away the tremors moving up her backbone, she asked, “So what did the note say?”
Jake paced in front of the decorated fireplace. “Told me to go alone to a pavilion on the west side of the lake and look on the picnic table closest to the boat launch. I found the necklace dangling off a nail.”
She whirled around to stare at him. “And you must have found his next note.”
Jake nodded, tugged at his clipped light brown hair. “White paper, nailed on a nearby tree. ‘Tell Ella I miss her.’”
Ella hands trembled in spite of her clenched jaw. “He sent you to me.”
Jake started for her but stopped. “I’m sorry, Ella. He knows I’d come here and I had to come. For Macey’s sake. And to make sure you’re okay.”
“Do I look okay?”
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I should have killed him when I had a chance.”
But he’d stayed with her instead. Because when he’d found her curled up in a ball against a cypress tree like a wounded, dying animal, Ella had latched on to him and begged him never to leave her again.
Delirious. She’d been dehydrated and delirious and...Jake had taken her into his arms and held her. While the killer got away. They’d searched almost every inch of the lake and the surrounding areas and they’d put out APBs and a BOLO, but they’d never found the wounded killer.
She put that out of her mind. Remembered how she’d pushed Jake away after he’d come to see her in the hospital. Remembered how she’d once loved him and wanted to marry him.
She’d been too damaged and broken and burned out after her ordeal to handle what she considered his disapproval. Too damaged to go back into a relationship with the man she’d loved since high school, a man who’d become a Texas Ranger. Jake loved his job but after her two short years as a federal agent Ella hated anything having to do with criminals and lawmen. She’d become a coward. A big, scared coward. Jake’s wife had died the year before Ella’s ordeal and he’d deserved so much more than Ella could give.
Now, five years later, he’d come to her again but she’d only just begun to heal.
Finally.
She was headed right back into the nightmare but she couldn’t say no to Jake. Not when that madman might have his daughter.
Ella said a prayer for courage. “Okay, he’s got our attention. What next?”
Jake gave her a look that told her everything but said nothing. “I think he’s going back to the scene of his last crime.”
Ella’s head jerked at that. “You think he’s got Macey somewhere on the lake?”
“I think he’s brought her to the place where he brought you.” He shifted on his boots. “He didn’t get to finish that job.”
The place where he’d brought her to die. The killer had dragged her all over East Texas and then back to the place he knew she loved. Caddo Lake.
She could still remember his hot breath on her neck, could still see the black mask he always wore and the intensity of the last few words he’d spoken to her. “You’ll never be found, dear one. The alligators and snakes will take care of you. Here on your beloved Caddo Lake.”
The authorities decided the alligators and other creatures had taken care of his body instead.
Ella held her eyes tightly shut. “I believed he’d died in the woods or had drowned.” She shook her head. “I wanted to believe that. But I always wondered....”
“Ella...”
She wouldn’t give in to the tremendous need to rush into Jake’s arms. She had to keep it together for Macey’s sake. It wasn’t Macey’s fault that her mother had taken Ella’s high school sweetheart and made him hers by getting herself pregnant, only to up and die on him. And it wasn’t Macey’s fault that five years ago when another girl had turned up missing, circumstances had brought Jake and Ella back together to help track the killer and that girl. Nor was it Macey’s fault that fate had pushed them together again today.
Sometimes Ella dreamed of being back in high school and instead of telling Jake she wanted to become an FBI agent, she wished she’d told him yes, she’d marry him and be his wife and live a simple life out in the country while he worked at becoming a Texas Ranger.
It wasn’t anyone’s fault that they would never be able to get back to that place of love and need that had once colored their world in sweet shades of amber and gold.
But it was the Dead Drop Killer’s fault that she was standing here with this Texas Ranger and her Remington, about to go back out into those woods that had held her captive for so long that she still had nightmares about them.
That was the killer’s fault and because she had to help Jake find his daughter, Ella now had one more chance to do what she should have done all those years ago.
So she nodded at Jake and dropped extra ammo into her rucksack. “He’s probably left something here at the farm. We need to get out there and find the next clue.”
Ella opened the front door but Zip rushed past her, the big dog’s light bark alerting Jake and Ella that someone had arrived at the Terrell farm.
“Who is it?” Jake asked as he automatically moved in front of Ella to shield her.
“My grandparents,” she replied, purposely stepping around him. “If it had been a stranger, Zip would have barked loudly and knocked us over getting to them.”
“Good dog,” Jake said. He brushed a hand over the big dog’s chocolate-brown top coat. At least he could rest easy that Ella had set measures in place to protect herself.
But this killer had been known to get around any type of security measures. As far as Jake could tell, Ella had only the dog and her few weapons scattered around to keep her safe. Far too vulnerable.
“What are you gonna tell them?” he asked, his anxiety at top level. He had to get out into those woods and find Macey before he went stark-raving mad. Once that task force showed up and the killer found out, Macey could be dead before nightfall. This man would savor the attention but he could be pushed too far, too fast if they weren’t careful.
“The truth,” Ella replied. She set down her rucksack and her rifle. “I’ll hurry. I know you’re anxious to get on with it.”
Jake nodded. It didn’t take much to see that, but Ella had always known how to read his moods. Swallowing back the deep pit of fear that had clutched his gut since he’d gotten the call last night, Jake continued the silent, screaming prayer he’d been reciting since he’d realized just who might have his daughter.
Protect her, Lord. Protect my baby girl. And help me to do my job to the best of my ability. For all of our sakes.
Ella stepped forward to help her
