No Going Back - 07

by Matt Hilton

  Jay lifted her face to look at the missing person poster and the fading image of Helena Blackstock. She shook her head sadly. ‘No. I’m sorry.’

  ‘Her name is Helena, maybe you heard the Logans mention her?’

  ‘No. But I think they probably did take her as well. I mean, look at her. If Ellie could be Nicole’s little sister, then Helena could be her twin.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I agreed, but didn’t mention the theory that had been growing in my mind like a cancer.

  Last time I’d been at the same place my phone hadn’t been able to find a signal; the same proved true again. I handed the phone to Jay. ‘Keep that safe. Once you’re on the road, try to get through to the police and then direct them back here. You might also want to—’ I was about to say phone her dad, and tell him she was safe, but that wasn’t a good idea yet. Not until I’d freed Nicole and Ellie. I didn’t want Jameson Walker contacting their families with false hopes. Instead, I ended my thought with, ‘phone my friend, Jared Rington, and tell him what’s happening. You’ll find his number on there under “Rink”. He’ll help you.’

  ‘Then you are going back?’

  ‘Yes, but not yet. We still have to get you to my Yukon and out of this damn desert.’

  ‘Where is your car?’

  ‘A short run from here. Are you up to it?’

  She took a generous gulp of water and handed the bottle back to me. ‘I’m good to go,’ she said, which made me smile. That was one of Rink’s favourite sayings, so maybe my friend was already helping us on a strange metaphysical level. Taking one pull on the water, I returned it to her.

  ‘Take that with you, you’ll want more before we get to the car.’ I paused. ‘Speaking of cars, your father’s SUV? You were driving it when the Logans snatched you, but it wasn’t found on the highway.’

  ‘No. They brought it back here to their ranch with me and Ellie inside.’

  ‘So where is it now?’

  Jay looked confused, the significance of the vehicle’s location lost on her.

  ‘It doesn’t matter. Come on, let’s get going. Through there, between those rocks, we can’t go via the trail or they might come across us.’ I urged her towards the broken ridgeline and a way through to the labyrinthine route I’d come in by.

  As she set off, I bent down to stuff the papers back into my rucksack. My attention was only off her for a few seconds, but it was enough to change everything. As I straightened, something had detached itself from a boulder at the trail head and lunged at her.

  It was short, squat and ugly, shaped not unlike a hairless ape, and possibly as powerful. It looked like it was capable of ripping her limb from limb within seconds, or twisting her head from her shoulders with one snap of its thick forearms.

  My gun came up in one swift movement, but I didn’t have a shot.

  Samuel Logan had reclaimed his prize and I couldn’t see a safe way of taking it away from him.

  16

  ‘I don’t know who the hell you are, but you’re gonna put down that pistol or I’ll break the bitch’s neck.’

  ‘Let her go,’ I countered. ‘That’s the only way you’ll live through this.’

  Samuel Logan grinned at me over Jay’s shoulder, showing teeth that gleamed against his dusky features. He understood the dynamics of the situation clearly enough. If he did hurt Jay, then he’d have no leverage over me and in the next instant I’d blast his skull clean off. Yet I couldn’t make a move on him without him going through with his threat. It was stalemate. Thankfully he hadn’t come armed with a gun of his own or it would have forced both our hands. What he did have in his spare hand was a walkie-talkie radio, and it was likely that he’d already called Carson and told him to get here as quickly as possible. This added urgency to how I planned on reacting: basically I didn’t know if Samuel had informed his cousin of my presence or not, and how that would affect my sneaking back to the ranch to free Nicole and Ellie. Best-case scenario was that Samuel had been dropped to continue his search on foot while Carson intended cutting off Jay’s escape route and had driven beyond the radio’s range.

  My options tumbled through my mind, each vying for prominence, but this mental overload made me pause. Not a good situation to be in, and it allowed Samuel to pull Jay backwards towards a jumble of rocks. I advanced, looking for a shot, but the man was wise enough to keep her firmly between us. Jay was staring back at me, her mouth an open chasm of shock.

  ‘This is pointless,’ I called. ‘It’s over now, Samuel. Let the woman go and maybe you’ll live to see the end of the day.’

  ‘How’d you know my name?’ he asked. ‘You a fuckin’ cop? I don’t think so. Or the place would be teeming by now.’

  ‘The police are on the way. That’s why you need to let her go, before things get out of hand.’

