by Jenna Night
Cassie sat in the mud, her legs folded beneath her. Seth sat in the mud to her left, also with his legs folded beneath him. A man, standing close to Cassie’s right, held a rifle pointed at her head. Cassie’s gun was tucked into his waistband. A second man, the one with the barking laugh, stood several feet in front of them where he moved around impatiently and then finally stopped. He also had a rifle, which he kept pointed in the general direction of the two captives.
Both gunmen wore masks. But their stances, and the way they held their rifles, seemed familiar. And then Leon thought of the men tracking him and Cassie through the forest and shooting at them when this all began six days ago.
Leon had tracked a lot of people in his career. He’d learned how to identify people not just by looking at their face or their clothes, but also by observing the way they stood and moved. Based on their skill in eluding Leon and capturing Cassie, plus their stances and movements, he was sure that these two were the same men. Of course, he’d considered the possibility from the moment he’d identified that there were two of them. But now he was sure of it.
“Who are you?” he heard Cassie demand of the barking-laugh man. “Why do you want to kill me?”
Despite the life-threatening situation, she defiantly raised her chin. Admiration for the woman mixed with gut-wrenching fear for her life set Leon’s emotions spinning. She turned her head to look at the gunman beside her, and Leon could see a swipe of mud across her cheek. It did not look like she’d fallen in the mud. It looked like one of the men had struck her.
Anger, hot and acidic, began to rise in Leon’s gut.
“You are a troublesome loose end,” Barking-Laugh Man said to her. “You, too,” he added, turning to Seth. “All you had to do was keep your mouth shut. And you couldn’t even do that.”
Seth dropped his chin to his chest, looking defeated.
Leon moved away from the window, toward the closest corner inside the building. He had to do something. If he waited too long, the gunman might kill Cassie before he acted. But if he barreled into the middle of things right this minute, they could start shooting and that could lead to her instant death. Where were Martin and Daisy? They should have been here by now. And if they couldn’t get around the rockslide, they should have called the cops and alerted them about Cassie’s meeting with Seth.
He was wary of exposing his phone’s screen in the darkness, where the light could shine through the spaces between the weathered boards of the building and give away his location, ruining everything. But he took the chance, ducking away from the window frame and holding the phone close to his chest to look for a message from Martin or Daisy.
Nothing.
He needed to call 9-1-1 and pray that the call would go through.
Before he tapped the screen, he took another quick look through the window to make certain the situation with Cassie and the gunmen was relatively stable. And then he heard the grinding sound of a vehicle, most likely a truck, making its way up the rutted trail leading into Rubyville.
Martin and Daisy.
Leon tapped his phone to make a quick call to tell Martin where he was, and to plan how the three of them would take down these thugs and rescue Cassie. But before the call could connect, the vehicle roared up closer to the building he was hiding in. How had they known to come to this specific building? Cassie must have somehow managed to let Martin and Daisy know where she was being held. Probably sent a quick text before she’d been captured by the criminals. Leave it to her to keep a cool head and get things done no matter the situation.
Leon quickly tried to connect with Martin again, but the call wouldn’t go through. The ghost town was built at the base of a towering rock outcropping, so the phone issues weren’t a complete surprise. Especially with the stormy, unstable weather. But that didn’t make it any less frustrating.
He gave up on talking to Martin and Daisy, shoved the phone into his pocket, and figured that as soon as the bounty hunters walked around the corner of the building, he would jump out from his hiding place. He knew he could count on Cassie to spring into action to help save herself.
He heard two truck doors open and shut. He rose to peer out the window again. The gunman by Cassie’s side kept an eye on her. The other one, the guy with the barking laugh who seemed to be the person in charge, glanced toward the corner of the building where approaching footsteps could be heard striking the exposed rock in the muddy ground.
Leon drew a breath, gripping the gun in his hand and tensing his body as he readied to jump through the open window frame. With no coordinated plan of attack in place, it was a good thing that he, Martin and Cassie had worked together so much that they could anticipate each other’s moves. And from the relatively short time he’d spent working with Daisy, he’d seen ample evidence that she knew how to deal with a dangerously unpredictable situation, too.
He heard the footsteps moving closer and prepared to move. Just as the steps reached the corner of the building, he jumped out the window.
The new arrivals weren’t Martin and Daisy. They were two more men. Both wearing masks, just like the original two.
Cassie was on her feet in an instant, kicking the man beside her in the gut while his attention was drawn to the new arrivals.
The startled newcomers were still trying to make sense of the scene in front of them when Leon quickly grabbed Cassie’s arm and hustled her toward the nearby forest. He didn’t much care about Seth’s safety. He was the reason Cassie and Leon were there and their lives were in danger. But as Leon and Cassie took off running in the darkness, Seth ran with them.
Bam! Bam!
Leon planned to use the surrounding dark forest for cover until they could get to his truck. Then they’d jump in it and get out of town. If any of the assailants had night-vision or heat-detection equipment, there would not be much time before they were caught.
When they were as close to the truck as they could get, they broke cover and ran for it.
Bam! Bam! Two more shots. But they didn’t sound like they were being fired near Cassie and Leon. It sounded like they were coming from behind the boarding house.
