by ANDREA SMITH
I located the brick and deposited the envelope underneath; I hustled back into my truck and took off, heading back the way that I had come.
He told me once everything went as planned and his associates returned to pick him up, he would call me with her whereabouts in a couple of hours to ensure they had a head start towards their ultimate destination.
If his associates failed to return or respond to his attempts to contact them within a reasonable amount of time, he would assume the worst and slit her throat. My blood ran cold. Taz and I had to fucking get to her - and fast.
I called Taz immediately to get his location; they were on Fletcher Road off of Route 31. The fact that it was now getting dark was hindering Garnet’s ability to identify a deserted farm that would have no lights on anywhere to help with recognition. I relayed Slash’s latest conversation.
“Don’t worry Slate, we’ll find her.”
CHAPTER 54
It was getting dark outside. Very little light was filtering in now between the rotted out wooden planks of the barn. Slash had dozed off. I had taken advantage of his eyes being closed by looking around trying to figure out some way I could feel less helpless. Slate always said that people are almost never helpless.
I had spotted my cell phone over on top of the wooden crate. Once I had sent the text message to Slate, they had pulled the battery from my phone so it couldn’t be tracked. Somehow, the battery had ended up on the pile of straw next to me. It must have fallen out of Darrell’s pocket when he had bent down earlier to re-tie my hands.
If I could somehow get my hands untied so that I could pick up the battery and get it back into my cell phone, I could maybe sneak a text to Slate. Having both my hands and feet tied made that impossible. I was going to have to enlist Slash’s help.
“Slash” I called out, “Hey Slash!”
He stirred and his eyes flew open.
“I hate to wake you, but I really, really need to pee. I mean could you at least let me pee and then maybe let me have a drink of water? I’m pregnant for Chrissake. How much of a flight risk could I possibly be?”
“Alright, alright - stop your yammering.” He got to his feet stretching; I twisted my position so that he could unbind my ankles without glimpsing the cell phone battery on the ground next to me.
Once my feet were unbound, he pulled me up my arm to a standing position. It took a couple of moments for my circulation to regulate in my feet. The heat and humidity had made my ankles swell up.
He led me over to a far corner of the barn, behind a stack of baled straw.
“You can cop a squat over there, my Lady. I’ll even give you some privacy.”
“What about my hands?”
“What about ‘em? It ain’t like I got toilet paper to offer you; drip dry like a normal chick.”
“This normal chick wears underpants, Slash. How am I supposed to get them down?”
“I can help with that,” he snickered, coming closer.
I froze in fear poised to run from him if I had to, knowing I would never be able to get away from him.
“Relax,” he sneered, grabbing my wrists and yanking the ropes off. “Pregnant chicks don’t do it for me. I guess that’s lucky for you, huh?”
I scrambled behind the bales of straw and relieved myself, not caring that he was standing two feet away and could hear my stream. No bashful kidneys here. I allowed myself to ‘drip dry’ as he had so eloquently put it, because I had no choice.
Once I had recomposed myself I went back around to where he waited. I walked back over to my pile of straw seat and he bent down to grab the ropes to bind my hands and feet again.
“Wait,” I said, sounding pitiful. “You can see how swollen my feet and ankles have become because of the circulation and heat. Can I please have a few minutes without being tied up so they can get some relief? I just need a little bit of water to cool down; then you can tie me back up. Where would I go anyway? I don’t even know where we are, for Chrissake.”
“God damn you’re a whiner,” he griped, “How in the hell does Slate put up with your shit?”
He walked over to the blanket on the floor where he had been dozing and picked up a water bottle. It was nearly empty. He tossed it back to the ground.
“Shit, alright. I’m going out to my bike to get another bottle of water. You sit tight. I’m closing and locking the barn door behind me so it ain’t like you have any other way out. I’ll be back in sixty seconds. I repeat; stay fucking put.”
I nodded my head up and down. He sauntered out through the door and as promised, I heard him throw the latch down on the other side. I scrambled quickly to my feet, grabbing the battery from the floor, and crossing the twenty feet between me and my cell phone. I slid the battery in; and hit the power button.
‘‘C’mon, ‘cmon,’ I repeated in my mind. My hands were shaking. It powered up; I quickly located ‘G-Man’ and typed a quick text.
‘Phone on - Slash doesn’t know. Track location - in a barn somewhere.’
I hit ‘send’ and then made sure that the phone’s sound settings were all on mute. I hurried back to my pile of straw. Slash was none the wiser when he came through the barn door ten seconds later with a bottle of cold water for me.
I thanked him; taking a long drink of the water. I poured some in my hands and splashed it against my face. I poured a little of it on my head, immediately feeling myself cool down.
The barn was nearly pitch black now. Slash had left the barn door opened so a bit of a breeze trickled in; the stars and moon offered a bit of light from the pitch blackness of the countryside. He had brought a flashlight in with him, leaving it turned on to provide a bit of light. He pulled his track phone out and checked to see if he had any text messages. Apparently he did not.
“Well should be hearing from Darrell in another twenty minutes or so; at least you better hope we do,” he said with his evil smirk. “So break’s over; time to get you trussed back up again.”
