just someone who wanted to clear Willie Lee’s name. Of course, to the best of his knowledge, there was still only one person who fell into that particular name-clearing category.
Karina herself.
Cord studied her injuries, trying to look at the pattern to see what they could tell him. Karina didn’t seem like the vain type, but he had a hard time believing that any woman would allow her face to be cut so she could try to prove someone’s innocence. If she’d set this up, she could have merely had the person hit her on the head and leave bruises on her neck.
Cord’s phone buzzed, and when he saw Jericho’s name on the screen, he answered it right away. “Did you send that ranch hand, Rocky, off to do something?” Jericho asked.
“No. Why?”
“Because he’s not here. The CSIs finally made it so I started looking for him to take him to the office, but he’s not in the house or bunkhouse.”
Hell. “You don’t think he went looking for the attacker?”
Jericho cursed, too. “If he did, I don’t need this now. If Karina has his number, try to call him.”
Cord assured him that he’d try, but he figured since she didn’t have her phone with her, there was little chance Karina would remember the ranch hand’s number.
But she surprised Cord when she rattled it off.
“I have a good memory,” she mumbled. A comment that snagged his attention because there seemed to be something else, something that she wasn’t saying.
Something that she remembered.
“What is it?” Cord asked, staring at her.
She didn’t get a chance to respond. Didn’t get a chance to explain, either. The driver hit his brakes, bringing the ambulance to a jarring stop.
“Draw your gun,” the driver told Cord.
Cord did. And he soon saw why they’d stopped and why the driver had given that order.
It certainly wasn’t what Cord had expected to see.
There. In the middle of the dark country road. A man. He was wearing a ski mask.
And he had a gun pointed right at them.
Karina lifted her head to see what had caused the ambulance driver to give that order to Cord.
Draw your gun.
Not exactly an order to steady her racing heart. But then, seeing the man in the ski mask didn’t help with that, either.
Oh, God.
He’d found her.
Cord did indeed draw his gun. Fast. “Call for backup and get down,” he told the paramedic beside her.
While the paramedic did that, Cord maneuvered himself in front of her, and the driver got down onto the seat. But the man on the road did some maneuvering, too. With his weapon still aimed at them, he ducked behind a tree, probably so that Cord wouldn’t just shoot him.
“Don’t try to drive off, Agent Granger,” the man shouted. “Wouldn’t be good for your health right now if you tried to do that. We need to have a little chat first.”
There were no side windows on the back of the ambulance, and with Cord in front of her, she couldn’t see much through the windshield. However, it sounded as if this monster had some kind of backup. Or maybe he was just bluffing and wanted them to be like sitting ducks while he fired shots at them.
“The ambulance is bullet-resistant,” Cord said, as if reading her mind. “And I want to catch this sick bastard.”
So did Karina. More than anything. Not only could catching him clear Willie Lee’s name, but it would also get this killer behind bars, where he belonged. She’d known in her heart that Willie Lee wasn’t the Moonlight Strangler, and arresting this man would prove it.
She hoped.
Of course, Cord might continue to believe this was a copycat. He might not want to admit they’d charged the wrong man with multiple murders. Because in this case the wrong man was his biological father and he wanted to see him punished.
“There are explosives in the ditches on both sides of the road,” the man shouted. “If you shoot at me or do anything else to otherwise rile me, the explosives will go off.”
Karina gasped, and the paramedic didn’t fare much better. He dropped down to the floor.
“Explosives?” Cord asked, glancing around. He spoke in a loud enough voice that the guy outside would have no trouble hearing him. “That’s not the MO of the Moonlight Strangler.”
“You’re right, but sometimes a man’s gotta get creative. The explosives might not kill you. Might not. But it’s a big ol’ risk to take with such fragile cargo inside, isn’t it?”
That got Karina snapping to a sitting position. Or rather she tried to do that. She was strapped to the gurney that was locked in place on the floor, but she still lifted her torso as much as she could.
“I’m not that fragile,” she insisted. However, the dizziness hit her, and almost immediately she had no choice but to drop back down.
Karina cursed the dizziness. The pain. Cursed the fact that this idiot was taunting her after he’d come so close to killing her.
She could still feel his hands around her neck. Could still smell his stench on her skin. Could still hear his gravelly voice as he’d cut her.
This will show them.
But he’d whispered something else to her, too. Something she hadn’t been able to catch because by then the pain and the panic had been screaming through her head.
What had he said to her? What?
Knowing that might help them if she could somehow use those words to figure out who was behind that mask.
He’d seemed...familiar. Or something.
“Do you see any explosives?” the driver asked Cord. Unlike Cord, his voice was trembling. Probably the rest of him, too.
Cord shook his head. “It’s too dark to see much of anything out there.”
No doubt part of this killer’s plan. There might not be any explosives at all. But Karina rethought that. The attack at her place had happened nearly an hour ago. That was plenty of time for the killer to get out here and set up an ambush, especially since this was the only road leading into town.
It was also the same road that the backup lawmen would be taking.
Karina prayed their arrival wouldn’t make this situation worse than it already was. Maybe the deputies or whoever responded would be able to sneak up on the man and capture him. Alive. That way, he could answer questions and clear Willie Lee’s name for good.
“What do you want?” Cord shouted to the man.
“The woman,” he readily answered.
Had her heart skipped a beat or two? It certainly felt like it.
Cord glanced back at her, probably trying to reassure her that he wouldn’t just hand her over to a killer. And he wouldn’t. She’d only known him a month, but he wasn’t a coward or a dirty lawman. He didn’t like her. Possibly even hated her. But he would protect her with his life.
But that wasn’t comforting.
Karina didn’t want anyone dying to save her. Still, she wasn’t exactly in a position to defend herself.
“Why do you want her?” Cord called out to him.
“Because I’d like to finish what I started.” Another fast answer. Whether