by Nicole Fox
Hunter ran to his car, trying to decide his next course of action. He had no idea where she could be. He didn’t know of any sort of headquarters Jeremy had, and if he was dead, he might not be running the show now anyway. Who knew what they’d do with Vanessa. Did they have Opal already or was part of the plan to torture Vanessa into telling them where she was? It would take an awful lot for that to happen, he knew. She’d already been tortured for years at Jeremy’ hand for her daughter’s sake.
But then he got a flash memory. Jeremy, in the hotel room. I know where Opal is, and I already have someone on their way to get her. It was Hunter’s only lead. If they hadn’t gotten Opal already, he could save her. If Jeremy had gotten to her, maybe there were clues of some sort that would help him find Vanessa.
There was just one decision he had to make, and it might be the hardest one of his life. Did he give up searching for Vanessa to rescue her daughter? He might be able to track Vanessa with her phone, but that would take time, and he’d already spent too much here, trying to get answers. She might not even have her phone on her. His heart rejected any course of action that wouldn’t lead him to find Vanessa right this second. But when it came down it, this is what Vanessa would want. She would tell him to save her daughter. And maybe, if he was lucky, it would help him find her, too.
He got into his car, his gut turning, and headed in the direction of the farm house, still having no idea where Vanessa was, if she was safe or alive, and making no move to find her.
Chapter Thirty
Vanessa
Vanessa opened her eyes, the light burning them, and her head still pounding. The ropes were still tight on her wrists, digging in painfully. This chair was too hard, and she’d sat in it too long. Her bottom ached, and her back, and her feet and legs. No part of her wasn’t in some pain or discomfort.
As her eyes focused, everything became worse. In her darkest nightmares, she couldn’t have envisioned the situation that was before her. She thought at first that she must be dreaming still, because it couldn’t be true.
In front of her sat Jeremy, holding Opal in his arms as she sat on his lap. Her daughter’s face had thin lines running from her eyes down her face and she looked terrified and worried. But she seemed unhurt. There was no blood at least. Emotional hurt didn’t show on the outside as easily as bruises and cuts. Vanessa tried to give her daughter a look that said things would be okay, not to worry. But she doubted it looked anything like that. Vanessa was full of worry and doubt and she didn’t believe for a second that things would be okay.
“Oh, look who’s finally awake,” Jeremy said.
A man beside her pressed a gun to her temple. Any thought of trying to comfort her daughter went out of her head. There was no look she could give that would make Opal think this was okay.
Vanessa swallowed hard and tried not to cry. That wouldn’t help anything. “Do not kill me in front of my daughter.”
Jeremy laughed. “Always the concerned mother, aren’t you? How sweet.”
“Jeremy, please. Just don’t do it in front of Opal. Take her in another room. Do one thing for your daughter’s sake. Don’t make her witness this.”
Jeremy put his hand on Opal’s head and stroked her hair. The sight of it, of him touching her daughter in a way that was meant to be tender, made her sick. Her teeth ached, she clenched them so tightly. In that moment, anything she’d told Hunter about keeping him alive seemed absurd. How could she ever think that was best? Maybe if she would have been okay with it, he would have killed Jeremy already, and they wouldn’t be here. She’d failed her daughter again. She hadn’t hid her in this city well, and Jeremy had found them. She hadn’t hid her at Mari’s well enough, either, and he’d found her. And she hadn’t even taken out the biggest danger that faced them both. She deserved to die. She couldn’t keep Opal safe, and she couldn’t keep her from this madman.
“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Jeremy said, still stroking Opal’s head. “My daughter trusts me, don’t you, Opal?” He paused to smile at her, then Vanessa. “She knows I would never ever hurt Mommy, don’t you, Opal?”
Opal looked to her mother, then glanced sideways at her father, not sure how to answer. Of course, Jeremy didn’t really expect her to. Opal had seen him hurt Mommy more times than she could count. Probably more times than she knew. Kids had a way of seeing things their parents didn’t want them to see. They figured out too much and saw too much, and it always hurt them deeper than anyone knew. And now, she was about to witness the most violent thing she could.
Jeremy nodded to the gunman by Vanessa’s side. She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking this was it, she was about to die. In her final moment, she couldn’t bear to see Opal’s terrified face and Jeremy’s smile.
The gun moved away from her head. Was he going to shoot her somewhere else? She opened her eyes and let out a strangled gasp. The man had removed the gun from Vanessa’s head and was now pressing it against Opal’s.
Opal let out a whimper and fresh tears streamed down her face.
“No, no, no,” Vanessa said. “Kill me, kill me. Don’t hurt her. You can’t hurt her.”
Her mind spun. The world seemed to stand still and time itself crawled. Her ears were muffled and the loudest thing was a ringing through her brain that wanted her to black out and not see this. She couldn’t really believe this was going to happen. She couldn’t swallow. She could barely get out the words to plead for her daughter’s life.
