by Julie Miller
Daryl pushed to his feet. “Screw Henry and his rules. Tell me what to do to get one here. I’ve already lost my best friend. I’m not going to lose her and my son or daughter.”
“We’re not bringing anyone else onto this compound.” Tom pushed aside the eyelet curtains and scanned outside, his body on full alert. “The dance is breaking up. People are on the move.”
She crossed to him and rested a hand on his arm, willing him to look at her. “Tom.”
He glanced down into her eyes and shook his head. “That’s not fair, babe.”
“There’s another way off this farm.”
He shook his head again, understanding what she was asking. “Can she make that trek?”
“We can.”
“Get her prepped.” He pulled out his cell and punched in a number. “Keir. I’ve got an emergency medical evac. A woman’s in labor and she’s having complications. We’ll bring her to your location at the fire tower. Have an ambulance meet us there.”
Like Tom, Melanie moved into action. There might be bullets flying soon. There would certainly be chaos once a team of law-enforcement agents arrived. With roads closing, the help SueAnn needed might not get here in time if they waited. Risking a jarring ride had to be better than the nothing she could do here. She stood beside Daryl and pointed to the corners of the blanket where SueAnn lay. “We’ll use this as a makeshift stretcher and carry her.”
“Let me do that.” Tom nudged her aside and pushed the phone into her hands. “Give Keir whatever medical info he needs and he’ll relay it to the paramedics.” There was a nagging little memory dancing at the corner of her mind when she took the phone, but there was no time to make sense of it before Tom ordered her to move. “My truck leaves in sixty seconds.”
While Tom and Daryl carried SueAnn out the front door, she stuffed SueAnn’s file into her paramedic’s backpack, grabbed an extra blanket and pillow and hurried outside, giving Keir an approximate ETA before ending the call. Earlier, she’d spared a few precious minutes to change into her jeans and hiking boots, so it was easy for her to hop into the bed of the truck beside her patient. She tapped the roof of the truck cab, indicating they were as ready as they were going to get, and Tom shifted into gear. He kept his headlights off for as long as possible before the gravel road reached the tree line to mask their escape. Encouraging Daryl to talk in soothing tones to keep SueAnn as calm as possible, she stuffed the pillow under SueAnn’s knees and covered her with the warm blanket.
“I guess we kind of broke up the dance.” Daryl held tightly to his wife’s hand. “Abby said I should take her straight to the infirmary. Folks were askin’ where you and Duff had got off to. I tried callin’ your phone, but there was no answer. Lots of folks tried. You’re gonna have a bunch of messages when you check your voice mail.” He sort of laughed, though it sounded more like a squashed-up sob. “Silas was the one who said he saw you headin’ off to the lake with Duff.”
“Silas saw us?” So much for shaming him into silence.
“Yeah. That’s why I called you on the radio.”
“Where’s Silas now?”
Daryl shrugged. “Last I knew, Abby was brewin’ him a pot of coffee at the main house to sober him up. He was pretty pissed that Deanna snuck out of the dance with Roy before it was over.”
That wasn’t why he was pissed.
“How many people called my phone?” Melanie’s stomach sank as they bounced over the next rut.
“I don’t know. Five or six. Maybe more.”
She hadn’t gotten any of those messages because she’d left her phone in Henry and Abby’s attic.
* * *
MELANIE HEARD THE rumble of ATV motors cutting through the sticky night air as soon as Tom skidded to a stop on the muddy gravel near the Edwina.
“Why did you tell me to stop?” Tom hurried around the truck. From the angle of his gaze, she knew he’d heard the ATVs approaching, too. “Is SueAnn all right?”
“This is my fault. I’m so sorry.” Melanie jumped out of the truck bed as soon as Tom lowered the tailgate. She pointed to the distant engine noises echoing throughout the hills. “We only have a couple of minutes before they’ll be here.”
“Sorry about what? We need to keep moving.”
