Autumn's Game

by Mary Stone

  Gina swallowed another sip. “Do you know where my boyfriend, Kyle Murphy, is?”

  Autumn stiffened, and the hand on her shoulder tightened, and Gina…knew. A part of her had known this whole time. After Linus had stuffed her in the back of his SUV, she’d seen headlights coming their way. The passenger side light had been dimmer than the driver’s side…just like Kyle’s.

  “I’m so sorry to tell you this, Gina, but Kyle was killed.”

  Emotion clogged Gina’s throat, eating its way up her face. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she blinked them away. She would cry later.

  This was too much.

  She was only nineteen years old, and while she knew she hadn’t had the worst life a person could live, she’d had more than she could handle.

  First, living through the nightmare of her parents’ personal issues, and being tossed into Helen Mathers’s foster home. That had done a number on her, and she was just now realizing how deeply those scars ran.

  She’d played it safe from the moment her parents got her back. She’d smiled and acquiesced. She’d gotten a safe boyfriend who didn’t expect too much from her.

  It was a hard thing to admit.

  She loved Kyle because she was supposed to love her boyfriend. She was supposed to be a dutiful girlfriend and dutiful wife. She wasn’t supposed to ask for too much for herself because…why?

  Because Mrs. Helen Mathers said so?

  Gina’s hand tightened on the warm thermos. Where had that gotten her?

  She’d tried to be the glue that kept her family together. And they were dead.

  She’d tried to be a good girlfriend. And he was dead.

  She’d tried to be a good friend. And he had destroyed her life.

  Destroyed everything.

  And right now, that friend was holed into a little box of a cabin, threatening to destroy another family. Destroy the life of a little boy because of some insane mission.

  He had to be stopped.

  “How are they going to get him out?” Gina asked Autumn.

  “We’re waiting on the hostage rescue team. Last I heard, they’re close. About fifteen minutes or so.”

  Fifteen minutes?

  Gina knew what could happen in that amount of time. In a minute. Even less.

  They didn’t have that much time.

  Gina shivered so hard that Autumn must have felt it.

  “Are you okay?”

  Was she?

  No, she wasn’t. Gina knew she’d never be okay again.

  Glancing over at the woman beside her, she forced a smile onto her lips. “Just cold. Would you mind getting me another blanket?”

  Autumn squeezed her shoulder again. “Of course. I’ll be right back.”

  When her savior was a few feet away, she whispered, “I’m sorry,” to her back.

  Then, Gina Webster took off at a run toward the cabin.

  Someone had to stop Linus Ashby.

  It might as well be her.

  34

  I couldn’t believe it.

  My own mother, the woman who’d given me life. The woman who’d then taken all of it away was trying to take even more.

  She rushed at me, screaming my name. She was small but wiry, and her nails were sharp as they clawed at my face.

  “You can’t do this!” Spittle flew from her mouth as she went for my hair. “You have to stop!”

  With no other choice, I let the boy go. He went screaming to his mother and began tugging at the ropes around her wrists. The father was crawling my way too, but I had no time for anything. My mother was crazy. Just like I knew she was.

  “I hate you,” I screamed at her, just as I brought the knife around and caught her in the shoulder.

  She screamed and fell back. The knife sucked at the wound, but I held on to my weapon as my dear old mother tried to regain her balance. She wasn’t through with me, I could tell.

  When she rushed me again, I was ready.

  Lifting a boot, I caught her in the stomach. She sank to her knees as a whoosh of air left her lungs. It felt good so I kicked her again. Mommy dearest collapsed to her side.

  Rage seemed to be shaking my brain, making my vision pulse as I took a step in her direction. Turning the knife in my hand, I smiled down on her.

  “You destroyed my life,” I told her, holding the blade up so she could see the blood-bathed tip. “You destroyed my father.”

