Hard Irish

by Jennifer Saints

  For someone to come after her for something related to the kidnapping and disappearance of General Pearson and his wife meant that Rocky’s mother had been involved in that horror. Her gentle, loving mother had been a criminal, a fugitive, an illegal, a....murderer.

  “We’re close,” Jesse said, looking up from the grid on his computer monitor. “Within half a mile. Park the car here and we’ll move in on foot. It’s going to be at least half an hour before the backup team arrives.”

  Rocky scanned the area. They were completely isolated on a dirt road in the middle of the woods with deep canals lining each side of the road. The scent of mud mixed with the brackish smell of stagnant water. Clumps of low lying trees and brush occasionally edged the water. Beyond that, the cypress groves with ghastly moss hanging like long dead skeletons stood sentinel, warning everyone to keep out. It was clear someone had attempted to make a swamp inhabitable and had failed.

  Rocky opened the car door and something big splashed somewhere in the green-black water of the canal. It had to be a gator. She shivered and hurried over to where Jesse and Mulligan were on the dirt road. She did not like alligators at all. Some folks ate gator meat in the south. She didn’t. Maybe it was the whole karma thing about doing unto others. She was willing to eat a steak or a chicken and face either of those creatures in a dark alley, but a gator was a whole different animal.

  By the time she made it around the car, Jesse and Mulligan were both looking at her as if she was a child who’d left her play pen and needed to be put back. Had they expected she would sit in the car? Were they planning on leaving her while they rescued Jared? No way. “If you two think that I’m going to bloody sit here alone like a duck waiting to be slaughtered you’ve lost your mind. I’m coming with you.”

  “She’s right,” Mulligan said. “Even if we leave her armed she’d be easy picking. And if we lock her in the trunk who’s to say someone won’t push the car into the canal?”

  “LOCK ME IN THE TRUNK?”

  “He’s kidding,” Jesse said.

  Rocky glared at Mulligan, but couldn’t read a damn thing from his expression. “Not funny,” she muttered.

  He grinned finally. “We were trying to decide if we should let you follow slowly in the car while we move in on foot. That way we’ll have our getaway vehicle closer but can still make a fast, but cautious approach.”

  “Let’s stop wasting time and just do it,” Rocky said. “Give me a phone and a gun.”

  They both looked as if she’d lost her mind. “I can shoot. Maybe not a gnat’s ass but close.”

  Jesse shrugged and handed her a pistol he had strapped to his leg.

  Rocky took the short barreled 9 mm, pointed it at the ground and checked the chamber. “How many rounds?”

  “Fifteen,” Jesse said.

  “Like the lady said, let’s move.” Mulligan turned and headed down the road.

  Jesse handed her his cell phone. “I’ll call you when to follow. Any calls for me, tell them to call Mulligan.”

  “Got it.”

  Rather than walk around to the canal side of the car, Rocky got into the passenger’s door and scooted over to the driver’s side then locked the car doors. As she watched Jesse and Mulligan move down the road, she broke out in a cold sweat. She suddenly realized that if someone did come riding down this road and she was forced to race away from them, she could very well end up in a canal...with the gators.

  Diamonds? The word rang over and over in Jared’s mind. Dear God. The only diamonds he’d heard about had been the ransom for General Pearson and his wife in 1983. He tried to remember from all he and Rocky had uncovered if there had been any indication that diamonds were a factor. There hadn’t been.

  The man wanted something they didn’t have. With sickening dread, Jared knew that this violence wouldn’t stop until the man got what he wanted. This man would torture Rocky or anyone else in her life.

  “Know what diamonds now?”

  “We don’t have any diamonds,” Jared said.

  “Wrong answer.” The monster hit Jared’s side again.

  A scream burst from Jared’s lips. The pain was unbelievable. His whole side felt shattered. He couldn’t even breathe. The chair shook and sank a little and the noose clenched tighter. Blood flooded his mouth. He was sure he was going to die. Soon.

