by Tate, Harley
She cut him a glance. “He’s never late.”
The soldier didn’t know Colt like Dani did. Sure, Larkin and Colt spent time at a military hospital together years ago, but Larkin hadn’t survived a burning building or jumped three stories to safety with Colt. Dani knew the man like no one else. Even if he’d found a reason to delay, he’d have come home, explained, and gone back out. He wouldn’t blow a deadline.
Maybe it was the way she stared Larkin down or the edge of anger in her voice, but at last, he threw her a bone. “If Colt doesn’t show in the next few hours, we can assemble a team and check it out.”
Dani shook her head. “Not good enough. Colt needs help now. In a few hours it could be too late.”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” Melody spoke up for the first time since Dani interrupted. With her hair pulled back in a ponytail, the bruises across her cheek and neck stood out in angry blotches. Of all people, Melody should understand the risks of leaving Colt to fend for himself. Captain Ferguson almost killed her, but she thought Dani was overreacting?
“What if Colt said the same thing after you disappeared? What if he waited for a few hours to rescue you?”
Melody opened her mouth, but shut it just as fast. Her hand lingered on her still-healing ankle as she glanced at Larkin. That’s it? No acknowledgment of the truth? No, Gee, Dani, I guess you’re right?
I should knock their heads together. She plucked a rifle off the battered coffee table and slung it over her shoulder.
If Melody wasn’t going to support her, then the heck with it. Dani didn’t have time to convince her or Larkin of the potential danger. Colt needed help and Dani planned to give it. “I’m going to find him before it’s too late.”
“Colt’s a big boy, he can get himself out of a jam.”
Dani refused to look at Larkin as she tightened the laces on her dirty kicks. “You don’t know what some of the people around here are like. A month without a fix? If any addicts are still alive, they’re out of their minds with cravings. They could do anything.”
She thought about some of the worst days with her mother when they didn’t have any money and her mother could only think about how to score. Lies. Violence. Manipulation. Everything was on the table when an addict needed a hit. Everything.
Larkin blew her off. “Colt can handle a strung-out druggie.”
“You’re underestimating the threat.”
“You’re not giving Colt enough credit.”
Dani bit back another retort. Arguing with Larkin would get her nowhere. “We’re wasting time. I’m leaving.” She strode to the door without looking back. If no one wanted to admit Colt could be in trouble, fine. She would rescue him all by herself.
She reached for the door handle when Larkin called out.
“Hold on. I’m coming.” His feet thudded on the laminate floor as he loped to catch up with Dani. “I can’t let you get yourself killed on some wild goose chase. Colt would never forgive me.”
Dani tugged open the apartment door. “What if everything I’ve said is true and Colt’s really in trouble?”
He smiled. “Then I’ll owe you an apology.”
“I won’t hold my breath.” Dani ducked out the open door and Larkin followed.
They hit the street side-by-side and Larkin’s easygoing nature morphed into army awareness. Gone were the lazy, plodding steps of inside the apartment. In their place were solid strides and glances in every direction. Dani hustled to keep pace.
She hated to admit she was glad he came along, but it was the truth. She leaned a bit closer as they walked. “Thank you for coming.”
Larkin nodded. “Finding Colt won’t be easy. He could be anywhere.”
Dani left that morning before Colt and Larkin divided up their search. She didn’t have a clue where Colt had gone.
She glanced at Larkin. With the corners of his mouth tipped down in a frown, he looked every bit the disgruntled soldier. At twice her age, he must have seen his fair share of missions gone bad. Dani hoped this time he was right and Colt was delayed, but safe. An I-told-you-so chorus would be music to her ears if Colt was okay.
Larkin slowed as he approached the corner and held out his arm for Dani to stop. After he cleared the cross street, she joined him. “Do you know his route?”
He nodded. “More or less.”
“Where should we start?”
“At the beginning.” Larkin motioned down the street. “The 600 block.”
Together, the pair of them navigated past broken windows and abandoned cars, pausing every few storefronts to assess and regroup. Dani debated telling Larkin about Skeeter and his demand for payment. Her mother’s debts weren’t anyone’s concern but her own. But if Skeeter caught any of her friends…
Dani shoved the what-ifs aside. If she remembered right, then Skeeter kept to the blocks south of Prairie, almost half a mile behind them. Big Nicky controlled the streets to the north, all the way up to the edges of town where houses and buildings gave way to forest and wildlife.
Would they still respect the pre-EMP order? She didn’t know why not. Even after the grid collapse, a drug dealer wouldn’t give up his territory. Not willingly. Dani exhaled.
She was safe from Skeeter for now.
They cleared the block and paused at the entrance to the first building across the street. “We clear as a team. One hallway at a time. I hit the inside of the apartments, you stand watch.”
Dani shot Larkin a look. He was boxing her out? “I can search as well as you can.”
He shook his head. “We need a lookout. If Colt’s in trouble, there must be a fair number of hostiles. One strung-out loner wouldn’t take that man down.”
Larkin had a point. If they charged in without cover, they could end up captured or worse. She conceded. “All right. I’ll stand watch.”
