Solly took a side road so he could skirt around the Walmart. The warehouse, he'd been told, was just beyond it beside a park. As he passed the rear of the grocery store, he found a small copse of trees and decided to stop for a comfort break and to eat something before scouting the warehouse.
As he leaned against a tree, he heard voices approaching. Three men were walking along the path he'd just gotten off. He snuck a look. A deputy and two cops.
"Now just you shut yer mouth, Jonus Suggs," one of the police officers was saying as he jabbed a finger at the deputy. "You cut a deal when they let you out, and you can't go back on it now."
"I ain't talkin' about goin' back on nothin'," Suggs was saying. "I just ain't happy that the mayor's gonna hang."
The other cop joined in. "She ain't the mayor no more, and don't you forget it! And what did you think was gonna happen to her? Kennedy's not a pussy cat like she was, she's gonna get rid of all troublemakers just like that. So, you'd better make sure you ain't one of them when the reckonin' comes."
"Well, I just hope I'm not on duty that day. I sure don't want to see it happen."
Solly's heart was racing as the voices passed his hiding place. One of these three had clearly been taken with Bella, but was then released when he changed sides. So, he was a potential ally, if also an unreliable one. If Solly could surprise them and disable his colleagues, then this Suggs character could be very useful. He would know exactly where Bella was being held.
These thoughts raced through his mind in moments and he found himself leaping out from cover.
"Raise your hands!"
The three spun around. One went for his sidearm. "Last warning!" Solly yelled. The man's hand lifted into the air.
"The mayor will have your guts for pantyhose," one of them said.
"You, Suggs, you know my wife, I believe."
The man in the deputy's uniform went pale, his eyes wide in panic. "I never touched her, I swear. I never knowed she was your wife."
For a moment, Solly didn't know how to respond. "Who are you talking about?"
Suggs blinked, realizing he might have spoken too quickly. "I dunno, who did you mean?"
"Bella Masters."
"What are you talkin' about?" one of the cops said, sneering. "The old mayor ain't married."
"She was. To me. And I hear she's in trouble."
The sneering cop laughed, as if the humor of the situation had made him forget that he was being held at gunpoint. "Aw. How cute. How romantic. Well, you're too late, Romeo. She's gonna hang tomorrow, and I aim to be there to see it done."
For two cents, Solly would have shot him then and there, but that would also be the end of his mission. And Bella would still die in the morning.
So, he kept his cool and focused his attention on Suggs, a short, rat-faced man with an unshaved face. "You will help me," he said. "Now, cuff these two and we'll find somewhere to stow them."
"If you do it, Suggs," the sneering cop said, "you'll be a dead man tomorrow."
"And if you don't, you'll be a dead man today," Solly said.
After a moment's hesitation, Suggs nodded and, at Solly's direction, removed the weapons from his companions and dropped them to the floor. He then took their own handcuffs and restrained them as they cursed him. The cursing stopped once Solly and Suggs gagged them and then bundled their prisoners into an empty workshop that lay beside the path.
"She'll kill me for this," Suggs said as they shut the door on the two police officers who'd been attached to an iron radiator by a third set of handcuffs.
Solly, who'd kept the man covered throughout, shrugged. "You did it at gunpoint, you had no choice."
"She won't care, and they won't back me up neither," he said, gesturing at the workshop as they returned to the path.
"I'm sorry, but I came to rescue my wife—my ex-wife—and that's what I plan to do. Come with us if you want."
Suggs, who'd been walking slightly ahead of Solly, stopped suddenly and turned around. "Really? Where are you goin’?"
"No idea. I honestly haven't thought about it beyond getting her out."
"If you're plannin' on hightailin' it on foot, then I got some bad news for you."
Solly gestured for Suggs to start moving again. "I've got transportation," he said. Though the Humvee only took four people comfortably, so getting any more out of here would mean getting to know each other real well. "Now, where is she being held?"
