Fatal Response

by Jodie Bailey

  Cry. His brokenness would break her.

  But his footsteps didn’t pause as he headed up the hall. The outside door opened and shut softly and the building fell silent.

  Erin dropped her chin to her chest and stared at the scuffed toes of her black boots, feeling as though her spine couldn’t support her any longer. Last night had been too long, too much of a breakneck ride down the mountain at top speed. She couldn’t do any more. And if she didn’t get out of this building in the next ten seconds, she was going to fall to pieces.

  Maybe she’d make the drive home slowly with the windows down. Maybe last night would blow away somewhere into the fall mountain mist.

  When she broke through the door into the early morning light, she scanned the parking lot, half expecting to see Jason waiting.

  The small front lot was empty.

  She’d deny until her last breath that his departure left her with a hint of disappointment. It was for the best. He was gone. Hopefully for good, the way he should have been when their divorce was final.

  Jerking open the door to the Bronco, Erin climbed in and reached for the seat belt as she angled her foot toward the brake. Her heel rolled on something and an all-too-familiar sound paralyzed her, cold terror icing her movements and driving the world into slow motion.

  No. There was no way. None. She had to be dreaming. Or hallucinating.

  Tilting her head, she looked at her foot, throat dry, head pounding...

  And found a rattlesnake beneath the heel of her boot.

  FOUR

  Jason sat in his pickup and kneaded the steering wheel, the leather warming rapidly beneath his palms. Erin could kick him out of the fire station, but the roads were still public and she couldn’t stop him from following her home. She might not realize how dangerous the situation was, but he did. He’d seen what terror cells with vengeance on their minds could do. Had seen havoc the general public knew nothing about. Had both witnessed and experienced pain on an exponential scale.

  He wasn’t going to let whoever was out for blood lay one cold finger on Erin. If she was in danger, it was his fault for dragging her into it. It was his responsibility to make sure she didn’t suffer because of him.

  But for one brief moment, as the rising sun overtook one of the most emotionally agonizing nights of his life, her words found their mark. Erin truly believed he’d lost his mind. Her expression spoke of her certainty. She’d once looked at him as though he was her hero, as though he could protect her from anything. Her accusations highlighted the fact they no longer knew one another at all.

  Or did she still know him all too well?

  His life hadn’t been an easy one. At fifteen, he’d wandered out of his bedroom on a Thursday morning to an empty rental house and fifty bucks in the middle of the table. His parents never made contact again other than to sign off on his emancipation papers after the lawyer tracked them down. So when Erin had wanted to keep their marriage hidden... Of course it had cut. Deeper than he’d initially wanted to admit.

  And only a few hours earlier, he’d been confronted with Caesar’s confession to thoughts of violence, had even had a smug moment where he’d congratulated himself on never having them.

  But what if he had? What if Erin was right and his past had spiraled into some sort of post-deployment paranoia?

  No. He knew Angie was dead. His whole team had received the news about Crystal. And both he and Rich had spoken to Captain Miller and been informed about Tracy Dawson. This wasn’t a figment of his imagination. This was very real.

  Someone was out to make his team pay. And in Angie’s case, it was particularly brutal.

  The muscles in his knee twitched, and his shoulder joined in with a sympathetic twinge of its own. The ache was always there, on the periphery, but he’d learned to ignore it. Not this morning. The longer it took Erin to pull away from the fire station, the tenser his body grew and the more pain ran through newly healed scars.

  She should have driven away by now. Jason knew she’d grabbed her keys before he walked out the door. He’d heard them rattle. She should have left the building close behind him.

  His gut burned. This wasn’t right. Had someone else been in the building? Had he missed the biggest threat of all?

  Without considering the consequences, Jason shoved the door of the truck open and slipped to the edge of the brick building, peering toward the front door.

  Erin’s Bronco sat where he’d last seen it, facing away from him. But the driver’s-side door hung open and Erin’s figure sat straight and stiff in the front seat, cast in silhouette by the morning light filtering through the windshield.

  Why wasn’t she moving?

  There hadn’t been a rifle shot, so there was no way a sniper had hit her. He’d have seen someone fleeing the parking lot. There was no way...

  Unless someone had been waiting for her in the Bronco.

  Open space stood between the vehicle and his concealed position. If he moved in, he was going to have to move fast and pray no one in the vicinity saw him coming.

  Anticipation pumping like liquid fire through his veins, Jason breathed in and out slowly. He prepared to go hand-to-hand and raced for the car, scanning the windows as he went, seeing no one but Erin.

  If she was sitting there processing the events of the night and he raced toward her, this wild-goose chase would solidify her thoughts about his sanity.

  Jason staggered to a halt beside the car, his foot sliding on loose gravel. He regained his balance as he reached the door.

  Erin sat alone, staring at her feet. Her face was the kind of white he’d only seen on people who were already beyond help. Her eyes were wide. Her fingers dug into her thigh so tightly, they were bound to be causing her pain.

  He’d heard of terror before, had felt it himself, but never to the degree it rolled off Erin now. “Erin?” Jason struggled to keep his voice low, and he reached out to touch her shoulder.

