Stolen

by James Hunt

  “We move now.” Lena jumped inside the truck and parked it further off the side of the road. She gathered the weapons and ammunition in the duffel bag and slung one of the automatic rifles over her right shoulder, with the duffel-bag strap on her left. Jake tried to get out of the car, but Lena was able to walk to the other side and shut the door before he could even muster the strength to take off his seatbelt. “You stay here, keep an eye out for Longwood.”

  “I’m not letting you go over there by yourself.” It was the first bit of grit that she’d seen from him since he’d been shot.

  “I won’t be alone.” Lena looked over to Ken, who stood with his shoulders slumped, a wide-eyed look of bewilderment and fear plastered on his face. When she turned back to Jake, his mood didn’t improve. “You can’t even walk. You’d die before we even made it to the house.” When she reached for his hand, it was ice cold. “If the girls don’t make it out alive, then neither do I.” It was a reality Lena couldn’t escape. With Mark gone, her fate was tied to that of her children. In life, or in death.

  Jake nodded. “Then make it out alive.”

  “I will.” Lena kissed his forehead and turned to Ken, and they started their slow jog to the house. The closer they moved to the structure, the further they lowered themselves to the ground for cover. By the time they were five hundred feet out, they were crawling along the grass, concealed by the tall blades.

  Lena dragged the duffel bag behind her, and she and Ken remained side by side. They stopped at the fence that encased the structure’s perimeter. She slowly raised her head and got a look at the front of the house. There was a porch, but she saw no guard on duty. She looked back behind her and still saw no other cars on the road. Wherever Longwood was, she wouldn’t be able to wait for him.

  Lena lowered herself back down and grabbed Ken by the collar. “There’s no way to know how many people are inside. But they don’t know how many people we have outside.” She handed him one of the automatic rifles. “You circle around back and start firing into the rear of the house as a distraction. When you start shooting I’ll storm the front while they’re trying to figure out how many of you there are. You just keep darting in the grass and shooting. Don’t let them see you. Got it?”

  “And what if no one comes?” Ken asked, his voice dry and cracking.

  “Then just keep shooting until someone does.” Lena watched him leave and then spied the front of the house one last time before she began her approach. Most of the yard was unkempt and overgrown with the wild, tall grass, but a large patch in front of the house where the cars were parked was completely dead and would expose her too easily. So instead, she maneuvered to the side of the house where the cover of the tall grass stretched all the way to the front porch.

  When she neared the house she removed the magazines from the duffel bag along with everything that she could carry on her person and waited for the gunfire from Ken. Her eyes were glued to the drawn front shutters and closed door as she waited for anyone to step outside. But it was oddly quiet.

  A few minutes passed, and Lena began to wonder if Ken had ditched her, gone back to the truck and tossed Jake out and left them on their own. But then she remembered his own self-interest and knew that without her he didn’t have a future, and neither did his family.

  The gunshots finally came, and Lena felt her body tense. She tucked the rifle tight against her shoulder and aimed for the open door. Gunfire echoed around the open plains, but there was no charge out the front, no stampede of confused or bewildered goons that spilled outside.

  Maybe they were waiting for her, saw her in the bushes, and they were just toying with her and waiting for their time to strike. But the longer she heard Ken’s firing in the back, the less likely she thought that to be true.

  With no movement inside that she could see, Lena jumped from the tall grass and sprinted to the front door. She backed up against the wall, rifle in hand, and reached for the doorknob. She gave it a light twist to see if it was unlocked then shoulder-checked it open.

  Through the sight of the automatic rifle Lena stared down a dark hallway where dusty old furniture lined both sides of the walls. She squinted into the darkness, the sunlight outside disappearing with only the light of the moon and stars spilling into the doorway.

  The floorboards gave a light groan, though she wasn’t sure if anyone could hear her steps over Ken’s continued gunfire, as he ran back and forth in the tall grass. Lena pressed forward, rifle raised, and veered into the first room on her left. She scanned it—more old furniture and a fireplace. No Kaley. No Gwen. Nobody.

