SHATTERED (17 page)

“What the hell is going on?” Nate demanded of both of them.

“The boy is off his rocker,” the mayor said, wiping spit from his chin with his fist. “Give me his gun and I’ll take him back into town.”

Nate reached down to grab Jason’s arm and haul him to his feet. Another car sped by.

“Ask him how he hurt his leg,” Jason said.

“You shoved me,” Bliss spat.

The image of the two men walking away from the park flashed in Nate’s mind. “You were walking funny way before Jason shoved you,” he said.

“That’s because you shot him,” Jason said, looking at Nate. “That’s why he sent Peter after you and now Peter is dead just like his brother.” Jason once again glared at the mayor as he added, “You called us your foot soldiers, but the truth is we were your puppets.”

“What are you talking about?” Nate asked, but he knew.
He knew.

“It’s him, don’t you see? He’s got this crazy idea that if people are afraid all the time, they’ll fight to keep men like him in power. They’ll oppose gun laws. He uses their fear. He finds guys who are troubled or weak—”

“I’m not going to stand here while this brat slanders me,” Bliss sneered. “Put a bullet in him and save the taxpayers the cost of paying for his trial.”

At that moment, someone touched Nate’s shoulder and he turned to find Sarah facing him. He’d been so involved in what was going on, he hadn’t heard her approach. She looked positively worn-out, pale and breathless.

“Where are the cops?” he asked her, wishing with all his heart she hadn’t arrived at that moment.

“They must still be in the park. Someone said they saw a tall man in a hat run off this way, so I followed, and then I heard yelling, so I hurried. Nate, what’s going on?”

Nate took a chance he understood everything correctly. “Jason, run back to the park. Get the police to come out here. Don’t tell them your name or they’ll stop to arrest you and there’s no time. Go now and hurry.” He wanted to send Sarah with the boy, but he didn’t think she had speed in her right that moment.

In a flash, Jason was running back to the park. His exit created just enough chaos for the mayor to take advantage of the distraction. Once again moving way faster than Nate anticipated, the older man grabbed Sarah and pulled her against his chest, his arm moving up to circle her throat. “Give me that gun,” he growled, “or I push her in front of the next car that comes by.”

“It’s too late. It’s over,” Nate said, looking for a way to shoot the mayor without hitting Sarah. There just wasn’t one. “You killed Mike. You must have taken his computer and phone, and then when I called him, you listened to the message and knew I was in town, that I’d survived that near accident down by Vegas. Did you pay someone to sabotage my car? And why kill Mike? Did he figure out your involvement in the B-Strong camp? What the hell were you doing out there? Recruiting gunmen to sacrifice for your own agenda?”

“You have no idea how many of us there are,” Bliss growled. “I’m just one man, but there are others all over the country. The malcontent losers we choose are all on a one-way bus to nowhere. We have to stay vigilant. This is not the time for restraint and caution. This is the time to fight back, to take control. I gave those boys’ deaths a meaning.”

“And the innocent people they killed?”

“Every single one of them died for their countrymen. What greater honor?”

“You are a warped, twisted man,” Nate said, Bliss’s claim there were more like him a chilling thought. But how else could they attack Hawaii and Nevada and Iowa and heaven knew where else? “You’re hiding behind the flag and corrupting the very ideals you say you stand for. You don’t want people to be free to make choices. You want to decide for them. You followed us to Carson City, you ran Sarah off the road, and what the hell did you or someone like you do to Alex’s plane?”

“Mike Donovan was a miserable little weasel. He poked around and poked around. I had to stop him. He would have ruined everything. And you and your buddy are no better.” He took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “We’re not going to talk anymore. One last time, Matthews. The gun for the girl.”

“Don’t do it,” Sarah said as a car raced by. A big truck was right behind the car. Bliss yanked Sarah closer to the street. He smiled at Nate and pushed her with abandon. Sarah stumbled backward toward death. The truck blared a horn, swerved and kept going, but another car was on its heels. Nate grabbed for Sarah with one hand. Her fingers slipped from his and he dropped the gun in his effort to grip both her wrists. He was vaguely aware of the screech of brakes. For one second, Sarah’s terrified eyes stared into his, then he pulled with everything he could muster. They both rolled to the pavement as the car continued on its way. Sarah must have hit her head. Her eyes were closed and her body was limp. Nate struggled to his feet and quickly pulled her body to the sidewalk, lifting her to safety just as another car went by.

When he looked up he found exactly what he’d expected to find—the gun was gone and George Bliss was running away from town, practically dragging his injured leg in his rush to escape. Nate took off after him. Bliss turned, took aim and fired.

Nate crumpled to the sidewalk but not before he saw a dark car swerve onto the sidewalk and hit Bliss head-on with such purpose and speed that the mayor’s body flew over the hood and landed with a dreadful thump several feet away.

The car’s engine roared as it regained the road and disappeared up the highway, leaving Mayor Bliss’s body in its wake.

Nate closed his eyes as the world drifted away.

Epilogue

One Month Later

The sun felt great coming through the windshield, the
breeze from the open window warm and welcoming. Sarah checked the rearview
mirror as she did every few minutes, just to make sure the horse trailer was
where it was supposed to be, fastened to the back of her new truck, Skipjack
safe and secure and on his way to his new home in Arizona.

She then glanced over at her passenger and saw he’d woken up
from drifting off somewhere in Nevada. The past month in the hospital had robbed
his skin of its light tan, but that would come back, as would his strength. She
would make sure of that.

