by Mathews,Mark
Meanwhile, Jenny and Kayleigh had been spending a lot of time together trying to comfort each other since they both were worried about people in town. They spent most of their time in the sick room that Garrett had lived in while they were at the factory. That part of the building had withstood a lot of the damage from the blasts. That’s where Garrett would find them if he needed them.
“I can’t just sit back and leave my son out there by himself! He’s my child! I should be out there looking for him!”
Kayleigh was beside herself. She felt like a horrible parent because she wasn’t out there looking for her boy. Jenny was trying to comfort her, but she honestly felt like a horrible sister and daughter herself because she got out of there as well instead of going back to try getting them out. The guilt was crushing her, and she hated the feeling. This was a lot for the little girl to handle, but she held in everything as best as she could. This was a lot for anyone to handle, but she was her father’s daughter, and he would expect her to deal with the situation. So she would square her shoulders and she would set her jaw, and she would do it for her family.
“I know what you mean. I got out of there, and I didn’t go back for them. That makes me so horrible. I need to make amends for that.” The girls sat there in silence for a moment, but almost at the same time, they froze, raising their heads slowly, and locking eyes on each other. They smiled simultaneously.
“We could go back into town and find them. They need the help, and we can give them help. What do you think?”
Kayleigh’s eyes were shining with hope at her idea, but Jenny didn’t think she would be able to gather the courage to do it on her own. Jenny was a kid, but she was someone who could help boost confidence, and she thought it would be a good idea for the two of them to start pulling their own weight.
“Yes. I think we should do it. They need us, and to be honest, neither one of us has done much to help around here. I think we should do it.”
No sooner had she said her piece, the door opened and Garrett walked in. His eyes were red and bloodshot, and Jenny could tell right away that something was wrong. Not just wrong, heartbreakingly wrong. She got to her feet and ran to him, hugging him tightly around the waist. Jenny could feel his shudders, and she knew that he’d been crying. Kayleigh opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but Jenny silenced her with a look. When Garrett was ready, he’d tell them. That was how he was.
Garrett disentangled himself from his daughter so he could get down on a knee and be more on her level. Then he threw his arms around her and almost crushed her in a fierce hug. Right now, she was all he had, and he’d be damned if he was going to let that go. Jenny was at the point where she almost couldn’t breathe, but she let it go. He needed her, and for once she could be there for him the way he’d always been there for her. He let her go, then wiped his eyes as he stood up.
“Girls, I don’t know how to say this, but Wren…” He couldn’t even finish his sentence. Tears choked him again. He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried again.
“She’s gone.”
Kayleigh and Jenny both cried, but it had been nowhere near as gut-wrenching as Garrett’s had been. Jenny was even more bound and determined to do something to help now that her father had had his heart ripped out. She wasn’t going to let that happen to him again. If Brooke, or Seth, or even Alice, didn’t come back, it would be even worse. Kayleigh was beating herself up for not doing more for Wren when she’d had the chance. Jenny was crying now, too, because she’d lost the best friend she’d had since all this had started. Jenny swallowed her grief and turned to her father.
“Dad? We’ve been thinking, and we want to go look for our families. Both of us feel like we haven’t done anything, and it makes us feel useless. We want to go, and nothing you say is going to stop us. We’re tired of not pulling our own weight.” The defiance in her face impressed Garrett, and it made him feel as though he was teaching her right.
“You don’t have to worry about what I’m going to say. I’m going with you.” Jenny’s face lit up and she paused long enough to hug him again.
Back in town, Nat and Max had been doing their best to get the information they needed out of Austin. Unfortunately, he had passed out from his head injury, and now Nat and Max were trying to figure out what to do.
“If he was following us, then he couldn’t have been too far from here, right?” That was Nat’s logic. If they were facing someone in their right mind, then Max would agree with him. Austin, however, was an anomaly. Max didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him, so that made trying to figure out things a little difficult.
