Liam's Witness Protection (Man On A Mission 4) (17 page)

“If we do we’ll be late getting to Casper. And we won’t have time to stop for lunch.”

“Please, Liam. I don’t care about lunch.”

“It’s likely we’ll be going back there tomorrow or the next day anyway, so—”

“But you said yourself we might not. I can’t leave my books, I just can’t.” Her voice took on a note of desperation. “
You
gave them to me.”

How well he remembered that moment. Cate had been as giddily happy over those few books he’d bought her as if he’d given her diamonds. If anything prevented them from going back to the cabin...

He saw an exit coming up and flicked on his turn indicator. His stomach was already growling—one honey bun while doing laundry didn’t really cut it for him—and now they would miss lunch, too. But Cate expected so little and asked for even less—he was damned if he wouldn’t do this one little thing for her.

* * *

They pulled into the dead end near the cabin just before one. Liam hadn’t even shifted into Park before Cate had her seat belt off and her door open. He snagged her arm just in time, and pulled her back. “Hang on a sec,” he told her, turning off the engine and pocketing the keys. “Don’t go anywhere without me, okay?”

“Sorry. I was just—”

“I know,” he said, cutting her off. “But just because we were safe here when we left doesn’t mean we shouldn’t exercise caution now.” He undid his own seat belt and said, “Come on, let’s get those books and get back on the road.”

They made their careful way down the path to the cabin, Liam in the lead. They were halfway there when Liam stopped abruptly, his eyes on the ground, and Cate almost ran into him.

“What’s wrong?”

His face was grim. “Something’s not right.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look.” He pointed at the dirt path. At first she didn’t know what he was talking about because all she saw were several sets of footprints crisscrossing each other, leading to and from the cabin. But then she got it—the top set of footprints headed
toward
the cabin, not away from it.

“Sheriff Callahan?” she suggested.

“Maybe. But if it’s him, where’s his SUV? Besides, he knows we’re not there. And he told me he wouldn’t come out here unless we were gone more than a day.”

An icy chill ran down her spine, and despite the warm summer day she shivered. And when Liam drew his SIG SAUER from its shoulder holster, she knew it was scarier than he was letting on—which was bad enough. She touched his forearm. “Let’s go back.”

He shook his head. “We need to know if someone found this place. If he tried to take this path without knowing what to watch out for and avoid, Callahan’s trap—the one right before the clearing—would stop him. If it’s Callahan, the trap will be unsprung. Come on.” Quietly, so quietly Cate couldn’t believe it, Liam moved toward the clearing. He’d gone several yards before he turned around and saw her standing frozen exactly where he’d left her. He held a finger to his lips, then waggled his fingers for her to move toward him. She wasn’t quite as stealthy as he’d been, but she was proud of the way she managed to make very little sound.

Even though Cate knew it was there, she couldn’t actually see Callahan’s trap until Liam pointed at it silently, and when she saw it was intact she let out the breath she’d been holding. She started to speak, but again he put his finger to his lips, indicating silence. His left hand pulled her close and he pressed his lips to her ear.

“Even though there’s no one in the trap, something still feels off.” It was uttered in an undertone, not a whisper. “It’s probably nothing, but stay here just in case. I’m going to reconnoiter a bit. If everything’s okay, I’ll come back and get you.”

He tugged the keys to the agency’s SUV from his pocket and started to press them into her hand, but then he must have remembered she couldn’t drive and a look of frustration crossed his face as he shoved the keys back into his pocket. Then he said in that same undertone, with his lips next to her ear, “If you hear gunfire, run back toward the SUV but keep going until you hit the main road. Don’t stop for anything.”

She started to protest that she wasn’t going to leave him if he was in trouble, but he put his hand over her mouth before she could utter a word. “Please, Cate. Just do it, okay? It’s the only way you can help me.”

She struggled with her heart, but knew she had to do this for him. “Okay.” She mouthed the word against his hand.

He slid his watch from his wrist and handed it to her. “If I’m not back in ten minutes, gunfire or no gunfire, run like hell. Promise?”

She nodded, then glanced down at the watch to see what time it was now. When she looked up Liam was gone. Her heart had already been pounding, but the minute he disappeared from sight it kicked into overdrive. She tried to calm her heartbeat by taking several deep breaths and watching the second hand on Liam’s analog watch tick around one full circuit, then two. But watching the second hand only made her more anxious, so after another minute she stopped and looked up instead.

