Into the Night(83)

Macey blinked, but the bright light didn’t vanish. She was trapped, all right, but not on Daniel Haddox’s table of torture. She was pinned in the SUV, still held in place by her seat belt. Her door had twisted inward and metal seemed to surround her. Broken glass was on her clothes, in her hair, and she could feel blood sliding down her cheek.

The light was still in her eyes. She squinted, trying to see past it.

“Macey, you’re going to be all right!”

She knew that voice.

“Oh, God, Douglas, hurry the hell up!” that familiar voice shouted. “She’s still alive but, God, he isn’t.”

That was Jonah’s voice. High and desperate. Shouting out for help from—Ranger Douglas?

But then his words registered.

She’s still alive but, God, he isn’t.

Her head turned to the left. The light pouring into the car let her see Bowen. Bowen—with blood all over him. Bowen, with a deployed air bag slowly sagging beneath him. A giant chunk of metal hung from his chest.

“Bowen?” Macey whispered.

He didn’t move. She wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

“Bowen!” Frantic, she began clawing at her seat belt. It wouldn’t give. She was trapped, strapped down. Her arms were bleeding from a dozen cuts, the metal from her bent door dug into her side and she couldn’t get free to help Bowen. He was right there, inches away, and all she could do was put her hands on his face. “Look at me!”

But he didn’t. His eyes didn’t open. And he felt...cold.

“Macey!” Jonah’s voice snapped like a whip. “I’ve got to get you out of that vehicle. It’s not stable. The fucking thing could keep rolling any moment.”

What? Weren’t they already at the bottom of the mountain? She wasn’t sure. Her temple ached, and she knew she’d hit her head. A deployed air bag was near her, too, but it had slit open in several spots.

“A tree stopped your free fall, but the trunk is already cracking. You have to get out!” Then a knife was reaching through her broken window.

Macey screamed.

But the knife just cut through her seat belt.

Had he used the knife to cut into the air bag, too? Was that why it was flat now? Or had the chunks of sharp metal done that?

“I’m pulling her out!” Jonah suddenly yelled. “Douglas, get your ass over here! We’ll haul her to safety, then we’ll get Bowen.”

Yes, yes, they had to get Bowen. She was still touching Bowen. Now that her seat belt was gone, she could move more and her fumbling fingers slid down his throat. She felt his pulse—

Beating. Slowly, but still beating.

Bowen was alive!

“Got you,” Jonah said. His arms curled around her and he hauled her from the wreckage. The metal scraped over her hip and she felt the rise of more blood soak her clothes. His hold was tight as he got her out, and then he still held her in his arms, hurrying for safety as he called out to Douglas for help.

Only... Douglas wasn’t there.

It took a few moments for that unsettling truth to set in.

“I saved you,” Jonah said. He lowered Macey to her feet. The bright light was gone. He must have dropped it or shoved it into his pocket when he’d pulled her out. “You’re going to be okay.”

She didn’t speak for a moment, straining to hear—to hear some small sound that would tell her that Zack Douglas was actually there.

“You left your weapon in the car, Macey.”

Her hand flew to her side.

“Or rather, I cut the holster off you. Didn’t even see that coming, did you?” He backed up a step and the light was shining on her again. Bright. Right in her eyes.

She lifted her hand and turned her face away. “Douglas isn’t here.”

“No...” He laughed. “Zack Douglas isn’t here. No one is here but me and you.”

And Bowen. He’s still here.

“I’m glad you survived the crash, Mace.”

Mace. He was using Bowen’s nickname for her, and her skin crawled.

“Wasn’t sure you would, but that was a chance I had to take. I mean, how else was I going to get close enough to take out Bowen? There he was, rushing so fast to find me, and I knew it was perfect.”

She tried to see into the darkness around her. He’d been telling the truth when he said that the SUV hadn’t fallen all the way down the mountain. It was perched halfway against a tree, and if that tree snapped, Bowen would keep falling.

I have to get him out.

“The feds know, don’t they, Mace?”

“Know what?” Her voice was trembling. She wanted him to think that she was afraid. That she was weak. Then he’d never see her attack coming.

But he sighed. “They know about me. That dick Tucker gave the game away back at the museum. I mean, shit, I’d just proven myself. I’d shot the bad guy—and believe me, Peter Carter was bad. Did you see that shit he did to his girlfriend? He kept her skull at his museum. Obviously, he was psychotic.” He paused. “And that’s why I don’t get it. You had the chance to put him out of his misery, but you choked. Again. Tucker didn’t want me on the team but you—the woman who couldn’t carry out a kill when it was deserved? He and Samantha both waved you in with open arms.”