“We can look around a little bit, and see if we can find any clues. Don’t hold your breath, though, okay?”
Nat nodded. He got up to go, but Max held back. They couldn’t just leave Austin the way he was. If he woke up again, or if he only was faking being passed out, he might get up and run off while they were out searching. Max took a length of rope and hog-tied Austin’s ankles and wrists behind him. That should keep him around until they had finished their investigating.
Max and Nat went outside, splitting up to cover the area around the church more quickly. Nat didn’t really know what he was looking for, and that made Max want to double-check everything he was looking at, but he knew the boy never would gain any confidence if Max didn’t trust him. They decided to overlap each other, just to have a fresh pair of eyes over everything. They searched for half an hour, but nothing pointed them in one direction or another.
Max was beginning to get frustrated. That last little line about time running out wasn’t making him feel any better about this at all. It would be just the sort of depraved thing that Austin would do, hurting the girls if he didn’t survive himself. That was the clear mark of a coward, in Max’s opinion, but that didn’t change the fact that it could happen if they didn’t find the girls quickly. Austin was still out cold when they got back into the church’s basement. Max did what he could to revive him, but his eyes were still half-closed, and his head lolled from side to side, almost like he was drunk.
On the way to town, Garrett had Jenny run through everything that had happened to her in town. From where they had been taken, to how she had escaped, and anything else she thought was important. Carefully, Jenny recounted every little detail, closing her eyes to see it happening in her mind’s eye as she described it. Kayleigh sat in the back, quietly wishing she had more skills than she did. Alice really had saved her during the trial, and now she felt like she had to do something to pay her back. How, she wasn’t quite sure, but she knew she was going to do her damnedest to do whatever she could.
Garrett did a circuit of the town, looking for Nat or Max, or any of Austin’s guys. Not a single soul was visible. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. It could mean one of two things. One, the good guys still were tracking the bad guys and neither of them had figured out where the other was. Or, two, the bad guys had the good guys somewhere out of sight and were doing who knew what to them. He tried not to think about the second option. They found the truck that Max had taken to town and parked next to it. With some quick math, Garrett decided that now they had enough of their own in town that he could risk calling out for Nat and Max. Then they would be a super force together, and might be able to get in, get the girls, and get out without further injury.
In the church’s basement, Nat heard Garrett’s voice. He looked at Max excitedly. That meant they had more backup, and that they were going to get the girls and the baby and get out of there. Unfortunately, Austin also heard Garrett’s voice and it caused a complete change in his demeanor. Now he looked like The Joker from Batman. His grin was so wide that it seemed to split his face. His eyes were bulging with excitement, and he looked like he would be at home in a padded room. It was really a creepy sight and both Nat and Max looked away from him.
“Don’t you dare open your mouth!” Both Nat and Max turned to look at Austin. There was such vehemence and poison in his voic
e that the other two were taken aback.
“You say one word to him so he can find you, and Brooke, Alice, and Seth will be dead by morning.” The power of his glare unsettled Nat, but he adopted some fake bravado.
“You don’t have the means.”
Nat was trying to call Austin’s bluff, but Max shook his head and gave Nat a signal that told him not to test Austin. When it came to Garrett, Austin was only deadly serious. That shook Max to the core. He claimed to love Alice and Seth, but if he was willing to have them killed just to get back at Garrett, then something was wrong with this man’s mind.
The longer that Garrett called out without getting an answer, the antsier he became. Something was wrong. If Nat or Max had heard him, he was sure they would answer, if they were able to do so. It was the “if they were able to do so” part that worried him. What could have happened to them to make it so they couldn’t answer? The longer he went with only silence to answer him, the more he felt the three of them were exposed.
“What will it take to save the women and the baby?” Max’s voice was quiet, and as far as Nat was concerned, menacing. This was an exchange between the men, and he’d learned early on from his father when not to interfere with a conversation.
