One Last Song (A Thomas Family Novel Book 3)

by Kristi Cramer

  “Sweet Jesus...,” said Blue, looking over Momma’s shoulder.

  When the phone buzzed with another incoming text, Momma’s face blanched even whiter before she handed the phone back to Janie.

  Too bad you can’t kiss them goodbye.

  Janie’s fingers shook as she typed the only words that came to mind.

  Please, don’t.

  She waited, hands gripping the phone so hard the protective case started to pop off, but there was no response.

  “Forward the picture to me,” Mitzi said, her voice gentle and professional. “I’ll make sure Sanderson gets it. It may help.”

  Unable to sit still, Janie rose to her feet in an explosion of pent-up energy. Her voice rose to a howl of frustrated fury. “How?”

  “If Cody is with the kids,” Mitzi said, keeping her tone reasonable, “that must mean the Feds are close. The last we heard, Cody was with Sanderson. This picture shows what’s going on, where the victims are in relation to the room. If they have to go in, that’s important to know.”

  Janie felt Tim’s fingers gently pulling at the phone she still held in her grasp. She thrust it at him, making him fumble to catch it. Then she pushed past Momma and Blue and headed for the front door.

  After wrestling with it until she realized it was locked, she clawed at the key and turned it, then strode out into the cool evening air. Blinded by tears, she stumbled over a curb and nearly fell, catching herself against the hood of a car. Hands on her knees, she stopped, unable to think. It was all she could do to just breathe.

  A moment later, she felt gentle hands on her back. Momma was there, stroking her hair, trying to instill her with comfort only a mother could offer.

  “I can’t breathe,” Janie said. “If anything else happens to my baby....”

  “Shh,” Momma soothed. “Daddy is there, and so is Cody. Not to mention our Heavenly Father. It will all work out to God’s plan.”

  “But what if God’s plan doesn’t include her survival?” She hated the break in her voice as she acknowledged her biggest fear. “What if God takes her from me?”

  Momma wrapped her in a hug and squeezed. “Then we deal with it. Until this is over, we’ll just take it one second at a time, and love each other the best we can.”

  Janie clung to her so fiercely, Momma had to brace herself against the parked car, making Janie choke out a laugh and loosen her grip. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Tim standing just outside the café doors, watching her with a helpless expression on his face. Momma turned and saw where she was looking, and stepped back.

  “I’m going to rustle up some dinner,” she said, her voice brisk with an attempt to be cheerful. “Try to make myself useful.”

  “Want some help?” Janie forced herself to ask.

  “If you want. Talk to your man first. I’ll be in the kitchen when you’re ready.”

  Tim approached as Momma went back inside.

  “I kinda lost it,” Janie said, holding out her hand to him.

  “Honestly, I don’t know how you’ve kept it together this long.” He took her hand and wrapped her in a hug. “No mother should have to endure this.”

  “If I thought it would help anything, I’d be screaming and stomping my feet, railing at God, demanding to know why. Just five days ago, when we were running across the prairie, I was scared, but we could do something about it, you know? We were in just as much danger as Kylie and Jax are in now, and I dealt with it. But this? I should have gone with Daddy. I should have driven down myself. I should have....”

  Tim held her closer, rocking her. “Oh, Janie. I wish I could ease your mind.”

  She wanted him to. She wanted him to tell her everything was going to be all right, but she knew she wouldn’t believe him even if he did. In her heart, she was glad he didn’t try to shine her on.

  “I just....” His warm body against hers was the only thing keeping her from shaking, and she held on tight. “Kiss me,” she said. “Help me forget, just for a moment.”

  Tim angled back from her to meet her gaze, then brought his hands up to cup her face. His thumb brushed her lower lip, reminding her of the first time he almost kissed her, and her breath caught in her throat as he leaned in and touched his lips to hers.

  They hadn’t kissed since the night before—it hadn’t seemed appropriate—and she now wished she had found a reason to do it sooner. This kiss was the polar opposite of their heated exchange in the tack room, but it was so sweet and tender, it was a balm to her soul. He didn’t claim her lips with his. He breathed life into her, and she took it in like a drowning woman rescued from the dark depths.

