Had a vine not been handy, Madeline would’ve fallen into the pit. Her heart pounded in her throat as she held on for dear life. She looked down. Wooden spikes pointed up from the ground. Her phone and gun had both fallen and were three feet below her. Dropping down to get them wasn’t a viable possibility. Her feet or a limb would land on a spike. There were too many to avoid.
Even if she somehow managed to drop down safely to get her phone and gun, she’d be trapped. A sitting duck for Chloe.
She tugged on the vines, and using all her upper-body strength, pulled herself up. One hand over the other. She pushed up from the ground, and forced herself to bend her injured leg, swallowed a scream.
Breathing through the hot vise of pain gripping her leg, Madeline glanced around. No sign of Chloe. But she couldn’t sit there waiting for her.
Level ground was best for her leg. She had to get off the hill.
Birds flew out of a tree twenty feet away as though something had spooked them.
Every sense she had went into overdrive as the need to survive took over.
Run!
Madeline scrambled in the opposite direction. Headed back downhill.
Keep moving. Don’t stop.
Run as fast as you can!
Another arrow whistled through the air, landing in bark inches from her head.
Oh, God.
Madeline ducked low, but didn’t stop. She gasped for air, her mind racing like a mouse caught in a maze. There had to be a way to save herself and Emma. To make sure Chloe never had a chance to drive Jackson through this gauntlet of hell and misery.
Chloe was closing in on her. She could feel it. There wasn’t much time.
In a physical struggle with Chloe while injured, she wouldn’t win. Since she’d lost her gun, she had no weapon aside from what she might be able to find. A tree branch maybe.
She had to outwit Chloe. Somehow. Keep moving. Hope her text message had gotten through and Jackson had notified the BAU team. She doubled back toward the cabin instead of finding out what was in store deeper in the zone.
Heart throbbing as if it would burst, she slogged forward to God only knew where. Chloe had been over every inch of this land, knew it, had it memorized.
Despite the pain searing through her body, Madeline ran onward. Hard. Limping and bleeding.
She found herself near the area where she had started.
Her gaze snagged on the spears sticking out of the bush. Seeing the bush before had driven her away from it in the opposite direction, toward a trap. Maybe that’s why it was visible. But maybe she could use this to her advantage.
She hobbled to the bush. Grabbing onto one of the spears, she wiggled it and pried it loose. Now that she had a weapon, she needed to find someplace to hide.
Crossing a stream, she passed a tight cluster of trees and came to thick underbrush. She bent down, gritting her teeth when she wanted to scream, and crawled into a bush.
She’d have to be cautious. Listen for even the snap of a twig around her. She could do this. Had to. She was out of other options. This was the best one.
Better to try anything than let that psychopath kill her.
Fury burned through Madeline.
Bring it on, Chloe.
I won’t go down without a fight!
JACKSON DROVE AS close as he dared to the entrance of the Survivalist Zone. He parked behind a stand of pine and grabbed the loaded gun from the case. Then with an eye on the locked gate, he crept through the woods in its direction.
He spotted the government SUV. His heart leaped, but there was no sign of Madeline.
Nothing moved around the cabin. No one passed in the dark windows. No smoke curled from the chimney.
With his nerves singing, he entered the code at the gate. The lock disengaged.
He slipped inside, closing it slowly, quietly behind him.
Passing the SUV, he noticed the tires had been slashed. All of them.
He made his way to the front door, careful of where he stepped, and edged inside the cabin. Glancing around, he caught sight of Theon’s picture on the wall. But he didn’t want to look at it. Theon was gone. As tragic as his suicide was, he was gone. Emma was alive. And here somewhere. That’s all he cared about it. Finding his little girl and Madeline and getting them both out safely.
Jackson walked through the room, searching for a sign that Emma had been in the cabin. A floorboard creaked. He stopped and walked back over it.
Staring at the floor, he remembered. Theon had constructed a bunker. Concrete walls. Concrete floor. Like the room Emma was being held hostage in.
Jackson kicked the bed aside. Found the door and opened the hatch. He climbed onto the ladder, got down two rungs and jumped down the rest of the way, sending a pang through him.
He spun around and the air caught in his lungs. Emma!
“Daddy!” Emma raced to him and launched herself into his arms.
Ignoring the pain slicing through his side, he wrapped his little girl in the biggest, tightest hug. “Oh, baby!” He kissed her head, her cheeks, her hair. But where was Madeline? “Honey, have you seen anyone else besides Liane? Did a nice woman find you?”
“Madeline?”
He set his daughter down. “Yes. Do you know what happened to her?”
Emma shook her head. “Liane made her go outside and Madeline told me it was safer to stay down here. She promised help would come. She was right.” His daughter wrapped her arms around his neck.
