Lost Down Deep

by Sara Davison

  His arm loosened when they reached the back door on the passenger side, but the knife stayed pressed to her skin. He grabbed the keys from her hand, hit the remote, and yanked open the door. “Get in.”

  Before she could move, a gunshot split the air, echoing around the quiet neighborhood. The man behind her lurched back a step before dropping onto the sidewalk. She shot a horrified glance at him. It was the man who had come into the café awhile ago, the one who refused to engage in conversation with her even though he spoke Spanish. Now she knew why.

  Her gaze shifted to the row of hedges in front of the house across from Nancy’s. A tall man emerged from the shadows, appearing to drag them with him as though he had the ability to meld into them completely. Was that how he’d stayed hidden from her for so long? The sunlight caught his face and she repressed a shudder. The guy who had broken the vase of roses in the grocery store sauntered toward her car, the pistol in his hand pointed directly at her. He removed the cigarette from his mouth with his thumb and forefinger and flicked it onto the road.

  Summer’s body went completely numb as an image of this man standing in the doorway of her bedroom, clutching a Beretta, slammed through her mind. He’d come back to finish the job.

  “Come here, chica. And bring me the keys.” He gestured for her to go to him. When she hesitated, he swung the pistol in the direction of the front lawn. “Now. Or I shoot the old lady.”

  Summer’s gaze met Nancy’s. Her friend had stopped halfway down the walkway, her flowered skirt billowing in the cool March wind. “Summer, no. Don’t do it.”

  I can’t let him kill her. Or Jude. Summer bent down and grabbed the keys lying in the grass. She strode to the man and, when he opened the passenger side door, lowered herself onto the seat. He slammed the door behind her. Keeping the gun trained on Nancy and his eyes on Jude, he rounded the front of the car and pulled open the driver’s side door. Summer gasped when Jude lunged toward the man. The deafening crack of the pistol firing sent her heart rate into overdrive. Jude dropped to the pavement.

  Summer fumbled for the door handle, but the man dove into the car and shoved the weapon against her temple again. She let go of the handle. He slammed the door, ripped the keys from her fingers, and shoved one into the ignition. In seconds he had roared away from the curb and was speeding down the street.

  Summer twisted in her seat. Jude lay sprawled on the street. Her chest clenched. If he was dead, what more did she have to lose?

  The fear drained from her and she turned a cold, hard gaze onto her captor.

  Absolutely nothing.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Jude pushed back the blinding pain that shot from his hip down to the ankle of his left leg as he forced himself to his knees. Biting back a gasp, he grasped the hand Nancy held out and staggered to his feet. “Where are your keys?”

  “In the kitchen. I’ll get them.”

  Jude didn’t argue. Pressing a hand to the side of his leg, he hobbled toward Nancy’s car in the driveway. Faster than he would have thought she could move, she bolted from the house and back down the walk, tossing him the keys when she was still a few feet away from him. Jude caught them, wincing as the jerking movement sent fresh pain slithering down his leg. He snatched the phone out of his back pocket before sliding behind the wheel.

  Jude stabbed at the buttons on the device, bringing up the app that would follow the tracer Summer had stuck in her pocket. When it flashed across the screen, he set it in the drink holder. Clutching the key in fingers smeared with blood, he shoved it into the ignition and turned it. The engine roared to life. Jude shoved the transmission into reverse and backed down the lane. Squealing onto the road, he shifted to drive and took off in the direction the man had taken Summer.

  He thought he caught occasional glimpses of the car before it disappeared around a corner again but concentrated on following the small dot moving along his phone screen. As he rounded a corner, a pedestrian leapt out of the way of his vehicle. His angry shouts followed Jude halfway down the block. Although it nearly drove him out of his mind, he let off on the accelerator slightly. Killing someone else in an attempt to save Summer wasn’t right, and although he wouldn’t mind the police getting involved in this situation, he didn’t want to stop to talk to them or get involved in some kind of high speed chase either.

