“Why did he leave, Mr. Backman?”
“He was a boy, and he did not understand that with our gifts the Backmans behave as we choose, we are not bound by ordinary rules. We fought, always fought. One evening he said I was crazy, that I was using him, and I lost my temper and beat him. It never occurred to me that he would leave, but he did, and that was his choice. That left Grace and Blessed with us, and now only Blessed. I believe Autumn can help him. What she took she can give back. She must stay, Sheriff. Do you wish to live? Do you wish Autumn’s mother to live? If so, you must convince the child to stay here, with her grandfather, with her uncle.”
Ethan said, “Listen to me, sir, you must. You believe her mother and I can convince Autumn to stay. But Autumn doesn’t want to be here, and when she meets you, I doubt she’ll be leaping into your lap. She loves her mother, and if you harm me or her mother, she will never trust you, and she will find a way to leave, or to do you in. You must let her go.”
Theodore’s old voice was shrill. “You will listen to me, Sheriff. I have lost too much to let her go. No, Sheriff. The child will not leave Twilight.”
Ethan laughed. “Twilight? I don’t see any sky. Being in this place is like being buried alive.”
Theodore slammed his fist onto the arm of his throne. “You will be quiet! You are common, Sheriff, and you understand nothing. I am having Autumn brought in, and you will convince her. You will tell her if she does not stay with me, you will die. Do you understand? I am her grandfather. She will come to accept that. If you value your life, you will help us come to terms.”
The old man slowly pulled a gun from the sleeve of his robe, then pressed a button on the arm of his chair.
Ethan heard the door open behind him. He turned to see Caldicot come into the room, his hand around Autumn’s arm, shoving Joanna in front of him. Autumn pulled and pushed at him, trying to get to her mother, but he wouldn’t allow it.
Whistler tightened his hold on the little girl’s arm. Why was she still fighting him? Didn’t she realize how important she was to all their future plans? Didn’t she realize how lucky she was, what incredible power she had, a power they would teach her to use? If only he could do what she’d done to Blessed—he’d prayed for such a talent. “Stop fighting me,” he yelled down at her, and shook her arm.
“You leave her alone, you bastard!” Joanna dove at him, but her hands were tied behind her and she could only butt her head against him.
Whistler wanted to backhand the woman, but he merely shoved her hard, sending her to the floor. He shouted down at the child, “Look, that’s your grandfather over there! Your grandfather! Your daddy’s father! Get control of yourself!”
Autumn’s eyes went blank, her pupils fixed. She became still, no expression at all on her small face.
Whistler grabbed both her arms, shook her again. “What are you doing? Damn you, what are you doing? What are you seeing?”
Joanna jumped up at him.
Ethan yelled, “Let her go!”
Whistler sent his fist into the woman’s jaw, knocking her backward. He saw the sheriff coming at him and grabbed the little girl around her chest and hauled her back against him. He raised his right hand, and Ethan saw a snub-nosed .38. “Stay back, Sheriff, or I’ll shoot you! Or her, I don’t care.”
“Caldicot, don’t harm Autumn!” Theodore yelled. “Bring her to me. Then you can take the mother and the sheriff out. Look at her eyes—her eyes are like Blessed’s, the intensity burns within her.”
She was looking off, away from all of them, seeing something he couldn’t see. “What are you doing, child? What are you doing?”
70
WINNETT, NORTH CAROLINA
Victor heard something, like the rustling of leaves beneath someone’s foot, someone who was trying to walk really quietly. Lissy? He raised his gun and turned toward the sound.
Bernie watched Victor unwind and slowly get to his feet, his gun swinging around him. Bernie hadn’t heard anything.
Was it a cop? Lissy coming back? He couldn’t do anything except wait and work at the damned duct tape on his hands.
From the trees he heard Lissy’s excited voice: “Hey, Victor. Look at what I’ve got me!”
She wasn’t alone. Bernie didn’t want to believe it. Dillon Savich, his leg wounded, his belt wrapped around it, limped in front of Lissy.
