Blood Stained

by CJ Lyons

  Her blood pounded in her throat and she thought he was going to make a move. She raised her weapon, ready to pull the trigger. But all he did was clear his throat.

  "I wasn't sure—would you, I mean, there's a lantern in the bedroom. We could set one in here. It's pretty bright. If that's okay."

  Thank God his back was to her. She'd almost shot him. "Yeah. Get it."

  He handed her the flashlight and bowed his head to step into the side chamber. He emerged a second later holding a Coleman lantern. He lit it and moved to the second path. "If I leave it here, you'll always know your way out."

  "Don't you need the light?" she asked as he led her down the path and across a small stream.

  "No ma'am. I know my way around here light or dark. Sometimes it's easier in the dark. Not so scary."

  She doubted his father's victims would agree.

  They passed through a chamber with pale white rock formations and cave art scattered at shoulder height, reminding her they weren't the first humans to pass this way. Then she saw what he meant about scary. There was another stream—or a branch of the same one—but this one was riotous, white water rushing and she had no idea how deep.

  Marion Caine's body had been lost in an underground stream like this. Swallowed by the mountain and never seen again.

  "Usually not so high or wide," Adam said, backing up a few steps before leaping across the water, the flashlight bobbing with the motion. "Must be the snow. It's warm enough inside here to melt." He stood on the other side and held his handcuffed hands out to help Jenna across.

  He could have just run. Could have pushed her into the water before he crossed. Could have done a lot of things. Still, she wasn't about to trust him. "How much farther?"

  He nodded to a cavern on the other side of some tumbled boulders. There was a faint light coming from it. "In there."

  They must have been close because suddenly there were cries of help from beyond the boulders. "Help! Help us, please! Marty's hurt bad!"

  Jenna grit her teeth, took three steps back and leapt, flying through the air and remembering doing the same on her horse when she was young. She landed hard, almost slipped back into the water, but Adam caught her and set her onto her feet.

  "This way." He hurried up the path and stooped low to make it into the next cavern. Jenna followed him. It was smaller than the area at the front of the cave but the air was crisp, less stale. A faint glow came from an area below a drop off. Camping supplies littered the ledge including another lantern Adam knelt to light. Beyond him was a wooden ladder.

  "Lie down, face down," she ordered Adam, not trusting him at her back when she got close to the edge. Who knew how far down the bottom was.

  "Help! Help us!"

  Adam complied. Even laced his fingers behind his head. Jenna inched forward and craned her head over the edge. About ten feet down she saw three kids surrounded by flashlights. One of them lay flat, his leg splinted with two mountain pie makers tied with fabric.

  "Hi guys! We're going to get you out of there," Jenna called. "Everyone okay?"

  "Marty fell," one of the boys called. Darrin. "I think his leg is broke."

  Adam twisted his head around. "Sally, are you okay? Told you guys I'd come back for you."

  "Adam! Adam, you came back! I don't want to ‘splore any more." The little girl clutched a toy cat to her chest and sounded close to tears.

  "Don't worry, sweetheart," Adam shouted. "Everything's going to be fine." He turned his head to Jenna. "Please. Let me help. You'll never get them all out by yourself."

  Jenna stood at the edge of the pit. Adam was right. But she couldn't trust him down there with three potential hostages. Who knew what was down there to be used as a weapon.

  "Tough choice, isn't it?" a girl's voice came from behind Jenna. Just before she pushed Jenna over the edge and into the pit.

  Chapter 34

  "What are you most afraid of, Lucy?" Clint asked as they drove down the mountain.

  Face down in the back of the van, Lucy couldn't see where they were going. All she knew was a phone call had changed Clint's plans. After he hung up, he put away the stun gun and hopped into the driver's seat.

  Not that she was complaining. Clint knew his anatomy. The repeated blasts of electricity to the nerves of her neck and face left her jaws locked in spasm as fire danced beneath her skin. A ferocious headache made even blinking painful.

  "That last blast was your trigeminal ganglia. People have gone insane from those nerves firing, so it's obviously not pain that you fear," he continued, his tone amiable as if they were discussing the Steelers' chances in the playoffs. "I don't think even death. Not the way you saved those children in September. Or the way you look at me. Never had a fish look at me like you do."

