“That Taser won’t stop his van,” Summer muttered.
“I have no intention of using it on the van.” Renny opened her trunk.
“Don’t tell me you have another one back there?”
“Utility knife. You said she was tied up. And it can be used for other things, if necessary.” She thrust it at Summer.
They walked to the entrance of the park and made a show of going through stretches while keeping an eye on the van. To Summer it seemed like it had been hours since they’d phoned for backup. Just when she was afraid Stan might get impatient and leave, another car pulled into the lot. “Rich,” she said as he exited his Toyota Camry and looked around nervously.
“We need for dear old dad to get out of the van,” Renny said, stretching her arm. “And where are the goddamn police?”
“Hopefully on their way.” Summer tried for casual as she took another peek at the van. “Time to run. He’s looked this way at least twice.”
“We’ll run until we’re out of sight, then cut back through the woods, using the trees for cover.”
Behind the cover of trees they watched Stan exit the van and walk toward his son.
Rich’s steps faltered before he jerked to a stop. “No!” he screamed and held up his arms as if to protect his face.
“Run, idiot!” Renny hissed. “If only he’d run we’d have a shot at the van.”
As if he’d heard her, Rich turned and raced for his car.
When Stan hurried after Rich, Summer was up and running before her conscious mind registered it. She reached the back of the van steps ahead of Renny and pulled on the back door. “Locked!” she said, breathing hard. “Stay here. I’ll check up front.” She reached the front of the van and wanted to scream when the keys weren’t in the ignition. Fighting back panic, she searched under the seat and again came up empty.
“Uh, Summer. You need to hurry up.”
“They’re not here. What do we do now?” she asked when Renny joined her.
“Hope Rich keeps his dad occupied until the police get here.”
“What?” Summer watched in horror as Stan dragged Rich out of his vehicle, then pinned him against it while squeezing his neck. “We’ve got to help him. You zap him after I distract him.”
“How are you planning to do that?”
“I don’t know.” She shot across the parking lot, glad that the noise Rich was making masked her footsteps. “Still trying to beat the hell out of your son, Stan?” she said loudly.
Obviously startled, Stan turned his head. Summer could tell the second he recognized her. His eyes narrowed and his lip pulled back into a snarl. “You!”
She made herself smile as if she didn’t want to wet her pants, as if she weren’t facing her nightmare. “Yeah, me. End of the road for you, Stan. Brought down by a woman. That has to hurt your tiny ego.”
Rich took advantage of Stan’s loosened grip to bring up a knee and give his father a solid shot to the balls. When Stan pushed back from him and bent over at the waist, adrenaline propelled Summer forward. She plowed into him, sending him to the ground facedown with her on his back. She had a moment to wonder how rugby players did it without padding before Stan recovered enough to struggle.
“Now, Renny!” she shouted even as she took a fist to the temple that had her seeing stars. Before she could recover, Stan’s body twitched from the shock of the Taser, bucking her off his back.
“You okay?” Renny asked.
“Yeah.” Summer scrambled back to Stan and searched his jacket pocket for keys. “Yes! Go set her free. Set Georgia free.” She threw the keys to Renny. “Rich, give me your belt. We need to tie him up.”
“I’ll take care of him,” Renny said with relish. “This baby has plenty of charge left.” To prove it she shocked him again and smiled through his grunts. “You’re not going anywhere, are you, Stan?” She held out the keys to Summer. “You should be the one to set her free. You’ve been with her from the beginning.”
Summer didn’t need to be told twice. As she raced back to the van, she heard the sirens. Then the key was in the latch and she was pulling the door open. “Georgia? My name’s Summer.” She held out her arms. “You can come out now. The man can’t hurt you anymore.”
A response was a long time coming. “I’m tied up.”
“I have just the thing for that.” Summer talked about nothing, keeping her voice bright and cheerful as she climbed into the back of the van. Seeing the bruises on Georgia’s face and arms, she wanted to take Renny’s Taser to Stan’s balls. Instead she talked about how brave Georgia was as she cut away rope.
Once Georgia was free, she fell into Summer’s arms and burst into sobs.
“You’re going to be okay,” Summer murmured, putting her arms around a shivering Georgia. The mind connection was instantaneous. As Georgia sobbed, memories of what had been done to her flashed through her mind and, because of their connection, through Summer’s mind as well. It was almost too much for Summer to bear. She didn’t bother to wipe away the tears streaming from her eyes.
