by Jayne Blue
It startled him. Seth’s eyes widened as he looked at my outstretched leg and focused on the ugly black band around it. The green light blinked at the center of it. I put my finger on the light.
“When this turns orange, it means I’ve gone more than ten feet out of bounds. Then it beeps red and the cops come running. I’m not going anywhere with you, Seth. So either you leave right now on your own, or you leave with the police as soon as they get here. Take your pick.”
“You’re the one in trouble with them,” he said. “They don’t want me.”
“Yes, they do,” I said. “You’ve admitted to framing my father. You know you’re under investigation by the state bar and the attorney general’s office. And they want to talk to you about Miranda too. You know you’ve played right into their hands. They’ve figured out I had no reason to kill her.”
Seth’s face turned white. “When Tora opens her mouth or her legs, you know she’s lying.”
“What did she do to you?” Time was my hope and Margie’s curse. The longer I kept Seth here and talking, the more time I gave Jack and my father to get back here. But there was a widening pool of blood on the kitchen floor near Margie’s head.
“Did she tell you she wouldn’t help you get Ed Jeffries’s seat? Did George Pagano tell you to get rid of her? Was that his price for helping you?”
I was throwing everything out I could think of. Anything to keep Seth off balance. “I’m a lot of things, Tora. Stupid isn’t one of them. I came here to see what fresh lies you had for me. And because maybe there is just one part of me that’s stupid. You couldn’t have lied about everything. You fell in love with me. I know you did.”
Jesus. “I didn’t love you,” I said. “I didn’t hate you either. I cared about you. It was your mother I hated. She kept you down. Do you understand that now? She controlled you and I thought that was sad. She wanted you to be some sort of man-boy that wouldn’t ever leave her side. She made you dependent on her and I had empathy for you for that. It was never love, Seth.”
“Ah!” Seth threw his head back and barked out a fake laugh. “Now she tells the truth.”
“So be a man now,” I said. “Take responsibility for everything you’ve done. Stop letting others take the blame for your messes.”
With no warning, Seth crossed the distance between us and grabbed me by the arm. I stumbled and he dragged me into the kitchen. He pulled the largest kitchen knife out of the block on Margie’s stove and shoved me hard to the ground. I got my hands out just in time and I landed wrong on my wrists. Pain shot up to my elbow and before I could turn, Seth grabbed my ankle and pulled it up. I tried to kick back but had no leverage. He pulled at the strap on the tether and slid the blade between it and my skin.
It took everything in me not to kick back again and try to get away. With the tether off, Seth would try to force me to go with him. I couldn’t let him. If he was going to kill me, it was going to be right here. The minute the tether was off, the clock would run and help would be on the way for Margie. I made myself be very still as Seth sawed through the hard plastic with the knife. Then, with a pop, the band slipped off and my ankle was free. A loud signal beeped from the device and Seth threw it and the knife aside.
He took my arm again and hauled me to my feet. Seth meant to drag me toward the front door but I wouldn’t make it easy. Five minutes? Ten? How long would it take for the police to get here? Even five seemed like forever but I would fight for every second of it. My wrist throbbed. I cupped my left hand and swung it as hard as I could, hitting Seth against his temple. The force of the blow knocked him backward and he loosened his grip on my arm just enough that I slid free. I shoved him hard and turned. The sliding glass door was a foot away from me. I reached out, slammed the latch up and threw the door open. Then I ran as fast as my legs would carry me toward the woods.
I nearly fell as I took the deck stairs but I kept on going. If I could make it to the tree line, maybe I could zig zag and weave and slow him down long enough for it to matter. Seth was already right behind me. I expected him to reach out and grab me. He would have. He should have. But he tripped on the same step I had and that split second gave me all the time I needed to make a break for it.
“Tora!” he shouted. “Don’t make me do this.”
I turned back over my shoulder, expecting to see him at a run. But Seth stood stock still at the edge of the deck. He held his arm out straight and I looked down the hollow black barrel of the gun in his hand. I made a decision in that instant that I knew might mean life or death. My only hope was that Seth wouldn’t be brave enough to pull the trigger. I turned my back on Seth and ran toward the woods.
