“Whoa. That sucks.” The mental image was horrific.
“Yeah. It’s a bloody mess.”
Wearing a homemade pink sweater tight down to her knees and plastic beaded jewelry dangling from her neck, the lady shuffled over to us. She plunked some steaming pizzas down onto the table.
“My name is Arlene. I’ll turn the TV on for you kids, and y’all can stay as long as ya need to,” she said kindly.
Seth began stuffing his mouth immediately. I thanked her. Luke stared at his hands, and Lisa turned up her nose at the pizza and fumbled with a granola bar instead. Next to a round security mirror, an old television dangled from the ceiling in the far corner of the store. Arlene fumbled with the buttons and cranked the volume to an uncomfortable level. I imagined her sitting on her stool behind the counter, eyes darting between the television and the mirror, waiting for customers…
“Okeydokey, here’s the news,” she yelled, finding the channel she was looking for. “Ah, local. That’s us.”
I reached for a slice of pizza before Seth inhaled the whole pie, but yet again, Luke didn’t eat. I shoved the plate toward him with a demanding stare. Sighing and picking up a piece, he forced some into his mouth. Lisa was about to comment, but instead shook her head.
“So, Ben Smith…” Seth said, wiping sauce from his chin. “That’s our guy?”
I chewed my way through overcooked crust before replying. “Yeah. There are two around here. One outside of Radville where we’re heading and another about an hour and a half north. If we don’t find her there, then…”
“Then we might not find her,” Luke said dismally.
Lisa’s eyes widened. “We have to find her before Rayna does or—”
Luke erupted. “Tell me something I don’t know, Lisa!”
Lisa flinched back from Luke’s outburst, then reached across the table and affectionately gripped his arm. “Yes, it might feel like finding a needle in a haystack. But, it can, and it will be done. You gotta relax. Have faith.”
Luke’s eyes rolled and then drifted down to the food in his hand. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, Lees.”
“It’s okay, luv,” she said sweetly.
Seth couldn’t hide the jealousy making his nostrils flare. He cleared his throat. “Let’s look at a map and see how we can get around the accident. There must be an alternate road or something. We gotta think smart. Check out this lead as fast as possible, and then move on to the next.”
We agreed.
Luke put his food down and shoved away his tea. He was really struggling to stay calm. “Maybe that accident will get cleared up soon, and we can head on through. They can’t keep a highway closed for too long. By the time we drive in circles to get around it—”
He didn’t finish his sentence; a car had pulled up outside at the gas pump opposite his truck, and then another right behind it. They were both identical black SUVs with blackened windows—not the sort of vehicles farmers would drive. The hair rose on the back of my neck and Seth froze, pizza midair. The television was blaring out hockey scores, the phone was ringing behind the counter, and nobody was exiting the cars outside.
Then the backseat driver’s side window of the second car started rolling down…
“Get down!”
Seth hit the floor first, then Luke followed, realizing a little too late that Lisa was too engrossed in her granola bar ingredient label to know what was going on. I lunged for her, getting hold of the first thing I could—which was a handful of blonde hair—and pulled her to the floor with me as gunfire shattered the window.
Arlene started screaming. Seth scrambled in her direction, getting to the counter while food packages blasted apart around him. I ignored Lisa’s struggles as I shielded her, covering every inch of her petite body with mine as bullets ripped through the air. I pictured Kaya, the day of her birthday in that restaurant, and the moment I lifted up to see her bleeding out from a massive gash to her neck, so deathly pale as she lay there dying…
The gunfire stopped. Arlene was silent. I looked down expecting to see those emerald eyes and thick black lashes—but instead of Kaya, it was Lisa. Glaring and perfectly fine.
“I’ll bloody well kill you if you don’t get off me,” she hissed.
Chips were in her hair and scattered around us. I tentatively rolled off, staying low, and got my gun from the back of my pants. I backed against the wall under the broken window, and felt something slice at my back. I’d cut myself, that unmistakable warmth of blood and sting of a fresh wound caught my breath, but I had to put it out of my mind.
