Cut Off (Book 3): Cut Loose

by Dalton, Charlie

  After a moment, the locks released and the door opened.

  They hustled through the doorway and it immediately shut behind them.

  “What are you going to do about this?” Aaron said. “Someone’s attempting to break a prisoner out.”

  “With the number of prison officers we have, we can’t stop them, even if we wanted to,” Peter said. And we don’t want to, was his meaning. Who wouldn’t want to cut down on their workload in such times?

  They ran through the adjacent security room. The monitor screens were off and the camera systems were dark. The security personnel were flying blind. There was nothing they could do to stop a prison breakout or a break-in either, for that matter.

  Peter took them to the outer courtyard on the opposite side of the prison. He hustled to the fence, used a key to open the locks and let them out.

  “I hope he’s worth it,” he said.

  “So do I,” Bill said.

  Darryl led the horses over. “I heard the explosions. What happened?”

  “Someone’s trying to break a prisoner out,” Katie said.

  “Who?”

  “Him.”

  Darryl made eye contact with Quentin. He swallowed.

  They swung onto their saddles. Bill climbed on first before Aaron helped lift Quentin onto the saddle in front of him. He lay across it like a kidnap victim.

  “Are you sure you want to take him?” Aaron said. “I can take him if you want.”

  “If he tries anything, I’d rather he did it with me,” Bill said.

  Katie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Could they even see this old man? What did they think he was even capable of? “I don’t think he’s going to be making much of an escape today.”

  “In my experience, people tend to deserve their reputations,” Bill said. “Those reasons don’t go away just because you’ve been inside for a while.”

  “Ghost!”

  The shout came from a voice they all recognised.

  Preston heeled his steed forward, his gang on his heels. No doubt he attempted to gain access to the prison with his papers… only to discover they weren’t there.

  He would be pissed if he ever caught them.

  Katie spurred Vincent into a gallop toward the fringes of the forest.

  48

  Katie ran and ran and ran, making turn after turn, managing to carve out a small lead, but it wasn’t big enough for them to escape the Thornhills completely. Vincent was lathering up and Katie could only imagine how exhausted Bill’s nag was carrying two men.

  They rounded the next corner when Bill bellowed: “Stop!”

  They skidded to a halt, almost flying off their saddles.

  “What are we doing?” Aaron said, out of breath. “They’re going to catch us and they’re not going to negotiate.”

  “Darryl, get off your horse and climb on with Aaron,” Bill said.

  “Why?” Darryl said.

  “We don’t have time for explanations!” Bill snapped. “Just do it.”

  Darryl did as he said.

  “Not on the back,” Bill said. “On the front. Like Quentin here.”

  Aaron helped Darryl climb on the front, lying with his arse facing Aaron, who grimaced. “Is this necessary?”

  Bill smacked Darryl’s horse Clarice and she took off at a gallop, running back the way they’d come, toward the family rapidly approaching.

  “You take off that way,” Bill said. “I’ll wait here. Once they pass, I’ll head back to the lodge. You keep going as long as you can.”

  Katie understood the plan. She and Aaron would make up the decoy and draw the family toward them so Bill could double back to the lodge and claim the kids before the Thornhills knew what was happening.

  “I’m sorry it has to be this way,” Bill said. “Preston’s wily. He knows me. He knows I’d would never risk those I care about just to save myself. That’s why we have to do it this way. He would never guess.”

  But Katie could see the turmoil on his face. He didn’t like putting them at risk.

  “Take no chances,” Bill said. “When they catch you, give them whatever they want.”

  “We don’t have anything they want,” Aaron said.

  Bill’s eyes glinted. “Exactly.”

  They shared a moment and a brief smile. They were all putting it on the line. Then the Thornhills’ thunderous hooves rumbled from around the corner.

  Katie jabbed her heels in Vincent’s flanks and he bolted forward, drawing the family away like drawing poison from an infected wound so Bill could achieve their goal.

  She hoped she could get enough distance between them and the family before they caught up with them. She would give her grandfather as much time as he needed.

  Please.

  49

  Shit.

  Katie didn’t know this part of the forest. She took a series of wrong turns, each one leading them down a smaller and shallower road. Now, they stood with their backs to a sheer cliff face. It was just as well. The horses couldn’t take much more of the blistering pace.

  They raced through the forest for the past twenty minutes. As Bill would have turned the moment the Thornhills were out of sight and headed in the opposite direction, Preston would have to rush back over the same ground to have a chance at catching up. That gave him a solid headstart.

  Then, there would be the Wedge family to contend with after their botched prison break. Oh happy days.

  The Thornhills thundered around the corner, drawing nearer by the second. Soon, they would be on them.

  “Well, I guess this is it,” Aaron said.

  “Can I sit up now?” Darryl said. “Your saddle’s digging into my stomach.”

  “Your stomach’s swallowing my saddle,” Aaron said. “Be quiet. They’ll be here in a minute.”

  “Do you think he made it all right?” Darryl said.

  “He’ll be fine,” Katie said. “We’re the ones in trouble.”

