Loe raamatut: «Accessory To Marriage»

Chapter One

Risa stared at the images flashing on the ten-o’clock news. Razor wire glinting in the sun. A fenced compound. An empty cell. The newscaster’s voice thundered in her ears like a death sentence. Her worst fear had become reality. Dryden Kane had escaped from prison.

Dixie.

Her throat constricted. The way Kane had leered at Dixie on their wedding day a month ago pounded at the back of her eyes. His taunting voice echoed through her mind. Until death do us part.

Kane would go straight to Dixie. And once he had his hands on her, he would kill her. Of this Risa had no doubt.

She scrambled to her feet and raced for the kitchen, her robe billowing out behind her. She’d been ready for bed when the terrifying story had come on the news. Now sleep was out of the question. Not until Kane was behind bars. Not until Dixie was safe. She grabbed the phone from the kitchen counter. Fingers shaking, she punched in Dixie’s number.

One ring…two rings…

She clenched the phone so tightly the plastic creaked. “Please, Dixie. Please be there.”

Three rings…four…

She threw down the phone and ran for the foyer, for the staircase leading to her bedroom. She had to get dressed. She had to find her purse, her car keys. She had to reach her sister before Kane did.

Her bare feet slapped the wood floor. She took the narrow steps two at a time, knocking the teddy bears decorating the stairs out of her way as she ran.

The doorbell’s chime echoed through her little bungalow.

She stopped dead at the sound. Her breath caught in her throat. Was it Dixie? The police?

She raced back down the stairs to the front door. She peered through the peephole. Her heart stuttered then seized. Clutching her robe closed with one hand, she unlocked the dead bolt and yanked the door open.

Trent scrutinized her from the darkness, his face all sharp angles and hard planes in the yellow glare of the porch light.

Risa’s heart started again, pumping hard enough to break a rib. She hadn’t seen him in two years, two long years, and she’d never dreamed she would be glad to see him again.

But she was.

His steel-gray gaze skimmed her face. His glower deepened. “You know, don’t you?”

A fresh surge of panic swelled up inside her. There was no time to lose. “I heard it on the news. We have to reach Dixie.”

“Damn. I didn’t want you to find out that way.”

She shook her head with frustration. The way she’d found out wasn’t important. “We have to reach Dixie before Kane does. He’ll kill her. I know he will. We have to hurry. She didn’t answer her phone.”

Trent paused. His gaze drilled into her.

Cold dread penetrated her bones. He knew something. Something she hadn’t seen on the news. Something horrible. She opened her mouth, but her voice wouldn’t work.

Trent reached out and grasped her arm as if preparing her for the blow. “Dixie’s with him,” he said. “We think she helped him escape.”

Risa’s head whirled. Oh God, Kane already had Dixie. He’d duped her into helping him escape, and now he had her. Until death do us part. Risa’s knees wobbled and she felt herself sinking.

Trent pushed his way into her house. Leading her to the antique bench in the foyer, he shoved teddy bears aside and deposited her on it.

Her mind stuttered. She shook her head and struggled against the pressure of his hand, the certainty of his pronouncement. No. It couldn’t be true. If Kane had Dixie, she was as good as dead. “Dixie can’t be dead. She can’t be. She just—”

“Rees.” His sharp baritone cut through her denials. He leaned over her, his face close to hers. “We don’t know that she’s dead. I don’t think she is.”

Her heart leaped at the hope in his words. Trent knew Kane better than anyone. That was why the FBI had sent him here. To find Kane. To save Dixie. “Then we have to find her. Now.” She struggled to stand.

Trent’s grip tightened, keeping her planted on the bench. “We will find her. But first I need you to get dressed. A police officer from Grantsville is on his way to pick you up. You need to go with him to the police station and answer some questions.”

“Grantsville?” Risa recognized the name of the small town a stone’s throw from the prison, but for the life of her, she didn’t see how going to the tiny Grantsville police station was going to do any good. “I don’t have time. We have to find Dixie. We’re running out of—”

“Rees. Look at me.”

She forced her eyes to focus on his face. A face full of strength and confidence and purpose. A face that, until a few minutes ago, she had never wanted to set eyes on again.

His gaze pierced her confusion like a well-honed blade. “I will find Kane, Rees. I did it before, and I’ll do it now. I’ll do everything in my power to bring Dixie out of this alive. I promise you that.”

Trent’s promises. She closed her eyes, blocking the sight of him. His riveting eyes. His hard, determined chin. God knows, he had broken promises to her in the past. But those were personal promises. Promises of marriage. Promises of a family. This one had to do with his work. This one was life and death. He would keep this one. He always kept his professional promises.

She opened her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “What will you do?”

“After the officer gets here, I’ll head to the prison. I want to go through Kane’s personal things, anything he left behind. Anything that will give me an idea of where he’s going and what he’s planning. Afterward I’ll meet you at the police station. The task force will be assembling there.”

“I’m going with you to the prison.”

Familiar shadows crept into the gray of his eyes. He straightened and turned away, as if to prevent her from seeing too much.

