“YOU REALIZE THAT this has to end,” Tucker said. “There are too many bodies, too many mistakes that you’ve made.”
“Seems that way, doesn’t it? But it’s not over until my last dying breath.”
He feared that would be the case.
“You haven’t asked about Kate,” she said, and there was that smile again, one he’d come to hate.
“The reporter?” He shook his head. “You think that’s why I’m here?”
“Isn’t it? I saw the two of you in the park.”
He smiled. “I’m still the red-blooded American male you seduced all those years ago.”
Her gaze ran the length of him. “Too bad we can’t go back, isn’t it?”
Tucker sensed the change in her. His heart began to pound. She was going to kill him. “So where is Kate?”
“I suspect she’s around here somewhere. That was Rip’s doing, not mine.” She was lying. She knew exactly where Kate was. Or did she?
“Who brought Kate up here if not you? Rip’s dead so I know he didn’t do it.”
Madeline smiled. “Some of your old friends. They’d do anything Rip asked them to do.”
Not Jayce. “Cal and Lonny.” He felt a surge of hope that Kate was still alive. He still believed Cal wouldn’t hurt anyone, not even for Rip. Lonny, though, was another story.
“So they brought Kate up here to lock her in one of the old changing rooms or the pump house. What is the point? You could have lied and said you had Kate.”
She shook her head. “She has to be taken care of just like you. You shouldn’t have come back. And Little Miss Reporter should have kept her nose out of my business.”
Tucker’s fear now was that he wasn’t going to find Kate because Madeline had brought him up here only to kill him. He could tell by the look in her eyes that she wanted to finish this and disappear again. But only after he and Kate were dead.
In the distance, he thought he heard sirens over the roar of the creek. What he needed was time, he realized as behind Madeline he spotted Kate coming up the mountainside. Wherever she’d been kept, she’d somehow managed to get away. His heart soared. She had something in her hand that caught the light as she sneaked up the trail behind Madeline.
“I have to ask,” he said, stalling. “Is Jayce involved?”
She cocked her head at him. “Your best friend?” Her laugh cut him like glass. “That would be tragic, wouldn’t it? I guess you’ll never know,” she said and pulled the trigger.
* * *
KATE HAD FOUND a piece of old pipe about a foot long in the growing light of day. She’d hurried as fast as she could up the trail without making too much noise and warning Madeline. It had come to her that even though she couldn’t see the woman’s face, she had to be the blonde holding the gun.
She was within yards of Madeline’s back when she heard the gun report. A scream escaped her throat as she saw Tucker fall. She ran the last few yards, coming up behind the woman and bringing the pipe down hard.
But Madeline must have heard her. Or sensed her. She spun around, the blow catching her in the shoulder and arm rather than the head. The gun in Madeline’s hand went flying down the mountainside but the woman managed to grab Kate’s arm as she howled in pain.
Kate had that split second when she came eye to eye with a woman she had detested for nineteen years. This was the woman who had stolen Tucker’s heart. This was the woman who’d broken it.
She swung the pipe again, but Madeline grabbed it, using her uninjured arm. She was strong and threw Kate off balance. But Kate wasn’t about to let go of the pipe and give Madeline not only the advantage but another weapon to use against her.
Off balance already, she pulled hard and Madeline fell with her. The two rolled down the mountainside to the edge of the roaring creek. Madeline had landed on top of Kate and now tried to use the pipe to choke her with it. The crazy woman pushed the pipe against Kate’s throat. She was screaming something Kate couldn’t make out, but she was also winning.
Kate couldn’t hold her off much longer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tucker. He was limping and bleeding badly but he was almost to them. Madeline saw him, too, and tried to free the pipe from Kate’s grasp.
Seeing that the woman planned to use the pipe on Tucker, Kate fought harder to retain it. But Madeline was strong and determined. She jerked it hard, only succeeding in throwing them both off to the side. Kate felt the water rush up over her, and an instant later, she and Madeline were swept away down the mountainside.
* * *
THE SUN HAD come up, a blazing globe over the mountaintop. The pines glistened in the sunlight and reflected off the moving water.
Wounded but still standing, Tucker stumbled to the edge of the creek as Kate and Madeline were both swept off the mountain into the roaring water. The bullet had torn through his side. His clothing was soaked with blood, but the only pain he felt was seeing Kate’s head disappear under the water.
It was as if he was reliving what had happened that night on the bridge. His heart dropped. Nineteen years of seeing it in his nightmares was nothing compared to this. This was Kate. He remembered her telling him that she was terrified of water.
He made the decision in an instant. Trying to get down the hillside to the pool, where with luck she would surface again, would take too long. He could hear the sound of the sirens, closer now. Any minute his brother and the deputies would be here.
But they would be too late.
He had only one choice. He rushed out into the rushing creek and was quickly swept off his feet and pulled under.
* * *
KATE TUMBLED OVER and over in the water. Something struck her in the back. She fought to swim, but the current was too strong to do anything but ride it out. Pulled under again, she knew if she couldn’t breathe soon, she was going to drown. It was just like in Hawaii. Terror filled her. She was going to die.
She fought to the surface only to realize she was still being swept down the mountainside. She saw that the creek dropped straight down into what appeared to be a deep pool at the bottom. She gasped in a breath just before she dropped over the rise. Panic filled her as she fell in a shower of water before plunging deep into the warm pool.
The water was dark down here. Over her head the falling creek water beat the surface into white bubbles. Kate thought of Tucker. She began to swim toward the surface when something grabbed her. Someone, she realized as Madeline’s hand clamped on her ankle and dragged her down.
