LAST RESORT

  EMMA LAST SERIES: BOOK NINE

  MARY STONE

  Copyright © 2024 by Mary Stone Publishing

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  This book is dedicated to the memory of my mom, who would shudder and ask, “How can you watch/read such things?” whenever she found me engrossed in scary stories or movies as a child. I’m still at it, Mom. Some things never change. Miss you terribly. Love you always.

  CONTENTS

  Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  What’s Next?

  Series Reading Order

  Have You Read My Other Series?

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  DESCRIPTION

  He's checking his list, checking it twice. Which agent's fate will be sealed tonight?

  Haunted by the whispers of the Other, a chilling real-world threat has Special Agent Emma Last and the Violent Crimes Unit on high alert. Their recent victory against D.C.’s gangs is overshadowed by a sinister promise of vengeance that materializes swiftly, claiming the life of a young FBI recruit.

  "I’ll spell it out in the blood of one of your agents."

  This brutal act marks the beginning of a deadly game, drawing Emma and her team into a dark web of danger, where every clue leads them deeper into the mystery and closer to the monster stalking them from the unseen.

  And that’s just the beginning. When the body of a cop working the dead agent’s crime scene surfaces the next day, the VCU team comes to the chilling realization that the killer isn’t just watching. He’s one step ahead of them.

  Even worse...

  He knows where they live. And he’s not just coming for one of them. He’s coming for them all. And they may not get out of this one alive.

  Last Resort is the ninth book in the Emma Last series by bestselling author Mary Stone, where no one is safe when they’re on a madman’s list.

  1

  Newly minted FBI Agent Valerie Lundgren silently willed the intersection light to change in her favor. Her fingers drummed the steering wheel, and she couldn’t help but look at the ring finger on her left hand.

  Currently, that digit was bare. But in the space of the next couple hours, she anticipated that changing.

  Though he won’t ever get the chance to pop the damn question if this stinking light doesn’t change.

  She had one stop to make on the way home—the liquor store that served as the cornerstone of the tiny commercial center.

  After years of hard work, everything—personally and professionally—seemed to be paying off at once.

  She had a lot to celebrate.

  Only forty-five days into her employment with the FBI’s Cybersecurity Division, Valerie had already uncovered and helped dismantle two major fraud and phishing operations. The perpetrators had been sentenced over a week ago, and just this morning, she’d been awarded recognition as the principal investigator on both cases.

  And Will, her longtime boyfriend, was planning to transform into her fiancé tonight.

  That’s two wins in one day. What better way to celebrate than with a bottle of bubbly?

  The light changed, finally, and Valerie accelerated across the intersection, flinching as the car behind her whipped around on the left and sped onward to the freeway.

  “Somebody wants to get home. Drive safe, buddy, and we’ll all get there too. Ya jerk.”

  She pulled into the liquor store parking lot and aimed for the perpendicular parking spaces by the entrance. Only one other car sat in the lot—a gray Toyota minivan parked in the first space by the door.

  A car that had followed Valerie into the lot headed over to the noodle house to park beside a white sedan. Valerie’d eaten there a few times, but Will’s cooking kept her from grabbing takeout too often.

  That man knows his way around every pot and pan in the kitchen.

  Thinking of Will and wanting nothing more than to be home with him, she snagged a spot next to the van. Easy in, easy out.

  Grabbing her shoulder bag with her laptop from the passenger seat, Valerie got out. She double-clicked her key fob to lock the doors and got the confirming chirp from her Hyundai Elantra. Holding her bag against her chest, she stepped through the space between the vehicles, past the van’s front bumper, and into the store.

  Rows and racks of bottles awaited her inside. The clerk, a young man with a head of scraggly blond hair, waved from behind the bulletproof partition that closed in the cash register area.

  Lingering in the aisle between the blanc de blancs and rosé, Valerie wondered if a red wine would be a better choice. Will had said he was going to cook prime rib tonight. She swiveled back and forth until she landed on a bottle of Merlot that promised to pair well.

  Then she also grabbed the blanc de blancs—for dessert.

  At the counter, the clerk checked her driver’s license, and Valerie endured his excessive scrutiny as he looked from her face to the card she held out. It was all she could do not to snatch it from him. She had places to be.

  “I’m older than I look, I promise. Do you need to see another form of ID?” Without waiting for an answer, Valerie flipped open her other wallet, the one that held her federal ID and badge.

  The clerk’s eyes went wide, and he flicked his gaze from the ID to her face and back again. “Yeah, okay. You’re good.”

  She paid and headed for the door with her purchases in a brown paper bag, the annoying clerk forgotten. All she could think about was being home with Will and his cooking and the expectation that her ring finger wouldn’t be bare in the morning.

