I ran until my chest hurt and I thought I was never going to take another breath that didn’t feel like fire. Then I began to run in a zigzag, rubbing the torn piece of Kate’s shirt against bushes and tree trunks, anywhere I could reach quick and easy. Then I dropped it in a pile of leaves and ran at a dead heat.
The dogs were gaining on me. The howls were coming closer and closer, the sound of their running feet reverberating all around me. It spurred me on, made me go as fast as I could despite the exhaustion that was beginning to settle in every muscle I was born with. I almost didn’t see it, the chasm that opened up in front of me, three feet wide and God only knew how many hundreds of feet deep.
That’s when they got me. The first one slammed into the center of my back, the full impact of his fifty pounds taking the air from my lungs. I fell forward, but managed to catch myself on the edge of the chasm. I ducked my head and the dog, not expecting the earth to open up in front of it, fell without so much as a whimper. Then another, caught my upper arm in its jaws, clamping down with a determination that humans should admire. Then a third barely missed tearing a hole in my jaw. I saw it coming at the last second and moved, causing it to fall, too, right into the chasm.
The pain rushed through my body, the pain in my arm almost as bad as that in my lungs. I searched, my fingers digging in the loose soil and compost, finally wrapping them around a stick about as thick as half the dimensions of my wrist.
I beat the dog about the head, knowing that it was never going to let go until its master gave the order. Beautiful dogs. I had a lot of respect for a well-trained pit bull, but not when it was trying to tear my arm off.
I beat it until I felt just the slightest give in its hold on me. Then I dropped the stick and grabbed its lower jaw, felt it snap in my hand. I was on my feet before the dog knew it was defeated.
“Where you going, Donovan?”
I didn’t stop to look behind me. The first bullet whizzed past the side of my head. The second grazed my hip, not far from the scar that worried Kate so much.
“Where is she?” she called. “I know she can’t be far. You would never leave her unless she told you to. You were always her good little puppy dog!”
Another bullet glanced off of a tree, the bark exploding into a storm of debris.
I could only hope I’d given Kate enough time to get out.
Please, God, I prayed, don’t let anything happen to her.
Chapter 28
Kate
I saw the dogs first. They were running like the devil himself was on their tails. Vicious things, they were little balls of muscle with legs and jaws like a barracuda. I’d never liked pit bulls.
And then I saw her. She was running quite impressively despite the roots and vines that wanted to pull at my feet the entire time Donovan was dragging me through these woods. Hell, I’d fallen twice when I was simply walking here for pleasure. I don’t know how she was staying on her feet. I didn’t know how Donovan was staying on his. But he was. At least, until he vanished from my view. I had all my fingers and toes crossed that he was still on his feet.
I waited a few minutes, five, ten, before climbing down. I’d promised I’d go, and it would be hypocritical not to keep my promise after making him promise. I jumped from the lower branches and began picking my way back toward the house, walking as quickly as I could, praying I didn’t lose my way.
I was only moving for a few minutes when I heard the dogs barking, then the sound diminishing a little bit at a time. One dog whimpered pitifully. It was hurt. And then gunfire.
Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
I couldn’t remember if Donovan had his gun. What if he was out there, unprotected? But, then again, I was talking about a Green Beret. Surely he could defend himself against an average-sized woman, right?
I knew he told me not to call Ash until I was safely in the car, moving away from the house, but I needed to talk to someone. I needed to know I wasn’t insane for heading in the wrong direction. I needed to know I hadn’t just left the man I loved to die.
The phone was shaking. Or my hands were shaking. Something was shaking. I couldn’t read the names. More gunfire. What the hell had I gotten myself into? What happened to my simple, well-ordered life?
“Donovan,” Ash’s authoritative voice barked into my ear.
“No. Kate.”
“Kate? Where are you? Where’s Donovan?”
“It’s Amanda Graham. She’s got dogs and explosives and I heard gunfire…”
“Kate, listen to me. Where are you exactly?”
“In the woods behind the house.”
“Okay. Here’s what I want you to do. Can you see the house from where you are?”
“No.”
“What can you see?”
I looked around me, feeling hysterical laughter began to build in my chest. Trees. That’s all I saw. But then I could hear Donovan’s voice in the back of my head, telling me everything was going to be okay.
“There are trees with red markings on them.”
“Good,” Ash said. “I want you to follow those. They’ll lead to a small shed. Inside you’ll find an all-terrain vehicle. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Run, Kate.”
So I did. I stopped worrying about the damn roots and the stupid vines. I still tripped. More than once. But I got to the shed faster than I would have otherwise.
“The keys are in a drawer on the workbench.”
I found them. The ATV started up without hesitation.
“What about Donovan?”
“The best thing you can do for him is get yourself out of there,” Ash said. “Drive as quickly as you can along the fence line. Do you see it, Kate?”
“Yes.”
“Good. That’ll lead you to the front gate. Then go left and just keep going until you find the police station.”
