by Rich Bullock
He backed to the doorway and through it, keeping the gun trained on Skyy as Bailey followed him to the SUV parked at the curb.
“Both of you in the front,” he ordered. Bailey opened the passenger door. Gabriel roughly shoved Olivia in. Bailey followed.
The street was deserted, quiet except for thumping music coming from the Fish Hook bar down the block. Its door was closed against the cold.
A million scenarios ran through Skyy as she considered her next move. That Gabriel hadn’t shot her meant he probably wasn’t a cold killer. Evil, yes, but perhaps somewhat predictable. If she could call the police, maybe they could intercept him before he got on a main highway. At this time of night there wouldn’t be many cars on the road. He’d be easy to spot.
But if by some miracle he evaded capture, Bailey and Olivia faced an unimaginable future.
The SUV started. It was pointing toward the Swim Beach, the wrong way to leave town. He’d have to turn around. But Main Street, with its diagonal parking on both sides, was narrow. Rather than do a three-point turn, Gabriel turned left up the side street to go around the block and double back onto Main.
Skyy snatched Canon’s truck keys off the bar and raced to where Ember rolled on the floor, moaning and clutching her head.
“Ember?” Blood, bright and red, leaked between her fingers, but she opened her eyes. “Are you all right? I’ve got to go after the girls.”
She nodded. “Go!”
Skyy did. She’d parked in an angled space across the street, so the truck was facing south—just what she needed. She clicked the remote as she ran, unlocking the driver door.
Somewhere out on the lake, a motorboat’s engine raced, as if someone were driving full throttle in the night. She jumped into the truck and fumbled to get the key into the ignition of the unfamiliar vehicle. Finally, the engine roared to life. She found the emergency brake release, slammed the shifter into Reverse, and floored the gas pedal. The tires squealed as the truck backed into the middle of the street. She stood on the brake and shifted into Drive.
There were two side streets coming in from the right. She accelerated, peering over the steering wheel. Which road would he come down, the first or the second? Timing was critical for her plan to work.
The Fish Hook was on the far corner at the first intersection, a single light outside the building’s door. But the side street T-ing into Main remained dark. Skyy pressed the gas harder, gaining speed as she blew through the first intersection.
The long block stretched ahead, but she saw lights coming from her right and brightening the intersection.
Gabriel.
And her girls.
If he reached Main Street and made the turn before she got there, she’d never be able to catch the more nimble vehicle on the lake’s winding perimeter road.
Skyy kept her lights off as she floored the gas and willed the truck faster. She didn’t have time to think about how it would go, just that she had to stop him from taking the girls. Her truck flew past storefronts, gaining speed. The headlights on the side street grew brighter.
A horrifying possibility rose. What if it was someone else driving down the street? Someone innocent.
Before she could second-guess her decision, Gabriel’s SUV burst from the side street, not slowing as it swung onto Main.
Canon cursed the ATV, hanging on as he coaxed barely 10 miles per hour out of the shaking machine. It was faster than he could run the distance, but it took an eternity to reach DC Coffee.
The front door was open, and glass from a shattered window sparkled on the sidewalk. He pulled to the curb and hopped off just as Ember staggered outside.
“Ember, what—?”
“Gabriel took the girls,” she said, holding her head. “We have to go after Skyy.” She grabbed his arm and tugged him toward the four-wheeler.
Skyy’s truck arrived in the intersection at the same moment as the SUV. Gabriel probably didn’t even see her, but for a second she glimpsed the side of his head.
She gripped the steering wheel and held her breath, imagining the girls in the front seat. This could go so wrong. She prayed his body would shield the girls.
The nose of her truck plowed into the SUV’s driver door.
Without benefit of a seatbelt, Skyy flew forward, only to be slammed back as the airbag exploded in her face. Her head snapped against the seat back, nearly knocking her out, and her lower half crumpled under the steering wheel, wedging her foot against the gas pedal.
The truck’s engine whined, and a horrible clattering vibration rose through the floor mat. Above it all came screeching tires and deforming metal.
