was an unrecognizable, bloody mess, destroyed by the bullet lodged there.
I ran around the room searching in vain for her. I ran into the bathroom to do the same, but she
was gone.
“Caleb,” Joe called. I approached him, knowing the sound in his voice was anything but hopeful.
On the bed were spots and splatters of blood. Her blood. What had that bastard done to her?
We made our way to Joe’s car. “You stay here.”
“Like hell I will,” I spat back at his command.
“You’ve done enough, Caleb.”
“I know that. This is my fault. Let me make it right.” Joe didn’t seem convinced so I added, “I
know him. I can help.”
Joe nodded curtly and I wasted no time jumping into the passenger seat. Joe called the local
police and sent out alerts. “What kind of car does he have?”
“A Yamaha motorcycle and a Ford econo-line van.”
Joe called it in and told them all the info that I gave him on Tony Romero. “I think he went to his
cabin. It’s close to here.” I gave Joe the city and he had his office look it up. Unfortunately, there was
no land registered for Tony Romero in Holly Oak.
The thing was, Tony had talked to me about this cabin all the time. I didn’t think a man could
make so much up about something that didn’t exist.
“You don’t know where it is?”
“I have some idea. Can we just go there?”
Joe didn’t answer me, but told the person at the other end of his radio we were headed to Holly
Oak. It was the longest half hour of my life. I estimated we had been in the bar for close to an hour. I
didn’t want to think of all the things that man could do to her in that amount of time. I prayed, no, I
begged God to please spare her from this. I would take her place if he saw fit. Just let her live.
“How did he find her?” I asked Joe as we neared the small country town of Holly Oak.
“He didn’t have to find her, Caleb. He just needed to find you. You’re the one who insisted she
was alive. Hell, you even wrote a book about it.”
Oh, my God. I had done it again. I had been a fucking beacon signal for the very demon I wanted
to protect her from. I wanted to slam my head into a wall, but now was not the time. Now we had to
find her. I needed to be strong.
Thankfully, there was only one lake in Holly Oak and as we neared it, my gut told me we were
in the right place. The road turned to dirt and was covered with slippery golden leaves freshly fallen
from the rains. It would have been a beautiful welcoming sight any other time, but today it filled my
heart with dread.
“Cal, you didn’t know,” Joe said. I think he was actually trying to make me feel better. “I
shouldn’t have been so hard on you.”
“I should have known better, Joe. If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“Let’s not think like that. Let’s just get our girl.”
I didn’t mind that he said ‘our girl’, because she was and Joe had been right. We were both in
love with her and we would do what was necessary to save her from this monster. “I hope this is the
right place. I’ll call for backup as soon—”
He never finished the sentence. The car started veering as a tire popped and we went off the side
of the road headlong into a massive oak tree.
It took me a second to come to. Blood trickled down the side of my head where the glass from
the windshield had embedded itself. I looked over at Joe. “Joe, are you okay?”
There was no answer. He was unconscious, but when I put my fingers against his wrist, I felt a
pulse. I grabbed the radio he’d been barking orders into and reported the accident and Joe’s injury. I
managed to get off my seatbelt after several tries and walk back toward the road.
Road spikes hidden under a pile of leaves had caused our crash. Eddie must have planted them
to slow us down. We were on the right track. I walked up to the car and opened Joe’s door. I knew
better than to move him in case he’d broken anything. I took the gun holstered on his waist, knowing
he had another concealed at his leg. I hadn’t had the foresight to bring my own gun. Then again, who
would have thought we’d end up here? “Joe, I’m going to get her. Help is on the way.”
I looked down the road, seeing it open up at the end. Joe had checked and there were cabins
down this way. I didn’t think about it. I just started running, harder and faster than I ever had. It felt
like all those early-morning runs had prepared me for this moment.