  His mind left his pain behind and went back to that morning. The pleasure of waking up next to Rocky, of holding her, touching her, and taking her with him to the pearly gates of heaven. He saw the love in her clover eyes and the sexy smile on her face. He felt the silk of her skin, the excitement of her touch, and heard the sigh of her satisfaction as he lost himself in her.

  And he’d be damned if this son of a bitch was going to take that all away from him. Jared had found love and he would fight with his last breath to keep it.

  Despite the pain, he sucked in air before he passed out and hung himself. He swallowed the blood in his mouth. There had to be a way. He wouldn’t let things end like this.

  By the time Jesse called five minutes later, Rocky had bitten her nails to the quick and the car widows had fogged over so badly that she had to roll the windows down to see.

  “No need to be quiet. We’re up around the bend.”

  “You found Jared?” Rocky cranked the car, her heart pounding and bursting with emotion.

  “Just come on,” Jesse sounded grim.

  “Oh, God. He’s dead.”

  “Damn it! We don’t know.”

  Rocky eased the car onto the road and drove carefully. She found Jesse and Mulligan off on the right. They were both standing, overlooking a swampy pond.

  Jesse had Jared’s shirt in his hand. Rocky got out of the car, sure she would pass out before her shaky legs carried her to them. Her vision dimmed and her body shuddered, but she kept moving forward. She grabbed Jared’s shirt and brought it tight against her chest.

  “It’s just his shirt,” she said. “He’s got to be okay. It’s just his shirt.”

  “It’s all of his clothes,” Jesse whispered, as if he was on the edge of breaking completely.

  Rocky looked around and then saw what Jesse meant. Jeans, socks, underwear. It was all there with the gators. Even the other loafer lay in the mud at the water’s edge. The jeans had hung up on a cypress stump and had blood on them. She looked down at the shirt and saw blood on it too.

  “It’s just his clothes,” she cried. “It’s just his clothes. It’s not him. If his clothes are here then they brought him this way. We have to keep looking. We have to find him.”

  “Look here,” Mulligan said. She and Jesse turned to see him closer to the road, studying tire tracks. “They’re from a truck and it took off fast heading to the right. I say we keep going. This road has got to go somewhere.”

  Jesse’s phone rang. Rocky had left it in the car. Mulligan sprinted over to the car. Jesse started to follow.

  “Wait,” Rocky said. “His shoe. Can we get his shoe?”

  Jesse looked as if he was about to say no, then sighed. “Sure.” He moved over, snapped a branch off a tree, and then carried it in front of him as he approached the water’s edge. Rocky was about to ask him what he was doing, when all of a sudden, an alligator shot up from the water, jaws snapping at the branch. Jesse grabbed the shoe and left the branch for the gator to wrestle with.

  “Dear God. You knew it was there and you went after the shoe?”

  Jesse shrugged. “Growing up we teased the gators all the time.”

  “Jesus,” Rocky clutched Jared shirt to her breast again. “No wonder your mother had holes in her dishtowels.”

  Jesse stopped dead in his tracks. He gripped her shoulders and studied her face for a good long moment. “I hope to God you can get over Jared’s stupidity because I can tell you one thing for sure.”

  “What?”

  “My brother loves you.” Jesse released her shoulders and took her hand as if he had a new lease on life. “Let’s go find his ass.”

&nb
sp; “It’s James,” Mulligan said when they reached the car.

  Jesse groaned and took the phone. “Ream my ass six ways to Sunday later. We’re out looking for Jared and he is in trouble. What can you tell me?”

  “Okay. I’m with you, bro. Stop crying so I can understand you. What? Is that Jackson with you? You’re at the clinic? Put him on the phone.”

  “What is James saying?”

  “Fuck. No, he is not losing it. This is for real, Jackson. Jared has been kidnapped. Mulligan and I just found his clothes dumped in the swamp with a bunch of gators. Do not knock James out with drugs. He has to tell me anything and everything he is thinking.”

  “What? Shit. That’s all? Okay. Stay with him. Calm him down and have him focus on Jared. Call me back if he says anything else. And I mean anything, okay?”

