CHAPTER ONE
“I’M GOING TO teach you to like pain.”
Dawn Alexander felt the tears trailing down her cheeks. She could only stare at the man who stood above her, a man with a face that was so heartbreakingly familiar, and shake her head.
Her hands were tied behind her back. The rough hemp rope bit into her wrists. She’d strained to break free for hours, and the rope had sliced into her wrists as she struggled. Each ankle was bound to a chair leg.
And Dawn was in hell.
He smiled at her. A smile that was wide and charming. A smile that flashed the dimple in his left cheek. “Right now, you don’t understand how good the pain will be. You still cry out when I hurt you.”
He’d hurt her plenty. The nightmare wouldn’t stop.
He lifted the bloody knife and pressed the tip to her cheek. “But soon the real fun will begin. By the time I’m done, you’ll be begging for the knife to slice you deeper.”
He means I’ll be begging for death.
“Please,” Dawn pleaded then as she had for hours. But he hadn’t listened to her. The man she’d thought was her friend had turned into a monster before her eyes. “Just let me go.”
His bright blue eyes hardened as he stared down at her. “You came into my life, Dawn. You came to me. You tried to come between me and the one person who matters most.”
Her breath sawed out of her lungs. They were in a small cabin, far away from the busy streets of Baton Rouge. The man before her—she knew him. She’d known him for years. Jason. Jason Frost. Everyone in the area knew him. Tall, handsome, smart and strong... Jason had been the star athlete on the football team. The guy most likely to succeed. Sure, there were plenty of stories that had swirled about his family—or rather, his father—but Jason, with his perfect looks and easy charm, had been the one all the girls loved.
But not me. I didn’t love him.
Because she’d lost her heart to his younger brother. She’d fallen fast and hard for Tucker Frost the first time they’d met.
She’d been thirteen. He’d been sixteen. She’d been so taken by him that no other boy had ever been able to compare. But when he’d turned eighteen, Tucker had left her. He’d joined the Navy, gone far away. She’d heard people say that he’d become a SEAL.
And he’d just...vanished.
Until a few weeks ago. Until he’d come back and she’d turned around and found him standing in the library at Louisiana State University. He’d been looking for her. And she’d been lost.
“Does Tucker know what you’re doing?” The broken whisper came from her. That had been her darkest fear as the hours had slipped by and her pain had continued.
Jason had picked her up from her dorm room. He’d said that Tucker wanted him to give her a lift out to their place. She’d gone so easily, so happily, never hesitating. Only he hadn’t driven her to their home. He’d taken her away from the city, to the edge of the Mississippi River. To this little cabin.
The first time he’d hit her, she’d been stunned. Too stunned to move. The second time, he’d hit her so hard she couldn’t move.
Jason tilted his dark head down, seeming to give her question deep thought.
Her heart pounded frantically in her chest. “Tucker won’t like this,” she said, desperate. “You’d better let me go. You don’t want Tucker angry—”
His head lifted. His eyes—eyes the exact same shade as Tucker’s—met hers. And he smiled again. Tucker’s smile. Oh, God. “Of course he knows. Why do you think he came to see you when he arrived back in town? You’ve been on our list for quite a while.”
Her heart stopped. Dawn shook her head. No. Anger was there, beating just below the terrible fear. Tucker wouldn’t do this.
Not Tucker.
He’d...he’d seemed to care about her. They’d always been close, secretly so before he left for the Navy. Nothing romantic or sexual, just...friends. They’d been friends when they were kids. He’d walk her home. He’d make sure she had all her books.
But when he’d come back recently, when he’d come back as a man and found her at LSU, they’d stopped being just friends. They’d become so much more. He’d become everything to her.
Not Tucker.
The knife lifted and her breath came a little easier.
Then the blade sank into her shoulder, going deep, and he twisted the hilt. Dawn choked out a scream.
He laughed at her. “Surely you’ve read the stories in the paper? I mean, the press seems to be giving our kills a great deal of attention.”
