Baited (13 page)

And she might still be out here with the thing that had done this.

Rain splattering around her, Kat bolted upward, feet spread apart, knife ready. Scared, so damned scared.

It was her constant companion, fear, that possessed her to do what she did next.

Let the killer know you have your knife out.

“Are you ready for me, you freak?” she screeched. “’Cuz I’m all set for
you
. Get over here and let’s end it!”

Her voice carried, giving her a sense that she wasn’t so vulnerable after all. After a slow moment, she started moving toward the shelter, constantly looking around her, hoping she didn’t see someone hunched in the bushes, waiting.

But sometimes even the worst bullies backed off when you bluffed. So she did it again.

“Hey! You afraid of
my knife?
Because it’s calling
your name, asshole
. You know I’m gonna use it, too,
don’t you?
You know I’m gonna
get
you
good
.”

In the distance, a voice yelled, “Kat?”

Relief pushed her into a stumble towards the sound. “I’m here! Over here!”

“Kaaaaat!” It was more than one person now.

Heart exploding, she ran for all she was worth, arms pumping as she sought the voices calling her name, leaves lashing at her face.

When she got to the cave, everyone but Louis was outside, panting and sopping wet from the rain, panicked.

Who was it? Which one of them had been out there with her?

“Why were you screaming?” Dr. Hopkins asked, coming over to grip Kat’s arms.

While Kat wheezed in answer, Larry led her into the cave. Chris followed anxiously as he helped a frazzled Duke along. All of them were touching Kat—on her shoulders, her arms—just like she was a mirage and they were convincing themselves of her solidity.

They guided her to the fire, where the bound Will was sitting ramrod straight, tracking Kat with a concerned gaze. He and Louis were the only ones with dry clothing and hair.

He’s innocent, Kat thought, more relief…and guilt…seeping through her. Dammit, she’d been so wrong about him.

Hands bloodied and quaking, Kat immediately began undoing the rope that held him, even though it wasn’t easy with her scraped palms.

“Eloise,” she choked out.

And that was the extent of it, because Louis gave a wrecked shout that shook the air. Rain running down his face like tears, Duke merely slumped to a corpse pose, moving his head back and forth and staring up at the cave’s ceiling, lips slack.

“It’s my fault,” Larry said, slapping the cave wall. “I fell back asleep when you left, Kat. Dammit!”

Kat wasn’t about to get all judgmental on that failure. As far as she was concerned, Larry was a suspect, too.

“Did you notice who was missing before you ran outside?” Kat asked. Ignoring her burning hands, she massaged Will’s legs and arms, attempting to say she was sorry in every way she could.

Not surprisingly, he took her hand, removed it from his arm. But then, as if reconsidering, he turned it over, inspecting her injury. He gently turned her face to him, running a thumb over her cut mouth.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, throat closing.

“Later.” He took over the job of massaging the circulation back into his legs and arms, then stood up and went to a pile of bandages, then outside for a cup that had been collecting water. Even though Kat had taken care to rub his limbs every hour while he was roped up, he still walked stiffly.

As he used the rain to clean her hands and then bandaged them, Kat told the group about what had gone on out there, taking care to watch their faces. Larry was covering his in remorse. Louis was hunched over. Chris had dead-walked over to a still-stunned
Duke. And Dr. Hopkins hugged her wrapped hands to her chest.

Kat glanced down at her own hands, being swaddled in the cloth.
Hands.

Larry pushed away from the wall. “I’ve got to get Mrs. Delacroix’s body.”

“Wait until it’s light,” Will said. He finished with Kat’s bandages, flashing a heart-wrenching glance at her. She could tell he was carrying the scars of her betrayal under his skin, and all she could do right now was vow to heal them and never to lose faith in him again.

As Larry ignored Will’s advice and went outside to find Eloise’s body with just a flashlight and kitchen knife, the fool, Kat tugged Will out of the cave and into the front shelter, away from everyone.

“You’re the only person I can trust right now,” she whispered, touching his face with her fingertips, needing to feel him so badly. “It’s obvious that you couldn’t have killed Eloise—”

She paused, then erupted. One big sob. Delayed reaction.

Will skimmed his fingers over her arm. “We’ll get through this.”