“I can help, Trent. I have insights into Kane that might be useful.”

He shook his head. The prismatic light from the fixture overhead played on silver threads sprinkled through his hair, making them sparkle like stars in a black night. “Go with the officer. Answer his questions. That’s how you can help. There’s no reason for you to go to the prison.”

She tightened her mouth into a determined line. “The police will be at the prison too, right? I can answer questions there. I need to go.”

He paced the length of the tiny foyer before he spun back to face her. His expression was guarded, his jaw clamped shut like an oyster with an entire pearl necklace to protect.

Old anger kindled inside her. She’d seen this look countless times before. Back when they were engaged to be married. Back when he’d withdrawn. Back when he’d shut her out of his life.

She shoved her resentment aside and concentrated on keeping her voice calm, her argument reasonable. “I’ve been heading up a study on criminal psychology. I’ve been to the prison dozens of times in the last year interviewing Kane and others. I have insights into—”

“I can’t invite you into the middle of a manhunt for a serial killer. Even if your sister is with him. It’s out of the question.”

Frustration pulsed at the back of her eyes, rapidly turning into a throbbing headache. They didn’t have time to argue about this. Dixie’s time was running out. Risa lurched to her feet. Her robe flared open, revealing her boxy flannel nightshirt, but she didn’t care. “Damn it, Trent. You’ve used victims’ family members to help in other cases. I know you have.”

“Not this time. Let the authorities take care of it. Let us do our jobs.” His voice was hard, final. But something soft hovered in his eyes. Something familiar. Protectiveness.

She balled her hands into fists. She wanted to pound them against his chest. She wanted to grab the lapels of his suit and shake him. She wanted to scream until she had no breath left in her body. Instead, she gritted her teeth, remembering his words the night he’d broken their engagement. The night he’d shredded her dreams.

Insight stabbed into her, sharp as a well-honed blade. She shook her head. “Unbelievable. You still think you’re protecting me from the ugliness of the world, don’t you?”

His back stiffened. Regret flickered in his eyes, but he didn’t argue with her. He never had. From the night he’d told her he couldn’t go ahead with their vows, he’d taken all the anger she’d thrown at him as if it were his penance for the pain he’d caused her. A punishment he knew he deserved.

But accepting punishment was beside the point. She didn’t want to punish him. She wanted him to understand. “I don’t need your protection. I’ve already met Kane. I’ve talked to him, interviewed him. And Dixie found my work so fascinating, she married the man, for crying out loud. I’m neck deep in the ugliness. I’m probably as tainted as you believe you are.”

A muscle worked along his jaw. “You might think you are, but you’re not. Not yet. And I won’t be responsible for your getting in any deeper. I’m not taking you with me.”

She bit back the caustic reply she wanted to hurl at him. Obviously words wouldn’t do any good. She would have to take matters into her own hands. Dixie needed her. And she wasn’t going to let anyone—especially not Trent Burnell—stand in her way. “Fine. I’ll drive myself to the prison. If the officer wants to ask me questions, he can meet me there. Or he can arrest me.” Clutching her robe closed, she ran up the stairs.

DAMN.

Listening to the soft thump of Rees’s footsteps climbing the stairs, Trent ran his gaze over the warm wood and creamy white walls of her foyer. Her collection of teddy bears scattered the staircase and bench and stared down at him from an ornate shelf. Their glossy black eyes twinkled knowingly in the overhead lights. He pulled his gaze from the bears, his skin prickling as if dozens of real eyes watched him, studied him, judged him.

Double damn.

He didn’t know how he’d hoped the meeting would go, but this wasn’t even close. That Rees wanted to help save Dixie from Kane—that she needed to help—didn’t surprise him in the least. But he’d hoped she would be satisfied with going to the police station and answering questions. He should have known better.

Simply answering questions wouldn’t be enough for her. Not Rees. Of course she would try to talk him into including her, and when he refused, she’d go barreling in on her own. He should have seen it coming. He should have done something, anything to head her off before she’d latched on to the idea of going to the prison. Before she’d dug in her heels.

He opened the door and stepped out onto the stoop. The gentle glow of the moon caressed an oak tree’s emerging leaves and sparkled off drops of dew in the well-tended lawn. Sweet scents of lilac and honeysuckle mixed with the tang of nearby spruce. Familiar smells of Wisconsin spring that would be embedded in his memory forever.

But in his memory, those sweet scents were impossible to separate from the hot odor of blood, the stench of decay and the evil of Dryden Kane.

That was the reality of his life. Death and decay and a killer on the loose. Not manicured lawns. Not teddy bears.

And certainly not someone as wholesome as Rees.

He closed his eyes, trying to shut out the soft, lavender scent of her, the rich, husky quality in her voice, the petite curves even that flour sack of a nightshirt couldn’t hide.

Damn. He had brought Dryden Kane into her life. He had infected her wholesome existence with evil. If it wasn’t for him, she wouldn’t have pursued the job at the University of Wisconsin, she wouldn’t have gone out of her way to include Kane in her study, and her sister wouldn’t have married the monster and helped him escape.

