Love Inspired Suspense December 2015, Box Set 2 of 2

by Margaret Daley

  A knock came on the door, causing Promise to stand to the ready. “Is someone in there?” A woman’s voice was heard.

  “Taken.” Lacey disguised her voice to that of a gruff old man, not too hard to do, since she always believed she sounded like a man with her deep voice anyway.

  “In case you didn’t know, the train hit a car left on the track. I heard it was a Ferrari.”

  “A Ferrari!” So much for her deep voice. She thought she actually shrieked like a girl just then. She altered her voice again to ask, “Who would leave a Ferrari on the track?” As if she didn’t know. It had to be the same Ferrari she and Wade drove down in last night. What better way for these losers to stop the train than to use Wade’s own car.

  But that only meant one thing: the losers were out there.

  Lacey reached into Clay’s suit coat pocket for the envelope. She should just give it to them. For some reason, they were willing to kill her for it. She couldn’t see why. It was just a goodbye letter from a brother to his sister.

  Lacey folded it in thirds and stuffed it into her jeans front pocket. These were Jeffrey’s last words to her. She wouldn’t be giving them up.

  When outside noises ceased, she took the chance and peeked out the door. A quick scan showed the car empty. The few passengers that had been in there when she’d entered earlier had left, either for another car or for a closer look at the scene outside.

  How could they even look at such a heart-wrenching scene? She didn’t want to imagine the Ferrari mangled beyond recognition.

  She headed toward the front of the train, wondering where Wade was. Did he need Promise? He should have taken his dog with him.

  Lacey stepped out of the car and into the open area between the car and the engine. All was quiet inside. It would appear even the engineer had gone to inspect the crash, as well.

  A thud came from above and both Lacey and Promise looked up. Someone was on top of the train. Another thud came from farther down. Two somebodys were up there, she surmised.

  Was one of them Wade?

  Lacey pushed the exit door wide and looked out. Immediately she stepped back inside. A ten-foot drop met her beyond the train’s step. There was no way she could leave this way, or risk a broken neck as she tumbled down into a wet marsh filled with a myriad of organisms that called it their home.

  Lacey hit the button to open the interior door, but the door on the opposite end also opened. The guy who’d grabbed her back at the station entered. The very same man she’d left on the ground holding his nose. Judging by the snarl on his face as he stared her down from across the car, he looked ripe for revenge.

  Lacey hit the button and let her door slide closed. The ten-foot drop it would be.

  *

  Wade’s body lifted off the steel rooftop of the train, nothing but air beneath him, his head snapping back from the blow just dealt to him. With nothing to grab hold of to brace his fall, he landed on his back with a bone-cracking thud against unrelenting, slippery steel. His body continued to progress at high speed right to the edge.

  Wade’s head screamed in agony, but he still had enough sense to lock the heels of his boots into a crevice in the roof. His body jerked to a stop while his head rang louder than the police sirens off in the distance. Help was coming, but they weren’t here yet. Wade lifted his head before the guy got a second shot off, but his vision clouded and blurred. A search for his assailant through blinking eyes only made the world tip one way then the next. Wade rolled to his right, nearly falling off the edge. He held himself steady but caught a blurry glimpse of Lacey and Promise in the swampy water below.

  Had they jumped from the train?

  That could only mean one thing.

  Wade scanned the ground below just as the other guy ran by. Pudgy had exited the train where the ground wasn’t so steep and wet. Still, he would be on Lacey in seconds. Long before the police arrived to stop him.

  Wade pushed up to go after him, but before he could make a move, the unmistakable barrel of a gun jammed into his back.

  “Not so fast,” the guy behind him said. “This is how it’s going to go. You’re going to climb down the ladder and follow the girl into the woods, and you’re going to do it quietly.”