  The Thornhills flooded around the corner. They pulled up sharp on their reins to keep from slamming into Katie and the others. The horses neighed and reared on their back legs. They were lathered up too. Katie was pleased to see they were even more exhausted than their horses.

  Then Katie noticed something. Her heart hitched in her throat.

  The riders. There were only ten of them. Where were the others? There should have been twenty or more.

  The foliage exploded and a shower of leaves fluttered down from the treetops as a second contingent of Thornhill men burst onto the scene. They must have diverged at some point back in the forest to squeeze them further along the trail.

  Grandfather was right. Preston was wily.

  But not wily enough.

  Katie breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t picked up on Bill’s plan.

  Preston moved to the head of his family. “Whew! That was some ride, huh?”

  “Nice day for it,” Katie said.

  They only had one card left to play – Darryl masquerading as Quentin Morse. But they didn’t need to play it sooner than they had to. Every second they bought helped her grandfather edge out his lead.

  Darryl wore Aaron’s jacket over his face and held his hands behind his back. Trussed up like that, he could have been anyone. But certainly not Quentin.

  Aaron turned his horse to one side to keep Darryl out of sight.

  “We should be working together,” Katie said. “It’s the only way to get what we all want out of this.”

  “Easy to say when your dear old grandpappy took off the way he did. Quit stalling and hand him over.”

  “I’m not sure you’re going to want him,” Katie said. “It’s not Morse.”

  Preston slapped his leg and bit off a token laugh. “Ghost might have a fearsome reputation, but in all my years I’ve never known him to sacrifice someone he cared about. No. He was the distraction, but it didn’t work. Hand Morse over and we won’t hurt you.”

  She locked eyes on Aaron before glancing at Preston.
“Okay. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  She helped Darryl roll over and then set him up on the front of Aaron’s saddle. Darryl was shaken, his face red with the amount of blood rushing to it. He smiled.

  “Hello,” he said.

  Preston’s laughter died fast. He stared at the boy, frowning with confusion. He thought he knew Ghost, thought he knew what his priorities were. His expression was dark when he looked up at the others. “You’re making a fool out of me?”

  “Bill’s high tailing it back to the lodge. He’ll get the kids, and things will go back to the way they were. All the kids will be safe.”

  Preston was evidently a bad loser. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do but it’s a doomed mission. The Thornhills and Wedges will never work together.”

  He turned his stallion around and led the charge back in the direction they came from. They had no hope of reaching Bill before he got to the lodge.

  The tension relaxed from Katie’s shoulders.

  “Want to cut through the forest?” Aaron said. “We might find a faster way through.”

  “Why? Preston didn’t. And he knows these woods better than we ever will. If there was a short cut, they would have taken it.”

  “Do you want to chase after them?” Aaron said.

  “A steady trot. The horses have done enough running for today.”

  They turned in the direction of the thin dust cloud kicked up by Preston’s gang and trotted back toward the lodge.

  50

  After half an hour, Hannah finally got a grip on herself. She still couldn’t bring herself to look at Gregory, but at least she wasn’t the blubbering wreck she had been. They cleared the food away but still weren’t allowed to move from the long dining table.

  “Maybe we could play a game,” Nancy said.

  The others rolled their eyes. They were tired, nervous, worried about what was going to happen next. No one was in the mood to play games.

  “No?” Nancy said. “Then can we bring blankets through to sleep?”

  They weren’t the only ones to have gotten bored. The gang hadn’t moved from the corners of the room and weren’t paying much attention to them.

  Michael looked over at Nancy and shook his head. “There will be plenty of time to sleep once this is over. With any luck, it shouldn’t take much longer anyway.”

  He shifted the curtain aside to peer outside. The sun would soon be setting. Then time would be up and Michael would have to either make good on his threat and kill them or find a graceful way to bow out.

  “How about a restroom break?” Camden said. “One of us at a time. We can stretch our legs. Then everyone will feel a little more refreshed.”

  “I wouldn’t mind going to the toilet myself,” Jill said. She came down and was replaced by Jack. He went up there fully loaded with a pair of heaped plates of food. You’d have thought he hadn’t eaten for a month.

  “It’s not a bad idea,” Michael said. “Jill, go check the bathroom for weapons.”

  She went first, and after five minutes, came back. Then Michael, then Gregory, then the strange little man who sat silently in the corner. He sometimes pressed his hands together and mumbled something under his breath. Camden couldn’t catch the words. If Hollywood movies were anything to go by, there was always a crazy member who struggled to control himself. Although, he supposed, that particular accolade could have gone to any of them.

  Even though her legs jittered with the need to pee, Jodie refused to go alone with a male chaperone.

  “I’ll go with her,” Nancy said. “I won’t go in the bathroom. I’ve already been. But I can wait outside with one of you while she’s inside.”

  “Why can’t she go by yourself?” Gregory said.

  “If you listened to even a single thing I said you would know the answer to that,” Hannah snapped.

  Gregory glared back at her, but Hannah was unperturbed.

  “I’ll go with her,” Hannah said. Then added to Nancy: “Thank you for the offer.”