“Silas might not have reported seeing you and me in the main house. But a ringing telephone would certainly have sent someone upstairs to look.” She pulled out the pocket linings of her jeans to show him the problem. “I left my phone in the attic. Everyone’s been calling me. They’ll know we were there. Even if they don’t figure out you’re a cop, they’ll know you’re a traitor. They’ll know I’m a traitor.”
Instead of placing blame, Tom grasped her on either side of her waist and lifted her back into the truck. “They’re probably moving the guns right now.”
“Or following us.” She jumped back to the ground and Tom cursed. “With those small vehicles, they’re going to be more maneuverable on the terrain between here and the fire tower, and they’ll catch us in no time. We need to split up.”
“No. When Silas and whoever’s with him get here, it’s not going to be an argument. They eliminate people who know their secret and won’t keep it. Get in the damn truck.”
When he reached for her again, she twisted out of his grasp. “You know I’m right. You need to get to a spot where you can notify your team to move in now, before all the evidence is gone. And I sure don’t want SueAnn in the line of fire if they catch us.”
The engines were getting louder.
“I don’t want anyone in the line of fire. This is my job, Melanie. This isn’t your fight.”
“The hell it isn’t.” She held out her hand, hearing the noise of the approaching ATVs like grasping hands clawing over her skin. “Give me the keys to your truck. I can lead them away from the fire tower and your friends. They won’t expect you to be on foot, and the two of you can make better time than if I’m carrying her.”
He pulled his keys from his pocket, but held them tight in his fist. “You go to the rendezvous. Keir will be there to meet you. I’ll play decoy.”
“No. Get SueAnn out of here. It takes two people to handle that stretcher and I can’t carry her that far. Not fast enough.”
“Doc—”
She snatched the keys from his hand and dashed to the front of the truck. “Stop arguing with me! Save her. Get the bad guys. You promised.”
Tom was there at the door when she started the engine. “I’ll keep that promise. Everything I promised.” He pulled something else from his pocket and handed it to her through the open window. It was her father’s pocket watch. “Your good luck charm.”
“Thanks.” She stuffed it into her pocket. “You’re not going to arrest me for driving without a license, are you?” When he didn’t laugh, she turned away to start the engine. She couldn’t look at that tight clench of his jaw and know how much he wanted to save her. “I’ll be fine. I’ll ditch the truck somewhere and hide until they’re gone. I’ve been hiding in these hills for years now.”
His big hand reached through the open window to palm the back of her neck. He kissed her, all that emotion on his face branding her with a hard, possessive stamp on her lips. She touched her fingers to his jaw, answering back with the same raw promise before he broke away. “I’m coming back for you. You are not alone in this fight.” He caught a lock of her hair between his fingers as he stepped back. “I’ll be back for you.”
“Tom...”
He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head as if he didn’t want to hear his real name. Then those green eyes popped open. “I love you.”
She summoned a croaky whisper that was a stunned mixture of joy, fear and piss-poor timing. “I love you, too.”
But Tom and Daryl were already at the back of the truck, lifting SueAnn on the homemade stret
cher. He slammed the tailgate as if he’d spanked her bottom, spurring her into action. “Go!”
With the two men moving in a quick march, hauling SueAnn on the blanket between them, Melanie stomped on the accelerator. The truck fishtailed, spitting up twigs and mud until the tires found traction and she sped off around the lake.
* * *
FORTY MINUTES LATER, Melanie’s thighs ached from maintaining her crouched position up on a wide limb of an ancient pin oak where she’d often come to read as a little girl. The noise of the ATV engines had stopped, and the crackle of walkie-talkie static and men’s voices had faded into the distance. Since she hadn’t heard any mention of Duff Maynard or Sergeant Loser or some other stupid nickname referring to Tom on the radio, she prayed that meant he’d gotten SueAnn to his brother and a waiting ambulance.
She perched in her hiding spot until the only noise she could hear was the breeze moving through the leaves. Hoping it was safe to make her way back to the fire tower and let Tom know he didn’t have to worry about her, she climbed down. It would be a long hike, but she still had a couple of hours of night sky and shadows to hide in before the sun came up. That should give her plenty of time to skirt the compound and avoid company before she ran into the backup Tom had promised.