One floor at a time, they cleared the first building. No sign of Colt, other than the complete absence of anything worthwhile. If he’d been ambushed before reaching the building, there would be something of value left behind. A can of peaches or a bottle of dish soap. Something.
They moved onto the second, then the third and the fourth. It was never-ending and hopeless.
Two hours later, Larkin stopped at a fifth-floor landing. The apartment building squatted on the corner of the last block of Colt’s search area. He ran a dirt-streaked hand over his face, smearing dust and sweat into makeshift war paint across his cheeks. “We’re never going to find him.”
Dani leaned back against the faded floral wallpaper and used her sleeve to wipe her forehead. “We can’t quit.”
“It’s worse than a needle in a haystack. It’s a SEAL in the city. He’s too good, Dani.”
“Let’s search the building. There’s only a floor or two left.”
“And after that?”
She turned to Larkin, wishing she could argue, but he was right. Colt could be anywhere. If he’d followed a lead or cleared the block early, he could be halfway to Washington state by now, or back home waiting for them. If they didn’t stumble upon him in one of the places down the hall, that would be it. Colt would have to find his own way home.
Dani checked the rifle in her hands for the hundredth time that day and shoved down her disappointment. Colt would be all right. He would have to be. She didn’t know what she would do without him. He’d saved her life and showed her what it meant to care.
Nothing would be the same if he disappeared. Dani motioned toward the hall. “Those rooms aren’t getting any clearer.”
Larkin snorted and took off toward the first door. As his shape blended with the gloom of the hall, a teeming crash shook the entire floor.
Dani brought the rifle up and crouched against the wall as Larkin dove to the ground.
He called out from the dark, “See anything?”
“No!” Dani held her breath, waiting for some other sign. She knew it was Colt. It had to be.
Chapter Six
COLT
&nb
sp; 672 Bellwether Street
Eugene, Oregon
1:00 p.m.
A man stepped into view, but the barrel of Colt’s own Sig Sauer captured his attention. It pointed sure and steady from the outstretched arm of the closet girl’s father.
Colt dragged his eyes up the length of cold metal and met the gaze of the temporary owner. Same brown eyes as his little girl, same dirt-caked skin. But that’s where the similarities ended. The man’s cheeks sucked in with every breath and the scraggly beard coating his jaw quivered. His eyes sat in hollow sockets, too strung out to blink.
No sudden movements. No sleight of hand. Colt couldn’t risk it. Drug addicts ran the spectrum from ordinary men with good hearts to the ones who did anything to score. Colt guessed this man fell into the latter camp: resourceful and without morals.
He kept his voice even. “Good trick you’ve got there, using your kid as bait.”
The man’s chest puffed with twisted pride. “Thought of it myself.”
“How about you let me go?”
The gun rocked back and forth. “Why would I do that?”
“You’ve got my weapon and all of my things. What good am I as a prisoner?”
“Not a chance. You’re staying right here.”
“What’s the point? Now you’ll have to feed me and find a place for me to piss. Just save yourself the hassle and cut me loose.”
The father stuck his thumb nail in his mouth and chewed on it. The gun shook in the air. “You’re not fooling me.”
Colt raised an eyebrow. “About what?”
The man motioned at his daughter. “Go get ’em, baby.”
She scampered from the bathroom, her mouth stained in a multi-colored rainbow. Moments later, she returned holding up a pair of sneakers and clothes Colt lifted from another apartment a few doors down.
Her dad tilted his head. “You ain’t alone, otherwise you wouldn’t be stealin’ ladies shoes and jeans. There’s more of you somewhere. I want to know where.”
“I stole those to trade.” Colt widened his stance on the toilet. Twisted his lips into a smirk. “Women will do anything for shoes. If you know what I mean.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Colt leaned back, feigning boredom. “Suit yourself. But in about five minutes you’re gonna regret keeping me here.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve got to take a shit the size of Mount Everest and I don’t think you want me doing it all over your bathroom floor.”
“You’re sitting on the toilet, asshole. Use it.”
Colt tugged on his hands. “I can’t. You taped the lid shut.”
The druggie swore and rubbed at his face with his free hand. The gun barrel wobbled all over the place. If Colt only had a bit of leverage, he could take the man out with a well-placed kick. But it wouldn’t get him anything but a hard time.
He needed out of the damn duct tape. Colt squirmed around on the seat and screwed up his face like he couldn’t hold it.
“Eeww, Daddy, what’s that smell?” The little girl pinched her nose and stuck out her tongue.
“Sorry, man. Like I said, I gotta go.”
The girl’s father stared at Colt. It was like watching a film in slow motion. All the options paraded through his head one after the other and washed across his face plain as day. Shoot him? No. He had a kid to think about. Leave him there and let him take a dump all over the place? No. He didn’t want to clean up the mess. Let him go? Not a chance.
The guy stood there, confused and unsure while Colt squirmed. “Come on, man. If I let loose in these pants, you’ll never get the stink out.”
“Fine.” The girl’s father turned to his daughter. “Dump those clothes and go get some scissors. Quick.”
She ran out of the room while her father paced back and forth. He ran a hand through his hair every few steps as he waved the gun about. “You try anything and I’ll put a bullet in your head, you understand?”
