Kansas Heat

by Kansas Heat (lit)

  “You won’t do it.” Will straightened up. His gaze cut over her shoulder to the trucks coming head-on before switching back to Amanda’s. “What you are going to do is get in the tunnel before those trucks get here and let me end the mess I made.”

  He referred to the tunnels he and her brother had discovered out here long ago. Davey had told the boys about them and they’d turned it into an informal party spot. The sudden memory of all the times she’d lost held Amanda in position, unconcerned as the light grew from behind her.

  “Why?” Her arm dropped as her whole body started to go limp. Before her, Will’s image wavered under the fresh onslaught of tears paining her eyes. “Why are you doing this to me? You’re the only family I have left.”

  “No,” Will drew the word out his gaze dropping to her stomach. “You got that baby inside you, and I imagine a man who’s pretty pissed at you right now back somewhere in Humble. I’m just hoping it’s Cody Reese and not Nick.”

  She couldn’t believe he’d joke at a time like this. Actually Amanda could and it made her all the sadder to know he’d be gone in a matter of seconds. “Will.”

  His gaze cut over her shoulder again, his features hardening. “It’s time.”

  “No!” Amanda screamed as if by the power of her command alone she could stop the nightmare unfolding around her, but Will just kept coming. Charging her, he took her down with a tackle, sending the gun skidding from her hand as bullets started sinking into the ground just ahead of him.

  Amanda’s eyes locked with his for barely a second before Will released the latch. Years ago her brother had changed the hinges, finding some humor in a drop down trap door. Amanda had always feared it would give under her weight and drop her to her death. This time it became a panic as the dirt gave way beneath her.

  The wood slats fell back and her head suddenly dipped into cool darkness. Will twitched, roaring as the bullets began to rain around them. With one final push he lifted up enough to shove her right through the hole.

  “N—!”

  Amanda barely started her scream when pain splintered up her face. Her legs flipped over her body, smacking her nose first into the hard ground. The intense sensation blinded her for a moment, capturing her full attention until little red droplets started to spatter across the dirt.

  In a rush, the roar of gunfire flooded through her mind and she shoved herself up, kneeling back onto her knees. Above her, Will twitched and groaned as his face became distorted with blood. The light had gone from his eyes already, but Amanda knew he still lingered.

  Paying little attention to the noise and commotion erupting above her, Amanda curled her fingers around the wooden ladder mounted to the wall. Two steps is all it took her to reach out and brush the blood back from his cheek.

  “I love you, Will.” Silently she asked God for his mercy to save Will in whatever life came next. Clenching her jaw to hold back the tears, Amanda knew the moment he left her.

  One second later a bullet cut through the opening and sliced right through her arm, redefining her definition of pain. Wheeling back with a scream, she fell off the ladder in a step that nearly took her back to her ass. They were coming for her, the shouts, the bullets walking down the wall, Amanda didn’t even think before she started running.

  Fleeing down the blackened hall of the tunnel, she had only memory to guide her as it split wide into the one room that had once been used for storage. Two more tunnels branched off and by some blessing Amanda found one to huddle into. It didn’t lead but fifteen feet away, too close to escape through the hatch and into the chaos above.

  There in the pitch dark, she waited for her turn, biting down hard on her lower lip to hold back the screams. Part of Amanda didn’t care anymore. She hurt from the inside out and from the outside in. Wrapping her arm up in the hem of her shirt, Amanda hunkered down and listened as voices started to float down the tunnel.

  Chapter 54

  Knox knew the moment Amanda’s life came into danger. It wasn’t ESP or anything spiritual. The DEA agents gave it away when, in a matter of seconds, they cleared out. All of them, except for two annoying guys who held them up for nearly a half hour.

  It pained him in a way Knox had never experienced pain to sit there and know Amanda needed him. Even if he didn’t know what it is he’d have done, Knox would have died for her if life would have only given him the chance. Instead, by the time the DEA agents cut the twist cuffs free from his wrists and let them pile back into the truck, Knox didn’t know which way to turn when he came to the end of the drive.