Were the gunmen searching for Cassie and Leon in the wrong direction? Maybe firing a few shots to try to scare them and flush them out? It didn’t seem likely. But Leon didn’t have time to figure out what they were doing. He just needed to get Cassie and himself out of Rubyville and away from danger.
“Are you all right?” he asked Cassie as they got closer to his truck. It was the first chance he’d had to ask her.
“No!” she snapped. “I’m not all right. I’m furious.”
That meant that, physically, she was probably okay.
He heard several more shots from behind the boardinghouse, which prompted all three runners to move faster as Seth continued to keep up. The brisk breeze stirred the clouds overhead, allowing them clearer sight lines as they ran, but also making them easier targets.
With that little bit of added moonlight, Leon could now see that his truck was tilted at an odd angle. Please, no. As they got closer to it, the flat rear tire was clearly visible. As was the handle of the hunting knife sticking out of it.
He heard gunshots again. Only, they were louder now. Closer. And then he caught the sound of bullets hitting the ground not far away. Somebody was shooting at them.
Not willing to risk taking a look back to see which of the four possible thugs was doing the shooting, Leon pressed Cassie in front of him and shouted, “Head for the woods!”
They ran as fast as they could, with Seth doggedly staying with them. That worried Leon. Because even though Seth didn’t appear to be friends with any of the gunmen, it could all be a ruse. He could be keeping up with Cassie and Leon, only to turn them over to the shooters when it might work to his advantage.
* * *
“You told me you had a truck at the campground,” Cassie said
to Seth after they’d put some distance between themselves and the shooters and dropped down behind a fallen tree to catch their breaths. “Take us to it.”
“I left it parked not far from here.” Though Seth was noticeably younger than Cassie and Leon, he seemed much more winded from running and kept taking shallow, panted breaths. “I bought an old pickup with a camper shell. Cheap. Paid cash. Gave the guy a fake name for the transfer of registration. Been living in it ever since.”
Cassie was ready to get up and run toward the campground and Seth’s camper. Leon, who was propped up and looking over the fallen tree watching for pursuers, was obviously ready to run again, too. But Seth was still gasping, each intake of air starting to make wheezing sounds.
“If you’re asthmatic, you need to take a hit of your inhaler,” Cassie said.
Seth shook his head. “I do have asthma, but I didn’t dare go to the pharmacy for a prescription refill. Too afraid they would find me if I did that.”
“Who are they?” Cassie demanded, tired of waiting for the answers he’d promised to give her. “What’s going on? Why do they want to kill me? Did they kill my husband?” The questions fired out of her like projectiles and she couldn’t stop them.
So much of her life—of life in general—had not made much sense to her since the day Jake had been murdered. Somehow she’d managed to learn how to get through her days with all the unanswered questions hovering in the back of her mind. But then Seth had hinted about things he knew while he was in that jail cell with Phil. And as a result, all of those demoralizing, unanswered questions that had been quieted for a while were now back in the forefront of Cassie’s thoughts throughout the day. Every day. Getting in the way as she continued to try to process her grief. Keeping her from moving forward with her life.
Instead of responding to her questions, Seth turned away.
Frustrated, Cassie reached out, wrapped her hand around his chin and turned his head so he was looking at her. “Answer me,” she demanded, letting go so he could talk.
“No!” His expression turning cagey. “I know you’ll keep me alive so you can get your answers. So you get me to safety first, and then you’ll find out what you want to know.”
Cassie wanted to punch him in the face. But she didn’t do it.
The relative quiet of the forest was broken by the sounds of snapping twigs and footfalls, someone obviously moving quickly in their direction. After only a few seconds Cassie realized it was likely two people. But which two? The first pair of gunmen or the second? Did it make any difference?
No, at the moment it didn’t matter. All four gunmen were dangerous. She, Leon and Seth needed to get moving again and quickly make their way to Seth’s truck.
“Let’s go,” Leon said, standing while he held his gun pointed toward the unseen people moving in their direction.
Cassie sprang up. Seth was slow to move, so she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to his feet. “I know it’s hard to run when you can’t breathe very well, but you have to try,” she said, forcing herself to display a compassion she didn’t really feel. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. At the very least, she should probably get her facts straight before she dumped all of her anger and frustration on Seth.
They headed for the campground. The underbrush in the forest was thick with small saplings, exposed roots from bigger trees, vines and grasses claiming much of the ground. Leon tried to stay slightly behind Cassie and Seth to stave off the gunmen, who sounded like they were closing in on them. But Cassie dropped back to his side as soon as she realized what he was doing. “You know the way to the campground, so you should probably take lead,” she said to him. Then she gestured at Seth. “I don’t trust this guy to take us in the right direction.”
They were navigating as best they could in the darkness when bullets started to ping off the trees surrounding them. That got them running faster, until Seth stumbled over something and face-planted onto the ground. Cassie and Leon slowed and turned, waiting for him to get up and resume running. But he didn’t. Instead he pushed himself up partway but then just sat there, his shoulders slumped, his face downturned, looking defeated.
