Born to Die Read online

  “Well, lies are lies.”

  “Then I guess that’s how it remains. Goodbye, Ruby Jean. Don’t expect to ever see me again.” With that, he snagged his coat off the coat tree in the hall and left that house like a swarm of yellow jackets was on his ass.

  Mother had been thorough in ensuring her safety, but she hadn’t counted on her own son using her tactics against her. Fifteen minutes after the chauffeur dropped him off, Boyce pulled out the spare cell phone and called the office.

  “Are the bugs operational?”

  “Broadcasting loud and proud, Agent Hunt,” the tech agent said.

  One tiny chip was hidden in the car, and another jabbed into the seam of the armrest of the chair he’d sat on. Mother always held court in her parlor, and that was where the real business transactions would take place.

  “You’ve got a small window of time before she gets paranoid and starts to do a sweep,” Boyce said.

  “Don’t worry. Man, nobody has ever gotten inside her sanctuary. Why didn’t the agency use you before this?”

  Because Boyce wouldn’t let them. He hadn’t wanted to risk his career with the FBI or be anywhere near that woman. And in one fell swoop, he’d gone back on everything he’d said he’d never do.

  Damn it. He had to get back to Cassy.

  • • •

  A soft rap on the door pulled Cassy and crew out of their stupor. She tipped her chair back as Jolie stepped into the room.

  “Uh, hey, my shift is over,” the young woman said.

  Cassy checked the time on her phone and winced. It was closing in on her quitting time, as well. “Has the sheriff checked in lately?”

  “Yeah, about an hour ago.”

  “All right, head out.”

  Giving Cassy a weak smile while tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear, Jolie nodded and left the room, leaving the door open in her wake. Cassy listened for her footsteps to fade and then stood, returning reports and files to their respective boxes.

  “I’m heading out, too. My shift is about up, and I want to go home.”

  “Wait, whoa,” Liza said, slapping a hand on the file Cassy was about to put away. “We’re still trying to work this out. You can’t leave.”

  Cassy extracted the file. “Yeah, actually I can. We’ve been at this for six hours, and we’re no closer to the answers than we were when we started.”

  “We haven’t discussed what the witnesses saw.”

  “What witnesses? The only witnesses to these crimes are either dead, too terrified to speak, or were knocked unconscious during the crimes. We’ve kinda run out of options.”

  From across the table, Con stretched. “She’s right. And I have a wife and son to get home to. I stay here any longer, and Nic will go on the warpath. She can only handle so much time with her da’.”

  “And what am I supposed to do?” Liza asked.

  Settling a lid back on a box, Cassy shrugged. “Whatever you want, Agent Bartholomew. Unless you have some miracle up your sleeve you haven’t told us about, we’re stuck.”

  Liza groaned. “Fine. Shall we meet back here early tomorrow?”

  “Okay by me,” Con said as he slid into his coat.

  “Sure,” Cassy said in parting. She grabbed her coat and bag from her desk and ran outside.

  Jolie’s vehicle was gone. Skating to her truck, Cassy hopped in and started the engine. While she waited for it to warm up enough to defog the windshield, she dug out the GPS tracker. The little red dot was moving along the county line road, heading straight for the northwest side.

  “I knew it.”

  When she’d made the lunch run, Cassy had tagged Jolie’s SUV with a GPS box. Now she would hopefully catch up with the younger woman. Satisfied that the truck was warm enough, Cassy put it in gear.

  The lighted streets of Eider gave way to darkened county roads. Tomorrow was the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year, which put full-on night happening at five o’clock.

  Cassy followed Jolie’s route, passing the empty little Amish hub that served as their one-stop grocery and ag store. Most of the families were at home, not daring to have their carriages out on the snowy roads at night. Like she should be. But her home echoed with the ghost of Boyce’s presence.

  Eventually the pavement morphed into a gravel road. The red dot had stopped and hadn’t moved in the last five minutes. Slowing, Cassy crept up to the place where Jolie had parked, the truck’s headlights landing on Jolie’s light-blue SUV. Cassy parked her truck but left it running when she exited the cab; no way was she getting back into a cold cab. With her flashlight and her weapon in hand, she hiked through the snow to Jolie’s vehicle and found it empty. Footprints led further into the wooded area nearby.

