by Harley Tate
The captain flashed the same hollow smile. “If you two will follow me, I can escort you to our vehicles. I hope you don’t mind a bit of a walk, we’re staged a few blocks away.”
“No problem, right Gloria?”
Gloria nodded. “A little exercise will do me good.”
Melody held out her arm and Gloria slipped hers into it. The pair of them walked a few steps behind Captain Ferguson with another soldier picking up the rear. They tramped through the Wilkinses’ backyard and a new hole in the fence before entering another neighbor’s yard.
From there, they wound around trees and bushes and side yards before finally emerging on a street Melody hardly ever drove down. A single military vehicle sat on the curb, driver waiting.
Gloria dug her fingers into Melody’s arm as they approached. She leaned close and whispered. “Please tell me you know what you’re doing.”
The captain’s head tilted a bit to the right and Melody spoke a little too loud. “These men have saved us, Gloria. The hell of the past few days is finally over.”
As the captain stopped outside the truck he smiled at Melody and his eyes lit up. “After you, ladies.”
Melody helped Gloria into the truck and climbed in behind. Before the captain could hear, she stuck her lips right on the other woman’s ear. “Just follow my lead, okay?”
Gloria nodded as Melody fell into her own seat.
The captain slipped into the front passenger seat and the driver fired up the engine. Gloria squeezed her hand as they all drove away.
Chapter Eighteen
COLT
Clifton Residence
Eugene, Oregon
1:00 p.m.
As soon as Colt pushed the door open, the stench of drying blood assaulted his nose and he brought an arm up to cover his face.
He stepped inside with Doug and Harvey a few paces behind. The body of a woman was sprawled on the floor, clothes torn and bloody. Her head twisted in an unnatural angle and her clouded eyes stared straight at him, vacant and empty.
“Jesus.” Doug staggered beside him.
“I take it that’s Angela Clifton.”
Harvey nodded. “It was.”
Colt approached the body, careful to avoid the coagulated blood. A chair sat against the far wall, duct tape still hanging from the sides like flaccid sails. They made the husband watch. Colt stood up. “I’ll clear the house.”
He searched every room, although he knew they would be empty. No soldiers. No John Clifton.
They tortured and killed his wife and dragged him out of here, most likely still breathing. Where they were headed, Colt could only guess. The central power station? Jarvis’s headquarters? A field in the middle of nowhere to put a bullet between John’s eyes?
If the threats to his wife didn’t spur him to action, Colt wasn’t sure what would. He returned to the living room in time to see Doug close Angela’s eyes. He looked up and met Colt’s stare. “I believe you now.”
Colt nodded. He wished the trust had come another way. “We need to get back and regroup.”
“What about John?”
“We have to hope he either can’t do what they need or that they’ll kill him before he breaks. His wife is dead, so torturing her didn’t work. It means we have some time.” He didn’t want to voice all the other thoughts in his head. How Jarvis would be furious and out for blood. How he might drop the hammer on the entire neighborhood in retribution.
From the way Jarvis callously ordered his soldiers to kill anyone who caused a problem, Colt didn’t hold out much hope for John or the rest of them. Not now. This wasn’t a routine inspection. It was an invasion. A brutal seek-and-capture mission that spoke of things to come.
He motioned toward the front. “Let’s get back. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
They went out the way they came in, right through the front door. No one on the street. No window blinds or curtains fluttering as they walked by. How many other houses had the army already invaded? How many were actually standing guard over decomposing bodies inside?
That was the thing about enforced curfews and confinement. Reducing the flow of information was an effective strategy to keep law and order with a minimum of security. If you thought your neighbor was complying and the one after that and the one after that, you did, too. Colt had seen it all before.
No one wanted to speak out against the terrorists occupying a village when those same terrorists would bring food and water or a bullet to the head depending on the day. Jarvis was operating exactly like the groups the army fought against halfway around the world.
