He pressed his hand against his chest and felt his heart beating through it. It was ironic. For years he’d worried that his less than perfect inner ear would be what would keep him from fulfilling his dream of being an undercover cop. Then he’d conquered every physical exam and training exercise with flying colors and it had turned out his fear was unfounded. Only then to be blindsided by the realization the problem might actually be his imperfect heart.
Did Leia really think that he’d think less of her because of who her biological father was? Or that he somehow deserved better? He was the one who wasn’t good enough for her.
And right now, he was going to do everything in his power to rescue her, her sister and the baby, starting with taking the power out. He took the wet valance, ripped it into three vertical strips and braided it into a rope. Then he tied it to the ceiling beam closest to the window, wrapped it twice around his hand and climbed out. Immediately his feet slipped on the slanting shingles, turning his attempted controlled slide into a fast luge down the roof. His feet hit the drainpipe, then his body lurched forward, dangling face-first over the backyard for a moment, before he yanked back on the makeshift rope and managed to land sprawled, but seated, on the corner of the roof.
Well, then, looked like he wasn’t about to win any awards for style, but he’d stuck the landing. The black electrical wires stretched out beneath him as thick as a tug-of-war rope. On the plus side, he could probably be able to take it down from body weight alone. Unfortunately, that might also mean getting electrocuted and/or falling to his death.
He waited a long moment and scanned the ground below for flashlight beams and saw one that appeared and disappeared around the far side of the house. Faint light glowed from the house’s main floor. Ironically, he was somehow feeling less afraid and more confident than anyone had any right to be in this situation, and the reason for it was Leia. She made him feel strong and capable in a way he’d never felt before, and it eased that pesky voice of doubt that forever tormented the corners of his mind. And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure she gets out of here safely. Which meant he couldn’t afford to overthink things and be afraid.
Something rustled in a tree to his right. Startled, he gripped the edges of the roof for a moment. Then he watched as Moses the cat burst from the leaves, ran down a branch and then leaped past him onto the roof. The cat ran down the edge of the roof and then disappeared through the same window that Leia had entered.
Well, that was one way to do it.
He scanned the tree. It towered high above the house past the electrical wires, with thick branches at least six or seven inches wide. Several of the branches were definitely large enough to take the power down, yet also thin enough he could probably break them off by sheer force alone. Something told him that Leia or her sisters would just hop off the roof onto the branch without thinking twice. But he waited a long moment, praying, before raising to his feet and leaping.
Help me, Lord!
His body hit the tree, and as both feet landed on the branch he’d been aiming for, he instinctively grabbed ahold of the trunk with both hands for support. So far so good.
“Hey!” Ross shouted below him. “Who’s there?”
Before Jay could even exhale, the man below opened fire, peppering the tree with bullets and shredding the leaves around him. The tree shook and swayed from the impact. Jay pressed his body against the trunk and wrapped one arm around it tightly. His head swam as vertigo swept over him, threatening to send him falling. Slowly Jay pulled his gun from his holster. Clearly Ross with his wild aim couldn’t see Jay, but unfortunately that meant Jay had no idea where he was, either. He clenched his jaw and readied his gun, praying for guidance on where to fire. Then, in the chaos exploding around him, he had a sudden moment of clarity.
The only thing that mattered right now was taking the power out.
He turned toward the house, raised his gun toward the bracket holding the electrical wires to the house and fired. He heard it clang in the darkness. He loaded the next bullet into the chamber and fired again. This time he heard a snap, then watched as the electrical cables fell from the house and down into the brush beneath him. Voices shouted, and sparks flew on the ground like a volcano trying to spark.
The farmhouse lights went dark.
* * *
Leia was crouched low behind the living room sofa when the lights went out, with her eyes trained on where her sister stood in the kitchen. On the plus side, Sally wasn’t tied up; she was only being watched by one guard, Willie, and had somehow talked him into letting her use the stove-top kettle, presumably to make a baby bottle for Mabel. On the bad side, Leia didn’t actually see the baby.
She leaped the moment the house went dark, charging at the man holding her sister at gunpoint, only to hear a resounding clang followed by a thud. Leia switched the flashlight on, somehow knowing exactly the scene she’d see.
Willie was down on the kitchen floor knocked out cold. Sally stood over him with her waist-length blond hair tied back in a braid and the kettle clutched in her hand, still steaming from the water she’d been boiling. Sally turned toward Leia, kettle raised as if to strike her, too, and Leia watched as relief swept over her sister’s body.
“Leia!” A sob slipped from Sally’s lips as she dropped the kettle on the table and hugged Leia fiercely.
“You okay?” Leia asked. She hugged her sister back, feeling tears filling her own eyes. Thank You, God, that my sister’s okay.
“Yes, but they’ve got Mabel.” Sally pulled out of her arms as quickly as they’d embraced. Fear pooled in her eyes. “But men with guns surrounded me the moment I got out of the car and forced me into the house. Mabel wouldn’t stop screaming, so this young guy with brown curls said he was a dad and that he’d walk her around while I made a bottle.”
