White’s momentum caused him to collide into Marcus and they tumbled to the floor behind Nicole’s body.
As they rose to face each other. Marcus’s head jerked up when Jessica, still on the roof, called to him. She was pointing her gun at him.
“If you want to live, you’ll do as we say.”
White raised up an arm with his palm facing his wife. “He threatened you. He doesn’t get to live.”
Jessica looked at her husband and saw the anger in his expression. She lowered her gun, knowing he would want to kill Marcus himself.
When White looked back at Marcus, he saw that the man was smiling. “You just made a big mistake, White. And after I kill you, I’m going to leave the doctor lying dead next to Nicole.”
White struck with a speed Marcus hadn’t thought him capable of. The punch landed on the side of his chin and jerked his head around. Marcus countered by sending out a kick. His foot caught White on the left thigh as he had been advancing on him.
White was forced to take a step back as Marcus moved in on him. Marcus slammed one of his massive fists into White’s midsection and was rewarded by feeling a rush of air leave the man’s lungs. With White bent over, Marcus leaned back and prepared to deliver a punch that would straighten him up and possibly knock him off his feet.
However, White kept going, bending lower, and before Marcus understood his intention, White had rushed forward, ramming him with his head, and causing Marcus to lose his balance. As he hit the floor near the railing, White delivered a knee to his face that left Marcus dazed and tasting blood. That was followed by two hard kicks that threatened to render Marcus senseless while splitting open his bottom lip.
Hands gripped him by the belt and the collar and Marcus felt a sensation that he hadn’t experienced since he was a young child. White was lifting him up and doing so with an ease that Marcus would have said wasn’t possible for a man lacking the layers of muscle he himself had.
He hung upside down, still struggling to stave off unconsciousness. His blurry vision improved, and he saw White glaring at him.
“You should have never threatened my wife.”
Marcus felt the hands release him and the rush of air. Looking down, he saw the cobblestones that surrounded the pool and understood that White had dropped him. A loud crack, one of the last sounds Marcus would ever hear, had been made by his neck breaking as he impacted with the ground. Unable to breathe, he would die minutes later.
White helped Jessica down from the roof and she hugged him.
“Marcus said he had more people on the way.”
“So do we,” White said. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see which ones get here first.”
After climbing up on the roof, they had called Thomas Lawson and asked for assistance. Lawson said that he would send agents from Homeland Security there as soon as possible.
White and Jessica left the house and walked out to the gates. They arrived in time to see two men coming toward them carrying weapons. White recognized the black man with the athletic build. His name was Damon Stark. He worked with Thomas Lawson.
White entered the guard shack and found the controls to open the gates. They swung inward to allow Stark and his companion to enter.
“Mr. White, Doctor, are you two all right?”
“We’re good, Damon. How did you get here so quickly?”
“Mr. Lawson sent us here and told us to be on standby after you called last night and told him you suspected that Kent Ballou might be hiding here.”
White and Jessica looked at each other. Lawson was looking out for them. Stark held up a finger, then tapped at the earpiece he was wearing, indicating that someone was talking to him.
“How many?” Stark asked, followed by, “Detain them until we can get more people out here.” When the conversation ended, he smiled at the Whites. “My men captured three hostiles with guns. We’ll handle them.”
White pointed toward the trees over Stark’s left shoulder. “There are five more men in that area, near the vehicles abandoned along the driveway. They’re dead.”
“You killed them?”
“Along with my wife, yes.”
Stark shared a look with the man at his side. The two wondered if their help had even been needed.
“There’s also a dead man and woman at the house, along with Kent Ballou, who is alive,” White said. “We’re sure it’s Ballou, but we’d like that verified.”
Stark removed something from a compartment on the tactical vest he wore. The device was small and rectangular, with a round opening on one end and a light on its top. He passed it over to Jessica.
“That gadget can read fingerprints and has Ballou’s prints in its database. Stick any of his fingers in there. If the light on top turns green, then you’ve got your man.”
Jessica marveled at the device. “I’ve never seen this before.”
“They’re new and have a hundred percent success rate as long as the source prints are well-documented, which Ballou’s are.”
“Is Thomas coming here?” White asked.
“No sir. Mr. Lawson doesn’t get around as much as he used to since he was… injured, during his abduction.”
“Understood,” White said.
Stark and his man followed them back to the house, where they found that Kent Ballou had awakened. He had been attempting to get away, but bound as he was, he’d only managed to squirm out into the hallway. When the device was placed on Ballou’s index finger, the little light on top turned green.
Ballou looked up at them. “What happens now?”
“Justice,” White said, and took out his phone to call Sienna Ross.
Chapter 18
While she was still sitting on the porch, Samantha had been approached by Ben Wagner when he’d come outside to finish stringing up his Christmas lights. He had been curious to know what his wife had said to her.
“I think you were right; she is jealous.”
“She warned you about me, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t believe her. You seem nice enough to me.”
