Capelli flipped through the channels on the TV in his apartment for the fiftieth time in the last two minutes. Vaughn’s text with the offshore account number had arrived like clockwork at 7:55, and it had taken all of Capelli’s willpower to ignore the message, especially when Vaughn had followed it up ten minutes past the deadline with a gif image of a mushroom cloud and a single, chilling word.

BOOM!

Scooping in a breath, Capelli let the oxygen soothe his accelerated heartbeat, lifting a hand to the state-of-the-art microphone transmitter resting just out of sight in his right ear canal. Although he was closely monitoring everything from the precinct, Sinclair had given him point on the case for tactics and coms, and so far, Vaughn had been every bit the shadow his nickname implied.

“It’s almost twenty-two hundred hours,” Capelli said. “Can we get a check-in?”

“Another one?” Hollister asked, punctuated by an “oof” as Isabella landed an expertly placed elbow to her partner’s rib cage from the spot where she sat next to him on Capelli’s couch.

“Don’t be a dick, H. He’s just being careful. Moreno and Hollister, in position,” she said for the benefit of everyone else on their ears-only coms, sending a lightning-fast wink in Capelli’s direction. They had to assume that Vaughn had been monitoring their locations, and Shae hadn’t been wrong when she’d said they had to sell this thing hook, line, and hacker. Vaughn would never buy the intelligence unit not putting Capelli into some sort of protective custody after a viable threat had been made against him. So for appearance’s sake, here they were, even though they all knew Vaughn had likely stopped watching him as soon as Capelli didn’t make the payment. But they needed Vaughn to think Capelli was well-guarded and Shae wasn’t so he’d make a move to try and get at her.

Yeah, it was official. The plan might be tactically solid, the team even more so, but he still fucking hated being seven point six miles away from Shae right now.

“Maxwell and Hale, in position. Eyes on McCullough’s location. All clear,” came Maxwell’s gruff voice. Capelli pictured the surveillance spot they’d chosen for the two detectives yesterday, the vacant apartment that just so happened to be one floor up from Shae’s unit and had a great line of sight on the surrounding street as well as the market across the way where Shae was currently out in the open and grocery shopping like nothing-doing, and his exhale came just a fraction easier that—for now—all was quiet.

“McCullough, in position. Aisle nine at the Food Market. And just so you know, this earpiece is really freaking cool.”

The sound of her voice, so confident and bold and so uniquely Shae, sent a bolt of something to Capelli’s gut that couldn’t be defined with words.

If anything happened to her, if she sustained so much as a fucking scratch on her honey-brown head, Capelli would search the ends of the earth and most of hell besides to find Vaughn and make him pay.

“Garza, in position, aisle six at the Food Market,” said Maxwell’s buddy from the gang unit who—thankfully, since they’d needed someone whose face Vaughn didn’t know—had been willing to jump in for an assist. “And for the record, McCullough? You’re buying the weirdest assortment of groceries I’ve ever seen.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault this place has Atomic Cheez Puffs and dill pickles on sale at the same time, okay?” she murmured quietly, since she was the only one of them other than Garza who was in public with her coms on. “At least the pickles are a vegetable. Sort of.”

Capelli snorted, unable to help it, and Shae conceded, “Okay, fine. They’re green. It’s close enough.”

He sobered less than a second later, remembering why she was at the grocery store in the first place. Who she was luring out of hiding. “Any sign of Vaughn yet?”

“Negative,” Shae said, both Garza and Hale’s voices layering in over hers in the same breath.

It was Hale who continued. “The market’s pretty empty since it’s closing in a few minutes. Vaughn might not want to risk making a move until Shae gets back to her apartment. But all the precautions for that are in place and good to go.”

Another thing Capelli knew for a fact, since he’d been the one to wire the hell out of the place. Still, Vaughn was arrogant enough to try and make good on his threat in public, so… “Shae, are you sure you don’t want to go over your exit strategy for the market one more time, just to be on the safe side?”

“I am, but something tells me you’re not, so…” The smile in her half-whisper edged out the underlying tinge of seriousness that Capelli was certain no one could hear but him. She might be calm on the surface and brash to her bones, but she was scared, too, and damn it, they needed to end this thing with Vaughn tonight. Once and for all.

Quietly, Shae said, “As soon as I’m done shopping, I’ll check out and leave through the primary exit, then load my bags into the Jeep and head directly home. I’ll keep my cell phone in my back pocket at all times so you can track my exact location via GPS. And before you ask, yes. I made triple sure to activate the backup device before I left, just in case.”

“Okay,” Capelli said. The plan of action—along with how thoroughly Shae knew it—kicked his unease down a notch. “Hale and Maxwell have eyes on the street, and Garza’s got your back in case Vaughn tries anything before you get home. But whatever happens, be sure to play it safe. Fall out if anything goes sideways, and keep your phone on you and your coms on until you’re back at your apartment.”

