Cutting Ties (Book 2) (Piper Anderson Series)

by Danielle Stewart

  Then it hit him. He had checked in with Michael three times since his relocation. He wanted to stay informed about the prosecutions and outcomes of many of his former employees and friends. It was technically against the rules, but hell, they’d all broken the rules leading up to this. So when he got the call weeks ago from Michael asking about a safe place for a client to stay for a short time, he immediately offered up the cabin. He had no use for it anymore, and the security measures he’d put in place had made it the perfect safe haven. Chris had been searching for ways to give back, good karma. It must have been for Piper, and her father must have been watching.

  Chris quickly took cover in the trees surrounding the cabin. Slowly and carefully he made his way toward the house, keeping an ever-vigilant eye on the door and windows. When he was within ten yards of the cabin, he made a quick dash before shrinking himself down and sliding his back against the outer walls. Making his way around the side where he could see into the master bedroom, he peeked into the window and saw no movement. Suddenly he heard shouting coming from the other side of the house.

  The lights were out; the alarm system keypad by the bedroom door was not blinking. The system had clearly been disabled. That meant the windows could be opened. He pushed the frame upward and breathed a sigh of relief as it slipped open quietly. It was the only thing standing between him and his gun, him and Piper.

  He lifted himself through the window and rolled onto the floor. He heard another scream, Piper howling in pain. He yanked open his closet door and pulled down the box from the top shelf. He loaded his Colt 45 and took in a deep breath. He had put himself in countless dangerous situations in his life, but rarely was he in a position of saving someone’s life. The weight of this job was stifling; the thought of not getting to Piper in time was terrifying.

  He stepped as lightly as he could though his room and towards the door that separated him from the commotion in the living room. As he reached for the knob his foot came down on a squeaky floorboard and he froze. Had it been heard over the yelling in the other room, had he given up the element of surprise? He gritted his teeth and decided either way this was the moment.

  He flung open the door and took aim. As the man standing over Piper spun around to face him, surprised by the noise, Chris pulled the trigger. POP—the deafening noise seemed to shake the house.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Bobby tapped his fingers anxiously on his leg as he and Lindsey pulled onto the main road. “We’ve cleared my place, Piper’s place, Betty’s house, and Michael’s apartment. I can’t think where else to check. Has there been any update over the radio?” Bobby’s voice was both defeated and frantic. He’d counted every minute since Piper had been taken, and his math equaled up to the same thing—a man that desperate to kill would have done it already.

  “Let’s think this out,” Lindsey said, trying to come up with a plan. “How long would he have been in Edenville prior to taking Piper? He took Jules, he made mention of them being friends. The news about the girls being attacked went national a few days prior to Jules’s abduction. It wasn’t linked to him on the news yet, but if he had been watching the updates about the attacks, maybe that was enough to draw him here. He had to have been watching Piper to know about her friendship with Jules. He would have staked out a place, planned this, just like he did when he took Jules. Something secluded, abandoned, off the beaten path.” Bobby’s face registered hope followed quickly by dread. His mind was racing faster than he could get the words out. “Piper and I were arguing, she was mad about the FBI. Michael put her up in the cabin—down by the river. If her father followed her, he’d have known it was empty...” Bobby trailed off, looking anxiously at Lindsey.

  “Okay, that’s where we head next,” Lindsey responded in a steadying manner. She slapped Bobby on his shoulder, and he winced. It was still tender from the collision. She flipped on her cruiser lights and they wound through the streets making their way to the back roads leading to the river. It would take fifteen minutes, at least, and each passing moment felt like an eternity to Bobby. There was no guarantee they’d find Piper there, no promise that she’d be alive, but they had somewhere else to look, and that was enough for him right now.

