Critical Condition

by Sandra Orchard

  Please.

  She turned left at the road. A quarter mile, and she’d be at the Morris place. Empty for years but finally sold to a man that Eileen said spent more time away than home.

  Please, let him be home.

  Her breath panted out, the old broken mailbox that marked the beginning of Morris property just ahead, the curve in the road that hid the house from view just beyond it.

  Close.

  She was so close.

  God is smiling down on you, my sweet girl.

  The voice echoed from a past so far away that Catherine wasn’t sure it had ever been hers.

  And then she was yanked back with so much force she flew. Off balance, arms flailing, she beat at her attacker, jabbed at his eyes, tried to pull the mask from his face, screaming, screaming. As if someone might hear. As if rescue might be just a moment away.

  His fist clipped her jaw, and she reeled, stars and darkness dancing at the edge of her vision.

  Please, please, help me.

  The prayer danced, too, slipping into her muddled thoughts, breaking her cardinal rule to never ask for help. She’d clung to her faith through rocky times, but the past few years had been stagnant and empty of hope, her faith shriveled and dry from lack of care.

  If she could care again, would God save her?

  Please!

  Sun-scorched earth burned through her T-shirt.

  On the ground, his hands around her neck, his breath fanning her cheek.

  “How’s it feel to be on the other side, Dark Angel?” he whispered, his grip tightening, his knee pressing into her stomach.

  She gagged, clawing at his wrists, trying to break his iron hold.

  No air.

  No breath.

  Just hot dirt and hot sun and cold blue eyes staring into hers.

  Please!

  She let go of his wrists, dug her thumbs into his eyes, air filling her lungs as he shoved her hands away.

  One more scream.

  Another.

  And his hands tightened on her throat again.

  * * *

  A scream broke the silence of Darius Osborne’s first day of vacation. Not an excited scream. Not an it’s-summer-and-we’re-letting-loose scream. A terror-filled, panicked, help-me scream, that made his hair stand on end.

  Another scream followed the first, choked off at its zenith. He dropped the paint scraper, grabbed the hammer, racing around the side of the old farmhouse and onto the dirt road.

  He stopped there. Waiting. Listening.

  The hot summer day was silent again.

  Not a breath, not a movement.

  Nothing.

  “Hello?” he called out, glancing up the road toward the distant highway, then down it toward the curve in the road and the dead fields of the neighboring farm.

  “Help me!” A woman stumbled into view, burnished red hair gleaming in the sunlight, welts raised on the pale column of her throat. He knew her. Knew of her anyway. Everyone in Pine Bluff did.

  Catherine Miller.

  The Dark Angel of Good Samaritan.

  Injured, terrified.

  He ran toward her, scanning the area as he slid an arm around her waist.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “Someone attacked me,” she rasped, her eyes hollow, her face expressionless.

  “Where is he?”

  “He ran when you called out.” She gestured to the curve in the road, the tall, brown grass and weeds. Anyone could be hiding there.

  “Come on.” He urged her toward his house, her backbone prominent beneath his hand, every vertebra pressing up against her shirt. Too thin. That’s what he’d thought the first time he’d seen her on the news.

  Too thin, but beautiful.

  Aloof.

  The perfect neighbor because all she wanted was exactly what Darius did—to be left alone.

  Only, she hadn’t been left alone.

  The welts on her neck, the bruise on her jaw proved that.

  “Who was it? Someone you know?” He opened his front door, ushering her inside.

  “I’m not sure. He was wearing a ski mask.” She shivered, and he pulled a throw from the back of the sofa and wrapped it around her shoulders, his fingers brushing her neck.

  She flinched, tugging the blanket close.

  “What else was he wearing?”

  “Dark pants. Long-sleeved dark shirt. He was tall. Maybe a couple of inches shorter than you.” Her teeth chattered, but she looked him straight in the eye, her gaze direct, her blue eyes dark and lifeless.

  “I’m going to call for help, then I’ll see if I can find him.” He pulled out his cell phone, dialing 911 as he took his Glock from the gun safe in the hall closet.

  Catherine watched as he loaded it, her expression never changing. The media had said plenty about her incarceration and release. They’d said plenty about her, too. Interviews with supposed friends, with people she’d worked with and with the family of the people she’d been convicted of murdering. There’d never been an interview with her, though. Just photos and videos of her leaving prison, her expression as empty as it was now.

  “Stay here, okay?” he asked.

