Of course. He was trying to provoke a response, any response, so that he could zero in on their location. Give him nothing.

She turned to Zander. “I can try to draw him toward me. If he’s distracted, maybe you can make your way back to him.”

Zander smiled. “You’re willing to act as bait? Not this time, Eve. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

Her lips twisted. “Bad timing for a tender family moment.”

“I haven’t had that much experience.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her forward. “So we stick together.”

Blam!

A branch exploded next to her head.

She and Zander ducked as Doane rapidly fired four more shots in their direction.

They crouched lower and scrambled for a cluster of rocks ten feet ahead.

Shit. That was too damned close.

“The only way down is through me,” Doane yelled. “You don’t believe me?”

She and Zander continued through the rock formations, trying to stay close to the larger ones for cover.

“I promise you … it’s a dead end. Your choice is a rock wall and a fifty-foot drop that will kill you quicker than I will.”

Not likely, she thought. Doane had waited too long, and he was hungry.

She and Zander negotiated the twists and turns of the nature-built maze until she heard another sound ahead. More crashing waves, but these sounded … different. The rock formations abruptly ended, and Zander abruptly blocked her path.

They were standing on the edge of a sheer cliff. Waves crashed on the rocks below.

Doane was right. There was no place else to go.

“I told you so.”

Eve and Zander whirled around. Doane stood fifteen feet away, with his gun trained on them.

He was smiling. “We’re done now,” he said softly.

“You have no choice now, Zander,” Eve said in a low voice. “There’s a cluster of rocks over there. Get to them and take him down when you can.” She took a step forward so that she blocked Doane’s view of Zander. Think. Use what she knew about Doane. She raised her voice. “Kevin doesn’t want this, Doane. He told me. You’re making a terrible mistake.”

Doane’s smile faded, his brow furrowing in puzzlement. “What?”

“You’re right. You were right all along. He does live. He’s with us right now.”

“You’re lying. Do you think I’m a fool? You’ve never believed me.”

She’d caught him off guard. Keep his attention focused on her. She didn’t sense any action from Zander behind her, but that meant nothing. He moved like a cat.

She took another step closer. “I didn’t want to admit it. But how else was I able to reconstruct his face so well? Every blemish, every detail?”

Doane’s pistol hand was starting to tremble. “It’s what you do. His skull … and the pictures.”

“Not like that. And I didn’t see the photos until later. You saw what I did. I brought Kevin back. And the only way I was able to do that was for him to work through me. We bonded. We became one. Kevin lives and breathes through me. If you kill me, you’ll be killing him all over again.”

Doane was sweating. “You’re lying. I was the one he wanted to join with.”

“You weren’t close enough. I was there, and he reached out and took. That’s what Kevin always did, right? Think about that skull. Think about how much I made it look like Kevin. I’m good, but not that good. Kevin is the only one who could have done that.”

Doane’s eyes moistened. “Is it true? Kevin…?”

“Yes. No one is that good.” She raised her hand and touched her chest. “Kevin is here.”

“He should have waited for me.” His hand tightened on the gun. “If you’re lying, I’ll—” Doane took a step toward her, then froze, his back arching.

His eyes widened, bulged. “No … you bitch.”

He coughed. An instant later, blood dripped from his nose and mouth.

Eve started at him in bewilderment.

What was happening?

Doane fell to his knees, then tumbled face-forward onto the ground. Only then did Eve see the large knife protruding from his back.

And twenty feet behind him she saw Joe, still in his throwing stance.

Shock. Disbelief. Joy.

“Joe…”

“Stay there. He’s not dead yet.” He rushed up the trail and kicked the gun away from Doane’s still-twitching hand. Then he turned to Eve, and his voice was shaking. “Are you okay?” He didn’t wait for an answer but crushed her in his arms. “You don’t have to answer. I heard you with Doane. You’re very much okay.” He kissed her. “And if you aren’t, I’ll make you that way. God, Eve…”

“I know…”

“It’s not good form to indulge in public demonstrations of affection.” Zander came out from behind the cluster of boulders. “Particularly in the presence of a botched assassination.”

Joe’s eyes narrowed. “Botched?”

“Well, he’s not dead yet, is he? I was making my way around to do it right when you came on the scene.”

“He’ll be dead within a few minutes.”

Zander nodded. “And it wasn’t a bad throw. You were probably better when you were in the SEALs.”

Joe muttered a curse and turned to Eve. “I’m not alone. I brought friends. Catherine and Gallo are on the other side of the house. We split up to search when we didn’t find you in the house. Jane is on the way.”

Zander was smiling at Eve. “You were truly ingenious, Eve. I’m very proud of you. I hope you had an equally inventive story ready to keep Doane from wanting to kill me. Just in case your little distraction didn’t work.”

“I would have had to be Scheherazade to block him from that obsession.” She shuddered. “From the very beginning, you were the real target.” The tension and horror of the last moments were hitting home.

No, more than that. From the time Doane had taken her from the cottage and the people she loved and started her down this nightmare path of madness and terror, she had been the victim fighting for her life. It was incredibly difficult to believe that she was not still that victim.

“Eve.” Joe’s gaze was on her face. “It’s over.”

“Is it? I don’t think so. Not quite yet.” She walked over to Doane, who was still on the ground, gasping for breath. She looked down at him. All those days of torment and captivity, of trying to hold on to sanity, of fighting being the victim.

He had to realize that she had never been that victim, that she was the one who had won.

Eve knelt beside him. “Just so you know, Doane…”

He looked up at her with bloodshot eyes.

She bent lower and whispered, “I really am that good.”

Doane looked incredulously at her, an expression that froze forever, as one last breath escaped from his body.

*   *   *

JANE COULD FEEL HER CHEST tightening with tension as she looked out at the moonlight gleaming on the sea. She had just entered the hills, and the cottage should be somewhere beyond them on this road.

Was Harriet ahead of her?

Or had she already reached the cottage?

Was Eve dead?

Jane wouldn’t think of that possibility. She would just keep going and hope.

She rounded the curve and saw the cottage in the distance. It was brightly lit, but Jane could see only one car parked on the beach in front of it.

And it wasn’t the Cadillac Escalade Harriet had been driving. Relief surged through her, taking her breath. Harriet hadn’t reached the cottage. Not yet. Eve could still be safe.

But where was Harriet? She’d expected her to be delayed but not—

Her phone rang. Catherine.

“Eve’s safe, Jane.” Catherine’s voice was shaking. “We got to her in time.”

“Thank God. I can’t believe—” Jane had to stop as emotion overcame her. “How is she? He didn’t hurt her?”

“Not physically. We’ll have to see how much of the stuff he threw at her had any mental effect.” She paused. “Joe killed Doane.”

“Good,” Jane said fiercely. “Harriet?”

“No, she’s not here yet. Doane got a call from her that she’d had trouble halting the bleeding in her wound. She was supposedly approaching the hills at that time.”