Fear and salvation, all wrapped up into one.
Colt strode down the street, daring a soldier to kill him in broad daylight. It wouldn’t happen. He understood their game plan now. Appear like a benevolent dictator when behind the scenes the brutality kept everyone in line or killed the rabble-rousers.
No one would kill him on this quiet residential street with the neighbors watching. They would do it somewhere away from people, like the sporting goods store where no one could see, or the abandoned apartment buildings closer to campus. Not here where Jarvis hoped to recruit happy workers eager to trade labor and obedience for food, shelter, and basic survival.
“What are you doing?” Doug hustled to catch up with him, head darting back and forth as he surveyed the street.
“Walking.”
“Aren’t you worried?”
“Not anymore. Not here.” Colt bounded up the steps to Harvey’s place and waited. He expected Melody or Gloria to open the door. Nothing.
Harvey climbed the stairs a moment later, too slow to keep pace with younger men. He frowned as he stuck the key in the lock and pushed the door open.
Oh, no. Colt stuck out his arm and motioned Harvey back as he pulled his Sig out of his belt. Screw the rifle. The chairs and coffee table were upended, bullet holes riddled the walls. A smear of blood on the carpet, trailing down the hall.
An ambush.
Just like the Cliftons’ place. All while Colt was gone.
Harvey stepped in behind him. “Oh my God. Gloria! Will!” He called out, cupping his hands around his mouth.
A moan wafted up from the other side of the couch and Colt rushed over, knocking the coffee table out of the way and scattering the chairs as he dropped to his knees. “Dani!” He reached for her, about to shake her awake, when he saw the blood.
So much blood.
“No!” It bloomed across her shirt and covered her chest.
She mumbled, but he couldn’t make out the words. The wound was somewhere on her left slide. He hated to move her, but he had to find it. Gingerly, he explored, his meaty fingers not the most delicate. She groaned as he touched her shoulder.
Bingo. Dani was shot. A rag soaked in blood was wedged between her shirt and the wound. Melody. It had to be. Colt looked up. Locked eyes with Doug. “Grab me a cloth. Towel, shirt, anything. Quick.”
Doug nodded and rushed off. He came back moments later with a white dishtowel from the kitchen. “Is she going to make it?”
“I don’t know. But your sister helped her.” Colt tore Dani’s shirt wide and pulled out the soaked cloth. Blood oozed from the wound. He pressed the new one down hard and tight. “Melody’s the only one who would know to slow the bleeding like that.”
“The house is clear.” Harvey rushed in, shaking his head. “No one else is here.”
Colt leaned back on his heels as his mind spun. What could have happened? How did they not hear it? See it? Expect something like this?
“This is my fault. I should have known not to leave them here exposed.” He pressed down on Dani’s shoulder, willing the blood to slow. Please survive. Don’t die on me.
Doug crouched beside him, balancing on the balls of his feet. “It looks like they left her for dead.”
Colt frowned. “They must have. But one touch of her neck and they would’ve felt her pulse.”
“Melody must have covered for her.
She could have played it off and told them Dani was already dead.”
Colt nodded. It made sense. “So who did this? Who broke in here and shot the place to hell while we were on a pointless mission down the street?”
“The army, it must have been.”
“Then why leave a body behind? Why not take her to show to Jarvis? He’s got to want Dani as badly as he wants me. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Colt looked back down at Dani. He’d come to think of her as so much more than just a girl he saved on the street. So much more than a tagalong in his life. He thought about the night at the model house. How he’d called her some punk kid and told her to get lost.
In all the chaos since, he’d never apologized. He’d never explained that he only said those words to Larkin to save her. She might die thinking he didn’t care.
But he cared so damn much. Dani had become the closest to a daughter he would ever have. She’d fought for him, risked her life for him, even dragged him to safety when she could have left him on the street to die.
He couldn’t lose her. Not this way. Not because of his mistake.