I closed my eyes, sent a quick prayer up to heaven or wherever prayers went in moments like this, and sped away so quickly that I thought I might have given myself whiplash.
The thoughts you have in moments of stress.
Chapter 29
Donovan
“Why are you protecting that bitch?” Amanda demanded. “You and I both know she’s responsible for what happened to Joshua.”
I stood behind a tree, listening closely to her footsteps, trying to figure out her exact location. I couldn’t run any more. My chest burned, my heart pounding. And the wounds in my arm were pumping so much blood, I was safer standing still. I was leaving too big a trail.
“John Kyle killed Joshua,” I wheezed.
She came closer. I could hear her footsteps before I heard her voice. So close. Why didn’t I have my gun?
I needed my fucking gun!
“But John wouldn’t have been so angry if it weren’t for her. If he hadn’t insulted her and Joshua hadn’t spit on him.”
“How is that Kate’s fault?” I called to her, jumping to another tree, trying to keep space between us.
Not enough. I could hear her tracking my voice; I could hear her come closer.
“How isn’t it? If she wasn’t giving it to every boy in town…”
“Shows how little you knew Kate back then. Not as well as Joshua. He knew she hadn’t done anything wrong.”
“He didn’t know anything like that. He just knew she was his sister and it was his job to protect her.”
“He was a good guy, but he wouldn’t have stood up for her if he’d thought it was true.”
“What do you know about it?”
She was growing agitated. Not listening to me as closely as she should be. Maybe I had a chance.
“I knew Joshua since we were both seven, Amanda. I think I knew him pretty well.”
“Just because you knew him longer—”
“I know that he loved his sister, but I’ve seen him back out of a fight because he knew Kate was in the wrong.”
“She’s the reason—”
“He knew it was me, did
n’t he?”
The reality of it sunk in the moment I said it aloud. I’d kept the truth from myself all these years, but I suddenly realized how clear it really was.
Joshua had known all along. He knew Kate and I were in love. He knew that it wasn’t just some passing crush. And he knew we’d get around to telling him someday.
He defended her that night—not because she was his sister and they had a relationship like no other siblings—but because he was defending us both.
In a way, it was my fault he was attacked that night. Joshua saw the writing on the wall, knew John Kyle was out to get anybody, and he was willing to take the heat on himself. Because he knew.
Because he was my friend.
He practically told me. Days before that night, he told me.
“It was just a prank,” I said. “One last hurrah before graduation.”
“Yeah, but to pin it on John Kyle and the others? Not smart,” Joshua said. “I heard that John was arrested last month for stealing a car. Not the kind of guy you should be getting tangled up with.”
“John’s harmless. Just a wimp trying to pretend he’s a tough guy. I can deal with him.”
“Yeah, well, I hope so. Otherwise you might have just put into motion something we’ll all regret.”
Joshua glanced toward the door, aware Kate was standing just on the other side. Then he moved closer to me.
“You’ve got more important things to worry about now,” he said softly. “A future. Don’t let one last hurrah ruin that, my friend. This, this future, is too important.”
He knew. It was so clear now.
“How could any of us have known that John Kyle would lose control that night?” I asked, trying to keep her distracted, trying to find the advantage. “I don’t think even John knew it was coming. And I think he’d be the first to take it back if he could.”
“She took away the only thing that mattered to me,” Amanda said, her voice moving closer and closer. “We were going away to school together. We were going to have a life together.”
“We were all supposed to have a different life, Amanda, but sometimes, things don’t work out the way you think they will.”
“No,” she said, more to herself than to me. “No, no, no.”
I could hear the exhaustion in her voice, the crazy starting to leak out. I remembered something else Joshua once told me. Amanda saw a psychiatrist when we were in high school. She was on medication, but he didn’t know what it was for. He said she acted strangely every time he asked, so he stopped asking.
I slipped around the trunk of the tree and peeked behind me. She wasn’t there. Then I moved again, going a quarter turn each time. I spotted her almost immediately, walking slowly toward my tree, just at the wrong angle.
I waited, held my breath lest she hear me and turn around. Then I sprang on her when the moment was right.
The gun discharged, but she was going down. I landed hard, the wind once again torn from my lungs. She struggled, screaming so loudly there was a ringing in my ears when she stopped.
Secure the gun.
I reached under her body, but I couldn’t find it. Maybe she’d tossed it aside. Maybe it fell when she fell. Maybe…I searched the debris near her hand. She wasn’t moving. I thought that maybe I’d knocked her out. But the blood. There was blood. Everywhere.
I found the gun. It was caught between our bodies, her arm twisted from the break in her humerus. The pain must have knocked her out.
So why was I feeling lightheaded all of a sudden?
Then the pain came.
Oh…that’s it…
Chapter 30
Kate
The next few days were a blur of activity. The local police sent the entire police force, which consisted of five people, toward the property when Ash called to let them know I was on the way. A grandmotherly-looking woman in a uniform took me back to the station while the rest went in search of Donovan. I don’t even remember giving a statement, but they tell me I did.
