Calculated Vendetta

by Jodie Bailey

  Meredith’s nose wrinkled. “I hope that’s not a late emergency call. I’m ready to go home and grab a few minutes of peace around the fire pit. Bet Phil would love it if you came along. He’s missed hanging out with you, but never tell him I said so.”

  Fat chance. There were a very limited number of things he wanted to say to Phil Ingram, and none of them qualified as friendly conversation.

  Travis eyed the approaching vehicle until it became clear it was a Jeep Wrangler.

  Casey.

  Travis tensed. The last thing he needed was for Casey to get caught in the cross fire if something happened tonight. There was no way he’d be able to focus on his self-driven mission if he had to keep a watchful eye on her.

  She climbed from the vehicle almost before she killed the engine, not quite meeting Travis’s eye. “Sorry I’m running late.” Sliding in beside him, she slipped an arm around his waist like this was something they did all the time and planted a kiss on his cheek, her whisper warm against his ear. “You shouldn’t have come alone.”

  With a smile he hoped wasn’t as fake as it felt, he put an arm around her waist and squeezed tighter than he normally would, a silent reprimand for following him. His mind spun for a way to get her back into her Jeep and out of harm’s way, but no plan formed. Instead, he held her as close as he could, praying for her safety.

  Meredith arched an eyebrow but didn’t comment on their behavior. “Nice to see you again, Casey. Y’all ready to see if we can get Gus to come running?”

  “Gus, huh?” Casey kept her voice low, for Travis’s ears only, as she tried to pull away from him.

  He held her tight to his side, matching his pace with hers as they followed Meredith. He wanted Casey as close as possible, and simply beside him wasn’t enough. If they were ambushed at any point on this little outing, he wanted to know exactly where she was.

  Because he couldn’t bear it if the worst happened and his reckless flight tonight ended with Casey’s blood on his hands.

  * * *

  The drive out to Meredith Ingram’s clinic had been an amusement-park ride of raging emotions, with anger leading the charge. Coming out here alone, without telling anyone where he was headed, was foolish on Travis’s part.

  But then she had to admit she’d done the same thing to Lucas and Kristin, slipping out while they were occupied with debating dinner, then shutting off her phone. She didn’t want them in the middle of this, which was likely the exact reason Travis had tried to make this trip solo. Her friends had been through enough at the hands of a killer who had done his best to destroy Kristin. They deserved to stay out of the line of fire this time.

  But that didn’t mean she was going to let Travis go this thing alone.

  The way his fingers dug into her waist as they followed Meredith said more than the words he was likely biting down on. He was upset with her for following him, but they could discuss it later. She hoped. Because tonight they either got all the answers they needed or they went down for the count trying.

  This had to end tonight. Casey didn’t think she could handle any more looking over her shoulder. And she sure didn’t want to play these will-they-or-won’t-they games with Travis any longer. There were some serious discussions to be had in the near future, and those discussions had nothing to do with drug dealers and murderers.

  At the huge door to the barn, Meredith stopped and swept her hand toward the massive building. In another time, it would have been peaceful, the pristine white structure glowing with light inside and out, the faint earthy scent of hay and horses wafting on the breeze. “We painted since the last time you were out here, Travis.”

  “Looks good. Who did the heavy lifting?”

  Casey would love to have the kind of calm that came across in his voice. The farther they got from the road, the more her legs wanted to turn and run for her Jeep. If only she were the kind of girl who carried a concealed weapon at all times. But here she was, unarmed and possibly chatting with a killer, and she was fairly certain Travis was no more prepared than she was.

  “We had a paint party. My vet techs, a few people from the community, some volunteers...” Meredith walked inside and headed for a huge bank of light switches near the door, seemingly at ease with their visit this evening. “As soon as we shut these off, Gus ought to come running.”

  If Meredith killed the lights and ushered them out, gone was their chance to do any sort of investigating. Their trip out here would prove futile. Casey scrambled for a reason to poke around in the barn, breaking away from Travis and stepping into the brightly lit interior before he could react. “You work on horses, too, Meredith?”

  “Family pets pay the bills, but horses are my first love.” Meredith looked proud, innocent, nothing like a conniving killer should look.

  Long ago, Casey had learned to read people. It helped in interviews to know who was telling the truth or who was uncomfortable with her questions. Meredith stood with an open stance, her expression betraying no tension. Either the woman was clueless to her husband’s possible activities or she was a very, very good liar.

  Either way, this might be their one opportunity to find out the truth. “I love horses. Used to ride when I was a kid. Mind if I peek at them, or are they too sick for company?” It was all she had. She shot a look at Travis. Maybe if she kept Meredith busy long enough, he could do a little exploring for anything at all out of the ordinary.

  Meredith’s face lit as though Casey had offered up her life’s savings. “Most of them are here for checkups or healing from surgery. They’d all love a little bit of attention from somebody besides me, I’m sure.” She aimed a finger at a cabinet next to Casey. “There’re sugar cubes on the top shelf if you want to make some real friends.”

