Cynthia Eden - Abduction

It was better this way. Far, far better to just stick to the case.

* * *

HE KNEW THE REDHEAD. And he’d been right. Seeing her on the pier yesterday, in that exact same spot, at nearly the exact same time of evening...it hadn’t been coincidence.

It had been fate.

Sixteen years ago, Jillian West had come to Hope, Florida. Quiet, withdrawn, her parents dead. She’d seemed to be his perfect prey. A gift delivered right to his doorstep.

He’d been following her for days before he approached her at the pier. He always liked to watch before he made his move. He had to be smart. So he’d watched and he’d acted at just the right moment.

Jillian had fought him, but he’d gotten her away. He’d had such plans for her, but when he went back to his cabin, she’d been gone.

Long gone. And his rage had nearly blinded him.

Jillian West.

The victim who’d gotten away. She’d stayed in town. Stayed until her grandmother died. Then the gossip he’d heard said that she’d joined the FBI. She’d wanted to help find missing children.

The folks in the little town had admired her.

He’d hated her.

Because of her, he’d lost everything. He’d had to be careful and to watch his steps. Had to hold back his impulses. Had to lose himself.

But then his life had changed yesterday, when he’d seen her.

Now he knew the real reason he’d stayed in Hope all these long years.

I knew—one day—we’d finish what we started.

It was time to act. Time to catch the only prey to ever get away from him. And then...only then...would his work truly be finished. He wasn’t weak any longer. Finally, finally, he was strong. Better than ever.

The timing was perfect. For him.

He paused for just a moment outside of the sheriff’s office. She was in there and he knew she wasn’t alone. Hayden Black was close by, the way he always was when Jillian was near.

Tugging his baseball cap down, he turned away. As he headed toward the beach, he started to whistle. This was going to be different for him. Not as easy, more of a challenge. She was FBI. She’d had training.

But she wasn’t better than him. Wasn’t smarter. He’d been evading FBI agents for years. He had this down.

And Jillian...well, she was about to see what it was like to be prey again. Only this time, you won’t get away. I’ll make sure there’s no one there to save you, Jillian.

He was getting his life back, and in order to do that, FBI agent Jillian West had to die.

Chapter Three

Hayden lifted his hand and rapped his knuckles against the door frame. At the sound, Jill’s head whipped up and she blinked at him, a few dazed blinks, and he knew that she’d had herself fully immersed in the case file.

She’d made herself comfortable in the little office. She had a laptop open on the desk, positioned just to her right, and she’d started tacking some notes up on the bulletin board to her left. His eyebrows rose as he realized that she was certainly making the most of that slim file.

“Hayden?” She rose to her feet. “What’s wrong?”

Not a damn thing. Finally, his world felt right. Because she was there. But he made a show of looking at his watch. “You’ve been in here for almost five hours. I thought you might want to take a lunch break with me.”

“Five hours?” She seemed surprised and gave a little laugh. “Sorry, I, um, tend to get a bit lost in my work.”

He thought that might be an understatement.

She snapped her laptop shut. “But I would like some lunch...and a chance to pick your brain, now that I’ve had a chance to form my own impressions of the case.” She grabbed her bag. “How about we just pick up some sandwiches and eat on the beach?”

They’d done that so many times as kids. Tossed a blanket on the sand. Stared at the waves, talked and dreamed. After Jill’s abduction, her grandmother had gone through a phase where she was almost hypervigilant. She hadn’t wanted to let Jill out of her sight. She hadn’t let her granddaughter go anyplace but to school and right back home and...

Jill had turned reserved and quiet.

He’d gone to her grandmother and talked to her. He promised her that Jill would always be safe with him. And the lady...the lady had actually trusted him. She’d let Jill go on walks with him. Go to the beach with him.

Start to live again, with him.

They grabbed sandwiches from the deli next door, and then he snagged a blanket from the back of his SUV. Keeping a beach blanket handy was standard operating procedure for anyone who lived in Hope. The sunsets were not to be missed.

As they walked along the sand, Jill gave him a quick smile, a smile that actually reached her green eyes and made them gleam. “Just like old times, isn’t it?”

Seagulls called overhead and the waves thundered as they hit the beach.

He stared at her a moment, and thought about the old times, the best times of his life. “Yes.”

Her smile slipped. “Um, here, let me spread out the blanket.” Jill eased it onto the sand, and then she sat down and he stared at her.

Jill was there, actually back with him. He was not going to mess this up. Hayden eased onto the blanket beside her and handed her one of the sandwiches. For a time, they ate in silence. He was far too conscious of her, beside him. The wind teased a lock of her hair and sent it dancing over her left cheek. He wanted to brush that hair back and tuck it behind her ear...but Jill had made it clear she didn’t want him touching her.

Damn unfortunate, since touching her was the main thing he wanted.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Jill suddenly said. Her head turned and their eyes met. “Do you know how rare it is to have two girls taken within such a short period like that?”

Yeah, he did. He wasn’t an expert on child abduction like she was, but because of her, he’d definitely done his share of research.

“The fact that the guy stayed here and took Christy after I escaped...it suggests that he was acting out a compulsion. That he had to kidnap and—”

“Murder?” Hayden cut in.

She nodded. “Yes.” Her gaze fell to the sand.

“There were never any other cases in Hope that fit his MO.” That had been the very first thing Hayden checked once he came back to town. “No abductions at all. After that one weekend, Hope went back to its normal 3.5 drunk and disorderly arrests a year.” He blew out a hard breath. “No more murders. No more missing children.”

“Just one hellish weekend.” She put her empty sandwich wrapper back in the bag and took a sip of bottled water. “It doesn’t fit. In all the cases I’ve studied, a one-and-done situation like this...it’s too rare. If the perp were following a compulsion, he would have needed to act again. Sure, there would be a cooling-off period but—”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on.” He balled up his own wrapper and tossed it in the bag. “A ‘cooling-off’ period?” Hayden repeated. “That sounds like we’re dealing with some kind of...of serial killer or something.”

“There are serial abductors,” Jill murmured. “It’s unfortunate, but it does occur. Most types of abductions are family abductions, but nonfamily abductions...well, there are different rules in place for those.”

Rules? Okay, now this was just making him angrier.

“If this were a serial abductor we were looking at, there would have been more victims,” Jill said. Her delicate jaw hardened. “The perp wouldn’t have just vanished, just—just totally disappeared off the grid.”

“Let’s back up,” Hayden directed. The waves rolled onto the shore. “Tell me what you believe happened to Christy, based on the report.”

“That tiny five-page report? The one that contained zero DNA evidence or crime scene analysis?”