Saving Shadows

by Kathleen Brooks

  “Well, it just so happens we know someone who owns a bar,” Tinsley said with a little laugh. “Come on, you’ve been in hiding for days now. Let’s go to Harper’s and have a celebratory toast to the clearing of your name.”

  “Do you want to go?” Gavin asked Ellery, not wanting her to feel pressured into going out if she was too tired.

  “I do. It sounds nice to get out of the house and have a nice tall drink with my friends. Hollis is in jail, my statement has been taken, and I’m ready to start moving on. I couldn’t have done this without all y’all. The first round is on me,” Ellery said as she stood up and reached for her newly recovered purse that she’d left in her car the night of the attack. Peter had gotten it out of evidence and handed it over this morning when he’d given them his update.

  Gavin slipped his hand into hers as the happy group walked from the house together. It was only a short walk to Shadows Bar, and no one thought to drive on such a nice evening. It was seven o’clock and the sun was casting a warm glow about town. The smell of barbeque filled the air as they got close to Main Street. Pink Pig was wrapping up for the night. Wade had brought them dinner from there just an hour before.

  Ellery was quiet as she held his hand, but his cousins were talking enough for them both. Instead he squeezed her hand and smiled at her when she looked at him. I love you he mouthed to her as if they were in their own world and not surrounded by people. It felt so natural to say, and he wished he’d told her sooner when she smiled so brightly she outshone the sun.

  I love you too, she mouthed back and Gavin felt complete. His whole body relaxed as she leaned her shoulder against his. They walked past the park and marina before turning onto Main Street. They passed Pink Pig and the historical society on one side of the street and Gil’s Grub ‘n’ Gas and the Daughters of Shadows Landing on their side before pushing open the door to Shadows Bar.

  “Hey! Look who is out and about and looking like two lovesick teenagers,” Harper yelled from behind the horseshoe shaped bar in the middle of the room. Booths lined the walls while tables filled in the middle of the bar. There were pool tables, darts, and massive televisions around the rest of the room. There was also a private event space on the second floor.

  “Aww . . .” people called out in response. Gavin smiled and shook his head as Gator let out a catcall.

  “Come on, our regular table’s open,” Wade responded as they made their way to the table near the dartboards. Harper strode around the bar and pulled up a chair.

  “Hey, Edie,” Ridge called out. “Why don’t you join us?”

  Gavin watched as Edie slid from the barstool she’d been sitting at talking to Harper and joined them. Before sitting down, she smiled at Ellery and asked how she was doing.

  “What can I get you to celebrate?” Harper asked Ellery after giving her a hug. She sat in the one remaining chair and took drink orders.

  “Sweet Tea Vodka with lemonade, please,” Ellery said as Tinsley and Edie added that they wanted one too. Gavin and the guys ordered Palmetto Lowcountry Lager as conversation began to flow. Harper weaved around the two waitresses getting drinks for other tables and made her way back to the bar after promising to join them in a minute.

  Gavin placed his hand on Ellery’s thigh and smiled at her as his cousins continued to talk. He’d never felt anything so right as having Ellery beside him and in his heart.

  * * *

  Ellery could barely contain herself. She wanted to leap up and tell the whole bar she was in love. How, out of such a horrible event, had she found such happiness?

  “I’m glad everything got straightened out, Miss St. John,” Gator said with a tip of his Gamecocks hat.

  “Thank you, Gator,” Ellery said, looking up to see Gator and Turtle standing in front of the table.

  “That was dadgum wrong what he did, ma’am. Too big for his britches, that Hollis was.” This time is was Turtle who paid his respects.

  “Yes, he was. Thank you, Turtle.” Ellery smiled because she was so happy. She was in love, and she was already part of a town. She had always loved Charleston’s small town feel, but Shadows Landing was completely different. It was a family. She looked at the missing part of Gator’s finger and extra bandage bulging behind Turtle’s zipper and revised her thought to a very unique family, but family nonetheless.

