by LENA DIAZ,
Piper frowned and picked up a piece of bacon. “Surprise her? What do you mean?” She bit off a huge bite and was pretty sure her taste buds had an orgasm. She’d never tasted anything better. Then again, it could be because she was starving.
“She’s our ticket out of here.” Colby kept his voice low. “I’m going to grab her gun and force her to take us to one of their vehicles.”
She swallowed, the bacon no longer tasting quite so good. “How do you plan on getting her gun?”
“I’m not going to walk up and ask her for it, that’s for sure. I’ll do whatever I have to do.”
She blinked. “But she’s a teenager. A kid.”
“Who’s carrying a loaded Sig Sauer nine-millimeter pistol. Your point?”
“My point? My point is that I don’t want her to get hurt. It’s not her fault that her family’s loony tunes.”
He lowered his fork. “You heard her laugh when you called them our rescuers. Right? You heard that the same as I did. Why do you think she thought it was funny?”
She struggled for words, but he continued without waiting.
“Because she knows we’re prisoners, not guests. Trust me. They wouldn’t assign her to watch over us if they weren’t one hundred percent certain she’d use that pistol if we tried to escape. Don’t let her age fool you. She’s just as ingrained in this culture as the rest of them. Cops are their enemies. The only reason they haven’t already killed me, and you, is because they’re wondering whether there’s any chance someone can track us to them. As soon as they decide the answer is no, all this nice treatment stops.”
She’d been trying to eat while he spoke. But her appetite died a quick death by the time he finished.
“You really believe that girl would shoot us?”
“Without blinking.”
“So if we surprise her and you try to take her gun and she fights you, what then?”
“I’m a police officer. These people are criminals. I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect you and get us both out of here alive.”
She waved her hands impatiently. “But what does that mean? What does that mean for Mindy?”
“It means, if I have to, I’ll kill her.”
* * *
ANY HOPES THAT Colby may have harbored about him and Piper remaining friends, and possibly becoming something far more than that if they survived this ordeal, evaporated the minute he told her he would kill Mindy if he had to.
The glare that Piper was giving him from across the room right now made it clear that he wasn’t at the top of her favorite persons list right now. Hell, he’d probably fallen off the list altogether.
Killing Mindy wasn’t something he wanted to do. In fact, it was the very last thing he wanted to do. Piper was right. Mindy was too young to blame for her parents’ choices. But she was old enough to know that pointing a gun at someone and keeping them against their will was wrong. And if it came to a choice of saving the girl or Piper, he’d save Piper.
Even if she hated him for it.
He had to give Piper credit. Even though she was furious with him, she was still going along with his plan. She was sitting at the table to draw Mindy’s attention away from Colby, who was backed against the wall beside the door, ready to wrestle the gun away from her.
As plans went, it wasn’t much. But he’d thoroughly tested every window, every bar over every window, and the only way out was through that front door. There was no Plan B. He wasn’t going to wait around for her to take them to Jedidiah and his band of merry criminals to decide their fate.
The lock clicked. The door swung open. Colby waited, ready to grab Mindy, but she didn’t step inside.
“Where’s the cop?” her voice called out from the open doorway.
Piper looked around as if in surprise. “Oh, I think he’s back there, in the kitchen area.” She waved toward the long countertop that separated the open kitchen from the dining tables. “I’m afraid we made a bit of a mess and he’s cleaning it up.”
“A mess?”
Piper’s face turned red, probably because she was nervous about their plan. She shrugged and gave a nervous laugh. “We dropped some plates back there. You should just wait outside. No sense in risking getting cut. Isn’t that right, Colby?” She looked over her shoulder toward the kitchen as if waiting for his reply.
Mindy took a tentative step into the room, her pistol out in front of her.
Colby didn’t wait for a second step. He lunged toward her, wrenching the gun out of her hand and yanking her back from the doorway. Piper jumped up and closed the door as he clasped a hand over Mindy’s mouth to keep her from screaming. The girl picked her feet up from beneath her, an old trick he’d been expecting. He simply clasped her hard against his chest and slid to the floor with her still in his arms.
It took a couple of minutes to wear her out and get her to stop struggling. Her chest was heaving from exertion and her face was slick with sweat.
Colby glanced up at Piper standing a few feet away, her brow crinkled with worry. But that worry wasn’t directed at him. She was worried about the little miscreant in his arms.
“She’s fine,” he bit out. “I’m fine, too. Thanks for asking.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “What do we do now?”
“Take the gun.”
She surprised him by taking it without hesitation. She pointed it at the floor, her finger on the frame instead of the trigger.
“Don’t look so surprised,” she told him. “I may not be a police officer, but I know my way around guns. My daddy taught me how to shoot, too.”
“And I’m very appreciative that he did.”
Keeping his hand cupped over the girl’s mouth so she couldn’t scream or bite him, he pulled the dish towels out of his jacket pocket that he’d grabbed from the kitchen while formulating his plan. She couldn’t see that he had the dishcloths, so she didn’t know what he was going to do. He held one cloth in his free hand, rolled into a ball. Then, he yanked his other hand off her mouth. She immediately opened her mouth to scream. Before she could make a sound, he stuffed the balled-up cloth inside and cupped his hand on top again.
