Protecting Holly

by Lynn Bulock

  “Yeah, well it ought to be another agent providing that presence,” Travis Vance growled. “You’re too close to this one, Jake.”

  “Just like you backed off without argument when it was Tricia in danger,” Jake said, almost sorry he’d said that when the words were out. Still, he would argue any way he could to stay right where he was. “According to your tracer, are they still stopped off of Highway 24 somewhere?”

  “That or he found the tracer.”

  “Not likely.”

  “I know. Looking at the maps, there’s only one road that leads in to where they should be.” Travis kept directing Jake up a narrow county road, then up a track barely a lane wide. Suddenly Jake could spot the Jeep up ahead. He cut the engine to the Escalade and got out as quietly as possible.

  “Thanks buddy. I owe you a big one. Tell Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs exactly where I am, and that I’m going in now.”

  Jake could hear Travis sputter. “Oh, no. You wait for backup, Montgomery. No Lone Ranger moves, not even for Holly.”

  “Sorry, you’re breaking up. So far out here, I can’t hear you,” Jake lied, taking off the headset and disconnecting it as he heard Travis sputter.

  He knew what the right procedure was. He knew enough to wait for backup. But the woman he loved was in danger, and there wasn’t time to wait for backup. They’d be here soon enough anyway, to clean up after him.

  Jake tried to stay behind trees as much as possible, gun drawn, listening for sounds that would indicate that Holly and Convy were here somewhere near the Jeep. Moving without noise wasn’t easy here. The underbrush rustled, and there were sticks on the ground ready to snap under an unwary foot. Finally he could hear one voice droning on. It was deeper, male. Jake couldn’t hear anybody answering in return, but surely Convy wouldn’t be talking like that if Holly was…not here. He couldn’t even bear to think about the possibility.

  He was moving more slowly now, aware of his breathing and every little noise. He wasn’t close enough to get a shot at Convy yet, but he could see Holly. She was tied to a pine, but although her head was sagging to one side, there were no signs of blood, and she definitely seemed alive. Jake could hear her rouse herself and say something to Convy. It gave him hope that all of this could turn out okay.

  Gun out in front of him again, he got ready to move in on Convy. First he listened for more vehicles coming up the road, but there was nothing. The only sound besides Convy was an insistent bird somewhere nearby. Jake wondered for a moment what kind of bird would be here this late in the year, and then there was the distinct click of an automatic pistol slide.

  Eight feet to his left a tall, dark man dressed in black materialized, a pistol much like his own at the ready. “What’s going on?” Jake said with as little breath as possible. He’d never thought about Convy having a partner, and certainly not one as suave as Alessandro Donato.

  In a flash the man was close enough to whisper his answer. “Let’s just say I, too, am interested in my cousin Travis’s toys. When this one activated I followed it.” He gave a wordless, Mediterranean shrug. “You look like you could use help.”

  “How do I know you’re on my side?”

  “I’m certainly not on his,” was the enigmatic answer. It was enough for now. Motioning for Donato to stay put, Jake noticed that Convy seemed to be silent.

  “Who’s out there?” Convy called. “I hear you. Come out with your hands up or I shoot the girl.”

  Jake took a deep breath. “Jake Montgomery, FBI. Convy, you’re surrounded. Drop the gun.”

  “No. If I’m surrounded, come out and prove it,” Convy said. “All of you.”

  Jake motioned for Donato to stay behind and silent. Then he walked toward the clearing, gun stretched out in his open palm. “Okay, you’ve got me. I followed you from the lot. But I alerted Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs on the way, and the rest will be here in a minute. So drop the gun, Convy, and get ready to surrender.”

  The small clearing was empty except for Holly. Jake scanned the bushes, wondering where Convy had gotten to. A blur of movement too close to him to dodge all the way was the last thing Jake saw before something hard came down near his right temple. Light flashed in front of his eyes and he sank to his knees.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When Convy knocked Jake out, Holly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She knew Jake well enough by now to figure his claim to have backup was a bluff. Once he’d gotten wind of where she was, he’d probably gone off alone. So here he was, by himself, ready to save her. It proved to her, beyond a doubt, that he loved her. But it also said that he’d let love get the better of the instincts that usually made him a good special agent. Now they were both in trouble, maybe worse off than she’d been the moment before. She prayed that he’d let the police know where he was going.

