Save Me (26 page)

After what seems like twenty minutes, Nate pulls off onto the side of the road and shuts the car off. “Up this driveway is Penny’s house. Fortunately for her it was easy to hide here. Unfortunately for her, it’s so far off the beaten path that no one can hear her if they’re in trouble.”

“How’d you know where to go?” I ask, as I slip a pistol from my duffle bag into my boot and drop a few magazines into my side pocket.

“Cara gave me detailed instructions which I memorized,” he replies, as he gets out of the car and walks to the rear, popping the trunk open. Evan and Rask follow him, and through the rearview mirror I can see faint reflections of guns being taken out. I say a silent prayer aimed at Penny, letting her know I’m coming for her, before I get out of the car.

The guys are putting on their helmets and checking their night vision when I come around to the end. Rask hands me a rifle, similar to the one I used in Cuba.

“Where’d we get all of this?”

“I have great contacts,” Evan says, answering me with a smile. For some reason I don’t want to know about his contacts, but am very thankful they like him enough to outfit him with military grade weaponry. The less I have to learn in the heat of the moment the better. I set my rifle down and put on my brain bucket, securing the chinstrap. The night cam is the same one I’m used to, and it comes on as soon as I drop it over my eyes.

Rask leads us up the hill with me following last. My senses are heightened and every few steps I’m turning around with my gun aimed at the woods. I want to yell at Penny for living like this, but I get it. It makes sense to stay hidden when you’re trying to be inconspicuous, but to be so far out and away from civilization is not a good thing, especially considering the threat she was facing.

Rask puts his fist up as the house comes into sight. It’s larger than anything I could ever provide for her and probably something she dreamed about long before she met me. The wraparound porch likely offers great views of the sun rising and setting each day, not to mention the calm way the summer nights tend to leave us. I can see her sitting out there with a glass of iced tea in one hand and a book resting in her lap.

Just beyond the porch is a large picture window with two shadows reflecting off the light and I’m assuming one is Penny’s while the other is her husband’s. I don’t want to meet the man who has loved my wife and daughter when I couldn’t, but I know I need to thank him. And I need to tell him that I’m not here to take Penny away from him. She loves him. I’ll never stand in the way of that.

On the second floor one room is lit and I can faintly make out a shadow.

“Claire,” I mumble under my breath. If the guys hear me they don’t say anything.

Guns are raised and I’m quickly scanning the perimeter as to why. Rask still has us holding position and I’m desperately trying to see what he does. When I place my hand on Nate’s shoulder he points ahead, and I follow his finger until my eyes land on the basement. A flashlight is being turned on and off down there, and as I flip my goggles to infrared and do a quick scan I now know why Rask has us on the ready. There are four bodies when there should only be three.

“They have company,” Evan says, confirming what I’m seeing.

“Let’s move. Archers, take the front. Knock first. Let them have a chance to answer before you bust down their door. McCoy and I will take the back and see if we can dance with their intruder.”

Dance?
No, the tango doesn’t interest me. Grabbing Frannie by the neck and squeezing the life out of her does, though, and as demented as it sounds I’m really hoping I have the chance to do that soon.

Rask and I duck under windows and pause when he points down to the ground, where glass and wood splinters are littered. I duck my head into the window and try to squeeze in, but can’t fit.

“Definitely a small-framed person,” I report to Rask.

“A man doesn’t leave a broken window like this lying around.”

“The glass is on the ground, making it seem like it was broken from inside,” I add, questioning why anyone would break the window from inside the house.

Rask’s face deadpans as he glances at me. I don’t want to know what he’s thinking, but if it’s anything like the thoughts running through my head right now, I’ll be aiming my gun at Ray Barnes while the rest of the team aim theirs at Frannie. I hate that I instantly think he can’t be trusted, but this seems suspicious.

“We need to move,” he says and I nod, hoping he understands that we need to consider multiple hostiles and proceed with our senses heightened. We step over the glass and around the corner to face the kitchen. The light above the door is broken with glass shards resting on the steps. Whoever did this is hoping that the occupants flee barefoot and cut themselves.

“God she’s sadistic.”

“And well trained,” Rask adds.

He tries the door, turning the handle easily. It makes me wonder if our intruder did the same thing or if she’s beaten us upstairs and unlocked the door for a hasty exit. We get our answer the moment we step into the house. The calm, eerie voice causes the fine hairs on my neck to stand tall. Each step that Rask and I take is calculated and meant to catch her off guard. Nate and Evan should also be in the house by now, but I don’t hear them, and calling out to them would be foolish, costing us the advantage.

“Do not answer the door,” the voice says from inside the room.

Rask pauses and glances slightly in my direction, nodding. The voice belongs to Frannie Riveria—just as we suspected—and explains why Nate and Evan aren’t in the house. In front of us is an entryway into the living room where I’m suspecting Frannie is since that’s the last place I saw the shadows of the two people I assumed to be Penny and Ray.