  The woods? Wade shot a look to the swamp, now empty. Across the way, he saw Lacey and Promise disappearing into the trees. The woods were the worst place she could be going. Didn’t she hear the sirens getting closer? No, Lacey, Wade pleaded silently. She was going the wrong way. What kind of split-second decision did she call that?

  “Try anything and I’ll kill you first. Then, you’ll be of no help to her at all.”

  Wade swallowed hard. The guy was right. Wade’s only choice was to do as he was told, for now, especially since Pudgy was gaining on Lacey fast.

  With each step down the rungs, then into the woods, Wade planned his next moves. Get to Pudgy before Pudgy got to Lacey was number one—and before the gun wielder decided they were far enough from people to dispose of him.

  Just before entering the thick tree line, Wade saw the conductor appear around the far end of the train. The gun pushed harder, the message loud and clear. The conductor climbed aboard the last car without notice of them at this end. When would he notice two of his passengers were unaccounted for? Would there be a search for them?

  Wade’s boots hit water. Splashes hit his knees as the swampy land became more saturated and deeper.

  Wade pretended to trip, dropping to his knees in the water with a loud splash.

  “Get up!” the gunman said.

  “Sorry. I tripped on a root or something,” Wade mumbled as he pushed up and swung around, sweeping his arm through the murky water as he turned. As hoped, the water hit the guy smack in the eyes, long enough for Wade to make a grab for the gun.

  But the guy held tight and swung his arm off to his right to break Wade’s hold. The quick action and slippery water caused Wade to lose his grip, but it also caused the guy to lose his.

  The gun flew from his hand, landing in the thick, dark water with a gulp. For a split second the guy looked to the sludge in shock and distaste.

  A split second was all Wade needed. He reached for the left arm pocket of his combat jacket and withdrew a small pocketknife. Before the guy turned back, the knife was flipped open to flash a warning. A few quick slices produced tears in the goon’s black leather coat in case he didn’t heed the warning. The momentum had him falling back, arms flailing wildly, and Wade took off in the direction Lacey went before the man hit the water.

  Wade’s high-speed run splashed through the swamp, but he could still hear the guy sputtering obscenities and lethal promises. If Lacey wasn’t under pursuit, Wade would have stuck around to use the water as a way to get information out of the thug’s lips instead of his useless lewd comments.

  Another day.

  With the knife in his palm, Wade went in search of Pudgy. The guy had to be stopped before he caught up with Lacey, but the setting sun outside the swamp was just a memory under the canopy of trees. Darkness loomed and grew with each sloshing step farther into the unknown terrain.

  Again, in this dense myriad of tangled tree trunks and creeping branches, Wade wondered what Lacey had been thinking coming into this cold, dark place. Getting lost in here could mean death by natural causes by morning, never mind the paid assassins hunting them down. Wade couldn’t wait to hear her quick-witted reason for leading them to their deaths.

  Of course, that would mean he found her in here first.

  And found her alive.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “I know you’re around here! You might as well come out, missy. You can’t hide. I will find you,” Lacey’s chaser called out through the swamp. She dared not moan from the pain in her wounded arm, or even breathe from her hiding place in fear of alerting him to the fact that she was much closer than he realized.

  Like right above him.

  From her perch on a thick branch, Lacey leaned closer to the trunk of
the cypress she’d crawled up into. Promise stayed low and silent beside her. The man who called out was the same man from the train station. He trembled from cold where he stood in the knee-deep water, and from her bird’s-eye view, he didn’t look so scary now.

  She knew that wasn’t the truth, though. He had a duty, and it wasn’t to be her friend.

  His duty was to make her disappear.

  This brute didn’t get to where he was in his life by making friends. How many people had he killed with his stout hands? Hands she knew so up close and personal. The memory of his sweaty palms on her lips made her cringe.

  He tunneled one of those killing hands through his greasy black hair, a nervous gesture that made her think perhaps the trembling was from more than cold water.

  Perhaps the man was afraid of failing at his duty.

