“Do it,” Trevor snapped.
Jane, Caleb, and Margaret slumped far down in their seats so that Trevor appeared to be the only one in the car. He stepped on the accelerator and roared around the bend.
“What do you see?” Jane asked.
“Her car’s parked on the roadside. No one’s inside. Caleb’s right, there’s nothing else around here.”
Jane sat up and looked around. Just as Trevor said, there was the car but no trace of Harriet and the two men. “I was hoping when they stopped that it was at Doane’s cottage.” Had they changed cars? Jane felt the muscles of her stomach tighten. To come all this way and possibly lose her … “Stop the car. Now.”
“I don’t like this,” Caleb said slowly.
“There’s another curve up ahead,” Trevor said. “We’ll park on the other side and walk back. We’ll find them, Jane. They couldn’t have gone far.”
“Unless they changed cars.”
“If they did, they left Kevin’s letters in that Cadillac. I’m still getting a ping,” Caleb said. “And that’s not likely.”
Trevor rounded the bend and pulled over. He, Jane, and Caleb got out of the car. Margaret was about to follow them, and Jane shook her head. “No, you stay here.”
“I go where you go,” Margaret said quietly.
“Not this time. I’m not protecting you, Margaret. I’m just trying to be sensible. What if something goes wrong?”
She frowned. “Then I’d want to be there.”
“No, we’d want someone to be able to sound an alarm, to call Venable or Catherine, anyone who could help. You’re that person.” Her voice became firm. “I’m not asking, I’m telling you. Stay here.”
She finally nodded. “For a little while. Until I know if you’re in trouble.”
Jane hurried to join Trevor and Caleb as they moved through the tall grass at the roadside.
Caleb’s eyes were narrowed, darting like those of an animal on the hunt. The sleek panther had returned. “Stay low. We want to see them before they see us.”
They crouched and moved through the grass. Only now did Jane realize just how close to the beach they were. She heard the crashing of waves and felt sand beneath her feet. She peered through the grass to see that a tall dune was all that separated her from the narrow beach. She started to move toward it when Caleb grabbed her arm. “Stop.”
Jane pulled away. “Like hell. What if there’s a boat beyond that dune? Or maybe Doane’s cottage? If they’re over there, I—”
“They could see you, and it would ruin everything. Let me run back to the road and come back from the other side of their car.”
Trevor nodded. “Good idea. I’ll circle around this dune and approach from the other side.”
Jane looked between them with exasperation. “What am I supposed to do? Sit here and do nothing?”
Trevor smiled. “I wish I could talk you into that, but I know better.”
“Damn right, I’ll go straight up and over and see if I can spot them on the beach.”
Caleb stepped toward her and handed her his revolver. “Stay low. There’s a good stand of grass on this side of the dune. Use it for cover. And if you see them, wait for us before you try to follow.”
She looked at the weapon in her hand. “I can’t take your gun, Caleb.”
He pulled a seven-inch LHR combat knife from his ankle sheath. “I prefer this. Messy, but quieter. I’ve never been one to attract attention to myself.”
“We both know that’s not true.”
“We’ll discuss it later.” He nodded to Trevor and sprinted back in the direction from which they’d come.
Jane put the gun in her waistband and turned back to Trevor. “Be careful,” she whispered.
He hesitated. For an instant, she wasn’t sure he would leave her. Then he gave her a quick kiss. “You, too.”
She watched as he ran down the length of the long sand dune. She dropped to her hands and knees and started her climb to the top.
She suddenly cocked her head, listening. Had she heard a woman’s voice?
Hard to tell over the sound of the pounding surf.
She continued slowly up the dune, an inch at a time.
She reached the top and drew a deep breath, listening.
No sound but the surf.
She raised her head to peer down at the beach.
A gun was leveled at her face from only a foot away!
“Welcome.” The man crouching there was one of the men who had met Harriet at her plane. “She’s been waiting for you. Now be very quiet, and you might live for another few minutes.”
Shit. If she tried to jerk her gun out of her waistband, he’d pull the trigger.
“That’s right, freeze.” He rose unsteadily to his feet, slipping on the loose sand. He turned to signal someone below.
Use the distraction. Move.
She hurled herself over the dune and toppled the man who was already precariously balanced on its face. She heard him cursing as they both tumbled down the other side toward the beach.
Rolling, twisting, turning …
She was struggling to grasp the revolver in her waistband. She grabbed the handle just as she hit the beach and rolled over to her feet. She leveled the gun at the man who was still flat on his back but struggling to sit up. He’d lost his gun on the way down, and it was several feet away. Don’t let him get near that gun again.
A shot rang out.
Pain seared the flesh of Jane’s lower arm and her own gun dropped from her hand. What the hell? Jane spun around.
“In the end, a woman always has to take care of things herself if she wants them done well.” Harriet was walking toward her. “Look what you’ve done to poor Craig. Of course, he deserved it for letting you take him by surprise.”
“She didn’t do anything. I … slipped.” The man Harriet had called Craig was scowling.
“Shut up, Craig. I should have known Cartland would send me two bunglers.” Harriet moved forward, her gun extended before her. “I’ll take care of this from now on.” She glanced at Jane’s arm and smiled with satisfaction. “Good shot. Just a flesh wound, as I intended. Hardly bleeding at all. Kevin taught me, you know. I didn’t want you to die before I could talk to you.”
“So talk to me.” The gun she’d dropped was only a few feet away. Could she reach it before Harriet pulled the trigger?
“I wanted to tell you that you’ve lost. That I had won.” Harriet’s face was full of triumphant malice. “And I wanted to see your face when you realized what a fool you were. You thought you were so clever. When Cartland told me that you’d followed me to my hotel, I had to wonder how you did it. When I got back to my room, I searched it very carefully and found all your little bugs. But that didn’t tell me how you’d followed me from Muncie.” Her lips twisted. “And then I thought about my Kevin’s wonderful letters and how you must have committed the final desecration by going through them. And had even planted a GPS bug in the lid of the box. Can you imagine how angry that made me?”
“I don’t really care.”
“You’ll care when I pull this trigger. Kevin and I beat you. We used your own trick to lure you out here. Kevin would have been proud of me.”
“I don’t doubt it. You’re two of a kind. I don’t know who is the more evil.”
“You thought you were going to stop me?” Harriet leveled the gun at her. “You’ve caused me so much trouble. I wish I could take more time with you. But I can’t afford to indulge myself.”
She was going to pull the trigger. Jane couldn’t wait any longer. She gathered her muscles to leap for the gun she’d dropped.
“Harriet.” Trevor’s voice. “Don’t touch her. Drop your gun.”
Harriet whirled, startled, at this new attack. Her hand tightened on her weapon as she saw Trevor with a gun in hand. “Keep back. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill both of you.” She was spitting venom. “You must be her lover, rushing to the rescue. How fitting that you’ll die with the little whore.”
“Get away from her, Harriet.” Trevor moved a step closer. “We both have guns, but you’ll be a dead woman the instant you pull that trigger. My gun is pointed at your heart, and you’ll be dead in seconds. I don’t think that’s what you want. You have all those grand plans. Or maybe you’re expecting help from that gorilla who was guarding the other side of the dune? He won’t be coming. I took care of him before I moved on you.” He glanced at Craig, who had made a motion toward his gun in the sand a few yards away and told him, “And there will be a bullet between your eyes if you’re not very, very still.”