Wagner had grinned while reaching over to touch Samantha on the arm. “Oh, I’m nice all right. And listen, I’m taking my wife over to her mother’s house for a visit, but I’ll come back here and will be alone this evening. Stop on by if you can.”
Samantha nodded. A smile would have been better, but she was resisting the urge to hurt Wagner for daring to lay a hand on her.
The pedophile walked back across the street while whistling and went to work on the lights. Samantha entered the house to find Cassandra and Kelly waiting for her. They had overheard Wagner’s invitation without the use of the microphone. Wagner, a man in his forties, had asked a girl of thirteen to visit him during his wife’s absence from their home. He was bold and without shame in his deviant nature. That brashness was a result of a lifetime of getting away with his crimes.
Cassandra looked out a window, to view Wagner as he worked on stringing up colorful lights.
“While he’s away taking his wife to visit her mother, Kelly and I will pretend to drive off and leave you alone, then we’ll come back on foot and break into the home. We’ll be inside his house when you visit that creep later.”
“Why pretend to drive away? Why not just sneak over there?”
“Wagner looks good to be our rapist, but we can’t be sure. By pretending to leave you alone in the house, we may draw out someone else.”
Samantha thought about that. “Yes. That makes sense, but we already know that Wagner is guilty of rape, statutory rape.”
“You’re right,” Kelly said. “But we came here to catch the man who viciously raped three girls. If that’s not Wagner, then we need to know who it is, and we don’t have much time.”
“I could call and ask my parents if I could stay for a few more days.”
“Elena wants to avoid that,” Cassandra said. “Despite your maturity you’re still only thirteen, Samantha. It’s a lot to ask you to deal
with something like this.”
“But I’m not normal… you both know that.”
Kelly reached out and took Samantha’s hand, to give it a squeeze. “You’re better than normal, you’re extraordinary, and we worry about you getting hurt.”
Samantha smiled and answered Kelly’s warm clasp with a squeeze of her own before releasing her hand. “Thank you, but I don’t want to leave here until we at least figure out if Ben Wagner is the rapist.”
“My guess is that you’ll get your chance tonight,” Cassandra said.
With nothing to do until Wagner was alone later, Samantha decided to take a walk through the woods behind the houses. There was a well-worn path there due to the fact that it was a shortcut to a busy strip mall. Because she would be out of sight of the houses, there was a risk that she would be attacked if the rapist were nearby. With their time in the area being limited, Samantha didn’t want to waste a minute of it. By being alone in the woods, she might attract the rapist’s attention.
Cassandra made certain that the microphone and spy camera were working and told Samantha to be careful. Samantha said that she would and placed her earbuds on. As she left the house to act as bait, she had no idea that she was being watched.
The man observing Samantha had been looking at her earlier through binoculars. When she went behind the houses and entered the trees alone, he couldn’t believe his luck. The fact that it was still light out and that there might be people around didn’t concern him. He would strike with speed and not give Samantha a chance to scream.
He moved into the woods; his face obscured by the hood he wore. He quickened his pace and maneuvered around trees to get ahead of his target. When he was in position, he reached under the hood and pulled down the ski cap he wore until only his mouth and eyes were showing. Closer, the girl was coming closer, and soon she would be his.
Samantha had the earbuds on, but she was only pretending to listen to anything. By traveling alone along the quiet trail, she made for an easy target. That was the whole point of the walk.
Cassandra’s voice came through the earphones. “Kelly and I are behind you, but not so close that we’ll be easy to spot.”
“All right,” Samantha whispered, and as the words left her mouth, she saw someone streaking toward her from the left. The man tackled her to the ground, and she found it difficult to breathe. The matter was made worse because he had clamped a hand over her mouth. The man rose to his feet while holding her securely and dragged her deeper into the woods. Samantha, slow to panic, kept her composure and slid a hand into her purse. Her fingertips were touching the gun inside when the purse’s strap caught on a tree branch. The small pocketbook was ripped away and with it went the gun, along with the spy camera and microphone that connected her to Cassandra and Kelly.
Kicking backwards, Samantha’s foot made contact with the man’s testicles and she was rewarded by a grunt. It was followed by the man muttering. “You little bitch.”
The hand that had been covering her mouth reformed into a fist, and the man reared back his arm to deliver a blow. He never got the chance.
Someone had wrapped an arm around his throat from behind and dragged him backwards. That caused her attacker to release her and Samantha landed on her bottom, with autumn leaves cushioning her impact with the ground. When she looked up to see who had helped her, she was surprised to see Eric Reed. The would-be rapist struggled against Reed’s grip, but his efforts faded as the pressure on his neck deprived him of oxygen and caused him to pass out.
Thinking fast, Reed removed his belt and bound the man’s wrists before he revived, which didn’t take long. By then, Cassandra and Kelly were at Samantha’s side.
“Are you all right?” the women asked in unison.
“I’m okay. Mr. Reed saved me.”
Reed had a knee on the attacker’s back to hold him down as he slid off the hood and removed the ski mask. The face revealed was not the face Samantha expected to see, which was Ben Wagner’s. And yet, it was a face that she had seen recently.
