Lost in Shadows (Lost)

by Anita DeVito

  Hagerman closed the line and shoved the phone into a pocket. “Get into the barn. Go up to the hayloft and stay there. You shoot anyone that comes up that ladder. Understand?”

  Katie and Carolina nodded silently as they wrapped themselves in the thick vests.

  “Once you’re out of the way, I’ll have room to work. They don’t know the layout of the house. This place is a fucking maze, and we’re going to be fine in it. We’ll take the passage through Tom’s rooms. We’ll be exposed in the crossway but I’ll cover you. Understand?”

  They nodded.

  “Katie, you’re behind me. Carolina, bring up the rear. Shoot anything that moves. I know you’re afraid but we can do this. Jeb and Beck are on their way. We’re going to be fine.”

  With the pep talk, Hagerman led the way through a hall that connected Jeb’s wing with Tom’s. There were no windows along the short corridor for the assailants to watch their movements. They emerged into Tom’s structural equipment lab. The concrete and steel room housed a variety of contraptions that looked more vicious than the weapon Hagerman carried. But there were windows. Tall windows on both sides of the large room that exposed them to the most casual of glances. Hagerman dropped to his knees and crawled close to the courtyard wall. Katie and Carolina mimicked his movements, crossing silently, invisibly, across the room.

  “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  Carolina huddled close to Katie, who’d gone too still, too quiet. “I’m sorry. This is because of me.”

  Katie blinked and shook her head. “It’s because of them. I hate them.” Her hand stroked her still-flat belly.

  “We’re going to be just fine. Hagerman knows what he’s doing, and Jeb and Beck are on their way. These jerks have no idea what they are in for.” She gave the pep talk because she saw Katie needed it. Carolina knew fear. In the face of Katie’s fear, her own lost its power. She wouldn’t let her fear hurt her friend or her unborn baby. “Jeb has a bit of a temper.”

  Katie snorted an unexpected laugh. “Thank you. I needed that.”

  Shouts and curses suddenly filled the courtyard. Then Hagerman appeared silently at their side.

  “Amateurs. There are three of them. In the house.” He moved to the far side of the lab. “Climb out the window. We’ll have to go the back way.”

  Hagerman silently raised the window and cut the screen with a knife. He climbed out, gun drawn, and stood guard while Carolina and then Katie landed softly beside him. Back in formation, they slowly made progress, moving as a single unit, around the barn to the main door at the rear of the building.

  Halfway around the barn, Katie’s large puppy spotted them and raced across the fields, anxious to be part of the game. She dropped to her knees and silenced the dog, hugging him when Hagerman glared. It took several minutes to reach the door and for Carolina and Katie to settle into the hayloft. “Stay here. No matter what you hear, don’t come down until Jeb or I come for you. Got it?”

  They both nodded silently.

  Carolina grabbed Hagerman’s arm before he could climb back down the ladder. “What are you going to do?”

  “Draw them away from you. Just stay quiet. Jeb and Beck will be here soon.”

  They sat in a corner, knees pulled to their chests. Silence hung heavily in the darkness. There was no sense of time, but every minute was too long. Katie broke the silence with a whisper. “I’ve never shot a gun, Carolina. I’m pretty sure I could kill a man, if I got mad enough, but not with a gun.”

  “I can shoot a gun. My daddy taught Nate and me to shoot when we were just kids. I’m not sure I could aim one at a man and fire it.”

  Katie smiled weakly. “What a pair we are. I’ve got the nerve but no eye. You’ve got the eye but no nerve.”

  The sound of gunfire made them both jump. They held their breath as the silence fell again. The barn door opened with a telltale squeak, and daylight flooded the lower floor. Sheltered as they were, they still shielded their eyes against the onslaught of white light. A low, menacing growl rumbled from beneath.

  “Taylor!” Katie gasped his name breathlessly.

  A voice singsonged out. “Come on out, pup. Come see what Uncle Tony has for you.”

  “Not my baby. Not my baby.” Katie scrambled to the ladder, pausing to look back at Carolina. “I can’t just sit here.”

