Page 122 of Counter Attack

“Give me your gun, butt first. And be slow.”

He carefully took his Glock from the holster and handed it to her exactly like she said. He had no doubt she’d shoot him without even blinking. He still had a backup pistol in his boot, but getting to it would be a problem.

“I’m going to the passenger side. If you try to run, Alex is dead.” Her cold eyes held him prisoner. “Got it?”

“Yes,” he said through gritted teeth. She’d killed sevenpeople—one more wouldn’t bother her. But what if she was bluffing and didn’t have Alexis?

Once Kayla was in the SUV, she said, “Let’s go.”

He jutted his jaw. “I want to talk to Alexis.”

“Not happening.”

“Because you don’t have her, do you?”

“Do you want to risk it?”

“Where is she?” he demanded.

Her lip curled in a sneer. “Somewhere you’ll never find her if you don’t get moving.”

His gut said she didn’t have Alexis, and if Nathan got a chance, he’d take Kayla down. He started the motor and backed out of the parking spot. “Which way, Kayla? Or should I call you Violet?”

Her eyes widened and the gun wavered. Nathan grabbed for the gun, and they struggled for it. The console kept him from getting a good hold on her hand, and she broke loose from his grip and chopped him a glancing blow in the throat.

Even though he’d deflected most of the punch, Nathan had never felt such pain. Choking, he grabbed his throat while she leveled the gun at him. “Try that again and you’re dead. Just be glad I didn’t shoot you. Now drive.”

“Where to?” He choked the words out.

“Harper’s Point.”

“The lake, not the cave at Eagle Ridge?”

“Why would I go there? The place is probably swarming with cops by now.”

He pulled away from the hardware store. His court date had been on the calendar all week, so Kayla had known he was testifying today. The kidnapping had been a ploy to get most of the Russell County deputies and his officers away from town so she could kidnap him, not Alexis. He was the bait.

She cocked her head. “Does she know who I am?”

“I didn’t get a chance to tell her.” He didn’t tell Kayla he’d told Mark. Maybe if he could rattle her, he could get the upper hand. “So you’re responsible for the bomb threat and taking over her car, but the failed attacks on Alexis—I would’ve thought you were a better shot than that.”

“The bomb threat was a good one—made her look the incompetent cop that she is—and not everyone can take over a car like that.” She frowned. “If I’d shot at Alex, I would’ve hit her.”

“Or maybe you won’t admit it because you missed.”

Her jaw muscle worked furiously. “Just shut up.”

He ignored her. “I don’t understand how you forced your way into the victims’ homes.” She didn’t answer, and he thought about how she’d wormed her way into Alexis’s confidence. “You didn’t have to, did you? Somehow, you knew the women and they trusted you.”

He caught the tiny smile that tugged at her lips. Kayla wanted to brag about what she’d done.

“Nah, you weren’t that smart.”

“Really?” She glared at him, a sneer on her face. “Getting the trust of those women was easy, just like with Alex. They all fell for my sob story—that my dad had died, and I had to drop out of college, and I had nowhere to go. The hookers even let me crash at their places.

“I changed my story up a bit for them—they wouldn’t care whether I went to college or not. So I told them my brother abused me. And that wasn’t an easy lie to tell. My brother was my hero.”

“I still don’t understand why you killed them.”

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