"Rainey, Rainey Bell, answer me!" Brooks' voice rang in Rainey's ears.

The airbags had deployed and smoke filled the air. Rainey was disoriented. The rancid smell from the airbag propellant burned her nose.

"Rainey, I'm starting people to you, hang..."

Brooks was cut off by, "OnStar emergency, this is Nancy. I have your airbags deployed. Can you respond?"

Rainey tried to breathe but a sharp pain on her left side restricted her intake. She gasped out, "Send... help."

Brooks' voice broke back in, "Oh no you don't, OnStar b.i.t.c.h. Rainey, I'm back. Can you hear me? Help is on the way."

Rainey's senses began to come back. The howling wind and rain continued. The storm was directly overhead now. Lightning strobes lit up the sky repeatedly, one thunderclap overlapping the next. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the grill of a truck through the spider-webbed driver's window. Her circ.u.mstances rushed at her and the flight or fight instinct registered the alarm. A jolt of adrenaline jump-started her heart into a racing rhythm.

Rainey could hear the truck engine roaring as the driver tried to crush the Charger. The pa.s.senger side was smashed into the embankment of the ditch she'd been slammed into. The truck pinned her door shut. She had to get out of the car. Rainey released her seatbelt. Holding her left arm close to her side, where she thought her ribs might have been broken, Rainey climbed over the console and into the backseat. She pulled the Glock from the holster on her waistband and took the Beretta from the console. She laid the pistols on the seat and pulled the shotgun from the floor. All the while, she managed to grit her teeth against the pain and take a breath, so she could talk.

"Brooks, it's him. Send everybody. I have to get out of this car. I'm a sitting duck in here."

Rainey saw the light in the cab of the truck come on and go back off. He was out of the truck. A bolt of lightening illuminated his silhouette in front of the car, aiming a pistol directly at her. He fired three times. Luckily he never hit the same place twice and the armored gla.s.s did its job.

Brooks screamed through the speakers, "Oh my G.o.d! Help her. Help her."

The pain in her ribs had to be ignored. He was out there and she couldn't see him. Rainey pulled herself across the seat and reached for her keys. She yanked the remote off the chain. She dug into the console, pulling out a pocket knife.

"I'm getting the h.e.l.l out, now!"

Brooks yelled, "But he's out there."

Suddenly, shots exploded above Rainey's head in the rear windshield. Again, the gla.s.s held.

Rainey shouted back, "It won't be long before he's in here with me."

Brooks was talking again, but not to her. "I repeat shots fired! Shots fired! Agent in distress. Move your a.s.ses! McNally! James! Anybody! Rainey's in trouble!"

Rainey dug the knife into the center of the seat back. She installed the computer equipment in the car. Rainey knew what was behind the seat, access to the trunk. She smelled something burning and looked up to see the man standing behind the flames that were now engulfing the front of her car. She tore at the fabric and foam with the knife, as he put one shot after another in the windshield, chipping away at the high security gla.s.s. Thank G.o.d he had not realized the roof was unprotected.

Once she had a hole in the seat large enough for her body, Rainey lifted the shotgun and used the b.u.t.t end to break away the fiber board blocking her exit. She shoved the shotgun in before her, put the remote in her teeth, and lifted the two pistols from the seat, putting them in her waistband. She laid on her back, kicked off the console and pulled herself into the trunk. Rainey located the shotgun and grasped the remote with two fingers. She hit the trunk release and came up out of the trunk like Rambo, firing over the lid at the front of the car.

She turned and jumped out of the trunk, blindly firing the shotgun behind her, as she landed on the ground. She lost her breath with the pain of the jolt, but kept moving. Rainey fired the shotgun again and scrambled over the embankment, into the cover of the woods. Brooks was screaming her name, her cries faded as Rainey ran for cover, while her car went up in flames.

Rainey lay on the ground behind a fallen tree. She tried to calm her breathing, so she could reduce the pain in her ribs and listen, but the rain and thunder were too much to overcome. All she could do was wait for the next lightning flash and hope she saw him. Rainey raised her head slowly, peering into the blackness. He could be right on top of her and she wouldn't have seen him. The rain soaked her, running into her eyes, making it even harder to see. Still, she focused on the abyss in front of her. Three strobes of lightning lit up the area. A tree exploded about a hundred yards away. Rainey had to fight the instinct to duck and took the opportunity to see where she was. Rainey had one advantage. She knew these woods.

