both had to make the hardest fucking choice of all.”

The choice to kill. Because Tucker had taken out his brother.

“What choice do you think Jonah would make?” Bowen asked quietly.

“I’m afraid that’s what we will all have to find out.”

Bowen stared into the darkness before them. Macey was out there. “Hurry the hell up, would you, man?”

*

“IS IT ALWAYS this busy here?” Jonah demanded as he pushed through the crowd in downtown Gatlinburg. The small town was at the bottom of the mountains. The streets were lined with stores—the buildings connected one after the other. Families strolled the streets. Bands played. Cars honked. Chaos reigned.

“I think so,” Macey replied as she skirted a group of teenagers. Her holster was a reassuring weight at her side, hidden just beneath her coat. A chill was in the air, and the chill seemed to sink straight to her bones. She could see the oddities museum up ahead, but it was dark. She checked her watch. The sun had set just a few moments ago. Darkness came fast in the mountains, something she’d learned. Very, very fast.

“The sign says they shouldn’t be closed yet,” Jonah muttered.

No, they shouldn’t be. But the place was pitch-black.

“Guess someone decided to go home early,” he added darkly.

The police force in the area was stretched too thin. With their captain gone, with their mayor’s office in chaos, the cops had been divided—half were still at the Curtis Zale crime scene, searching for bodies. Some were with Tucker and Bowen, checking the cabins there, while other officers were tending to the basic safety needs of the people in the area.

So Macey and Bowen didn’t have a big backup force with them. They’d called the PD, but it was going to take time to marshal the officers, and time was a luxury they didn’t have. So she and Jonah had come alone.

But Bowen and Tucker are en route.

A big Closed sign hung on the main entrance. Macey put her hand to the front door. She expected to feel resistance from the lock, but instead, the door swung right open. Her head turned toward Jonah.

“Like that’s not suspicious.” He’d pulled out his gun.

She had hers at the ready. If the door was open, they’d be going in—especially with their intel pointing to this building.

“The guy could have just cleared the hell out,” Jonah said. “Maybe he realized we were onto him at the ME’s office.”