  Lindsey cut the lights and sirens when they were within a few miles of the cabin. Rounding the corner that led to the long dirt driveway, Bobby spotted a car parked slightly off the road—not the car that had been seen speeding away from the scene of Carlson’s shoot out, but a white car with unfamiliar plates and a small sticker in the window that indicated it was a rental. Lindsey parked the cruiser then she and Bobby got out quickly. Seeing that the white car was empty, they moved toward the cabin on foot. There was the blue car. This was it. Their weapons were drawn as they crept cautiously, not disturbing the piles of leaves and sticks that would give away their position. Then they heard it, a single gunshot, and all attempts to be stealthy were over. Bobby ran forward at full speed as Lindsey grabbed the radio on her shoulder.

  She read off the address of the cabin. “We have eyes on the car and shots fired. I repeat, we have shots fired. Requesting immediate backup to our location.” Lindsey took off after Bobby, knowing procedure would have them wait, secure the perimeter and hold their position. But procedure meant little when love was involved.

  Bobby kicked in the door and entered, his finger ready to squeeze the trigger with very little regard for who might be in his path. He felt Lindsey close behind him, and they both worked quickly to make sense of the scene.

  “Chris?” Bobby stammered, loosening his trigger finger but not lowering his weapon. His brain could not connect the dots, something was not lining up here. Why was Chris standing here, his weapon pointed at a man doubled over on the ground as Piper lay tightly tied to the table, bleeding and in shock.

  “Cut her loose,” Chris ordered, his gun still pointed at Piper’s father, his eyes locked on him. Lindsey shook off the confusion as she, too, tried to understand the scene. She pulled the utility knife from her belt and handed it to Bobby. “I have him covered, take care of Piper.” Bobby was at her side in a flash and sawed at the ropes that were holding her down. She pushed against them, desperate to be off the table. There was sheer horror flashing in her eyes. Cutting these ties meant more than just freeing her from the danger in this room; it was releasing her from the constant fear of her father. It meant bringing her back to his side and never letting her go again. When the blade broke through the last fiber of rope, Piper rolled to her side and off the table, stifling sobs and breathing erratically. Bobby reached for her but she shook him off. Every ounce of strength she’d used to dam in her emotions was gone now, and they flooded her, nearly drowning her.

  Bobby, assuming Piper was in shock, gave her room to breathe and turned his attention to Chris. He wanted to finish all of this quickly, end this reign of evil. “Chris, we got this now, lower your gun so Lindsey can search and cuff him. We’ve got backup on the way.” Bobby’s eyes bounced between the man moaning on the floor and Chris who was still aiming his gun, as if he hadn’t heard a thing.

  “No,” cried Piper, hobbling forward and lunging for the gun her father had placed on the end table. She pointed it with shaking, tired hands as the tears poured out of her eyes. Lindsey drew her weapon again and, with no choice, aimed it at Piper. Bobby did the same, pointing his at Chris.

  Bobby fought to process this. He looked down at the doubled over bleeding man, he was motionless but alive. He was unarmed, injured, the threat had been neutralized. What was his move here? The cop in him knew it was his job to take the criminal into custody. Anyone pointing a weapon at another human, regardless of the crimes committed, needed to be talked down, detained, or disarmed. He tried to keep his voice soft, but he barely recognized the woman before him, struggling to reason with her sad, defiant eyes. “Piper, you don’t have to do this. Lower the gun, hand it to me. He can’t hurt you anymore. He can’t hurt anyone.”

  “You don’t get it, Bobby,” Piper wailed. �
��Your dad is somewhere doing someone’s taxes right now. Your mom is probably food shopping. This is something you’ll never be able understand. As long as he’s alive, I won’t ever be free. I’ll spend the next two years reliving this, testifying against him. If he walks out of here, he’ll haunt me forever.” She steadied her hands and took a step closer. Lindsey looked over at Bobby, asking with her eyes if he had a plan. He didn’t.

  Chris softened his voice and chose his words carefully. “Piper, sweetheart, give Bobby the gun. Everything’s going to be okay, I promise. Just hand the gun to Bobby.”

  Piper’s face twisted with confusion. Chris was the one who had shared with her his own burdens. He knew better than anyone what she was facing. But he smiled at her sincerely, nodding his head in reassurance. It was enough to distract her, to bewilder her, and she lowered the gun to her side. Lindsey came up behind her slowly, whispering words of comfort, and secured the weapon that was hanging loosely in Piper’s shaking hand.