  And they weren’t the only ones who stopped by. Professor Adkins and all four of the Ball family hugged her and stopped to talk. Sadie threw her arms around her and said they were practically sisters since she was Gavin’s nurse and Ellery was living at his house. That made Ellery pause. Was she still living there? She actually hadn’t thought about what would happen to her now. The gallery was closed, so she didn’t have a job. And would she want to go back to the gallery? Would that mean she had to leave Charleston in search of a job? And was she being presumptuous about staying with Gavin? She could go home now, but no matter how she tried to be excited about that, home was here—in Shadows Landing.

  “Here you go,” Harper said, handing out the drinks. Ellery sipped hers and felt herself relax. She would think about tomorrow, tomorrow. Tonight she was going to enjoy herself, the man she loved, and the new family she had gained.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Harper said as she took a seat for a moment. “I think we need a drink named after you.”

  “Me?” Ellery asked. “No way. Why do you need a drink named after me?”

  “Anne Bonny thinks it should be called St. John’s Revenge. After you and the boat she was on,” Skeeter called out as he sucked on a toothpick. He wiped his hand on his torn jeans and gave her a nod as if that was the final word on the matter.

  “Anne Bonny, as in the female pirate?” Ellery asked on a whisper as if the notorious pirate would suddenly appear.

  “Yup,” Harper said with a nod. “Skeeter says a lot of the pirates who used to be in and around Charleston have ghosts here. Anne is one of them. She’s usually very opinionated too.”

  “Anne heard that,” Skeeter called out as Harper rolled her eyes.

  “Well, tell Anne I actually like the name. I’m guessing she wants it made with rum?”

  “And sweet tea. A little bit pirate and a little bit lady,” Skeeter answered.

  “Hmm, that does sound good,” Ellery said with a laugh. “I like thinking of myself as tough enough to hang out with pirate ghosts.”

  “Well, then,” Harper said, standing up and tossing back her drink, “St. John’s Revenges for everyone!”

  The small crowd that had gathered at the bar cheered and held their glasses up to toast Harper, Ellery, and pirate ghost Anne Bonny.

  * * *

  Ellery hadn’t laughed that hard in ages—even before her attempted murder. Their table had grown to include Skeeter, Junior, Gator, Turtle, and the Bell family as they played darts, drank, and laughed.

  “I have to hit the little pirates’ room. I’ll be right back,” Ellery said with a giggle as she slid from the barstool she’d been perched on watching Gavin and Wade taunting each other as they tried to win at darts.

  Gavin leaned over and gave her a kiss on the lips and only pulled away when Gage Bell let out a sharp whistle and chided them on being in a family establishment.

  Harper pegged him with a lime slice to the head. “Family establishment? This is a bar,” she joked.

  “Well, this is where family comes to drink,” Gage said with a wink before tossing the lime wedge back at the bar and hitting Harper right in the boob.

  Ellery giggled again as she teetered to the bathroom in the back. The patrons talked to her as she walked by. Some she recognized and others she didn’t, but they all said hi or that they were happy she was safe. And she did feel safe. Hollis was at the FBI office right now being questioned before his arraignment.

  Ellery pushed open the thick wooden door with the picture of a female pirate on it. “Hello, Anne.” She giggled as the door swung shut. Inside the bathroom were three stalls, a large rectangular sink with three fa
ucets, and a window that overlooked the back. The window was cracked and let in the nighttime breeze that suddenly blew when she said hello to Anne.

  “There are no such things as pirate ghosts,” Ellery said, suddenly not laughing anymore as the breeze turned to wind and made the stall door rattle.

  That was it, Ellery didn’t want to stay in the haunted bathroom any longer than necessary so she hurried into the first stall and slammed the door. She went to move the lock when she heard a click. Ellery looked down at the lock on her door. It was still unlocked.

  “Hello?”

  Ellery paused and listened. There was no sound except for the wind whistling through the slightly open window.

  “Anne?” Ellery said almost incredulously, but there was no response. She locked her door and shook her head. “I’m being silly,” she said as she finished. She got up, flushed, and unlocked the door. She could hear a cheer from the bar and smiled. The darts game must have concluded.