She did a little dance. “The macho man told me all the cops in this pitiful town are on the other side of the woods, waiting for us to waltz out. All of them but one. Yep, a young deputy nearly walked right into me before I nailed him. Then Special Agent Savich here comes running to save him. See what I did, Victor? I shot him in the leg.”
Victor stared at Savich, a complete stranger to him, except for his picture in the papers. Lissy was still dancing in place, she was so excited.
Victor said, “It makes sense he’d bring all the local cops in. I’m thinking they probably found our car. It’s going to be tough for us to get out of here.”
Lissy waved her gun around. “Big deal, a bunch of hick clucks, probably as brainless as the one I shot.” She giggled. “Do you know, if I raise my face to the sky and breathe in, I can actually smell cops?” She shoved her gun into Savich’s back. “This is my prize cop. Just look at his leg, he’s not going to kick me anymore. Sit down, pretty boy, next to Bernie with the two little kiddies.” Lissy started lightly rubbing her chest. When she saw Savich looking at her, she dropped her hand.
They were maybe a hundred yards inside the police line, Savich thought, in the thick trees that ringed the area, on high ground. He and Lissy had trekked slowly through the unending maze of oak trees, at least a quarter mile of woods, to this small hollow that sat on a sharp rise. Through the trees, he could see Victor’s apartment building and the front of the ramshackle house where he’d left Sherlock and Cully.
He said to Bernie, “You okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay, I just feel really stupid.”
“Shut up,” Victor said. “I don’t want you two talking, you got that? Sit down next to him and don’t try anything.” Victor pointed his gun right at Savich as he slowly eased down against an oak trunk, stretching out his wounded leg in front of him. He eased his belt loose, studied the wound. It had stopped bleeding. He pulled the belt off.
“Why’d you bring him here, Lissy? Why didn’t you just put a bullet through his head where you found him?”
“Big boy here tells me he’s got lots more juice than poor Bernie with the two little kids, says we need a hostage cops will listen to and he’s the only one who can get us out of here. What do you think?”
Victor looked from Savich to Bernie, then back to Lissy. “I don’t like it, but I gotta admit, he does have more juice. Maybe he could get us out.”
She cocked her head to one side and stroked her long, graceful fingers over her jaw. “When he does get us away, well, then, maybe you should be the one to put a bullet between his eyes, Victor I’m thinking you need the practice. Remember you didn’t have the balls to kill that highway patrol cop, even after I told you to punch her between the eyes?”
Victor’s fist shot out so fast Lissy didn’t have a chance. His fist smashed into her jaw. She reeled back, falling. Savich was halfway to his feet, his leg on fire, when Lissy screamed, “You sit back down to I’ll put a bullet in Bernie! You got that, Mr. Special Agent? He’ll be dead and it’ll be all your fault!”
She was lying on her side, her gun aimed right at Bernie.
Savich eased back down, closer to Bernie this time, maybe close enough to get the duct tape off his wrists.
There were tears streaking down Lissy’s cheeks. Victor leaned over her, his voice all soft and concerned, his fingers lightly touching her hair. “You shouldn’t have said that, Lissy; you shouldn’t have made me feel less a man. Look at what you made me do.”
She worked her jaw with her fingers, her eyes never leaving Savich’s face.
“You hurt me, Victor. You’re lucky my jaw
isn’t broken.”
“Yeah, well, you’ll be okay, you won’t have to go to the hospital again. No matter what you say, no matter how bad you insult me, I don’t want you to have to go back to the hospital.”
“I’m gonna have a big bruise.”
“Not bad, I don’t think,” Victor said. He looked over at Savich. “You really brought this FBI agent back here as a hostage? Then you expect me to kill him? I could kill him, I could, if I wanted to. He doesn’t look so tough all laid out there. We’ll see, after he gets us out of here.” He gave her a hand up.
Lissy continued to work her fingers over her jaw. “You could pop him right between the eyes? I could take care of Bernie. Then we’d be free and away from this hick town. We’ll find us a car. I want to go to Montana.”
“Montana might be good. I wonder how long it takes to drive there.”
