Memory Lapse: A Slater Vance Novel (31 page)

“I’m on it. Call me back
every fifteen, Pretty-Boy.”

“I’ll try.”

Slater slipped his phone
back into his pocket before once more going over to Ellis. He knelt down in
front of her and placed a hand against her battered face. She lifted scared and
defeated eyes up to his.

He pressed his SIG into
her resisting fingers. “I want you to keep this. All you have to do is point
and shoot. It doesn’t have any kick.”

She began to shake her
head. “I can’t. I’m afraid.”

“I can’t leave you here
defenseless. Take it. It’s the best I can do for now. Help is on its way. Just
hold on for a little while longer.”

“Listen, I need to go
outside and find them. I’ll be right back, okay?”

Slowly she nodded her
head. “Be careful and please come back.”

Slater pressed a kiss to
her forehead and whispered, “I will.”

Slater eased to the back
door and strained to see into the darkness. When he didn’t see any movement, he
eased the door open and slipped into the night. Keeping to the cover of the
house, he edged his way all the way around it. Off in the distance, he heard a
soft click and then a brief spark of light. Slipping into the cover of the
surrounding woods, Slater stealthily moved until he was positioned somewhat
behind
Nevin
Justaine
. He
watched as
Justaine
lifted a cigarette to his lips
and inhaled deeply. Once he finished it, he threw it to the down and ground his
foot against it. Moving quickly up behind the man, Slater returned his previous
favor by pressing
his
gun against the
base of the other man’s head. Slater saw
Justaine’s
body tense and immediately he began to swing around to deliver a roundhouse
kick. Slater plowed the butt of his M16 into the back of the other man’s head –
satisfyingly hard.
Nevin
Justaine
fell instantly. Moving over to him, he pulled the sleeves of his jacket down
and tied a knot with the top and bottom of the jacket, effectively restraining
the man’s arms. Slater then moved forward and out of the corner of his eye, he
saw someone running back toward the house.

Grimly, Slater retraced
his steps to the house. He’d known better than to leave her out in the open.
Without trying to be quiet, Slater calmly entered the back door and re-entered
the house.
Sylus
had retied Ellis’s hands and now had
her facing Slater.
Sylus
was standing behind her, one
hand pressed against the side of her head and his SIG pressed against the other
side.

“Tsk, Tsk, Mr. Vance, we
gotta
stop meeting this way. Please place your weapon on
the table and join us. This would all go easier for everyone if the bitch would
just tell me where my girl is.” Leaning down to her ear, while keeping an eye
on Slater, he said lowly, “I’m all she has left, Ellis. If you don’t tell me
and I have to search for her, you know what I’ll have to do. I won’t be defied.
I’ll be forced to hurt her… bad.”

Tears were streaming down
Ellis’s face but she kept her gaze solidly trained on Slater and refused to
answer. Slater flinched and took a step forward when
Sylus
slammed the SIG into the side of her head. Slater watched a small stream of
blood begin to dribble down the side of her face and onto her neck. She closed
her eyes but didn’t make even the smallest of whimpers.

Seeing
Slater’s lunge forward, and with a small shake of his head,
Sylus
said with an evil grin, “No, no, Mr. Vance.
It wouldn’t bother me to shoot you
both, starting with this whore. All I want is my daughter…” he paused before
lifting the gun to scratch his cheek. “I think I’m going about this all the
wrong way. Mr. Vance, please place your hands on top of your head and move this
way slowly.”

Slater kept his eyes on
the dazed eyes of Ellis and lifted his hands to the back of his head as he done
earlier. Slowly he stepped forward. When he got within a foot,
Sylus
raised his hand and said, “Stop. Before you come any
closer, please remove everything out of your pockets, and set it on the coffee
table.”

Slowly, Slater dropped
his arms and pulled the grenade, cell phone, and bowie knife out of his
pockets.

 
Sylus’s
face broke
into a huge grin at the sight of the hunting knife. “Ah, party favors. Thank
you, Mr.
Vance,
it’s exactly what I need to make my
point. Please place your hands on your head once again and come towards me.”

Slater again complied
with his commands and when close,
Sylus
grabbed the
knife and moved swiftly behind Slater, pressing the blade of the knife hard
enough against his throat to draw a small stream of blood. Slater was surprised
by the other man’s strength. With
Sylus
pressed
behind him, he was turned with their backs to the huge picture window facing
the still-seated Ellis.

“Now, Ellis, be a dear
and tell me where my daughter is,”
Sylus
said softly.

Raising her eyes to meet
Slater’s, she sobbed, and in a strangled voice whispered, “I’m sorry, I can’t.
He’ll kill her.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry.
Be strong,” Slater murmured.

“It’s not okay. I. Want.
My.
Daughter.
Now!”
Sylus
screamed.

Slowly with her eyes
affixed to Slater’s, she shook her head.

“You
heartless bitch.
I’ll kill him.”

Slater flinched as the
blade was sawed roughly against his neck. He felt a heavier stream of blood
begin to slide down into the collar of his shirt.

Jerking up in her chair,
Ellis sobbed, “No, stop. I’ll tell you. Just please don’t…”

She stopped suddenly as
the plate-glass of the picture window behind them seemed to explode.

Slater felt several
things all at one time. First he felt
Sylus
stiffen
behind; then he felt a fierce burning through his shoulder; and lastly, he felt
the blow of glass from behind cutting into his arms. He felt
Sylus
Trusworth
slump to the
floor. Whirling around, he found him lying on the floor with lifeless eyes
opened to the ceiling. Taking a step to the window, he saw Tiger standing
outside the window with a rifle dangling from his hand. Dropping the rifle,
Tiger grinned, and gave Slater a mock salute before slumping to the grass.

