by Tate, Harley
They had escaped Napper and the City Center only to be caught in a casino a block away. It hardly seemed fair. Her head fell back against the door and she wiped the sweat off her brow. A few feet away, Owen slumped against the wall. The bag he carried slid to the floor and Pound Cat wailed.
“Owen!” Lainey rushed to him. “Are you all right?”
He moaned as he lay on the ground, half supported by the wall like a doll cast aside by an excited child.
Lainey bent over him, trying to find his face in the dark. Keith and Bear stopped beside her. “What’s going on?”
“He was clipped by a bullet leaving the City Center.”
“Are you serious?” Keith crouched down. “Where?”
“His arm. It was a through-and-through and he wouldn’t let me do much more than bandage it.” Lainey reached out and picked up Owen’s arm. It was wet and warm with sticky blood. “He’s bleeding.”
“We’ve got to get him inside one of these rooms.” Keith stood up and rushed the nearest door, leaving Bear by Lainey’s side. “Please, we need help! Anyone!”
As soon as Keith stepped away, Bear raced down the hall, barking. “Bear! Come!” Lainey called to him, but it was no use. The animal disappeared into the dark. A moment later, she heard his bark along with his nails scrabbling against a door. Did he smell someone? Was there actually someone still hiding out inside the casino?
Lainey left Owen where he lay and ran toward the sound of the dog. As she reached him, a faint light spilled out into the hall. “Is someone there?”
A small voice answered. “Are you here to rob us?”
Tears welled in Lainey’s eyes. The figure outlined by a light inside couldn’t have been older than a teenager. “No. We’re the good guys. But we’re being chased and my friend is hurt. Please. We just need to hide.”
The girl hesitated at the door.
“Please, can you let us in?”
Bear barked again, nosing the opening.
“Open the door, Angie.” An older woman’s voice carried into the hall.
The girl did as instructed, easing the door shut enough to slip the chain off the hook. The second the door opened again, Bear pushed his way in, tail wagging.
Lainey called for Keith and within a minute, everyone was inside the room and the door was safely shut. Keith eased Owen down to the ground and propped him up against the wall. Lainey bent to push his sleeve up his arm and inspect the wound. She hadn’t even bothered to say hello.
“Is he hurt?”
She glanced up. A woman in her mid-forties with brown hair pulled back in a ponytail hovered above her. Lainey nodded. “He was shot. We haven’t had time to treat it.”
The woman crouched beside Lainey. “I’m not a human doctor, but I’m veterinarian. I should be able to help.”
Lainey sagged in relief. Apart from cleaning a wound and slapping a bandage on it, she didn’t know the first thing about medical care. When they’d been on their own, they couldn’t even close Keith’s gash properly. “That would be wonderful. I wrapped it in a bandage, but it’s soaked through.”
Jerry stepped forward holding a white box with a cross on the lid. “I took this from the security room. It doesn’t have much, but it might help.”
The woman took it with a smile of thanks. “Angie, honey, can you grab a washcloth from the bathroom? A clean one.”
The teenager disappeared into the bathroom and emerged a moment later with a folded white washcloth. She handed it to the older woman. “Thanks, sweetie.” The woman glanced at Lainey. “I’m Rebecca Hoefler. This is my daughter, Angie.”
Lainey stood up and smiled at the young girl.
“And I’m Darren Hoefler. Rebecca’s husband.”
Lainey turned. She hadn’t even noticed the man standing with his arms crossed near the sliding glass door to the balcony. He appeared to be about Rebecca’s age, with short hair and a trimmed goatee. “Who are you people, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Keith closed the distance between himself and Darren and stuck out his hand, introducing each one of them in turn.
Pound Cat yowled from behind the black fabric where he’d been unceremoniously dumped on the floor and Lainey rushed to let him out. “Is it okay if I let the cat out of the bag?” As soon as she said the words, she laughed. It came out high-pitched and borderline hysterical.
“Of course,” Rebecca answered without looking up. “Is it injured?”