Our kills?
“They even gave me a name.” He pulled out the blade and gazed at the blood on the weapon. “The Iceman.” He nodded once, as if satisfied with that name. “But they are so clueless. They don’t know why I freeze the bodies. They don’t get it at all.”
OhGodOhGodOhGod. Yes, she’d heard the stories about the Iceman in the paper. The guy who’d been abducting women for the last few years. The man who froze their bodies and...kept them. Kept them so very long before he would call the cops, tipping them off to the locations. And those poor women would be found, so perfectly preserved, in freezers.
She looked up at Jason. His thick, dark hair. His perfect features. His gleaming eyes. That dimple. Dawn could only shake her head.
“The press should have realized it wasn’t just one man committing the crimes,” he said. “I mean, really, it’s more like Icemen than Iceman.”
“Not Tucker.” Her breath heaved out. “You’re lying!”
His eyes narrowed. “Why?” That bloody knife came back to her cheek. She knew he was going to cut her face. Dawn tried to brace herself for that pain. “Because you think you know him? Because he fucked you?”
She felt her face flame. Yes, he had. And Tucker had been her first. Her only. She loved him. She trusted him. She—
Jason laughed. Hard, deep laughter. “You are so clueless. Blood comes before anything else. Tuck has my back. He always has. He’ll be here soon, and he’ll prove the truth to you.”
The tip of the knife pressed into her cheek, a shallow cut, taunting her.
“And you’ll see the truth for yourself.”
He turned away from her.
Dawn twisted her bleeding wrists behind her, struggling as hard as she could against the rope. Terror clawed at her insides as the stories of the Iceman’s kills ran through her mind. All the victims had been young women—pretty, single. When their bodies had finally been recovered, they had been covered in slices. Stabbed again and again. Tortured. Then frozen in time...as if...as if the killer wanted to savor them.
I won’t be another victim.
“They’re alive when I put them in the freezer.”
For an instant, her struggles ceased. Stunned, she could only stare at his broad back.
“I make sure of it,” he added. “The cops haven’t released that part to the media, but I always put them in the freezers when they’re still breathing. I like for them to feel the cold sliding over them. I know it makes them long for the pain again.” He looked back over his shoulder at her, and his profile... It is so like Tucker’s. “I told you, before I’m done, you’ll grow to like the pain.”
No.
She yanked hard at the ropes and Dawn thought she felt them give...just a bit.
She also heard the growl of a car’s engine outside the cabin.
His smile stretched. “Right on time. I’ll go greet Tuck, then the real fun can get started.”
She opened her mouth, ready to scream. She’d done that before, screamed endlessly, but he’d just laughed and said that no one was around to hear her.
This time, though, he leaped forward and slapped his hand over her mouth.
Anger hardened his face. “I’ll be the one to talk with Tuck first.” Then he slapped a gag on her in mere moments. He shoved it into her mouth, bloodying her lips even more, and then tied it behind her head. He stood in front of her as that growling engine came closer, and he leaned down, until they were eye to eye. “We are going to have so much fun with you.”
He kissed her, putting his mouth right over the gag.
“I’ll fuck you, too,” he promised.
The tears fell again, but he’d already turned away. He rushed toward the cabin’s door. Toward Tucker. And she kept yanking on the ropes that bound her wrists. He’d been so busy with the gag that he hadn’t even checked to see if she was still securely tied.
The joke is on you, bastard. I’m not. The rope around her left wrist broke free.
* * *
TUCKER FROST PARKED his car and jumped out of the vehicle. A thousand stars glittered overhead as he approached the old cabin, a place that he damn well hated.
Jason should hate the place, too. He had no idea why his brother wanted to meet him there. The cabin held only bad memories. Memories Tucker wished that he could forget. He’d gone halfway around the world in an effort to banish that hell from his mind.
