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Jumping up, his head swam sickeningly, and he had to grab hold of the nearest tree to remain on his feet.
Breathing slowly in and out, his head and his stomach began to clear. As soon as he was capable of cohesive thought, he scanned the area but couldn’t see Aggie anywhere.
Andrew. It had to have been Andrew who attacked him, there was no one else out here.
Nick weighed up his options. He could go back to the cabin, get Miller, and anyone else who had arrived and go looking for her, or he could search himself.
A glance at the ground made his decision for him.
There was a puddle of her blood right beside him. She was bleeding out. She probably didn’t have long left, and he had no idea how long he had been out. He didn’t have time to waste, he’d search for her himself.
His gun was gone, Andrew must have taken it with him. Bending down, ignoring the harsh wave of dizziness that swamped him, he felt at his ankle. Andrew had obviously not patted him down to check for a second weapon because his back-up was still there.
Straightening, bracing himself this time for the flood of lightheadedness, he had to figure out where Andrew would go. Back to the house maybe? No, to wherever he had been keeping Emily, only Nick didn’t know where that was.
He would have to go to the cabin, he could search for hours and never find Aggie. And he knew she didn’t have hours.
Nick started to run, checking all around him as he went.
When he broke into a clearing a couple of hundred yards from the house he froze. There was a pool to his left, a little way off. Emily Hadden had been dirty, she had been kept outdoors, and she had been bruised all over, indicating that perhaps she had been dropped into an enclosure of some kind. An empty pool would meet those requirements.
Moving quietly, if Andrew did have Aggie in there then he didn’t want to tip him off.
As he got closer he heard a voice.
Andrew’s voice.
Getting down on his stomach, he inched closer to the edge until he could just peek over.
Aggie lay at the bottom of the pool. She was still and her eyes were closed. Andrew straddled her. Her pants were pulled down from her hips and her shirt had been sliced open baring one breast. Her brother had a knife in his hand and was using its tip to cut into the flesh of her left breast.
“Those gold-diggers had no hearts,” Andrew was saying. “So I gave them one. You do have a heart, but I kind of like to stick to an idea once I come up with one.”
The gun Andrew had stolen from him was lying on the ground a good two feet away. The knife appeared to be the only other weapon down there. While every single molecule of his being itched to just kill the man here and now, Nick fought to resist it. Aggie had forgiven him, he still had a chance with her, but not if he threw it all away and did something stupid.
Carefully, he adjusted his position, intending to get to his feet, train his gun on Andrew, then order the man to freeze. But a twig or dry leaf must have crunched underneath him.
Andrew’s head snapped up.
He lunged for the gun.
Nick fired his own weapon.
Andrew dropped instantly.
A rope ladder led down into the empty diving pool, and Nick scampered down. Tossing Andrew’s dead body aside, he knelt beside Aggie. She was so still. He was utterly terrified that she was already dead. She hadn’t flinched while her brother was carving a heart into her skin.
His hand trembled as he pressed his fingers to her throat. She had a pulse, but it was so weak. Every breath was a harsh rasp. The pause in between each one had him terrified that she wouldn’t take another.
“Aggie? Sweetheart, can you hear me?” Nick never used terms of endearments because that implied intimacy, and he just never let people get that close. The ones he had used when he was playing Aggie were fake, but this was real, Aggie had already taken up residence in his heart and she wasn't going anywhere. “Aggie, come on, honey, wake up.”
When she didn’t respond, he gently gathered her into his arms, wondering how he was going to get her up the rope ladder. As he held her tight against his chest, he felt her stir. For a moment her entire body tensed, but then it relaxed and she curled closer. “Nick.”
“I'm here, baby. I'm right here. I'm going to get you …” he broke off as he heard approaching voices. Flashlights gave off bright beams of light that bounced above their heads. Finally, backup had arrived, he hoped the paramedics were here too. “Down here,” he yelled, then quieter to Aggie, “just hold on, honey, that’s help coming right now.”
“Nick?” Miller called out.
“Yeah, we’re in the pool.”