  Lucy ignored him. Better to concentrate on finding a tool. She could pick the handcuff lock if she had a piece of wire. Better yet would be finding a weapon to use on Caine. That would solve everything.

  They stopped. A lot sooner than the ten minutes she overheard him promise Morgan. He must not trust the girl. Maybe Lucy could use that. Drive a wedge between them.

  The van door opened. He hauled her out by the arm. She could barely stand. Only sheer stubbornness kept her from surrendering to the nausea roiling her gut. The sun had totally set, leaving her shivering since she had no coat.

  He parked the van behind the school where it wouldn't be seen. Smart, Lucy realized as he led her across the playing field and into the woods. An easy escape away from the path the cops would take.

  Sending two kids to do his work, making sure no one saw his face. He definitely cared about getting caught. She'd wondered about that, given how risky it'd been for him to keep Karen for so long or to take Rachel so close to home. If he'd picked up stakes and left, just killed her quickly, his family could have started over without anyone ever knowing there was a killer in their midst.

  But instead, he'd stayed. Determined to break Rachel's devout faith.

  Not stupid, but definitely driven more by his needs than safety or security.

  "You kept Karen longer than anyone," she mused as he pushed her into the trees. The only light came from a small LED flashlight he clipped to the visor of his ball cap. "What did Marion think about that?"

  "She understood. She was just getting back on her feet from her first bout with cancer. She liked that I stayed home. Understood I needed something to occupy my free time."

  "You kept Karen here all those months?"

  He chuckled. "Down in the root cellar. She wasn't the first—or the last. Marion's idea. She liked to watch. To take care of the fish when I was gone. But it was hard for her to go far while she was getting her radiation and chemo. She got tired so easily."

  Lucy remembered the basement of the Caine house. The small dirt-floor room with the shelves of preserves. The strange configuration of the rest of the space. "Adam. He stayed down there a lot, too?"

  "When she was feeling okay, Marion came on the road with me. Fishing trips. Couldn't risk the boy hurting himself or someone seeing him. So we got him all squared away down in the basement." He sounded as if Adam's time living among the spiders and shadows was better than a trip to summer camp.

  They came across fresh tracks in the snow. "Should be right over here. Ah, I see what she was talking about. Funny, I've been past those boulders a thousand times, never realized there was an opening back there." He shoved Lucy into the narrow space. "You first."

  Squeezed between two rock faces, hands cuffed behind her, Lucy still wanted nothing more than to run screaming into the snow. No matter that it would get her killed. Anything was better than dying in a cave, buried under the weight of the mountain, maybe not even a body for Nick and Megan…Nick and Megan. Their faces appeared before her, their laughter squelched the panic ringing through her brain, and she was able to keep going.

  She had to make it out alive. For Nick and Megan.

  They emerged into a cavern lit by a lantern at the far end. "Nice
," Clint said appreciatively. He prodded Lucy down the path and across two streams. The second one was wide and he forced her to wade through it, laughing when the water reached her knees and the current threatened to drag her down. "Careful there, Lucy. Hard to swim with your hands cuffed behind you."

  When she was almost to the other side, gasping with cold, her feet and legs numb, he leapt across the water and hauled her out. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably.

  "Little taste of what Marion got," he muttered. He wrenched her arm and dragged her past the boulders to a cavern. Just as he forced Lucy's head down to push her through the opening, a woman screamed.

  Lucy scrambled into the cavern in time to see Morgan push Jenna off a cliff. "No!" She rushed forward.

  Jenna and the three kids were at the bottom of a pit. Not very far down, in fact, Jenna was already pushing herself up to her knees.

  "You okay?" Lucy asked.

  "Just bruised. But Marty has a broken leg."

  Clint dragged her away from the edge before she could answer. "Good job, Morgan. And we still have plenty of time before the cops get here."

  "Let's take them somewhere where we can play, Clint," Morgan said. "Where we won't be rushed."