  That only told Lacey she had more to fear than this guy. If he caught her, she would be facing his boss next, and that made a tremor zip straight up her own spine.

  A wet paw covered her hand on the branch.

  Promise stared up at her with nervous, droopy eyes. She looked petrified in the darkness, but Lacey didn’t know what to do to change that. They’d run for a while before she realized they were running in circles and would be safer up here. The guy’s voice had died down for a little while, enough time to allow them to climb higher and higher before he came back around.

  Lacey wished Promise had gone back to Wade. Instead, the dog had jumped up on the low webs of tangled cypress branches to stay by Lacey’s side. With the sun gone and the lurking shadows to hide in, she felt safe, for now. She feared Promise would whine and give them away, but the control this dog had over her emotions so far said otherwise. It reminded Lacey of Wade’s statement. She’s trained to provide a service.

  Just like the man below.

  But Promise’s duty was for something so much more heroic.

  Lacey leaned over and saw the burly man had moved on in another direction. She buried her numb fingers into Promise’s thick wet fur and whispered, “Why didn’t you stay behind? You didn’t need to jump out after me, you silly dog. I’m not your handler. I’m not the one you love and protect. And I know you love him. I see it, even if he doesn’t.”

  Promise hedged in closer, pushing her head into Lacey’s thigh. Her collar brushed against Lacey’s hand when she petted her neck. Her red service vest attached to the collar was soaked and cold. Lacey thought of removing it, but before she could, water swished off in the distance, silencing all movements by them in the tree.

  The guy was circling back again. Would he find her this time? Would he shoot her out of the tree? She plastered her back to the trunk, hoping her silhouette from below looked like any of the other distorted trees.

  Even though Promise knew whining wasn’t allowed, shivering couldn’t be controlled—by either of them. The cold swamp water that drenched them seeped into their bones, chilling them more and more with the evening chill. Lacey did her best to control her teeth chattering.

  The swishing of water grew louder. At any second she could be found. Did they just want her dead? Or were they after something more?

  The guy said he wanted whatever was in the locker. Lacey felt her soaked jeans where the folded envelope was stuffed. It would be ruined by now. Would the words on the paper even be legible anymore? The message was useless to them when it was dry, and now it would be more so. Did that mean they would just kill her? Or would they take her to their leader? What would they do when they learned she was useless, as well?

  The water below swashed louder and Lacey covered her mouth to stifle her breathing that sounded so loud in her ears. It wouldn’t be long before all her questions had answers, unfortunately.

  Her pursuer was so close now. The tinkling of water settled where he stopped on the other side of the tree below. She dared not move to look. Instead, Lacey braced herself to make a jump for it. She hoped she wouldn’t have to, that the guy would think no one was in the area and turn around and leave again. And for good this time.

  Please, God, cover us with Your protection. Let no one hear us, so they move away from here and leave us alone. But if I have to go, I know You’ll go with me, Lord. I’m ready.

  Lacey nodded in agreement with her prayer at the same time her fingers gripped into the bark of the tree. She was poised and ready to take the leap as soon as she caught one glimpse of the man.

  But before Lacey made a move, Promise jumped up from her spot on the branch and dived down into the water with a splash, their location now revealed.

  Lacey pushed herself harder back into the tree, panic setting in with the coming of faster breaths. She might as well give up, too. The race was finished. Why, Promise? Why?

  Then she heard a familiar voice.

  “Lacey, it’s me, Wade. Come down quietly.”

  In less than a second, Lacey followed Promise’s splashing leap.

  So much for quiet.

  *

  Lacey plowed into the water at full force. Her legs barely hit bottom before his arms secured her and pulled her into his chest. She came down so hard they nearly fell back into the water. He stepped to a gnarled, silhouetted tree trunk for support.

  “Lacey, you’re safe, but you have to be still, or they’ll hear you and come back.”

  As he hoped, she froze in his arms. But only for a second. She reached her arms up around his neck and pushed her face into its curve to stifle a soft whimper. He couldn’t fault her for being afraid. His own fear matched hers.