Luke had moved up next to me. We were beneath the window, watching in terror as Lisa decided to crawl on her belly to Seth amidst another round of gunfire.
“Lisa! Stay low,” Luke yelled.
Food bags and chocolate bars blasted apart around her while she made her way toward the counter. Seth stood and started firing at the broken window, covering for her until she was safely next to him.
And then the only noise was the wind rushing in and the television screaming the weather forecast: more snow.
The security mirror gave a wide view of the destroyed store and Arlene’s tiny feet sticking out from behind the counter; I hoped the old broad hadn’t been shot.
“Lisa’s safe. But we’re sitting ducks, and I’m almost out of ammo,” Seth warned.
Keeping my eye on the mirror, I saw the figure of a man crouch next to the steps just outside the door. “There’s one outside,” I said to Luke, pointing at the security mirror. “See him?”
Golden boy had become still. Eerily calm. Whatever happened to him when he was in fighting mode had switched on; I was glad we were on the same side.
“There are two in the first car… and maybe three in the last,” he said, ice-blue eyes unblinking, gun in his hand remarkably steady.
We watched the security mirror while the television shouted out the local news. The man outside on the steps was obviously waiting for a signal, and I imagined as soon as we were surrounded he would be tossing tear gas in through the doors.
And then we’d be screwed.
“We gotta take out the guy on the stairs,” I said to Luke.
He didn’t answer.
“Luke… do ya hear me?”
He didn’t. His eyes had become laser focused on the TV, to where a news anchor’s hair was being whipped around by the wind. The man was on a highway with the blackened remains of an explosion in the background.
“Authorities have closed the highway just outside of Radville. An overturned semi exploded when hit by a minivan that couldn’t stop in time on the black ice. Incredibly, there were no casualties, and that is thanks to the quick thinking of two very brave young women…
And there, on the screen, was her.
“I think there are six of ‘em,” Seth said, trying not to yell. “Oliver, when I give you the signal, stand and fire out the window just off to the left. I can see on the security camera two went around back. Lisa can take care of them…”
The television blared, but now I couldn’t look away either.
Elsie Summers says the unidentified woman went back for her child even though the vehicle was on fire. Three-month-old Caitlin was strapped into her car seat and was miraculously unharmed in the crash. The unidentified woman who saved the child’s life had assistance from a friend who helped pull them both from the wreck moments before the explosion. Ms. Summers would like to personally thank these heroines who saved her child, but they left the scene before…
“Okay,” Seth was saying. “On my go…”
The television now showed a girl running, and it was Kaya. No doubt about it. I knew by the way her body moved. Smoke billowed out from behind her. The only other thing visible was another girl wearing a red hat, leading the way. The voices around whoever was filming were panicked and screaming at them to run faster. Kaya had a something in her arms wrapped in a blanket… a baby….
Then a massive explosion ended the video.
L
uke gasped. “Uh…Oliver?”
“Yeah, I saw it,” I said, noting the advertisement for Carlson Farm’s Angus Beef emblazoned on a truck in the ditch just as the video feed ended. When the anchorman reappeared to advise of alternative routes, that truck was gone.
“No casualties…” I repeated, mostly to myself.
“No casualties,” Luke reaffirmed.
“Boys! What the hell?” Seth bellowed, “Are you assholes even listening to me?”
Luke smiled wryly, ignoring Seth. “Well, Oliver, we found her,” he said. “So…whaddya say we get this party started? Ol’ buddy, ol’ pal?”
I grinned. “Oh, hell yeah.”
Before I was even standing, Luke was on his feet firing at the driver of the second SUV. The windows of the car shattered as he sent bullets at our attackers with deadly aim. Even in the low-lit night, bloodshed was visible all over the front seat. We took aim at the second car, but our sightline was impeded by the gas pump. I was trying to get whoever was driving while Luke tried to shoot out the tires—neither of us wanting to blow ourselves up with a rogue bullet. We stood, side by side at the broken window, and kept firing. When we were out of ammo, the car floored it and started to pull away. Our efforts did nothing to slow it down. Soon, it was disappearing onto the desolate highway.
