“Okay?” Allie asked.
Sarah nodded. “Thank you. Thank you for coming.”
“Don’t thank me yet.”
Allie drove them up the street before taking a right turn. She was glad to be moving again.
“Where are we going?” Sarah asked.
Good question.
The truth was, she didn’t have an answer. She barely knew where she was now, this very second. This was an unfamiliar area, and none of the street signs rang any bells. She just knew she had to get away from the parked Audi.
“I have a cabin,” Allie finally said. “We’ll stay there for the night, then figure out what to do in the morning.”
“Okay,” Sarah said.
“Okay?” Allie thought. She wondered if she would be okay if some strange woman she hadn’t met until a few hours ago—and in a dark bar, at that—showed up at her house to whisk her away.
Probably not.
But Allie wasn’t like most people, and certainly she wasn’t like most women. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, though. The people she’d helped along the way would reply Yes, but the ones that she’d left in the dust would likely vote No.
“I don’t even know your name,” Sarah said after a while.
“Aubrey,” Allie lied. “My name’s Aubrey.”
It wasn’t her real name, of course, but it was the name on her fake driver’s license.
She sneaked another glance at Sarah. The other woman was checking on the baby, pulling down the jacket to get a better look at him. She was still oblivious to the bloodied half of her face, which didn’t hide the beaming smile every time she gazed down at the boy. Allie couldn’t see the baby itself, but it’d remained quiet ever since Sarah switched it over to the Ford. If Sarah didn’t look so content and serene, Allie might think there was something wrong with the child.
Allie leaned across the front seats and snapped open the glove compartment before taking her eyes off the dark streets briefly to grab the first-aid kit. Rentals didn’t come with first-aid kits, but Allie had added it herself. Another one of her just in case paranoia. This one had paid off. She hoped the other one did, too, eventually.
“Here,” Allie said, holding the box toward the back.
Sarah took it. “Am I still bleeding?”
“You don’t know?”
“I can’t feel anything. My face… I think it’s numbed over.”
“It doesn’t look like it’s still bleeding, but you should clean the blood off anyway. In case someone stops us.”
The thought of getting pulled over halfway to the cabin with a bloody woman in her back seat made Allie squirm. Now that was going to take a lot of explaining. More than that, she kept thinking about what Pete and Stan had told her about the Marshalls.
“The Marshalls have a long history around here. From what I hear, they’ve been around as long as Timber Creek County has been a county,” the bartender had said.
“This is Timber Creek County, and the Marshalls all but own Timber Creek County, that’s why,” Stan the drunk had added. “Everyone knows that boy hits his wife, but no one’s going to do a damn thing about it, just like no one did a damn thing about it when Marshall Sr. shot his pool boy in broad daylight.”
That last bit about Tom’s father shooting his pool boy in broad daylight was what really stood out to her. Of course, she didn’t know how much of what Stan had told her could be believed. The man was, after all, a drunk. You didn’t get very far swallowing everything a drunk told you. If she’d had twenty-four hours to play with, Allie might have been able to confirm everything Stan had said. Or, if not confirm them, then get a better sense of how much was town gossip and how much was truth.
But that was a moot point, because she hadn’t had twenty-four hours. She had one, and that had been spent driving to the Marshalls’ residence after locating their address. Besides, she didn’t need to understand everything about the Marshalls to know that Sarah was in deep, deep trouble and needed her help.
That same woman was cleaning the blood off her face with a wet wipe in the back seat now, using her reflection in the window to see with. She was doing a decent job of it, but it was going to take more work to get everything off.
And a lot more water and scrubbing…
“You okay?” Allie asked.
“It’s still numb,” Sarah said. “I guess that’s a good thing.”
“What about the cut on your forehead?”
The other woman leaned toward the window before poking at the gash. She grimaced. “It still hurts.”
“So you might not want to poke at it.”
Sarah pursed a smile before going back to cleaning the dry blood off her cheeks. “Did I thank you yet?”
“Once or twice.”
“I don’t think I can ever thank you enough.”
Don’t thank me yet. We’re a long way from this being over. Hell, I can’t even see the finish line yet.
It had gotten noticeably darker outside as Allie exited the suburbs, leaving all the bright streetlights behind with it, and drove toward the state highway. The center of Wells City was somewhere to the northeast, but Allie had turned left, which would take her toward her cabin. Right now, that was the best place for both of them. The rental property was hidden away in the woods and on the side of a hill, and was a perfect spot for someone who didn’t want to be bothered unless they decided differently.
“You’ll love it, totally hermit-ready,” Lucy had said after booking the place for her. The teenager had seen the pictures. “Just a short drive away from town for supplies. Also, human companionship. You know, if you should want such a thing.”