Kat batted back her emotions. No time for them. No use for them. Still, she couldn’t help it. The tears needed to come. It was a physical release her body was relying on.

Steadfast, Will kept stroking her arm, even as she struggled to collect herself. Finally, after what seemed like years, she was able to talk.

“I think I know what’s happening with those cuts.” She sniffed, shivering and ill from the faces, the blood. It all washed over her, terror screaming through her veins, deafening her own thudding heartbeat.

“What is it, Kat?”

Blades…slashes…blood…

“Remember that night on the boat?” Her voice had risen, rushed and desperate. “The seasick night when we were playing trivia in the salon? You’re gonna think I’ve lost it, but…” Kat swallowed, closing her eyes against the ghosts and the fear that was rushing around her. “Those cuts on the faces remind me way too much of
The Twilight Zone.
That one episode Nestor talked about. ‘The Masks.’ The one where—”

Will’s eyes went wide, and he paled. “The old dying man makes his heirs wear masks that transform their faces into their true natures. I know. I was there.”

“Why would somebody do that?”

He shook his head, mouth drawing into a frown. “Because they had the time and the psychosis.”

“They had the time,” she repeated.

Slash…blood…death…

She armored herself against the terror. “Duffy wasn’t found for a while. And I heard Alexandra screaming before I found Tink and the boar. That gave the murderer a lot of opportunity to cut, even though they were taking a big chance on getting caught.”

“They probably thought the boar would keep everyone away for a while. Maybe they could hear you fighting from the echoes in the tunnels.”

When Will took Kat’s hands in his, she melted,
holding his hands up to her cheeks, laying herself to rest against him. They were back to their old selves, connected, the people who’d talked until dawn on the first night they’d met. The couple who had possessed such great potential.

But then it came: a sting of memory she couldn’t ignore. Kat’s possible five-percent inheritance…Will making love to her in his shelter…

Was that why he was being so forgiving? Because he still thought he had a chance for millions, especially with the Delacroixs all but gone?

You’re wrong, she thought. So, so wrong even to think it.

Refocusing, she grasped his hands and held on to her own sanity at the same time. “It makes weird sense. The faces reflect what’s really inside, you know? Duffy was an overgrown bully, an ape who couldn’t control himself. Alexandra could’ve been interpreted as vain, greedy…”

“She was a lawyer. You know, people usually think of them as swine.” Will looked away, focusing on running his thumbs over the back of Kat’s bandaged hands. “That’s what she said on the boat, anyway.”

The comment had all the force of a slap. She wanted to ask what exactly he and Alexandra had talked about. If it had gone further. If he’d—

No. Will was one of the good guys. She had proof now.

Kat continued, her heart still a little bruised. “And Eloise, a clown?”

“A sad one, you said. I don’t know…maybe because she kept whining in that ridiculous way on the boat…?”

They were reaching, but who could really explain?

Just the killer, Kat thought. Just the person who might have more plans for more faces.

“I don’t know,” Kat said, shaking her head in frustration. “Why would anyone want to do this, anyway? Why would they get Duffy, Alexandra and Eloise and make an attempt or two on Duke’s life?”

For a lightning-blast moment, Kat thought she saw an answer in Will’s eyes, but when she looked again, she told herself she was wrong.

“Who knows,” Will said. “Maybe they’ve somehow connected themselves to a possible heir and are thinking they can somehow get hold of Duke’s money after he and his family die…?”

She hadn’t wanted to hear him say that, not what her heart hoped he was too good to even consider.

Kat fixed her gaze over his shoulder to avoid his eyes, unwilling to find her worst nightmares there. But in that pause, something else saturated her thoughts, making her skin feel as if it were being peeled back.

“We’re forgetting something,” she whispered.

She dragged her gaze back to Will, finding his expression inscrutable. It didn’t give her any comfort.

“In that
Twilight Zone
episode,” she continued, “there were four heirs.”

She made a low noise of pain as his hands tightened around hers, then let up when he realized what he’d done. Neither of them had to say it out loud.

That meant one more victim to go.

If
the killer was keeping count according to the episode.

“But will they stop there?” he asked.

“I don’t…The killer’s just been inspired by ‘The Masks,’ they’re not following the script. There could be just three victims, or maybe five, or…”

Her blood iced.

Or maybe everyone on this island would end up butchered.