  “What are you doing?” Jace snapped when Knox stopped dead at the end of the drive.

  Knox blinked staring out at the field straight across, feeling completely lost. “I don’t know.”

  “What the fuck?” Cody roared across the cab. “Turn…”

  “Which way?” Knox shot back as Cody turned his head, looking from one side of the road to the other.

  “Left.” Jace sounded so confident it creeped Knox out.

  Not Cody who just scrunched his nose at their middle brother. “Why?”

  “Because if anything bad happened, they’ll be taking her Dodge City.” Jace lifted his head to pin Knox with a hard look. “And the hospital.”

  Knox may hate it, but he couldn’t argue Jace’s logic. Cracking the wheel to the left, Knox had the truck up to a hundred miles per hour within a minute. Just the fact he had to obey had Knox doing the only thing he knew to do. Digging out his cell phone from the pocket he’d tucked it into not minutes ago, Knox swerved all over the road as he dialed in the numbers.

  “Who are you calling?”

  Knox ignored Cody’s annoying question, waiting for Andrew to pick up. He didn’t the first time Knox called or the second, but by the time Cody asked his question for the fifth time Andrew’s annoyed voice demanded to know, “What do you want?”

  “To know where Amanda Johnson is,” Knox answered without hesitation.

  “Knox?” Anger gave over to confusion in Andrew’s voice as he complained, “Who the hell is Amanda Johnson?”

  “She’s my future wife,” Knox snapped. “So I’m sorry to interrupt whatever games you were playing with whatever playmate it is tonight, but I need to know where she is.”

  “Well my playmate is all tied up right now, so she’ll keep long enough for you to take a breath and tell me again who this Amanda Johnson is and why it is you think I know where she is.”

  “I don’t have time for the who, and so here is the why. All I know is that she’s got some drug dealers chasing her, her daddy kidnapped her and now the DEA is all over the place, but they won’t say shit, so I’m asking you to find out the what and why for me.”

  Andrew hesitated for a second before sighing. “This is the favor, you’re asking?”

  Knox knew just what Andrew meant. It had been over a decade ago when Knox had saved Andrew’s life and he’d sworn a debt to Knox. For as true as the story was, Knox would never recognize the favored owed him, believing it his duty to save a life when he could. Tonight, though, his heart bent the rule, uncaring of all the reason and logic in the world.

  “It is.”

  “All right then,” Andrew agreed instantly. “I’ll find this Amanda Johnson for you, but you’re going to have to introduce me to this woman, Knox. I want to meet the woman who has brought you to your knees.”

  Normally he’d have some choice words for Andrew, but tonight Knox ignored his friend’s ribbing. “How long is it going to take?”

  “I’ll call as soon as I know something.”

  The line went dead and Knox tossed the phone unseeingly into Jace’s lap.

  “So?” Jace prodded. “You going to answer Cody’s question now?”

  “It was Andrew, couldn’t you tell?” Cody snorted, saving Knox from having to ignore Jace. It hurt to talk. Talking meant relaxing his jaw and that threatened to let out something that terrified him, something he had no memory of ever doing.

  Jace just woul
dn’t be appeased. “Knox.”

  Risking the tears, he managed to growl at Jace. “Who else would it be?”

  “Is he going to—”

  “Yes!” Knox shouted at Jace, wishing he’d just shut up.

  Thankfully both brothers got the message and left Knox to the quiet. There in the silence, he waged a battle between fear, rage and grief. Amanda just couldn’t be taken from him. The last couple of weeks had been sheer hell. A depression beyond measure crowded his soul at the very idea of enduring that pain for the rest of his life.

  It simply couldn’t be.

  That single thought echoed through him as he tried every prayer he knew to make it real and not just a dream. Time suspended itself, aided by the endless view of gray asphalt chugging under the hood of the car. The yellow dashes blipped past as outside the window the seamless moonlit plains appeared almost as a still image so little changed over the miles.

