Not long afterward Charlie had been washed overboard by a storm on the Bering Sea. At least, that was the official explanation. But the tragedy had seemed far too coincidental in its timing. So she’d gone to Alaska with Charlie’s parents to get more information. However, the captain of the Fire, Sage Mitchell, was not forthcoming, and the authorities couldn’t press charges or even continue to investigate because the other men of the crew — all family members — backed up the captain’s story.
Troy had met the same fate off the Fire. But he’d survived Shane Maddux, thanks to Jack. Still, Maddux had gotten his revenge on the back porch of the Jensens’ home outside Greenwich.
“Where is Wilson Travers?” Maddux asked.
The world came back into focus. “Who?”
“Don’t play games with me,” Maddux warned. His tone took on an icy edge. “Where is Major Travers? The man you and Troy went to rescue in North Carolina.”
She hadn’t gone to North Carolina to rescue anyone. She had no idea what the mission was. She’d gone simply to back up Troy, at Bill’s direction. She’d asked Bill if she could get involved. She’d needed something to distract from her sadness, and he’d agreed, though tentatively. Troy hadn’t even known she was following him. At least, Bill had promised he wouldn’t say anything.
“I don’t know a Major Travers. I didn’t go there to rescue anyone. I only went to—”
“Stop it. I know about your cop background in Baltimore. And I know you and Troy are working together. I know what you’re capable of. I saw what you did to Nathan Kohler.”
“Yeah, and it’s the same thing I’d like to do to you.”
“I’m sure.” Maddux sneered. “But believe me, you wouldn’t have time to draw the pistol that’s snug in the holster at the small of your back. You’d be dead before you could pull the trigger.”
For several moments she stared at him, hating him more and more as each second ticked past. She wanted to kill this man. It was a horrible thing for her to admit, because all of her training had taught her to protect life — which was why she was still having a hard time with shooting the man in North Carolina. But Maddux deserved death. She was certain of that.
He took a step forward, and she took one back. She wanted to draw, but this was a very dangerous man. Charlie and Troy had made that very clear. As she stared into his eyes, she believed he could kill her as fast as he’d bragged.
“Tell me what I want to know or I will kill you, Karen. It’s a matter of national security. If you have to be sacrificed, so be it.”
“Don’t come near me.”
When he took a second step at her, she turned and fled. As she sprinted through and around the tombstones, she could hear him behind her, breathing hard. She reached the waist-high stone fence, hurdled it in a single leap, and raced into the forest surrounding the cemetery. She couldn’t head back to the parking lot. He had that route cut off. Besides, she wouldn’t have time to get in her car and get away. He was too close.
She pushed herself to her absolute limit, dodging trees and changing directions on a dime, doing everything possible to escape. She was fast…but he was faster. The inevitable lay only seconds away.
As Maddux’s footsteps on the leaves edged nearer and nearer and he closed the distance between them, she screamed in terror. She tried reaching behind herself for the gun, but it slowed her down, and he tripped her. His foot caught her ankle, and she tumbled forward, glancing off the base of an oak tree and sprawling to the cold ground. Before she could make it back to her knees, he was straddling her lower back and had her right wrist lifted up her spine to her neck. Pain knifed through her shoulder, and she screamed again.
“Where is Travers?” he hissed into her ear. “I had him right in my sights, and then he fell off my screen.”
“Off your screen? What do you mean?”
“Don’t worry about it. Now where is he?”
Maddux wasn’t heavy. In fact, he felt light on her back. She should be able to move him, but she couldn’t. Somehow he had her left wrist locked beneath his left knee, and she could barely twist her body without feeling excruciating pain.
“Let me go!” she shouted. The pain was almost too much to bear — almost, but not quite. He knew what he was doing. “Please,” she begged pathetically. She’d never felt anything like this.
“I will gouge out your eyes one by one. You tell me where Travers is, or there goes your vision.”
“I don’t know.” His lips were touching her ear, then her cheek. It felt almost as if he’d kissed her gently. “I swear to God I don’t know.”
“Is he still with Troy?”
“I don’t know!” she yelled, writhing desperately to move away from his mouth despite the pain.
“I need to save this country, Karen. I need to know where Wilson Travers is!”
She screamed as loudly as she could. It wasn’t from pain anymore. It was from the prospect of pain. His finger was crawling slowly but inevitably across her face toward her left eye, about to inflict possibly the worst pain she could imagine. He was going to do exactly as he threatened. He was going to gouge it out with his bare hand. She struggled violently, but Maddux was a human vise.
“Tell me.”
His fingertip was almost there. “No. God, no, no, no!”
“At this point you are going to lose at least one eye, Karen,” he hissed as his weapon reached its target. “Don’t make me gouge out both of them so you never see—”
Suddenly he was gone from her back, and a wave of physical relief surged through her entire body as the pain in her shoulder dissipated. She scrambled to her feet, drew her pistol, and aimed it down at him. Maddux lay on the ground a few feet away, shaking and quivering and slowly but inevitably constricting into a fetal position. He was trying to speak, but the tremors wouldn’t allow it. His words were just garbled mutterings. He’d obviously been tased hard.
“Hello, Karen.”
Her eyes darted left, toward the voice, and she whipped the barrel of the gun around and pointed it at the shadowy figure standing only a few feet away. “Oh my God,” she whispered.
CHAPTER 24
For the first time ever, Jacob Gadanz had spent an entire weekday afternoon away from company headquarters with Elaina and Sophie — he’d even turned off his cell phone while he was with them, which he never did. In fact, he’d needed Elaina to show him how. He’d lost that phone for a few hours one morning last month and never felt more naked in his life. But after turning it off today, he’d completely forgotten about it.
He didn’t regret being out of touch, either. In fact, he found, after a great deal of trepidation about turning it off, that he loved the freedom. Even more amazing, the company actually survived without him. The only thing he ended up regretting was that he hadn’t started doing this a long time ago.
The three of them had gone ice-skating at a rink near the townhouse, and it brought tears to his eyes to see how athletic they were, especially Sophie. She was fast and agile and skated rings around Elaina, who wasn’t bad herself but clearly couldn’t keep up with her younger sister. It wasn’t that Sophie was so much more physically capable. In fact, Elaina was slightly more coordinated, Gadanz judged, and definitely stronger. It was Sophie’s daring spirit that enabled her to be so much more entertaining. She was fearless, and it was emotional for him when several people watching from the bleachers clapped out loud and cheered at one of her moves.
Afterward he’d splurged for an expensive dinner at an upscale restaurant near the rink. They’d all laughed until they’d cried as the girls regaled him with story after story about younger days when they’d shared a bedroom and played tricks on each other at night while the other slept. Bygone days when things were much simpler, Gadanz concluded ruefully as he’d sipped on a delicious glass of pinot noir and watched them enjoy themselves so fully, struck by how little he really knew about them and vowing to make it up to them as the wine took effect. It was the first alcohol he’d consumed in three years — since Sasha’s brother had married, he’d realized as he wiped the tears of joy and laughter from his eyes, which he wasn’t at all embarrassed by.