Seeking Sanctuary

by Annie Anderson

  My eyes burned as I sucked in a breath, fear running cold in my veins as I hugged my belly, protecting my child from the phantom I tried to escape.

  “You didn’t kill your monster at all, did you?” Pippa asked, her eyes flooding with sympathy. We might not like each other, but we were kindred spirits all the same.

  I didn’t hear the shot. Not at first.

  All I felt was the warm spray of Pippa’s blood on my face. All I saw was the perfect ‘O’ of surprise on her lips as a bullet ripped through her neck. She dropped the gun at her feet and tried to cover the wound at her throat.

  But the damage was done. Pippa dropped to her knees in the leaves, her throat gurgling as she tried to take in air, her breaths coming slower and slower. That horrid sound wasn’t the only one in my ears, though. My body felt like molasses as I moved my gaze to follow the sound of crunching leaves.

  And there he was.

  “You thought you could run away from me?” Cole sneered. “Don’t you remember, Isla? I always come for what’s mine.”

  24

  LEVI

  An iron grip on my shoulder shook me into consciousness, and I let out a groan. That shaking shit was going to make me hurl if they didn’t quit it.

  “Levi, brother, I’m gonna need you to open your eyes for me,” Orin’s voice filtered through the splitting headache ricocheting through my brain.

  What the fuck happened?

  I slit my eyes and found myself face first on the kitchen floor. Wetness coated the right side of my face, the warmth of it signaling that it was more than likely my own blood.

  Isla.

  “Isla!” I roared, scrambling drunkenly from the floor. The room tilted for a second and I had to grab the counter before I kissed the floor again.

  “Whoa, man. You need to calm down and tell me what happened.”

  My brother may be practical, but his words were not even remotely welcome. I didn’t need to calm down. What I needed to do was find Isla. What I needed to do was figure out who the fuck hit me. What I needed to do was stop wasting time.

  The shrill ring of Isla’s cell pierced the air. It was something Isla was rarely without. Even if she didn’t use or look at it much, she always had it with her. It was like a tiny security blanket. She’d once told me she was scared of living this far away from town, scared if she needed help, it would take too long to get there.

  Seeing her phone with its red dahlia case sitting on the end table in the exact spot she always kept it when she was relegated to the island of the couch sent a bolt of fear through me.

  Isla is gone. Her phone is here. Isla’s gone…

  I scrambled, falling twice before I managed to close the distance between me and it. The display read ‘Smitty’ and the dread I felt got bigger and wider, weighing down my whole body like some sort of cement.

  “Hello?” I called feeling fucking stupid already. Who had time for hellos when Isla was gone?

  “You wanna tell me why you’re answering Isla’s phone?” a gruff male voice bit back. It had to be Smitty. Isla told me how they were with each other. How he’d protected her. How he had helped her come here. Only a man like that would sound like that.

  “Cause she’s gone, Smitty. She… someone knocked me out, and I woke up, and she’s not here. Tell me good news. Give me that, please.”

  There had always been a pit in my gut when Isla told me about Cole Montgomery. Not just because of what he’d done to her, but because when Isla finally gave me all the details, it never sat well in my gut.

  “I can’t. Isla’s position has been compromised. A member of my team gave away her location to Montgomery. He’s alive, and if his obsession with Isla is anything to go by, we’ve got problems.”

  “Your team? Does Isla know you have a team?”

  “No.” The word was sharp like a blade, and I had no idea what was really going on or what it meant for Isla.

  Only that she was gone.

  Only that Cole Montgomery was alive.

  Only that she was supposed to be on bed rest, but she was God knew where with God knew who, hurt and in pain and scared.

  And the cruelest thing was, I had a good idea who she was with, and that was the worst thing I could possibly think of.

  “I’ll find her.” It was the only thing I could think to say.

  “You’d better,” he barked. “I’ll be there in four hours, and my Isla better be alive and well, goddammit, or I’ll be coming for your hide.”

  I’d have been pissed at him, but I had a woman to find.

