Squinting in the darkness, she stepped over more trash, making her way to the stage. The curtain was drawn.
That seemed a portent of the show to come.
Licking her lips, fear ravaging her insides, she heard a child's sobbing get louder. The thought of Hayley being kept in this hellhole turned some of her fear into anger.
She walked faster.
She went up the stairs on the right.
The curtain suddenly opened.
A bright light hit the stage and there was Hayley sitting in the middle of the floor, arms around her knees, rocking back and forth, crying her little heart out.
She ran toward her, dropping to her knees, knowing that they were both spotlighted for whoever was watching, but she didn't care.
"It's going to be okay, Hayley." She wrapped her arms around the little girl—around her daughter. She could hardly believe she was holding her. "I'm here. I've got you."
"I want my mommy," Hayley said, looking into her eyes.
The simple phrase broke her heart. "I'm going to take you to her."
"She's not dead? They said she was dead. And my daddy, too."
"Your family is fine," she reassured her, mentally taking note that Hayley had used the word they. "Who brought you here?"
"A tall man and a short man," she said with another sob. "They smell bad."
"Do you know where they went?" She looked around, but with the light on, she could barely see anything.
The light suddenly went off. She blinked in the darkness, and jumped to her feet, pulling Hayley up with her, putting her body in front of her daughter's as a man appeared in front of her. He was definitely the tall man, well over six foot seven, and when he came out of the shadows, he had a gun trained on her.
Her heart leapt again as all the clues fell into place. "Stix," she murmured. "Stan Tix."
"I'm glad to see you haven't forgotten me, Bree Larson—or I guess it's Adams now. You left this shit-filled city and made a new life for yourself. Some of us didn't get to do that."
"You did all this for revenge against me and Johnny?"
"Surprised? Did you really think I'd ever forget the two people who ruined my life? I was on my way to a pro basketball career. I was going to be rich, famous—I was going to have everything. But I lost it all, because of Johnny, and because of you."
"You did it to yourself. I didn't do anything."
"You lied to the cops to protect Johnny. You backed up his story. You told them Johnny couldn't possibly have assaulted that kid, that he was a good guy."
"I didn't say any of that. I just said he was at the fashion show. He was in the audience. I didn't know anything."
"He wasn't in the audience. He was here, beating up a college kid for trying to take over his drug turf. I arrived just in time to save that kid from dying, and I ended up with blood on my hands. But it was the knife in the back that took me down, the one placed there by Johnny, and left there by you."
"That kid said two guys beat him up. You were one of them. He identified you. There was DNA evidence."
"I didn't do the beating. The second man was Baker—Johnny's right-hand man. And the kid saw me when I was trying to help him. But he had serious head injuries. He couldn't remember when I'd entered the room."
Was that true?
Frowning, she thought about the other part of his statement. "You said Baker was there, too."
"He was."
"But he has been working with you. He's part of this kidnapping. He made the ransom call. Why wouldn't you hate him, too?" she asked in confusion.
"I did hate him. So, I used him. Now he's dead."
"You were at the silos. You shot him."
"I was done with him. And I didn't need him talking to you."
"You could have taken me out at the silos."
"That wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun."
As he shifted his weight, the light glinted off the big ring on his hand—the World Series Cubs ring.
"You took Hayley out of the auditorium," she said. "How did you get her to go with you?"
"She wanted to come with me. I had her bunny," he replied.
She put her hand on Hayley's arm, feeling the little girl's body shaking as she clung to Bree's waist. "I can't believe you kidnapped an innocent child to get back at Johnny and me. She's not part of this. You want me; I'm here. Let Hayley walk out."
"Oh, I don't think she's going anywhere, not until we have a happy family reunion."
"Johnny isn't coming."
"I think he is."
"Look, I don't know anything about that night, Stix. I didn't set you up. I didn't know what happened."
"Pretty girls never know anything about what their bad boyfriends are doing," he said, a bitter note in his voice. "Well, my pretty girl left me. She had a baby with someone else. She got married and forgot all about me."
"I'm sorry. But I still don't understand why you went to such elaborate lengths to mess with me. Why did you send me all over the city? You sent that girl—Emma—to talk to me on the train. And now I guess the photo at the shelter makes sense, because that was the night all this happened. But it's so complicated. How long have you been planning your revenge?"
"Since the day I went to prison."
She shook her head, seeing the crazy anger in his eyes. He was obsessed, fanatical; he would not be talked out of anything, but she still felt like she had to try. "Is Emma all right?"
"Who the hell is Emma?"
"The little girl on the train. Now you're confused?" Was he completely out of his mind? "Why focus on me? Johnny was the one who really hurt you."
"I know exactly what's happening. And don't worry, Johnny is part of this. He should be here any second. My men will make sure of that. You see, I've put together my own army. I found a lot of good soldiers in prison. They taught me how to fight someone like Johnny, and how to win."
He'd no sooner finished speaking when the doors to the auditorium opened, and Johnny was shoved toward the stage by another man with a gun. Johnny looked worse than he had after his fight with Nathan. His clothes were ripped, and he was barely able to walk.