I didn’t notice a man get out of the remaining car—but Luke did. His fast reflexes landed a perfect shot to the man’s chest, not even giving the guy a chance to lift his arm to aim where his eyes were fixed—on me.
My knees went weak. “Now I owe ya again for saving my life,” I said, trembling slightly.
Luke was still calm. Steady. “Hopefully you won’t have to return the favor anytime soon.”
Seth had shot at the doors, taking out the man crouched by the stairs. Lisa had taken care of the men at the back of the store.
“All clear back here,” she yelled. “I got two.”
“All clear up here, too,” Seth replied.
Snow whipped in through the broken window.
“Why’d that car take off?” Luke said, running his hand through his hair. “We were sitting ducks, and no one even fired back. Why would they just leave and…” He didn’t finish what he was going to say. Instead, he looked at me with an expression that made me take a step back. “Oh my God. They saw it too! They know where she is… and they don’t need us idiots to lead them to her now.”
Luke’s eyes were wild. Everything that had been calm about him had disappeared.
“Saw what?” Seth was red cheeked and vibrating. He was searching the body at the door. The man he’d shot had fallen halfway into the store and was bleeding out of too many places to count.
“The news! Kaya was on TV. They know where she is,” Luke said breathlessly. He was about to say more, but I shook my head at him.
“Which is where?” Seth asked eagerly, taking the dead man’s gun.
Luke’s eyes narrowed. His gaze shifted from me to Seth, centering on him with fury. Suddenly, I could see he had the same reservations I did about the ex-cop.
The wind picked up food wrappers, fluttering them through the store in a whirlwind of chaos and confusion. “Or… maybe they stopped shooting at us because of you, Seth. Maybe Rayna didn’t want to harm her ex-hubby. Maybe she still has a thing for you.”
Seth stood, perplexed, and then a deep laugh erupted from him. “Yeah, I doubt that.”
Luke’s muscles tensed like a cat about to pounce. “Tell me then…why is Kaya so important to you?”
The grin left Seth’s face. He countered Luke’s accusation head on, even though he knew the dead man’s gun in his hands was useless if Luke decided to strike—he would never even get a chance to aim and pull the trigger. “Luke, you know I’m on your side.”
“Yeah, but for what reason exactly? What’s in it for you?”
Seth carefully and slowly placed the gun in his belt, then held his hands up in defense. “Listen, you know you can trust me. Haven’t I proved that? I don’t work for Rayna anymore. And besides… good Lord Luke, you kidnapped someone! Remember? You knew what Regan wanted to do with Kaya Lowen, and you were just as hell-bent on kidnapping her as the rest of us were. You’re just as guilty of being a dickhead as I am, but I am not questioning your motives, now am I?”
Luke was speechless. He wavered slightly.
“What if you hadn’t fallen for her, huh?" Seth continued, his words having an obvious effect on Luke. “She would have been Dr. Death’s pincushion and then handed over to Rayna to be made into mincemeat—”
Luke roared. “Never! I never would have let it get that far. It might have taken me longer to realize what I had to do, but I… I would have stopped it. I would have…”
Luke’s voice trailed off. He was visibly shaken by the truth.
Seth stood his ground. “Anyway, now that we have all come to our senses, it’s just obvious what we have to do. I want to help Kaya, to make things right.” He gave Lisa a nod, then focused on Luke. “That’s all I want. I promise you.”
Lisa remained quiet. Whatever was going through her mind, she miraculously kept to herself.
Seth sighed. “I’ve got good intentions, Luke. Really. So let’s figure this out, all right? If that girl was on television, you might as well just announce to every corrupt asshole in the world that a billion bucks is up for grabs.”
Luke blanched. “A billion bucks?”
According to the sudden nervous tick in his eye, Seth just said something he shouldn’t have. “Figuratively speaking, of course,” he added.
There was something Seth wasn’t telling us, but now wasn’t the time to pound it out of him. I’d wait until I got him alone, then we’d chat.