  “That was Smitty. He helped Isla get out of Florida. Cole Montgomery is alive and knows where she is. We have to go,” I told Orin, his eyes widening for a split second before they narrowed to slits.

  I wasn’t talking to my big brother anymore. I was talking to Deputy Orin Grady.

  The same man who buried his college sweetheart after her ex-boyfriend murdered her. The same man who begged and pleaded with her to press charges but never succeeded in convincing her. The same man who gave up his engineering degree at the University of Colorado to go into law enforcement because he wanted to stop men like that. Men who would hurt women just because they could.

  He’d help me. I had no idea where to start, but I knew we’d find her.

  Then we heard the gunshot.

  It was a tough call to tell who started running first.

  ISLA

  Come for what’s his? What’s his?

  Like I’m a possession or a thing. Like I’m something to be owned. Like I was something easily thrown away when I misbehave.

  I couldn’t speak, still reeling from the gurgling sound of Pippa’s last breaths, doing my best not to cry because I remembered that he hated tears most of all. I cradled her in my lap, the rapid-cooling of her blood chilling me to the bone. Cole didn’t know Pippa, didn’t know what she’d done or who she was.

  He killed her because he could, because she was in the way. Cole would always do things just because he could. Because Cole didn’t have a kind bone in his body – he didn’t have empathy or grace or kindness. He was a spoiled child, and his toy ran away from him.

  And here I was trying to fit myself back into that tiny little box of my former self, trying to not take up too much space or to talk too loud or breathe the wrong way so he wouldn’t get madder.

  But he always got madder.

  “You left me all alone, hurt and bleeding. Taking yourself and my child with you. How could you do that? How could you betray me? Answer me!” he screamed, his booming voice echoing off the trees.

  But I didn’t want to answer him. What I wanted to do was reach for the gun under Pippa’s body – the one she dropped right before her whole body followed suit. I wanted to shoot him in the head, but also…

  I wanted to run as far and as fast as I could. I wanted to put as much distance between me and Cole Montgomery as humanly possible.

  I tried to decide if the gun was worth it, and decided Pippa’s cooling blood was my answer. I tunneled under her body with my fingers, closing them over the metal. I didn’t take my eyes off Cole, knowing he could strike like a snake and I’d never see him coming.

  Hell, I didn’t see him coming this time. But I needed a stall, I needed a way to get up off of the ground.

  “You know why, Cole. You know every single hit and slap and break. You know everything. What I want to know is why you came for me? You don’t love me. You don’t want this baby. You only want to control and squash. I want to know why you ever took the effort to come find me. Was it the money? You can have it. Take it and get out,” I sneered, winding him up so I could get him to do what I needed him to.

  And proof positive that Cole hadn’t change one bit, he hauled me up by my upper arm, his fingers closing so tight around my flesh above my cast it pinched the nerve. Luckily, that hand wasn’t holding the gun.

  His spit and breath and hate hit me square in the face, but his words didn’t matter one bit.

  As soon as I had m
y feet, I pressed the cold metal of the gun into his gut. I could tell the exact second he comprehended I wasn’t the cowering flower I used to be, and his face was eerily similar to the moment he realized I’d stabbed him in the stomach those many weeks ago.

  “The question you’re asking yourself right now is ‘can she shoot me before I stop her?’ right?” I threatened, my voice a low taunt through gritted teeth.

  Cole’s eyes flashed with hate before his face morphed into an imitation of pleading. “No. I was wondering how the woman who is carrying my child could be so heartless.”

  There was a time I would have buckled under words like that, but not today.

  “Just like this,” I whispered, my spine made of steel and my words just as hard. I pulled the trigger, not even checking to see if he was down before I ran the other way.

  Pain lanced through my middle, and I contemplated dropping the gun as I wrapped one hand under my belly for support. I shouldn’t be running at all. I shouldn’t be stressed at all. My baby girl needed more time to cook.

  I could lose her. Oh, god…

  I tucked the gun into the waistband of my leggings before wrapping my other hand under the first, cradling my cast and my child. It didn’t help at all, that little bit of support, and another sharp barb of agony hit me again.

