Shooting Star

by Bradley Wright

  Lawson’s blood pressure was through the roof. He let his little girl go all night in trouble. And for what? A pretty woman and some movies? He was furious with himself but he had to focus. “What’s around you? Tell me what you see.”

  Taylor came running over, reaching for his phone. He shoved her away. “What are you doing? Can’t you hear she’s lost?”

  “I can help! Give me your phone. I can tell you exactly where she is.”

  “What? How—hold on, Lexi, I’m coming, baby.”

  Taylor took the phone from Lawson and put the call on speaker. “It’s okay, Lexi. Is your Find My iPhone connected to your dad’s?”

  Lexi was crying. “Yeah . . . yes. Cassie linked them for us.”

  Lawson had no idea what they were talking about.

  Taylor looked up at Lawson. “Go get the car ready, I can take you right to her.”

  Lawson ran for the garage. As soon as the door was high enough, he pulled the car out, spun a one-eighty, and opened the passenger door. Taylor came running out and jumped in the passenger seat. “Turn right out of the driveway. Go straight until I tell you to turn!”

  Lawson mashed the gas pedal and the car spun its wheels out of the driveway.

  “We’re on our way, Lexi. Just sit tight!” Taylor said.

  “We’re on our way. Don’t move!” Lawson shouted at the phone.

  Taylor hit mute on the call and turned toward Lawson. “It’s okay. She’s okay. We know exactly where she is, all right?”

  Lawson nodded, but her calming words had zero effect on the adrenaline rushing all through him.

  “Dad,” Lexi said through the phone, “I’m sorry if I’m the one who got us into this. Is Cassie going to be okay?”

  Cassie.

  In his frantic state to get to his daughter, the words They took Cassie never had a chance to hit him. Lawson swerved around the tight turn of the road he was descending, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Taylor unmute the call. But he didn’t have words. Taylor gave him a tap on the arm and a nod, a suggestion to give his daughter some reassurance.

  “She . . . Cassie is going to be fine, sweetheart. You know I’ll find her. None of this is your fault.”

  “But I put those pictures of our house on Instagram. Is that why they came to take me? Is that why Cassie is in trouble?”

  Lawson came to the stoplight at the bottom of the hill, and Taylor pointed for him to turn right.

  “Lexi, none of this is your fault. Don’t worry—”

  “Dad, I hear someone.”

  Lawson’s blood ran cold. She said it in a whisper as if they were close to her. “Lexi, don’t say anything else, just keep your phone on. I’ll be there to get you in no time!”

  “Turn right!” Taylor shouted. “It looks like she’s in Plummer Park. It’s right up here on the left.”

  Lawson took the turn fast, and the car wobbled as he straightened it out. He reached across Taylor and pulled his spare Sig Sauer from the glove box. There wasn’t a lot of green space in West Hollywood, so it wasn’t hard to spot the entrance to the park. He cut across oncoming traffic and pulled into a loading zone just in front of the park and was halfway out of the car before it was fully stopped. There was a building with a sign that read Plummer Park Community Center.

  “The park is behind the community center,” Taylor said. She had sidled up to him. “I’ve been here before. That’s where the slide will be.”

  “Get back in the car.” Lawson kept it short. He followed her instructions and moved around the right side of the community center. He felt her leave his side, and he focused on the row of shrubs and trees at the edge of the building. He walked with his gun down by his side, but it was obvious to the few people out exercising that morning that he wasn’t out for a leisurely stroll and they scattered at the sight of him. He came to the trees and with two steps through them, the green tube slide quickly came into view.

  But so did the two men who were now only a few feet from it.

  18

  The two men approaching Lawson’s helpless daughter hiding in the slide had their backs to him. In a matter of seconds a few things occurred to him. He could shoot them both dead where they stood. A tempting act for a father protecting his daughter. The problem with that was twofold. If both men were dead, finding who was responsible for trying to kidnap Lexi, and finding Cassie, would be greatly hindered. Without being able to question at least one of them, Cassie would most certainly die. The other issue would be proving why they were righteous kills. Most likely the two of them had criminal records, but chancing it would mean risking the rest of his life behind bars—therefore rendering the saving of Lexi’s life pointless, because he couldn’t protect her from the inside.

