Nina regained consciousness in a room. She shifted on a bed and took the place in. Motel, if she had to guess. Her head was a fog, her body bruised like she’d been hauled and dragged with no care for whether she was being injured.
She rolled and tried to sit up, but found her hands were caught. Handcuffed. To the metal rail of the headboard.
Her head whipped around. Was he here? Had Steve Adams brought her here for who-knew-what horrible purpose she didn’t even want to think about?
She sucked in a breath and yelled, “Wyatt!”
Even if he wasn’t here, maybe she’d draw attention from a neighbor and someone would come help her. There was no reply. An exterior door to her right was locked. No one could get in. If she could get free of the handcuffs she’d be out the door in less than four seconds. The other end of the room was a door, likely the bathroom. Was Wyatt in there?
Nina’s best friend had been found after a particularly nasty operation facedown in a bathtub, unconscious. That wasn’t something Nina wanted to relive. Especially not if this was going to wind up like some crime show on TV where there was nothing left but mess and evidence.
God, I don’t want to die. We were so close. It’s slipping out of my fingers, and I’ll lose him completely if I die. If Wyatt is gone. Her breath hitched. Don’t let him be gone, Lord. I can’t handle another death because I didn’t find Mr. Thomas fast enough. If he’s dead I might as well give up now and die, too.
What was the point in living if the one man in years that Nina had come to care for, the one man she’d thought she might actually love, was gone? Aside from a job she’d accepted just for the sake of something to do, and a best friend who was now living her own life, Nina had basically nothing.
Nothing but a lifelong obsession with finding the man who had destroyed her family. And now she was at the end of the journey facing the fact that he was about to destroy her, too. That years of searching, hoping and praying she might be able to do this were all wasted effort, pointless frustration that now might turn out to have been useless.
The bathroom door opened, and he emerged. Same clothes he’d been wearing before, minus the jacket. He’d rolled his sleeves up, and his hair was perfect as usual. His shoes were even shined.
“Nina.” Her name was a breath on his lips.
She clenched her stomach, trying not to freak out. “I know you’re Steve Adams. I know everything about you, everything you’ve done.”
He stepped closer, unfazed by her words, grasped the chair at the desk and flipped it around. He sat, crossed his legs and clasped his hands together. “You will address me as Mr. Thomas.”
The distance between them didn’t make Nina feel much better. Not since she was trapped with nowhere to go and no way out. God help me.
“These past few days have been...unpleasant. But I feel that we can put that behind us and move on, don’t you?”
Nina was silent as she tried to figure out what on earth he was talking about. Move on to what? And unpleasant? He’d purposely led them to his real identity and now he didn’t want to acknowledge that’s who he really was.
When he said nothing else, Nina said, “What do you want from me?”
“My patience has been tested, Nina, but no more. This is your last and final chance to cease these ridiculous attempts to best me and finally surrender. Admit that you cannot have the victory.”
He looked so...normal. It was as though he was commenting on a day of uneventful weather. “Now is the time for you to finally be free, Little Mouse. Your life has come to a close, and you will forever be freed from this world. I had thought you would be grateful for the freedom I’ve given you, but it seems you are not satisfied. Therefore, despite the fact that I have given you everything you should have wanted, my Little Mouse must be silenced. Forever.”
“You killed my mother, and you think you did me a favor?” Nina screamed. “It wasn’t freedom. You condemned me to a lifetime of grief. You gave me nothing! You only took from me!”
His mask slipped a tiny bit, and she saw a flash of anger in his eyes. “You will be free.”
“I will not. You destroyed my life.”
He launched out of the chair. “I made you! You were nothing until I came along.” His voice was a roar in the otherwise quiet room.
Why hadn’t someone heard her yell? Why wasn’t someone helping her? “Where is Wyatt? What did you do to him?” Nina shifted on the bed, trying to get away from him, but her back hit the headboard. “Is he dead? Did you kill him, too?”
“This is your last chance, Nina. You will be free as this Wyatt is.”
Wyatt was dead? “You may as well kill me. I have nothing left.”
“What about your delightful friend, Sienna? It would be such a shame if she met a sudden demise. Especially when she is with child.”
Nina writhed against the bite of the handcuffs. “You don’t touch her! I’ll kill you!”
