Silencing Eve

we’re headed?” she whispered.
    “No idea at all. How could I? But if he comes after us, I can take care of him.”
    “Without a weapon?”
    “Hands and mind are weapons. Sometimes conventional weapons only get in the way.”
    “I still like to have them available,” she said dryly.
    “Okay, if you prefer.” Zander moved toward a half-buried chunk of driftwood and tore off one of the branches. He held up the sharp, jagged end, about eighteen inches long, and looked at her questioningly.
    Eve shook her head. “That’s not going to do much good against his gun.”
    “Complaints. Complaints. It’s all we have.” He handed the branch to her. “This one’s yours.”
    “Thanks a lot.”
    He broke off another sharp piece and hefted it. “Let’s get moving.”
    They slid between the rock formations. With each twist and turn, Eve saw more spires of driftwood on the beach below them, looking like a series of insane modern-art sculptures created in a fever dream.
    More like a nightmare.
    She tensed.
    Footsteps were pounding behind them.
    Doane.
    Zander’s head lifted as he listened. “I believe our absence has been noticed,” he murmured.
    The footsteps stopped.
    “Did you think you could get away?” Doane shouted. “I can track you even in the dark. I can feel you, smell you.” More footsteps. “I can’t risk waiting for that bitch, Harriet. It’s time you paid the price. Both of you. Kevin wants his pound of flesh. Kevin’s here, Eve. Can you feel him?”
    She felt that familiar, icy chill run through her.
    Fight it.
    Fight it with everything she had.
    Doane laughed maliciously. “Just like old times, Eve. Me chasing you through the wilderness … But this won’t end as well for you. For either of you.”
    “Don’t listen,” Zander whispered, perhaps sensing how Doane’s words were affecting her. “Keep moving.”
    They crouched low and snaked through the rocks.
    Doane’s voice called out. “You’re going to watch each other die … Just as I planned, just the way it was meant to be.”
    What in hell was he doing with this taunting?
    Of course. He was trying to provoke a response, any response, so that he could zero in on their location. Give him nothing.
    She turned to Zander. “I can try to draw him toward me. If he’s distracted, maybe you can make your way back to him.”
    Zander smiled. “You’re willing to act as bait? Not this time, Eve. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
    Her lips twisted. “Bad timing for a tender family moment.”
    “I haven’t had that much experience.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her forward. “So we stick together.”
    Blam!
    A branch exploded next to her head.
    She and Zander ducked as Doane rapidly fired four more shots in their direction.
    They crouched lower and scrambled for a cluster of rocks ten feet ahead.
    Shit. That was too damned close.
    “The only way down is through me,” Doane yelled. “You don’t believe me?”
    She and Zander continued through the rock formations, trying to stay close to the larger ones for cover.
    “I promise you … it’s a dead end. Your choice is a rock wall and a fifty-foot drop that will kill you quicker than I will.”
    Not likely, she thought. Doane had waited too long, and he was hungry.
    She and Zander negotiated the twists and turns of the nature-built maze until she heard another sound ahead. More crashing waves, but these sounded … different. The rock formations abruptly ended, and Zander abruptly blocked her path.
    They were standing on the edge of a sheer cliff. Waves crashed on the rocks below.
    Doane was right. There was no place else to go.
    “I told you so.”
    Eve and Zander whirled around. Doane stood fifteen feet away, with his gun trained on them.
    He was smiling. “We’re done now,” he said softly.
    “You have no choice now, Zander,” Eve said in a low voice. “There’s a cluster of rocks over there. Get to them and take him down when you can.” She took a step forward so that she blocked Doane’s view of Zander. Think. Use what she knew about Doane. She raised her voice. “Kevin doesn’t want this, Doane. He told me. You’re making a terrible mistake.”
    Doane’s smile faded, his brow furrowing in puzzlement. “What?”
    “You’re right. You were right all along. He does live. He’s with us right now.”
    “You’re lying. Do you think I’m a fool? You’ve never believed me.”
    She’d caught him off guard. Keep his attention focused on her. She