Rask and I quickly enter the room just as the Archers come in, but we’re too late. Frannie stands in the center of the room with Penny sitting in a chair, her hands duct taped to the armrests. A gun is pressed up against her flesh, penetrating Penny’s temple. It takes everything in me not to rush forward to knock Frannie down and cover Penny for safety reasons, but I don’t. I do what my training has ingrained me to do and steady my rifle onto Frannie. This is the scene we saw outside. The only difference is that when we were looking, we saw someone downstairs.

We’re late.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Hogan’s Heroes.” She doesn’t seem to care that there are four Navy SEALs each with a gun aimed at her. She’s come to finish off the last person who can testify against her brother and I have a feeling she’s not leaving until Penny is dead.

“We aren’t in Germany, Frannie, and none of us are prisoners of war,” Evan says, training his pistol on her. Nate moves around the back of Frannie, cornering her.

“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Ray’s voice quivers as he speaks out. A quick look tells me his hands are tied behind his back and he would’ve been forced to watch his wife’s assassination and probably Claire’s, too. For a brief moment I thought he could be involved and relief washes over me that he’s not.

“Tell him, Frannie,” Evan says, his voice laced with sarcasm. “Tell this man why you’re pointing a gun at his wife’s head. Tell him why you’ve been hunting her down for the past six months. And please for the love of God tell us why you would destroy
all
of our lives. Inquiring minds want to know what goes on in your fucked up mind.”

“You’ll never understand, Evan.”

“Try us,” Nate says.

“People do things for the ones they love.”

“Your brother is a child molester. He doesn’t deserve love,” Rask says as he drops a bullet into his chamber.

“I love him and once they’re dead, we can be together. He’ll be free from the prison you sent him to.”

“You’re fucking sick,” Nate adds.

“Penny,” I say, getting her attention only to have Frannie yell for us to stop talking, “look at me.” I drop to my knees so we’re somewhat eye level. Tears steak down her face and her hands shake. Her eyes move to the stairs, her way of silently telling me that Claire is up there. I look at Evan and motion for the stairs, watching as he backs his way up them, his gun never changing position until he’s out of sight.

“I think it’s in your best interests if you all leave. This is none of your business. You’re not even supposed to be alive.”

“I think you’re fucking crazy,” I spit back at her.

There’s a soft whimper coming from Ray; I glance over to see a man scared out of his wits. “It’s going to be okay, Ray,” I tell him, hoping to reassure him.

Frannie makes a move, stepping behind Penny and placing her arm around her neck. “I’m going to count to three then she dies.”

“If she dies, so does your brother. I’ll fucking torture him, Frannie, and I’ll make you watch. You’ll be begging me to end his life, and only when I’ve had enough will I hand you the gun and help you squeeze the trigger, but we won’t aim to kill. No, you see I have twelve rounds in my pistol so each shot will be designed to cause him extreme pain. And the last person he sees will be you as you deliver the final bullet which will end his piece of shit excuse for a life,” I say, making eye contact with her.

The collective gasps in the room don’t catch me off guard. I know what I said is extreme but I mean every word of it. If Penny or Claire die tonight and I don’t go with them, Ted Lawson won’t see a single day in a courtroom.

“Penny, look at me.”

When she does I all but die on the inside. “Claire is safe and you’re going to be just fine.”

The telltale sound of a gun cocking into place fills the room. Everyone is yelling for guns to be dropped, but I’m only focusing on Penny. She’s biting her lip so hard it’s starting to bleed. I want to reach out to her, but can’t right now. Not until the threat is gone.

“I’m going to kill her,” Frannie says, grabbing Penny’s hair and pulling her head back. Before I can stand, the faint sound of glass breaking and Frannie lurching forward catches my attention, but it’s the second gunshot, which has me tackling Penny to the ground in her chair, knocking the wind out of her, so I can protect her body with mine.

PENNY’S SCREAM PIERCES MY ears, causing me to move away slightly. I can’t tell if she’s hurt or freaked out. Probably a bit of both if I had to guess. I’m afraid to move, to leave this position for fear that Penny will be hurt more than she already is because I don’t know where the hell the shot came from.

“She’s down! She’s down!” someone yells from behind me. I can’t tell if it’s Rask or Nate, but I look over both my shoulders to see what they’re talking about and find Frannie on the ground looking lifeless.

“What the fuck?” I hear Evan behind me as he comes thundering down the stairs. I hope that Claire has stayed in her room because she doesn’t need to see her mother tied up like this.

“Is she dead?” I ask Rask who is the closest to the body. He crawls over to her, pushes her gun away, and feels for a pulse.

“She’s gone,” he says. I quickly roll off Penny and pull my knife from my boot to cut the tape from her wrists to free her.

“Where’s Claire?” Penny cries, panic lacing her voice, and I look to Evan for the answer.

“She’s okay. She’s upstairs. I told her to keep her headphones on. I don’t know if she’ll listen to me, but I’m hoping she will. She seems pretty scared.”

“Ah … Amy,” a pained voice sounds from behind me and we all turn toward it.

Penny scrambles away from me and goes to Ray. I turn away again, not wanting to see them together.