He leaned forward. A couple more inches and she would be able to make contact. “I find that unlikely.”
“I will. You know I will.”
“Do I? None of the others put up the fight you have, getting their friends to shoot me. Some of them even thanked me for making their lives better...at least up until that end. But I gave their daughters what they needed.” He looked aside. “The freedom to do what they wanted to do instead of mother controlling every second of her life. Ballet. Violin. Painting. Until her feet were raw and her hands bled.”
He looked at Nina then. “I set her free.”
“And now it’s my turn?”
He nodded. “Now you will cease this bother and be free. Forever.”
“I’m not going anywhere, and you no longer consume my life. Because I’ve given my heart, all of it, to Wyatt. There’s no more room for hatred for you. That’s all there ever was. And now you’re nothing. Not anymore.”
Steve Adams launched himself at her. Nina kicked out before he could hit her and caught his cheek with the heel of her boot. He cried out, reached behind him and pulled out something a little bigger than a handgun.
He touched it to her neck and she quit moving.
* * *
Nina blinked again and woke. This time inside a wholly different kind of room. It smelled like earth after rain, and already her clothes had begun to stick to her body because the temperature was so warm. She shifted and heard the clink of handcuffs. So she was still wearing them.
Her hip felt like one giant bruise, and she figured Steve Adams had thrown her in here. Wherever “here” was. She couldn’t see much, since the only light was a yellow street lamp peeking through a couple of high vents.
On a long exhale, Nina sat up and tried to shake off the feel his words had left with her. Even if she died in here, it couldn’t be worse than facing down him and his sick desire to kill her. Like he was doing her a favor and not just still tying up loose ends. Trying to get away with murder.
Nina looked around. This was his end?
It looked like a shipping container, but there was nowhere in their Oregon town where there would be one. How far from home was she now?
Nina kept turning, shuffling around without getting up. One leg was numb from the pain in her hip, and she didn’t think she had the strength to stand just yet.
Behind her, she saw a long box and gasped. It looked like...a coffin. Or at least a box similar to ones that would transport a body. In the center of the container, it was the only thing in there with her.
Wyatt?
It was circled with some kind of thick tape, and she could see wood between the strips. She scanned the floor with her gaze and felt around with her fingers until she snagged something sharp. It looked like a shard of glass. She started at the end closest to her, under the lip, and began to saw at the tape.
“Wyatt?” She called his name, and the sound echoed through the metal container. “Wyatt, are you in there?” She kept sawing, cutting through the tape even though the glass sliced at her fingers. What if she got it open and he was already dead? Was she prepared to face that outcome?
Nina didn’t know if she could handle it. What she did know was that she’d spoken to him, and he’d been running out of air. If she was the difference between him living and dying then it didn’t matter that her fingers were getting slick with blood. That the glass was slipping, that she was messing this up.
She’d been messing it up from the beginning because she’d been too scared to realize how she felt about him. She’d hidden behind the professionalism that had defined her career, and missed all the signs that he cared for her. And that she cared for him.
What was that about? Nina of all people knew how short life was, how easily it could turn and leave a person reeling like being tossed around in a storm. Wyatt had steadied her. Faith had given her that strong foundation, the rock that could not be moved, but Wyatt had held her hand through it. He had been a gift of companionship and peace from God, one that she didn’t deserve.
And she’d taken him for granted.
Hot tears tracked down her face. She brushed them away with the back of her hand, leaving grit and probably blood smears instead. Who cared? He was probably dead anyway.
Nina sank back on her heels and sobbed.
A rustle from within the box...the coffin.
Nina moaned aloud and fell backward with nothing to break her fall. Whoever was inside shuffled. The top burst open from the corner she’d sawed. His fist emerged, disappeared and then came out again. Over and over he punched away the wood until it splintered.
He coughed. Nina cried louder as he sat up.
He looked at her, breathing heavy but looking relieved. And very much alive.
“Wyatt.”
* * *
Wyatt took a breath of musty air and tried to relax his heart rate. Adrenaline rushed through him; pricking beads of sweat gathered on his forehead. He glanced at Nina and soaked up the sight of her. She was beautiful even with mussed hair, wide-eyed and looking like she was so happy to see him.
The smear on her face drew his attention. He glanced down at her hands, stained a dark color. Wyatt hauled his heavy body through the hole he’d made in what he now realized really was a coffin. He could barely process what had happened.
