The Target

by Catherine Coulter

It would take time, he knew. Time. But how much should he take?

  “I’M not going to leave you here in the Jeep. It’s just not safe. You’re going to come with me. Here, hold my hand. Can you do that?” He paused just a moment, and lightly touched her cheek with his fingertips. “It’s all right, sweetheart, I know you’re worried about this, but it’ll be all right. No one’s going to hurt you. You’ve got me now and I’m big and strong. I know karate. I’m good at it. Sort of like Chuck Norris. You ever hear of him? He can lay flat more bad guys than Godzilla.”

  She made some chopping motions with her hands.

  “Yeah, that’s right. I know you don’t want to wear those clothes, but it’ll just be for a little while, just until I can buy you some new things. Then you can change immediately and we’ll throw these out. Better yet, we’ll just leave them here at the store.” He’d washed the yellow jeans and the light yellow shirt in the bathtub along with his own T-shirts and underwear. He’d hated having her put the clothes on, but there was no choice. He couldn’t very well take her into Mr. Peete’s Lucky General Store wearing one of his sweaters or undershirts, and barefoot. He chucked her under the chin. “Now, let’s go. This will be an adventure. Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe. Think of me as your own Geek the monkey, only much bigger. Can you imagine what Geek would do if someone tried to hurt you? I’m sure you can. Geek and I, we’re the good-guy monkeys. You ready?”

  She smiled, a very brief smile, but he knew she didn’t want to leave the Jeep. But he wasn’t about to leave her in here, even with the doors locked. He said, “The faster we get in there the faster we can leave.”

  Finally, she nodded. He lifted her out of the Jeep and set her onto the rough sidewalk. He locked the Jeep door and held out his hand to her. Slowly, she took his hand.

  “Real good,” he said and lightly squeezed her hand. “Let’s go shop ’til we drop.”

  The Lucky General Store wasn’t a Kmart; it wasn’t even close, only about one-twentieth the size. When they walked in the door, she shrank against his leg. He just smiled down at her. “You’re doing great. Now, let’s get you some jeans first, then some shirts. Yeah, it’s this way. You point when you see something you like.” He could feel her trembling against his leg. He picked her up. In moments, she eased.

  The pants she was wearing were a five tall. And the shirt was a 4–6. There was a smiling woman in the kids’ section, heavy and pretty, with really white teeth. Ramsey said with a friendly smile, “We need some clothes for my little girl.”

  It didn’t take long. Mildred looked her over and started selecting clothes. “His little girl,” as Mildred called her, even pointed to a lime green T-shirt. They ended up with two pairs of jeans, one red, the other plain blue jeans, and four tops, all in bright colors. Her new sneakers were orange. Her socks were green, red, and blue. The lightweight jacket she liked was orange and green patterned. That was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, she’d stand out like a beacon. On the other hand, seeing her go for the vivid colors was positive. He wasn’t about to object.

  Mildred smiled really big when she showed off her new clothes. “You look a treat, honey. What’s your name?”

  Ramsey said easily, “She doesn’t talk, but she hears everything. She does look pretty, doesn’t she?”

  “Orange and green are sure your colors. How old are you, honey?”

  She held up six fingers.

  “Six years old. Aren’t you a bright girl. And so pretty. Your mama is going to be so pleased.”

  She froze. Ramsey said quickly, picking up a bright blue down jacket that looked as though it would fit her, “It might get really cold still. It’s still only the middle of April.”

  “You’re right about that. We’ll have at least two more snowstorms before it finally decides to heat up.”

  He nodded. “Yes, better not take any chances.” He helped her on with the jacket. He then stepped back and stroked his chin. “You look great in it. You like it? The arms are a bit on the long side, but you’ll grow into it soon enough.”

  She was smiling. She fingered the jacket sleeves. She nodded.

  “Your family up here for the week?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Beautiful country. We’re really enjoying ourselves.”

  “I’ve lived here all my life. You can lay a twenty on two more snowstorms. Maybe they’ll hit after you’re gone. You just never know.”

  He didn’t know what else to say. They’d been here too long. He wanted to get her back to the cabin. He gave Mildred a big smile, then said, “Wave good-bye to Mildred.”