  Jesse hung up the phone. “All James is seeing is the abandon sawmill he and Jared had nightmares about as kids.”

  “The one you and Jackson said a serial killer was hiding in?”

  Jesse took a step back in shock. “Is there anything Jared hasn’t told you? Hell you’ve only been together a couple of days.”

  Rocky grabbed Jared’s arm. “Don’t you see? James will connect any sawmill he’s seeing to the one he knew growing up. What if there is a sawmill down this road somewhere? What if that’s where Jared is being held?”

  “Hell yeah,” Jesse said.

  Mulligan rushed to the driver’s seat. Rocky piled into the back and Jesse dove into the front.

  Through his haze of pain, Jared saw Collin was spasming as if in the midst of a moaning epileptic seizure. It was so bad his chair had flipped to its side and was bouncing up and down like a demon in an exorcism. The monster behind Jared saw it too.

  “You sure as hell are not going to fuck up my genius by dying.” The killer, who was concealed behind black clothes and a black ski mask went over to Collin. It was then that Jared realized that if Collin was having a real seizure, he wouldn’t be moaning like a sick cow.

  Jared also found that the arm of the thin aluminum chair had broken free at the back, damaged by the killer’s blows. His ribs killing him with every moment, Jared wrenched his hand back and forth enough to loosen the ropes tying down his right hand. Once free, he worked on the noose before he tried to untie himself.

  He’d just gotten the noose loosened when the monster caught wind of what he was doing. Jared flung himself sideways as he shoved up on the noose. He’d either slip free or hang. He hit the ground and was breathing, barely though because of the pain in his side.

  The hooded killer roared with rage. He ran across the room, grabbed a sledge hammer, and came at Jared swinging. Jared had nothing around that he could use to protect himself from the blow. And with only one hand free, he couldn’t run. He had to do something fast.

  Then he saw the small wrecking ball the monster had hit him with. It was lying on the ground near him where the killer had dropped it. Jared grabbed the chain as close to the ball as he could and hurled it at the killer’s head.

  He nailed him. The man dropped the sledge hammer and staggered back, his hand going to his head where blood poured from a nasty gash. The man keeled over backward.

  Jared hurried to free himself before the bastard regained his senses.

  Collin was groaning again, and Jared saw the man was urging him to hurry too. Jared had almost loosened the ropes around his feet when the killer sat straight up and roared with rage again. The man was definitely hurt. He wavered as if disoriented, too unsteady to get to his feet. He started crawling across the floor toward the right side of the room and that’s when Jared saw the Glock Jesse had given him. It was sitting on top of a crate.

  Jesus. Jared ripped free of the ropes. He gained his feet and took one step. The killer reached the Glock, aimed with a shaky hand and pulled the trigger in the space of a heartbeat.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Mulligan flew down the dirt road. Rocky had her teeth clenched and a death grip on the back of Jesse’s seat. Nobody spoke. All eyes were on the road ahead as if Jared would suddenly appear out of thin air. The more they drove, the more Rocky realized the fruitlessness of their search and just how unrealistic her optimism had been. They were taking a wild shot in the dark with barely a whisper of a hope they’d find him.

  Sure Jared had to be somewhere, but there were a thousand some-where’s in the miles they were speeding through. What they needed was a helicopter, then they would be able to see a large area in a single glance. One was on the way, but that didn’t help them now. And it didn’t lessen the urgency gripping her gut tighter and tighter. Whoever wanted the diamonds had to have been involved in the kidnapping of General Pearson and his wife.

  Once taken, the couple had never been seen or heard from again.

  “Hold up!” Jesse yelled.

  Mulligan hit the brakes and Rocky slammed into the backside of Jesse’s seat, lucky she didn’t smash her face into the headrest. “What is it? What did you see?”

  “We passed a turn-off to the right. It looked heavily rutted.”

  Mulligan shoved the car into reverse and hit the gas, driving backward as nearly as fast as he could go forward. Rocky ate her cry of fear, surely they were about to end up in a canal with the gators.

