Blue Steele Box Sets 2

by Remington Kane

  They moved back into the hallway and near the entryway was a living room with an old couch and several dust-covered tables and ancient floor lamps. The shades of the lamps were so old that their material hung in tatters, likely from age.

  “Is the layout the same as the home you grew up in?” Sara asked.

  Tanner nodded yes and moved toward the staircase. The old steps creaked mightily but they held their weight, and soon they were exploring the bedrooms. The upstairs was also like the home he’d grown up in. Tanner swallowed hard when he saw that the room that would have been his sisters’ room had a set of matching beds in it. Dust and grime had come inside the room through a broken window and covered every surface. Still, from all appearances, its former occupants had been a pair of young girls.

  The sight of the beds made Tanner think of his lost twin sisters, and he found that he had to fight back tears.

  After taking a look through the remaining bedrooms, he moved downstairs and back outside.

  Sara followed, then stood nearby while watching him. She had recently learned that he had been the sole survivor of the slaughter that destroyed his family. She knew that, even as tough as Tanner was, being in a duplicate of his home had to be… unnerving.

  “It’s almost an exact copy. There was a half bath on the first floor of my house that this place doesn’t have, but other than that…”

  Sara reached out and took his hand.

  “You miss your family, don’t you?”

  Tanner nodded, and after giving Sara’s hand a quick squeeze, he released it and began walking away from the home.

  “Let’s head back. We’ll fill Lawson in as we walk.”

  “All right,” Sara said, and she was glad to hear the huskiness in his voice. Although Tanner hadn’t shed a tear, he had been troubled and affected by the rush of emotion the farmhouse had elicited from him.

  Sara watched Tanner from the corner of her eye as something tugged at her heart. Although she didn’t name it, wouldn’t name it, deep down, she knew that what she was feeling toward Tanner was a burgeoning sense of love.

  As her husband drove them toward their destination in West Texas, Jessica finished her phone call.

  “That was Lawson, Tanner and Sara checked out their location and found it empty. Tanner also told Lawson that he would cancel his trip if you thought you needed him.”

  “Call Lawson back and tell him that I give Tanner my thanks for helping out but to not cancel his flight. Besides, this might all be over before Tanner could reach the area.”

  The location Jessica and her husband were checking out was in west Texas, at the edge of the desert. It was a large secluded home surrounded by hills on three sides. Mr. White drove their rented vehicle up a steep dirt track, but killed the engine as the SUV began to bounce violently over the rough terrain.

  “It looks like we’re on foot from here, but we should get a good look at the house from this height.”

  After reaching the top of the hill, they looked down on the modern home and saw signs that someone had recently been there. The garage door was left open and someone had littered with a beer can and an empty bag of potato chips.

  “There’s no wind here today,” Jessica said. “That empty bag could have just been tossed or it might have sat there for hours.”

  White had been looking through a rifle scope. When he lowered it, he pointed toward the left side of the house.

  “You’re right, but I see tracks in the dirt that look like they were made by more than one man. One particular pair could be Blackwood’s, since they’re huge shoeprints. I need to go down and check things out.”

  “You mean that we need to go down and check things out, right?”

  White smiled as he caressed his wife’s face.

  “I’m not trying to cut you out of the action, but one of us should stay back. If Blackwood and the others are down there, we’ll need to alert Lawson to send in Blue and Jake Caliber. If we’re both captured or busy fighting back, that call might never get made.”

  “All right, but if you determine that no one is down there then signal for me to join you.”

  “I will,” White said. After giving Jessica a quick kiss, he lowered himself over the side and carefully made his way down the steep hill.

  Within moments of reaching the ground, he was inside the garage. Shortly thereafter, he appeared at the front of the house and waved for Jessica to join him. Once she was at his side, he led her into the home and showed her the evidence that Blackwood had been there.

  Jessica stood in the home’s office and began studying the papers and maps left behind.

  “They were here all right, but we still don’t know what target they’ve chosen. From what I can gather looking at these papers, they’re either targeting a town or a religious retreat.”

  White took out the satellite phone and dialed Lawson.

  “It’s time to gather together and go on the attack.”

  Chapter 35

  After Jessica and Mr. White had contacted Lawson and relayed what they’d found at the home in Texas. Jake and I arrived by helicopter and joined them inside the house. It was a very nice house but had been left in a state of disarray by Blackwood and his men.

  A map lay atop a table with two locations circled. One was a town that had wealthy citizens and a small police force, while the other was a religious retreat that contained all women. Time was not on our side and we had to choose one target to go after while leaving the other one for the authorities to investigate. Prophet had failed to tell Lawson that this location had more than one target available, but it was little surprise to us that she wasn’t completely reliable.

  Lawson had made it clear to Jake and me that Mr. White was in charge. I was surprised when White tapped a finger atop the map and indicated the location of the religious retreat.

  “Why there and not the town?” I asked him.

  He smiled sadly before answering.

  “The young women at the retreat will be too much of a temptation for Blackwood to pass up.”