  Her heart rate spiked, and she started to think that she’d made a mistake coming here, that it was just another trick. But then why were the cars still out front? Another room was coming up to her left, and this time when she turned the corner Lena was able to see three lumps on the floor. Bodies.

  Guns were still at their sides, and the blood pouring from their lethal wounds still looked fresh. Lena lowered her weapon slightly, and her heart continued to pound wildly in her chest. And then, between the gunfire, she heard moans. They were soft, nearly inaudible, but they were there. She left the room and the bodies and hurried farther down the hall toward the back of the house.

  In the darkness Lena saw kitchen cabinets through a back opening, and suddenly the gunfire outside stopped. She hastened her pace, nearly sprinting, and when she entered the kitchen and raised the rifle with her finger on the trigger, she nearly screamed.

  Kaley and Gwen were tied and bound in chairs stationed right next to one another. Tears streamed down their faces, and gags muffled their crying. Lena sprinted to their side, kissing their cheeks, reaching for the ropes around their hands, ankles, chests, and bodies. “I’m going to get you out of here—” It was the piece of steel pressed against the back of her skull that froze Lena in place, but it was the voice that sent chills down her back.

  “Kick the rifle away, Lena.” Nick kept a shaky hand on his gun, but his voice remained steady. “Raise your hands slowly and place them on the back of your head.”

  “What are you doing, Nick?” Lena kept her eyes on her daughters, both of whom still had gags covering their mouths. “This is—”

  “You’re not in a position to make any demands!” Nick barked the words viciously. “Not anymore. Now stand up.” Lena complied, and the pistol remained glued to the back of her head. “Turn around. Slowly.”

  Lena spun, and even though it was dark, she could still recognize her ex-husband’s features. Stubble covered his face, and he’d dyed his hair. He’d also exchanged the dirty rags she’d last seen him in for a nicer pair of duds. A steady stream of questions flowed through her mind, clogging the funnel to her mouth until one of them finally squeezed through. “Why?”

  “You left, Lena.” Nick pressed the end of the pistol into her forehead, and the girls whimpered behind her. “You started a new life, and you left me behind. You got everything you wanted. New job. New house. New husband. New daughter. And my daughter.” His voice quivered on the last word.

  The front of Lena’s skull started to ache from the pressure of the pistol. “You were working with New Energy? This whole time?” She paused. “You took Kaley?”

  “And who would you have rather taken her? Hmm?” Nick arched his eyebrows and leaned forward, adding more pressure to her skull. “One of the men I killed in the living room? Scott Ambers?” He shook his head. “No. She was safer with me.”

  Lena spied the gun on the floor where Nick had told her to drop it, but Nick must have seen her look because a blinding pain struck the side of her face, a thousand tiny knives stabbing her along her jaw accompanied by a blinding white flash in her vision. She touched the spot where Nick had struck her and felt blood.

  “You pissed a lot of people off, Lena.” Nick pointed to Gwen, who was crying hysterically now. “And it put our daughter in danger. Scott tracked me down when they did a history check on your past indiscretions. I’d gotten into a lot debt wit
h Hugo Reginald and they told me all I had to do to wipe it clean was take Kaley. If I didn’t they said they’d kill me and then kill Gwen anyway. What was I supposed to do?”

  Though she couldn’t see him, Lena could hear the thick phlegm and tremble of his voice as the realization struck her. “You bought the bullets from the store in Bismarck.” Lena slowly reached her hand for the rifle, hiding her motion as she pretended to struggle to stand up. “So now what? You’re going to take her? Run away? Gwen doesn’t want to be with you, Nick.”

  “But she needs a father now more than ever.” Nick smiled more evilly than anything she could have imagined. There was joy in the smile, joy in the face of murder. “Mark couldn’t protect our daughter. You thought he was stronger than I was, but he wasn’t. I proved that.”

  “You fucking bastard!”

  “You should have just let me stay in her life, Lena!” Nick gripped the pistol with both hands and placed his finger on the trigger. “But don’t worry. I’ll take good care of them after you’re gone.”