  Wade pushed his face into her matted hair as he felt his heartbeat pulse through his skull. He squeezed tighter when his hands shook. Promise whined beside him. She sensed his tension, but Wade wasn’t ready to let Lacey go.

  And she wasn’t ready, either.

  “I shouldn’t have left you,” he said. “I should have—”

  “No, you shouldn’t have.” Lacey clung on even though her words were accusative. “But you made the best decision you could have in the moment. There was no time to sit down and discuss things, draw up plans and delegate. A moment like that calls for action. It’s fight or flight. But you should know, I don’t run from anything and you don’t have to leave me behind.”

  “Well, I can’t leave you behind in these swamps, that’s for sure, but we do need to fly. Those guys will be back. Why on earth did you choose to come in here? The police were on their way.”

  “I thought I could beat them on my turf. The swamps were my playground. Besides, the only reason you found me is because Promise gave us away.”

  Wade smirked in the darkness. She was right, but he wasn’t about to admit it. He tipped her chin up to glean her emotions, exemplified through her shadowed eyes. “No fear of snakes, huh?”

  “Just the pudgy kind.”

  Wade sobered and searched the perimeter around them for Pudgy and his friend. “We can’t go back to the train. They’ll block our path and catch us.”

  “Don’t ask me for the way out of here. I’m directionally challenged. I’ve been going in circles for hours.”

  “You race cars. That’s all you know how to do.”

  “Not the time for jokes, Wade. Now’s the time for you to start all that planning you like to do.”

  Wade lifted his arm to show her his watch. “Judging by our current coordinates, I say we go left.”

  “Go left,” Lacey repeated quietly.

  “You don’t agree?”

  “It’s not that. Go left was a command Jeffrey instructed me to do often. When you said it, it just reminded me of him.”

  Wade pulled Lacey’s head down to his chest with a sigh. “I’m going to get you out of here, okay?”

  She nodded, trembling.

  Wade grabbed Lacey’s upper arms and realized she only wore Cora’s flowered blouse, now drenched.

  “I lost your uncle’s suit coat somewhere in the jump, I think,” she answered as though she read his mind.

  Wade took off his combat jacket and wrapped her up i
n it. He should have done that first thing, but all he could focus on was holding Lacey to make sure she was real, and he wasn’t having one of his hallucinations.

  Lacey pulled it closed on a sigh. “You should give this to Promise. She’s been so wonderful.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of her. That’s my part in the deal. She guides and protects, I keep her happy and healthy.” Wade hefted Promise up to situate her across his shoulders and back. She was drenched and frigid. He couldn’t have her trouncing through the water anymore. He meant what he said. He didn’t shirk on his duties to Promise. He couldn’t. Without her, he’d be a puddle bigger than these swamps.

  They took their first steps in the decided-upon direction. Water quietly splashed around their moving feet, taking them slowly away from the train and the dangerous men waiting for them to return to it.

  After a good distance of silence, Wade spoke again. “I’ve never seen Promise protect anyone but me. She was trained, starting at three days old, to recognize human emotion, but she was only allowed to bond with me. Not that I’m not happy she stayed by your side—I am—but I am surprised.”

  “Maybe she was trained to sense danger in general. Not just danger for you, but for anyone.”

  “She was trained to be a guide dog for her handler—me.”

  Lacey shrugged as she followed beside him a couple steps. He noticed she became increasingly quieter as they moved through the swamp. In the darkness, he reached for her hand. Her fingers felt like frozen brittle sticks.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked. “Besides being lost out in the swamps and chased by strangers who want to kill you, that is?”

  She shrugged again. “I was thinking. I may have had something to do with us being separated back there, as well.”

  “How so?”

  “You told me to stay down and I didn’t. The thing is, I really do try to make the best choices in the moment. I guess this one wasn’t that great.”