A scream of pain filled her ears. She spun to see Nathan down and Jack kicking his leg. As Nathan tried to protect his knee, Jack grabbed him by the throat and slammed his head into the trunk of a tree. There was a loud crack.
Nathan slid down and didn’t move. When the snow around his head turned pink, Kate began to scream.
“Shut the fuck up or I’ll kill Tommy,” Jack yelled.
She pressed her lips together and crawled to Nathan’s side. His eyes were closed. The stain spread like a fungus under her fingers.
Jack bent, panting. “Fuck. We have to get him to the car. Get his legs.” He grabbed hold of him under the arms while Kate caught Nathan’s legs, struggled to lift them. They half-carried, half-dragged him back, leaving a trail of blood-smeared snow.
Tommy edged to the far side of the back seat as Jack maneuvered Nathan in next to him. Kate got into the front and slammed the door. Her fingers were frozen, her feet and clothes soaked. She turned to see Nathan lolling against Tommy who sucked his thumb so hard, his cheeks had turned into deep hollows.
“It’s okay, Tommy.” Kate rubbed the tears from her face with her sleeve.
Jack slid in the driver’s side and slammed the door. When the road was wide enough, he U-turned toward the house. Kate slumped. As they passed the stranded Suburban, his hand shot out and slapped her across the face. Her head whipped to the side and fresh tears sprang into her eyes. Jack pulled up in the yard and turned off the engine, pocketing the keys.
“Take Tommy inside and put him in his room. Make sure he understands he has to stay there.”
When Kate lifted Tommy from the car, his arms snaked around her neck.
“I want to go home,” he whispered.
Kate hurried into the house. “Tommy, you have to be brave and I have to help Nathan. Do exactly as I say so Jack doesn’t get upset. Stay in your room and keep the door closed. You mustn’t come out, not for anything.”
“I’m scared.”
“Then hide under the bed with Monster. But don’t come out of your room, okay?”
He nodded and Kate kissed him. “Good boy.” She closed the door and turned to find Jack dragging Nathan into the living room by his shoulders. She didn’t know why Jack hadn’t killed him. Maybe because he was his half-brother? Kate picked up two knives from the drawer and slid them into the back of her pants. She wet a cloth at the sink and followed Jack.
“When he comes around, I’ll explain it was a mistake,” she said. “He’ll leave and things will be back the way they were.” Jack let Nathan drop and walked out. Kate fell to her knees and pressed the wet cloth against Nathan’s head. “Wake up.” He looked so pale, his eyelashes dark on his face, his lips colorless. Kate felt the lump on his head under her fingers, pressed it hard, wanting him to wake but he didn’t stir.
“Nathan, please,” she whispered and heard Jack coming back. Kate slipped one of the knives under the couch by Nathan’s head.
“Leave him alone,” Jack snapped. He caught hold of her by the hair and flung her aside. The remaining knife fell from the back of her pants, clattering on the wooden floor. As Kate reached for it, Jack stepped on her wrist. She let out a yelp of pain. He leaned down and scooped up the weapon.
“You fucking cunt. What were you going to do with that?”
“Kill you,” Kate screamed.
He pressed harder and Kate writhed on the floor.
“Tommy! Get in here,” he yelled.
“No,” she gasped.
Jack took his foot off her wrist and dropped two cable ties on to the floor.
“Fasten him up.”
“No.”
“I’m not going to kill him.” Jack’s voice was calm. “If I wanted him dead, he would be. I need to talk to him but I have to make sure he listens. I need you both to listen. I’ll explain everything.”
“You mean tell more lies. I’m going to tell the police everything.” Could Nathan hear? “I’ll tell them how you killed that man, how you kidnapped me, kidnapped Tommy.”
Then Jack was over her like a huge wave, so overpowering Kate had no chance to react. His open slap on her face sent her reeling with him in pursuit. His hand clamped over her mouth and he half carried her across the room and up the stairs. He threw her down and grabbed her arm. In a blink he had her fastened to the pipe again.