  Tears poured down her cheeks. “No…I’m so so—”

  “Linus Ashby!” The sound of my name made me jump. The voice was from another female and it was coming from outside. From a loudspeaker? “This is Special Agent Winter Black with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. You are surrounded. Put down your weapon and lay face down on the ground. This is your only warning.”

  They could see me?

  I whirled around, looking for something I’d missed. The windows were still covered. The doors were closed and locked. How?

  Panic swirled through me, and I had to force myself to think.

  I’d researched so many websites as I prepared for my mission. I’d learned what to wear so that I wouldn’t leave trace evidence at the scene.

  From my research, I knew that the feds had powerful technology. Things like thermal imaging surveillance as well as robots that went into a place to check things out or leave tiny cameras that could see an entire room through a tiny hole. There was also technology called RF waves that would let people see through an entire wall.

  Would they have something like that?

  Just in case, I lifted my middle finger in the direction I thought the female agent’s voice might be coming from.

  “Is that a ‘no, thank you,’ Linus?”

  The response startled me more than when the agent had spoke the first time. “Fuck you!” I screamed, then slapped my hand over my mouth, immediately mortified.

  Mrs. Helen would be so mad. She’d make me lay on the kitchen table while everyone watched. I’d have to open my mouth as wide as I could while she dripped dish-washing soap into my throat.

  I gagged a little at the reminder, but more than that, I was just so very sorry. I’d promised Mrs. Helen that I’d never say that bad-bad-bad word again. Would she forgive me?

  “Honey…”

  The word brought me back to the here and now, and just like that, my hand tightened on the knife once again.

  “Yes, Mother?”

  She was still on her side, one hand on her stomach while she reached the other out to me. “I love you.”

  That was funny. So funny, in fact, that I laughed. A real laugh that cleared my head even more.

  With the sudden clarity, I realized just how much trouble I was in.

  I wasn’t going to leave this cabin.

  Taking a step closer to my mother, I knew another thing. Neither would she.

  The boy was still trying to untie the knot. I could tell him not to bother. I was good at knots, too good for his little fingers.

  His mother was talking to him. Talking, talking, talking. Nagging, nagging, nagging. She was just like the rest of them. Maybe she should be the first to never leave this cabin.

  Changing course, I headed their way.

  “Linus, drop your weapon!”

  I ignored the warning. I needed to be fast, but even more than that, I needed to give the little boy one last gift.

  He jumped when my hand landed on his shoulder, his wide brown eyes staring up at me. He looked really scared so I used my nicest voice. “You want me to show you something, Gavin?”

  The boy shook his head, his hands hanging on to his mother’s arm.

  I smiled at him, and his eyes grew even larger. “I’m going to show you anyway, because this lesson is very important. And do you know what they say, Gavin? If you want to learn how to do something, you need to do it yourself.”

  On the floor, the father tried to sit up. “Leave him alone!”

  That was sweet. The dad really loved the little boy. Maybe I’d let him walk out of here
after all.

  “You bastard,” he snarled.

  I sighed. Maybe not.

  One way or another, he was distracting me, and I really didn’t have much more time. The lady agent was telling me that they just wanted to talk. She was saying that they had someone special who very much wanted to talk to me. That we could work everything out.

  “Gavin…” I took the boy’s hand and pressed on the palm with my thumb until the fingers opened. “This is how you free yourself.” Very gently, I pressed my very own daddy’s knife into his hand. “This is what it takes to be a man.”

  It was chaos.

  The mom was screaming. My mom was screaming. The dad was screaming. The boy was screaming. The federal agent was screaming.

  Not me. I was calm as I closed Gavin’s fingers around the hilt.

  “It’s easy,” I told him. “Just walk forward until it’s all the way inside her chest. It’ll stick a little at first, but then it will slide right in.”

  He tried to jerk away, but I provided him a steady hand as we both moved toward his mom, the knife inching closer and—

  Bam. Bam. Bam.