  He would certainly take that risk if there was no other way, but they were obviously intent on the slide, so they would never see him coming.

  Lawson tucked the Sig at the small of his back and surged from the trees. His heart was racing out of control and his stomach was in knots. He hopped the small fence that sequestered the children’s play area from the rest of the park, and just as Lexi let out a scream when one of the men reached inside the slide, Lawson grabbed the back of that man’s head and pounded it against the hard plastic slide. The boom of the blow echoed in the slide, and Lexi screamed again. Lawson moved on to the second man who was reaching for his gun.

  “Run, Lexi!” Lawson shouted as he wrapped his hand around the wrist of the second man’s gun hand. He raised it toward the sky, and the man squeezed off a round that rocketed toward the clouds. Lexi screamed again, and through Lawson’s ringing ears he could hear her scrambling inside the slide. Lawson kept his grip on the man’s wrist as he slid his right hand to the back of his neck to hold him in place. He drove his right knee into his groin and the man released a grunt of breathless pain. Lawson moved his right hand to the barrel of the gun and ripped it from the weakened man’s hand.

  As the now-gunless man doubled over in pain, Lawson turned and put the gun in the face of the first man who had just begun to advance after regaining his wits. Lexi popped out of the tube slide just behind the man who now was holding up his hands.

  Lawson shouted through labored breath, “The car is on the other side of the building. Go!”

  Lexi didn’t even glance over her shoulder; she just hopped the fence and ran for the street. Lawson was left alone with the two men who’d intended to take his daughter. Alone with the two men who must know where his only friend had been taken. The side of him that had been forced to emerge in prison, the monster he had to become to survive there for ten years, the one he’d managed to bury for the past year, had just made its way to the surface.

  “Take out your gun and throw it on the ground,” Lawson said. He was no longer breathless. Now that Lexi was safe, he had collected himself. His tone was calm but dead serious.

  The man didn’t hesitate. He tossed his gun across the playground, and Lawson shocked him when he followed that by tossing the gun he’d taken from the second man in the same direction.

  “Where is Cassie?”

  The man answered with a step toward Lawson, making the mistake of cocking his fist back before throwing the punch. Lawson snapped a jab to the man’s nose, cracking it at the bridge. Instead of throwing his punch the man moaned in pain, grabbing his nose with both hands. Lawson took the moment to turn and uppercut the second man in the mouth, who was still bent over recovering from the previous groin strike. On impact, his legs gave out and he fell to the ground. As the sting of the blow radiated in Lawson’s knuckles, the man spit out a tooth as he swam near unconsciousness.

  The man with the broken nose had a smear of blood on the front of his white button-up shirt. He was clearly no stranger to a fight because instead of retreating he moved his hands from his nose and put them up in a defensive boxing stance. Tears welled in his eyes from Lawson’s jab to his nose. But he was not afraid. In fact, he moved forward first.

  One of the most important thin
gs Lawson learned in prison was to keep emotion out of a fight. No matter how bad they hurt you, no matter how dirty they fought, keeping your head meant having the best shot at protecting yourself. And while he never fought men in prison who’d tried to harm his daughter, during every fight he had in prison, he saw the blank face of the man who murdered his wife. If Lawson could keep emotion out of it in those situations, he could do that here as well.

  The man opened with a jab–right cross combination. Both landed to Lawson’s arms as he held up a protective guard. The other imperative thing Lawson learned surviving jail was that there are no rules in a street fight; rules are meant for a ring. What he was doing was not a valiant sport; it was kill or be killed. With that lesson at the front of mind, the second time the man moved forward, as soon as his front leg planted, Lawson delivered a low kick and pushed the man’s kneecap out the back side of his leg. He folded like a tent to the ground. Lawson stepped forward and soccer-kicked the man in the forehead, causing the lights to go out.

