“Rose!” Colin shouts. He starts to lunge across the seat, but the other door opens and a second goon yanks Colin out.
“It’ll be all right,” I call to Colin. I’m not sure about that as this guy looks pretty tough. He’s probably close to seven feet tall and three hundred pounds, all of it muscle. Plushkov definitely isn’t playing around this time.
The big guy holds me up high enough that my feet are brushing against his thighs. He only needs one hand to keep me aloft while the other knocks my wig off. My glasses are next. His eyes narrow at me. “You not girl.”
“I am too a girl!”
He takes a picture of Tonya from the inside of his jacket; it’s the same one I found on the guy on campus. “Where this girl?”
“She’s probably still inside,” I say. I force myself to cry as pathetically as I can. “My boyfriend and I just wanted to see the limo. That’s all! I swear!”
He studies me for a moment. He could snap my neck like a twig or strangle me without breaking a sweat. He decides to be merciful and just throw me against the limo. The back of my head hits the doorframe, bringing stars to my vision. “Colin?” I croak.
I can’t see him, but the goon who had him is walking towards the school along with the big guy. I struggle to my feet enough that I can crawl across the seat. Colin is lying on the pavement, but I don’t see any blood. I collapse on top of him and am relieved to hear him groan. I put my head to his chest to make sure he’s still breathing.
It’s awkward work, but I manage to drag him into the limousine. I stretch him out on the backseat. Then I see the leather jacket on the floor. I slip it on and then kiss Colin’s cheek. “I’ll be back soon. I promise.”
I scoop up the wig from the ground before I start to run towards the gym.
***
There are kids pouring out of the school as I approach it. The teachers and principal are part of the crowd too, screaming even louder than the kids. I have to stand aside to let them pass. As I do, I settle the wig on properly. It would be better if I had a mask and pants, but this will have to do for now.
I hurry into the gym to find the guard Madame Crimson assigned on the dance floor, a pool of blood forming around him. A back door slams shut; that must be where they went with Tonya. I sprint after them, trying to think of a plan as I go. I don’t have a gun or any other weapons and these guys are both a lot bigger and stronger. Plus they have a hostage.
By the time I’m through the back door, the two Russians are about halfway across the football field. I run after them; I need to at least keep close to find out what they’re doing. Tonya is probably still alive; it would make more sense to use her as a bargaining chip than to kill her. The latter would only piss off Madame Crimson, who would be sure to come back at Plushkov with everything she has. That would make for a very bad situation in Redoubt City.
I start to catch up to them on the football field. The smaller one looks back and then shouts something in Russian. I throw myself to the side in time to avoid being shot. On all fours, I crawl under the bleachers. The smaller Russian calls out, “Come out, little girl. We not hurt you.”
“Why don’t you come in here?” I shout.
There’s some discussion and then the smaller Russian ducks under some supports to get beneath the bleachers. It’s a lot less comfortable for him under here than it is for me. Since I’m a lot smaller, I can move around pretty easily, while he has to stop crawling periodically to make sure he doesn’t hit his head on anything.
It would be great if someone had left a crowbar or baseball bat in the dirt for me to find, but there’s no such weapon at hand. I do find a rock that’s about the size of my hand. That will have to do.
I scrunch against a support of the bleachers. When the Russian gets close enough, I use one hand to swipe some dirt into his eyes. He cries out with pain and then starts to flail around. I get inside his arms to tag him on the head with the rock. He cries out again, but doesn’t go down. As I hit him again, his hands wrap around my throat. He starts to squeeze, growling at me in Russian. I hit him again and again with the rock, until he finally collapses. His hands let up around my throat enough that I can crawl away.
I need a minute to cough and wheeze until I have enough breath to crawl out from under the bleachers. There’s still that huge Russian who has Tonya. It’s going to take a lot more than a little stone to bring down that Goliath.
I stagger towards the big Russian. “Hey, buddy,” I call out after him. “You forgetting something?”
He turns to face me. He has Tonya in one hand; she appears to be unconscious but not dead. “I should kill you when I could.”
“You should have.”
“This time, no mercy.”
“Bring it.”
He tosses Tonya onto the ground and then growls at me. I plant my feet, steeling myself for his charge. If I had a cape I’d wave it at him like a matador. The ground beneath my feet actually vibrates as he gets closer to me.
I wait until his fingers are about to brush against me before I duck. A guy this big is still a guy, which means he has one weak spot: between his legs. I punch him there as hard as I can. He lets out a soprano scream as I dive between his legs. I spin around to sweep his feet from under him.
He’s on the ground in a heap; I kick him in the head a few times, until he finally sags onto the ground. When he doesn’t move for a minute I figure he must really be out of it. I whirl around when I hear someone moan. My hands go up in a defensive pose, but it’s not necessary.
Tonya runs a hand through her hair and then asks, “What’s going on here? Who are you?”
I try to make my voice sound deeper as I say, “That’s not important. We need to get out of here.”
“Uh-huh. That seems like a good idea.”
***
Tonya leans against me for support as we go out to where the limo is parked. Colin is still lying across the backseat, unconscious. Tonya takes the bench opposite him and then hugs herself. “I want to go home,” she whines.