  "Yeah, but I don't really want to be bothered with two to watch. We'd have to stay up, guard them while we travel. Not like the old days with your mom, Adam. We had three fish at once a few times in Echo Cavern. Used to play them off each other. Got to the point where they'd fight for the chance to torture each other just to live another day." He walked around the cavern, assessing possibilities.

  Lucy spotted a ladder lying on its side. If she could get it down to Jenna… She edged towards it, thinking she could kick it in, when Clint whistled.

  He raised a can of Coleman fuel. "Give me a hand here, Morgan." She rushed to his side, kicking Adam on her way. She and Clint whispered for a moment, then Morgan danced away, holding the fuel can.

  "Stand up, Adam. You're not going to want to miss this," Clint said. Adam climbed to his feet. Clint pulled him to the edge of the cliff. Morgan opened the fuel can and doused the children and Jenna with it.

  Jenna grabbed a sleeping bag and tried to shield the children from the volatile liquid, but it was too late. Thankfully the kerosene heater was out and there were no open flames.

  Clint handed Morgan a silver cigarette lighter. She flicked it and held it above the pit, directly over where Marty lay unable to move because of his injury.

  "Now, this is what I love. A real moral dilemma. Shows you the truth about a person." Clint laughed. A small, mean noise coming from a man his size. He took out a handcuff key, unlocked the bracelet on Lucy's left wrist and joined it to the bracelet he removed from Adam's right wrist, securing Lucy and Adam by eight inches of steel.

  "Here's my proposition. We're going to have a little duel. Right here, right now. Winner gets to live."

  Lucy glanced at Adam. "I won't do it."

  "Then I let Morgan have a wiener roast."

  Morgan smiled and flicked the lighter again.

  "The sheriff is on his way," Lucy tried to reason with them. Morgan seemed more receptive to the idea of escape. "If you go now, you have a chance."

  "Don't worry. This won't take long. Adam's bigger but hasn't the guts to kill a woman. So, Lucy, it's up to you. Faster you kill Adam, faster we'll leave and these kids and your friend down there can live to tell the tale."

  Now Adam dug in. "It doesn't take guts to kill a woman. I won't do it either. She's right. You better just run. Leave those kids alone."

  Clint shook his head. "Not going to happen, son. I'll sweeten the pot. Lucy, if you want to save your daughter, Megan, all you need to do is kill Adam. Adam, if you want to save your brothers and sister, all you need to do is kill Lucy."

  Lucy stared at him, straining against the chains, wishing she was close enough to wrap them around his neck. "If you so much as look at my daughter—"

  "That's the spirit, Lucy! Just one catch." He pulled out his cell phone. "I'm going to film the whole thing. When I'm done it will go online. And if Lucy wins, I'm taking Olivia."

  He turned the camera to film himself. "Let's make sure Megan knows what's at stake. Megan, darling, if you're watching this, then your mom killed an unarmed boy to save your life. And right now I'm killing a sixteen-year-old girl. Slowly. Taking my time." He winked. "Savoring every minute of it. She's gonna scream for days. Weeks."

  "Sick sonofabitch!" It didn't take any acting skills to give Clint the desperation he wanted. But even as she hurled the words at him, Lucy was frantically thinking. How could she reel him in?

  Rule number one in dealing with predators: they always lied. No way in hell he had any intention of letting either her or Adam live. Or Jenna and the kids.

  He tsked at her. "Lucy, Lucy. I thought your job was understanding sick bastards like me. Getting into our heads."

  Exactly. And Clinton was all about asserting control. Power.

  Dominance.

  "My job is hunting you down. Which is exactly what I'll do." She lunged at him, but the chain pulled her short.

  Adam started to move with her, then Morgan flicked the lighter again and he froze.

  Another laugh, and Clint turned the camera on Adam. "For anyone watching, this is Adam Caine. If he's still alive at the end of this, he'll have murdered a federal agent."

  He peered around the camera. "That's the death penalty right there, Adam. Only way to save yourself is to go on the run. With me. Helping me fish. Doing everything I tell you."

  Ahhh. Her hook. Why had Clint kept Adam alive this long? He had other children to replace him with. And obviously Adam didn't fit his father's idea of the perfect son.

