Into the Night(87)

He could die.

And if she just stayed there, doing the best she could with him—no medical gear, no tools...

Maybe I’ll buy him time this way. He’ll stay alive until others come.

Only...what if the others didn’t come?

*

SAMANTHA RAN BACK outside of the ranger station. “We need a medic in there!”

And the team who’d followed her and Tucker up the mountain sprang into action. They’d gone in silently, but there were cops there, EMTs, plenty of backup waiting in the wings.

But Jonah isn’t here.

They’d swept the rest of the station. It was clear.

“Where in the hell is he?” Tucker demanded as he stalked to Samantha’s side.

The assembled team had lights on in the small lot now—lights from the cruisers, from the ambulance. Her gaze swept the area. “Douglas would have kept his personal vehicle up here.” She marched around the building and there...her flashlight hit the fresh tire tracks. It had rained lightly and the ground was still soft. Soft enough for her to see the tire tracks left behind. Big ones, probably the off-roading type that a large truck would use.

She stared at those tracks and the fear in her grew worse. “Macey and Bowen should have been here by now.”

“I still can’t get either one of them on their phones. My call just goes to voice mail.” Tucker’s voice was grim. “I don’t get it—they would have needed to drive up the same mountain road we did. There’s only one way up to this station.”

Yes, one way. And Jonah had made sure that they were all coming that way. Had he known that Macey and Bowen would be coming first?

Of course. He called Bowen directly.

The perp they were after had been calling Bowen from the very beginning. Taunting him. Challenging him. Watching him.

Because Bowen was always a target?

“Bowen was in the way,” she said as she turned sharply and rushed back for her vehicle. She could just see the faintest tendrils of light beginning to streak across the sky. The night was finally ending. “He was calling Bowen at first, challenging him, because he needed to prove he was better.” She was almost running as she ran for her rental. “Now he’s going to eliminate Bowen because he stands between Jonah and the one he really wanted all along.”

Who was closest to Bowen? Who did Bowen protect?

“Macey.” Tucker jumped into the vehicle with her. “Fuck, that’s why the Doctor was the first victim. It was about her. All along—her.”

She cranked the SUV, revved the engine and got the hell out of there even as the local cops shouted for her.

I have to find my team.

“We thought it was Bowen. That the focus was him, but Jonah was just taunting him. Macey... Macey was his end game.”

And Samantha was very, very afraid the end had come.

They rushed down that mountain, with Tucker still trying to get Macey or Bowen on the line. Faint rays of light cut through the treetops, and as she rounded a curve—

Her headlights—it was still dark enough to need them—hit the broken guardrail. Samantha slammed on her brakes. “Did you see that on the way up?”

“I could barely see any-fucking-thing on the way up.”

She reversed the SUV and parked it near that broken railing. When she jumped out, her flashlight automatically swept the scene...

And she saw the big truck that had been parked off road, partially hidden behind a patch of trees. “Tucker,” she snapped, warning him with a motion of her hand.

His gaze immediately zeroed in on the truck. He rushed toward it with his weapon drawn.

“Empty,” he barked.

It was empty. There was a freaking car-sized hole in the guardrail, and her two agents—her friends—weren’t answering their phones. They hadn’t arrived at the ranger station because they couldn’t.

She and Tucker immediately began scaling down that mountain. Their lights swept out, and she could smell gasoline.

Hold on, Macey. Hold on, Bowen. We’re coming.

Down, down they went, slipping and falling because it was so steep. Rocks tripped her and branches cut into Samantha and then—

Her light hit the wreckage. She staggered to a stop. Oh, Jesus. Sweet Jesus. Tucker was right beside her. His flashlight swept to the left and there—covered in blood—they saw Macey.

She blinked against their light, for a moment looking lost. Blood soaked her—her shirt, her hands and—

“He can feel everything.” A sob shook her body. “But I didn’t have a choice! He was dying! I had to work on him!”

Bowen lay on the ground before Macey. A chunk of metal was in his chest. A tourniquet was wrapped around his legs and the blood...

“Get back up the mountain,” Samantha ordered Tucker as she ran to Macey. “Get help!”

*

“YOU CAN LET him go, ma’am,” the medic said as he secured Bowen. “We’ve got him!”

They were airlifting him to safety. She should take her hands off Bowen. Macey knew that. The scene was chaotic around her and the whoop-whoop-whoop of the helicopter blades filled her ears.

Bowen was still alive. His eyes hadn’t opened. He hadn’t looked at her. But he was alive.

She’d made sure of it.

Her body ached because her muscles had been clenched with tension for so long. She’d had to do things to him...hold his veins, fight so hard...