Page 97 of Exacting Vengeance

This all seemed too easy.

She opened the door enough to slip out, then padded through the hallway. In the living room, she stopped, holding her breath. The front door was barely a dozen feet away. She crept onward cautiously. A floorboard creaked, and she froze.

Nothing. No Yuri. No sound besides the steady thrum of her heartbeat pounding in her ears and the low whine of a plane getting nearer. She made it to the door and opened it enough to see outside. Cool wind blew into the house, and she gasped. Not because the air was about twenty degrees colder than the last time she’d been outside.

The sight that met her eyes was anything but what she’d expected—an airfield.

Yuri stood at the end of the runway, one hand shielding his eyes from the sun as he watched a small plane bank right and descend. The runway couldn’t have been more than fifty feet from the house.

Two large piles of wood from collapsed structures lay on one side of the runway, with a dilapidated hangar on the other. Most of the airstrip was covered with grasses and weeds, as if it hadn’t been used in a very long time.

Creaking pine trees, their tops swaying in the wind, surrounded the airfield as far as the eye could see. Now she understood why Yuri hadn’t been concerned about gunshots attracting unwanted attention. Wherever this was, it was in the middle of nowhere.

How would anyone find her?

They won’t.

Kyle wasn’t coming to save her. Nobody was. It was up to her to fight for her baby’s freedom. And their lives.

A sedan sat twenty feet from the house at the end of a weed-covered dirt driveway. That must have been how Yuri had gotten her here. Her only chance was if he’d left the keys inside.

Taking a deep gulp, she tiptoed down the porch steps. One of the steps creaked beneath her weight, and she hissed in a breath, praying Yuri hadn’t heard the noise.

Her prayers went unanswered.

He turned, and his eyes went wide. Fear froze her in place as he stalked back to the house.

This is it. Move!

She raced down the rest of the steps and took off running toward the sedan as fast as her legs would carry her.

Run. Run faster or die!

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Kyle pulled up behind Ivan Asimov’s Cadillac SUV parked on the side of Stokes Road. Five feet in front of the Caddy was a rutted dirt road with a sign so faded it was illegible. Behind him, Jack and three state police vehicles also pulled over, waiting for instructions.

“Got it.” Deke ended the call he’d been having with their boss. “Yuri’s phone pinged five minutes ago. He’s within a hundred-yard radius of this location. Rural areas are harder to pinpoint under a mile, so they can’t nail it down any closer than that.”

Kyle jumped from the Explorer, watching a small plane bank right and descend, as if it were in a landing pattern. He’d been waiting for Jack to get with an intel specialist as to why Yuri had chosen this location. Now it was obvious.

“Let me guess,” he said, when Jack jogged over, “there’s an airstrip in there.” He nodded to the tree line beyond Asimov’s car.

“Exactly.” Jack nodded. “Used to be a small commercial airport. It’s been abandoned for over twenty years. Occasionally, someone comes in and clears the field enough to make it serviceable to pilots willing to take a chance. The only buildings still standing are an old house and the original hangar.”

“Ideally, we’d go in on foot and take him by surprise.” The plane banked again, descending more. “We can’t wait. If Yuri gets her on a private plane, all the pilot has to do is turn off the transponder and stay out of controlled airspace. It’ll be a lot harder to track them.” Sick thoughts nearly drove him insane. Victoria was at Yuri’s mercy. He imagined the worst and saw red––blood red––Yuri’s, as he killed him once and for all. When this was over, one or both of them would be dead. “Follow me,” he said over his shoulder as he hopped back into the Explorer.

The second Deke hauled himself into the passenger seat, Kyle gunned the SUV down the dirt road. He would gladly give up his life to save Victoria and their baby, but first he had to find them.

“You good, bro?” Deke asked, grabbing onto the oh-shit handle as the SUV dipped and rolled on the deeply rutted road.

“As good as I can be.” He was inadequately rested by most people’s standards, but he’d been on military missions going days on end without sleep. At this point, he was running on pure adrenaline.

He pushed the Explorer as fast as he could without bottoming out and stranding them. Ahead, there was still nothing but pine trees. They’d lost sight of the airplane, which only made him press down harder on the accelerator. He was still shell-shocked that she would have disappeared without telling him about the baby. That didn’t stop him from wanting her with every breath he took.

The road curved left, then right, then left again. Finally, sunlight broke through the trees. Up ahead, a small plane glided ten feet over the runway perpendicular to them, forcing Kyle and everyone behind him to hit the brakes or hit the plane. A lone figure stood at the end of the runway.

Yuri. He recognized that arrogant stance.