by Mallory Kane
“You found me,” he muttered, massaging his temple.
She stopped his hand with hers, laying her soothing fingers against the throbbing ache in his head. He closed his eyes, drawing comfort and strength from her touch.
“Tell me we’ll save her, Johnny.” Her mouth trembled, but her voice was filled with steely determination.
He marveled at her courage. His heart ached for her grief and fear. He pulled her hand to his lips. “I promise I will die before I’ll let them hurt either you or our daughter,” he said against her fingers. Then he pressed a kiss into her palm.
He knew it was the truest promise he’d ever given her. He prayed he wouldn’t have to keep it. He didn’t want to die. He wanted a lifetime with Paige and their child.
Paige felt the press of Johnny’s lips against her palm, and her insides quivered as she relived the feel of those lips touching her everywhere. She yearned to sink into his arms and let him take her away from the heartache and worry for just a few minutes more.
But Katie needed them. “I’ll be right back.”
Johnny nodded without looking at her.
A few minutes later when Paige came out of the bathroom, he was gone.
She stared at the spot where the rental car had sat, unable to believe what her eyes were seeing.
Gone. She closed her eyes, then opened them. She looked around. Maybe he’d pulled away from the gas pump and parked on the side of the station. She ran to where the car had been and stood there.
Slowly, her brain began to absorb the truth. Johnny was gone. He’d left her—again.
Her hands flew to her mouth. Why? She wanted to scream it at the top of her lungs.
Why? Why would he leave her now? Anguish washed over her like a flash flood, almost knocking her down. Had he gone to find Katie alone? He’d asked her to stay behind, to stay safe. Maybe he’d thought he was protecting her.
But her mother’s warning echoed. You can’t trust a man— She did her best to ignore the voice in her head. Hadn’t Johnny proven he was trustworthy over and over again?
Her mother’s voice whispered, You can’t trust a man, it’s in their nature. And Johnny had left her before.
“Ma’am?”
Paige realized someone had spoken several times. She turned around to see the short, bald man who had sold her the bandages. He was standing at the door of his shop.
She ran toward him. “Did you see the man in the blue Plymouth? Did you see where he went?” Her voice was shrill and choked with fear.
“He said to be sure and give you this. He was in an awful hurry, but he made me promise to see you got it.”
It was the map Johnny had been studying. She grabbed it from the man’s hand. It was still folded the same way they’d found it, but there was writing on it.
A small inlet that curved around to the west was circled and an X was marked on the far west tip of the inlet. A message was written in a neat, square hand.
Paige, you have to stay safe for Katie’s sake. Wait here. If I’m not back with Katie in an hour, call the police. Show them the map, and give them the cell phone and the insurance card from the van as evidence. I’ve marked the warehouse on the map. Trust me. And it was signed JAY in the familiar script from the monogram.
Trust me.
She had told him she trusted him. And she did. She knew he had told her the truth when he’d promised he would die to save his daughter. What would she do if it came to that? “It won’t.”
“Ma’am? Did you say something?”
She looked up from the map. “No, nothing.” She spread the map out on the counter. “Where is this circled area?”
He leaned over and studied the piece of paper. “Why, that’s Bayou Lesgensfou. Bayou of the crazy people. It’s about two miles up the road.”
Paige pointed to a line on the map. “Does this road lead back there?”
“That land used to belong to the Yarbroughs, back when they were a small shipper, handling seafood and fruit and grain. The road’s still there. Don’t know what’s back there any more.”
“Can you call me a cab?”
“Well now, your boyfriend told me to make sure you stayed here.”
Paige lifted her chin. “How do you propose to do that?” she asked.
The man held up his hands. “Hey, I ain’t getting in the middle of no lover’s quarrel. I’m just telling you what he said.”
Paige waited.
“Okay, okay.” He pulled the phone toward him and dialed a number.
Paige folded the map and put it in her pocket, where the cell phone and the insurance card were.
She would call the police, but she had already told Johnny she was not going to sit and wait alone and helpless while her daughter was in danger.
And she’d meant it.
Chapter Twelve
Johnny drove along the bayou road, recalling his family’s cook talking about the haunted bayou that ran behind the Yarbrough’s house. Years and years before, the story went, a voodoo woman had lived back there.
According to legend, the creatures she had summoned from the grave still roamed among the cypresses, their keening voices carried on the ocean breeze.
Johnny had always laughed at Cook’s stories, but secretly, he’d wanted to see a zombie.
So he would sneak out of the house late at night and cross the back of the Yarbrough property to Bayou Lesgensfou, partly out of curiosity and partly to prove to himself that the things his stepmother said to his father were wrong. He wasn’t weak, just because he loved to draw.
Exploring the old abandoned shipping warehouse had filled many lonely hours for him. Right now though, as he drew closer, his palms grew sweaty and his heart pounded in remembered fear.
Up ahead was a sharp left turn in the road, and he knew that around that bend was the warehouse. If he was right about the sounds he had heard on the telephone and on the tape recorder, that’s where Serena was holding Katie.