  At least Convy didn’t shoot him right away. Kicking the gun far away from Jake, he rolled Jake on his back and pulled another length of rope out of his backpack. He was muttering to himself now, and Holly could catch bits and phrases, like “I knew he was lying” and “but killing a cop is certain death” that at least gave her hope that Convy was still sane enough to know the consequences that harming Jake could have.

  Since Jake was unable to do anything, it was up to her now to keep Convy busy until help came. “He wouldn’t have moved in unless backup was at least closing in,” Holly said, forcing the words between chattering teeth. She was trying to think as clearly as possible, searching for the right words to get Convy to do as little damage as possible. Maybe he’d even clear out if he got panicked enough. With luck he’d run into the police that she knew couldn’t be far away. “If you want to escape, you better leave now.”

  “I’ll take my chances,” he said, staring at her. “I still think he was bluffing. Your hotshot boss wouldn’t wait for backup. I’ve got a while until anybody else shows up. Besides, while killing him has consequences I’d rather avoid, killing you is another story. I still want to do that. I just have to do it quicker.”

  Holly was shivering so hard now that it was uncontrollable. She couldn’t talk much because of the tremors in her body. Convy seemed to be mulling things over. He looked down at the gun in his hand, and a horrid grin spread over his face.

  For a moment Holly couldn’t figure out what he was doing when he went over near Jake, ignoring his prone body while he looked around in the grass and pine needles. When he picked up Jake’s automatic with a gloved hand, Holly lost whatever reserve she had and started shouting at him. “No. Don’t shoot me. Don’t you use that gun!” Her words echoed through the trees, as she tried to convey to anyone who might be out there that the situation had suddenly gotten more desperate.

  “Shut up. I don’t want to. It won’t look like a suicide anymore if I shoot you.” He paused, considering the gun he now held. “Unless I shoot both of you with his gun.” He was almost caressing the gun now, making Holly shiver. “That’s what I can make it look like, some kind of lover’s spat gone terribly wrong. Yeah, I can even close your hand around the gun and put your prints on it afterward.”

  He walked over to Holly, getting closer and closer to her while she screamed. This was not how she wanted her life, and Jake’s, to end. As Convy stepped beside her and raised the gun, it flew from his hand and he dropped to the ground.

  Holly quieted down, listening to Convy scream even louder than she had. He was on his knees, clutching his arm. A dark stain seemed to be spreading on the sleeve of his parka. Someone had shot him! This was all happening so fast it was hard for her to comprehend it. Just then a dark-clad man entered the clearing behind Convy, who was in too much pain to pay attention to anything but his arm. He was also making too much noise to hear the man, which worked in the stranger’s favor.

  Leaning over Convy, the man reached out and did something from behind him that made Convy crumple into a heap on the ground as the man stepped neatly aside. He picked up Jake’s gun where Convy had dropped it. “There’s
another gun somewhere…maybe in his pockets or his backpack,” Holly called. The stranger probed around Convy and his belonging and came up with the other gun. As he straightened Holly got a look at his face, and with a shock recognized Lidia’s nephew Alessandro Donato.

  “Did you kill him?” she asked as he sliced the ropes that bound her to the tree.

  “No, bella, he’s not dead. Not even mortally wounded, although I suspect he will soon wish he were.” Grabbing her coat, he wrapped it around her. “But now I hear sirens. Jake’s real backup must be on the way, which means I need to leave. You’ll apologize to him for my failure to stay around and…chat, would you say?”

