Page 33 of Into the Veins

“You’re right. Once your sheriff stumbled upon the shed, I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back.” Ember faced him fully, her mouth pursed as she clicked her tongue at the pit viper draped across both hands. The emerald on her index finger seemed to glimmer with a renewed vigilance through the dark, or maybe the hallucinations he’d read about due to strychnine poisoning had already set in. “It was a risk I was willing to take when I left Cardin Townsend’s body on the mountain.”

She smoothed her thumb along the snake’s underbelly. “This little guy was one of Evyn’s first research subjects while she was studying venomics and cellular toxicity of Trimeresurus rubeus for her thesis. She was working with a biologist to create an antivenom for bite victims at the time, but when the study ended, she couldn’t let the lab destroy him. She gave him a home, fed him, cared for him. Right up until she tried to kill herself. Snakes have long been known as a symbol of deceit and rebirth. It’s only fitting the people who deceived my sister face their lies in the end, don’t you think?” Ember set the viper on Brennan Jefferson’s chest, its forked tongue testing the air as it raised its head to take in the change of scenery. “As for the trees, I have more than enough to finish what I’ve started.”

“She’ll find you.” He struggled to sit up. Blair wouldn’t stop. She wouldn’t give up. It wasn’t in her nature. Colson winced as another ripple of agony washed through him, and his back left the security of the ground. Flashes of brilliant emerald eyes, combined with the freckles he’d memorized over and over, and a smile that’d set his entire future on fire filtered through the pain. Blair. He didn’t need the damn boat. He didn’t need the ocean, his investigative fee from Rachel Faulkner’s father, or any of the other fantasies he’d written down as a kid. He wanted more. He wanted her. Now. Forever. “It doesn’t matter…where you go. She won’t let you…get away with this.”

Ember’s face contorted in sorrow as the rain soaked into her dark clothing. “I already have.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Her boots lost purchase as she scrambled higher up the trail.

“Blair, wait!” January attempted to keep up with her, but the drive pulling Blair up the mountain wouldn’t be matched.

She couldn’t unsee the empty syringe she’d discovered a quarter of a mile back. Colson had been disarmed and possibly drugged. Even if the killer had dosed him with another round of ketamine, she couldn’t let him fight out here alone. She wasn’t going to stop, couldn’t. He’d been right about the location. He’d been right about everything. Evyn Garder was connected to this case in more ways than one and hadn’t only taken a third victim. She’d targeted the private investigator determined to stop her. Streaks of water blurred her vision as the storm churned overhead. Another flash of lightning struck out across the dark sky, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

Every minute she wasted, evidence was destroyed, but she couldn’t worry about that right now. Colson. Brennan. Getting them out of here alive was all that mattered. Mud splattered up her uniform and into her boots, but it wouldn’t slow her down. As much as she hated the idea Colson had been involved in a deal with one of the victim’s parents to bypass the justice system, she believed he hadn’t meant for her to get caught in the crosshairs. She believed him when he’d said he wasn’t the source of the anonymous tip that’d put her career at risk. Because despite her experience with private investigators, she knew him. Inside and out. She knew the sound of his voice, the feel of his hand against her skin, the way he worked. He’d thrown himself into a world of adventure and non-stop learning to counter the neglect and isolation he’d experienced as a child, and a part of her admired that about him, had lived that with him.

She’d had a family who’d taken her in after her parents had been killed, but there were still moments where she’d felt alone, that no one could understand what she’d gone through. Colson did. He understood. He’d shown her a life outside of her work, outside of always having to be the person responsible and realistic. He’d given her a new challenge: moving on. He’d colored outside the lines of this investigation to keep a stranger from suffering the same fate as the first two victims. Yes, he’d lied to her, but there wasn’t a single cell in her body that could convince her he’d meant to put her career at risk. That had to count for something.

“Blair!” January’s voice drowned in the roll of thunder, distant and panicked.

The trail split in two directions. She swiped tendrils of rain from her face and looked back. Leaves shook in a violent struggle against bursts of wind, but her sister had been consumed by the emptiness. January was gone, and Blair was running out of time. She fought to catch her breath, her ears ringing. There were any number of trails the killer could’ve taken him. She had to slow down, had to think. Not just Colson. There was another victim—Brennan Jefferson—but the nausea charging up her throat focused on the private investigator she hadn’t meant to fall for. The killer couldn’t have gotten far with two victims. No matter how much she’d trained. Another wave of desperation clawed through her as she forced herself to search the trail for clues. There had to be something here—anything—she could use to narrow down their location.

She closed her eyes against the onslaught of anxiety slithering down the length of her spine and mentally recalled a map of the area. No maintenance sheds. No ranger stations. Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife Park wasn’t manned full-time. But the killer would need somewhere she could secure two victims at the same time. Somewhere close enough to the trails their bodies would be found on her timetable. Blair opened her eyes.

The photos Evyn Garder had erased from her feed.

There’d been a covered picnic area in the back of one of the posts. A single outdoor table atop a concrete pad. There was only one along this trail, and her instincts led her to the right.

Rattlesnake Mountain. Tiger Mountain. Now Cougar Mountain. Evyn Garder had visited and posted photos of all of them. Why take the risk of linking each dump site back to her? No. Something wasn’t adding up. Whoever had put this case into motion was intelligent enough to extract a poison from trees, breed venomous snakes, and insert themselves into the lives of her victims. All without leaving behind enough forensic evidence to tie herself to the murders. Blair slowed. Rain collected in her mouth as the answer raised the hairs on the back of her neck.