Insects chirped all around him. Frogs croaked, and down near the water he could hear the deep growl of a gator. Swamps weren’t quiet—most folks had that wrong. Swamps were loud and busy, all the time. Especially at night.
And he hated this one swamp in particular. It was too full of dark secrets.
“About time you got here!”
His gaze lifted at his brother’s voice, and he saw Jason bound out of the cabin. “I’ve been waiting over an hour for you to show up.”
Tucker rolled back his shoulders. “I stopped by Dawn’s dorm. I needed to talk to her.” Because he’d gotten orders to ship out. A new mission. He wouldn’t be back for a few months and he’d wanted to tell her the news face-to-face. Hell, he hated the idea of leaving her. Little Dawn Alexander. Who would have thought that she’d come to mean so much to him, so fast? He cleared his throat. “But she wasn’t there.”
Jason glanced back toward the cabin. “You don’t say...”
Tucker yanked a hand through his hair. He and his brother stood at a similar height, and their bodies were built along the same rough and ready lines. “Why did you want me to come out here?” Before his brother could answer, Tucker gave a bitter laugh. “Unless we’re out here to torch this place, I don’t really want—”
“We’re not torching it.” Anger crackled in Jason’s voice, surprising him. “I don’t like fire.”
Tucker’s brows flew up. “And I don’t like this place.” Too many bad memories. “You shouldn’t, either.” Not after the hell that had happened to them there.
Jason rocked back on his heels. “Family comes first.”
That was a phrase that seemed to echo in Tucker’s mind. It was a phrase his father had used too many times.
Jason cocked his head and studied Tucker. “You believe that, don’t you?”
He didn’t speak. Tension snaked up his spine. This scene was wrong. “Why are we out here?”
Jason glanced back toward the cabin. “I fixed it up while you were out saving the world. Looks good, doesn’t it?”
It would never look good to Tucker. We should have destroyed it long ago.
“When you came back, I knew things would be different.” Jason focused on him once again. “I have a surprise for you.” He nodded once. “Inside the cabin.”
The tension Tucker felt grew even worse. “I don’t like surprises.”
But his brother just laughed. “You’ll like this one.” Then he came forward and slung his arm around Tucker’s shoulders. Tucker forced himself to relax. This was Jason, the guy who’d always had his back. The guy had been looking out for Tucker his whole life. When he’d been a kid, Jason had made sure no bullies were ever dumb enough to tease Tucker about his worn clothes or the fact that his lunch box was empty most days. Jason had always been there to take care of him.
He’s my blood. The only blood that matters.
Tucker blew out a long breath. If Jason wanted him to go into the cabin, then he would. Hell, he’d do just about anything for his older brother. With Jason’s arm still slung around his shoulders, they headed up the rickety stairs and toward the door. Jason was talking and laughing, and the guy seemed happier than Tucker had seen him in years.
Jason opened the door with a flourish. “After you, bro.”
Tucker headed inside. The old floorboards creaked beneath his feet, the way they’d done years ago. But the place didn’t reek of the stale scent of old beer. Instead...
What is that scent?
“Open the door on the right.” Jason’s voice had hitched up. “Your surprise is in there.”
Okay, he’d play along. For the moment. Then he needed to tell Jason about his new orders. His brother wasn’t going to like that he had to leave again. Jason hadn’t understood when Tucker had enlisted. But Jason didn’t get it. If Tucker didn’t let the dark energy swirling inside him have an outlet, then trouble would come.
Tucker grabbed for the doorknob. He pushed it open and—
Terror.
For an instant, Tucker just stood there. He stared into Dawn’s beautiful green eyes—eyes that were glassy with terror. Blood and tears trickled down her cheeks and she was yanking at the rope around her left ankle. Her shirt was covered in blood. Her body marked by bruises.
And she looked at him as if he were the devil himself.
Tucker shook his head. No, this was wrong. This was wrong. “Dawn?”
Jason slapped his hand down on Tucker’s shoulder. “Surprise! Had her waiting for you.”