She hoped Tom was safe. She hoped he loved her enough to take her home to Kansas City to meet the rest of his family. And though in some ways it felt as though she’d be leaving her father behind her, she hoped with every cell of her being that she never had to come back to this beautiful prison of a life.
She allowed herself to finally inhale a deep breath.
And then she heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked behind her. Melanie stopped at the harsh metallic rasp, her hopes washing away with the lake beside her. She slipped her fingers into her pocket to touch her father’s watch, reminding herself she wasn’t alone.
Henry Fiske was smiling when she turned to face the barrel of his gun. “You’ve always been trouble, haven’t you, girl?”
Chapter Fifteen
Melanie wondered if her father had taken a similar boat ride on board the Edwina the night he’d died.
Her uncle steered the August Moon over waves that got choppy as they neared the dam. Boating at night without any lights was dangerous, but as she swayed on her seat above the fishing deck, she knew safety wasn’t Henry’s concern.
She’d forgotten her uncle had grown up in these hills, just like she had. She should have stayed hidden longer. But she had a feeling it would have only been a matter of time before Henry tracked her down and made her pay for her defiance. One thing she hadn’t forgotten about her uncle was how much he hated anyone who didn’t follow his rules and blindly go along with his plans. But she was past the point of pretending she didn’t hate him and what he’d done to control her life. She was only glad that Tom wasn’t here, that he’d gotten away, that he would live to destroy the three people on the boat with her.
The two-way radio in the cockpit flared to life with static and the sound of Roy Cassmeyer’s voice. “Mr. Fiske? This is Roy. Do you read me? Over.” There were a few more seconds of static. “Sir? We’ve got a situation at the compound. What should I—?”
“Turn that thing off,” Abby groused from her seat across from Melanie.
Henry severed the connection and shut off the radio.
Tom and his task force must be the situation Roy was dealing with.
Silas jerked the rope he was tying around her wrists. “What are you smilin’ about?”
She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of yelping at the pinch of pain. She wouldn’t argue against the gun her aunt trained on her while Silas tossed two of the heavy bags of guns overboard. They floated on the surface for a few seconds, but started sinking before the boat left them in its silvery wake and they disappeared into the darkness. That’s what was in store for her, too. “Did you kill my father like this?”
Abby reached into a third bag at her feet. “You don’t know when to let a thing drop, do you? You’re just as stubborn as Leroy was. He wouldn’t do what he was told, either.” She pulled out Melanie’s cell phone and waved it in front of her before tossing it overboard. Melanie heard a splash, but couldn’t see much beyond the Moon’s shiny white bulwarks. “You went snooping again. And I asked you not to.” She kicked the heavy bag toward Silas and ordered him to tie it to Melanie’s waist. “Now I have to throw all this merchandise away. Our buyers will be disappointed. But it’s better than being put out of business.”
If only she knew.
Silas’s bruised face hovered in front of her. There was no pretense of politeness when he dragged her to her feet and looped a length of rope behind her, pulling her against him. “Where is your boyfriend? Is he a cop? How long have you been helping him spy on us? We’re gonna kill him, too, you know.”
“Take your filthy hands off me.” Bound, but not defenseless, Melanie sank her teeth into his arm. With a bellowing curse, he drew back to strike her. But she rammed her shoulder into his gut, knocking him off balance. They crashed into the side railing, rocking the boat when they hit. Water splashed over the side, soaking the front of his shirt.
Seeing Silas’s stunned look, she thought she’d found her chance to escape. She pulled herself up to the railing. Swimming would be difficult with her limbs tied, but impossible once they tied the heavy weight of the gun bag to her body.
A hard, cold piece of steel pressed into the back of her skull, stopping her. “Sit.”