He gave a small grin to
Tiger then raised a hand to his shoulder to press against the blood seeping
there.

“Son-of-a-bitch shot me.
I can’t freaking believe it. He shot me,” Slater murmured to himself.

From behind him he heard
Ellis’s whimper. He went to her and untied her again from the chair.

“Is he dead? Is he really
dead?” she asked, sobbing.

Grabbing the knife, he
went behind her and cut her bonds one-handed. He knelt down in front of her and
wrapped her in his good arm he whispered in her hair, “Yes, he’s really dead.
Now, where is your daughter?”

She pulled back and
placed a tender hand against his face. “Thank you so much. You’ve sent me
free.”

The sound of sirens and
the swell of blue and red flashing lights caught their attention.

Quickly, Ellis said,
“Tiger showed Petra where your old tree fort was. We told her if anything
happened to go hide there. You have to get to her. She has to be so scared.”

Slater placed a kiss on
her forehead. I’m going now, but you have to deal with the police until I get
back, okay?”

She nodded quickly.
Slater stepped through the now glass-free window and checked on Tiger, who was
winded but would make it. He sprinted to the huge tree on the side of the
house, which sported the tree fort he, Tucker, and his dad had built years ago.
It was hard climbing with only the use of one arm. As he squeezed his body into
the small opening, he was afraid at first Ellis had been mistaken, as he didn’t
immediately see her in the darkness and there were no sounds. He eased his body
into the confined space and searched around with his hands until he found her
small, warm body… fast asleep. Slater chuckled at the absurdity that she could
have been sleeping while there was so much chaos going on below her.

With gentle hands, he
shook her awake and spoke gently to her. He was glad she was able climb down on
her own merit as he couldn’t have carried her. He took her hand and they walked
slowly back to the bedlam of flashing lights. When Ellis saw them, she broke
away from the group of policemen gathered.

She gathered her daughter
in her arms and whispered, “Pet, oh, baby. Are you okay?”

The little girl solemnly
nodded her head, taking in all the commotion behind them. Slater moved towards
the policemen when the ambulance arrived.

Chapter 25

It took almost twelve
hours to sort everything out with the police.
Self-defense, pure and simple,
one officer said. Slater shook his
head at that statement; there’d been nothing pure – and definitely not simple
about what happened at the lake house. Slater had been taken to the hospital
and was expected to make full recovery. He’d been shot through the shoulder.

Tiger told Slater he’d
regained consciousness while lying out in the woods where Slater had dragged
him earlier. He’d gone to
Sylus’s
car and found a
rifle in the trunk. He saw
Sylus
holding Slater at
the window and took the shot when he could. Slater was due to leave the
hospital the next day, as was Ellis. Slater was thankful Tiger was a dead-eye
or he wouldn’t be alive. He’d shot him through the shoulder as well missing
everything vital. Petra was currently enjoying the attention of Uncle Tuck.

Of
Nevin
Justaine
– he had simply disappeared – again. There’d
been no sign of him on the grounds of the house or in the surrounding woods.

◊◊◊

The house was quiet when
Slater, Tucker, Ellis, and Petra made their way into it. It’d been a long
couple of days. Ellis and Petra went to the bedrooms to get settled in and
Tucker had calls to make. Slater walked to the kitchen and poured himself a
stout drink and carried it out to the swing.

The evening sun was just
beginning to set over his now-neglected garden. He was really going to need to
work in it soon. Slater sat down gingerly, favoring his shoulder, still in the
sling. Before long, Tucker ambled out and sat next to him.

“Glad to be home?” Tucker
asked.

“Happy
to have my life back.”

“What’s going to happen
with Ellis and Petra?”

“They’re
gonna
stay here for now. Not sure about the future yet,”
Slater replied

Tucker turned in his seat
to face Slater on the swing. “Slate, I… I want you to be careful with her. I’m
not sure what your intentions are, but she’s… well, she’s fragile right now.”

“I know,” Slater replied
softly.

“It’s not just her, she
has a daughter. Please think things through. She’s not one of your regulars.”

Slater turned his head to
face his brother with a smirk.
“My regulars?”

“I’m not blind to your
many indiscretions; I just overlook them.”

With his smile fading,
Slater said quietly, “I haven’t really thought about anything that far off.
It’s
kinda
been a day by day thing. I think she’s
great, but I’m not sure I can… be what she needs right now. But she and her
daughter can stay as long as they’d like.”

“She looks better…
calmer. She’s had a miserable life for a long time. Now maybe she can start
living her life instead just enduring it,” Tucker said quietly.

Lost in his own thoughts,
Slater only nodded.

“Well, I need to go do church
stuff. The bingo game doesn’t run itself.”

“Thanks for the lift. I
saw the insurance check in my pile of mail. By next week, I’ll have my own SUV
again and be done with the rentals. I appreciate your help this week. I don’t
know what I’d done without you.”

“And you won’t ever have
to find out,” Tucker said, patting his thigh.

He’d been gone nearly an
hour when Ellis came out carrying two drinks. She sat down carefully beside him
and traded his empty glass for the full one. They sat in the silence of the
night for a while, each sipping their drink.

“Petra
asleep?”

“Yeah, she was tired.
She’s been on overload lately.”

Slater turned his head to
look at Ellis. While there were still cuts and lots of bruising, the swelling
was almost all gone. She caught him staring at her and she blushed and bowed
her head. He exhaled silently. He knew she was attracted to him, and while he
felt things for her – things he thought buried – he just didn’t know if he
could handle the intensity this type of relationship would bring.

Rising awkwardly from the
swing, he said, “It’s been a long day. I think I’ll turn in.”