“Where are we?” he asked, stretching his long legs, then
wincing as the movement hurt his still mending wounds. He’d almost died four
weeks ago, and in fact, if it hadn’t been for the slight cushioning impact of
her father’s leather notebook, which Nate had carried in his jacket, he probably
wouldn’t be sitting here.

“About two hours from your place,” she told him.

“What do you think of Arizona?” he asked.

“It’s beautiful.”

He waited a second before following his question with another.
“Think you could go to school and live here?” he asked, his hand coming to rest
on her thigh.

She looked over from the straight road ahead and smiled. “I
think it’s possible.”

“Yeah, me, too,” he said softly, gently squeezing her leg.

She glanced at him again. “You haven’t heard from Alex’s wife
lately, have you?”

“Not for a while. From what I gather, there’s been no sign of
him anywhere. If he’s still alive, he must be somewhere no one expected him to
be, either injured or snowed in. I can’t believe I wasn’t able to help look for
him.”

“I know it’s been gut-wrenching,” she said.

“Yeah. Well, a lot of things have been gut-wrenching lately,
right?”

“Yes. Don’t think less of me, Nate, but I have to admit I’m
glad someone killed Bliss. I don’t know who it was or what the motive was or
anything else. I’m just glad Bliss is history.”

“You have every right to feel that way,” he said, his voice
kind, but she knew he worried about the who and why aspects of Bliss’s murder.
“The man was behind killing at least four kids as well as your father and Stew
Netters,” he added.

“And Morris Denton.”

“Gallant doesn’t think so.”

“But Denton was found overdosed in his motel room the same day
Netters died.”

“There’s no proof to link Bliss to that motel room. Besides,
drugs seem to be kind of outside his operational pattern. He was more of a
‘shoot now, ask questions later’ kind of guy. And since his secretary
disappeared soon after Bliss’s death, there’s just a paucity of information. Too
bad he burned a bunch of papers before he left.”

“Maybe Denton accidentally killed himself.”

“Maybe,” Nate agreed. “The important thing is B-Strong has been
seized by federal agents, and law-enforcement agencies are ratcheting up
antiterrorist investigations in the hope of ferreting out other militia
groups.”

“That is important, but equally so, at least to me, is that you
and I survived,” Sarah said as she cast him a loving look. “I have something to
tell you,” she added.

Nate looked over at her. “Yeah?”

“Open my purse and take out the paper inside.”

He did as she’d asked. “This is one of those letters, isn’t it?
One that Johnny wrote you before you were married.”

“Yes. Read it. Out loud, I mean. Please.”

He cleared his throat. “‘Baby,’” he began, and in some odd way,
he sounded a little like Johnny. “‘Baby, don’t cry. I promised you that I would
marry you and that hasn’t changed. I know losing the baby hurts and I know your
dad celebrating the miscarriage hurts even more. But you belong with me now,
Sarah, and together, we’ll have a bunch of kids, as many as you want. So don’t
cry. Nothing has changed. Love, Johnny.’”

Nate lowered the letter and took a deep breath. “Well, now I
see why you loved him so much,” he said.

She blinked a couple of times. “Yes. Well, I always fall in
love with really good men. Both times now. It’s like I’ve got a gift for
it.”

“I’m sorry you lost the baby,” he added.

“Thank you for saying that. It was really early in the
pregnancy, but I guess that doesn’t matter sometimes. Dad was overjoyed. He told
Johnny to get lost and made plans to send me to live with an aunt in Alaska. My
mom had flitted off to who knows where by then. What Dad couldn’t wrap his head
around was that Johnny and I wanted that baby. It hadn’t been planned, but from
the moment we knew, everything just changed. It was a tragedy to lose it, not
the blessing Dad claimed it was, and it broke my heart.”

“Did you try again?” he asked softly.

“No. There was school and work and loans. And I was afraid. You
know. And then it was too late. He was dead.”

She saw a rest stop ahead and pulled off the road, parking the
rig in the shade of a big tree. By unspoken agreement, she and Nate both got out
of the truck and met in the front. He took her hand and led her to a picnic
table, where they sat side by side on the table itself, their feet on the bench,
their shoulders and hips touching. The sun beat down on their heads. To Sarah it
felt as though the rays infused themselves right into her bones, spreading light
and warmth through her body.

“I love you, Sarah,” he said, gripping her hand and looking
into her eyes. “I have from the beginning and I don’t see it ever changing. But
if I learned anything in this last month or so it’s this—I’m born to be in law
enforcement, on the front lines, taking care of business. As soon as I get home
I’ll tell my boss I want my badge back. I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but do
you think you could handle being married to another cop?”

She smiled as she stared at their interlocked fingers. “I know
who you are, Nate. I would never want you to be anything or anyone else.”

“Ditto,” he said. A moment later, he added, “So, you will marry
me someday? You’ll have our babies?”

She nodded, too emotional to speak.

The smile started in his eyes, then spread to his lips, and the
next thing she knew, he’d wrapped her in his arms. Wounded or not wounded, he
held her so close she wasn’t sure where he stopped and she began. And when he
kissed her, the sensation of their bodies and lives merging into one completely
overwhelmed her.

Whatever the future held, they would face it together.

Always.

* * * * *

Don’t miss Alice Sharpe’s STRANDED,
the
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THE RESCUERS,
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Daniels.

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