My body jerked as the sound of the gunshot seemed to crack the whole world apart.
Chapter Eighteen
Jack
For the rest of my life, I knew I would thank God that R.J. Burnett knew how to maneuver that Jeep with the skill of a race car driver. As he pulled up into the Burnetts’ driveway, Dex and I didn’t even wait for the vehicle to come to a complete stop before we both shot out of the back seat. My eyes played tricks on me. The distance between the driveway and the front door seemed to grow longer, my feet didn’t seem to want to move fast enough. It probably took me five seconds to get there, but it seemed like five minutes. I got to the door first and tried to swing it open but it was locked.
“R.J.!” I yelled. Dex was right behind me and he started pounding on the wood with his open palm. Then R.J. was there, he wedged himself in between Dex and me and jammed the key into the lock. As the door swung open, I heard the crack of gunfire and all the blood seemed to drain out of me and the air left my lungs.
No. It could not end like this.
“Tora!” Dex flew into the house with me at his heels. My eyes went wild, trying to make sense of the chaos in front of me. Behind me, R.J. howled and slid on his knees across the kitchen floor like a baseball player into home plate. In that instant, my dearest friend R.J. went from a grown man to the little boy I used to spend hours chasing rabbits through the woods with. His hands stretched out over the lifeless body of his mother and God, I knew that keening wail he made. I heard it before; I uttered it the day I saw my own mother looking just as gray at a funeral home.
“Tora!” Dex called out again and my eyes went to the screen door at the back of the kitchen. Across the lawn at the edge of the tree line, I saw Seth just as he disappeared into the woods. It was just a brief flash; he carried a black pistol in his right hand.
I was torn. My best friend and his dying mother lay at my feet, but Tora was out there and if I didn’t get to her first, Seth meant to kill her too. R.J. had his phone out and had already dialed 911. I gave him a fleeting, pained look.
“Go!” he said. I would be forever grateful for that single word.
I burst through the door to the yard just a few steps behind Dex.
“Which way?” Dex’s face was sheet white, his eyes pained.
“Just go,” I said; my feet hit the trail toward our tree house. I should have tripped, the path between the edge of the woods and the tree house was fraught with downed limbs and pitted ground from the storm we had the other night. But fear fueled me and that day I think I could have flown.
“Tora!” Dex shouted.
The only thing that kept me from giving in to sheer panic was the fact that I heard no more gunshots. Tora had to be on the move.
“Seth!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. If he heard me, if it startled him, even for a second, maybe it would be all the diversion Tora needed to get to safety. But I knew these woods and Seth knew them too. She could run only so far. A creek ran along the south edge of Reed’s property and I knew it would be swollen and hard to cross after the rains. If Seth caught up to her, Tora would have nowhere to go. Climb, baby. I willed my thoughts to Tora, foolish and futile as I knew it was. But these woods had a hundred climbing trees. She could scramble up to safety if she got enough of a head start.
“There’s nowhere
left to go!” Seth’s voice seemed to come from everywhere. I froze in my tracks.
“I know all your secrets now, Tora,” Seth taunted Tora in a sing-song voice.
I looked around, trying to get my bearings. Seth’s voice echoed through the trees and it was almost impossible to tell where he was. The gnarled oaks and walnut trees seemed to taunt me, as if they knew exactly where to find Seth and pointed in all directions. Dex plowed past me, heading south. I stayed rooted in my spot, listening for Seth. He was close, I could feel it.
On instinct, I turned to the west, ducked low and moved fast as I listened for some sign of Seth. I heard sirens in the distance. This would end, one way or another. I prayed it wasn’t too late for Margie. We’d stayed at the diner just long enough to tell Addie where we were going, hoping she could convince Haney and the uniformed officers to get to the Burnetts’ house too.
Except that if I heard the sirens, so did Seth. If he felt cornered, he might see this as some twisted chance to go out in a blaze of glory and revenge.