“Garrett’s life. I won’t trade them for anything else. You should feel happy, though. You only lose one while I lose three. I think that trade is more than fair.”
That icy edge to Austin’s voice made Max shiver. Would Austin stick to his own agreement? Would he let them go if Garrett was dead? Or did he want Garrett out of the way so he could come back later and take them back at his leisure, without Garrett there to formulate plans and get in the way? Max didn’t know what to do. For the moment, they stayed quiet, letting Garrett’s voice fade off into the distance. Nat was starting to realize that Austin wasn’t bluffing at all, and he was thanking his lucky stars he hadn’t pushed the man into doing something that he couldn’t take back. If he’d been the reason why Brooke wound up hurt or dead, he never would forgive himself.
Meanwhile, Max was trying to think of anything else that they could offer instead of Garrett’s life. Or of a way to make the deal, then break it at the last moment, and still win the day. Garrett was one of his closest friends, and even though they’d been taught in the military to do things for the greater good, he didn’t know if he could trade his best friend for the rest of his family. They were trained to make those decisions when they didn’t have a personal investment in the mix, but now he did. He couldn’t just hand his best friend over to certain doom.
Max sighed heavily, putting his head in his hands. Austin grinned. It was a gruesome sight. The look on his face said he was getting what he wanted and nothing else mattered. It was the look of a crazed predator who had scented the blood of wounded prey. Max refused to look up at Austin. So Nat alone sat there, looking at the crazed man, feeling goosebumps covering his skin. He was feeling for all the world like a little minnow looking at the scary grill of a great white shark.
Chapter Sixteen
Alice and Brooke had been searching for a way out. Both of them had done whatever they could think of to get out of their prison, but nothing had worked. They were trapped in the bank’s vault, and they felt like sardines. The locks weren’t electronic, because it was such an old vault. It still had the turning wheel on the front that you put the code into before spinning it to open the door. All they saw around them was metal. There was no way they could tunnel out of solid metal walls. Alice was leaning against the back of the vault, legs crossed, and holding onto Brooke. Her daughter was lying with her head in her lap, and Alice was absentmindedly stroking her hair. It was strangely calming to the both of them.
The vault hadn’t been used since the age of electronics, and it now was being used as a storage room. It had cleaning supplies and other chemicals, boxes of old paperwork, and other odds and ends that they hadn’t bothered to explore. Seth was sleeping soundly in a little bassinette. Alice could see him smiling in his sleep by the light of the lantern that Austin had left for them. That was the only consolation that she had. They had light because Austin had given them a couple of lanterns to keep with them in case Seth needed anything.
Alice looked at her children. If this was how they died, then at least she was with them. Except for Jenny. She was glad that Jenny wasn’t there with them, that she might be able to escape, but she worried because she just didn’t know. Something was telling her that she might never see Jenny or Garrett again, and that broke her heart. She couldn’t help it. Jenny was her little princess, and Garrett was still the love of her life. Nothing was going to change that, no matter how many women got between them. She just had to show that to him once the two of them got out of this. Her brain wanted to say “if” the two of them got out of this, but she refused to let it think that.
Since the door of the vault had been shut, the air temperature had increased steadily. It had the same effect as a heavy Thanksgiving dinner, making them sleepy. Alice was starting to wonder if the air around them wasn’t being used up. The vault had a seal on it, not allowing air in unless the door was open. Though she was grateful to have the lanterns to see, she was afraid the candles in them were eating up more of their precious air than she wanted. She refused to voice her opinion to her daughter, because she didn’t want her to panic. They were almost in a stupor, and she was just glad that Seth was sleeping peacefully. If they all suffocated here, then at least he would go in his sleep. That thought brought tears to her eyes, but she fought with herself to control her breathing, because gasping from crying was only going to diminish their air supply faster.
“I can’t take this anymore, Mom. I’ve got to do something.”
