Page 74 of Inferno

The air was close, thick on this muggy day where the clouds hung low and the air seemed heavy with moisture—humid for here, not so humid compared to a lot of places. Soon enough, a weather system from the north would sweep down across the mountains, pushing out the Pacific heat. Bringing relief from the high temperatures and humidity.

Lightning strikes, probably thunder, too.

Maybe lightning would strike him while he was outside. But then, she would be stuck in here where no one knew how to find her and she would die of starvation or some other thing before some hiker found her. Probably years from now.

Samantha heard the whimper escape her lips.

She forced out a choppy breath, carrying yet more of a sob with it.

She squeezed her eyes shut for the…however many times she’d done it. Thinking over what happened. Those few seconds when the unimaginable happened and she watched Deerdan…

Samantha sucked in another breath.

The maintenance guy, or so she’d thought. Now, she knew the curly hair had been a wig. The mustache was also stick on, along with a set of glasses with thick rims. Overalls and a nametag. He had to have had help because no one had questioned his entry into the police department. She could hardly believe it, but then who’d be expecting a wanted criminal to walk in the front door of their office?

Certainly not any cop she knew of.

Samantha took stock of herself in a disconnected sort of way—bending her feet, straightening and flexing her toes. Her hips were bruised but she could walk. He’d shoved her in here, making her walk all the way. At gunpoint.

She shuddered, and sweat rolled down her temples. She lifted her shoulder and wiped it against her hairline, which only made her think of Julio and his dislocated shoulder. She’d been on her way to the briefing, where she’d have seen him for the first time since they were loaded into separate ambulances.

They’d texted, but she’d wanted to get a look at him for herself.

Sergeant Deerdan had waylaid her and Romeo, talking about the case and how they’d sent her sister somewhere safe. When the conversation shifted to how she was doing, Romeo had excused himself. She and the sergeant had their personal conversation. Something she hadn’t been expecting when she joined Intelligence, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

And then…

Her next breath caught in her throat.

Deerdan had shifted to move aside so the maintenance guy could get by them. He’d drawn a knife and slammed it into her stomach, pulling it out as fast as he’d shoved it in. She’d stiffened, shock on her face that probably mirrored the shock on Samantha’s at watching it—but without the colossal pain of being stabbed in the abdomen by a six-inch blade in a police station.

Cameras.

Why had no one come running?

She could think it through now and conclude that none of it made sense. At the time, she’d barely had a second to think.

Even then, it wasn’t enough.

He’d swung around, hit her with a stun gun, and she’d blacked out right around when he dumped her over his shoulder. There had been a white van, probably his, just inside the motor pool. Not many others around—because who would steal a car from the police? Security cameras, just in case.

Why had no one come running?

Okay, now she’d come full circle again. She was losing strength, and soon enough she would lose consciousness again. She could feel the fatigue creep at the edge of her awareness, snarling like a lion in a cage. Waiting to pounce.

She couldn’t be out of it.

Samantha had no idea what he would do to her while she was unconscious.

Her mind could come up with all kinds of horrible scenarios, things she’d seen. Cases she’d worked. Gruesome deaths. People tortured and then murdered.

Her body flushed with cold, even though she was still sweating in the stifling heat.

A wide swath of sunlight blinded her as the front door to the cabin swung open, sending shards of glass into her head—at least, that was what the pain felt like. She winced against theimpact. He slammed the door shut, rattling the whole cabin, but it bounced back a couple of inches and remained open.

She’d barely been able to make out the place in the bright light, but she had spotted a huge ancient refrigerator. Some furniture, but not much. He’d dumped her beside a bed. She reached out with her bound hands now and touched the ragged blanket on top of a bare mattress.

Samantha shuddered.