She didn’t have time to voice her fears. A screech filled the cave next door. Both she and Will flinched as the undecipherable yips and words mingled with each other in complicated knots.

Kat bolted over to the entrance only to be stopped in her tracks.

Because Dr. Hopkins was hugging one of the missing.

A
s Larry told it, after having buried Eloise and braving the rain to secure more coconuts, he’d found Nestor ducking into some bushes nearby, “hiding from predators.” The island had been rough on him as well. His clothes were falling apart, his pretty-boy skin bruised and scarred.

Now, they all sat around the fire, Nestor resting next to Duke, Dr. Hopkins and Louis. He was giving them his story, and it sounded a little like theirs, detailed with debris on the beach, constant rainwater and terrifying nights. The only difference was that Nestor had washed up on the other side of the island, which he confirmed was rather small, before making his way to them.

“When I first swam ashore, I saw a couple of bodies,” a withdrawn Nestor said. “Crew members.”

Nobody but Kat seemed to notice Will’s subtle reaction: a self-hating tightening of the mouth. They’d been his to watch over, Kat thought, and he’d failed them.

She wiped at her runny nose as she sent a soft, encouraging smile to Will.

“Then,” Nestor continued, “I happened upon those arrows and followed them here. And when I heard this guy—” he pointed to Larry “—I took cover, just in case it was something bigger than the stick I was carrying.”

Dr. Hopkins, delirious to see her one-night stand, hugged Nestor and attended to his every need. He’d been crushed by the news of all the deaths and the additional attempt on Duke’s life, and she was trying to make him feel better.

Funny, Kat thought. The doc’s hands seemed good to go with Nestor around—they were functional when needed. Obviously Kat would have to comment on this at the next possible opening, after Nestor filled them in. She wished she’d had the chance to confide in Will, but there’d been too much to talk about as it was.

Meanwhile, Kat continued observing Dr. Hopkins. Was the woman feeling the same way Kat had when Will was missing? Was she over-romanticizing even a slim connection with Nestor so it would convince her that she was still vital, that she could survive anything, too?

As Kat mulled it all over, she focused on Louis, who was lingering near his newly “found” son, reaching out to touch his hair every few minutes, a grin on his face.

But, in spite of Nestor’s fan club, Kat obviously wasn’t the lone doubter of their group. While everyone else was engrossed in the survivor’s story, Will had stood and gathered up the rope that had held
him
captive, and he was staring holes into Nestor.

She knew what he had in mind and couldn’t agree more. Tie the fool up, she thought. He’s a definite candidate with perfect opportunities for murder. And no matter how “out there” this happy reunion made it seem, Nestor even had a motive: clearing away most of his competitors, family or not, to be the sole heir to Duke’s fortunes.

And
that
possibility meant Kat had to watch her back more than ever.

As Kat readied herself to help Will, Chris snuggled next to her, maybe sensing what was about to go down.

“Kat,” he whispered.

Even though her hands were raw, Kat held Chris tightly. She couldn’t let him out of her sight because, like her, Chris could be the next to find his face cut up. And so could Duke, who was resting again after a brain-crunching headache.

“I’ll take care of you guys,” Kat said in the boy’s ear.

“Gramps needs you the most,” Chris said. “I’m so afraid he’s going to die.”

Me too, Kat thought.

Neither of them said anything about the fact that, murderer or no, Duke was on the road to dying anyway, thanks to his lack of meds. Or that even if they should miraculously be rescued in an hour, he would soon die back home.

As the old man struggled for breath and comfort on his makeshift bed, she could only imagine his pain. No pills. His family destroyed.

She just wished she could do more. And, really, she could, right?

You know he wants to hear that you love him, she told herself. So why can’t
you
say it? Why can’t you tell a little white lie to give him even an hour of hope?

Embattled, she pushed back the pain, looking to Will. Even with a limp, he was sauntering toward Nestor with the rope in hand.

“Bad news, Nestor,” he said.

Kat patted Chris’s hand and got up.

Nestor was watching the rope. Dr. Hopkins wagged her bandaged finger at Will.

“We don’t know if he’s—”

“Guilty?” Will asked. “That didn’t keep me from wearing hemp bracelets.”

“You’re entertaining the notion that I killed my siblings and my mother?” Nestor looked astounded, eyes red and swollen. “What kind of monster do you think I am?”

