Dare You (A Rylie Wolf FBI Suspense Thriller—Book Six)

By Molly Black

killers, cold cases pile up across state lines, stumping the local police. An elite FBI unit is formed, with brilliant special agent Rylie Wolf at its head—and Rylie is summoned urgently to a region where unsuspecting accidents have converged with murders. Can she find the link?

“Molly Black has written a taut thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat… I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to read the next book in the series!”
—Reader review for Girl One: Murder

A complex psychological crime thriller full of twists and turns and packed with heart-pounding suspense, the RYLIE WOLF mystery series will make you fall in love with a brilliant new female protagonist and keep you turning pages late into the night. It is a perfect addition for fans of Robert Dugoni, Rachel Caine, Melinda Leigh or Mary Burton.

Future books in the series will be available soon.

“I binge read this book. It hooked me in and didn't stop till the last few pages… I look forward to reading more!”
—Reader review for Found You

“I loved this book! Fast-paced plot, great characters and interesting insights into investigating cold cases. I can't wait to read the next book!”
—Reader review for Girl One: Murder

“Very good book… You will feel like you are right there looking for the kidnapper! I know I will be reading more in this series!”
—Reader review for Girl One: Murder

“This is a very well written book and holds your interest from page 1… Definitely looking forward to reading the next one in the series, and hopefully others as well!”
—Reader review for Girl One: Murder

“Wow, I cannot wait for the next in this series. Starts with a bang and just keeps going.”
—Reader review for Girl One: Murder

“Well written book with a great plot, one that will keep you up at night. A page turner!”
—Reader review for Girl One: Murder

“A great suspense that keeps you reading… can't wait for the next in this series!”
—Reader review for Found You

“Sooo soo good! There are a few unforeseen twists… I binge read this like I binge watch Netflix. It just sucks you in.”
—Reader review for Found You

• Language: English
• Publisher: Molly Black
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781094394244

Book preview

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D A R E   Y O U

(A Rylie Wolf FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 6)

M o l l y   B l a c k

Molly Black

Bestselling author Molly Black is author of the MAYA GRAY FBI suspense thriller series, comprising nine books (and counting); of the RYLIE WOLF FBI suspense thriller series, comprising six books (and counting); of the TAYLOR SAGE FBI suspense thriller series, comprising six books (and counting); and of the KATIE WINTER FBI suspense thriller series, comprising eleven books (and counting).

An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Molly loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.mollyblackauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.

Copyright © 2022 by Molly Black. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Jacket image Copyright Dudarev Mikhail used under license from Shutterstock.com.

BOOKS BY MOLLY BLACK

MAYA GRAY MYSTERY SERIES

GIRL ONE: MURDER (Book #1)

GIRL TWO: TAKEN (Book #2)

GIRL THREE: TRAPPED (Book #3)

GIRL FOUR: LURED (Book #4)

GIRL FIVE: BOUND (Book #5)

GIRL SIX: FORSAKEN (Book #6)

GIRL SEVEN: CRAVED (Book #7)

GIRL EIGHT: HUNTED (Book #8)

GIRL NINE: GONE (Book #9)

RYLIE WOLF FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

FOUND YOU (Book #1)

CAUGHT YOU (Book #2)

SEE YOU (Book #3)

WANT YOU (Book #4)

TAKE YOU (Book #5)

DARE YOU (Book #6)

TAYLOR SAGE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

DON’T LOOK (Book #1)

DON’T BREATHE (Book #2)

DON’T RUN (Book #3)

DON’T FLINCH (Book #4)

DON’T REMEMBER (Book #5)

DON’T TELL (Book #6)

KATIE WINTER FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

SAVE ME (Book #1)

REACH ME (Book #2)

HIDE ME (Book #3)

BELIEVE ME (Book #4)

HELP ME (Book #5)

FORGET ME (Book #6)

HOLD ME (Book #7)

PROTECT ME (Book #8)

REMEMBER ME (Book #9)

CATCH ME (Book #10)

WATCH ME (Book #11)

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

PROLOGUE

Carol Jimenez hated driving in the dark.

Since she’d turned forty, her eyes weren’t what they once were. Every year, she’d had to go to the doctor and get a newer, thicker prescription. Now, without her glasses, she was damn near blind.

But it wasn’t just that. Her hometown was a quiet place where everyone knew one another. The sign as you were driving in said, HENRY: A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE! and that was true. In the darkness, though, it transformed into something sinister. Now, the area around Henry, South Dakota, no longer looked like the sweet, back-country place where she’d grown up attending church suppers, learning how to square dance in the elementary school gym, and going to the local fairgrounds every summer Saturday for Drive Night.