* * *
TUCKER THOUGHT HE must have blacked out. He opened his eyes to darkness. Bubbles floated around him. Bubbles and blood. For a moment, he floated with the bubbles before he came out of his fugue state to realize it was his blood in the water. And that Kate was in trouble.
He fought his way to the surface to gasp for air.
Where was Kate?
Heart in his throat, he spun around. All around him was water but no sign of Kate. Or Madeline. He was even more aware of his wound and how much he was bleeding. He had to find Kate and fast. He could feel his body weakening.
He’d come to this pool with his friends since he was a boy. He knew it well. After the rush of the creek and the pounding of the waterfall, the pool seemed relatively quiet. Years ago someone had piled up rocks to make this pool. As the creek dropped into it, the pool became deeper and deeper. He could feel the cold water below him on his feet and the spray from where the waterfall hit the pool.
But no Kate. His pulse pounded with fear. What if she was caught under the waterfall? She must not have surfaced or he would be able to see her. It was daylight now; only the mist from the waterfall made visibility difficut.
He dived down. The water was clear but churning white near the waterfall. He caught a flash of fabric, blue like the blouse Kate had been wearing. He caught her arm and pulled, but she seemed to be stuck. That’s when he saw Madeline—and she saw him.
Somehow she had managed to hang on to the piece of pipe she and Kate had been fighting over before they’d gone into the creek. With the pipe clutched in her fist, she let go of Kate and swam for him.
* * *
KATE ROSE TO the surface, gasping for air. She took in huge gulps as she trod water for a moment. Tucker. She’d seen him in the water, wounded and bleeding. She could tell that he was weak from loss of blood. She looked around for him only to see Madeline struggling in the water below her with Tucker.
Taking another big gulp of air, Kate dived down to grab a handful of blond hair. She pulled hard, dragging Madeline away from Tucker for a moment before the woman smacked her wrist with the pipe, breaking her hold.
Madeline surfaced but dived again. Kate had no choice. She went after her. Nowhere did she see Tucker. But she had a bad feeling that Madeline knew where he was and was going in for the kill.
Panic filled her as she saw him floating just below the surface, the water around him tinted with his blood—and Madeline, still holding the pipe, heading right for him.
* * *
FLINT AND THE deputy scrambled down the mountainside. From their vantage point, they could see three people struggling in the water.
“Stay here!” Flint ordered and, quickly stripping off his weapons, dived into the water. He swam hard across the pool to the last place he’d seen the three and dived.
The water was dark. He rose, unable to see anyone. Still no one on the surface, he dived again. Where were they?
Seeing a flurry of bubbles off to his right, he swam toward it. Tucker. He was floating just below the surface, the water around him discolored from his blood. He grabbed around him. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement.
Madeline. She came at him. He put up an arm to defend himself and was struck with something cold and hard. He lunged for her, but she slipped away. He couldn’t worry about her right now. His arm ached from where she’d hit him, but he swam to his brother again, grabbed him around his waist and kicked hard toward the shore.
* * *
KATE SAW MADELINE divert her attention from Tucker to strike out at someone else in the water. She drew back, realizing it was the sheriff. As Madeline rose to the surface, Kate did, too. They came up within feet of each other.
Their gazes met across the misty surface of the pool. Kate was surprised to see such hatred in the woman’s eyes. She realized what Madeline was going to do before the woman threw the pipe—and easily ducked away. The pipe hit the water and sank next to her.
Yards from them, Flint had pulled his brother to the shore. She could hear Tucker coughing as the sheriff yelled to his deputies. She caught the words helicopter and hospital.
Madeline looked around, seeming surprised to see three uniformed lawmen. Kate followed her gaze to where a uniformed sheriff’s deputy was on his radio calling for help for Tucker. The deputy then headed in their direction, shouting something Kate couldn’t hear over the noise of the creek crashing into the pool only yards away.
Madeline shifted her gaze back to Kate as she trod water. For a moment, Kate expected the woman to attack. But instead, she turned and began to swim toward the waterfall. Kate could see what she planned to do. Behind the waterfall, they wouldn’t be able to see her. If she got that far, she might be able to get away.
The thought of Madeline escaping was too much for her. Kate swam after her, determined to end this once and for all—just as she had promised her brother.
* * *
“KATE,” TUCKER MANAGED to call as he grabbed hold of his brother’s wet uniform shirt in his fist and tried to sit up.
“Take it easy.” Flint worked to staunch the bleeding. It appeared the bullet that had entered his side had gone straight through. If it hadn’t hit any vital organs, he might make it. But he’d lost a lot of blood from the bullet wound and the gash on his head.
“Where is Kate? You have to find her. You have to—”
“She’s over there,” Flint said as he saw Kate surface next to the waterfall. She turned back to the pool to reach for something. He watched her drag it through the water in a wave of yellow and realized he was seeing blond hair floating on the surface.
“That’s Kate Rothschild,” the sheriff said to the deputy. “Go help her.” The deputy ran over to offer her a hand out of the water. She staggered out and fell to her knees, gasping for air.
“She’s fine,” Flint told Tucker. “She’s just fine.” There was a cut on her forehead and he could see that she was bleeding, but Madeline looked much worse.
The deputy dragged the body of Madeline Dunn out of the water and began to do CPR. Even from a distance as Flint watched Kate gasp for breath on the shore, he could see that Madeline Dunn had taken her last one.
He told Tucker the news. “Madeline’s gone. It’s over. And Kate... She’s fine,” Flint said as he saw Kate rise and make her way in their direction. “It’s finally over.”
Tucker shook his head as he watched Kate approach. “It won’t be over until I marry that woman.”