This time when he ordered her to stop, just past a group of pine trees, Faith did. Running right now wasn’t an option, not when he’d already proved he wouldn’t hesitate to Taser her. When he’d opened the rear door of the police car, she’d jumped out and taken off. But he’d been prepared. The twin dart wounds on her back attested to that. And if that wasn’t enough incentive, the lethal knife sheathed at his side was more than adequate to keep her following orders.
At least until she could figure out how to escape without getting killed.
“Head uphill, up the path.”
She hesitated, thinking about all the scary movies she’d seen where the too-dumb-to-live heroine went up instead of down, sealing her fate.
The razor-sharp tip of his knife pressed against her back, cutting into her flesh. She gasped and arched away from it, then started up the incline.
One step, two, three. The sound of his footfalls joined hers, following behind. He certainly wasn’t dumb, staying close enough so she couldn’t escape but far enough back so that she couldn’t simply whirl around and shove him down the mountain.
Being helpless and forced to pin her hopes on someone else coming to her rescue was a foreign and uncomfortable feeling. But the way things looked, if no one figured out where she was and helped her, she wasn’t going to make it off this mountain alive.
In spite of her longing for one of her UB teammates or the police to find her, she silently prayed that Asher didn’t. Oh, she knew he’d try. If the roles were reversed, she’d do everything in her power to find him too. But even though to most people he might seem healed and back to normal, she’d seen his winces of pain often enough to know the truth. He wasn’t at a hundred percent, which made him vulnerable. She didn’t want him risking his life to save hers. She’d rather die than have that happen.
That realization had her blinking back tears of shock. Good grief. When had he become so important to her? She’d always treasured his friendship. But now he was so much...more. In spite of her determination to not risk the loss of their friendship to a romantic relationship, she’d utterly and completely failed.
She loved him.
Completely.
Hopelessly.
Loved him.
Please, God. Don’t let Asher be the one to come for me. Let it be someone else, or no one at all. Protect him. Keep him safe.
“Quit daydreaming. Move.” The knife pricked her back again.
She swore and started up the mountain.
RUSSO AND GRAYSON stood with Asher, discussing the circles he and Faith had drawn on the map currently spread out on the hood of his truck. Asher was explaining the colors of the circles and which ones he recommended that the police focus on as phase two of their search for the missing police car, and Faith. Everyone available was searching for her, and had been for the past forty-five minutes or so. But they’d found nothing. They needed a more focused approach, to think like the killer, and find her before it was too late. That was why Asher had stopped his seemingly fruitless searching and raced back to his house to grab the map.
He couldn’t even consider that they wouldn’t find her and save her. Even now, just the thought of her not being around left a big, gaping hole in his future. Who was he kidding? Without her, there was no future as far as he was concerned. Hell, if she wanted to be only friends and couldn’t see him as anything else, he’d take it, pathetic as that was. He’d rather be her friend than to lose her completely. What mattered most was that she was happy. And safe. God, he wanted her safe.
He motioned above them, speaking loudly to be heard. “Chopper’s been over this area for several minutes now. Heard anything from them yet? That police car has to be close by, even if the killer ditched it for another car. Otherwise, your men would have found some witnesses who saw it go down the mountain.”
Russo grimaced.
Grayson exchanged a surprised look with Asher. “Russo, don’t start holding back information now. Faith is our teammate, our family. We deserve the truth. We need the truth if we’re going to find her.”
The chief let out a deep breath. “I know, I know. I just don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. The chopper pilot thinks he saw sunlight glinting off something in the woods just around the curve at the bottom of the mountain, before the stop sign. My guys are checking it out right now.”
“Get us an update,” Grayson told him. “Now. Every minute counts.”
“On it.” Russo pulled out his phone to make the call.
Asher’s own phone buzzed. He checked the screen. “It’s Lance. I have to take this.” He stepped away from the hood, holding his hand over his left ear so he could hear Lance over the sound of the helicopter circling above.
“Lance, tell me you have something.”