  The woman appeared completely innocent. Or maybe she was psychopathic. Casey tugged open the cabinet door and took her time reaching for the sugar cubes, surveying the contents of the shelves. Rolls of bandages, containers of sugar cubes and a few miscellaneous grooming supplies littered the metal shelves. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for a horse barn. Grabbing a fistful of treats, she shut the door and turned to Travis, who was a few feet away staring at an open shelving unit.

  Casey turned to follow Meredith, who was halfway up the aisle of the brightly lit barn, when a man walked in the doors at the opposite end of the building. He was tall and wiry, his dark hair long enough to touch his ears, his tanned skin an indication he spent his fair share of time outdoors. “Hey, Doc. You about ready to close shop for the day? I’ve got—” He stopped when he saw Casey, his gaze bouncing from her to Meredith, then over their shoulders to something behind them, his expression a cross between anger and fear as he froze in the doorway.

  Meredith stopped walking. “Dylan? Is everything okay?”

  Dylan’s mouth opened, then closed as though he considered some sort of confession. But then, without uttering a word, he turned and fled the building as though fear itself chased him.

  “What are you—” Meredith’s words choked off as Travis tore past them at full speed, flying after Dylan.

  He called over his shoulder. “Casey. Call the police!”

  Both women froze, trying to make sense of the scene in front of them, before Meredith jogged halfway down the length of the barn, staring at the door as though she couldn’t comprehend what she’d seen.

  Casey grabbed her cell phone and pressed the numbers but hesitated before she completed the call. What did Travis want her to say? She had no idea what it was about this Dylan guy that had set him off. Something big had happened, but she wasn’t sure what.

  Turning toward Casey, Meredith walked halfway up the barn aisle but stopped, her arms out to her sides as though she had no idea what had happened right in front of her. “What is going on here?” She seemed more confused than angry, but then she stopped and looked at something behin
d Casey. “Do you have any idea what just happened?”

  There was a shuffle behind Casey. She turned to see who Meredith was talking to, but a click drowned the barn in darkness.

  “Have you lost your mind?” Meredith’s voice cut the blackness.

  Panic surged through Casey, rooting her feet to the floor. She had to get moving. Someone was behind her and she couldn’t see where. Breathing hard, she dodged sideways, away from the sound of feet pounding toward her, her shoulder colliding with a stall door and setting off a snort and a whinny from the horse inside. She held her cell phone tighter. Either she could turn it on and use it as a flashlight to locate the unknown person, or she could stay in the dark and try to make herself invisible until Travis returned.

  She eased toward the door through which they’d entered, hoping whoever was looking for her would assume she’d run away instead of moving toward them.

  But a beam of intense light swept the building and caught her in its circle.

  Before she could duck, the light plunged closer and swung in an arc.

  Pain coursed through her neck and shoulder. The cell phone fell from her hand as Casey dropped to her knees and Meredith shouted something she couldn’t understand. Her mind screamed flight while her aching body fought to curl into a ball to deflect any more blows. Hands grasped her wrists, twisting them from her head. She fought, but a blow to the side of her head shot stars across her vision and she went limp, the pain too overwhelming to fight.

  The weight moved, but then a pressure and a jabbing pain stabbed her in her arm. She tried to scream, but her body was overwhelmed by pain. For what felt like hours, her captor pinned her wrists to the floor, but then he backed away. Rolling to the side, Casey fought to stand, bracing herself against the horse stall, desperate to run for the door. The room receded, and she felt as though her body was no longer hers but her brain had floated into the rafters. Her arms were heavy. Her legs moved through invisible sludge. Nothing would obey her command.

  From what seemed a huge distance, a voice shouted then grew muted. A male voice close by joined the fray, lost in a roar that grew louder as her limbs grew weaker and heavier. Casey slumped to the floor, sliding down the stall door, her jaw slack and her body paralyzed and unmoving as a figure leaned over her. A muffled scream from nearby cut off suddenly, and the world closed into darkness.

  SEVENTEEN

  Travis ran headlong into the blackness of the woods before he stumbled over a tree root and stopped, scanning the shadows around him, listening for sounds of the man Meredith had called Dylan. The same man who had attacked them at least twice before.

  Only the breeze in the trees came to him, much like it had at John’s house a few days before. Travis turned slowly, trying to capture the sound of footfalls or movement in the low brush, but nothing unusual drifted his way. Either this Dylan character was superhuman fast, or he’d found a low hiding position somewhere among the trees, knowing Travis would have to search the darkness to find him.

  He dug his palm into the rough bark of a pine tree, frustration and fear clawing at him. If he had all night, he’d flush out the man, but he didn’t have that kind of time. He had to get to Casey. Leaving her alone with Meredith when he had no idea how deeply the other woman was involved had been risky, but he’d hoped to catch Dylan on the run, the one solid link they had to the attacks. He prayed she’d done as he’d asked and gotten off a call to the police.

  In the near distance, limbs and ground cover crackled at the fast approach of something smaller than a man but bigger than a forest animal. Travis whipped toward the sound in time to be nearly knocked off his feet by a panting mass of muscle and fur.

  Gus.

