The Negotiation

by Tyler Anne Snell

  He held his gun higher and went to the glass door closest to him marked Main Office. It was locked. Another closed door could be seen at the end of the room with the principal’s nameplate across it. Gaven and the other student were hiding on the other side.

  Dane moved his attention back to the hallway in front of him. It cut to the right and was empty. Closed doors lined each side along with small lockers around the bottom half of the walls. Dane stayed alert as he hurried to the first set of doors. Both were locked. He went to the next two. They were also locked. He kept on until there was a room with a door wide open. His heart hammered in his chest. Some of the desks inside had been toppled over, a broomstick was broken in two and, in the middle of it all, there was a discarded cell phone.

  Dane didn’t bother picking it up. He knew it belonged to Rachel.

  This was where she must have fought the men.

  Her cry echoed in Dane’s mind.

  He hadn’t liked hearing it over the phone.

  He didn’t like remembering, either.

  Moving as quietly as he could, Dane exited the room through its second door. If Rachel had run in through the main school entrance and then into the classroom, he’d bet she would have gone deeper into the school rather than back outside. That was if she had broken away from the men and wasn’t in their custody now.

  Dane shook his head.

  He wasn’t going to think about that just yet.

  The adjoining hallway led to another that formed three sides of a box that made up the school. Most of the doors were shut and locked. Dane checked the bathrooms quickly and wordlessly. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. No one made a sound. If Rachel and Lonnie had run this way, their options to hide had been limited. By the time he made it to the end of another hallway, he worried that they might not have had the chance to even make it that far.

  But then he saw it. An open door at the end of the hall.

  Dane hurried over. The door led into a small gym. Bleachers were pulled out, a few soft mats were pushed into the corner and light from outside streamed in through the tall windows on either side of the room. Two doors that must have led to the locker rooms were located on the far wall, another was in the corner and had a set of locked chains around the handles. A soccer field, surrounded by trees, at the end of the property could be seen through the glass on the top half of each door.

  Or at least where the glass had been.

  One window was completely busted out.

  Dane cursed beneath his breath as he got closer. There was blood on the broken glass. Someone had busted it in an attempt to escape. Dane cursed again as he shook the handle of one of the doors. The chains clinked their objections. If Rachel had broken out of the school, she must have been desperate.

  Dane lowered his gun and kicked the door hard.

  He should have been there sooner.

  He should have—

  Movement out of the corner of his eye made him spin on his heel. His gun came up high and ready.

  “Dane?”

  Rachel peeked out from under the closest set of bleachers. A boy was at her side.

  Dane could have sung in relief.

  While it had been years since he’d seen the woman in person, he realized right then and there he hadn’t forgotten the details of what made Rachel Rachel.

  Her hair might be shorter, but it was still dark, smooth and straight. It framed a long, thin face with high cheekbones and a faint dimple in her chin. Her complexion was tanned, though, if memory served him correctly, Dane would bet it was a farmer’s tan. Rachel had always liked to go outside but wasn’t a fan of sunbathing. He’d often teased her when she wore shorts and her ankles and feet were different shades.

  But of all the details Dane remembered, it was her eyes that made him feel like they were suddenly in the past.

  Denim blue. Like a favorite pair of worn blue jeans.

  They fastened to him now, a mix of emotions he didn’t have time to separate and examine. “Are you two okay?”

  He lowered his gun but didn’t holster it. Just because he hadn’t seen the mystery men didn’t mean he was letting down his guard.

  “Yeah, we’re—” Rachel started but the boy, Lonnie, interrupted.

  “She cut herself good when she broke the window,” he said, voice stronger than Dane would expect in the situation. He motioned to her arm. It was pressed against her chest, her other hand cradling her wrist.

  “It’s not that bad. Just a little blood. I’m fine.” She must have read the question in his expression. “I thought if it looked like we made it outside, they would go outside and we could hide and wait it out here.”

  Dane couldn’t deny that plan was impressive, if not risky. “The van you said was out front is gone. And, as far as I could tell, the rest of the school is empty. Except for Gaven and the other student.”

  Rachel had opened her mouth, worry already in her eyes, when he hurried to add, “Who are both fine and locked in the office.”

  Rachel let out a sigh of relief, but her body didn’t start to relax until a welcomed sound started in the distance.

  Sirens.

  Dane flashed the boy a small smile. “Backup has arrived.”

  * * *

  THE EMT HAD cleaned and bandaged the cut along the top of her wrist but hadn’t gotten to scolding her until he’d looked at the swollen parts of her knuckle.

  “You’re lucky the glass was already compromised,” he had said. “Or else you might have broken your hand instead. It’s going to hurt for a few days, regardless.”

  Rachel had kept her mouth shut on the EMT’s commentary. While he had only been trying to help, he hadn’t been the one running through the school trying to keep away from men hell-bent on grabbing her and the kid in her care. She had broken the window because she was going to try to get Lonnie and herself through. They’d already used up their luck by losing the two men for a minute or two, giving them enough time to get into the gym. But the moment after she’d cleared the glass away, Rachel had made a split-second decision to keep hiding.

