Adam yelled back, “Its Adam. I can hear you. Liam’s trying to hold up… He just closed his eyes for a minute.”
Adam’s voice was muffled through the rubble.
“Tell him to open them immediately!” demanded Bridgette with concern rampant in her high pitched voice.
Adam shook his brother’s leg vigorously, “Wake up! Aunt Bridgette said that you have to wake up!”
Liam, “Stop!”
“Liam!” cried Bridgette from the opposite side of the wreck, “Do you hear me? Wake up! Stay with us! Do not go to sleep!”
“I’m here! I’m just tired! My entire body hurts,” Liam complained.
“Adam, where was he shot?”
“In the shoulder….”
“Did you wrap it to control the bleeding?”
“Yeah, I wrapped my uniform shirt around his shoulder. It’s soaked with blood now, though.”
“Are you hurt at all?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“I need you to try getting out of the car and pushing this debris towards me.”
“The rocks have us trapped in. Even the windshield is blocked.”
“Okay, hold tight! Joe and I are trying to get you guys out! Keep Liam awake, please!”
***
“Tristan!” Cole yelled down the dark tunnel where Tristan had just chased after Angie.
Cole couldn’t see Tristan anywhere, but he heard two voices in the short distance ahead. From behind him, Cole heard the heavy tromp of a boot crushing against the dirt floor of the mine. Jack followed behind Cole, close on his heels. As the two men reached the end of the tunnel, they could hear a conversation break out between two female voices. Jack lifted his right index finger to his lips indicating the need for silence as he and Cole exchanged nervous glances. With bated breath, they listened to the heated exchange.
***
Moonlight shone brightly into the cavity of the Bone Tree and illuminated the spot where Angie and Tristan were standing. They stood just feet from one another, both in an aggressive stance, ready to take on the other should their emotions spill over into violence. The pale glow of the moon acted as a strange spotlight, casting Tristan and Angie in an eerie spectral glow. Angie glared at Tristan with a hostile but vacant expression on her face.
Tristan glared back, “You don’t frighten me.”
Angie shrugged her shoulders and quipped, “I don’t care.”
“You’re not going to get away with this,” Tristan assured her in a matter-of-fact tone.
“I don’t care about that either,” quipped Angie in a nonchalant tone.
“So tell me Angie, what the hell do you care about then?” asked Tristan becoming irate.
Angie laughed darkly as she took in Tristan’s face but she did not answer the question at hand.
“You only care about yourself. That is it. There is no other explanation for your actions.”
Angie casted a venomous stare at Tristan as her once-pretty face morphed into something else. She was allowing her true self to come forth. Angie’s rage was spilling over and taking reign of whatever acute amount of self-control she still possessed.
“Little girl, you just don’t get it. Do you?” spat Angie in a hoarse voice.
“You’re right. I don’t. I don’t get why you feel that it’s okay to kill people that you’re supposed to love,” said Tristan bluntly.
Angie scoffed at Tristan. She could not control her envy or rage anymore.
“Love?! What does love have to do with it?! These people didn’t love me!” screamed Angie in a most petulant voice.
“I guess when anger and hatred have polluted your soul so absolutely, it is hard to understand or see that people actually did care about you. Your parents gave you a second chance.”
“Look girl, the world wasn’t just handed to me. I worked for everything I’ve had, and it was all stripped away from me. I wasn’t raised with a silver spoon in my mouth.”
“And I was?”
“By looks of it.”
“Looks can be deceiving.”
“Trust fund kid, right?”
“My father can barely afford to heat our house, thank you very much.”
“Everything in my life has been stolen from me.”
“Angie, you’re not the only one who has had a rough life.”
“Strolling all about town with no cares in the world with your little boyfriend. He’ll hurt you one day, you know. They all do.”
“You know nothing about him. Or me, for that matter.”
“How hard of a life could you have possibly had?! You live on an estate, you go to a prestigious private school and you probably never had to fight a single one of your own battles. I’m sure you never had to know the likes of what I went through.”
“My life has been harder than most people care to know, and I fight all my battles. I have no problem going toe to toe with an asshole like you.”
Angie was taken aback with Tristan’s tone. Angie assumed that she would be the easiest target to take down because she knew she didn’t have to take her, she could just lure her in by taking her friend. She never saw her as a real threat.
“My life hasn’t been a walk in the park. How can you just walk around like a normal person, as if Bernard doesn’t haunt your every waking moment?”
“Because he doesn’t! I refuse to let him control my life or live rent-free in my head!” Tristan spat with anger.