“I’ve got it, Starsky. Coms on. Phone in pocket. No exceptions. I’m headed to the checkout right now.”

Capelli blew out a wobbly breath. He listened to Shae chat up the clerk, cataloguing her progress through the line by the number of electronic beeps—twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three. He pictured the scene in his mind’s eye: the checkout line, the brightly lit alcove by which she’d exit the market, the equally well-lit path to the spot where she’d parked her Jeep at the end of the street. He’d worked through the plan no less than a thousand times. If Vaughn surfaced, Maxwell and Hale would see him far before he could get his hands on Shae. Even if by some utterly unexpected turn of events, Vaughn closed in on her, Garza was right there in the market, close enough to keep her safe. Logic dictated that she’d be fine. Even their backup plan had a backup plan with the GPS locator Capelli had embedded in the heel of her right boot.

Christ, maybe Shae had been right after all. Maybe this whole thing would go off without so much as a—

“I’ve got a visual on Vaughn,” Maxwell said, and the words slammed into Capelli with the force of a freight train. “Jesus, this guy really is a shadow. He’s on foot, just past the corner of Hanover and Grammercy. Came out of fucking nowhere.”

“Shae, what’s your position?” he asked, his heart thundering against his sternum. Cold and ruthless…like shadows and wraiths…damn it, they needed to get her out of there. Fast. Now.

“I’m at the Jeep, loading my groceries.” She slid the words under her breath, just loud enough for the coms to pick them up. “I have eyes on Vaughn. He’s at my ten. Passing the market right now.”

“Garza, get on this guy so we can take him down,” Capelli bit out. The scenario unfolded in his head, his brain mapping out moves and counter-moves fast enough to make him dizzy. Vaughn was on foot. He’d never make it far, with or without Shae, no matter how well he hid.

“Copy that. I’m heading out of the market—”

Garza’s words crashed to a halt.

“Garza?” Moreno asked, and only then did Capelli realize that she and Hollister had thrown on their Kevlar and geared up to fall out.

“Vaughn stopped,” Hale said. “Shit. He’s got eyes on Garza. Caught sight of him when he passed the market. I think he smells a setup.”

“I’m holding in the alcove pretending to be on my cell, but I don’t have a whole lot of options here if you want to keep our cover intact,” Garza near-whispered. “Vaughn is definitely suspicious. If I don’t fall out, he’s going to ghost.”

“Can you take him down from your current position?” Capelli asked, silently begging God and every other deity he could drum up that Garza would give up an affirmative.

But the detective’s pause was answer enough. “I don’t mind giving it a go, but he’s got a decent lead on me, and I’m willing to bet he’s got an exit strategy ready to roll. Your call.”

Capelli opened his mouth, ready to give the go-ahead anyway, when Shae’s voice filtered over the line.

“Hang on. I think I can get him to make a move.”

“No.” Adrenaline replaced the air in his lungs. “Shae, you need to get out of there. Right. Now.”

“I’m good without Garza. I know how to get Vaughn to close in rather than run.”

“Shae—”

“I said I’m good,” she insisted on a low hiss. “He doesn’t know I see him. He’s trying to decide whether or not to make a move. If Garza falls out, I think I can get him to bite.”

Fear combined with anger, both funneling into Capelli’s gut. “Shae. Listen to me. Don’t do anything stupid. Just get in your Jeep and lock—”

“Ah, damn it,” Maxwell bit out, and no, no. This couldn’t be happening. “Shae just took her cell phone from her pocket and put it in the front seat of her Jeep.”

Her cell phone. The same cell phone Capelli had told her a million times she needed to keep on her, no matter fucking what. But not having the phone would tell Vaughn she couldn’t be located, and in a soul-shaking instant, Capelli realized exactly what Vaughn was going to do. How he’d probably planned it from the beginning, right down to baiting Shae when she was supposed to be baiting him instead.

He was going to kidnap her, and they weren’t going to be able to stop him.

“Vaughn’s on the move,” Hale confirmed, her voice not entirely steady. “Coming in at your nine, Shae. Fast.”

Capelli’s heart locked in his throat. “Garza, go! Shae, you need to—”

“Bad move with the cell phone, sweetheart,” came Vaughn’s voice over the coms.

“Shae!” Capelli screamed.

But the only response was silence.

* * *

Holy hell, Shae felt strange. She tested her eyes in a series of slow-motion blinks, trying to get her bearings, all to no avail. She was moving—maybe?—possibly in a car, although she couldn’t remember how she got here or who she was with. Her mouth felt packed with cotton, her brain even worse, and wait…wait…she needed to figure this out.

