by Harley Tate
“Tell me, Melody, what were you doing at your neighbor’s house to begin with? You have to know visiting is against the rules.”
She swallowed and let the tremor in her hand echo across Jarvis’s palm. “Gloria isn’t well. Early Alzheimer’s. I was afraid if someone didn’t watch her, she would wander off and not know how to get back home.”
He smiled and her skin crawled. “How noble of you.”
“What you’re doing is the noble thing. Helping our town and keeping people like me and Gloria safe. That’s the real heroic work.”
Jarvis ran his thumb across the back of Melody’s hand in a caress. “How about I ask my chief of staff to bring us dinner in my private quarters? We could get to know each other better.”
Bile hit the back of Melody’s throat and she struggled not to grimace. “I don’t want to waste your time. I’m sure you’re super busy.”
“Not so busy that I’d ignore a beautiful woman like yourself. I’m sure it’s been a while since you’ve had a hot-cooked meal, right?”
“It has, but…” Melody used her free hand to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. She had to get out of there. The way Jarvis leered at her and stroked her hand only meant one thing, and Melody had no desire to take part.
He leaned even closer. “Or we could skip dinner and go straight to something a little more… satisfying.”
A sharp double knock sounded on the exterior door and Jarvis dropped Melody’s hand. He stood up and she let out the breath trapped in her lungs.
“What is it?”
“Sir?” The same escort from before poked his head around the door. “We’ve got a problem.”
Chapter Twenty
MELODY
University of Oregon Campus
Eugene, Oregon
6:00 p.m.
The second Lucas Shaw’s sandy hair appeared in the doorway, Melody knew her life was about to go to complete and utter crap. She stood up, backing away from Colonel Jarvis and the desk and toward a credenza full of some former professor’s files. He was probably dead, just like Melody would be if Lucas’s self-righteous grin was deserved.
Captain Ferguson, the soldier in charge of the ambush at the Wilkinses’ home, led Lucas into the room. Lucas was so smug and sure of himself, practically beaming at Melody. She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out.
Instead, she held herself still, arms clasped in front of her as she waited. Running wasn’t possible. Neither was screaming for help. The only people around were loyal to Jarvis. She had to hang her hopes on a man without a backbone whom she never trusted.
Colonel Jarvis focused his attention on Captain Ferguson. “This better be good. I said no interruptions.”
“This man has information about Colt Potter and your guest, sir.”
Jarvis waved him off. “I’ve already heard it. You’re wasting my time.”
Lucas’s mouth fell open. “You know she’s a traitor?”
Jarvis raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t give you permission to speak.”
Lucas paled and Melody ground her teeth together.
The captain continued. “He claims that Colt, this woman’s brother, and the other woman’s husband are all alive and working together. They were never hostages.”
“Is that so?”
Lucas hesitated, eyes darting back and forth.
“Has someone cut out your tongue? Speak!”
“Y-Yes, sir. That’s right, sir.” Lucas pointed at Melody. “Whatever she’s told you, it’s a lie!”
“How do you know this?”
“Because I saw Colt this morning! He was at Melody’s house with her brother. When—” Lucas paused and glanced at the soldier beside him. “When Captain Ferguson led the raid on the Cliftons, I went to Doug’s house. I wanted to know what he knew, what he had planned.”
“So far, all I’m hearing is that you broke the rules.”
Lucas swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “I didn’t trust Colt. Harvey rescued him and that girl a few days ago. They’d been hurt really bad in some run-in with your men. Melody’s the one who patched Colt up!”
Jarvis turned his attention to her. He stared, a new appraisal in his eyes. “Is that right?”
Melody didn’t move, didn’t speak, didn’t dare even breathe.
After a moment, Jarvis resumed his interrogation. “What happened next?”
“They all worked together, the Wilkinses, Melody and her brother, Colt and the girl. Planning.” Lucas became more and more animated the more he spoke, outlining all the events that led up to that morning, highlighting all the times Melody agreed with Colt. “She wanted to go across the street and stop your men. She wanted to bust the door down and save Angela and John.”
