Calculated Revenge

by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

  Adelle flipped the phone shut and tossed it onto the table. The woman eyed Laney dispassionately. “I assume you’re referring to Grace. That was no crime. It was an—”

  “Adelle!” The strident cry came from outside, and whipped all heads in that direction.

  “Adelle Addison!” The bellow came again. “Where’s my son?”

  Noah froze at the edge of the woods on the west side of the moldering cabin. Blast that drunken fool! He’d ordered George to stay in the car he’d parked out of sight up the drive. Noah had seen the gun in Adelle’s hand when she stepped outside and grabbed Laney’s purse from that rattletrap out front, and he didn’t need someone getting shot on his account. Too late now.

  In front of the cabin, the soused father kept hollering. There was nothing Noah could do for the man. His efforts had to be for Laney. Noah looked down at the tire iron in his hand. Not much good against a bullet, but George might be the witless decoy he needed…if the guy didn’t catch one of those bullets first.

  Noah crept toward a glassless side window of the cabin.

  “Time for you to die, George,” Adelle yelled back.

  “That’s not part of the plan, Mom,” a familiar voice protested.

  Noah’s neck hair stood on end. He mentally smacked himself. Watts, aka Pierce, had been under their noses the entire time, a slimy little worm ingratiating himself to the community and trying to romance the object of his hatred. Lower than sludge was an understatement.

  “He’s got to pay, too,” Adelle hissed to her son.

  “I can’t let you kill my dad,” Watts answered.

  “He’s a pig.” Adelle’s voice had risen to a screech. Good, she was getting worked up. Maybe she’d get careless. “Look at him,” she went on. “The slob can hardly stand up.”

  Foosteps retreated toward the front door, followed by a second pair, heavier than the first. Were they both leaving the building? Better and better.

  He wasn’t going to get a clearer opportunity. Taking a deep breath, Noah heaved himself through the window.

  Bickering, Adelle and Watts disappeared out the front door. Skin chaffing, Laney worked frantically at her bonds. She had seconds…maybe. A shot sounded outside, then a yelp. Laney jerked. Had the death toll just risen? Familiar hands began working at the ropes.

  “Noah, you found me.” Laney’s heart leaped as she gazed into his tense face. His hair was a mess and sported a piece of green leaf and his face was scratched, but he’d never looked so handsome. How she loved this man!

  “Are you all right?” His green gaze searched hers.

  “I’m fine, but they won’t say what they’ve done with Bree.”

  Adelle’s gun barked again, followed by the tinkle of shattered glass. A car window most likely. Shouts and curses and running feet sounded.

  “Don’t waste time with those knots,” Laney told Noah. “There’s a pocketknife in my right shoe.”

  “Brilliant woman.” Noah bent and came up with the instrument. He stared at the miniature object. “You call this a knife?”

  “It was all the convenience store had.”

  He sawed at the ropes. One side parted.

  “This thing is small but mighty,” Noah pronounced.

  The second side began to fray as hard breathing and creaking boards announced the return of her captors.

  “Here.” Noah pressed the knife into Laney’s free hand. “Finish the job and dive out the window.”

  He snatched up a tire iron from the floor beside him and moved to meet the pair with the gun.

  If he could just stall for time, Laney might get away. Noah took up a post beside the open door, prepared to clobber the first person who stepped inside. If he could knock the gun away, he might survive the encounter. If not, well, Laney stood a chance of losing her kidnappers in the dense trees.

  A figure stepped inside, and Noah swung at his head. Watts staggered and went down, bleeding from the side of a bald pate. Adelle lunged through the door, firing. The wild shot spanged off the crowbar, wrenching it from Noah’s grip.

  He lunged for the woman, and they grappled for control of the gun. Her wiry strength challenged him, but he began to get the advantage. Then a leg swept his feet out from under him, and he whumped flat onto his back. Air whooshed from his lungs.

  Watts cackled. “Gotcha!” The man struggled to his feet.

  Noah stared, fighting to suck air back into his lungs. How could the guy get up so fast? The blow Noah had delivered should have KO’d an ox.