Yeah. Not happening.

“Good morning, sunshine,” came a voice from beside her, insidious enough to chill her into awareness. The market…packing her bags in the back of the Jeep…the strange, highly chemical smell on the cloth that had been pressed over her face after Vaughn had appeared in her line of sight, and oh God. Oh God oh God oh God.

He had kidnapped her.

Shae bolted upright, although her brain worked on a full five-second delay. Her first instinct was to lunge for the passenger door, which of course was locked. God damn it!

Vaughn laughed, his cold, evil features flashing on-off, on-off in the passing street lights. “Gotta give you points for moxie. But since we’re moving at like”—he paused to flick a glance at the speedometer in a car that—shit!—wasn’t hers—“fifty miles an hour and I did recently dose you with chloroform, it’s probably better for you that I locked that door. Unless you’ve got a particular fondness for becoming road pizza, that is.”

“It’s better than being anywhere with you,” she shot back, but that only earned her another round of laughter.

“Feisty. I like it. Too bad it won’t get you very far.”

When she sent a gaze around the car to grasp for particulars, landmarks out the window, street signs—God, anything would be helpful at this point—Vaughn only smirked.

“You didn’t really think I was dumb enough to take you very far in your car, did you? What with its GPS and everything? Tsk tsk. We switched vehicles a while ago.”

Her stomach bottomed out with dread as Vaughn continued. “Oh, and I tossed your cell phone on the street before we left. You’re not going to find your earpiece still in place, either. I’d say I’m sorry, but, you know. It’d be a rookie move if I didn’t check you for coms, and I’m far from a rookie. Took off that pretty necklace of yours, too. I know how much James loves to hide GPS trackers in those. He’s nothing if not completely predictable.”

Oh God, her GPS tracker. Shae’s heart stuttered with hope. She surreptitiously wiggled her toes, relief spilling through her belly that her boots were still in place and seemed intact. Intelligence could still track her. Her failsafe was still in place, and Vaughn didn’t know it.

Now she just had to be smart and stall for time. “Where are you taking me?”

“Ugh, I liked you so much more when you weren’t conscious,” Vaughn said, giving up an exaggerated eye-roll. “Buuuuuut since no one can save you even if you know, I’m taking you somewhere where we can finish this. You and I are going to an abandoned freight tunnel system, where I’m going to bring you far enough underground that no one will be able to hear you scream. I’m going to tie you up—while James and that whole useless intelligence unit of his watches via secure video feed, by the way—and then I’m going to douse the place in gasoline and set it on fire. You’re going to burn alive. And you of all people should know you won’t be dying quickly.”

Shae’s throat clogged with fear, her breath hitching at an unnatural pace. “Don’t,” she said, immediately regretting the impulsive slip.

Vaughn’s brows took the slingshot route up toward his hairline. “Oh, come on, now, Firefighter McCullough. You don’t strike me as the type to beg for your life.”

If only it were that easy. But she was already in for the penny. At this point, she needed to go down fighting for the whole damned pound. “You got what you wanted. You’ve got me. Kill me, if that’s what will get your tiny little rocks off. But don’t make him watch.”

A heartbeat passed, then recognition stole over Vaughn’s face, his features eerie and twisted in the near-dark of the car. “Holy shit, that’s just priceless. You know he’ll remember every detail until the day he fucking kicks it, and you want to spare him the agony of watching me cook you alive while he can’t do a thing to save you.”

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. There had to be a way out of this. Analyze, then hypothesize. All she had to do was buy time and think.

“That’s not going to happen.” How Shae managed to make the words so steady when her heart was rioting so hard in her chest, she had no freaking clue. “You’re not going to kill me.”

She still had her boots on. The intelligence unit was tracking her with the GPS. Capelli had followed protocol to give her a failsafe, and he would come for her.

Vaughn’s expression was covered in scorn. “Your blind faith is so sweet. Too bad it’s also naïve and completely brainless. You’re going to die screaming, sweet cheeks, and James is going to watch every single second.”

Without warning, he jerked the car over to the side of the narrow road they’d been traveling, their surroundings dark and deserted enough to make Shae’s spine crawl with cold, clammy dread. The only thing she could see was an ancient metal sign in the over-bright glare of the headlights.

HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS. FREIGHT TUNNELS CLOSED. NO TRESPASSING UNDER PENALTY OF LAW.

Oh…God.

Vaughn unhooked his seatbelt, his stare as cruel as it was utterly uncaring. “See, I started planning this whole thing the second I threatened your boyfriend, and the two of you made it far too easy for me to get my hands on you. You’re going to pay for your stupidity, and I will get the satisfaction of showing James how much smarter than him I’ve always been.”

And then there was a blinding pain in her temple, and the whole world went black.