After Joshua grabbed a couple of flashlights and gave instructions to the security guards outside, Elizabeth left the house with her uncle and hurried toward the bunkhouse. Switching on the light, she searched the terrain for any sign of Abbey or Brody. She and her uncle climbed over the fence right behind the bunkhouse and went farther out into the pasture toward the grove Slade described.
As Elizabeth neared the small cluster of trees, she called Abbey’s cell, hoping it would ring nearby. Only silence greeted her. The almost-full moon cast eerie shadows off the bare branches, which swayed in the cool breeze. A shiver snaked up Elizabeth’s spine as though evil itself touched her.
To the left of her she spied a mound on the ground near the base of a large oak that had retained its dead leaves. “Joshua, I’ve found something,” she called as she closed the distance between her and the lump, “or, rather, someone.”
Slade gathered Mary and Hilda in the den, so he could keep an eye on them as he waited to hear back from Joshua and Elizabeth. He paced from one end of the room to the other while Mary and Hilda prayed on the couch.
This feeling of waiting brought back all the emotions that had inundated him when Catherine had died and he’d had to stand by and do nothing. He couldn’t save her. Even his prayers, he’d felt, had gone unanswered.
God, are You turning Your back on me again? Don’t let Abbey be harmed. Bring her home safely. Whatever You want, I’ll give You.
When his cell rang in his hand, he flinched. Please be good news.
As he answered the call, he noticed the number was blocked, which sent his heartbeat racing. “Slade here.”
“Ah, it’s been a while since we talked,” the person said in a disguised voice as though trying to mask his—or her—gender.
He stepped away so Hilda and Mary wouldn’t be able to hear him. “What have you done with Abbey?”
“She’s safe if you follow my directions. Your daughter’s life will depend on you doing exactly as I say. First, get somewhere alone. Go into your office.”
He strode out of the room and made his way to his office. “I’m alone now.”
“I’ll trade you for your daughter. Do you love her enough to do that?” The person didn’t wait for an answer. “You can’t tell anyone where you’re going. If anyone follows you, I’ll know and kill Abbey. I have ways of listening.”
Were more bugs somehow planted in the past few days, by someone who’d been in his house recently? A supposed friend?
“When you go to the old cabin at the back of the ranch, I’ll call that woman you care so much about and tell her where I hid Abbey.”
“Please don’t hurt my daughter. I’ll trade myself for her. I’ll do anything you say.”
“Good. Because it’s you I want, not Abbey.”
“How will I know my daughter is safe?”
A laugh, definitely feminine, sounded. “You just got to trust me. Leave your cell at your house. If I discover it on you, your daughter is dead. You’ve got fifteen minutes to get to the cabin without anyone else. If you are a minute late, I’ll detonate the bomb attached to Abbey.”
“A bomb on Abbey? I can’t make the cabin in fifteen minutes.” He could only ride a horse part of the way. The rest of the terrain was too risky in the dark.
“If you leave right now, yes, you can.”
Please don’t be Abbey. Please be alive.
She knelt by the body and shone the flashlight at the face. Brody. Feeling for a pulse at the side of his neck, she nearly collapsed with relief when she discovered a steady beat beneath her fingertips. Joshua joined her, his light revealing the young man’s bound hands and feet while Elizabeth found the matted blood on his head. Then they both swung their flashlights in a wide arc around Brody.
“Abbey’s gone.” Elizabeth picked up the teen’s cell phone next to Brody. It vibrated in her palm. Clutching it, she answered it. “Yes.”
“You can find Abbey at the lake tied to a tree,” a voice that could be either male or female said.
“Who—” The call disconnected.
Joshua rolled Brody onto this back and placed his own call to 911, then asked, “Who was that?”
“The person who took Abbey. He, she, I couldn’t tell, told me I could find her tied to a tree by the lake.”
Joshua rose. “Why? Another game?”
“I have a bad feeling about this. Have since it started tonight.”
“We need more manpower to search the lake. There are a lot of trees out there.”
“I’m going to the lake to start the search while you go get more help. Abbey is my responsibility,” she added when Joshua started to protest, “and I will find her.”
A brisk wind came off the lake as Elizabeth reached the shore with only a flashlight and moonlight to illumine her path. Trekking over the uneven ground, she shone her light on the tree line. A sense of urgency swamped her. The noise of the water lapping against the rocky beach couldn’t mask the thundering of her heartbeat in her ears.
Her cell ringing cut through the sound of a hoot owl in a pine up ahead. Elizabeth answered on the second ring. “Yes.”
“Slade is gone. He got a call and left the house.”
The tight thread in her uncle’s voice heightened her fear that this wouldn’t end well. “Why?”
“Mary is sure the call came from the person behind all this. Worse, I can’t track him with his cell—I found it on the hall table. Mary listened to Slade talking in his office, and she heard something about a cabin. She says there’s one on the ranch in the northwest pasture on the back property line.”
“I just reached the lake and am starting my search.”