  “That’s one way to put it. But Alessandro, you need to stay to do a whole lot more than just chat. I don’t know how badly Jake’s hurt and Convy may wake up and—”

  He tipped one finger under her chin, and Holly could see his sparkling dark eyes. “Jake will wake up before Convy, and I am afraid that it is impossible for me to stay. Explaining what I’m doing here would get terribly…inconvenient.” He walked her over to where Jake still lay and helped her to sit down. “It will be all right. Ciao, bella.” And then he was gone, vanishing seconds before four or five officers in full protective gear, guns drawn, stormed the clearing.

  So this was what a concussion felt like. Jake hadn’t ever had the pleasure before, and was certain he never wanted to again. This was why he worked with computers instead of doing more dangerous field work. Computer experts were not expected to go out and get their heads bashed in. Amazing what a guy does for love, he thought, trying not to shake his head while he thought it. Just the mere thought of moving his head from side to side hurt.

  At least they’d let him ride to Vance Memorial in the same ambulance as Holly. That was a good thing, because neither of them seemed to be ready to go anywhere without the other. At first when he started regaining consciousness, he was sure he was hallucinating, because he was on the ground and his head was in Holly’s lap. And he had no memory of where he was or how he’d gotten there. In a couple moments, he remembered just enough about the previous events to know that the scene before had been far different. The last thing he remembered was charging the man who had Holly in the clearing, and seeing Holly tied to a tree.

  There had been somebody with him, though. Who else had been there? Jake’s aching head wasn’t letting him clear his thoughts long enough to remember. When he tried, he just got more dizzy and queasy, without the memory coming through. That seemed to be a real aggravation for the police officers, because it was obvious fairly quickly that Jake had been out of commission for a while, yet someone had shot Convy and freed Holly. Two guns, his own and one that Holly said belonged to Convy, lay in the grass next to Holly, far from Convy’s reach. It didn’t all add up.

  Convy hadn’t been able to add anything, because he hadn’t regained consciousness before being loaded into a separate ambulance, along with a Manitou Springs police officer to keep watch on him, for the trip to a local hospital. Jake didn’t argue with them loading the other guy first, as he appeared worse off than either of them. He was bleeding from an apparent gunshot wound. “I didn’t shoot him, did I?” Jake asked Holly quietly. He really hoped he hadn’t shot anybody without remembering it.

  “No, Jake. You didn’t shoot him.” She was still shivering a lot with his head in her lap, but she’d told him that he was helping keep her warm, so Jake had endured the shaking even though it made his head hurt worse. If he could have sat upright he would have changed their positions and held her in his arms to warm her more. But even Holly wouldn’t let him sit up. So he went along with the paramedics, letting the second unit take him and Holly to Vance Memorial, along with a Colorado Springs officer for protection if they needed it.

  Jake knew that the officer would also need full statements at some point. He wished him luck. Holly would be able to give them something sooner than he would. Apparently from what she had said earlier, she knew who else had been there with them and shot Convy. Jake hoped that he’d remember that eventually himself. Having a hole in his memory was a disturbing thing.

  For now he was happy lying back on the gurney in a bay in the emergency room, trying hard not to move his head much. Movement meant pain. If he lay silent he could hear them working on Holly in the next bay. He’d promised her he wouldn’t go any farther than he had to. In the ambulance they’d decided that she was unhurt as far as anyone could tell other than being deeply chilled. Jake suspected that if they hadn’t found her and Convy when they did, another hour would have had her close to freezing to death, if Convy hadn’t killed her some other way first. The thought made him shudder, which in turn made him feel hideously nauseated.

  He was going to need something for the headache pain pretty soon. But for now Holly warranted the medical attention, and to get much himself he’d have to call someone away from her, which he wasn’t ready to do. He’d have to feel much worse than he did right now to call attention to himself at her expense.

  He could hear them explaining treatment to Holly, wrapping her in warming blankets and monitoring her temperature. She was answering back and sounded lucid, so that was a plus. Lying here still and quiet, listening to Holly’s voice in the next bay was a comfort. They were both safe and warm, out of danger. There was so much to be thankful for here. Jake tried to list all the things he was thankful for; maybe it would keep him from dozing off. He remembered just enough first aid to know that dozing off was a bad thing in his situation, one the nurses would argue about once they came back in. Sure enough a minute later there was a stern-faced woman insisting he stay awake and talk to her. He agreed as best he could, and she even got him something for the pain. Sitting up enough to sip water with the pills wasn’t fun, but he got them down, and the nurse kept him propped up at a forty-five-degree angle so she could look in his eyes and ask him all sorts of annoying questions.