A gag was in Dawn’s mouth. A purple bruise along her delicate jaw.
Tucker whirled on his brother, knocking that hand aside. “You did this to her?” A dull ringing was in his ears and rage burned in his veins. “You hurt her?”
Jason’s eyes widened. “Easy, bro.” The words were low and warning. “You know you have to watch that temper of yours. Control, right? It’s key?” But his lips were curving. “You lose it and you become just like our old man.”
Screw that. Tucker shoved his brother back, hard, slamming him against the wooden wall then pinning him there. “What the hell did you do?”
Jason’s mouth opened to respond, but then Dawn was rushing right past them. She’d leaped out of her chair and run for the door.
“Shit!” Jason bellowed. “Stop her! We have to stop her!”
Was his brother insane? The guy lunged up, but Tucker slammed him back against the wall. “What did you do?”
Jason head-butted him. The blow was fast and brutal and Tucker staggered back for a moment, and that moment was all that his brother needed. Jason shot toward the door, chasing after Dawn.
Stunned, Tucker glanced around the cabin. There was blood on the floor. Dawn’s blood. And she’d stared at him with such absolute terror on her face. No, no, it couldn’t be happening. Not again.
Not the fuck again.
Locking his teeth, he raced outside. His gaze flew to the left, to the right. He saw Jason, running toward the car that Tucker had just driven up in. Dawn was yanking at the driver’s-side door. Frantically, she clawed at the door handle, obviously desperate to get inside.
But I have the keys.
“Dawn!” Tucker yelled her name.
Her head whipped toward him. Then Jason was on her. His brother grabbed her head and slammed it against the car. Dawn sagged instantly and a fury unlike anything Tucker had ever known filled his whole body. He heard a roar and didn’t even realize that guttural cry had come from him, but in the next instant, he was on his brother. He ripped Jason away from Dawn. “Not her!” Carefully, he lowered her to the ground. His hand went to her forehead and he felt the blood on his fingers—
“Hell, yes,” Jason snarled. “Her.” Then he drove both of his fists into Tucker’s back. Tucker fell down, nearly landing on top of Dawn, but he managed to turn his body at the last moment. He came up again, swinging this time. A hard cut at his brother because the guy never had been able to take a left hook. Jason stumbled back at the hit, and Tucker went at him again. Punching. Kicking. Using every bit of knowledge he’d learned in the hellholes on earth. SEALs could fight dirty and he sure as hell did. In moments, Jason was beneath him on that ground, his face a bloody mess, barely able to lift up his hands and stop Tucker’s blows.
“She’s...going to die...”
Tucker froze with his hands still fisted.
Jason spat blood as he said, “She’s...running to the...river...”
He hadn’t even heard her flee. Tucker’s head whipped around, and sure enough, he saw that Dawn had fled. Only she wasn’t rushing down the old dirt road that led away from the property. She was running to the rotted dock that waited yards away. A dock that stretched out over the mighty Mississippi.
“Dawn!” Tucker yelled her name as he leaped to his feet. He left his brother there because Dawn was the priority. She mattered. “Dawn, wait!”
She cast a terrified glance over her shoulder and in that moment, with the stars glittering down and showing him her face, he realized...she’s afraid of me.
But...he was trying to help her.
“Dawn?” He ran toward her.
She backed to the edge of the dock. She was right over the water, just standing there. Too close because...
Dawn didn’t know how to swim. She’d told him that less than a week ago. A hushed, embarrassed confession. When she’d been six, she’d fallen into her aunt’s pool and nearly drowned. After that, she’d been terrified of the water. At her quiet confession, he’d felt protective. He always felt protective where she was concerned. He’d promised to teach her how to swim. Promised to make her whole life safe, always.
And now this is happening.
He’d told his brother that Dawn couldn’t swim. He’d told Jason how afraid she’d been and how Tucker had wanted to erase that fear.
“Don’t go into the water!” He lifted his hand toward her and realized that his knuckles were bloody from punching Jason. “Dawn, please...stop.”