  Guilt and worry and fear wound around her stomach, even though she was now safe. It was just dumb luck that the men had seen the broken window and believed what she had wanted them to. That she had run to the woods with Lonnie at her side. Once they’d seen the empty window, they’d run in the opposite direction, both swearing.

  It could easily have gone the other way.

  Now Rachel was sitting in the Riker County Sheriff’s Department, staring at a nameplate that read Captain Dane Jones and struggling to shake loose the added sorrow trying to creep in. Even without the morning she’d just had, being in the building was enough to turn her mood. Down the hall, years ago, she’d listened to Dane and his colleagues attempt to do their best to save her husband.

  She’d seen the way their bodies had been as tense as hers as they’d gone through each scenario with vigor. The way their determination had kept their brows furrowed and their lips thinned. The way they’d tried to assure her everything would be okay.

  However, perhaps the singular thing she remembered most from that day was just after the storm had broken outside and Dane had walked in. She’d been waiting for news, but the department had gone radio silent. Though, she realized later, the silence was for her. They were just waiting for Dane to come back. Waiting for him to tell her.

  And there he had been, walking through the hallway with rain clinging to his clothes and sliding off his hair. He wasn’t walking with purpose. He’d been walking on reflex.

  Rachel fisted her hand in her lap.

  She had known the moment their eyes had met that David was gone.

  That day had put a hole in her heart, one that had only grown as the year went on.

  Now?

  She looked down at the bandage on her arm and felt the dull ache of her swoll
en hand.

  Now, after more time had passed, it was less of a hole and more like a window. She could see the memories in the distance and occasionally, if she opened the window, she could feel their joy and sorrow they often brought.

  Rachel smiled to herself with no real mirth.

  She’d been a widow for years and yet always around the anniversary of David’s death she found herself revisiting the day when the word was still so foreign. After the day she’d had, though, she supposed she shouldn’t be too harsh on herself.

  The door behind her opened and Dane pushed through. He didn’t look at her as he put a file on his desk, along with his phone, and then settled into his chair. This had been par for the course between them after she gave her statement. He’d been avoiding her.

  Just as he’d been doing for years.

  An old anger started to weave itself around her chest again, making her hot.

  She cleared her voice.

  “Any luck finding the men?” she started, hopeful.

  Dane was already shaking his head before she finished.

  “No one has been able to pin down the men or their vehicle, but there’s an all-points bulletin out.” He met her gaze. His eyes were hard, dark. “We’re running your and Lonnie’s descriptions of the men through our database, seeing if anyone matches. Hopefully we’ll get a hit so we can make some moves.”

  “And if they aren’t in the database?”

  Dane’s expression softened, if only a little. “Don’t worry, we’ll find them. It’s not a matter of if, just a matter of when.” On cue, a knock sounded against the doorway. A man with a detective’s shield around his neck gave her a curt nod.

  “Rachel, this is one of our newest detectives, Caleb Foster. You might remember Detective Matt Walker, but currently he’s enjoying his honeymoon.” Dane’s tone changed, if only briefly, to humor. “But it pains me to admit this, Foster here is more than capable of getting to the bottom of this.”

  This time the detective chuckled. He extended his hand, which Rachel took with a smile.

  “If Dane has faith in you, you must have deserved it,” she responded truthfully. The detective nodded and then all humor was gone.

  “The chief is here and wants to talk to us ASAP. I tried to tell him you were busy, but—”

  “But the anxious chief of Darby PD waits for no woman or man when he’s ready to get some answers,” Dane finished.

  The detective nodded.

  “All right, tell him I’m coming.”

  Caleb said a quick goodbye to her and was gone as fast as it took Dane to get out of his chair. His brow was furrowed. He was already miles away from her.

  And that brought the anger back.

  “I’m going home,” she said before he could disappear on her again. “Unless there’s something else I need to do? Or there’s something else you need to say?”

  Dane paused midstep. For a moment Rachel thought he was going to actually talk to her about something, but he did what the Dane from the past few years had done perfectly.

  He took the easy way out and avoided her.

  “No, that’s all,” he said. “We’ll call you if we have any more questions or need to follow up.”

  “And how do I get back to my car?” she pressed.

  “I’ll send someone in to take you back.”

  Rachel knew her expression had hardened. She felt the anger tensing her up. Dane started to say something more but hesitated. She remembered a time when they’d had no problem talking.

  But now everything was different.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” he finally said, though his eyes were already on the door.

  Rachel waited until he was gone to respond. “Thanks for picking up the phone.”

  Chapter Four

  Dane was a jackass, plain and true. He thought it the moment he left his office and he thought it through his meeting with Darby’s chief of police, Detective Foster, and Riker County’s sheriff, Billy Reed. A meeting that had gone over their limited facts and debated who would handle the case, seeing as it had happened outside the sheriff’s department’s jurisdiction.

