Exposure (35 page)

She cried out at the searing rip of her
right lobe. Tears burned her eyes as blood dripped onto her
shoulders, so hot compared to her skin. She pinched her eyes closed
and sucked in a breath when he reached for the other one. When he
tore that one from her ear, her teeth sank into her tongue to keep
from screaming.

Breaths rasping, she opened her eyes and
pulled Noah's face from memory, imagined her and him playing with
Aubrey on their island once their house was built. Pictured their
wedding. Something small, perhaps at the Castle, and shortly after,
her own belly swollen with Noah's baby. The expression he'd wield
when holding their child for the first time.

Soreno's footsteps rounded the chair until
he stood in front of her once more. Each thunk on the planks
matched her pounding heart. Reaching for a filet knife on the
table, he fisted it in his gloved hand. He brought it to her
throat, the metal tip nipping her skin. Hot blood trickled down
between her breasts.

She sucked in a harsh breath through her
nostrils, taking in more stench from him and the room. Dead fish,
stale nicotine, musty wood. The ocean roared around them, but it
couldn't compare to the roaring in her ears.

Struggling not to move, to tremble, she
clenched her tongue between her teeth to keep quiet. But the cold
was turning her to ice, and the fear wouldn't relinquish the vise
around her throat. Tears slipped from her eyes and she
whimpered.

"You won't be able to cry by the time I'm
done with you. I was paid extra to do more than just shoot you, or
else you'd be dead already."

Oh God. Her stomach rolled.

When he brought the knife to the dip between
her breasts and cut her dress in one long slice, she didn't bother
to hide her reaction. A sob ripped from her chest. And when he
parted the material with the blade, exposing her body to him, she
gave up any hope of surviving.

The worst regret was not being able to tell
Noah how much she loved him before she died.

"
T
hat's how I knew
it was you." Nicole grinned and sipped her champagne. "Raven would
never let anyone but you see her that vulnerable." She pointed with
her flute to the displayed photo in front of them. "I won't tell
anyone."

Noah shoved his hands deep in his pockets.
"I appreciate that." He wasn't adverse to coming out as Hoan now
that the trial was over, but he'd rather things settle down first
and allow the feds time to catch Soreno.

She sighed wistfully. "Such a shame, though.
I harbored a secret crush on you. We would've had such beautiful
babies."

He couldn't help but laugh. Just in case, he
skimmed his gaze over her to avoid insult or hurt feelings. "You
are quite lovely, Nicole. But I'm taken." Completely and without
bounds. Would this night never end?

"I was only kidding…" She trailed off, eyes
rounding.

He tracked her gaze. Two FBI agents followed
McCannon through the front door. One stayed there while McCannon
and the other strode across the room to Max near the rear of the
gallery.

Noah's heart stopped dead. He scanned the
room for Raven, but couldn't find her. Panic clutched his chest.
"Where's Raven?"

"She went into the storage room a few
minutes ago to get more--"

Elbowing his way through the now quiet
crowd, he made his way down the hallway to the storage room.
Something was wrong. Very wrong. One of the guards was holding open
the door, his face grim. Max and McCannon stood at a table in the
middle of the room, Hintz and another guard off to the side.

"Where's Raven?" But he knew. The cold claw
of fear gripped his heart to squeeze, and he knew.

All heads turned to him.

McCannon spoke first. "She's gone. Your team
searched the building. She's…gone."

No.
No, no, no
.

Soreno. The sick fuck had his Raven, doing
God only knew what.

"Mr. Caldwell, you need to look at this."
Max jerked his chin to the table. "Miss Crowne's assistant told me
she came back here. It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes
ago."

Closing the distance, he glared at the photo
of Raven, a knife pinning the picture to the table. He scrubbed a
shaking hand over his mouth, too many emotions rioting against his
skull.

Max handed him a cell phone. Raven's. He
swiped the screen to have an unsent text pop up. She'd been texting
him?

To Noah: I have something important to tell
you tonite…

That was it. She must've been cut off while
typing. And he knew what she'd planned to say. But now she might
never get the chance. He might never hear her voice again.

