by B. J Daniels
“How much trouble is this going to get you in?” Colt asked his friend as he loaded the weapons in the back and climbed into the left seat, the crew chief seat.
“You just worry about what happens when we put this bird down,” Tommy said in the adjacent seat at the controls.
As they headed for the mountaintop in the distance, Colt told him everything that had happened from that moment in the hotel in Billings to earlier that night.
When he finished, Tommy said, “So this woman is the one?”
For a moment, Colt could only nod around the lump in this throat. “I’ve never met anyone like her.”
“Apparently this cult leader hasn’t, either. Tell me you have a plan.” He swore when Colt didn’t answer right away.
“There will be armed guards who are under the control of the cult leader, Jonas Emanuel. But we don’t have time to sneak up on them. You don’t have to land. Just get close enough to the ground that I can jump,” Colt said as he began to strap on one of the weapons he’d brought. “Did I mention that these people are like zombies?”
“Great, you know how I love zombies. Except you can’t kill zombies.”
“These are religious zealots. I suspect they will be as hard to kill as zombies.”
“This just keeps getting better and better,” Tommy joked.
Colt looked over at him. “Thank you.”
“Thank me after we get out with this woman you’ve fallen in love with and your daughter.” He shook his head. “You never did anything like normal people.”
“No, I never did. There’s the road that goes up to the compound.”
Tommy swooped down, skimming just over the tops of the pines, and Colt saw something he hadn’t expected.
“What the hell?” As they got closer to the mountain, Colt spotted the line of vans coming off the mountain. He felt a chill. “Something’s going on. Fly closer to those vehicles,” he said to Tommy, who immediately dipped down.
Inside the vans, he saw the faces of Jonas followers. There were a dozen vans. As each passed, he saw the pale faces, the fear in their eyes.
“Where do you think they’re going?” Tommy asked.
“I have no idea. Leaving for good, from the looks of it. What is Jonas up to? Are these people decoys or are they really clearing out?” He thought of Lola and the baby. How crazy was Jonas? Would he kill them and then kill himself, determined that Colt would never have either of them?
“Up there,” Colt said, pointing to the mountaintop. Tommy swung the helicopter in the direction he pointed. Within a few minutes, the buildings came into sight. Colt didn’t see any guards. He didn’t see anyone. The place looked deserted. Had everyone left?
Not everyone, he noticed. There was a large black SUV sitting in front of Jonas’s cabin.
“Think you can put her into that clearing in front of the cabin?”
“Seriously?” Tommy said. “You forget who you’re talking to. Give me a dime and I can set her down on it.” Colt chuckled because he knew it was true.
* * *
LOLA LOOKED DOWN at the antique ring that Colt had put on her finger. She swore she would never take it off. It felt so right on her finger. Colt felt so right.
Jonas moved faster than she thought he could after his injury. He grabbed the baby from her arms and shoved her. She fell back, coming down hard on the floor. “I told you to take if off. Now!”
“Give me Grace.”
“Her name is Angel, and if you don’t do what I say this moment...”
Lola pulled off the ring. She knew it was silly. Colt was probably dead. She’d lost so much. What did a ring matter at this point? The one thing she couldn’t lose was Grace, and yet she felt as if she already had in more ways than one. Jonas had them captive. He could do whatever he wanted with Grace. Just as he could do whatever he wanted with her now.
“Happy?” she asked, still clutching the ring in her fist.
“Throw it away.” He pointed toward the fireplace and the cold ashes filling it.
She hesitated again.
“Do as I say!” Jonas bellowed at her, waking up Grace. The baby began to cry.
Lola tossed the ring toward the fireplace. It was a lazy, bad throw, one that made Jonas’s already furious face cloud over even more. The ring missed the fireplace opening, pinged off the rock and rolled under the couch. She looked at Jonas. If he really did have a bad heart, she realized his agitation right now could kill him. She doubted she would get that lucky, though.
He seemed to be trying to calm down. Grace kept crying and she could tell it was getting on his nerves.