As he got closer, she saw that his leg was bleeding, and someone had tied a rag around it. He'd been shot. The warfare at the automotive shop must have come from Stix and his associates.
Hayley cried louder as the men drew closer.
Johnny gave her what felt like a reassuring look, but she wasn't comforted. He could barely walk. What the hell kind of help was he going to be? And he appeared to be alone.
Obviously, Stix had taken out Johnny's men.
Unless one or two of them had survived and would come after their boss?
She hoped that was a possibility.
Even without them, Nathan was around somewhere, and FBI agents were on their way. She just had to keep everyone alive in the meantime.
The only good thing about this nightmare was that Stix wanted to savor his moment of revenge, of triumph. He didn't want them to die too fast. He wanted them to understand that he was in charge now, that they would die at his hands.
"Watch the front," Stix told his associate. "Where's Rico?"
"Out back," the man said, letting go of Johnny as left.
She was happy to see him go; it definitely improved her odds, but Stix still had the only gun, and with Hayley hanging on to her for dear life, she couldn't take him down with any sudden moves.
"How did you know about my baby?" she asked, hoping Hayley wasn't paying attention to the conversation, but she seemed too frightened to be taking much in.
"A friend clued me in," Stix said.
"A friend? Does he have a name?" she asked sharply.
"I know who he is. You don't need to know," Stix replied. His gaze hardened on Johnny. "You got nothing to say, Johnny boy? Look who's in charge now?"
Johnny spit on the floor in response.
Anger stiffened Stix's spine, and he seemed to get even taller. "I'll do the talking then. You sent m
e to prison for what you did. You took away my life, the family I was supposed to have, and now you're going to lose yours."
"Bree is not my family," Johnny said harshly. "I don't give a damn about her anymore."
She believed Johnny, but Stix didn't.
"You don't love Sierra," Stix said. "You're just using her, the way you use everyone. Bree is the only one you cared about, and even if you hate her for what she did to you, you still want her." He paused, giving Bree an evil smile. "I actually admire the guts it took for you to walk away."
"Then let me go. Let Hayley go."
"Unfortunately, there's always collateral damage." He turned back to Johnny. "I know what you care about, and that's blood—family. Well, your blood is right here on this stage. And I'll be doing her a favor by not letting her grow up with you."
Bree sucked in a breath at Stix's twisted words.
Johnny didn't rise to Stix's bait. He just stared back at his one-time friend with burning hatred in his eyes.
No one was backing down. But she needed to find a way to defuse the situation.
"Do whatever you want to me and Johnny," she said, bringing Stix's attention back to her. "Hayley is not part of this. She wasn't even born when you went to prison."
"I don't think so." Stix raised his gun and pointed it at her. "In fact, I think she goes first, and you two will watch."
"You don't want to do that," she argued. "You just told me you were innocent of your crime, and that you tried to save the kid Johnny almost killed. You don't want to hurt this child."
"I've changed. Prison will do that."
He had changed and the gentle giant she had once known was nowhere to be found. He was going to kill them all. She had no doubt about it.
Johnny must have made the same assumption, because he suddenly moved, throwing his body in front of hers as Stix fired his weapon. The bullet ripped through Johnny's chest.
Hayley screamed.
She ducked down, wrapping Hayley up in her arms, praying the next bullet would hit her and not her child.
But before Stix could fire again, a crashing noise above the stage distracted him. He looked up, and then a body came down from the rafters, knocking Stix off his feet.
Nathan!
The gun flew out of Stix's hand, sliding across the stage as Nathan attacked him.
She pushed Hayley to the side and grabbed Stix's gun off the floor.
She was just in time as the man who'd brought Johnny in earlier came rushing toward the stage. She fired, hitting him square in the chest. He fell to the floor. She turned her gun toward Stix, but he and Nathan were so entangled, she couldn't risk hurting Nathan.
Hayley was screaming, and her maternal instincts were firing on all cylinders. She needed to get her daughter off the stage and safely away.
"Give me the gun. Get her out of here," Johnny told her, his face a picture of contorted agony as he sat up, blood coming from his chest and his leg.
She had no time to dither, tossing the gun to Johnny, then grabbing Hayley and running toward the stairs.
As another blast rocked the auditorium, she prayed that Johnny had not shot Nathan.
Not knowing how many men they might have to get through to get out of the school, she decided to go up to the roof. Hopefully, they could find a place to hide until more help arrived.
When they got on the roof, the dark day gave them some shadows, but they still needed to find cover. The roof was patchy in places, and she had to be careful where they stepped, so they didn't fall through.
Large heating ducts rose up like stalwarts along one side of the roof, but they were too thin to hide behind. Then she spied a big heating unit about four feet wide by six feet long and it was next to a raised portion of the roof. They might be out of sight there. She moved quickly across the roof. "Climb in, Hayley," she said, pushing the little girl behind the unit.
"Don't go," Hayley cried, clinging to her hand. "I'm scared."
"I'm not going anywhere," she said, sliding in next to her. As Hayley's fingers tightened around hers, she felt a crazy sense of familiarity. She'd never held her baby's hand until now, but it felt so absolutely right, and the connection between them was powerfully strong.