  The blast of the gunshots thundered in the kitchen, but while Lena shut her eyes and winced, she felt nothing. When she opened them Nick lay in a pool of blood, and Longwood stood with a gun in his hand. Longwood rushed over and patted Nick down. “Lena, are you all right?”

  But Lena was already at Gwen and Kaley’s side, ripping apart the restraints, all three of them crying. Longwood stepped over to help, handling Kaley’s restraints, and she was the first out. Lena kissed her daughter’s cheeks, and the little girl cried when Longwood lifted her up and away from the scene. “Your mom has to get your sister out, sweetheart. Just hang on.”

  Everything felt too surreal, and even with Nick dead and them out of danger, all Lena could think about was trying to get out of the house. “Did you see Jake out front?”

  “Yeah,” Longwood answered, panting heavily. “I saw him. Hey, do you have your phone on you?”

  Lena was just about done with the ropes on Gwen’s wrist. “Yeah, why do you—”

  “Mom!” Gwen screamed, and Lena spun around.

  Longwood had Kaley close to his body, and the end of his pistol was pressed against her head. “I need you to call the DA, Lena. Tell him that everything is good and that he needs to send the original paperwork, and any copies made, over to New Energy so they can make a deal.”

  Lena shuffled forward on her knees, her head swirling in confusion. “Chris, what—”

  “Do it now, Lena!” Longwood pressed the end of the barrel harder into Kaley’s head. “I don’t want to, but I will spray your daughter’s brains all over this kitchen if you don’t. And then I’ll move on to Gwen. Then you. Make the call.”

  Lena looked down at her hands, covered in blood. They shook, then she slowly commanded them to reach into her pocket and retrieve her phone to make the call. It took her three tries to unlock it, and Longwood’s harsh barking didn’t help.

  The phone rang, and Danny finally picked up. “Cutting it close, don’t you think?”

  “It’s done,” Lena said. “Send the paperwork over to New Energy.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Do it.” Lena hung up the phone and dropped it by her side.

  “Very good, Lena. Now, up.” She complied and then backed up against the wall next to Gwen, who was still tied up. Longwood kept the pistol glued to the side of Kaley’s head and then released her with his free arm. “Now, don’t move, sweetheart.” He removed his own phone from his pocket and smiled. “This would have gone a lot easier if you’d just made the announcement, Lena.” He shook his head, pressing the phone to his ear. “Would have saved a lot of lives, and you a lot of trouble.”

  “How long have you been in their pocket, Chris?” Lena asked, disgust and hate muddling her tongue.

  “Long time. They paid a lot better than my deputy salary, and most of it was just having me on retainer. It wasn’t until you started poking around that they began to use me. Odd jobs here and there, have me tamper with evidence, make sure enough things landed on their side.” Longwood smiled. “And when they offered to get rid of Jake for me so I could move into the sheriff’s office, I couldn’t resist. Your brother only won the election because he looks like a Wild West movie poster. I’ll do a better job than him.”

  “By working with a company that is doing everything in its power to hurt the community you serve?” Lena asked. “Is that how?”

  “Get off your high horse, Lena. We all do what we need to in order to survive.” Longwood waited for someone to pick up on the other end, and when they did he nodded in approval. “Excellent. I’ll wrap up here.” He hung up the phone and placed it back in his pocket. “Looks like everything went through just fine and dandy. I appreciate the cooperation.”

  Lena looked at Kaley, who was still sobbing, exhaustion finally overtaking hysteria. “It’s going to be all right, baby. Mommy’s going to keep you safe.” She smiled, and Longwood laughed.

  “You’ve really started believing what you were selling, haven’t you?” Longwood shook his head. “Well, even I have to admit I voted for you in the election. But now that this is all said and done I can’t just let you walk out of here, so this is what we’re going to do.” He picked Kaley up and backtracked toward the kitchen exit. “I’m going to take Kaley in the living room, where those dead men are, and you’re going to follow me.” He waited near the hall. “C’mon, now.”

  Lena stepped forward slowly, looking back behind her to Gwen. She passed Longwood slowly and then took a right into the living room, taking her place among the dead.