He bound my hands and feet once again. At least now that darkness had enveloped this god-forsaken place, the heat had dissipated somewhat. I sat back once again in the scratchy straw and tried to relax. I had to believe that everything would be alright. It was all I had.
CHAPTER 55
(SLATE)
My heart stopped when my phone beeped that I had a text message. I nearly swerved off of the road when I saw it was from Sammie. Good girl - she had somehow gotten her cell phone back on. I had been trying like hell to track her location from that all afternoon. I figured the sons of bitches had taken the battery out of her phone so it couldn’t be tracked.
I pulled the application of GPS tracking up on my Blackberry; Sammie’s number had already been synchronized with mine. I had done that the same day I had programmed my contact info into her phone. I didn’t think she would mind. I hit the button again for ‘search’ and waited. Bingo! There it was. The location of the farm Garnet had mentioned. The GPS screen said I was a little more than five miles away. I tapped the screen for audio directions. I was going in the wrong direction so I screeched to a halt and did a three point turn. I called Taz while listening to the GPS directions.
“Taz - the address is 11455 Millerstown Road. I’m about five miles from there. Plug it in to your GPS and haul ass. She is in a barn. That’s all I know.”
“Got it,” he said, ending the call. I wasn’t sure if he was any closer than I was, but I needed him with me. I didn’t need to instruct Taz to park away from the site and make his arrival on foot; he knew all of that. That’s the reason I knew he wouldn’t fuck up.
Damn, this place was fucking remote. These narrow, country roads had cornfields on each side that looked ready for harvest. It sure as hell was making it difficult for me to see a damn thing. Each mile seemed to take forever. My adrenaline was pumping at full throttle.
Finally, the computer voice on GPS indicated my destination was five hundred feet ahead on the right. I pulled my truck over so that it was in the ditch.
I had my gun in my leg holster; another was tucked into the waistband of my black flak pants. I placed my night vision glasses on. I had worn hiking boots that made it easier to move through these fucking cornfields.
I had traveled about a hundred yards when I hit a clearing. It was a narrow gravel driveway that must lead up to the farm. I crept as quietly as possible, staying in the weeds along the drive so as not to make noise in the gravel. Up ahead I could see what was left of the old farm house. It was just the shell; no windows, no roof left to speak of.
I spotted the barn about fifty yards behind the house. Slash’s bike was parked up by the side of it. I didn’t see any other bikes or vehicles around. Certainly he wasn’t pulling this off by himself. Shit - maybe there was only one another person involved? Maybe two others, at the most I figured. I spotted a large double barn door that looked to be padlocked. At the other end of the barn, there was a single entry door.
I needed to scope out each side of the barn, along with the rear to see if more vehicles were parked. Piece of cake.
CHAPTER 56
The twenty minutes must be up, I thought as I watched Slash periodically check his phone while he paced. He had left his flashlight on so there was some light inside now.
I wondered if Slate had even received my text message. If so, how long would it take for someone to get here? Slash was making me nervous because I could tell that he was nervous.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“What fucking difference does it make to you what time it is?” he spat angrily. “All you need to know is that if I don’t get a call here within the next five minutes, your fucking time is up and I’m splitting.”
“Geez,” I said, acting insulted, “You know, maybe he ran into traffic or something.”
“Yeah - it’s the ‘or something’ that you better hope is not the reason. Shut up. I don’t like bitches talking when they don’t have nothing to say.”
“Excuse the hell out of me.”
He shot me a dirty look and took a couple of steps towards me. I guess he didn’t like sassy bitches either.
“Listen bitch, I’m going to step outside to see if the reception is bad in here. You keep your mouth shut and say your prayers; got it?”
I looked away from his evil face; vowing not to let him see that I was scared.
He traipsed out of the barn, shutting the door behind him. I lowered my head against my knees, softly sobbing into them. I felt something fall into my hair. There it was again. Oh God! What if it was some deadly spider lowering itself down from its web? Spiders were nocturnal, right? I shivered. Then I saw what it was. From above, bits and pieces of straw were floating down from the loft above me. I heard the soft creaking of the floor above me.
Someone dropped down behind me. I felt his warm breath on my neck as his hands worked to free mine.
“Be still, baby. I’m here. Everything is going to be alright.”
I nodded; my heartbeat quickened as he freed my hands then crept around to get my feet untied. He was in my line of vision then. I saw him all in black; moving swiftly and precisely getting the rope untied so that I could finally stand when directed. My ninja-Slate was here.
“He’s coming right back,” I whispered.
“How many?”
“Just Slash here; Darrell took a truck to Fort Wayne.”
“Yeah, he won’t be back,” Slate whispered with a grin. He pulled the small hand gun from behind him and pressed it into my hands.
“Hang on to this. Be ready to use it if you have to, Sammie. Stay put for the moment.” Then he was gone. He moved quietly and lithely over to the door that Slash was due to walk through any moment.
I clutched the gun behind me so it still looked as if my hands were tied behind my back. I heard Slash’s footsteps outside of the barn. The latch to the door slid back and he opened it crossing the threshold into the barn. In a nanosecond, Slate was on him; kicking him to the ground with one swift movement.