Gradually the sobs died, her’s and Georgia’s, and Summer became aware of the conversation going on outside of the van. From the sound of things, she had Renny to thank for having the time to comfort Georgia. “We need to get you checked out, sweetie. Make sure everything is okay.”
When Georgia whimpered and tightened her grip, Summer thought her heart would break.
“I’ll stay with you while the doctor makes sure you’re okay.” Make sure you stay that way, she vowed.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Epilogue
Summer put down the charcoal pencil and sighed. It was done. Wiping her fingertips on a soft rag, she looked around the bedroom Renny had had remodeled into a studio, from portrait to portrait. Fifteen girls. Well, the fifteen he’d admitted to, she corrected. The fifteen whose bones had been found in his burial ground. The fifteen who mostly turned out to be from poor families and under poor supervision. Easy pickings, he’d said. Doubly victimized, Summer thought.
“But not sixteen,” she reminded herself, deliberately looking at the photo of a smiling Georgia and her black Lab companion, who was inexplicably named Spot. Georgia didn’t always smile, but when she did it reminded Summer of the sun rising to greet the morning. Of late, those smiles were coming more frequently and seemingly with more ease.
Georgia was also losing that haunted look and putting on weight. She still had nightmares from which she woke up screaming, thinking the mean man had locked her up. Spot was always the first one to bring her out of the nightmare. Sometimes she was able to fall back asleep. Other times Summer transferred her to their bed, where Georgia could be bookended by her and Renny. Where she could feel safe and loved.
She was their little miracle. A survivor, who was working hard to leave the past behind her. A survivor, who’d held Summer to her promise to stay with her through the physical exams and the endless questions by the police, something Georgia’s grandmother hadn’t been able to do due to her continued bad health. Somehow staying had morphed to daily visits. And then, with the passing of Georgia’s grandmother, into legal guardianship, which had turned into an anchor holding the three of them together. Not underwater, though, but above it, floating side by side through hell and high water until they realized they belonged together. Until they were a family.
The clicking of nails on the hardwood floor heralded the arrival of Chazz. Renny wouldn’t be far behind, wanting to remind Summer it was time to stop. Time to get ready for something happy. She swiveled around to greet Chazz and watch Renny enter, sweaty from her late morning workout. The tingle deep in her gut had only gotten stronger over the last three years. “All done,” she said before Renny could ask. “All fifteen.”
Renny crossed the room to look at the latest drawing. The one of the young autistic girl from Florida. The first body found. “How do you feel?”
“I don’t know.” She leaned into Renny, needing the
comfort, the connection. “Good, I guess. They can’t be forgotten now. They’re more than a name.”
“Thanks to you. And thanks to you there were only fifteen. You should be getting the accolades, not that damn task force,” Renny said heatedly, referring to the made-for-TV movie about the abductions that was due out in the fall.
“Don’t need it when I have you going to bat for me.” She brought the back of Renny’s hand to her lips. “And the cops couldn’t very well give me an award and at the same time deny I provided them assistance. We’ve talked about this before, love. Let it go. I don’t want the notoriety. Not for that.” She wanted the notoriety for her art, for the show occurring in two months—the first since the accident.
“I guess. But there should be a way.”
“Karma. I got a huge deposit in my account. But if somebody wanted to, say, write a book about it that would be okay.” She gave Renny a sly smile. “A book where the main character has psychic powers and the ass-kicking capabilities to take down the perpetrators herself.”
“Fiction then?” Renny asked, brows arched.
“Exactly. I’d need a cool moniker. Warrior Psychic. Artist by day and protector by night.”
Renny laughed. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Love me?”
“There is that.” She pulled Summer close for a kiss. “We’ll talk more about this book later. Now it’s time to get ready for the party. If I remember correctly, your mother threatened to stomp our muses to pulp if we were late to another thing.”
“Strictly posturing. She loves you and your books too much to lay a finger on your muse unless it’s for stroking.” Summer gave the portraits one final look. She was done. Not with the head hopping or with tortured souls, but she was done with these girls. Had done good by these girls. “You know, I got it pretty good. I got you, I got Georgia, I got my family. But most of all I got back to blue.”
Bella Books, Inc.
Women. Books. Even Better Together.
P.O. Box 10543
Tallahassee, FL 32302
Phone: 800-729-4992
www.BellaBooks.com
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Other Bella Books by Dillon Watson
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
Bella Books
Back to Blue Page 27