He growled, throwing the phone against the
wall to shove his fingers in his hair. Crawling out of his skin. He
was fucking crawling out of his skin. Panic rammed his temples,
seized the air in his lungs. He paced, fingers clenching into fists
to yank his strands.

"Local police are on their way. As soon as
we have an idea on her whereabouts--"

Noah clutched the lapels of McCannon's
jacket and slammed the agent against a shelf. Items toppled around
them. "Where the fuck is she? How did that bastard get in
here?"

"Sir?" Hintz was at the emergency exit.
"Downer is dead. He was guarding this door."

Noah's gut twisted. He shoved off of
McCannon and paced the room. "Where would he take her? Did you get
any leads?"

McCannon rolled his shoulders. "Not a damn
thing."

They couldn't just stand around while she
was being tortured, raped, killed… Noah swiveled to Hintz. "Ready
the helicopter. Get in the air."

Hintz was already halfway to the door.

"They couldn't have gotten far. Watch for--"
Cutting himself off, Noah straightened. "Watch.
Her watch
."
He pulled his cell out of his breast pocket with a shaking hand and
fumbled with the screen to get to the app. "I had a tracking device
planted in her watch months ago."

Hintz nodded. "I'll ready the heli to search
by air. Text me if you get coordinates."

McCannon barked orders to his agent to pull
the car up so they'd be prepared. Max commanded their guards to do
the same, telling one man to hang back at the gallery and manage
the confused patrons.

The fucking coordinates were still loading.
"Come the fuck on," he roared just as a map pulled up. A little red
dot appeared near…The Sound? The pocket by that area of the bluff
was deserted. Why the hell would Soreno take her there? With the
rocks and shoreline, he couldn't even dock a boat in the vicinity.
Noah held the screen out to show McCannon. "Let's go."

While they amassed out the emergency exit,
Noah texted the directions to Hintz and ran for the SUVs. Climbing
in the passenger seat, he yelled for Max to go before his door
shut.

He stared at the little ret dot on the
screen, clinging to hope it meant she was still alive. He tried to
recall what was out that way, not having been near that area in
years. The king crab fisherman typically launched farther down if
on this side of the sea. Closing his eyes, he pulled the location
to mind, struggling to remember.

Shoreline. Trees. Boulders. The winding road
past the port. Didn't that road stop at…?

"There's an old crab shack." His knee
bounced. "Abandoned. There's only one access by car. It's
surrounded by water, too rough to dock."

Max pushed the button to activate Bluetooth.
When McCannon picked up, Max repeated what Noah had just said.

"He'll know we're coming then." The FBI
agent cursed under his breath. "All right. We'll park as far down
and out of sight as possible. Go in by foot." He paused. "If we tip
him off, he'll kill her before we have a chance to bring him down.
No one does a damn thing without my order."

Noah texted Hintz the update and pulled up
the app again. The red dot hadn't moved. Why the hell hadn't Soreno
taken her out of town? Why hole up in the shack unless…?

Unless she was already dead.

"Soreno never planned to get out." He
pounded his fist on the console, frustration pummeling, his head
about to explode from pressure. "He planned to hurt her to get back
at me, then lure me there." Cursing, he shook his head. Ground his
jaw. Fisted one hand in his hair. This waiting was killing him,
eating the lining of his gut. "Christ, Max. He… Fucking
Christ."

Max's fingers tightened on the wheel. "We'll
get her back, Mr. Caldwell."

Tension knotted his shoulders, his spine. He
looked out the window, not seeing anything but her perfect face,
hoping to hell fate could bestow him just one request. He hadn't
asked for any of this. Raven sure hadn't either. Throwing fairness
around mattered not. Little in his life had been fair but, damn it,
Soreno and Rizzoli couldn't take her away from him. Not when he'd
finally had a chance with her.

"Be alive, baby."

Max cut through the southern strip of town
and onto the port access. The SUV screeched to a halt several yards
before the bend where the road ended. Noah got out and met McCannon
at his car behind theirs. The rest of his security team
followed.

McCannon's gaze swept the perimeter. "It's
up that hill?"

Noah nodded. "If you follow the curve, the
shack should be visible."

