Or Eve might be more than he’d thought she’d be, lost in this wilderness. She could be wearing him down a bit.

Whichever it was, Eve was free and someone with whom Zander might have to contend. She could get in his way.

Or he could use her to get what he wanted.

Why not? A form of poetic justice?

Doane had been hoping to use Eve to bait his trap. That was why he’d called Zander and had her talk to him. Since he was obsessive about his own son, he could not imagine a father having no feeling for his offspring. Now Doane had lost his bait and was trying desperately to retrieve it.

Zander looked down once again at Eve’s narrow footprints. If she had ever been trying to hide those prints, she had stopped. Maybe she had realized that Doane was too good a tracker and didn’t want to waste her time. Or maybe she was fighting exhaustion and had given up that particular fight. Zander leaned toward the former, from what he knew of Eve, she would not give up even if she was completely exhausted. Though she should be exhausted. He had run across the history of her time on the run in the last few hours. It was clear she had no experience in the forest and was relying only on her senses and wits. Both of which must be phenomenal for her to avoid Doane this long. He just hoped she didn’t make a slip on this particular stretch of the hunt.

It would spoil all of Zander’s new plans if he had to do without bait for the trap.

Hold out, Eve. Keep him at bay. He lost you three times in the last five miles. He’s a very good hunter. But not nearly as good as I am. I won’t lose you.

He got to his feet and, ignoring Doane’s prints, started following Eve’s tracks.

Rio Grande Forest

Colorado

COLD.

Keep moving.

Darkness had fallen two hours ago, and temperatures were already plunging, but it would get even colder later, Eve knew.

She hadn’t caught sight of Doane in the past two hours, and he might have gone back to that warm, cozy house for a while. That was his usual routine. Hunt, wear her down, then go back and rest.

The thought of that warmth and comfort made her even more angry.

Don’t lose her cool.

Cool? Every thought seemed to be temperature-oriented, she thought dryly.

Keep moving.

Keep the blood stirring.

She’d make her way to the path that she knew Doane had to take to get to the forest from the factory. It was the best place to ambush him, and her decision was made. She had to get rid of Doane while she was still strong enough to do it. She had no weapons, but she had found another branch and that would do. She could spring out of the underbrush, stun him, then rely on the karate moves Joe had taught her to do the rest.

Could she bring herself to kill?

Don’t think about it. Do what instinct told her to do.

Keep moving. She had to get close enough to that path to have to travel only a short distance before she made herself a shelter for the night.

Her feet felt heavy, leaden. She’d have to rub them when she stopped to make sure the circulation kept the frostbite away.

Run.

Twigs and branches were crackling beneath her feet, and she heard the call of an owl in the distance. She had become accustomed to the wild sounds, and they no longer intimidated her. It was the unknown that caused her heart to pound and the blood to chill.

Chill. Another temperature word. She’d better get to a place where she could stop and—

Someone was watching her.

Her pace faltered.

And so did her heartbeat.

Imagination?

Maybe.

Or maybe she’d been wrong about Doane’s temporarily abandoning the hunt. Maybe he’d only tried to deceive her as he had before. He delighted in tormenting her.

Or perhaps it wasn’t someone, but something. An animal in the brush or—

Whatever it was, human or animal, it was there. She could feel it.

She looked over her shoulder. She could see nothing in the darkness. Don’t look for shape. Look for movement.

Nothing behind her.

Because it was ahead of her.

Darkness hurtling toward her!

Tackling, taking her down, taking her breath.

Taking her life …

Gwinnett Hospital

JANE SCREAMED.

“What the hell?” Trevor ran into the room from the corridor. His hand brushed the switch, flooding the room with light. “Are you okay? What—” He sat down on the bed and gathered her in his arms. “Are you hurt?”

“Yes.” She drew a shaky breath. Her heart was beating so hard she was in pain. “I’m hurting for her. He hurt her.”

“A dream? Eve?”

“It didn’t seem like a dream.” She buried her face in his chest. “So real. She was so tired. So cold. And then he was there, and she thought he’d fooled her into thinking that he’d gone back to the house. He took her down and she didn’t know if he was going to kill her and—”

“Shh.” His hand was rubbing her back. “Think. Did he kill her, Jane?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. She couldn’t stop shaking. “If he didn’t, then I think she was unconscious. It was all dark.”

“Then you have to think positive.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit.” She pushed him away. “I can’t think, I have to know. And I don’t know.” She sat up in bed. “All I know is that it was too real to be a dream, Trevor, not an ordinary dream. It was Eve.”

“Okay, it was Eve.” He sat down on the bed. “One like you had when you were dreaming about Cira?”

“No. Yes. It was that real, but it was worse. It was terrible because it was Eve.”

“And you think she might have died.”

“That’s what she thought might be happening.” She closed her eyes. “No, I think I would have known if she were dead. I would have felt the emptiness.” Her eyes opened. “And I’ve got to keep on thinking that. Because I’ve got to keep on trying to find her. Get me my sketchbook.”

“Good God, your hands are still shaking.” He handed her the sketchbook. “How do you think you’re going to hold a pencil?”

“It will stop. I’ll make it stop. I’ve got to get everything down while it’s still fresh.” She met his eyes. “Before I only half believed that I had reached out to Eve before. You know me. I can’t believe what I can’t touch. But this dream was the same, the same place, the same thoughts. She was even thinking about the path that led to the house.” She frowned. “No, she called it the factory this time.”

“A factory in the middle of the wilderness?”

“Yes, I know it’s crazy. But it was the same thing in her mind, that’s how she was thinking about it. In the first dream, everything was jumbled because I was a little in shock because I wasn’t expecting to—” She shook her head. “But I think that this dream was in sequence to the first one. Do you remember the Cira dreams were like that, unfolding like a story.” She rubbed her temple. “Only the Cira story took place two thousand years before I was born. This story may be happening now. Am I going crazy, Trevor? Do I just want it to happen so badly that I’m grabbing?”

“If you are, I’ll grab with you.” He smiled. “And I’ll hold on tight. I’d say you more than half believed in what you were doing. You were certain enough to get us all started on this wilderness-terrain hunt.”

“Which hasn’t yielded any results yet. I have to go farther than Eve’s surroundings. I was afraid to attach any significance to anything else connected to her, but I have to go all the way.” She drew a deep breath. “I think she definitely must have managed to escape from Doane. But he’s after her, and she can’t find anyone to help her. But the fact that she’s free has to be good.” She moistened her lips. “If he didn’t catch her or kill her tonight.”

“If he did catch her, it’s no worse than we’ve expected all along.” He took her hand. “And we’ve already ruled out the other. You said you would have known.”