  The man behind him was still spitting blood, but he had managed to sit up and was now leaning back against the slide.

  Lawson stepped toward him, towering over him. “Where’s Cassie?”

  The man spit some more blood, wiped his mouth on his sleeve, and let out a sigh. “You’re going to kill me anyway, so what’s the use?”

  “You lead me to Cassie, I’ll let you live to watch me kill whoever ordered you to take her and my daughter.”

  The man was quiet for a moment. His partner was still unconscious on the ground behind Lawson.

  “Then they will kill me. Either way I’m dead. Might as well get it over with.”

  “It won’t be hard to find out who you are, probably just need to check your wallet.”

  Though he was defeated, the man managed a bloody smirk. “So what? I just told you I’m dead either way.”

  “I see you’re wearing a wedding band.” Lawson nodded toward the man’s hand.

  The man looked down at his ring finger, then back to Lawson.

  Lawson’s face hardened. “Need I say more?”

  By the sunken look the man gave, Lawson knew he didn’t need to say another word.

  “You move, I’ll shoot you.”

  Lawson walked a few paces away from the two mangled men. He pulled his phone and called Lexi.

  “You okay, Dad?” she answered.

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’m in the car with Taylor. Hurry back so we can go home.”

  “We can’t go home, Lexi. It’s not safe. Let me talk to Taylor.”

  He heard Lexi hand the phone to Taylor.

  “You all right?” she asked.

  “I’m fine. You still want my help? Looks like you might be in more danger with me than without me.”

  “I’ll take my chances. What should we do? I’m happy to stay with Lexi.”

  For the first time, especially now that Cassie was gone, he was happy to have Taylor around. He didn’t know what he would do with Lexi without her. Because he was about to walk into the lion’s den, and his daughter couldn’t be anywhere near it. It wasn’t that he trusted Taylor—he knew she was hiding something—it was more that he didn’t have a choice. And despite her situation, he could tell that Taylor was, at the very least, a good person.

  “Take Lexi to a hotel, somewhere away from here. Go to the beach or something. There is cash in the glove box.”

  “It’s okay. I have a hotel I go to when I need to get away. They’re always discreet.”

  “Text me which one. Right now I have to find Cassie.”

  “Don’t worry about Lexi, she’ll be fine with me.”

  “I’m afraid I really don’t have a choice.”

  19

  Lawson ended the call with Lexi and immediately felt the sharp sting of worry. What was he doing? He didn’t even know Taylor Lockhart, and now the most important thing in his life was literally at her mercy—again. Even in the face of knowing she was hiding something, however, his instincts were still telling him he could trust her. And when he looked down the barrel of his Sig at the two men on the playground, he realized, like he just told Taylor, he really didn’t have a choice.

  Sending Lexi off with a stranger was certainly something he would never do under normal circumstances. But making these two take him to whoever their boss might be wasn’t merely the only way to find Cassie; it was the only way he could ensure that these people wouldn’t keep coming after him and Lexi. The thing that pissed him off the most was that all of this was over some random meeting with a filmmaker at a casting call for Lexi. Now all of their lives hung in the balance. He truly thought after all that happened in Vegas that he was finished with this life. Now here in LA, due to random events, he was just as bad off as he was a year ago, if not worse. Maybe Cassie was right: maybe he really was a magnet for terrible people. Either way, he had to see this thing through. It was the only way out the other side.

  Lawson stalked toward the two damaged men. “Get up. Let’s go to your car and let’s go meet whoever’s in charge.”

  The two men didn’t put up a fight, and they didn’t say a word as they shuffled like injured dogs off the community center’s property toward their waiting SUV. Lawson got in the back of the Chevy Tahoe, instructing the two men to take the front so he could see them at all times. Lawson confiscated both of their phones so they couldn’t sneak anyone a heads-up. He didn’t really have a plan. There really wasn’t time for one. The man with the busted nose drove the SUV out of the street parking space.