“We’ll take five days, take it easy.” Lissy looked up to see Bernie speaking low to Savich. “Shut up, or I’ll shoot your heads off! Victor, before Super Cop takes us out of here, I’ve got an idea. Hand me his cell phone. I want to look at his speed dial.”
Victor pressed the muzzle of his gun against Savich’s throat as he pulled his cell phone out of his shirt pocket. Victor jumped to his feet and took two steps back and handed Lissy the cell. She flicked it to his stored numbers. “Isn’t this a kick!. The very first name, it’s Sherlock.”
“What kind of name is that? I wonder who he is.”
“Probably a stupid nickname,” Lissy said. “Let me place a call, see who this Sherlock is.”
Bernie sent Savich a look, saw his face was perfectly still, expressionless.
The cell rang once, then a woman answered. “Yes?”
“Hey, is this Sherlock?”
“Yeah, I’m Sherlock. Who wants to know?”
“Smart mouth, aren’t you? This is Lissy Smiley. I got me two big federal agents right here. Special Agent Savich, and Special Agent Bernie with two little kids. You’re Savich’s partner, right? You’re the one with all that red hair?”
“That’s me.”
“You’re really not sleeping with him? He said he didn’t even like you much. Still, why wouldn’t you want to get in his pants?”
“Why are you calling me, Lissy?”
“I want to know what hair color to buy to get your shade. And is that a perm?”
“Sorry, what you see is what you get.”
“Well, that’s too bad, now, isn’t it? I called to warn you to stay inside that dumpy house or you’ll get blood all over that pretty hair. I want you to tell the cops if they try anything I’ll shoot these guys’ heads off. Oh, yeah, the big guy is now our hostage. He’s going to accompany us out of here.” And Lissy flipped off Savich’s cell, threw it back at him. He caught it, stuck it in his shirt pocket. His right hand was only inches from Bernie’s wrists, and neither Victor nor Lissy seemed to notice.
In that instant Autumn yelled for him.
71
SAVICH HEARD HER yelling, louder than ever before. Her face was white, her eyes wild. She was panting.
What’s wrong, Autumn? What’s going on?
It’s my grandfather, Dillon, he’s alive and he’s here, and I think he’s going to hurt Ethan and Mama!.
Whoa, wait a minute. Where are you?
In this building, it’s underground, all white rooms and bad, real bad.
Autumn, listen to me. I’ve got a huge problem of my own right now—
Show me.
He looked over at Bernie, bound, propped up against a tree trunk, then at Victor and Lissy, their guns pointed at him. Could Autumn see what he was seeing, as he had seen that motel sign? Could she possibly see through his eyes?
“What are you doing?” Lissy yelled at him and took a step forward. “Whatever you’re doing, you stop it or I’ll have Victor drill you right now!”
Savich didn’t think he’d moved. What had he done to spook them? He said, calm and easy, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lissy.”
“Your eyes went all funny, then you stared at Victor and me and you looked like some weirdo freak, like you were looking through us. What did you do?”
Savich smiled. “Well, the thing is, and this is the absolute truth there’s this little girl who was looking at you guys through my eyes.”
Victor whirled around, shouting, “What little girl? Where is she? There isn’t a little girl! What are you talking about?”
Whatever the two of them had seen on his face, he’d shaken them up. He said, “Her name is Autumn, and she’s in Georgia, I think.”
Lissy screamed at him, “You lying piece of—”
Victor grabbed her arm, shook it. “Lissy, no, he’s doing this on purpose, trying to rattle us, get us to make a mistake. Look, he’s not moving, it’s all right. Whatever he does, whatever he says, it doesn’t mean anything. He’s just trying to creep us out. We’ve got to decide what to do, use him as a hostage or shoot his head off. Thing is, they can’t shoot us if we’ve got him in front of us as a shield.”
She screamed, “No! He’ll do something; he’ll kill us. He won’t let us use him, he won’t! I want him dead, Victor, now! You said you could do it if you wanted to. Well, it’s time to step up.” She traded guns with him. “Use mine. The silencer’s on it, so no one will hear the shots. Shoot both of them, Victor. Prove to me you can do it.”
