Page 76 of Relentless
“The lights?”
“Small but effective explosion at a central fuse box—or what amounts to a fuse box. It’s more complicated than that in such a large facility. We’re working on how he got the plans.”
“He left evidence? You’re going to be able to stop him?”
“Yougot the evidence,” Ethan said, gently lifting her hand. “You scratched whoever attacked you. The doctor in Tahoe was the one to notice. The police came and took scrapings from under your nails.”
Her eyes drifted to her fingers. Short-term memory loss prior to trauma was common, and she looked to be struggling to remember.
“There’s also a partial print on the fuse box and a complete one on the portable generator from the wedding venue. We finally got hold of it yesterday,” Chad added.
“So you’re going to get him?” Kara asked on an exhale as a nurse walked in. He drew up short and eyed all the people in the room. But when Asher nodded for him to continue, he introduced himself then efficiently administered the medication into Kara’s IV line. He was in and out of the room in less than three minutes.
“It was Astrid who called me, though,” Kara said.
“We know,” Chad said. “You dropped your phone in the attack. Sabina found it and was able to pull up your last call.” Then Chad cast him a questioning look, silently asking if he wanted to be the one to tell her about Astrid.
He nodded and turned his attention to Kara. “First things first, she’s okay,” he said.
“He went after her, too?” Kara asked in almost a whisper.
Ethan nodded again. “He wanted it to look like a hunting accident.” He then proceeded to tell her about Astrid’s lucky weed-pull and her subsequent injuries. “Her phone was with her in the yard, and there’s no fence between her yard and the woods. We think he either managed to pick it up before he shot her, or he came back after her security took her to the hospital.”
“Seems an odd thing to do unless he already had a plan to use it,” she said.
“We think he did,” Sabina replied. “Ava managed to track another private flight from Portland to South Lake Tahoe. One he’d arrangedafterthe article about you and Cody came out and a few hours before he attacked Astrid. If he planned to lure you somewhere, pretending to be her would be his best bet.”
Kara’s nod was almost imperceptible, and she closed her eyes. For the first time since she’d walked out to take that call, he felt as though he could breathe. She was going to be okay. He’d make sure of that. And in the meantime, there was no one better to be on Hilton’s trail than HICC.
* * *
“No,” Ethan said.
“It’s the best way,” Kara shot back.
“Give HICC time,” he countered.
Kara inhaled, then tried—and failed—to hide a wince. Two days had passed since she’d woken. Her bruises and injuries, both internal and external, were mending. And the doctor had pronounced her no longer at risk from the internal bleeding. But she was still exhausted, and what she’d proposed was unacceptable.
“You’re still not strong enough,” Ethan said, taking a seat on the side of the bed, his hip pressed against hers. Sabina hadn’t arrived yet, and while he appreciated Sabina’s need to be with her sister, he craved these few moments alone with Kara. He did not want to be talking about setting a trap for Peter Hilton. Let alone one that involved her as bait.
“I won’t be doing anything, though,” she pointed out. “I’ll be lying here, talking.”
“What if something goes wrong? You can still barely move. You wouldn’t be able to defend yourself.”
She arched a brow at him. Truth be told, her plan was a good one. If it were anyone other than her.
“As if HICC would ever truly leave me in a position when I needed to defend myself,” she replied. How she managed to sound both sarcastic and indulgent, he didn’t know. “You work for them, Ethan. You know how good they are.”
They were. It was one of the reasons he liked working for them. And despite his heart shouting “No!,” his mind had already started sorting out the details. The bugs they’d put in the room. Where he’d hide—because he’d never leave Kara alone with Hilton. And where the rest of the team would position themselves in the hospital.
“I don’t like it,” he grumbled.
She smiled. Grabbing the hem of his shirt, she tugged him down for a kiss. “I know,” she said. “I don’t much like it either. The fact that he went after both Astrid and me after knowing HICC was monitoring the situation means he isn’t going to stop. And we need to stop him. We can’t do that unless we find him, though. If we use me as bait, not only can we lure him out, but we might gather more evidence, too.”
When he’d walked into her hospital room that morning and she’d hit him with her plan to catch, and stop, Peter Hilton, he’d been caught off guard. He recognized that his initial, and vehement, “no” had been an emotional reaction. He still didn’t like it, but he had to admit, itwasa good plan.
“Why don’t we run it by Chad when he and Sabina arrive?” he asked. Sabina would no doubt have the same reaction that he’d had. But Chad might keep a cooler head. Not that he didn’t love Kara like a sister, but he had a touch more distance from her than either he or Sabina.