  “Maybe, but it also seems like a pattern after they attacked that college dorm. They might want to avoid developing a pattern.”

  The sad smile returned. “Trust me, Blue. They’re classic serial killers, especially Blackwood. He won’t be able to resist a target that’s rich with defenseless young women.”

  I stared at him as a feeling came over me. It was one I’d had around White before whenever I’d looked deep into his intense eyes. It was fear, just a touch of primal fear, and I knew that he was deadlier than Blackwood would ever be.

  I smiled at him, smiled at my friend and nodded.

  “Let’s go get them.”

  The chopper sped us toward our destination but dropped us off miles away from it. If Blackwood saw a chopper drop down anywhere near the retreat he would abort his attack. Lucky for us, the sun was going down and the desert was cooling off.

  We trekked through the desert at dusk with night-vision monocles at the ready and carried canteens on our hips. It was little more than an hour’s walk but the shifting sand was treacherous and made the hike seem longer.

  Before boarding the chopper again, I had placed a call to Detective Carol Olson. She gave me the news that the dogs had failed to find the body of Shannon’s mother.

  “At this point, I’m beginning to wonder if the woman might not still be alive, Blue. I really thought that we would have located her remains today.”

  “We’ll just have to start over and look at things from a new angle.”

  “We? Does that mean you’re coming back here?”

  “Yes, I don’t like leaving things undone and I’m very good at finding people. If she is alive, I’ll locate her.”

  “I’m glad you’re coming back, but I have to tell you, the department will only give me another week to look into this case before I have to move on.”

  “I hear you, Carol, but a lot can happen in a week.”

  “True, so when are you comi
ng back here?”

  “I’m not sure, but I will be back there soon. The mystery has me intrigued.”

  “Be safe, Blue, and I’ll see you.”

  White spotted the shapes first and he wasn’t even wearing his night-vision.

  The shapes turned out to be a pair of vehicles parked just off the road. There were three sets of footprints in the sand leading away from them.

  “We aren’t the only ones who wanted to make a silent approach,” Jake said.

  Jessica touched the hood of one of the vehicles.

  “It’s still warm. They must not have been here for long.”

  White grimaced. “They’ve probably reached the retreat by now. Let’s hope that they’re still disabling the cell phone tower and knocking out the electrical power. They won’t begin their attack until they do. The power outage will likely cause the women to gather together. That will make things easier for Blackwood, Alejandro, and Mitchell.”

  “Once the women are alone in one spot, Blackwood and the others won’t waste any time,” I said.

  “Exactly. So let’s hustle,” White said.

  Outside the retreat’s main building, Blackwood watched as Alejandro scrambled down from the cell tower after disabling the equipment. They had brought along signal jammers, but didn’t want to rely on them. If even a single 9-1-1 call made it out they would have to abort. They didn’t want to abort, they wanted to spend the night torturing and raping women at their leisure.

  “I messed up the wiring enough so that it’s useless,” Alejandro said. “Now we just have to take care of the power.”

  “I sent Mitchell to do that. According to Prophet’s notes, the breaker boxes are kept in the rear of that large tool shed.”

  Alejandro began walking off toward the shed.

  “I’ll give him a hand and then we’ll meet you back by the cafeteria area. The women are sure to gather there once the lights go out. Solar panels back up the refrigerators and freezers; I bet it’s the only room that will have light.”

  Blackwood laughed.

  “Prophet thought of everything. Tonight will be even better than that college we did.”

  “There are more girls here and I can’t wait to try out my new machete.”

  “Right, but stay out of sight until the lights go out, then we’ll give it ten minutes and pounce.”

  Alejandro flashed a devilish smile and disappeared amid shadows.

  Blackwood walked toward the building while using a pair of night-vision goggles and staying hidden behind a wooden fence. He stopped suddenly when he saw movement through the slats. It was a young woman.

  She was petite with long dark hair. She held a bible in one hand and bottle of water in the other. The young lady had been walking with her head down, and so when Blackwood appeared in front of her, it startled her. Surprise turned into a look of amazement when she took in the big man’s great height and size.

  Before she could speak or utter a scream, Blackwood reached out and cupped her face. His huge hand all but enveloped her entire head. The woman attempted to grip his wrists, but her small hands were useless against him. Muffled sobs came from her as her eyes grew wide with terror.

  “Don’t struggle, honey, if you do, I’ll crush your skull like an egg.”

  When Blackwood felt the woman’s tears fall upon his hand, he smiled.

  Chapter 36

  Alejandro had to duck out of sight behind a row of trash bins. A group of women had left one of the outer buildings and were headed for the main house.

  There were only a few vehicles on the property, two shuttle vans and a pair of old Chevy pickup trucks. The retreat had an older couple that acted as the facility’s handyman, chauffeur, and cook. But Alejandro and the others had watched them leave the property and head home as they were arriving in the area.

  The old couple wouldn’t return until early the next morning. Alejandro giggled to himself when he imagined the horrific sights that would greet the elderly couple’s eyes.