  ‘The cops ain’t coming,’ he laughed. I wondered why he was so sure, and his explanation only went so far to enlighten me. ‘No one’s coming, buddy. Out here there’s no cellphone that can get a signal. The way I see things, you’re on your own, and it’s you who won’t live to the end of the day. And neither will this bitch if you don’t stop waving that pistol at me.’

  ‘The others are still alive, right? The women you took? That’s a good thing, but if you harm her,’ I nodded at Jay, ‘everything changes. You and your cousins will do time, there’s no denying that, but if you kill her, it’ll be for ever.’

  ‘Nope, if I kill her then you’re likely to shoot me. I’ll be dead and won’t see a jail cell, but then I don’t care about that one way or another. See, all you want is to save this bitch, while I’ve no hesitation about twisting the head off her scrawny neck. So I reckon you’ve more to lose than I have. You’re the one who’s gonna put down his gun, get down on his knees and put his hands on his head.’ To emphasise his directions he gripped Jay’s chin in his thick fingers. He squeezed and Jay yowled in agony as her skin round his fingertips blanched.

  I’d heard and seen enough.

  I was loath to shoot, because I’d no idea where Carson was, and recalling his run-in with Scott Blackstock, it was a sure bet that he was carrying. If I fired, he’d hear the shot and come at speed. I didn’t fear the man or his weapon, but I didn’t want Jay injured in the crossfire. I lowered the S&W.

  ‘Not good enough,’ Samuel said. ‘Throw it over here.’

  ‘No.’ As if I was going to hand over my gun so that he could shoot me? ‘Release the woman and walk away. I won’t kill you. So long as you and your cousins let the other women go, then I’ll even allow you to get in your truck and drive away. I’m not one bit interested in any of you, or if you go to prison or not, I’m only interested in the women getting out of this unharmed.’

  Samuel smiled at my words, and that was good, because I wanted him to think I was weakening. There was no way in God’s creation that I’d allow any of the punks to walk away from this, but while he saw a chance, and was mulling over his options, then there was still a way to save Jay. I caught her terrified gaze and offered a wink, which I followed with a dip of my chin. Comprehension registered in her features, and I only hoped she’d wait for the exact moment to act.

  Samuel shook his head, the grin never leaving his face. ‘Like I said, I’m not afraid of going to jail. I’m not afraid of dying either, so there’s no deal you can strike that’s gonna make me let her go, other than what I already said.’

  ‘I’m not getting down on my knees for no one,’ I said. The gun I placed on the ground between my feet. ‘Now let her go.’

  Samuel took another step back, hauling Jay along with him. He glanced through a gap between the boulders, no doubt seeking Carson. Jay was still watching me, and as Samuel’s gaze flicked away, I nodded. There was still the problem of Carson hearing the gunfire, so I left the gun exactly where it was, lunging towards Samuel even as Jay brought up the container of water and rammed the thick plastic base into her captor’s chin. There was little more than a litre of water in the bottle now, but whipped round
at speed it was enough to add extra weight behind the smack of the bottle against his jaw. He let out a shout of surprise, his natural reaction to pull back, eyes screwed tight. At the same time, Jay twisted out of his grip and threw herself to the ground. Twenty feet had separated us, but I covered that in less than two seconds, launching myself through the air at Samuel before he’d recovered. As his eyes came open my fist was only inches from his nose, and no way could he avoid the blow. The impact rocketed up my arm all the way to my shoulder, but it had to have hurt him more. Not that it showed.

  My lunge took me against him, and we both continued among the boulders. Samuel was off balance, and by virtue of the fact that I’d grabbed hold of his shirt with my free hand, so was I. He went down on his back, his head caroming off a rock, and I landed on top of him. He uttered a wordless grunt, but that was the only sign of discomfort. I hit him again, pulping his nose and mashing his lips against his teeth. Luckily I had landed with both my feet flat on the ground either side of his body, so I didn’t continue to tumble over him. I drew back my fist to strike him again.

  Most others would have been stunned, maybe out of the fight altogether, but Samuel Logan was made of sterner stuff, or maybe his brutal mind refused to feel pain the way gentler souls did. He spat a mouthful of blood-laced saliva in my face, even as he reached for my throat with one hand and my cocked elbow with the other. His action forced me to draw my throat out of his clutch, but it also served to make me miss my next punch. Samuel came up, trying to get his hips beneath him. His arms swiped at mine, and this time he did get a grip on my elbow. His fingers dug for the ulnar nerve and a tingling pain shot the length of my forearm into my ring and pinky fingers. He also nipped at the radial nerve, intending to immobilise my arm, but we were beyond pain compliance techniques. Caught cold, or already beaten down, I’d have groaned in agony at the assault on my nervous system, but I was too fired up to be slowed by it now. I wrenched my arm free, then aimed an elbow into his face that knocked him sprawling under me.