  She whimpered, the sound small and pitiful. Then the lines of her face tensed impossibly tighter.

  A rustling drifted from the floorboard of the truck, and Jason’s own muscles seized as he followed her line of sight to her feet.

  The heel of Erin’s boot had pinned a rattlesnake behind the head. The creature writhed and rattled, trying to break free so it could strike.

  Jason backed an instinctive step away from the threat, his hand going to his chin, his fingers digging into his jaw. Nothing in the world scared Erin more than a snake. She’d faced burning buildings, had worked in spaces small enough to make normal people hyperventilate and had performed field medicine on the kinds of injuries that would buckle the knees of grown men. But snakes? Being pinned in with a rattler had to be the pinnacle of her nightmares.

  Snakes weren’t his favorite either. The wriggling creature beneath Erin’s boot made him want to run for safety himself. In Ranger School, they’d made camp at Fort Benning and one of the guys had been bitten on the hand while gathering wood for a fire. The symptoms were nearly instantaneous and the pain...

  Jason swallowed hard. Erin should not have to go through this. Shoving aside his own instincts, he eased closer and rested one hand on her shoulder and one on the hand she was digging into her thigh. “I’ve got you.” He kept his voice low and packed it with as much reassurance as he could muster.

  Her gaze flicked to his as though she finally realized he was there. The abject terror in her eyes nailed him to the ground. He’d fix this. He had to.

  “I’ll get you out of here. Hang with me, ET.” The old nickname, one he hadn’t spoken in half a decade, was thick and awkward on his tongue, but her shoulder relaxed slightly beneath his fingers as she released the breath she’d been holding.

  For once, he must be doing something right.

  Tightening his fingers around hers, Jason steeled himself to study the snake. The heel of her b
oot had landed perfectly about two inches behind the rattler’s head, pinning him into immobility. If she’d been trying, she couldn’t have hit him at a better spot to protect herself. But the way the creature was thrashing, it could roll free at any second, and those beasts could strike faster than Erin could get clear.

  If she so much as twitched...

  “I need you to stay really, really still.”

  “No worries there.” Her voice was reed thin, but at least she was listening.

  Gnawing on the inside of his cheek, Jason rapidly ran through the possibilities. Unless things had changed, Erin kept a .38 Ruger revolver in the glove compartment of the Bronco, but there was no way he could shoot the snake without risking Erin’s foot. Even then, the thing could still strike after it was dead.

  She couldn’t climb out fast enough on her own, and pulling her out would be a tricky proposition. If her foot got hung on the brake pedal or if they were one hair of a second too slow, the snake would have her by the foot.

  He could call for help, but he couldn’t guarantee it would arrive fast enough. Erin’s hold on the snake was too tenuous, and she was so tense she was bound to fatigue fast.

  Three terrible options.

  The snake rattled again, and Jason studied the length of the serpent from its rattle and back to Erin’s foot.

  Wait.

  “Those boots. Leather?” Oh please, let them be leather.

  She nodded once.

  “They go above your ankle?”

  Another nod.

  Maybe he could pull her out fast enough to keep a strike out of range of her calf. But it would take her cooperation and all the strength he had in his still-healing knee and shoulder.

  Jason counted to five to steady himself, then arranged his face into an expression he hoped was calm and convincing. “I’m getting you out of here. You ready?”

  “Been ready.” The words came through a clenched jaw. Boy, he hoped she was.

  “Okay. You cannot move your foot until I say so. But I need you to put your arms around my neck and hang on.”

  She made a low sound in her throat but didn’t say anything. Slowly, she relaxed her arms and let Jason guide her hands around his neck, though her leg stayed stiff. Her muscles had to be aching.

  “I’m counting to three and then I’m diving backward. You’re going with me. You ready?”

  “No, but count anyway.”

  Erin Taylor was still the bravest woman he knew. When this was over, he’d hug her whether she liked it or not.

  “One...”

  Her hold around his neck tightened.

  “Two...” Jason bent his knees and tried not to think about the asphalt drive and how it wasn’t going to cushion his fall.

  “Three!”

  Erin launched sideways into his chest and Jason propelled them backward. He landed flat on his back as Erin’s weight landed on his chest and crushed his shoulder into the ground. The pain drove white light through him, dulling his hearing and tingeing the edges of the world with black. There was a brief flash of his past self, staring at his own blood on his hands as Fitz screamed nearby.

  Jason heaved in air. It wasn’t real. Erin was real. The snake was real. The rest was history.

  By the time he’d gathered his senses, Erin had rolled away and lay on her back, hyperventilating and staring blankly at the sky.

  Kicking the door shut so the snake couldn’t make an exit, Jason rolled onto his side and scanned Erin’s face, running his fingers along the back of her head, feeling for bumps or blood.

  Her eyes locked onto his and her breathing slowed.

  There was a shift in the air, and Jason couldn’t move. He was acutely aware of the softness of her hair between his fingers, of the light green around the brown in her eyes, of the way he hovered over her now the same way he had the first time he’d kissed her years ago.

  He could kiss her again, right now.