  “I’ll take them.” Gregory mumbled under his breath to Hannah: “Maybe we can have a little fun while she’s in there. For old time’s sake.” He winked.

  “I’ll take them,” Isaac said.

  Camden’s heart rate doubled. Not him. Anyone but him.

  “I’ll take them,” Michael said.

  For some reason, Camden’s instincts didn’t revolt the same way they did with Isaac.

  I wonder why.

  Katie was good at these kinds of things. She could look at a man, appraise him, and know what drove him, what his motivations were. It wasn’t a skill Camden possessed.

  Michael stepped outside and waited for the two girls to join him. Their footsteps faded in the direction of the outdoor privy.

  A thin veil of silence descended over the lodge with the gang leader gone. It was as if the rules had changed in some imperceptible way. He supposed it was like when an unruly child was left alone in a room without parental guidance.

  “I don’t see why we can’t have a little fun with the hostages while we’ve got them,” Gregory said to the one called Jill, busy picking her nails with a serrated edged blade.

  “What do you have in mind?” Jill said, a twinkle in her eye.

  “Have you ever played strip Twister?

  Jill smirked. “Can’t say I have. What’s the basic gist?”

  “You play regular Twister, and then when you fall, you have to remove a piece of clothing. You keep going until one of you is naked.”

  “Can’t say I ever saw that version on the box.”

  Gregory cackled. “It’s the adult version.”

  Jill cast an eye over the assembled. “It’s been years since I’ve been with somebody. But I can’t see Michael letting us do anything like that. He’s a stickler for the rules.”

  “So? There are two of us. Only one of him. I can vouch for one of these girls. Her friend has been broken in several times over. She won’t complain if we slip another one or two in.”

  Jill glanced at the other women in the room. Louisa and Nancy. Liquid hate bubbled in Camden’s stomach to the point he thought it would spill over. The same expression was on Luke’s face. At any moment, he was going to explode – or Camden was.

  Camden would rather die before letting something like that happen. He opened his mouth to bite out a response when the man in the corner spoke up.

  “We’re each judged by the actions we take in life,” Isaac said. “A special place in hell awaits those who take by force.”

  Gregory turned to him. All sense of joviality had flooded out of him. “Oh, yeah? And how would you know this place exists? Been there yourself have you?”

  “No, but I was destined for it, the same way you still are.” Isaac stared Gregory down, calm and serene. His eyes didn’t blink.

  The eyes of a madman.

  Gregory chuckled to himself and shook his head. “I still can’t believe you were born again. You’ve never forced a woman in your life. You never had to. You could have had any you wanted.”

  “Because they feared me. I never forced myself upon them directly, but in that situation, what other choice did they have but to give me what I wanted?”

  “How do you think Quentin is going to respond when he sees you had this… conversion?”

  Isaac’s eyes narrowed. “He’ll respond the same way he always has done, I suppose.”

  Gregory grinned. “And I can’t wait to see that.”

  “And how do you think he’s going to respond when he hears you’ve been working for the police this whole time?”

  Gregory unfolded his arms.

  Camden was relieved the discussion had taken a direction away from the women in the group.

  “I worked to spring him free,” Gregory said. “I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

  “And how close to setting him free did you get that whole time?”

  “I was alone. The rest of you got caught. That’s not my fault.”

  �
�No, but Quentin has never exactly been the most understanding of people, has he?”

  Gregory blinked at that. “It was pointless handing myself in after I escaped. I did everything I could to infiltrate the prison but they had too many checks. Look what I did when I could show my loyalty when he needed me. I ingratiated myself in here and got the trust of these people. Then I turned it all over to Michael. I think I’ve done more than enough to stay in his good graces. I wonder what he’ll do with you?”

  Isaac shrugged. “Only time will tell. My fate is in God’s hands now.”

  The conversation died, but there was a great deal more concern on Gregory’s face than there had been. The door opened and the two girls came in, followed by Michael.

  “All right,” he said. “Your turn.”

  Camden moved for the door.

  Gregory stepped in behind him. “After you.”

  Brilliant. Why do I get to be chaperoned by the nobhead?

  The wind was strong and made the branches sashay and dance. In the watchtower, a small figure huddled against the cold. Jack hadn’t gone out with the right clothing. He should have taken one of the coats with him but Camden wasn’t about to tell them that.

  Gregory gave Camden a hard shove forward. “Move.”

  Camden marched along the path, cutting through the vegetable patch, to the small outbuilding they built just beyond the tool shed. It was a simple unit with a suction system that removed their waste to a ravine on the other side of the hill.

  Gregory opened the privy door and stepped inside. He had to know there was nothing there. His whole gang had gone inside to check it, and there was no possible way they could have missed something that could be used as a weapon, was there?

  “Two minutes,” Gregory said.

  Camden stepped inside and shut the door behind him. He moved to lock the door.

  “No lock,” Gregory said.

  Camden had to move fast. He wasn’t sure if his mother had taken the weapon already, as he was sure his father would have shown her its location at some point. She never showed much interest though, so she might have forgotten about it.

  He bent down and reach behind the toilet, taking care to ignore the damp floor. He pulled a small section of the wall panel wall aside and…