  “Here we go again.”

  Whomever or whatever had led Jolie out here better be worth the trouble, because Cassy hated being dragged out into the middle of nowhere on a damn wild goose chase. She didn’t need to relive her harrowing history in the woods every time she returned.

  She glimpsed a streak of light farther ahead and lowered her flashlight. The muffled voice of a female was all she needed to move faster.

  “Ian?”

  Yep, Jolie was out here looking for her brother.

  “Jolie, it’s Cassy.”

  “What are you doing out here?”

  Keeping her light lowered so she didn’t blind Jolie but was still able to see her, Cassy holstered her gun and stopped a few feet from the younger woman. “The better question is why are you out here?”

  With a groan, Jolie waved her arm above her head. “I’m trying to find Ian.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I think he’s gotten into something, and I need to find him.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. After the big fight the other night, he took of, and today was the first time I’ve heard from him. He was the one on the phone when you came out to the bullpen.”

  “Figured as much, but why would he call you from out here?”

  Jolie slapped her thigh. “I don’t know.”

  “Is there anything you do know?” Silence. “All right, start from the beginning.”

  Moving closer to Cassy, Jolie hugged herself. “For the past few months Ian’s been acting … worse than normal.”

  “Define ‘worse than normal.’”

  “He and Dad have always fought, because Dad expects more of Ian, and Ian just doesn’t care. Over the summer he told me he found a way to make it on his own, didn’t need Dad or his crap. The fights got worse, and it was always about money and Ian being furious with Dad for denying him what was his right. When he left, we all assumed he’d gone to college as planned and gotten a job. Until a week ago, when Dad found him crashing at his friend’s house.”

  “Is that what the fight was about the night of the party?” Cassy asked.

  “Partly. Ian’s different. He used to talk to me about anything. Now he won’t even look at me.”

  Con’s suspicions about Ian whispered through Cassy’s mind. Could the younger Murdoch be behind the robberies? And if so, was the kid capable of murder?

  “He didn’t reach out to me for days, and then suddenly he called today. I put the tracking app on my phone, hoping he would.” She held up her phone. “This was the spot he called me from and probably the only place out here that gets reception.”

  “If he wasn’t talking to you, why’d he decide to call you today?”

  “Something’s changed. He was freaking out, rambling about how it all went wrong. He wouldn’t explain, and he kept cutting me off when I tried to get him to talk. I came out here to find him and talk some sense into him.”

  Cassy gripped the younger woman’s shoulder. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Though Cassy couldn’t see her eyes that well because of the dark, she sensed the woman’s worry. “The robberies started not long after he told me he had a way to make it on his own.”

  “You suspected your brother m
ight have been involved? Jolie, you’re an employee of the sheriff’s department, and you’re training to be a cop. You can’t hide stuff like this.”

  “I wasn’t hiding it. I didn’t have proof. He barely kept in touch with me while he was gone, and we thought he was in college. It’s not like he gave off any warning signals, like, ‘Hey, I bought you this,’ like most robbers would. When he did call me, he acted happy, excited, but he wouldn’t tell me why.”

  This was a convoluted mess. Cassy scratched her forehead. “Did your family know the Clydes well?”

  “No. My parents only knew them in certain social settings, but they weren’t friends or anything.”

  “What about Kendra Clyde? Does Ian know her?”

  Jolie shrugged. “Maybe. He never said. They’re close in age. Might’ve been in the same class when they were in school.”

  “Do you think Ian had something to do with Kendra going missing?”

  “Cassy, I don’t know what to think. I just want to find my brother and get some answers.”

  “Don’t we all.” Cassy scoped the area around them. “What’s out here?”

  “Maybe a hunting cabin. I know there was an abandoned Amish farm not far from here.”

  “How well do you know the county and all the prime hunting areas?”