“No. Just annoyed. We had to hide him to escape.” Lainey unzipped the bag and the little tabby crawled out. He flicked his head and twitched his tail and sniffed the air like he couldn’t decide whether he approved of their new location. After a moment, he hopped onto the bed and took a seat, wrapping his tail around his paws. “I guess he approves.”
“He should. We love animals.” Rebecca pulled the bandage off Owen’s arm and winced. “It’s the only reason we let you in. People traveling with pets have to be on the right team.”
Lainey glanced at Darren. She wasn’t sure he agreed.
“Is he going to be okay?” Angie grimaced as she watched her mom dab the blood away from the wound.
“Come over here, honey. You don’t need to watch that.” Darren held out his arm and Angie walked over, fingers tucked into the sleeves of her oversized sweatshirt. She nestled into his side and he wrapped his arm around her. “I’m sure your mom will do the best she can.”
“Did you all do a lot of running?” Rebecca turned, brow raised in Lainey’s direction.
Lainey nodded. “After we escaped, we ran a few blocks before we made it inside the casino. Then we had to run up the stairs to this floor.”
“That makes sense. His heart started pumping too fast, so the bandage didn’t hold. If he’d taken it easy, it probably would have clotted without an issue.”
Owen moaned again. “What’s going on?”
“Rebecca is going to help you.” Lainey crouched by his side. “We’re safe. For now.”
He nodded, barely able to keep his eyes open. “Pound Cat?”
“Is fine.” Lainey reached down and patted his good arm. “You relax.”
Owen closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall once more. As soon as he was calm, Rebecca turned to Lainey. “You said you escaped? What does that mean?”
Lainey ran through a brief summary of what they experienced driving into Vegas and then finding Napper. Angie pulled away from her dad. “I told you she looked familiar!” Her blue eyes grew bright. “You’re that reporter from Los Angeles. The one who warned everyone about the bombs.”
Lainey nodded. “I am.”
“I wish you’d done that sooner.” Darren’s lips thinned into a line.
“Believe me, so do I.” She stepped back from Owen and Rebecca and ran her hands through her hair. Nothing had happened the way she wanted it to. If only they had been able to get on TV sooner.
“What are you all still doing here?” Keith’s question broke the tension between Lainey and Darren and he turned to Keith.
“We were checking out UNLV. Angie’s a senior this year. She’s been accepted.”
“Congratulations.” The word came out automatically, but as soon as she said it, Lainey cursed herself. There wouldn’t be any college for Angie in the fall. “Sorry.”
Darren nodded. “Thought we could walk the Strip, get in a bit of sightseeing, Hoover Dam, that sort of thing. Didn’t work out that way.”
“So you’ve stayed?”
“Have you seen it out there?” He pointed to the sliding glass door. “It’s chaos. The day the bombs hit, the Strip broke out into a riot. We were all the way at the other end of the Strip at the mall.” He glanced at his daughter. “I’ve never seen that many looters before.”
Angie wrapped her arms around herself. “It took us all afternoon to get back here, just trying to avoid the chaos. People were in the streets, tipping cars, setting fire to trash in the bins.” She shook her head. “It didn’t make any sense. Why riot when the ci
ty hadn’t been hit?”
“People don’t always use their common sense.” Jerry glanced at Lainey. “My house was ransacked before we could make it home.”
Darren nodded. “That’s why we haven’t left. We’re from Denver. Even if we managed to find our way out of the city, it’s seven hundred miles. The chances we make it out of the city without running into the looters and thieves has to be close to zero.”
“I still say we should have taken the chance. The longer we wait, the harder it is to leave.”
“And how would we defend ourselves? We’re driving a rental car, don’t have any kind of weapons, and we don’t even have a map.”
Lainey caught Keith’s eye. They had one gun thanks to Keith’s fight with the guard and a map rolled up in the bottom of Owen’s bag. All they needed was a car.
