breasts and hips, she had no fat on her body.
A sliver of something hit Dillon in the chest. Something about Kate…she was unlike anyone he’d met.
Kate was an anomaly. She thought that he had her pegged, that he’d analyzed and classified her. But she went beyond classification. She was too complex and driven. A hero in many ways, Dillon thought. Living every day of her life in search of a man who brutalized women. It didn’t matter, he realized, why she did it-guilt, revenge, duty. What mattered was that she did it, and that she kept at it even at the expense of her own happiness and freedom.
Few people would feel the need to get involved, even when tragedy slapped them in the face. Kate, on the other hand, jumped in with both feet, determined to end Adam Scott’s reign of terror.
She was scared, but her fear didn’t stop her. She knew she could die, but that realization didn’t slow her down. And she was doing it for a girl she’d never met: Lucy.
Kate turned and caught him watching her. He held her eyes, and she didn’t turn away. The strength and vulnerability he saw on her face, under her skin, in her heart moved him like nothing else could.
Lucy had hope because of Kate Donovan. Dillon would make sure they both got out of this alive.
Hank, the pilot, said, “There’s our landing spot. I came around from the north so we wouldn’t be detected if they have a scout. Five minutes.”
“Ready?” he asked Kate.
“More than ever,” she replied.
There had been no movement for twenty minutes after the rendezvous time Adam Scott had given Kate. What was his game?
Jack considered heading to the Hummer. He could look underneath, see if it was rigged with a bomb. But what if Trask was watching from the tree line? What if he was waiting for Kate to get antsy and show herself? Jack had already done periphery surveillance, but he didn’t know exactly who he was up against. He had to assume Trask had a plan.
He watched the Hummer closely. It bounced, very slightly. Someone was inside.
The door opened. Jack looked through the scope of his rifle.
Two men emerged. One was Trask. The other man was handcuffed and didn’t look completely conscious. His head lolled back and forth, but he was moving forward.
Trask had a gun to the man’s head. Who was he? A setup? The undercover fed Kate had told him about? Someone else?
“Kate Don-o-van,” Trask called out mockingly. “Come out, come out! Or do you want another death on your conscience? Because I certainly couldn’t care less about killing this traitor.”
Trask paused. Jack didn’t move, lying low in the pine needles.
Scott spoke, his voice echoing in the silence. “Kate, show yourself or this fed dies. Then the girl.”
Jack didn’t move.
“You want to kill me, don’t you? If I don’t check in, the girl will die. Painfully. Roger knows how to avoid all the major organs. She’ll bleed to death. Slowly. Like your dear friend Paige.”
The bastard grinned. “Paige. I almost wish I could kill her all over again.”
Jack’s finger rested on the trigger. He couldn’t take Trask out. The Hummer partly obscured the target. Jack was a good shot, but if he missed-and at this distance he couldn’t be guaranteed a clean kill-Trask would order Lucy killed.
Trask frowned, grabbed his pocket, and extracted a phone. His face clouded and twisted as he listened to whoever was on the other end.
He shot the hostage in the back.
Jack didn’t fire. He had a less than fifty percent chance of hitting him and Jack wasn’t willing to risk Lucy’s life with those odds. Dillon and Kate hadn’t had enough time to get to the island. Jack made the difficult decision to let Trask go.
The killer jumped into the Hummer and sped off.
Jack waited a good five minutes. He heard the vehicle leave, didn’t hear it stopping or idling. Didn’t mean that Trask couldn’t stop the car and backtrack, hoping to lure Kate out with the half-dead man face-down in the dirt. Jack proceeded cautiously.
He reached the fallen man. Checked his pulse. Faint, but steady. The wound was bleeding slowly. From the location Jack suspected the man’s right kidney was destroyed, but he was alive and would probably live if he had surgery.
Jack pulled out a cloth and applied pressure to the wound, securing it with tape from his emergency first-aid kit. He called his pal who was waiting a few miles off. “I need a copter at my location ASAP. Man down, critical.”
“ETA ten minutes.”
Jack turned the man over, searched his pockets for ID, and found none. No identification of any kind.
“Lucy.”
The man’s voice was faint, but Jack couldn’t miss his declaration.
“What?” Jack slapped him. “Buddy, wake up. Help’s coming. What about Lucy?”
“Sorry.” He hadn’t opened his eyes and Jack didn’t think he was fully conscious.
Shit. Was Dillon walking into a trap just like Patrick and Connor had?
Jack needed to get to his brother. He didn’t harbor any illusions that they’d be best friends again, but they had an understanding, and dammit, Jack didn’t want Dillon to die.
They circled the island. Dillon was unusually silent, and for some reason that bothered Kate.
The air was warm, but the water was icy cold coming down the Strait of Georgia. The fog had burned off, it was midafternoon, and the day was clear, bright, and beautiful.
Kate wished it was gray and misty. What happened to the rainy city? What happened to gray skies? She’d never believe what people told her about the Pacific Northwest again.
“Are you okay?” she asked, pretending to look at a map while she scanned the shoreline for any hint of people, particularly people with guns.
“As okay as I can be under the circumstances.”
He had on sunglasses, and Kate wished she could see his eyes. They spoke to her in a way he didn’t, saying things his words couldn’t express. But with the shades, he looked harder, more focused. More like the life Kate wanted to leave behind, instead of the future that for the first time she thought she might have. After they saved Lucy.
She was ready to give Trask up. The FBI had his real identity, they wouldn’t let go until they had him in prison. Quinn Peterson told Dillon they’d hit his financials. It was only a matter of time, and for the first time Kate was okay with that. The most important thing was to save Lucy Kincaid. Then maybe she could face the OPR and appeal for leniency. Rebuild her life.
Rebuild it with a man like Dillon Kincaid.
Not that she harbored any illusions that Dillon would want to be a part of her future. It was more the idea of a man
But for now, she put those thoughts aside. She might not survive. She accepted that. But she’d give her life to ensure that Lucy
“There,” she said pointing to a rocky spot on the shore.
“That cliff?”
She nodded. “We’ll scale it. It looks solid.” She glanced at him. “Can you?”
“Yes.”
They’d passed a dock on the opposite shore, but there were no boats. Because Trask was attempting to meet Kate at the base of Mount Baker? Or because no one was here? It was safer to land on this side of the island,