Luke took in a deep breath, calming down. We waited, leaving it up to him to make the next move. An alarm was going off somewhere, and the ice in the air was like knives.
“The Carlson Ranch… find out where it is, Lees,” Luke finally said. “And hurry, please. I think that’s where we’ll find her.” He stormed past Seth, stepped over the dead body, and headed outside through the shattered doors.
Seth cleared his throat, relieved. “Yes, you do that, Lisa, and I’ll go in the back and disable the security cameras, swipe the tapes, and empty the cash register so the cops will think it was a robbery. I knocked the store lady out, so she won’t remember a thing.”
He disappeared into the back room. “Cops…” Lisa said with a shudder, eyes leaving him to follow Luke pacing outside. “Probably not a good idea for me to be anywhere near this place if they show up. And Luke, too.”
She had a tiny scrape on her cheek and her hair was mussed, but she wasn’t crying or hyperventilating like Kaya would be over the blood or the dead men she’d had a hand in killing. There wasn’t any weakness about her. I had the weirdest desire to know what made her that way.
She caught me studying her. Her eyes weren’t filled with hatred for me anymore.
“Hey, you’re bleeding there, big boy,” she said, pointing to the increasing dark splotch on the bottom of my shirt.
I’d been ignoring the ooze of blood seeping through the thin fabric. It hadn’t hurt… until now.
“You better let me have a look.” She marched over and reached for me.
I backed away. “I remember very well the last time you ‘had a look.’ It didn’t end so well for me.”
“Right. The Death Race.” Her eyes flashed in concern. “Listen, you have every reason to be wary of me. But I’m on Luke’s side—which weirdly enough is your side now, too, and how that twisted bit of reality came about is beyond me.” A sly grin crossed her face. “Besides, I promise I won’t drug you again.”
I cringed, remembering the drug she’d slipped into my water that had doctors thinking I had altitude sickness. I was taken out of the race with busted ribs. Lisa… this petite blond standing before me, was the one who had masterminded that plan. “Uh, yeah. I forgot to thank you for that.”
“I was just doing what I had to,”
she said. “We all were.”
“Is that your way of apologizing?”
Lisa’s face turned to stone. “I’m not sorry. I’m sure you can understand that, Oliver. I think you’d go just as far as I did for the ones you love.”
She stood with her hands on her hips, wind pelting her cheeks, staring me down with the ferocity of a tiger. Instinct made me want to argue with her, but she was right.
I reluctantly turned around and let her fumble with my shirt. Her fingertips on my bare skin gave me goose bumps. My spine tingled when her warm breath brushed my shoulder blades.
“It’s bleeding a lot, but it doesn’t seem too deep,” she muttered.
Pressing a batch of napkins over the wound, she lingered longer than necessary. The world slowed down for a moment. I felt a kindness from Lisa that made my breath catch. I could have stood there with her for a very long while, but Seth emerged from the back room, face slick with sweat and now green with jealousy.
“You better find out where this Carlson Ranch is, Lisa,” he said, breathing heavy. “Cops will be here any minute. Get on it before the old broad wakes up.”
Lisa’s hand fell away. “About that, Seth. Did ya have to hit her so hard?”
The old lady in the pink sweater had begun to moan. “I did what I had to,” Seth said flatly.
Right. We were all doing what we had to do. All of us were on the same page… but from completely different books.
Lisa headed for the counter, fumbled with a laptop, and then furiously began typing. She looked up to catch Seth and me watching her. “I think I saw a first aid kit in the back, Oliver. Go grab it, and I’ll patch you up while we’re on the road.”
Seth gritted his teeth and stomped out of the store.
“Oh, and uh…thanks for saving my life there, big boy,” she added.
If I hadn’t grabbed her by the hair—if it had been left up to Seth—she’d have a bullet through her pretty little head. And she knew it.
Our eyes locked from across the room. She seemed to be holding her breath, waiting for my reply, and I think I’d been holding mine; the warmth of her hand still lingered on my skin.
I made myself look away. “Anytime.”
Nocturne Page 21