If she could escape right now, she would, and, for the first time, she recognized that budding sense of fear, that ever-building sense of terror, of wrongness, around this place—knowing a villain was here, a boogeyman ready to jump out. If that weren’t enough, imagining that poor guard’s body, knowing he had been found dead out in the cold, was enough to make her understand how adamant Teegan had been about not returning to this military base. Amelia now knew because something was very wrong and because somebody would try and kill him. Now her too.

  Obviously somebody had already tried to kill Teegan, and it was a matter of Amelia’s keeping him alive that had saved him. Still, even now she knew Teegan wasn’t safe, but, hell, she wasn’t either. She doubted any of them were. Whatever was happening, whatever was going on here, just made this killer more ambitious, more frenzied, and, in many ways, maybe more prone to make mistakes.

  He was moving faster and taking chances. There was no need to threaten her, no need to make her scared and do that behind-the-door number he had done, except that he was tormenting her, taunting her, as if he didn’t give a damn, as if the world was breaking apart, and he didn’t want anything to do with it. How the hell was that even a thing?

  She shook her head, as she stared off in the distance, her mind thinking about doors, locks, access, and the fact that so many people were here who could have access to absolutely everything. So many who dressed the same, so many of similar size, similar shape, and similar physical condition. She quickly discarded the other women because it hadn’t been a woman’s voice; and the people of note that she’d seen out in the wilderness hadn’t been women either. Sure, some men here were smaller in stature, but certainly nobody was as small as the women here that Amelia had seen and met, and that’s what made the difference.

  So, no. Amelia was pretty damn sure the killer was a male.

  That left what? Twenty-two or so men to choose from on base? She snorted at that, because twenty-two men who had a room in this military base had all kinds of time over the last several weeks to access and to copy keys, doing whatever they wanted at any point in time to enter the locked clinic or the locked armory. She couldn’t believe it was Elijah, and yet he had the best access of all, as did the day sergeant and the colonel, yet that made the least sense.

  If the colonel wanted to kill people, he could give the orders for all kinds of exercise training and arrange for it to go wrong. Under those circumstances, however, it could end up being a mass killing. Surely, if the colonel was really worried about his record, nobody would overlook a mass shooting event easily. Friendly fire was one thing, when it involved a solo victim. But to explain several deaths at once as friendly fire? She shook her head. No, she was pretty sure it wasn’t anything like that.

  If Sydney weren’t the only doctor here on base, Amelia would have immediately suspected the doctor, like those angels of mercy who murdered people because they could or who made it look as if somebody was having a major life event, only to come and seemingly rescue them. Sometimes the rescue worked, and they looked to be a hero, and sometimes the rescue didn’t work, and yet they still seemed to be a hero because they’d given it their all. However, in essence, they’d killed the very victim they had supposedly been trying to save.

  Of course that brought up many more examples of that serial killer craziness and just depressed Amelia even more. But at least now she seemed more capable of shifting on the bed and stretching out cautiously, until she had her head on the pillow. She wasn’t hungry, but she also needed food—fuel. She wasn’t thirsty, but she knew she needed water—to avoid dehydration.

  What she really needed was to get out of here and to feel better, to feel in some way as if she would get through this. That damn threatening, taunting whisper slipped through her mind again, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to rise. How had he created words so devious, so evil sounding, preying on her fears? He preyed on what she already knew about the base, preyed on the fact that other people had died.

  As far as he was concerned, she was next.

  When the door to the clinic opened a little later, her gaze zinged to the person who entered, fear sliding through her, even as she desperately tried to control it. But a woof coming from the doorway had her bolting upright, only to cry out in pain, sagging back again, as she held a hand to her side.

  Sydney immediately raced over to her. “Hey, hey, hey, take it easy. None of that.”

  “Right,” she murmured, “none of that, a little bit too late.”

  “Yeah, you’re not kidding,” Sydney agreed, with a chuckle.

  Amelia looked over to see Magnus walking her four dogs toward her, all wiggling in joy, while he struggled to keep them in check. Tears in her eyes, she reached out an arm and called to Bandy. Bandy immediately came over and put his two front paws up on the bed and whined at her. She cuddled him gently, his tail wagging like crazy, as she gave him the greetings and cuddles they both longed for. Bandy was very much a cuddlier, wanted that affection, and would have suffered the most from not being around her.

  She called Rocket next, who came up on the other side of her bed, waited a second, and, ignoring her, jumped up on the bed and laid down, his head dropping on her chest. She cuddled him too, whispering to him softly. Then Magnus brought the other two over, and immediately Jackson took over Bandy’s spot, looking for his own cuddles. By the time she had a chance to cuddle Max, the tears were flowing freely from Amelia’s eyes. She looked up at Magnus and whispered, “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “It’s not just about you. I think the dogs are a whole lot better off seeing that you’re okay.”

  She smiled, her hands going from one snout to the other, as she bopped their noses one by one, laughing at their antics. “We’ve been very close,” she murmured, “and it breaks my heart to even be apart from them like this.”

  “You’re on the mend,” Magnus stated, “so the good news is, they won’t have to do without you for long.”

