Secret Sins (25 page)

“I think maybe it just grazed me,” she said, slowly feeling the pain as it began to
radiate through her leg. “It’s going to hurt like a bitch, huh?”

“You’re in shock, baby.” He was suddenly ripping her skirt up the side and pressing
the towels to the outside of her thigh. “You’re right, it’s just grazed it.”

The ragged tear in her flesh had him seeing red. The knowledge of the scar it would
leave was like a red flag in an enraged bull’s face.

Whatever ammo the bastard had used, had it actually penetrated her flesh, would have
shattered bone.

“Archer, we’re coming in,” Crowe yelled from outside the kitchen. “Don’t shoot, man.
EMTs are with me.”

The kitchen door was pushed opened hurriedly.

Dr. Krista Mayan was suddenly at his side, shooing at him, trying to push him out
of the way as Anna’s fingers tightened on his wrist to hold him to her.

“I’m right here, baby,” he promised, moving behind her instead, holding her to him.

His arms tightened around her as she suddenly whimpered when the doctor began to check
the wound.

“I get a doctor instead of an EMT,” Anna suddenly quipped, her voice thick with tears
and pain as the doctor’s competent hands quickly checked the torn flesh. Krista Mayan.
She’d forgotten the doctor’s mother once worked at the Corbin ranch.

“You got it, girlfriend.” Krista flashed her a quick smile. “And a nice comfy ride
to the clinic so we can stitch up this bad boy. I’ll put a call in to Aspen and have
a good friend of mine flown right in. He’s a plastic surgeon and treats trauma wounds
for a living. We might get lucky and not even have a scar.”

“Oh yeah.” Her voice was thready and weak. “How did I rate that?”

“Because he really likes me, and I really like you,” Krista assured her with a quick
smile. “Now I’m going to give you something for the pain here, and it’s going to make
you a little sleepy.”

Archer watched as a needle pierced Anna’s arm, and the doctor injected the liquid
she’d quickly pulled into the needle.

“It doesn’t hurt real bad yet, Krista,” Anna assured her.

“It’s shock, hon. The shot will help us there, too.” The doctor’s concerned gray eyes
shot to Archer. “Let her go to sleep if she can.” She turned to the door. “Get that
gurney in here. Let’s move it.”

Archer moved aside only long enough to allow the EMTs with the doctor to lift Anna
to the gurney and strap her in.

“Bullet’s in there,” Krista said hurriedly. “It’s an explosive round, Archer, and
it’s not gone off. I can see the head of it, but I don’t dare touch it. Keep her calm
and still. I’m radioing Aspen now.”

Behind him, Crowe muttered a curse so vile that even Archer flinched.

“Motherfucker’s dead, Archer.” Crowe eased to him, danger and death surrounding him
like a cloak. “Let me find him, because I’ll kill him with my bare hands.”

“You’ll have to beat me to him, Crowe. Only if you beat me to him.”

*   *   *

Waiting took years off his life.

Anna was rushed into surgery the second the ambulance pulled into the emergency entrance,
and within thirty minutes the helicopter landing on the roof delivered three surgeons
and two trauma-room nurses from Aspen.

Archer paced the hall outside the operating room, terrified he’d hear the explosive
retort of that fucking bullet going off at any second.

If it did, she would lose her leg, and only God knew what other damage it would do.
It was lodged in her upper thigh, to the side, in a perfect position to take out her
spleen or her abdomen if the second projectile inside it went the wrong way.

Pacing the hall with him were Crowe; Logan and his fiancée, Skye; Rafer and his fiancée,
Cami; and surprisingly, Anna’s parents and grandparents.

They’d arrived by helicopter themselves, before the doctors had even arrived.

Crowe ignored them. He was good at that.

As he paced away from the doors of the operating room again, the elevator doors slid
open at the opposite end of the hall, revealing Wayne Sorenson and his daughter, Amelia.

“Archer.” Amelia rushed from the elevator and moved quickly to him. “Have you heard
anything?”

Archer shook his head, clasping Wayne’s hand as the other man approached him.

“Rumor’s running crazy around town,” Wayne muttered. “Is it true she has an explosive-burst
bullet in her thigh?”

