Beck shifted his gaze to Billy with a level of nonchalance he didn’t like. Pure rage and fear exploded within Billy’s chest. It must have extended to Mara. He felt her hand on his back. A light touch, but with a heaviness only a worrying parent could carry. Beck tilted his head a little, as if waiting for them to fall over themselves responding. His impatience got the better of him. He exhaled, all dramatic.
“Do I need to spell it out for you, Sheriff?” he added.
Billy wasn’t ready to believe the man had any kind of connection to his daughter. He could be bluffing for all Billy knew.
“Yes, you do,” Billy answered. “We don’t want to play any more games with you.”
Beck’s smile twitched, his nostrils flared and then he was all smirk again. His eyes went over Billy’s shoulder to the park behind them. It remained focused on something—or someone—but Billy wasn’t going to turn his back to the man.
“I guess you’re right,” Beck agreed. “Who has time for stupid little games. Here’s the deal—the bottom line. I’m short staffed, thanks to the two of you, I’m impatient and I’m over being out in this damn heat. Mara’s going to tell me where that stash is and then I’m going to keep her until I’ve moved it. Then I’ll let her go. You may be asking why should you trust me on that? Well.” Beck’s sneer fell into the most serious expression Billy had ever seen on the man. “Considering you two seem to be an item, how smart would I be if I killed the lover of the beloved sheriff? You’d never stop hunting me until it consumed you or you caught me. Those are odds I don’t like playing. Am I wrong?”
Billy shook his head. “No. You aren’t.”
Mara moved her thumb on his back, a few strokes to show affection or appreciation. Either way, it eased a part of Billy. If only a little.
“Only a fool, or someone out of options, would make that mistake. I don’t fall into either category,” Beck assured them. “Also only a fool would directly kill the sheriff if it could be avoided, because then that’s just painting a target on my head.” Beck shook the shotgun a little, not taking it off them but reminding them he still had it. And that they were still in its sights. “But don’t misunderstand that as me saying I won’t shoot you. I will. But how could you help Alexa and Mara then, Billy?”
The hand on Billy’s back dropped. Mara stepped from behind him and stopped at his side. Her expression was blank, but he knew she was filled with a cocktail of emotions, ready to spill out if she was pushed too hard.
“The bottom line,” Billy said, words dripping with absolute disgust.
“Mara is going to come with me now and you’re going to let her, or you’ll never see your daughter again.”
“You son of a—” Billy started, but Mara cut him off.
“What have you done?” she asked. Her voice was so calm, so even, it made Billy pause in his rant. It was the steady ice of a mother calculating a situation.
“Nothing. Yet. And it’ll stay that way if you come with me.” This time Beck’s attention was on Mara.
“Alexa is safe,” Billy cut in. “You’re bluffing.”
“And what if she isn’t? What if I’m not bluffing?” Beck asked. “Are you going to take that chance, Sheriff?” He returned his attention to Mara. “And are you going to let him take that chance?”
“Mara—” Billy started.
“I want proof,” she interrupted. “Or I won’t go.”
Beck let out a small exhale, frustrated. But he at least was accommodating. Even if it wasn’t at all what Billy wanted to hear.
“Billy’s mother, Claire, put up more of a fight than Deputy Mills did,” Beck started. Every part of Billy contracted. A cold fire spread through him. Anger and fear warred with each other inside him. If that shotgun hadn’t been between them, Billy could have ripped the man apart with his bare hands. “In his defense, he never saw my guy coming. But Claire was looking out the kitchen window, so by the time my associate went inside she’d already grabbed a gun and tried to hide the girl. Luckily for both of us, Claire’s a bad shot and my guy has a code about killing the elderly, something to do with being raised by his grandmother, I suppose.” Mara’s hand went to her mouth. Billy fisted his hand so hard he’d bet he was drawing blood. Beck went on as though he was recapping a soap opera episode and not sharing one of the most terrifying situations a parent could hear. “Alexa was in the corner of a closet, a blanket thrown over her head. She was crying so hard that my associate grabbed her bag of toys. I haven’t heard yet if they’ve worked on calming her down.”
“You bastard,” Billy snarled. His heartbeat was racing now, adrenaline mixing up everything he was already feeling.
“She’s just a baby,” Mara added. Her voice shook.
“And I’m just a businessman,” Beck added. “An impatient one. If you don’t come with me now, so help me, I will throw out what little morals I have left and make you two regret ever trying to get in my way.”
Billy’s stomach bottomed out. He glanced at Mara. She was looking at him. Her dark eyes were glassed over and wide, searching for some way to save Alexa. To save him. Because he knew she’d do anything to keep everyone safe. Just like Billy knew right then that Beck had won. Mara would go with him. And Billy would let her.
Beck’s attention swiveled over his shoulder again. This time it was followed by a woman gasping.
“Hey, come here slowly or I’ll shoot you,” Beck yelled. Billy turned to see an older woman standing a few feet behind them. She must not have noticed there had been a shotgun in their discussion until she was closer. Her terrified eyes took the three of them in. “Come here now,” Beck demanded. It was a few shades darker than any tone he’d used with Billy and Mara. It was made to intimidate quickly.