She pointed at the man. “That’s the guy who delivers the newspapers. I saw him earlier.”
“And he saw you,” Kelly said.
Reed looked over at them. “Call the police.”
Cassandra sighed and took out her phone. They didn’t want the rapist jailed, where he would be fed, clothed, and kept dry and warm. They would have preferred to see him in the cold ground where he could never harm another child.
“He needs this,” Samantha whispered, and Cassandra and Kelly took her meaning. By catching the rapist, Reed would not only no longer be a suspect, but he’d also be a hero.
Reed gave Samantha a quizzical look. “Are you all right, honey?”
Samantha contorted her face and worked up tears. She was a thirteen-year-old girl who had been attacked and dragged off into the woods. She would be expected to be freaking out, or at least show signs of being upset.
“I’m okay,” Samantha answered in a choking voice. “Thank you for saving me.”
Reed smiled and looked back at the bag of spilled groceries that were lying on the path. He’d been carrying them when he saw the attack take place. “Thank God I was coming back from the store when I was.”
Samantha nodded and buried her face against Cassandra, who hugged her and stroked her hair as if to comfort her.
Samantha’s attacker struggled to rise but Reed had his arms bound together behind his back with the belt. And with Reed’s knee on his back, all the bastard could do was to rock side to side. He wasn’t going anywhere.
They heard the police cars arrive on the street in front of their house before seeing the officers rushing along the path to get to them. After the rapist was bundled into the rear of a squad car, the cops roundly praised Reed for his heroism and asked to shake his hand. Samantha felt a rare warm glow inside from seeing the man’s wide smile.
Chapter 19
White and Jessica were out in front of Nicole’s home to greet the three new arrivals. After receiving his call, Sienna got on a plane with Mark Powell and Cruz Rodriquez.
To White’s surprise, Sienna hugged him. He closed his arms around her and patted her on the back.
“I hope this brings you a sense of peace, Sienna.”
She ended their embrace and reached out to clasp Jessica’s hand. “Thank you. It will bring me peace to know that this animal will never harm anyone ever again.”
White opened the door. “We’ll take you to see him.”
Sienna placed a hand on his chest to halt him. “I can’t thank you two enough for tracking the bastard down, but I thought you understood that I didn’t want him arrested. Living in a cell for the rest of his life is better than he deserves.”
“Kent Ballou’s fate is in your hands, Sienna,” Jessica said. “No one here will stand in your way.”
Sienna gestured back at the gates. “Those are Homeland Security agents.”
“They work for Thomas Lawson. And Lawson has given them instructions to sweep this mess under the rug and to hand Ballou over to you. There will be no mention of Ballou in any reports. As for the woman who helped him, it will be reported that she died in a gun battle involving members of the criminal gang she ran.”
“Why would Lawson help me?”
“Lawson helps the victims of crime,” White said, “and that includes their families.”
Sienna lowered her voice. “Does he know I’m a Sword Bearer?”
“Not from us he doesn’t,” Jessica said. “But from what we know of your organization, Thomas would be willing to back you. Maybe you should reach out to him when this is over.”
Sienna looked at Powell and Rodriquez. Powell nodded while Rodriquez shrugged.
“We’ll talk it over later,” Sienna said, and into the house they went.
Ballou wasn’t sure what was going on. He had expected the police to arrive with an ambulance, treat his injuries, and toss him into a cell. Instead, he was cuffed and seated on a sofa in the living
room and being watched by two men with jackets stating that they were Homeland Security agents.
“I have rights. Someone should be treating my wounds.”
The men ignored him. They weren’t normal agents. They worked for Thomas Lawson, and as White had told Sienna, Lawson was all about delivering justice for the victims of crime. No one gave a damn about the pain Ballou’s injuries were causing him.
When White and Jessica entered the room with Sienna, Powell, and Rodriquez, Ballou caught the cop vibe off all three of them.
“Hey! Are you here to arrest me?”
When Sienna walked over and glared down at him with a look of intense hatred, Ballou felt a shiver of fear dance along his spine.
Sienna knew Ballou’s face better than anyone. She had spent hours staring at his mugshots in order to memorize every detail, in the hope that she would someday have an opportunity to confront him. Despite the plastic surgery, hair dye, and blue contact lenses, she knew that day had finally come.
She turned to nod at Powell and Rodriquez. “It’s him.”
Ballou cocked his head. “Who the hell are you?”
Sienna took out her phone and brought up a photo of her late spouse. She held it up for Ballou to see.
“This man was my husband. You stabbed him to death.”
“Agent Bentley,” Ballou said in a whisper.
“That’s right, you piece of shit.”
Ballou looked away from her and searched the other faces around him. He found no allies for his plight.
“You have to arrest me. You can’t just let her do what she wants to me. You have to arrest me!”
“You ran out of chances a long time ago, Ballou,” White said.
Sienna looked at White. “Is there somewhere I can take him?”
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