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CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

A ddie’s stomach knotted as soon as the cabin came into view. It didn’t look inviting at all, but someone inside had lights on behind whatever covered the windows. She could see thin strips of light between the boards.

“Whoa.” Kyle hit the brakes.

Addie slammed her palm down on the dash as the car sprayed gravel and came to a stop.

In front of them stood a blonde with a look of terror on her face.

“Mona.” Addie shoved her door open. “Mona!” She didn’t know what else to say. She just gathered her sister in her arms and held on for a second.

“I’ll get an ambulance here.” Kyle moved back to the driver’s door while Stella stayed by them, her weapon drawn.

Addie had never been so thankful to have partners with her.

Stella said, “Cops are here.”

They rolled up behind Kyle’s car. No lights or sirens. Just the low turnover of engines in a convoy of officers and SWAT.

But one thing breached the surface of her thoughts. “I need to do this myself.”

Mona stepped back.

Addie clutched her sister’s shoulders. “Tell me what’s going on in the cabin.”

The story spilled from Mona in fits and starts. Jacob being hurt, bleeding everywhere. Hank acting crazy. “He killed Celia, and Austin. They wanted to know everything about you.” Mona sniffed. “That’s why he broke up with Celia and started dating me. So they could get the story out from me, like I knew anything.” Her voice broke on a wail.

Addie tugged her sister in again for a hug.

But Mona shook her head. “Hank killed them both.”

“Okay. I know.” Addie nodded.

“He kept them close, dating Celia even though her parents hated it. Austin hated it. He wanted to kill Hank. Celia thought it was cool, getting that close to him when he’d been through the cabins and lived.”

“And now?” Addie asked. “What does he want with Jacob?”

“And you .”

Addie shook her head. “He didn’t take me. He just took you guys.” Not that Mona didn’t know it. But maybe she wasn’t thinking straight.

She sniffed. “He wanted you in there. He said you were both going to die.”

Stella’s brows rose. “Murder-suicide?”

“Or he wants to kill us and go to prison for life. Not that anyone is likely to choose that end.” Addie was leaning more toward suicide. “But my guess is he hates what he’s done, as much as he needed to do it on some level. To prove something or satisfy a part of himself. Or he’s just plain evil.” And she had considered him her friend.

“The mask came off.” Stella turned and lifted her chin to the approaching cops.

“It always does.” Addie tugged Mona’s elbow. “Stay with Stella, okay?”

“What’s going on?”

Addie ignored the question.

Stella said, “I don’t like that look on your face.”

McCauley strode up, a swarm of cops all ready to take down a dangerous fugitive. One of their own.

She wanted to keep them from doing that more than she wanted them to go first. Addie felt like this had started with her, even if it hadn’t.

She set off toward the cabin.

McCauley followed at a fast clip, right behind her according to the crunch of his footsteps on the gravel. “You think we’re going to let you go in there all by yourself?”

She should probably have Kyle go in, since he was completely neutral in this.

“Hank is my detective.”

“And he was my friend.” She’d believed him. Trusted him. He’d been part of this all along, deceiving everyone. Orchestrating it so she was assigned to Benson just so he didn’t have to live with what he’d done all these years. So she could tear away the mask and show everyone the truth. So he could be exposed. Revealed.

For fifteen years, all Addie had thought about was her trauma.

She’d never considered anyone else.

McCauley snagged her elbow in a loose grip. Her arm was free in one tug, but his point was made. “You’re not going alone. Or first.”

“I can talk Hank down.” She slammed a hand high on her chest to make her point. “I can. No one else here. I was part of this when it started, just like Jacob. Currently injured, and maybe dead in there because you fingered him for a murder that had nothing to do with him.”

She saw the guilt on McCauley’s face even in the dim light. It didn’t restrain her.

“Jacob had nothing to do with this until you dragged him in.” Oh, Lord. He could die. She was sure she wouldn’t survive it if she went in there and he had no life in him. If Hank had killed him, and he’d bled out alone right back where their darkest days started.

“Addie.” McCauley reached for her.

She stumbled back and realized tears streamed down her face. “Don’t touch me!”

Mona stared. The cops stared. Her partners geared up from the stuff in their trunk.

Addie could have kissed both of them. She strode over.

Kyle said, “Do you want the shotgun?”

“I need to talk to him, not just kill him.”

Stella shook her head. “Time for talking is over.”

“You cannot kill Detective Maxwell.” McCauley barreled over. “This department needs answers.”

Kyle shut the trunk. “This is a federal case.”

Stella motioned to the cabin with a tip of her head. “Let’s go, Special Agent Franklin. Time to work.”

Addie followed them over to the cabin, moving fast enough they left the cops behind a few feet. They were probably setting up to breach and drag Hank out.

She just needed to get Jacob out, and she would be able to take a full breath rather than these desperate gasps.

Jacob was in there. Breathe. Jacob was bleeding. Breathe.

Jacob could die.

Kyle and Stella halted at the door. Kyle raised his fist.

“Wait.” Addie touched his shoulder. “I do want a shot at talking him down. The last thing we need is this turning into a hostage situation.”