  He shot another look at the screen. The dot had stopped moving. Jude frowned. Were they at a stop light? He glanced back and forth between the device and the road, but the dot didn’t move. Part of him was glad, since he had almost caught up to it. But why had they stopped? Had they gotten into an accident? Was Summer fighting him? Knowing her, it was entirely likely.

  Jude studied the spot where the vehicle had stopped moving. It struck him, suddenly, where it was, and shock reverberated through his entire body. No.

  Summer glared at the man behind the wheel. “What do you want from me?”

  He smirked. “This may be hard for you to believe, but I don’t want anything from you. All of this has very little to do with you, in fact.”

  “Then why do you keep coming after me?”

  “You’d have to ask your parents about that.”

  She jerked as though he’d hit her, again. “My parents? What do they have to do with this?”

  “They owe a very big debt. One they have proven they cannot pay. So you are the one who is going to have to pay on their behalf.”

  “But…” Summer calculated her meager earnings since arriving in town, and the savings that still sat in her bank account. “I hardly have any money.”

  If his eyes weren’t so hard and cold, the look he shot her might have been one of amusement. “You aren’t going to pay with money, chica.”

  Her throat tightened. “Then what?”

  “You’ll find out when we get there.” He glanced in the rear view mirror.

  “When we get where?”

  “First to my car, on the other side of the river, then out of this little hick town. After that you will have to wait and see.” He glanced in the mirror again and swore.

  Summer twisted to look out the back window. Her heart leapt. Was that Nancy’s car a few blocks back? Who was driving it?

  The man pushed a little harder on the accelerator. “Your boyfriend is very persistent.”

  She narrowed her eyes, trying to see who was behind the wheel of the car behind them. Was it really Jude? The vehicle was still too far away for her to tell, but she doubted Nancy would drive like that. And if it was Jude, then he wasn’t dead. Although… she shifted around in her seat and her gaze fell on the Beretta still clutched in the man’s hand. If he kept following them, that might not be the case much longer. She had to do something.

  She spun sideways on the seat and thrust out one foot, connecting with the man’s head. It slammed against the driver’s side window. The car veered into the opposite lane, but he jerked it back. The car they’d narrowly missed hitting swerved and laid on the horn.

  The man let out a string of curse words as he shot out his arm, the side of the gun connecting with her jaw. Pain exploded in Summer’s head and the world spun around her.

  “That was a big mistake, chica.”

  She pressed the back of her hand to her throbbing jaw. “Stop calling me that.” She glanced back again. Nancy’s car was catching up to them.

  The man shot another look in the mirror and his face hardened. “Your little friend is becoming far too much trouble, so I think we need to end this right now. There is more than one way to get across the river. I know exactly where we can go and he will not follow.”

  He pressed down harder on the gas pedal and the car shot up the main street, past the café. At the top, he spun onto a side street and followed it until it curved at the end. Jerking the wheel, he pulled the vehicle left into a parking lot and stopped.

  Summer peered out her window. Where were they? And what would the man do now? Her stomach tightened.

  He shifted to face her. “Here’s what
’s going to happen, chica.” He emphasized the word and she gritted her teeth. “You are going to come with me and do exactly as I say. If you fight me anymore, I will take this gun,” he held it up to show her, “and I will put a bullet through Jude McCall’s head. And this time I will make sure he is dead. Do you understand me?”

  When she nodded, he shoved open his door. “Wait.” He rounded the front of the car, yanked open her door, and grabbed her by the wrist. “Let’s go.”

  Knowing the only way Jude might possibly survive this was if she did what she was told, Summer climbed out of the car and followed him.

  Jude jerked the steering wheel, turning Nancy’s car onto the side street at the top of the hill. When he reached the curve, he swung into the parking lot at the top of the gorge and skidded to a stop. The man who’d taken Summer strode across the lot at a near run, dragging her with him. They were heading straight for the stairs that led down to the river. I can’t. A deep cold seized Jude. Then you will lose her too. He hefted the door open with his shoulder and leapt out of the car. As he sprinted across the lot, the man pulled her to the top of the stairway and the two of them disappeared from his sight.