  She nodded and followed Katie down into the shadows. They hid in the stacked hay bales, watching the scrawny man make his way to where Taylor crouched beneath the tool bench. Taylor’s growl deepened an instant before the dog launched himself at the man. The gun fired as the man fought back the thirty pounds of razor-sharp teeth. Backpedaling, the man pulled on the thick mane at the black lab’s neck, keeping those teeth only inches from his skin.

  Katie put her shoulder behind the hay bale and launched herself off the stack at the man attacking her dog. Taylor scrambled out of the way as the man was driven to the ground and then attacked the arm protruding from under the hay, teeth penetrating flesh.

  Carolina climbed down, grabbed a plumber’s wrench from the tool bench, held it like a home-run hitter, and waited for the ball to cross the plate. “He’s not moving.”

  Katie looked up, breathless. “Maybe you should hit him anyway.”

  She watched Taylor toss the limp arm into the air. “Did you kill him?”

  Katie cautiously climbed off the bale and pulled it aside. The man didn’t move. “Could be he’s faking it?”

  She looked at the exposed arm, streaked with blood from Taylor’s teeth and claws. Nobody could fake being limp while being gnawed on like a chew toy. “Doubt it. What should we do with him?”

  Katie scanned the barn and then smiled. “Let’s put him on the rack. It’s what we built it for, right? To string up with sons of bitches who are doing this to you.”

  She set down the wrench and helped Katie drag the dead weight across the floor.

  “Do you still have the gun?” Katie asked.

  “My daddy’s gun. I left the rifle in the loft. Why?”

  “You picked up a wrench. I thought you might have left the gun upstairs.”

  She pushed her hair out of her eyes and took a firm grip on the man’s belt. “I still have it. I’ll use it if I have to. I will.”

  Katie smiled again as they pushed the limp body into position. “I’m not worried. Let’s weigh him down.”

  With their unconscious prisoner bound, gagged, and pulled to the four corners of the earth, Carolina and Katie crouched down next to Taylor. “What do we do now?” Carolina asked.

  “We could go back up into the hay loft,” Katie said. “They’ll never think to look for us there after they find Stretch here.”

  “Taylor can’t come up with us,” Carolina said.

  “We can go to the ammunition shed instead. Most of it is underground, like a shelter. We’ll be able to hold them off until Jeb gets here.”

  Carolina took a deep breath and nodded. “It feels like it’s already been an hour.”

  …

  The helicopter raced through the sky toward home. Jeb’s rifle lay across his lap, loaded and ready to go.

  “Did you call the sheriff?” Beck asked.

  “Not yet. I don’t want his men walking in on that.” He knew the men who would respond by name. They were the men who used to be his. “They aren’t SWAT trained.”

  Beck raised one eyebrow at the decision but didn’t say anything. The sheriff would have responded faster than they could. It was a big risk leaving Hagerman to hold off armed vigilantes alone. “What about your brother?”

  He heard the disapproval in Beck’s voice. If anything happened to Katie, he would lose Butch. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t call his brother, because he would rush home. Unarmed. Unprepared. Butch could condemn him to hell and he could live with that. What he couldn’t live with was his brother’s death on his shoulders.

  “We picked up a tail wind.”

  He stared unblinking at the acres of farmland spread o
ut beneath him. It all looked so serene. So simple. Then maybe this was, too. Death. Dying. He had carried emptiness in him for so long, a hole that spread like a stain over his soul. Butch could condemn him, Beck, too. It didn’t matter. The only thing left that mattered was Carolina. Bringing her and Katie out of this unharmed. He sat up a little straighter as Beck did a fly-by over the grounds. “Two men down. Get us down. To the west where we have some cover.”

  They moved in a synchronized formation across the homestead. Beck felt for a pulse on a body in the courtyard, sprawled over a planter of wedding flowers. He shook his head and followed Jeb into the kitchen through the shattered back door. A second man was down on the tiled floor. There was no need to check for a pulse; there was too much blood for any life to be left, but Beck checked anyway.

  They swept the rest of the house with no further signs of violence. He motioned Beck toward the barn where muted cries had them pressing tightly against the walls. He counted three and they went in, Beck to the right, Jeb to the left.

  “Clear,” Jeb called.

