by Wendy Davy
Victoria would have preferred to run alone, rather than with someone who didn’t want to be running with her. But, she didn’t complain. She tried several times to lighten his mood but nothing seemed to work. Eventually she gave up trying to make conversation and took in her surroundings.
She breathed in the fresh mountain air and kept her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. She only saw the usual sights and heard the usual sounds. It wasn’t long before she felt herself relaxing and enjoying the morning. Victoria noticed that not only did James keep up with her, but he could obviously outrun her easily if he wanted to. His breathing stayed steady and even. She caught herself admiring his physique from the corner of her eye and quickly returned her focus on the trail ahead.
Nearly halfway into the run, they came up to a curve in the trail. As they rounded the bend, James suddenly shouted, “Stop!” He reached his hand out to block her but it was too late. Before Victoria could react, she took another step and felt only air where the ground should have been. She felt herself falling. Darkness surrounded her and a deep, searing pain shot through her ankle as she catapulted to the ground deep inside a large hole.
“Give me your hand!” James ordered as soon as she had landed. Pain and disorientation kept her from answering or moving for a moment. She tried to catch the breath that had been knocked out of her. After a terrifying moment, Victoria looked up and saw James leaning over the rectangular hole she had fallen into. He reached for her.
Someone had dug a deep, deep pit and she sat in the bottom of it. Fear like she had never known, clawed at her from the deep darkness of the earth. The hole smelled of wet earth and rotten leaves. She saw insects crawling between exposed root systems and dangling vines. She screamed again as fear overtook her. She tried to stand and reach for James’ hand but the pain in her ankle was too severe.
“My ankle.”
“Okay. Stay there for a minute.”
Victoria watched James stand up with his gun drawn and look all around for any signs of trespassers. “Don’t leave me,” Victoria cried in fear when he took a step away.
He looked down and holstered his gun. “Never, baby. I’ll never leave you. Try to reach me again.”
She pressed her weight on her good ankle and held on to the sides of the pit, steadying herself as she stood up. She saw something casting a shadow into the already dark pit. As her eyes came into focus on the large, looming object set at the head of the hole, her throat squeezed shut.
A tombstone.
It looked like the one in the threatening note, except this one not only had her name carved into it, it had a date on it. Today’s date. She let out a third scream as her legs gave out on her and she sank back to the ground. She wasn’t sitting in the bottom of a hole. She was sitting, trapped in the bottom of her own grave. Someone wanted her to die. Today.
****
“Look at me!” James demanded. He reached for her but she was slumped in the corner of the pit. He had tried to keep her focused on him, hoping she wouldn’t see the stone with her name on it. He didn’t blame her for her reaction. He didn’t know of anyone that would react well to seeing their name carved into a grave stone and being trapped in a deep pit beneath it.
James had hoped to see someone there waiting, watching as he searched the woods around them. He wanted someone to pay. He hadn’t caught sight of anyone as he searched through the surrounding area. But, someone lurked nearby. He could feel it. He needed to get Victoria out of the hole quickly and get her to safety.
Victoria looked up to him with frightened eyes and he responded. “Only look at me, Vic. Nothing else. I’m going to get you out of there.” He was her lifeline and they both knew it. He held his breath until he saw her nod. “That’s it. Stand up again.”
This time he reached farther into the hole. He stretched out flat on his stomach. Rocks and sticks pressed into his skin as he dug the toes of his shoes into the ground for leverage. He was able to grab one of her wrists and instructed her, “Let me lift you out. Keep looking into my eyes. I’ve got you, baby.”
He kept eye contact with her as he lifted her out of the hole. He thanked God that he had been there with her. Normally, she would have been alone. James knew that there would have been no way for her to escape without him. She could have been there for hours before being found. He took her into his arms and rocked her. He kissed the top of her head over and over as he held her.
“They won’t win, Victoria. I promise.”
James’ cell phone rang, it was Tyler. “Yeah. Something has happened,” James said anxious to relay what had transpired.
“We have another note,” Tyler said as if he hadn’t heard James. “This time it was pinned to the front door. Someone got past our alarms, James.”
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. No one should have been able to get that close to the house and cottage without them knowing it.
“Someone’s been farther out on the property too. We’re out there now, heading back. I’ll explain when we get there,” James said and clicked the cell phone shut. He picked Victoria up in his arms and headed back to the house.
“We need to get back. It’s not safe out here.”
Her ice cold hands wrapped around his neck and she pressed her face into his chest. She had been through enough. Anger seeped into his veins. Someone was going to answer for this. Victoria didn’t deserve to be so frightened and terrorized. All of his primal instincts came alive. His primary mission had changed from one of busting moonshine operators, to one of protecting Victoria. His protective instincts bypassed all that he had ever known. Even more so than he had felt for Danny. He had been James’ responsibility just as Victoria is now. But somehow, in someway, this felt completely different.
As he carried Victoria, he realized with clarity the difference between the two situations. This situation was one that he could still do something about. He would use his knowledge, training and experience to keep her as safe as possible. In Danny’s situation, James realized he had done the best he could, but no amount of training, experience or anything else could have prevented Danny from being in the accident.
