“You proud of yourself?” Nick leaned into her face. “Who do you think you are running around with that guy anyway?”
“I’m your ex-wife. Ex as in no longer married. Remember?” She glared back at him, like she wasn’t the one tied to a tree. Every muscle trembled, but she didn’t care.
“You think you can sass me? Do you, huh?” He was so close she could smell his cheap brand of beer breath.
“I don’t belong to you. Never did.” Even in her precarious position, it felt good standing up to him. That was one lesson she had learned from Alex when he had taught her how to shoot. Never back down, Kelsey. You might take a beating, but you’ll know you gave your best shot.
“Shut your stinking mouth.” Nick punched her in the chest like she knew he would, but she had anticipated his move. It still hurt, but she lifted her head and glared back at him. Again Alex’s words reminded her. Never lie down to a bully. They’re nothing but cowards. You’re not.
“Coward,” she gasped. “That’s all you’ll ever be.”
Nick pulled his knife, and with a fancy little twirl of the weapon, pressed it under her chin. Kelsey felt the blade nick her skin, but she didn’t lower her eyes. Inches away, she willed herself not to cry or blink. Instead she pictured Alex. He had told her she already possessed what she needed to win deep inside. It was all about heart. And you have the perfect heart, Kelsey.
“What you looking at?” Nick sputtered.
Until now she had never realized Nick was so easily antagonized. For an instant, she was back at the shooting range, Alex’s arm around her and his words soft and warm in her ear. Never give up, Kelsey. Even when you’re outnumbered and out gunned. Never give up. Help might be just around the corner.
“A baby killer. That’s—”
He slapped her before she could finish, knocking her head sideways with his open hand. She spit, caught another breath and turned to face him, her eyes stinging and her voice shaky. “It doesn’t matter what you do to me. You can’t hurt me anymore.”
“We’ll see about that.” Nick tossed his knife to the ground. Kelsey knew what was coming. With a jerk, he snapped the belt off of his waist and wrapped the buckle around his fist. “I said I was gonna teach you a lesson, didn’t I?”
She stiffened and waited. She had used to think she deserved this kind of treatment, but no more. Now she knew Nick Durrant was nothing but a cruel little man who preyed on babies. The strength and enlightenment that Alex had bolstered her with flooded her now. Just in time.
Nick took a half step forward, cocked his arm back like a baseball pitcher, and brought the belt down. Again and again, it bit into the tender skin of her arms, chest, stomach, and legs. She twisted to protect herself, but the ropes held tight.
Alex, she thought.
With each whip, Nick cursed everyone she loved, Tommy, Jackie, and Alex. At last he tired. Despite her resolve, she whimpered. Red welts crawled like fire across her tender skin. Some bled, but she hadn’t given Nick what he wanted. She hadn’t cried, and she hadn’t begged him to stop. Not once.
He crouched beside her, yanking her hair back so she had to look at him. An odd expression flickered across his face, like maybe he was trying to figure her out. It didn’t last. With an evil smirk, he stuck his index finger in the middle of her forehead. “Pow. Should’ve killed you last time. You remember that day, don’t ya? The time I shot your boyfriend in the back?”
Kelsey gathered her wits and fired back, “You mean the time I let you live?”
“Why you.” Nick jerked her off the ground by her neck, pulling against the ropes that now strangled her. She squeezed her eyes tight, knowing this was it. This was the end. Here she would die, strangled by the same man who had already killed everyone she loved.
“You don’t know when to quit, do you?” he bellowed.
From out of nowhere, Ethel Durrant’s hand was on her son’s arm, restraining him. “No, Nicky. You can’t kill her. You gotta stick to your deal.”
“No, I don’t, Ma.” Nick spit into Kelsey’s face he was so close. “Mind yer own damn business.”
“I know just how you feel, Nicky, but Buck’s not gonna take too kindly to us if you finish everything right here and now. Let him have his fun, okay?” Ethel’s voice was slick and sweet as she wheedled and coaxed. She clutched his arm, her eyes black and hard on Kelsey. “Then it’ll be your turn.”