They ran in silence to the dead end and
crouched at the base of the hill. Lowlight peeked through the slats
of the shack, but he couldn't make out any sound or movement.

McCannon looked at his agent. "You go in
from that end," he said, jerking his chin toward the open expanse
just left of the location. Trees and boulders would offer them some
cover. He pointed at one of Noah's guards. "Take him. Stay low. No
shots, no one moves, unless I command."

The two men, veering left, climbed the hill
in a low crouch and ran for the cover of rock.

McCannon pulled out his cell. "Cops and
medics are on the way." He shoved the phone in his pocket. "How
steep is the drop-off on the other side?"

Noah tried to recall. "The far end? Maybe
four feet down. Not far. The other side slopes right to the water.
No drop-off." The fall wasn't the problem. The temperature of the
water and the currents were.

"All right," McCannon sighed. "You stay
here. We're going up."

"Fuck that. No." He held out his hand to
Max. "Give me a gun."

Ignoring McCannon's balking, Max pulled a 9
mm from an ankle holster and passed it over to Noah, then removed a
22 from under his coat to arm himself. His bodyguard glared at the
agent. "He won't stay here. And we're wasting time."

McCannon ground his jaw and rose to check
the building before ducking back down. "You two take the front.
We'll come in from the right. On three. One…"

Raven's scream pierced the air, stopping
Noah's heart for the third time tonight. An uneven breath frosted
before his face.

He didn't wait for orders. He climbed the
hill, kicking up snow in his wake. As he secured his footing atop,
wood splintered. The crack echoed off the water and bounced back.
The door to the shack burst wide, catching in the wind.

Soreno appeared from the opening
with…
Raven.

Noah's relief was short-lived. The bastard
had wrapped her hair around his fist and had a gun to her side. But
hell, she was alive. Noah stopped in his tracks, barely resisting
the urge to run to her.

"FBI. Freeze!" McCannon stepped forward, gun
trained.

The two men they'd sent ahead emerged from
the left, weapons ready.

Soreno pulled Raven in front of him and
pressed the barrel to her temple. Easing backward, he stopped at
the edge of the clearing with her as a shield and the black ocean
behind them. "She's dead if you come any closer."

Noah fisted his hand around the handle of
his gun. Sirens wailed in the distance.

"You're surrounded," McCannon shouted. "Let
her go."

They crept forward, Noah following their
lead, until Soreno jerked Raven's head back and she whimpered.

"I repeat, hand her over. You have nowhere
to go."

Stopping twenty feet or less from them, Noah
got a good look at her for the first time. The entire right side of
her face was swollen to the point her eye wouldn't open. Her wrists
and ankles were red, as if Soreno had her restrained. A trail of
blood dripped down her throat and stopped between her breasts. She
was holding a hand to her left side, favoring the ribs. Her dress
was…slashed right down the middle, flapping in the wind and
exposing her pale, trembling body.

Noah's blood pressure soared, the rage
raking in his chest uncontainable. Blood surged through his veins,
pounded his head. He lifted his gun. "You fucking son of a bitch!
What did you do to her?"

Max stepped behind him and wrapped a beefy
arm around Noah, caging his arms. "Wait. Think. We move and his gun
goes off."

Breaths soughing, Noah nodded. Max released
him and moved back into position.

The sirens were right behind them, at the
base of the hill. Red and blue lights swirled against the snow. Car
doors slammed. Feet crunched and, in his peripheral, Noah caught
several flashes of black as officers joined them.

"No one moves unless I say," McCannon
barked, never taking his eyes from Soreno.

Noah lifted his gaze to Raven's. Behind the
fear, resolve filled her eyes. A tear slipped from her open eye and
traced a path through the mascara smudges.

Her throat worked a swallow.
I love
you
, she mouthed.

Tears clogged his throat. The gun in his
hand wavered. He sucked in a breath and mouthed the words back to
her.

The whirring blades of a helicopter rent the
air, kicking up wind and snow. A spotlight shown down on Raven and
Soreno, so close to the water.

"Give it up," McCannon yelled over the noise
of the propellers.