Blind Run
Page 31
Braydon forced a smile Ethan didn’t buy. “I’m looking forward to the encounter.”
Sydney returned with the rope. Ethan took it, again handing her the Beretta. “Watch him,” he said, and slipped the .44 into his shoulder holster.
As he did, Braydon’s hand darted beneath his jacket, and a flicker of sunlight caught on steel. Ethan dove in front of Sydney, closing his hand around hers, his finger finding and squeezing the Beretta’s trigger.
Braydon staggered, his single shot gone wild, his eyes and mouth wide. One hand went to his chest, touched the gaping hole, and came away bloody. He looked down at it, surprised, confused, then at Ethan.
Braydon’s stunned expression gave way to fury. “You . . .” He raised the gun.
Ethan fired again, claiming a father’s vengeance. “That’s for Nicky.”
Braydon tumbled backward off the dock, the heavy splash of water breaking the sudden quiet. Ethan followed him to the edge, one arm keeping Sydney back. Braydon’s body floated, rolled, spread-eagled in the troubled waters of Puget Sound.
“You knew,” Sydney said, her voice sharp, accusing. “You knew he had a gun.”
Ethan looked at her, unflinching. “I wasn’t sure.”
“But you didn’t search him, didn’t even look . . .” She broke off, closed her eyes briefly, and seemed to gather herself.
“Sydney?” He killed our son. But he couldn’t say it. Not aloud.
She opened her eyes, her gaze searching his, as if she could read his thoughts. Finally she spoke, steadier now and resigned somehow. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. There’s no way you could have known he’d have a gun.”
“Yeah,” he said, acknowledging her acceptance of the lie. “He took me by surprise.”
Together, they boarded the boat. Danny had the engines running, and Adam threw off the ropes when Ethan took the wheel. A few minutes later, the small cove fell away behind them.
Sydney joined him on the bridge. “Where are we going?”
“Canada. I have an old Army buddy living north of Vancouver. He’ll help us.”
“And the children?”
“We’ll find homes for them where they’ll be safe.” Though in truth, they would never be safe, not with their unique genetic makeup. It would make them prime targets for any fortune hunter who happened to find out about them. And the burden of that settled on Ethan’s shoulders.
“This isn’t over,” he said. “Charles may be dead, but that disk is still out there. And those kids are still . . . what they are.”
“I know.” Sydney pulled another disk from her pocket.
Ethan glanced at her. “Is that what I think it is?”
“I made two copies.” She slid the disk into his jacket pocket, letting her hand linger for just a second longer than necessary. “I’d planned on taking it to CNN. I thought it would help us get on with our lives if the world knew what Turner had done to these children. But now . . .”
“Now?” He held his breath, afraid to hope.
“Now I think the fewer people who know about them, the better.”
He couldn’t allow her to make that sacrifice, not without fully understanding the implications. “You need to think about this, Sydney. That disk is your ticket home. Without it—”
“I can’t go home, Ethan. Not even with the information on that disk. Not after all this.”
“You’ll be giving away your life.”
“Should I forfeit the children’s lives instead?”
No, he should have known she’d never do that. “It won’t be easy.”
She met his smile. “I’m not sure ‘easy’ is what I want anymore.” Then she turned toward Danny and Callie as they clambered up the three steps to the bridge.
“Everything settled below?” Ethan asked, as Sydney helped Callie into the copilot’s seat.
“Adam’s got it under control,” Danny answered.
“He’s real good with the little ones,” Callie added.
Ethan fought a grin. Callie was one of the little ones. “You know, you guys did real good back there. You probably saved our lives.”
Danny beamed.
“Whose idea was the flare?” It had supplied just the split second of distraction Ethan had needed.
“Danny’s,” Callie answered. “But Adam fired it.”
“Not bad, but he’s going to need some target practice.”
“No kidding.” Danny rolled his eyes. “He was aiming for the van.”
Ethan laughed abruptly. He must be crazy. The freedom and lives of twenty-five kids and his ex-wife depended on him. A smart man would disappear, something Ethan knew all about. But he wasn’t going anywhere. Not this time.
“You know, Syd, there are no guarantees.” He looked over at her, standing with a protective arm around Callie’s shoulders. “But with a little luck, we might have a chance.”
“A chance,” she said, “is all anyone can ask.”
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group
Copyright © 2003 by Patricia Van Wie
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Blind Run is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks
of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lewin, Patricia.
Blind run / Patricia Lewin.
p. cm.
I. Title.
PS3612.E846 B58 2003
813´.6—dc21
2002042686
eISBN: 978-0-345-46364-7
v3.0