  Ellery stepped back, pulled back the door, and didn’t even see the fist slamming into her face. Her whole body was flung backward as she landed hard on the toilet. A man filled the door.

  “You,” Ellery gasped. He’d been the one with the gun who Miss Ruby grabbed in Gavin’s driveway. He was very large and very . . . rectangular. He looked like a refrigerator with muscles.

  “And you are quite the problem. I should have been paid days ago. Now, let’s go.” He reached one meaty hand for her, and Ellery didn’t know what to do. Until she would have sworn she saw Anne Bonny flash before her eyes. Anne wouldn’t put up with this shit and neither would she.

  “Not today, asshole!” Ellery yelled as she gripped her hands on the side of the toilet seat and kicked with all her might right into the refrigerator’s ice cubes.

  The man dropped to his knees as he cupped his balls and made this horrible dry heaving sound. Ellery couldn’t get past him though. He blocked the door. What would Anne do? Ellery looked around until she had her answer. She carefully stood on the toilet, grabbed the top of the stall and jumped.

  Her stomach landed hard on the partition, but it didn’t matter. She was up, now she needed to get over. She kicked her feet as if she were swimming, and it tipped her forward. With a scream that was lost in the cheering of drinking games, Ellery crash-landed half on the toilet and half on the ground.

  She pushed against the toilet to stand, pulled one leg from where it had landed in the toilet water, flung open the stall door, and ran. The man tried to grab her, but Ellery jumped him like a hurdle. She slammed into the bathroom door, wrapped her hand around the brass handle, and pulled. Nothing. She pulled again. The door didn’t budge.

  Ellery looked over her shoulders and saw the man gripping the stall door and pulling himself up. She spun back to the door and began to yell as she fumbled with the lock. Hearing it click, she pulled the door open only to have it slammed shut.

  A large hand appeared above her head as the man effortlessly held the door closed. “Let’s try this again. You’re coming with me.”

  One hand kept the door shut and the other closed tightly around her upper arm. Ellery spun toward him and kneed him. But he’d learned and twisted his hips. Her knee slammed into his thigh as his hand gripped painfully into her arm.

  Well, that didn’t work. All Ellery could think about was the old children’s song, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes and she went with it. She closed her hand into a fist and punched him as hard as she could in the face before lowering her shoulder and ramming him. As he lost his balance and took a step back, Ellery kicked his knee and stomped on his toe.

  “Fucking bitch,” he cried out. He dropped his hand from the door as he clamped down on her arm and hobbled on one foot. Ellery charged forward then and locked her hand on the brass handle. When he pulled her back, she pulled the door open and screamed for all she was worth.

  She felt her fingers loosen their grip and slowly slide from the handle. It felt as if she were being torn in two, but she held on and screamed with all she had. And then she heard it. Shouts, feet running, and she simply let go. The man stumbled back, falling to the ground, dragging her on top of him.

  Ellery rolled off and crawled on hands and knees toward the door right as it was flung open. Harper stood with a baseball bat, Wade with a gun, and Gator with a knife that was big enough to scare the piss out of a fifteen-foot alligator.

  The whole bar was crammed around the door as Gavin slipped in and wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her up. “This is the guy that tried to kidnap her the other day.”

  “I know a place to put him,” Gator said menacingly as he used the tip of the knife to pick at his teeth. “No one will ever find his body since there won’t be none left.”

  “Get out of here, Ellery. Go get Granger or Kord,” Gavin told her as he kissed her quickly.

  “I’ll go with her,” Tinsley said and took Ellery’s hand in hers. “Come on. Let’s get you safe.”

  Ellery walked through a line of people holding darts, pool cues, large beer mugs, and anything they could use to hurt a person. They where all piling into the bathroom with a look of determination. As Tinsley took her from the bar, she heard the man scream but didn’t feel a bit of remorse. They needed to find out who he was and why Hollis hired him. Did Hollis expect the guy to finish what he had started and kill her so she couldn’t testify against him?

  27

  Gavin looked to where Gator and Turtle had the man hog-tied. Junior had his hammer out and was threatening to smash each finger as Harper smacked her baseball bat menacingly against her palm.

