Rescue Me (40 page)

“I'd at least take one of you with me.”

“Tempting. I'm not a big fan of Salazar's,
either.”

“Who said anything about me going after
Salazar?”

Becker faltered as he studied Spencer. With a
slight shake of his head, he looked over to Salazar. The color had
drained from his face.

Perfect. Just a little more pushing, a little
more intimidation and Spencer would have the asshole right where he
wanted him.

“Isn't Ms. Davis's life more important than
you playing the hero?” Salazar pulled Spencer's attention away from
Becker. “Because if it isn't, we can end this here and kill you.
Ms. Davis will eventually be found, but they'll have a hard time
identifying the body. There are so many animals out there.”

Hatred burned behind his eyes as Spencer
riveted a glare on the madman. Becker had to have told Salazar
about Kathryn's own search when she was a little girl. He knew it
still made it hard for her to sleep at times. And now the asshole
had her living that nightmare all over again. He couldn't wait to
kill him for that reason alone. “Just tell me what you want from
me.”

Salazar's mouth twisted wryly. “That's much
better. There is a Senator Murphy who is plotting to take control
from
the Order
. He's responsible for shifting the balance.
Emery Haynes was hired by
the Order
to eliminate the
senator. When Haynes disappeared, we had to move fast, so we sent
Sam Green in after him. We all know what happened to them.”

Great. A monologue. “What does that have to
do with any of this?”

“Senator Murphy was a member of
the
Order
up until a couple of years ago. When he left, he took a
fair amount of members with him. Powerful men who collectively have
the means to destroy us. So we ordered a hit.”

“You do realize it's illegal to put out a
contract on another person. The fact that you went after a senator
bumps it up to a federal offense.” Having Salazar admit something
like that told Spencer everything he needed to know. They had no
intention of him surviving this little game.

“The mark was set,” Salazar continued,
ignoring Spencer. “We sent Emery Haynes to take out the senator on
one of his routine ski trips, to force him off the trail and off a
cliff. When the senator returned to D.C. the following Monday,
obviously we knew the hit had failed. So
the Order
went
looking for the hitter.”

What a clusterfuck.
If he'd known the
shit that would rain down due to his role on that search Spencer
would have never kept K-SAR away. He would have listened to Kathryn
and brought in Emery Haynes to turn state's evidence against this
bullshit
Order
.

Salazar went on. “We had to stay away or you
would have known we were out there. It was actually very clever of
the senator to do what he did, calling TREX in like that and
ordering you to redirect the search until his man could get to
Haynes.”

Spencer shook his head. This did nothing to
help him find Kathryn. “Why does it matter now? Haynes is
dead.”

“And your beloved Ms. Davis will be too if
you don't tell me what I need to know.”

“I could always kill you and you could ask
him yourself.”

Salazar put his finger on the trigger.
“You've left me no choice.”

“Salazar!” Becker stepped in. “We agreed not
to kill him.”

Salazar shrugged. “I never agreed to
that.”

“Come on, man.”

Salazar's voice edged higher, more tense.
“Tell me who has been feeding information to the senator.”

“Fuck you.” Spencer had no idea what the hell
Salazar rambled on about but wasn't about to give him a thing.

Something moved in Salazar's eyes. His anger
solidified in his expression as he gave Spencer a single nod.
“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For confirming what I'd suspected all
along.”

He then raised the gun and curled his finger
around the trigger.

Salazar glanced at Becker and his smile held
a vicious edge. “
Someone
is doing the senator's dirty work.
Someone
is tying up all the loose ends from that hit. Aren't
they, Travis?”

Becker vehemently shook his head. “What the
hell are you talking about?”

Salazar narrowed his eyes. “The way she
looked at you tonight gave her away and I knew. And now that
the
Order
knows you are the double agent, we no longer need her, or
you.” Salazar repositioned the gun, centering it on Becker.

A shot rang out. Damon Salazar flew back and
fell to the floor, dead from a precise shot between the eyes.

“What the fuck!” Spencer leaped to his feet.
He retreated, his arms raised at the elbows. Becker now pointed the
smoking barrel at him.

