Rhapsody

by Heather McKenzie

  Tears were rolling down her beautiful cheeks. “It would just be so simple. No more running. No more hiding. This would all be over.”

  Oliver’s hands were rising slowly, and Thomas was begging her to put the knife down, but Kaya just stared at me with that same agonized gaze she had on the beach when she told me she didn’t love me.

  “Oh, for God’s sake!” Marlene yelled. In a huff, she stomped over to Kaya and full-on slapped her across the face before pulling the knife from her hand and tossing it in the sink. “Get your head out of your ass, girlfriend!”

  I lunged for Kaya, who was in shock and holding her cheek in her hand.

  “And you, back off a second,” Marlene hissed, putting her hand up in my face and stopping me in my tracks. “Someone’s gotta get it through this girl’s head that taking your own life for any reason is complete bull crap. I mean, come on! We’re surrounded by armed men in trees ready to ambush us at any moment, and you think—” Marlene shook Kaya by the shoulders for emphasis. “You think that offing yourself is going to solve the situation? First, that would mean your enemies have won, and second, look at blue-eyes over there, really look at him, Kaya.”

  Kaya’s gaze centered on me, and I could barely breathe. There was so much pain and confusion on her face.

  “This isn’t just about you,” Marlene went on. “What do you think will happen to him if you aren’t around?” Marlene’s anger was as scary as the threat outside. “You might as well stab Luke in the chest and get his misery out of the way. Oh, and me, too. And Thomas and Oliver. I mean honestly, you can’t give up, if not for yourself but for those around you. So put on your big girl pants and quit being so ridiculously selfish.”

  Oliver was about to put in his two cents but was promptly shushed.

  “Sorry,” Kaya muttered, shoulders sagging. “I just don’t know what else to do, even though I know that you’re right, Marlene.”

  Marlene patted her on the shoulder. “Darn straight I am. Now let’s get back to business. What are we going to do about the dudes outside? Can we make a run for the truck? Think, Kaya. Use that nifty brain of yours for good instead of nonsense.”

  Marlene’s question was answered with gunfire.

  I grabbed Kaya, covering her body with mine as I dove for the kitchen floor. Landing hard, I saw Oliver hovering over Marlene to protect her, and her shoving him off. Thomas was at the back door flat on his stomach.

  Kaya lifted her eyes to mine, her face so close we were almost touching noses. “I’m sorry,” she said, then buried her face in my neck. I stroked her hair. She was crumbling, falling apart at the seams. Not that I could blame her.

  I held her tight as the gunfire resumed, pressing her head against my chest as a bullet shattered the back-door window. Thomas remained on his belly where he was, broken glass surrounding him.

  “Thomas,” Marlene called. “Get in here. The appliances are our best protection.”

  The cowboy didn’t budge. Was he hit? I didn’t see any blood.

  “Thomas?” Kaya said with alarm.

  The gunfire grew even louder, and another bullet whizzed in through the back door, this time through the thin wood paneling inches over Thomas’s head. Hitting the fireplace, bricks blew apart.

  Thomas was not in a good place.

  “He’s too scared to move,” Oliver said with a cough.

  I pushed Kaya toward Oliver. He had both girls now, one under each arm, their breath making white clouds in the suddenly frigid air.

  “Thomas,” I said, crawling to the line of fire, avoiding the glass as I made my way. His eyes were wide but vacant. “Are you hurt?”

  He didn’t answer, just stared ahead at the fireplace and the missing bricks. He didn’t resist when I grabbed hold of his wrist and tried to pull him toward me, but he wasn’t as light as I’d thought. I was going to have to stand to drag him into the kitchen. Another bullet ripped through the door turning more bricks to dust. I gathered my breath, got on my knees, then bounced to my feet and yanked Thomas across the floor just as more bullets were fired.

  “Snap out of it,” I said to Thomas, slapping his cheek in the safety of the kitchen.

  The window above the sink exploded, and Oliver began laughing madly. Great, Oliver had lost his mind, and the cowboy was frozen in shock.

  “Come on, Thomas.” I gave him another smack to the head, not all that gently. “Snap out of it.”