She lifted her hands, as if she’d ward him off. “Don’t hurt me.” Her voice was a weak rasp and it utterly broke his heart. Until that moment, he hadn’t realized just how completely truly she owned his heart.
But when he felt it shatter, he knew.
“I wouldn’t.” He took another step toward her. The dock swayed beneath his feet. “Not ever.”
She shook her head.
She doesn’t believe me. He could see it. He risked a glance over his shoulder but saw that Jason was still sprawled on the ground. Quickly, he turned his attention back to her. “I don’t know what’s happening here.”
Her laughter was bitter, terrified, and it hurt him. “Your brother...is going to kill me.”
No. It wouldn’t happen.
Tucker took another step toward her. “We’re going to get in my car and we’re going to get the hell out of here.” He kept his palm open to her. He needed her to trust him. To take his hand. “Come on, baby. I swear, I won’t let him hurt you.” I won’t ever let anyone hurt you again.
She was shaking, but...
“He said you were...coming to kill me.”
Tucker shook his head. “No.”
“Did you...kill the others?”
What others? Nausea rose in his stomach. Wasn’t this what he’d feared? Oh, shit. Shit. He should have stopped this. Should have paid more attention to his brother.
He’s too much like our father.
That was the problem. They were both too much like dear old dad.
She put her hand to her shoulder, to the wound that was still bleeding. She was covered in blood, they were near the edge of the water, and he knew there were plenty of gators out there. He could hear their cries. “Let’s get out of here.” He took another step toward her. He was just going to have to grab her and pull her to his car. He wanted her away from that death-soaked place. Right the hell then—
He lunged for her. But Dawn jumped back and fell into the water. She sank like a stone and his heart stopped. In the next second, he was diving off that dock after her. No way was he going to lose Dawn. Not her. Not her. The words were a mantra in his head. He swam until he touched her, until his hand wrapped around her body, and then he kicked them up to the surface. He felt something brush against his body but he didn’t stop. The gators were there, he knew the blood and thrashing would just be drawing them in closer, and Tucker knew that he was getting Dawn out of that water.
He pushed her toward the dock and helped to heave her body up onto the old wood. Water streamed down her body as she crawled across the rotting dock, and Tucker hauled himself right up after her. He reached for Dawn.
Jason’s laughter froze him.
“That was impressive,” his brother said. “Very hero-like, the way you dived in after her.”
Tucker was on his knees. Dawn was about two feet away from him, and Jason...he had a gun pressed to her head.
“This isn’t how I planned things.” Jason’s left hand swiped at the blood that fell from his busted lip while his right held that gun against her temple. “But it can still work.”
Tucker didn’t look at Dawn’s face right then. He couldn’t.
“You knew it would happen,” Jason said. “Only a matter of time, for us both. The urge was always there. The violence—it’s a rush, isn’t it?”
His hands fisted at his sides. “Let her go.”
“You won’t believe what I’ve learned. I want to show it to you. Share it with you. But this one...” He jabbed the gun into Dawn’s temple. Dawn didn’t make a sound. “She’s messing things up. You think I didn’t see it? Even years ago, you watched her too much. But you didn’t touch her. Hands off, right, bro? You broke that rule this time, and everything changed.” His shoulders slumped. “So maybe it’s your fault this is happening to her.”
“Jason...”
“It’s your fault she’s dying.”
Tucker reached his right hand beneath the leg of his wet jeans. He grabbed for the knife he kept there, but he made sure not to let his brother see the weapon.
“She has to die. I mean, if I let her go...she’ll run to the cops. She’ll tell them what happened. They’ll lock me up. You don’t want that to happen, do you?” Jason demanded, a desperate edge creeping into the words. “You don’t want me in a cell? A cage?” His voice roughened even more. “We’ve both been in a cage before. We swore neither of us would go back.”
Yes, they had sworn that.
