by Harley Tate
Colt thought about what he knew.
It had been a single man’s apartment. A bachelor pad, despite the kid in the closet. Was he still in the same place? He thought back to clearing the bathroom and glanced up. The same broken shade covered the single bulb in the ceiling.
I haven’t been moved.
He didn’t know if that was good or bad. It could mean there was only one adult and a kid to worry about. But counting on that would be foolish. There could be twenty people waiting on the other side of the bathroom door. Colt shifted on the seat and frowned.
They took everything. His gun. His backup knife in his right pocket. His wallet. The bags he’d carried. By now they knew who he was and what he was up to. If the militia was involved…
Damn it.
He tugged on the tape again, but it was hopeless. Unless he found a way to rip the toilet off the floor, he wasn’t getting out of there without help. He had to hope that whoever hit him upside the head and taped him up wasn’t in with Colonel Jarvis. Best case scenario, he could sweet talk his way out of there. Worst case, this might be the last resting place of Colt Potter.
Leaning back, he closed his eyes. He couldn’t do anything about his current predicament. Rest was the best option in a hostage situation. The more he could conserve his energy, the better he could take on whatever came next.
There would be an opportunity and he needed to be ready for it.
Colt startled awake some time later. Something plinked against his cheek and he jerked back. Found the source. Scowled.
“Get out.”
The little girl from the closet stood in the open bathroom door, popping little candies in her mouth one after the other. Her matted hair hung in her face and her grubby little toes dug into the dirt on the floor. She was filthy. Worse than a street urchin or a runaway. But she smirked at him like the richest little princess.
“I said, get out.”
She wiggled against the door frame, but didn’t leave. “Daddy says I ain’t supposed to listen to you.” She pointed a neon green candy at him. “You’re a bad man.”
Colt managed to keep his expression vacant and even. “Tell your dad I want to speak with him.”
She eyed him with the same brown eyes that pulled on his heart in the closet. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because.” She shook the bag in her little fist and poured out a pile of candy before shoving them all in her mouth. Her cheeks swelled like a chipmunk. As she chewed, rainbow spit leaked from her lips and dribbled down her chin.
He flexed his hands, gave the tape a tug. It wasn’t going anywhere. He needed a new plan. After staring at the girl’s faded nightgown and the sleeves that barely reached mid-forearm, he glanced up. Smiled. “So what’s your dad like? Is he nice to you?”
The little girl stopped chewing and wiped her face with her dirty sleeve. “Sometimes.”
“What happens when he’s not nice?”
She fidgeted with the bag of candy and glanced in the hall. “I get locked in the closet.”
“Is that why you were in there when I found you? Because your daddy wasn’t nice?”
“Maybe.” She glanced at the hallway again.
“If you come over here and help me with this tape, I can protect you. Your dad can’t hurt you if I’m free.”
She wavered, her whole body swaying first toward him, then away.
A little more convincing, and she might be his ticket out of there. Colt grinned even broader. “I’ve got a daughter, she’s not that much older than you. I bet the two of you would really hit it off.”
The little girl’s face closed up, the wide, curious stare replaced with a tight frown. “No. Daddy wouldn’t like it.”
“He doesn’t have to know. It could be our secret.”
She focused on the wrinkled, almost-empty candy bag.
“I’ve got a lot more candy back at my place. And food and water, too. You could come stay for a while. Eat all you wanted.”
The bag rustled in her hand.
“How about you just loosen this tape a little bit and I do the rest?”
She rose up onto the balls of her feet, but didn’t take a step.
Colt bit back the words of frustration on his tongue. The girl was his best chance. He couldn’t wreck it. Colt managed another smile. “My name’s Colt. What’s yours?”
She opened her mouth as another voice called out. “My girl knows better than to tell a stranger her name. Ain’t that right, sweetheart?”
Chapter Five
DANI
489 Bellwether Street
Eugene, Oregon
11:00 a.m.
“What do you mean he’s not back?” Dani paced the length of the faded living room. “Where did he go?”
Larkin shrugged. “North. He planned on hitting the last apartments on Bellwether before it turned completely commercial.”
Dani chewed on her thumbnail until it splintered. “There’s nothing up there. All those places are full of addicts and crazies. Half of them rent by the day.”
As soon as she walked in the door after clearing her portion of the street, Dani went searching for Colt. First, she checked the balcony where the Wilkins family sat staring out at the south side of town and their old street. Then she eased into the hall and peeked in the bedrooms. Doug slept on a bed shoved against the wall, his boot-clad feet dangling off the edge, but all the others were empty.
No sign of Colt.
It wasn’t until she’d interrupted Larkin and Melody’s debate about personal hygiene and the status of the city sewers that anyone noticed Colt’s absence. Now they were blowing it off like he’d decided to take the long way home after work.
Larkin stretched before leaning back against the couch. “I wouldn’t worry. Colt can take care of himself.”
She cut him a glance. “He’s never late.”
The soldier didn’t know Colt like Dani did. Sure, Larkin and Colt spent time at a military hospital together years ago, but Larkin hadn’t survived a burning building or jumped three stories to safety with Colt. Dani knew the man like no one else. Even if he’d found a reason to delay, he’d have come home, explained, and gone back out. He wouldn’t blow a deadline.
