To Die: Chosen To Die Part 2

Today Where the h.e.l.l is she?

As a brutal storm shrieked through the surrounding canyons, Nate Santana paced in the stable, his cell phone pressed hard to his ear, no sound emanating from the slim, useless device. "Come on, come on," he encouraged but he knew it was no good.

Regan, d.a.m.n her, was MIA.

No service appeared on the phone's small screen.

Frustrated, Santana jammed his cell into the pocket of his worn jeans and told himself to remain calm. He was just keyed up from everything that had gone on in the sleepy town of Grizzly Falls in the last few weeks. No big deal.

And yet, he felt worry eating at his gut, reminding him that everything that had been good in his life always disappeared and that Pescoli, d.a.m.ned her s.e.xy a.s.s, was the best thing that had happened to him in a long, long while...probably since Santa Lucia...

His thoughts took a dark twist as he considered the last woman who had changed the course of his life, then pushed her beautiful image from his mind. Shannon Flannery was past history.

Right now, he had to deal with the fact that Regan was ducking his calls.

Or was she?

He shoved a hand through his hair and glared at the indoor arena where a particularly stubborn and nervous colt was staring back at him, challenging him.

Usually Santana could be easily distracted by animals. In his experience they were a h.e.l.luva lot easier to deal with than people. More trustworthy. More constant. But this frigid morning, he couldn't concentrate, his thoughts creeping ever to Regan.

h.e.l.l, he had it bad. And he hated it that she'd somehow gotten under his skin. You let her. You allowed a quick, no-strings-attached fling to develop into a full-fledged affair starting to border on a relationship.

His jaw tightened at the thought.

She was the worst woman he could have chosen to get involved with. The absolute worst!

He mentally castigated himself, calling himself a long list of names that grew progressively more derogatory. No woman in a long time had infiltrated his brain, or caused him to think about finding ways to get her into bed at all hours of the day. And Regan was a d.a.m.ned detective with the Pinewood County Sheriff's Department, for crying out loud.

What did that tell you?

Avoid. Avoid. Avoid!

But he'd been drawn to her like a dying man in the desert to an oasis.

A glance through the window confirmed that the mother of a storm wasn't letting up. Sub-zero wind howled through the deep ravines of this part of Montana. Ice glazed the outside of the panes and the snow was falling so thick and fast, he couldn't see the lights glowing in his cabin only a hundred feet away.

Inside, the huge stable with its indoor exercise arena was warm, the heating system wheezing and stirring up the dust of last summer, while the familiar smells of saddle soap and horse dung, scents he'd known all his life, filled his nostrils. Horses shuffled in their stalls; one, the nervous mare, sent out a quiet whinny. Sounds and odors that usually calmed him. Truth be known, he felt far more akin to animals than he did to most men. Or women, for that matter.

Until d.a.m.ned Regan Pescoli.

With her two children.

Two finished marriages.

Their relationship, basically all s.e.x, wasn't the least bit romantic or conventional.

No vows.

No promises.

No strings.

No big deal.

Right?

So why was he edgy and restless? What was it to him that he couldn't reach her? They'd gone days without speaking before, even, upon occasion, a week. Though not lately. In the past few months, they had been in contact nearly daily. Or nightly. And he wasn't complaining.

He reminded himself that up here cell phone service was notoriously lousy, and that getting the NO SIGNAL message was nothing new. Even Brady Long, Santana's pain-in-the-a.s.s employer, heir to a copper fortune and not afraid to throw his money around, couldn't get a cell tower built anywhere nearby. Which was usually just fine by Santana. A loner by nature, he didn't have a lot of interest or faith in technology.

Except for this morning.

So what if you can't get in touch with her? You know she's got to be up to her eyeb.a.l.l.s in police business. The d.a.m.ned Star-Crossed Killer is still on the loose and there has to be emergency after emergency in this blizzard, homes without electricity, cars sliding off the road, people freezing to death. She's busy. That's all. Don't push the panic b.u.t.ton.

Still, he felt it. That little premonition of dread that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to bristle and stomach acid to crawl up his throat whenever trouble was brewing. Not that he hadn't caused his own share of heartache and misery, but nonetheless, he sensed bad things coming; had since he was a kid.

"It's that d.a.m.ned native blood in ya," his father had always muttered under his breath when Nate had mentioned the feeling. "On your mother's side. Her great grandfather-or was it great-great?-was some kind of Indian shaman or some such c.r.a.p. Could heal people with his touch. Cursed 'em, too. Well, according to yer mother. He was an Arapaho, I think, or was it Cheyenne? Don't matter. He seen him a rattler or somethin' in a dream once and that did it. He became the medicine man. Prob'ly had the same d.a.m.ned tingling sensation you do, boy."