  Kaya was blinking back tears. “Thomas, I need you,” she said.

  That seemed to bring him around. He shook off the glass, sat up, and leaned against the fridge next to me as the cupboards over our heads blew apart with more gunfire. Oliver was still laughing, protecting Kaya and Marlene by covering their faces with his jacket, their heads pressed to his chest as little drops of blood peppered his face and hands.

  “Darn, darn, darn, darn,” Thomas said, hands over his head.

  “I think you could take your swearing to the next level over this,” I said, ducking from the plates slipping off a shelf.

  “What are we going to do? There’s nowhere to hide, we’ve got no weapons, and if we make a run for the truck, they’ll pick us off. Just doesn’t make sense, though. They could storm in here, but they aren’t. It’s obvious we’re unarmed. What’s the deal with that?”

  At least Thomas had come to his senses. Oliver, however, could have easily gotten the role in a Psycho movie.

  “We have to get to them first,” I said.

  The gunfire stopped. The knife on the counter caught my eye, and I lunged for it. Using the blade to sweep away the glass between me and Oliver, I handed him the blade; he’d take a few rounds out of somebody before they got to Kaya and Marlene.

  “I have to go outside,” I said to him. “If I can find the gun that the girls saw and scope things out, maybe we’ll have a chance.”

  Oliver nodded as Kaya started to pull away from him, desperate to come to me. I shook my head.

  “Stay with Oliver. Please.”

  “Don’t you dare leave me, Luke,” she said.

  “Just for a few minutes. I promise.” I pulled her against me and let the world disappear for a moment—just a moment. I kissed her forehead and memorized her emerald eyes for the first and thousandth time. “Stay here with Oliver. Do as he says. Please. For me.”

  She was about to protest, but Oliver pulled her forcefully back. “Don’t worry, Luke, while I’m alive, they’ll both be fine,” he said. The whites of his teeth gleamed like the butcher knife in his hand.

  I had to believe him.

  I waited until the gunfire had ceased for a good five minutes before heading out into the glaring sun. The snow was deep and almost to my knees. Thomas trudged along beside me, ignoring my orders to head back and let me do this on my own. He was as stubborn as he was annoying.

  It was slow going making the short distance from the cabin into the thick trees, and once in, we kept to the shadows of their branches. Now that my eyes were adjusted to the light, I realized there were tracks everywhere that weren’t ours, trails made by many feet that led right up to the cabin. They had been outside all this time.

  Gunfire rang out. Thomas and I dove under a mammoth pine tree, ducking beneath its low hanging branches.

  “They’re shooting at each other,” Thomas said, blowing on his hands.

  I didn’t need him to point out the obvious or make a racket. “Just go back to the cabin,” I said irritably.

  “No.”

  I scanned the area, seeing nothing, and remembered Kaya had said they were up in the trees. Maybe I needed to climb.

  “Why did you risk your neck back there to drag me outta the line of fire?” Thomas asked.

  The idiot was making too much noise. I put my fingers to my lips as a sign for him to shut the heck up. Shots were being fired, but they were over our heads. I saw a flash of light, like a mirror reflecting the sun, and then another flash not far from it. There was a pained yelp and then something, or someone, fell with a thud to th
e ground. Still, all I could see was white.

  I pointed up, alerting Thomas, and just as I did another man fell in a heap a hundred yards from our hiding place. The Lowen Security badge on the fallen man’s camo outfit was clearly visible. A radio was strapped to his chest and faintly a voice could be heard. “Troy, come in. Hey, are you there? The entire front line is down. Retreat. Retreat.”

  At the man’s waist was a handgun, and next to his body, a rifle outfitted with a silencer—our ticket out of here. If I could just get to it before whoever was shooting at the Lowen Security guys shot me.

  I made a move for it, but Thomas latched onto the back of my jacket and stopped me dead in my tracks. Wordlessly, he pointed at a mass moving through the trees toward us. I blinked the shape of a bulky man dressed head-to-toe in white into focus. He was soon joined by four more men. Silently and efficiently, the dead Lowen guard was picked up and carted off, leaving Thomas and I holding our breath until they were out of sight.

  Now the small clearing was empty. No body. No blood. And certainly no gun.