  Because Adam hadn't broken. Same way Clint kept Rachel alive far longer than was safe or expedient. He wanted to break her. He needed to break Adam as well.

  But Adam would never become the monster Clint wanted. Lucy wouldn't give him the chance. Even if it meant sacrificing herself to save him. She'd kill Clint with her bare hands before she let Adam follow in his father's footsteps.

  Megan and Nick's faces floated through her vision. She blinked them back with regret.

  "Are you willing to do that, Adam? Become the son I deserve? Follow wherever I lead?"

  Adam squirmed. Clint aimed the pistol at him and he froze in place. "No. I won't. You said you'd let the kids go. Someone has to take care of them."

  "You don't come with me and I'll let Morgan take care of them. Imagine the fun she'll have, teaching them everything I taught her. Stay here and go to death row, abandoning the kids, or come with me and be the man I know you can be. Which will it be?"

  Adam said nothing. His face tightened. Then he stared at Lucy, eyes narrowed. Assessing her vulnerabilities. Deciding where to aim the kill strike.

  Clint's laughter echoed through the blackness. Morgan chimed in, dancing along the edge of the cliff, chanting, "Adam, Adam, Adam…"

  "Adam, don't listen to him—"

  He shook his head and looked away from Lucy, his fists tight, face a blank mask.

  The face of a man who had decided. Life or death.

  Chapter 35

  Jenna wiped the foul Coleman fuel from her face, then turned to the kids. Sally was crying, rubbing her eyes as if they burned, while Darrin hovered over Marty, his face turned up to where Morgan taunted him with the lighter. Jenna couldn't believe she'd let a thirteen-year-old girl get the drop on her.

  Worse, she saw the gleam of anticipation in Morgan's eyes and knew she would eventually light the fire.

  "Help me move everything that got wet away from this side," Jenna whispered to the kids. "Fast as we can, stack it all over there, as far away as possible." She wadded the sleeping bag she'd grabbed to shield herself and took off her tie-dyed New Hope sweatshirt that reeked of kerosene. It was chilly, but better than burning. Darrin quickly followed suit, shedding his jacket and taking the fleece blanket that covered Marty, adding them to the bundle on the other side of th
e pit.

  Sally kept crying, not willing to let go of the stuffed cat, despite the fact it was soaked.

  "Darrin, help her," Jenna ordered. She had no time for tears as she scoured the pit for anything to help them get out of here. She found Lucy's Glock. She'd dropped it when she fell, but it was useless. One spark and the fumes from the fuel would ignite the air around them.

  She sat back on her heels, realizing the futility of their position. It wasn't the fuel she had to worry about; it was the fumes. And she just succeeded in spreading those all over the bottom of the pit.

  There had to be a way, she thought, only half listening to what Clint was saying. Crazy talk was no help either. Although this duel might be enough of a distraction—if she could find something to climb on. She dragged the heater to the base of the cliff. It wasn't very big and only stood about two feet high, but it might be enough.

  "Here," Darrin said. "Put these under it." He held a stack of coloring books and magazines. Another six inches.

  "Good. Anything else?"

  "The rocks from the fire ring. But they're not very level."

  "That's okay. Sneak a few of the flattest ones over here and we'll give it a try." The overhang partially hid them from Morgan, who was watching Clint anyway, but the fire ring was directly in her line of sight.

  Whatever Clint had been talking about began. There was a thud. Someone hit the ground hard. Morgan turned away and clapped. Darrin saw his chance and dragged over the flattest rock he could find.

  "Be careful," Marty whispered as Jenna climbed the precarious tower.

  Darrin leaned his weight against her legs helping her keep her balance. If she could just get one hand over the edge, she might be able to reach the ladder she'd seen up there.

  The sound of pounding feet came her way. Pebbles showered down on her and Darrin but the boy never lost his grip. She glanced down and saw that Sally figured out what they were doing. She had dropped her cat and helped steady the wobbly heater. Jenna stretched, only a few more inches, but her balance wavered and she fell back with a crash, narrowly missing the kids.