She dropped the skull over the cliff.
Doane screamed as if in mortal pain.
She whirled and started dashing up the path.
Run.
And hope that she’d managed to buy the time she needed to get away from Doane. It had been the only ploy she could think of to distract Doane from the chase.
She had a good chance of Doane’s going after Kevin’s skull. He was completely obsessed by everything connected to that reconstruction.
She glanced back over her shoulder.
Doane was standing at the edge of the cliff, his hands clenched into fists as he looked down the long slope where she’d thrown the skull. His face …
And then he looked up the path at her. Darkness. Rage. Evil.
She froze. She inhaled sharply and couldn’t move. She should keep running, but the force of that evil halted her in her tracks. It was as if he’d laid a hand on her shoulder and jerked her to a stop.
“You think you’re so clever.” It wasn’t a shout, it was hoarse, low, and they were so far apart, she shouldn’t have been able to hear him. But she heard every word. “You know nothing if you think I’ll let you get away. I have to have you there when I kill Zander. I’ve been planning it for three years, ever since I found out about you. I’ve been seeing it before I go to sleep at night. I’ve been promising it to Kevin every day. Killing Zander won’t be as sweet if you’re not there.” He paused. “He has to see you die.”
“You fool.” She stared at him in disbelief. “You’d be killing me for nothing. Zander won’t care.”
“He’ll care. He thinks he won’t, but he won’t be able to help himself. There’s nothing stronger in this world.”
The sentence sounded vaguely familiar. “What are you talking about?”
“You. Zander. What I found out three years ago when I was searching for something, anything to hurt him. It worked out so beautifully for Kevin, for me. I knew it was meant to be.”
She felt a chill mixed with bewilderment and a panicky foreboding as she stared down the hill at him. “All you found out was that I’m a forensic sculptor who could put your son’s face back together.”
“Oh, no. That was a side bonus to my finding you. That wasn’t what I was looking for. It was just a sign that what I found was true.” His voice was soft, vicious. “That I’d found the one perfect weapon to use to cut Zander to the soul and cause him to bleed.”
Why was she standing here talking to him? Why couldn’t she move? Her lead made her safe for only a few moments.
Turn and run.
But that might make him decide to follow her instead of going after the skull. “You’re talking wild. He’d turn his back and walk away.”
“No, he couldn’t do that any more than I could. There’s nothing stronger in the world.”
This time she remembered when he’d said those words. She stiffened, her eyes widening. “What are you trying to say? You’re not making sense.”
“Nothing stronger than the bond between a father and his child,” he repeated. “My heart was broken when that bastard killed my boy. I have to take his child from him and butcher it.” His eyes narrowed on her face, drinking in every expression. “I have to butcher you, Eve.”
Shock. Disbelief. “What do you—”
“That I found what I was looking for when I was searching for some way to pierce Zander’s armor and cause him to suffer for the little time he’ll have left before I kill him.” He smiled, and the malice increased. “I found his daughter.”
She inhaled sharply, as if kicked in the stomach. “If you mean what I think you mean, then you’re truly insane,” she said unsteadily.
“No, Zander is your father. Even if I hadn’t known it, I could tell by how like him you are. You’re both the same species of monster. Full of venom and ugliness.” His glance shifted to look down at the valley. “Or you could never have done that to my Kevin, you bitch.”
Everything she had heard was crazy, incredible.
Lies.
Impossible.
Pay no attention to those words, which were blowing her mind. Why was she still standing here, muscles locked, staring at him like a victim fascinated by a weaving cobra? Break away. Push away those lies. “Then go down that slope and try to find your son.” She forced her muscles to move. “Save him. Try to salvage that broken face. Or go to hell with him.” She started to run again. “I’m not going to listen to your ravings any longer.”
She heard another curse behind her, and when she glanced over her shoulder, she saw that he was no longer standing on the cliff edge.