by Dana Mentink
Shannon watched them go, struggling to keep her breathing steady. She’d taken a huge risk, and she might just have ruined them both.
“Lord,” she prayed. “Please.” She had not prayed since she was a very little girl, and the words seemed rough and rusty on her tongue, but Jack always said God listened to all prayers, big or small, so she added one more thing.
“Lord, please let Jack be alive.”
TWENTY
Jack headed to the barn, ignoring the pounding ache that started in his wrist and slammed through his body with increasing intensity. Keegan intercepted him.
“Tonight,” he said. “Midnight, at a parking lot in Rock Ridge.”
Jack sucked in a breath. “We meet Hank?”
“We meet Hank’s guy. He’ll vet us, and if we pass muster, we’ll be taken to Hank.”
“And if we don’t?”
Keegan arched an eyebrow. “Then things are going to get ugly fast.”
It was something. Did Hank’s willingness to meet mean he really did want his sister safe, or was he ready to kill anyone who had aided her perceived treachery to the Aces?
Jack offered Keegan a weary thanks and headed for his father, who held Lady’s reins. She was saddled and ready. “Your mother wants you to eat something and take pain meds. Larraby’s sending a man to move Annabell to a safe house. It’s temporary, until they can get her into the care of social services.”
Social services. His heart lurched. With a groan he was unable to stifle, he climbed into the saddle.
* * *
The sun rose into a sky that was puffed with cotton-candy clouds and backed by a sizzling blue. No rain. It would help the search. He was grasping at straws, and he knew it.
Leading Lady, he tried to let the rhythm of the horse soothe his nerves. Lady’s ears wiggled at the burble of the creek that bisected their property. It took him sharply back to a time long ago. Shannon was mired in college applications and financial-aid forms, and he had taken—no, practically dragged—her away for an afternoon of fishing at the creek, something she had never done before. After much coercion, she’d agreed to drop a line into the water. He’d caught nothing, but it didn’t matter one whit. He was intensely, completely and utterly satisfied to sit next to Shannon. To be with her, to listen to her talk of her plans and watch the sun tease the glossy chestnut glimmers from her hair was all he needed. She’d caught a fish, an impressive trout with speckled sides that he helped her haul out onto the sunbaked rocks.
You just caught our dinner, he remembered he had said, jubilantly.
She’d looked from him to the trout. We have to let it go, she’d said, wide-eyed.
But you catch ’em to cook ’em, he’d said through his laughter. That’s the whole point of fishing.
Then came her tears, welling from some dark and wounded place, spilling down her cheeks. Please, Jack. Can you get the hook out without hurting it?
So, he’d looked into those tender, tear-filled eyes, and he’d immediately set about removing that deeply sunk hook and tossing the prize fish back into the river, where she’d watched until it vanished under the water.
Heaving a sigh, she’d smiled and blushed, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. I’m sorry. It’s just, I...I didn’t want it to die.
And with his half-melted heart beating hard, he’d pulled her close, kissed her sweet mouth and decided then and there that he was going to make her his wife. His wife. It had in no way turned out like he’d thought, but he was not sorry that they’d gotten married, not sorry at all. It pained him heartily to think that she felt differently.
His phone buzzed, and he pulled it out. Would it be a message with an answer? Would it be an answer he was prepared to hear? It was a photo, dark and grainy, slightly blurred, as if it was taken in a hurry. A bolt hit him when he realized it had come from Shannon’s cell phone. He shouted and slid off Lady, texting a reply. Where? Are you okay?
The screen supplied no answer.
His father and Keegan came running. “It’s a text from Shannon to me and Larraby. She’s alive. She sent a picture of where they’re keeping her.”
They all three stared at the picture as his mother joined them.
“Some kind of cabin,” Keegan said. “I don’t recognize it.”
His mother’s face lit up as she peered at the screen. “Wait a minute. That glimmer there in the window. That’s a reflection of water, a river—no, a pond.”
Jack’s whole body went cold and then hot. “I know where she is,” he said.