Allie had smiled. She wasn’t sure if she wanted human companionship, either. She didn’t count going down to the grocery store twice, a local diner about three times for breakfast when she was too lazy to cook, and a strip mall on the outskirt of town for some miscellaneous items as “human companionship.” Stopping at the Don’t Stop In earlier tonight, on the other hand, did count. Seeing the handsome Pete working the bar had even led her thoughts further astray.
“It’s so dark out here,” Sarah said after a while, peering out the window.
Their vehicle was the only one for what seemed like miles in every direction. That was exactly what Allie wanted, even if, in the back of her mind, she kept expecting police sirens to appear behind them at any second.
“Why me?” Allie asked.
Sarah looked over. “Why you?”
“The note. Why did you leave the note for me? There were other people at the bar.”
Sarah didn’t answer right away.
“Why not the bartender?” Allie continued.
“I don’t know,” Sarah said. “I guess there was something in your eyes.”
“My eyes?”
“I don’t know how to explain it.” Sarah was clearly struggling with the answer. “I just had this gut feeling that you could help me.” She smiled. “And I was right, because here you are.”
Yeah, here I am.
“Tom,” Allie said. “He’s your husband.”
“Yes…”
“What happened to him back at the house?”
Sarah shook her head and pressed her hands against her head. “I don’t remember. I still don’t remember.”
“What do you remember?”
“I was running, grabbing William…” She paused briefly before shaking her head. “Then I was in the car and driving down the street. Then you were there, saving us.” She looked up, meeting Allie’s eyes in the rearview mirror again. “Thank you. God, thank you for coming.”
Allie wanted nothing more than to keep asking her the same questions, insist that she remember everything that happened tonight, because Allie had a very strong feeling it was all going to come down to what had happened back at that house on 2011 Stoner Street. Not just this night, but the next few days. Or weeks, maybe.
God, she hoped she could wrap this up before this dragged on into weeks�
��
But Allie didn’t pursue it. Sarah didn’t look like she had the energy to keep up. Even with the rooftop lights turned off, Allie could still make out the old bruises on the other woman’s makeupless cheeks and chin. She’d been caking herself with all that makeup for a reason.
“He hitting her again?” Stan the drunk had asked.
Yeah, Stan. He has. The bastard has…
“Try to get some rest, if you can,” Allie said. “We’ll be at my place soon.”
Allie focused out the front windshield at the long, endless stretch of asphalt road coming into view in patches thanks to her car’s headlights. Anything could be hiding out there, and she wouldn’t know it until it either revealed itself…or she ran right smack into it.
Seven
“You got yourself into one heck of a mess, haven’t you? That seems to be a talent of yours.”
“I didn’t ask for this, Hank.”
“But you didn’t run away from it.”
“That’s not me. I don’t run away from things. Especially something like this.”
“Oh, I know. You don’t have to tell me that, kid. So what are you going to do with her?”
“I was hoping you’d have some ideas.”
“Me?”
“You used to be a cop.”
“Used to be.”
She imagined Hank sighing wryly on the other end of the line, even though the only thing she could hear was his slightly-labored breathing. It was well past midnight for the both of them, but she wasn’t the one who had been woken up in the middle of, from the sounds of it, a very good sleep and asked to solve a problem.
“Shouldn’t you have thought about the consequences before you acted?” Hank asked her through the phone.
“I wasn’t expecting this.”
“What were you expecting?”
That’s a good question.
She said into the phone, “I couldn’t turn the other cheek, Hank. The woman left a note that said her husband was going to kill her under my coaster. Would you have been able to ignore something like that?”
This time she did hear Hank sighing from the other end. “A note under your coaster, huh?”
“Exactly.”
A slight chuckle. “That sounds familiar.”
Allie smiled, remembering the first time she stumbled across Hank Pritchard. That seemed like another lifetime ago. A hastily written note had been involved then, too.
“At least I went into that with my eyes open,” Allie said. “This one, I’m going in blind. I still am, and I have a feeling I’m not even close to the deep end yet.”
“Now that sounds ominous.”
“It’s appropriate.”
“Gut feeling?”
“Something like that,” Allie said, before pausing momentarily to stare at a brief flash of light that had appeared between the wall of the trees outside her window and vanished just as quickly.
Relax. There’s no one out there.
…yet.
She slowed down her breathing and searched for, then found, the crickets making their familiar noises outside. That had been her constant companion for the last five nights, and on night six, confirmation that there was nothing out there right now but woodland creatures, some bigger (and noisier) than others. They were her early warning system.
The cabin sat a mile and a half from the state highway, on a slight incline on the side of a hill. A dirt road connected the log cabin to civilization, though if you didn’t know it existed, it would have been easy to drive past the entrance below. Allie had missed it the first time and had to backtrack when her GPS told her she had overshot her turn.