  Fists hammering on the door made me pause, and the boy’s teeth sank into my hand. The little shit bit me. I pulled my hand back to give him a slap, then stopped as a voice I recognized called out my name.

  “Linus! It’s me. Gina! Help me. They tried to take me away. Save me. Please!”

  Gina? Gina was here?

  Stunned, I backed away and turned to the door that was rattling in its frame under her attack.

  “Hurry!” she screamed. “I need you! They’re coming!”

  She needed me?

  Smiling, I let the boy go and hurried to door, frantically twisting the locks until I could open it.

  And there she was. It was her.

  But she wasn’t smiling back at me.

  Gina, her mouth open in rage, her hands curled into claws, came through the door.

  Autumn Trent couldn’t believe it.

  She’d turned her back for one second to get a cold victim a blanket, and then the next, she was chasing after that same girl.

  “Gina!”

  The girl was quick and had a head start, and she was heading straight for the cabin.

  It was chaos.

  Screams coming from inside the cabin. Winter screaming outside.

  Up ahead, Gina was throwing herself against the door. Knocking with both fists. Screaming words Autumn couldn’t hear amid the growing confusion.

  Two?

  She’d seriously lost two civilians on the very same day? The same hour?

  Aidan Parrish would never, ever want to hire her now.

  Mike Shadley would probably fire her too.

  Winter was going to kill her.

  Men in black were yelling at her to stop, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t. She had to get Gina. She had to stop the madness.

  Up ahead, the door was opening.

  “No shot, no shot, no shot.”

  Autumn understood. The snipers had a sliver of a chance to take him down, but Gina was in the way. Then Gina…was in his arms?

  What the hell?

  At the porch now, Autumn jumped the steps, hitting the warped and rotting wood in a single smooth leap. The door was closing. She only had one chance.

  She leapt again, bracing for the blow.

  Her shoulder connected first, and the door gave way faster than she had expected. To her right, Linus and Gina fell in a heap. With her forward momentum, Autumn tried to stop, but tripped over something lying in the floor. She caught herself just as the knife slid out of Linus’s hand.

  Heart racing, Autumn started to lunge, but quick as a cat, Linus snatched it back up and scrambled to his feet. He grabbed Gina by the hair and pulled her to her feet.

  The blade was at her throat in an instant.

  The movement stopped. The screaming stopped. It was like someone had pressed the pause button on their remote.

  But not for long.

  “Who are you?” Linus screamed, sweat running down his temples. Gina’s face was twisted with fury, not with fright.

  She’d come in here to seek revenge?

  Autumn raised both hands to shoulder height and focused back on the young man. “I’m Dr. Autumn Trent. We spoke on the phone.”

  He looked shocked as his gaze swept down her figure. He had clearly thought she’d look much different than she did.

  Feeling light-headed, Autumn forced her breathing to slow. Now that she was here, she needed to think. She needed to do this right. Whatever that meant.

  “What do you want?”

  Autumn swallowed and took a step closer to her left. “I’m here to ask you to let the hostages go.”

  He laughed a little barking sound that held no humor. “Are you kidding? This whole place has gotta be surrounded by a million police officers and a dozen SWAT teams.”

  “Not that many.” Autumn took another step to her left. The board under her foot creaked loudly. “It’s mostly just the sheriff’s office, me, my boss, and a couple of FBI agents. Not everybody gets the royal treatment, but I promise you, that if you take me instead of them, you’ll get the attention you want. They’ll probably make a movie even.”

  He actually looked pleased at the thought, just as she’d suspected. Yes, the boy had a mission, but most young men like this kind of attention.

  She scanned the room. She didn’t see any guns. Not that that meant anything, but at least there weren’t any sitting openly on the counter within easy reach.

  The female Carter was in a chair, her hands tied to the arms. Her son had both arms around her neck. The father looked bad. He was bleeding profusely from a wound in his side.

  Autumn had already tripped over Emily Ashby on her way in the door. The older woman didn’t look good either. She was clutching her stomach as blood trickled from a wound somewhere on her upper back.

