“Two down, one to go,” she murmured.
Rolling her shoulders, she focused on deciding her next move. The woman was heading toward the end of the canyon.
A slow smile curved her lips. “Let’s find out how well you can see in the dark,” Midnight murmured.
* * *
Daina investigated the area near the stables. Nothing! It was as if the woman had vanished into thin air. Muttering a string of curses, she reached for the radio.
“Gunther, what’s your status?” she asked.
Static filled the air. She checked the frequency. They had kept to radio silence, but she had expected to hear something by now—gunfire at the minimum.
“Gunther, check in,” she ordered.
Nothing but static again. She warily scanned the area. Squatting down behind the door of the barn, she searched the cliff face.
“Hans, what’s your status?” she requested.
More static. Her wariness turned to unease. Dallas had a reputation for silent kills. Some superstitious fools believed she was more ghost than woman.
Daina returned her radio to her waist and held her gun at the ready. On her second sweep of the cliff, she caught a hint of navy blue. She fired a shot.
Lilting laughter taunted her. “You missed me, you missed me, now you’ve got to catch me.”
“Really? What are you, five?”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll run.” The woman’s voice echoed all around Daina and she realized that the dark holes in the canyon walls were entrances to caves.
She gritted her teeth. “You want to play? We’ll play!” Daina shouted.
“Come find me if you dare,” the woman called.
Daina cautiously crossed to where she had seen the flash of blue. Her back against the cliff face next to the cave entrance, she quickly turned to face the mouth of the cave and released a burst of gunfire. Bullets pocked the sandstone walls, sweeping from left to right. Again, the echo of laughter reached her.
“You are dead!” Daina shouted.
The echo of her own words repeated back to her nearly half a dozen times. A shiver ran down her spine, as if she had just prophesied her own demise.
I will bring that bitch’s head back on a platter,she vowed.
An inky darkness swallowed her as she moved deeper into the cave. She turned on the flashlight attached to her vest. It glowed with a red light, illuminating only a small area in front of her.
Rocks shifted behind her. Daina swung around and released another burst of gunfire.
“Why are you here?” the haunting voice asked, the echo weaving the words into a dozen voices asking the same question over and over.
This game was wearing thin. Daina swung around in a tight circle. The walls felt like they were closing in around her. Fear rose in her throat, unfamiliar and potent.
“I came to kill you,” Daina replied.
“Why?”
Daina’s eyes flashed around. Now she couldn’t even see where the mouth of the cave was.
“I know who you really are," Daina declared. "You’re Dallas.”
Mocking laughter reverberated through the cave. Daina fired again, this time sweeping the bullets in a circle until the clip was empty.