Page 96 of Threat of Danger
Nothing but the faint echo of his own voice came back to him. Derek pressed forward.
They are alive.They had to be alive. He knew firsthand that the bastard liked to play. Derek could only pray that the man hadn’t suddenly developed a taste for a quick kill.
“Jess? Kaylee?”
Nothing.
Derek’s dread grew as thick as the silence.
As he reached the first turn off, he saw the ATV. He pocketed the keys, then hurried forward. His boots slapped on the stones, and the circle of light from his flashlight bobbed around as he ran.
When he spotted a still shape on the ground a hundred feet ahead, his heart stopped. His breath stopped too when he recognized Kaylee’s high school hoodie and saw a dark stain on the ground under her head.
He wouldn’t allow himself to think that he was too late.
He swore out loud as he lurched forward, his fury filling the cave, his heart beatingbam, bam, bam, punching against his sternum as if a professional boxing match was going on inside his chest.
Not Kaylee, dammit. Not this sweet kid.He fell to his knees next to her.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, honey.” He should have never written the book. He never should have tried to draw out the killer. For what? So he could play the Navy SEAL tough guy one last time? So he could atone for the past?
His heart broke right then and there.
He gathered her limp body in his arms. “Kaylee.”
She was still warm. Then her body stiffened, and she stirred.
Thank God.Derek gulped his first full breath since he’d spotted her. “What happened? Is Jess here?”
Kaylee blinked at him, confusion blurring her eyes.
He brushed her hair out of her face and rubbed some of the blood off her forehead, stared at the nasty gash that still seeped red.
“I tried to get out,” she mumbled.
“I think you ran into the rock wall in the dark and knocked yourself senseless.” He kept his gun hand free. “Where’s Jess? Where was she when you last saw her? Where’s Crane?”
Kaylee blinked in confusion? “What crane?”
He could explain later. “The guy. Is he with Jess? Where are they?”
Kaylee turned toward the depths of the cave. “She ran in. He went after her.”
“Can you stand?” Derek stood first, and then he helped her. “Are you OK?”
“Woozy.” She braced herself on his arm.
“Want to sit back down?”
She pulled away. “I’m fine.” But her face crumpled. “It’s my fault. If I hadn’t run out like a stupid little kid—he grabbed me on the loading dock. He put his hand over my mouth, and I couldn’t fight him off.”
“Not your fault.” Was she shaking? He couldn’t tell, dammit, with the flashlight. He reached for her. “I’m not going to leave you.”
“Go.” She pushed him, then blurted, as if she’d just now remembered, “He had a gun. Jess kicked it away from him.”
He panned the light around. “I don’t see it.”
The thought that Crane might have found the weapon before he ran after Jess left Derek sick with worry. Every instinct in his body pulled him forward.