No, with the outlines of trees looking like skeletal soldiers standing watch in the fields and the smothering blackness all around her, it felt like a distant, strange land, full of lurking dangers.

But that was what she got for her greed.

Not greed, really. Reward. She’d deserved to be able to enjoy some of her life after everything she’d done.

A few months ago, she and her husband had found out about the FIRE movement—Financial Independence, Retire Early. It seemed like so many people had socked away enough cash that they were quitting their day jobs, younger and younger. Retiring at forty? Was that even possible?

 And Carol was jealous. After spending twenty years on her feet as head nurse at the South Dakota General Hospital, hanging up her scrubs for good sounded like a dream come true.

So, when Carol had learned that working the evening shift at the hospital provided twice the pay, she’d eagerly signed up. Getting to retire twice as fast as she’d planned? Yes, please. Besides, the evening shift was quieter, calmer. It had proven to be a great move.

The only thing she hadn’t loved was driving to the hospital at midnight. Now, as she drove along, the windshield misted by a light drizzle, she squinted to see through the windshield. I bet I need a new prescription. Again. Damn glasses.

Leaning forward, she swiped a hand over the cold glass, clearing away the condensation. Then she turned the defrost up, hoping it’d clear things up.

What, are my glasses fogging up now too?

Nothing seemed to make things much clearer. Especially when the headlights of another car slashed across her line of vision, temporarily blinding her. The glare made her blink hard, seeing spots.

It was a good thing there weren’t very many other cars to contend with at this hour.

Or maybe it wasn’t such a good thing. Being alone, out here . . .?

Of course, she’d heard the rumors. One couldn’t live close to I-86, the main highway through their small town in the heart of the Mount Rushmore State, without catching wind of them. Ever since she could remember, the interstate had been known as the Highway Thru Hell. Rarely a day passed by that the highway’s corridor wasn’t the subject of a disappearance, murder, kidnapping, rape, or other mysterious happening. Every time Carol drove up the on-ramp, even during the day, she shuddered.

But this was not daytime. It was pitch black outside her window, and everything had a sinister, evil air to it.

She let out the breath she’d been holding and tried to relax, turning up the radio. She tried to get into the beat of the music, humming a few bars, but she found herself shivering as she climbed the ramp toward South Dakota General. The hospital was only two exits down the long, desolate stretch of road, and yet it felt like a million miles away.

What was that last horrible case she’d read about? The man who murdered people and posed them on the side of the road? They’d caught the guy, or at least, Carol thought they had, but still . . . Some people are so sick.

She pushed the thought away and accelerated, quickly pushing past the eighty mile-per-hour speed limit. Not wise, considering the asphalt was slick with rain. But she’d take that risk. The road was usually empty after dark, with only the occasional lost family minivan on its way to Rushmore. The quicker she could get off this road, the better.

As she drove, her phone rang in the cup holder. She pressed the hands-free button on the dashboard.

Hi, Mike, she said to her husband, smiling, glad he’d called. Even though she’d just left him, and sometimes she hated how lost he was without her, she was happy for the diversion.

Hey, Darlin’, he said in his slow drawl. You at work yet?

She laughed. I didn’t teleport. I’m still driving. When I get there, I’ll give you a buzz, all right, Honey?

Of course, he didn’t know how long the drive was. He worked from home. And though he was pushing fifty, he was as healthy as could be. He hadn’t ever had any need to go to her place of employment, knock on wood.

Yeah? When’d you leave?

Only ten minutes ago. When she’d left him, he’d been snoozing in front of the television after a long day behind the computer handling equipment sales. Maybe he hadn’t even felt the pressure of her lips when she’d kissed him on the forehead on her way out the door. I’ll be back in the morning. Bring you some coffee, if you’d like?

That’s my girl. I’ll make you breakfast. Blueberry pancakes?

She smiled. Yum. I’d like that. Jason will too.

Jason, their son, was a teenager. Of their four kids, he was the youngest and the last to leave the nest. Roger that.

Tell him to clean up his room, if he ever comes out of there, she said.

Aw, come on, I’m not a miracle worker.

She laughed and could sense that he was about to hang up. Her stomach dropped. She liked his company on this long, lonely road. But then she looked up and saw the sign for her exit. Only two miles away.

But right behind it, she noticed something interesting.

An SUV, just like her own, parked on the side of the road. The windows were up tight, and it looked like there was no one inside. Sometimes people would tie a piece of cloth to the window to signal that they’d gone for services, but there was nothing like that on this vehicle.