There was movement to my right, the snap of a twig. I dropped to my knees, scanning all directions. Another snap. Maybe a quarter of a mile to the south, I heard Dex calling out for Tora, rising panic in his voice. I crept forward. Someone was there, just a few yards ahead of me. Should I call out?
I waited. I still couldn’t see anyone. My heart pounded in my chest. The landscape blurred in front of me then came sharply into focus.
I saw him. Seth’s back was to me. He crouched about ten yards ahead of me making slow, steady movements to his right. He saw something and moved toward it with slow deliberation. It meant Tora had to be close by too. It took everything in me not to shout out a warning but I couldn’t see her. If I startled Seth and he took a wild shot, that might put her in even more danger.
I took slow, steady steps toward Seth, trying to keep trees and branches between us. He wasn’t focused in my direction at all. If I had just a minute of time, it might be enough to circle around and cut him off from the side before he even knew I was there.
Hide, baby, I’m coming.
If I could just get close enough, I could make a running tackle and get Seth to the ground. I had the advantage of size, surprise and something to fight for.
Then everything seemed to happen at once. Dex burst into the clearing and Seth straightened. There was movement to my left and I saw a flash of lime green. Tora’s dress caught on a branch and she whirled around, coming face to face with Seth and the cold barrel of Seth’s gun.
Dex called out to Tora. She dropped to her knees but it wouldn’t matter. Seth had a clear shot. He raised his arm and pointed the pistol straight at her.
Someone called Tora’s name. It might have been me. I came at Seth from the side, thinking I could never get to him in time. There was movement behind me and more shouted voices. They meant nothing to me. My feet left the ground and I dove for Seth.
From the corner of my eye I saw him cock the hammer and start to squeeze the trigger. I saw a flash of fire and smelled a whiff of gunpowder. My back exploded in pain and white light filled my vision.
Then the world went black.
***
Tora
He found me. My heart slammed against my chest so hard my vision swam and I swayed on my feet. For the second time, I stared down the barrel of Seth’s gun and when he cocked it to pull the trigger, I turned to face it. There was nowhere left to run.
But then I wasn’t alone. I would scream Jack’s name in my nightmares probably for the rest of my life. He came out of nowhere. He dove between me and Seth and when the gun went off, I saw him jerk backward, his back bent at an impossible angle. His eyes were on me as he fell, but the life seemed already to have gone out of them.
I screamed and ran toward Jack. Later, someone would tell me I shouldn’t have done it. Getting to Jack meant bringing myself back into the line of fire but none of that mattered. Jack had fallen. Jack was hurt and nothing on this Earth would have kept me from his side.
There were voices, shouts. More guns. It all faded into the background as I slid across the leaves and pulled Jack against me, cradling his head in my lap. He was heavy and limp and blood soaked the back of his white dress shirt.
Two more gunshots rang out in rapid succession and for an instant, I didn’t know if I too had been shot. It came so close. But I looked up and Seth took two staggering steps toward me, reaching. He held no gun in his hand but a bright red spot blossomed across his chest and he fell beside me too.
Chapter Nineteen
“You know,” my father said, “this guy is going to make it pretty fucking hard to keep hating him after I watched him dive in front of a bullet for you.”
He held me against his chest like he had been for the last hour. We sat in the surgical waiting room waiting for news about Jack, Margie and now Seth. Three different ambulances. Three different waiting rooms and my world hung together by a thread.
I slapped a hand against my dad’s leather jacket and picked my head up. “You can tell him that yourself,” I said, breathing a deep sigh of relief now that I knew it was true.
A young doctor in blue scrubs came out to us and I stood.
“He’s pretty much patched up now,” the doctor said. He had kind eyes and a gravelly voice. He ran a hand across his thick, blond brows. The wedding band on his left ring finger flashed. “He’s still a bit groggy but he’s in there trying to get us to concoct a more glamorous story.”
“I think the truth is badass enough, don’t you?” Dad said.