“You open your mouth and I’ll cut out your tongue. You think you can run? Try it. Maybe I’ll let you, just for the fun of chasing you. I’ll find you wherever you hide. I found you once. I can find you again.” Jack crouched in front of her and brought his face close to hers. When she moved back, he followed, his eyes fixed on hers, his breath entering her mouth.
He showed her the handcuff key and then put it in his mouth and swallowed.
Jack raced downstairs relieved to find Nathan hadn’t moved. Until he’d fastened Nathan’s wrists and ankles with the ties, he didn’t allow himself to take a deep breath. Now he had everything back under control. Stripping off his bloodstained wet shirt, Jack threw it into the stove and picked up another from the laundry pile.
There was a risk in killing Nathan. He’d stayed the night in town. Had he told anyone he was coming out here? Had he been talking to blabbermouth Ben Harper? Tommy couldn’t keep a secret if Kate’s life depended on it. Jack decided there’d have to be an accident. He’d think about the details while he brought the car back to the yard. He put on his outdoor gear and collected the shovel and axe before he set off.
By the time Jack had dug away the snow from under the Suburban and chopped down branches to use as traction for the tires, he was bone tired but he’d figured out what to do. He’d drag Nathan down to the boat dock on the old toboggan. Smearing some of his blood on a mooring post would make it look as though he’d hit his head. It wouldn’t be difficult to drown him with the nylon ties in place. The water didn’t have to be deep. When Jack got back to the house, he’d wrap Nathan’s wrists to make sure the ties left no tell-tale marks. Kate would keep quiet because this was another death that was her fault. She had to make a choice. Save Nathan or Tommy. She’d pick Tommy. Not that it made any difference. Nathan was history.
With the Suburban back in the yard, Jack opened the trunk of Nathan’s car.
The cell phone sailed deep into the trees. A moment later, he realized that hadn’t been smart but damned if he was going to look for it. Jack smiled when he saw the padlocked gun box. It opened with the first key he tried. His fingers hovered over the weapon—a Glock 17. Jack preferred knives to guns, but he wanted this one. He wanted to fuck Kate with it and watch her face. But when the police checked the car, they’d wonder where it was. Jack knew he should leave it. Fuck it, he thought, and put it in his pocket.
He scrubbed the blood off the back seat. The car wouldn’t pass a forensic exam, but if it was clear how Nathan died, the local police wouldn’t go to the expense of unnecessary checks. He wore gloves just in case. Jack put the gun and car keys in a kitchen drawer, picked up a couple of clothes and more cable ties before he checked on Nathan. He was conscious now, though his eyes looked glassy.
Nathan felt as if his head had split open and dumped out half his brains—
probably had. He lay face down with his hands and feet tied. It took a while before he could focus. Jack had come in, gone out and now he was back, sitting on the couch opposite.
“Thought you might have done me a favor and died,” Jack said.
Nathan wondered how long he’d been out. “What’s all this about?”
“She’s mine.”
Even in Nathan’s befuddled state, he was trying to think of a way out of this.
“All Kate did was pass me some stupid note.”
“Oh, yeah, the note. What did it say?” Jack levered himself up and bent to pat Nathan’s pockets. He pulled out the crumpled paper and smoothed it flat. “Not a shopping list at all. Still, I’m glad to see she knew you couldn’t handle me in a fight.”
Too late to regret that conversation where he�
�d told Jack why he’d been pensioned out of the police. Jack had gone for his knee. Nathan needed to keep him talking. “I wanted to see where Mom died.”
“You’re lying on the spot. Well, she was spread around a bit. And she was my mother, not yours.”
“She was mother to both of us.”
Jack stamped on Nathan’s back and Nathan swore into the floor.
“No, she fucking wasn’t. She might have given birth to you, but she didn’t keep you. She loved me best. She understood me, tried to make up for the shit I had to put up with from my father.” Jack began to pace.
“What do you mean?” Nathan wheezed.
“You have no idea what he’s like. No one does. A fucking control freak.