The single-floor house she stood in now looked just as unimpressive in the dead of night as it did in the daytime. It had three bedrooms—one of which was currently occupied by Sarah and her baby—and a spacious great room. There was no TV, no radio, and Allie’s only link to the outside world was the GPS and radio in the Ford parked outside and the cell phone she’d brought with her. There was a fireplace, but it’d never gotten cold enough for her to use even though the owners had conveniently left behind a stack of firewood outside, just a few feet to the right of the window—
Lights, flickering among the trees outside.
Allie switched the phone to her left hand while her right slipped behind her toward the SIG Sauer tucked away back there, underneath her jacket.
“Hey, you still there?” Hank’s voice from the phone.
Allie let her right hand drop to her side when she couldn’t pick up the lights outside anymore.
Relax. Just car headlights from the highway. That’s all.
Relax…
“I’m still here,” she said into the phone.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Paranoid?”
“Definitely.”
“Good. Paranoia keeps us healthy. Especially considering what you’ve been doing with your life, kid.”
“You mean getting by?”
“If you wanna call it that, then sure.”
There weren’t many people in this world who knew about her—what she’d been through and what she’d done—but Hank was one of them. The other was a teenage girl who should be sound asleep at the moment, which was why Allie had called Hank instead. The fact that Hank was a former cop, with a wealth of knowledge, was the other reason. But the truth was, she just needed a familiar voice that she could trust to confide in.
“What’s your next move?” Hank was asking her.
“I was hoping you’d know.”
“For one, keep an eye on the news. If this family is as powerful as you say, that means they’re well-connected. Money buys a lot of loyalties. When you add in the small-town factor, it buys even more. How small is Wells City, anyway?”
“Twenty thousand or so residents.”
“Twenty thousand? That’s not that small at all.”
“It’s not Seattle.”
“Most places aren’t Seattle. How did you end up all the way out there, anyway?”
“It was this or a cruise with Lucy.”
Hank grunted. “Yeah, you probably picked the right door. I like that kid, but being stuck on a cruise with her… No thanks.”
“I’ll tell Lucy you said that.”
“Uh, don’t do that.” Then, quickly, “But back to the problem at hand.”
“About that…”
“What?”
“I don’t have a TV.”
“You’re shitting me. Who doesn’t have a TV?”
“Me. That’s the whole point of coming out here, remember? No TV. No Internet. Just sleep and rest and sleep some more.”
“No Internet?”
“There are some local news websites, but there’s nothing on them right now.”
“Of course not. When did all this happen, just a few hours ago?”
“Around there.”
“You’ll have to wait till morning to be sure, kid.”
“Seems so.”
“So I guess you weren’t kidding when you said you’re on some hillside in the woods?”
“I wasn’t, no.”
“Can you get your hands on a TV? You didn’t happen to make any friends while you were out there, did you?”
“Sort of.”
“So borrow his TV.”
“I didn’t say it was a ‘he.’”
“Isn’t it?”
Allie didn’t answer.
Hank chuckled. “Right. Go and borrow his TV tomorrow and monitor the local news. Watch and listen carefully, and you’ll get a feel for just how much influence the Marshalls have in the area.”
“And then?”
“And then, proceed carefully. What’s the worst that can happen? I mean, it’s one angry husband. And maybe he’s from a powerful family. But you have right on your side.” Then, almost as if to confirm to himself, “Right?”
“Right.”
/> “You sure?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, do you believe her?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? That wasn’t what I expected to hear, kid.”
“She seems to have some kind of short-term amnesia. She doesn’t remember what happened at the house or even how she got away.”
“What about the state of the husband?”
“She doesn’t remember that, either.”
“You said she was bleeding when you found her in the street. And that she was fleeing her house?”
“Yes.”
“Her husband did that.”
“I think so.”
“You think so?”
Allie sighed. “I just wanted to get her off the streets, Hank. Get us off the streets. She never came right out and said the husband put her in that condition, but who else could have? She still has some old bruises on her face that she’s been covering up with makeup. He put them there, that’s not in doubt.”
“But you have to be sure, kid.”
“I will, in the morning. We’ll have a real talk then.”
“Good,” Hank said. “So what about these bikers you had a run-in with? Are they going to be trouble?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“What were they called again?”
“The Devil’s Crew MC.”
“Doesn’t ring any bells. Then again, there are a few dozen major clubs running around out there on any given Sunday. More, if you count the lower tier wannabes. But these guys could be new. You want me to look into them?”
“One problem at a time, Hank.”
“That’s probably best. For now, your goal should be to tread carefully. Don’t make any rash decisions until you’ve gathered all the facts.”
“That’s it? That’s all the advice you have for me?”
“Hey, this is new territory for me, too. I’ve done a lot of things in my time in and out of uniform, but I never got the chance to help an abused housewife. You’re getting that opportunity now for the both of us.”
“That’s one way to look at it.”
“Nothing you can do about it now. You’re in it, kid.”
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
“Just…be careful, and don’t trust anyone.”
Allie Krycek (Book 4): Savior/Corruptor Page 5