  As he neared the shed, he saw that the door was sitting ajar. The combination lock and the hasp it had been attached to were laying on the ground. It appeared that Mitchell had used a pry bar to gain entrance and Alejandro could hear someone moving about inside.

  As he moved closer, Alejandro realized that the noise he was hearing were the sounds of a struggle. One of the women must have come across Mitchell and he was doing her in with his garrote.

  When the door burst open, Alejandro saw that he had been partially correct. Mitchell’s garrote was being put to good use, but it was around his own neck. Behind Mitchell was Jake Caliber, and Caliber was choking the life out of Mitchell.

  Alejandro was a lover of knives, but he had his new machete hanging across his back on a strap. The weapon was to be used to intimidate the women at the retreat. Alejandro unslung the long deadly blade and headed toward Jake. When he caught swift movement coming from his right he froze.

  Jessica and I had checked out the side entrances of the main building and found that they were still locked up tight. While we were doing that, Jake went off to scout the shed where the main power could be shut off, and White headed toward the front entrance.

  We saw quite a sight as we neared the shed. Jake was strangling Mitchell with his own garrote while Alejandro fumbled at some sort of sword or machete he had strapped across his back. Whatever it was it looked razor sharp. Without thinking about it, I rushed toward Alejandro with my only thought being to protect my cousin.

  Alejandro either saw my approach from the corner of his eye or heard my footfalls, but by the time he turned to look at me, I had left the ground. My flying kick caught him square in the mouth, causing him to release the long blade. It skittered away as he tumbled backwards.

  I had landed on my left side. Alejandro leapt to his feet and charged at me while cursing in Spanish. My kick had done damage to his mouth. I saw blood and what looked like a piece of broken tooth fly from it, but it hadn’t slowed him down any.

  A knife appeared in his hand as I reached for the gun on my hip. I never had to use it. Jessica appeared behind Alejandro with his dropped machete. She used it like a baseball bat and slammed the flat side of the steel across the back of his head.

  The sound of the impact made me wince, but then I sucked in air from what happened next. As he fell, Alejandro landed on top of his own knife. Eight inches of serrated steel buried itself in his stomach.

  Within moments, Alejandro’s shirt grew darker from the spread of his own blood, and I knew that he would bleed out before long. As Jessica helped me up, I saw that her gaze was directed at Jake, who was now standing over the dead body of Mitchell.

  Jake’s shirt collar was ripped away, and an ugly welt was on the left side of his neck. It was clearly visible in the dim glow given off by the lights that lit the pathways.

  “Mitchell almost got me with that garrote, but I turned the tables on him.”

  “And Blackwood, have you seen him?” Jessica asked.

  Jake shook his head and we all moved toward the front of the main house. White was alone. If Blackwood caught him by surprise even White might fall victim to the huge man. Jessica led the way, running in a near panic as she thought of her husband facing off against that monster alone.

  The monster that was Blackwood was living up to his reputation. He had rendered the young woman he’d attack unconscious. Afterward, he had dragged her off behind an outbuilding that held potting supplies and other materials for the retreat’s communal garden.

  Blackwood’s head jerked up just as he was about to remove the woman’s blouse. He sent a whisper into the darkness beyond the circle of illumination created by the flood light that hung above a carport. He received no answer.

  “Mitchell, Alejandro, is that you guys?”

  Blackwood went on alert and stood, then turned around in a slow circle as he put his hand on the gun that was holstered on his hip.

  “Who’s out there?”

  Still no answer, and then
it occurred to Blackwood that the lights should have been disabled already. That meant something may have gone wrong. As a tingle went down his spine, Blackwood suddenly knew without question what that something was.

  After letting out a laugh, he addressed the darkness.

  “You tracked me down, didn’t you? Somehow you tracked me down.”

  “Yes.”

  The voice that uttered the single word came from the darkness and was followed by the sound of a shotgun being racked. Not being a fool, Blackwood lifted his hands in the air, then sighed when he spotted Mr. White emerge from the shadows to his left.

  “What’s your name?” Blackwood asked.

  “You can call me White.”

  “Well, White, you might as well pull that trigger right now. If you don’t, I promise that I’ll find those twin girls of yours someday and I’ll do things to them that would turn your stomach.”

  White shook his head. “You’re trying to enrage me so that you’ll have a quick death. It won’t work.”

  The sound of movement came from the side of the building and Blackwood sent White a grin. He believed that it was Alejandro and Mitchell approaching. When Jessica and the others appeared and went to White, Blackwood hung his head. He knew that he was out of chances. Or was he?

  While Jessica was checking on the condition of the unconscious girl, Jake Caliber yanked the gun off Blackwood’s hip to disarm the huge man. Blackwood took a swing at him. Jake ducked the blow and Blackwood’s fist bent one of the slender steel corner posts of the carport as if it were made of tin foil.

  Jake moved away from Blackwood as White aimed the shotgun at Blackwood’s knees.

  “Try to hit one of us again and I’ll cripple you for life,” White said.

  Blackwood cursed, knowing that he was finished. But Blackwood would rather die than spend the rest of his life behind bars. He was going to force White to kill him.