  She chuckled. “And yet, if you’re a dog owner, you would know that any separation is too long.”

  “Oh, yes.” He chuckled. “That I can understand. However, they have absolutely loved being out there with Joe and his dogs.”

  “That’s good. They’re all very social,” she shared, “and they’ve met many times before.”

  Magnus looked over at her. “That’s a surprise.”

  She frowned at him and asked, “Why? I may be a research scientist, but I love being outside. I probably spend more time with Mother Nature than I do with inputting the data into my laptop. So me and my dogs have seen your dogs out and about. We don’t interrupt any training maneuvers, but, when you guys take breaks, I sometimes approach, especially once I figure out who the dog wrangler is in the bunch.”

  She smiled, still reaching out to all her dogs. “You know how it is with animals. We stop to talk to the dogs and end up meeting the humans. So we’ve met some people, talked to them. I’ve seen Joe outside often enough. Elijah too. Remember. I’m up here often, so I’ve run across Joe and Elijah several times over the years. I just never know if they are back here until I scout out things. Joe takes the dogs out for runs and his own training too,” she added, “Honestly, I’ve seen all of Joe’s dogs at various times during the last three months.”

  “Understandable.”

  “The dogs know each other, so this must be like a holiday for them, a chance to go visiting for a longer term,” she shared, as she scratched their ears, absolutely loving being reunited, her heart overwhelmed with joy at seeing her animals looking so good. “Please give my thanks to Joe for taking such good care of them.”

  “Oh, he was pretty protective and wanted to confirm these guys were coming here to see you and no one else,” Magnus shared, with a smile. “He said he would tag along behind me.” Turning to look at the open door, he frowned. “He’s supposed to be right behind me.”

  She laughed. “He probably stopped to say hello to Elijah,” she guessed, with a smile. “Those two have been friends since forever.”

  Magnus turned to face her, frowning.

  She nodded. “You didn’t know? He, the colonel, and Elijah have been around together many times, at many training facilities and missions of all different kinds.” Then she snorted. “Joe has so many stories to tell about those three. Joe’s sister was Chef’s wife.”

  Magnus slowly shook his head. “I knew some of it, but what threw me off was how the hell did you know all that?”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Because I knew Joe, and our family have gotten dogs from him over the last what? … Fifteen, maybe twenty years? Many times he talked about his brother-in-law, who was a chef, so it didn’t take long to put it together when I was up here this time. … Can’t believe you didn’t know.”

  He stared at her, dumbfounded. “It must be in the files, but people marry, change names,” he said, with a shrug. “I thought I asked Chef about Joe.”

  “Since Chef’s wife died, Joe’s sister, maybe they haven’t been all that close,” she suggested. “Some people find solace in sharing the memories, but others just can’t deal with remembering. Then after Chef lost his son, that was another whole deal.”

  “Yeah. I know that the colonel tried his best to keep Chef’s son alive, moving him to an easier post.”

  She frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

  He frowned too, then replied, “According to what Elijah said, the colonel went out of his way to try and save his boy’s life by transferring him to a safe area to keep him alive.”

  “That seems odd because I recall Joe telling me how Chef had talked to his son, and he was headed for the front lines. We had that conversation more than once. Joe’s nephew was something we would always visit about.”

  “The front lines wouldn’t be safe,” Magnus said, staring at her.

  She shrugged. “I don’t understand either, but I don’t know the details of any of this,” she replied. “I did want to ask something though.” She glanced over at Sydney and then lowered her voice and asked Magnus, “Is Mountain a really good guy?”

  He gave her a gentle smile. “One of the best. If you’re heading down that pathway, know that you’ll be safe.”

  She winced. “Yeah? He’s got a hell of a temper.”

  “We all do, including you,” he noted, with a tilt of his head. “It’s what keeps us alive sometimes. It’s that great determination and anger that makes us push ahead, push past the lines where everybody else would have stopped and given up. It’s how you kept Teegan alive because you were damned if you would let anybody at this base take him out.”

  She winced. “You guys thought about that, huh?”

  “Of course,” he said, with a nod. “It’s also what we would do. When you’re responsible for somebody, responsible for anybody like that, you do what you can, consequences be damned. Yet you still need that temper, you need that fire, because it’s the drive that keeps you moving in the right direction, even when all else fails. And, when you’re at your weakest point, and you’re ready to give up, it’s temper that motivates you.”

  “That is true enough.”

  “Yeah, it is. If you can push that temper forward,” he shared, “it will keep you alive. So don’t hate your temper, just understand where it’s coming from and that it’s often cloaking fear. You can use it to defeat the fear as well.”

  “I can’t imagine Mountain being afraid of anything.”

  “You didn’t see him when Teegan was missing,” Magnus shared, his voice low, “because Mountain was beside himself, going out every day to search for hours. Gradually he pulled an entire team together to figure out what was happening here. The fact that we’re really close right now, really close to nailing who did all this, is very important,” he stated. “The last, maybe thirteen weeks, have been a combination of intensive searching and research and investigation and collaboration.”

  “Are you … close?”