Another lightning strike revealed the silhouette of a man running to her left. Rainey stood up and fired one of the pistols in his direction. She immediately moved from that position, because the muzzle flashes would have given her away. She ran further from the road, heading for the lake. With the water at her back, she could lie in wait for him. The rain slowed. Rainey dropped down behind a tree, listening. This guy was military trained. He would be moving with her, stopping when she stopped, listening, as Rainey was, to every sound.

Rainey knew she had to keep moving. If he had night vision, he couldn't use it now. The lightning would blind him, but the storm was moving fast. She couldn't count on the lightning hanging around and he struck her as the kind of guy that probably owned night vision goggles. The thought kept her head down, as she crept closer to the lake. A streak of lightning revealed the lake just a few yards away. It also revealed Rainey to the man chasing her. She heard the pistol fire behind her and she hit the ground. Two more shots whizzed over her head. Rainey began to crawl.

The ground started getting soggier, as she inched through stumps and brambles to the water's edge. She slid on her stomach down the muddy bank, disappearing into cypress knees and the blackness of the water. Behind a large tree stump, Rainey put the shotgun down in the water. She pulled out the pistols, taking the bullets from the Beretta magazine and filling up the one for the Glock. She now had fifteen chances to take Jared Howard down. Leaving the shotgun behind, Rainey slithered between the stumps and waited.

She didn't have to wait long. Jared emerged from the trees, just as a flash lit up the woods around him. Rainey fired three times, hitting him in the shoulder with one. He stumbled back into the cover of the trees. He was wounded, but not dead. Rainey ducked behind a stump and waited, again. The rain subsided and then abruptly stopped. Rainey listened to the sudden quiet. For the first time, she heard sirens, lots of them.

Jared heard them, too. He called out to her from the darkness. "I'm hit. Help me."

Rainey didn't answer. He was trying to get her to give away her position. The sirens were very close now. She heard movement near the sh.o.r.e to her left and fired. She heard him scream in pain and her car blow up, just before her head went under water. Rainey emerged about ten feet away. Jared had fallen back behind the curtain of bushes lining the bank.

She heard him moaning. He cried out, "f.u.c.k, my knee is shattered."

Rainey thought he could have been bluffing, to get her out of the water, but he sounded truly hurt. The cold of the water caused Rainey to shake uncontrollably. She couldn't stay in the water much longer and still be able to shoot her gun accurately. The sound of tires screeching and sirens abruptly shutting off alerted Rainey that help was near. She needed to let them know where she was. Thinking quickly, she turned away from sh.o.r.e to help cover the muzzle flash, aimed the gun at an angle so the bullet would fall harmlessly to the bottom of the lake, and fired. Quickly she slipped under the surface, hearing what sounded like an echo of her shot, just before her ears filled with water.

Rainey skimmed under the surface of the shallows, until she could no longer hold her breath. When she raised her head, she saw flashlights and heard her name being shouted from the sh.o.r.e. Still she remained quiet. Calling out now might get her killed. The lights grew closer and the shouts louder. Jared could be lying there waiting to take her rescuers down when they emerged from the woods. Rainey weighed her options, deciding to take a chance on getting shot, rather than watch someone else walk into a trap.

"Watch out! He's on the bank. He's. .h.i.t," she shouted toward the sh.o.r.e. Rainey waited for the shots to come her way, but none came. The flashlight beams stopped coming forward and began to search more slowly, moving toward the sh.o.r.eline. Her teeth were chattering loudly now, she called out again. "I'm here, in the water. He's on the bank to your right."

A silhouette, formed by a glowing flashlight, stopped where Rainey thought Jared had fallen. The beam examined something on the ground and then began searching the water.

A familiar voice called out to her, "Rainey, where are you?"

More flashlights searched the surface of the lake. Rainey tried to stand, her frigid muscles unable to push her out of the water. She clawed at the surface for balance and managed to stumble forward a few steps.

She called out weakly, "I'm here, Danny. I'm here."

Several beams of light lit up the water around her. She heard splashes and then Danny's strong arms lifted her to her feet. He cradled her against him, bringing her to the sh.o.r.e.