  Fifty-nine. Fifty-nine. Fifty-nine. His stomach roiled. By the time he reached the top of the stairs, the man and Summer were halfway down. Jude started to go down the first step and stopped short, as though an invisible wall had risen in front of him. Not now. Heart pounding, he forced himself to shove through, the barrier shattering like a wall of glass, thousands, millions of shards pricking and slashing him as he descended another step. When he took one more and came down hard on the stone, he stopped short at the pain that streaked through his leg. Jude clutched the rickety wooden railing as darkness threatened to overtake him. For a few seconds he concentrated on taking in as deep a breath as his traumatized body would allow, then he went down the next step. Clenching his teeth until they ached, Jude managed the next few stairs. Eight, nine, ten. Forty-nine to go. Summer and the man were approaching the bottom of the staircase.

  Jude stumbled on the next step and pressed his lips together to keep from howling as he clutched the railing and hauled himself upright. Who was this guy and what did he want with Summer?

  Shoving back the pain, Jude went down a few more steps. Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four. The pair ahead of him had reached the bottom of the stairs and started along the path leading to the river. Where was he taking her? The man still clutched Summer’s wrist and hauled her along the shoreline. Why wasn’t she fighting him?

  Jude gritted his teeth and continued his descent. By the time he reached the last step, his vision had blurred. He pressed a hand to his stomach and gulped in several breaths of air to push back a surge of nausea. Ahead of him, Summer tripped over a rock and nearly fell. The man jerked her to her feet. Heat coursed through Jude and he started after them.

  Warm liquid flowed down his calf. Jude glanced down. A scarlet stain spread along the side of his jeans, nearly the length of his leg. How much time did he have before he passed out? He pressed on, picking his way over large rocks and avoiding patches of ice on the narrow pathway.

  A wave of dizziness gripped him and he stopped and leaned against a large rock, his eyes pressed shut. When he opened them, the man had dragged Summer out onto the ice. Several cars were parked in a lot on the other side of the river. Was that where he was trying to go? If they got across before he caught up to them, Jude would have no way of following them. Not that he had any idea what he’d do if he did catch up to them. If he could manage to avoid being shot again, he and Summer might be able to take the man down. Why hadn’t he gotten Nancy to grab the Glock when she went back for the keys? Focus, Jude. For now, he had to concentrate on getting to them before they slipped out of his grasp and were gone.

  Spurred on by the thought, he took several more steps down the path. When he reached the edge of the river, he stopped again, struggling to breathe. I can do this. I can do this. Summoning every ounce of strength he had left, he stepped onto the ice.

  Twenty feet from shore, the man whirled around suddenly, yanking Summer around with him by the wrist. “I’m very impressed, Mr. McCall. I didn’t think you would have the courage to come down here after what happened with your sister. But since you have defied expectations…” The man lifted the gun and pointed it at Jude.

  Summer suddenly yanked free of his grasp and drove her elbow into his throat. The man shouted and started to swing his weapon in her direction, but she clasped her hands together and brought them down on his arm. The pistol clattered to the ice and spun around in circles.

  Shoving back the fog swirling around in his brain, Jude lunged forward. Summer scooped up the gun, spun around, and smashed it against the man’s temple. He fell backwards, his head cracking against the ice. He didn’t move again.

  “Summer!”

  Jude slid forward a couple of yards, desperate to get to her.

  She took a step toward him. Ice cracked beneath her shoe. The sound tore through Jude like another gun shot. Not again. “Summer, stop. Don’t move.”

  She froze, ten feet from him.

  “Lie down, slowly.”

  Summer complied. When her knee hit the ice, it cracked again, louder this time. Jude inched forward as she carefully lowered herself to the ice. “Okay, now what do I—”

  With a thunderous crack, the sheet collapsed beneath her. Summer dropped into the icy water.