  “Metal plate.” Watts knocked on the side of his head.

  As Noah finally heaved a breath of oxygen, the black maw of Adelle’s pistol appeared above his face. A click announced the weapon was cocked.

  The woman glared down at him, lips drawn back from white teeth. “Bye-bye, P.I.”

  Breath sawing as hard as the knife, Laney cut the last strand of rope binding her wrist. She leaped up and snatched the can of bug spray. Scarcely sparing a nanosecond to aim, she hit the button in the direction of Adelle’s face.

  Screeching obscenities, the woman scuttled backward, one hand scrubbing at her eyes. The hand that clutched the gun waved crazily in the air. The weapon blasted, and a buzz like a speeding hornet swept past Laney’s ear. She kept spraying toward Adelle, then toward a snarling Watts, who covered his eyes with his forearm and charged toward her. Laney dodged, and he swept past, caught himself and turned, shaking his head like a frustrated bull. Blood still trickled from the split skin on the side of his head.

  On the edge of her vision, Laney watched Noah roll and stagger to his feet, coughing and shaking his head. The fallout from the spray must have caught him full in the face. Still swiping at her face and cursing, Adelle fired aimlessly again, and Noah leaped toward her. They struggled while Watts snatched the tire iron from the floor and came at Laney.

  She yelped and flung the spray can at him. He dodged, and she charged out the door, pelting toward the woods. Heavy footsteps pounded after her.

  Another gunshot sounded from the cabin, echoed by a male cry of pain. Noah! Oh, Noah!

  Laney reached the tree line and leaped over encroaching undergrowth to enter the woods. Her thrashing progress was a fatal giveaway to her location. But then, so was his. She had to find someplace to hide and plan an ambush with the knife still clutched in her fist.

  A faint deer track beckoned for the quieter passage it offered, and she took it. To her left, the river gurgled, but tangled bushes hid the water from view. A dip in the earth beneath the branches caught her eye. She plopped onto her stomach and crawled under the thick foliage. Branches snagged her hair and clothes and clawed her face, but she didn’t stop until she was snug and concealed, facing the path she’d just left.

  “Oh, Laney, darling,” a masculine voice singsonged. “Come out, and I’ll take you to your daughter.” Watts’s footsteps approached. “And your sister, too. You know I killed Gracie, don’t you?”

  A shocked cry filled her throat, but Laney held it at bay between clenched teeth. Watts killed Gracie? He was a kid at the time. Did he find out about his dad’s affair and decide to punish the other woman by killing her child? That seemed more like sophisticated, though twisted, adult reasoning.

  “Are you surprised?” Watts drew closer at a slug’s pace. He had to know she was hiding somewhere because the sound of her movements had ceased. He’d be watching, listening for any hint of her presence.

  “Would you like to know why, dear Laney?”

  She swallowed and readied her knife for a strike. He was taunting her. Hoping to make her lose her head to her emotions, and he was doing a good job of it. Sweat trickled from her hairline down her nose and stung her eyes.

  “I know you can hear me,” he continued softly. “Grace was a pain. Always throwing fits over nothing. And stupid, too.” His foot snapped a branch, and Laney flinched. He was close, but not close enough yet.

  Watts chuckled. “I told her I had a whole box of her favorite candy, but she had to c
ome with me on my bike to get it. We went out to the caves and walked up the trail. She kept whining for the candy.” He snorted. “It was supposed to be a joke, but she didn’t get jokes, you know. I was just going to leave her there. Serve her right. But she clawed at me, and I gave her a little smack across the cheek. Just to shut her up, you understand.”

  A soft pat on the trail betrayed another step closer to where she hid. Laney trembled. Every nerve-ending screamed attack! Not yet. Wait.

  “How was I to know she’d turn and run straight over the edge of the ravine? She cracked her skull open, and it was her own stupid fault.”

  The brown lace-ups came into view through miniscule gaps between leaves.

