After stumbling through chaparral for what seems like half the night, every step aggravating the pain, no light to speak of, I finally reach a cabin at the lake. It’s bigger, fancier by a lot more, than what Mercedes described when she opened up to me—told me about the hell the bastard put her through. Maybe the creep won the lottery and rebuilt the place after she ran away. I crouch in the brush near the deck, trying to get up enough courage to limp up to the door. I’m Uncle Eric’s only real family. It’s up to me to even the score.
A man comes out of the cabin. My heart races. He’s bigger than Mercedes said. What this monster did to her must have really messed up her head. It’s no wonder. My mind is a train wreck after just one night of his terror. Can’t imagine what it’s like for Mercedes. She suffered through it most of her life.
My throat is dry. Uncle Eric—dead. Sweat stings my eyes. The fuzzy figure on the deck stands motionless. I tell myself to walk away. I’m not inside some video game. There’s no restart button. No extra lives or special powers to put a player back in the game. It’s a good thing this guy’s just a blur.
Bryce deserves to die for what he’s done. Not only for murdering Uncle Eric, but for terrorizing Mercedes. Maybe putting an end to the bastard will give her a
second chance. I brace myself and anchor the butt of Uncle Eric’s shotgun in the hollow of my shoulder. My arms tremble. I take a deep breath and hold it. Close my eyes and squeeze the trigger.
Click.
Damn. Forgot to load it.
The bastard darts back inside … no doubt going for his gun.
I bolt, ignoring my throbbing leg as I race through the underbrush into the woods.
Tess
All the way back to the shack from Eric’s ranch, Bryce keeps reminding me how he spared my life and how he wasn’t going to let anybody leave him ever again … not like
she
always did. He was going to “take back what belongs” to him.
That’s when it clicked. He hasn’t been helping me out these years. It never was about saving me and my baby from the streets, helping me settle a score. By
she
he meant his mother. He kidnapped me to be the mother he wanted but never had. And ransoming Amy was just how he planned to get his hooks into me. It’s all been about the little boy who stared out the window all those nights, wondering whether his mother’d come home, whether she’d been behind the wheel drunk and wrapped her car around a tree somewhere, left him alone.
When we get to the shack, he tells me to clean up. He takes off in the pickup to get rid of my bloody clothes—bury them somewhere away from here so no one can find them. While I’m washing blood off my face I stare in the mirror. I’ve taken his shit far too long. I’m done. I walk over and grab his shotgun. Load it and wait for him to get back.
Don’t have to wait long before he pulls up and parks the pickup. His footsteps on the other side of the door raise the hairs on the back of my neck. I watch the door latch as it begins to turn, bring the butt of the shotgun to my shoulder, and draw a deep breath. The door swings open. The concussion from the blast sends me stumbling backwards. Everything goes dark.
Mercedes
I reach the lake and duck down in the underbrush about ten yards from Bryce’s shack. The whole nightmare floods into my head. Bruises … sore all over … him pounding his prick inside me, grinding his clammy chest into my back, his stale beer-breath filling my nostrils. Amy whimpering in the corner—knowing she’d be next. I’ve woken up night after night since I left this place—sweaty, achy, shaking. No matter what it costs me … I have to make him pay.
In a matter of minutes, the pickup comes rumbling up the gravel road. My heart turns as hard and cold as granite. Bryce slides out of the driver’s seat and grabs a shovel from the back—swaggers up to the door. I stand, quivering—my face and neck dripping. I bring the butt of the shotgun to my shoulder and step lightly toward him, aiming at his head. He deserves this. Amy deserves this. Hell, I deserve this.
Sweat trickles into my eyes, blurring my vision. He’s not human. He’s a monster. A life form that shouldn’t exist.
The door opens.
Boom.
I stagger back. Jerk the trigger. Another boom pounds my ears. My head snaps back, eyes shut tight. When I open them, Bryce is lying in a heap in the empty doorway. Flames flickering inside the shack. Someone’s lying on the floor. I gasp for breath, my heart throbbing in my ears as I clutch the shotgun in both hands.
Tess
Flames are spreading over the floor. I can make out pieces of a broken lantern in the middle of the flames. I get up. Head aches like hell. Must’ve banged it against something when the shotgun’s recoil kicked me on my ass. I stumble toward the open doorway. Bryce lies across the threshold, lifeless. Blood pooling around his head. I start to puke. Hold it in. Gotta get out of here.