Johnny felt anger building in him again. He had reassured Paige that his stepmother wouldn’t hurt Katie. But he couldn’t reassure himself.
If she had subjected his daughter to even one moment of the dark, helpless terror he’d experienced, he might not be able to restrain himself. He wondered how many years he would have to serve in prison if he killed Serena with his bare hands.
The thought surprised him. Even with amnesia, he’d never been able to reconcile himself with the violence that the bullet wound in his scalp had suggested. Now he was carrying a gun and contemplating justifiable homicide.
He pulled off the road behind some trees. The ground was so soggy the car’s tires sank into it, but he’d be better off on foot anyway. There might be guards watching the warehouse.
He picked his way through rushes and reeds that lined the shore of the bayou, staying in the shadows of the big cypress trees, steeling himself for his first sight of the building.
As he drew closer, the sounds he remembered from his weeks of captivity began to separate and clarify in his mind, until if he closed his eyes, he could believe he was back there, locked in the hot dark box, with nothing but the familiar sounds to keep him from giving up and going mad.
There it was, an old, stained wooden building with a tin roof. The sight of it stole his breath.
That was where they’d held him.
Quelling the nausea that churned in his stomach, he looked back toward the south. Because of the way the bayou hooked around, his family home was only about a mile from here. When he got Katie out, he could take her through there back to the highway and over to the gas station where Paige was waiting.
He crouched behind a giant cypress tree, his running shoes soaked with swampy water, as he studied the familiar building. The front door opened onto a rotting pier where the shrimp boats and other small craft had unloaded their cargo. On the other side, Johnny knew, were the railroad tracks that actually originated inside the building, so that cargo could be loaded straight from the boats into the cars, then hauled off to m
arket.
This side track joined the main tracks just to the north, and the wailing of the train whistle was one of the sounds he remembered. Every move he made, everything he saw fed his memories.
Johnny studied the area around the building. There were numerous car tracks in the muddy clearing, which spoke to recent activity here, but right now there was only one vehicle parked there, a decrepit pickup. Did that mean there was only one person watching Katie?
He sneaked around to the east side of the building. Sure enough, just as he remembered, a ladder led up to a window that opened onto a catwalk above the highest storage shelves.
The ladder was metal and coated with rust. As he quickly climbed it, he prayed it would hold his weight.
The inside of the building was as dark as a tomb. Johnny took a deep calming breath and grabbed the windowsill and lowered himself inside, into the darkness, his feet reaching for something solid. His right forearm burned with pain.
Finally he thought he felt something with the toe of his sneaker, so he let go, having no idea how far he would fall. He hit the catwalk with a thud and almost went over as one foot slipped. He grabbed at darkness and his arm hooked around a pipe.
The pipe screeched and gave, and he braced himself for a long drop, but it held. He got his other arm around it and hung on for a minute, until his labored breathing slowed. Then he swung his leg up and managed to shimmy back up onto the catwalk.
Only a few dim rays of light penetrated the high, dirty windows of the building. The air was still and hot, sticky as only a Mississippi summer could be. The smell of rotting shrimp shells and fish mingled with mildew surrounded him like a noxious fog, coaxing up the dreadful claustrophobia that he’d hoped he’d conquered.
He closed his eyes and listened to the whistle of the wind off the Gulf and the unique creaking sound that the pier made as it rocked with the water, rubbing the planks against the metal rails.
Fear churned in his gut and soured his stomach. He began to shake as a strange mixture of horror and relief warred inside him. He had learned to hate that sound during the weeks he was held here. But he’d also welcomed it. Each time he woke up, it was the first thing he listened for, because as long as he could hear it, he knew he was still in the same place, and still alive.
Wiping sweat off his face, he blinked and tried to control his rising panic. While he waited for his eyes to adapt to the darkness, he heard another sound out of his memory. The scratching sound of a match against metal. Someone was in the warehouse.
Over on the opposite side of the building, near the side door, he saw the spark of phosphor then the strong flame of a kitchen match. A small sphere of light illuminated the area around the man who hunched over the flame, lighting a cigarette.
Johnny didn’t recognize him, but he hadn’t expected to.
After the cigarette caught, the man held the match up to a metal box on the wall, grabbed a lever and pulled.
With a crack like the sound of thunder, the room filled with light.
Johnny dropped silently and instinctively to the floor of the catwalk, out of sight. He lifted his head just enough to take in the building in one swift glance. His gaze found the wooden crate where they had held him for all those weeks. The sight of that hated box sheared his breath.
He forced himself to concentrate on the man who was carrying a pizza box. He went directly to the old boxcar that sat on the rails in the middle of the room, turned a crank, and slid open the heavy door.
“Here you go, Katie. Pizza again. You got plenty of water?”
Johnny wished he could see inside the car, but that would mean moving, and he couldn’t afford to attract attention.
“Did you watch the movies I brought you? Well, here’s a couple of books, in case you get tired of the movies.” The man stepped back and reached for the door. “I’ll be here tonight, okay? So if you need anything, just holler.”
Johnny heard a small voice but he couldn’t understand the words. His heart turned over. That was the voice of his daughter.