Keith scratched his ear. “You said you have a rental car? Is it one of those compact jobs?”
Darren’s brow pinched. “No. They were all out. Gave us this ridiculous Infiniti QX80. Thing’s as big as a tank. I could barely find a spot to park it in the deck.”
Lainey swallowed. A vehicle that big could fit all of them. They only had to convince this family to join forces. She clasped her hands. “Say you had some defenses and a map. Would you take the chance to leave?”
Rebecca’s head shot up. “What are you saying?”
Keith stepped up. “If we help provide some necessary defense and directions, do you think you’d be willing to take us along to Denver?”
Rebecca pulled away from Owen to stare at her husband. After a moment, he turned to Keith. “Exactly what do you have in mind?”
Chapter Seventeen
LAINEY
New York-New York
Las Vegas, NV
Sunday, 9:00 a.m. PST
Lainey eased the sliding door open and sat beside Owen on the balcony. “How’s it coming?”
He smiled in her direction without taking his eyes off the screen. “I’m almost done. If everything goes well, I should be able to upload the piece within the next hour.”
Lainey exhaled in relief. They were finally going to get the word out about the enterprising Napper trying to take over the void. “How’s your arm?”
“It’s okay. Hurts when I move it, but I’ve been shot, right? I mean, it’s not going to just go away.”
“No, it’s not.” Lainey stared out at Las Vegas. The balcony faced away from the City Center, but it was a risk to even be out there in case someone spotted them. She inched back into the shadow of the building.
“Do you really think we’ll make it out of here?”
“I’m trying to be optimistic.” They had spent the night on the floor of the Hoefler family’s hotel room, sleeping off the stress of the escape. So far, no one had tried to break into the room or even knocked on the door. Lainey didn’t know if that was a good sign or bad. Would Napper’s men search the casino floor by floor, trying every door in hopes they got lucky? Or would they backtrack and save the energy, watching the exits instead?
She knew what she would do. “The hardest part will be leaving the parking deck. They’ll be watching.”
Owen typed on his tablet screen and turned it to face Lainey. “I’ve been thinking about that. This is a map of the hotel. If we sneak out the employee parking deck entrance, I think we can get past whatever camera or guard they have watching.”
“How?”
“It’s tucked into this side street. If we snake through the delivery alleys, we can spit out a block away. By then, they won’t know where we’ve come from.”
“If Darren drives and we stay out of sight—”
“It just might work.”
Lainey smiled at Owen. “Good job.”
He smiled. “I might not be the best at fighting my way out of a situation, but I can navigate.”
“And a million other things.” Lainey reached out and squeezed his uninjured arm before standing and making her way back inside. The men huddled in a corner around the small desk, poring over the fifty-state map while Rebecca and Angie sat on the bed, Pound Cat on one side and Bear on the other.
Lainey perched on the bed’s edge. “Thank you again for letting us stay.”
Rebecca waved her off. “Of course.”
“Do you really think we can drive all the way to Denver?” Angie ran her hand down Bear’s fur as she waited for Lainey’s answer.
“We made it out of Los Angeles and all the way here. The desert was mostly empty. Not many people are on the highways outside of the major cities. If we take I-15 to I-70, we avoid Salt Lake and Albuquerque. It’s not a heavily populated route.”
“What about Denver? A bomb went off, right?”
“I think so.” Lainey remembered the red X on the British Consul General’s map. “At least it was supposed to.”
“Then our house might be gone. Aunt Claire and Uncle Robert, they could be—”
Rebecca pulled her daughter in for a hug. “We won’t know until we get there. If a bomb detonated downtown, they might be fine. Their house isn’t anywhere near there.”
Lainey explained a bit about the effects of a nuclear bomb and what they had seen in Los Angeles. She wasn’t sure it comforted either woman, but the more they knew, the less they would speculate.
The sliding door opened and Owen eased inside. Everyone turned and stared, waiting. He swallowed. “It’s done. I’ve sent the piece to as many outlets as I could before the clouds interfered with the satellite connection.”