He took a step toward Spencer. “I hate it
when they reveal the ending like that. Don't you?”

Holy Christ.
Travis Becker was a
double agent? He didn't see that coming.

“I'm now the only one who knows where Kat
is.”

“Holy shit, Becker.” Spencer backed away, his
hands still in the air. “What the hell?”

“I keep my enemies very close,” Becker
retorted with a slight raise of his brow.

“So now I'm your enemy?”

“You always were, Spence. You just didn't
know it.”

“I know it now, and now there isn't a place
on this earth where you'll be safe.”

“I'm the one with the gun,” Becker mocked
with a snide grin twisting his lips. “And you're the one with a
missing girlfriend. A girlfriend, as you so joyfully pointed out,
who would never go for someone like me.”

The son of a bitch would die by Spencer's
bare hands. “Travis—”

“Just stop!” Becker stepped toward him. “You
don't deserve her! She should be with someone like me. Me!” He
laughed, a crazy high-shrilled sound that sent chills ripping up
Spencer's spine. “You know what she did when I tried to convince
her that she should be with me? She spit in my face.”

“Good for her.”

When Becker smiled, a coldness settled in his
expression. “You should have seen the look on Kat's face when I
showed up at your boat.” He chuckled and Spencer doubled up his
fists. “I was getting ready to board when she suddenly showed on
deck. You two really made this easy for me.”

Spencer was still reeling over the fact that
Becker had been behind it all. How in the hell could it have been
him all this time? Then, as his hatred for this man grew, so did
his comprehension. “Salazar had nothing to do with the threats
against Kathryn, did he?”

Becker curled his lips into a sinister grin
that made Spencer's skin crawl and irritated the shit out of him.
“No, but he sure made an easy target as a suspect. Salazar didn't
like the way she played him on the Miller search. Quite honestly,
neither did I.”

“It was you up on that hillside. You killed
one of my men.”

He looked disappointed. “Only one?”

God
damn
him. “And the man in her
apartment. That was you.”

“Don't forget rigging her Xterra to blow. I
do love watching things explode.”

Spencer shook his head as a round of curses
fell from his lips. Spencer's insides blazed with a new sense of
fury. “You're a goddamn traitor, you know that?”

“I'm a very well paid traitor.” Becker
shrugged and traced the walls of the cabin with his gaze. “You'll
recognize the layout here as the same as the Com Van's.” He rested
his eyes on Spencer and smirked. “You can thank me later for
that.”

“You know I will. I'll put a bullet in your
brain and you can join Salazar in Hell.”

“Threaten all you want, Spence. I'm the one
holding all the cards.”

Becker walked over to the wall of maps and
tapped on them with the end of the gun. “These are maps of this
area. I've marked the map with the search grid.” He smirked again
and landed his gaze on Spencer. “Kat is somewhere in the grid. You
find her, you win. It's what you TREX apes pride yourself in.”

“Stop this now. You know I'll find her and
then come back here and kill you with my bare hands.” He hoped the
confidence in his voice disguised how he really felt. He was
terrified he wouldn't find Kathryn. Or worse. Find her too
late.

“You are such an arrogant prick. I've never
liked you.”

“That feeling is definitely mutual.”

“I've been in love with her for five years.
Five fucking years! She was warming to me. She even asked me to
join K-SAR. I knew she wanted me. But then you came along and
suddenly I no longer existed. No matter how many times I told her
she didn't need you. She wouldn't listen to me. I had no choice.
You both left me with no choice. Since I can't have her, no one
can.” Becker picked up something resembling a garage door opener.
He pushed a button and it started beeping.

Spencer spotted some sort of display on it
and caught it when Becker tossed it to him. He studied it and his
blood ran cold.
Oh shit.
He knew exactly what it was. “A
remote?”

“I've just activated the bomb wired to your
girlfriend.”

His pulse pounded in his ears and caused
every muscle in his body to tense. “Jesus Christ.”

“I didn't want you thinking this was too
easy. The last thing I want is for you to be bored, Spence.
Because, let's face it. Searches are boring unless you up the
stakes. I'd say this qualifies.”

Spencer jumped at him and easily wrestled the
gun from his hands. He then pointed it at the asshole's head.

