“I know you want to go and tell the lovelies our secret. Don’t worry. I did it for you. Kind of scared them. I thought you said that they were asleep. I don’t think anyone will be leaving this house until we get back.”
He held the gun to Holly’s back as she stepped out into the cold night, then he dialed something into the cell. He’d reset the bomb.
For the first time ever, Holly was at a loss.
They raced down the highway in a rental car and then onto a back road through some very tall, snow-capped evergreens. The road opened into a clearing. Straight ahead sat a small plane. No!
“I told you I’m multitalented. I’m a pilot, too. We should be in Reno in no time.”
“But the weather,” Holly said.
“Fuck the weather, baby. What’s a bit of snow? We’re in love! Going to the chapel!” He started whistling the tune.
He was sick. Irrevocably sick. She had to get away from him, out of his clutches and back to the girls. But the only way to ensure their safety was to get that phone. He opened the door for her. She got in. She thought about making a run for it, but knew she couldn’t.
He got in behind the wheel of the plane and cranked the engine. “Good plane, you know.”
She hoped so. She closed her eyes as he turned and faced the plane down the bare dirt runway, sleek with snow. He was totally insane. The plane skidded all over the place as he laughed like this was an everyday event. She felt it pick up speed, but knew that it couldn’t be fast enough to take off, not with the snow and sleet around them.
“Open your eyes, baby. Here we go.”
Holly didn’t know if it was a morbid sense of fascination that made her follow his instructions, or if she simply wanted to see as death came reaching for her. As she opened her eyes, the plane barely cleared a group of trees. She was going to vomit. “What the fuck are you trying to do? Get us killed?”
“Living on the edge, baby. Living on the edge. And now that we’re here in the night sky and all . . .” The plane fluttered and bounced around. Holly’s hands hit the roof, trying to stabilize herself. “Don’t be scared. I’m very good at this.”
“Right. So you want to tell me about Lady Godiva?”
“What’s there to tell, baby? Every man needs a dalliance. I knew she’d be the one, though. I just knew she’d blow it. If there ever was a reason for the police to catch on it would be because of something stupid she did. Dumb bitch.”
Holly tried hard to calm her stomach. Her thoughts kept wandering back to the girls, Brendan, her parents. “So since we will be joined in holy matrimony, maybe you should tell me about your other families. I do have a right to know, don’t I?”
He sighed. “Oh, I suppose so. Look, I am a patient man, I really am, but when I get angry, things can get ugly.”
That’s an understatement, you sick fuck!
“I met the women and the kids through Children’s. It was easy. Everyone who comes through the door has to fill out paperwork. I looked over the paperwork, liked what I saw, and bam. Now Lynne and Kristy, that was different.”
Holly’s stomach tightened at the mention of her old friend.
“I saw them inside a Starbuck’s. I was probably too hasty. They were not perfect by any standards. Royal pain in the ass, those two were. The hard part for me was when they brought Kristy into the hospital still alive. I had to do something about that, you know. I couldn’t ever move on with her alive. Put a little something in the IV to help her pass on.”
Holly wanted to reach across the plane and throttle him. A rage rose up through her body and into her face. She never wanted to see anyone dead like she did him.
“But what a coincidence when, come to find out, my Lady Godiva knew Shannon. They were into some interesting games. When things didn’t turn out well for Shannon and me, my Lady figured it out after reading the paper and such. She thought she would help me, make it look like that disgusting pervert James was the one to do poor Shannon in. Didn’t work. She really is pitiful. Didn’t quite get it right that one. Totally inept, but she gets points for loyalty. I will give her that much. She’d do anything for me. And can she give one fantastic blowjob. I hope you can, too. In fact, I’m counting on it.” He turned and faced her. “I love getting head.”
Scratch his eyes out, now. Just do it, Holly.
“Shannon was decent. Patricia didn’t even want to try and play ball. Lynne, now there was a fine hooker. Man could she suck . . .”
That was it. Holly didn’t think. She reacted. All the rage and fear welled up in her. “Really? Well, I’m the best at it. Want to see?”
“Hell, yes. That’s my girl.”
She unzipped his trousers and bent to put her mouth on his penis. She thought of all the people she loved and knew she had to do this to even maybe make it out alive and save her daughter and Meg.
“Oh, yeah, baby.”
She slid her mouth and tongue over the shaft of his penis, forcing herself not to stop until this vile man was soundly caught up in the pleasure she was giving him. And then she bit down, bit down as hard as she could. He screamed out in raging pain. The plane took a fast, quick dive as he yanked her head from his lap. He punched her, slamming her head against the window, just as the plane was thrown into a tailspin.
Oh, dear Jesus, please save my daughter. Please save my child, dear God, please save her.
Gunter struggled through dire pain to get control over the plane. It seemed impossible, and Holly could see the ground coming up fast. Gunter was able to get the nose back up, just before they started scraping trees. It was the trees along with a fresh powder of snow that softened the blow as the small plane hit and broke apart.
For Holly everything went black.