It was strange to see a car sitting like that in the dark. Do your best, she said absently, about to depress the button on her dash to disconnect the call as she pulled to the side of the road. She came to a stop there, her finger still hovering above the button. That’s really weird, Mike. There’s a car on the side of the road here. You think I should . . .

She expected him to say no. No, ma’am. You stay in that car, and that’s an order, soldier! He’d tell her that it was too dangerous, and her neck prickled, agreeing with that sentiment.

But there was no response at all from Mike. Mike? she asked, but received nothing but dead air.

Right. After commuting this way for the last few months, she’d learned of a cell phone dead zone, right in this area.

She looked in the rear-view mirror at the SUV. It was a new car, probably only a year or two old. There was a beaded suncatcher hanging from its mirror, and the vanity license plate, from South Dakota, was LUV2DANS.

A woman’s SUV, definitely.

So, why had the woman abandoned her SUV on the Highway Thru Hell of all places?

Shivering, Carol sat there for a moment trying to decide what to do. Mike’s words—at least, the warning that she imagined him telling her—echoed in her head. But she couldn’t simply leave the car there. What if the woman was in trouble?

Making up her mind, Carol reached for the door handle and stepped out on the desolate highway. There were no cars going either direction on the four-lane road. It was chilly, too, not the best night to be out for a drive. The drizzle had stopped and the clouds had parted just enough to reveal a sliver of moonlight, and the wet road glistened as she walked carefully toward the abandoned vehicle.

She only took a few steps before she was able to peer past the rain-spattered windshield of the car and confirm that there was no one behind the steering wheel. Still, she walked closer, to the driver’s side door. Though there was no one inside, she saw something hulked on the passenger seat. Was that what she thought it was?

Cupping her hands around her eyes and pressing them against the glass, she confirmed it. It was a woman’s purse. And there was a cell phone on the center console too.

If the driver had left her car to get help, why would she leave those things behind?

Carol’s breathing stuttered. There was a simple answer. She wouldn’t.

No woman would’ve left those things behind, unless she was expecting to come right back. Or unless she’d been taken away from there by force.

Neither possibility sat well with Carol.

At that realization, Carol double-timed it toward her car. She grabbed her phone and quickly dialed 9-1-1.

But when she lifted it to her ear, she had nothing but dead air.

Of course. Dead zone. How quickly she’d forgotten.

She’d been out of that dead zone, only a minute earlier, while on the phone with Mike. She stepped back toward the exit sign, retracing her route, holding the phone up, trying to get some bars, but nothing worked. There was nothing around here for miles.

Racing as fast as her feet could take her, her comfortable shoes making wet, squeaking noises on the pavement, she threw herself into her car and pulled onto the highway. As she drove, pushing her car to go faster, the back of her neck prickled with more and more goosebumps. By the time the next sign came, showing that her exit for the hospital was only a mile away, she was more certain than ever that foul play was involved.

That was when she glanced off onto the shoulder and saw it, only about a quarter mile from the place she’d seen the car.

A shoe.

It was easily overlooked, but perhaps because Carol was on-edge, she saw it right away. It was a white, strappy heel, the kind of thing only a young person with good ankles would attempt to wear. Flirty and cute, something that someone with a license plate like LUV2DANS would put on.

But it was sitting on the shoulder, upright, as if waiting for someone to come by and slip her foot inside.

Carol slammed on the brakes, her car fishtailing from the abrupt motion. She quickly gained control of it, then slowly navigated to the shoulder once again.

Taking a deep breath, she looked in her rear-view mirror at the shoe, glowing red in her brake lights.

I’m going crazy, aren’t I? she thought to herself. It’s just a shoe. Nothing to get yourself in a twist over, Carol.

But coupled with the abandoned car, she decided that it was worth looking into.

Once again, she stepped from her car and made her way over to the shoe. Picking it up, she turned it over. It was a platform espadrille, with a woven heel and a bow at the tip. Maybe LUV2DANS would wear this shoe, but then again, so might a million other women. Maybe it had just fallen out of a suitcase or a car weeks ago.

 But none of those theories captured her attention as much as what she saw on the footbed.

Dark splotches of some liquid.

She turned it toward the moonlight and saw that they were deep red in color.

Blood.

She gasped and dropped the shoe, then backed toward her car.

Now, more than ever, she knew she had to get help.

She was just about to break into a run when she saw it, farther down the embankment, past the guardrail.

A flash of white.

Carol knew what it was, almost before she made out the individual parts of it. The curve of the hip. The glow of blonde hair. The paleness of the skin. A long, shapely dancer’s leg. The more she saw, the more she wished she’d never seen it at all.

It was a body.

She screamed, clasping both hands over her mouth, backing away. She was almost in the road when she realized where she was, and what she needed