Another man, one of Dana's two goons, lay opposite him, his neck turned at an awkward angle.
Obviously dead.
The other man must be in the cockpit.
Dana stood at the rear of the plane in front of a long couch, her hands grasping the shoulders of the children standing in front of her. In her right hand was a gun, its muzzle resting obscenely down Rafe's slim chest, jostled by the small sobs of fear he couldn't control.
"Rafe, honey. It's okay," she said, smiling reassuringly at him. He didn't respond.
Dana pulled him back against her thigh, even though he made no attempt to move.
"Welcome to my humble abode, Anna."
She didn't answer. Instead, she met her daughter's too troubled eyes and winked, then looked around. The plane resembled the inside of a huge jet, with five rows of double seats on either side of the aisle, which, unfortunately, hid their view of the men outside.
"Let them go," she said quietly, meeting Dana's gaze. For the first time she saw the madness glowing in her friend's eyes. Why hadn't she seen it before? Why hadn't she sensed what Dana was capable of?
Dana laughed. "Sure. Let's make a deal. I'll give you back your family as soon as you give me back mine."
"What are you talking about?" The gun pressed against the small of her back reassured her that she may have one ace up her sleeve. Dana knew her fear of guns and wouldn't expect her to be armed. That may be why she hadn't searched her. Question was, would she be able to use it if she had to?
"What are you talking about?" Dana mimicked her. "As if you don't know! Your boyfriend, the love of your life, killed my whole family!"
Anna darted a look at her children. Rafe seemed to be in shock. He stared off to the right without blinking, and the soundless sobs continued to shake him. Rebecca's alert gaze stayed on her as if waiting for directions.
"Dana, this is between you and me, not these children. Please, at least let them sit down. Rafe looks like he's going to collapse."
Oblivious to the threat of the gun, she rushed to her son and dropped to her knees. Taking his cold face in her hands, she turned him to her.
Anna needed to get her children out.
Pulling Rafe forward had left the gun hanging down at Dana's side. Holding him by the shoulders, she quickly turned him and lunged for the gun in Dana's left hand, clearing the way for her children to run down the aisle.
"Run!" she screamed, hoping they'd obey, and knowing the men would hear.
She'd caught Dana off guard, but she recovered quickly. Not even bothering to turn around, she focused on keeping the gun and Dana's arm pointed up.
The gun went off.
* * *
At Anna's scream, everyone flew into motion. Men swarmed the plane from all sides, guns drawn.
The gunshot echoed in the silence of the forest, the blast sending everyone but Rico's team to ground.
Rebecca appeared in the doorway, terror etched over her features. She twisted around, her back to them.
Rico ran hard, ahead of everyone rushing the plane. He saw Rebecca pulling Rafe. Just as he reached her, the cockpit door opened and a man grabbed Rafe. Rico grabbed Rebecca and yanked her out with his left arm, his right hand holding the gun steady on the man with his son.
The man holding a gun to his son's head.
"I'll kill him! Back off!"
He twisted so Rebecca would be less of a target.
"Give," Runt said from behind him, and as much as it killed him, he ignored Rebecca's distressed sound and let her go.
With her weight gone, he held the gun in both hands and focused on the big man holding Rafe, whose gaze flicked back and forth between Rico and the back of the plane. Rico heard struggling and knew Anna was inside fighting for her life.
His peripheral vision caught Lucky crouched under the plane, near the cockpit.
Another gunshot. Glass sprayed out one of the windows to his right.
"Enough!" Dana screamed.
* * *
Anna pushed her hair out of her eyes and sucked in breaths, leaning to her left against a seat. A knee to her stomach had weakened her just enough for Dana to pull away.
She turned to the front of the plane, and her rapidly beating heart dropped. Rafe lay against a man's chest like a rag doll, unaware of the gun pointed at his head or the arm around his middle.
Dana breathed erratically, making furious sounds. "I may just kill you for that. I wasn't going to, you know. I was going to let you live and suffer, since Rico Carella isn't here – you're the next best thing."
She casually gestured with the gun to the man holding her son. "Victorio, what's going on out there?"