His mother nodded. “The pond up by Ridgetop Cabin. It’s been empty for years, except for the hikers who use it sometimes. I’ll get word to the others and call Larraby to tell him we identified the place.”
He put a hand on her sleeve. “Give us a half-hour head start.”
She looked troubled. “Jackie...”
“If Cruiser smells the cops...” He could not finish aloud. If Cruiser got wind of police involvement, he would kill Dina and Shannon before he attempted an escape.
No witnesses.
No mercy.
No time to lose.
* * *
Shannon awakened a couple of hours later, her muscles cramped. Dina’s head lay against Shannon’s shoulder. Skids was snoring. She wished she knew the time. Late morning? No, early afternoon, she decided. The cabin door flung open with such a crash that Skids shot to his feet. Dina startled awake with a cry of surprise.
Rage shone on Cruiser’s face. He held up her phone. “What did you do, Doc?”
Dina climbed stiffly to her feet.
Shannon tried to move away from the young woman, in case Cruiser was going to shoot her. She didn’t want Dina caught in the cross fire.
“I slipped my cell phone in your pocket while you slept,” she said, chin up.
“So, what’s the big deal?” Skids asked, rubbing a trickle of drool from his chin.
“She took a photo of the cabin and texted it to Cowboy Jack, only there wasn’t a strong enough connection, so...” Cruiser trailed off.
“So I put it in your pocket, and when you hiked up to the road, where the signal was stronger, the text sent automatically.” She smiled. At least for one moment, she had bested Cruiser. “You sent my message for me. Thank you.”
He rushed at her, grabbing her throat. She grappled with his fingers as he squeezed off her oxygen. Dina batted at him, but he pushed her away. “I didn’t find your phone until just now, but you know what, smarty-pants Doc? It’s not gonna matter anyway.” His face was inches from hers.
Skids swore. “Cowboy people know where she is? When did the message send?”
“An hour ago. I just now found her phone in my pocket. Cowboy sent a follow-up text, but of course Doc here couldn’t respond.”
A follow-up text? Jack was alive. Heart soaring, she pulled again at his fingers.
His nails cut into her neck before he shoved her to the floor, where she lay gasping. “Think you’re so smart, don’t you? By the time the posse gets here, we’ll have handed Dina off to our Ace, gotten our money and you’ll be dead. Our contact will be here any minute, so pack up your stuff.”
He aimed a kick at her, but she scooted back until her shoulders hit the edge of the counter, sending a knifing pain through her lower back. Dina clutched her around the shoulders. “We’re gonna keep her just in case Cowboy does show up. Cowboy won’t shoot if his wifey is in the way. As soon as the exchange is made, she’ll die.” He laughed, yellow teeth showing. “You don’t feel so smart now, do you, Doc?”
Shannon did not give him the satisfaction. She kept her gaze on her knees, concentrating on breathing in and out through her swollen throat, focusing on the thought that made her whole body prickle with joy. Jack was alive. He’d gotten the photo an hour ago. With every fiber in her being, she believed that Jack would take o
n any enemy, no matter how formidable, to help her. Skids had finished packing up his few belongings from the car.
“Car approaching, stopped up at the main road,” Cruiser said. “Now it’s turning down the drive.”
Shannon caught a glimpse of a battered Chevy. Not Jack, nor any of his kin, as far as she knew. She shivered.
Skids wiped sweat from his forehead. “Sure it’s not cops?”
“It’s our Ace. Cover me from inside, just in case. Put them in the bedroom. Windows are stuck shut. I checked. When I give you the all clear, bring them out.”
Skids prodded them into the bedroom and slammed the door shut. Shannon heard him ease the front door open, probably taking up position there. Immediately, she ran to the window and tried to tug it open. Cruiser was right. It might as well have been welded into place. Frantically, she searched for something to break the glass.
The only thing that might work was an old wooden chair.
“How can we break the window without anyone hearing?” Dina asked.