Nick was still plenty mad. He dropped Kelsey to the ground. In frustration, he circled the tree. Once. Twice. He stopped at her feet and glared. Kelsey still met his eyes. She pushed the pain away and thought of Alex. Nick kicked dirt as he fumed, cursed, and circled again.
Ethel sat watching the drama. “He ain’t back yet. You still got time to play.”
Kelsey turned to her ex mother-in-law. “What did I ever do to you?”
Ethel wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “You know what you did, running around on my boy like you did.”
“I never—” Kelsey couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Leave my Ma alone.” Nick snarled.
She saw the hard look in his eye. He pulled his knife from the dirt, and this time Kelsey held her breath, prepared to die. The sweet faces of Tommy and Jackie flashed to her mind along with Alex’s. Blue eyes shone with love. Her last thought was for him. She pushed her back into the tree trunk, steeled her resolve and faced Nick one last time.
Crouching at her side, he grabbed her hair, and wound it around his fist. Nick stuck his knee into her breastbone until she gasped for air. “That don’t feel so good, does it?”
And then he began slashing her hair off, cutting her scalp as he pressed the knife too deep in his haste. Not once did she look away. With one final dig of his knee and slice of his knife, he was the one who looked away. He was done. She gulped in a lungful of air, thankful for the simple gift of breathing. Alex. Alex. Alex.
“Hey, Ma, lookee here. I’m an Indian brave.” Nick swaggered back to where Ethel sat watching, the trophy held high in his hand. “You was right. She ain’t so pretty now.”
His heartless mother smiled with disturbing approval. One thing Kelsey knew for sure. Ethel never liked her.
“Wait a minute.” Nick returned to Kelsey. This time he grabbed her off the ground by her bound hands. Face down to the dirt, she felt him twist Alex’s ring off her finger. Nick dropped her to the ground. Staring up from where she had landed, Kelsey watched the gift giving with sadness. All she had left of Alex was his ring. Her last vestige of hope failed.
Nick tossed the ring to his mother. “Got you something, too.”
Ethel pushed it halfway onto her fat pinky finger. “That’s my boy.”
Alex
The bear faded out of the mist and ambled over to Alex with feet the size of floppy couch cushions, twelve-inch nails clattering against the rocky ground. He smelled it’s putrid breath, its slimy nose and drooling jowls slobbering across his bloody face as it sampled its prey. With a saliva-drenched slurp, it paused as if savoring the taste of human sweat and blood. Then it took another cleansing swipe with its washcloth tongue. In his delirium, he chuckled. He recalled the first rule when confronted with a bear. Play dead. I can handle that.
Another bear, smaller and with lighter fur appeared out of the same foggy mist. Of all things, a little girl in a gossamer pink gown walked beside it, her hand comfortable on the predator’s wide forehead. Now Alex knew he was either hallucinating or already dead. Either way, it was better than being eaten alive.
The child walked over to him. He peered up at her. With blue eyes that looked vaguely familiar, she gazed down at him. Wings fluttered on her back, her voice crystal tinkling bells. “Are you still here?”
Alex blinked hard at her strange question and then remembered. He couldn’t see. Ah, so I am dreaming. In the reasonable level of all dreams where logic remains partially at play, he thought dreaming was a pretty good thing. Or maybe he was dying. That might also be a good thing. Whatever. A strange sense of euphoria and a kind of weightlessn
ess had replaced all his pains. He tried to make sense of it. Life had been good, but death felt pretty good, too.
The winged child peered down at him. “Daddy?”
Ah, so it’s Abby come to take me home. Maybe she can explain the bears.
The sweet child sat next to him, her legs crossed, her feet wrapped in some kind of ballerina shoe. Or was it a fairy princess slipper? A father of a little girl should know such things. Again he reminded himself that he couldn’t really see. His head was bashed in and his eyes were blind. This was merely an illusion, the dream state between life and death.
Just like that, the dream rippled and changed. All at once he was teaching his little daughter to play baseball. The bears had turned into his goofball dogs, Whisper and Smoke. Abby wore little white shorts and a pink T-shirt with Daddy’s Girl printed across the front. He remembered that shirt from so long ago. It used to make him smile.