Slash was caught off guard, but not for long. He leapt to his feet and pulled a chain from his back pocket. He wound part of it around his hand then snapped his arm and I saw the ball at the end of it land against Slate’s neck. Oh my God, whatever was on the end of that ball had cut into his neck. I saw Slate put his hand up to the wound to stop the flow.
(Oh God! I have to do something!)
Slash was using Slate’s momentary pause to his advantage; he was winding the chain back around his hand, preparing to deliver another blow. Slate was creeping towards him but I wasn’t sure how dazed he might be from the shock of that blow. It looked like it had landed damn close to his jugular. I didn’t have time to debate it; I needed to do something.
I brought my arms around from my back; the revolver was clutched in both hands. My fingers and wrist were still numb; I didn’t trust my aim to shoot. The two men were too close, circling one another ready to strike. I aimed for the window and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out; glass shattered and it gave Slate the split second he needed to bring Slash down.
He was on top of him pulling the chain from his hand and slamming the ball at the end of it against Slash’s face and head. I crept closer to him and the look on Slate’s face was one that I had never seen; it was pure rage. He wasn’t going to stop until Slash was dead. I couldn’t let that happen.
Slash wasn’t fighting back any longer; he was out cold.
“Slate - he’s out,” I said loudly. “You need to stop and take care of your neck. You’re bleeding badly!”
He didn’t stop; he continued to pummel Slash with his fists; over and over again. Slash’s face was a bloody pulp. I was going to be sick.
“Eric!” I shrieked, “For the love of God; stop for me, please! I love you! Please, stop!”
He froze and looked up at me slowly; his eyes meeting mine. I needed to see the sanity return to them. It hadn’t yet.
“Don’t you see, Eric, if you kill him he will never have to face what he’s done? You will be giving him the easy way out.”
“He killed Laney; he was prepared to kill you. I can’t let him kill the people that I love.”
“But you saved me, baby,” I said putting my hand out to him, “Now let me save you, okay? I need you and Landon needs you.”
He took my hand and stood up, stepping over the motionless body of Slash, pulling me to him. Blood was still trickling from the gash. I needed to get something clean wrapped around it.
“Don’t move,” I instructed him. I ran over to where they had pulled my car into the barn and popped the trunk open. My wardrobe bag with my dancing outfits was still in the trunk. I pulled a clean spandex monokini with long sleeves from the plastic garment bag. I grabbed the flashlight from the wooden bench and headed back over to Slate.
“Hold this,” I instructed handing him the flashlight so that the beam illuminated his face and neck. I wrapped the clean spandex material around his neck, securing it by tying the sleeves together.
“There,” I said, relieved that the bleeding had stopped. “You’re going to need some stitches. You were lucky that didn’t hit a quarter of an inch over.”
“Sammie,” he said quietly, “Who the hell is Landon?”
I patted my rounded belly. “Your son, silly.”
He shook his head, pulling me close so that he could kiss me.
“I love you, Samantha.”
“I love you, Eric.”
Our lips met in a tender kiss just as Taz barged through the barn door, his weapon drawn. The multi-colored lights of multiple law enforcement vehicles were flashing on the horizon.
“He needs to get to the hospital now, Taz”
“Got it,” he said, motioning for the others to come in.
CHAPTER 57
It was September 3rd, Slate’s birthday. I had invited my parents over for dinner. It was about time they met the soon-to-be father of my baby. Lindsey was coming, too; she was bringing Adam. I had asked her to arrive prior to my parents. I needed to let her know what wa
s going on. She was heading back to Cornell the day after tomorrow.
Slate was healing up. His neck had been stitched up and the doctor agreed that he had been lucky. Katy was coming for dinner, too. I was nervous making the preparations for this ‘family’ get together that wasn’t really a family yet.
All of the arrest warrants had now been served. Everyone that needed to be arrested had been, with the exception of Jack and Susanne. Slate said it was just a matter of time for them.
I had put my house on the market. I didn’t need to be rambling around in this huge house and worrying about upkeep. My life had changed and I truly felt it had changed for the good. I had no need for ‘trappings’. The equity would finish paying for Lindsey’s college tuition.
I had learned some very important life lessons this past year; I had learned about love; about trust; and about taking control of one’s own life. I wasn’t sure how things would end up with Slate and me. What I was sure of was that I loved him and that he loved me. For now, that was enough.
I knew that we would welcome this baby boy together. I just needed to know that Lindsey would be okay with that.
I was on the phone with Brenda, explaining what had transpired after the incident in that barn less than two weeks ago. I had come as close to death then as Slate had; I truly believed that Slash would have killed me. I didn’t even know at the time that Slate suspected him of killing his younger sister, Laney. Slate told me that when Slash told him on the phone that he would ‘slit’ my throat; he knew with all certainty that he was Laney’s murderer. He said that was Slash’s signature preference when killing.
Brenda listened quietly as I revealed everything that had been discovered when they made the bust in Fort Wayne when Darrell had shown up at the storage unit. Come to find out, the ‘goods’ that Jack had sold them happened to be a shitload of teddy bears for the launching of the ‘Toys for Tots’ run in November.