“We can’t, but we’re out of time and options.” She grabbed the chair. “Once I smash it, kick the glass away and get out. Run as far into the woods as you can. Get to the road when it’s safe. You’ll be okay.”
“What about you?” Her eyes were wide.
“I’ll follow if I can.”
“Shannon,” Dina said, snatching up her hands. “I...I don’t deserve all the risks you’ve taken for me and the baby.”
Shannon looked at the girl, who had delivered herself from one gang to another, made herself property and birthed a baby into a world of violence and degradation. A girl who, like Shannon, had not been loved the way God meant.
And how had such a selfish woman, the brilliant doctor who turned her back on her husband and pursued prestige, come to put her life on the line for this young lady? She did not know, but she knew her selflessness came from somewhere else. Maybe there was a true Father smiling down on her now.
Tears crowded her eyes, and she squeezed Dina close. “You deserve a chance to be loved and to be a mother to Annabell.”
“Thank you,” Dina said.
Shannon gently pushed her away and picked up the chair. “Ready?”
With a convulsive swallow, Dina nodded.
Shannon recalled the times Jack had tried to teach her how to hit a baseball. With all the strength she could muster, she smashed the chair into the glass.
TWENTY-ONE
Jack had just secured Lady to a tree set back from the road and grabbed his rifle, when he heard the sound of breaking glass. He hurtled down the wooded slope that paralleled the drive to the cabin, with Barrett and Keegan right behind him. From his left, Drake shouted something, but he couldn’t make it out.
The Chevy that idled in the driveway kicked to life, rocketing into the grass, in an effort to turn around. Barrett aimed a shot at the tire. It pinged off the rear fender.
Shots erupted from the doorway of the cabin. He returned fire, but kept his aim low, so the bullets plowed into the wet ground. No way would he risk hitting Shannon or Dina. He wasn’t sure if they were in the car or the cabin, but the shattering glass had come from the back of the house. Something in his gut told him it was the women.
“Gonna get to the back,” Jack hollered to Barrett, who began to lay down cover fire. The Chevy was still bumping and rolling over the grass. He caught a glimpse of Drake and Ken Arroyo, keeping their horses to the safety of the tree line and seeking positions to get off a clean shot at the vehicle.
As he rounded the corner of the building, a bullet grazed his hat. He dropped to the grass and belly crawled behind a tree in time to see Cruiser fire wildly and sprint away along the side of the house.
He leaped into pursuit and dived behind a teetering woodpile as Cruiser squeezed off two more shots, which scoured chunks of wood from the sodden logs.
Keegan threw himself down beside Jack a moment later. “Car made it out of here.”
“Did you see—”
Keegan cut him off. “One driver. No passengers visible.”
Visible.
Cruiser shot again, the bullet making them both hunker down.
“What’s the plan here, chief?” Keegan said.
“I’ll draw his fire. See if you can get around to the other side of the cabin, and we’ll go at him from both fronts.”
“And by ‘draw his fire,’ you mean do something reckless and stupid, like...”
Jack poked his head around the topmost log and began shooting wide, while he tried to ascertain where Cruiser was hiding.
Keegan sprinted away.
Cruiser hollered, “Throw down your rifle, or I’m gonna kill her.”
Jack froze as Cruiser eased from behind the trees with his arm wrapped around Dina’s throat. She clutched at him, her mouth open to scream, but nothing coming out. His gun was pressed to her temple.
“Come on, Cowboy. Throw out your rifle.”
“Not gonna work,” Jack said. “You’re outmanned, and cops are coming.”
“Then I guess I got nothing to lose.”
Jack was a good shot—excellent, in fact—though not as skilled as his twin. What were Dina’s chances of surviving if his aim went wide? His mind shifted to Shannon. Where was she? There was no sign of movement from inside the house, but he didn’t have much of a view through the busted-out window. Tires skidded on gravel from somewhere in the front of the property.
Keegan might have a better line of sight, but he was not as good a marksman, and they both knew it. Sweat dampened Jack’s temples.