There was a big difference between responsibility and control. Danny may have been his responsibility, but he wasn’t under his control. Danny made the choice to go out the door that night. He made the choice to get in the car with a drunk driver at the wheel. Danny led his life by the choices he made, just like everyone else. James had no control over that. The moment the reality of this struck him, a strange sense of peace came over him. He realized that it truly wasn’t his fault Danny was gone. Nor was it only the driver’s fault. It was more a matter of bad choices Danny had made, and the resulting consequences of his actions.
Before they reached the farmhouse, James stopped walking. He looked down at Victoria and said, “I understand now.”
“Understand what?” He saw the confusion in her eyes.
Before James could explain, he heard the distinct click of a gun and felt a sharp pain rip through his shoulder as the sound of gunfire blasted through the quiet morning stillness. He fell to the ground, covered Victoria and reached for his gun in one swift movement.
****
Severe pain shot up Victoria’s leg as she slammed to the ground under James’ immense weight. Her ankle felt like it had exploded upon impact with the cool, damp earth. James had thrown himself on top of her to act as a shield to the gunfire that had erupted around them. She had heard the one shot before he smashed her to the ground, now she heard multiple shots being fired. The sound was deafening to her ears and they vibrated painfully with each explosion.
Victoria looked up at James, looming above her and saw him firing back. His arm jerked with each pull of the trigger, jostling her even further. Victoria wished she could squeeze a little bit closer to the ground to keep James from being so high off of it and make him less of a target. A bullet ricocheted off of a tree next to Victoria’s head, the bark splintered and slammed into her chee
k.
“Hold on!” James shouted as he grabbed her and began rolling to the side. He rolled them over behind a large tree and ordered, “Stay down. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
“No James.” Victoria clawed at his shirt. “Don’t leave.”
“I have to go after him,” he said as he got to his elbows and knees. “I can’t let him get away again.”
“Is it the same guy?”
“It’s impossible to tell for sure, but it looks like it could be him.”
Victoria spotted his blood soaked shirt and the hole in it. “You’ve been shot!” Deep red blood dripped down his right arm. Horror bypassed fear as she thought he might die.
“I’ll be okay,” James assured her. “You just stay put.”
“James,” Victoria grabbed his uninjured arm, tears streaked down her face.
“I’ll be okay, Vic. Remember, this is what I do best.” He smiled and kissed her roughly on the mouth. “Stay down.”
The next instant, he sprang to his feet and ran. Victoria heard more shots being fired and she prayed harder than she ever had in her life. She closed her eyes and prayed for protection, guidance and courage. Please God, don’t let him die!
The pain in her ankle continued as she lay flat on her back, as close as possible to the ground. With her ankle swelling and throbbing, she couldn’t go after James, even if she needed to. After the incident in the woods yesterday, she knew James would be safer with her tucked away behind a tree, than if she tried to play superwoman and limp out in the open to try to help him anyway.
More shots echoed through the trees, farther away this time. It sounded like they were coming from the main road. Victoria started to sit up but stopped when she heard a faint rustling of leaves behind her to the left. She glanced over in that direction, holding her breath. She felt defenseless lying on the ground without any sort of a weapon and fear kept her paralyzed as she waited to see what was causing the crunching sound. Victoria released her breath when she saw a lizard streak out from under a log and disappear into a pile of leaves.
The shooting stopped minutes later and the last of the explosive echoes abated, leaving the morning quiet and still. Victoria stayed silent and unmoving while waiting for James to return. She wondered with agonizing fear if he had survived the shoot out. Minute after minute ticked by and Victoria’s anticipation grew to almost unbearable levels. She hoped and prayed that James survived. She hoped and prayed that Gramps stayed safe inside. And she hoped and prayed that the footsteps she heard coming toward her came from James.
“Victoria!”
She recognized Tyler’s voice and immediately answered, “Over here!” She sat up, trying not to jar her ankle any more than was necessary.
Tyler found her quickly and asked, “Are you okay?” He was breathing hard, like he had been chasing after the trespasser too.
“Where’s James. Is he okay? He was shot…”
“He’s okay. He caught the shooter. It’s over.” Tyler caught his breath quickly.
“He was shot, Tyler,” Victoria said again with panic in her voice.
“I know, I saw the wound. It was a graze, he was lucky. He’s going to be fine. An ambulance is on the way.”
“I want to see him.”
“He’s a little busy at the moment. He has the suspect detained right now,” Tyler said and stooped down to eye level with her. “You’re good for him, you know that?”
Victoria’s mouth dropped open to speak, but nothing came out. She hadn’t expected him to say anything even remotely like that.
Tyler looked at her ankle, “James said you were hurt. Is it broken?”
“I don’t know how to tell if it is or not. It feels like it could be.”
Tyler nodded his head. “Okay. Put your arms around me. I’ll take you back.” He picked her up and carried her toward the house.
“What happened?”
“I heard the shots from inside the house, and slipped out the back to give James a hand. I was circling around the house when I saw James run past in the woods, chasing the man. By time I caught up with them, he had tackled the man to the ground, disarmed him and had him under his control,” Tyler explained as he walked with her. “James can handle himself. He has years of experience and training to help him handle these types of situations.”
