“Catori!” His voice sounded gravely and deep. “This woman’s life for yours!”
His partner remained hidden, hopefully injured enough to keep him out of action.
Kitty sited down her rifle, bit her lip, and squeezed off a shot.
The man’s hand flew back, and the knife clattered to the ground.
I turned to stare at her, my mouth dropped open.
Roberta twisted, aimed a kick at her assailant’s groin, and let her boot fly. He crumpled beside her with a groan, twisting in agony on the ground. She swung her rifle hard at his temple. He slumped sideways, eyes rolling into his head.
I turned to Kitty. “Holy cow.”
I followed her outside with duct tape in one hand and my gun in the other. I wasn’t sure if I had any bullets left. Had I fired five, or six shots?
I ran to Roberta, who shooed me off. “I’m fine, honey.” She flipped him over and drew his hands together behind his back. “Loop it around his wrists, Marcella. Hurry.”
I did as she said. My fingers fumbled at first, but fear drove me to steady myself and I trussed him up good.
“My God, Roberta. Kitty.” I glanced back and forth between them. “You two rock.”
Roberta looked at Kitty with pride. “You’re one helluva shot, chickadee. Maybe even better than me.”
A proud smile crept over Kitty’s lips. She brushed her hair back from her eyes and reached down to yank on the man’s arms, pointing to the house.
Roberta chuckled. “You’re right. Let’s get this bad boy inside. Who knows if his pal out there has another weapon. I don’t want him to take pot shots at us when he gets his wits about him.” She ran back to get the second rifle that lay on the trail, and we dragged our bound prisoner inside.
Once we got him on a kitchen chair, I secured his ankles and arms to the wood rails. Roberta tied his torso to the back of the chair.
His hand was bleeding, and although I was tempted to let him bleed to death for a split second, I figured I ought to at least try to stop the flow. I used an old dishtowel from one of the kitchen drawers and wrapped it with the duct tape.
I was starting to understand my husband’s fascination and loyalty to the versatile silver tape.
Thinking of Quinn made me stop in my tracks again, and I nearly doubled over with the pain. He’ll be so worried. Maybe he’ll think I’ve been killed.
“What’s wrong, honey? You gonna be sick?” Roberta put her arm over my shoulders.
I slumped onto a nearby chair. “I’m okay. It’s just Quinn. He should be arriving at your place pretty soon, and I’m afraid he’ll think something monstrous happened to us.”
“It did,” Roberta said, her amber eyes flashing. “But we survived.”
I smiled up at her through tears. “We sure did.”
Dak busied himself growling at the man in the chair. I smiled and ruffled his ears. “Good boy, Dak. Maybe you have a future as a watchdog after all.”
My aunt checked the bindings one more time, then turned to us. “I’m going outside to try to find the wounded man. I need you two to stay in here and guard this one.”
Panic gripped me and I grabbed her hand. “I don’t want you to go alone. It’s too dangerous. Let us come with you. Please. This guy’s not going anywhere soon.”
She shrugged. “Okay. But I need you two to stay quiet while I creep up on him.” She turned to Kitty after reloading both rifles. “Here, honey. You watch my back, okay?”
I grabbed the duct tape again and snapped Dak’s leash onto his collar. No way did I want him stuck in the cabin with a killer, or running loose after our prey.
Roberta led us out the back door, in a wide circle around the property, back to the general area where the wounded man had crawled into the woods.
Kitty pointed to a spot with crushed leaves and ferns, covered in patterns of spattered blood.
Roberta backed up a step and stared down at the ground. “That’s where he was.” She looked around nervously. “But where is he now?”
Kitty followed a trail of broken weeds and princess pine. I helped her, holding tight to her hand. Roberta kept her rifle up, ready to shoot if we found him.
We stopped when we found the body.
The man lay on his side, an arm stretched forward as if reaching for another chance at life. His eyes were open, but it was clear he was dead. The trail of blood had widened and now pooled beneath him, still trickling into a wider circle as we watched.
“You must’ve hit his femoral artery,” Roberta whispered.