“No more time, Cowboy. Guess I’m gonna have to shoot her.”
“Then you’ll die before the bullet clears the gun.”
Cruiser laughed. “Always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.”
Jack’s grip tightened on the rifle.
From behind the overgrown junipers, a figure rose up, swinging a sturdy tree branch. Shannon. Her expression was not frightened, but resolute, her dark hair tangled with leaves, as she arced the branch at Cruiser’s head. Jack was so startled, he almost missed the opportunity. Her aim was off, and the branch smacked ineffectually against Cruiser’s shoulder, but it was enough to distract him into loosening his hold on Dina. Jack took the shot.
The bullet entered through Cruiser’s right clavicle and spun him around, knocking him to a sitting position, against the side of the cabin. Keegan erupted from the bushes, shoving Dina behind him and wrenching the gun from Cruiser’s hand.
Jack felt as though he should drop to his knees right there and then and thank the Lord Almighty. Shannon appeared unharmed as she knelt next to Cruiser, stripping off her jacket. He watched in utter amazement as she folded the material and pressed it to Cruiser’s bloody shoulder. He approached cautiously.
“Hold this on the wound,” she said to Jack, efficient, every inch the doctor.
He stood there, mute.
“Here,” she ordered again in such a tone that he crouched next to her and pressed his palm to the fabric against Cruiser’s wound. Cruiser groaned, eyes closed, teeth gritted.
She prodded around Cruiser’s back, moving him just enough to check behind him. She huffed out a breath. “A through and through. I don’t think it caught anything important.”
Jack kept up the pressure, but he could not stop staring at Shannon. She was as in command in her medical element as he was in the horse arena.
“Shan, are you okay?” he said softly. “Did he hurt you?”
“No, not much.”
Not much? His teeth clenched together.
“Too hard,” Shannon said, touching his hand that was pressed against Cruiser’s wound. “Less pressure.”
With effort, he eased off, and she bunched up Dina’s offered jacket behind Cruiser. “Why didn’t you just shoot him in the leg or something?”
/> He goggled. “Because that’s not how it works.”
“Well, you might have killed him,” she said.
He had no comeback for that.
Ken Arroyo raced up. “Drake’s tracking the car. Cops just arriving.” He glanced down at Cruiser. “I was a medic back in my army days. Let me help.”
He took over for Jack, who eased off. Shannon rose to her feet, finally coming around to face Jack.
“You might have killed him,” she repeated, face very white.
He took a breath. “I’m sorry I shot the bad guy?”
“Me, too, because now he’s going to need a nice, cushy hospital bed when he should be going straight to a horrible, dark cell...” Her voice rose with each syllable. “...in a damp tower, with only bread and water, because...” Her breath came in and out in bursts, and tears began to roll down her smudged cheeks. “Because I thought he’d killed you.” Now the sobs came in stuttering waves, cries racking her body as she hugged herself.
Jack sighed. “No, honey. I’m okay,” he said, folding her into his arms, her shudders quaking as he laid his cheek on the top of her head. “Everything is going to turn out all right.”
Now that she was free.
Now that she was safe.
His wife, if only for one more day. With the tip of his finger, he angled her face toward his, and their lips met. Her mouth was warm and yielding. He fancied the kiss was filled with longing and love, but it was probably only his heart speaking for both of them.
Sighing, he eased his head onto her shoulder and let the nearness of her put his fear to rest.
* * *
Larraby met with the makeshift posse as the ambulance rolled away with Cruiser inside. Skids was in custody, refusing to say a single word, other than profanities. The car with the traitorous Ace had escaped into the woods.
Shannon had finally stopped crying. To her mortification, she clung to Jack so long and so hard that the medics had pressed for her to be transported to the hospital, also. Jack’s kiss had surprised and thrilled her. She could not seem to convince herself that it had really happened. She and Dina had finally escaped the Tide, and the whole ugly affair might truly be over, the missing Ace aside. She could return to her life, her career and the real world the next day.