“The lake is between the cabin and the main house. The ambulance should be here any minute and the sheriff’s ETA is five minutes. Once everyone has arrived, I’ll head to the lake. Mary thinks Slade is trading himself for his daughter. We need to find Abbey and make sure she is safe, then go looking for Slade. I believe there’s a bomb on Abbey, so be careful. I’m leaving right now. The sheriff has called in the bomb squad, but we might not have the time. Once you find her, give me your location and I’ll disarm it.”
She thanked God that her uncle had been on the bomb squad for years before rising to the level of captain in the Dallas police department. “You’ll see my light. I’m on the east side making my way north.”
The dark shape of the old cabin loomed before Slade as he ran the last part of his trip. He checked his watch and noted one minute until his time was up. Sweat drenched him. His heart pounded with each step he took.
Lord, anything You want. Just save my daughter. Take me if You must.
A hundred yards to go.
Slade counted down the time in his mind and pressed forward, increasing his speed as much as possible in the darkness with only a flashlight to show him the path. Leaping over a fallen trunk, he headed down a small incline, then up the other side of the ditch. Slipping in the grass, he stumbled forward, caught himself before falling and charged forward.
Twenty yards.
His breath hissed from him in short bursts. He reached the cabin with ten seconds to spare. Shining the light on the entrance, he saw the door wide open. He made his way to it and entered the cabin.
He stood in the middle of the large, almost bare room layered with dust and cobwebs and swung around in a full circle, noting the empty table and two chairs, a cupboard with a missing door, a dirty rug over part of the floor. “I’m here. Show yourself. You’ve got what you want. Me.”
Silence.
He hadn’t heard a bomb go off, so he prayed that meant Abbey was still alive. He backed away from the entrance, moving deeper into the shadows.
“Are you too scared to show yourself? Or, are you going to continue to hide behind all these little games you’ve played?”
“On the contrary, I’m right here, and relishing every minute of this.” Cindy stood in the doorway to the cabin with a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other. “I’ve be
en thinking about this moment ever since my father, Jay Wilson, killed himself. He couldn’t face going to prison if he was convicted. His life became a living nightmare. I decided to make yours like that so you’d know how it feels to have things totally out of your control.”
He wanted to laugh at that statement. He’d learned long ago his life wasn’t in his control. And now he had to place it in the Lord’s hands because he didn’t know how he would get out of this alive.
Cindy gestured with her gun to her right. “Pick that detonator up.”
Slade did, his hand shaking as he held it.
“If you set off the detonator, your daughter dies but you live. I’ll walk away and never bother you again. You control your daughter’s destiny. So what will you do?”
The sounds of voices back along the shoreline, following her path, filtered to Elizabeth. She waved her flashlight in the air to show them where she was, then returned to searching for Abbey. Each second could be the child’s last one, and she was determined to find her before she was harmed.
Up ahead, about ten yards away, she saw something that looked like a person sitting against a large pine. Running, praying it was Abbey, Elizabeth covered the short distance in seconds. Her light illuminated the frightened, wide-eyed expression on Abbey’s face. A gag stuffed in her mouth, a rope circling the teen and tree and a bomb strapped to the girl’s chest sent terror through Elizabeth. She allowed herself a moment of that emotion before she shut it down. She had to remain calm and keep Abbey calm.
Kneeling in front of the girl, Elizabeth loosened the cloth around Abbey, who then spat out the rag in her mouth. “Don’t move. I don’t know what triggers this bomb. Joshua will be here in a minute. He knows all about these things. Understand?”
Tears trickling from her eyes, Abbey said, “Yes.”
Her raw, shaky voice worried Elizabeth. “Remember, stay calm. Don’t move. I won’t leave you.”
“Where’s Daddy?”
Cindy pointed the gun toward her left. “Pick up that detonator, too.”
Slade saw it in the glow of his light on the floor a few feet from him. He bent over and grasped it. Ice seemed to replace the blood in his veins.
“You have a choice.” She backed away from the doorway. “You can either detonate the one that you just picked up and blow yourself up, or you can detonate the other and blow up your daughter. I’ll give you two minutes to make the decision, and don’t think about leaving the cabin. I’ve nailed shut the windows. This door is the only way out, and I’ll be covering it.” Clicking off her flashlight, she slid on night-vision goggles and took another step away. “I have a second remote for your bomb, and I’ll make the choice for you if you don’t choose in two minutes. You control your destiny one last time.”
The sound of the door slamming jolted Slade. He stared at it, his mind totally blank for a precious moment. Then he began to quake as he looked down at the devices in his hands. Left, he was dead. Right, Abbey was. If he could believe Cindy.
Lord, there’s no choice.
Joshua worked to defuse the bomb strapped to Abbey. It had been a while since he’d done this, but Elizabeth knew her uncle kept up all the skills he’d acquired over the years.
“Elizabeth, I’ve got this covered. I’m almost done. You need to take some of the men and head to the cabin. Abbey will be fine, and I’ll be right behind you as soon as I finish up here.”
“Cabin?” Abbey mumbled.
“Your dad is there.” Joshua took his wire cutters out of his pocket while a guard trained a heavy-duty flashlight on the bomb.
“Why?”
Joshua glanced back at Elizabeth, his mouth pinched into a frown.
She stooped down next to her uncle. “I believe you need to know the truth, but remember you have to stay calm. Your dad traded himself for you.”
