He grabbed her. Shoved her against the wall. “I’m not finished with you.”

The one image that flashed through her mind, obliterating the sight of Walker’s bloody visage—it wasn’t Jenny’s face. The face that had haunted her for so long.

It was Anthony’s.

Her chance at life, and it had passed her by. Anthony would find her, she knew that. Eventually, he’d find what was left of her body. He wouldn’t leave her in the swamp.

As she’d left Jenny?

“We’re not even close to finished…” His breath heaved. “But playtime has to wait until he can join us.”

Hope nearly broke her heart.

“I’ve got to get the fuck out of here.” He locked his fingers around her chin. “See you again real soon…” Then he slammed her head back into the wood behind her, slammed it so hard that she saw nothing but darkness and never even felt the floor as she fell.

* * *

Anthony ran even faster when he finally caught sight of the cabin just up ahead. They’d lost the blood trail, and Wesley had taken them down the wrong path as they tried to find the cabin in the dark. Every lost second had been like a knife slicing into Anthony’s skin.

He’s hurting her. She could be dying.

While Anthony dicked around in the dark.

“Hell, yes!” Wesley shouted out. He’d been briefly separated from Wesley as they both frantically tried to find the old path that would lead them to this place, but now both men ran forward, coming from two different angles.

The cabin was dark. It looked abandoned. Don’t be. Lauren had to be inside.

Anthony reached the door first. He threw it open and hurried inside with his flashlight positioned above his gun so that he could take the shot he needed.

A shot that would kill the Bayou Butcher.

The light fell on a broken chair. Some pieces of duct tape. A row of knives.

A groan came from behind the door. He yanked the door back, nearly hitting Wesley with it, and there she was. Slumped on the floor, her hair a heavy curtain around her face, blood soaking her clothes.

“Lauren?” His voice was a stark whisper. He fell to his knees next to her. With shaking hands, Anthony pulled her into his arms. Her blood smeared over him, and he just held her tighter. “An ambulance!” he barked over his shoulder to Wesley. “She needs to get to a hospital, now!” He lifted her into his arms, not about to let her go. Her head sagged back, her eyes were still closed. There was a cut on her cheek. A long, thin slice.

And so much more blood on her arm and shirt.

“I’ve got you, baby,” he whispered as he pressed a kiss to her head. “I’ve got you.” She wasn’t ever going to get away from him again.

Wesley was calling for the ambulance, demanding that they get some EMTs or a chopper out there freaking yesterday as Anthony carried Lauren out of that cabin.

“Baby?” His hold tightened on her. “Please, open your eyes, look at me.”

But she wasn’t looking at him. Lauren was out cold, and the fear in his gut was just getting worse with every second that passed.

* * *

Jon ran through the woods as fast as he could. His side ached where the bitch had stabbed him. He’d wanted to pay her back for that.

He’d wanted to pay her back for so much.

But the marshal had been closing in. The phone call had come just in time.

I won’t go back in a cage again.

His feet pounded over the earth. He knew how to hide his trail, but there wasn’t time for that now. Blood would be dripping from his wound—dogs would follow the blood. If the marshal didn’t already have a dog tracking after him, he would soon.

He knew how men like Ross worked. They didn’t stop. Not until they’d run down their prey. Jon knew, because he was just like that, too.

He raced onto the old dock. The wood trembled beneath his feet. The boat was there. A motorboat, but he wouldn’t use the motor, not yet. Sound traveled easily in the woods. He jumped into the boat, untied it, and grabbed for the oars.

Going out on the water would buy him time. The dogs would lose him at the water, and if he got to the meeting point, his ride would be waiting. He’d get out of there, and the marshal wouldn’t know what the hell was happening.

Then he’d have another chance with Lauren Chandler. Lauren would finish the circle, a perfect ending to a new life that had begun twenty years ago. He’d just have to be more careful. They would have to be more careful. Lauren couldn’t be protected, not always, and there would come a time when the marshal slipped up, when the uniformed cops weren’t watching.

Lauren would be his chance to prove he was the one in charge. The one with all the power.

Lauren would have nothing but death.

* * *

It was dawn. Cadence stood on the small dock at Rattlesnake Bayou, her gaze on the body that had been dumped like garbage.