Archer nodded tightly. “She’s with three trauma surgeons now who are experienced in
removing the ammo. Evidently it’s been used several times in Aspen in the past few
months. A theft from Peterson Air Force Base last spring.”

“Hell.” Wayne rubbed at the back of his neck as Amelia covered her trembling lips
with one hand.

“I begged her to leave,” she said, shaking her head slowly as her father wrapped his
arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side. “She was so angry at me, Archer.”

Tears welled in her eyes before she blinked them back quickly.

Archer was damned if he knew what to say.

Thankfully, he was saved from reply as Dr. Mayan moved quickly from the operating
room.

Her surgical greens were unstained, other than the line of sweat at the edge of the
hair covering, and a smile curved at her Cupid’s-bow lips.

Archer turned fully to her. “She’s okay?”

Relief was already tearing through him.

“Excellent,” the doctor assured him. “The ammo was a real dud, literally. She has
some stitches, but the surgeon did an excellent job. She shouldn’t have more than
a thin scar, which will disappear over time.” She squeezed Archer’s arm firmly. “Our
girl was damned lucky, Archer.”

“Our” girl. Mayan hadn’t seen Anna but a few times over the years, yet, like everyone
else Anna met, the doctor was protective of her.

From the corner of his eye he watched as the Corbins slowly eased back, then turned
and left the waiting area entirely. Bastards. He was definitely going to have a talk
with Robert.

“When can I see her?” he asked.

Krista frowned, and turned to where the Corbins once stood. “Well, I was going to
let the family see her first,” she sighed. “But since they’ve left—” She turned back
to him, smiling softly as she patted his arm in understanding. “Come on, then. They
should be moving her from recovery now. She’s actually been out of surgery for a while
now, but I wanted to stay with her until she came out of the anesthesia. She was asking
for you before I left the room.”

She was asking for him rather than her family?

The knowledge of that had his chest tightening, emotion swirling to the surface that
he didn’t dare contemplate. Emotions he didn’t want to look into or decipher just
yet.

“Caine.” He turned to the deputy who was entering the waiting room. “I want you at
the house. Go over it completely. Someone was at the door to the study. Nash found
ammo casings from the shootings; get his report and see what he’s found.”

“On it, Sheriff,” Caine promised. “When you’ve left the hospital, get hold of me.”

Archer nodded and turned to the doctor without daring to pause. He’d seen the message
in the deputy’s eyes and, whatever the other man had to tell him, he didn’t want to
say anything in front of witnesses. And Archer didn’t want Sorenson or his daughter
to suspect if there was information incoming.

Whoever had shot at Anna meant business, and he was damned if he would underestimate
them again.

Four hours later

Wayne entered the back door under cover of night, the woods behind the house sheltering
his arrival.

“Have you seen anything?” he asked the man who turned from the living room window
to watch him solemnly.

“Nothing. If anyone’s watching her, then they didn’t come out when I fired on her
or after I returned.”

Wayne nodded slowly. “Excellent. All we have to worry about is Archer and his deputies
now. I wondered if Crowe cared enough to place a protective detail on her. It’s nice
to see he doesn’t.”

Satisfaction built inside him, as did anticipation. “If she hasn’t left within the
next week, take her, however you have to. Just make sure you’re not caught or identified.”

He nodded carefully. Every movement he made was always done carefully, deliberately.

“Your daughter returned, I see,” the other man stated. “Why not see if she can get
her very good friend to visit? It would ensure taking her without being caught.

“Make damned sure Amelia isn’t harmed when you take her.”

“She won’t be harmed, nor will she be able to identify me,” he promised. “If she hasn’t
made plans to leave, then I’ll take her that night.”

Wayne was a fool,
Amory thought.

He was playing fast and loose with the rules, and actually believed that by making
a move on Anna Corbin, he could make it appear as though someone else were trying
to kill her.

Someone besides the Slasher.

He wasn’t fooling anyone.

It didn’t matter when the FBI came in, before or after Anna Corbin died. And it wouldn’t
matter when the state police took over the investigation. It would still have the
same results.

Both their deaths.

Thankfully, he had only a week left in town himself. He’d take Ms. Corbin, and he’d
ensure Wayne was revealed in the process.

Revealing himself wouldn’t be a problem.