  “You’re going to have quite a goose egg for a couple days. I need to send you over to X ray to make sure that guy didn’t crack your skull when he gave you that concussion. What did he hit you with, anyway?”

  “I have no idea. I just barely saw it coming,” Jake said. “Whatever it was, I think I’m real lucky he wasn’t more accurate.”

  “You can say that again,” his nurse agreed. “Two inches forward at your temple and you’d be in surgery right now, if you made it to the hospital.”

  That sank in, making Jake feel queasy again, as he praised God for how well He had looked after him and Holly. Jake was beginning to have a vague memory of his companion before he’d charged Convy, but he told himself his memory couldn’t be right on that one. Why would a guy like Donato be tracking Convy, or helping out the FBI? Only God knew, Jake decided, thinking that his new relationship so far with his Lord seemed to consist of the most improbable events possible. Holly had always said God was awesome. She hadn’t ever told Jake that He had such a wicked sense of humor. Certainly God had a use for everybody, and Jake decided that many of those uses were far beyond his own understanding.

  Holly sat in her cocoon of blankets sipping sweetened hot herbal tea. Her ordeal in the woods was beginning to feel like a bad dream. “How’s Jake doing?” she asked the nurse writing on a chart next to her.

  “He’s all right. They sent him up to X ray to make sure he doesn’t have any fractures to go with his concussion. If it’s okay with the doctors, would you like us to wheel him in here when he’s done?”

  “That would be great,” Holly said. The last few horrible hours made her certain that they had a lot to talk about and the sooner the better. “How long will it be before I could have something to eat?”

  “You could have hot soup anytime,” the nurse told her. “I can have a tray sent in if you’d like.”

  Holly agreed, and looked around for a clock. It was a shock when she saw that it was late in the afternoon. Once that registered, she thought of something else. “Before you get the soup, could I have a telephone? I need to call my mom.
” Working for the Sentinel, her mother might have caught wind of the commotion in Manitou Springs by now, and even though no names would be attached, she would worry.

  Holly debated on how best to break things to her mother without getting her even more worried. After a moment’s thought, she called Rose’s cell phone. “Hi, it’s Holly. I’m okay. We both are.”

  For once Rose seemed to be left wordless. “That’s great. You actually got me praying for you,” she finally admitted. Holly knew what a stretch that was for her cousin, and she grinned. “I’ve been listening to police radios. Was it Convy who got shot? And are you and Jake really okay? I heard two ambulances dispatched.”

  Her cousin was as sharp as ever. “Convy was shot,” Holly said, “And Jake and I are both in the ER at Vance Memorial. That’s why I’m calling, more than anything. I want you to go over to the newspaper office and tell my mom what’s going on. But make sure she knows that I’m okay, just chilled. They’re almost ready to let me go,” Holly said, hoping that was the truth.

  She sat back, thinking about things. “I guess we are going to need at least one more favor. Both of our cars are in Manitou Springs out in the middle of nowhere, and Jake won’t be in any condition to drive any time soon. We’re going to need a ride home from the hospital.”

  “I can arrange that one too,” Rose said. “Peter and Travis Vance have already called me to pass on an update, and I’ll let one of them know you’ll need a ride.”

  “You’re the best,” Holly told her cousin, just in time to see Jake come into the bay still riding on his gurney.

  “Hey, no fair,” he said, his words slightly slurred as if he were in pain or medicated. “I thought I was the best.”

  “Well, you are, normally. But right now I’d say you’re a touch under the weather and Rose just found us a ride home from this place.” The orderly pushing Jake’s gurney maneuvered it so that Holly could reach out and hold Jake’s hand. He smiled a little dreamily. “They gave you something for the pain, didn’t they?”