  Beck walked toward the wood-and-metal contraption and its wailing prisoner. “Where are they?” Beck asked, taking the gag from his mouth.

  “Get me out of here.” He wailed and shouted, begging for his freedom, but not answering the question. Beck shoved the gag back in his mouth before following Jeb out the rear door.

  A third body lay twenty paces away at the edge of the cornfield. Beck covered Jeb as he approached. “Hagerman. Hagerman.” Together, they rolled the man to his back. “He’s alive. Call an ambulance.” Hagerman didn’t respond. Chunks of flesh were missing from his arms and legs. The vest had held and, he hoped, protected everything vital.

  Hagerman moaned and tossed his head as Jeb unfastened the vest. “Did they get away? The women? Did they get away?”

  “We haven’t found them yet. Where did they go?”

  Hagerman arched his back, his eyes rolling in his head. “Don’t know. Didn’t stay where I put them.”

  Jeb swore as much as he prayed. “How many were there?”

  “There were five. I did see them all but I got two before the son of a bitch got me.”

  In the distance, a dog barked, demanding attention.

  “Dear God, no.” Part of Jeb died when he saw Katie dragging one leg as she limped up the dirt path, Taylor heeling at her side. He raced past the dog, catching his sister-in-law to him. Her face, her clothes, were covered in blood. He watched her dazed eyes as he ran his hands over her, looking for the wounds. “Where are you hurt? Where’s Carolina? Is she hurt?”

  “Oh, Jeb.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed to the point he couldn’t understand a word she said.

  “The blood. Tell me about the blood.”

  “It’s not mine. Carolina shot him.” She pulled up her head, the terror in her eyes matching her ravaged face. “He was going to kill me. Rape me first. She shot him right between the eyes.”

  He tightened his hold, needing to feel her alive against him. “Where is she? Where is Carolina?”

  She shook her head as the now silent tears raced down her face. “I don’t know, Jeb. But she’s running, and she needs us. Put me down. I can walk.”

  He felt that well of despair fill. He reined it in, forcing it behind an impenetrable wall of ice. “Where did she go?” he repeated flatly.

  “I don’t know. She kept saying over and over how she was sorry, and then she left. I tried to get her to stay but she thinks she was the reason they were going to…going to…hurt me. She ran, and I couldn’t keep up.”

  “Hagerman said there were five. What happened to the fifth man?”

  “He drove away after Carolina killed the other man. He tried to find us, but we hid in that storm pipe.” She shivered, and he understood how desperate they had to be to hide in that pipe. He closed his eyes against the emotion burning. Katie’s name came on the wind, a desperate, passionate sound. Jeb turned to see Butch racing toward them.

  Butch froze when he saw Katie covered in blood, curled in his brother’s arms. “What the hell happened? How badly are you hurt?”

  “I’m not.” Her voice caught in her throat as she tried to soothe her husband. “I’m fine. My ankle is just a little screwed up.”

  Butch pulled her from Jeb’s arms and cradled her against his chest. “I have you, baby. I have you. I’m going to run you a bath and see for myself that none of this blood is yours. Then we are taking what we have packed and leaving.”

  Jeb kept his gun out, his eyes scanning continuously as they took Katie back to the house. He felt the weight of his brother’s worry heavy upon his shoulders. “You’re taking a man with you.”

  “Chameleon is already providing security. I’m not worried.”

  He knew Butch lied for Katie’s benefit and let it go, having already decided he would add a man or two to Butch’s entourage.

  Butch carried his wife into his studio and sat on the couch with her across his lap. She didn’t relinquish her hold on his neck though she looked at Jeb. “You have to find her. Carolina’s hurt. Not physically, but deep down, which is worse. She’s giving up. You have to find her before they do.”

  He carefully removed the shoe and sock from her injured foot where swelling had begun. “I’ll bring her home. I promise, little sister. Right now…I need to know everything.”

