Caught (11 page)

Click.

He didn't.

He opened his eyes to meet his brother's bloodshot blue ones.

The chamber was empty. Ivan's sick laugh echoed in the forests silence as he shoved Cody back. “I'm not killing you yet.”

“I'm getting that sense,” Cody grumbled, reaching into the back of his waistband for his own weapon …

*   *   *

Heart pounding, watching both men below, Megan realized that she was a fool. She was an idiot. Cody was a professional. And she had thought to follow him and do what?
Face your fears … Save Cody …

What an idiot! Now she was stuck in this net, and the man she loved was down there, at the mercy of this killer, all because he'd taken the advantage by kidnapping her—oh, God.

Cody seemed to be plotting. His eyes were narrowed by the sun, but she could see him reaching behind him, weighing Ivan, and measuring his distance to the tree.

“Let me down, let me down!” she screamed, hating the trapped sensation hanging here gave her.

Ivan cut the rope so swiftly, Megan crashed to the forest floor like a falling rock. The air was knocked out of her with a
whoomp,
and quickly Ivan put the knife away then pulled her to her feet, his face contorted as he forcibly untangled her. “You always got the pretty girls, didn't you, Cody? Made the football team. Made Mom and Dad so proud. Even now, you're a goddamned cop.” He smiled thinly, cupping Megan's breast in his free hand as he put the gun to her temple. “Does it bother you when I do this? When I have something that you want?” He massaged, and Megan bit back a strangled protest, revolted by his touch, when Cody took a menacing step forward.

“Fuck you.” Cody's breathing became ragged, his eyes so dark, they could've been black. Megan feared for him, for herself, kept remembering the bodies, the way this man, this man, had killed two adults at the tender age of sixteen.

“Fuck me? No, brother. I'd much rather fuck her.”

When Megan kicked his shin and broke free, it took Cody only seconds to reach for her, but by then Ivan had grabbed her by the throat. “You're not going anywhere, Maggie.”

Cody whipped out his gun and aimed. “Let her go, Ivan.”

Ivan's cold, hard laugh made the hair rise in her nape. “Ahh, Cody, always wanting to boss me around 'cause you're a minute older. You're not boss here,
I
am. I have the girl now.”

“She walks, Ivan. She walks now and we'll settle this.”

“Oh yes? But you see … maybe she doesn't want to walk—” he licked his tongue into her ear and her stomach roiled in disgust. “Do you know why I killed them, Maggie? Because of you. Did you know what your boyfriend did, Meg? Huh? Did you know what he did? He said he was taking you from me. My parents thought I was not good enough for you. Because I was not my brother.” He shot a look of venom at Cody. “But for a moment I was able to make you believe I was him, didn't I? Last night?” he cooed into her ear. “When I touched you, you believed I was that guy, the perfect guy.”

Bile rose up to her throat at the memory, and she wanted to scrape her mouth clean of him once more.

What a fool she'd been.

So desperate to be touched, loved, by Cody, that she had not seen the difference of the touch, of his taste, until she'd seen him—the man she loved—with a gun pointed to his head.

They were nothing alike.

Ivan had tried to look like him, but his essence, his goodness, his decency, had a scent, a feel, a vibe. Oh God, she wanted that strength around her, that scent, that man.

Ivan curved his hand around her nape and wound his fingers into the blond curls of her hair. “You think I haven't thought of this, too, Maggie Meg?” He massaged her scalp. “That I didn't fantasize about this even when I was just a boy?”

“LET. HER. GO.” Cody's trigger finger was trembling, and Meg wondered if she ducked … would he shoot?

Cody was so damned decent inside, she wondered if he'd kill his own brother. Despite the fact that he was a murderer, Cody had not killed him before.

Ivan yanked her head back so hard the pain burned across her scalp, tearing a gasp and a whimper out of her. “Toss me the gun. And the other gun. And the knife.”

“You won't kill her, Ivan,” Cody hissed in a low, threatening voice, “but I have no qualms about killing you.”

“I'll scar her for life! I'll make her suffer, you son of a bitch!”

“We have the same mother, you moron.”

“Drop your weapons and she goes!”

The silence was deafening in the nature. And then, one by one, Cody tossed everything to the ground, and Megan's hopes of coming out of this alive plummeted.

“Okay.” Ivan pushed her aside with a smile. “Forty steps, Maggie Meg. Make them quick before I change my mind and shoot.”

Megan began walking, uncertain as she sought out a pair of blue, blue eyes that seemed to urge her to do as Ivan said. As she passed him, the man she loved, Cody ground out under his breath, “Keep going.”

But it was difficult to take another step. “I don't want to leave you,” she said anxiously, fearing Ivan would do another stupid thing, another crazy thing.

“Keep going, Banks.”

She still couldn't. “I don't want to!”

“Go, goddammit!” Cody exploded, framing her face between his hands. “My life is over if anything happens to you.” He kissed her hard and long, pushing his tongue into her mouth in a long, hot wet thrust that sent her senses spinning. “I love you. Now go.”

I love you.

Now go.