  Steps crashed through the forest, the unholy racket hitting me like a boot to the face, but I couldn’t tell if it was my own two feet or from behind me. I really didn’t want it to be Cole staggering through the trees behind me, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to get lucky here.

  My best bet was to head to the house where I could call for help, where I could check on Levi, where I could sit down before this blinding ache in my belly took me out. When Pippa dragged me out here, I tried to keep track of the twists and turns through the trees, so I had a good idea I was headed the right way but…

  The crashing of leaves and feet got louder as I caught glimpses of two bodies moving through the trees… coming right for me. Two was better than one, right? Two meant that someone was looking for me.

  “Isla!” Levi roared, and it was the best and worst sound I’d ever heard. First, because Levi just got clocked in the head with one of my cast iron frying pans and probably got his brain scrambled. Second, Cole was in these trees, and I wanted Levi nowhere near him. He could take care of himself, of that I was damn sure, but I wanted Levi safe. Anywhere near Cole Montgomery was not safe.

  Just ask Pippa.

  “Le—” I didn’t even manage all of his name before another wave of pain slammed into me, cutting off my words in a terror-filled squeak. I couldn’t run anymore. Hell, I couldn’t even walk. All I could manage was a semi-controlled wilt to the ground, my fingers clutching at leaves and dirt for all I was worth.

  My mind slapped me with the fact that I wasn’t even in my third trimester. That the baby wasn’t ready. That if I had her now, the likelihood of her survival was so small my heart couldn’t even fathom the statistics.

  I hadn’t even named her. In the midst of all of this, I stopped to rack my mind for a name. A good one. It was better than focusing on the pain or watching Pippa die, or thinking if I didn’t finally kill Cole Montgomery, he was on his way to kill me. Trivial or not, that name was what I was thinking of when Levi and Orin found me in the dirt.

  “Cole’s somewhere behind me.” My words came out in sharp staccato pants, half-hyperventilating and half-Lamaze that I remembered from a nineties movie that was probably bullshit in the first place.

  Orin only nodded, but Levi crouched in front of me, carefully taking my injured hand in his own. He saw my panic, my Levi. Like always, he saw it all. I willed everything I felt for him in my eyes. I wanted him to see how much I loved him, how much I wanted him to be safe, how much I wanted us to be safe and warm and together.

  But I couldn’t say anything else, the pain stole everything – every word, every thought.

  The footsteps crashing through the forest behind me heralded my worst nightmare coming to life. I thought the worst thing would have been killing a man, but it wasn’t. The worst thing was having the dregs of humanity keep coming back after you’d stomped on them repeatedly with your boot. Like a cockroach surviving the nuclear winter, Cole just wouldn’t fucking die.

  “Lower your weapon,” Orin demanded, his gun already drawn, aimed at Cole’s head as he drunkenly sneered while clutching his middle. Blood leaked in between his fingers.

  I guess my aim wasn’t too bad, I thought.

  “Sir! Lower your weapon!” Orin might have been yelling, but Cole didn’t look like he gave a shit. Bottle green eyes flashed with malice as he brazenly ignored the Deputy’s order.

  But Cole wasn’t aiming for me, his sights were set on Levi.

  To this day, I still don’t know who fired first.

  25

  ISLA

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Levi groused from his place right next to me on the couch. I had one end of the sectional, and he had the other, two lame ducks convalescing together as we healed. Me on the strictest bedrest known to mankind, and Levi in his shoulder sling where Cole’s bullet landed.

  Cole managed to clip him, but Levi would be out of his couch cage in a few weeks. Me, on the other hand… I would be lucky if I didn’t ride out the rest of this pregnancy in a hospital bed.

  “No, I’m not fucking kidding you, and if you make me say the eff word again, I’ll quit feeding you.” It was an empty threat, but Constance made it at least twice a day.