“We’ll go in a minute,” I say.
I get the fun job of dragging the dead driver off of the driver’s seat. Though I don’t want to, I have to take his seat. I need to adjust the seat forward a few inches for my feet to reach the pedals. The keys are still in the ignition; the limo starts up when I turn the keys. I find the switch to lower the divider to ask Tonya, “Are you all right back there?”
“I’m fine. Are you even old enough to drive?”
“I had a couple lessons,” I say. The real question is where to go. If Colin were awake I could ask him to drive us to the sheriff station. I don’t have any idea where that is and I don’t want to try asking for directions right now.
I finally decide to take us back to St. Martha’s. There are a couple of deputies there I can talk to and the rent-a-cops the bishop hired to patrol the campus. That should keep Tonya safe until her mother can come get her.
I don’t go too fast along the road up the hill. I did take a couple of lessons in Jessica’s Camry, which was a lot smaller than this limo. I keep both hands on the wheel tight enough that my knuckles turn white. With each curve I say a little prayer for the limo not to careen off the road.
As I drive, I check the rearview mirrors to see if anyone is following us. I’m not sure how long those Russian guys will stay knocked out. They could already be awake. Then again the cops might have already picked them up with the commotion at the prom. There’s really no way to know at the moment.
“God, hurry up!” Tonya shouts at me.
“You want to drive? Be my guest.”
“Whatever.”
There still doesn’t seem to be anyone following us as we reach the front gate of St. Martha’s. A security guard comes out to shine a flashlight in my face. “You’re not the driver,” he says.
“No shit,” I grumble. “I need to see a real cop.”
“Who are you?”
“It’s all right,” a familiar voice says. “I k
now her.”
I almost bolt from the car to see Carol by the front gate. I have to hold myself in check so I don’t give myself away to Tonya. “Can we go somewhere private to talk?”
“Sure,” Carol says. She comes around to get in the passenger’s seat. The security guard opens the gate to let us inside.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“I thought there might be trouble tonight,” she says.
I stop the limo in front of the old building. I sigh with relief as I put the limo in park and then turn it off. As much as I’d like to sit here and relax for a moment, I have to pry my fingers off of the steering wheel and then go to help Colin out of the limo.
“What’s going on?” he mumbles. “Where are we?”
“We’re at St. Martha’s,” I say.
“What’s with your voice?”
I put a finger to my lips and then gesture to Tonya. Colin nods to me. “I get it now.”
I escort him into the chapel, Tonya following us with Carol bringing up the rear. I leave Colin on a back pew with a kiss on the forehead. “I’ll be right back, OK?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he says with a tired smile.
Carol and I go up by the altar so I can tell her what happened. She nods along and then finally shakes her head. “I told you to stay out of this, didn’t I?”
“What was I supposed to do? Let them take her?”
“You should have called the sheriff so they could handle it.”
“Uh-huh.”
“But all things considered, I’m proud of you.” She pulls me into a hug. The hug ends with a sharp pain in my midsection. “I’m sorry, kid.”
I stagger back a step to collapse on the altar. I look down to see blood oozing from my stomach. I put a hand to the wound to make sure it’s real. Then I look up to see Carol holding a knife smeared with my blood.
“Aunt Carol? Why?”
“I told you to leave it alone, Robin. You should have listened.”
“You’re…you’re working for Plushkov?”
“He pays better than Madame Crimson. Especially for her daughter.” Tonya screams and starts for the door, but like she’s in a horror movie she trips and lands on her stomach. Carol yanks her head back by the hair. She presses the bloody knife to Tonya’s throat. “You scream again and I’ll make sure you never make another sound.”
Though it hurts like hell, I get to my feet. I stagger towards Carol. Tears come to my eyes, not from the pain either. “Why?” I ask again.
“I’m sorry, kid. Not everyone was as honest as your dad. That’s why he had to go.”
“You…you were involved?”
“How else did you think that bomb got past security? Who do you think shot Heine?”
“Why would you kill Daddy? You were friends!”
“Your father never got it. We can’t clean up the city. It’s too dirty. Might as well get your cut.” She presses the knife tighter to Tonya’s throat as she backs down the aisle of the chapel, towards the door. “For once in your life be smart and don’t interfere.”
I’m not sure how much interfering I can do now anyway, not with a hole in my stomach. Not with the even worse gut punch of finding out the closest thing I had to a mother arranged Daddy’s death. “How long?” I ask. “How long have you been dirty?”
“Since I made detective. That’s when I opened my eyes.”
“Then why? Why help me and Jessica?”
“Because God help me, I still love you kids. I didn’t really want to do that to your father, but he wasn’t leaving us a choice. Even if we had just taken out Heine, your dad would have regrouped. He would have kept coming after her. There was nothing else to do.”
“You could have let her go to jail! That was your job!”
Colin starts to get to his feet, but I motion for him to stay back. If he tries to interfere, Carol will kill Tonya. Then she’ll probably kill Colin too. She turns slightly to keep an eye on both of us. She slides sideways down the aisle, towards the door.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. If it’s any consolation, Madame Crimson is going to go down now. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
“Not like this.”