  “Who hired you?” Lawson said. “And what am I walking into?”

  The two men never had a chance to answer the question. A hailstorm of bullets were hitting the driver’s side of the car before the sound of the automatic weapon had even registered in Lawson’s mind. The SUV swerved right as the driver slumped dead onto the steering wheel. Lawson was too large to fit down in the floorboard, so the only thing he could do was pull the lock, open the door, and dive out. He was lucky that the SUV had swerved because it was rolling over a patch of grass in front of the street-side homes, and though it was a jolting drop to the ground, he rolled to his feet and began running between the houses without ever coming to a full stop.

  In his periphery, he saw a car jerk onto the side street that ran parallel to the house he was running past. Someone had been watching him. He didn’t know if the men who shot up the SUV were after him or the men in the front seats until he looked back over his shoulder. Because there was a privacy fence on his left, he was forced to make a quick right toward the car that had turned to follow him. As soon as he did, the car was waiting on the next street about thirty yards from him. As the car door opened, he aimed his pistol while still running. Just before he pulled the trigger, he recognized the blonde woman that emerged with a gun of her own in hand.

  Cassie.

  Lawson froze as she pointed the gun in his direction. Though he knew the gunmen were hot on his heels, what he saw was so shocking to his system that his mind completely shut down.

  “What are you doing, Lawson? Run!”

  Cassie fired several times. He could almost feel the bullets moving by him as he instinctively ducked.

  “RUN!” Cassie shouted again.

  This time he could tell she was looking beyond him. His body caught up with his brain, and he turned, fired a few defensive shots, then made a run for the car Cassie was driving. Cassie continued to fire behind Lawson to cover him. As soon as he jumped across the hood, she stopped and got back in the car. Lawson got in the passenger side just as the men came running around the house and began firing. Cassie hit the gas and the Honda Accord fishtailed as it sped away.

  “What the hell is going on, Cassie?”

  Cassie jerked the steering wheel left and turned back out onto another main road.

  “I don’t know.”

  Lawson looked over and noticed dried blood on the side of Cassie’s head.

  “Are you okay?”

  Cassie
continued swerving around cars, pulling away from the scene they’d escaped from.

  “They knocked me out. Lexi and I were getting out of the car to go into my apartment, and someone came up from behind and popped me in the head. That’s the last thing I remember. Where’s Lexi? Please tell me they don’t have Lexi!”

  When she turned left onto Santa Monica Boulevard, the car almost ended up on two wheels she was driving so fast.

  Lawson said, “Slow down, you’re gonna get us killed. They aren’t behind us.”

  “Is Lexi okay?” Cassie was frantic. Only one other time had Lawson seen her this way. The day Lauren was murdered out on the lake.

  “She’s fine.” Lawson made an effort to sound calm, hoping it would rub off. “That Find iPhone thing or whatever you did saved her life. She got away and hid in the park. Taylor knew how to use it and it led us right to Lexi. Just as they were about to get to her. How did you know where I was?”

  “I-I didn’t. When I escaped the moron they had holding me, I took his car and followed those two that shot up the SUV you were in. I don’t have a phone or anything, so it was the only thing I knew might lead me back to Lexi. Then I saw you jump out of the truck. I just reacted and turned off the road to try to get to you. Where is Lexi? Do I need to go back to the park?”

  “No, Lexi’s okay. She’s with Taylor.”

  Cassie whipped her head toward Lawson, concern etched on her face. “But she lied about her sister. You think you can trust her?”

  “Calm down. It’s all right. I mean, look at the two of us . . . You really think there was another option? You were kidnapped and I have people shooting at me. The actress seemed the lesser of the evils.”

  “The actress who lied, got shot in your driveway, and oh by the way is a total stranger . . . And yet, I see your point.”

  Lawson took a deep breath and rubbed his hands over his face, trying to calm himself now, and trying to stop all the swirling thoughts. They needed to land on a direction to go in, right then, even if it was the wrong one.