Helen Lynch, Steve’s ex-wife.

“She’s been dead awhile,” the ME said as he bent near the body. “Lividity has set in.”

“Give us a time frame,” Kyle McKenzie said as he waited near Cadence’s side. She could feel the tension rolling off her partner’s body.

He’d thought they would find Helen alive. Kyle, always the hopeful one.

She’d known better.

If the Bayou Butcher had really taken her, as he’d told Steve, she’d known Helen was dead. The Butcher didn’t trade. He just killed. And after being locked away from his preferred prey for so long…

Walker knew he’d kill her from the moment he took her.

Greg tilted his head as he studied the body. “I’d say at least twelve hours.”

Long before Lynch had played willing sacrifice and brought Lauren into Walker’s web.

“He didn’t kill her here,” Cadence murmured. That was obvious. There wasn’t enough blood at the scene. Not enough to match all of the deep, horrible cuts on Helen’s body. The Butcher. He’d earned that name for a reason.

Killers seemed to be getting more twisted every day.

To think, once upon a time, she’d lived without knowing about these monsters.

Now she saw them everywhere.

Cadence looked up and found Kyle’s hard stare on her.

“He’s getting his payback. Lauren, the judge, Steve.” He expelled on a long sigh. “Hell, even Karen was part of the reason the guy ended up in jail. She was an investigator on the case.”

The attacks weren’t going to stop, either. She knew that. Normally, a serial killer had a dormant period between his hunts. The kill itself almost calmed or controlled him. There was no control for the Butcher. What he was doing—hell, he was beyond anything she’d seen before. “We need to make sure all of the jurors have protection.” Those still in the immediate area would need a police watch. Those who’d moved away would need to be on guard.

But the guy might not just be targeting jurors. He could be targeting cops who’d worked on his case years before. Witnesses. The families of his victims. Just how much revenge would he want?

She had to learn more about him. Had to work up her own profile on him, and not just go by the work another agent had done five years ago.

“How the hell is he doing this?” Kyle demanded as he jerked a hand through his hair. “He should have no resources. He should have been fighting to survive!”

The ME was putting small plastic bags over Helen Lynch’s hands. Trying to preserve evidence. I hope you fought him, Helen. I hope you hurt the bastard before you died.

“Walker grew up running through these swamps,” Cadence murmured. “He knows the area back and forth. He can use the land, the water—he can hide from us out here, and he knows it.”

“But he had to go into the city to get Helen,” Kyle pointed out. “He went into the city for Karen, for the attack at the judge’s office…”

That was a whole lot of back-and-forth activity. Too much for one man? The new profile she’d been working up on this case said—yes, hell, yes. Cadence didn’t think they were just looking for one killer.

She pulled out her phone and called Ross. He’d need to know about Helen’s death.

He answered on the second ring, and she could hear a hospital intercom sounding behind him. “Ross.” He sounded distracted, worried.

She turned away from the scene. “We found Helen Lynch.”

“Hell.” He understood. Ross wasn’t new to the game. “How long ago did he kill her?”

She took a few steps away, distancing herself from Greg and Kyle. “The ME says at least twelve hours.”

“Dammit. I knew this would happen. Steve Lynch should have come to us. We could have helped him.”

There would be no help now. Lynch was being held at the PD. Someone would have to give him the news about his ex-wife.

“How’s your DA?” The wording was deliberate. She’d seen the way those two looked at each other. Lauren was definitely Ross’s, and the rage he had to be feeling after Lauren’s attack…

“She’s gonna make it.” There was rage biting through his voice. “I am tired of this bastard screwing with us.”

So was she. “I have to come and see Lauren. I need to talk to her.” There were questions only Lauren could answer. She’d see Lauren, then she’d pay a visit to Steve Lynch. But first, she ordered, “We need to up the guards on Judge Hamilton.” She’d talk to the police captain about that when she got back to the station. “Are you staying with Lauren?” She knew the answer, but asked anyway.

“She won’t leave my sight.”

The hospital’s intercom sounded in the background as a doctor was paged.

“If I learn anything else, I’ll get back to you,” she said and ended the call.