He’d seriously been trapped in a coffin.
So Steve Adams intended him to be dead, then? And evidently Nina also, given that she was here with him.
Wyatt’s legs didn’t quite cooperate, and he collapsed onto the floor. “Where is he?”
She blinked. “I don’t know. I woke up alone, and I was until you came out of there.”
“Thank you for that.” He shifted closer to her. “I wouldn’t have gotten out if you hadn’t broken the tape.” He held out his hands. “Show me.”
She hesitated, but lifted her hands and placed them in his. Wyatt swallowed down the nausea and unbuttoned his shirt so he was only in his jeans and his undershirt. He wrapped his button-down around her hands. “It’s not clean, but it’s the best I can do right now. Hold it tight so it helps slow the bleeding.”
She nodded, and he reached for his pockets, emptying everything he carried on the floor. Everything he usually carried, except for his cell phone, his weapon and the backup he wore in an ankle holster.
He rummaged through his wallet, but found what he was looking for. Wyatt used the handcuff key to release her. Nina exhaled. “Now we just have to get out of this container.”
She nodded, but there was no hope in her eyes. There was only a quiet despair. She thought Steve Adams had won.
“Nina, we’re both here. We’re together, and we’re going to figure out how to get out of here. He isn’t going to win. I don’t care what he said or did, he isn’t the one in control here.”
Her brow flickered.
“While I was in there—” he pointed at the coffin he didn’t really want to dwell on too much “—I was thinking. And I prayed. God brought you here so I could get out. So I could then help you get out. It was Him, not Steve Adams.” He touched the cheek that wasn’t smeared with his hand. “Who is in control?”
Her voice was quiet, but she said, “God.”
“Not that madman. Okay?”
She nodded.
“I thought I was buried alive. I thought I would run out of air.” He sucked in a breath trying to tamp down the remnants of the fear he’d felt coursing through him as surely as she felt it now. “But I wasn’t, and now I get to be with you.”
He leaned closer to her face and rested his head alongside hers so he could just feel her there with him and breathe. Life was so precious, but if she wasn’t here with him then it was barely worth living.
How had she come to mean this much to him in so short a time? Wyatt could hardly believe it. And while she might not exactly feel the way he felt, he figured he could show her enough how valuable she was to him. How much he loved her. Maybe eventually she would trust his feelings for her enough to begin to love him back.
God, I know I’m asking for a lot today. But maybe You could help me out. She’s here with me for a reason. Maybe this is it?
“What if we can’t get out? What if no one finds us?”
Wyatt stroked her cheek with his thumb. “You’re going to lose faith in me now?”
Nina’s lips curled up into a small smile. One that disappeared almost as fast as it came. “It’s hard.”
“I know. But I thought I was going to die, and you got me out. Now you only need to trust me, okay?”
Nina bit her lip, but nodded.
“Good.” Wyatt went back to the coffin and reached around. He didn’t need the oxygen tank, but he shut it off. No sense in wasting it if he might need it later. His fingers made contact with the phone, and he pulled it out. “Maybe there’s enough juice in this thing we can call for help. Maybe there will be enough signal we can send a message. That’s a lot of maybes.”
Nina smiled at his ridiculous attempt at lightening the situation. He was so enamored with that smile he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. She blinked, but he was already leaning back. Wyatt got up and paced the length of the container, looking for a possible way out. He liked that he had surprised her, the fact that he had that element of surprise on his side. If he could keep her off balance long enough to charm her, she would see that he was someone she should keep around her. That he could make her life better the way she was making his better.
Okay, so not right at this moment, since they were stuck in a container. But more generally, she had shown him his worth in a relationship that he’d never seen before. She’d let him be himself, to show her his flaws and still embrace him even though she knew the worst of it.
Wyatt pulled on the handle and tried to push the door open. Nothing. It didn’t even budge one inch. He went to the vents and tried to haul himself up high enough to see out, but all he could catch a glimpse of was a cloudy night sky and street lamps.
He turned the phone on. There was a little battery, but it was blinking low and about to run out altogether. If they were going to use it, they’d have to do it quickly.
He waited a minute, but no bars popped up. He turned back to Nina. “Nothing. No signal. We have no way to call for help.”