Silencing Eve

was only a few feet away. Could she reach it before Harriet pulled the trigger?
    “I wanted to tell you that you’ve lost. That I had won.” Harriet’s face was full of triumphant malice. “And I wanted to see your face when you realized what a fool you were. You thought you were so clever. When Cartland told me that you’d followed me to my hotel, I had to wonder how you did it. When I got back to my room, I searched it very carefully and found all your little bugs. But that didn’t tell me how you’d followed me from Muncie.” Her lips twisted. “And then I thought about my Kevin’s wonderful letters and how you must have committed the final desecration by going through them. And had even planted a GPS bug in the lid of the box. Can you imagine how angry that made me?”
    “I don’t really care.”
    “You’ll care when I pull this trigger. Kevin and I beat you. We used your own trick to lure you out here. Kevin would have been proud of me.”
    “I don’t doubt it. You’re two of a kind. I don’t know who is the more evil.”
    “You thought you were going to stop me?” Harriet leveled the gun at her. “You’ve caused me so much trouble. I wish I could take more time with you. But I can’t afford to indulge myself.”
    She was going to pull the trigger. Jane couldn’t wait any longer. She gathered her muscles to leap for the gun she’d dropped.
    “Harriet.” Trevor’s voice. “Don’t touch her. Drop your gun.”
    Harriet whirled, startled, at this new attack. Her hand tightened on her weapon as she saw Trevor with a gun in hand. “Keep back. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill both of you.” She was spitting venom. “You must be her lover, rushing to the rescue. How fitting that you’ll die with the little whore.”
    “Get away from her, Harriet.” Trevor moved a step closer. “We both have guns, but you’ll be a dead woman the instant you pull that trigger. My gun is pointed at your heart, and you’ll be dead in seconds. I don’t think that’s what you want. You have all those grand plans. Or maybe you’re expecting help from that gorilla who was guarding the other side of the dune? He won’t be coming. I took care of him before I moved on you.” He glanced at Craig, who had made a motion toward his gun in the sand a few yards away and told him, “And there will be a bullet between your eyes if you’re not very, very still.”
    Craig froze.
    A flicker of uneasiness crossed Harriet’s face. “I don’t need him. I don’t need either of them.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a large, clumsy-looking cell phone. “I don’t need anything but this detonator. I was saving it for the grand finale after I kill Zander, but I’ll set it off now if you don’t put down that gun. And, if you shoot me, I’ll activate it as I’m falling to the ground.”
    Jane inhaled sharply, her gaze on that antique phone. Millions of deaths, she thought. One touch, and millions of deaths.
    “So it’s a game of chicken? I won’t put down my gun,” Trevor said. “Don’t be foolish. I couldn’t be sure you wouldn’t use your gun to shoot Jane. That’s what this is all about. But I’ll let you walk away from here. We’ll be right behind you, but you’ll have a little head start.”
    “You fool. Can’t you see as long as I have this detonator that I’m the one who gives the orders?”
    “No, all I see is a danger to Jane.” He met Harriet’s eyes. “And I won’t risk her life no matter what you threaten. Look at me. I don’t care about anything else but Jane. Can’t you see that? Now turn around and walk away.”
    She hesitated, staring at him. “You really mean it.” Then she shrugged. “It’s only a postponement. I swore on Kevin’s soul that I’d kill the bitch.” She moved away from Jane, toward the road. “And that’s what I’ll do. As quickly as I—” She suddenly whirled and the gun in her hand was belching fire.
    Trevor flinched back as the bullets tore into his body.
    Jane screamed.
    Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.
    She jumped to her feet.
    She had to get to Trevor.
    Not fast enough.
    Not fast enough.
    He was falling …
    The muzzle of Harriet’s gun swung toward Jane.
    “No!” Trevor was stumbling toward Jane. “Get down. Let me do—”
    Then, suddenly, Caleb was there on the scene, moving lightning fast. His knife sliced across the throat of Harriet’s henchman, Craig, who was scrambling for his gun. An instant later, he was