  He was a child of this desert. His heart was as barren of pity as the wasteland, and his flesh was forged of the same rock as its landscape. Or that was how it felt fighting him. Counting being whacked with the water container, he’d now taken four heavy shots directly to his face, but it wasn’t slowing him down. I contemplated going for the knife in my back pocket, but the thought was too fleeting to act upon, because he was already coming back at me, more furious now than before. He bellowed like a wild thing, bucked beneath me and I was sent flying off him. My left shoulder slammed the rocks, and I rebounded on to the trail. Smaller stones dug painfully into my knees as I scrambled up and turned to meet him.

  ‘Gonna make you sorry for that!’ he snapped as he came to his feet. I was only sorry I didn’t kill him when I first had the opportunity. ‘Go for it!’ I launched myself at him, throwing a knee into his chest. He rocked on his heels, but then came back swinging.

  His punches were well aimed, and flashes of black edged my vision.

  Samuel kicked at my gut, and I folded round his foot. The blow hadn’t landed cleanly, and I used the ruse to get in close. My headbutt cracked directly into his already smashed nose. Samuel grunted, but only at being caught out. I rammed my forehead into his face again, until he snapped out of it and almost took my throat out with a knife-hand slash. I danced back, then immediately launched in at him with a kick to his balls.

  Shockingly, Samuel took the blow and wrapped me in his arms. A taller man’s ears would have been an open target for both my palms, but he was shorter than I and his head was jammed against my chest. I punched him in the skull, but couldn’t get the leverage for a full-on knockout blow. Samuel hauled me off my feet, spun me like a pro-wrestler and slammed me down on a boulder and almost separated my spine for me. He knew how to fight.

  Once I had fought a giant of a man, and he’d manhandled me in a similar fashion, but on that occasion his sheer size had also been his weakness and I’d been able to kill the fucker using speed and mobility. But Samuel wasn’t hindered by size, and he was canny enough to keep his vulnerable targets well hidden while he pounded me with one hand. With my back bent tortuously over the boulder I wasn’t in the best position to fight back. His right hand drummed my ribs in a staccato beat, each exhalation of pain I emitted giving him encouragement to hit me again. At the edges of my vision danced blackness that had nothing at all to do with dehydration, and in reaction I struck back.

  When caught in a life or death struggle it isn’t easy to control your bodily reactions: instinct takes over and both physical and psychological switches are thrown in order to help you survive. When your vision tunnels to a pinpoint, your hearing becomes a dulled hush, and your scrotum shrivels tight, you can forget about applying intricate combat manoeuvres. The only thing you’re capable of is the most gross of motor functions, those that include holding on and clubbing arm movements. It’s why so many fights that start on the feet end on the floor with both combatants doing little more than grip each other. So, Samuel wasn’t aiming to dig into nerve clusters now, he was only intent on smashing me to a pulp. I admit it: I was in the same place, and it was now a matter of who was going to land the most telling blow. For a second or two, my money was on Samuel Logan.

  I was enshrouded in the red haze of battle, where only my enemy existed. I’d forgotten about saving the women, I’d forgotten about Jay and Carson or whoever might be bearing witness to our fight, I’d forgotten about the knife in my pocket, I’d forgotten about the heat and the rocks, and the entire world. Now all that mattered was someone was trying to kill me, and all I wanted to do was kill him first.

  Even the crack of a revolver wasn’t enough to sway my mind; it was one more bang that rattled inside my ear canals along with all the others. Only when the gun barked a second time and Jay screamed real close in our ears did we struggle apart. I grabbed at Samuel, but he slipped beyond my fingers, and I ended up colliding with yet another boulder and almost finishing what Samuel had started. I didn’t exactly see stars, because the void I looked on for the briefest of moments was pitch-black. I yanked back from the brink of unconsciousness, blinking rapidly to clear my vision and gulping in air to my straining body. By the time my head was clear enough to make sense of what was going on, Jay was already past me and pursuing Samuel through the maze of boulders.

  ‘No, Jay!’ I stumbled after her. ‘Get back here!’