A sound from the path behind her made her whirl around. Her heart skipped a beat, then accelerated into the rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire.

Evil incarnate confronted her. “Hello, Caterina,” Aleksandrov Vishenko said. Then he raised his pistol.

Chapter 17

L
iam crept around the cabin’s perimeter, easily avoiding Callahan’s traps. Thanking God silently he knew the location of every single one. The only sounds he heard were natural to the forest, and there was no movement from the direction of the cabin. But he wasn’t convinced. His sixth sense still had him on high alert. A burst of speed brought him to the steps at the bottom of the back porch, his SIG SAUER raised, his finger on the trigger.

When there was still no sound or movement from the cabin, Liam mounted the steps slowly, cautiously, placing his feet where the nails bound the cross boards to the supporting beams, so they wouldn’t creak. Then he was at the back door. He peered through the window and spied a blonde woman sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of something, with her back to the door.

Suddenly the barrel of a gun was pressed against his temple, and a rough voice said, “Federal agent. Move and you’re dead.”

Adrenaline jolted through Liam’s system—the body’s natural fight-or-flight response. But then he realized with shock he recognized the voice. Incredulous, he said, “Cody?”

“Liam?” A large hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around. Then his brother-in-law cursed, long and low. “What the hell are you
doing
here?” Cody demanded.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“You’re supposed to be halfway to Casper by now.”

“How the hell do you know that?” Then Liam got it. “Callahan. Callahan told you. What the hell is going on?”

Cody reached around Liam and shoved open the kitchen door, then pushed him inside. When he did, the blonde turned around, and Liam’s startled eyes met his sister’s beneath the blond wig that was remarkable in its resemblance to Cate’s hairstyle. “Keira?”

“Damn it, Liam, what are you doing here?” she threw at him. “You’re not supposed to be here. Where’s Cate?”

Like the wheels on a slot machine spinning round and round, then falling into place one by one, everything suddenly clicked for Liam. “It’s a trap,” he said slowly, knowing the truth of his words even before it was confirmed by the expression on Keira’s face. “You set a trap for Vishenko with Cate as the bait. And you’re Cate.”

He whirled on Cody. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Cody shook his head. “Need to know,” he said softly. “This is an agency op...and you’re DSS, not one of ours. You weren’t supposed to be here, so you didn’t need to know.”

“Damn it, you should have told me anyway.” Then his eyes widened and his voice dropped to a whisper. “Cate. Oh my God. Cate.” He spun around to his sister. “Vishenko’s on his way, isn’t he?” He grabbed her arms and shook her hard.
“Isn’t he!”

She didn’t answer his question, just posed one of her own. “Where is Cate?”

* * *

Cate’s throat was so dry she couldn’t have spoken even if she’d wanted to. Horrifying dreams of this moment had haunted her for years, nightmare visions of Vishenko finding her. Touching her.
Owning
her. She would rather die than submit to him again.

Then she saw the expression in his eyes, and she knew she
was
going to die. The only thing she didn’t know was whether she would die in time to prevent him from raping her again.

“No,” she whispered to herself, shaking her head slightly. “No.” Her fingers tightened until they formed fists.
“No.”

* * *

“I left her on the path...told her to run if she heard gunfire.” Liam made a rush for the back door but Cody blocked him with his body and pushed him backward.

“Where on the path?” Cody demanded. “Just,
wait
!” he ordered when Liam tried to fight him off.

“Right before the clearing. Right beside Callahan’s trap. Let me go, Cody,” he panted, desperate to get to Cate. “She’s out there alone.”

“No, she’s not. Callahan’s out there. McKinnon, too. She’s not alone.”

* * *

“You really thought you could get away with it?” Vishenko asked softly, dropping the hand with the pistol to his side as he took a step closer. As if his ego wanted to control her even without the gun, the way he’d controlled her years ago. “You really thought I would let you testify against me?
You?
” He laughed sardonically, and she took a step backward as he took another forward. “Ah, Caterina,” he mocked. “I always enjoyed that little game.”

She found her voice. “What game?”

“That little game you played, pretending to fight me.”

Her breath rasped in her throat. “It wasn’t a game.”