“I figure it like this,” Jeremy said, looking down to inspect his fingernails. “I could kill you, sure. I could do it in front of the kid, but I don’t really want to make her suffer. After all, she wasn’t the bitch who left me and took everything. That was you, darling.” He gave her an evil smile. “And since you’re the one I really want to suffer, I thought long and hard about how I could do that. What would hurt Vanessa the most? What would ruin her whole life?”
Jeremy slid Opal off his lap and sat her on the chair. The gunman didn’t budge. He pressed the gun so hard into Opal’s temple that it made her head tilt to the side. Jeremy stood up and faced Vanessa, standing out of the path of the bullet that was planned for Opal’s brain.
“When you and my hit man hooked up, I thought at first, maybe that was it. I could kill him and that would make you suffer. You two seemed to be getting so close and all. I also thought maybe I could just disfigure you. Cut off a limb, throw acid in your face. Then Hunter wouldn’t want you and neither would anyone else.”
He paced a few steps and turned back to her. “But then, it came to me in a burst of inspiration. What do you love more in this world than your daughter? Of course, my original plan always was to take her from you and make you suffer that way. But the legal hassle, and there was always a chance you’d somehow find her and get her back. No, this was brilliant. I kill Opal, and nothing could make you suffer more. Oh, except there is more.”
He stopped to laugh.
“Here’s the thing, darling. Not only do you get to watch your daughter die and know it was all your fault, but take a look around you. You’ll be the only one here. The only one found near the body. When they test you and see all the drugs in your system, there’ll be no question. They’ll assume you turned to drugs to escape your horrible ex-husband. And of course, I’ll make sure they know about your history of drug abuse. How I should have seen this coming, I should have done something to help you when I still had the chance and could have saved my beloved daughter. They’ll assume you went crazy and killed her. Then you’ll be sent to jail, charged with the crime of murdering your own child. I don’t think your fellow prisoners will take too kindly to that, either. They’ll make whatever life you have left even more hell. And there I’ll be, on the news, telling everyone how horrible it was living with you, how you screamed at me and hit our daughter, how you needed help desperately, but refused to get it, no matter how I begged. I’ll paint the saddest story anyone could imagine. They’ll put you away forever, and the drugs will ensure that n
o one believes a word you say.”
He stopped to smile at her. It was a smile she recognized. The one he gave her right after he hit her. The one that said, aww, you’re hurt? Well, I’ve got you now. You’re under my control, and you can do nothing about it. The smile that said, “I will make you suffer and enjoy it.”
Well, he was right about one thing. Seeing Opal die would be the greatest torture he could ever make her endure. Nothing else would compare, and nothing else would matter. She wouldn’t care if she were alive or in jail or what happened to her. She would have nothing left to live for, and no reason to go on.
Her mind wandered to Hunter for a moment. And she did think, maybe having him would make things okay some day. But no. She would never be the same, and he wouldn’t want her like that. If she went to jail, he didn’t need to wait. If she didn’t, she’d probably end up in a mental hospital, and he shouldn’t have to deal with that, either. She would let him go and face a life of pain on her own, waiting for her time here to be through.
# # #
Hunter slammed on the brakes when his car reached the front of the farm house. He jumped out and ran to the door. Here, too, the door looked to have been kicked down. There were dents in the wood where a foot might have hit, and it hadn’t been closed all the way. At least here there were no cops. So, not everyone knew about this place, then.
He tore into the main room, the living room. He expected to find signs of struggle, and they were there. Photos knocked over, furniture askew. He figured they came and took everyone, or took Opal and left Mari’s parents like they’d left Nicholas.
What he didn’t expect to find was blood. When he saw the first puddle, his breath caught in his throat. Who? Was all he could think. He approached the bedroom cautiously. The blood went from the hall to the bedroom. Maybe someone had been dragged or crawled, judging by the smeared trail.
He held his breath and stepped into the room. Two bodies lie on the bed, facing each other. They must not have been killed in this position. It looked more like a final embrace.
Hunter inspected the scene for several seconds, his thoughts and emotions running wild. Mari’s parents had allowed Opal to come here, to hide. They’d promised to protect her and it looked to him like they’d done so with their lives.
There was no reason to kill them. They were innocent in all this. They didn’t really play a part besides this one small piece of trying to keep Opal safe. And now they were dead. His best guess was that they’d been shot. Perhaps one of them in the bed. The other had been shot and crawled here so they could be together to die.
He covered his mouth and blinked through the tears.
He couldn’t help feeling relieved. It wasn’t Vanessa. It wasn’t Opal. Even Mari’s death would have hit him harder. And he felt terrible that he was relieved. These sweet people didn’t deserve this, and there he was, witnessing their heart-wrenching final scene, and all he could think was, thank God.