  When he pulled back again, she fluttered her eyelids open and found his gaze steady on her. He didn’t speak, just brushed a lock of her hair back behind her ear. She moved to rest her head against his chest and kept it there for a while, just listening to his heartbeat.

  ⋘⋆⋙

  “Agent Sanderson.” Callie had picked up on the third ring, identifying herself, even though the caller ID told her it was Cody’s phone.

  “Nice of you to finally answer, Agent Sanderson.” As expected, the man on the other end was not Cody.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “Aren’t you curious to know my name?”

  “Are you going to tell me?”

  The man laughed, a harsh, barking sound. “Fair enough. Daddy Buford says you’ve got a helicopter nearby. All I want is to get out of here. If it touches down within fifty feet of the front door in...say...fifteen minutes, nobody else has to die.”

  “I need—”

  “Fifteen minutes and we walk out that door and into that helicopter, or one of the hostages dies.”

  The call ended before she could ask for more information, like how many people he expected to leave with and how she could expect to guarantee their safety, not to mention the safety of her pilot. This guy was obviously only interested in the greater landscape. He couldn’t be bothered with petty details.

  Callie crouched down behind the brush and made her way to Mr. Thomas’ position before she radioed Ducharme. “Dylan, we need you here in fifteen minutes. You’ve got to land your bird within fifty feet of the trailer’s door.”

  “And then?”

  She smiled grimly, sure that Dylan had figured out she was acting on the assumption the people inside the trailer could hear their transmissions, either over Cody’s earpiece or with their own radio.

  “Then you’ll do as the man tells you to do.”

  “Roger that. On my way.”

  “Mr. Thomas, do you have any notion what this guy thinks he’s doing? It bothers me that he expects to cross fifty feet of open ground without getting shot.”

  Mr. Thomas’ gaze never shifted from the front of the trailer. The barrel of his rifle was braced in the branches of the sagebrush he lay behind, and it did not waver. “That chopper is going to generate a lot of rotor wash. The force of it will flatten most of these shrubs and send the tumbleweeds flying. Dirt and small rocks, too. I reckon he’s banking on that being as good as cover fire. He’ll use something as a shield to protect himself. Maybe the hostages. It’s risky, but it has as much a chance of working as anything.”

  “Suggestions?”

  Mr. Thomas grunted. “Prayer never hurts. What happens when he realizes there’s only room for one?”

  “It’s gonna be chaos. Think you’ll be able to take him out?”

  “I’ll have to, won’t I?”

  Callie’s phone chimed with an incoming text. She looked down and saw it was from the deputy in Syracuse.

  Thought this might interest you. Was sent to Janie from Cody’s phone.

  She enlarged the photo. Once she realized what she was looking at, she frowned.

  “Well, I’ll be....”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Kylie’s gaze flicked from her father to Jax to Alan and around again, ears perked to hear the sound of the helicopter approaching. Dad had to be talking about Dylan’s helicopter. H
ow else could he have gotten down here? But she knew it wasn’t big enough to hold them all, and she desperately wanted to know what the plan was. Dad, staring at her in the dim light, seemed to be willing her to understand something, but she had no idea what it might be.

  From where he lay on the floor, she could see Jax’s eyes through the merest slits of his lids, which encouraged her. He was more aware than he let on, and she hoped he was ready for anything.

  Alan and Maria were in the kitchen, arguing in low voices, and she tried to listen in.

  “Three people,” Kylie heard her say. “You, me, and the girl. Price didn’t say anything about wanting Buford.”

  “He didn’t know we’d be able to get him. Maybe he’ll be happy torturing the man himself,” Alan said.

  “He wants him to suffer with the knowledge of what he’ll do to the girl. We only take her.”

  “Maybe we take half of each of them,” Alan said, his tone hard enough to make Kylie think he was almost serious. She wasn’t sure if Maria realized his true intent, but she thought if anyone wasn’t going to make it on that helicopter, it was probably going to be Maria. She shuddered to think what would happen when they realized there wasn’t enough room.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Maria said. “That would solve nothing.”