Colt nodded.
The little girl came back and her father pointed at Colt’s hands. “Cut one of his hands loose.”
He pointed at Colt. “I meant what I said. Not a move.’
Colt inhaled and braced himself for action. He counted on the man’s reflexes being too slow. The little girl stepped up to him and bit her lip as she opened the scissors. They were so big, she had to hold one side with each hand.
She opened the blades. Rust pocked the surface. Colt tensed. “You know how to use those things, right?”
“Course she does. Now shut up and let her work.” The man nodded at the girl. “Go on, baby. It’s all right.”
The girl nodded and turned back to the task. Colt twisted to the side to give her the best angle. Were his shots up to date? Dying of some nasty infection after surviving bullet wounds and a three-story fall would be ironic at best.
She stuck the scissors through the gap in Colt’s arms and forced them shut. Even from Colt’s poor angle, he could see they would never open. The tape stuck to the metal and held fast. The little girl tugged and pulled, but it was no use.
“Daddy, they’re stuck. I can’t do it.” She sagged and looked up at him.
The man didn’t know what to do. He shook his head back and forth, opened his mouth and closed it again, glanced all around the bathroom.
Colt spoke up. “You got a knife? A sharp one will probably cut through it.”
The drug addict mumbled curses beneath his breath and shoved the gun in his waistband. He stepped forward and yanked on the scissors. It took him three tries and some serious effort, but he pulled them free. He turned to his daughter. “You watch him honey, and if he does anything, you holler. All right?”
The girl nodded and her father left the room.
Colt couldn’t wait there forever. Every minute this circus kept up, his chances of escape dwindled. The man would either get sick of him or do something stupid and someone would die. Colt hoped it wouldn’t be the little girl.
“How about you go take a nap, huh, sweetie? I bet you’re tired after all that candy.”
She rose up on one foot, balancing like a ballerina. “I’m not tired. I could stay up all day and all night, just like Daddy.”
“If you dig through my bag, you’ll find a pack of gum in the bottom. You can have it.”
She twirled around on her toes with her arms up in the air. “I don’t like gum. Too chewy.”
Colt exhaled. He didn’t want the kid there when he took on her father. “There might be some clothes. Something pretty for you.”
The girl paused halfway through another turn. “Like a necklace or a tiara?”
Colt plastered on a smile. “You never know unless you find out.”
Her father stepped back into the room holding a giant bread knife with a foot-long blade. The little girl squeezed under his arm and scampered away. He watched her go and shook his head. “Kids. They can’t never stay in one place.”
“She seemed to like the closet just fine.”
The man pinned Colt with a look. “Keep talkin’ like that and I’ll leave you here, shit or no shit.”
Colt managed another nod and turned his back on the man.
The knife blade rubbed against his forearm as the man slipped it between Colt’s hands. He sawed it back and forth against the tape. Little by little the tension in Colt’s arms eased. He worked on keeping his body relaxed and easy. Too much tension and the man might notice.
The first section of tape gave way. He could move his shoulders. A minute later, the man hacked through the next section and Colt’s wrists separated, but he was still taped to the toilet.
Colt pointed with his head at the toilet seat. “You’ll have to cut the tape on the seat, too.”
The man shot him a look. “I ain’t stupid. Hold on.” He crouched down in an awkward sideways stance with the gun digging into his ribs. As he worked on the tape, Colt ran through the options. Only one came to mind.
He inhaled. Focused his mind. Waited. Almost t
here…
The second the tape connecting his right hand to the toilet separated Colt dove for the gun. He wrapped his fingers around the butt and yanked it free as the man staggered back.
With a shout, the man swung the knife. Colt ducked and it went wide. Spinning around, Colt grabbed the toilet seat in his left hand and yanked with all his might. It ripped from the toilet.
Colt fell back from the force, landing hard inside the tub. His legs stuck up in the air and he couldn’t get leverage. The drug addict lunged for him again with the knife. Colt cocked the gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
It clicked.
Shit.
The man laughed and lunged for him again. “You think I’d wave a loaded gun around with a kid in here?” he jabbed at Colt with the knife. It sliced his shirt and nicked his side.
He grunted and heaved himself out of the tub with all his strength. He collided with the man and propelled him back. The man’s hip hit the side of the sink and the knife clattered to the floor.
Colt whipped the gun around in his grip and used it like a club. Swinging high and fast, he slammed the butt into the side of the man’s head and he went down, crumpling into the sink before sliding onto the floor.
A scream rose up from the doorway. The little girl stood there, wearing one of the shirts Colt picked out for Dani. It reached her knees.
He stepped over her father and brushed past her. He couldn’t save them all.
Chapter Seven
DANI
672 Bellwether Street
Eugene, Oregon
2:00 p.m.
The door to an apartment crashed open and Dani brought up the rifle. She squinted into the dark and took aim as a shape barreled into the hall. Her finger twitched on the trigger.
“It’s all right, Dani!” Larkin bellowed. “It’s Colt!”
She eased off the trigger and lowered the rifle as Colt and Larkin approached.
Colt reached for her and brought her to his chest for a quick hug. “We need to move, now.”