Obeying Abby’s gun, Melanie crawled to the stern, finding a place to sit more easily than Silas was finding a way to stand again. While a part of her reveled in his discomfort and the knowledge they hadn’t found Tom yet, another part still wanted answers. She looked beyond her aunt and the white-knuckled Silas to Henry. “You said you loved your brother. Did you kill him? Is that why talking about him upsets you?”
Abby sat, keeping the gun trained on her. “I killed your father. We wanted to include him in our plans to turn this place into a gold mine. But he was all about living off the land and not wanting anything dangerous to happen around his little girl. We had our own daughter to provide for, and I wasn’t about to raise Deanna as some poor, backwater hillbilly.” Melanie thought that simple life had been pretty special. “How did Leroy think we were going to get the money to transform this place into what it’s become? Selling a few doughnuts and handmade tables? We offered to buy his half, but he refused. When he threatened to report us for having such forward-thinking ideas, he and Henry got into a fight. I had to save my husband’s life. I hit him with this very gun.” She leaned back, perhaps thinking Melanie would turn submissive with shock or grief and shut up. “With the storm that night, it was easy enough to stage an accident with the Edwina.”
Coldhearted bitch. For a few seconds, Melanie wondered how well her aunt could swim. “Why spare me? Once I was old enough to understand such things, I could have contested your claim to the land.”
“Couldn’t kill a child. And why make a fuss? You were happy with us, weren’t you?” Until she wasn’t anymore. That’s why they’d tightened their control of her life. No wonder they’d pressured her to find a man and stay on the farm.
“Your guns kill children.” She was beyond feeling pain or regret. “You hired Richard out to kill people. That’s what all those disposable phones in the attic were for. Call Gin Rickey if you need a job done. Did you kill him, too?”
“Richard got himself into trouble all on his own. When the last client who hired him wasn’t satisfied, we agreed to help dispose of the body to assure customer satisfaction, and so he couldn’t be traced back to us. We like our privacy here.”
“You weren’t expecting Roy to snag him with the propeller, were you?” She imagined that discovery had set a whole lot of scrambling to save the family business into motion. “Who hired him?”
/> “A lot of people. They didn’t volunteer the information. Once they paid the fee, I wasn’t all that interested in exchanging names.”
Silas stumbled to her seat at the back of the boat. He secured her ankles to the bags that would drag her to the bottom of the lake. But Melanie had one last question she needed answered first. “Did any of them hire Richard to shoot up a wedding at a church in Kansas City?”
“Always so many questions. It really is quite tedious, dear. Not a trait that men like.”
Henry finally joined the conversation. “I know I’m bored with it.” He stopped the engine and let the boat glide to a stop. “We should be in deep-enough water here. Even if you did call the cops on us, girl, they won’t find anything. No guns. No witness.”
“I guess you’re going to die an old maid, after all.” Abby nodded to Silas.
Still looking a little queasy, he picked up Melanie and set her on the aft fishing deck.
Once her aunt stopped talking, Melanie heard a different sound. The growl of an engine. Something much bigger than any ATV.
Hope surged through her. She wasn’t alone, after all.
“Now!” Henry ordered. “We need to clear this boat.”
Silas set the bags on the deck beside her. But when Melanie refused to take that fatal step herself, he pulled his knife. When he thrust it at her, she grabbed his belt and pulled him into the water with her.
Blood filled the water around her as Silas dragged her down into the darkness.
* * *
DUFF LOOKED AT the infant sleeping in a blue knit cap in the Saint Luke’s Hospital nursery, hoping the fatigue, fear and coffee churning in his stomach didn’t reach his face and scare the kid. Or the grandparents sliding him wary looks. Or the nurse he’d snapped at when she’d asked him to return to the surgical ICU waiting area. He’d already worn a path in the carpet there, waiting to hear if Melanie would be downgraded from critical to stable condition after surgery to repair the lung Silas Danvers had cut open, trying to save himself from drowning. He barely remembered the one-sided firefight between Matt Benton and the Fiskes before they’d surrendered and he’d dived into the lake to save her.