  “Okay, but Dad and Ian were the ones who did all the hunting. Ian knows this place like the back of his hand.”

  A sensation of dread skittered down Cassy’s spine. “So he’d know all the places where people would be and wouldn’t, good places to hide out when you don’t want to be found?”

  “Yeah.”

  If Ian was with Kendra Clyde, he would’ve known the cabin was empty because the Clydes hadn’t rented it out. Cassy wasn’t liking this one bit.

  “Let’s go back to the vehicles and get ahold of the sheriff and the guys. We’re going to need their help searching out here.” She had maybe seven minutes, tops, before she began screaming at these godforsaken trees.

  “Cassy, wait.” Jolie snagged Cassy’s coat sleeve and yanked her to a stop. “Please, can we not call them?”

  “We’re calling them. We always call in backup.”

  “I understand, but we don’t even know if we have any reception out here.”

  Groaning, Cassy jerked out her phone. No service. “Shit. What about you?”

  Jolie shook her head. “I can’t even find the exact spot Ian called me from. Our radios won’t work, either, and with no one at the dispatch board, we’re not getting patched through.”

  “I should kick you for this, Murdoch.” Cassy huffed, her breath billowing in a great cloud. “Get back to your vehicle. We’re leaving.”

  “Not until I make sure my brother isn’t out here.”

  “Hell, no. It’s pitch-black out here, and we don’t know what’s out there. We’re not going anywhere except out of here.”

  “Please, Cassy. I have to find him.”

  “Have you learned nothing in your training? We don’t ever go into a situation that’s going to potentially get us killed. Not without backup.”

  Jolie’s shoulders sagged, and her head drooped. “If that were your sister out there, what would you do?”

  The little rookie played dirty. Two years ago it had been her out there. She and Pop, drugged and under the influence of a lunatic. It had been Nic’s hellfire and stubborn nature that had sought them out and saved them. But Nic had the training and assistance from Con and his retired military war dog, Cadno.

  She was stuck with a green cop-in-training.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Look, safety comes first, and this isn’t safe. If Ian is out here, do you think he’ll be moving on by daylight?”

  “It’s hard to say, but he’s so caught up in himself, he’d probably never stop to think that I’d come looking for him.”

  Cassy smiled. There was hope for this wet-behind-the-ears deputy-to-be. “I’d say you’re right. Come—”

  A boom rent the night air. The juicy thwack of something hitting meat sickened Cassy; Jolie cried out and crumpled. Reacting on instinct, Cassy grabbed the younger woman, dropping her flashlight facedown in the snow.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Oh my God, it hurts,” Jolie groaned.

  Another shot rang out. Cassy heard the bullet smack into something behind her. Had she not pulled Jolie low to the ground, one of them would have been hit by that second shot.

  “Shush. Where are you hit?” she whispered.

  “My leg. I can’t move it.”

  Removing her gun from its holster, Cassy located Jolie’s arm and found her hand, placing the weapon in her hand. “I’m getting us out of here. You’re going to need to cover my back.”

  “How do you expect me to do that?”

  “Just shoot at the place where you see a bright flash of light. Now don’t make a sound; I’m going to lift you onto my shoulders.”

  Thank God for Nic’s persistent training while Cassy was recovering and trying to prepare to better defend herself. Her sister had put her through the same vigorous regimen she’d endured to be a Marine Scout sniper. Here’s where Cassy learned if it paid off.

  “Ready?”

  “Yes.”

  A branch or twig snapped somewhere behind them. The shooter was moving closer.

  Cassy positioned Jolie to sling her over her shoulders.

  “Hurry,” Jolie whispered.

  With a grunt, Cassy threw Jolie up and onto her shoulders, pushing to her feet like a weightlifter, and then took off at a jog in the direction they’d come. Jolie whimpered. The dark was hindering Cassy’s vision, but she could just make out the red and white lights on her truck’s running boards, which proved she was going in the right direction. They hadn’t gone too far from the vehicles.

  Another blast ripped through the night, which Jolie answered with return fire. It would slow the shooter, but not stop them.