Jarvis’s lips curved in near-amusement. “Why didn’t she?”
“Colt wouldn’t let her. Said it was a suicide mission. That if they were going to take you down then they needed to pick their battles.”
Now Jarvis laughed, not as throaty and raucous as before, but almost as loud. “Take me down? Potter actually said that? I’d like to see him try.”
Jarvis asked a few more questions, drilling down into the details of the past twelve hours. At last, he seemed satisfied. He stepped away from Lucas, navigating around the chairs to stop in front of Melody. “It seems you’ve taken a few liberties with your facts, Ms. Harper.”
She swallowed, her throat so scratchy and dry spit stuck to the sides. She coughed. “Lucas only wants to save himself. He’s a selfish bastard.”
Jarvis tilted his head. “Are you saying he’s a liar?” Jarvis smiled. “Should be easy enough to prove. My men could head back to the house right now. If that girl’s body is right where you left it, then we’ll know you’re telling the truth. We can bring it back here for safekeeping. Her mother might want a funeral, after all.”
Melody swallowed. There was no way out. If she insisted Lucas was lying, Jarvis’s men would go back to the house. If Dani was still there, they would kill her for real. If she wasn’t, then Colt and Doug would be in danger. She didn’t know what to do.
At last, she exhaled. “Lucas is a bastard, but he’s not a liar. This time.”
Jarvis nodded and turned back to Lucas, who practically preened. “Is there anything you’ve left out? Any detail you haven’t mentioned?”
“No. I’ve told you everything I know.”
“Good.” In one fluid motion, Jarvis unholstered his sidearm and brought it up to arm-level. He fired a single shot. The bullet hit Lucas Shaw directly in the left eye and exploded out the back of his skull. Blood and brain matter flew in all directions, splattering everything from the walls to Captain Ferguson to Melody’s shirt.
Lucas stood, suspended for a moment like a marionette on strings, before crumpling to the floor in death. Screaming filled the air and it took Melody a moment to realize it came from her. She clamped her hands over her mouth, smearing Lucas’s blood all over her cheeks and lips.
Ferguson wiped a sleeve across his face. “What should I do with her, sir?”
Jarvis holstered his gun and turned to Melody like he’d just dispatched a pesky fly, not a human being. “Put her in the hole. A few days in the dark ought to soften her up.”
The captain ran his tongue over his lip, licking off flecks of blood. “Can we have some fun with her first? I’ve got a few men who are eager for a little action.”
Colonel Jarvis sneered. “Of course. Use one of the rooms in building C. They’re all set up, right?”
Ferguson nodded and turned to Melody.
She scrambled back, bumping into the credenza and toppling over a chair as she tried to get away. Ferguson reached for her, but she dodged, sending the other chair crashing to the ground. She couldn’t let him catch her. She couldn’t let—
Boom!
A gunshot rang out and Melody froze.
Jarvis pointed the barrel straight at Melody. “I’d hate to ruin a pretty face, but next time, I won’t miss.”
Sh
e stood still as the captain took her by the arm.
Jarvis eased around the desk and sat down as if his office wasn’t trashed and there wasn’t a dead body oozing blood into the carpet. “On your way out, tell the sergeant to get in here with a cleaning crew and fix this mess.”
“Yes, sir.” The captain dragged Melody to the door, side-stepping the darkening floor.
“Oh, and Ferguson?” Jarvis waited for a moment. “As soon as you’ve had your fun, take another team out to the house. Burn it down.”
“Yes, sir.”
Melody paled. They were going to burn Gloria’s home? She thought about all the years Harvey and Gloria lived in that house. The massive oak tree in the backyard.
Oh, no. What about Lottie and Will?