“Listen to me.” Leia took her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay. They don’t want to hurt us. They’re just looking for something. I’ll explain later. But Jay is here, too, and he’s going to help us find Mabel and escape. I’ll take the front and you take the back. Can we use your car?”
“No,” Sally said. She shook her head. “They took my keys, phone and wallet.”
“Take Jay’s keys,” Leia said, pressing them into her sister’s hand. “His truck is in the garage and we’ll meet there. They disabled his engine somehow.”
“Okay...okay...” Sally said, like her brain was stalling.
Sympathy swept over Leia. She’d had hours to try and figure out what was going on and Sally had just been thrust into it. She grabbed her sister’s hand. “Lord, help us find Mabel, get the truck running and escape from here. We are overwhelmed and scared. Be our Rock right now.”
Then she let go and watched as fresh strength filled Sally’s eyes. Leia bent down and checked the man on the floor; he was both breathing and groaning.
“Did I kill him?” Sally asked.
“No,” Leia said. “Also, don’t feel too bad for hitting him. He tried to shoot the cat.”
The sisters hugged again. Sally switched off the small flashlight. Leia scooped up the handgun that Willie had dropped, slipped the safety on and took it with her.
She moved through the darkened living room, barely able to see even the faintest outlines and shadows of the furniture. She burst through the front door and onto the front porch. A figure suddenly loomed in front of her in the darkness. Instinctively she raised the weapon, planning to coldcock him in the face. But before she could strike she felt a warm hand clamp over her mouth and another direct her gun down and away from him as he pushed her back against the farmhouse wall.
“It’s okay,” Jay’s rough voice whispered in her ear. His breath caressed her face. “We just can’t make a sound. People are patrolling the area looking for me.”
She nodded and he pulled his hand away from her mouth. A flashlight moved past them in the darkness
as someone ran past. The light disappeared again.
“Why are they looking for you?” she whispered, leaning in so close that she felt her mouth brush his ear. He shivered.
“I fell from a tree because Ross was shooting at me,” he said. “Thankfully I managed to take the power out and avoided getting electrocuted by the live wire, so overall I consider it a win. Where’s your sister and the baby?”
“Sally took Willie out with a kettle,” she said. “Unfortunately, someone took Mabel for a walk.”
Tension rose through Jay’s shoulders so swiftly she felt it move into her own body.
“We’ll find her,” he said. “I promise. I’m hopeful they won’t hurt the baby. It sounds like they have very specific orders they’re following.”
“I hope so, too,” she admitted. Please, Lord, keep the baby safe.
“What did he look like?” he asked.
“Young with brown curls, and he said he was a father.”
“That would be Ben.” Jay peeled away from her and took a deep breath. “Let’s go find the baby and get out of here. I hate to say this but I suggest we split up. There’s a lot of outdoor ground to cover, and I’m guessing that’s what you agreed with Sally, too.”
She nodded. “It is. Sally’s gone to the garage.”
“You head toward the barn, then, and I’ll head toward the road,” Jay said.
It was the right thing to do. Splitting up to cover the most ground was the fastest and smartest way to find the baby, and right now that was all that mattered.
“Thanks for not shooting me,” Jay added. Even in the darkness she could hear the smile in his voice and knew how much she’d miss it. “Where’d you finally get a gun?”
“Took it off Willie after Sally hit him with the kettle,” she said. “And I wasn’t going to shoot you. The range was too close, and the safety was on. I was going to coldcock you with it.”
Jay chuckled softly. “That’s my girl.”
“Thank you, Cop Boy.”
“You just stay safe, okay?” His lips brushed the top of her head and she heard him whisper a prayer for her safety. “See you soon.”
He took off running into the darkness. Leia inhaled a deep breath and prayed, then she started toward the barn. Almost immediately she missed having Jay by her side. Just that small encounter for a few brief moments had made her feel stronger than she had before. The barn came into view, then she heard a faint sound coming from it. A baby was crying.
She ran for it, pelting up the slope of grass toward the barn. Her heart ached with every step, praying that she’d find her little niece okay. The barn door was open a foot; she stopped, raised her weapon and stepped inside.
A young man with wet curls sticking up wildly in all directions spun toward her. He was holding a lit cigarette in one hand and a handgun in the other. An opened bottle of vodka sat near him on a bale of hay. Behind him she could see tiny Mabel sitting in her car seat on another bale in the back of the barn, her face scrunched in tears as she wailed.
“Hands up, Ben!” Leia shouted, and aimed the gun between his eyes with both hands. “I don’t want any trouble. Just step away from the baby and let me take her. Also, put out your cigarette. What are you thinking, smoking and drinking in a barn near a baby?”
“That’s why I set her down over there!” Ben yelled. He seemed to be more agitated about the smoking comment than the fact she was training a gun on him. “And I was blowing the smoke away from her.”
“I don’t care what you told yourself,” Leia said. “Just let me take the baby and go.”