Megan didn't know why she obeyed, why she headed out off the clearing, dazed with those parting words, taking those words into her heart, even as she heard Ivan curse Cody in the background for what he'd done. Fifty steps later, down the rocky path, eighty heartbeats later, and about a hundred haggard breaths later, it struck her: Maybe … Cody would never have said he loved her if he thought he'd have another chance to.

She'd certainly never expected him to say the words except at gunpoint.

Oh God. What had she done?

And where in the hell was Zach Rivers?

*   *   *

When Megan disappeared in the distance, Cody's heartbeat roared in his ears, like a wave crashing against the open mouth of a never-ending cavern.

He was stalling for time, time for her to get the hell away from his crazy brother. He met those blue eyes just like his with a taunting smile, wanting to get Ivan's gaze back on him rather than on Megan's rear, the crazed man's full attention on him.

“She'll call nine-one-one, you know.” Cody smiled thinly, enough to goad him, but the victory in his brother's gaze took him aback.

“I'm counting on it.” He smiled triumphantly. “By the time they get here, you'll be dead. And I'll be you.”

*   *   *

Megan found a bar of signal after running around the forest like a lunatic. “Zach!” she cried into her cell phone when a male voice picked up. “Zach, where are you?”

There were men's voices in the background as he answered. “We're on our way. Are you okay?”

“Yes, but I'm afraid Cody won't be. We're at the—”

“Tonto National Forest, got that. Just whatever you do, get out of harm's way or Nordstrom'll kill me,” he commanded.

“Not if he's dead!” Meg screamed, and hung up.

Putting the phone on silent, she started running back to the clearing.

Her heart felt like exploding with each step. And then, she heard it. Gunshots.

“Oh, no.” Megan kicked up her speed, her throat closing in. “Oh, no no no.”

She reached the clearing, and instantly Megan saw him, dead, on the ground. A pool of blood surrounded him. Him. Cody. It was him; she saw the tie he wore today, his most horrible tie, an orange color she wanted to throw away for the first time ever. Oh my God.

She began to shake her head, refusing to believe what lay right before her eyes, already feeling her heart begin to crack. Then she spotted him. Ivan laid back, clutching his chest, bloodied and panting. Megan's eyes began to spill tears. She reached for one of the guns on the ground and raised it. “You son of a bitch!” she screamed, and shot.

“Mega—” His eyes widened when the bullet hit him, somewhere close to his heart, and he slumped back against the tree trunk. She squeezed her eyes and was about to shoot again when he barked, “Son of a bitch!”

She opened her eyes, lowered the gun. The voice. It was unmistakable, its effect on her, its timbre. “Cody?”

“Fucking hell!” He was scrambling to tear a fabric of his shirt to cover his wound, which was seeping red all along his right arm.

“Cody?” she screeched, dropping the gun to the ground. “Ohmigod, what have I done!” She took a tentative step forward, then halted, doubting herself, what she was seeing. That blue tie …

She glanced at Cody, dead, sightless, on the ground.

“Come here and kiss it better, damn it, stop looking at that asshole unless he's better-looking than me.”

“Why is he wearing your clothes!” she protested angrily, then went to help him rip his shirt open. She was relieved to note the bullet had hit his arm and not his chest, but was still so shocked at what she'd done she considered using the gun on herself.

Cody grabbed her with one hand and kissed her like a starved man, sloppy tongue and panting breaths and everything, which, lucky for her, meant he probably was not near death. “He wanted a new life—to kill me, and make it seem like he'd died, while he became me. Just the thought of him laying a hand on you enrages me…”

She scowled. “Nobody's laying a hand on me, and if we don't get you to a hospital soon, neither will you.”

“I'm fine, baby. Just a scratch,” he assured.

With wide, unblinking eyes, she stared dazedly at his wound as they knotted his shirt around it. “I almost killed you,” she whispered.

The soft reproach in her voice made him raise his eyes. He covered her little hands with his, squeezing reassuringly. “You should have, Meg, I'm no good for you.”

“You are good, you're the best, you're my
everything
.”

“Then you're a fool, Meg.” He grabbed her cheeks and kissed her again. “Thank God you're a big, silly fool.” He deepened the kiss, and dragged her with effort to his lap. “You're mine, do you hear me? Forgive me for not explaining that to you sooner. No one touches you. No one kisses you. No one drives you nuts but me. Got that?”

“I didn't get the last part…” she said sheepishly.

“You're not getting me to say I love you again.”

“And if I threaten to shoot you again?”

“I'll deny it.” He hugged her to him, kissing her neck while she kissed his. “But you're mine, never doubt that, and if you run, I'll catch you, on my word.”

“Hmm.” She smiled and snuggled against him slowly, afraid to hurt him. “Then I better stay put.”

“
Police!
Hands over your heads!” a set of voices yelled in the background, but Meg remained right where she was, and before all hell could break loose, Cody grumbled at them over her shoulder.

“I'm a little busy here, partner, as you can see.”

Meg turned to see Zach approaching, scowling menacingly at the corpse, then even more menacingly at Cody. “So how am I supposed to know it's you, man?” he asked, annoyed.

“Because, moron, Megan's with me.”

RED GARNIER loves a good book and a great romance. She is a happy wife, a cherished mother, and a full-time writer. Her short stories have appeared in the anthologies
Legally Hot
and
Men of Danger.
Visit her at
www.redgarnier.com
.