Kat came to stand next to Will. “We all need to start talking, Nestor.
Pronto
. And we’re going to hear from you first. Then I’d like to hear from Dr. Hopkins.”

“Why?” the woman asked.

One gesture to her hands was enough to make the doctor’s face flush. “They’re healing, bit by bit. I’ve been helping around here though, so don’t you say that I’ve been lazy.”

“Your lack of hard labor isn’t what I’m talking
about, Janelle.” Kat took her knife in hand, then gripped it. “If you can hold a club or squeeze my arms in welcome, you can do
this
, too.”

Kat’s meaning permeated the cave’s atmosphere just as effectively as the cold of the rain had. She sheathed her knife.

“I’m not the one,” Dr. Hopkins said.

Will held up his hands, the rope dangling from them. “Then who is? Nestor?”

“No! All I did was…”

“What?” Kat asked, taking a step toward him.

Nearby, Larry leaned his arms on his knees, sniffling and giving in to a cough. It jarred Kat to a cough, too. Then it became a chain reaction, encouraging a round of coughs to spark around the room.

They were all wearing down.

“Go ahead,” Kat said. Her own coughs had brought a headache, a piercing throb throughout her own body. Great.

Nestor was watching Duke, regret etched into the lines bracketing his eyes. Lines that hadn’t been there a few days ago.

“Gramps,” he said, “after you threatened to disinherit us, we were angry, of course. You know that.”

Duke stayed silent, staring at the ceiling, bled of color and listless.

Trying again, Nestor spread his arms out in a plea for understanding. “After you brought up the new will we were out of our minds. Then when you went to bed, and to let off some steam afterward, Duffy made some kind of crack about maybe securing our inheritances
by getting rid of you before you could change things. Really, Duffy wasn’t serious, and everyone laughed because it was so ridiculous. As we calmed down, we started to make our own jokes about ways to kill a billionaire. It was harmless, you know? Harmless.” Nestor sighed and lowered his hands. “But my anger didn’t go away. I was controlled by my emotions even after you threatened to disinherit us, and…”

“And what?” Kat prodded.

Nestor closed his eyes. “I did something I regret.”

Harmless? Kat thought. Bull. “Harmless” jokes could be so funny and cutting exactly
because
they had a sharp grain of truth to them. She imagined that the Delacroixs
had
probably been half-serious about planning ways to get to Duke. They’d felt betrayed and angry enough to take satisfaction out of an imaginary demise for the old man.

She also imagined that the jokes might’ve been a way of testing each other out to see if anyone would be open to killing the man who could ruin their lives.

Money had the power to drive people to murder, Kat thought. Money…and love.

“The shark cage?” Kat asked through clenched teeth. “Was that one of the crazy ways you guys came up with to secure your fortune, either by offing Chris
or
Duke?”

Nestor hung his head. “When Chris came out to tell us that Gramps was going diving instead of him, I stayed behind for a second when everyone left to talk Gramps out of it.”

Oh, no. He wasn’t going to say…

“I wasn’t thinking straight,” Nestor said, shamefaced, opening his eyes. “I’ve got a lot of debts to pay off and I was desperate. I wasn’t thinking.”

“What did you do?” Kat asked, dreading the answer.

“It was just
one
moment, a second of warped logic. I used a diving knife to start cutting the rope, thinking Gramps would have a little scare if the cage started acting up.” He drew in a rough breath before continuing. “I wanted to be the one to point out the cut, to win Gramps’s respect back once he was saved. Dumb, I know. And I realized that. I changed my mind and stopped slicing right away. That’s why the cut was so tiny. But what happened after that—the rope dragging through the chum, the shark biting the rope…I didn’t mean any of it.”

Duke moaned, facing away from Nestor, who reached out to him, then pulled back. Chris’s body balled up, once again, trembling as he put his head down.

Will heaved the rope at Nestor. The jerk dodged out of the way.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell us before Chris went in the cage?” Will said.

“I started to, but then I figured I hadn’t cut the rope enough for it to matter! I mean, good God, what were the chances of it happening like that?”

It wasn’t a good enough excuse. Kat stalked over to the rope, intending to use it.

