Mortal Pursuit

66

“You’ll tell me, Trish,” the man named Tyler breathed. “You’ll tell me exactly where to find your traveling companion.”

She wished she had never admitted her nickname in the presence of Cain and his thugs. She hated hearing it from this man’s mouth.

Through gritted teeth she whispered, “No chance.”

“Oh, yes. You’ll tell.”

The way he said it wasn’t good. He sounded much too sure of himself.

He released his hold on her wrists. Reached across the counter to a stainless steel sink. Plugged the drain, then ran cold water from the tap in a foaming gush.

She listened to the hiss of water, her mind frozen.

“Now listen, Trish.” His voice was a hiss also. “Our schedule’s getting kind of hairy. We may not have time to hunt down some high school whore and still get paid. And we will get paid. I got a red Porsche, showroom new, just waiting for me.”

The sink was half full now.

“So here’s the thing. I’m gonna kill you, okay We both already know that. But it can be easy, or it can be hard. Easy way is with a bullet. Hard way-well, it’s like this.”

In one motion he thrust her forward and plunged her head into the sink.

For a wild moment Ally imagined Lilith as some sort of evil spirit, not human at all, a supernatural presence able to snatch a gun away.

No. Quit it.

The real answer was much more obvious. Harassed by bullets, confused by fear, she had simply dropped the pistol when she started to crawl.

And Lilith, tracking her, had picked it up.

Wonder Woman’s partner, she thought in a scalding wave of self-reproach. Sure.

Breath streamed from Trish’s mouth in agitated bubbles. As if from a distance she sensed the pops and jerks of her own shoulders as she struggled to break free of his grasp.

It was the car trunk again. Cold water rising until the air pocket was gone. Ache in her lungs, terrible need to draw a breath, mounting helplessness and terror—

He yanked her head back, his fingers knotted in her hair. She gulped air, water running like tears down her face.

“You like that, Trish You like that”

A spasm of dry retching was the only answer she could give.

He jostled her into silence. “Didn’t think you would. So talk to me.” He leaned close, his whisper caressing her right ear. “Talk and I’ll go easy on you, I promise I will.”

She shook all over. Couldn’t face another submersion, couldn’t stand the thought of the inevitable moment when she inhaled water and felt her lungs ice over.

In the woods, a light snapped on.

Ally hugged the tree as white glare diffused through the misty air on both sides of her. The beam of Lilith’s flash, probing the night.

Facing an unarmed adversary, Lilith could afford to reveal her position. And Ally, sheltered only by the tree, couldn’t move without being instantly seen.

Don’t come this way, she prayed. Go in another direction. Please, please don’t find me.

“Alison …”

The girlish singsong raised a skitter of gooseflesh on Ally’s bare arms.

The cone of light swayed, exploring the foliage on either side of the oak but never straying far enough to give her a chance at escape.

Crackle of sticks. Boots treading closer. The glare brightened, droplets of mist sparkling in a funnel of white.

Too late she saw a torn fragment of her dress snagged on the bark, fluttering in the breeze, marking her position like a flag.

An elfin titter, and she knew Lilith had seen it too.

“I think you’re behind that tree, Alison …”

She choked back a moan.

“Be smart, Trish,” Tyler breathed fiercely. “Tell me where she is.”

Had to say something, or he would dunk her again.

Her answer came without conscious preparation. “The island. I came alone. Left her … on the island.”

“That’s a lie.”

“No, really-“

“You wouldn’t take the boat and strand her there. If you got caught, she’d be a sitting duck.”

“I … I didn’t think of that.”

“You think of everything,” he said, and pushed her under.

Loose hairs waved around her face. Air dribbled from her pursed lips. A high, tuneless buzz filled the space between her ears. Somewhere someone was screaming, and someone else was saying, It’s all right, and neither voice was hers.

He jerked her head up, and she was coughing, then gasping, then coughing again, real tears mixing now with the water on her face.

“I don’t like liars,” Tyler snarled. “You got that”

No hope of talking her way out of this. She had to take action, fight back. Somehow.

“Now, Trish”-his voice ominously gentle again-“I’ll ask you real nicely just once more.”

Her forearms were still wedged between his body and her own, but he wasn’t holding them anymore. She had some limited mobility.

“Where’s your sidekick at”

She groped blindly behind her, looking for a weapon, a diversion, anything to save her from going back down into the wet and the dark.

“Last chance.” His breath stirred the fine down on her cheek. “Talk to me, and talk straight-or next time, sweetheart, you ain’t coming up for air.”