  She nodded to Mildred instead.

  He leaned down, saying quietly so Mildred couldn’t hear, “Can I pick you up now?”

  To his pleasure, she raised her arms. He tossed a bottle of baby shampoo into the cart on the way to the checkout counter. No one had given them one strange look. Everyone had been open and friendly. No more than ten people had seen them together.

  Mr. Peete, the owner, was at the checkout counter. “Goodness, kid, you’ll be the best-dressed little girl in the Ferengi Range. Here, have a Tootsie Pop on the house, since your daddy’s paid our overhead for the week.”

  They were out of the store after one hundred and sixty-nine dollars, and thirty-five minutes. He put the packages in the Jeep then said, “Now, I’ve got a surprise for you. See that bookstore? Let’s go.” Again, she let him carry her.

  This stop took nearly as long before they got back to the Jeep. He unlocked the door and put her inside. Then he straightened and stopped cold. Someone was looking at him.

  4

  THE HAIR PRICKLED on the back of his neck. He slowly turned but didn’t see anyone who seemed out of place or overly interested in them. There, just in the alley beside the Union 76 gas station, was there a movement? He stared hard, not moving, feeling a light breeze ruffle his hair. There was nothing at all.

  Still he didn’t like it. He’d never before ignored his gut. He quickly climbed into the Jeep. She hadn’t noticed anything, thank God. She’d pulled the afghan he’d brought to keep her warm close around her, nearly hiding her face. She looked like she was ready to fall asleep. Was she tired or did she just want to escape her fear in sleep?

  He looked toward the sheriff’s office just down Boulder Street. Cops might be looking for her. He knew he couldn’t keep her with him indefinitely. She had parents. At least she had a mother she loved, if her smile was any clue. He’d asked her if her mom was as cute as she was and she’d smiled. Her father? He’d find out eventually. But her mother, at least, had to be worried sick about her. But he couldn’t do it, not quite yet. What the hell had happened? He’d teased over the questions for the past six days, but hadn’t found any answers. He had to do something soon, but watching her small face pinch with fear when he turned her over to strangers wasn’t in him yet. The more time she had with him, hopefully, the stronger she’d be. Actually, it was she herself holding him back.

  He looked down at the sleeping child. There was some color in her cheeks. The taut gray look she’d had even in sleep since he’d found her was finally gone. She looked like a normal little girl. He smiled at the bright colors she was wearing. He remembered the previous evening when they’d settled down for him to read to her after dinner. He’d brought up seeing the sheriff again.

  This time she hadn’t just shaken her head. She’d grabbed his hand and clung to him. And then shaken her head. He hated that awful empty fear in her eyes.

  “All right,” he’d said. “We’ll give it a while longer. But your parents, kiddo, they’ve got to be frantic for you.”

  She lowered her head and began to cry.

  He wanted to curse, but he didn’t. He hadn’t snarled a nice meaningful curse in four days, at least out loud, in her hearing.

  She seemed terrified that if anyone knew where she was, parents included, she would be hurt again. And she just might. How had he gotten her the first time? Had her parents been careless with her? Left her alone in a shoppi
ng mall? Or had the kidnapper simply walked into the girl’s yard and taken her?

  Maybe he’d go to the sheriff in a couple of days. Almost as soon as he thought it, he was shaking his head. No, she needed more time to trust, to see that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

  But when she was back with her parents, he wouldn’t see her again. He wouldn’t be able to protect her. They’d failed to protect her before. It could happen again. But the bottom line was, she wasn’t his. He’d saved her, but she wasn’t his. He didn’t know what to do.

  He shook his head at himself and speeded up. The Jeep was a workhorse. He loved it. It was a beautiful day, a bit on the cool side, not more than fifty-five degrees, but the sun was bright overhead. There’d been lots of people on the streets. He remembered the feeling of being watched. Had it been real?

  He turned at the sound of a low moan. Another nightmare. He leaned over and touched her face. She moved her cheek against his palm, then stilled. He ruffled her hair and cupped her small chin in his palm. She opened her beautiful light blue eyes and blinked up at him. He saw her fear slowly disappear. Her eyes warmed. In that instant he knew he wasn’t going to let anyone else have her until he knew for certain that she’d be safe.