"There are military guys all over this place."
Dana cursed and mumbled to herself. "One of those damn agents must have lived."
"Agents?" Anna asked, realizing Rico was right when he said Dana had killed them.
Dana laughed, a totally different laugh.
"You didn't even know. You're so stupid, Anna. Didn't you know you've been watched for months? Years? By me and them! Unfortunately, a friend of mine set off some alarms while getting me more information on Rico. That's why the agents showed up. Too bad, too. I liked him."
"Too bad? What was too bad?"
Dana looked at her, her beautiful blue-green eyes empty. "His having to die. But he was stupid and of no use any longer."
How many people had Dana killed in her quest for revenge?
"Who brought you here?" she asked suddenly.
Anna hesitated then went for the truth. "Pete Joncaluso was behind you when you left with the twins. He thought he'd follow you to the hospital and was confused when you came this way so he tailed you."
Dana sighed. "Stupid town cop catches me. By the way, how is dear Lina?"
Chills raced down her spine at Dana's too sweet question and malicious thrill in her eyes.
"Lina's going to be fine," she answered slowly.
"I know that! I didn't try to kill her. She may be Rico's mother and spawned that devil, but she's had to suffer for that already!"
She was evil. There was no other explanation for the twisted behavior. "What did you do to her? How did you cause her to have a heart attack?"
Dana grinned, a shadow of the grin she used to flash when she was about to tell Anna something secret. "The cake."
Anna thought back, remembering when she'd gotten back downstairs with the posterboard, Lina had been sprawled on the kitchen floor. A plate with half-eaten cake had been on the table. "You put something in the cake?"
"Yup," Dana said. "You never even suspected. It was perfect!"
"But why aren't the twins sick?"
"I didn't let them eat it! I told Lina I'd put some alcohol in it for taste, so she didn't let them have any. She gave them a few cookies instead."
Anna's thoughts spun. The unreality of this whole nightmare kept threatening to overwhelm her.
"Oh, Anna, really! Relax already. It only made her look like she was having a heart attack. She'll be fine in a couple of days."
Dana's breezy dismissal of Lina's pain blew her mind.
Keep her talking, Anna thought. "If you wanted everyone out of the way, then why didn't you wait until I could eat the cake, too?"
Dana shrugged. "I thought about it, but all I needed was a distraction. Plus, I thought you might figure it out too soon if you ate with Lina. You'd have told the police when the ambulance showed up. You know, if you didn't eat as quickly or got distracted by the twins, you might not have collapsed."
Anna forced herself to play along. "That's true. That would have really messed things up. If it wasn't for Pete, you would have gotten here without anyone knowing."
Dana's lip curled. "That cop ruined everything!"
"But, Dana, why haven't you taken off already? By the time Pete got backup here, you could have been gone."
Dana looked at her and nodded, her eyes wide. "I know! But that damn Victorio!" She gestured with the gun towards the dead
man. "Something's wrong with the engine. Every time it starts up, the instrument panel in the cockpit goes haywire. He'd been on the phone with his other pilot and was about to go outside to fix the problem when that stupid blond stud over there walked up."
"What did you kill him for?"
"Oh, please, Anna. I'm getting so tired of having to explain everything to you. Can't you see he's official? His gun and vest confirmed it. Too bad, too. He's awfully sexy looking." She sighed. "And I probably wouldn't have killed him if he hadn't broken Victorio's neck."
Silence fell between them. For Anna, the violence made her stomach roll and a cold sweat to cover her skin. Dana looked to be basking in it.
"What the hell are you doing this for?" Anna asked with a tired, beaten tone. She let her hair fall forward as she looked around. She needed to think. She needed to do something. She had to get Rafe out of that man's clutches.
"I'm talking about my family, An-na," she drew out her name in mocking syllables. "I'm talking about every living person I loved dying because of Rico Carella."
"Listen. I don't know what you're talking about and, frankly, I don't give a damn. Rico's dead, Dana. He's been dead for years and he's been out of my life for longer than that."