Maybe it was the way she stared Larkin down or the edge of anger in her voice, but at last, he threw her a bone. “If Colt doesn’t show in the next few hours, we can assemble a team and check it out.”
Dani shook her head. “Not good enough. Colt needs help now. In a few hours it could be too late.”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” Melody spoke up for the first time since Dani interrupted. With her hair pulled back in a ponytail, the bruises across her cheek and neck stood out in angry blotches. Of all people, Melody should understand the risks of leaving Colt to fend for himself. Captain Ferguson almost killed her, but she thought Dani was overreacting?
“What if Colt said the same thing after you disappeared? What if he waited for a few hours to rescue you?”
Melody opened her mouth, but shut it just as fast. Her hand lingered on her still-healing ankle as she glanced at Larkin. That’s it? No acknowledgment of the truth? No, Gee, Dani, I guess you’re right?
I should knock their heads together. She plucked a rifle off the battered coffee table and slung it over her shoulder.
If Melody wasn’t going to support her, then the heck with it. Dani didn’t have time to convince her or Larkin of the potential danger. Colt needed help and Dani planned to give it. “I’m going to find him before it’s too late.”
“Colt’s a big boy, he can get himself out of a jam.”
Dani refused to look at Larkin as she tightened the laces on her dirty kicks. “You don’t know what some of the people around here are like. A month without a fix? If any addicts are still alive, they’re out of their minds with cravings. They could do anything.”
She thought about some of the worst days with her mother when they didn’t have any money and her mother could onl
y think about how to score. Lies. Violence. Manipulation. Everything was on the table when an addict needed a hit. Everything.
Larkin blew her off. “Colt can handle a strung-out druggie.”
“You’re underestimating the threat.”
“You’re not giving Colt enough credit.”
Dani bit back another retort. Arguing with Larkin would get her nowhere. “We’re wasting time. I’m leaving.” She strode to the door without looking back. If no one wanted to admit Colt could be in trouble, fine. She would rescue him all by herself.
She reached for the door handle when Larkin called out.
“Hold on. I’m coming.” His feet thudded on the laminate floor as he loped to catch up with Dani. “I can’t let you get yourself killed on some wild goose chase. Colt would never forgive me.”
Dani tugged open the apartment door. “What if everything I’ve said is true and Colt’s really in trouble?”
He smiled. “Then I’ll owe you an apology.”
“I won’t hold my breath.” Dani ducked out the open door and Larkin followed.
They hit the street side-by-side and Larkin’s easygoing nature morphed into army awareness. Gone were the lazy, plodding steps of inside the apartment. In their place were solid strides and glances in every direction. Dani hustled to keep pace.
She hated to admit she was glad he came along, but it was the truth. She leaned a bit closer as they walked. “Thank you for coming.”
Larkin nodded. “Finding Colt won’t be easy. He could be anywhere.”
Dani left that morning before Colt and Larkin divided up their search. She didn’t have a clue where Colt had gone.
She glanced at Larkin. With the corners of his mouth tipped down in a frown, he looked every bit the disgruntled soldier. At twice her age, he must have seen his fair share of missions gone bad. Dani hoped this time he was right and Colt was delayed, but safe. An I-told-you-so chorus would be music to her ears if Colt was okay.
Larkin slowed as he approached the corner and held out his arm for Dani to stop. After he cleared the cross street, she joined him. “Do you know his route?”
He nodded. “More or less.”
“Where should we start?”
“At the beginning.” Larkin motioned down the street. “The 600 block.”
Together, the pair of them navigated past broken windows and abandoned cars, pausing every few storefronts to assess and regroup. Dani debated telling Larkin about Skeeter and his demand for payment. Her mother’s debts weren’t anyone’s concern but her own. But if Skeeter caught any of her friends…
Dani shoved the what-ifs aside. If she remembered right, then Skeeter kept to the blocks south of Prairie, almost half a mile behind them. Big Nicky controlled the streets to the north, all the way up to the edges of town where houses and buildings gave way to forest and wildlife.
Would they still respect the pre-EMP order? She didn’t know why not. Even after the grid collapse, a drug dealer wouldn’t give up his territory. Not willingly. Dani exhaled.
She was safe from Skeeter for now.
They cleared the block and paused at the entrance to the first building across the street. “We clear as a team. One hallway at a time. I hit the inside of the apartments, you stand watch.”
Dani shot Larkin a look. He was boxing her out? “I can search as well as you can.”
He shook his head. “We need a lookout. If Colt’s in trouble, there must be a fair number of hostiles. One strung-out loner wouldn’t take that man down.”
Larkin had a point. If they charged in without cover, they could end up captured or worse. She conceded. “All right. I’ll stand watch.”
One floor at a time, they cleared the first building. No sign of Colt, other than the complete absence of anything worthwhile. If he’d been ambushed before reaching the building, there would be something of value left behind. A can of peaches or a bottle of dish soap. Something.