He had contaminated her life. And now her sister would probably die at Kane’s hands. And Rees’s world would crumble.

Guilt wrenched his shoulders and pounded at his skull. If only he had never taken the job in the FBI’s criminal profiling unit. If only he had never made that first trip to Wisconsin to search for the unknown subject who was kidnapping and killing coeds. If only he had never crawled into Kane’s twisted mind, become obsessed with the labyrinth he’d found and become as tainted as Kane himself. He and Risa would be married now. And her sister would be safe.

But “if only” didn’t do him a damn bit of good. He couldn’t change the past. And even if it were possible to travel back in time and relive those early days, he couldn’t change the decisions he’d made. To change the path his career had taken would mean killers he had helped put in prison or on death row would be free. Free to take more innocent lives. And he couldn’t live with that. Not for the sake of his own personal happiness. Not even for Rees.

He stepped off the porch and strode across the wet grass toward his rental car. He couldn’t go back in time, and he couldn’t change things. All he could do was his job. All he could do was find Kane before he killed Dixie, before he killed someone else.

And he would do his damnedest to protect Rees in the process. Whether she liked it or not.

FINALLY DRESSED in slacks and a cotton sweater, Risa stepped into the garage and hit the glowing button on the wall. Motor whirring, the automatic garage door slowly lifted. A car’s headlights glared from outside, the light growing as the door lifted, banishing the darkness in the garage. She held up a hand to shield her eyes from the light.

“Get in the car, Rees.” Trent’s voice barked over the drone of the garage door. “I’ll drive you to the prison.”

She gripped her car keys in one fist, the pointed edges digging into her palm. So Trent had changed his mind. Wonders never ceased. But knowing Trent, his decision to take her to the prison had less to do with a change of heart than a change of strategy. No doubt he’d decided he could censor the ugly truth more easily if he was with her.

Well, the first step was getting him to take her to the prison. Now she had the forty-minute drive there to convince him that she didn’t need his protection, and that she could help.

She stepped out onto the driveway and punched the code into the garage door’s outside keypad. The door humming shut behind her, she pulled open the passenger door of Trent’s sedan and lowered herself into the bucket seat.

His scent closed over her like warm water. A shiver shimmied up her back. A shiver with a chaser of memory. Memory of a time when she’d found comfort in his scent, in the warmth of his body next to hers. But that time was gone. Gone like the love they’d once shared. The future they’d once planned.

She ground her teeth, anger winding into a tight ball in her belly. Good. She preferred anger to the simpering wistfulness and sadness of dwelling on what she’d lost. And how Trent had betrayed her. Anger kept her sharp. Focused. Determined. All of which she needed if she was to help Dixie.

Trent threw the car into reverse, backed out of the driveway and piloted the vehicle in the direction of the highway. His face was hard in the glow of the dashboard light, his eyes shuttered, as if he was bracing himself for the arguments bouncing around in her mind and had already resolved not to pay them heed.

Of course, he probably did know what she was thinking. After all, they’d first met when she was still a grad student and he was a raw FBI recruit. And God knows, eight years of courtship was plenty long enough for him to learn how her mind worked.

And how determined she could be.

She set her chin. “I need to know what is going on, Trent.”

“Rees…” The muscle along his jaw clenched. His eyebrows turned down in warning. “I don’t know anything beyond what I’ve already told you.”

“And you wouldn’t share it with me if you did.”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

She blew a frustrated breath between pursed lips.

“What do you expect? Do you expect me to give you all the gory details?”

“The gory details are my life this time. Dixie’s—” She cut off her sentence. She might as well save her breath. It was just as she’d figured. He was willing to take her to the prison, but only so he could keep her from gathering information on her own. She knotted her hands into fists in her lap. “Do you think it’s better if I find out about the case when some true-crime author writes a book about it? Is that when I should discover I had the critical piece of information that could have found Kane? That could have saved Dixie’s life?”

His shoulders tensed, and the ever-present shadows settled deeper in his steel eyes.

“Is it, Trent?”

For the first time since she’d climbed into the car, he turned to look at her. A furrow dug between his brows, and his face looked thinner than she remembered. Drawn. Troubled. His mouth tensed, but he said nothing.

He knew her, yes, but she also knew him. And she knew where that troubled look came from. She knew about the sense of responsibility that shrouded his heart. “I would never forgive myself if something that I know could save Dixie’s life. Or other lives. Would you, Trent? Would you be able to forgive yourself?”

He flinched as if she’d slapped him. Eyes hard, he turned back to the road, his lips flattening into a noncommittal line.

She leaned toward him and laid her hand on his arm. “Let me look at Kane’s things. Let me find out if anything sparks a memory of something he told me, something Dixie may have told me. Let me help. Before it’s too late.”

He heaved a weighted sigh, the shadows in his eyes deepening. “We’ll see.”

Exhaling, she leaned back in her seat and stared out the window at the rolling hills whipping by in the night.

We’ll see.

It wasn’t exactly a promise. But it was far more than she’d realistically hoped to squeeze out of him. And she’d take what she could get. For Dixie’s sake. And for her own.