  “I didn’t know what to do,” Watts continued, “but Mom did. She said hiding the body was just the thing. She’d found out what scum you Thompsons are. In Dad’s shop, she discovered the paperwork on this little love nest he bought, and a romantic note from him to your mother. Wasn’t my mom clever not to let on she knew until after the FBI and your family left town?” He eased forward. “And you know what? Destiny brought you across our path so we can finish the job. Mom and I are going to cut off the generations of your family forever.”

  He took another step, and Laney ripped the reins off her self-control. Snarling, she pounced and plunged the knife toward his crippled foot. Snap! The blade met solid resistance and broke. Half in, half out of the bushes, she stared at the stub of knife in her hand.

  “It’s prosthetic, Sweetcakes. All the way to the knee.” Watts grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to her feet, delivering a sharp slap to her cheek with his other hand.

  Scalp and cheek stinging, Laney’s clawed fingers sought his grinning face, but he held her at arm’s length, and she came up short. She drew her foot back and rammed a kick into his right leg just below the knee. Something cracked and buckled, and Watts tumbled sideways, yelping, into the bushes.

  Laney tore up the deer track the way she had come. She had to find Noah, make sure he was all right. Adelle hadn’t killed him, had she? Not her Noah.

  “Laney!” His hale and hearty voice answered her question.

  “I’m here, Noah.”

  He thrashed toward her and emerged onto the path in front of her. Laney flung herself into the safety of his arms. Tears flowed onto his strong shoulder.

  He petted her hair. “Hush now. It’s all right.”

  But it wasn’t. Where was Briana?

  Laney lifted her head and gazed up into his loving face. “Watts killed Gracie. It was a prank gone bad. Adelle engineered the rest.”

  Noah nodded. “You don’t have to worry about her anymore. She’s tied up back at the cabin.” He jerked his head in that direction.

  “Watts is that way.” She pointed down the deer track. “I think I broke something on his prosthetic leg.”

  His eyebrows climbed. “You never cease to amaze me, woman. He won’t get far one-sided. I’ll go truss him to a tree.” He wagged a piece of rope dangling from his hand.

  A patch of red on the side of his shirt caught Laney’s eye. “You’re hurt!”

  “Just a scratch across the ribs. Burns like someone rubbed a cut with jalepeno peppers, but I’ll live.” He shrugged. “You’ve lost a lock of hair.”

  Laney gasped and felt the side of her head. Sure enough, a patch of her hair was missing below the ear. “Wow! That bullet came closer than I thought.”

  Noah chuckled. “At the moment, it’s the cutest haircut I’ve ever seen. I sure don’t want to contemplate the alternative.”

  “Me, either.” Laney shuddered. “Say, what do you suppose happened to George?”

  “His body wasn’t lying in the yard, so I suspect he hightailed it toward town and Bucky’s Bar as fast as his wobbly legs could carry him.” Noah sent her a muted smile. “You go call the cavalry while I round up Watts.”

  Laney wrinkled her nose. “As in Agent Burns?”

  “I know you’re desperate to find Briana. I am, too. They’ve got trained interrogators for our pair of slimeballs. But if they won’t talk, the feds know how to throw a first rate search party. Don’t worry.” He touched her cheek. “We’ll find her.”

  Laney nodded, gnawing her lower lip. But would they find her little girl alive?

  NINETEEN

  Why couldn’t the horror end? Laney thrashed through undergrowth toward the cabin clearing. The mystery was solved, the monsters caught, and yet Briana was missing and Grace’s remains were not recovered. Just wait until she got back to that cabin. She’d throttle the answer out of Adelle. She’d—

  Laney burst free of the forest into the clearing. She halted and her jaw dropped. A sheriff’s SUV and a pair of dark sedans filled the area. Law enforcement personnel traipsed in and out of the cabin.

  “There she is,” one cried and pointed in her direction.

  A man in a suit broke away from the pack and strode toward her. Burns.

  “Where’s Ryder?” The agent glared. “He’s got a lot to answer for.”