Through chattering teeth, Rainey asked, "Wh... Where is he?"

Danny sat her on the ground, took off his jacket, and draped it over Rainey's shoulders. He stood up, shouting at someone. "Get those EMT's down here. Tell them to bring warming blankets."

Rainey asked, again, "Wh...wh...where is he?"

Danny looked down at her. "He's dead, Rainey. Looks like he shot himself in the head. It's over."

Rainey stared at the clock, as the minutes pa.s.sed by. She was on a bed, in the distant corner of the emergency room of Wake Memorial, wearing a hospital gown. She could hear activity all around her, but because the nurse had pulled the privacy curtain closed, Rainey was isolated and beginning to wonder if they forgot about her. She had been deposited in the corner bed, after x-rays showed no broken ribs, just deep bruising. Warm blankets and a saline drip took care of her hypothermia. Playing with the bed's remote control, trying to find a comfortable angle to accommodate the pain in her ribs, had grown futile. She settled on forty-five degrees and tossed the control on the table. Rainey wanted to go home, but there was no one there to take her. Her clothes were soaked and stuffed in a plastic bag on the chair against the wall. Her cellphone was in her pants pocket, probably forever ruined. It was six a.m. and she was contemplating how to get to a phone without exposing her a.s.s to everyone in the hall.

Danny's voice called to her from the other side of the curtain. "Hey, you decent?"

"As decent as I can be in a hospital gown. Who designed these things, a voyeur?"

Danny parted the curtain and stepped inside Rainey's "room."

Her spirits brightened. "G.o.d, I'm glad to see you. I thought everyone forgot where I was. Can you get me out of here?"

Danny looked at her closely. "Well, your lips aren't blue anymore. Guess you'll live."

"I'll be fine. The doctor said it's just bruised ribs and I didn't go too far into hypothermia. He was going to release me, but that was an hour ago."

Danny took the bag of clothes from the chair and sat down. He looked tired and worried. Rainey saw that look many times when she was in this very emergency room almost two years ago. It was one of the few memories she had of that night.

"Really, Danny, I'm all right. Like you said, it's over."

He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, hands clasped in front of him. "That's the thing, Rainey, it isn't over."

Rainey sat up too quickly. Pain radiated out from her bruised ribcage. Wincing, she wheezed out, "You said he was dead."

"He is dead. Jared Howard was the man in the woods tonight and he died of a gunshot to the head, like I said."

"Then why isn't this over?" Rainey asked, holding her side and taking quick breaths.

Danny dodged the question with one of his own. "Did you see anyone else in the woods?"

Rainey squirmed around in the bed, until she could sit up straight without the searing pain. "No, I barely saw him."

Danny rubbed his face in his hands, vacillating. Then he dropped his hands and turned to look at Rainey. "The M.E. says Howard was shot while lying on his back. The gun in his hand was placed there. The person who shot him was standing over him."

Rainey's jaw dropped open. She wasn't sure how to respond. Rainey knew she didn't shoot the guy in the head. The M.E. must have been wrong. At that moment, the curtain was thrown back and a very hung over Katie appeared. She had tried to clean herself up, but the alcohol had taken a toll only bed rest and hydration could cure. Crossing the few steps to the bedside slowly, Katie's eyes moved over Rainey, checking her for signs of injury. Satisfied that Rainey would live, Katie let out the breath she seemed to have been holding.

"Are you okay?" she asked, reaching for Rainey's hand.

"Yeah, I'm good," Rainey answered, just before Katie spontaneously bear hugged her. "Ouch! Except for the bruised ribs."

Katie released her grip on Rainey. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

"A little," Rainey replied through gritted teeth, fighting off the stabbing pain.

Katie went back to just holding Rainey's hand. "We'll put ice on it and then climb in that big bed and sleep for days. I'm so tired, Rainey. Let's go home."

Rainey's staccato reply was interspersed with quick intakes of breath. "If they... would... give me... release papers... I will... gladly go home with you."

Danny interrupted the reunion, "Katie, I need to talk to Rainey. Could you wait outside?"

Katie glanced at Danny and then turned back to Rainey, a look of confusion on her face. Rainey squeezed Katie's hand. She took a deeper breath so she could calm Katie's fears.