And it worked.
The woman walked over to them. Billy hoped she didn’t have a heart attack.
“Now, what’s your name?”
“Sa-Sally.”
“Hey, Sally. My friend here needs his gun taken away,” Beck said with a nod to Billy. “And I need you to do it for me.”
Sally looked at Billy, probably trying to understand what was going on. He nodded to her.
“It’s okay,” he said, afraid she might try to disobey and incur the wrath of Beck. While Billy thought Beck would keep his promise not to kill the lover or child of the sheriff, they all knew Sally had no connection to them whatsoever. “Do as he says,” Billy said gently.
Sally, who looked to be in her late sixties, finally moved toward them. She stopped at Billy’s other side and looked at Beck.
“Billy, take your gun out and give the clip to Mara,” Beck ordered. For the first time, he moved the shotgun. Now it was pointing squarely at Mara. “If you so much as try to take aim at me, I will end this now and you’ll lose everyone you love in one fell swoop. So do it now.”
Billy did as he was told. He unholstered his gun and ejected the clip. He handed it to Mara. She took it with a slightly shaking hand. He wished he could hold her. Let her know everything was going to be okay.
“Empty the chamber and then give it to our new friend, Sally.”
Billy ejected the bullet in the chamber and then handed his service weapon to Sally. She, too, was shaking.
“Now, Sally, I want you to run.”
“R-run?” Her face paled considerably.
Beck nodded in the direction from which she’d come.
“I want you to run as fast as you can in that direction and don’t stop or come back, or I’ll kill these good people. You wouldn’t want that on your conscience, now, would you, Sally?”
The woman shook her head. Her eyes began to water.
“Then go!”
Sally began to walk away before picking up the pace, gun in her hand. Billy hoped she didn’t hurt herself. He also hoped she had the sense to get help.
“Okay, say see you soon, Billy, and let’s go,” Beck said to Mara.
“I—” Billy started, but Mara interrupted him again.
“I’m going,” she said.
Billy took her face back into his hands and brushed his lips across hers. He hoped the kiss told her everything he couldn’t say.
He would save Alexa.
He would save Mara.
He would destroy Beck.
In that order.
“Now, Billy, you know the drill. You move, I end this today. Both of their deaths will be because you tried to be a hero. And ended up protecting no one but yourself. Understood?”
Billy gave a curt nod. Anger flowed through his veins like blood. He’d never wanted another man to come to as much harm as he did the man in front of him.
“I’ll get you in the end,” Billy promised.
Beck grinned. “I expect you’ll try.”
Beck walked Mara, shotgun to the back of her neck, away from him. He kept looking back to make sure Billy was still there. Billy made sure not to move an inch. He didn’t want to push the already crazed man.
A few people outside the church had finally spotted the procession and, Billy hoped, had called 911. No one moved to help Mara. It angered and also relieved Billy. Instead, they all watched in muted terror, some fleeing back into the church, as Beck angled Mara into a car he’d never seen before, parked right next to Billy’s Bronco.
He ground his teeth hard, watching, helpless, as the mother of his child was taken away.
* * *
BILLY ROCKETED THROUGH the streets of Carpenter toward his house. He had absolutely no way to contact the world outside of his car. When he’d run back to the Bronco, the driver’s side door had been open. His cellphone and radio were gone. Thank God he’d had enough sense to at least keep the car keys in his pocket when he’d followed Mara.
He’d tried, in vain, to keep his eyes on Beck’s new car as they left the parking lot, but by the time he’d run to the Bronco, they were gone. It had left Billy with too many options. Too many routes to follow.
Though, if he was being honest with himself, there was really only one place he needed to go.
Chapter Nineteen
Deputy Mills’s cruiser was still parked on the street outside the Reed family home. Just like it had been when Billy and Mara had left that morning. However, where Billy had expected chaos on his lawn, shattered house windows and a front door broken off its hinges, all Billy could see was what they’d left behind that morning. Everything looked orderly, calm.
Normal.
But that didn’t ease Billy’s mind.
He hit his brakes at the end of the driveway and jumped out, already running to the front door.
“Sheriff,” someone yelled from behind him. He turned so fast he nearly fell. It was Deputy Mills, standing in the now-open door of his cruiser. Again, Billy expected him to look one way—angry, wounded from the attack—but he looked another—confused, alert. “What’s going on?”
“What happened?” Billy asked. He could tell it put the man further on edge.
“What are you talking about?”
Billy heard the squeal from inside the house. He didn’t wait on the porch to question the deputy. He flung open the front door and ran inside, attention sticking to a sound he hadn’t thought he’d hear in the house.
“Don’t move,” came a growl of a voice. Billy turned in the entry to see a startled Suzy, gun raised.
“Billy? What are you doing?” she asked, surprised. She lowered her gun but didn’t put it away.
“Is Alexa here?” he asked, knowing he must have looked crazy. He didn’t care.
“Of course she’s here.” Suzy pointed into the living room. Billy hurried past her, hearing another squeal of laughter.
