At the entrance, he faced Darby. “You go in ahead of me. I’ll be right behind you.”
Darby didn’t like that suggestion. Didn’t trust him to do what he’d promised. “If you do anything that gets that little girl killed,” she threatened, still angry with herself for being so affected by his kiss even now, “I swear, Aidan, I’ll kill you myself.”
His smile was slow and arrogant, caressed by the moonlight and so damned beautiful that new tears came to her eyes in spite of her anger. He looked just as he had the first time she saw him. Dressed completely in black, including that long, sexy duster that gave him the look of a night creature.
“You have my word that I will do nothing to further endanger you or the child.”
She rolled her eyes and made a sound of disbelief. “Like I can trust anything you say.”
He took her chin in his hand and forced her to look at him. “You can trust me, Darby Shepard,” he said firmly. “Remember that always.”
She pulled free of his touch. Dammit. Why did he have to make her feel that way? She wanted to stay angry with him…wanted to hurt him the way he’d hurt her.
“Whatever,” she muttered and turned back to the door.
Darby took a breath and firmed her courage. Time to face the music. Penny was counting on her. If Galen wanted Darby, he could have her just so long as he didn’t hurt that little girl. But the moment that child was out of harm’s way, Darby intended to kill that bastard…or die trying.
A flash of light stabbed deep into her brain; images from her dream last night followed hot on its heels. She was in the warehouse…watching. The little girl in her dreams hadn’t been her…Penny. It was Penny. No one left but Galen. A pain pierced her chest…Aidan. The image of him being stabbed through the chest exploded in her mind.
It was all coming true…just like she’d seen it.
Oh, God.
“You can’t come in.” She whirled around to demand that Aidan leave right now. “You have—”
He was gone.
She hadn’t heard him move…hadn’t sensed his absence.
A chill permeated her being, sank all the way to her soul. He was already inside…killed his men one by one.
It was happening exactly as it had in the dream.
She had to stop it.
Inside the building was silence. The two-story structure had seen better days, felt as old as time. An image of pirates hiding their booty flashed in her mind. She swallowed back the fear climbing into her throat. She had to be strong…brave. Penny’s and Aidan’s lives depended upon her.
Rats scurried across the old wooden floor, their feet making a sound that sent a shiver up her spine. She hated rats.
Her heart thumped violently against her sternum. She allowed the image of Aidan and the way he touched her…kissed her to distract her mind from the fear. She would not be afraid. Aidan loved her…she knew he did. All they had to do was survive this night.
Aidan would die before help arrived.
She denied the voice that whispered through her mind. No, he would not die. She would not let him die.
Your life is in grave danger.
Madam Talia’s voice.
She’d been right.
So damned right.
Large wooden crates were stacked two and three high all around the enormous room. She moved through the rows of crates, her gaze sweeping left to right. She turned down an aisle and stumbled.
A body.
Her breath caught.
A man in black combat gear lay sprawled in the aisle, his neck twisted at an odd angle.
He was dead…Aidan had killed him…one by one.
It had begun.
She wove her way between the stacks of crates, moving toward the rear of the warehouse. To where Galen waited with the child. She could feel his presence now. She hadn’t even seen him and she hated him already.
The next stack of crates she cleared brought her into a wide clearing where a couple of desks cluttered with papers stood. Her mind immediately flashed the image of shipping clerks working madly at the desks. Carts sat here and there, loaded with the necessary supplies, including box cutters, twine, drill drivers, hammers, pry bars and varying lengths of steel for bracing items to be packed.
On the far side of the open space, a man stepped out of the shadows to stand in the fringes of the light. The little girl was at his side. She whimpered but didn’t dare move. He’d rigged her in such a way that if she moved the rope looped around her tiny neck would tighten.
For a mini-eternity Darby couldn’t move or speak. She could only stand there and look at the man who had created her. The picture of him wearing a white lab coat superimposed itself over the image before her.
He was the man who had haunted her dreams all these years.
He was pure evil.
She wanted him to die screaming just as Jerry Lester had.
“I’m here,” she said, moving a step closer. “Let the child go.”
He laughed, the sound rumbled up from his chest. “Of course. We did have an unspoken bargain, after all.”
He picked up a box cutter from the nearby shipping cart and cut Penny loose. She ran immediately to Darby, clutched at her legs.
Darby crouched down, blinking back her tears. “Listen to me, sweetie, you have to run. Okay? Do you understand?”
The little girl shook her head, her own tears spilling anew down her pale little cheeks.
Darby swallowed back a sob. “Run until you find your way out of here. Don’t look back. Just keep running, do you hear me?”
Penny nodded jerkily.
Darby stood and gave her a little push. “Run!”
The child did as she was told, not once looking back.
Darby faced the man not more than a dozen feet away. “What now? You wanted me. I’m here.”
“Where’s your mate?”
Her mate?