  Just then, her ears picked up the distant thrum of a helicopter coming closer, and she said a silent prayer, knowing this was going to be over soon—one way or another. Alan must have heard it a moment after she did because he put a hand up to forestall anything else Maria would have said. He turned on his heel and headed for the window, and Maria followed.

  “Cut the girl loose from the chair,” he said. “And get Buford on his feet.”

  “What about the boy?”

  The look of disdain Alan turned on Jax spoke volumes. “I’ll take care of him once the chopper is close enough to drown out the shot.”

  “No!” Kylie couldn’t help but shout as she struggled against the ropes. She succeeded in hopping a few inches closer to Jax, intending to throw herself on top of him if she had to.

  As Alan watched out a tiny crack in the front window’s curtain, the sound of the chopper drew closer and closer. Maria hesitated, unsure of how to deal with Kylie’s frenzied state and obviously worried whether she could handle the two of them.

  “Here’s the plan,” Alan said, abruptly turning away from the window. He strode toward Cody, hauled him to his feet and shoved him toward the door. “You go first, Maria. Use this idiot to shield you from the debris. I’ll be right behind you with the girl.”

  Something was different. Maria hadn’t picked up on it, but Kylie was sure he’d originally planned to be the first one out the door. Alan pulled a revolver out of the waistband of his pants and thrust it into her hand, then positioned her behind Cody. “As soon as it lands, head out. They won’t be able to see you with all the debris flying everywhere. We’ll force the chopper to fly a short distance with extra weight.”

  “O-okay,” she said, a panic-stricken look overtaking her features.

  Kylie wanted to call him on his lies. Instead, she hopped another inch closer to Jax.

  “Kylie!” Cody’s voice rose above the rush of the helicopter before all sound was drowned out. The racket was deafening, and the old trailer shook with the proximity of the thundering engine. The front window blew inward, shattered glass and curtains flying in a crazy wind.

  Maria, one hand holding the pistol against Cody’s side, opened the door with her free hand and forced him through, pushing all her weight against his back.

  “Daddy!” Kylie screamed. She couldn’t even hear herself over the noise.

  Alan stepped in front of her, raising his pistol toward Jax.

  “No!” She hopped wildly in the chair. One of the arms loosened under her assault, and she flailed harder against it, trying to break free.

  Then Jax was up. He had managed to free his hands, and now he rushed at Alan, both hands reaching for the pistol. The two men struggled for control of the weapon as Kylie watched, horrified.

  ⋘⋆⋙

  Cody felt the gun against his ribs as the woman pushed him out the door, and he didn’t know what to do. He knew the man would have to be drawn outside in order for one of the snipers to have a shot at him, but there wasn’t any reason to think the man wouldn’t shoot Jax as he said he would.

  Could he sacrifice Jax in the name of saving Kylie?

  Ground debris whipped into his face as the woman pushed him in front of her, and he bent his head against it, feeling the sting of sand, dirt, twigs, and tumbleweeds striking him. A few steps off the porch, he turned his head to look behind him, but didn’t see the man or Kylie.

  The woman pushed him again, shouting something he couldn’t understand over the roar of the wind and engine. She pressed the gun into his side, then hesitated, her gaze moving past him to the helicopter. Cody didn’t have to look to know she was coming to realize she’d been set up.

  She turned to the trailer and took a step back. Hearing words shouted through the earbud, he thought he knew what Sanderson was saying, and he let the space between them grow.

  As if on cue, blood blossomed from the woman’s leg and she went down hard. Taking advantage of the sniper’s bullet, he leapt toward her and stepped on her gun hand, stomping until her fingers let go. Then he dropped to the ground and leaned back on his bound hands, trying to get his fingers on the pistol’s grip. She scrabbled in the dirt, trying to reach it first, and he kicked at her, fighting to hold her off.

  Dylan lifted off again and hovered over the trailer, lending a nerve-jangling chaos to the scene. Half-blinded by the dirt in his eyes, he saw shapes moving in the maelstrom. One stopped near him and knelt on the woman’s chest, effectively stopping her every attempt to move. Other figures stormed the door of the trailer.