  Valerie stepped into the late evening air, happy to hear the rush of cars moving beyond the parking lot as traffic spilled effortlessly from the intersection onto the waiting on-ramp. Soon she would be on that ramp and headed to Will. She held the paper bag filled with her celebratory bottles close to her chest.

  The last rays of the sun were below the horizon and the night was cooling off. Yellowish parking lot lights did little more than create tiny, dim pools, and in her hurry to get the bubbly and leave, she hadn’t thought to park beneath one of them, like she usually did. Even though there was traffic nearby, the parking lot felt like a dark island among the city lights.

  She paused after stepping out of the store, her quick gait slowing. If anyone asked her why, she wouldn’t be able to articulate the reasons behind her decision to slow down. Something in the air felt different.

  Isolated. Exposed.

  A crunch of gravel nearby startled her, and she scanned the lot.

  Check your environment.

  The parking lot was still empty except for her car and the minivan, which she assumed belonged to the clerk inside. It had been there when she pulled up.

  But the crunch of gravel had sounded like a footstep.

  Headlights streaked past the lot entrance, heading toward the freeway on-ramp. Each passing car stirred up bits of trash that settled against the meridian strip, only to be picked up again by the next car.

  She’d probably heard a car’s tire grinding over something in the road. Still, Valerie knew better than to assume safety. The cadre of trainers at Quantico had drilled that into everyone’s heads.

  Since she’d only been an FBI agent for forty-five days, she was still honing her skills, but they were becoming more automatic.

  Valerie scanned down the way toward the storefronts trailing from the liquor store to the other end of the parking lot. The car that had followed her into the lot and headed to the noodle house was gone. There were no new vehicles.

  Whatever illumination came from the liquor store itself was dimmed by all the advertisements and displays crowding the windows.

  When she reached her car, she checked the minivan beside her. The front seats were empty, but she couldn’t see through the tinted windows in the back.

  As she’d done on her way in, Valerie slid around the front bumper of the minivan and into the space between it and her sedan.

  Shifting the wine and champagne to her left arm, she tucked her right hand into her jacket, around the handle of her service weapon, ready to draw as she stepped slowly to her driver’s side door and checked the back sea
t.

  Empty. Okay, so there’s nobody waiting for me in there.

  “Girl, catching bad guys has made you paranoid.”

  The sound of her own voice broke the spell of isolation she’d been feeling. Relaxing a bit, Valerie let go of her gun and reached into her shoulder bag for her key fob. She thumbed the button and opened the door.

  Stepping in and settling into the driver’s seat, Valerie looked at her left hand again.

  I can already see the band around my finger. With a simple stone, modest and understated, just like Will.

  Leaning over, she set the wine and her shoulder bag on the floor of the passenger seat. She turned back, then leaned out to grab her door and pull it closed, but froze with her hand on the door. The dashboard light showed the right rear door was also open. A weight settling into the back seat and the rear door snapping shut were the only precursors of warning.

  An arm snaked from the back seat, around her throat, pulling her flush against the headrest. Her back arched as she fought the pressure on her larynx. Reactively, she tried to hook one hand around her assailant’s arm to yank it free while reaching for her gun with the other. She couldn’t twist to reach it though.

  A sharp point pierced the skin of her neck.

  A needle.

  Panicked, she grabbed at his arms, trying to pry them apart, to get the needle away from her neck. But her assailant yanked back harder, choking her, and drove the point into her skin.

  “Stop! Stop, you’re⁠—”

  “Let’s not and say we didn’t, eh, Valerie?”

  He knew her name. She tried to take a breath, tried to calm herself down, but lack of oxygen from his grip made her dizzy.

  “The syringe is filled with a chemical of my own making, and I have no problem injecting it straight into your neck. I don’t think you want me to do that. Now, very slowly, because I saw you go for your Glock, take out the service weapon and toss it onto the floor by your bag. Do it.”

  Not knowing what was in the syringe was more terrifying than knowing for certain. It could be anything. Bleach. Lye. Some kind of drug.

  Even though her body trembled—she couldn’t seem to stop—Valerie didn’t want this man, whoever he was, to know she was scared.

  For a moment, she contemplated how fast she would have to move to draw her gun and fire. But no mental scenario resulted in her getting off a shot before he injected her. Plus, his other arm remained tightly wrapped around her throat, choking her.

  One wrong move, and she was dead.

  Gold and white spots appearing in her vision wavered as she struggled to breathe, and it became harder to maintain her grip on his arm.

  You have to get back to Will.

  The thought of Will helped calm Valerie a little. Picturing his smile, she tried to use that to refocus. She needed to take advantage of any opening this asshole gave her. For Will.