“I don't think you want to kill me,” Becker
defended quickly, his eyes focusing on the gun pointed at his
forehead.

“Give me one good reason I don't kill you
right now.”

“Kat's got a bomb wired to her. If she
doesn't make it back here in time, she's dead.”

“I'll find her and take it off.”

“Sorry,” Becker said, way too sure of
himself. “If you attempt to remove the vest she's wearing, it
detonates. If you attempt to cut any of the wires, it detonates.
Even if you call in your TREX men, they'll get here too late. The
only way to save her is to bring her back here before it goes off
so I can disarm the bomb. If you fail...” he stepped to the side,
out of the line of fire. “Boom. You have to keep
me
alive to
keep
her
alive. Isn't that a bitch?”

“Alive, yes. Conscious, no.” Spencer brought
the gun down against Becker's temple, dropping him like a sack of
shit. He found duct tape and strapped him to a chair. Once he knew
the asshole wouldn't be going anywhere, Spencer turned to the map,
studying it. He pushed air in and out of his lungs to contain his
rage.

“Where are you, baby?” he muttered to the
map. “Come on, Kathryn. Give me something. Come on.” His mind
overloaded with thoughts of her out there, alone and suffering, the
stages of hypothermia slowly robbing her of life. He couldn't get
his heart to beat steadily. It just kept bouncing around in his
chest, making it hard for him to focus.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as
the fear gripping him edged higher.

“What the hell is that b-beeping?” When a
small voice sounded, he whipped around and spotted the radio on the
table. Grabbing it, he pulled it to his mouth. “Kathryn?”

“S-Spencer?”

Oh, thank God.
“I'm here.”

“Is it really you?” she whimpered. The fear
in her voice squeezed his heart. “Help me.”

“I'm working on it, baby. But I need you to
help me help you. Where are you?”

“I'm d-down a ravine s-somewhere. I don't
know how f-far down, I was b-blindfolded for most of it. Is he
dead? Did you k-kill him? Please tell me you k-killed him.”

He pinned a glare to Becker, knocked out and
strapped to a chair, with lethal precision. “Not yet.”

“I-I'm so c-cold.”

Spencer spun back to the map, his gaze on a
trail leading to a ravine. “Are you by water?”

“No.” A long pause. Spencer couldn't breathe.
Then Kathryn spoke again. “P-Past that.”

“How far past? Do you recognize
anything?”

“I-I don't know. It all looks the s-same.”
She let out a tattered sigh and her trembles washed through him. “I
hate the dark.” The sound of her teeth chattering echoed over the
airwaves. “You know I hate the dark.”

He closed his eyes and cursed. “I know, baby.
Don't move. I'm going to find you.”

“I
can't
move. The b-bastard took all
my c-clothes and tied m-me to a t-tree. Since you haven't already
k-killed him, I get dibs. You just have t-to come f-find me,
first.”

Kat picked up on every sound despite the fact
her senses were shutting down. Her fingers were numb, from the
ropes or the cold she didn't know. She couldn't feel her toes and
her body had started overheating judging by the sweat beading on
her forehead and trickling down her face.

She closed her eyes and was back to that
ten-year-old girl, cold, alone, terrified beyond belief. Of course,
when she was lost as a child, she wasn't tied to a tree with a bomb
strapped to her back. That upped the terror quotient.

“Spencer,” she whimpered into the air. How
long had she been out here? Hours? Days? She couldn't clear the fog
in her brain. Did she imagine Spencer even being on the other end
of the radio? “Where are you?”

“Kathryn, I'm right here.”

Was that in her head?
She whipped her
head around and scraped her raw cheek against the tree bark. She
barely felt it. She barely felt any of the scrapes on her body
anymore. Travis only left her in a tank top and panties. She didn't
even have shoes, the bastard.

God, what a fool she'd been. How did she not
see this coming? He'd been her friend and confidant for years, but
he'd always looked at her with a little too much heat in his eyes.
When she'd gotten back together with Spencer, Travis's interest in
her escalated to creepy. Then the way he hit on her in her own
kitchen after the break in pushed him right into the creeptastic
category.