Holly was out for mere minutes, she figured, because she could still hear the sound of the plane’s engine running. She opened her eyes. Pain was shooting through every part of her, inside and out. She had no idea how badly she could be hurt, but she knew that she was. She tried hard to stand. She looked around for Gunter, but didn’t see him. She was finally able to get up and brace herself against what was left of the plane.
Gunter came screaming around the other side of the plane like a mad man. He drew back his hand and backhanded Holly, knocking her to the ground. She tried to bring her hands up to her stinging face, but he pinned them down next to her as he turned her over and sat on top of her.
“Now why did you have to go and do something as stupid as that? Crashing the plane was not a real smart move, and doing what you did to the family jewels was very, very bad. But trust me, they survived. And now, love, you will pay. I ought to send your little girl and your buddy’s kid to the moon.”
Holly shook her head. She could feel and taste blood trickling out of the side of her mouth. The wet snow had seeped inside her pants and down her backside. She started to shake, more from fear than the cold. He apparently was running on complete adrenaline.
“No. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to crash the plane. I was only trying to get the gun away from you. That’s all. I’m sorry.” It hurt to speak every word. “Do you really think I would crash the plane on purpose with my little girl back at the cabin? C’mon. And I didn’t hurt you on purpose. The plane made a jarring move. That’s how it happened. I’m sorry.” Her ankle was killing her, and she knew it was either badly twisted or possibly broken.
“You know what? You’re like all the rest of them. Nothing but a lying bitch. You should’ve never done any of that. Because now I’m really fucking pissed off. You never wanted to be with me. You were just fucking with me.” He spat in her face. She struggled to free herself. But against his strength, it was impossible.
The rudder on the plane was still going at half speed, and the noise of it grinding against the crumpled-up metal was loud and ear wrenching, but watching that rudder go round and round while he continued to berate her gave Holly an idea. It was a slim chance that it might work, but she had to give it a try.
“You don’t want
to do this. Maybe we can work it out. Let’s try. Please?” Holly begged.
“Nah, I’m done trying to work it out with you and waiting around for you. You’re another typical woman—all talk and no play. Well, honey, it’s time to pay the piper,” he said as he yanked open her shirt.
The cold wind hit her and she gasped for air. With him keeping her arms pinned under his elbows, he had a difficult time unfastening her belt, but he did with far more ease than she could have hoped for, and she’d gotten him no more closer to the rudder.
“Okay, okay. But I’m cold, can’t we get inside the plane?” Holly tried to struggle under his weight again and moved him a bit closer to the rudder.
He slid, and she was able to get an arm out from under him. She held her palm flat and shoved it out as hard and fast as possible, nailing him right on his chin. He fell back and hit his head on the rudder.
“Fuck!” he screamed.
Instead of having the intended effect, his pain only angered him further. He quickly unbuckled his pants, dropping the gun in the process. Quickly, Holly tried hard to scramble up to get it. He made it there first. Then her hand was on it. He kicked it out from underneath and stepped down hard on it. She screamed out in pain. She was feeling pretty damned defeated as he jumped on top of her again, pinning her legs under his body.
“You want to be feisty? Fine. Have it your way. We can play real rough.” He yanked off her bra, and pulled her jeans down below her ass. “If that’s how you like it, that’s how you’ll get it.”
This was it. She could survive this. She could live through this kind of hell, hunt this mother fucker down sometime in the future and destroy him. Sure, the future. There probably wasn’t going to be a future after this. Before now, she’d been totally pissed off at this psychotic prick, and now all she felt was fear and desperation and the strong desire to say goodbye to Chloe. To let that beautiful child know how much her mother loved her. For the first time ever, she said a silent prayer to Jack. Jack if you’re up there, can you help me out of this? Please. I need God’s help right now. I need your help.
She was completely helpless, but the arm connected to her broken hand was free, and as she lifted her head slightly, she saw a gleaming sharp piece of metal that had broken off of the airplane. With strength she never knew she had, strength that had to have come from somewhere or someone else, she grabbed the object. As Gunter was trying to arouse his bruised penis and stick it inside of her, she summoned every ounce of strength she could and pulled the sharp piece back to her side.
Against all hope, she struck the monster who was about to rape and murder her, digging the sharp metal into his torso.
Gunter screamed out. She wiggled out from underneath him and scooted back toward the wreckage. She’d stabbed him on his right side, and he spurted blood all over the white snow. He tried to reach out to grab her. More blood splayed out from his mouth. “I’ll fucking kill you for that.”
She stood and limped over to where he’d kicked the gun, and picked it up. She turned around and pointed it at him. “No, you won’t, you son-of-a-bitch. Because I’m going to kill you.”
She pulled the trigger.
The shot rang out through the frozen desolate woods. It hit Gunter in the forehead, and he immediately fell back. She dropped the gun to her side, standing there in shock. As fresh snow began to fall and hit her near naked body, the reality of where she was hit her. She picked up her shirt and put it on. Most of the buttons had been torn off. She found her jacket inside the wreckage and pulled it on, zipping it up and putting the hood on tightly around her head. It didn’t help much. And now with Gunter dead, and the immediate fear he’d proposed gone, the pain of her twisted ankle and broken hand pulsated.
