Page 28 of Hunted

“Where do you think?”

She gave him a look that made him feel like a demon for deliberately trying to wound her. It was a defense mechanism, apparently designed specifically to keep her from getting too close to his private hell ever again. He couldn’t help it. It was instinctual, and it was necessary.

“We’re going back to Pine Lake,” he told her. “But we have a few stops to make first.”

Their half-sister Lexia Stoltz’s isolated log cabin was a dream at first glance. Huge, and beautiful, set against a backdrop of pine trees and snow. But when Kira and Toni, who was officially not there with her, saw the blood on the snow, the dream seemed to have taken a nightmarish turn.

Kira knocked and the door swung inward slowly, creaking as if to warn them they would not like what they were about to find. She shot a look at Toni, pulled a gun, and said, “Stay here.”

“Sure I will,” Toni said, pulling a gun of her own. Married to a cop, with a long career dishing dirt on crime lords, she had enough experience to hold her own.

Kira supposed she ought to be grateful she’d convinced the pregnant Caitlin to stay home where it was safe. Joey had stayed home too, but was “tapping in” to the sister she’d never met. She’d promised to keep them posted. Kira wasn’t expecting much. She didn’t believe in psychics.

“Dr. Stoltz?” she called.

A plaintive yowl was the only reply. The place felt empty except for the fat yellow cat who came out to wind himself around their ankles. There was a giant Christmas tree without a single decoration standing in the front windows. It made her feel unspeakably sad.

Toni closed the door. Kira found a light switch and flipped it on. Then they walked in opposite directions, checking every room on the ground floor, and meeting back where they’d started.

“Anything?” Kira asked.

“Nothing. The cat followed me into the kitchen, though, so I filled his dishes with food and water. Enough to get him through a few days, at least. If we haven’t found her by then, I’ll come back for him.”

Kira nodded, pointing with her eyes. “I’m pretty sure that’s more blood, there on the stairs.”

“Shit.”

Together they went up the stairs to the second floor, then split up again to check every room.

From the bathroom, Tony called, “Blood and bandages in the wastebasket. Somebody dressed a wound in here.”

“I’ve got an open bedroom window with a rope ladder hanging from it,” Kira called back.

Toni joined her in the bedroom, eyeing the window. “Someone came after her, and it looks like she got away,” Toni said slowly.

“Or tried to,” Kira replied.

“Maybe it’s time you told me why the DEA is looking for her, Kira.”

“We’re not, exactly. We’re looking for the guy who’s after her.”

“For?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Toni pursed her lips and tilted her head.

“Well, I’m DEA. So you can figure out where my interest lies. Although this dude has his fingers in so many pies …” She stopped there and nodded. “His drug deals just fund his other illegal enterprises. I’m gonna have Michael check with his contacts in other agencies. CIA. FBI. See if there are any other active investigations we can coordinate with.” She was texting while she was speaking.

“Michael? Your husband Michael?”

“Yeah,” she said. “He’s also my partner.”

His sons had died, Lexi thought. Those adorable little boys in the photos who looked so much like him. They’d been taken from him without warning or reason. God, it was no wonder he was so nasty. The man was in more pain than any human being ought to bear in a lifetime. And his had come all at once.

He had let her hold him, even if it had been brief. He’d turned to her with his grief, turned to her as if for salvation. In his eyes she’d seen something she’d never seen before. A desperation, a plea he couldn’t or wouldn’t or didn’t know how to voice. Help me, Lexi.

Maybe he wasn’t even aware of it, but Romano was going to bleed to death from the poison arrows in his heart if he didn’t pull them out and start to heal soon.

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