"I know all about your precious Rico. I had to listen to you whine about him enough. It used to make me sick to my stomach!" She paused, and Anna glanced at her. Dana stood with her right elbow on her hip, the gun held up in her right hand the way a waitress held a tray. Her lips pursed, she cocked her head and her disconnected gaze met Anna's. "I was going to kill them, you know. A few times you'd leave me alone with them and I thought about how easy it would be to kill them. Make it look like an accident."
She inwardly shuddered at the danger she'd unknowingly put her babies in. Movement to Anna's right caught her eye, but she didn't look. Someone was by the doorway.
Dana straightened and put the gun in her left hand. "But then I found out that Rico may be alive. So I waited. And dug around. And waited, just in case. But no-o-o-o. It was a horrible lie. He really is dead."
"Why did you want him alive?" Anna asked, looking at the now-quiet Antonio and seeing his gaze focused out the open doorway. She looked, too, but from her opposite angle saw Kid, his gun trained on her. Hoping he was focused on her face, she moved her eyes and head slightly to the left, trying to indicate Dana's position.
Maybe if Dana died, Antonio would give up and let Rafe go.
"I wanted him to know I was taking his children. I wanted him to worry about them. Mourn for them. I'd wait a few years then come back to kill him. But I wanted him to suffer first, just as I've suffered!"
Her fevered spiel ended on a yell.
Although Mike told her to remain calm and not provoke Dana, she couldn't prevent her sarcasm. "Dana, you're making no sense. Rico didn't even believe the twins were his. He thought I was sleeping around on him! He wouldn't have suffered, because he wouldn't have believed you! This whole crazy plan of yours was for nothing!"
Dana's eyes widened, and she looked confused. Then she swung out and caught Anna in the side of her jaw with the gun.
Thankful she'd started to duck or Dana probably would have broken it. Anna held her throbbing jaw in her left hand and blinked back tears.
"You know nothing! Nothing!" Dana yelled.
Anna's swerving had caused her to move deeper in between the row of seats.
What could she do? She needed to help Rico get the advantage. If she pulled the gun in her waistband, it would only complicate things and probably get Rafe killed. She stared across the aisle and saw the bullethole through the window shade.
The window shade.
Inspiration struck. She made a show of being dizzy from the blow and stumbled back against the side of the plane, her back against the shade. Unable to feel the edge of the shade with the cushioning of the vest, she dropped her head and hair forward and let her raised left arm provide further coverage. With her right hand behind her, she raised the window shade a few inches. A quick glance to Antonio showed he'd missed her move.
Dana, pacing the small space in front of the long bench along the back of the plane and shouting about getting the plane going, also missed the maneuver. With a prayer she stepped groggily back to where she'd been standing before. Dana kept spouting off about revenge and lies.
Anna looked to the door.
Kid was gone.
* * *
"Anna just took a nasty blow to the face," Kid said into the mike. Rico stood far enough back to keep the guy in the plane calm, but close enough to put a bullet in him.
"Status?" he asked.
"No visual," Kid replied.
"Runt?"
"She's fine."
Putting aside concern for Rebecca, he focused on the plane and the shouted words from Dana.
Dana wanted the kids for revenge. And for a new family.
"Heads up," Lucky's voice filled his ear. "Kid, I've got visual. Anna raised a shade just enough. Don't know how long we got."
Kid was running in a crouch before Lucky finished speaking. From his vantage point, Rico could see the two men on the other side of the plane, Kid with his rifle up to his shoulder.
"I'm going to keep this guy's attention on me," he said into the mike, before moving it away from his mouth.
"Hey!" he shouted. "Why don't we talk about this?"
The guy looked at him, then into the recesses of the plane, his squinty eyes and crewcut making him look like an overblown cartoon character.
"I've got visual," Kid whispered. "Going for it."
Dana screamed in pain.
* * *
Even though she'd instigated it, Anna was stunned by Dana's scream and the blood that appeared on her left shoulder. She dropped the gun on the floor and grabbed her arm, falling back against the bench.