  Everyone had pitched in when Levi got shot. Otto came out of retirement, picking up the slack at the shop while Levi was resting on the couch. I could tell Levi kind of hated asking his father for help, but nothing about Otto Grady said he’d sit idly by while his son was on the ropes. Constance, Otto, Orin, Avery, and even Smitty pitched in. The man in question sat at my island, his ass parked on a barstool as he picked at the label of his beer. But the Smitty I was used to – gold chains, Hawaiian shirt, polyester pants and all – was long gone. In their stead, was a shaved bald put-together Fed in a suit.

  “You’re siding with this guy? He lied to Isla. Pretty much her whole life, and we’re all just going to say, ‘NBD, it was for the greater good, so it’s fine?’ No. Hell, no.”

  Both of us had been shocked when Smitty came to the hospital. When he came into my room, I had to do a double take. But that wasn’t all that was eating Levi. He was still reeling at the truth behind Pippa and Hank – the real reason why she’d done what she’d done. I debated telling the truth, wondering if I even should. But if the shoe were on the other foot, I’d want Pippa to say something – to let that one truth out into the daylight. So I sat Levi and Orin down and told them. After that, Orin closed Hank’s case, agreeing with the ME that it was an accident. In light of everything, it was the only thing Orin could do for Pippa – sparing her name.

  “I’m siding with Isla,” Constance scolded, stirring the giant vat of chili at my stove. My fingers itched to help her, but I knew I wasn’t getting up without a full-court press and maybe a forklift.

  In the days after Cole’s death, Levi and I learned quite a bit about my old pal, Smitty. Namely, that his actual fucking name wasn’t Smitty at all. Lead Agent in Charge, Hawthorne Smith was a mouthful, to say the least. Add in the fact that Smitty had been undercover for the last ten years, assimilating into the underbelly of the Florida crime world, and well, it was tough to say I knew him at all.

  “I’m sitting right here, you know,” Smitty groused still focused on his beer label and not meeting anyone’s eyes. Despite the new suit and desperately needed haircut, I still saw my Smitty underneath.

  “Did you save lives? By lying to me, I mean? Did it help people?” My voice was low, but I knew he heard me all the same. The whole room did.

  His voice was rough as he croaked out an affirmative, and I didn’t doubt it. The Montgomery’s were just a piece in a massive cesspool of corruption pie, the white-collar crime of embezzlement as a f
ront for more nefarious dealings. When the Montgomery’s went down, many cogs in the wheel went down with them.

  “Then, I’m fine with what you had to do.”

  “But, Isla—” Levi started, but I cut him off.

  “No. People are alive because of what he did. What is a lie in the face of that? So, he didn’t care for leisure suits and gold chains. So what? So he didn’t run a pawn shop? He saved my life. He got me out of there before it all went to shit. As far as I’m concerned, we’re square.”

  Smitty’s eyes left the label and pinned me to my seat. In them was guilt and a little bit of fatherly pride. He’d been in my life for the last ten years, and even though there was a leak in his op that led Cole to me, he’d always done his best to keep me safe.

  Kind of like the money that used to be in my closet, but ended up in Cole’s motel room. I never managed to check if it was gone, and I don’t know if it was Cole that actually took it, but it, sans the suitcase it was housed in, was found in Cole’s room, and the fact that I took it from our home was never mentioned in any report as far as I knew.

  Whichever way it really happened was fine with me.

  Just then I caught a swift kick from my daughter, the lance of pain minor compared to the agony in that forest. Plus, I had to pee.

  “But only if you help me off the couch,” I added, my lips curled up so he knew I didn’t hold any ill will. Smitty was family, and even when family fucked up, you got over it.

  “Sure thing, baby girl,” he whispered and then got me to standing. I held his hand for support, him taking most of my weight. On my way past Levi’s side of the couch, I reached down, sliding my fingers over the rough stubble of his unshaven cheeks. Levi’s lips curled up, his frown smoothing, his every colored eyes crinkling at the corners. He might not like Smitty now, but Levi was enough of an adult to let it go.

  Smitty walked me to the powder room, and let me do my business, walking me back and handing me an extra pillow to go under my belly when I turned on my side.