  But before he could move, Erin jerked her head, her hair slipping through his fingers as she rolled onto her side, shutting him out. She shoved to her hands and knees, then stood shakily, bracing against the side of the building with her back to him.

  Jason rolled onto his back and sat up, watching her. Every instinct drove him to help, but he’d seen the look in her eyes before she turned away. She’d shake him off.

  And it would be the right thing to do.

  Tires rolled on concrete and a red pickup with the Mountain Springs VFD logo emblazoned on the side eased to a stop behind Erin’s Bronco.

  The fire chief.

  Jason stood, unsure how to proceed. He’d saved Erin’s life, but then... Then he’d almost trashed it all over again.

  As the older man climbed from the vehicle and headed toward Erin, Jason distanced himself even more, no longer certain if the greatest danger to them both was from the outside...or from him.

  * * *

  Through the thinning autumn leaves, the two-story white-painted house stood silent at the edge of a large meadow. It was a little more worn than Jason’s memory gave it credit for, and the grass could use a good pass with a mower, but nothing else had changed. Majestic white oaks still overshadowed the house, their branches brushing the black shingled roof. The two-story red barn still stood out back, its top floor holding one of the most sacred spaces he’d ever been privileged to enter, one full of memories and peace.

  Too bad the peace was a big fat lie.

  Jason leaned back against his truck, crossed his arms and studied the house, very much aware that if Erin spotted him she’d call Wyatt and have him arrested for stalking.

  She had no idea he’d already talked to Wyatt and gotten his approval to keep an eye on her. Wyatt had sworn him to secrecy, but his willingness to let Jason get involved said that even he believed evidence suggested Erin was in danger. The snake had proved it.

  Chief Kelliher had called a buddy of his to remove the snake from Erin’s car, and Jason had stayed on the periphery, trying not to call attention to his presence, while they concluded the reptile had slithered inside the vehicle searching for warmth.

  Jason and Wyatt disagreed. The snake was no cold-blooded critter trying to find shelter. Reptiles hid in warm engine compartments, not cold interiors. Besides, Jason had helped restore the Bronco. There wasn’t a space anywhere for a snake to wriggle in.

  Someone had deliberately placed it there.

  So when Erin had insisted she could drive herself home, Jason had followed at a discreet distance, filling Wyatt in as he drove. Whether she believed it or not, she was a target. He had no doubt. His team still had thirteen more days of leave, and Jason planned to devote his time to ensuring no one laid a finger on her.

  Erin was in trouble because of him, because he’d impulsively married her. Because with her as his beneficiary, his insurance paperwork left a trail straight to her. The fragile links he’d left in place had led a killer straight to her, and it was Jason’s responsibility to make sure whoever was wreaking havoc on his team didn’t succeed in harming her.

  If only he could protect her from her father as easily. Jason’s fists dug into the backs of his arms. There was no telling what was going on inside the house. Even after the drama with the snake, Erin had been frantic to get home.

  Maybe over the past few years Kevin Taylor had mellowed and come to appreciate the daughter who had sacrificed more for him than he would ever know. Maybe her hurry this morning had been born out of concern rather than fear. That had been Jason’s prayer.

  “Are you kidding me?” Erin’s rough whisper broke the silence as she appeared at the end of the driveway about twenty feet from his position, stalking toward him with the exact fury he’d imagined in her only a moment earlier.

  Jason’s body tensed, but he held his place. He’d been too deep in his own head and had let himself get caught. Nothing to do abo
ut it now but pray he was wrong about her calling the police.

  As she got closer, she slowed to a walk. “Those gaps in the trees work both ways, you know. I saw you the minute I turned into the driveway. You’re terrible at hiding.” She crossed her arms and leveled a glare on him. “This has gone far enough. I’m calling Wyatt.”

  “Go ahead.” Jason dropped his arms to his sides and squared off against the woman who used to be his entire world.

  She searched his face for a moment before her gaze lost its intensity. “You already talked to him.”

  Jason nodded once.

  “Why?” It was hard to tell if the tone in her voice was defeat or sheer weariness, but since she wasn’t turning on her heel and walking away, Jason took it as a sign to keep talking.

  “He’s worried about you, same as I am. He thought someone keeping an eye on you until we figure out what’s going on might be a good thing.”

  “Why is it you think this involves me?” She dropped her arms to her sides and walked closer, leaning her hip against the front of the pickup. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. You and Wyatt, you’re both persistent, and neither of you is going to back off.”

  She was right about that. There was no need to tell her that, while their marriage had imploded, he’d never severed his friendship with her cousin. Wyatt had figured letting her know might cause her too much pain.

  “If I can ask one question—how is it you happen to be around when all of this chaos breaks loose?”

  It was a question, not an accusation. If he were standing in her shoes, he’d be asking the same thing.

  “I told you earlier. Some of the guys from my unit got orders to McGee.” The line sounded canned, but it was the best he could do without delving into the incident that had decimated his fire team.

  “So you’re here for a while.”

  “Once they catch the guys doing this, you won’t even know I’m nearby. You’ll be safe from me.”

  A sad smile tipped the corner of her mouth. “Was I ever not safe with you?” She shook her head and turned to stare at the house through the trees. “You never made me feel anything else.”