He listened for a moment then swore. “Don’t give up. Someone at The Watering Hole has to know this guy. You’re using the police sketch, right? Telling people to picture him with dark hair, too, not just blond? Someone there has to know him, or remember him, maybe what he drives in case he hid that car and used it after ditching the patrol car. Get me a name.”
“We’re pulling out all the stops, doing everything we can.” Lance updated him on what the other UB investigators were doing to help. “We’ll find her, Asher. We will.”
He swallowed against his tightening throat. “I know. I just pray to God we’re not too late.”
A solemn group of police officers stepped out of the woods, escorting the medical examiner’s team as they finally brought Sergeant Wickshire’s body to the ME’s van.
Asher’s stomach sank as he watched the body bag being loaded. The idea of Faith in one of those shredded his heart. He turned away, still on the phone.
“Lance, check with Ivy. See if she’s made any headway with those fingerprints. If we can just get this guy’s name, we can figure out where he lives, what he drives, talk to people who know him and can give us insight on places he frequents.”
“I’ll call her right now. Hang in there, Asher.”
Grayson rounded the hood and leaned back against the side of Asher’s truck. “They found the police car. It’s empty.”
Asher nodded. “I figured. Any evidence inside? Anything to tell us what happened? Where they went?”
“There were tire tracks that don’t match the police car. One of their forensic guys said they appeared to have been made from a car, not a big truck or SUV. Looks like he hid it there, planning all along to escape in a police car then switch vehicles. What I don’t get is how he could have foreseen Faith being put in that last car, well away from where all the police were gathered.”
“Easy enough to predict,” Asher said. “Every officer in the area would have rushed up here to try to catch the serial killer and rescue his latest victim. Anyone who’s ever seen police activity like that knows there will be tons of cars and the cops themselves will all congregate around the action. Police rarely lock their cars in a situation like that. They leave the keys in them in case someone needs to move some of the vehicles out of the way.”
“I follow what you’re saying,” Grayson said. “Since Faith was personally involved, she’d have been kept way back from the action. Which is exactly what happened.”
“And we made it even easier for him by putting her in the back of a police car.” He shook his head, hating himself right now.
“There’s one other thing that Russo told me, about the cop car they just found.” Grayson gave him a sympathetic look. “There were some of those confetti ID tags on the ground.”
Asher squeezed his eyes shut a moment, a physical ache starting deep in his chest. “He used a Taser on her, probably the same one he used on Sergeant Wickshire. When I catch this guy, I’m going to tear him limb from limb.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” Russo joined them. “We’ve got TBI agents searching those areas you circled on that map. I took pictures of it and sent it to them. Law enforcement volunteers are driving in from neighboring counties to help so we can cover more territory more quickly.”
Grayson clasped Asher’s shoulder. “What else do you want us to do? Anything. Name it.”
Asher raked his hand through his hair. “I don’t... I don’t know. Damn it. I hate this. I have to do something.”
“You already are. You searched up and down the mountain like the rest of us, then rallied the troops and got everyone more organized. You’ve given her the best chance possible.”
“I have to figure this out, figure out where he has her.” Asher strode to the front of his truck and grabbed the map off the hood.
Grayson and Russo stepped back as he hopped inside and started the engine. When Grayson tapped on the window, Asher swore and rolled it down. “What?”
“I don’t think you should be driving right now. You’re upset and—”
“Damn straight, I’m upset. Faith is out there, somewhere, with a sociopath who’s killed nine people so far, that we know of. I’m heading up to this sicko’s cemetery. Finding it was the trigger for him to go after Leslie. It’s probably why he went after Faith too. He blames her, and me, for taking away his personal dumpsite. That location means something to him. There has to be a clue up there, something we’ve missed, something we haven’t thought of.”
Russo called out to him as he and Grayson hurriedly backed up to let him turn around in the yard. “My men already searched that area. There’s nothing there.”
“There has to be. There has to be.” Asher slammed the accelerator, kicking up dirt and sending his truck racing down the road.