The pickup door is still open. I slide in behind the wheel and crank the engine. As I barrel down the gravel road, I swallow back acid that’s pushing up into my throat. There’s been way too much blood. Everywhere I look I see red, like I’m wearing blood splattered glasses—the seat, the windshield, the road, my white blouse, my hands. I try to rub it away as I drive over the gravel road past the lake. It won’t come off, doesn’t even smear. It’s unreal. I don’t bother checking for traffic as I careen out onto the highway. Somehow, somewhere I’ll outrun this horror.
Deputy Sheriff Baker
We find Jacob Chandler staring at smoke billowing up into the night sky—flames shooting out of his neighbor’s shack. He’s drenched in sweat, emergency vehicle lights pulsing all around him. I shine my flashlight on the bloodied blade of the shovel resting at his feet and ask, “Is that yours?”
He stares blankly.
“Mr. Chandler, is that your shovel?”
“Uh … sorry. What?”
I pick up the shovel with my latex-gloved hand. “Is this is your shovel?”
Chandler looks around. “Where are we?”
I signal the EMT who’s been hovering nearby.
The EMT takes out a pocket flashlight, examines Chandler’s eyes, and asks, “Sir, are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah … just a bit groggy. What’s going on here?”
The EMT points to the back of the paramedic truck and steadies him as they walk. “You’d better take a seat.”
After Chandler sits down at the back of the emergency vehicle, he looks at the EMT. “Can someone tell me what’s going on here? Is my place gone?”
“No, Mr. Chandler. This is your neighbor’s place.”
“Is the girl okay?”
“There
is
no girl. We’ve been over that.”
He stares at the burning shack. “She’s not in there?”
“No girl.”
“You’re sure?”
“As I said, she doesn’t exist. Now, I’m going to ask you one more time. Is that your shovel?”
“I don’t know. Could be. I have one that’s similar. Are my initials on the handle?”
“You’re JC …?”
“Yeah, why?”
I point to the initials etched on the handle. “What happened here tonight?”
“Not sure.”
“How’d this blood get on your shovel?”
“No idea. Guess I was trying to put out the fire.”
“With blood?”
“I said, I don’t remember. I don’t even know how I got here. Suppose I wanted to help … when I saw the fire.”
“It’s my impression your neighbor didn’t want you coming around.”
“I wouldn’t just let the place burn down. For sure I wouldn’t let the girl get hurt.” He looks around. “The pickup’s gone. He must have taken her somewhere.”
“Your neighbor doesn’t own a pickup, and he doesn’t have a driver’s license. I checked him out after my last visit up here.”
Chandler wobbles and lists to one side.
I catch him before he tumbles off the back of the paramedic truck. “Mr. Chandler, these folks are going to give you a ride down to the hospital. One of our deputies will go along to keep you company.”
“Are you sure that’s necessary?”
“Positive.”
As the EMT helps Chandler climb into the emergency vehicle, I nod to the deputy who was holding the shovel. “We’d better tag and bag that thing.”
RJ
M
y eyes ache, and sunlight poking through the tree canopy doesn’t help. I put up my hand to block the glare. My throbbing leg reminds me of last night’s chaos.
After the shotgun misfired at the lake, I panicked and scrambled off, hobbling through trees and scrub toward Mercedes’ hut. Didn't make it far. My knees buckled, and I landed on the shotgun wound, driving buckshot deeper into my flesh. Pain was too much. The cool ground brought on the shivers. My forehead burned with fever. I must’ve passed out. I kind of recall headlights racing past, but I could’ve imagined it.
I shake the cobwebs out of my head and push up off the ground, standing on my good leg. Bite down on my lower lip and shift some weight to the wounded leg, but it collapses underneath me. I land hard and every pellet buried in my leg stings twice as bad.
What a klutz. Lost the damn shotgun at some point during the night. Now I can’t even use it as a crutch. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. If only I’d remembered to load the damn thing. I clench my teeth and prop up on my good knee so I can scan the area nearby. Just out of reach, there’s a branch lying on the ground. Probably knocked down during a wind storm. Just the right size for a cane. I pull myself along the ground until I’m close enough to grab it.