“How can that be?! He ruined me!” Angie demanded.
“You let him,” quipped Tristan with an agitated look on her face.
“He turned me into what I am.”
“That’s no excuse to kill people,” said Tristan matter-of-factly.
“What would you know of it?!” Angie yelled as anger coursed through her body.
“I know that you loved Bernard Kendricks… I know what he did to you… and I know you didn’t fight back. That’s the difference between you and me. You let him destroy you. I never gave him the chance. I fought back,” said Tristan firmly.
Angie’s lips twisted upward into a strange smile as she stalked circles around Tristan. The moonlight gleamed down upon Angie’s thin frame, exposing her sickly face and dark circles.
“He made me into the person I am.”
“You’re proud of that?”
“I’m a victim.”
“You’re only a victim if you allow yourself to become one.”
“You make it sound so easy…”
“It’s not easy, but it’s a choice. You can choose to let his actions be what shapes and defines your future, or you can move past it, and bury it to rest.”
“Secrets cannot be buried.”
“But they can be laid to rest once you’ve come to terms with what happened.”
“There is no coming to terms with it!”
“It was no secret what Bernard did. I have nothing to hide. No secrets to bury. I fought for my life and I won.”
“You didn’t win. Not yet.”
“What did I ever do to you, for you to hate me so much? I didn’t even know you before you came to town…”
Angie’s anger intensified to a furious level.
She screamed, “You survived him!”
“What about your sisters? What about April Dearing? They didn’t survive you. In this case Bernard Kendricks is not the monster. You are.”
“I’m not a monster! I’m a victim!” screamed Angie dramatically.
“You are off your rocker! Let me guess… You went off your meds?” guessed Tristan.
“What would you know of that?!”
“Bernard went off his medication just before he took me, you know. Let me guess… You’re a sociopath just like him.”
“You have no idea what it’s like!”
“You’re right. I don’t and I never want to know what it is like to feel that kind of hatred in my heart. What did your sisters ever do to you that was so horrible that you felt the need to murder them in cold blood?!” yelled
Tristan who was now standing less than an inch from Angie’s face.
“Tiffany was an insufferable snob and she stood in between me and my future,” said Angie cryptically.
Tristan shook her head in disgust and asked, “And what about Courtney?”
“I have my reasons,” said Angie with a charged expression on her face.
“You know, I don’t buy your excuses. I think that you were jealous that they both, at some point, showed attention towards Hunter.”
“Don’t make me laugh! Hunter! He was a tool. He served a purpose.”
“Or… Maybe the real reason you killed Tiffany was because she knew one of your darkest secrets. And oh, my God, is it dark!”
“What would you know about it?!” screamed Angie, becoming more paranoid by the minute.
“I know more than you think. After all, I spent three days listening to Bernard’s incessant rambling.”
“What did he say?!”
“Everything. I know everything I could possibly need to know about you or him. Now what about April Dearing?! Did she know your secret, too?!”
Angie remained silent.
“You should know by now that all secrets eventually come to the surface. Now what did April Dearing do that was worthy of being executed in a park?!”
Angie finally cracked.
“She knew too much!”
“Yeah, I guess she did. She suspected that you were the one responsible for Tiffany’s death. Then when Courtney turned up dead, she told DiNolfo her suspicions.”
“It was none of her business! What I choose to do is my business. Anyone who stands in my way is asking for trouble! Now what did he say?! He promised not to tell!”
“There are consequences for your actions, Angie…”
“What did he tell you?!”
“He told me everything.”
“He promised not to tell!”
Tristan rolled her eyes at Angie. Angie glared back angrily.
“Little Miss Morrow. Do you know why I put you on my list?”
Tristan rolled her eyes again.
“No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“Because you walked away from his torment virtually unscathed. You survived.”
Tristan looked Angie dead in her eyes. Tristan knew that Angie had gone completely mad. Her blue eyes scanned the room wildly, as if looking for her lost sanity somewhere in the chamber. Angie would not find it on this or any other night. Angela O’Mara’s mind was tarnished and warped beyond repair.
“You survived him, too…” said Tristan calmly.
“I didn’t! I’m an empty shell!”
“You were obsessed with him. Your own cousin. And it boils you to this day that he chose a woman that didn’t love him over you. Does it piss you off that I look just like her?”
“Yes!”
“Pathetic! The woman hated him!”
“Don’t speak about Catherine to me!”
“Why? What did she ever do to you?”
“She existed! She was the cause of his unraveling…”
“Ah, Angie… That’s where you’re wrong.”
“I’m not wrong! I’m never wrong.”