  “Yeah, yeah, so I’m a big Jell-O. But you know what? Jell-O isn’t bad. Another thing, not only are you the best-dressed kid in the Ferengi Range, you’re the cutest.”

  THE next afternoon when he came in from out of doors carrying an armful of logs, she flinched and ducked back behind the sofa.

  He stopped immediately. “What’s up? What’s the matter?”

  She tried to smile, but it fell away.

  “I surprised you?”

  She nodded, relieved that he’d explained it as she’d wanted him to. He smiled. “I’ll knock next time. I cut us some more wood for the fireplace and the woodstove. Now, after I get this all set, how about you and I go out into the meadow? I want to show you your surprise. While you were trying on your jeans, I got you something really neat.” It was, he knew, the only way he was going to get her outside. Since they were in town, she’d refused even to step out onto the front porch. It was time to get her into the fresh air.

  Still, she hung back, her small face pale, her expression wary.

  “It’s really neat,” he said again, not acting all that excited, “your surprise, I mean. You need your blue down jacket. It’s a little cold out there.”

  She looked adorable in her stiff new jeans, her orange sneakers as bright as neon lights, red socks, and a bright orange shirt with lime green apples all over it. He was braiding her hair better each time he tried. She looked fresh and sweet and scared. He hated this fear in her, but it had only been a week since he’d found her. Both of them had made strides.

  Had the man gotten her easily because she was mute and couldn’t scream for help?

  “It’s a really great surprise. Hey, would I lie to you? Nah, put on your jacket. You can take it off when you work up a good sweat.”

  She still hesitated. He just set the fire, rose, and waited, leaning his shoulders against the mantel.

  Finally, she nodded and ran to fetch her jacket that was hanging next to his. Of course she couldn’t reach it. He got it down for her and helped her into it. It fit her great, except for the too-long sleeves that he rolled up.

  “Your surprise is going to have you running around. Soon you’ll want to take it off.”

  He led her out into the middle of the meadow and pointed to a dragon-tail kite. He’d spread it out on the ground in all its glory. She just stood there and stared, then smiled, a huge smile that deepened her dimples. It was the first time he’d seen a smile like that.

  “You ever fly a kite before?”

  Even without her squealing with pleasure, he knew he’d scored big. She was so excited she could barely keep still. He handed her the rod, waited until she picked up the red diamond body, and arranged the long glittery dragon tail out behind. She let out some of the string.

  “You’re good at this.”

  She smiled and let out some more string.

  She knew what she was doing. Who had taught her? Her mother? He yelled, “Okay, let her rip!”

  She began running across the flat meadow, feeding out the line. He released the kite when he felt it catch the wind. He shouted, “You’ve got liftoff!” She stopped running, drew back a bit, and turned the rod a bit to the left. The long multicolored tail whirled about in a big circle.

  “Great, let’s see you do some more.”

  She was a lot better at flying it than he would have been. The kid was really good. He watched her move her hand first this way, then that, then flip her wrist, and the dragon’s tail whipped about and whirled around and around, turning back in on itself, then streaming out again, long and shining in the wind. He didn’t know how she did it, but she turned her wrist back, wiggled it a bit, and that shimmery tail rippled just like a real dragon’s tail.

  Whoever had taught her was an expert.

  She made no sound at all, but she seemed to be having the time of her life. He stood back and watched her. It was the best twelve-dollar investment he’d ever made.

  He ended up sitting on the steps of the cabin, not letting her out of his sight.

  Time and his thoughts slowed, leaving only the child who was flying the dragon kite amid the meadow of bright columbine.

  Then, suddenly, there was a shot, startling and clear in the silence. The kite dipped and plowed earthward, landing in a bush. She didn’t hesitate for an instant, not even to look around. She started to run back toward him as fast as she could.

  He was to her in a moment, grabbed her up on the run, and turned back, carrying her into the cabin. Another shot rang out from behind him just as he slammed the door with his foot. He set her down behind the couch. “Stay here. Don’t move.”