“I know. I’ll try to let you out for a while tomorrow, but I can’t today. She’s coming later, and we don’t want to get caught, do we?” The man pushed the door shut and turned the crank, locking it. Then he went and sat down at a table with a sigh, and pulled out a bent and ragged paperback book.
Johnny felt absurdly grateful to the man. Obviously he cared about Katie, and he was trying to make her as comfortable as possible. He even let her out of the car when he could.
So Serena was coming. Maybe he’d make sure he had a surprise waiting for her. But first he had to rescue Katie.
It didn’t take long for the man to nod and doze over his book. As soon as he heard the guard’s snores, Johnny slipped over to the window and climbed out, skimming down the ladder as quickly and quietly as possible.
Waiting for the guard to fall asleep had given him time to think and plan. It had also given him time to remember all about the abandoned warehouse.
He had the perfect means to rescue Katie. But it would test the furthest limits of his bravery.
When he was a young teenager, the railroad car had been his secret playhouse. But back then, he hadn’t been strong enough or tall enough to open the heavy metal door, so he’d had to find another way to get into the car.
From the underside.
He couldn’t even count how many times he’d swum under the pier, through the dock pilings under the front of the warehouse, and climbed up into the car through the trap door in its floor.
Johnny stood there on the pier looking down at the water while dread churned in his stomach and self-disgust at his cowardice settled over him like a filthy blanket.
Could he do it? Could he force himself to enter that dark watery hell long enough to find the opening and climb into the railroad car from underneath?
The phobia he’d lived with since he’d woken up sinking into the black depths of the river. He clenched his hands into fists, then with a jerky shake of his head, he bent down and untied his shoes. He tucked his gun inside them and hid them behind the corner of the building. He took a deep breath, then another. With his heart beating like a bass drum in his chest, he lowered himself into the muddy water and swam under the pier.
The water lapping at his chin sent chills through him, even though the air temperature was in the nineties. He swam as far underneath the warehouse as he could with his head above water, but eventually, as he’d known he would, he came to a solid wall, where the extra pilings and supports held up the main body of the warehouse.
He stopped. He was going to have to duck beneath the wall and swim underwater the rest of the way. Panic streaked through him. The thought of the water closing over his head made him physically ill.
But this was for his daughter. The child he had fathered and never met, but whom he loved more than his own life. He would do it, even if it killed him. How could he do less?
He breathed long and deep, trying to slow his racing heart. Then, with one last deep breath, he plunged down into the black water, into the nightmare from which he’d emerged without his memories three years before.
“AWRIGHT, LADY.” The cab driver stopped the car.
“But we’re barely a hundred yards off the highway,” Paige cried.
“I done tole you, lady, this all the far I go.” He held his hand out, waiting for her to pay him. “You go more farther back in that crazy place, you got to walk yourself.”
“And I told you, I’d give you more money if you would take me all the way.”
He shook his head in wonder, as if he couldn’t believe she didn’t understand. “And I told you, this all the far I go.”
Paige sighed and handed him the money. He was right. He had told her. And she didn’t have any more money anyway.
As soon as she was clear of the car door he threw the car into reverse and hightailed it back to the highway.
Johnny had asked her to wait an hour before calling the police. She looked at the digital
clock on the cell phone. It had been about thirty minutes. Was an hour long enough for Johnny to be sure Katie was safe? Was it too long? Was he in danger of being caught if she delayed?
“Damn it, Johnny, why didn’t you wait for me?” she said out loud.
She looked in front of her. A long way ahead, the road disappeared into the brush. She studied the muddy shells beneath her feet. There had obviously been recent traffic. Were those tire tracks Johnny’s?
She started walking, hoping she was doing the right thing.
TOTAL DARKNESS SURROUNDED him. Johnny pushed with his feet and hands, but he couldn’t tell if he was moving or not. The water enveloped him like a shroud, encumbering him, imprisoning him, seeping into his clothes and burning his eyes and teasing his nostrils, coaxing him to breathe it in.
He kept swimming.
His hand brushed a slimy pole and he jerked away, disoriented. Confused, he turned all the way around in the water. Which way had he come from? Which way was he headed?
His lungs began to burn.
Then something darker than the dark appeared up ahead. Swallowing muddy water in his excitement, he pushed toward the darker form. As he grew closer, he saw that it was above him, so he kicked for the surface, not really allowing himself to hope that he would ever actually breathe again.
Just when he knew he couldn’t hold his breath another instant, his hand exited the water and hit something solid.
He kicked again and his head emerged from the punishing black wetness.
He sucked in air, trying not to cough, his stomach heaving up the muddy water he’d swallowed. He retched and gagged, holding his hand over his mouth, muffling the sound. If he were caught now, then he and Katie would both be dead.
He wiped his face and pushed his wet hair back, trying to orient himself to this pitch-black world he’d emerged into. There were only about two feet of clearance between the water and the wooden floor above him.
Floor? Was this the floor of the warehouse? He turned around in the water, looking everywhere, his heart fluttering in panic as he searched for a spot of light somewhere, anywhere.