I reached the end of the road where several cabins sat. Eddie/Tony had told me that most of them
were vacant, since they had all been owned by the same man who had passed away. They required a
great deal of work and the family was having trouble selling them. Hell, he’d even suggested I buy
one. I saw Tony’s car parked at the side of one and sucked in a breath as I approached the door. All
the windows were covered so I had no idea where she was, but I doubted it was too late. He didn’t
get off on quick and painless. He wanted torture.
“Are you coming in, Cal?” a voice boomed from inside the cabin. Eddie’s voice.
I turned the knob, finding it unlocked. As I entered, I struggled not to pounce on him. He held her
in his grip. Her face was cut and badly bleeding from the large slash on her cheek. He held a gun to
her head. She was breathing hard, staring at me with complete paralyzed fear, but she was alive.
“‘Why, Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave,’” Eddie said,
quoting another of Doc Holiday’s famous lines.
“Let her go, Eddie. We can settle this between ourselves like men.” I glanced around looking for
anything that might help me get him away from her.
My eyes paused at the wrought-iron table. There lay a hammer, a chisel and a steel file…all
rusty. My heartbeat accelerated with the pure pulsing fury I’d felt in every cell of my body since that
day all those years ago.
He laughed. “You fucking idiot, I don’t want you. This girl is owed to me. She was my Lenore
long before she was yours. Now put that fucking gun down or I’ll slash the other side of her face.” I
raised my weapon to the side and slowly put it to the ground. “Kick it over here.” I did as he asked.
“Take me. I’ll be a better hostage for you.”
He choked out another laugh as if he couldn’t contain it. “Hostage? Having a hostage would
imply that I want to get out of here. I don’t. This is my endgame. I did it all for her. You have no idea
how difficult it was listening to you carry on about how she was the one, how much you loved her,
how you were going to find her again. Do you know how fucking hard that was for me?”
“Eddie, don’t do this. What happened to your family wasn’t Sylvie’s fault.”
“Her name is Gabby. That is her fucking name,” he screamed at me.
“I’m sorry, Gabby.”
“Do you think I even fucking care about my family? They’re dead to me.”
Sylvie whispered something just then. I grimaced as Eddie bent down to hear her. “Let him go?
But I want him to watch and he wants to be here too, don’t you, Cal?”
“Yes.”
“This is going to be fun. Here’s how it works, Tanner. In the beginning, she’ll beg me for her
life, praying the whole time, but after a few hours, she’ll beg me to end her. To take her away from
the pain. I live for that moment. I don’t want to kill the girl. I want to murder her hope, her spirit.”
“Don’t do this. You know you’ll never get away with it.” As if to cement my argument, we heard
a car pull up on the gravel driveway. “The cops are here.”
“That’s a real fucking shame, because I won’t get to enjoy this as much as I wanted.” He kissed
Sylvie on the cheek, grazing his teeth against her neck. She closed her eyes tightly, but the tears still
fell. I felt their sting against my own skin.
“Don’t… Don’t hurt her,” I pleaded.
I saw Joe, emerging from a back bedroom so quietly I thought he might be floating. He placed his
finger to his lips, holding his gun up. I struggled to maintain the rigid mask of fear, against the sense of
hope his presence brought. I knew my task was to keep Eddie occupied so Joe could get a clear shot.
“You must have nine lives, Tanner, because I emptied my clip in you that night.”
Before I could register his statement, Eddie turned and shot Joe in the chest. My heart sank and
my own hope died as Joe’s body fell backwards from the impact. His head slammed on the floor as if
it was made of concrete, not wood. The echo of the shot was unbearably loud and reverberating,
competing with my heartbeat. Eddie turned back to me, smiling malevolently. “I’m a much better shot
now.”
Sylvie started shaking at the sight of Joe sprawled on the ground. She let out a small scream.
Eddie gripped her hair, pulling her back.
“Don’t move,” I commanded to her as Eddie took the heated gun, running it down her skin. She
winced in response. “Stop! You’re burning her!”