With a huff of impatience, Cassie hurried back to him, Leon close by her side, the two intent on getting Seth back on his feet and moving again.
“We’ve got to keep going,” she whispered loudly as she approached him.
Too late, she saw the glint of gunmetal in the thick forest barely ten feet away. Two masked gunmen stepped forward, their weapons aimed at Cassie and Leon.
At such a close range, Leon didn’t dare move to take aim at them. They’d be dead before he could fire a single round.
“You did this on purpose!” Cassie snapped at Seth.
He shook his head. “No,” he said forlornly, “I didn’t.”
“You had to know we’d catch up with you eventually,” one of the gunmen said in an eerily calm tone. “No reason to blame poor Seth.” Both shooters had pulled up the bottoms of their masks so the lower half of their faces were visible. They’d probably done it so they could breathe easier while running. But with the top halves of their faces covered and the darkness and shadows, Cassie couldn’t see who they were.
“Who are you?” she demanded, frustrated because the voice of the man who’d spoken to her sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. One thing she knew for certain, this was not one of the men who’d pointed a gun at her just a few minutes ago when she’d been forced to sit in the mud, Seth beside her.
So where were the first two gunmen? Who were they? What was going on?
She heard Leon move beside her. One of the gunmen quickly flicked on a bright rectangular light that looked like the flashlight app from a phone. Cassie turned her face from the glare and saw that Leon had moved his gun so that it was aimed at the man who’d just spoken to Cassie.
“Drop your weapon or die,” the second gunman said to Leon.
“Now is as good a time as any to shoot them,” the first gunman said. The one whose voice sounded familiar to Cassie.
“Drop your gun now, or we’ll shoot both of you,” the second gunman said when Leon didn’t obey his command.
No! Cassie thought. She was the one they were after. Not Leon. It was her fault Leon was in danger. And it was time he looked out for himself instead of looking out for her. He had to make it through this attack or execution or whatever it was, even if Cassie didn’t. She couldn’t stand the thought of anything happening to him because she loved him.
Loved him. Not like a buddy she worked with. Not like some kind of stand-in for her late husband. Not like some friend she’d grown attached to because she hadn’t had a romantic life for years. No, she loved Leon Bragg. As in wanting a future together with him. She was through with finding reasons to keep her emotional distance from him.
What a time and place to realize that.
Too late, it seemed.
“Let him go,” Cassie said. “I’m the one you’re after. Your masks are still on. We don’t know who you are. You can let him go. He won’t be able to describe you to the police.”
Cassie heard a sound behind her. She thought it might be Leon moving forward to argue with her. It wasn’t.
A flash of something metallic flew through the air toward the two gunmen. The phone-flashlight was suddenly on its side in a tuft of grass, illuminating the hilt of a knife sticking out of the second gunman’s leg. He took an unsteady step and tumbled to the ground.
Cassie felt a rush of movement beside her as Leon darted past to tackle the first gunman. There was the brief sound of a scuffle. And then she heard a voice.
“Leon, I really do think you could have had a pro football career.” Martin stepped into the light and hurried over to help Leon secure the two gunmen.
“Hey, Cassie, I’m coming up behind you,” Daisy called out from the darkness.
“I don’t want to startle you.”
Cassie turned on shaky legs to see the bounty hunter coming out of the forest. Meanwhile, Seth was still sitting on the ground where he’d fallen after he’d tripped. It didn’t look like he’d moved an inch.
“Nice knife-throwing skills,” Cassie said to Daisy.
“Thank you,” Daisy replied. “I pulled the knife out of Leon’s tire. Kind of an odd place for him to keep it, don’t you think?” she teased before wrapping her arms around Cassie for a hug. “You okay?” she asked.
Cassie choked back a sob of relief that had started to rise in her throat. “I will be.”
“I’m sorry it took us so long to get here,” Daisy said. “The rockslide was more extensive than we realized. And the phone reception was tricky. When we got here and saw Leon’s truck, we knew something was wrong and called the cops. It took a couple of tries but we finally got through. We called them again when we found the bodies.”
“Bodies?”
“Yeah, two guys dressed in blackout. Like your friends here.” She gestured toward the two men who were now sitting on the ground, hands behind their backs, and Leon and Martin standing guard.
“Were they wearing their masks?” Cassie asked. “Could you see their faces?”
“Their masks were pulled up. Neither one looked familiar. Both had been fatally shot.”
“Well, now I can look to see who these two are,” Cassie said, heading over to the assailants.
She reached the second gunman first. The guy who’d threatened Leon. She could see a moderate amount of blood on his thigh, and the knife on the grass beside him. She kicked it out of his reach. It appeared that the blade hadn’t gone too deep. She pulled up his mask and looked into the scowling face of Kirk Downing.
That made absolutely no sense. She stared at him for a moment, stunned. Why would the mayor’s son want her dead?
And then she swept her gaze to the other gunman as her thoughts rapidly shifted to the recent news conferences centered around the recovery of her husband’s killer. She thought of this gunman’s familiar voice and shook her head slightly. He couldn’t possibly be who she now thought he was. She yanked off the mask and found herself staring at the face of Stone River’s mayor, Al Downing.