“Yeah, you always were your father’s daughter.” She gives me a smile that breaks my heart. “I’ll see you around.”
She kicks open the door with one foot. She slides through the opening, into the hallway. I gallop after her to watch as she nears the outer doors. Before she can open them, they open on their own. There’s a squeal of surprise as Melanie bowls into Carol at full speed. Tonya screams as she and Carol go down in a heap.
I hurry over to bat the knife away from Carol’s hand. I grab the nearest heavy object handy, which turns out to be a donation box. I hit Carol over the head hard enough that the box shatters. She lets out a little moan before her eyes close.
Tonya doesn’t need any encouragement to get to her feet and then run screaming out the front doors. Melanie is pressed to the back wall, her wide eyes going from me back to Carol. “What’s your aunt doing here? And why was she holding a knife to Tonya.”
“I’ll tell you later,” I say. I drop to my knees beside Carol.
“Oh my God! You’re bleeding!”
“I know.”
“We have to get you to a hospital.”
“Not yet.” I claw at the wig to take it off. Then I shrug off the leather jacket. The knife wound looks a lot worse against the light blue fabric of my dress.
“Rose? Rose!” Colin shouts. He skids to a stop beside me. Seeing the wound, he turns to Melanie. “Get some help!”
“I’m going,” Melanie stammers. She bolts out the front doors, screaming about as loud as Tonya.
I’m glad to snuggle against Colin, feeling the calming warmth of his body. He takes my hand and gives it a squeeze. “It’ll be all right,” he says. “You’ll be fine.”
“I know,” I mumble. Then I let myself pass out from the pain and blood loss. I just hope Colin will be there when I wake up.
Epilogue
When I wake up, I know I’m in a hospital from the sound of the machines around me. I became pretty familiar with them the last time I woke up in a hospital. I sigh and then open my eyes.
Before I even have a chance to look around, I’m being squeezed to death. “Oh thank God!” Melanie shouts. “I thought you weren’t going to make it.”
“I won’t…if you keep…squeezing me.”
“Oh, sorry.” Melanie eases up so I can breathe again. Her face is bright red as she says, “Are you all right? Did I hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” I say. There isn’t any pain at all, which is probably thanks to whatever the doctors are giving me. I flail around until I finally touch Melanie’s hand. “It’s all right. How long have I been out?”
“About a day. You were in surgery for like five hours, but the doctor says the knife didn’t hit anything important.”
“That’s good.”
“If you hadn’t been wearing the jacket it might have been a different story. I mean it kind of absorbed a lot of the knife, you know?”
“Oh. Then I guess I owe you for making me buy it.”
“Uh-huh.” Melanie looks back down at her feet. “I’m sorry about your aunt. She seemed like a nice lady.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh, you should know that Tonya is totally being a bitch about this whole thing. She’s saying she’s the one who stripped the knife from your aunt. You just got in the way and accidentally got stabbed. Can you believe it?”
“Yes.” I give Melanie’s hand a squeeze. “She can have the credit. The important thing is she’s safe.”
“I guess. It just doesn’t seem fair. You were the hero, not her.”
“I had some help.”
“I didn’t really do anything. I was just going to look for Father Barclay to confess some impure thoughts.” We share a smile and then Melanie pulls her hand away. “I’m going to get your sister. She went to get some
breakfast or something.”
“OK.” Before Melanie can open the door I call for her to stop. “I was thinking the Outcast should have a sidekick.”
“Yeah? Like a sexy ninja?”
“I was thinking a klutz with really good timing.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she says, her face turning red again. After she has gone, I lean back on my pillows and sigh. It’s just like Tonya to hog all the credit for this. In this case I’m glad to let her have it; the fewer people who know about my involvement, the better.
I’m almost squeezed to death again when Jessica hugs me. It’s a lot briefer as five seconds later she’s wagging a finger in my face. “What the hell did you think you were doing?”
“I was trying to save Tonya from being kidnapped.”
“You could have been killed!”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re always sorry. Why can’t you try to be normal? Is it really that hard?”
“For me, I guess it is.”
Jessica drops onto a chair and then buries her face in her hands. I can hear her crying, but she’s too far for me to reach her without pulling out a bunch of tubes. She finally looks up with a fake smile on her face. “That was really something about Aunt Carol, huh?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry about that too.”
“It’s not your fault. I can’t believe she would do something like that to you. I mean, after Mom died, she was over all the time cooking and reading bedtime stories and stuff. How could she try to kill you?”
“I don’t think she did. I think she just wanted to hurt me enough to escape.”
“It’s the same thing!” Jessica shakes her head. “I never suspected anything. She spent so much time around us and I never knew.”
“It’s always the ones you least suspect.”
“This isn’t a time to joke.”
If I could I’d take Jessica’s hand. Right now I think she needs a reassuring squeeze. She could probably use a lot more than that. “You’re doing your best. I mean, despite what you want me to think, you’re not that much older than me. You’re still pretty much a kid too. Kids make a lot of mistakes. Trust me, I know.”
Justice for All (The Outcast Book #1) Page 24