Kitty began to cover him up with leaves and branches.
Roberta and I exchanged a curious glance.
“Honey?” I asked. “What are you doing?”
Kitty hung her head, backing up.
“It’s okay. We don’t have to hide the body. You killed him in self-defense. The law will be on your side.”
A sound of splintering wood came from the cabin.
Roberta raised her head in alarm. “Oh, crap. What the hell is he doing? He must’ve come around.” We hurried back to the cabin, expecting to find our prisoner tipped sideways on the floor in his chair.
Roberta stepped onto the porch, rifle held steady. She nudged open the door.
On the floor lay the remnants of the chair, rope, and bunched up wads of duct tape.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Roberta stepped into the room with her rifle held high. Kitty and I slipped in behind her, holding our weapons like marines invading a terror camp. In the one wild moment when we entered, I laughed at the absurdity of it all. Me? With a gun? In my badly shaking hand? I almost burst out laughing from the tension.
He exploded from behind the door before Roberta could react. His arms snaked around her, but she twisted and turned and tried to kick him again.
“Run!” she screamed. “Save her!”
I hesitated. I didn’t want to leave Roberta, but knew he’d kill us all if we stayed to watch. Even Kitty’s sharp shooter skills wouldn’t work at such close range, especially the way they were struggling and rolling around.
“Hurry!” Roberta yelled again. “Go where I showed you.”
While they struggled in one end of the room, I quickly opened the trap door, scooped the barking Dak into my arms, and dragged Kitty down the stairs. I put Dak down, shutting the trap door over us. In the dark now, I felt around for the battery-powered lanterns we’d set up on the table.
There.
I grabbed two and flicked them on, then pulled Kitty over to the false cabinet, opened the door, and urged her through. Loud thumps and grunts came from upstairs, and Kitty and I both hesitated.
“Take Dak. Go down those steps, and follow the stream to the river.” I gave her the same directions Roberta had given me. “Find help, Kitty. Go get help.”
I wanted to give her a purpose, but my biggest concern was her safety. If anything happened to his little cousin, Quinn would never forgive me. I’d never forgive me.
And if Roberta were killed, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
I hurried back up the stairs with my gun drawn.
Roberta and her attacker still thrashed and banged around the living room. I wondered why he hadn’t pulled the knife yet, but then remembered Roberta had taken all their weapons and stowed them below in the cellar. She must’ve been using every trick in the book that Harrison had taught her, because she had held her own and only had a few bloody spots on her jaw and cheek.
My aunt was doing well in this one-on-one fisticuffs, but she looked tired and her main survival skills—being fast and ducking away from his punches—were starting to fade.
He saw me standing with my arms extended, gun held with both hands like I saw them do in the TV show, Blue Bloods. I pointed it at his face, and shouted with false confidence, trying to sound tough. “The safety’s off and I know how to use this thing. At close range, I don’t think I’d miss.”
Unceremoniously, he dropped my aunt. She fell to the floor, groaning as th
e breath was knocked out of her. She looked at me with a combination of anger and fear, and in seconds, her eyes rolled up in her head. She was out.
“I’m serious. Get your ugly butt over here.” I’m sure I could have thought up a worse insult than ugly butt, lame as it was, but it was the first thing that came to mind. Couldn’t I have sounded nastier? How about fish face? Or fat butt? Of course, the guy was skinny as a rail and didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. Oh well.
I waved the gun in the direction of the couch. “Hands up. Keep your distance now, take it slow.”
I kept trying to remember if I’d fired the gun five or six times. Did I really have a bullet left? Or was I threatening with false bravado?
The killer watched me with narrowed black eyes, creeping toward the couch with his hands up. He spit a word at me, which I was certain meant something like bitch. He took another few steps.
Feeling ridiculously proud of myself, I urged him forward. “Come on, now. Get over there.”
When he reached the broken bits from the chair he’d originally been tied to, he faked a fall and reached for my ankles. The gun flew out of my hands, and in seconds I was on my back. He was astride me, one hand on my throat and the other scrabbling for the gun. He reached it and waved it loosely over me.