Victor held the gun straight out in front of him, aimed it at Savich His face was pale, his whole body rigid. He looked deathly afraid. Of killing them?
“Come on, Victor, drill both of them, right between the eyes!”
Savich heard Autumn scream No!, and Victor staggered and went flying to the rocky ground, twisting and turning as if someone were physically pummeling him. Just as suddenly he stopped, and he sat up, terrified, and looked at Savich. He yelled, “Run, Lissy,” and he took off into the trees.
Autumn, you did this?
“Hold it, Lissy!”
Lissy’s eyes went wide with shock. Savich knew she thought Autumn was here now, but it wasn’t Autumn. It was Sherlock, her SIG pointed directly at Lissy’s back. Cully came running out from behind her and fired five fast rounds after Victor. They heard the cry of pain when one of the bullets struck him. Then Cully took off after Victor.
Sherlock said, “Turn around, Lissy. Very slowly, I don’t want to kill you. Toss your gun to the ground right this minute.”
Lissy looked over her shoulder, stared at the woman with the wild red hair. “Nice hair,” she said. And she ran, firing wildly in Sherlock’s direction.
Sherlock stumbled back and fell, got back up on her knees, and returned fire. She got her, heard the cry of pain, but she didn’t know how badly the girl was hurt.
More shots came toward them.
“Stay down, Sherlock,” Savich yelled. He stumbled over to her, half fell to his knees, and pulled her up against him. “You’d better be okay, you hear me?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Dillon, your leg!”
“It’s not so bad. I can use it. Get Bernie free, then the two of you go after Victor. You’ll probably have to split up to find him. Sherlock, Lissy took my gun.”
Without a word, Sherlock handed him hers. He willed his leg to move, and it did, awkwardly but well enough, and he took off at a trot after her. Sherlock whispered alter him, “You’d better be careful.”
Savich soon saw Lissy weaving through the trees ahead of him Sherlock’s bullet was slowing her down. She jerked around, saw him, and fired. The bullet ripped past his head as he dove behind a tree, His leg screamed at him, and he waited a beat.
He heard gunfire, prayed they’d finally brought Victor down. He saw a flash of Lissy’s white blouse and fired. She yelled. He turned and ran toward her, his left leg dragging now. He yelled, “Lissy! It’s over, stop now, you hear me?”
He heard her laugh, her manic laugh, loaded with pain. He knew she was on the move again, despite having two bullets in her. Lissy yelled, “You’ll never catch me,
you bastard. I’m going to kill you, and then I’m going to kill every single cop you brought here with you!”
He stumbled after her. Another bullet struck a tree a foot from his left shoulder.
Come on, you damned leg, keep going. Move!.
His leg must have heard him because he sprinted, moving quickly through the trees. She had to be bleeding; she had to slow down soon.
He saw her leaning against an oak tree, panting, hunched over Blood covered her white shirt and flowed down her side over her jeans. She held his SIG in one hand and pressed her other hand to her chest. He saw blood seeping out between her fingers.
“Lissy, it’s over. Drop the gun. You’re hurt, we’ve got to get you help.”
She looked toward where he was hidden and fired. The shot went wide, sliced a small branch off an oak tree to his left. She fired again and again even when he knew she couldn’t see him.
He remained quiet, solidly behind a tree, out of her line of fire.
She cursed him, and through her rage he heard the pain. A bullet took the bark off right by his face, sliced his cheek. Another damned scar. How many more rounds could she have in his SIG?
Savich knew she wouldn’t stop.
It was enough, he thought; it was too much. He came out from behind the tree.
“Drop the gun, Lissy!”
She didn’t. She yelled at him, “I hate you! I’m going to kill you!.” She ran straight at him, screaming curses, her blood dripping from her arm, and she aimed her gun at his chest.
Savich pulled the trigger. The bullet struck her between the eyes. The force of it lifted her off her feet and flung her backward. Lissy was dead before she hit the ground.
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