"It's okay. Go find someone to get me out of here."

Katie's color began to fade. "Rainey, is everything all right? He is dead, isn't he?"

Danny answered, "Yes, Jared Howard is dead and he was the UNSUB we were looking for. There was enough evidence to convict him in his bas.e.m.e.nt, alone."

Rainey watched as Katie focused her blue eyes on Danny. She was a smart woman and she heard the "but" in Danny's tone. "Then what do you need to talk to Rainey about? What are you not telling me?"

Danny's eyes darted back and forth between Rainey and Katie. Rainey hoped the expression on her face said, "Yeah, answer her."

He must have realized they were standing together on this one, because Danny didn't ask Katie to leave, again. He replied, "There is some question as to the manner in which Howard died. I'm sorry, but Rainey is now a suspect in the investigation."

Rainey fell back against the mattress, causing shards of pain to affect her exclamation of, "Are you... fuc... king...kidding... me?"

Katie took matters into hand. "As someone who could probably pa.s.s the bar exam, I am informing you that Rainey has been in a trauma. She will not be making any statements for forty-eight hours and then only with an attorney present. Unless you have reason to hold her, I am respectfully asking you to leave us alone. The FBI has gotten the last pound of flesh out of Rainey Bell." Katie pulled on Rainey's hand. "Come on, honey. We're going home."

Rainey gasped out, "I can't."

"Why not?" Katie asked. "He can't make you stay here."

"I know... but... I don't... have any... pants."

Katie managed to talk a nurse out of a pair of scrubs for Rainey. With Rainey in the pa.s.senger seat, she drove through the drive-up window at the pharmacy for Rainey's pain meds, stopped for a biscuit and a drink so Rainey could take the meds, and then headed to the cottage. Rainey fell asleep on the way home, finally able to relax and let someone else be in control. Katie's gasp brought her out of dreamland abruptly.

"Oh my, G.o.d! Look at your car."

Rainey lifted her head to see her sleek, black Charger being loaded on the back of a flatbed. The driver's side was smashed in, windows blown out, a dusty sooty remnant of her beloved Dodge Charger.

"d.a.m.n, I loved that car."

Katie patted her hand. "I know you did, honey. We'll get you a new one. Maybe a tank next time."

They slowed pa.s.sed the flatbed on the other side of the road. An old farm truck was chained down on the bed, with pieces of the gate still embedded in its smashed grill.

"You're lucky you survived the impact," Katie was saying. "I still can't believe it was Jared. I've seen him several times with Chelsea. I was shocked when they told me. You're right, Rainey, I just don't see the bad in people."

Rainey adjusted in the seat, sitting up straighter. "It took a lot of trained professionals to pick him out." She paused and then smiled over at Katie. "I'm glad you don't see the bad in people. We make a good team."

Katie smiled back and reached for Rainey's hand. "Yes, we do make a good team."

Rainey squeezed Katie's hand. "I'm making some changes I hope you will approve of. I'm going to sell the property and move us closer to Chapel Hill. Would that make you happy?"

"You don't have to sell it. We can keep it, use it as a summer cottage or something."

Rainey laughed. "I'm not the summer cottage kind of girl. We're just moving to the other end of the lake."

Katie turned into the driveway at the cottage. She shut off the engine and turned in her seat to face Rainey. "Whatever it takes to make this work, I'm willing to do. I'll try not to worry so much and trust that you know what you're doing. If it means waiting on the baby, then I'll wait."

"Keep your appointment, Katie."

"What appointment?"

"Ernie let the cat out of the bag. I know you were scheduled for insemination this week. I'll go with you. We might as well start this parenting thing together, don't you think?"

Katie strained against her seatbelt to kiss Rainey. She put both hands on Rainey's cheeks, pulling back and saying, "I love you. I don't ever want to be apart from you again."

Rainey chuckled. "Well, since I am selling my home and just liquidated most of my a.s.sets to buy you a house, you're stuck with me."

"I'll pitch in my half," Katie said, still holding Rainey's face.

"Don't worry, you'll be pitching in. I hear kids cost a bundle."

Katie let go of Rainey and released her seat belt, saying, "There you go with that plural kid thing again."