Despite the pain, Jackson lifted her in his arms. He’d gladly endure any discomfort if it meant he could hold his child.
He climbed out of the bunker. Opening the door, he peeked outside.
“You can’t hide from me!” Chloe said in the distance. “Come out and I’ll make it quick. If I have to find you myself, it’ll be slow and painful, Agent Striker.”
Madeline is in trouble.
Jackson darted out of the cabin, making his way back through the gate. This time he left it cracked open. Down the road, he cut into the trees to his car. He opened the back door and placed Emma inside.
“I need you to be a brave girl for me. A little longer. Stay down in the footwell.” He grabbed the blanket from the seat that he always kept in the car and covered her with it. “Daddy’s friend Madeline is in danger. I have to help her. Liane wants to hurt her.”
“But she wants to hurt you, too.”
That woman already had. “I know, baby. But I’m going to be careful. Stay here until I come back or the police arrive. Don’t move for any other reason. Understand, darling?”
“YOU CAN’T HIDE from me!” Chloe said, her voice circling closer. “Come out and I’ll make it quick. If I have to find you myself, it’ll be slow and painful, Agent Striker.”
Slow and painful it would be unless Madeline killed her first because there was no way in hell she was surrendering.
Something moved on the ground, underneath the same bush. A squirrel? Maybe a rabbit.
No, it was smaller.
Madeline didn’t dare move an inch to see what it was, praying it would crawl or scamper off. But it didn’t. It slithered closer.
A snake! Madeline swore in her head. She hated snakes, was terrified of them. But in terms of things to fear, Chloe was higher on the list.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she sucked in a calming breath. She hoped, prayed, it would slither past. Most of the snakes in Washington were nonvenomous. Not a concern. The only one she needed to worry about was—
A distinct rattle clacked under the bush.
Madeline gulped hard around the lump of ice in her throat. A rattlesnake was cause for concern. It could kill her. Not on the spot. Pain and swelling would start at the wound site and travel and spread from there.
With Chloe stalking her, there was only one thing Madeline could do.
Killing the rattlesnake wasn’t an option. Crawling to a new hiding spot wasn’t an option.
She braced herself as the snake slithered closer. The sound of the rattle filled her ears along with the frantic drum of her heart.
The sting was vicious. Brutal. But the rattler sank its fangs into her ankle twice. The second bite caught her off guard. Though she swallowed her cry, she’d jerked back, shaking the bush.
Chloe lunged into the underbrush, snatching Madeline by the hair, and dragged her out.
Screaming, Madeline rammed the spear up into flesh with all her might. She didn’t stop thrusting the sharpened pole into the woman until Chloe let her go.
Madeline’s vision blurred. She tried to stand, but the leg the snake had bitten turned to jelly, and the other, wounded from the arrow, was too weak to support her, so she crashed to the ground. Her thighs and calves were aching in agony, her lungs on fire. Rolling on her back to keep Chloe in her sights, Madeline shuffled backward. But there was nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. She couldn’t even run.
Chloe’s lips curled, baring her teeth in a face smudged with camouflage. The woman reached behind her, pulling something from the pack strapped on her back. A weapon. She held a rope, and on the end dangled a rock with spikes duct-taped around it.
Adrenaline sent Madeline scurrying away, scooting across the ground until a tree stopped her retreat. She swung the spear, desperate to keep Chloe at a distance.
The woman dodged the last wild swing of the spear and kicked Madeline in the leg injured from the arrow.
Madeline screamed, but swung the spear again at her attacker.
Chloe whipped the spiked rock in the air, faster and faster, picking up speed and gaining momentum. She launched the weapon and with a powerful whack split the spear in two.
The crunch of the wood splintering resonated in Madeline’s soul.
“It’s over, Agent Striker!” Teeth bared and growling like a wild beast, Chloe started swinging the spiked rock again. Preparing to strike Madeline in the leg. Or chest. Or the face.
A wave of horrifying panic engulfed her. In a frantic last-ditch effort, Madeline kicked at her. With her dying breath, she’d fight. “Go to hell!”
Chloe raised the spiked rock over her head and swung.
Boom!
The report of the 9 mm sounded like a cannon explosion, so loud it rattled Madeline’s teeth. She froze, confused. Dazed.
Chloe’s eyes went blank as she dropped to her knees dead before she keeled over to the ground.
Jackson rushed to Madeline, lowering to a knee. He pressed a hand to her cheek, his frantic gaze traveling over her body. “Are you okay?”
“Emma,” she said, her throat tight and sore. “Did you find Emma?”
“Yes, yes. She’s safe.”
A helicopter flew overhead and circled back, setting down near the cabin.
She rested her head on Jackson’s shoulder and looked at the body.
It was finally finished.
Chloe Lasiter was dead.