She climbed inside the plane and leaned back against the seat, letting out a long sigh. She picked up the radio, and for the second time that night asked Jack, God, whoever was listening, to lend a hand and get her home.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Chad hadn’t had any luck with the Mammoth P.D. The report they’d sent back down to him was that the lights were off in the cabin, and nothing seemed out of the norm. They didn’t want to disturb anyone and would go by in the morning. Totally incompetent. By morning’s light, Chad was on a flight out of San Diego and into the Mammoth area. By the time he reached the cabin, there was a man who he didn’t recognize walking up the front steps of the cabin.
“Excuse me?” Chad hollered stepping out of his rental car.
“Yes?”
Chad flipped open his badge. “I’m a police officer with the San Diego Police Department.”
The man opened his wallet and took out a similar badge, only with a bit more pull behind it. “Nice to meet you, Detective Euwing. I’m Tyler Savoy with the FBI. Looks like we might be here for the same reason.”
Chad didn’t know what to say. Tyler knocked on the door. The sound of a child crying rang out from the other side. It was Chloe. Chad moved, ready to bust in the door.
“Hold on. We don’t know what’s going on in there.” Tyler pulled out a nine-millimeter Glock.
Chad didn’t have his weapon. He didn’t think he would need it, and he hadn’t wanted to go through the hassle with it at the airport. He simply wanted to come up here, check on Holly, fill her in, and apologize to her.
“No, no!” An older child’s voice sounded out.
“We’ve got to go in,” Chad said.
They both heard tapping coming from a window at the side of the house. They walked around to see two very frightened, tearful girls. One was Chloe. Chad wasn’t sure who the other was. Through the glass, the oldest one was gesturing wildly. Chad got it: There was a bomb. The goddamn house was rigged to blow.
Within an hour, the FBI had flown in a variety of special agents and a bomb squad. Through it all Brendan pulled up with another little girl in his Jeep.
“What’s going on?” he asked, unable to disguise the alarm in his voice. “I had to drive up through the night. I was too worried to sit still. What in Mother Mary’s name is going on?”
He looked around at the barrage of vehicles, and Chad could see on his face that the man understood the situation was grave. In a low voice, he relayed as much as he knew.
“What? You mean to tell me that my child is in there, and some lunatic has set a bomb? Where is Holly?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“What? You don’t know? She’s not in there?”
“From what we can decipher from your daughter, no.”
“She wouldn’t have left them,” Brendan said emphatically. “I know her. She wouldn’t have left unless she had to.”
“We’re in. I’ve got it,” the bomb squad leader yelled. “Quite a contraption he built.”
Brendan bolted to the door and barged in, wrapping his arms around both girls. Their happiness didn’t last long as the girls explained what had happened and that they didn’t know where Holly was.
Brendan’s heart sank. Holly had just come into his life, and he wasn’t about to lose her now.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Gunter’s cell phone rang. Holly was shivering and couldn’t feel her fingers, but she could hear the phone. She saw it lying on what was left of the front seat. She tried hard to reach for it, but a night in the elements had made it impossible. The phone seemed outrageously far away. She knew it was hopeless.
But the phone rang again and again and again, and Holly knew they were looking for her. She willed herself to find the energy and strength that she needed. If she wanted to live, she had to get to that phone. I want to live. I’m going to live, God damn it! She yelled out in pain as she forced her body to move. But she got the phone.
“Holly! Holly!” It was Chad.
She barely breathed out the word, “Yes,” before she passed out. She knew that was all that she needed to say. They could find her now.
The signal to the phone held long enough, and the troopers searching for her by air and land located her three hou
rs after she’d answered the call.
Eighteen hours after Gunter Drake had first entered the cabin, Holly was air lifted to the closest trauma center and hospitalized. Two days later, she was released with a broken hand, twisted ankle, and some frostbite. But she was alive, and so were Meg and Chloe.
Chad and Tyler Savoy came to visit her.
“You are one helluva lady,” Tyler Savoy said after Chad officially introduced them.
“I only wanted to save the kids. I took a chance, and it paid off.”
She was seated on the sofa inside the cabin, sipping a cup of hot tea and being catered to by Brendan. The girls were still shaken, but every cop around had brought Chloe all sorts of Barbies and candy and plenty of goodies for Meg as well. The girls were being thoroughly spoiled, and they deserved it. Maddie was kind of out of the loop, but Chloe did a good job sharing all of her treats with her friend.
“If you guys hadn’t traced down Gunter Drake’s phone number and found me . . . I might have died out there. You’re the real heroes.”
“I beg to differ, Holly,” Chad said.
“Me, too. Because of your courage and what you figured out about this case on your own, and also because I’ve got a feeling about you and your gut after knowing your father, I’d like to extend an invitation for you to come and join us,” Tyler said.
“The FBI?” she said.
“Yep. You can start training at Quantico this summer after you heal up all the way.”
He grabbed a pen off the table next to her and signed her cast. Chad looked back and forth between the two of them.
“Wow. That’s quite an offer.”
“I think you might have what it takes to be a good profiler.”
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