She got to her feet. “Let me have her. She’ll quit crying for me.”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure I can trust you,” he said slowly.
Colt was gone. The ring was gone. But Jonas had something much more precious. He had Grace. But Lola wasn’t giving up.
“How do I know I can trust you?” she said.
The question surprised him. He’d expected her to cower, to promise him anything. She knew better than to do that. Jonas was surrounded by people who bowed down to him. Lola never had and maybe that’s why he was so determined to have her.
She approached him. “You hurt my baby and I will kill you. I’ll cut your throat in your sleep. Or push you down a flight of stairs. Or poison your food. It might take me a while to get the opportunity, but believe me, I will do it.”
He chuckled as his gaze met hers. “I do believe you. I’ve always loved your spirit. Your mother told me what a headstrong young woman you were. She wasn’t wrong.”
It hurt to have him mention her mother. Was it possible that Jonas could get away with the murders he’d committed? She feared it was. She thought of Colt and felt a sob rise in her throat. She forced it back down. She couldn’t show weakness, not now, especially not for Colt. She had to think about Grace.
“We seem to be at an impasse,” Jonas said. “What do you suggest we do?”
“I suggest you give me my baby and let me leave here.”
He shook his head. “Not happening. Neither you or your baby will be leaving here—except with me.”
“So what are you waiting for?” she demanded.
Jonas chuckled as he tilted his head as if to listen. “We’re waiting for Colt. I just have a feeling he will somehow manage to try to save you one more time.”
Lola listened as her heart thumped against her rib cage. Colt? He was alive? She thought she heard what sounded like a helicopter headed this way.
“I believe that’s him now.”
* * *
COLT FOUGHT THE bad feeling that had settled in the pit of his stomach. Jonas was playing hardball this time. He wasn’t going to let Lola and Grace go—not without a fight to the death. That’s if they were still alive.
“Change of plans,” he said to Tommy. He felt as if time was running out for Lola and Grace. “Put us down and wait for me,” he said, fear making his voice sound strained as he passed Tommy a handgun. “I hope you won’t have to use this. It appears that the guards have left, but I’ve already underestimated Jonas once and I don’t want to do it again. I’m hoping this won’t take long.”
As Colt started to jump out, Tommy grabbed his sleeve. “Be careful.”
Colt nodded. “You, too.”
“I’ll be here. Good luck.”
Colt knew that if there was anyone he wanted on his side in a war it was Tommy Garrett—and this was war. These soldiers would die for their leader. They were just as devoted to dying for their cause as the ones he’d fought in Afghanistan.
The moment the chopper touched the ground, he leaped out and ran up the mountainside to where a large black SUV sat, the engine running and Brother Zack behind the wheel. Behind him, he heard Tommy shut down the engine. The rotors began to slow.
Colt loo
ked around. The only person he’d seen so far was Zack, but that didn’t mean that another of the guards hadn’t stayed behind.
As he approached the SUV, he could hear the bass coming from the stereo. Closer, he saw that Zack had on headphones and was rockin’ out. He must have had the stereo cranked, which explained why he hadn’t heard the helicopter land. Nor had he heard him approach.
Colt yanked open the door. A surprised Zack turned. Colt grabbed him by his shirt and hauled him out. Unfortunately, Zack was carrying and he went for his gun. Zack was strong and combat trained. But Colt was fighting for Lola’s and Grace’s lives.
Colt managed to get hold of the man’s arm, twisting it to the point of snapping as they struggled for the weapon. When the shot went off, it was muffled—just like Zack’s grunt. Blood blossomed on the front of Zack’s white shirt. The gun dropped, falling under the SUV.
As the man slumped, Colt shoved him back inside the vehicle, shut off the stereo and slammed the door before turning to Jonas’s cabin. He’d seen suitcases in the back of the SUV and suspected the sheep weren’t the only ones fleeing.
Colt pulled his holstered gun and climbed the steps. He had another gun stuck in the back of his jeans under his jacket. He always liked to be prepared—especially against someone like Jonas Emanuel.