  Longwood motioned for her to go a little farther into the room with the flick of his pistol. “Stand in the middle. There you go.” He set Kaley down and pointed the gun at Lena from his position in the hallway. “You’ll make the news, Lena. You’ll go down valiantly as a mother who sacrificed everything to save her children. But fell short.” He looked around at the scene and nodded. “If only Sheriff Longwood had gotten there sooner, then the Hayes family might have survived.” He smiled. “Goodbye, Lena.”

  The gunshot was loud, and the sharp pain in Lena’s gut dropped her to her knees, but what she saw in front of her couldn’t have been right. Longwood was on the floor, half of his brain on the old floorboards. Kaley was standing there, screaming. She looked down to her stomach, and when she removed her hands she saw the blood welling up from her abdomen. It hurt, but it was warm, and then it was cold.

  Kaley rushed over and wrapped her arms around Lena’s neck. “Mommy! Mommy! What’s wrong? Mommy!” It was all her daughter could manage to say, but just hearing Kaley’s voice helped ease the pain from the gunshot.

  “It’s okay, baby. Everything’s okay.” And just before Lena fell to her side she saw Ken stagger into the living room. He limped forward with only one good leg, his hand over his right hip and blood staining his pants. His face looked how she must have felt. “My phone,” Lena said, her voice drifting. “Call for… help.”

  35

  Six Weeks Later

  The cell was exactly six feet wide and eight feet long. The walls were a gloomy grey, and the commode that sat in one corner made the cot that rested right next it smell like shit. No mirror. No pictures. No window. Only three walls and a reinforced-steel door with a tiny window with clouded glass.

  Jake sat on the edge of the cot, staring at the floor. His sheriff’s uniform had been exchanged for county blues, which he filled out with the extra twenty pounds he’d put on. His short hair had lengthened as well, and his clean-shaven face had grown a thick scruff.

  If there was one thing he couldn’t stand about prison, it was the inactivity. Never in his life had he been forced to stay in one location for so long. It was maddening. And with the number of people he’d arrested and jailed in the county, he was never allowed to be alone with the rest of the inmates. For the past six weeks it’d been nothing but sitting, shitting, and sleeping. All of it in the same goddamn room.

  Three knocks on the door, and Jake stoo
d and marched to the rear of his cell with his hands on top of his head. The metal hinges of the cell door squealed as the correctional officers stepped inside. The steel restraints dangled in their hands, and one of them held a baton. “Time for your judgment, Sheriff.” The officer cracked a smile that was slightly masked under a bushy mustache.

  Restraints were placed on Jake’s wrists and ankles then connected together with a steel bar, rendering him nearly immobile except for the few inches he could shuffle forward with his feet. He was escorted to an armored truck and then chained to the long metal bench in the back. An officer, completely decked out in tactical gear, rode with him in the back, while two more sat in the front.

  The only banter was between the three correctional officers. Jake closed his eyes and rested his head against the truck’s interior, letting the vibrations of the road give his mind the first piece of stimulation in weeks.

  It was a long ride, and by the time they arrived at the courthouse Jake was so stiff that the SWAT officer that rode with him in the back had to lift him up off the seat. The lack of exercise and added weight had left his body a mushy skeleton of his former self.

  On their approach to the courthouse a swarm of reporters shouted questions from behind the police tape that had been set up to provide Jake safe passage inside. He didn’t answer, and when he passed through the doors of the building the noise ended.

  Inside, Jake struggled to keep pace with the officers’ hurried steps. He was taken down the long hallways then led through a door that revealed the courtroom. The room was nearly full, but he still managed to find Lena’s face in the crowd. It was pale and frightened, but she was alive. He offered a smile to try and boost her spirits, but her complexion didn’t improve. She sat stiff and rigid, her arm clutched protectively over the still-healing wound of her stomach.

  Once Jake stood next to his attorney, the officers removed the connecting feet and ankle shackles and allowed him to sit down unencumbered. Jake stretched, but with the angry, armed guards still behind him he was careful not to move too quickly.