Sitting on the floor was his mother, alarmed but seemingly unhurt. Plastic containers of Christmas decorations littered the space in front of her. At her side, amid an explosion of toys that nearly rivaled the decorations, was the most beautiful sight Billy had ever seen.
“Alexa!”
The little girl looked up at him, green eyes wide and curious. She had a stuffed dog in her hand. She held it out to him, unaware of the sheer amount of love flooding through Billy from just seeing her.
“Dog,” she yelled. It was enough to get him moving.
In two long strides Billy scooped Alexa up and hugged her tight. He might not have been in her life up until this point, but Billy had never been more certain of any one thing in all his life.
He loved his daughter.
He held on to the moment, closing his eyes and burying his face in her hair. Alexa giggled.
That sound of perfect innocence split Billy’s heart in two.
Yes, Alexa was safe.
But what about Mara?
Billy kissed Alexa’s forehead before putting her back down, a plan already forming in his head. He turned to his mother.
“Pack your bag and one for her, too.”
He turned to Suzy and the deputy as Dante hustled through the front door. He didn’t talk to them until all three were back in the entryway. Where he promptly punched the wall.
“Billy,” he heard his mom exclaim, but Suzy was closer. She holstered her gun.
“What happened?” she asked. “Where’s Mara?”
“Beck lied. He took Mara.” Billy heard his mother gasp, but he didn’t have time to deal with the emotions behind what had happened. “And I let him.”
* * *
BECK HAD BLINDFOLDED and handcuffed Mara so quickly she hadn’t been able to see the person who ended up driving them away from the church and its neighboring park. All Mara knew was that it wasn’t Beck. He’d stayed in the back with her, rambling on about how proud he was to finally have her in his possession. And not only that, but he’d also managed to take her from the sheriff himself.
It wasn’t surprising to Mara to find out the man liked to gloat, but that didn’t mean that listening wasn’t disconcerting.
She tried to keep her nerves as calm as possible by thinking of Alexa. Even if she had no idea what was going on with her little girl, the love Mara felt strengthened her resolve to survive this.
Mara remained quiet for the length of the drive. There were too many questions and she had no way of answering half of them. She couldn’t control what Billy was doing, what her daughter was feeling and the fact that she was handcuffed next to someone who was obviously insane. What she could do, however, was try and pay attention to how many times the car turned and how long they drove. She might not know the town of Carpenter as thoroughly as Billy, but it couldn’t hurt to try and remember as much of the route as possible.
After almost fifteen minutes the smooth road became bumpy, pocked. A few minutes later, they left asphalt altogether. The change in terrain was rough. A dirt road.
Which meant one of two things.
They were either on some back road in Riker County that she didn’t know about, or they had left a road altogether and were out in the country.
Mara didn’t know which option was better.
“Pull around to the side,” Beck said to the driver, giving rise to another question Mara didn’t have the answer to. Was the driver the “associate” who had taken her daughter? Was that the same person who’d killed Caleb and Jessica, and wounded Cassie?
Mara tensed as the car slowed and then stopped. The engine remained on.
“Time to go,” Beck said, opening his door. Mara sat up, fighting the urge to try and, well, fight—she didn’t want to jeopardize Alexa’s safety, wherever she might be—and waited until the door next to her was opened. “Stay smart,” Beck cooed beside her ear. Mara flinched as he grabbed the handcuff’s chain and pulled her out. Once her feet hit the ground, she knew
she was standing on grass.
“Stay in the car,” Beck ordered his partner. Whoever that was didn’t answer. Beck moved his grip from the handcuffs to Mara’s upper arm and directed her forward a few feet before turning. In that time, Mara tried to keep her adrenaline in check so she could pay attention once again to her surroundings.
It was colder now, finally starting to feel like Christmas. Though that didn’t help Mara narrow down the possibilities of where she might be. But after straining her ears to try to listen around the running car and their footsteps, there was one thing she didn’t hear that made her feel even more uneasy.
She didn’t hear any other cars.
Which meant they probably were in the country, cut off from any normal traffic. Cut off from any easy help. Just plain cut off.
“We’re going to go inside and I’m going to take your blindfold off,” Beck said at her ear. “If you try to fight me or do anything stupid, I won’t kill you, but I’ll hurt you really badly. Okay?”
Mara didn’t answer. He must have taken her silence as agreement. The sound of a door scrubbing against the floor preceded her being pushed inside a building. She smelled something that was between a wet dog and freshly mowed grass but couldn’t pinpoint it any more accurately than that. She didn’t have the time, either, before Beck was giving her yet another order.
“Don’t move.”
The pressure of his hand on her arm went away and soon she could hear him moving something. It scraped against whatever was beneath it, sounding much heavier than a table or chair.
Terror started to seize her chest. Questions and fears shot off in succession in her mind. What was going on? Where were they? What was going to happen to her? Was Beck really not going to kill her? Where was Alexa? Was she scared? Hurt?
Mara jumped as hands moved to the sides of her head. Quick fingers undid the blindfold. She blinked several times, trying to get her bearings. Wherever they were, it was darker than she’d like. Her eyes weren’t adjusting quickly enough to make out the location.
Small-Town Face-Off Page 15