Amory Wyatt didn’t really exist anyway.

“Do you think she really loves me as she seems to, Amory?” Wayne asked him then, his
voice reflective. “She doesn’t seem to hate me, does she?”

His daughter hated him more than anything on the face of this earth. Even as they
spoke, she was attempting to find some hint of proof to tie him to the Slasher’s reign
of blood. Amory could see it in her eyes and her actions each time he saw her slipping
into Wayne’s office after he left or the house.

Amelia Sorenson was no one’s fool. But there was no proof for her to find in that
office, where she was currently going through files and desk drawers. No, the proof
was in a very well hidden cabin in the mountains. A location her friend, Anna Corbin,
would know soon enough.

“I do,” he lied to the other man. “I believe she sees a father whose only goal in
life is her protection, and I believe she loves you as any child should.”

As any child should love the father who she knows is a monster. An unprincipled, evil
creature whose only true hunger is for blood and pain.

Sorenson nodded, a sickening smile of thankfulness about his lips.

No creature such as Sorenson should ever believe himself deserving of love, let alone
feel thankful that it might be his.

“She’s a good girl,” Wayne stated softly. “Perhaps once Anna is gone, one way or the
other, I’ll reward her for her loyalty.”

Amory nodded absently as he turned back to the window to ensure that Crowe Callahan’s
agents were still well hidden. Too bad they hadn’t seen the other man slip into the
back of his house.

“She would make you an excellent wife, Amory,” Wayne stated then. “We could find my
inheritance together. The captain’s treasure is just awaiting us, my friend. Enough
gold and jewels to finance several generations. Your children’s children would be
rich.”

Amory turned back to him slowly, tilting his head thoughtfully as he watched the other
man.

“You’d allow me to court her?” he asked, pretending interest.

“If you want her, then I insist upon it.” Wayne nodded. “You’d make a much better
son-in-law than any other man I know.”

“Thank you.” Amory smiled back at him as though pleased. “I’d like that. I’d like
that very much.”

Fortunately for him, he was already married.

Married, with his own children and wife far away.

Far, far away.

And soon to return to.

Midnight, Archer’s study

The meeting had been put off twice.

Entering the study, Archer glanced at the man awaiting him, but he had to admit, the
man who had accompanied was unexpected.

“Ryan, what’s going on?” he asked, watching Ryan Calvert, the fourth of the Callahan
brothers, who had been believed to have died at three months of age from a fever.

He hadn’t died. His mother, Eileen Callahan, had sold him to a wealthy couple out
of Boston for enough money to save her husband and her ranch.

Now, at forty years of age, the adopted son of a renowned Boston surgeon and his socialite
wife, the other man amused himself with the covert lifestyle he’d learned in the CIA.

A covert lifestyle that had been focused on finding the identity of the man, or men,
called the Slasher for the past twelve years.

The other man, Deputy John Caine, was another story.

“I asked what the fuck was going on here?” Archer repeated himself, anger brewing
in his tone as well as his senses.

“Sorry, Sheriff,” John muttered as he turned fully from the map of the Slasher’s kills.
“We had to be damned sure we could trust you before I revealed who I was and why I
was here.”

“Who you are?” Archer leaned against the edge of his desk, crossing his arms over
his chest and glaring back at the younger man.

“It was my order, Archer,” Ryan told him. “When I found John, he was packing for Corbin
County. I had his identity changed and used my contacts to build his history. And
I ordered that he hold the truth back from you when he would have told you.”

“Why?” Archer growled.

“Because you’re too close to the man we’ve been investigating,” John answered. “Ryan
and I both wanted to be certain, as close as you were to him, that you wouldn’t reveal
what we told you.”

“Who the hell is he?”

Archer could feel the fury really beginning to build in him now.

First he’d get the name, then he’d teach Ryan and John both the error of keeping such
vital information away from him.

“You can’t go after him, Archer.” Ryan rose slowly to his feet.

“Do you want me to kill you instead?” Archer asked carefully.

“I guess you’ll have to,” John sighed. “You’ll give me your word you’ll help us continue
the investigation without revealing what you know, or we’ll walk out of here. And
if we do, then we may never find his partner until he actually ends up killing again.”