Chapter 34
Skyy was dimly aware of the truck still moving, slowly rotating clockwise as the screeching back tires and combined momentum of the two vehicles carried them down the middle of Main Street.
Suddenly, the engine quit and the truck rocked to a stop. Her ears were ringing from the bang of the airbag, and she blinked to focus after its punch. The material sagged away from her body, and she began extricating herself from under the steering wheel.
The driver door wouldn’t budge when she thrust her shoulder into it, so she climbed across the center console and wrenched the passenger door handle. The door swung open, and she slid out head first onto the pavement, rolling on her sore back to protect her head.
Rekindled pain laced her back, but she pushed it down. A few feet away, the SUV had lodged into the curb. Its driver door was smashed in a good foot, and both side windows were gone. Glass particles crunched under her feet as she rounded the car to the passenger side.
The searing odor of gasoline made her eyes water. She didn’t know which vehicle it was from, but she had to get the girls out.
She yanked open the door. The side curtain airbags had deployed and hung in the space like white pillowcases. She batted them out of her way. “Bailey?”
The girl moaned, clutching her head.
Skyy grabbed her under her arms and dragged her backward out of the car. Olivia stumbled out after, falling to her knees and holding onto the door for balance.
“Olivia! Hold on to me!” The girl staggered to her feet and held Skyy’s waist as they backed away from the wreck.
Inside, Gabriel groaned and turned to the open passenger door. He locked eyes with Skyy’s as she wrestled the girls away. The car’s interior light showed red blood streaming from his nose. From the hit she’d given him, he should be dead. Unconscious at the least. The airbags had done their job too well.
He bent sideways, his right hand clutching at something on the floorboard. Then he lifted the object and pointed it at her.
From twenty feet away, the gun looked as deadly as it had in the coffee shop.
There was nothing she could do but get as far away as possible. She dug with her heels, pulling and dragging the girls as the weapon’s barrel wobbled, sliding down and away for a moment, then back as Gabriel shook his head. Skyy forced her legs to work.
Twenty-five feet.
How good of a shot was he? He’d hit the laptop, but that was before being in a major accident. And she was a much larger target.
Gabriel’s face twisted with hate, and his lips spat blood droplets carried on words she couldn’t hear.
She turned away from the gaping car door, from Gabriel, from the gun, and hunched over the girls. He might kill her, but she had to keep Bailey and Olivia safe.
Canon and Ember abandoned climbing back on the ATV when a tremendous crash came from a few blocks down the street. They stood watching a tangle of metal screeching in the dark, headlights tracking along the buildings.
“Skyy!” Ember began running down the center of the street.
Cradling his arm, Canon followed, then caught up. All he could think of was that Skyy, Bailey, and Olivia were probably somewhere in the wreck.
Each pounding step sent pain radiating across his chest and upper back, but he knew it was faster on foot than taking the ailing machine.
Ember struggled, too, holding her head as she lurched forward. She slowed, then surged with new determination.
Deer Cove had no streetlights, but a few of the businesses had interior lights and signs that cast a dim glow over the roadway. As they neared the wreck, Canon recognized the back of his truck. The front end was bashed into an SUV. He presumed on purpose. That meant—
On the far side, he spotted three forms struggling to get away from the wreck. Ember saw them, too. She changed directions to go around on the right, but tripped and fell.
“Keep going!” she yelled, rolling to her hands and knees.
Canon rounded the back of the SUV and spotted Skyy backing away from the wreck with Bailey and Olivia. She stared back at the wreck, then turned, covering the girls with her body.
In the crushed vehicle, Gabriel pointed a gun at them. His finger was on the trigger.
“No!” Canon yelled. Gabriel’s eyes flicked to Canon as the gun discharged.
Then the world erupted.
Chapter 35
A concussive whump like a giant hand to the back hurled Skyy forward. But instead of a bullet lodging in her spine, the world around flared to near daylight, and a wall of heat rolled over them, searing every inch of exposed skin. Tangled in Bailey’s legs, Skyy went down, her forehead smacking the unyielding asphalt.