She looked so young, lying there on the floor. Colt leaned over, whispering in her ear. “Come on, Dani. You can pull through this. I need you to live. Please.”
Her eyelids fluttered as a series of yips and barks flooded the room. Lottie bounded up to Colt, jumping up and down and barking. “Lottie? Where did you—?”
“We hid in the closet under the eaves of my room.” Will stood in the hall, clutching the doorway trim in his hands. “She stayed nice and quiet. Didn’t even bark once.”
Harvey hurried to the boy and wrapped him up in a hug, practically crushing him against his chest as he lifted him off the floor. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
Colt waited until Harvey let go of his grandson. “Will, do you know what happened?”
The kid nodded with an earnestness Colt had never seen in him before. “I do and I want to help.”
Chapter Nineteen
MELODY
University of Oregon Campus
Eugene, Oregon
5:00 p.m.
The sight of so many lights after almost a month without power struck Melody almost dumb. The hum of generators in the parking lot confirmed it was temporary at best, but still she marveled as she walked down the hall.
She glanced down at the hand assertively steering her forward. Maybe walk was too generous a word.
With a snort she glanced at the soldier escorting her along. He could have been a decade younger, barely out of high school, with a wisp of facial hair that didn’t need shaving. She leaned into his hand. “Where are we going?”
He didn’t even look at her, just kept dragging her along. As they rounded a corner, a gaggle of people appeared and the soldier slowed.
Another guardsman sporting crutches and an air boot jerked his head in Melody’s direction. “Who’s she? Fresh meat?” He snickered and his buddies joined in, whispering amongst themselves and laughing.
The hair on Melody’s arms rose and she clamped her teeth together to keep from chattering. I can get through this. Sooner or later Doug and Colt would find Dani and Will and they would know what happened. They would rescue her and Gloria.
Risking a glance behind her, she scanned the hall for Gloria, but the older woman was nowhere to be seen.
As soon as they crossed through the checkpoint at the University, the driver dropped Gloria off with another soldier at a different building, then hopped back in the Humvee and drove Melody to what appeared to be the main base. Then she’d been dumped in a holding room and told to wait until the soldier walking her down the hall appeared.
He stopped short outside a door. “Wait here. Don’t move.” He knocked twice and entered after a barked “Come in!” from the other side.
Melody sagged against the wall and sucked in her first full breath in hours.
“Is it true?”
Melody blinked. A woman stood a few paces away, eyes roving over Melody’s body from head to toe. Her brown hair framed her face in a long pixie cut that swooped over her eye and tapered to her chin. Her dress looked brand-new. Only her eyes seemed old and tired, as if beneath all the cute clothes and perfect makeup, she could barely stay awake.
“Excuse me?”
“Did you really come from some shootout with the army?”
Melody offered the story she’d invented that afternoon while sitting in the waiting room. “I was a hostage. These people busted into my neighbor’s house while I was checking on her and took us prisoner. The army liberated us.”
The woman raised an eyebrow. “You some college smarty-pants with your fancy vocabulary?”
“No.” Melody’s brow dipped low in annoyance. “I’m a vet tech. What’s it to you?”
“I heard there was a girl involved. Scrappy little thing. Dirty hair, snub nose. Real pain in the ass.” The woman crossed her arms and the checkered pattern of her sheath dress wrinkled. “Did she make it?”
“You mean—” Melody almost said “Danielle,” but caught herself just in time. “The girl who tried to kill me?” She shrugged it off like she didn’t know. “I think she’s dead. The army shot her. That’s how I got away.”
The woman didn’t even blink. “You’re sure she’s dead?”
“As much as I could be. I didn’t feel a pulse. But what’s she got to do with you?”
“Nothing now, thank God. It’s about time she got what she deserved.”
Melody shook her head in confusion. They couldn’t be talking about the same girl. She played along. “Did she do something awful to you, too?”
The woman snorted. “You could say that. The ungrateful little brat had the nerve to be born.”
