Kelly ran into Catherine’s arms. “I was so scared,” she whispered. “I didn’t know what was happening.” She looked down at the man on the ground. “Why would he want to hurt me? Is he one of those serial killers or something?”

“No.” Catherine’s arms tightened around her. “You’re safe. No one can hurt you now.” She gave her a hug, then released her. “But we should get out of these woods. We didn’t see anyone else tracking you, but there will be State Police combing this area, and I don’t want to have to answer a lot of questions.”

“Are they looking for me?”

“Yes.” She glanced at the man on the ground. “And for him. He killed a CIA agent with that knife.”

“What?”

“Luke will tell you.” She glanced down the trail. “Here he comes now, with Sam. I ran ahead when I saw you—” She waved. “She’s okay, Luke.”

“I told you she would be,” Luke said. He frowned. “But it was really dumb of you to turn off your phone, Kelly. Everything would have been simple if you hadn’t done that.”

“I didn’t turn off my phone. It just went dead. And who are you to call me dumb?” She came toward him. Dear heaven, she was glad to see him. Catherine had always been the savior in her eyes, but Luke was her friend and had cared enough to come looking for her. Even those insults were welcome because they were part of their relationship and far away from the horror she had just experienced. “You’re pretty stupid yourself to go trekking through these woods after me. If you’d caught up with that man who was chasing after me, I would probably have had to rescue you.”

Luke made a rude noise. “No way. You should have—”

She interrupted. “And I just met your friend, Cameron, and he almost broke my ribs. Shows you what a good judge of character you are.” She added, “Catherine says you should tell me what all this means. So stop being rude and tell me.”

“Hu Chang would say you have no gratitude or appreciation.” He was silent a moment before he said gruffly, “I’m glad nobody cut your throat, Kelly.”

“Me, too.” She smiled. “Now talk to me.”

*   *   *

It would be all right, Catherine thought with relief as her gaze shifted away from Kelly and Luke. Luke would not treat Kelly as a victim and that would keep her from thinking of herself as one. It was the best thing for Kelly right now.

“I don’t appreciate your pointing that gun at me,” Cameron said softly. “It hurt my feelings.”

“Bullshit.” She shot him a glance as she fell to her knees beside the man Cameron had garroted. Dressed in jeans and black leather jacket, Cameron was every bit as powerful and sexual as she remembered. And his expression was just as mocking and challenging. “I didn’t know it was you when I came down that trail. And, if I had known, I would still have pointed it at you when I saw that you were holding Kelly helpless. How did I know what you were doing?” She was searching through the pockets of the dead man. “What are you doing here anyway? For all I knew, you were still in Tibet.”

“I was finished with what I had to do there. I flew out almost immediately. I was already only minutes from landing in Louisville when Hu Chang contacted me and told me you were on your way here. So I just picked up a helicopter and extended my flight plan a little.”

“And you didn’t think to let me know what had happened or if you’d found out anything from Nagoles that I—”

“I was planning on telling you eventually.” He knelt beside her as she flipped open the wallet she’d taken out of the man’s jacket. “Who is he? He was definitely not Grade-A material.”

“He didn’t have to be,” she said harshly. “He only had to kill a sixteen-year-old girl.” She glanced at the driver’s license. “Raymond Shaw. Issued in Richmond, Virginia. Local boy. Probably not one of Santos’s regular goons. That might have some significance.”

“And that is?”

“I don’t know.” She looked through the rest of Shaw’s pockets and pulled out only a Shell gas receipt and a phone. “We’ll check the phone records, but it’s a disposable pay phone. It probably won’t help us.” She held up a small device. “And this is a signal blocker that he probably used to take out Kelly’s phone. Nothing else.”

“He had a gun. He tried to draw it when I was disposing of him. He would have been smarter to shoot Kelly than to try to use that knife. He could have picked her off from behind those trees.” He shook his head. “But some killers just like the thrill of the cut. Santos would have been displeased at his self-indulgence.”

“Maybe he ordered it. It would have made her death all the more ghastly for me.” She sat back on her heels and said jerkily, “And that’s what he wants. Pain. Shock. Terror.”

“He didn’t get it this time.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “Your Kelly is alive and well.” He smiled. “And amazingly ferocious for such a fragile-looking young girl. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I might have had to put her out if you hadn’t come along.”

Cameron’s hand on her shoulder was warm and comforting. Strange. “Comforting” was the last word she would have applied to Cameron. When he touched her, it was always sheer erotic combustion.

“Evidently there’s a time and a place. I find it strange too.”

“Get out of my head, Cameron. You promised me.”

“It was only a temporary fall from grace. I was concerned, and it caught me off balance. I had to make sure that you were safe when I reached the woods.”

“Get out of my head,” she repeated. She stood up. “I have to get Kelly out of here. She’s been through too much.”

“Are you taking her back to the campus?”

“Hell, no. I’m taking her home with me, where I can keep an eye on her. Just because we were able to save her this time is no guarantee that Santos won’t send someone else.”

“I have a helicopter parked at the heliport north of the dam. It will be closer than for you to go back to the university.”

She nodded. “And I won’t run into the State Police. I’ll call Venable and tell him Kelly’s safe, and I’m going home with you.”

He smiled. “Oh, that will please him. I’ve been sensing a certain antagonism in his actions toward me lately.”

“You can hardly blame him.”

“I never blame anyone who plays fair. It just makes the game more interesting. When Venable begins to show his fangs, I’ll rethink and adjust.”

“And go after him?”

He didn’t answer. “It shouldn’t take us long to get to the helicopter.” He turned and moved toward Kelly, Luke, and Sam. “Coming?”

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

It was raining harder.

Jane could barely see more than a few yards ahead of her.

The windshield wipers on the Toyota were having to work overtime as she got off the freeway and turned onto the gravel road leading to the lake cottage.

Just go slow and don’t slide off into that ditch already overflowing with water, she told herself.

And it would have been easier if that car behind her wasn’t hugging her bumper and didn’t have his bright lights on. That brilliant beam reflected in her rearview mirror was blinding.

Just concentrate on the road.

Only a few miles more.

But, dammit, turn off those high beams.

VIRGINIA

Catherine turned around as soon as they were airborne to look at Kelly in the back with Luke and Sam. “Okay? We’ll be home soon, Kelly.”

Kelly nodded. “It all seems like a bad dream or one of those screamer movies. It doesn’t seem real.”

“It was real enough,” Luke said. “Why did you go tearing off like that? You said something about a note. What did it say?”

“Just a couple words. With deepest regret. And a photo from a newspaper with the story about how Daddy was killed.”

“No signature? Postmark?” Catherine asked.

“No signature. Local postmark. I thought it was maybe a student in one of my classes.”