Authors: Liz Lee
“We won’t be able to get her out of the car.”
Riley tried not to be sick at her words. Tried not to think of Callah with that man. Callah with a gun to her head.
His voice shook as he asked, “So what’s your plan?”
When she finished telling him, Riley knew they were probably on a suicide mission, but it was Callah’s only chance, so he was in.
The three of them walked to the van where Agent Conroy stood speaking into a radio of sorts, trying to get McBride to talk. Trying to save Callah’s life.
For a second, Riley wondered if they should just let the real authorities here run this show, but then he saw McBride’s gun pressed to the side of Callah’s head, and he knew Olivia Duncan and Logan Douglass were right. This was over. McBride knew it.
Agent Conroy’s eyes widened slightly when he saw Olivia Duncan there in front of him. That was the only indication he gave that things had changed.
Maybe his brother was right and Conroy knew what the hell he was doing after all. The agent put down his radio and listened as Logan explained what Olivia wanted to do. A few seconds later, they were on.
“Vince, this is over.”
Riley watched the McBride’s gun waver slightly when Olivia Duncan’s voice sounded over the loudspeaker held by Agent Conroy and his heart dropped to his stomach.
“It’s not over, Olivia. You know that.” McBride yelled venomously out his window.
Olivia put the speaker aside and walked to Jennifer Danelley’s side. “You don’t want her, Vince. You want me. Let her go.”
McBride’s laugh raised chills on Riley’s spine, and he knew he couldn’t stand by and watch. He tried to follow Olivia, but Agent Conroy and three policemen he’d known his entire life stood in front of him. Told him to sit tight.
Like that was going to happen. “I can’t.” He turned to the men who knew him. Who’d hauled his ass to jail for public intox too many times to count a few years back. Men who knew he’d changed and could see this would destroy him. “Don’t ask me to watch this.”
And then Logan Douglass was there, looking like a man in charge, a man who spent his afternoons in hostage negotiations when he needed a bit of fun. Logan faced the agent. Let him think he was in charge. At least that’s what it looked like to Riley. “It can’t hurt. You’ve got SWAT set up, snipers in position, Danelley is in position and locked and loaded. This thing has gone to hell, and Sorenson might be the key to ending it. Suit him up and let him try.”
Five minutes later Riley, wearing a bullet proof vest and metal helmet, stood beside Olivia Duncan, close enough now to see Callah’s angry, afraid eyes, her hair, her shoulders.
Damn Vince McBride to hell. Damn them all for letting this happen.
Somehow Olivia had convinced McBride to talk. Keeping her voice steady, she restated her original plea. “Let her go, Vince. She’s not involved in this. She shouldn’t even know about me, and you know that.
We
can settle this, but not if she’s the one in the car.”
“This is your fault, Olivia. You did this. You knew, and you let it happen.” He pushed the gun against Callah’s temple, and Riley started forward, but Olivia stopped him with a hand on his shoulder as McBride continued, this time speaking to Callah. “Your
mother’s
no selfless heroine. She could’ve ended this a long time ago. Tell them, Olivia. Tell them you’ve watched me. Waited. Hidden like the coward you always were.”
Olivia’s hand tightened on Riley’s arm, but her voice stayed calm, even. “You’re right, Vince. I’m a coward. I hid from you. Hid my daughter from you. I didn’t know, though. Didn’t know you were the one. If I had known it was you, we could’ve worked something out. That’s why I’m saying this now. Let her go. Take me. We can work through this. You know we can.”
“Can’t now, Olivia. Yesterday. Last week. Last year, maybe. But look around. She’s my insurance policy. Either we leave here now or she dies.”
“You know they’ll never let you out of here, Vince. Not with her in the car. You know the procedure. No telling how many snipers have you in their sites right now. One wrong move and you’re a dead man. Let her go.”
McBride’s eyes met hers in the mirror and Riley saw the resolution, the acceptance. When he said, “You did this Olivia. You,” Riley knew he couldn’t stand there and watch this crazy man kill Callah. Not without trying to stop him.
Callah heard the gun click at the same time she saw Riley move toward the car. Then everything happened at once.
Something hit the side of the car and McBride yanked hard on her hair when his gun fell. In seconds both car doors were yanked open. She was pulled roughly out of the car and someone yelled “get down, get down, get down.”
Her face met the asphalt and a body she didn’t recognized covered hers as shots rang out. She didn’t know how many, couldn’t count them.
All she knew was Riley was on the other side of the car. McBride’s side.
The officer covering her rolled up and half carried, half pushed her further away from the car as echoing barks from neighborhood dogs sounded in short staccato beats. Smoke and sulpher filled her nostrils and she tried to pull from the arms she didn’t know, but the officer wouldn’t release her, so she tugged harder, this time trying to call Riley’s name, only her voice wouldn’t work.
Two Emergency Service workers crowded her. A man and a woman. One took her blood pressure, the other started some other procedure. She wasn’t sure what. She didn’t care. Riley was out there still. He could be hurt. She tried to yank away again, but the EMT’s wouldn’t let her go any more than the officer had before.
She knew then. Knew they were hiding the truth. Just like everyone else in her entire lie of a life, they were protecting her from some ugliness, and she couldn’t take it. If Riley was hurt, she had to know.
But when she started fighting, starting crying, begging, pushing them away, one of the workers held her arm and the other injected her. Within seconds everything faded to black.
Chapter Fourteen
“You go in there, talk to whoever the hell you have to talk to, and let them know, I’m done waiting.”
“Sir, you need to realize, Ms. Crenshaw’s in shock. She’s suffered an incredible…”
“I don’t give a flying flip.” Riley pushed past the man blocking him and into the emergency room where Callah lay too pale, too still. Scratched and bloody. Her cheek bruised. Tear streaks running through the black marks on her face.
