Harvey slammed his palm against the steering wheel as he rolled through the empty freeway exit. “When was the last time you saw the superintendent in the park? And he wasn’t the one who hired me. That was Risner—before he got fired for sexual harassment. Hell, I’d never met the man before.”
But he would.
And it wouldn’t end how he’d originally imagined meeting his boss.
Because there was no doubt in Harvey’s mind the man who’d pointed a gun at him in the backcountry—who’d tied the mother of his child to a tree with intentions to hurt her—wouldn’t walk away from this in one piece.
“What is your plan, here, Harvey?” The law enforcement ranger kept Harvey’s head in the present. “If you go after the superintendent and we’re wrong, you’ll lose your job.”
“We’re not wrong.” He didn’t know how to explain his confidence, but the evidence was lining up. Whoever had taken Drennan had experience with wilderness survival and strategy, and the gun had been issued to the superintendent in the past. What were the chances a random abductor had gotten hold of it? Then again, what kind of criminal knowingly used a weapon that could be tied back to them? “I’ve got to go. I’m almost at the ME’s office.” The SUV’s headlights coasted over the funeral home as he pulled into the parking lot. His nerves were tight. If he didn’t get sights on Drennan in the next minute, he wasn’t going to be able to breathe. “Drennan’s not at home, and she’s not answering her phone. I can’t get ahold of her, and I’m worried something has happened.”
“You’re just telling me this now?” Simpson was breathing hard now as though he’d started sprinting. “I’ll have Jordan take a run at the superintendent. See if she can track him down. I’m on my way.”
The call ended before Harvey cut the engine. He wasn’t law enforcement. He hadn’t been issued an official weapon, but that didn’t mean he was going in unarmed. Popping the glove compartment in the SUV, he extracted his personal weapon. Because there wasn’t anything he wasn’t willing to do to keep Drennan safe.
She was a healer, and Harvey was possibly the most broken person she’d ever met, but she’d somehow put him back together. Piece by piece, she’d helped him see the good he’d carried over the years instead of the bad. Good that had only come out for her, but it was there. He’d just had to look a little closer, to have a reason for it to come through. Drennan and the baby were that reason. She’d seen past the darkness he wieldedas a shield. She lit him up, and he loved her for that. Wanted more of her in his life. Wanted to prove he wasn’t his father, every day if she would just give him the chance. That he could be there for her, be there for the baby. He wanted to prove that he could make her happy if she forgave him. That he could love her the way she deserved.
Harvey checked the magazine in his weapon and slid it into the back of his waistband.
Ready to let go of the past. And claim his future.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Pieces of Dr. Yarrow’s shattered paperweight skidded across the floor as her abductor spun her around. Pain flared through her face as the superintendent who’d killed Ellender Garza pressed her into the wall of refrigerators from behind.
His body heated against hers, fitting them together in the worst way possible, and a surge of acid clogged her throat.
“I warned you what would happen if you didn’t help me, Dr. Hawes.” The scalpel he held nicked another patch of sensitive skin against her throat, and Drennan closed her eyes. She wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t break. Not for him. “Open it.”
She pressed her hands into the refrigerator door, bucking against him to add some semblance of distance between his front and her back. In vain. The killer only fought to hold her in place. “Get off me.”
The words sounded strangled, even to her own ears. This wasn’t how Harvey held her throughout the night. How his body heat had seeped into her muscles and soothed all the rough edges she’d picked up over the years. This was something dominating and manipulative and gut-nauseating. It felt as though thousands of spiders tiptoed across her skin, raising a rush of disgust.
The pressure at her back disappeared. Just for a moment. “Open it.”
Drennan didn’t have any other choice. She’d lost her only weapon. She didn’t have the skills to fight back against a man almost double her size, and she wasn’t about to risk the babyin an effort to escape. She was trapped. Her breath shuddered through her at the thought. Forcing her hands to peel away from the cold refrigerator door, she reached for the handle to her left. The door swung open, releasing a pillowy haze of mist. The morgue refrigerators leaned more toward freezers to slow decomposition of the remains they stored, and a chill tensed the muscles across her shoulders.
“It’s empty. The next one.” His command tightened around her rib cage. Sooner or later, they’d come across Ellender Garza. And then what? The scalpel was back at her throat, reminding her of how very little power she actually held in this room.
Drennan shifted over one row, grabbing for the refrigerator door. If she could get him close enough, there was a chance she could slam it in his face. Stun him long enough to make a run for the exit, but her abductor was being smart, keeping an arm’s length between them. He’d see any move she made, and he’d punish her. He’d make it hurt.
She opened the next refrigerator, and the one after that.
Coming to the last in the row. She’d done what she could to stall, to think of a plan better than trying her luck at confronting the superintendent head-on, and now she was out of time. Her hands shook as she reached for the last door handle.
And swung it open.
A dark head of hair spread out across the sliding table stored inside the six-foot-deep refrigerator. The remains stored in the morgue no longer wore toe tags to identify them, but Drennan recognized the woman covered by a thin sheet inside.
“Pull her out.” Her abductor moved in behind her. The scalpel sliced across her skin, and Drennan couldn’t stop the gasp at the sting of pain.
She grabbed for her neck to gauge how deep he’d sliced, coming away with a slippery layer of blood. Nonlethal. He hadn’t cut anything vital or she would’ve already been dead, but he’dgotten close. She was bleeding, and she’d continue to do so unless she added pressure.
“Now!” Pinching the back of her neck in one hand, he shoved her into the opening of the refrigerator.
Her entire body flinched from the violence in his voice. Stainless steel bit into her chest as she slapped her hands on the table to stop her momentum. The injury at her neck screamed as blood slipped beneath her blouse and across her collarbone. Drennan blinked against the sudden wave of dizziness. Whether it came from the drop in temperature, her pregnancy, the impact against the storage box or the laceration along the side of her neck, she didn’t know. But she didn’t have much time. “Okay.” That single word sounded as though it’d come from a stranger. “Okay.”
His body heat retreated for just a moment as he stepped out of her way.