  Gina’s fingernails were digging into Linus’s forearm. Too bad they were broken to the quick, probably from where she tried to climb out of the well.

  Brave girl. Stupid girl.

  Of course, Autumn wasn’t much better.

  “What do you say, Linus? I bet I can even get a couple reporters with their cameras inside. They could interview you on live TV, let you tell your side of the story.”

  Autumn lowered her hands slowly while he considered the proposition. In her profile of the killer, she’d believed that his mission was bigger than just the killings themselves. He wanted to send a message to the whole country. The whole world.

  At her feet, Emily groaned, giving Autumn an idea.

  “Let Gina and the Carters go, and I’ll make sure the reporters interview your mother too.”

  From the floor, Emily raised her arms to him in supplication. “Yes. I’ll talk to them. I’ll tell them the truth. I didn’t say a word against your father until he was dead. I knew you worshipped him. I should have said something. I shouldn’t have let you believe that he was a good man. That’s how I did you wrong, sweetheart.”

  Autumn could have kicked the woman herself. How in the world did Emily Ashby think that those words would settle her son?

  The older woman managed to get to her knees. “I let your father lie to you and I never said boo. I figured it would only be me that it ever hurt. But you believed him, and now you’re killing good folks who are doing their best, better people than I’ll ever be.”

  As the woman spoke, Autumn scanned the room again, searching for something, anything, she could use as a weapon. There was nothing.

  But the door was still open from where she had barged inside. Beyond the porch were men with guns who knew how to use them. At that moment, the wood door blocked Linus from their view. That, and the fact that he held a knife to Gina’s throat stopped them from rushing the room.

  Could Autumn use his hatred for his mother to get him to come out in the open?

  Autumn scoffed. “Emily Ashby, even now, you’re still lying to your son
.”

  She didn’t know who looked more surprised, Linus or his mom.

  “You ruined his life. Surely, you understand that much.” Autumn grabbed the woman’s arm and hauled her to her feet. Emily screamed, and Autumn decided that she’d just have to beg her for forgiveness later.

  The knife around Gina’s neck lowered a little. “She’s right,” Linus yelled. “You ruined my life.”

  Autumn took another step to the left, bringing Emily with her. “Let the Carters go, and I promise I’ll make her tell the truth.”

  “I’ll stay with you too,” Gina said, swallowing hard when the knife lifted again.

  Autumn scowled at the girl. Why wouldn’t these people just cooperate?

  When the girl scowled back, Autumn nodded the tiniest bit toward the open door. Gina’s eyes slid sideways, then widened. She licked her lips and took a small step to the right, her hands still on Linus’s arm.

  “I don’t want you to stay, you little whore,” Emily yelled.

  Oh dear god. What was wrong with these people?

  But then the knife dropped away a little more, and Autumn couldn’t decide if Emily was brilliant or as mentally unstable as her son.

  She was goading the boy. Trying to get him to focus only on her.

  “She’s not a whore,” Linus hissed and took a step when Gina led him. He didn’t even seem to notice the small movement.

  “Yes, she is. And she’s just going to make you as miserable as you’ll make her.” Emily yanked away from Autumn’s hand, still holding her arm, and took a step toward her son. “You’ll see!”

  “Stop!” The sweat was dripping off Linus’s chin now.

  Emily held out her arms, even though the movement must have been so very painful with her shoulder injury. “You’ll see. She’ll ruin you! She’ll—”

  In one quick movement, Linus shoved Gina away. He roared, his knife coming up as he rushed toward his mother and…

  His body jerked, just before the sound of a gunshot vibrated through the air.

  “No!”

  Even as her son was falling, Emily was running to him, trying to catch him before he hit the floor.

  The room seemed to implode as men rushed inside. Autumn rushed toward the little boy and his mother, blocking Gavin’s view from what was happening. There was so little else she could do, but she could do this.