WAY OF THE SHADOWS by Cynthia Eden

*
    T HE TRACKS ENDED — vanished into the rough edge of stone that lined the rising wall of a mountain.
    “Where did he go?” Noelle spun around, shining her light. Her voice was high, nervous.
    Thomas glanced up at the mountain. He suspected the man they were after had climbed up, which meant...
    You know this area, well, don’t you? How long have you been hiding in the Alaskan wilderness?
    His light hit the edge of the mountain.
    “Up there.” Noelle’s voice was fainter now as the wind began to howl more around them. The approaching storm was moving in fast. “We have to follow him!”
    She tried to put her hands in the faint ridges between the icy rocks. Thomas pulled her back before she could climb. “We need to head back to town, Noelle.”
    Shaking her head, Noelle jerked away from him. “Jenny could be up there! We have to find her!”
    “You can’t scale the rocks.” She thought she was going to free hand her way up that frozen surface? Hell, no. She’d fall and break her neck. “We’ll go back to town and get help.” Maybe a chopper could fly them up the mountain. They’d do a search. Look for any cabins that would be a good base site for the man they were after.
    “We don’t have time for that. Jenny needs us!”
    There was no sign of the man on the face of the mountain. “He might not even be up there.” His gaze turned to the wilderness. “He could be watching us, from out there.”
    Noelle shuddered. From cold? From fear?
    “We’re not equipped for this search. We need supplies. Dogs.”
    “And Jenny needs us!” Noelle shook her head. “I’m not just going to leave her.”
    “Are you going to die with her?” His words were brutal, but Thomas had to make her see reason.
    Noelle gasped and lurched back a step.
    “Because if we stay out in the open, if we keep blindly following this man’s path tonight and that storm hits, you could die. You’re already shaking apart in front of me, and hypothermia will set in before you know it.”
    “She needs us,” Noelle said again as her chin notched up.
    “And she could be anywhere. We’re going back for the dogs.” He yanked out his phone, but of course, there was no cell service out here. Nothing.
    Noelle’s light hit to the left. To the right.
    “I can’t just leave her,” Noelle told him.
    She was going to have to leave her.
    “You stay, you die with her.” There was no way Thomas was going to let that happen on his watch. Even if he had to carry her out of there, Noelle was leaving the woods.
    * * *
    “I DON ’ T NEED you anymore.” He let the knife trail over Jenny’s skin. She was crying. Shaking. So useless to him. “You weren’t what I was hoping for.”
    It had been because of Noelle. He’d gone a little...mad there for a moment. Forgotten all of his training. That wonderful training and control Lawrence had worked hard to give him over the years.
    Lawrence had wanted to use him. He had. For so long.
    But Lawrence had made a mistake.
    They’re my kills. My choice.
    The knife cut through the gag that covered her mouth.
    “P-please...” Jenny begged him. “Let...me go.”
    “It doesn’t work like that.”
    “I won’t tell anyone about you! Please! ”
    Ah, there she went. Making promises. But Jenny knew what he looked like. If she got to Noelle and the other agent, they’d want her to describe her abductor. They’d even sit her down with a sketch artist. Get her to come up with a composite of him.
    Then his picture would be everywhere. The EOD would make sure of that.
    I know all about the EOD, but they don’t know about me. They have no clue just who—what—I am.
    Their mistake. They thought the Jack of Hearts was the greatest threat they had to face. They were wrong. It was time to show them the error of their ways. Time for him to get all of the respect he had coming.
    They’d thought Jack was a serial killer?
    Jack was nothing.
    He stroked the back of his hand over her cheek. “I have plans for