  “What did you want with Ellery?” Gavin asked.

  The man refused to answer. “Gator, can I borrow your knife?” Gator handed over the massive blade and grinned. Gavin crouched down so he could look the man in the eye. “I’m a doctor, and I know every spot to cut you to inflict the most pain without killing you. I’ll make the CIA look like amateurs when it comes to interrogation. Do you understand me?”

  “You’re a doctor. You’re sworn to help people,” the man said with a smug tilt of his lips. That was until Gator drove his knee into the man’s back.

  “Not people trying to hurt the woman I love.”

  “Oh my gosh, you love her?” Harper asked, lowering her bat. “That’s so great. I really like her.”

  “Yeah, I do too. She’s a keeper,” Wade said with a grin as Trent smacked Gavin’s back and gave him a wink.

  “I’ll build a nursery above the garage so it will be right next to your bedroom,” Ridge said.

  The man let out a scream a second after everyone heard a thud and a crunch. Gavin looked to his right and saw Junior casually picking up his hammer. “Sorry. It slipped.” The man’s finger had been broken.

  “So, what did Hollis want you to do with Ellery after you kidnapped her?” Gavin asked.

  “Hollis?” the man asked genuinely not understanding. “No one named Hollis hired me.”

  * * *

  Ellery and Tinsley heard the man yelp in pain as they pushed through the front door of the now empty bar. Directly across the street was the art gallery and then the church. The sheriff’s station was on the other side of the church, so as they walked out of the bar, Tinsley used her cell phone to call Granger.

  Cars that hadn’t been there before were lining the street on both sides now. “What’s going on?”

  “Ladies Prayer Group,” Tinsley said as they looked both ways then stepped into the street. “Granger, this is Tinsley. A man attacked Ellery at the bar. They have him trapped in the bathroom.”

  Ellery tuned out Tinsley as they stepped around a car and into the street. Her mind was wondering what the man was saying. Why he wanted her? What Hollis had planned for her? A car engine revved and a massive pearl white SUV pulled away from the curb.

  Ellery looked both ways and picked up her speed to get out of the street, but Tinsley had stopped walking and was looking in a different direction. Ellery followed her gaze to the right and saw t
he empty sheriff’s station at the end of Main Street.“You’re ten minutes away?” Tinsley looked nervously at Ellery before looking back at the station. “Yes, I can get her there.”

  Car tires squealed and Ellery’s head snapped to the left in time to see the tires spinning on the shiny white SUV as the engine revved and the vehicle raced right at them.

  “Tinsley!” Ellery cried as she shoved her friend backward. Tinsley fell back against the hood of a parked car and tumbled to the ground, but Ellery wasn’t so lucky. She didn’t have time to leap to safety. She stood frozen as the SUV was a hair’s breadth away. It was the shock of seeing the person driving it that finally made her move. She pivoted so that she took a glancing blow instead of a full hit.

  Pain shot from her side as she was flung sideways onto the ground. Ellery grunted as her knee and hand slammed into the street and the pavement tore into her skin, sending sharp prickling pain through her.

  “Ellery!” Tinsley cried over the sound of the SUV slamming on the brakes. “Sanctuary!”

  Ellery looked up from the ground at the church. Sanctuary. She tried to stand, but her breath hissed from her lips as she slowly stood, clutching her side. Blood trickled down her hands and knees as she took painful, stumbling steps forward. The door of the SUV opened right as Tinsley reached her side.

  “Come on,” Tinsley urged as she grabbed Ellery’s arm and flung it over her shoulder. Tinsley might be small, but Ellery swore she practically lifted her off the ground as Ellery found herself somehow running to the church.

  Ellery looked up as they climbed the steps toward the thick strong doors. The driver strode toward them with gun in hand.

  “Stupid men. You can never depend on them to do the job right.”

  “Who is that?” Tinsley asked, looking at the woman in the five thousand dollar suit and carrying a pearl handled gun. Tinsley yanked the door open, and the first round of the gun lodged in the old wood.