9
Diggs turnedoff the pavement and onto a gravel road, his tension growing as thick as the branches slapping his rear view mirrors. The brilliant blue sky had faded into streaks of dusty pink and orange, lighting up the sky into an endless stream of fire. Dust swirled around his tires, and he was thankful he’d opted to bring the off-roading Jeep instead of the sleek Dodge Viper. It’d taken him a full minute to decide too—speed versus rugged sturdiness. In the end, he’d chosen the Jeep, because it had a flat compartment in the back where he could put the dog. The Viper had nobackseat.
A couple of deer darted across the road a few hundred feet in front of him and Diggs cursed, lifting his phone to study the GPS tracker once more. What the hell was Audra doing out here? He thought she’d go to the nearest motel, or even town, and there were plenty of roads she could’ve taken to lead her back to the city. Instead, it looked more and more like she was headed toward the old battlefield reserve area. Was she some kind of off-road survivalist? Diggs shook his head, laughing at himself. Audra had definitely shown her fierceness in the mansion, but she’d been driving a smart car, and he could tell simply by the way she moved, she’d been raised intown.
The beacon on Trigger’s GPS hadn’t moved for the past 20 minutes, so they must’ve found a spot to stay. Or they’d beenstopped.
The road came to an end, teeing off to another path, this one dotted with potholes and broken glass. The likelihood that Audra had chosen to come this way shrunk rapidly and his dread grew. Just to be cautious, Diggs rolled his window down and killed the engine, listening for signs ofdistress.
A chorus of insects rose with loud cadence, frogs croaked, and animals moved through the trees surrounding him. Even though it was early autumn, and the night air wasn’t that hot, sweat trickled down his back and soaked into his T-shirt. Something wasn’tright.
Diggs closed his eyes so he could focus all of his attention on listening, stretching his senses out as far as he could. Birds chirped and sang, the local woods inhabited by densely packed wildlife. This area was off-limits to local hunters and residents, allowing the animals a refuge in which to grow and thrive. He sat there for another moment, but he didn’t detect any type of human activity, so he cranked up the Jeep and eased in the direction of the beacon that his phone indicated, keeping his windows down and his earsalert.
She shouldn’t be in any environment like this, not with an injured dog and on the run. She should be holed up safely in a hotel room, or sitting at police headquarters for protection. Out here, she would be completely exposed, and he knew Audra was too smart to do something as stupid as this, especially if she was on the run, even if it was fromhim.
He was less than a mile from their location. Diggs slowed the Jeep and put it in park. The night sounds still hammered all around him, drowning out everything else. Diggs killed the Jeep and got out. And like a tidal wave, the insects buzzing slowly faded, the animals around him stopped moving, and the night air fellsilent.
Fat jagged clouds stretched across the sky, obliterating the moonlight and leaving him blanketed in darkness. It was the environment he preferred. He liked to be alone. Being raised in a full house, with six other brothers and parents, had always been loud and noisy. He often escaped into the woods behind his house for solitude. He felt like that’s where he belonged. Being in the special forces, he’d had plenty of time to be alone, and he felt like he’d finally found hishome.
So, he knew instantly that even though he was completely alone in the woods, there should’ve been noise, sound, and movement. These woods were teeming with life. The animals and other creatures would only fall silent if they sensed athreat.
And Diggs was not athreat.
He checked his GPS, switched the imagery over to satellite, and zoomed as low as he could to still cover the ground around him. There was a single house about a mile down from here, after the road turned and made a T. It was on the edge of a bowl-shaped lake that looked to be surrounded by marsh and swamp. The perfect place to take someone who needed todisappear.
Cursing, Diggs sent a quick message to his team to let them know his location and that he was moving into a possible threatening situation where he may need back up, and dropped his phone into his back pocket. If Audra had been taken out here, he didn’t have time to wait on backup, he needed to movenow.
As quickly as he could, Diggs jumped in the Jeep and pulled it off the road, hiding it in a small grove of trees. Thankful for his enhanced strength, he ripped limbs free and used the surrounding foliage to camouflage the Jeep. He might need it for a hasty exit and he didn’t want anyone finding the vehicle besides histeam.
He’d already gotten out his rifle and handgun, along with a couple of clips of extra ammunition. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and took off at a brisk run down the road, alert and ready for any signs of ambush. After nearly three-quarters of a mile, he hadn’t slowed down or broken pace, and followed the road as he’d memorized it on the GPS straight to where the trees cleared and the house came intoview.