  “What the heck?” Thomas whispered. “Who are those guys?”

  I knew exactly who they were. The very people Henry had been protecting Kaya from her whole life. “Marchessa,” I said, shoving my hands into my coat pockets.

  “Oh crap. That means this is twice as bad as we thought.”

  I steadied my nerves, pretending not to agree. “Nah. It’s a cake walk. We just need to get a gun and go back and get everyone to the truck. Easy.”

  Thomas arched an eyebrow as if I was completely nuts, then he shrugged his shoulders in agreement. “All right,” he said and began trudging ahead of me through the snow.

  The cowboy had guts, no question there.

  We were hoping to see one of Henry’s men now, but the forest had become eerily quiet. Birds chirped. Forest creatures foraged. Thomas took the lead. Whatever had come over him in the cabin and froze him to the floor in fear was gone. He moved carefully, assuredly, climbing over a fallen tree covered in snow and disappearing from my line of sight.

  Then I felt the presence of someone behind me.

  I turned. A huge blur of white with about fifty pounds more muscle than me stomped closer, rifle in hand. The only thing visible was squinting eyes, and I was familiar with the determination in them.

  “Don’t move,” he ordered.

  I needed his gun.

  My hands were up in self-defense. He was trying to determine if I was one of Henry’s men. I kept still even when he got close enough to strike—I had to give Thomas a chance to get away.

  “Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” the man in white ordered, voice muffled from a cap that covered his hair and came up under his chin to cover his mouth.

  I moved like a sloth.

  “Get on your knees,” he ordered.

  I did as I was told and felt the world slow to a crawl. The breathing of the man behind me became long, drawn out inhales and exhales. A bird’s wings fluttered past my head, lifting and falling in slow motion. And just as the cold plastic of a zip tie was about to circle my wrists, I swung back an elbow and connected it with the man’s jaw. He was fast to recover, swinging the barrel of the gun toward my face, but I ducked in time, throwing a hit to his kidneys and watching the gun fall from his hands. I sensed someone else behind me, their shadow wide on the snow, and spun around in time to connect my boot with a nose before throwing a quick succession of punches to a firm solar plexus.

  Now the men in their white suits blended with the snow, sprinkling it red.

  I made for the discarded gun, but a heavy boot stomped down on the barrel of it, flattening it to the ground. There were many sets of eyes on me now. Five to be exact. More men in white—Marchessa men—closing in, forming a circle. When they didn’t fire, and it became clear that I was to be taken alive, I fought my best fight.

  I embraced that crazy thing that happened in my brain, barely registering my hands and feet as they connected with bones and skin. It was easy calculating their moves, countering them, and hitting hard enough to throw their thin white head coverings off and lay them out at my feet. I had a few guns to choose from now, and the closest one was almost in my hands.

  “If you don’t settle down, I’ll take my annoyance out on this one,” an authoritative voice said.

  I spun around to face a leather clad man with thick, black hair pulled into a ponytail. Tattoos covered his neck, and his hands were gloved. He had a pistol pointed at Thomas’s head.

  “Well that’s just great,” I said with a sigh to myself.

  “Yes, it’s your lucky day,” the leather-clad man said. “Now stand down or I’ll do away with your buddy.”

  Thomas stared at me with rage swirling madly in his eyes. He’d obviously put up a fight too, judging by the way his nose was bleeding.

  I put my hands up in surrender.

  “Good. Now step back. Get on your knees.”

  Within seconds my hands were tied. More armed men came out of the trees.

  “Good.” Leather man holstered his gun at his back, releasing his grip on Thomas’s shoulder. “We can all act like civilized gentlemen now.” He took off his sunglasses and rubbed at a smudge with his gloved fingers. There was the distinct sound of plastic snapping. “Really?” He stared at the broken glasses. “Two hundred bucks and they break the first day? What is this world coming to?”

  The glasses were tossed into the trees. Leather man snatched another pair off the face of a bloke standing next to him. After frowning at the label, he slipped them on and shoved Thomas toward me.

  “All I ask for is cooperation, all right?” he said, every gun in every hand but his was aimed at us. “That way I won’t have to stuff more bodies into the back of the van. It’s already crowded and stinking to high hell in there.”