She missed the first pitch and the second, so Alex threw the ball again. This time, with a little girl squeal of delight, Abby hit it high into the sky with her red plastic bat. Straight up. Fly ball. Anyone else would’ve been out. Not his little girl. As he caught it in his old White Sox catcher’s mitt, a sense of overwhelming peace and contentment washed over him. He felt the score burn his heart with truth. She was—safe.
Even in this crazy dream, he sighed. Ah, this was truly heaven on earth. Playing baseball with his little girl on a summer evening, the smells of fresh mown lawn in the air, the light golden at this perfect time of day – could life get any better? But just when he wound up for another pitch, his arm pulled back, his knee raised toward his chest to let the ball go – the dream changed again.
Abby turned into a beautiful young woman. She was stunning to look at, her golden hair swept up in a braid and wrapped around her head in a mist of tiny green flowers and pink ribbons. He dropped his arm, the ball rolled to the ground, and his heart swelled with pride. This beautiful young woman was his daughter, all grown up. She looked mature and womanly, not the little girl he remembered at all. What’s more, Abby seemed wise beyond her years. Her blue eyes looked right through him and he knew for a certainty – she still loved him. Even though he had not been there that day, even though he had been a couple thousand miles away the day she had died – she radiated a daughter’s unconditional love. It felt warm, like a blanket of peace wrapped around him after all these years.
“Are you still here?” she asked, sweetly patting his arm in her motherly way. Somehow she floated just beyond his reach, her feet not even close to touching the ground. Just as sweetly, she reached toward him. He lifted his arms for her embrace, but instead of the hug he fully expected, she stabbed him in the chest with a ten-inch hypodermic needle.
He gasped. She had changed again.
The Pierce County Search and Rescue team had arrived.
Twenty-One
Kelsey
The worst was yet to come.
Kelsey knew it. The power struggle between Buck and Nick turned brutal the minute Buck woke up. His eyes widened in rage when he looked at her. He looked twice, and all hell broke loose.
“You cut her hair. She’s all bloody. What the—” He didn’t finish. Instead he charged Nick, knocking him to the ground before Nick had a chance to close his surprised mouth. “You cheating, no good sonofabitch. You made her ugly.”
Kelsey turned away. She wished she could close her ears to the sounds of fists making contact with Nick’s face and body. There was no side to route for in this fierce battle between two brutish men. Both meant to do her harm. Their contest was only a momentary reprieve. The minute Buck was done with Nick, he would forget what he was mad about, and come after her. Kelsey shuddered. Her only hope lay in the slim possibility they killed each other. Not likely. There was still Ethel.
“She’s mine,” Nick sputtered, and Kelsey had no doubt his nose and mouth were bleeding by the wet sound of his words. Good. Kill each other. Please.
“No.” Buck grunted as another blow landed. “She ain’t. You lying pig. You beat her up and made her look like—that?”
It sounded like bones crunched. Kelsey grimaced, not wanting to hear anymore. Her night of purgatory had evolved into a morning of living hell that she wouldn’t survive. Ethel’s shrieks for Buck to leave her little Nicky alone went unheeded. Pinkish sunlight hinted at the edges of the gray-black sky. Birds clamored in the nearby trees. And the battle of murderers continued. By the sounds of it, Nick was losing. She cringed. Nick’s brand of abuse she was used to. She knew what to expect. But Buck ….
Boots crunched against gravel. More groaning. More punching. Ethel grumbled again. She screamed, demanding Buck leave her boy alone. Then another sound Kelsey couldn’t recognize, some kind of a super sonic hummingbird zipping through the forest like a—
BLAM! The ATV on the opposite side of the lean-to exploded. The ground shook. She jerked her eyes to the sight of a burning ATV seat falling down from the sky in a lazy orange spiral. It landed nearly on top the fighting men.
“They found us!” Buck bellowed. “Git your guns.”
Kelsey blinked, not understanding what had just happened. Nick scrambled off the ground. With blood running down his face, he ran to his mother. Ethel tossed his gun to him, and he caught it, whirling around like a crazy man, the rifle hard to his shoulder. Buck was just as quick. Kelsey cringed. Both men were coming for her.
“Whatever happens,” Buck ordered. “Don’t let ‘em get her.”
“I’ll kill her first,” Nick muttered, his eyes deadly, his rifle already aimed at her.