  Butch’s face went a pasty shade of white when Katie told them she pushed Carolina into a blind made by a thick bramble and then tried to lure away the “redneck asshole.” Katie and Taylor were fighting through the brush when something hit her hard between the shoulder blades. She tripped and stumbled down the short, steep embankment and fell into the water. She tried to run, but her ankle wouldn’t hold her up. He had grabbed her ponytail and pulled. Katie fought and had landed a few, but it wasn’t enough to break his grip. The more she fought, the more incensed he became. He threw her down into the mud and held her with his foot while he worked his belt buckle open. Katie had screamed a litany of curses that threatened an early, painful death. The guy laughed and dug his knee into her belly. A loud pop stopped Katie from screaming, and then she was covered with splattered blood and a dead body.

  Carolina pulled Katie free from the dead weight and helped her up the creek where they hid in a storm pipe. A man stood somewhere above them and fired his gun, cursing them. They stayed hidden while a door closed and tires raced away. Carolina had helped Katie out of hiding and then nearly buckled at the sight of Katie’s tattered and bloodied clothes.

  “That’s when she ran,” Katie said. “She looked at me with these huge eyes and she just kept saying ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’ Over and over. When I finally climbed out of the brush, she was gone.”

  Butch took her face in his hands and held her until she looked at him. “We’re going to a doctor. We need to check the baby, to see if he’s all right.”

  Katie nodded, but her eyes were glassy with tears. “She’s too little, you know. If she’s hurt, there’s nothing they can do.”

  Butch brushed the dead man’s blood from her cheek. “I’m certain that he’s snuggled in just fine, but we better check.”

  “Is Hagerman going to be all right?” Katie asked, looking for a distraction from her tears as she rubbed her belly. “He saved us.”

  “He’s going to need a few weeks to recover, but he’ll do just fine.” Jeb tried to tease and give Katie the comfort she needed. “I don’t know how the son of a bitch isn’t dead. Too stubborn, I’d guess.” He turned his thoughts to Carolina. She knew he was coming, but she’d chosen to run. “She stole your car.”

  “Borrowed.” Katie corrected him. “Carolina is welcome to anything of mine, anytime, so she couldn’t have stolen it. She’s going home, isn’t she? And you’re going after her.”

  Jeb hated that Carolina was easy to predict. He knew where she was going. Katie knew where she was going. The lone surviving attacker, odds were, knew where she was going. “She’s done running. I’m putting
an end to all this.” He called Beck. “Get us back in the air.”

  “You be nice when you find her, Jeb. She was leaving…before all of this.” Katie grabbed his arm, pinching. “You tell her you fucked up and bring her back here. Got it?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jeb scowled at the sky, cursing the clear, sunny October day. While it made for good football weather, it provided no cover under which to approach Carolina’s house. He drove past, pulling into Emmaline’s driveway and parking so her house screened the SUV.

  “Her neighbor is out of town. Keep it quiet. The neighborhood probably knows, and I don’t want anyone calling the police.” He set his jaw as he fitted the guns into holsters and knives into sheaths. He was done taking risks with Carolina. Like it or not, she was doing things his way from here on.

  A thick hedge that had long lost its blooms provided a short length of cover from behind which Jeb and Beck surveyed the Walker home. There were no outward signs that she had come home. There were no lights to be seen through the unbarred windows. Doors and windows weren’t open. The driveway didn’t have Kate’s little hot rod sitting in it.

  The house appeared abandoned.

  She was in there. He could feel her. His blood ran a little hotter, his temper a little shorter. She was in there, and she was a fool to think hiding in there would fool Hooker.

  Beck searched the grounds through binoculars. “It doesn’t look like Hooker followed her.”

  James Hooker. Last man standing. Thomas Cooper was the man Carolina shot between the eyes. The Florida hit man and the one tied to the rack were childhood friends who liked the quick money and fast thrills Hooker and Cooper gave them. They both sang long and loud, giving up Hooker as the brains behind the operation, first to fulfill the contracts and then to avenge Terry Lee’s death.

  Beck crouched behind the line of bushes, returning the binoculars to his pack. “How do you want to play this?”

  “You set up in Emmaline’s house, prepare for a hostile package. I’m going in.”

  He forced the weight of his emotions aside and put in the earpiece as Beck dropped back, moved along the rear of the house and, breaking a basement window, entered Emmaline’s house. He shifted his gaze to the window of the second floor bedroom. Beck appeared in it moments later.