  He tugged back again, closing her airway. Valerie’s lungs began to burn.

  “Clock is ticking, Val. You have about a minute left, maybe, but my patience is already at its end. I guess this is goodbye.”

  The needle at her throat moved, tugging at her skin, and for a second, Valerie feared he was pushing on the plunger. She dropped her hands into her lap, and the pressure eased up. He even released his hold on her throat enough so that she could take a breath.

  “Good move. Now…gun on the floor.”

  She did as he commanded, using only one hand, and dropped it to the floor between her feet.

  “Well done. You get to live a little longer, maybe even to see Will again.”

  Feeling her airway open up, Valerie swallowed. But even though this man had managed to sneak up on her, drive a needle into her throat, choke her, and disarm her, his actions were nowhere near as terrifying as the fact he knew Will’s name.

  How does he know about us?

  But the pressure he’d put on her neck made her words come out in a wheezy croak. “How do you know about Will?”

  He tightened his arm around her throat again. “Now close the driver’s door. Slowly, left hand only. Right hand goes on the wheel. Got it?”

  In the rearview mirror, she saw a mask of some type across the attacker’s face. It was dark outside, and the interior car light overhead mostly created shadows. His arm was too tight on her throat for her to do more than choke out a reply. “Okay. If you’ll just⁠—”

  “Shut the door.” His arm tightened on her throat again, cutting off her oxygen. Again. Her lungs felt like they’d explode this time. She hadn’t pulled in a full breath in minutes.

  But he hadn’t pushed the needle in deeper. “Put your right hand on the wheel. Now. Then shut the door, and you’ll get to breathe.”

  Just do what he says. If you’re alive, you can negotiate with him.

  Every instinct in her screamed to fight back, but he held the needle in her throat, ready to inject whatever it contained into her system. She cautiously lifted her right hand and gripped the wheel.

  Her left hand shook as she reached for the door and pulled it closed.

  She let it settle into the frame, but didn’t fully latch it, hoping she might be able to scream for help.

  “Nice try, Val.” The needle stayed where it was. “If you open your mouth, I’ll inject you with enough of this to shred your veins while you squirm and scream for mercy. Nod slowly if you understand.”

  She lowered her chin and lifted it again in a smooth motion, never taking her eyes from his shadowy form in her rearview mirror. Her expression she kept carefully blank. Beneath the surface, however, she was ready to kill him if she got the chance.

  “Good girl.” He loosened his arm on her throat. “You’re going to put your cybersecurity skills to use for me. If you refuse, Will dies. I’ll make you watch, and then you’ll join him. Now close that door all the way. We have something to discuss, and I don’t want to be interrupted.”

  Heart pounding, Valerie considered what she knew of this man. Compliance, for the moment, was probably her best option. Grappling him and wrenching his hand off the syringe might work, but that would require her hands be free.

  She’d already made the mistake of giving in to her fear once. If she was going to get out of this, she’d need to be smarter.

  Quantico trained you better, Valerie. You know how to get out of situations like this.

  She opened her door again, just enough to pull it closed with a slam.

  Maybe that’ll get someone’s attention. If not, I’ll just have to wait for him to give me an opening.

  “The door’s closed. You said you wanted to discuss something.”

  “Indeed, I do. Get your laptop out. Slowly.”

  “How will my laptop help?”

  He flexed his left arm, tightening the grip and choking her again. He held on long enough that she almost blacked out. When he released her enough to take in a breath, she felt his mouth hovering beside her ear. She glanced in the rearview mirror again. He kept his face turned away so that all she could make out was part of his profile.

  Square jaw. Thick head of hair maybe but sticking out from under a watch cap pulled down low.

  “Val, I know you’re trying to size me up, gauge how much of a chance you have of surviving this. I’m going to be honest with you. I just need you to do one thing, and this will all be over. Now, are you ready to talk, or are you still thinking you might fight your way free?”

  “I’m ready to talk.”

  “Good. I’ve been watching you and your Fed buddies for a while now. You’ve been quite the rising star, netting those scammers last month.”

  “How do⁠—”

  He pulled harder against her neck. “The FBI, in its infinite arrogance, announces when an agent does something particularly well. Like taking down a phishing ring.”

  The pieces clicked into place. Her department had released an article on her work. That was how he’d found her name. Then it would’ve been a matter of doing some simple computer research. As a member of Cyber, she knew how fragile personal data could be exposed.

  “Or taking down two of the biggest gangs in the D.C. area.”

  Valerie had heard about that incident too. The whole country had. Watching the footage and knowing how those agents had handled the situation, Valerie admired the VCU team. After her own success at the phishing scam, Valerie had debated whether she should approach SSA Jacinda Hollingsworth and offer her services on future cases.