Stunned, she rolled onto her side, gazing in amazement as Deer Cove’s buildings lit up orange, their windows dancing with flames somewhere behind her. The putrid odor of burning hair replaced the smell of fuel, and she feebly slapped at her head, then at Bailey’s. The girl was half conscious, moaning.
“Skyy!” Olivia said from Skyy’s other side. “The car blew up! We have to get away!”
Olivia was right, but Skyy couldn’t move. The flames and buildings spun in dizzying circles, a blur of motion that sent her stomach heaving.
“You go,” she managed, clutching Olivia’s arm. “Help Bailey.” The older girl’s leg was under Skyy.
“No!” Olivia tugged at Skyy’s arm. “We all have to go!”
More heat washed over them like an ocean wave, burning her skin through her jeans and singeing the hair on her bare arms. Olivia cried out, batting at her hair.
Someone else was screaming too. A man’s voice, high-pitched, pleading.
Propelled by Olivia’s desperation, Skyy twisted an elbow under her and levered herself an inch from the growing inferno, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough. “Olivia, take Bailey!”
“I won’t leave you!” The girl continued to pull on Skyy’s arm, and Skyy managed another inch forward.
The cold of the street pressed against her stomach and legs, a tantalizing promise in contrast to the burning on her back. But an unreachable one. She panted against the pavement as she dragged Bailey’s dead weight a little further.
Hands slid under Skyy. Big hands, pulling her up and carrying her away from the carnage.
“The girls,” she said.
“We’ve got them,” a deep voice replied.
Skyy concentrated on not throwing up as her rescuer carried her from the heat. Somewhere a siren wailed, growing closer, and the sounds of shouting began to overshadow the roaring flames.
After another minute, the man stopped and carefully laid her down on a lawn near the chapel. The damp cold nearly had her groaning with relief. She couldn’t feel the heat of the fire anymore, but she felt the thump as something exploded.
“That was a tire blowing,” the man said.
Skyy squinted up at him. He wore a heavy coat, but his legs were in pajama bottoms, and his feet were bare. “Who are you?”
“Alex Stone,” he said. “AJ’s husband.”
“How did you know…”
“Canon called us,” Stone said. “We brought our boat across. Teal stayed with the baby.”
“Canon. Where is he?”
“I’m here,” Canon said. He held Olivia tight to his side, and her arms were locked around his waist so tight they could hardly walk. She didn’t let go when he knelt beside Skyy and pulled her close. “I thought he was going to kill you,” he whispered in her hair.
Another man carried Bailey, her body hanging limply. He laid her next to Skyy.
“Bailey,” she said, brushing the girl’s hair away from her face. “Bailey?”
The girl stirred, squinting her eyes and pursing her lips. “Yeah,” she whispered. Her eyes opened, and after a few seconds locked onto Skyy’s. “Is Olivia—?”
The younger girl unlatched from Canon and threw herself onto Bailey, crying and hugging her. Between sobs she said, “The cars crashed. Skyy pulled us out, and Gabriel tried to shoot us. Then the cars blew up and we almost burned to death.”
Bailey pulled Olivia down, rubbing her back while she sobbed. “Shh. It’s okay.” She turned her head so she could see the fire.
Down the street past the front of the chapel, flames rose twenty, then thirty feet above the wrecked vehicles. Two men emptied handheld fire extinguishers, but the little units were no match for the raging flames. Finally, a fire truck rolled up and blocked their view. Its lights reflected off buildings, trees, and overhead wires, lighting up the night as men from the volunteer fire department connected a hose and began spraying white foam.
Bailey turned back to Skyy. “Did Gabriel get out?”
Skyy looked to Alex Stone. The quick shake of his head confirmed what Skyy already knew. The keening screams she’d heard had been Gabriel’s as he burned alive in the wrecked car. Along with his gun.