  Knox felt as if he had lived forever, trapped in some dimension where all he did was go endlessly forward to never reach any destination. The altered reality broke around him, snapping time forward nearly an hour as they looped around Humble. The lights, the buildings, they were all there then gone as the highway stretched back out into darkness.

  The road didn’t have a chance to trap him under its spell this time. Not with the shrill ring of the phone bringing Knox to the moment he dreaded. Fear didn’t make his reflexes slow, but Knox still didn’t beat Cody to the phone sitting in Jace’s hand. He’d been holding it out to Knox, but Cody swooped in and snapped it up.

  “Hey!”

  “I want to hear this,” Cody snapped back as he flipped open the phone.

  “Hear what?” Andrew asked, catching the comment. His voice came out distorted by the speaker. Knox still heard him and he still wasn’t in any mood to chat.

  “Did you find Amanda?” Yelling his question out, the truck swerved anew as he leaned over Jace to grab at the phone. Cody held it high, letting Andrew’s answer wash over the three of them.

  “Yeah, I found your girl. I’ll save you the earful for later and get to the part you want to hear, Knox. She’s being taken to the hospital down in Dodge City—”

  “Score one for Jace.”

  “Shut up, Cody!” Knox could have killed his younger brother right then. The son of a bitch didn’t seem to understand Amanda could die tonight.

  “Hey, I’m just trying to relax a little, Knox. I feel sick enough to throw up my actual stomach,” Cody defended himself.

  “Shut up or I’ll shut you up.”

  “Do any of you want to know why she’s being taken to the hospital?” Andrew asked dryly, sounding too amused for Knox’s peace of mind.

  “Well if the two assholes in this truck would shut up, I’d like to know,” Jace retorted, showing a little of this temper.

  “It’s a bullet wound.”

  None of them said a word to that. God still had a chance to be merciful, but inside, Knox’s heart sank. It went right to his foot, weighing it down until the truck rattled at nearly a hundred and thirty miles per hour.

  “I can’t tell you where she took it or even how many,” Andrew finally filled in the silence. “But they didn’t airlift her, so it can’t be that bad.”

  That bad, Knox guessed it all depended on how much you loved a person to determine just what ‘bad’ actually was.

  “I also got a sense when you get to the hospital it’s going to be a party,” Andrew warned. “I know you, Knox. Don’t be getting yourself arrested. These boys don’t play.”

  “We hear you, Andrew,” Jace answered for Knox after a long pause. Those tears Knox had been fighting before had returned. “We’ll play nice.”

  Maybe Jace would.

  “Yeah, right,” Andrew retorted. “Just to let you know, I know a really good defense lawyer, Albert Swine. You might want to take his number down now.”

  Knox didn’t need a number, he needed to see Amanda—now. The urgency drove him to press harder on the gas, pushing the pedal further down until pain shot straight up his leg.

  “Ah!” Instantly his knee bent back, nearly catching Jace’s hand as he withdrew it. “Son of a bitch!’”

  The motion pulled his foot back from the gas pedal and the truck slowed down as Knox tried to shake off the pain. “What the fuck?”

  “We’re not going to do Amanda any good dead. Now stop driving like an insane person or get out of the driver’s seat.”

  Snarling over Jace’s harsh command, Knox slammed back on the gas. As much as he might hate it, this time he kept the needle on the speedometer only at one hundred. He even had the sanity to slow down through the city streets, recognizing being pulled over would only delay his getting to Amanda…so would parking.

  Knox really didn’t care if the truck got towed, so he left it right at the curb along the red line, double parked along a deputy’s car in front of the emergency room doors. If Jace or Cody wanted to waste time, they could park the truck. Knox only had one thing in mind.

  All his thoughts centered on Sheriff Anthony Black the second he saw Tony standing in the waiting room. Not bothering to take note of the uniformed officers clustered around the sheriff, much less the DEA agent Tony was talking to, Knox walked right up and shoved the large man out of his circle of friends. With both hands planted on Tony’s chest, Knox pinned him to the wall.

  “It’s all right!” Tony yelled out, probably to the men who started in shouting at Knox. The hands that had instantly gripped onto Knox’s shoulders as he tore through the cops lessened but didn’t release.