They moved onto the second, then the third and the fourth. It was never-ending and hopeless.
Two hours later, Larkin stopped at a fifth-floor landing. The apartment building squatted on the corner of the last block of Colt’s search area. He ran a dirt-streaked hand over his face, smearing dust and sweat into makeshift war paint across his cheeks. “We’re never going to find him.”
Dani leaned back against the faded floral wallpaper and used her sleeve to wipe her forehead. “We can’t quit.”
“It’s worse than a needle in a haystack. It’s a SEAL in the city. He’s too good, Dani.”
“Let’s search the building. There’s only a floor or two left.”
“And after that?”
She turned to Larkin, wishing she could argue, but he was right. Colt could be anywhere. If he’d followed a lead or cleared the block early, he could be halfway to Washington state by now, or back home waiting for them. If they didn’t stumble upon him in one of the places down the hall, that would be it. Colt would have to find his own way home.
Dani checked the rifle in her hands for the hundredth time that day and shoved down her disappointment. Colt would be all right. He would have to be. She didn’t know what she would do without him. He’d saved her life and showed her what it meant to care.
Nothing would be the same if he disappeared. Dani motioned toward the hall. “Those rooms aren’t getting any clearer.”
Larkin snorted and took off toward the first door. As his shape blended with the gloom of the hall, a teeming crash shook the entire floor.
Dani brought the rifle up and crouched against the wall as Larkin dove to the ground.
He called out from the dark, “See anything?”
“No!” Dani held her breath, waiting for some other sign. She knew it was Colt. It had to be.
Chapter Six
COLT
672 Bellwether Street
Eugene, Oregon
1:00 p.m.
A man stepped into view, but the barrel of Colt’s own Sig Sauer captured his attention. It pointed sure and steady from the outstretched arm of the closet girl’s father.
Colt dragged his eyes up the length of cold metal and met the gaze of the temporary owner. Same brown eyes as his little girl, same dirt-caked skin. But that’s where the similarities ended. The man’s cheeks sucked in with every breath and the scraggly beard coating his jaw quivered. His eyes sat in hollow sockets, too strung out to blink.
No sudden movements. No sleight of hand. Colt couldn’t risk it. Drug addicts ran the spectrum from ordinary men with good hearts to the ones who did anything to score. Colt guessed this man fell into the latter camp: resourceful and without morals.
He kept his voice even. “Good trick you’ve got there, using your kid as bait.”
The man’s chest puffed with twisted pride. “Thought of it myself.”
“How about you let me go?”
The gun rocked back and forth. “Why would I do that?”
“You’ve got my weapon and all of my things. What good am I as a prisoner?”
“Not a chance. You’re staying right here.”
“What’s the point? Now you’ll have to feed me and find a place for me to piss. Just save yourself the hassle and cut me loose.”
The father stuck his thumb nail in his mouth and chewed on it. The gun shook in the air. “You’re not fooling me.”
Colt raised an eyebrow. “About what?”
The man motioned at his daughter. “Go get ’em, baby.”
She scampered from the bathroom, her mouth stained in a multi-colored rainbow. Moments later, she returned holding up a pair of sneakers and clothes Colt lifted from another apartment a few doors down.
Her dad tilted his head. “You ain’t alone, otherwise you wouldn’t be stealin’ ladies shoes and jeans. There’s more of you somewhere. I want to know where.”
“I stole those to trade.” Colt widened his stance on the toilet. Twisted his lips into a smirk. “Women will do anything for shoes. If you know what I mean.”
�
�I don’t believe you.”
Colt leaned back, feigning boredom. “Suit yourself. But in about five minutes you’re gonna regret keeping me here.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve got to take a shit the size of Mount Everest and I don’t think you want me doing it all over your bathroom floor.”
“You’re sitting on the toilet, asshole. Use it.”
Colt tugged on his hands. “I can’t. You taped the lid shut.”
The druggie swore and rubbed at his face with his free hand. The gun barrel wobbled all over the place. If Colt only had a bit of leverage, he could take the man out with a well-placed kick. But it wouldn’t get him anything but a hard time.
He needed out of the damn duct tape. Colt squirmed around on the seat and screwed up his face like he couldn’t hold it.
“Eeww, Daddy, what’s that smell?” The little girl pinched her nose and stuck out her tongue.
“Sorry, man. Like I said, I gotta go.”
The girl’s father stared at Colt. It was like watching a film in slow motion. All the options paraded through his head one after the other and washed across his face plain as day. Shoot him? No. He had a kid to think about. Leave him there and let him take a dump all over the place? No. He didn’t want to clean up the mess. Let him go? Not a chance.
The guy stood there, confused and unsure while Colt squirmed. “Come on, man. If I let loose in these pants, you’ll never get the stink out.”
“Fine.” The girl’s father turned to his daughter. “Dump those clothes and go get some scissors. Quick.”
She ran out of the room while her father paced back and forth. He ran a hand through his hair every few steps as he waved the gun about. “You try anything and I’ll put a bullet in your head, you understand?”
Colt nodded.
The little girl came back and her father pointed at Colt’s hands. “Cut one of his hands loose.”