"Right over there," Suggs said, pointing. The path led to a small park surrounded by trees and, on the other side, was a rectangular steel warehouse.
"I don't see any guards," Solly said, as he chose a path that kept as close to the trees as possible.
"They keep watch from inside. See those windows? That's the upper level. It's got a walkway all the way around. Want my advice? Wait till dark. If you don't, they'll see you a mile away."
Solly halted beneath a stand of trees facing the warehouse, and the two men crouched in the shadows.
"Now, what in the world is goin' on?" Suggs said, squinting at the area outside the entrance to the warehouse.
A van was parked there and two men in black uniforms stood outside. The building door opened and someone walked out, shielding their eyes with bound hands.
"They're doin' it today!" Suggs hissed. "Either that, or they're movin' them into town."
Panic coursed through Solly's veins. He had to act now, or it would be too late. He handed one of the sidearms he'd taken from the cops to Suggs. "Here. Either help me or make a run for it. It's up to you. But I'm going in."
"Are you crazy? They'll shoot you like a dog."
But Solly had retreated, pulled the gas canister out of his pack and set it off. Red smoke rose to the tree line and then, caught by the wind, it floated away.
It would be seen soon enough by the security forces at the warehouse so Solly drew the other spare sidearm and ran across the space between park and building, a pistol in each hand like a white-collar Rambo.
Chapter 17
Bella sat in the little office that had become her jail cell and tried to make the tears come. She knew that a toxic mix of terror, grief and anger was fomenting within her, and yet she felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. And her greatest fear, as she sat and contemplated the next hours, was that the dam would break and she would shame herself in public.
So, she tried to lance the boil. Cry now so she wouldn't be humiliated later. But she was a dry husk. She thought of Maddie. At least she was safe, along with Bella's father. She could be sure of that because if they'd also been caught, Mayor Kennedy would have taken great pleasure in torturing Bella with the news. No, they were probably halfway to DC by now. But she would see neither of them ever again. And still the tears would not come.
Jake's situation was like a festering wound on her heart. She'd entrusted his safety to Nathan Woods, but had received no news since then. This wasn't surprising as neither Jake nor Nathan would know where she was, but still she yearned for at least some indication that he was safe.
Solly was almost certainly dead. She'd last communicated with him on the night it all happened and he'd suddenly been cut off. A woman had been looking after him, it seemed, but that was now five months ago and surely Solly would have come to find his family by now?
She'd hurt him badly, certainly, but that wouldn't lessen his love for his children. He'd look for them, wouldn't he? She felt another surge of guilt as she realized she'd barely given another thought to Todd, the man she'd left Solly for, since he'd died on the Long Night. At first, she had been focusing entirely on the survival of her children and father. Then, when grief should have come, it didn't. What sort of emotionally stunted bitch was she that a man she'd professed to love hadn't merited so much as a second thought in the past weeks?
What did it say about Steve? She couldn't call him Skulls anymore. It was okay when the attraction was almost entirely physical, but she could no longer claim that. She loved him, but she found herself wondering whet
her she truly knew what love was. Her love for her children was unquestioned and she'd thought she understood what love for a man felt like, but she'd been wrong with Solly and wrong with Todd. She'd loved her ex-husband as a companion or, even a brother, more than as a man. With Todd, it was lust on the rebound. After years in a passionless marriage, here was a man who wanted her, who found her chubby mousiness irresistible. And Steve? He seemed to love her for her mind and her body. And she felt the same way. What a pity, having finally found the right person for her, she wouldn't have the opportunity to enjoy it. Tomorrow, she would be hanged.
The door flew open. A man in a black uniform stood there. He saw her as she sat in the corner. "Get up, prisoner."
She got unsteadily to her feet. "What's going on?"
The man strode into the room and ordered her to turn around. She felt the handcuffs, cold on her wrists, and tried to ignore where his hands went afterwards, before he spun her around, grabbed her arm and marched her to the door.
Other doors had been opened and other people were being dragged from their makeshift cells.