Nothing I did was good enough. If I got something wrong he hit me, if it was right, he hit me. If anything bad happened, he assumed I was to blame. Perfect Steven was his pet. Mom tried to make things better and gave all her love to me.” Jack pushed Nathan onto his back. Nathan pulled at his restraints.
“You had no right to love her.” Jack stared down into Nathan’s face. “She loved me more than…she was the one who started it. I didn’t force her into anything.”
“Started what?” Jack had put cloth between the ties and Nathan’s skin and it gave him a little more leverage. Nathan was under no illusion as to why Jack had done it. He didn’t want his body to carry evidence of restraint.
Jack smirked. “She took me in her bed and let me show her how much I loved her. It was the best thing that ever happened to me—total, pure love.” Nathan’s mind slipped into hyper-drive. “What happened? You go too far? Did she ask you to stop and you killed her?”
“I didn’t kill her. I told you we loved one another. I knew you wouldn’t understand.”
“Did you kill her?”
“Not me.”
“If you didn’t, who did?”
“Steven.”
“Why?”
“Why do you care? She didn’t care about you.”
“You’re right,” Nathan said. “She could have taken me with her when she went to live with your father. She didn’t. She didn’t love me.” Jack pushed his face down with his foot, mashing his cheek into the floor. “Do you think I’m stupid? That if you agree with me, I’ll trust you? Even Kate knows that doesn’t work. If I let you go, you’ll come back with the police.” The situation had spiraled out of control, changed from a rain shower to a full-blown hurricane. Don had made it clear what Jack was like and yet Nathan had come out here with a dead cell phone and a gun locked in his trunk. Stupid and careless. Kate had warned him and he still thought he knew better.
“I was going to drag your ass to the lake and drown you, but I’m too fucking tired. It’s easier to arrange an accident with your gun.” Nathan stayed silent.
“Uncle Nathan showing it to little Tommy. Bye-bye, Uncle Nathan. It won’t matter that Tommy will deny it. His prints will be all over the weapon. A child that young can’t be held responsible.” Jack smiled. “Yeah, a bullet in the chest sounds a whole lot easier than dragging you down to the lake. And guess what I’m going to do with the gun first. I think me and Kate will put on a little floor show.”
“They’d never believe I’d let a child hold my gun,” Nathan said.
“Then I’ll blame Kate.”
***
His upper arms aching from the effort, Nathan gave up trying to stretch the cable ties. He thought Jack had fallen asleep. He was snoring but Nathan wanted to be sure before he tried to slide out from under his feet. He sniffed, an odor teasing his nose. Smoke. Nathan squirmed around on the floor. Gray clouds rolled out of the fireplace.
“Jack, wake up.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Something’s burning.”
Nathan groaned as Jack stood up and stepped on his back.
As Jack ran through to the other room, Nathan managed to roll onto his side.
Bound hand and foot, it was difficult enough to move without the problem of his damaged knee. He twisted until his back rested against the couch and then grabbed hold of the edge with his fingers, trying to lever himself upright. Smoke swirled, irritating his lungs. A burst of flames shot up in the fireplace, roaring the length of the chimney.
Sweat beaded on Nathan’s forehead. Every time he put pressure on his knee, the pain ricocheted through his body. The couch shifted and Nathan fell back, sitting hard. He took in a lungful of smoke, began coughing and couldn’t stop. He dropped onto his side closer to the floor where the smoke was less thick. A rest and he’d try again.
At first, when Nathan saw it, he thought the knife was a product of wishful thinking, a gift from a God he’d long given up. It didn’t disappear when he blinked and he scooted around to pick it up. Maneuvering it into the right position had to be the most important thing he’d ever done in his life, but he still rushed and fumbled, trying to push back the panic as he sawed awkwardly at the plastic. The relief when his wrists moved apart made Nathan gasp and then cough again. He began sawing at the tie around his ankles.
Nathan limped into the other room, knife in his hand. The smoke there was thicker. Jack was trying to beat out the flames with a rug but sending starbursts of fire shooting in all directions. The whole place was going to go up.
“Where’s your wife and son?” he yelled. “Did you get them out?”
