'You know that I will. The child first.'
'Always the children,' she said bitterly. 'Like Bonnie.'
'Yes.'
'Did you kill Bonnie, Kistle?'
'I could have killed her.'
'Did you kill her? Is she here?'
Kistle smiled maliciously. 'I told you where you could get your answer.' He moved to the edge of the bank and lifted the rifle to sight on Laura Ann. 'Now don't make a move or the shot to her arm will go into her head. I want her to keep you company for a while.'
'Wait.'
'I can't wait. Quinn and Montalvo are already heading to pick them up. They'll be moving fast and I-'
Agonizing pain as his hand shattered as it moved toward the trigger.
He was shot, he realized incredulously.
He stared in disbelief at Eve Duncan standing a few feet away, pointing a Magnum at him. The bitch had shot him!
Another blast of pain as another bullet tore into his arm.
His rifle dropped to the ground.
No!
He dove to get it.
Pain in his back. She'd shot him again.
'Bitch,' he screamed. 'You can't do this to me.'
'Yes, I can.' She was coming toward him. Her face was hard and totally without mercy. With her toe she pushed him from the bank and into the water. 'Ask Bobby Joe and Laura Ann. Ask all of those children you buried on this island. Ask my Bonnie.'
He was sputtering, water in his eyes and his throat, pain wracking his body. 'I'll get away. You can't stop me.' He started to swim with his good arm. 'I'll come back. I'll kill you all. No one can stop me.'
'You're wrong.' He looked back to see her standing on the bank, gun lifted, pointing at his head. 'I can stop you.' Her finger was slowly pressing the trigger. 'Ask the alligators, Kistle.'
His head exploded as the bullet shattered his skull.
EVE DROPPED THE GUN AND SANK to the ground. She felt cold and she couldn't take her gaze from the place where Kistle had disappeared under the water.
She had killed him and was feeling no remorse. All those children, all the cruelty and savagery that he had let loose in the world. She would call Joe's cell in a minute and tell him what had happened, but first she had to pull herself together.
Even after making the call, she couldn't seem to stop staring at the water.
Joe jumped onto the bank from Montalvo's boat ten minutes later. 'Go on,' he told Montalvo. 'Get the kid and Miguel back to the dock. I'll take care of Eve.'
'She seems to take fine care of herself.' Montalvo turned the boat. 'But I envy you the opportunity.'
Joe didn't answer as he fell to his knees beside Eve. 'You've got blood on your jacket. You didn't mention you were hurt.'
She shook her head. 'No. He shot me, but he made sure it was a flesh wound.' She smiled crookedly. 'He wanted to make certain that it wouldn't interfere with what he planned for me later.' Her stare shifted back to the water. 'I killed him. I don't regret it. Monsters like him shouldn't be permitted to live.'
'You're right, I'm just sorry that it had to be you who did it.' Joe took her in his arms. 'I'm still a little wet, but I want to hold you. Okay?'
He was damp, but his skin was warm from the hot summer breeze and she nestled closer. She needed warmth right now. 'Megan was right. I saw the graves. So many…'
He was stroking her hair. 'Bonnie?'
'He said that she wasn't there.' She closed her eyes. 'I don't know, Joe. He lies…' No, it was past tense now. He was dead. She had killed him. 'I could never trust anything he told me. He wanted to hurt me, to make me think I'd failed again.'
'You didn't fail. Laura Ann is safe.'
'Yes, she's safe.' Her eyes opened. She had to think of that one true positive. No, there was another one. Kistle would never be able to kill another child. 'We should get back to Megan.'
'Did she bandage your shoulder?'
'No, when I went to the boat to get your gun she was sitting there like a statue. I couldn't get her to answer me. I don't believe she even knew I was there. I just put a bandage on the wound and took off. I had to find Kistle.' She pushed him away and stood up. 'I have to get back to her. I have to make sure she's all right.'
Joe got to his feet. 'She was probably safer than any of us, staying in the boat.'
Eve shook her head as she remembered Megan's face that last moment before she had gone after Kistle. 'I wish I could be sure of that.'
EVE'S FIRST THOUGHT WAS that Kistle had somehow found the boat and killed Megan.
Megan was no longer sitting upright but lying huddled beside the seat.
'No sign of a wound. But she's unconscious.' Eve checked Megan's pulse. 'She's ice-cold and her pulse is thready.'
'Shock.' Joe jumped into the boat. 'We've got to get her back to the dock. Was she this bad before?'
'After Bobby Joe?' She shook her head. 'I don't think so. This is…' She didn't know what it was. But Megan's almost coma-like state was scaring her. 'She kept saying there were too many. I saw what it was doing to her. I made her come to the island anyway.'
'Stop the guilt trip,' Joe said curtly. 'She came because she thought she should do it. She's a strong woman and you wouldn't have been able to browbeat her into doing anything. It's done and we have to do damage control. At least she doesn't have a bullet in her like you do.'
'Small favors,' Eve said wearily. 'It wasn't her war. Though she still looks in worse shape than I feel. We don't even have anything to drink or blankets to cover her to fight that shock.'
'It will only be twenty or thirty minutes back to the dock. As soon as we get under way, we need to call Phillip Blair and have him have an ambulance at the dock when we arrive.' He cast off. 'Can you drive the boat?'
She nodded. 'This wound is barely a scratch.'
'Then change places. I'll hold her and try to give her my body heat.' He took off his shirt and drew Megan to him. 'You always said I was a furnace.'
'Yes, you are.' Eve started to back the boat away from the island. 'But I wasn't sure you'd want to share anything with her.'
'Then you were wrong,' he said shortly. 'I'm not sure what the hell went on with her tonight, but I know what she did was for you, not herself. I don't want her checking out and making the nightmare any worse for all of us.'
Checking out. Surely Megan wouldn't die because of this night. But what did Eve know about the trauma the other woman had suffered? There was no doubt Megan Blair was in dire straits and people did die of shock.
She looked back at the island where all those children had met their end. Had Kistle lied again? Was Bonnie one of those children buried there? One of the voices that had sent Megan spiraling downward until she crashed and splintered? She didn't know, but she knew that Megan needed more than body heat and the medical care that waited for her on the dock.
SIXTEEN
