“You’re…” A monster. Emotion clogged her throat. It wasn’t enough he’d taken Ellender Garza’s life and the life of her child, he wanted to strip her of what could’ve been the victim’s brightest hope. A wall of protectiveness slammed into place, drawing her shoulders back. He wasn’t getting to that body or the baby Ellender had carried. She didn’t know how she would stop him, but it felt important. Someone had to stand for the victim. Who better than someone who understood what it felt like not to have that support? Drennan’s heart threatened to beat straight out of her chest as a single pained word escaped her control. “Why?”
He took another step, forcing Drennan back into the edge of Dr. Yarrow’s desk. The overhead fluorescent lights glinted off something else on his hand, and her heart stopped beating for a breath. A wedding band. A full smile spread across his face. “Isn’t it obvious? I love my wife.”
Drennan clutched on to the edge of the desk with one hand, the other searching for something solid enough to protect herself with if necessary. She wanted to believe her abductor would let her go if she aided him in getting what he wanted, but that was a stupid, hopeful part of her that didn’t match reality. She’d seen his face. Twice. And while neither the law enforcement rangers nor Springdale PD had been able to match his description to an identity over the past two days, that wasn’t a loose end he could afford not to tie. “Your wife.” Her chest tightened. “Ellender Garza wasn’t your wife.”
“No. She was not. She was a mistake, one my wife, the mayor, will never know about.” He cocked his head to one side, seemingly trying to predict his prey’s next move. Her being the prey. “So you can imagine how much I have at risk if thatinformation got out, or if a federal database connects a murder victim back to me.”
Drennan’s hand connected with something heavy and smooth. The paperweight Dr. Yarrow’s wife had gifted him on their anniversary this year holding a perfectly preserved black rose in the center. She covered it with her hand.
“Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as losing my marriage.” He maneuvered to her right, and she countered, losing the protection of the desk at her back. “My wife and I… It’s been over for a long time. At least, on my end, but the National Park Service doesn’t like to believe its rangers are capable of making base human choices like adultery. It’s not good for public image. I’ll lose my job, my connections and the very comfortable lifestyle I’ve built riding my wife’s wealthy coattails, and you see, I just can’t have that.”
A shiver quaked down Drennan’s spine. “You’re a ranger?”
“No, Dr. Hawes. I’mtheranger, and I’m losing my patience, which is not great for you, as Ellender can attest.” The superintendent. The man who ran the entirety of Zion National Park. Harvey’s boss. “I recognized him, you know. That day in the backcountry. Ranger Knight lived up to his reputation. That is why I hired him after all, but his interest in you has interrupted my plans more than once, and well, I need this whole thing done with.” His tone sharpened. “Now show me where Ellender Garza is being stored.”
Clutching the paperweight behind her back, she glanced at the wall of refrigerators. This was a small town. There weren’t a whole lot of remains coming through that needed a medical examiner’s review. “I don’t know—”
He moved so fast, she barely had a chance to register it. The edge of steel pressed into the front of her throat as the wall at her back kept her from retreating. Her scream cut short as the killerclamped a hand over her mouth. “Then we’re going to have to do this one by one, aren’t we?”
Hot flares of fear and helplessness consumed her from the inside. Drennan squeezed her hand around the paperweight he had yet to notice as her survival instincts kicked in. She’d been in this position too many times to count. A victim, used, her well-being put at risk, and she hated it. She hated it with every fiber of her being as each cutting word from her mother’s mouth or sent in a message dug deeper. Slicing her soul into even tinier pieces. And putting others first, making sure everyone else was taken care of in hope the smallest consideration was returned had only made it worse. Because here she was, once again putting herself between someone she believed needed to be protected and the threat. Ready to do what? Give up her life? Her baby’s life?
No. Drennan wasn’t okay with that.
She didn’t want to teach her son or daughter that their needs should remain at the bottom of a priority list. She’d lived that life… It only ended in loneliness and resentment and rage that dictated every choice she’d ever made, and her baby deserved better. She deserved better.
Except once.
She’d made a choice of her own free will that night in the bar. She’d chosen Harvey. For herself, to feel something other than all those crushing feelings of guilt from leaving her mother behind, grief from realizing she’d never have the relationship she’d always wanted with her last parent and fear from ending up alone.
And he’d been everything she’d needed that night.
Dominant but respectful, just enough to make her feel safe and taking the pressure off her of having to lead. Attentive and passionate, more so than any other boyfriend she’d been with. Understanding and committed, without any confusion about what they’d both sought that night. They hadn’t spoken morethan a handful of words in the hours they’d lost themselves to one another, but she’d never felt so connected to another person as she had him. She’d used him as thoroughly and completely as he’d used her, and for the first time since her entire world had been turned upside down, she’d felt…free.
Harvey had gifted her something no one else had. For just a night, she’d felt what it would be like to drop the responsibility she’d carried for everyone else’s happiness but her own. Because adding hers to the mix had been too heavy and selfish. But he’d shown her how to put herself first, and she loved him for it.
Wasinlove with him for it.
Not just a culmination of one night or a baby, but because of all of it. The way he’d taken care of her after she’d passed out in the park, how he’d gone out of his way to ensure she ate and drank enough, urged her to get her rest. When he seemed more agitated with more distance between them and how he’d battled through his own demons to ensure her needs were met. But more, she loved the genuine care he put into making sure she and the baby were safe in the apartment…and from him. Abusers didn’t do that. Neither did cowards.
Because, holy hell, she’d been wrong about him back in that office. Everything he’d done had been for her. At the risk of his job, his trauma and his future. Harvey cared about her, whether he realized it or not, and she’d let her own fears get in the way of seeing it. Until now.
“Move.” Her abductor pressed the scalpel deeper, and a bead of blood slipped down her neck. “Toward the refrigerators.”
The bite of pain dumped a dose of adrenaline into her blood, and Drennan had no choice but to do as she was ordered. For the sake of herself and the baby. “A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”
His free hand bit into her arm as he jerked her to his side, pinning her hand with the paperweight against him ashe maneuvered them to the other side of the exam room. Right before he shoved her ahead of him and into the wall of refrigerators. “Find her. Now.”
Drennan seized the small bud of courage blooming in the center of her chest. Securing her hand around the paperweight, she gauged the distance between them. He could move fast. He’d already proven that, but he didn’t know how far she would go for her child. “No.”
She didn’t give him a chance to recover, swinging the paperweight as hard as she could at his head.
The superintendent caught her wrist and squeezed the tendons there. Hard. The weight fell without her permission, shattering on the linoleum floor. “That was not a good choice, Dr. Hawes.”
He lunged at her with the scalpel.
Chapter Twenty-Six
His fist nearly brought down the door.