  Sinking to his knees, Travis allowed himself a brief reunion with the Australian shepherd, receiving a face full of whimper-punctuated licks. The dog broke something inside him, releasing the tension he’d been holding close around his entire being. For a second, he buried his face in neck fur, but he had to cut the reunion short. “I promise more pets later, boy. Right now’s not the time.”

  The dog sat as though he understood, and Travis stood, listening for any sound to indicate Dylan was circling back. Other than Gus’s joyful panting, there was silence.

  Turning in the direction of the clinic, Travis jogged into the clearing at the edge of the woods with Gus at his heels, wary of running too fast and trashing his ankle in a hole or on a root. As he broke into open air, his feet stuttered to a stop. The outside lights around the clinic near the road shone as brightly as they had earlier, but the barn was dark inside and out. No longer content with a slow jog, Travis pushed himself with all he had to the barn, not stopping until he was at the huge doorway.

  The darkness of the massive interior was muted around the edges by the light filtering in from outside. The silence was heavy, broken by Gus’s breathing and the soft whinnies of the horses Meredith housed in a few of the stalls. No sounds that could be identified as human caught his attention.

  But someone had to be there. He’d left Meredith and Casey behind only moments before.

  With Dylan lurking somewhere behind him and the unknown darkness in front of him, Travis was a wide-open target as a silhouette in the doorway, so he edged to the side and stood in the shadows by the wall, trying to filter out the animal sounds to hear anything else.

  Maybe Meredith had shut the barn for the night and the women had gone to the clinic. They could be there, waiting for him to return from what Meredith likely thought was a wild-goose chase.

  Except Travis had shouted to Casey to contact the police and he’d shown recognition of Dylan, the man who was doing at least some of Phil and Meredith’s dirty work. He’d tipped his hand and left Casey alone with one of their prime suspects.

  There was no win here, though. He couldn’t have chased Dylan and stayed by Casey’s side at the same time. But if he’d stayed at her side, he’d have lost his shot at taking down the man who had repeatedly attacked them.

  Not that he’d succeeded.

  Cold fear pumped through his veins. He wanted to call out to Casey, but not knowing what he was battling, he didn’t dare.

  Edging deeper into the barn, Travis kept his footfalls light and his ears open as he crept close to the stalls, trying to watch both behind him and in front of him. His eyes gradually adjusted to the dim light, allowing shadows to take shape, including a heap on the floor in the center of the aisle by the other door.

  He wrinkled his forehead as Gus whimpered, sensing his tension. Travis laid a hand on the dog’s head. There hadn’t been anything there when he’d walked in with Casey and Meredith or when he’d taken off after Dylan. His leg muscles trembled. No. It couldn’t be a body. It couldn’t be Casey.

  Casting aside the need for stealth, Travis bolted for the crumpled mass, he kneeled and reached out.

  Before he could verify what the object was, Gus barked and a sound from the doorway lifted Travis’s head. A man stood there, silhouetted against the dim lights from the clinic down the hill.

  Travis scrambled to his feet. Rather than wait to see if the man was friend or foe, Travis rushed him, hoping for the element of surprise in the near darkness, and launched himself at center mass, but the man met him halfway. Dipping low, Travis drove his shoulder into the man’s stomach and let momentum throw his opponent over his back.

  The other man crashed to the floor as Travis stumbled forward, but Travis recovered first, whipping around and aiming a fist at where he assumed the head would be.

  The other man rolled, and the blow glanced to the side. The punch threw Travis off balance and sent him sideways as his assailant bucked, throwing Travis from him and scrambling to his feet before slamming into Travis like a defensive lineman and crashing him backward into a stall door.

  The air burst from his lungs in a rush as his shoulder blades hit the wood, his head
glancing off the door hard enough to force deeper darkness into his vision.

  Gus barked and snarled, but he didn’t charge. Behind him, a horse neighed and snuffed, scuffling in the stall.

  Travis tried to shake off the blow as he fought to stay upright, but his attacker grabbed him by the shirt front and threw him to the ground. Tucking his shoulder, he rolled sideways from the anticipated next move, kicking his leg up and connecting somewhere on his opponent’s body.

  The man roared and stumbled, but before he could charge again, sirens wailed from somewhere in the distance, close, but probably still a couple of minutes away. Lucas had likely called them when Travis didn’t respond.

  The figure paused and cursed under his breath before hesitating above Travis like he was debating whether to finish the job. With another curse, he took two steps backward, then turned and ran for the front door of the barn, disappearing near the woods.

  Gus followed as far as the door, barking and whining.

  Jumping to his feet, Travis tried to rush after him, but the blow to his head had been too much. Dizziness waved over him, and he grabbed for the nearest stall, bending at the waist and gulping air, trying to regain his equilibrium and to stop the world from spinning.

  He stumbled forward, foot catching something on the floor and stuttering to a halt. He dropped to his knees, the cool hardness of the concrete sending pain into his legs. Running his hands along the object, he immediately recognized his worst fear.

  This was a person, lying prone in the middle of the barn. Jerking his cell phone from his pocket, he pressed a button and turned the screen’s light toward the figure, praying without coherent words or thoughts that he was wrong, that the outcome would be anything other than a person, and it would be anything in the world other than Casey.