Diggs quickly ducked behind the nearest oak and peered around the corner, his chest growing tight when he saw Audra’s car parked in the front and a pickup truck he didn’t recognize beside it. Diggs pulled the scope he’d packed from his pocket and lifted it to his eye, not needing night vision to see through the darkness. There was a light in the front window on the left side of the house, and although he couldn’t see anyone, he could see the shadow of a person splashed on thewall.
A shadow that lifted its arm and lowered it in a swing that looked like a punch beingthrown.
Son of a bitch. Hard cold rage formed in a knot in the pit of his stomach. Diggs ripped his pistol out and ran in a low crouch along an old rusty livestock fence with grass grown halfway up the posts. As he neared the house, he spotted the muddy lake that looked more like a bog in the back. Two more newer model cars were parked back there, not forgotten broken-down pieces of shit abandoned along with thehouse.
When he was 100 feet away he heard the sharp crack of a slap blasting out from the inside of the house. Diggs took off at a full sprint until the fence stopped and he was forced to crouch and assess the situation. Audra was in trouble, and it wouldn’t do either of them any good for him to race in, guns blazing. He was smarter and better trained than that. Acting rashly got peoplekilled.
Another crack and Diggs’ body jerked in response. He knew without a doubt that it was Audra. Someone was after her and they’d caught her. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t really give a fuck right now. All he knew in that moment was whoever had dared to lay a hand on her was a deadman.
The yard, although overgrown and uncared for, was completely open on the side of the property. If he ran across the stretch, he’d be completely exposed and vulnerable if anyone was looking out. There’d be a lookout hidden somewhere that he couldn’t easily spot, and they’d be using the cover of darkness to camouflage their locations. Just like Diggs. But unlike Diggs they couldn’t see in the dark or hear the sound of a man breathing across theyard.
Diggs focused on that sound right now, homing in on a location between the pickup and the house. He was in the huge oak tree above the pickup, breathing regular and steady indicating he hadn’t sensed Diggs’ presence yet. And if Diggs had anything to say about it, he never would. Knowing the barbed wire would slash his arms, Diggs dropped to his belly and rolled beneath the lowest part of the barbed wire fence. He crouched beside it, coming up on his elbows and knees in the thick pasture that wrapped around to the lake behind the house. It killed him to move slowly, knowing that every second he was out here, Audra’s life was in danger, but he couldn’t move in, not knowing how many men wereinside.
A snake slithered across the ground to his right, hissing and angry that Diggs had disturbed his burrow. Diggs just kept on moving, knowing the snake would find a new home. Once the grass in the pasture was tall enough to easily camouflage him, he moved at a fast crawl. He was on the other side of the house, blocked from view from the lookout. He climbed to the other fence, stopped before he slid beneath it to make sure no one was in the backyard and moved on. There was a long stretch of overgrown yard between the dark water and the house, and the old oak trees hung heavy with moss like huge dark ghouls swaying in the wind over thewater.
Most people thought there weren’t alligators in this area of the United States, but they didn’t think that bogs and bayous dotted the landscape of the East Coast either. Diggs knew for a fact that gators lived and bred in these areas, especially the wilderness reserve where they were protected as endangeredspecies.
Which would make it the perfect dumping place for a body—the perfect solution to destroy evidence of amurder.
In a crouched run, Diggs sprinted across to the corner of the house, pulled out his knife, and held it in his hand, ready to throw. He automatically avoided the dry fallen limbs in the unkempt yard, moving in silence as he made his way across the back. Sound carried clear as glass through the night air and across the water. The guard was crouched on a branch, his fingers drumming in what he probably thought was silence, but to Diggs, it carried like gunshots across the night. His gaze was locked on the window, more focused on what was going on inside the house than actually doing his duty. And that distraction would be hisdeath.
Diggs let out a slow breath. If he had any doubt these guys were amateurs, it was long gone now. This was a professional crew, set up with experienced precision, and a chosen spot for where they’d easily be able to dispose of all theevidence.
Audra was on a hit list. She was in danger, and he had to act now. He could hear men shouting inside the house, feel the waves of violence and smell the fear pouring from its doors and windows. They would kill her. He knew it. The fact that he had no idea who or where these men were wouldn’t stop him. He had to take out the guard and getinside.
Diggs dropped to an even lower crouch and crept across the ground, using the shadows to swallow and camouflage his movements, tracking the man as he moved. Diggs reached the trunk of the tree undetected, and was pulling back his knife, when the front door burst open and a small man stepped out, wiping his hands on a towel smattered withblood.