  “Riiight. Like finding me and saving my life. If he’d left the matter in your hands, you would have arrived in the nick of time to recover my dead body. I’m fine, by the way. You’ll find the very much alive Watts Addison tied up in the woods.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, and then planted her hands on her hips. “Now, what are you going to do to find my daughter?”

  “Brianaaaaa!”

  Laney’s plaintive cry sliced another wound in Noah’s heart. They’d searched and called, and called and searched for two hours steady. Her voice was going hoarse, and the light of hope was dying in her eyes. If only he could promise her they’d find the little princess, but he’d seen too many cases where the ending wasn’t happy.

  Dear Lord, please, don’t let this be one of them.

  The FBI did have a first class operation running, neat search grids, dogs, helicopters. But no one had found a trace of Briana, and the perps they had in custody weren’t talking. Noah hadn’t told Laney, but he was pretty sure the feds figured they were looking for a body, not a live child. From his own experience, he had to agree that the odds were heavily that way.

  Laney plodded through the woods beside him, shoulders slumped. She called Briana’s name one more time. No answer but wind in the trees and the distant whump of helicopter blades. They came to a fallen log, and Laney sank onto it.

  She bunched her fists and pressed them to her face. “I hate her!”

  Noah sat down beside her. “Adelle? Yes, she’s despicable.”

  He wanted to add a caution against allowing bitterness and anger to warp her the same way, but Laney needed to vent honest emotions. Besides, right about now he’d pay big money for five minutes alone with the woman or her rat-faced son, and no holds barred.

  Laney looked away and stared at the ground. “No, I mean my mother. None of this would have happened if she’d kept her marriage vows.”

  He nodded. God, give me wisdom. “That’s true, but it’s not the whole picture.”

  Laney issued a sour snicker. “You got that right. Then there’s me leaving Grace alone to be picked on by the neighbor kid we trusted. And me again, leaving Briana behind so I could chase down leads hundreds of miles away.” She sat up stiff. “If I’d been sleeping in the bed next to her, Watts couldn’t have gotten to her.”

  Noah frowned and scuffed his toe through a mound of moldy leaves. “Are you sure about that? I tend to think you’d be dead, and Briana would still be gone. These people weren’t about to let anything stop them.”

  Her lips spread in a grim smile. “But we did. Only it was too late.” She slumped again.

  He gripped her shoulders and turned her to face him. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve sensed a divine hand guiding us through this trial.” The words spilling from his lips surprised him. He’d always relied on his own wits, but he’d prayed more over this case than any other, and answers had always come—many times from unexpected quarters. “I’m not ready to give up,” he told L
aney. “Not by a long shot. But I’m also not prepared to watch you make the same mistake as Adelle. I couldn’t bear to see your fineness turn to rot and misery.”

  She pulled away. “What do you mean?”

  “You’re a special woman, Laney. Caring, gentle, giving. You have a lot to offer the world.” And me. “You can stay that way and go on to have a life—no matter how this search turns out—or you can go down Adelle’s path, and live as pure poison to yourself and others.”

  Her eyes stared toward a wall of trees ahead of them. “You mean, I have to forgive my mother.”

  “And yourself.”

  She turned a desperate gaze on him. “How do I do that?”

  Noah spread his hands. “Believe me, I’m no expert, but I’m guessing you choose it, in spite of your feelings, one moment at a time.”

  “Have you forgiven yourself for what happened to Renee?”

  “I’m going to.” He expelled a breath. “Right now, I choose to let it go.” With the words, an airy sensation expanded his chest.

  “And Burns? Have you forgiven him?”

  A laugh spurted between his lips. “I suppose I need to do that, too.”

  “But forgiving him doesn’t make him any less of a blockhead.”

  “You got that right.” He opened his arms to her, and she melted into them. “I love you, Laney.” He kissed the top of her head.

  “I love you, too, Noah. I’ve known that for a long time, but especially when I saw your face in that cabin when I was sure I was about to die.” She sat back. “Now, if we could only find Briana alive. But if not…” She gripped his hand. “Could we pray together? Right now?”

  “Sure.” He put his arm around her shoulder, drew her close, and they bowed their heads.