  Panicked, Cody raised his bound arms to the agent holding the woman down. “Cut me loose!”

  The agent hesitated a moment, then reached for his knife. By the time Cody was free and running toward the trailer, all the windows had been blown out—either in breaching or from the demolishing wind of the chopper.

  “Kylie!” he roared, but Sanderson turned to him at the door and held him back.

  ⋘⋆⋙

  Hands clasped around Alan’s wrists in a deadly dance, Jax fought for the upper position while the world around them shook to pieces. On a normal day, he would have been able to take him down with ease—after all, he was used to wrestling steer and calves to the ground—but the man was whole while Jax was injured, and he was stronger, or more desperate, than he appeared.

  Something, a twitch of his eyes or the muscles in his hands, told Jax to be ready when Alan lifted a knee, trying to connect a blow to his groin. Jax twisted to the side just in time, but not without cost. The wound in his side tore open and he could feel fresh blood drip down.

  The noise of the chopper drowned out their grunts of effort, and Jax’s world narrowed down to just the two of them. He knew Kylie was behind him, still tied to the chair but safe, as long as he kept Alan from pointing his weapon at her. Her safety was all that mattered.

  In his periphery, he saw a shadow that startled him, and he took his eyes off Alan long enough to see someone in a dark uniform silhouetted against in the open doorway.

  That momentary lapse was all it took. Alan wrenched both hands, managing to free one from Jax’s grip, although Jax maintained his hold on the gun hand—barely. That free hand slashed upward in a blow that caught him under the chin and lifted him with the force of it. His head snapped back and a starburst of lights exploded in his vision. Still, he hung on, doggedly determined to keep Alan from having use of the weapon in his hands.

  Alan spun their bodies around until Jax’s back was to the door, twisting viciously until Jax’s grip failed him. He staggered back into the path of the men trying to aim their weapons at Alan, blocking their line of fire. When hands pushed him down, he willingly dropped to the floor.
<
br />   For a moment, he could only watch, dazed, as several uniformed bodies jumped over him, shouting for Alan to drop his weapon. Thankfully, the helicopter was finally moving off, and the resulting drop in the noise level was a relief to his ears. But instead of dying out because Alan was doing as he was told, the shouting shot up in volume and excitement. One voice stood out from the rest with crystal clarity.

  “Let the girl go. It’s over.”

  “The hell it is!” Alan said, prompting Jax to climb to his feet and stagger toward the kitchen, where several agents stood with flashlights and guns trained on the end of the room he couldn’t see. “I’ll go down in a blaze of glory, and the girl will go right ahead of me. You know I can get at least one shot off before you get me.”

  Before Jax could push his way around the corner, an agent grabbed him and pulled him back.

  “You can still get out of this alive,” the female agent said. “Put the weapon down and let her go. If you make a deal to give us your boss, I’ll make sure the death penalty is taken off the table.”

  “I won’t spend the rest of my life in prison,” Alan said, his sharp statement followed by a cry from Kylie. Jax tried to push forward again, desperate to get a look around the corner to see what was going on. This time, he got far enough to see Kylie. She was still in the chair, but it was pushed back into the corner of the kitchen with just enough room for Alan to crouch down behind her. In that brief glimpse, all Jax had been able to see was the pistol rammed up against her ear and the terror in her eyes as their gazes met for a fraction of a second. Then an agent pulled him back.

  But he had seen enough to give him an idea. He spun on his heel and headed for the door, only to bump into Cody. Cody reached out a hand to steady him, and Jax saw the pistol clutched tightly in his grip.

  “Give me that,” he said, voice tight with rage, “and come with me.”

  ⋘⋆⋙

  Callie held herself and her men in check, assessing the situation and weighing her options. It was frustrating to be so close, yet so far from a resolution. The man—Vera said he called himself Alan—was desperate, cornered, and unwilling to consider incarceration as a viable outcome. Frankly, she was surprised he hadn’t already pulled the trigger and finished the job of committing suicide by cop. The idea that he hadn’t started his day looking to end his life was the only thing she had going for her at this point.