  She came to a halt, panting, the gun held in both hands shaking in time with her body. Samuel disappeared among the rocks. His escape was both a blessing and a curse: thank God both Jay and I had survived, and bollocks that Samuel had got away. For a second I considered snatching the gun from Jay and chasing him down, but good sense wriggled its way into my pounding skull. ‘Give me the gun, Jay.’

  She did so, her face a picture of confusion. ‘I couldn’t do it,’ she moaned. ‘Even after everything he did to me, to Nicole and Ellie, I couldn’t shoot him in the back.’

  I was glad that she hadn’t. ‘That makes you a better person than you’ll ever understand,’ I said. The truth was, even though he was trying his hardest to pierce my insides with my ribs, I wouldn’t have condoned shooting him in the spine. Not because it was a cowardly thing to do, but I wanted that bastard to die looking me in the eyes. Except, if I said that to her, Jay would wonder what kind of man she was relying on to save her and her friends’ lives, and perhaps decide she’d merely traded one kind of monster for another.

  Also, the fact that she’d used the gun went unsaid. I wasn’t ungrateful that she’d possibly saved my arse, but if I’d wanted Carson or Brent to hear gunfire I’d have just shot Samuel at the start.

  I opened the chamber, fed a couple of fresh shells from my pocket into the cylinder and snapped it closed. ‘Fetch the water, then let’s get going. Time’s against us now.’

  While Jay went to gather up the water container, I pulled myself together. At least that’s what it felt like: after the hammering I’d taken my joints fe
lt like those of a marionette, only held to my torso by loose strings. Pretty soon though the tightening would begin, and if I didn’t get moving, I’d seize up, and Jay would have to find a new nickname for Carson Logan because I’d be moving like the Tin Man in need of lubrication.

  ‘Think we can use this?’

  Jay approached me holding out the radio that Samuel must have dropped during the fight.

  I didn’t see that it was much use to us, for it was even less effective than my cellphone currently was for calling the police. However, one thing was instantly apparent: Samuel had no way of contacting Carson and bringing him back to this spot. He’d have to return to the pass to flag him down as he responded to the gunshots – supposing he’d heard them – and by then we could have moved a considerable distance.

  Taking it from her, all I could hear was static. I thumbed down the volume and jammed it into my shirt pocket so I’d hear any transmission, but wouldn’t give our position away. We’d won a slight reprieve, but the chances now of getting Jay to the Yukon and safely away, and then returning to release the others before the Logans got back to the ranch, were growing very slim.

  ‘Excellent,’ I said, feeling anything but. ‘Now let’s get moving.’

  17

  Jay considered this man who’d come from out of nowhere to act as her protector. He said that he’d come at her father’s behest, but had not related how he’d ended up at the Logan ranch so, in keeping with her earlier analogy, she fancied that a tornado had plucked him from wherever it was he hailed from and dropped him at the ranch just in time, like the house that flattened the Wicked Witch. Pity she didn’t have a pair of ruby slippers whose heels she could click and take them all safely home.

  He was English, but didn’t talk with any definite regional inflection she could make out. It was more a cosmopolitan accent, or one that had been shaped through some kind of institutionalisation: the military she assumed, from the skills he’d exhibited. Occasionally he slipped into a US vernacular that sounded a little odd to her ear, and she wondered how long he’d been living here in the States. He stood under six feet, but only by a shade, and had the tight build of an athlete, broad-shouldered and slim-hipped; however there was nothing that would make him stand out in a crowd. Not until you looked into his features and noted a stoic calm that could be mistaken for an uncaring attitude. His outer shell was a lie, she knew. If he only cared for his own well-being, he’d have shot Samuel when he had the opportunity, and the rest be damned. He hadn’t, he’d forfeited his own safety for hers and for her friends’, and chosen to risk everything in hand-to-hand combat with the brutish man. That was where he also stood out; she’d never seen anything like the way he’d gone at Samuel outside the frame of an action movie, or believed that after the beating he’d endured anyone could still operate without complaint. Jeez, if Samuel had been punching her as hard as that, she’d have been hospitalised, or dead. Yet Joe Hunter was up and jogging, moving with a grace she’d never seen in any man. When she was at Penn State she’d been surrounded by football players and boys from the wrestling team, tough, fit and aggressive guys, but she doubted any of them could have stood for more than a few seconds against Hunter. There was something about him, like a smouldering fuse you couldn’t detect until you looked deeply into his eyes. They had the same intensity she’d once seen in a caged wolf, a beast tamed only so far that could return to its intrinsic savage state at the flip of a coin. She thought she should fear such a man, yet she didn’t. She was only thankful that he was on her side.