The doctor smiled and shrugged. “That’s what they don’t tell you in the movies. If you’re going to take a bullet, the best place to take it is right where Mr. Manning did. I’ll let you tell him that little gem. The wound was deep and he did lose a good amount of blood. He’ll hurt like hell for a couple of weeks and he won’t want to sit down, but he’s extremely lucky. A few inches up and we’d likely be looking at a paraplegic.”
“Can I go see him now?” I said.
The doctor smiled. “The nurse will be out in a couple of minutes to take you back. He’s just coming out of anesthesia so like I said, he’s a little loopy. But he’s all yours.”
I got a last wink from the doctor and a pat on the back from my father. I turned and let him wrap his arms around me. He was real and solid and right in front of me. For the first time in the better part of a year, I was finally starting to believe everything might be okay. Just maybe.
The nurse came out and led us back to the recovery room. Jack’s bed was in a secluded area in the corner and we were fairly isolated from other patients by a stiff accordion divider. I wanted to ask my father for a few minutes alone with Jack, but he was reluctant to leave my side since he and Jack found me. I couldn’t blame him for it.
The nurse pulled back the curtain and Jack was lying there, face down and looking pale. But he rose his head when he saw me and his wide brown eyes lit up as he smiled. I went to him, leaned down and kissed him. He struggled to raise himself up on his elbow. Between the anesthesia and the pain I don’t know how he managed but Jack got one strong arm around my waist and he pulled me in close.
“We never should have left you alone in the house,” he said. “I was stupid not to see how Seth set the whole thing up.”
“Forget about it,” I said. “You’re here. You’re whole, more or less. And I love you.”
My father cleared his throat behind us. I came out from under Jack’s arm and perched on the side of his bed. Dad came forward and held his hand out for Jack to shake. Jack winced but reached for him. For the first time since they’d met, the ice started to thaw between Dex McLain and Jack Manning. My heart warmed to see it as the two men I loved best in the world shook each other’s hands out of respect for each other.
“Thank you,” my father said. “You told me you’d do anything to protect my daughter and I watched you take one in the ass to prove it.” My father’s voice cracked with emotion and perhaps a little bit of humor. I s
tood up, threw my arms around him and kissed him on the cheek.
“Any word on Margie yet?” Jack asked as I took my seat at his side again.
“She’s alive,” I said, saying a quick, silent prayer of thanks. “She’s got a severe concussion and a nasty gash on her head, but she’s going to be okay. I almost didn’t believe it when R.J. came and told us. Jack, I thought she was dying on that floor. They’re going to keep her here for a night or two just to be safe. Reed and R.J. are with her downstairs.”
“What about Seth?” Jack asked. “My brain’s a little fuzzy about everything that happened.”
I nodded. “The doctors said you went into shock. The police showed up just about the time Seth shot you. When he wouldn’t drop his gun they had to shoot him. He’s still in surgery and it looked pretty bad. He took a bullet in the arm and another one right in the chest.”
It was hard to get the words out. Even after everything that had happened, there was still a part of me that felt pity for Seth Manning. He got what he deserved, it wasn’t that. And for what he did to Margie, Jack, my father and what he tried to do to me, I could never forgive him. But I never wanted him dead. And if he did die, he would take the truth of what happened to Miranda with him.
There was a tap on the divider screen and Addie poked her head around it. “Is everyone decent?”
I smiled and waved her in. “Sorry about all the excitement,” Jack said, raising a hand in salute.
“You people sure know how to make the day go fast,” she said. “You gonna live?”
Jack smiled and some of the color came back into his cheeks. “I’ll be sitting on a plastic donut for the week but I’ll live to fight another day.”
Addie smiled brightly and pushed her purple glasses back up her nose. “Well, I don’t want to cut into your family reunion but things have been moving pretty fast over the last few hours. I just got word from Detective Haney. They managed to get a statement out of Seth before they took him in for surgery. He was a little out of it but the basic facts of what he said checked out. He admitted to killing Miranda. They may have a few questions left for you, Tora, but I expect they’ll be dropping the charges against you. They wanted to wait until morning but I pushed the prosecutor. He owes me a little.”
