Into the Night(88)

No anesthesia.

She’d hurt him. She knew it. Daniel had once promised her...

I’ve made sure that you will feel everything that happens to you... I’ll start slowly, just so you know what’s going to happen. I keep my slices light at first. I like to see how the patient reacts to the pain stimulus...

“Ma’am, you have to let him go.”

Her hands slowly lifted. “I’ll see you soon, Bowen,” she promised him.

But he didn’t look at her.

Because he couldn’t.

*

“MACEY.”

She blinked. She was sitting in the back of an ambulance. A female EMT was cleaning the wound on her face, and the scene around her seemed completely surreal.

The night was gone. The sun had poured into the mountains. She was back on the road, away from the wreckage. She could see a team hauling up a body bag.

Jonah. They’d found their missing agent.

“Macey, tell me what happened.” Samantha’s voice was strained.

“Bowen is going to be all right.”

“Macey—”

Her head turned as she stared at her boss—and her friend. “Bowen is going to be all right?”

Samantha hesitated, and Macey felt as if her heart had just been clawed out.

“You took care of him,” Samantha assured her softly. “No one else could have done what you did. You kept him alive, Macey. Now he’s going to the hospital. They’ll work on him. They’ll do their best.”

“Removing that metal is going to be tricky. They have to be sure—”

Samantha’s hand closed around hers. “You kept him alive.”

A tear leaked down her cheek. “Even wounded so badly, he got out of the vehicle because he wanted to save me. I don’t know how he did it. Shouldn’t have happened. But he got out of that wrecked SUV. He pulled a gun on Jonah. He stopped Jonah.”

“So Bowen is the one who shot him?”

Give me the gun. She’d asked him that, again and again. Because Macey had known exactly what she needed to do. “I did it.” She’d been the one to aim. Bowen had been too weak then, he’d been falling. “I shot Jonah in the head because he was going for his weapon.” That weapon had been taken from her. “You have it now...it’s proof...”

“About Jonah’s gun...” There was a hesitant note in Samantha’s voice.

Macey stared at her.

“It wasn’t loaded.”

Her breath choked out. “He...he forced us off the road, nearly killed us both...” And his gun wasn’t loaded? Her eyes squeezed shut. “Just like his father.” Oh, God. He’d been so much like his father. Killing everyone and then...

Killing himself. “Jonah wanted to die.” Because the end had been there for him. Only, he’d wanted to take out Bowen, too. He’d wanted her to see Bowen for what he was.

And I do. Bowen is the man I love. The man I’ll always love.

“Did he confess, Macey?” Samantha pushed.

The EMT cleared her throat. “She really needs to get to the hospital.”

The hospital. Yes. Macey nodded, still feeling dazed. Adrenaline. Fear. Pain. She had to get to the hospital because Bowen was going to be at the hospital. She needed to see him. “Bowen is going to be all right...”

“Did Jonah confess, Macey?” Samantha asked once more.

Macey realized that she’d closed her eyes. Macey opened them, blinked. “He admitted to killing Daniel Haddox. He even... Jonah was the one who slit the throat of Gale Collins.”

She heard a dark curse from her right and realized Tucker was there, too.

“She was bait,” Macey explained. Her hand rose and pointed to her eyes. “Because she was like me. Jonah used her, made her think...” Nausea was rising in her, but she swallowed it down. She was an FBI agent. She could do this. She’d give her statement, even covered in Bowen’s blood. Bowen! She’d tell them what happened. She’d wrap this scene...

“She needs a hospital.” The EMT sounded angry now.

“Jonah used Gale. Convinced her that...convinced her that she was working with the FBI. Then he killed her...” Her breath rushed out. “His program worked. Said he’d...he’d found Patrick. Took him out, too.”

“Did his fucking program predict Curtis Zale, too?” Tucker had moved closer.

She strained to remember on this part. “Yes, but he...needed help finding the victims.” It was hard for her to think clearly. She’d asked him if Wesley had helped but...

I’ll never tell.

“Where is Wesley Kaiser?” Samantha wanted to know. “We noticed there were bind marks around Jonah’s wrists and ankles. Was that staged?”

“No...he said...said Wesley had taken him, but that he’d gotten away.”

Tucker and Samantha shared a long, hard look. “So they were working together.”

A shudder worked along her body. Was everyone as cold as she was? No, no, of course not. Shock. “He said... Jonah said he was the only one at the FBI who listened to Wesley’s story.”

“Where is that kid now?” Tucker fumed. “If Wesley’s still out there, the public is in danger.”

She shook her head. “He...he took Jonah. Jonah said the guy...that Wesley was trying to...to stop him.”