His smile widened. “Not at first, true. You fought me like a woman possessed. Your screams that first time...ahh, I can still hear them in my mind.” The sick, twisted pleasure in his voice, the avid expression on his face appalled and repulsed her, just as they had all those years ago.

“You should never have run, Caterina. You forced me to find substitutes for you.” She closed her eyes momentarily, sick to her soul, imaging the terror and agony countless other women must have suffered, just as she’d suffered.

“But none of them were as beautiful as you,” he continued. “And none of them were as satisfying because none of them fought me as you did...until you surrendered.”

Her eyes shot open and she shook her head. “Never,” she said fiercely. “I never surrendered.”

He laughed, an ugly, gloating sound. “Oh but you did, Caterina. You can’t have forgotten.”

“
That
was the game,” she insisted.

“Was it? You think a jury would believe it?” When her eyes widened, he said, “I have associates who will testify—truthfully—to what they saw.” He laughed again. “They don’t even need to lie under oath.”

“
Never
willingly. Yes, I submitted.” And had despised herself for years because she’d done so. But now—facing Vishenko—she faced the truth. The
real
truth. And she knew she’d been wrong to blame herself for surviving the only way she could.
I did what I had to do,
she told herself now.
No one else was going to save me back then. I had to save myself.
“I would never have escaped if I hadn’t submitted. But I was
never
willing.”

“We will never know who the jury will believe, will we?” He took a step closer. “Beg me, Caterina,” he said now. “I promised myself you would beg me again to let you go, just as you did the first time.”

“No.”

He gestured with the gun. “To save your life, you will not beg?”

“You’ll kill me anyway.”

He smiled and said softly, “You were always too smart for your own good.” When she didn’t respond, he admitted, “Yes, I will kill you anyway. I need to make an example of you. No one has dared testify against me for years—I can’t allow you to testify either. Even with the witnesses I have lined up to discredit your testimony, I can’t risk it.” He smiled his ice-cold smile. “But first I will make you beg...and scream.” His head inclined toward the dense woods surrounding them. “Go ahead, Caterina. Scream. No one will hear you...except me.”

He was wrong. If she screamed, Liam would come running, would try to save her. If she screamed, Vishenko would shoot him, too.
“You really think if you died I would want to go on living?”
she’d told Liam and she knew it for the truth. She couldn’t risk his life.

Memories of him flooded her consciousness, and as plain as if he was standing next to her, she could hear him saying,
“What do you think love is, Cate?... It’s wanting to be with her when you draw your last breath...or when she draws hers.”

An eerie calm settled over her, almost as if Liam’s arms were enfolding her, holding her safe, and she drew courage from it. She knew she was going to die, but Liam was with her in her mind and that was all that mattered. “No,” she said, shaking her head, determination tightening her muscles. “I won’t scream. I won’t beg. And you won’t rape me, ever again.”

He cocked his head to one side, considering. “No? Perhaps you are right.” He sighed with real regret. “It is too bad, Caterina. I would have enjoyed having you one last time.”

“Federal agents! Freeze!”

The harsh voices came out of nowhere, slicing through the air, just as Vishenko raised his gun once more. But even before that, a hard, male body crashed into Cate’s, knocking her out of Vishenko’s line of fire as he squeezed the trigger.

Gunshots rang out from several directions almost simultaneously, slamming into Vishenko’s body. He tottered a few steps, a look of utter surprise on his face. He dropped the gun and fell to his knees, his hands clutching his chest, while the small blossoms of red that had first appeared there grew larger and larger. Then he pitched forward.

Pinned to the ground by the heavy weight on top of her, dazed and confused by everything that had just happened, Cate tried to take it all in as four people swarmed onto the narrow path. The smallest person—a woman she realized, with blond hair similar to her own—kicked the gun away from Vishenko’s outstretched hand while still keeping her own gun steadfastly pointed at him. Another person—a man she’d met when Alec and Angelina found her—knelt beside the body and felt for a pulse.

“Dead,” Cody Walker said, and by his tone Cate knew he wasn’t sorry.

A third person, another man she recognized—Trace McKinnon—lowered his weapon, then glanced in Cate’s direction and cursed fluently.