Melody’s eyes went wide and her tongue turned to bricks in her mouth. “She was your daughter?”
“Yeah. Guess I finally don’t have to worry about whether she’ll turn me in to the cops.” The woman snorted. “Not that the cops ever listened to Danielle anyway.”
The door to the room beside them opened and Melody jumped. Her army escort appeared and waved her inside. Danielle’s mother watched from the hall, the faintest hint of relief on her face.
Melody couldn’t believe it. She knew Dani had a rough upbringing, but if that witch of a woman was her mother, Melody felt for the girl something fierce. Colt rescuing her had been the best thing to happen to Dani in a long time. Melody hoped like hell her emergency wound dressing staunched the worst of the bleeding and that what she told Dani’s mother wasn’t true.
Dani needed to live. Not just for Colt’s sake, but so she could show that worthless mother of hers what survival looked like.
Melody sucked in a lungful of air and stepped into the room where the escort waited. A waiting area opened up before her with two chairs and an end table in between. At one time, it must have been a reception room for a student dean or a professor.
Through another open door, Melody caught a glimpse of a desk, chair, and a large man barking orders. His gray hair glinted in the overhead light and Melody clenched her fists. Jarvis. It had to be.
After a moment, another soldier scurried out and the man inside waved her in. She stopped a foot away from a massive wood desk.
“Thank you, Sergeant. You may go.” The soldier scurried out the door as fast as a human could go.
The man behind the desk stood, his broad shoulders eclipsing the rows of books behind him. A professor’s office for sure. He skirted the desk and stuck out a meaty hand. “Colonel Malcolm Jarvis. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Melody mustered up a smile. “Melody Harper.” Sweat coated his palm and Melody resisted the urge to wipe hers on her jeans as she pulled away. “I wanted to thank you for rescuing us this morning, sir. I don’t know how you knew we were in trouble, but words can’t begin to express my gratitude.”
Jarvis swelled under the praise and lowered himself onto the edge of his desk. He perched like a cat who just swallowed a canary
whole. “No thanks necessary, my dear. My men were doing their jobs.”
“Well, they earned my support.” As soon as the words came out, she knew she’d made a mistake. She tried to smile.
“Was there ever a time we didn’t have it?”
“Oh, no. I just meant that you’re definitely doing a great job here.” She glanced around the room and tried to swallow the massive lump in her throat. It didn’t budge. “I’m still in a bit of shock to be honest.” Melody leaned closer and dropped her voice. “It all happened so fast. Nothing like the movies.”
Jarvis’s big, booming laugh broke the tension in the room. “No, the gritty reality of army life is nothing like they show on TV, is it? Not that we’ll have to worry about that much anymore.” He motioned toward a chair. “Sit, get comfortable.”
Melody eased into one of two upholstered chairs and dug her fingers into the soft chenille. “Any sign of the man who held us hostage?”
Jarvis stared at her for a moment before answering. “How much do you know about him?”
She shook her head as if she didn’t know. “Not much. The girl called him Cole or Colt or something like that. He seemed to know his way around weapons. Always had one on him at all times. Threatened me with a handgun.” She swallowed like it took effort to tell the story. “He even put it up to the side of my head.” Melody touched her temple. “Right here.”
Jarvis nodded. “Colt Potter is a very dangerous man. I’m surprised he didn’t threaten anyone else.”
Melody offered another rehearsed story. “We think he might have killed Gloria’s husband. Mr. Wilkins. He ran the bookshop in town. One day he just didn’t come home.” She glanced up, fear in her eyes. “Do you think he could have done such a thing? Is that how he knew where to find Gloria’s house?”
“It very well could be.”
Jarvis leaned forward and Melody caught the faint smell of men’s cologne, all cedar and musk. She forced her spine to stay rigid as the colonel took her by the hand. His eyes rose up to meet hers, so close she could make out a ring of brown in his blue eyes.