After these tarnished bits of insight, his old man had usually bitten at a plug of tobacco and chewed with great satisfaction, only to spit and wipe his mouth with the back of his sleeve. "All horses.h.i.t, in my book."

Not that Santana had ever thought for a second his gut instincts had anything to do with his ancestry. But tonight he sensed something outside. Something dark and intimately evil. Something threatening. To Regan.

Clenching his jaw, he told himself to ignore it. He didn't like the premonitions and didn't admit to them, wasn't going to take the kind of ridicule leveled at Ivor Hicks for his supposed alien abduction or Grace Perchant, a woman who bred wolf dogs and confessed to speaking with the dead, or Henry Johansen, a farmer who had fallen off his tractor fifteen years earlier, hit his head, and claimed he could "hear" other people's thoughts. Nope, Santana would keep his mouth shut about his sensations rather than suffer the ridicule of the townspeople.

As for Regan, he'd catch up with her later, one way or another. He always did. Besides, it wasn't as if they were married or even an item; that's the way they both wanted it.

He walked to the indoor arena where Lucifer, still glaring at him, pawed the soft dirt. A big black colt with a crooked blaze and one white stocking, he had a nasty streak that some would call independence; others referred to it as just being ornery. Nate figured it was one and the same. Now the rangy colt's nostrils were flared, his eyes white around the rims, a nervous sweat and flecks of lather visible on his sleek hide.

"It's okay," he said softly, when he knew deep in his gut it wasn't. And the horse knew it, too. That was Santana's talent, or "gift," as it were. He understood animals, especially horses and dogs. He respected them for the animals they were, didn't put any human traits on them and, from years of observation and experience, learned to work with them.

Some people called him "weird"; others compared him to a snake charmer or blamed it on his mixed heritage when the truth of the matter was he used common sense, determination, and kindness. He just knew how to work with them. Maybe it was part of the Arapaho in him, but probably not.

He grabbed the coil of rope from a hook on the wall, slipped through the gate of the arena, then walked slowly toward the beast as the gate clicked behind him. Another blast of wind shrieked through the canyons, rattling the windowpanes and causing a twitch to come alive in the big colt's shoulder.

"Shh." Santana kept coming. Steady. Calm. Even though deep inside he felt the same tension that the horse was exuding, a fear akin to the panic visible in Lucifer's wild eyes. At any second the colt would bolt.

Thud!

The door to the stables banged open.

Santana froze.

And Lucifer took off like a shot. Zero to thirty in three short strides, hooves flashing and thundering, kicking up dirt as he galloped close enough to Santana that he could hear the colt's breath, feel his heat as a gust of frigid Montana wind whistled and swirled into the room.

His dog, a large Siberian husky, sent up a howl loud enough to wake the dead in the next county, and all the horses in the stable snorted and neighed, fidgeting restlessly.

"Nakita, hush!" Santana commanded and the big dog reluctantly lay down, blue eyes still focused on Santana.

Lucifer, tail up, eyes rimmed in white, ran back and forth along the penned area. If he could have, the big colt would have jumped the top rail of the enclosure and galloped as far and fast as his strong legs would carry him, clear through the door and across Brady Long's two thousand acres.

"Great," Santana muttered, knowing whatever confidence he'd gained with the anxious colt had been shattered. "Just...d.a.m.ned great."

He turned his attention to the open doorway, searching for whoever had been foolish enough to let the door slam. "Hey!" he called out as he climbed over the fence separating the exercise ring from the rest of the stable, vaulting the top rail and landing lightly on his booted feet.

No idiot stomping off snow and shaking away the cold appeared in the doorway. Only Nakita whining and staring outside to the dark night.

Frost-laden air screamed inside, but no one appeared.

Nate yanked the door closed, double-checked the latch as a drip of ominous worry slithered down his spine. The door had been closed tight, the latch secure. He was certain. He'd pulled it shut himself.

Or had he been so distracted by his missing woman that he had been careless and a stiff gust of wind had pushed the old door open? The latch had always been dicey. He'd been meaning to fix it; it just hadn't been high on his priority list.