He could still hear the sweep of the helicopter’s rotors as they continued to slow. The wooden porch floor creaked under his boots. He braced himself and reached for the doorknob.
Before he could turn it, Lola opened the door. Her face had lost all its color. Her violet eyes appeared huge. He could see that she’d been crying. The sight froze him in place for moment. What had Jonas done to her? To Grace?
“Where is Jonas?” Colt asked quietly. Suddenly there wasn’t a sound, not even a meadowlark from the grass or a breeze moaning in the pines. The eerie quiet sent a chill up his spine. “Lola?” The word came in a whisper.
“I’m leaving with Jonas,” she said.
“Like hell.” He could see that Jonas had put the fear into her and used Grace to do it. He’d never wanted to strangle anyone with his bare hands more than he did the cult leader at this moment.
“Please, it’s what I want.” Her words said one thing; her blue eyes pleaded with him to save Grace.
He pushed past her to find Jonas sitting in a chair just yards away. He was holding Grace in such a way that it stopped Colt cold.
* * *
JONAS RELISHED THE expression on Colt’s handsome face. It almost made everything worth what he was going to have to give up. The cowboy thought he could just bust in here and take Lola and the baby? Not this time.
“Lola is going with me and so is her baby,” he said as he turned the baby so she was facing her biological father and dangling from his fingers. He wanted Colt to see the baby’s face and realize what he would be risking if he didn’t back off.
“I don’t think so,” Colt said, but without much conviction. Jonas was ready to throw the baby against the rock fireplace if Colt took another step. The cowboy wasn’t stupid. He’d figured that out right away. But he’d been stupid enough to come up here again. The man should have been dead.
Idly, Jonas wondered what had gone wrong at the gravel pit. He’d known he couldn’t depend on Elmer, but he was disposable. Brother Carl had inspired more faith that he would get the job done. Jonas had assumed that Carl would have to kill both Elmer and Colt. Clearly, the job had been too much for him.
“Has he hurt you?” Colt asked Lola.
She shook her head.
Jonas was touched by the cowboy’s concern, but quickly getting bored with all this. “Elmer and Carl?” he asked, curious.
“Swimming, that is, if either of them knows how,” Colt answered.
“And Brother Zack?”
“No longer listening to music in your big SUV.”
So he couldn’t depend on Zack to come to his rescue. Another surprise. Everyone was letting him down. Just as well that he was packing it all in. He’d grown tired of the squabbling among the sisters and the backbiting of the brothers. Human nature really was malicious.
Still, he would miss Zack. And now who would lead his people to the promised land of Arizona? He chuckled to himself since he didn’t own any land in Arizona. But they wouldn’t know that until they got there, would they?
He saw the cowboy shoot a look at Lola. She was standing off to Colt’s left as if she didn’t know what to do. He could see the tension in her face. She wasn’t being so smart-mouthed now, was she? As much as he was enjoying this, he didn’t have to ask what she was hoping would happen here.
But, this time, she’d been outplayed. The cowboy was going to lose. It was simply a matter of how much he would have to lose before this was over. Did he realize that he wasn’t getting out of here alive? At this point, Jonas wasn’t sure he cared if Lola and the baby survived either, though he still wanted the woman, and damned if he wouldn’t have her—dead or alive. The thought didn’t even surprise him. His father used to say that one day he would reach rock bottom. Was this it?
“Why would you want a woman who doesn’t love you?” Colt asked conversationally, as if they were old friends discussing the weather—and took a step closer.
“Because I can have her. I can have anything I want, and I want her. The baby is optional. I guess that’s up to you.”
“How’s that?”
“You can’t reach me before I hurl your baby into the rock fireplace. But if you try, I will, and then we will only be talking about Lola. The thing is, I don’t think she will love you anymore, not after you got her baby killed,” Jonas said. “Want to take a chance on that? Take another step...”