For a moment, his hateful gaze turned lustful. He raked his eyes over my breasts and with one hand still on my throat, pushed the cold barrel under my shirt, moving it on my skin. In English now, he leered at me. “You’re a pretty one. Maybe later, when I have more time.” He smiled wickedly. “But now, where’s the girl?”
“Long gone,” I choked.
His hand tightened on my throat, then just as quickly, he released his grip. “Get up.”
I stumbled to my feet, and he pressed the gun tighter to my head. How he hadn’t noticed the trap door I’d closed and recovered with the rug was beyond me, but I guess he’d been so busy with Roberta’s diverting moves that he hadn’t been able to tear his focus from the fight.
His growl came fiercer now. “Where’s Catori?”
Roberta moaned and stirred. When she saw my predicament, she slowly crept backwards toward her rifle in the corner.
The creep saw her, and waved her toward me. “Over here, woman.”
He shoved me onto the floor, and pressed the gun to Roberta’s temple. “You love your auntie, don’t you, girl?”
I nodded, fearful now.
“Tell me where Catori is, or I’ll shoot this wildcat first. Next, I’ll enjoy you, then tear you apart piece by piece until you tell me.”
Roberta sneered at him. “Go ahead, you stinking pig. Shoot me.”
I stared aghast at her. “Roberta? No!”
“Happy to oblige,” he said. He pulled the trigger and I cringed, my whole body felt as if I’d fallen out of a plane with no chute.
The gun just clicked, with no loud report.
Roberta fell to the ground.
He looked confused, staring at the gun. Sputtering, he uttered a word that sounded nasty even in his own language.
In seconds, a loud blast rang out, shattered the side window, and red bloomed in the man’s chest. He fell to the ground, eyes blank.
“Bulls eye,” Roberta said, a half smile on her lips.
Kitty came in the front door and propped the rifle against the wall.
The sobs wouldn’t stop now, and I cried against my aunt and the girl who could have been my daughter. We held each other, shaking, laughing, and crying in cycles.
“Roberta?” I asked. “Why did you tell him to shoot you?”
She flashed a wry smile. “I counted when you shot the gun earlier. Six shots. I meant to reload your gun, but in all the confusion, never got to it. Besides, I figured we had him trussed up like a calf at a rodeo, didn’t think we’d need the weapons anymore.” She kicked his leg. “Boy, was I wrong.”
A shadow filled the front door. In seconds, Harrison, Sky, and Quinn entered, loaded for bear. All three men wore serious expressions and bore weapons.
“Marcella!” Sky and Quinn both shouted my name.
Harrison rushed to Roberta’s side, touching her cheek with the back of his hand.
I looked back and forth between my first love and my husband, and uttered a sigh of relief when Dak wiggled inside between the forest of men’s legs.
Sky looked as rugged and handsome as ever, with his blond hair now touching his shoulders and a dark blond stubble on his chin. Quinn looked as always, like my hero, my beautiful Indian brave. His eyes flashed bright turquoise and he strode to my side, arms outstretched.
If I’d been in a western, I might’ve fainted in Quinn’s arms. Instead, a broad smile spread across my face. I took Quinn’s face between my hands, kissed him on the mouth, and stepped back. “Baby, am I glad to see you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Roberta and Harrison locked arms. Harrison tilted her chin up, and rubbed noses with her, then lowered his lips to hers, kissing her deeply.
She pulled back, laughed like a schoolgirl, and fake punched him in the arm. “It’s a miracle you three weren’t caught in my booby traps on the trail.”
Harrison gave her a quick hug, then walked over and joined Sky, who stared down at the body. “I picked ‘em out before we could step on them. You did good, Roberta. Made me proud.”
Sky turned to Quinn. “Do you know this bozo?” He nudged the body with his boot.
Quinn shook his head. “No. Never saw him before.”
Sky gestured toward the woods where the other body lay. “He didn’t know the other one, either. We think they were some of Big Fred’s imports from the west.”