From behind her, strong hands lifted the weight from her body. Only then did she realize something warm and sticky was seeping through her clothing. When she rolled over she saw Sheriff Callahan propping Liam upright against his shoulder. She watched in horror as Liam coughed up blood once...twice...then sagged unconscious against the man holding him.

“Walker!” Callahan barked, reaching over and ripping Liam’s jacket open, then raising up his shirt to expose the two bloody gunshot wounds caused by the bullet that had entered Liam’s body just above his waist and exited out the other side.

“Oh no!” The words didn’t come from her own mouth, Cate realized. They were coming from the blonde as she and Walker hurriedly converged on Liam, blocking Cate’s view.

Gentle hands helped her rise to a sitting position. “You okay?” McKinnon asked her as one hand moved impersonally over the damp patches of blood on her back. “Were you shot?”

“No, I... Liam,” she said disjointedly. “His blood, not mine.” She clutched McKinnon’s arms. “He’s going to be okay, isn’t he?”

He didn’t answer her, just tapped an earpiece in his ear. “We’ve got a situation here. We need a medical team, stat. No, sir,” he continued. “It’s Jones—explanations can wait.” Cate couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but even hearing only one side was enough to get the gist. McKinnon glanced around and made a face of frustration. “You can’t land a medevac chopper here at the cabin—there’s no way. The main road’s our only chance. You get a chopper there, we’ll meet you.” He listened for a couple of seconds. “Yes, sir, will do.”

Desperate to know Liam was going to make it, Cate turned back to stare at the knot of people frantically working on him, but she couldn’t see much.

McKinnon’s voice was sharp and staccato when he told the people surrounding Liam, “D’Arcy’s calling for a medevac chopper. I told him we’d meet him at the main road.”

Walker stood up, and suddenly Cate could see Liam’s ashen face, bloody lips and the pressure bandage they’d strapped around his body. “The cot,” Walker said, his voice harder than she’d ever heard it. And she knew it was bad. Really bad. “I’ll get the cot from the cabin and we can carry him that way.”

“SUV,” Cate choked out, unable to tear her gaze away from Liam’s face, willing his eyes to open. Willing him to speak. “The keys are in his pocket. If you get him as far as the SUV, you can save time by driving to the main road.”

* * *

Cate sat in the waiting room, apart from the others. Liam had been airlifted to this hospital in Sheridan and was still in surgery, even though it had taken them more than an hour to drive here after the helicopter had thundered away.
Still in surgery is a good thing,
she reminded herself. It meant he was still alive. She clung to that hope, but in her head she was hearing Liam’s voice telling her,
“I won’t let anything happen to you, Cate...even if I die for it.”

“Don’t die,” she whispered now, wishing Liam could hear her. “Don’t die.” She stared at the scars on her wrists, remembering how Liam had kissed them and called them badges of honor. She would give anything to have him kiss her again. Hold her tight. Hold her safe. But not sacrifice his life for her. Not that. She’d never wanted that.

Cate was vaguely aware when Sheriff Callahan walked into the room, joining the other three. She knew he’d stayed behind to officially see to the disposition of Vishenko’s body, and to confer with Nick D’Arcy. She didn’t know why D’Arcy had been close by and not in Casper where he was supposed to meet her—and she hadn’t asked. She’d been too concerned about Liam to worry about inconsequential things.

Since the sheriff was wearing a shirt again—he’d used his for the pressure bandage on Liam—Cate assumed he’d stopped off at his home. But everything seemed so distant, as if she was seeing the world through a camera lens, and nothing around her really reached her. All she could think of was Liam as she’d last seen him, strapped to a gurney, being loaded into the helicopter that just might make it to the hospital in time to save his life.

Liam.
Maybe he’s okay,
she thought, desperately wanting it to be the truth.
Maybe it’s not that bad.
Or maybe he needed a miracle.

She clasped her hands together and bent her head as a sudden, urgent need rose in her, a need she tried to quash...but couldn’t. She hadn’t prayed for more than eight years. Had thought what she’d suffered at Vishenko’s hands had killed her faith...in God and in the goodness of mankind. But Liam had proved her wrong—there
was
goodness in the world, and he was a shining example. Her knight in shining armor. If she was wrong about mankind, then...

At this moment she fervently wanted to believe in a just and merciful God, the way Liam believed. “Don’t let him die,” she prayed. “Oh God, if You can hear me, please don’t let him die.”