Twisting with her in his arms, he rolled her onto her belly with her hands trapped underneath her and sat on her, effectively trapping her.
But that didn’t stop her from slamming her heels into his back.
Piper surprised him yet again by hopping onto Mindy’s legs and holding them down. He glanced over his shoulder at her.
“Thanks.”
“I’m helping you wrestle a child. I’m going to hell for this and I blame you. Do not thank me.”
He chuckled, then secured the gag with two more dish towels that he’d tied together earlier. Then he sat back and waited. Sure enough, the scrappy teen tried to scream. But it came out muffled and could barely be heard. The balled-up dish towel being held in place by more dish towels might have been crude, but it was working.
He gave her a quick frisk but didn’t find anything else on her, which surprised him. A kid her age usually had a cell phone attached to their hip. He leaned down again, careful to keep his head out of head-butting range.
“Mindy, we don’t want to hurt you. If you help us get out of here, we’ll let you go. No harm done.”
She tried to head-butt him, just as he’d anticipated. All she managed to do was slam her jaw against the floor. Her cry of pain was low but discernible, even through the gag.
“What did you do to her?” Piper demanded.
“Nothing. She did it to herself.”
“Did what?”
“Hit her chin on the floor.”
Piper’s sharp intake of breath was his only warning before she jumped up and hurried over to Mindy’s head. The girl wasted no time in slamming her heels into his back again.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
&nbs
p; He rolled his eyes while Piper bent down on her knees and gently moved the hair out of Mindy’s face.
“Are you okay, sweetie? Did you bite your tongue? Do you need—”
Mindy twisted violently and snaked a hand out from under her, grabbing Piper’s wrist—the one holding the pistol.
Colby swore and grabbed Mindy’s forearm. He pressed down, hard, on her radial nerve. Her fingers flew open and she cried out in pain against the gag.
He grabbed the gun. But instead of thanking him for staving off a disaster, Piper glared at him.
“You said you weren’t going to hurt her,” she accused.
“I said I would try not to hurt her. She gave me no choice. Maybe I should just shoot her and wait for someone more docile to run in to check on her and grab them instead.”
Mindy immediately grew still. The only sign that she was still alive was her ragged breathing against the gag.
Colby took advantage of her sudden acquiescence and hopped off her. He checked the pistol, shoved it into the pocket of his jacket, then jerked her upright. Another pile of tied-together dishcloths lay on the floor behind the door. He grabbed them and tied her hands behind her back, then whirled her around to face him.
“You’re going to cooperate?”
She nodded enthusiastically.
“Why?”
She gave him an are-you-an-idiot look and pointed to her gag.
He grinned. “Right. Can’t answer my question.” He looked over his shoulder. “Piper? Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be. I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
“Would you rather wait for Jedidiah to come back with his fellow fruitcakes and pass judgment?”
“When you put it that way...”
He held the gun out to her again. “Check the loading.”
She popped the magazine out. “It’s full.” She slammed it back in and held the gun down by her side.
“You know there’s no safety on a Sig, right? Just point and shoot.”
Mindy jerked against him.
“Cool it,” he warned. “As long as you cooperate and your friends like you enough to want to keep you alive, everyone comes out of this okay.”
Her brow wrinkled with worry.
He sighed. “Teenager. I forgot. Don’t worry. I’m sure your family wants to keep you alive even if you’re rebellious and a complete pain in the butt. Okay?”
Her brow smoothed out and she nodded.
Colby wasn’t fooled. He didn’t expect her to cooperate. But it didn’t really matter. One of the crazies outside was her father. That was the connection Colby was counting on to keep them safe.
He reached into his boot and pulled out the knife he’d tucked inside just moments before Mindy had arrived.
Her eyes widened when she saw it.
“I might have destroyed a couple of the drawers in your kitchen,” he admitted.
She tried to twist away from him. He yanked her back and pressed the dull back edge of the knife against her skin. She didn’t know it wasn’t the sharp edge and grew still as soon as she felt the cold steel.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Mindy. I really don’t. But I can skewer you in far less time than it would take any of your buddies out there to reach me.”
She didn’t move, barely even breathed.
Guilt slashed through him but he ruthlessly pushed it back. He had to focus on protecting Piper or he’d get her killed. He couldn’t allow himself to dwell on the psychological damage he could be inflicting on this teenager.
His shoulders slumped. Who was he kidding? He didn’t want to hurt this girl in any way. He gritted his teeth and sent a pleading look at Piper.
Her expression softened with understanding. “It’s okay, Colby. You’re doing what you have to do. She’ll be all right.”
He swallowed hard, then gave her a grateful nod. This was killing him, and she knew it. And she didn’t hate him. For now, that was enough.