  “Take her outside,” Chris said, his voice returning quickly to a steely tone. And that’s when it hit everyone in the room. He wasn’t telling Piper that she should let this man live, he was telling her that she didn’t need to kill him herself. That he would do it, that it would be all right, because he’d handle it.

  Lindsey put Piper’s arm up over her shoulder and helped her out the front door. Under normal circumstances she’d never leave an officer in a room with an armed man whose intentions were to kill someone, but this was a unique situation, and getting Piper out of that room was crucial.

  Bobby pointed his weapon back at Chris, as much as his instincts begged him not to. “Chris, you need to lower your weapon. We are going to place him under arrest. He is going to get the death penalty. Let the system do its job.”

  “Do you know how many years the average person spends on death row? Ten. You want to marry that girl? Have a family with her? You have the opportunity for her to start healing today. Your other choice is for this to be a part of her life for the next ten years. I’m not asking you to pull the trigger, I’m asking you to let me do it.”

  Bobby had no more words. No argument. He could cite every law they’d be breaking, every ethical guideline he’d be ignoring. But his heart hadn’t thought of the things Chris had just said. He hadn’t considered the difference between Piper’s father dying here today as opposed to being arrested. Before this moment they both seemed equal in finality, but now he saw the truth. There was a big difference between him leaving in cuffs versus a body bag. Bobby felt demons from his past encircling him, taunting him as he wrestled with his conscience. This moment was Bobby’s history. This was what created the rift inside him. He’d stood here before, much younger, and let someone tell him that killing was the best, no, the only answer. That choice, the one to be complacent in the face of something he believed was wrong, had broken him, and the only way he was able to repair his fragile young soul was to promise himself he’d never do anything like it again. But here he was considering it.

  Could he really relive the biggest mistake of his life and not change the outcome by changing his actions? Was he willing to turn away from his highest ideals, all because someone was, once again, telling him it was the right thing? He couldn’t give his approval. He couldn’t tell Chris to do it. But he couldn’t bring himself to take the necessary actions to prevent it either. Chris read his silence as hesitant permission. “That day, when I stood with my gun pointed at the judge and you talked me out of it,” he said, walking with purpose toward the trembling man on the floor, “you were right, and I walked away from that for you. I did that for you.” He put the barrel of his gun to the man’s temple. “ I’m doing this for her.”

  “It doesn’t matter if he pulls that trigger.” Piper’s father groaned as he locked eyes with Bobby. He’d lost a good amount of blood and his voice was shaking but still ominous. “I’ve already wrecked her. You couldn’t put her back together even if you wanted to.” With that Bobby looked away from both of them. All he could do was lower his weapon and take a step backward, silently granting his permission.

  Chris knew there was only one way to silence a madman. He pulled the trigger and Bobby winced as Piper’s father crumpled. He lay limp, his eyes wide open. The manic look was gone, and now he was just a dead man.

  Lindsey came back quickly through the door. “You good?” she asked, stepping quickly to Bobby’s side. His head was full of questions, his face loaded with panic. Lindsey looked over the table to the lifeless corpse. “The son of a bitch killed himself? That’s probably for the best,” she muttered flatly.

  Bobby looked over at her, perplexed. He wondered, did she really think he had killed himself? She was a better, more astute cop than that, wasn’t she? Her response cleared the air.

  “Bobby, you really think this guy deserves a taxpayer-funded cell and three meals a day? He’s wrecked so many lives, and nearly killed two people you love. I know you think there’s one right way to do everything, but I can tell you this is the best thing that could have happened. Now let’s get our story straight.”

  She moved toward Chris and took the gun from his hand. She pulled a rag from her pocket and wiped the prints off it. She placed it in the hand of the dead man. “We entered the cabin and engaged the man. He had already been shot while Piper tried, unsuccessfully, to wrestle the gun away from him. He tied her down to ensure she could no longer resist. He cut into her leg before his blood loss caught up with him. When we arrived he was sitting on the floor, in shock. We secured the victim, I removed her from the cabin, you approached to secure the assailant, and he killed himself.”