“You are. You see, because it wasn’t Catherine who brought Kendricks to his death. She was petrified of him. I was the one who had the courage and the nerve to deliver Kendricks to the devil’s door.”
“Jack Morrow.”
“Yes. The devil in Bernard’s eyes. He was dead in a matter of seconds. So if you want to be pissed at anyone, it’s not my mother, but me.”
“You…” growled Angie in a sinister voice. She looked like she was about to pounce.
“Me,” confirmed Tristan in a serious voice.
“I’ll finish you.”
“You won’t get close,” said Tristan in an annoyed voice as she pulled out her gun. She had heard enough. “I’m nobody’s victim to claim. And neither is my aunt or my friends. Your sisters’ lives were not yours to take, and neither was April Dearing’s! But count on this… By the time the sun rises, your life will be ours to take.”
As the moonlight poured into the cavity and filled the heart of the mine, Tristan cocked her gun and pointed it at Angie’s head. This time, she had made damn sure that the gun was loaded.
***
Frank’s truck halted at the intersection at Mountain Road and Cross Street as he waited for the traffic light to turn green. The traffic light swung lazily over the intersection and time seemed to stand still. A cool breeze blew in from the southwest plain. The smell of fire laced the air as smoke billowed from the forest floor. The scent alone caused Frank to turn his head. Just as the light turned green, something else caught his attention; a raised voice that he would recognize anywhere cried into the night. Frank put the truck in park and stepped out onto the dirt road.
“Uncle Frank?” asked Blake with a perplexed tone of voice, clearly not understanding why he was getting out of the truck.
Frank ignored his nephew’s question as he casted a serious look towards the Forest of York. Rather than asking questions, Tommy followed his uncle to the tree line. He trusted his uncle’s judgment completely and he knew better than to ask questions when Frank was having a train of thought. Suddenly, Frank heard the sound again. Franks eyes darted to the ground. The noise was coming from beneath them.
“Go in my truck and get me my chainsaw, my flashlight and the long rope.”
Without asking questions, Tommy went and quickly returned with the supplies that his uncle had asked for. Frank went over to the driver side window and spoke to Blake and Shane in no uncertain terms.
“Do not leave this truck. Do not attempt to follow me. If there is any trouble go straight to the police station. Nowhere else. Do you hear me?”
Blake and Shane nodded, wide eyed and alarmed. Before they could ask any questions, Frank slammed the driver side door shut and raced into the Forest of York with Tommy on his heels.
***
“Liam! Stay with us!” Bridgette yelled as she continued to move rock and debris with her good arm. Her right arm was still in excruciating pain from her own bullet wound.
“I am,” said Liam groggily.
“Damn!” yelled Bridgette as the pain became too much for her to bear.
“What’s wrong?!” yelled Adam.
Joe replied, “Bridgette was shot too… The pain is getting to her.”
“I can’t get any reception down here… We called for a medic over an hour ago, but I don’t think the call went through.”
“Just hold tight. We’re gonna get you out of there…” assured Joe with a nervous look on his face.
***
Jack and Cole reached the heart of the mine where they found Tristan holding Angie O’Mara at gun point. She had the gun pressed to Angie’s forehead firmly. Tristan could hear footsteps approaching. She craned her neck to see who was entering the mine. With Tristan distracted by the noise behind her, Angie capitalized. She twisted her body around, quick as a snake, and laced her hands around an old wooden lever that was installed in the floor of the mine. She pulled hard on the splintering handle and smiled grimly as a sharp metallic groaning emitted from the ground below.
Tristan didn’t know what was happening. One minute she was standing on solid ground staring back at her father and Cole, and the next, she was plummetting down far below the earth’s surface. Free falling into the dark depths of the mine, Tristan screamed at the top of her lungs. Her fear consumed her. In that dark, weightless moment, Tristan closed her eyes and prepared for the very worst.
What felt like an eternity falling through time and space, was really only seconds and a matter of thirty feet. Tristan crashed into the hard dirt with a violent thud as pain coursed down her spine to her legs and feet. Dust billowed around her body as she tried to shake off the pain. As the air cleared, the trap door slammed shut. Tristan sat up as a muffled scream escaped from her lungs. She was in pain, but she was alive. In the distance, she could hear somethi
ng shuffling along the mine floor.
“Can anyone hear me?!” yelled Tristan in a cracking, desperate voice.
No one answered. The silence of the chamber was deafening. Tristan was absolutely, unequivocally alone.
Stolen Innocents (The Shadow Series Book 2) Page 26