“He’s really good at his job isn’t he?” she asked Tyler as he carried her.
Tyler nodded and smiled. “Yep. He’s the best. Next in line to me of course,” he teased.
Victoria felt a growing respect for James, but at the same time she felt a little saddened to think he would probably never want to settle for such a simple lifestyle that she preferred. She realized her anger toward him for his betrayal was dissipating as she began to see things from his point of view.
Victoria began to understand how important James’ job was to him and his degree of dedication that he threw into it and why. She tried to imagine what she would do if her sister or brother was killed by a drunk driver. Would she react in the same way, by trying to do something to stop others from being hurt? Or would she simply try to accept what had happened and move on? As much as she tried to imagine what she would do, she knew that to know for sure, she would have to be in that exact situation.
She felt a tug of guilt at her reluctance to forgive James. His dedication to his job came with good reasons. Should she blame him for wanting to do it to the best of his ability? He had just risked his life to protect her and Gramps. He had more than proven himself in her eyes. She had to forgive him. She prayed, Lord, please forgive me for letting my pride keep me from forgiving James from the beginning, and please help me to have the right words to say as I forgive him. I know he didn’t mean to hurt me.
Victoria felt relief swarm through her at her decision to forgive James. She wanted to have a chance to tell him and explain why it took her so long. She only wished she had done it sooner. She knew she may not get the chance anytime soon when she watched an ambulance pull into the driveway from the volunteer rescue squad. Tyler detoured from the porch steps he aimed for, and simply handed her over to the awaiting medics as they parked and opened up the back doors to the ambulance.
Gramps came barreling out of the farmhouse. He was moving faster than Victoria had seen him move in a long time. “You all right ‘darlin?” He shuffled over to her like a man on a mission.
“I’m fine, Gramps.” She managed to smile through her pain as a paramedic touched her swelling ankle. She would’ve screamed in despair if Gramps hadn’t been so close to her. She didn’t want to upset him further and cause his sugar level to spiral out of control, or even worse, have another stroke.
“I tell you what ‘darlin. That there fellow is lucky I didn’t get a hold of ‘em first.” Gramps nodded toward the driveway behind them.
Victoria looked behind her and leaned over a bit to see who he was referring to. She saw James pulling a man along beside him. The man was sporting handcuffs and a swollen, bloody lip. James brought him straight to her.
Victoria tried to remain as calm as possible and hold herself together as she faced the trespasser. She prayed she would get a chance to speak to James soon, and knew there would be time for a meltdown of her emotions later.
She straightened her shoulders and focused first on James. He handled his gunshot wound with ease. His shirt sleeve had darkening blood stains on it, but it looked like most of the fresh bleeding had stopped. He wore a hard expression on his face and his eyes were filled with a grim determination rather than anger.
James kept his eyes trained on hers as he brought the man within a few feet of her and asked, “Have you ever seen this man before?” He spoke with clipped words as he kept a restraining hold on the man.
Victoria turned her wide-eyed attention to the man James had captured. She looked at the man’s face. It was all sharp angles and hard plains. He wore a grin that spoke of secrets and a gleam in his eye as he looked admiringly at Victoria. James gave him a hard nudg
e when he gave Victoria a low whistle. He stumbled a bit but remained upright as he gave a wide smile and a chuckle.
His full set of shining white teeth mocked her. She had imagined him having decayed or crooked teeth, maybe even a few missing ones. She half expected him to look like some kind of monster from a horror movie. It would have fit his personality better than the fairly attractive man that stared back at her.
He gave her a long assessing look and smiled even wider. Victoria’s hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Her instincts warned her of danger. She pushed away her unease and ignored the man’s unabashed perusal. She saw a long scar that ran down the side of his neck and another across his collarbone. He wore an old, faded plaid shirt. The sleeves had been ripped off at the seam. His dirty jeans had jagged holes in them and blood streaked down one leg.
She saw a hole in the pants leg, much like the one on James’ shirt. This man had also been shot. Victoria wondered with a shiver what kind of man could be shot in the leg and still walk without even a hint of pain. His dirty, shaggy dark hair had a few streaks of gray in it and his jaw had sporadic wisps of hair growth, almost like he had taken a razor and shaved blindfolded.
“Victoria?” James prodded when she said nothing, only continued to stare.
The coldness in the man’s dark, fathomless eyes had her instincts on high alert. The same instincts that told her this was the man who had taken the pictures of her and the man who had dug her makeshift grave on the running trail.
“No.” Victoria turned her focus to James. “I don’t know him.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
The man interrupted saying, “Well, I sure know you sweetheart. I’ve enjoyed taking pictures of you and fixin’ you up a nice resting spot…”
James intervened before he could continue, “Tyler, put him in the SUV.”
Tyler did as James asked without hesitation. Victoria watched as Tyler hauled the man roughly away. The suspect looked back at Victoria and said, “Later babe.”
Victoria saw James’ jaw twitch and his eyes blaze with quiet fury. His hands fisted at his sides and it looked like it took all of his control not to throttle the guy.