They’d been looking at this wrong from the moment her department had responded to the 9-1-1 call at the first crime scene. Evyn Garder had been telling the truth. She wasn’t the killer. “The killer disposed of the bodies on trails Evyn was familiar with. Not the victims. She wanted to get her attention. This is about her.”

Blair scanned the trail ahead. Three social media influencers, starting with Rachel Faulkner. Evyn Garder had been fighting the first victim for a refund on a conference registration fee because Rachel Faulkner had lied about her own divorce to her fans. What had Evyn said during her interview? We were at every book signing, every keynote, to support her. We chatted together in the comments of her posts. We shared recipes, and book recommendations. We. Evyn and her sister owned and lived in the house together. They both followed the first victim online, and Blair was willing to bet they shared more than a few interests in the same social media influencers. Possibly Cardin Townsend and Brennan Jefferson. It would be easy enough to confirm with a simple comparison. But why target social media influencers? Why dose them with strychnine poisoning over and over to make them suffer instead of killing them right away? Why hold them for up to twelve hours to watch them scream? Because they’d lied?

No. She shook her head, her hair swinging into her face. It had to be more than that to insight this kind of hatred. It had to be personal. Blair pushed ahead. The videos. The killer had forced both victims to admit their lies in the most public way possible: social media. She’d used their own platforms against them to expose them for the frauds they were.

“Because of what those lies did to their followers.” Not just their followers, but a single follower. It wasn’t enough each victim had lied to their audiences. The killer wanted these three social media influencers to pay for something they’d done. To someone the killer cared about. Social media had been clinically proven to insight feelings of envy, depression, and anxiety. What if Rachel, Cardin, and Brennan weren’t the only victims in this case?

Blair extracted her phone, rain blurring the screen as the backlight automatically haloed around her. One bar of service. Blair turned back to search the trail, but January wasn’t there. She must’ve taken the wrong turn. She couldn’t worry about that right now. The better she understood the killer, the higher chance of getting Colson and Brennan Jefferson out of here alive. She swiped through Evyn Garder’s social media profile then searched through her followers to locate her sister. Ember Garder. She tapped Rachel Faulkner’s profile. “Followed by embergarder.” She repeated the search with Cardin Townsend’s and Brennan Jefferson’s profiles. “Followed by embergarder.”

Something had happened. Something Ember Garder blamed these three victims for. Blair accessed the background check she and Colson had run on Evyn Garder less than five days prior, but her service bar vanished. The screen went blank as she accessed her email. It wouldn’t load. “Damn it.”

Pocketing her phone, Blair unholstered her weapon and rounded the bend in the trail. The ground leveled off, the tick of rain against steel loud in her ears as the covered picnic area came into view.

The killer was already waiting for her.

“You.” The muscles down her spine hardened. Blair steadied her weapon on the woman in front of her, her brain instantly superimposing Ember Garder into the silhouette that had been lingering behind every thought since the attack on Tiger Mountain. Blair raised her voice against the echoing thunder reverberating through the ground and up her legs. “You killed them. Rachel Faulkner. Cardin Townsend. You abducted Brennan Jefferson. Who did they hurt, Ember? Your sister?”

“They lied to her. They used her, and when they got what they wanted, they turned their backs on her. She trusted them to look out for her well-being, but they didn’t care how many women they were hurting with their false claims. They didn’t care my sister tried to kill herself when she realized she’d never be able to live up to their standards.” Ember Garder set dark eyes on the gun pointed at her. “They deserved every minute of agony and more for what they did. You of all people should understand how far we have to go to bring the people who hurt our family to justice.”

Air hitched in her throat, and an image of her arresting the man who’d killed her parents wormed to the front of her mind. Ember was right. She did understand. She’d spent her entire law enforcement career hunting the killer responsible for tearing her world apart, and it was all too easy to feel the pain behind Ember Garder’s expression again, that emptiness and rage that came with losing the ones you loved. Her attention drifted to the large, unmoving outline of a man near the picnic area, and recognition flared. She’d lived it, but there was one difference between the two of them. She wasn’t a killer. Blair reached for the back of her belt with her free hand, her weapon still steady on the suspect. She unsnapped her handcuff case and pried the cold metal from her belt. “I know exactly what you’re feeling, Ember. I’ve been there. I know how angry you are, how helpless you felt when you realized what had happened, but killing the women who drove Evyn to her decision won’t make that pain go away.”

“Who said I want the pain to go away?” Ember swung a duffle bag toward Blair’s weapon but overcorrected.

Blair rocketed her elbow into the killer’s face. Once. Twice. Ember countered with a block the third time and landed a fist directly into Blair’s ribcage. Pain splintered through her. Before Blair had a chance to catch her breath, her attacker doubled her over and rammed a knee into her gut. The gun slid from her hand and disappeared into the bushes. Ember kicked out, and Blair stumbled back into the nearest tree. Lightning struck overhead with a loud crack, and a tree branch fell between them. Blair covered her ears a split second before the added light reflected off the steel of her weapon.

The killer caught sight of the gun the same moment, and Blair lunged. They collided in a tangle of arms and strikes and rolled down a short incline. Blair scrambled to her feet, fists up as the killer charged. She swayed on both feet as her brain struggled to keep up. Ducking, she dodged the wide swing of Ember’s fist and rocketed her own strike into her attacker’s side. The woman who’d thrown her over a cliff swept her foot behind Blair’s leg in an attempt to throw her off balance, but Blair dodged the attack and threw another punch.

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