“How did you get untied? Shit, you got a knife? Fucking Kate.” Jack slapped the rug on the floor. Torn between helping and leaving him to it, Nathan thought of Kate and Tommy and limped to the sink, turning both faucets full on and reaching for a pan from a rack.
“Where are they?” Nathan asked.
He turned to grab another pan and everything went black.
***
Nathan opened his eyes to find his vision blurred and fire blazing. His lungs struggled to pull air into his chest. What he drew in was so full of smoke and lacking in oxygen that all he did was gasp and cough. He wasn’t on fire, but he felt as though he was. Nathan flinched as the Christmas tree ignited. The pine needles crackled and hissed, the balls popped and the angel flared like a candle. He pulled himself up and tipped a pan of water over his head. Through the window he saw Jack in the yard. No sign of Kate or Tommy.
Turning the taps full on, Nathan splashed more water on his hair and body.
Holding a wet cloth to his face, he stumbled around the edge of the room. He called out for Tommy in the bedrooms and bathroom downstairs and then fighting his reluctance, limped up the stairs.
The closed door on the landing meant there was less smoke up there and no fire yet, but the air was thick and difficult to breathe.
“Kate!” he shouted, coughing with the effort of making himself heard.
Nathan’s heart lurched when he saw her lying on the floor in the bathroom.
“Kate, we have to get out.”
She lifted her hand. When he saw the cuff, panic choked him along with smoke.
“The key?”
“Jack swallowed it.”
“He fucking what?”
“Is Tommy safe?”
Nathan wrenched at the pipe, pulled it away from the wall, but after a short struggle realized he couldn’t break it. He put the plug in the tub and the washbasin and turned on all the faucets. The trickling flow was pathetic. He dropped towels into the puddle and bent down beside Kate. “I’m going to find a way to get you free. You have to hang on.” Her eyes brightened and then faded again.
“Kate, listen to me. I’ll come back. I promise.”
“Save Tommy.” She began coughing.
Nathan dragged the towels out of the water, threw one of them on her and kept the other for himself.
“Get in the tub. I’ll come back,” he repeated and returned to the stairs. The flames were on their way to the upper floor. Nathan made it down but wasn’t sure he could get back.
There was no sign of Jack outside the house. There wasn’t time to bother about him but Nathan was alert for another attack. He dropp
ed the towel on to the snow and stumbled to the store shed. An axe lay on the floor by the door. Nathan grabbed it and started back toward the house, picking up the towel and draping it over his head.
He was careful opening the door but there was no rush of flame. Inside, the visibility was almost gone. Nathan kept the towel over his head and fumbled his
way to the stairs. Ignoring the warning from his knee, he jumped the first two burning steps and raced up to Kate.
She sat with the wet towel over her head. “You’re on fire,” she shouted.
Kate scooped water from the tub on to his back and arm. There was no water coming out of the faucets now. Nathan stood and swung the axe. Another blow and the pipe severed. Water gushed for a moment and then stopped. After he bent the pipe away from the wall, he helped Kate to her feet, raising her arm to pull the handcuff free.
“Thank you,” she gasped and started to cough.
“Don’t talk.”
He grabbed more towels and threw them in the puddle in the tub. The fire was coming through the floor.
“Hold one over your face,” he said. “Keep close to me.” Something warned Nathan to test the knob before he opened the door. It was warm but not hot. But when he used the towel to pull the door open, flames blocked the stairs. He slammed it closed.
“We’ll go through the window. Stand back.” He swung the axe and most of the large pane seemed to fall away in slow motion. He continued to strike, trying to knock out the jagged edges at the base. Kate dragged a drawer from the dresser and did the same, hitting the glass shards with the wood, her underwear flying outside. The roar beyond the door sounded like an oncoming freight train. Time was running out. The fresh air from the broken window was feeding the fire.
“Help me with the mattress,” he shouted.
Between them they managed to drop it to the deck. Nathan rolled up the comforter, grabbed the pillows and put them over the broken glass remaining in the frame. The door behind them was ablaze.
“Take my hands and I’ll lower you down.”
book Page 23