“Good,” Bailey said. There wasn’t a hint of remorse in her voice. Then she whispered to Olivia. “We’ll be okay now.”
“Ember’s hurt at the coffee shop,” Skyy said to Alex. “Can you have someone—”
AJ arrived supporting Ember who was hopping on one leg.
“Skyy!” Ember fell to her knees. “You guys are all right!” She threw herself into Skyy’s arms, knocking them both to the grass.
“Ouch.”
“Sorry, sorry!” Ember said, backing off.
But Skyy locked her arms around the girl and pulled her tight. Bailey struggled to a sitting position, and she and Olivia joined Ember in a group hug.
Skyy wrapped her arms around the three. Tears stung her eyes, and it wasn’t from the noxious smoke filling the street.
Her girls. And she was never letting them go.
She cinched her arm around Canon as he joined the huddle.
Five people locked together as one. Near total strangers a few weeks ago, now united more deeply than most experienced in a lifetime.
Skyy looked at Canon, traced the set of his chin, the emotion in his eyes. He was one of the good ones.
She wet her lips, his eyes following the motion. “About your question earlier…”
He didn’t say anything, just waited. He was good at that. She smiled.
“I wouldn’t have said no.”
Skyy moved closer, hesitated, and then brushed her lips across his. He drew her tight, deepening what she started, then breaking it far too soon.
“To what?” he asked.
She leaned her forehead against his, wincing as her bruised skin pressed against him, but breathing him in.
He wasn’t being oblivious. No, he was making sure she knew exactly what she was saying.
Our deepest desire is to love and be loved in a way that risks everything.
“To you. To everything.”
Epilogue
Except for occasional forays, the summer heat had surrendered to frosty mornings that quickly warmed to spectacular, early October days. Fall rains would come later in the month, but today was blue-sky perfection.
Skyy already missed summer. It had sped by, filled with swimming, hot dogs, watermelon, and boating—exactly as she had imagined. Canon had even convinced them all to go fishing, and Olivia caught the biggest trout. Her picture with it was on the refrigerator.
“Are you ready, Mom?” Ember stood with Skyy in the tiny foyer outside the interior double door
s of the chapel, ready to walk her down the aisle.
“I think so.” Then Skyy frowned and turned toward the outside doors. “I don’t know. Maybe I should—”
“Mom!”
Skyy grinned and shoulder-bumped her daughter. “Just kidding.”
Ember blew out a breath. “Don’t scare me like that!”
Skyy brushed a wayward strand of Ember’s hair behind her ear. “You look beautiful.”
“Like anyone will even notice me,” Ember said. “You’re the star today.”
“We’re both stars,” Skyy said. Gabriel’s bullet had damaged only the laptop screen, so the entire confrontation at DC Coffee had broadcast live on-air. Within a few weeks, listenership doubled, then doubled again. Big Jerry recently agreed to give Ember and Bailey a shot with a new show geared toward their younger audience. “I’m really proud of you, you know.”
“Thanks,” Ember said, then she turned and gripped the door handles. “Ready or not, let’s go.” She opened them wide.
Skyy was ready.
Teal had asked her boyfriend’s mom, Rayne Conner, to play keyboard, and music drifted out. The melody was oddly familiar, but the arrangement was completely different from what she remembered.
“That song. Is that…?”
“Sage in Winter,” Ember nodded. “Got some other surprises for later.”
Everyone stood as Skyy tucked her hand into Ember’s arm and stepped into the chapel.
Connie Langworth and the Stones sat in the front row on the bride’s side. She’d asked them to sit there since they were the closest she had to family—other than Ember, who was now officially her adopted daughter. A pair of aunts and uncles and several cousins sat on Canon’s side.
Ember’s boss, Mark, was sitting with Old Mike, a man she didn’t know personally, but saw often at the coffee shop and around the lake writing in spiral notebooks. The few times Skyy said hi to him, he’d ducked his head, mumbled, and gone back to writing. Yet here he was.