“No, he can’t. She’ll kill him. She wants him dead.”
“She? Who?”
“Jake’s wife, Cindy. She’s crazy. She laughed about how no one knew she could shoot so well or build explosives. Her dad taught her. Kept going on about how Dad killed her father, so she was gonna even the score.”
Elizabeth rose. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Jake stepped forward. “Cindy is behind this?”
Abbey stared up at him, fear mingling with anger. “Yes. She used you. Even Brody. She laughed about that, too.”
Elizabeth motioned to three guards. “Let’s go.”
“I want to come.” Jake moved into her path.
“I think you should stay here.”
“No. I know the fastest way to the cabin. Time is of the essence.”
The fury on the man’s face convinced Elizabeth she had to take the risk and let him come. “Fine.” But she would keep a sharp eye on him.
With the three security personnel and Jake, Elizabeth left her uncle and the one guard working on defusing the bomb and headed northwest from the lake.
Jake directed them to the west. “The terrain is easier this way.”
Did she make a mistake trusting the man?
Five minutes later Jake ran up an incline. “It’s not far.” At the top he pointed toward a dark area with lots of trees.
As Elizabeth hurried down the small rise, an explosion blasted the night.
THIRTEEN
The loud boom rocked Elizabeth as a glow lit the night. Smoke billowed from the tops of the trees—a gray cloud in the midst of the dark. She was too late. She went to her knees. For a few seconds she allowed despair to ravage her.
Slade!
His name screamed through her mind as she scrambled to her feet and rushed into the grove surrounding the cabin. Through the trees, she saw the mound of rubble from the blast.
As she approached, she scanned the area. Where was Cindy? The thought that she was out here somewhere constricted Elizabeth’s stomach into a knot. She slowed her step and motioned to the others to spread out and surround the cabin.
Glock in hand, Elizabeth proceeded forward, trying not to think of what she would find. Behind her, she heard more people coming over the last incline. The cavalry. Too late.
At close range, that realization grew even firmer in her mind when she spied the extent of the damage in the clearing. Smoke from the blast hung in the air. There was no fire that she could see in the dim light, but the destruction was still unmistakable.
Surveying what she could see of the remains reinforced in her mind that Slade couldn’t have survived the explosion. Her heart broke. Earlier he’d told her he was in love with her, and she couldn’t tell him she was falling in love with him. She’d been too scared to say the words. Now she would never be able to. Tears of fury and overwhelming sadness inundated her, and yet she had no time to cry—not with all that needed to be done.
Joshua disengaged from the sheriff and two of his deputies and came up to her side, settling his hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
No, never again. She started to nod her head but couldn’t. Instead she murmured, “No. Why did this happen?”
“I don’t know why. We may not know what happened here until morning.”
An eternity to leave Slade buried among the debris while Cindy got away. “We’ve got to find Cindy.”
“The sheriff’s got that covered with his deputies. At least the bomb didn’t set off a fire. With these trees surrounding the cabin we would have had a problem.”
“I don’t see much silver lining in this situation.” The pressure in her chest trapped each breath in her lungs. She had to force herself to breathe, but it did little to relieve the constriction. “Where’s Abbey?”
“I had the guard take her back to the house. She doesn’t need to see this.”
No one did. She had to do something, or she would fall apart. “I’m gonna look…” Her throat closed around the last word in the sentence.
She finally holstered her Glock and started toward what was left of the cabin.
“You should stay back,” one of the security guards said.
“The sheriff has the fire department on its way.”
Elizabeth ignored the man. She didn’t care. She needed to find Slade. See with her own eyes that he was dead.
Abbey screamed at the top of the incline when she crested the mound and looked down on the scene below. A guard, probably the one who was supposed to escort her back to the main house, came up beside the teen and took her arm. She jerked free and raced down to the cabin, not stopping until she saw Elizabeth.
Abbey hugged Elizabeth and sobbed. “He can’t be dead. He can’t be.”
For a few seconds her arms hung loosely at her sides, numb with grief. This is why I don’t want to love someone. It hurts too much. But slowly the sounds of Abbey’s crying pulled her back to the present, a present where Slade’s daughter needed comfort.
“I’m so sorry, Abbey.” She wound her arms around the girl and held her tightly, trying to infuse what solace she could when she had so little.
Suddenly Abbey leaned back, her face wet with tears. “Maybe he hid in the storm cellar.”
For just a second, hope flickered within her. “Storm cellar? Where?”
“Under the cabin.” Abbey whirled around and pointed toward the northeast corner of the place. “We discovered it once when we were exploring the ranch. When my mom was alive. It’s kinda creepy, but Dad said it was built to protect the people who lived here from tornadoes. There’s a way in from the cabin and from the outside on the east side.”
Elizabeth suppressed her excitement that Slade might have survived. But she grabbed Abbey’s hand and tugged her forward. “Show me.”
Abbey hurried toward the east side of what was left of the cabin. “There.” Pieces of blown-up wood lay haphazardly over the area where the girl pointed.
“I need people over here to help me,” Elizabeth shouted and began tossing the debris away from the spot.
Christmas Bodyguard Page 18