  Bobby’s eyes were wide with a look of disbelief, almost fearful how quickly she’d concocted the story and how confidently she’d laid it out. “Don’t look at me like that,” she snipped. “What’s done is done, and all we can do is get our side of this squared away so we can put it behind us.”

  “What about the fingerprints all over this place?” Bobby responded, looking at Chris. “They’ll know you were here. And the gun, it’s yours. It’s registered to you,” Bobby said, trying to run through all the forensic land mines they could hit.

  Chris snickered a little. “That’s not exactly how it works in my world. The gun isn’t registered to me. The serial number is filed off. And this place should be loaded with my fingerprints. I own it. This is my cabin. I didn’t feel right letting you two come back to Edenville on your own, so I got on the earliest flight out. When I arrived, I heard what happened. I knew Piper had been taken, and I had a description of the car. I came here to get some supplies before going to look for Piper, and lo and behold, here they were. If that isn’t divine intervention, I don’t know what is. God was watching out for that girl today.”

  “I hate to break up your prayer circle here, but I hear sirens coming. I know who you are,” Lindsey said coldly, meeting Chris’s eye, “and unless you want to join all your recently incarcerated buddies, you need to take off.”

  Chris nodded. “I like this girl,” he said, smiling at Bobby whose eyes were fixed on the corpse staring back at him. Chris truly felt he’d done the right thing, but whether or not Bobby could get right with it, he wasn’t sure.

  “Bobby, I—” Chris started that statement without really knowing how to finish it. He wasn’t sorry for doing what he’d done, but maybe he was sorry that Bobby couldn’t understand it.

  Bobby finally shook his gaze from the dead man and mentally rejoined the room. Chris was right. Ending this nightmare now meant the healing could start immediately for Piper. Didn’t she deserve that more than her monster of a father deserved to live? Chris had nothing to gain from this and everything to lose. It wasn’t a sadistic killing; it was a merciful one. He tried hard to convince himself. But hadn’t the scenario of his childhood seemed just as justifiable, equally as right in that moment? Yet it wasn’t long before everything fell apart, and he assumed this would be no different. “You’d better go Chris. I’ll tell her goodbye for yo
u.”

  “Go already,” Lindsey shouted, shoving Chris toward the door. Turning to Bobby she added, “We need to get Piper up to speed. We’re in this together, so I need to know—you’re good with it?”

  “Yeah,” Bobby said with forced certainty. “I’m on board.” He wasn’t going to say anything, not tonight… not right now… but he didn’t know how he’d live with it, how any of them would live with it.

  Chapter Nineteen

  As the two EMTs lifted Piper into the back of the ambulance, Bobby felt himself finally relax a little. She was physically stable now that her bleeding had stopped. Emotionally, though, he wasn’t sure how any of them would manage. When Lindsey had brought her out of the cabin, and left when she heard gunfire, Piper had crumpled. She slid down the side of the car and felt herself go numb. Maybe it was shock setting in, blood loss, or maybe it was the realization that someone in that cabin was likely dead. She lay there wondering if Bobby had shot Chris or if Chris had shot her father. Regardless, she knew her life and her future had just changed dramatically.

  Bobby pulled himself into the back of the ambulance and sat down next to her, pulling her cold hand up to his chest. “How you doing?” he asked, knowing it was a dumb question.

  “I feel free,” she whispered quietly, the corners of her mouth rising slightly in a smile. She squeezed his hand with the little energy she had and then closed her eyes. The bright overhead lights of the ambulance were too much for her.

  “Officer Wright,” shouted someone from outside the ambulance just as the doors were about to close. Bobby jumped, still on edge, feeling at any moment their story would be called into question. The medic stopped short of slamming the door and let the man come over. Bobby didn’t recognize him, but judging by his black suit and tie it was safe to assume he was FBI.