"Steve!" she called as he shambled past. So, it had been his cries she'd heard over the past days. She'd been left largely to herself, but others had been tortured, though she couldn't imagine for what purpose other than, perhaps, revenge. Mayor Kennedy would have a particular hatred of Skulls as it had been his rescue of Father O'Rourke that had set in motion the sequence of events that had led to her downfall. If only Bella had possessed Kennedy's ruthlessness. None of this would have happened.
He smiled at her as he was dragged past. The bruised and beaten smile of an unbent soul. So, this was what love felt like.
The guard pulled on her arm and she followed the others out into the daylight, screwing her eyes against the sudden brightness.
Mayor Kennedy stood there, clearly enjoying every moment of her triumph.
"What's happening?" Bella managed.
"Ah, Bella Masters, the usurper," Kennedy said. "I trust you have found your accommodations satisfactory?"
Bella managed a scowl. "Don't you have an original thought in your head? You're a walking cliché."
"You know nothing about me, traitor!" Kennedy snarled, as the guard, who still held on to Bella's arm, tugged hard on it. "But one thing you can be certain of is that I will be alive this time tomorrow and you will not. You are being taken to a holding cell in town for your final night. It has a fine view of the gallows."
So, that was it. Another twist of the knife. Those condemned to hang would spend their last hours in sight of the means of their public execution. Well, Bella wasn't going to give Kennedy the satisfaction of reacting to this. Facing her adversary and seeing Steve had strengthened her resolve and so she shut down her emotions and stared back at her tormentor, her head held high.
The mayor looked away and Bella glanced at the others lined up with her. Steve was to her right—she imagined she could feel the warmth of his body from here—and alongside him stood a handful of others. She recognized Father O'Rourke who stood unsteadily at the end of the line and between him and Skulls were two or three more. Either some had been left in the cells for some reason, or they'd defected back to the mayor's side. She couldn't find it in her heart to blame them; she didn't want anyone to die alongside her. She didn't want to die.
"What's that?"
One of the guards was pointing across the parking lot to where a faint stream of red smoke was drifting in the wind.
A sound like popping corn and the guard fell to the floor. The grip on her arm was gone and Bella flung herself backwards against the wall of the warehouse, trying to find any cover against the shots that were punching into the steel all around her.
"Stay where you are!" a guard was bellowing as Skulls made to move.
The other guards were taking up defensive positions as Bella glanced across the parking lot to see two men running towards them, discharging their weapons as they came. One guard fell as the others began returning fire, and the men darted behind a parked car. Damn it, they were pinned down. What sort of an idiot attacks a group of ten or so armed fighters by running at them with a handgun in each hand and only one person backing him up? And it was a him, she was certain of that at least.
Then she realized that the red smoke must have been a signal. Perhaps the town had risen up against its new regime and the Lee Corporation that was propping it up. Hope flared in her heart for a moment but then, as no reinforcements arrived and the commander of the defenders began to organize his forces, she knew that these fools were outgunned and out-thought. Her newfound hope died as two pairs of guards ran to outflank the attackers.
And then Skulls threw himself at the guard watching the prisoners.
#
What sort of an idiot attacks a squad of trained guards with three handguns and no plan whatsoever? Solly cursed himself as he sheltered behind the pockmarked Ford as it vibrated from the staccato impacts of the defenders' sidearms.
He should have waited for Viv to arrive in the Humvee, but he'd seen Bella emerge and knew that, within moments, she'd have been bundled into the minivan and any hope he'd had of rescuing her would have vanished.
"They're trying to get around us," Suggs hissed. "I can't believe I went along with this. What'll we do?"
Solly slid beneath the chassis of the car and took careful aim. He pulled the trigger, went deaf for a moment, and his target disappeared. Another life gone, but there was no time for regret. It was him or Solly. Or it might have been her, but he didn't allow his mind to go down that particular rabbit hole. A volley impacted the asphalt around him and he scrambled back.