  Knox didn’t care if they all beat him down. Nothing could hurt worse than what he felt then. “Where is she?”

  Tony met his gaze and Knox could see the disgust in his. “Look, I’m only telling you this because none of us have the time to deal with your shit. Amanda got hit, but it’s only her arm. They got her in surgery now.”

  There, Knox could breathe again. With his first breath he backed off slightly, giving the sheriff room to shove Knox completely off him. Straightening his shirt, Tony glared at him.

  “Now, I did you a favor. You do me one. Sit down and stay out of the way.”

  Knox would, but he wanted one thing clear. “You’re not keeping me from seeing her this time.”

  “I think you better take his advice, Mr. Reese.”

  Agent Tagger’s comment drew Knox’s attention. Knowing Amanda wouldn’t be leaving him by dying, a new worry took its place.

  “Jace?” He turned to find his brother right at his back. “You got that number from Andrew?”

  * * * *

  The flickering glare of the overhead fluorescents gave Amanda a headache, so did the men pestering her with endless questions. Every time she opened her eyes a new slew of some type of cop lurked to ask her the same question five times. The same questions their friends had asked five times the last time she opened her eyes.

  This is why people hated cops. It was mind numbing. Especially given she didn’t answer very many of their questions. Amanda wasn’t allowed, not with her lawyer standing sentry. Albert Swine was a very interesting fellow and Amanda had no doubt who had sent him to her.

  Knox, Jace and Cody lingered somewhere out there in the chaos beyond her room. She wished they were there with her. Maybe then she could feel something. It was frightening how little she actually felt. It seemed as if she’d lost all her emotions, had left them cowering back in the darken tunnel.

  Silently detached, Amanda reviewed the night over and over again in her mind, playing it back in full 3D animation. She could feel the gun in her hand, hear the deafening blast and watch her father’s eyes as she took his life from him. That should make her feel something, horror, guilt, relief, anything, but not even the image of the blood dripping down Will’s cheek touched her.

  Finally, after all these years, her worst nightmare had been realized. She was alone, completely alone. You got that baby inside you and I imagine a man who’s pretty pissed at you right now b
ack somewhere in Humble…maybe. Pregnancies got lost and men left women.

  Two truths Amanda wouldn’t worry so much over if she could just see Knox, Jace and Cody. Will had probably been right about the pissed part, but Amanda would give them the right to be angry. She would be at them, if the roles were reversed.

  Certainly, her great plans had turned into an overwhelming failure, so she didn’t have a lot of cover when it came to what she’d say. No doubt, everything would get worse once they found out about the baby. At least they wouldn’t know Amanda knew about the baby before she almost got them both killed.

  The hell Knox would rain down on her head made Amanda cringe just to imagine. Yeah, her life was about to do a one eighty turn, but she still felt alone and very much lost. All she needed was one of her men, just to hold her for a moment. Amanda knew that would make it all right.

  Like anything could. Tony was trying. Davey had died outside his jurisdiction, giving him almost no authority except the respect of Tony’s position as a sheriff. Thankfully the county sheriff’s department had already assured Mr. Swine they were ruling it as self-defense. Even if the federal agents liked to make threats, Mr. Swine has assured her, they didn’t have jurisdiction and, without it, no power.

  Between Tony and Mr. Swine, the one thing Amanda was guilty of was being pretty damn dumb. The feds could get behind that verdict. They could also get behind the “she was in cahoots with Will and knew where the money was” theory. From the FBI to the ATF, it seemed like the only people who hadn’t shown up to ask her where the cash was the IRS.

  Mr. Swine had assured her eventually they’d show up. With Will dead and no money in the tunnels, the federal government really had nobody left but her to harass.

  Despite his intentions, Will’s death hadn’t saved her. He’d condemned Amanda. It almost made her laugh. It was just so Will. Nothing ever turned out right for him. Will had tried for nobility and ended up an ass, somehow that seemed a fitting epitaph for him. The real question was what would hers be?