  “I’ll stay for as long as I can,” she responded, and he frowned, hot air sweeping in as he opened the door.

  “You need to stay here as long as it takes for me to make sure you’re safe.”

  “My grandmother is at the hospital getting chemotherapy. I need to be there to pick her up in less than an hour.”

  “Someone tried to kill you. I think your grandmother will understand if you’re late.”

  “My grandmother can’t know what happened.” She touched her neck, but it was the only indication she gave of her feelings or her fear.

  “Unless she’s blind, she’s going to be asking a lot of questions. How are you going to explain this?” He touched the bruise on her jaw, and she tensed, her eyes flashing with life for the first time since he’d seen her on the road.

  “I’ll tell her whatever I have to to keep her from worrying.”

  “Your choice, Catherine, but remember, you won’t be able to tell her anything if you’re dead. Stay in the house. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He stepped outside, listening to the noisy starlings fighting over rotten food near his overflowing trash bin, waiting for a sign that the perp had followed Catherine.

  Nothing.

  Not even a hint that things weren’t what they should be.

  Darius ran down the porch stairs and across the yard, scanning the landscape and the sun-baked dirt road. A scuffed area just beyond the curve in the road gave the first hint of what had happened. He crouched over it, examining the heel digs ground into the dirt and the footprints that led into deep cover.

  He followed them into the heavy overgrowth, head-high weeds and dried grass pressing in close, reminding him of far-off days and late-night treks through planted fields and desert scrub. Different place, different circumstances, but the adrenaline was the same, the skin-tightening feeling that he wasn’t alone was the same.

  Sirens screamed, their warning swelling and then ending abruptly. Help had arrived. If the perp was close by, he wouldn’t be for long. Not with the police on-site. Darius slipped through the tangled vegetation, following a trail of broken branches and crushed grass, the Glock a comforting weight in his hand.

  He’d spent four years as a Navy SEAL working in enemy territory in A
fghanistan searching out top-ranking al Qaeda operatives, and he’d never gotten tired of the hunt. Even now, stateside and working as a security contractor, he loved this part of the job the most.

  Cat and mouse.

  Hide-and-seek.

  Him against the enemy.

  He followed the trail deeper into the field, then back through sparser growth and out into Catherine’s property. An old farmhouse jutted up from the middle of an overgrown yard, its front door swinging open.

  Darius approached cautiously, his senses alert, his nerves alive with anticipation. Cans of paint sat on the porch, a gray paint roller abandoned beside them. A red shoe print marred one whitewashed floorboard, and letters were painted across the width of the porch floor. Someone had covered them with a thin layer of white paint, but they were still easy to read.

  Murderer.

  Had the person who’d attacked Catherine vandalized the property first? He frowned, stepping into the foyer, heat pressing in on every side. No breeze to cut the oppressive air. No open windows to clear the heavy scent of cigarette smoke.

  Sweat trickled down his temples and rolled into his eyes. He ignored it, his attention on the creak and groan of the old house, the moan of settling wood. Life had a different sound, a different feel, and he walked through a small living room, knowing it was empty. The dining room was empty, too, a nicked wood table and an old china cabinet the only furniture. No chairs. No painting. No curtains on the windows. Everything spare and worn.

  The floor creaked as he walked back through the foyer and into what might have once been a family room. The room held a fireplace on one wall, a hospital bed, a dresser and a chair. A small refrigerator sat on the floor, a half dozen medicine bottles sitting on top of it. Someone had installed a window air-conditioning unit, and it hummed softly as Darius checked the closet and a small bathroom.

  Empty.

  The kitchen was the same. Nearly gutted with nothing but an old oven and a chipped sink, it had seen better days. Tools lay on the floor and paint peeled off the windowsills. Someone had been working hard, but the house still felt tired and old as if the life had been sucked out of it. Lived in, but already abandoned.

  The front door opened, the floorboards in the hallway creaking. Footsteps on stairs and someone walking above his head. Not the police. They’d follow protocol and announce their presence.

  He eased up the stairs, slowly, quietly. Whoever was in the house wasn’t being quiet about it. Drawers opened. Something slid across the floor.

  Searching for something?

  He followed the sounds, lunging as a figure darted from the room at the far end of the hall. His bum leg screamed in protest, phantom pain spearing up from the place where his calf had been, but he didn’t hesitate, didn’t let the pain stall his momentum. He slammed the perp against the wall, his forearm pressed across a soft throat as he looked into a bruised face and dark blue eyes.

  Catherine.

