He meant the fork. “Where’s what?” She hated the quaver in her voice. He must have cleaned up the dinner dishes and realized one of the forks was missing.
“Don’t try to play games with me, Kendall. You’ll lose.” He came next to the bed and held his hand out. “Give it to me.”
“I don’t know what you want. Give you what?” She tightened her grip on the fork.
Suddenly, he reached for the cover and pulled it away from her. She didn’t have time to think. It was now or never. Fueled by adrenaline and fear, she rolled over so she could push herself up, and because she was standing on the bed and taller than him, she slashed the fork down to his face with all her might. The tongs embedded into his cheek, and as he screamed, she did her best to tear open his cheek.
“Fucking bitch,” he shouted.
When he tried to take the fork from her, she let go of it, reached into the pocket she’d seen him put the key in and wrapped her fingers around it. He pulled the fork away from his face, tossed it across the room and then pulled her off the bed.
“You’ll pay for that,” he said.
Afraid she’d drop the key, she stuffed it into her jeans pocket. She didn’t think he knew she’d taken it. She hoped he didn’t. He grasped her arm, his fingers so tight, she was going to be bruised. Small price to pay for getting the key.
“Let go of me.” She tried to pull away from him, but he dug his fingers into her skin. Wherever he was taking her, she didn’t want to go. She jerked her arm, managing to get away from him. If she tried to use the key right now, he would get it away from her, so she ran for the kitchen, hoping to find a knife.
Before she could get to her goal, he tackled her from behind, taking them both to the floor. With his weight on her back, she struggled to breathe, but she refused to give up without a fight. She reared her head back as hard as she could, and when she heard bone crunch, she gave a grunt of satisfaction.
He wrapped his hands around her throat and squeezed. “I’m going to kill you.”
Oh, God. He really was, she thought as she tried and failed to suck air into her lungs. As her vision faded to black, she murmured one last word. “Livie.”
Chapter 29
“This is it,” Cooper said as they turned onto a dirt lane. He pulled the truck off the road as far into the trees as he could. To have the element of surprise on their side, they would walk in.
After they exited the truck, Grayson grabbed the duffel bag he’d brought and went to the back. He opened the tailgate, set the bag on it and opened it up. They loaded their bodies up with weapons. Guns, knives, smoke bombs and flash grenades. Probably overkill, but better to be prepared for anything over not being prepared for the unexpected. Then they each put on a Kevlar vest and coms.
They set off into the trees, moving silently as they approached the house…actually a good-size log cabin. Lights were on inside, and they eased up to a window. Cooper peeked around the side of the sill. His blood turned to ice at what he saw. Kendall was face down on the floor, not moving. Schroder was pacing around the room with a gun in his hand and seemed to be muttering to himself.
“She better be alive, or he’s a dead man,” he said. They didn’t have time to make a plan. “I’m taking the front. You come in through the back.”
Grayson nodded, and they split up. Cooper eased onto the deck, and when he reached the door, he tried the knob. “This one’s locked,” he whispered.
“Back here, too,” Grayson responded.
They both had lock-pick kits and within minutes the two doors were unlocked. “I’m going to go in, gun drawn,” he told Grayson. “With his attention on me, you ease in behind him. We go on my one.”
“Roger.”
Cooper took his Glock from its holster. “Three, two, one!” He eased the door open and stepped inside with his gun raised. Schroder’s attention was on Kendall, and he was still muttering. Cooper couldn’t make out the words, but he didn’t have a good feeling about the man. Schroder was losing it, and it was never a good thing when a man’s mind was twisted. There was no predicting how he might react.
Suddenly, Schroder pointed the gun at Kendall, still unmoving on the floor. “I wasn’t going to make you an angel, but you had to go and be a bad girl.”
Cooper didn’t want to kill the man, but he would to protect Kendall. He hesitated because if he shot Schroder, there was a risk the man’s finger would jerk on the trigger of the gun he was pointing at her. He needed to get the man to point the gun at him, then if he had to kill Schroder, he would.
Schroder suddenly stopped muttering and turned his gaze toward Cooper. His eyes widened, and a flicker of recognition passed over his face before being replaced by a look of pure malice. “You! I saw you with her, but you can’t have her. She’s mine.”
“I just want to talk to you.” He glanced at Kendall, his relief immense when he saw her back rise and fall. She was breathing! Grayson was sneaking up behind Schroder, and to keep the man’s attention on him and not what was happening behind him, Cooper said, “Put the gun down on the floor, Mr. Schroder, and you can walk out of the house right now.” Cooper felt no guilt for the lie.
With his weapon still pointed at Kendall, Schroder looked from him to her, then back to him. “I don’t think so. I kill her. You kill me. Then Kendall and I will be angels together in heaven. Perfect ending to this story.”
The man actually believed that and his intention to die today with Kendall was there in the madness shining in his eyes. “You don’t want to do this,” he said, hoping to keep Schroder’s attention on him and not on Grayson, who was sneaking up behind him. “Just put the gun down on the floor and let’s talk about how you can walk away from this.”
A floorboard creaked when Grayson was only a few steps from Schroder. Cooper would never know if Schroder meant to fire the gun or if it was a trigger reaction to the noise behind him.
The gunshot echoed through the cabin, its sound deafening in the quiet room. Kendall’s body jerked as the bullet hit her. A second gunshot sounded from Cooper’s weapon, and Schroder’s eyes widened in surprise as he crumbled to the floor.