  “Yes. We all really hate the fact that another young man died before we could stop it, and we’re desperate to get it stopped before any more deaths happen. So I understand you hid after you heard a man’s voice behind the door.”

  She nodded. “Yes, and he was taunting me, teasing me. Unfortunately he got to me. If I could do anything to get out of here right now, believe me, you would not see my shadow. If I thought I could do it alone,” she added, with a shake of her head, “my dogs and I would be long gone.”

  His gaze narrowed, as he considered that, and he nodded. “I understand why you would feel that way, but I hope you don’t try to run on us because we wouldn’t have any way of knowing whether you were alive or dead. Plus, after what Mountain’s already been through, that would devastate him.” When she looked at him in surprise, he nodded. “Don’t tell me that you can’t see the same attraction.”

  She flushed and bowed her head. “It’s hardly the right situation or timing for that.”

  “No, and yet you saved his brother, and, for that, he will always look at you differently.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want him to look at me with just some sense of gratitude,” she muttered in disgust. “That sounds fundamentally wrong and bound to fail.”

  He burst out laughing. “I’ve heard that a time or two, but usually from the men,” he admitted, with a smile. “Can’t say I’ve ever thought of it coming from a woman.” She glared at him, and, raising his hands in peace, he added, “I’m not trying to be sexist. I know several guys who have been in that position, where they’d become a hero on some occasion and never wanted the damsel in distress to look at them with that air of gratitude because, to them, it clouded their judgment.”

  “Exactly,” she agreed, with a careless shrug and winced at the pain in her side. “If Mountain is interested in a relationship, he better be interested in a relationship with me, not because of what went on to save Teegan.”

  “And how do you feel about Mountain?”

  “Wary,” she replied immediately, “and yet not. He was there for me for several days and nights, when I was in and out, not exactly alive, if you know what I mean. I also knew about him well ahead of time, since Teegan rattled on about him constantly,” she said, with a knowing smile.

  When Magnus looked at her in surprise, she nodded.

  “It was Mountain this and Mountain that. At first I didn’t understand and thought it was all fever-induced ramblings, until finally, through all the meanderings,” she admitted, with a light chuckle, “I figured out that Mountain was a person. Once I realized it was a person, it didn’t take too much more to figure out that he was a brother of the superhero variety and a very large influence in Teegan’s life.”

  “Very much so,” Magnus confirmed.

  “He also mentioned something about Mason, but I didn’t understand that.”

  Magnus chuckled. “Mason is a mutual friend, a good friend of this base,” he stated. “Several of us have heard all these stories about Mason, and, as far as I’m concerned, he and Mountain are both legitimate heroes.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” she said. “I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into, both when I brought Teegan here or when I came in myself. Yet I didn’t have any choice. At some point in time you have to accept help, even if you’re afraid it’s the wrong thing.”

  “Sometimes it is, but, in this case, … you made the right choice. Please promise me that you won’t run and leave us wondering what happened to you. That would be the worst thing you could do. It’s also quite possible that your scary visitor said what he did in order to spook you into running. Did you consider that?”

  Startled, she shook her head. “I can’t say that I did.”

  “It’s quite possible,” he noted, “and that would be another thing to watch out for because, if you do run, he could be right out there, waiting for you.”

  She winced and then nodded. “That’s not a possibility I want to consider either. I could keep the dogs here with me though.” She looked up at him hopefully, her gaze going over to Sydney, then back to Magnus. He frowned at her thoughtfully, and she realized he was considering it. She beamed. “Nobody’ll get to me if I’ve got them by my side,” she pointed out excitedly. “Having them in here will stop anybody from coming at me.”

  “Or will get them shot.”

  The smile immediately dropped from her face, and her heart sank. “Oh, God, … you’re right. … Better to take them back. They’ll have a good life with Joe, even if I don’t make it through this.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sydney interjected, coming over to her immediately. “None of that talk.” She glared at Magnus, then back at Amelia. “We won’t tolerate any of that talk. Pick two dogs, not all four.”

  She looked at her and asked, “Seriously?”

  “Yes, seriously. Pick the ones most likely to protect you and not to lick an intruder to bits.”

  “It depends,” Amelia muttered, “but you’re right.” Then she quickly chose Jackson and Bandy. She gave the other two big cuddles, saying goodbye.

  Magnus walked them to the door, leaving the other two with her. The two dogs went with him willingly, as he reached a hand down to cuddle them. When they stepped out of the clinic, several people in the hallway wanted to say hi to the dogs. She watched them in the doorway, as several people cuddled the dogs, but she kept these two very close to her bed. Several people looked into the medical clinic, saw the other dogs, and she called out, “Please don’t approach. They aren’t friendly.”

  They stopped dead in their tracks. One nodded and replied, “I guess that’s a good warning, but I’m surprised, considering he’s in here.”

  She smiled but didn’t say anything.

  As soon as he left, Sydney looked over at her intently. “Are they dangerous?”

  “No, not at all. I just don’t want anybody coming in here making friends with these two, not if the whole point of this is to keep me safe,” she explained, looking at Sydney with a wry look. “Not that I don’t trust people, but …”