“Cal, it’s been great catching up, but I need to end this.” He pointed the gun at me.
“Whatever you do to her, I will do to you tenfold. I promise I will kill you, even if I have to rise
from the depths of hell to do it. Your whole body will be as useless as your dick. And like you, I will
enjoy every minute of it.” I put down my hands.
He laughed, as if we were sharing a personal joke. “You think you can taunt me, you piece of
white trash shit? Tell you what, maybe I’ll shoot your leg again. That way, you can just sit there and
watch us. Because the truth is, I would love you to see me in action. I’m going to make your precious
Lenore scream in a way that you could only dream of.”
I soaked in the finality of his words. I looked at my girl, feeling the weight of the words I needed
to communicate.
Think of me. I’m in your heart. I love you
. But I didn’t utter a word, because the
look she gave me wasn’t one of resignation, but revenge. I shook my head slightly. She was readying
to do something that she shouldn’t. Her deep earthy eyes spoke to me as though we had our own
language. I knew her well enough to know she wasn’t going to heed my warning.
She bit into the flesh of his arm, draped around her neck, drawing blood. He screamed and
pushed her with such force that my mind couldn’t react to it. Her head broke through the glass of the
iron table, smashing it into a million pieces. She lay there bleeding with his tools of torture around
her.
I didn’t think. I reacted, sprinting the small gap between us. I knocked him to the ground. His gun
fell, skidding a few feet. He tried to struggle, but I used all six feet two inches of my frame to hold
him still. I punched his face. The years of frustration, rage and misery coursed through my arms,
which felt as powerful as missiles and just as heavy. I slammed my fists until the hard bones in his
head caved and his features became a mushy, bloody pulp, causing his physical appearance to mirror
the monster that lived within him.
I crawled over to Sylvie. I cradled her in my arms. “Baby, look at me.” I picked the glass out of
her hair and rocked her. “You’re going to be okay, my brave girl. Please fight for me one more time.”
“Is she alive?” Joe croaked from the corner, bringing coherence back to my thoughts. “She hit
her head hard.”
I felt for a pulse, praying to God to let me hear her heart beat. I exhaled a long breath when I felt
it. “She is. It’s faint, but I feel it. She’s alive.”
“So is he,” Joe replied as the faint sounds of sirens, signaling more cars, were heard.
I looked over and heard Eddie wheeze. He shifted in the corner as if his body refused surrender.
He was no danger now. I had torn his face apart. I doubted he could see let alone hear. It wasn’t now
that I was worried about, though.
I saw the gun lying in front of me. I grabbed it, holding Sylvie close to my chest and covering her
other ear to protect her eardrums. I pointed it at the oozing red bullseye that was his head and pulled
the trigger.
I kept my body steady under the recoil. Hell, I even savored the ringing in my ears and metallic
taste in the air. My other senses could fail as long as I had my eyes. As long as I could see him die.
His body twitched, so I shot another round. Until the slight tremble of his hands ceased.
“Now he’s not.”
“Good,” Joe said, laying his head back down. It occurred to me that Joe had wanted me to kill
Eddie. What he’d wanted to do himself.
Could a jail hold Eddie? A mental hospital? It was highly probable. Was I willing to take the
risk? Not a fucking chance in hell. Not when it came to her. He didn’t deserve to exist in the same
world as her.
I looked down at her, whispering the only words I knew. “I’ll see you soon. Stay awake. I love
you. I need you. Do not die on me.” I whispered the mantra praying she had heard my words.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Excerpt from
Raven Girl
Age 13
“Cal?”
I stirred slightly.
“I need to talk to you.” She was shaking my shoulder. We’d fallen asleep staring at the night sky.
The sleeping bag provided little padding against the hard earth, so I’d suggested she rest her head on
my chest. I had ulterior motives for that. We’d been testing out my telescope, but then we’d started
talking about constellations, books, music and anything else that came into our heads. The dialog of