Where Evil Waits by Kate Brady Page A

on.
    Fuck them all.
    His breaths came short. This was impossible. He’d sent her a text message of Louie Guilford just hours ago from the bridge. She’d received it—he knew she had. He’d
felt
it… lying there on a mattress in a stable he’d built for her, he’d sensed that she got the text, and he’d drifted to sleep with her horror filling his dreams. She had to be terrified. She had to have figured it out by now. After her husband’s sunglasses and Guilford’s death and all those gifts… After his threats to her son and the picture of Penny Wolff. She had to have been smart enough to realize he had something planned for
her—
    Sasha stopped, a thought pinging in the back of his mind. Wait, that was it. She
did
have to know. He’d takencare to be cryptic early on, keeping his distance while doing what was necessary to build this precious stable and prepare for her arrival. But by now, she had to know.
    And just when she caught on, she and her kid went missing in a boat explosion? Dead?
    I don’t think so.
    A sneer rose up and Sasha moved through a few more channels, caught the end of one last local report. No bodies. No plans. No explanation. She and the kid were just gone.
    Sanity squeezed in, one drop at a time. That bitch. How dare she try to hide from him? This was
his
plan. She had no right trying to change the outcome.
    Rage threatened, but arrogance won out. Kara may be smart, but not as smart as Sasha. She couldn’t defy him. She couldn’t elude him.
    He calmed and got out the iPhone—the one dedicated for his business with Kara. He resisted the urge to turn it on here and jumped in the Lexus. He drove, not sure where he was going, only certain that he didn’t dare let the GPS he was about to use start at the stable. He got into Atlanta where there would be plenty of towers, smiled at himself, and headed for a parking lot at Turner Field. He liked the irony of that.
    When he was parked, he got out the phone and turned it on, then re-enabled the GPS.
    Kara’s phone had a tracking program—he’d installed it himself. He’d been tracking her for months, and she had no idea, and her kid, too. All he’d needed was to have the phones in his hands for a few minutes to install the programs, and he managed that one afternoon at a Memorial Day party. No problem at all.
    He waited while the phone found service, clickedon the device he wanted to find, and watched the little bars light up as the satellite searched for Kara’s phone. Nothing.
    His jaw clenched. What? He tried again. Nothing.
    Fury rose in his gut, and he switched over to access Aidan’s tracker. A signal came up. His heart started beating again. Aidan’s phone was still alive, somewhere north of the city, near Blue Ridge. In the middle of fucking nowhere.
    He frowned. It didn’t make sense that Kara’s phone wasn’t working but Aidan’s was, especially if they’d both been blown up in a boat explosion. He’d known she was smart, he’d known she was resourceful. But he hadn’t expected her to try to escape him by making people believe she was dead.
    He set the phone on the dashboard where he could see the map.
Very good, Kara. Nice move, indeed.
    But now it’s my turn.

CHAPTER
14
     
    L UKE WATCHED K ARA COME back into the kitchen. He didn’t react, but it was a damn close thing: golden tresses gone the way of dark pixie-punk, makeup that only exaggerated the jewel-tones of green and gold in her eyes, clothes that covered too little and yet left plenty to his imagination—and memory.
    Christ, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been intrigued by a woman. Attracted, yes, but
intrigued
? Women were plentiful creatures, entertaining enough in their own way, and he was gentleman enough to always lay down the ground rules of getting involved: no strings, no families, no investment. Easy come, easy go.
    For the most part, it worked. The occasional woman had gotten her feelings hurt when the inevitable end rolled around, and