He turned from the room. If the cops weren’t here yet, they might be soon and the last thing he needed was to leave behind any sort of evidence. He walked out of the house and made a sweep around the perimeter.
In the back of the house, several hundred feet away, sat a large barn. And in front of the barn, two men in black were walking toward him.
Fresh, raw rage exploded in his chest. The death of Mari’s parents, Vanessa missing, Opal gone, Nicholas’s inability to do anything—it all crashed over him in an instant and set him into action.
He took off running as he pulled his gun from its holster. He fired and the first guy dropped. The sound alerted the second one, and he turned, coming face to face with Hunter’s gun. He shot again. This one hit the guy in the shoulder. Hunter paused his running, took better aim, and hit him in the head. He fell beside his friend, two black-clad thugs dead together.
He resumed his running toward the barn. They had to be in there. If Jeremy’s thugs were walking around outside and they were lurking around the barn, they had to be in there. His heart raced, thinking about what he might find. Would Opal be in there? If they’d killed two innocents already, would they hurt her? And the biggest questions were—was Vanessa inside, and was she still alive?
The adrenaline pumped through him, making him run faster and grip his gun tighter. He reached the door and pounded it open. It slammed against the wall. He stopped and looked around. The barn was dim. No electric lights on and only the sunlight shining through the open door illuminated the building, but it was enough. There were scuffles in the dirt on the floor. Someone had been here. But right now, it was empty.
Chapter Thirty-One
Hunter
The barn was lined with stalls. Hunter started searching, hoping for some clue, some answers. In the first stall, he found nothing. Just the leftover bits of hay from whatever animal had once stayed there. In the second stall, the same thing. The third stall also had a metal bucket and a shallow layer of water that looked brown.
In the last stall, though, he found something much more valuable. A Kevlar vest. On the chest, in the spot he had shot Jeremy, was a tear in the fabric and an indentation with a bullet lodged in it.
This could only mean one thing, and he didn’t want to consider it. But he couldn’t face what was in front of him. Jeremy was alive. He had no idea where he might be or what he was doing at this moment. Did he have Vanessa and Opal?
He turned, ready to leave and continue on his search. Then he heard footsteps.
“Hey!” a voice called out.
Hunter turned to the side and saw another man in black walk out of a back room. He didn’t pause to think or ask questions. He raised his gun and aimed. At the last minute, he changed his mind. Instead of killing the guy, he moved his aim and shot his shoulder instead.
The bullet hit, sending a splatter of blood on the wood wall behind him. He slumped to the ground, moaning in pain. Hunter went over and kicked the man in the stomach.
“Where’s Vanessa?”
The man moaned and didn’t answer.
Hunter kicked him harder, and in the ribs this time. “This is how this is going to work. I ask the questions and you give me answers. If you cooperate, I might not shoot you in the head. Got it?”
The man tried to nod.
“I’ll ask again, where is Vanessa?”
“Don’t—know.”
Hunter slowly lowered his boot down on the man’s hand, allowing his full weight on it. He could feel the little bones moving and crunching as the man groaned. “Lying isn’t going to work for me, either. Shall we start with an easier question? Is Jeremy Beale alive?”
The man moved his head up and down.
Hunter looked at the man for a moment in horror. He hadn’t killed Jeremy. The thing he’d been dreading since he found the Kevlar vest was true. Whatever blood he had seen wasn’t from his bullet wound. Jeremy was still alive and walking around, and he most likely already had Vanessa and Opal.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Hunter said. “Was Vanessa here in this barn?”
He nodded again.
“What about Opal? Was she in here as well?”
He nodded yes.
“Are they together now?”
Another nod.
That was better than them being apart. If they were together, it meant only finding one location and breaking into one place to rescue them. But it also meant that most likely, Jeremy had them both. There was no hope that Opal had run off into the woods alone and gotten away.
“Time for some real answers now,” Hunter said. “You up for that?”
The man didn’t answer. Hunter grabbed the collar of his shirt and hauled him up to a sitting position.
“There. Now you’re up for giving me some answers, aren’t you?”
He didn’t respond, but slumped to the side, blood trickling from his mouth.
“Does Jeremy have Vanessa and Opal?”
He whispered, “Yes.”
“What were you hired to do?”
; “Any—thing.”
“Anything. As in, anything Jeremy wanted?”
He nodded.
“Even killing Vanessa?”
“And Oliv—ia.”
“He hired you to kill Opal?” That couldn’t be what he meant. “Or kidnap her?”
“Both.”
What a sick fuck Jeremy was. Who would kidnap and then kill their own child? I guess when you beat your wife and kid, there was no telling what else you’d do to them.
“Where are they now?”
“Hotel,” the man whispered.
“Which hotel?”
“Oak—Side.”
“Are all three of them at the Oakside?”
He nodded. “Big—plans.”
“Big plans? What sort of plans?”