“Choose.” Jason stared straight at him, his eyes glittering. “Choose right now and let her know it. Tell her the truth that we’ve always both known. Blood is thicker than anything else. Blood binds.”
Tucker rose to his feet, making sure to keep the knife behind him and out of his brother’s sight. “Blood comes first.” Those were the words their father had battered into their minds.
Jason nodded and he lifted the gun away from Dawn’s head.
“Tucker?” she rasped his name. “Please, don’t...”
“You do the honors,” Jason said. He offered the gun to Tucker. The guy was smiling at him, as if this was some kind of game.
It wasn’t a game.
Dawn tried to crawl away.
Jason yanked her back. He locked one hand around her throat. The other still held the gun, but now the barrel was pointed down at the dock.
“She’s more of a fighter than I thought,” Jason murmured. “Sometimes, they don’t fight at all. They just beg.”
My brother is a monster. And Tucker had let this happen.
Dawn was clawing at Jason’s hand, but his brother didn’t even seem to feel the pain. He just stared straight at Tucker, that stupid smile on his face as he choked Dawn.
With his right hand, Tucker reached for the gun. But at the same time, his left hand came up in a rush—and he drove that knife straight at his brother’s chest.
Jason let out a bellow as he staggered back. He freed Dawn and she scrambled away.
Tucker snatched the gun from Jason. Then Tucker twisted that weapon around in a fast, practiced movement, aiming it at Jason even as his brother yanked the knife out of his chest.
“Don’t!” Tucker snarled when Jason took a lunging step toward him. Dawn had run down the dock, heading back toward the old cabin. “This is ending, right here. You aren’t hurting anyone else.” Dear God, Jason...how many people have you already hurt? He was afraid to find out that truth.
“You stabbed me.” His blood was dripping on the dock. “To save her, you stabbed me.” Fury burned in this words. Disbelief.
“I will kill you in order to save her.” Just so there was no confusion. But it doesn’t have to be this way. He moved his body, making sure to block the exit off that old dock, stopping any attempt Jason could make to charge after Dawn. “Jason, drop the knife.” Jason still gripped it tightly. “Drop the knife and put your hands up.”
Jason didn’t drop the knife. “What are you going to do? Call the cops? Play the hero?”
His phone was in the car. “Yeah, I’ll be calling the cops.”
“I said no cage!” That rage was getting hotter. “You know that! You know I can’t handle that!” And Jason laughed. A wild sound. “Just as I know you won’t kill me. You can’t. That knife barely even went into me. You weren’t trying. Just for show...”
He was coming forward.
Tucker couldn’t hear the thud of Dawn’s footsteps any longer. Where was she? “Don’t take another step.”
But Jason did. “I’m going to slice her all over. I’m going to make her beg.”
Tucker’s rage burned, too. “You aren’t touching her.”
“You’re going to help me. You’re going to be at my side, the way you always are. You understand me. You want the same things I want.”
Jason was a foot away from him.
Tucker shook his head. “I want Dawn.” He eased out a low breath. “Drop that knife, now.” But he knew Jason wasn’t going to do it. “Don’t—” he began, but it was too late. Jason had surged forward. He didn’t swing at Tucker with his knife. Tucker wasn’t his goal. He slammed his body into Tucker’s, shoving him out of the way.
Because Jason wants Dawn.
But Tucker wasn’t letting that happen. He caught his brother, held tight when Jason fought and then...
He fired.
The blast of that gun seemed deafening. For a moment after that terrible thunder, there was no sound at all. Even the insects had stopped chirping, as if they were afraid. Jason was staring at him, his face easy to see under the bright, full moon.
Shock.
Betrayal.
Then Jason was plunging that knife at Tucker, slicing down his arm, slicing his hand and trying to make Tucker drop the gun.
He didn’t drop it. Tucker fired again.
Jason staggered back.
“You won’t touch her again.”
Tucker fired once more. His brother was on the edge of the dock, he staggered back—
And fell into the water, sinking deep with a splash.