  He shoved his pistol into his belt and picked up his rifle. He crouched next to the window, scanning the far forest, searching for something that was different, something that didn’t belong in his world. There came another shot, then another, but he couldn’t hear any bullet impacts.

  He heard a man shout and another man answer. They were some distance away, maybe fifty yards from the front of the cabin, just at the edge of the forest. There were no other voices. There were two men, then. He said quietly to her, “Stay behind the sofa, sweetheart. It will be all right. Just stay there. Remember what I told you. I’m big and strong. I’m also mean when I have to be. Nobody will get to hurt you.”

  He looked back out the window. To his surprise, two men stumbled out of the thick fir trees, each carrying a rifle. He had the closer one in his sights when he saw they were laughing, leaning into each other, one of the men dragging his rifle. He cursed viciously. The idiots were drunk. Jesus, there was no hunting allowed anywhere near here and here they were shooting and drinking.

  The closer man was very tall and thin, he could tell that even though he was wearing thick dark corduroy pants and a heavy dark brown down jacket. He had a plaid hunter’s hat on his head. He was waving toward the cabin, yelling, “Hey! Anybody there? We’re sorry, we didn’t mean anything.” Then he giggled as the other man, short, bowlegged, wearing cowboy boots, said, “Yeah, we thought you was a couple of deer. I told Tommy here that deer didn’t fly kites.”

  Ramsey put down his rifle, but held the pistol at his side as he came through the front door out onto the porch.

  He was so angry he was shaking. He wanted to bang their heads together, the morons. He yelled at them, “What do you think you’re doing firing guns up here? Didn’t you see my little girl?”

  They waved at him. The drunken idiots actually waved, as if he’d invited them up for a beer. The tall guy called out, “Hey, buddy, it was an accident. Who are you? We didn’t think anybody lived up here. We’re sorry, real sorry.”

  The bowlegged guy didn’t say a word, just walked along toward him, looking at his rifle or his snakeskin boots, or both.

  “You
up here a long time?”

  When the tall guy asked him the question, Ramsey looked away from the shorter man for just an instant, just long enough for the man to raise the rifle and aim it at him.

  Ramsey didn’t think, he fired. He caught the bowlegged guy in his shooting arm just as he felt a numbing cold slam against his left thigh. The tall man had his rifle up in an instant, but Ramsey was faster this time. He got him in the shoulder, a clean hit that knocked him backward, off his feet, to the ground.

  Ramsey started toward them, then stumbled. He’d been shot in the leg. He hadn’t realized it. He yelled, “What the hell do you want? Who are you?”

  They were both wounded, cursing, one of the rifles on the ground. The tall guy on the ground managed to jump up, and the two of them had turned and were stumbling back toward the forest. Ramsey raised his Smith & Wesson and fired. He saw a chunk of tree bark fly into the air. He fired again. He heard one of the men yell. Good, he’d gotten one of them with two bullets. He couldn’t see them now. They were gone deep into the forest. He wanted to go after them, but he couldn’t. He looked down at his thigh. Blood was seeping through the denim. He realized in that instant that he hurt like hell.

  Ramsey quickly turned and ran as fast as he could with his gimp leg to the cabin. One of the men still had his gun. He was still at risk. He was in the open and they were hidden in the trees. He saw an old .22 on the ground where the bowlegged guy had dropped it. It was banged up, not very powerful, thank God, but powerful enough to do the job, accurate as hell from close range.

  He made the cabin and looked up in shock to see her standing there on the porch, frozen, staring at him. He grabbed her up, ran inside, slamming the door behind him. He felt a new shock of pain in his left leg. He looked down to see his jeans ripped through the outside of his thigh, the blood oozing through the thick denim to run slowly down his leg. Slowly, he eased her down. She clutched his right leg. She was making those gut-wrenching mewling noises again.

  He kept her against his right leg. He didn’t want to get any blood on her, that would be all she needed to freak her out all over again. But she’d overcome her fear to come outside to see if he was okay. “I’m all right, sweetheart. The bad men are gone, at least I hope they are. You’re really brave, you know that? I’m proud of you. You run really fast and that’s good too.