Alive.
That was the only thing he cared about.
Walking to the side of the bed, he touched her hand gently and closed his eyes. Relief rushed through him, and he thanked God. She was alive and that was a miracle.
He’d never forget the sound of that trigger, never forget moving forward, knowing he was too damn late, and then all hell breaking loose.
In the end, Callah’d been right. He hadn’t been much good to her with his notebook and his pen. It had taken a mother she didn’t even know and a hell of a lot of luck to save her life.
That and a quick thinking cop who’d pulled her out of the car and slammed her to the ground before bullets started flying.
And still he couldn’t stay away.
Her eyelids fluttered and he pushed her bangs off her forehead, waited for her to see him there. When she did, she started to smile then groaned at the twinge from her busted lip.
“Riley.” She clutched his hand hard in hers, closed her eyes then opened them again. “I thought you were hurt or dead. They wouldn’t let me see you. They gave me a shot.”
Even groggy she sounded outraged. Bruised and battered and beautiful as ever. He smiled. “Yeah. They told me about it. I guess you nearly knocked a couple people out trying to get away.”
“You’re alive, Riley.” She said the words and started crying and all he could think was he didn’t deserve her tears because he’d been completely useless.
But he didn’t say that. Instead he kissed her unbruised cheek softly, and repeated her. “I’m alive.” And then, “You’re going to be okay, Callah. The doctor said you’re going to hurt, but the stitches will dissolve and then you’ll be good as new.”
She didn’t say anything, just turned her head away, and he knew she was thinking he was wrong. That she’d never be good as new again. Not now.
So he gave her the one thing he thought might help.
“She saved your life. She’s out there now. Waiting. She’d like to see you.”
Pulling her hand from his, she turned her face toward him and frowned. “I can’t, Riley. I can’t talk to her.”
Riley couldn’t let this go. Not when he knew Callah needed answers. That she needed peace. “You can try.”
She didn’t try to disagree, didn’t tell him no again. Just said “I’m glad you’re alive, Riley. So glad.” And then she closed her eyes.
Amber Jackson met him in the emergency waiting room. No notebook that he could see. No camera either. Not that it mattered.
“Will she be okay?”
Riley didn’t answer the question, just pointed to the door. “You need to leave, Amber. You don’t want to be here.”
“Come on, Riley, I’m just doing my job. I’m not a bad person, and I’m a damn good reporter.”
“Now.” He pointed to the exit again and something in his voice must’ve made an impression because she started toward the door.
He waited for her to leave, waited for the outside automatic doors to swoosh shut before crossing to the woman who sat alone in the hall leading to another part of the hospital.
Olivia Duncan’s face showed a woman who’d led a hard life. A life she’d more or less given up to keep Callah safe. But Callah wouldn’t hear that and he couldn’t change her mind. Not yet anyway.
He didn’t have to say a word. He saw the resignation in her eyes as she sighed. “No luck?”
“Give her some time. This is all new.”
Olivia smiled sadly, nodded and brushed her hands on the knees of her black pants. “Logan tried to tell me, but I’m stubborn. Looks like he was right.”
“I think she’ll change her mind. Eventually.”
She shrugged and took a deep breath, blew it out and closed her eyes, looking so much like an older version of Callah, it broke his heart.
“I wouldn’t let Logan come in with me,” she said, and when she opened her eyes, the sadness was gone. Riley wondered if she’d always lived her life like this, pushing away emotions, refusing to feel. “He’s probably somewhere outside the hospital doors. I know you can’t leave now, but I’d like to talk to you later.”
Riley didn’t know. As much as he wanted to talk to Callah’s mother, he knew Callah wouldn’t be happy if she knew. Still, she could say something that might help. And Callah needed to know the truth. If she wouldn’t talk to Olivia, maybe she’d listen to him.
“I’d like that,” he said, but then, just to make sure she understood, he added, “talking to me won’t change anything, though.”
“You love her.”
Her words shocked him. He hadn’t thought of what he shared with Callah as love. He shook his head. “It’s not like that. I wrote her story. Tried to keep her safe. Nearly got her killed.”
“Come now, Mr. Sorensen. I was there. I stood next to you when Vince McBride held that gun to her head. You love my daughter. And you’ll do what’s right for her. That’s the only reason I want to talk to you now.”
No more hiding. Riley almost laughed. Because she was right. He did love Callah. He just wasn’t sure it mattered.
Later that night Callah sat in Riley’s truck and tried not to care when she saw more media vans around her house. God, she was so sick of them.
Somehow Riley seemed to read her mind. “My place?”
She nodded, then leaned her head back, closed her eyes.
Her father was on base, and she wanted to see him, to talk to him, to ask why he’d lied. But not yet. She wasn’t ready.
Any more than she was ready to talk to Olivia Duncan.
At least she didn’t have to worry about talking to Agent McBride. No one did because he was dead.
And she was alive.
Riley turned onto the dirt road that led to his house, and she remembered how afraid she’d been when they’d run for their lives from her house. They were running again. Running from reality this time.
And that was okay.
For one more night, she’d avoid life. Tomorrow, things had to change.
The next morning Callah woke to the scent of bacon and coffee. She ran her hand over Riley’s soft sheets and laughed when she saw a king-sized Dove extra dark chocolate bar on his pillow.
She bit into the candy, let its smooth, semi-sweet richness melt in her mouth, chase all the bad thoughts away, but it didn’t quite work. The pain in her cheek, chin and eye radiated over her face, but that was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.
Riley had held her all night. Nothing else, just pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her and settled her against his chest. Surprisingly, she’d fallen asleep to the steady beat of his heart.
But even that hadn’t chased the pain away. The knowledge, the betrayal, the confusion. Not even chocolate could fix this. Sighing she wrapped the chocolate back up.