Scream For Me: A Novel of the Night Hunter (For Me #3)(23)
Author: Cynthia Eden

That was good news, right? Stable sounded real good to Kyle.

A doctor appeared behind Cadence. Called for the family.

As they surrounded him, Cadence headed toward Kyle and James. “They think she’ll recover. Her heartbeat is growing stronger, and her brain activity…” Her voice was low, just for them. “The doctor thinks she’ll wake up.”

“When?” He wanted to know just who had taken Lily. What the bastard had done to her in the darkness.

“Maybe tomorrow. It’s hard to say.” She pushed back her hair. “We need to talk, privately.”

Away from the family rushing toward the ICU doors.

James motioned to the cops who’d been waiting a few feet back. Heather Crenshaw and a bruised Jason Marsh stepped forward. “Stand guard, got me?” James demanded of them.

They nodded. Jason’s gaze cut to Cadence. He looked like he wanted to speak, but Cadence had already stepped away.

She, James, and Kyle slid into an empty hospital room. Cadence shut the door, sealing them inside.

“Preliminary exams are showing there’s no sign of rape,” Cadence said.

Thank Christ.

“She’s got lacerations on her wrists and ankles, no doubt from the ropes, but Lily appears to have no other physical trauma.”

“Except that the bastard drugged her,” James snapped as he ran a hand over his gleaming head. “Tried to kill her.”

“We were close.” Cadence clenched her own hands into small fists. “He didn’t want her making it out of those caverns.”

He hadn’t wanted any of them getting free.

“He set his traps,” Kyle said, and there was rage rumbling in his voice at just how close they’d all come to dying. “He tried to bury us alive.” The trip wire in the Statue of Liberty chamber had been set to bury anyone who’d been lucky enough to find those remains.

He remembered his first glimpse of Lily. Her stark eyes, unblinking.

The darkness. His light had cut through the dark.

Thirteen tally marks.

“As soon as he got clear of the debris, Jason called in backup.” The lines on James’s face were even deeper. He looked as if he’d aged ten years in the last two days. “We couldn’t get through the rocks, and we were trying to find a way to you.”

“You didn’t know about the entrance behind the falls?” Kyle demanded in disbelief. Someone should have known. James had been in that area far too long not to have known.

But James shook his head. “No one goes up to those falls, not since a runaway killed herself there.” He swallowed as a flash of pain appeared in his eyes. “Those falls aren’t good. People stay away—”

“But the entrance—” Cadence interrupted.

“I lived in this town my whole life,” James said flatly, “and I didn’t know you could get to the caverns behind those falls. Death Falls. Hell, that’s what the kids up here call them. If you go too close, they’ll pull you to your death.”

Lily’s abductor had known about that entrance. The killer had known.

“We found remains in those caverns,” Kyle told him. “In the Statue of Liberty chamber.” One body, but there could be more. Eleven more. They had to get Dani to broaden her search. The killer had left those marks on the cave wall for a reason.

Counting off his prey.

“We saw her. When we went searching for you two, we found the—the bones.” James’s Adam’s apple bobbed and sweat beaded his upper lip. “I got a team on the way, coming in from the next county. They’re gonna get her out. We’ll find out who she was.”

Not Maria.

“The geologists are coming up, because—” James paused, sucking in a breath.

“There could be more bodies,” Cadence finished. She was only saying what they all thought.

James nodded. “But I don’t know if we can get to them. Those explosions made the place even more unstable. Even when we were in the first chamber room, rocks were falling on us. I don’t know if I can risk men to find…”

Dead bodies.

It was exactly what the killer was counting on. He’d hidden all the evidence, destroyed it, and made the place so dangerous that others would hesitate to enter his domain.

“We’ll start fresh tomorrow.” James rolled back his shoulders. His gaze darted from Kyle to Cadence. “You two did it. You saved Lily Adams. We can count this damn case in the win column.”

They hadn’t been too late this time.

“Now, you both look like shit, so go back to your hotel. Get some sleep.”

Sleep was the last thing on Kyle’s mind. Adrenaline had his blood pumping, his whole body feeling jacked up with electric current. “He’s still out there.” The case didn’t count as a win for him until the killer was stopped.

Dead.

“We’ll find him.” James seemed certain. “But you two aren’t gonna be any good to me until you get some rest.”

Cadence’s gaze flickered to Kyle. Unlike her, he hadn’t cleaned up yet. Blood and grime covered him. Kyle figured the captain’s assessment of looking “like shit” had to be pretty accurate for him.

“You saved the girl.” James’s eyes were on Kyle, piercing in their intensity. “This time, it ended differently.”

Kyle nodded.

“Get your rest. You deserve it. Those caves will be there tomorrow.”

Would the killer? Or when he realized that Lily was gone, would the SOB try to vanish in the wind?

Doesn’t matter if you run, I will find you.

He wouldn’t give up. Not until he stopped the bastard.

The captain hurried away from them.

Kyle stared into Cadence’s eyes. “There were thirteen marks.”

She gave a small nod and reached for her phone. A few seconds later, Cadence said, “Dani? Dani, how’s that search coming? Because I need those results, now.” A pause. “Based on what we found in those caves, we think there might be a lot more women missing than we first suspected.”

Not just missing. Dead?

He remembered the flash of white in the darkness. The human bone. The tattered dress.

Please. The desperate thought, the prayer, slipped from him. Don’t be Maria. Because he’d clung so long to that one hope—the hope that he’d find his sister alive.

And not that he’d stumble over her bones in the middle of hell.

“Agents!”

The check-in clerk rushed from the motel as soon as he saw Cadence and Kyle arrive. The kid’s wide-eyed stare flew over them, lingering a bit on the blood covering Kyle’s shirt.