  “Who are you?” I asked as Thomas and I were being forced to trudge ahead.

  No reply.

  I asked again, but was cuffed in the back of the head and told to shut up. My only comfort was that at least we were heading away from the cabin.

  My feet were numb from the cold by the time we made it to what must have been a service road for the campsite and cabins. There were three parked vans, and Thomas and I were ordered to kneel before them.

  “It will be all right,” I said to Thomas, noticing him shaking.

  His dark eyes met mine. They were red rimmed. “That’s twice now, dickhead,” he said.

  The wind howled through my jacket. The blurs of white moved around us, packing up guns, putting the bodies of uniformed Lowen men in the back of a van.

  “What are you talking about?” I said under my breath. Someone was binding together my ankles now, and I had half a mind to break their arms.

  Thomas scowled. “In the cabin you pulled me out of the range of bullets when you could have been shot yourself, and just now—you had them. You could have made a run for it. But you didn’t because of me.”

  “Uh huh,” I muttered, wondering if the keys to the van in front of me were in the ignition. It was so close. Empty.

  “That would have been the perfect opportunity to erase me from the big picture, just saying,” Thomas said. “Why did you help me?”

  “I did it for Kaya.” More guns. More vehicles… Good Lord, how I was going to get us out of this one?

  “Huh,” Thomas said, his voice hinting at the fear now starting to show on him. “Maybe you’re not so bad after all.”

  “It was purely selfish, Thomas. I can’t stand you.”

  “Ya. I don’t like you much either.”

  At least we agreed on something.

  “So, how much damage can you do?” Thomas asked after a moment, eyeing my bound hands.

  I met his stare. “A lot if I can get free.”

  “We need to give Oliver more time. Hopefully he’s thinking of making a run for it. Marlene’s truck is in the opposite direction of us and if he can get them there, maybe—”

  Thomas didn�
��t finish. He was horrified by the same thing I was; the last van being loaded up with more bodies.

  I spoke quietly. “I had hoped that Henry might have gotten to her first, you know, the lesser of two evils. But judging by the amount of his men being piled into that van, I’d say that yes, we gotta do something.” I gathered my wits about me. Leather man was talking into his phone, eyes never leaving us. “I can at least keep them busy for a while.”

  Thomas paled slightly. “Me, too.”

  Leather jacket guy began barking orders. “Watch the blue-eyed one,” he said loudly, a gloved hand motioning in my direction. “Put him and the other one in van three.” He signaled to a waiting group of men to head in the direction of the cabin. “Go retrieve Kaya Lowen now. The area has been secured.”

  Thomas and I both breathed a sigh of relief that she was at least alive.

  We had to keep it that way.

  I stood. Thomas took that as his signal to make a distraction too, and he bolted for the trees. I struggled against the zip ties, unable to free myself as two blurs of white zeroed in. I head butted one and threw a shoulder into the stomach of another. I didn’t know what I could do except fight, which wasn’t very effective with my hands and ankles tied, but I stayed on my feet as long as I could. Until Thomas was caught and sent face first into the snow and dragged back onto the road. Until the bones in the faces of a few Marchessa men met the top of my head. Until leather man put down his coffee and delivered a well-placed kick to my abs, leaving me breathless.

  “Good grief,” he said, annoyed. “I mean, I admire your tenacity, but they don’t pay me enough to deal with this nonsense.” He motioned to a man next to him. “Just shoot him and get it over with.”

  I saw Thomas mouth the word no as a sharp pain pierced my chest.

  Then the lights went out.

  Being deprived of my sight brought forth a near uncontrollable panic. Blindfolded and hands bound together on my lap, I could hear Marlene, but I couldn’t hear Oliver. He’d stopped making any noise what seemed like hours ago. Saying his name did nothing but entice a muffled sob from Marlene. He’d fought for us, holding back the group of men that stormed the cabin, and valiantly gave everything he had until he couldn’t breathe. His lungs failed him. This turned Marlene into a vicious wild cat instilling the fear of females in our attackers’ hearts before she was eventually overtaken, too.