“And yet,” Stella said, “you’re going to walk in there and give him a second hostage?”

Addie pressed her lips together.

“You can. We know you could do this. But that’s not how it works.” Kyle’s expression flashed with something dark.

Stella glanced away. “We need to work together.”

They were right. She couldn’t go off half-cocked on her own. Not with so many cops here to watch her back. This needed to be handled the right way.

Addie nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this.” She held her gun in front, angled down at a forty-five.

Stella braced, ready to go first.

Kyle turned, lifted his foot, and kicked beside the door handle.

The frame cracked, but nothing moved. Kyle kicked it again. It didn’t move that time either.

Stella said, “Barricaded.”

McCauley stepped onto the porch. “Let’s give SWAT a crack at it. Fire is on their way with the EMTs, so if my guys can’t get in they’ll give it a go.”

Addie nodded. But she couldn’t very well stand here and wait. She stalked off the porch to round the cabin and look at the place from every angle. The first window didn’t give her a view—not without standing on something.

Her pace grew more desperate as she rounded the back corner. There should be another exit, per the fire code. Surely.

She stared at the back of the cabin.

Jacob.

The last time they’d been in a situation like this, she couldn’t imagine what their families had been going through. Now she could say she did. Except Addie would never react to it the way her mother had, wailing about how Addie couldn’t be scarred. She was too pretty.

Fix her. She’s broken! She can’t be hurt. She’ll never get a man!

As though that had anything to do with the situation as the cops pulled them out of the cabin Ivan Damen put them in. As they realized Becca was dead and they weren’t. That Hank had been taken as well, the same time they were.

Then in the hospital, her mom had inserted herself into the conversation. He’d looked relieved to see Addie, but her mom demanded to know why he hadn’t given his life to save her. When her mom had barely been around Addie’s whole life.

Addie stowed her weapon in the holster on her belt. She pulled at the back door handle. She braced her foot on the frame and pulled again.

It didn’t move.

Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. She swiped them away, then kicked at the door. Took out her frustration on the fact Hank had secured it shut.

Jacob was going to die in there, and it would be on her. The same way their breakup was on her.

Addie hadn’t stuck up for herself. She’d just let her mother say whatever she wanted. The cop who pulled her out of the cabin while her mom wailed had muttered something disparaging. She couldn’t even remember the words now, drowned out by her mom’s screaming and carrying on. It hadn’t been encouraging about the kind of person Ivan Damen targeted.

The kind of person her mom was.

Addie had spent fifteen years being as far from that person as she possibly could be. The same way she’d had nothing to do with her mother.

The way she’d passed off credit to the other members of her teams and task forces, agents she partnered with. Keeping her hair and makeup simple. Not drawing attention to herself.

She wanted to draw Jacob’s attention. He was the only one she needed.

Addie bent at the waist and took in some longer breaths so she didn’t pass out. She’d lost it.

She needed to pull herself together, go back around the cabin and?—

The door flew open, nearly smacking her in the face as it swung out.

She heard the distant shouts of police.

Hank Maxwell slammed into her, and they both went down. Addie’s back knocked into the ground.

Hank tried to get off her.

She ditched the gun and grabbed his shirt. “You’re done, Hank. It’s over.” And he better not have killed Jacob.

Before he could scramble up, Addie rolled over and pinned him beneath her. Hank added to the momentum, and she was flipped again. Her temple hit something.

Addie cried out.

Hank’s hands circled her neck. “Last one.”

She saw the flash of his gritted teeth. Her mind screamed at her body to take a breath, but his grasp prevented her from doing it.

Inside the cabin, there was a giant crash and a wave of yelling.

I’m here. I’m right here.

Addie needed to get him off her. She couldn’t get her weapon. Maybe he had one.

She patted his waist with her hands. His weight on top of her. She wanted to vomit. “Hank.” The word was barely audible. “Jacob.”

“I won’t go to prison.” His hands flexed. “Not before you’re dead.”

She kept moving her hands, hoping he didn’t notice. She found a phone sandwiched between his front pants pocket and her hip. He shifted, and the rub of hard plastic on her hip hurt .

“Hank.” She wanted to plead. Beg him to let her live. But what if Jacob was dead? Maybe she didn’t want to live in a world where he lay cold in the ground.

Her hands stopped moving.

No, she couldn’t quit.

“FBI!” Kyle yelled. “Let me see your hands!”

Addie felt a tear roll from the corner of her eye. “Hank. It’s over.”

He stared at her, nothing but darkness.

“It’s over.”

“FBI!” Stella echoed. “Let her go and show us your hands!”

Addie saw the change in his eyes. It began in the darkness and seeped out to permeate every inch of him, to his fingertips.

Hank jumped off her and launched himself at Stella.

Kyle put two bullets in him.

He fell to the grass.

Stella stumbled back but rallied quickly. “Hey…thanks.”

Kyle held out a hand to Addie. “EMTs are here. They’re getting Jake now. It doesn’t look good.”

Addie found her balance then let go of his hand. “Like Stella said. Thanks.”

Then she ran inside to see Jake.