Anna looked at Antonio, who immediately started down the aisle toward them. She rushed into the aisle and lunged to the floor for the gun. Dana was oblivious, clutching her arm and wailing.
Rolling into a sitting position, her back against the bench, she raised the gun at the man charging for her. He held Rafe under his right arm like a football, above the seat level, and his left arm extended with the gun pointed straight at her.
Cal's leg flew up in the air. Antonio's arm flew up, and the blow knocked him off balance. He dropped Rafe and twisted to face Cal who'd struggled to stand.
Anna crawled forward, grabbed Rafe and dragged him back. Tucking his limp but breathing body behind the seats on her right, she knelt up against the back of the seat. Dana still rolled on the seat crying, so she focused on the grappling men, her arms propped and gun trained on them.
Rico burst through the door, taking control. Felling Antonio with a blow to the side of his neck, he grabbed the gun in blurring movements and caught Cal as he collapsed. Lucky, right behind him, relieved him of Cal and quickly helped him from the plane. Irish and Kid rushed in as Rico strode toward her. The two of them grabbed the almost-unconscious Antonio.
Anna blinked, realizing it was over. Sitting back, she put the gun on the floor and gathered Rafe onto her lap just as Rico reached her. His hand curved around the back of her neck, and he pulled them close.
Dropping a hard kiss on her mouth, he said gruffly, "Don't ever put me through that again." He searched her eyes and the side of her jaw.
Then he turned his attention to Rafe. "Rafe, son, look at me. Come on, buddy." He lightly patted Rafe's cheeks. "Hey, it's all over. You're safe. Mommy and I are here."
Irish appeared again, looking down on them. "The ambulances are here. Do you want a stretcher?"
"No, I'll carry him," Rico said, then looked at her. She nodded and transferred her baby into his father's strong arms. He looked so small and defenseless. So traumatized.
Rico stood, cradling Rafe with utmost tenderness as he started down the aisle. Irish stood staring at Dana with revulsion, then reached down and pulled her to her feet.
"The Feds are here. They can
cuff her. I don't even like touching her." He turned his back and raised his voice. "Rico, send in the guys waiting at the steps. They want Dana."
"Rico?" Dana's voice whispered, her wailing abruptly halted. "Rico?" As if in slow motion, Anna watched the next few moments in horror. Spurred by rage, Dana's right hand reached down and whipped out a gun from her ankle. Irish's gun came up the same time hers did.
Anna reached around and grabbed the gun from her waistband, thumbing off the safety the way Pete had shown her. Two gunshots rocked the airplane, and she saw Irish stumble back. Dana stood still, her gun pointed toward the front of the plane.
Pointed at Rico and Rafe.
Anna didn't hesitate as she screamed Rico's name.
She fired.
* * *
Chapter 14
«^»
On her knees yet again, Anna looked at Dana's fallen body. She crossed herself in quick motions, whispering the prayers she grew up with and tried so hard to live by.
Thou shall not kill.
She put trembling hands together in prayer only to find her palms cradling the gun. The black weapon looked so wrong in her hands. So violent. Yet, without it she might have lost Rico and Rafe.
Maybe guns weren't the promoters of violence.
People were. Twisted, sick people.
Maybe guns were at times, necessary weapons against them.
She laid the gun on the floor and, using the back of a seat, pulled herself up. Rico, without Rafe, rushed back down the aisle to her.
"Anna! Are you okay? Were you hit?"
"No, I'm fine…" Her voice trailed off as she looked down between the seats in front of her. Irish lay there gasping. Rico ripped open Irish's shirt, and right above his heart lay a hole in the vest. He pulled the vest from Irish's chest.
There was no blood.
"Damn, that hurts," Irish gasped. Relieved, Anna closed her eyes and felt herself sway.
"That's it," she heard Rico say, and she snapped her eyes open when he swung her up into his arms. "Irish, you okay?"
"Fine," she heard him say.
Heartsick, Anna closed her eyes and lay in Rico's arms, soaking up his strength, vaguely wondering if he would be reinjuring himself by carrying her. Behind her closed lids, she still saw Dana's body crumpled on the floor. Her friend. But not.
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