Again, he had the uncanny sensation that someone was with him; that he wasn't alone. But all he heard was the sound of restless hooves in the surrounding stalls and the snorts of horses disturbed from their normal routines. He trained his eyes on the boxes, noting that the roan mare and bay gelding in ab.u.t.ting stalls were staring at the corner near the feed bins. Lucifer had stopped galloping wildly, but held his head high, his nostrils flared. As he slowed, his dark coat quivered and his gaze was centered dead-on Santana.

Nate grabbed a pitchfork from its hook on the wall and took two steps toward the shadowy corner near the oat bin.

Brrriiing!

The stable phone shrieked.

He nearly jumped from his skin.

Gloved hand holding the handle of the pitchfork in a death grip, he retraced his steps and snagged the receiver of the phone mounted near the door.

"Santana," he barked, receiver pressed to his ear as he scoured the interior of the stable with his gaze.

"This is Detective Selena Alvarez, Pinewood County Sheriff's Department."

He felt every muscle in his body tense. "Yeah."

"I'm Detective Regan Pescoli's partner."

He already knew that much. What he didn't know was whether Regan had confided to Alvarez that she and he were involved.

"Uh-huh."

"Pescoli didn't show up for work today. I thought you might know where she is."

So the cat was out of the bag about their affair. Good. "I haven't seen her."

"How about last night?"

His jaw tightened. "No."

"Look, I know you and she have a thing going. She never really talks about it, but I pieced it together, so if you know where she is-"

"I don't," he cut her off. "We were together a couple of nights ago. Haven't seen her since," he admitted, his jaw setting. "I've been calling her cell and the house phone. No answer."

"I was afraid of that." The woman swore softly and frustration was in her voice. Santana felt a chill colder than the bowels of h.e.l.l. "If you hear from her, will you have her call in?"

"Yeah." He sensed Alvarez was about to hang up and asked, "Where do you think she is?"

"If we knew that, I wouldn't be calling you." She hung up and the word we reverberated through his mind. As in we: the Pinewood County Sheriff's Department. He replaced the phone, his guts twisting, the sensation that something was wrong validated. If the d.a.m.ned police department didn't know where she was, things were worse than he'd feared.

Boom!

Grace Perchant's eyes flew open.

Although, she thought, they'd never been closed.

She blinked. Tried to clear her mind when the sound of the blast, like the clap of nearby thunder, ricocheted through her brain again.

Snow was falling around her and she was standing in the middle of the road, in boots, her flannel nightgown, and a long coat flapping around her legs, her skin ice cold. Her dog, Sheena, was nearby, ever vigilant, ever loyal. With intelligent eyes and a black coat that belied her wolf lineage, Sheena waited patiently.

As she always did.

Even when Grace suffered one of her spells.

"Lord," Grace whispered, shivering, her fingers and toes nearly numb, her breath a cloud.

Images from her dream slid through her mind. Visceral. Raw. Real. Like shards of gla.s.s that cut through her brain.

She caught a flash, a quick, horrifying glimpse of a woman in a mangled Jeep, her body racked with pain. And a stalker. The evil one tracking her down.

Grace's heart rate accelerated as the image changed to a vision of that same woman now laced in a straitjacket and being hauled out of a wintry canyon. By a man in white, a man with evil intent.

Quickly the scene changed and the female victim was now naked, lashed to a frozen hemlock tree, her red hair stiff with ice and snow, her gold eyes round with fear, her skin turning blue.

Regan Pescoli.

The cop.

With heart-stopping certainty Grace knew that the monster had found her. Attacked her. Planned to kill her. If he hadn't already.

This wasn't the first time she'd had a vision; once before she'd caught a glimpse of the monster's innate and relentless evil purpose.

At that time, only a few days earlier, Grace had tried to warn Pescoli, had told her of her imminent danger, but the detective had dismissed her.

As they all did.

So now the visions were more graphic. Closer. She looked up at the dark sky, felt the film of icy flakes melt against her skin. Her teeth were chattering. How long had she been out here? How far had she trudged like a sleepwalker along this winding, lonely road?

"Come, Sheena," she said, wrapping her arms around her waist as the wind keened through the hills. "Home."

The big dog, nearly 150 pounds, started trotting briskly along the fresh tracks that were beginning to fill with snow, her own footsteps, the wolf dog's paw prints, leading back the way from which they'd come, the way she couldn't remember having traveled.

Had she walked a couple of a hundred miles or one mile? The landscape at night, frozen and white, looked all the same. And her mind, usually clearer than ever after waking from her visions, couldn't discern any landmarks. But the tracks were fresh and she didn't think she was suffering from frostbite.