  Jude’s heart thudded erratically in his chest. God, help me. I can’t do this again. Terror clawed at his throat until he could barely draw in a breath. I’m coming, Tessa. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. The mist swirled through his mind now, heavy and dark, and he fought for coherent thought. It’s not Tessa, it’s Summer, and she needs you.

  Shoving back the fear that threatened to paralyze him, Jude lowered himself to the ice and shimmied toward the black hole where Summer had disappeared. God, don’t take her. Please. I can’t lose her too. He drew close to the opening and forced himself to move more slowly.

  A hand broke the top of the water, grasping the jagged edge of the hole. She’s alive. Jude gave up trying to move cautiously and scrambled toward her. The ice groaned beneath him. Her fingers, unable to find a hold, scratched across the frozen surface. Thrusting his arm above his head, Jude snagged them right before they disappeared below the black waves and then slid his hand along her skin until he could grasp her wrist. Summer’s head broke the surface. She gasped for air and flailed with her free arm, breaking off another chunk of ice.

  “Summer.” Jude waited until her eyes met his. “I’m going to get you out. Don’t fight me, okay?”

  She nodded and held out her other arm to him.

  Before he could grasp it, something hard and cold pressed against the back of his head. “Let her go.”

  Jude froze. Consumed with thoughts of Summer, he hadn’t seen the man who had abducted her clamber to his feet and make his way over to them. He couldn’t let go of her though. She’d be too cold to climb out herself and within seconds would slide below the surface and be gone.

  “If you pull her out, I will shoot her and then I will shoot you and send you both to the bottom of the river. She has become too much trouble to me. This ends now.”

  God, I don’t know what to do. Send some of those angels I read about last night. Please. He couldn’t bring himself to let go of her wrist, even if doing so might spare his own life. What good was living if Summer was gone too?

  A blast shook the air, echoing off the sides of the ravine. The man behind him staggered a few feet away before collapsing. The ice beneath Jude shuddered. He twisted his head to look back at the shore. A lone figure stood on top of the ravine. Evan. One angel, then. That was good enough for him. A cracking sound brought him back around. I have to get her out. Now.

  Summer’s head was submerged, but he clutched her wrist in fingers rapidly growing numb. He leaned back, straining as hard as he could until her head broke the surface and her other
hand slashed through the air. Forcing his fingers to do what his brain was commanding them to do, Jude managed to grab hold of her other wrist. Slowly, slowly, he tugged her from the icy lake, pieces breaking beneath her, until she was out of the hole far enough to push herself forward with her feet.

  Jude slid backwards until they reached the shore then he wrapped his arms around her as she collapsed onto his chest. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. You’re okay.” She shivered uncontrollably and he ran his hands frantically up and down her back. Neither of them had grabbed a coat before leaving the house and her thin shirt clung to her skin.

  The wail of a siren, this time one of the sweetest sounds Jude had ever heard, filled the air. Summer lifted her head and met his gaze. Her lips were blue and her teeth chattered, but she managed to get out, “Yo tampoco quiero vivir sin ti,” before she collapsed back onto his chest.

  Jude slid his hand around the back of her head and pulled her close. Over her shoulder he caught a glimpse of paramedics and firefighters rushing along the shore toward them. He closed his eyes, slowly giving in to the encroaching darkness. Relief flooded through him, warming him in spite of the half-frozen body pressed against his. Partly because of the people rushing to their assistance, but even more so because of her words. She didn’t want to live without him either.

  That was all he needed to know.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Nancy had fussed over her until Summer had asked her to go get them both a cup of tea from the cafeteria. She had almost drifted back to sleep when a brief knock on the door of her hospital room was accompanied, virtually simultaneously, with someone flinging open the door and tumbling into the room. “Ana!”

  Summer struggled to sit up. “Daphne.” A weary smile crossed her face. Exactly the medicine she needed at the moment.