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Footsteps sounded behind her. Dark fabric was yanked off her head, and she could see by the light of the stars in the night sky. Still draped over the ATV seat, she couldn’t see who was behind her. With her arms still trapped to her sides, she couldn’t push herself up.
A sharp point jabbed against her back and ripped through the binding around her arms and body. She moved her arms a little, but not enough to free them from whatever the bind was. It clung to her skin like duct tape.
“Get up,” a male voice demanded.
“I can’t without the use of my arms.”
He grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her off the four-wheeler and onto her feet.
Rachel swayed. She locked her knees, refusing to succumb to the lingering effects of whatever he’d poisoned her with. She had to find the strength to fight. If she didn’t, her life would be over, and the killer would go on to kill again.
She couldn’t let that happen. Rachel wanted to live. She had so much more to do in her life to give up now. Number one was to rid the world of this bastard who thought it was his mission to kill women with a wedding veil.
She had to stall him and give Griff and his team a chance to follow her.
Rachel turned to face the killer, shocked to discover Alan Smith standing in front of her, a wedding veil dangling from his fingertips.
“Al? You’re the Wedding Veil Killer?” She shook her head. “Why? Why are you doing this?”
He snorted. “You’re all the same. Same black hair, same green eyes, same pack of lies.”
“What lies, Al?” Rachel asked, working the duct tape loose until it dropped to the ground.
“You flirt and make a man feel like there’s hope.” His nostrils flared, and his upper lip curled back in a feral sneer. “Then you marry someone else. I’m not good enough, am I, Misty?” He lunged for her, gripped her arms and shook her. “You never loved me, never thought I was good enough for you. You said I was your friend. You said I would always be your friend. You lied, Misty! You lied!”
“Al, listen to me.” She met and held his gaze. “I’m not Misty. My name is Rachel. Misty isn’t here. She’s gone.”
“No!” Alan pounded his fist into his palm. You’re standing right in front of me, and you’re lying. I know what I see. You can’t fool me anymore. I won’t let you.”
“Al, Misty is gone. You killed her on her wedding day.” Every time Alan looked away, Rachel inched backward very slowly. If she could put a little more distance between them, she might succeed at running away from this madman who had killed women he thought were his first love.
She glanced around at the steep mountain trail, bathed in starlight—a rock bluff on one side, a steep slope on the other. She glanced at an incline to her right. It went up another ten feet, and she would bet her lucky rabbit’s foot there was a massive drop-off. He’d brought her to the same place where he’d killed Lindsay.
Bastard.
Anger firmed her resolve and gave her the strength she would need to fight. She could not let him get away with another murder.
“You’re all alike,” he repeated. “You play with a man’s affections and then walk away to be with someone else. You don’t deserve to marry. You don’t deserve happiness when you’ve destroyed mine, again and again.”
“Al, I don’t even know you. I’ve never flirted with you or led you on. I’m not Misty,” she said forcefully. “Christy Severs wasn’t Misty. She didn’t deserve to die. My sister, Lindsay, wasn’t Misty. You killed her. Now, I have no family.” Her eyes filled with tears and rolled down her face. Rachel scrubbed a hand over her damp cheek. “Listen, Al, we’ve all been there. We’ve loved and lost our love to someone else. You can’t kill every woman who looks like Misty. It won’t bring her back or make her choose you.”
“You think I don’t know that?” He spat on the ground at her feet. “I’m saving others like me. Saving them the lies and betrayals that destroy your soul.”
“No, you’re killing them and taking them away from the people who love them,” Rachel said. “Misty was an only child. Her parents were devastated. Her fiancé loved her deeply and still misses her. I loved my sister, Lindsay, with my whole heart. She was my only family. And you took her away from me. You can’t continue to kill women who look like Misty. It will not fix what is broken inside you.”
“See? There you go again, spreading your lies, trying to sway me to your way of thinking. I won’t fall for it. I’m done with lies. I’m done with you, Misty. And if you can’t love me, you can’t love anyone else. You’ll only hurt them like you hurt me.”
Al lunged toward Rachel.
She dodged to the right, climbing higher to the end of the trail and the deadly drop-off.
What had happened to Lindsay would happen again. This time to her.
If she let it happen.
The hell she would.
Rachel drew on all the self-dense training she’d taken as part of her job as a California State Highway Patrol officer. With a little of the residual effects of the drug he’d injected in her still weakening her muscles, she squared her shoulders and looked for ways to best him that didn’t take brute strength.