* * *
COLT COULD SEE that Jonas’s arms were tiring from holding Grace up the way he was. He was using the baby like a shield. There was no way Colt could get a shot off with Jonas sitting and the baby out in front of him. Nor could he chance that, as he fired, Jonas wouldn’t throw Grace into the rocks.
One glance at Lola and he knew that what they both feared was a real possibility—Jonas could drop the baby at any moment. Or, worse, throw Grace against the rock fireplace as he was threatening.
“Colt, I’ll go with him. It’s the only way,” Lola pleaded as she stepped to him, grabbing his arm.
It was a strange thing for her to do and for a moment he didn’t understand. Then he felt her reach behind him to the pistol he had at his back. She must have seen the bulk of it under his shirt. She freed the gun and dropped her hands to her sides, keeping turned so Jonas couldn’t see what she held. Then she began to cry.
“You heard her,” Jonas said. “Leave before someone gets hurt. Before you get hurt.” His arms were shaking visibly. “If you care anything about this child...”
Jonas knew Colt wasn’t leaving without Lola and Grace. Saying he could walk away was all bluff. Did he have a weapon handy? Colt suspected so.
Lola was still halfway facing him so she could keep the gun in her hand hidden. Colt feared what she planned to do, but he could feel time running out. Jonas was losing patience. Worse, his arms were shaking now. He couldn’t hold the baby much longer—and he couldn’t back down. Wouldn’t.
“Tell him, Jonas,” she cried, suddenly running toward the cult leader and dropping to her knees only feet from him after sticking the gun in the waist of her jeans. “Tell him I’m going with you, and that it’s true and to leave.”
The cult leader hadn’t expected her to do that. For a moment, it looked as if he was going to throw the baby. Before he could, Lola grabbed for Grace with her left hand. At the same time, she pulled the pistol from behind her with her right. She had hold of Grace’s chubby little leg and wasn’t letting go.
Everything happened fast after that. Colt, seeing what Lola had planned, took the shot the moment Lola managed to pull the baby down and away from Jonas’s smug face
. Colt had always been an expert shot. Even during the most stressful situations.
He missed. Jonas had fallen forward just enough that the shot went over his head and lodged in the back of the chair. Before he could fire again, he heard Lola fire. She’d taken the shot from the floor, shooting under Grace to hit the man low in the stomach. He saw Jonas release Grace as he grabbed for his bleeding belly.
Lola dropped the gun and pulled Grace into her arms. They were both crying. As Colt rushed to the cult leader, his gun leveled at the man’s head, Lola scrambled away from Jonas with Grace tucked in her arms.
Jonas was holding his stomach with one hand and fumbling for something in the chair with the other. Colt was aiming to shoot, to finish Jonas, when he saw that it wasn’t a gun the cult leader was going for. It was the man’s phone.
He watched Jonas punch at the screen, his bloody fingers slippery, his hands shaking. It took a moment for the alert to sound. Jonas seemed to wait, one bloody hand on his stomach, the other on his phone. He stared at the front door, expecting it to come flying open as one of the guards burst in.
Seconds passed, then several minutes. Nothing happened. Jonas looked wild-eyed at the door as if he couldn’t believe it.
“They’ve all left,” Colt said. “There is no one to help you.”
Jonas looked down at his phone. With trembling fingers he made several attempts to key in 9-1-1 and finally gave up. “You have to call an ambulance. It’s the humane thing to do.”
“This from the man who was about to kill my baby daughter?”
“You would let me bleed to death?”
Colt looked over at Lola, huddled in the corner with Grace. Their gazes met. He pulled out his own phone and keyed in 9-1-1. He asked to speak to the sheriff.
When he was connected with Flint, he said, “You were right. Jonas hit us in the middle of the night. He sent two men to kill me. I left them in the old gravel pits. He took Lola and Grace, but they are both safe now. Unfortunately, one of his guards tried to shoot me. He’s dead outside here on the compound and Jonas is wounded, so you’ll need an ambulance and a—” He was going to say coroner, but before he could get the word out, the front door of the cabin banged open.