A small yelp escaped her mouth. She shook. This was it.
Alex. I love you. I’ll always love you.
Another supersonic hummingbird zeroed into camp. Then another. Ethel shrieked. Kelsey opened one eye to see Nick kneeling maybe two yards away with his head tilted straight upwards, his mouth wide open to the sky. He collapsed like an accordion, all folded back on himself. The only things she could see of Buck were the soles of his huge boots.
“Nicky!” Ethel screamed, her hand to her mouth. “Not my Nicky!”
Kelsey still tried to make sense of what had happened. Buck and Nick were—dead? How? Who?
“You!” Ethel pointed at her, a look of pure hatred on her face. “You did this.”
I did this? I wish I had. All Kelsey could do was blink back at her in dumb amazement. Ethel was out of her mind.
“You’re nothing but a two-bit slut. I oughta ….”Ethel took a step toward her, but then she must have thought better. Glancing nervously up the hillside, she changed her mind, turned and ran, leaving her jacket where she had been sitting before the mayhem broke loose, back when she was just there to watch the show.
Kelsey’s heart stuck in her throat. Everyone around her had been used for rifle practice. Was she next? Was it even possible? Alex?
She heard him before she saw him. A whine in the early morning shadows turned into – Whisper?
“Ah.” she cried, tears of relief washing her face. “Whisper. You’re here.”
The big dog ran to her, covering her face with kisses. He placed both front paws right in the middle of her lap while she laid her head against him, her tears in his fur.
“Whisper,” she sobbed over and over as he licked her clean. His anxious whine told her someone else was coming, but the dog was not about to leave. He pushed against her, planting his big German Shepherd butt firmly onto her lap, and she was so happy, all she could do was lean into him and cry. Her guardian angel was here. That meant Alex. She didn’t know how he had survived the beating, but she had no doubt. Alex was here. Her heart leapt to her throat for joy. He was here.
The trees parted. A man in a black polo and camouflage cargo pants stepped out, but—it wasn’t him. Her heart stalled. This man looked grim, his rifle still in his hand as he nodded once to acknowledge her, then went to the lean-to and scouted the area. Whisper’s bony butt jabbed into her legs, but Kelsey’s eyes were intent on this stranger. He
hadn’t said a word, but she could tell by the way he moved he was ex-military. Maybe as tall as Alex, this guy didn’t wear a hat. He had unruly sandy hair as if he had slept on it and forgot to comb it. He stood for a moment over Nick and Buck’s bodies, his jaw set in a hard line. She thought he would kick the bodies he looked so angry, but he didn’t. Instead, he turned to the lean-to, jerked the walls apart, and covered the dead men with the canvas. At last he walked to where she sat trembling with Whisper on her lap. That Whisper allowed him to approach told her plenty. If the dog thought he was safe, he must be.
She calmed her nerves as much as she could, but this guy was scary quiet. His dark countenance didn’t change until he crouched at her feet.
“Ma’am?” he said softly. “Whisper and me have come to take you home. Would that be okay with you?”
She lost it right then and there. Her heart broke wide open with relief. Tears gushed and she knew she looked awful, but she was safe. She choked, ashamed her emotion spasmed out of her like it did.
“Hey.” He leaned in quickly, the knife in his hand slicing through the rope at her neck, arms, and ankles. He untied her so fast, his hands moving smoothly over her as he diagnosed, but fear still ruled. The second she was freed she threw herself into his chest, shaking with sobs.
“Save me,” she ground out. “Please. Don’t let them—“
She glanced at the canvas-covered bodies. Nick and Buck were dead. They couldn’t hurt her, but her mind was convinced there was danger. Ethel. Her wicked mother-in-law was out there.
He smothered her to his chest, one arms in a gentle circle around her and the other against the side of her head. “Come on now, darlin, please don’t cry. I won’t hurt you. They’re not going to hurt you ever again. I promise.”
“Where is she?” she asked, her head shaking so hard it bumped against his chin.
“Who, darlin? Are you talking about that other guy?”
“No.” Kelsey didn’t know what other guy Harley was talking about. “Ethel. Where’s Ethel?’
“Who’s Ethel?”
Alex (In the Company of Snipers) Page 23