After hobbling for nearly a mile, I recognize the terrain. My heart beats faster, this time it’s from more than exhaustion. Uncle Eric’s ranch is around the next bend in the trail, just out of view. Can’t bear to relive that nightmare right now, so I detour higher up into the woods and trudge ahead.
Later, I’m on the ridge overlooking Mercedes' hut. I lower myself to the ground and stretch out my throbbing leg. My throat tightens. Did the girls make it back? God, Mercedes could be dead. Then who’d I have left? Can’t imagine my mom would want me even if I found her. I let out a loud caw then wait for Mercedes’ to give me the all clear.
Mercedes
My nerves are still jangled from last night when a familiar ‘caw’ sends my heart into my throat. He’s alive?
I rush over to the door, swallow hard and, return his signal.
Amy joins me at the doorway. “What’s going on?” she asks.
“RJ.”
“He’s alive?”
“It’s our signal. He’s the only one who knows it.”
Amy searches the ridge. “Where is he?”
“It’ll take a few minutes.” I point to a stand of pines. “He should come from over there.”
The first sight of him takes my breath away. He’s hobbling, supporting himself on a long branch, stumbling, almost dropping to one knee.
Amy grabs my arm. “Does he need help?”
I know how this is going down. He’ll have the hots for her in no time. She’s a regular healing angel. Always patched up Bryce when he got hurt. If it’d been me, I would have made sure the damn wound got infected bad enough to kill him.
“You mean like he helped us?”
“That’s not fair.”
“Of course he needs help. He’s a boy.” I start out the door. “You coming?”
We race up the ridge and I get to him well ahead of Amy. He collapses in my arms. I stiffen at the sight of his bloody leg.
“He’s been shot,” I murmur to Amy as she comes up behind me.
She doesn’t hesitate taking charge, easing him out of my grasp, and cradling him in her own arms. “He’s burning up with fever,” she says calmly, looking up at me as she strokes his hair. Her eyes take on his pain. His body relaxes.
When we get him into the hut, we lay him on the pine-needle mattress in the corner, and Amy starts barking orders. “Quick, I need bandage stuff. And boil some water.”
I’m already under her spell, the one she casts over everybody when her healing powers take over. “Clean rags,” I mutter as I scan the room.
“Hurry,” Amy scolds, rushing to the wash basin to scrub her hands.
I wander over to a corner of the hut and dig through a box. I pull out several towels swiped from the man’s cabin at the lake. “Here.” I toss them at Amy.
Amy scowls. “Boiling water?”
“Right. I’m on it. It’ll take a few minutes.” I stoke the fire in the little cast iron stove, grab the water pail, and head down to a spring I discovered not far from the hut. A horrible thought burrows into my brain like a worm.
I saved her, now she’s going to steal my only friend.
Amy
I rip open RJ’s pant leg and start picking out buckshot with my fingernails. When Mercedes comes back with the water, I keep my head down and ask her for a knife. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch her set the water pail on top of the stove. She opens the stove door and sticks a knife inside, into the flames. When she’s done sterilizing it, she brings it to me.
I stay focused on RJ's wound. “Thanks. How’s that water?”
“It’ll take a few more minutes to boil.”
I poke deeper into his leg with the knife. RJ flinches. A towel soaks up blood oozing from his wound. Mercedes watches.
After I’ve fished out what I hope is the last of the pellets, Mercedes kneels next to me with a jar of honey. She says, “Ever used it on anything this bad?”
“Yeah, Bryce.”
“Of course, Bryce.”
Deputy Sheriff Baker
Outside the interview room where Carl Samuels is waiting, I study the ME report on the victim from last night’s fire. After that, I check the list of weapons we collected at Chandler’s place early this morning. A handgun and shotgun are registered to Carl Samuels. A shotgun recovered from the fire looks to have enough damage that ballistics won’t be conclusive.
I step into the room and greet Samuels. “Can I get you coffee?”
“No thanks. I filled up this morning before I left the city.”
“I appreciate you offering to come in and help shed some light on your friend. By the way, have you spoken to him lately?”
“Spoke with him by phone yesterday after lunch. Why?”
“Nothing in particular. Just wondered how close you two are.”
“We’ve known each other for almost forty years. As his career advanced, I’ve enjoyed similar success.”