Would the gunmen outside realize the dull edge of the knife was pressed against Mindy’s throat? Would they risk her life, hoping they could shoot him before he could flip the knife’s edge? He honestly didn’t know. All he was sure of was that he couldn’t hold a young teenager in front of him as his hostage with the cutting edge of a knife against her carotid and risk a stumble or bump, ending her life. It was the fatal flaw in his plan. But there was nothing he could do about it.
“You’re a good man,” Piper told him, obviously understanding his dilemma.
“I’m an idiot. You sure you want to go through with this?”
“I wasn’t sure before. Now I am. Let’s do this.”
She took the lead, per their plan, and stepped outside.
Chapter Eleven
Colby followed Piper outside the building, one arm around Mindy’s waist, the other holding the knife against her throat. The three of them stopped just a few feet outside the door, in a tight group as if they were one person, with Piper’s gun pointing straight out in front of her. Colby had originally wanted it pointed at Mindy, but she’d refused. He couldn’t be mad at her over it. After all, he was just as guilty, not wanting to hold the sharp knife edge against the kid’s throat.
God help them both.
Colby counted twenty rifles aimed at them before he stopped counting. Jedidiah, as before, kept his pistol holstered at his waist and stood slightly in front of the others. The question of Mindy’s father’s identity was answered with one look at Jedidiah’s face. It was ghostly white.
His Adam’s apple bobbed several times before he spoke. “Let my daughter go, cop.”
“Sure. Just as soon as you call my SWAT team in Destiny. Put them on speaker so I can hear them and talk to them.”
“We don’t have any phones here. No electronics. It’s not our way of life.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Did you see any electric outlets or light switches in the buildings you’ve been in? We use wood-burning stoves to heat water. That boiler in the bathhouse runs on an oil and gas mixture we barter for when we go into town. The stove in the kitchen runs on gas. We don’t have any phones.”
Colby still wasn’t sure if he believed him. A phone would have made everything so much easier.
Something moved off to his left.
“Piper, my nine o’clock. Do you see them?”
She swung her pistol in that direction. “Yep. You want me to shoot him?”
The person who’d started sneaking up on them hurried backward to get in line with the others.
“Only if they try it again.”
“No problem. I’ll start making a list.” She scanned her pistol on the crowd like a pro. “Anyone else want to be on my shoot-first list?”
No one moved.
“Spoilsports,” she grumbled.
Colby coughed. “How far away is the town?”
“What town?” Jedidiah asked.
“The one where you get the fuel oil for your boiler.”
“Oh, yeah, pretty far away. A couple of days’ hike.”
“You don’t hike through the mountains for days to bring back fuel oil and fresh food like you have in your kitchen. You’ve got cars or trucks. Where are they?”
“Nope, no cars. Like I said, no tech—”
“Stop lying, Jedidiah. Before I gagged your girl here, I interrogated her.” If anything, Jedidiah looked even more pale than he had earlier. Colby wondered if his hatred of the police was because of his own personal experiences. Judging by how the word interrogated affected him, probably so.
“She told me about the cars. But just in case she lied, I want you to go with us. You can lead the way. Take one wrong step, and she dies. Tell everyone else to back off. If I hear a footstep or even the snap of a twig while we’re heading to the cars, I’ll carve my anger out on your ki
d’s flesh. You got that? No one follows us.”
Jedidiah’s gaze flicked to Piper’s right side for just a second.
Bam!
A man fell down onto the dirt, clutching his arm, moaning in agony.
Piper cursed. “Why did you make me do that? Colby told all of you not to move! Did you think he was bluffing?”
Colby was so proud of her that he wanted to hug her. Instead, he kept his face carefully blank, as if Piper hadn’t just surprised the heck out of him.
“One down. Who’s next, Jedidiah? Mindy?” Colby took a risk and flipped his knife over, sharp edge poised half an inch from the girl’s throat.
“No, no, stop!” Jedidiah raised his hands and motioned to his people. “Everybody back. I mean it. Latham, give me the keys to the Charger. The rest of you, go back to the meeting lodge and wait for me there. No one, under any circumstances, follows us.”
There was some grumbling from the circle of men and women.
“Do it!” Jedidiah yelled.
The guns lowered toward the ground and the group dispersed, heading down a path behind Jedidiah, apparently toward the meeting lodge.
Another man ran up to him and tossed him some keys.
Jedidiah shoved them in his pocket and waved at the injured man. “Help him to the lodge. Get Vicky to see to his wound.”
Colby waited while the injured man and Latham slowly made their way after the others. He was shocked that his bluff was working so well so far. The car thing was a total guess. Maybe he really should have interrogated Mindy. No telling what she might have told him.
“All right, Jedidiah. Take us to the car. Remember, one wrong turn and I carve the cost of my annoyance out of Mindy’s flesh.”
If hatred was a living animal, it would have leaped from Jedidiah’s eyes and shredded Colby into a thousand pieces right then and there. Instead, Jedidiah gave him a sharp nod and whirled around, leading the way down a path Colby hadn’t even noticed before, tucked up beside the kitchen building.