I remembered hearing the ambulance. I remembered the lights. It was so surreal, so much like the night the lights reflected off the dunes where Joshua’s body lay. They took me to the hospital, telling me about Amanda. Amanda would be okay. She’d broken her arm and likely dislocated her shoulder. She might need surgery. But she’d be okay. I didn’t understand why I should care that Amanda would be okay.
Ash was there at some point. Ash and Joss and Rose. Kirkland and David were holding down the fort, but Ash thought it would be a good idea to bring Rose and Joss along. I don’t know why.
My daddy arrived later. Maybe days later. Maybe that day. I don’t know. Time became fluid in those days just after.
I remembered seeing Donovan. I remembered thinking he looked like Donovan, but he was too pale. Too weak. And the white bandages wrapped round his chest…that wasn’t right.
Nothing about it was right.
I remembered crying a lot. Too much.
“…puncture lung. Close to the aorta. A few minutes more…”
It was just too much.
“You promised me,” I said, holding his cold hand. “You promised you’d come find me. You’ve never broken a promise, never made a promise you knew you couldn’t keep. Don’t start now, Donovan. Don’t start breaking promises now. Not to me.”
But I was so afraid that it was too late.
It was.
Too late.
Chapter 31
At the Compound
“Amanda Graham,” Detective Emily Warren said slowly. “She was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic at the age of thirteen. Her parents believed that the disease could be controlled with medication. And it was, for a time. But the death of her boyfriend, Joshua Thompson, when she was eighteen sent her on a downward spiral. She managed to hide this spiral for some time, even attended college for a while. But then she disappeared. Her parents had no clue where she’d gone. Then, one day last June, she suddenly reappeared. She appeared to have her condition under control, so her father gave her a job at his tech company in Silicon Valley.”
“Exactly what you’d expect a loving father to do,” Kirkland said.
Emily glanced at him, but didn’t comment.
“She ran into Kate Thompson, her boyfriend’s twin sister, at the cemetery a few weeks later. They began a friendship that extended to Amanda potentially moving some of the tech company’s financial accounts to Miss Thompson’s bank. But at the same time, Amanda was targeting Kate for revenge. She obtained a copy of the police reports on the murder of Joshua Thompson and came to the conclusion that Kate Thompson was the cause of the fight that ended Joshua’s life.”
“Which is completely insane,” Kirkland interjected.
Emily glared at him.
“Amanda tested at the genius level on every intelligence test she was ever administered. It didn’t take much for her to figure out how to build a couple of IEDs. She was also something of a computer genius, working as a hacker during some of her missing time—we found emails on her computer addressed to a Philistine, a known hacker active during that time, on her computer—so it also wasn’t a stretch for her to hack your system, David.”
He inclined his head without making comment. He still blamed himself for the breach because, after all, it was his system.
“The police have raided her home in San Francisco, as well as an apartment she kept here in Santa Monica. They found enough evidence to put her away for a very long time. So, as soon as she is released from the hospital in Austin, she’ll be put on a plane to California. The district attorney believes the family will urge her to take a plea deal.”
“At least Kate won’t have to go through the ordeal of a trial.” And that was the first honest and kind thing Kirkland had said in ages.
David stared at his screens. What was done was done. Now it was time to make sure it didn’t happen again. He would not be responsible for one of Gray Wolf’s operatives…he wouldn’t let it happen again.
Not on
his watch.
Chapter 32
Donovan
Pain burst through me with every breath I took. But it didn’t matter.
She was sitting in what looked like a very uncomfortable chair at my side, her hand wrapped around mine, her sweet head asleep on the thin mattress of the hospital bed. I reached around, wincing as pain sliced through my chest, and touched the top of her head with my fingertips.
She sat up as if I’d touched her with a lit match.
“Donovan?”
“Hey, baby.”
“Oh, God!” Tears welled in her eyes. “You’re awake.”
“I think I am. Or is this heaven?”
She slapped my bare shoulder. It stung, but not nearly as bad as getting shot did.
“I thought…never mind what I thought. I’m just so happy you’re awake. They weren’t sure you would wake this soon.”
“Where am I?”
“Hospital in Austin. Ash and Joss and Rose are here. And my dad. I should go tell them you’re awake.”
“Not yet.” I grabbed her hand, tugging her close to me. “I just want to look at you for a minute longer.”
She touched my face, her fingers lingering on my chin. “I was so scared.”
“It’s okay. I promised you I would find you.”
She nodded, unshed tears making her chin quiver. “So much wasted time,” she whispered.
“Too much.”
She kissed me lightly, then a little harder.
It was the best medicine I could have asked for.
Chapter 33
Kate
It was a while before Donovan got out of the hospital, but when he did, Ash sent his private jet to pick us up. I insisted that he stay with me until he was healed. Donovan didn’t complain.
“You should just move in,” I said one night.
“Here?”
“Why not? You’ll be spending most of your time here, anyway.”
VINCENT (Dragon Security Book 2) Page 31