She would save her daughter, or she would die trying.
* * *
Nathan had taken out two of Stix's men on his way into the school, but he'd had the element of surprise. Now he was going toe-to-toe with a man who had six inches and forty pounds on him. Not only that, Stix was fighting like a yard dog who'd been chained up too long. There was a starving hunger in him, a powerful need for the revenge he'd been seeking for more than a decade.
Thankfully, Johnny had shot another one of Stix's men, who had come into the room after Bree and Hayley left. He just needed to take Stix down, give Bree time to escape.
His fist connected with Stix's jaw, and as Stix's eyes bugged out, he thought he might have gotten the advantage.
But then Stix seemed to gather superhuman strength from somewhere, throwing his entire body weight at him.
He felt the edge of the stage underneath his foot and then he went flying. He landed hard on his back, his head bouncing off the floor, something sharp cutting his back. He saw stars and felt a rocketing wave of pain rip through him as a curtain of darkness began to descend.
He couldn't let that curtain hit the ground. He couldn't lose consciousness. Bree needed him.
He fought through the haze threatening to take him under and somehow found a way to get back on his feet. But Stix was gone. Two of his associates were dead on the floor, and Johnny was barely moving.
He struggled to get himself up the stairs to the stage. Johnny was barely breathing, gasping in the last few seconds of his life. There was too much damage, too much blood.
"Roof," Johnny bit out, clutching his bloody chest, as he looked at him. "Save Bree," he bit out. "And my daughter." He struggled for breath. "Tell Bree…I finally did one good thing. Hope it's enough." Johnny's eyes closed as he uttered his last breath.
Nathan didn't have time to think about what Johnny's death meant. All he could focus on was getting to Bree. He grabbed the gun that had just fallen from Johnny's hand and ran toward the stairs, hoping Stix had gone in the opposite direction.
* * *
"The tall man is back," Hayley whispered, her eyes widening again.
Bree's gut tightened as Stix came out on the roof, and a terrible fear for Nathan washed through her. If Stix was up here, then Nathan…
But she couldn't think about that now. She couldn't let Stix get to Hayley. And it wouldn't take long for him to find them. She was going to have to find a way to turn the tables.
"Stay here," she whispered.
"Don't leave me," Hayley pleaded.
"I'll be back soon. You have to be very, very quiet. Okay?"
Hayley's bottom lip trembled, and her eyes filled with tears. "I want to go home."
"It's almost over. I won't let anything happen to you. Just don't move."
Hayley nodded her head.
She crept out from behind the heater. She moved away from Hayley as quietly as she could, hoping that if Stix heard her, he'd see only her and not Hayley.
Stix was definitely enraged, pacing along the river-side of the roof, probably looking for a way down. Maybe he didn't know they'd come up here. Or maybe he just hadn't seen the heating unit yet.
He was such a big man. She didn't know if she could physically take him down, but she had to try. Right now, he hadn't seen her. She could catch him off guard.
As he moved closer to the edge, she saw her opportunity. If she could grab onto the heating duct at the same time she kicked her feet out, she might be able to knock him off without taking herself over the side at the same time.
She'd only have one chance. If it didn't work, she'd be dead. And Hayley would die, too.
That wasn't going to happen.
Commit, she told herself.
She could do this. She could do thi
s for her daughter and for Nathan and even for Johnny, who had somehow, incredulously, taken a bullet for her.
Taking a deep breath, she gathered herself together and then ran full speed ahead. Two feet before she got to Stix, she grabbed the pole and then swung her body into midair, her feet hitting him dead in the chest as he turned around.
The force knocked him backward.
He tried to grab on to her legs.
His hand caught her foot for a brief second.
She kicked him away, holding onto the duct with all her might, and hoping it wouldn't break.
Stix waved his arms in the air, flailing, searching for something to save him.
But there was nothing for him to grab on to.
He let out a roar of anger and fear, shock widening his eyes, as he fell backward over the side of the building.
Heart pounding, she let go of the duct and walked over to the edge, seeing Stix's body floating face-down in the dark river.
The door to the roof opened behind her, and she whirled around, her hands automatically fisting as she prepared to do battle again.
But it was Nathan who stepped on to the roof, a gun in his hand.
She'd never been so happy to see him in her life.
He ran forward and swept her up into his arms, hugging her tight. But he didn't hang on long. "Stix," he bit out. "Where?"
"Down there," she said, tipping her head.
He looked over the side and then back at her. "How did you manage that?"
"You wouldn't believe it if I told you."
"You are one serious badass, Bree."
"Just a mother fighting for her kid." She paused. "Johnny?"
He shook his head.
She nodded, not really sure how she felt about Johnny's death.
"Everyone else is down or took off," he added. "I think we're okay."
"Good." As she finished speaking, she saw vehicles heading toward the school. Help had arrived. "Do you still have my phone?"
"Right here," he said, handing it to her.
She punched in Tracy's number. "I've got Hayley. She's safe. We're on the roof with Nathan. I don't know who else is still alive downstairs, but be careful coming in."
Reckless Whisper KO PL B Page 22