"We've got no choice. We're dead if we surrender, you know that."
Suggs nodded sadly. "Yeah. She don't take prisoners, unless it's to torture them."
A cry went up from out front of the warehouse. Solly risked looking over the trunk of the car. One of the prisoners had attacked a guard. Pfatt. Pfatt. Rounds hit the car and Solly ducked back.
"It's now or never," he said. "You coming?"
Without waiting for an answer, Solly darted out and headed, not for the warehouse, but almost sideways to a vehicle parked just a little closer. The defenders responded late and he made it. Then another volley and he watched Suggs going in the opposite direction towards another car. Was he going to try to escape in it? No, he'd hidden behind it before starting to fire on the defenders. So, he was tying some of them up and others were dealing with the prisoner. This was going to be the only opportunity.
#
Bella threw herself onto the guard wrestling with Skulls and tried to pull him off but, just as she felt his grip lessen, she felt something hard pressing into the back of her skull.
"Get off him or I'll blow your brains out and to hell with the public spectacle."
Bella rolled away and looked up into the merciless face of Kaitlyn Kennedy. She swung her handgun along the line of broken people, daring any of them to move. None did.
With a roar, Skulls flipped the guard onto his back and wrapped his hands around the man's neck.
Kennedy brought her gun around and pointed it directly at the head of Skulls, who was so intent on throttling his adversary he hadn't seen her. Bella saw her finger contract and she leaped. The gun spoke just as Skulls, alerted by the noise, leaned sideways and the guard's head disappeared in a shower of red.
The gun swung around as Kennedy stumbled and Bella reeled from the impact, blood filling her mouth as she yelled. She flailed at her opponent, wrapping her arm around her neck, trying desperately to bring her down to the floor where her height advantage would mean nothing. She heard Skulls shouting and the sounds of brutal fighting all around her, but her world had focused in on Kennedy, who was desperately trying to bring her gun to bear as Bella fought to keep it away from her.
The gunfire was getting closer and she was peripherally aware of the sound of a revving vehicle. Reinforcements were arriving and if she was to deal with this monster, it had to be now. She
screamed as she sat astride Kennedy—grateful for the first time in her life for the extra pounds she carried on her hips—and, while holding her pinned down with one hand, grabbed Kennedy's wrist with the other and, inch by inch, forced it away.
Kennedy hissed and spat like a cat. "No you don't! You are going to die, you traitorous bitch!"
Bella felt renewed strength in her opponent's arm, fueled as it was by sheer, animal hatred. With inexorable force, it moved back and there was nothing she could do to stop it. In moments it would be pointing at her head and all the effort, all the struggle, would be over in abject defeat.
With a yell of triumph, Kennedy gave a final push and Bella brought her other hand round to grab her wrist. Released, Kennedy twisted and kicked out, rolling onto her side as Bella fell to the ground in a heap then looked up into the barrel of the gun.
"Die!" Kennedy hissed, her face contorted in rage. In that final moment, Bella's nose was overwhelmed with the rich aroma of fake perfume as she waited for the end.
A shape appeared behind Kennedy as a hand wrenched the gun out of her hand before turning it on her. "Enjoy hell," Father O'Rourke said before pulling the trigger.
Kennedy's body fell from Bella as she was showered with blood and there, where her tormentor had been, stood an unfamiliar shape.
"Oh my God," it said. "Bel, are you okay? Have you been shot?"
Was she dead? They said you met your departed relatives when you arrived at olam habah, but she didn't feel as though she'd gone anywhere. She wiped the blood from her eyes and reached up for the hand held out to her.
"Oh, Bel. Thank God."
She fell into a warm embrace. A familiar hug she'd thought she'd never feel again. She pushed gently away and dared to open her eyes.
It was him.
"Solly? SOLLY?"
They threw themselves together again and, surrounded by death, her tears finally came.
Betrayed: Book 5 in the Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival series: (The Long Night - Book 5) Page 14