  The car flew amazingly straight and halted at the turn. A narrow dirt road went off to the right and disappeared into the dark shadows of heavy palmetto bushes and tangled vines from low lying trees.

  “Good eyes,” Mulligan said. “The ruts are fresh since the rain this morning.”

  Rocky held on to the seat and prayed.

  Dear God, she wanted to wrap her arms around Jared so badly that second that she could hardly breathe from the pain of not having him with her. She was still pissed at the situation, was still disillusioned with what he had done, but the thought of never holding him again was more than she could bear.

  Her rational mind wanted to tell her that what she was feeling for Jared wasn’t real. She’d only known him for days. The depth of her involvement with him didn’t make sense, especially considering that he’d pretended to be someone he wasn’t. Unfortunately her heart wasn’t buying it. She wanted him there, despite everything. And it wasn’t just because he was in danger. She’d been feeling that way ever since she’d left him in the hospital corridor.

  Jared went low. He could have dived to the right or to the left, but chose to go straight ahead toward the killer. His only hope of survival was to take the man down—if he survived the bullet he was sure was speeding his way.

  Only the explosion of more pain didn’t happen.

  The killer missed and was now adjusting his aim. Less than three feet separated them now. Jared knew the next shot would kill him. He hit the ground and rolled himself like a bowling ball at the killer’s legs. The man fired.

  Jared still did not feel a thing. He swept the man’s legs out from under him, grabbed the barrel of the Glock 18 pointed at his head and twisted it downward. He then angled up, a breath away from either shooting the killer with the turning pistol or pinning the SOB to the dusty floor with a rib-crushing slam.

  Screaming in frustration, the man flailed wildly, driving his knee into Jared’s injured side. Pain hit Jared like a speeding Mack Truck. His vision dimmed, his body spasmed, his lungs froze, and his grip on the gun loosened as he fought for consciousness.

  He couldn’t believe it was going to end like this. Just as he’d found something in life worth fighting for, he would die in the dust like a dog.

  Suddenly Collin, still strapped to the chair but bucking wildly enough to bounce, tipped over onto the killers head. The distraction gave Jared the edge he needed. He shoved the pistol toward the shooter and forced the trigger home. The killer jerked, twitched, shuddered then spasmed, blood spurting from his left breast.

  Collin, moaning and fighting against his gag and binding ropes, had landed with his face buried in the killer’s now still chest. Pulling the Glock from the killer’s slack hand, J
ared pushed up, loosened Collin’s gag, and shoved him back from the killer’s head.

  “Thank God,” Collin gasped. “Thank God. Thank God. Is he dead?”

  Jared ripped off the killer’s hood and stared into Riley’s lifeless eyes. He checked the man’s jugular just to be sure. “Yes. He’s dead.” Jared glared at Collin, taking in the man’s horrible state. Empathy and gratitude mixed with Jared’s anger. “You saved my life here, but after your attack on Rocky I am not sure whether I should thank you or shoot you.”

  Collin paled. “I was drunk Sunday.”

  “I’m not talking about Sunday. I’m talking about when you tried to rape her during your divorce.”

  Collin’s eyes widened. “You’re out of your mind or Rocky is telling lies. I would never force a woman.”

  Jared wanted to point the muzzle at Collin’s face, just to scare the man into telling the truth. Instead, he lowered the gun and hit him with a hard stare. “You didn’t go to her house drunk one night, break down her door and tried to force yourself on her? She said she had to nail you hard in the groin to stop you. She had Mack come drag you home. Seems to me that’s something a man don’t forget.”

  “Jesus,” Collin whispered. “Surely, I didn’t do that...but-”

  “But what?” Jared’s hand shook with the force of his anger.

  “One night back then I woke up in the yard with Mack hosing me down until I sobered up enough to yell at him. He then beat the hell out of me with the rubber hose and told me to stay away from Rocky. I hurt everywhere then, but my groin was especially sore. Jesus, I don’t even remember having gone to see her. The next day Rocky and her father fired me from McKenna Construction. I’d worked there since I was ten years old.”

  “And you didn’t put two and two together?”