  “You’re supposed to be at my place,” he said, biting back the harsh words that were on the tip of his tongue.

  “I have to get to the hospital.” Her voice shook, but it was the only indication of her fear.

  “Not at the risk of your life.”

  “The person who attacked me would have to be crazy to hang around.”

  “The police were okay with you walking off?” Because, he wasn’t.

  “There are officers all over the road looking for evidence. I was safe enough,” she hedged.

  “You didn’t get permission to leave, did you?”

  “I was waiting to be interviewed. It was taking too long.”

  “You can’t do your grandmother any good if you’re dead.”

  “I’m not, so it’s a moot point,” she said, her cheeks heating, her eyes flashing.

  “It doesn’t pay to take chances.” He tried to keep the exasperation out of his voice as he followed her down the stairs.

  “I need to get to the hospital.” She grabbed keys from a small table in the foyer and shoved them in her pocket, her hand shaking.

  She put on a good show, but she was terrified.

  “You’d better let the police know that you’re leaving.”

  “They’re smart. I’m sure they’ll figure it out.” She walked outside, and he followed, ignoring her dark look. “Thank you for your help, Mr....?”

  “Osborne. Darius.”

  “Catherine Miller, but I’m sure you already knew that.”

  “I’ve seen the news stories.”

  “Who hasn’t?” She smiled, her eyes empty and quiet. “You saved my life, and I don’t take that lightly, but I’m fine now, and I need to get going.”

  So did he. He’d planned every minute of his two-week vacation. Paint the house. Strip and refinish the hardwood floors. Fix the leaking kitchen sink. Get the house he’d bought three months ago in order so it seemed more like a home and less like a place to stay.

  But the bruises on Catherine’s face, the welts on her neck, the quick beat of her pulse in the hollow of her throat made him hesitate. “How about you let me give you a ride to the hospital?”

  “I have a car.”

  “So do I.”

  “What—”

  “The police are here.” Darius cut her off as a police cruiser parked on the cracked and crumbled driveway. A tall dark-haired officer got out. Darius knew him. Deputy Sheriff Logan Randal. They’d run into each other on a couple of cases, and Darius had liked the guy.

  “Catherine!” Randal called. “You were supposed to stay inside and wait for me.”

  “I told you my grandmother needed to be picked up.”

  “I can send an officer for her.”

  “And scare her to death? I don’t think so.”

  Randal sighed and took off his hat, running a hand down his jaw. “Osborne, you were there when everything went down?”

  “I heard Catherine’s screams, but I didn’t see the perp. No sign of him here, either.”

  “I need to leave.” Catherine sidled past, and Randal grabbed her arm.

  “Whoa! Slow down, Catherine. I can’t let you walk away unescorted. We don’t know who attacked you, why he did it or where he is now.”

  “Neither do I, and Eileen is waiting.”

  Obviously, they knew each other.

  Even more obviously, Catherine didn’t care about the connection or Logan’s authority as an officer of the law. She seemed bound and determined to leave.

  “I’ll escort her to the hospital.”

  “I don’t need an escort.”

  “Yeah. You do.” Darius followed her down the porch steps and around the side of the house.

  She ignored him, not glancing over her shoulder, not telling him to leave. Just walking, sunlight pouring over her bright red hair and casting shadows beneath her eyes.

  He could go back to his renovation work, go back to his first day of vacation and let Logan deal with Catherine and the person who’d attacked her.

  He could, but he followed Catherine to a rickety garage, anyway, because following her was a whole lot better than going home to his silent house. His boss and friend Ryder Malone had insisted that four years was too long to go without a vacation. He was probably right, but vacation without family didn’t feel like much of a vacation. All it did was remind him of what he didn’t have.

  Catherine hefted the garage door, but he pulled her back before she could walk into the dank interior.

  “Let me chec
k things out, first.”

  He expected her to argue, maybe tell him to go home, but she stepped aside, staring out over the golden-brown fields, silent, stiff and expressionless.

  He had the impression of careful control and deep emotion.

  That made him want to poke a little, see what kind of reaction he could get.

  Surprising, because he didn’t believe in poking or prodding or searching for something deeper. He’d tried it before, found what he’d wanted to find instead of what was there. He wouldn’t make that mistake again, but he would check the garage and make sure danger wasn’t waiting in the dark corners and deep shadows.

  He turned away from Catherine and walked into the musty garage.

  ISBN: 9781459242197

  Copyright © 2012 by Sandra van den Bogerd

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