This is all my fault. If I hadn’t insisted on doing something about Angela and John…
Colt and Doug would have been home to help in the ambush. Maybe they wouldn’t have been attacked at all. It would have been a fair fight. Dani wouldn’t have been shot. Lucas wouldn’t be dead. She frowned and let the soldier steer her back the way she came.
Everything that happened that day was because she wouldn’t let it go. She’d been too busy worrying about her neighbors to think about her own family. To think about the Wilkinses or Colt and Dani. Now poor Lottie would be on her own.
Will would never see his grandmother again.
Dani might die.
Melody wallowed in a flood of pity and despair, dragging her feet along the corridor a step or two behind the captain. He jerked her toward a set of double doors and she stumbled.
“Perk up, buttercup. You’re about to catch the last glimpse of sunshine you’ll see for a long, long time.” He shoved the door open and hauled her down a short flight of stairs. Instead of sun, they were met with clouds and mist. “Aw, guess it’s not your lucky day, is it?”
He laughed to himself and dragged Melody across a parking lot to a squat building on the edge of a grassy quad. “The spoiled little brats who went to this school used this as a dorm. But we’ve done some repurposing since we’ve taken it over.” He leaned in toward Melody’s cheek and she shied away. “You get to be the first.”
She risked a glance in his direction. “The first for what?”
Ferguson’s eyes gleamed with lust and menace. “You’ll see.” He hauled her up another three steps and slammed his fist on the solid metal door.
It opened after a few seconds. “What is it?”
“First recruit. The colonel wants her to have the works. No holdbacks.”
The soldier manning the door stared at Melody and her stomach rose into her throat. “I’ll put her in room five. The double on the first floor.”
Ferguson smiled. “Perfect.” He shoved Melody forward and as she passed, he smacked her on the ass hard enough to hurt. “See you soon, sweet cheeks.”
As he eased down the steps, he raised his voice. “Remember, officers get first dibs!”
The soldier at the door dragged Melody inside and let the metal slam an inch from her face. His pupils dilated in the dark. “You’re a lot prettier than I expected.” His tongue darted out between chipped front teeth. “We’re gonna have a lot of fun with you.”
Chapter Twenty-One
DANI
Harper Residence
Eugene, Oregon
8:00 p.m.
Hushed voices filtered into Dani’s consciousness and she struggled to make sense of the words.
“And you really think that will work?” She would recognize Colt anywhere.
“I know it will.” A young voice. Maybe Will? “They never patrol the area by the transportation department. Once they siphoned the gas from all the busses, it became a ghost town. You can get in and out no problem. Before Granddad made me stay home, I checked it out.”
Dani moaned and a hand pressed against her forehead.
“How’s her temperature?” Another man. Doug?
“No fever. The antibiotics seem to be working.”
“If we ever see my sister again, thank her. If it weren’t for her knowledge about animal medicine, I’d never have given someone fish antibiotics.”
Dani groaned and peeled one eye open. “I won’t sprout gills, will I?”
Colt chuckled beside her. “No. But you will heal from a nasty wound. It’s good to have you back.”
She opened her other eye and blinked away the crust. They weren’t in the Wilkinses’ house anymore. “What happened?”
“After the ambush?”
She nodded.
“We checked to make sure the coast was clear and retreated here to Doug and Melody’s place.”
“Where’s Melody?”
“You don’t remember?”
Dani leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. “It all happened so fast. Soldiers flooded into the house from the backyard. We only had the one rifle. I told Mrs. Wilkins to go pick vegetables from the garden and pretend not to know anything.”
“Then what?”
Dani took a few shallow breaths before continuing. “Then they busted the door down and shot up the place. At some point, it all went blurry. Men swarming, Melody leaning over me. Massive pressure on my shoulder.” She reached up to feel, but dropped her arm with a wince. “That’s all I remember.”
Colt leaned over and Dani watched him peel back a bandage on her shoulder. “Round is still in there. It’s not a through-and-through. I haven’t stitched you up because I have to fish out the bullet. If I don’t, you might die.”
“Why couldn’t you do it while I was unconscious?”