  However, unlike Dane, Billy was a charmer. The people of Riker County loved their sheriff, and that included the chiefs of police from the towns and city that they encompassed. When Billy took office, he had worked hard to keep relations between all local law enforcement friendly, so when the time arose where they wanted to cash in some favors, it wasn’t frowned upon. At least, not for long.

  Dane grabbed a water from the break room afterwards and sat down at one of the tables, relieved the chief had agreed to let them take lead. He wondered if he would have been able to talk the man into it had he followed through and become sheriff when he’d had the opportunity. He had a familiar pang of regret at the question. He remembered his younger self, eyes wide and mind set on leading the sheriff’s department when Sheriff Rockwell had been around.

  But things had changed.

  Now he was just the jackass who had gotten their off-duty dispatcher to take Rachel back to the school instead of doing it himself.

  After all she had been through, there he was, still trying to put distance between them.

  Guilt, old and new, created tension in his shoulders. Dane rolled them back. It didn’t help.

  “So there I was, coming out of my doctor’s appointment, when I run into a very peculiar scene.” Dane turned to see the sheriff’s right-hand woman, Chief Deputy Suzy Simmons-Callahan, in the doorway of the break room, brow raised and hand on her pregnant belly. Even with a rounded stomach, Suzy was not to be taken lightly. “Chance Montgomery and that black cowboy hat of his asking the vet next door about dog crates and bubble wrap. Know anything about that? Because I can’t imagine that man being in town and not dropping by to see you.”

  Dane nodded. “We met this morning. He’s following a case in Birmingham involving a series of thefts.”

  “Dog crates and bubble wrap?”

  “And radio equipment.”

  Suzy sat down at his table, curiosity clear in her eyes. “And why is he here? We might occasionally work with other counties, but usually that county is next to us, not hours away.”

  Dane sighed. He had planned on keeping what Chance had told him under his hat, but he wasn’t about to lie to Suzy. She was one of the few friends he’d kept throughout the past few years. He’d like to keep it that way for many more.

  “A vehicle at one of the crime scenes was registered to Tracy Markinson.” Suzy looked down at her hands, brow pulling in.

  He gave her a second to remember. Then it was written all over her face.

  “It definitely wasn’t Markinson driving, if that’s what Chance was after,” she said.

  Dane nodded. “That’s why he’s in Riker County. He’s following the vehicle’s trail.”

  “And asking local vets about dog crates and bubble wrap,” she added with a grin.

  “I never claimed to know his methods.” He mimicked the grin. “He told me he’d keep me in the loop if he did find anything, but I’m sure I’ll see him sooner rather than later, especially after what happened earlier.”

  They both sobered.

  “I’m glad Rachel and the boy were okay,” she said. “But I’ll tell you what I told Billy, it sure doesn’t make sense what happened. Though I guess a lot of the things we deal with don’t make sense to us. Some people just do what they want, and sometimes what they want makes my blood boil.”

  “You’ve got that right.”

  He didn’t need to ask Suzy to clarify her viewpoint. It didn’t make sense that Rachel and Lonnie had been targeted. Even if it had been a crime of opportunity, abducting two people in broad daylight in a public place was brave.

  And stupid.

  The worst kind of combination when it came to the criminal mind.
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br />   “And how are you doing?” she asked. It was Dane’s turn to raise his eyebrow. She clarified. “Not one but two reminders of the past all within one morning? That has to be interesting for you.”

  “It definitely wasn’t how I thought today would go,” he admitted, hedging on a concrete answer. “But I guess part of living in and around small towns means that eventually we all run into our pasts. One way or the other.”

  Suzy surprised him with a laugh. “If I was Deputy Ward I’d tell you that you sound like a fortune cookie.” She got up and patted her stomach with another laugh.

  “Good thing you aren’t Deputy Ward,” he deadpanned.

  Suzy waved him off. “You did good today, Captain. Just make sure you don’t stay here all night. Like your cowboy friend said, we’ll keep you in the loop if anything happens. Until then let’s trust our women and men out in the field.”

  “Sure thing, Suzy.”

  Dane watched her disappear into the hallway and finished off his water. She was right. It had been years since the Saviors of the South had terrorized the department. In the time after, he’d managed to limit how much exposure he had to reminders of that fateful day. Even when it had been hard.

  His thoughts went back to a pair of blue eyes.

  Angry blue eyes.

  Dane pulled out his phone. He went to Recent Calls.

  Who were the men who had gone after Rachel?

  And why?

  * * *

  HER NEIGHBOR MARNIE GABLE was front and center the moment Rachel drove up to her house later that night. No sooner had her door opened than she was enveloped in a tight, teary embrace. Marnie’s wild hair of curls even seemed to be trying to pull her in.

  “You could have died,” she squalled.

  Rachel rubbed her back and smiled. “But I didn’t.”

  Marnie pulled back so Rachel could see the shine in her eyes but didn’t let go. “But—”

  “But I didn’t,” Rachel interrupted. “I’m here and okay.”

  Marnie was a ball of energy at any given time, but as Rachel gently pulled away from her, she saw that the girl was barely holding it together. She had really been scared.