“Then we’re all set.” Keith glanced at Lainey. “We should head out as soon as we can. At this point, we’ll have to stop overnight.”
Lainey didn’t like the idea of spending a night out on the road, but there was no way the rental car would make it all the way to Denver on one tank of gas. They would have to stop anyway. If they took shifts staying up to watch for threats, everyone could catch a few hours.
She stood up. “Let’s load up. Owen has a way out of the deck where we might not be seen.”
It only took a few minutes to collect the small amount of gear they were taking with them. The Hoeflers agreed to leave most of their luggage behind and travel light to give them the most room in the vehicle. Thanks to their rationing and a vending machine down the hall, they managed to load up an entire suitcase full of bottled water and snacks.
The animals wouldn’t have many choices, but Bear could eat anything from Doritos to snack cakes until they found something better. The cat was more of a concern. She stood staring at the little tabby as everyone readied at the door.
“What is it?” Rebecca came to stop by her side with a backpack on her bag and nothing more.
“We’re basically out of cat food. I know Bear will eat anything, but—”
“As long as we have water, he’ll be okay for a few days. Cats can make it a week without eating. It’s the water they can’t do without.”
Lainey nodded and bent down to scoop up the furball. She handed him off to Owen who shoved him in the makeshift carrier before heading to the door. Lainey held her breath. Would anyone be outside waiting?
Keith eased the door open and waited for any sign of movement in the hall. When there was nothing, he advanced, Glock from the guard drawn and ready. Following Owen’s directions, they headed down a second stairwell at the opposite end of the floor from where they entered and directly into the parking deck. Apart from a slew of abandoned cars, the deck was empty.
The Hoefler’s rental car was undisturbed. Lainey let out a sigh of relief. They might just make it out of there alive. With seven adults and two animals, it would be a tight squeeze. Darren and Rebecca agreed to sit in the front and pretend they were alone.
Lainey held her breath as Darren eased the massive SUV through the deck and out the employee entrance. The tires bounced over the exit speed bump and they were on the road, cruising through the delivery streets under Owen’s direction until they turned onto Park Avenue and then Frank Sinatra Drive.
They tracked
I-15 north, driving past the backside of the casinos on the Strip until they reached an on-ramp for I-15. Darren took it and before long, they were inching their way out of Las Vegas and into the surrounding desert. Lainey leaned toward the window as the iconic Stratosphere Hotel came into view. Only a ruined stump remained where the tower that used to stretch into the sky once sat.
She turned back to face the road. After an hour, all traces of Vegas had been left behind and a small oasis rose out of the desert with green grass hugging small ponds and golf course flags waving in the wind. As they drove past the resort town of Mesquite, Nevada and entered Arizona, Rebecca left the front, climbing over Bear to swap places with Keith.
Easing into the seat he left behind, she smiled at Lainey. “Thank you for coming with us. We didn’t have the courage to leave on our own.”
Lainey nodded. “It’s the least we can do. You’ve given us transportation. All we’re doing so far is taking up space.”
Rebecca glanced behind her. Angie sat in the last row of seats, head slumped against her pillow in the window as she slept. Rebecca lowered her voice. “I’m worried about her.”
“Is she hurt?”
“Not physically. But we were here to celebrate her graduating high school and to check out a college. Now all of that is gone.”
“You don’t know that.” Lainey heard the insincerity in her voice as she spoke the words and tried to correct it. “Canada isn’t that far. You could leave Denver and start again.”
“Is that what you’re doing? Leaving?”
Lainey opened her mouth to answer, but she stalled. “Honestly? I don’t know. That’s where my sister wants me to go and some of us do, too.”
“But?”
“I owe it to a friend of mine to keep digging for the truth about what happened. After I find my mom or my sister reaches out to tell me they’re okay, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“We’re going to Canada.” Keith’s voice carried from the front seat. “Once we get there and you reunite with your family, then we can talk about next steps.”