“I didn’t know if you were strong enough to survive it. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
Dani swallowed and leaned back as her vision blurred. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Will says the army took Melody and Gloria alive. He watched them get dragged out the back.”
“So why aren’t you out there trying to find them?”
“Because I’m here, making sure you don’t die on me.” Colt pressed the bandage back around the wound. “It was touch and go for a while.”
She thought about all that had happened. Melody and Mrs. Wilkins kidnapped by the army. Getting shot. Almost dying. Dani’s eyes flew open with a start. “Did they find Lottie?”
Will answered. “Nope. They didn’t even check the closets. I’d let you pet her, but I don’t think that’s good for a wound.”
Dani smiled. Maybe Will wasn’t so bad after all. “Thanks.” She worked herself higher up on the pillows so she could see more than the ceiling and Colt’s face. Doug leaned on the wall across the room, arms folded. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect your sister.”
His shoulders eased and he dropped his arms. “It wasn’t your job. I’m sorry you got shot. We never should have taken off and left you here.”
“Where’s Mr. Wilkins?”
Colt glanced at Doug before answering. “He’s still at his house. Couldn’t leave with Gloria out there somewhere. We tried to tell him it wasn’t safe, but—”
“Granddad knew that’s where she would go first. He didn’t want her to think the worst if she came home to an empty house.”
Dani nodded at Will. She understood, even if it wasn’t the safest decision. She glanced down at her arm and back up at Colt. “Can we get it over with? The sooner you stitch me up, the sooner I can help get Melody and Mrs. Wilkins back.”
Doug peeled off the wall and motioned to Will. “Come on, we can go root up something to eat.” Will stood up with Lottie in his arms and Dani watched as they disappeared into the kitchen.
She sagged against the pillow. “Any chance Doug’s got some vodka?”
Colt’s brow tucked in. “To disinfect the wound?”
Dani grinned. “No. To drink.”
He grinned back. “You know you’re not old enough to drink. Besides, straight vodka tastes awful.”
“Didn’t seem to bother you back at the apartment.” She remembered doing the same thing to Colt not that
long ago. Fishing bullets out of each other was becoming too common an occurrence around here. She reached out and stilled his arm. “Thanks for coming back. I don’t know how long I would have lasted on the floor.”
Colt focused on her wound and swallowed hard. “I’m not really an emotional guy.”
Dani tried to blow it off. “I know. It’s okay.”
“Hear me out.” Colt dipped his head, brows working up and down. After a moment, he rose back up to look Dani in the eye. “Like I said when we first met, I’m not a family man. Never wanted to do the whole married with kids thing. But—”
“You got stuck with me.”
“No, damn it. Let me get this out.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand like his words pained him. “You’re the closest thing to family I’ve got. And not the bad kind you want to get rid of, like your uncle Howie who double dips in the guacamole.”
“Or my mom.”
Colt managed a small, sad smile. “Or your mother. We’re the good kind of family, Dani. I don’t want to lose you. Not now, not ever.” He swallowed and picked up a bottle of vodka he’d hidden at his feet.
Colt pulled out two shot glasses and set them on the coffee table as he laughed back a wave of emotion. He filled them both and handed one to her. “I know it’s not official or anything, but you’re the best daughter a guy like me could ever ask for. So don’t go dying, okay?”
Dani looked at the vodka in the shot glass and back up at Colt. After clinking her glass against his, she downed it all in one gulp and came up coughing. “You’re right. It’s terrible.” She handed him the glass, but held onto it until he looked her in the eye. “Thanks, Colt. For everything.”
He nodded and set the glasses down. “Now for the fun part.” He picked up a pair of tweezers and Dani let out her breath in a slow stream. She remembered how Colt almost passed out when she rooted around in his arm. “I hope you’re a better bullet finder than I was.”
“We’ll see.”
Colt eased the bandage back and rinsed the tweezers with rubbing alcohol. As he bent forward, she looked away.