Roberta and I started to explain what happened in a rush of words, but Harrison held up one hand to stop us. “Wait. I’m not sure we want to know which of you killed these men.” He squatted by the body, searching his pockets. “Way I see it, we have two choices.” He held one finger in the air and turned to face Roberta, Kitty, and me. “One, we could contact the cops, go through all the rigmarole with the law, and have one or all of you possibly charged with murder. We know it was self-defense, but you’d still have to go through that whole mess.”
I put a protective arm around Kitty, but neither Roberta nor I said a word about her culpability in the shootings.
“Two.” He raised another finger. “We could dispose of these bastards’ remains in a place they’d never be found, clean up this place, and if anyone asks…”
“Like Copper,” I interrupted.
“If anyone asked about it—which I doubt they would—we’d say they took off and ran when you guys started shooting back.”
Roberta and I exchanged glances, warming to the illegal solution.
Quinn walked to the fireplace mantle and leaned on it with both hands, eyes closed. After a few seconds, he turned back to the group. “I don’t think Copper would charge anyone for defending their home. This is your property, right, Roberta?”
Roberta nodded. “It was my grandfather’s cabin. Mine now.”
Quinn ambled toward Kitty. “Copper knows what’s been happening, and she knows we’ve been under attack.” He took Kitty’s hands in his. “And once we identify these guys, it might provide more evidence about who’s behind this. Maybe we could get Big Fred arrested before he does more harm.”
I loved the fact that my husband was a law-abiding citizen who always wanted to keep everything legal. He stood before us, looking so earnest, his turquoise eyes blazing with righteousness. But I wasn’t sure I agreed with him.
Sky considered Quinn’s words. “True. But one or more of these lovely ladies could end up in jail for a while. Could we really protect them from the outside?” He gestured to Kitty, who now rested her head on Quinn’s chest. “And what if it’s Kitty? How would she survive in there? If she can’t talk, she can’t defend herself. Then it would be up to some lawyer who didn’t even know her.”
I thought back to last summer, where I’d had to do the unthinkable to save Callie, Sky, and
me. Sky had hidden the bodies where no one would ever find them, and I’d conveniently wiped it off my memory. Until now.
I knelt down to give my puppy some love. He licked me all over, tail wagging as if I hadn’t seen him in weeks. I hugged him and patted his sides. “I kind of like option two.”
Quinn cast me a glance, looked surprised and a little hurt. “Really, Marcella?”
I circled the room, picking up items that had been knocked over and thinking hard. “Some things are better handled outside the law, I think. Like in this case. We know these guys are assassins. We know they were after all three of us. They shot at us with high powered weapons, for God’s sake.”
Roberta pointed down at the cellar below our feet. “I’ve got ‘em all downstairs in the gun cabinet now.”
I grabbed a broom from the corner and began to sweep up shards of glass, worried that Dak might catch a sliver in his paw. “If the one who made the fatal shots happened to be Kitty—and I’m not saying it was—then Sky would be right. They might get at her from inside the jail. Remember, those two guys who tried to kidnap us in their truck are still sitting in the Hamilton County lockup. What if they could figure out a way to…” I brushed the glass bits into the dustpan and dumped it into a waste can in the corner of the kitchen.
Quinn took the broom from my hand and led me to the couch. “Sit, honey. We can clean up the rest later. You’ve been through a lot today.” He put one arm around me and cuddled me to him, smoothing my hair back from my face with one hand. “Maybe Copper would take care of this in an unofficial way.”
“Maybe,” I said. But I really couldn’t see Copper risking her career to cover up two deaths.
He beckoned to Kitty, who sat on his other side and curled up beside him with Dak in her lap. Roberta and Harrison settled in the armchairs, and Sky sat on the hearth.
For one brief moment, I saw the pain and longing in Sky’s sea green eyes. He watched Quinn comforting me, holding me, kissing me from time to time. He’d gone to war with love for me in his heart, and had come back eighteen years later hoping we could start over.
Tall Pines Mysteries: A Mystery/Suspense Boxed Set Page 62