He hesitated, and suddenly she wondered what would happen if he didn’t let her leave with the baby. Sure, she knew she was a good enough shot to take him out; her grip on the gun was steady, while he was only holding the gun with one shaking hand. But did she have it in her heart to hurt someone? Or even kill someone? She’d never in a million years imagine that she did. But that was before she’d learned she probably had the blood of a serial killer pulsing through her veins. Lord, I need Your wisdom. I don’t even know who I am anymore.
Then she remembered the words that Jay had hurriedly spoken to her under the shelter of the porch roof.
“You’re a father, right, Ben?” she asked, using his name in the hopes it would help her make a connection. “When you volunteered to take the baby for a walk it was to protect her, wasn’t it?”
Ben took a swig of vodka from the bottle with the same hand that was holding the cigarette and then dropped it back on the hay. His hands shook so much for a moment she wasn’t sure if he was at more risk of accidentally firing the gun, knocking over his alcohol or dropping the cigarette into a bale of hay. And suddenly her heart ached; he was terrified.
Mabel’s cries grew. It would be so easy for her to just shoot him right now, take the baby and run. She’d grown up asking herself what she’d actually do if she ever came face-to-face with an actual “bad guy” like the ones in her father’s fairy tales. He’d always taught her to “act justly, show mercy and walk humbly” as went one of his other favorite verses from the Bible.
But Walter hadn’t been her real father, had he? He was someone who’d lied to her and kept secrets about who she was for her whole life—even letting her believe she was a few weeks younger than she actually was. And she was supposed to let his teaching guide her choices now?
Help me be true to the person You’ve made me to be.
“I don’t smoke or drink around my kid,” Ben said. “His mother doesn’t like it.”
Again, not the point. But in her work at legal aid, as she trained to be a lawyer, she’d learned that scared and broken people sometimes got their minds hung up on the wrong things.
“I get that, Ben,” she said. “You want to be a good dad and have a relationship with your own baby. Just like I want to be a good aunt and take my niece somewhere safe. In fact, that’s the only thing I care about right now.”
The face of her father’s beaming smile as he held her as a newborn baby filled her mind. That look of pride and love had never once dimmed from his eyes every time he’d looked at her over her entire life. There’d never been a moment she’d doubted he loved her and her mother. Had her father been blinded by love? Had he carried this painful burden alone his entire life, in secret, out of his own misguided desire to care for her the best he could. The sound of her niece crying and her tearstained face made her feel like she’d do anything in the entire world to protect her. Maybe that’s what she needed to hold on to, to forgive the man who raised her.
“How do you know my name?” Ben’s voice shook. He took another drink. Bright orange ash fell from his cigarette.
“You had a tussle with my friend Jay earlier tonight,” she said. Jay hadn’t hesitated to show Ben mercy. “You told him you had legal problems? Well, I work for legal aid on King Street East. Let me take the baby and go. Then come find me when this is all done, and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you get the help you need. I promise.”
She took a leap of faith, lowered the gun and put the safety back on. Then she started walking toward the baby, keeping her eyes firmly on Ben.
“You’re not going to shoot me,” she said. “It takes a lot to kill someone for the first time and I don’t think that’s you. I think you’re just caught up in something way over your head. My friend Jay could’ve killed you, but he didn’t. So, I’m asking you to pay him back and let me take the baby now.”
The faint smell of burning hay rose from where Ben’s ash kept falling. Mumbled swear words spilled from his lips like he was berating himself. But he didn’t stop her. He picked up the vodka again, took a swig and set it down. The bottle slipped off the edge of the bale, fell to the ground and spilled its contents.
She reached the crying baby, fought the urge to pull her out of her car seat and instead gently wiped the tears from Mabel’s eyes. “It’s goi
ng to be okay, baby girl,” she whispered. “I promise.”
All she had to do was walk back out of the barn, past Ben and out into the night.
“Hey!” Suddenly Stan’s angry voice filled the space. “What’s going on here?”
She dropped to the floor, pulling Mabel down with her and clutching her to her chest.
“I... I didn’t want to hurt the woman or the baby!” Ben said. He turned and pointed the gun at Stan. “I just want to go. I won’t tell anyone. I promise. I just want to go.”
“Nobody goes anywhere until this is done,” Stan said.
Without warning he fired at the younger man and his bullet caught Ben on the shoulder.
Ben screamed in pain. The cigarette fell from his hand, hitting the vodka on the floor; instantly it sprung alight, sending a wall of flames rushing up the dry hay and spreading up the walls.
Leaving her and Mabel trapped in the back of the burning barn.
ELEVEN
Jay pelted through toward the barn as bright orange flames licked out of the windows and up at the sky. Suddenly he heard a smooth motor behind him, and his body was swamped in the glare of headlights. Instinctively, he braced himself to roll away from the wheels when he heard a horn honk and looked back to see his own truck swerve to a stop behind him.
Sally stuck her head out the window. “Get in!”
He ran to the passenger’s side and leaped in. “You fixed my truck.”
“I did,” Sally said. She gritted her teeth and kept driving the moment the door clicked shut. “Long story short, somebody cut a bunch of wires, so I spliced them back together with a pocket knife and duct tape. Have you seen Leia or Mabel?”
“Leia was heading to the barn,” he said.
Undercover Protection Page 11