“Wait, wait,” Nestor said desperately, “I told you the truth. Why would I admit it unless I was innocent of all these killings, right? The cage had nothing to do
with what’s happening on this island. If I was going around murdering people, I’d have kept my mouth shut about the cage, too. You’ve got to believe me. I’m telling the truth.”

His story made sense in a dopey way, but Kat was beyond trusting him. Besides, a smart killer would lie to them in order to gain their faith, just like Nestor had done.

Beyond forgiveness, she darted forward and pinned Nestor down with a knee, making him wince. When Nestor started to resist, Will and Larry came to Kat’s aid, Kat doing the honors of tying the suspect up while Larry restrained Louis.

Duke, in the meantime, went back to staring at the ceiling with glazed eyes in the aftermath of Nestor’s confession. A final knife in the heart. The ultimate betrayal of his family.

Chris was crying, shaking his head like he was denying everything that had happened.

“Who else knew about the shark cage, Nestor?” Kat asked, tying off the knots. “Your family?”

“No.” He struggled one last time, coming out the loser again. “It was just me.”

Kat pushed off from him. “You’re disgusting. Every single one of you, dead or alive. All of you treat Duke like crap. And Nestor didn’t even try to stop Chris from getting into that cage.”

“It was a small cut,” Nestor maintained.

Dr. Hopkins wobbled to a stand. “Kat, maybe he’s telling—”

“Oh,
hell
, no. Are you going to take his side?”

Slowly, the doctor shook her head, dark eyes melting. “Right.” She gave up and went to the fire, flexing her hands as if to exercise them.

“I guess we’re back to guard shifts,” Will said.

His gaze snagged Larry’s and the two traded an odd look. Was it because, this time, they were guarding the right suspect, or because Will wasn’t the one tied up?

With Will’s announcement, a sense of gray calm fell over the group. They isolated themselves in corners, cowering from the killer in their midst.

Will came over to Kat, stroking her hair back from her forehead. “I can watch him while you finally get some sleep.”

Sleep
. It sounded so nice. But…

She coughed again. “I’ll manage?” she offered weakly, to try and be strong.

“Listen to you. Get some rest.” He motioned to where Chris huddled into himself. “Besides, someone needs you over there. Maybe you can…?”

“Absolutely. Will?”

He crossed his arms in front of his chest, suddenly kind of shy and unassuming. “What?”

Unsure of what she wanted to say, Kat just smiled, affection radiating outward. “Thank you.”

For not hating her?

Hesitantly, he swept his knuckles over her cheek, then backed away, taking a seat next to Nestor, where a staring contest began between captive and captor.

It looked like everyone else in the cave was claiming the sleep they hadn’t gotten last night. Kat craved it so badly that she started to shake.

She grabbed her blankets and sat next to Chris, spreading her material out and laying him down, too. He wouldn’t let her hold him, but that was okay. All she needed to do was let him know that she was here.

As the storm wind whipped through the trees, Kat finally went to sleep.

But, when she was awakened later, it wasn’t because of a noise.

It was because there was too much silence.

Except for a body across the cave, the place was empty.

Blinking awake, Kat averted her gaze and automatically reached for Chris. Gone. Just like everyone else. Except for…

Please, God, no more victims, she thought, afraid to look closer, to see who it was this time.

But she couldn’t stop. Slowly, her sight combed the cave, making its way to the flat, still body.

Blankets, nice and neat, undisturbed. Fire flickering over the walls, snapping over the sound of raindrops. A man dressed in a T-shirt, sandy hair…

Will.

With a tight gasp, she tripped her way to where Nestor should’ve been sitting. Their suspect was gone, along with his ropes, the doctor, Chris, Duke, Larry and Louis.

All gone.

“Don’t you be
dead
,” she said. “Don’t you dare.”

When she saw his chest lift slightly, Kat laughed in joy.
Alive
.

“Will? Wake up. Will!”

She stroked his forehead, trying to soothe him awake.

He groaned. Oh, thank God. She was never so happy to hear a groan of…was it pain?

As she kept persuading him to come to, she darted a gaze around the cave, on watch for anyone else. What had happened? Where was everybody?

She searched for the knife at her side, seeking its cold comfort.

But it was gone. Nothing useful for defense was around.

As she searched for it, Will stirred, then moaned even louder, holding the back of his skull.