  “I see someone following us,” Jolie said.

  The damn snow was hindering Cassy’s progress and tiring her too quickly. Her body screamed from Jolie’s weight, and the scent of blood was making Cassy nauseous. Digging deep into that Rivers tenacity, she moved past the fatigue and kicked up her pace. No way in hell was she letting some hotshot criminal take her down. Not like this.

  She breached the edge of the woods and scrambled up the slight rise to the road. Throwing the passenger door open, she dumped Jolie inside, making her cry out.

  “Get in!” Cassy flung her body around the front of the truck as another shot echoed through the trees, the bullet smashing into the frame.

  “Oh, God, hurry!” Jolie fired back.

  Jumping into the cab, Cassy—not bothering with the headlights—rammed the gearshift into reverse, twisted her body around, and gunned the engine. She steered the truck backward, the rear-end lights guiding her along the road.

  “Oh shit! They’re getting in my car.”

  Cassy glanced at the front. Sure enough, whoever was after them was whipping Jolie’s SUV around and giving chase. Returning her focus to her backward progress, Cassy increased her speed.

  “Come on come on come on.”

  The turnoff loomed, and she steered the truck onto the side road, sliding to a stop. Flipping the headlights on at the same time as she shifted the truck into drive, she slammed the gas pedal to the floor. The tires spun wildly on the slick road, making the truck slide sideways.

  “Cassy! They’re coming!”

  Headlights blinded her from the side. She yanked the gearshift down into third gear, the tires made purchase, and they shot forward. The SUV clipped the tailgate, sending the truck skidding sideways. Cassy drove into the slid and managed to wrangle the truck back on track. She returned the engine to drive and pressed the pedal to the floor. The saving grace at the moment was the fact that the truck was already in four-wheel drive. They sped toward the bend in the road that ran parallel to the river. No way would
she have chosen to be this close to the river with a person hell-bent on doing them harm. But choice had long fled the scene.

  “Jolie, try the radio and the phones.”

  The SUV’s lights glared in the rearview mirror; they hadn’t given up. Damn it! And somehow the SUV was gaining.

  “Sheriff! We need help!”

  “Murdoch, where are you? What the hell—?”

  “Sheriff, listen. Cassy and I are on Willow Road heading toward the river bend. We’re being chased by a shooter. I’m shot!”

  “Shitballs! Nash, haul ass. Ladies, keep going, we’re on our way.”

  Cassy checked the mirror again; the lights were closing the distance. What the hell was wrong with the truck? She couldn’t press the gas down any further.

  “Cassy!” Jolie screeched.

  The bend appeared at the edge of the lights. That damn tight bend. She gripped the steering wheel. “Hang on.”

  Letting off the gas, she let the truck coast, easing the steering wheel to the right to take the curve and hopefully not slide off the road onto the river embankment. The tires kept traction on the road, and the truck started to make it around the curve.

  Wham! The crunch of metal and shattering plastic made Jolie scream.

  Cassy stomped both feet on the brake, but the SUV managed to thwart her attempts to stop them. In horror, she watched as they hurtled off the road, plowed over the flat embankment, and crashed into the ice that edged the river. The impact flung her into the steering wheel and tossed Jolie onto the dashboard.

  The weight of the truck broke through the ice, and the hood plunged into the water. Wincing, she pushed herself off the wheel, bracing her feet on the floorboard as the truck tilted forward. She cut the engine but left the battery on. Not that it mattered. The engine was on its way to being flooded.

  “Jolie?”

  Silence met her plea. Jolie’s head was craned, facing Cassy, but her eyes were closed, and blood was dripping from a wide gash on her forehead. Cassy reached out and grabbed the younger woman’s arm to ease her out of the gap between the dashboard and the windshield.

  Cold water hit her legs, and Cassy gasped. It was climbing up her calves. Looking to the backseat, she noticed there were no headlights. Had the driver taken off? The water was now close to her knees, and the battery shorted out, killing all the lights. She had to figure out a way to get herself and Jolie out of here. Her teeth began to chatter as the cold seeped into her body.