She’d sat there for about three hours, basically with her hands in the air doing absolutely nothing to get them out of there, and Alice had done the same. She couldn’t stand the inactivity anymore. She had to do something. Brooke got to her feet and made her way to one of the walls, crawling over boxes. She started to push and tap gently on the walls, looking for any give that she could use to make a hole or bust their way out. She didn’t really have any hope that she would find a weak spot, but she had to at least try. Sitting there idly, waiting for someone to come rescue them wasn’t something she did. She was Garrett’s daughter, damn it. She wasn’t going to give up. Meanwhile, Alice leaned her head against the wall, wondering when Austin was going to come back. Did he know they were running out of air? Was that the plan? Or didn’t he care?
In the meantime, Max and Nat still were trying to figure out some alternative to handing over Garrett, but Austin was standing his ground on that one. He even was threatening to not let Max see the hostages he had taken until Garrett’s dead body was at his feet. That wasn’t going to help them come up with a backup plan to get out of their current situation. Max was getting very frustrated with Austin, and that made him want to kill the sick son of a bitch with his bare hands. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t help them any because right now Austin was the only one who knew where the girls and the baby were. Right now, there was no proof Austin even had any men left to help him out. So they only had Austin for information.
Garrett, Kayleigh, and Jenny were going through the center of town, searching building by building. Garrett had wanted to split up so they could cover more ground quickly, but Jenny had vetoed that idea almost immediately. She’d told Garrett that there were still a few guys out there that could throw a wrench in their plans, and that had decided it for him. He didn’t want anyone else to end up dead, so he’d kept them together. Slower meant more thorough, too. It would help him if he had the other two with him. Or so he kept telling himself.
Back in the vault, Brooke was excited. It seemed like she might have found a piece of the wall that had only a thin sheet of metal instead of reinforced steel. She was working at it and wanted to find something that she could bang away at it with. She was rummaging through the boxes, looking for a hammer, or something that would help her get through
that metal. If it was the last thing she did, she was going to try saving her family. The rummaging was loud, and Alice got up to see what she was doing.
“Mom! I think I found a piece of the wall that’s thin enough for me to bust through. I just need a hammer or something to get it to break open.” The excitement radiated from her, making her face glow, but Alice quickly put a damper on that.
“Brooke, I don’t think you understand how vaults work. There won’t be a thin piece of wall that we can break through. The hammering is going to just upset Seth and make him scream.”
Brooke’s face went slack. She looked up at her mother with disbelief in her eyes. How could she just sit there and tell her not to try? Did her mom really think it was over? Or had she just become soft? Was she going to roll over and just give up? Brooke could see now why her dad had been a little gung-ho about things. He had to be. Her mom didn’t have the gumption of a goose it seemed.
“Let me say something, Mom. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the air supply is not going to be here forever. Do you want Seth quiet? Or do you want him dead?”
There was flint in her gaze as she looked at Alice, and it sent a shiver through her. This young woman in front of her was the epitome of her father right now, and she wasn’t sure if that was something to be proud of or afraid of. Part of her knew that it was true, but part of her wanted to protect her son, because it was the only thing that she could do right now. Brooke still was staring at her mother, and the look on her face helped Alice make up her mind.
“Alright. I’ll do what I can to keep him quiet.”
Alice walked back over to Seth and picked him up. He fidgeted a little, but didn’t wake up. Alice put his blanket over one ear, then held him close to her chest, singing softly into the other, with her lips almost touching his ear. Brooke, surprised that her mother actually wanted to help, grabbed a broken mop handle and started to let all of her anger and aggression out on the wall. Everything from the beginning of this fiasco that she’d kept bottled up inside flowed through her arms, giving her strength. The booms of the handle weren’t really loud, just hollow-sounding. She hated that it might wake up baby Seth, but if she thought about it, it sounded like the boom of a heartbeat. So it might even help with keeping Seth quiet if it made him feel like he was back in Alice’s womb. She could hope.
