The Awakening (22 page)

She sucked in a breath, then turned and ran for the house. It had all been a lie. Tanner had never cared about her or saving her home. He was just living out some high school fantasy, and she’d played right into his hands.

Slamming the door behind her, she went to the kitchen and poured herself a shot of scotch. Her hands shook as she swallowed the warm liquid. It burned her throat on the way down and she put the shot glass in the sink, disgusted with Tanner, Marquette, Emmett, her father and even her mother, for dying too young. But mostly, disgusted with herself, for letting down her guard when she’d promised herself she would never do it again.

She grabbed the phone from the counter and dialed the sheriff’s department. As soon as possible, she wanted crazy Marquette and lying Tanner off her property. Tomorrow, she was going to call Sam and tell him to get her the best offer he could for the house. She’d give Emmett whatever he needed, then use the rest to get as far away from Miel as she could.

A knock sounded at the front door and she walked to open it while the phone started ringing at the sheriff’s department. She yanked open the door, not even stopping to think that it was long past a decent hour to be visiting.

Marquette’s brother, Rob, stood in her doorway. A single glance at his face and the pistol he had leveled at her, and Josie knew she’d just made the worst mistake of her life.

* * *

J
OSIE’S SCREAM MADE
Tanner’s blood run cold. It took only a second for him to realize that he’d made a critical error in assuming Marquette had been working alone. There was no way she could be the creature. She didn’t have the build for it.

“Watch her!” he yelled at Vernon as he took off in a dead run toward the house.

The scream was far too loud to have come from inside the house, so he started at the back. There was no sign of a struggle and the back door and laundry room door were both locked tight. He raced around to the front of the house, and his heart dropped when he saw the door standing wide-open.

Panicked, he pulled out his pocket flashlight and scanned the ground in front of the porch, trying to determine a direction. At the far end of the porch, he finally found footprints in the loose dirt. They pointed directly into the swamp.

He raced to the edge of the swamp and quickly located the signs of passage. Josie was not going willingly. There were no more screams, which meant he’d probably taped her mouth, but the signs of a struggle were detailed like a storybook in the broken branches and vines stripped of leaves. She was doing everything possible to create a trail.

He ran through the swamp, following the signs Josie had left, certain that he’d catch up to them soon. Fear and regret coursed through every inch of his body, and he only hoped he wouldn’t be too late to save her. To tell her he was sorry for hurting her. To help her save the one thing she had left.

A thick hedge of brush rose in front of him and he burst through it, then slid to a stop in a clearing. The moonlight streamed down in between the cypress trees, creating a spotlight effect in the small opening.

Marquette’s brother, Rob, stood at the opposite edge of the clearing, his arm wrapped around Josie’s neck, a gun pressed to her head. Duct tape covered her mouth, and a trickle of blood ran down her forehead onto her cheek. The stark terror in her eyes made Tanner’s heart drop.

He’d failed.

“Drop your weapon,” Rob said.

“Why?” Tanner asked. “You’re going to kill her, anyway, aren’t you? Why didn’t you just do it at the house?”

“Let’s just say I wanted my ten minutes alone with Josie. Ten minutes to torture her like she did me in high school. I thought I’d get to my truck before you caught up with us.”

Tanner clenched his jaw, knowing exactly what Rob had planned for Josie’s last ten minutes on earth. “The jig is up. We’ve got your sister.”

“That stupid bitch. I tried to stop her, but she snuck out of the house. I figured she was headed here. I told her to stay out of this and let me do my job, but she couldn’t resist the chance to get back at Josie.”

“Josie never did anything to any of you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. She was a stuck-up bitch who thought we were all beneath her. When I got the offer for this gig, I couldn’t believe my luck. All that money and the opportunity to settle the score with Miel’s princess. If she would have just given up and left weeks ago, it wouldn’t have come to this. It’s really all her fault, you see?”

The glow of the moonlight provided Tanner a clear view of Rob’s face as he spoke. What he saw made his heart beat faster. Tanner had no medical training at all, but he’d bet everything he owned that Rob was mad. Completely and utterly insane.

Josie’s muffled cries filled the air, and Rob ripped the tape from her mouth with a single pull, then wrapped his arm back around her neck. She cried out as the tape tore her skin and Tanner clenched his hands, wishing for any opportunity to take Rob down.

Then his heart stopped when he caught a glimpse of Rob’s biceps as he repositioned his arm. He had the eye tattoo.

“You got something to say?” Rob said to Josie. “Now’s the last chance you get. Give me a good reason for your daddy to run around bragging about how you were better than all of us. He was a righteous bag of hot air, that old man.”

Her face was wet with tears and blood and Tanner could see drops of blood already forming on her cheeks where the tape had been ripped away. She was scared, but for the first time, he saw something else in her eyes. She was angry.

“I turned you all down because I knew I’d always planned to leave here after high school. You all knew that. If you have a problem with my wanting more out of life than being barefoot and pregnant, then I don’t care.”

Rob smirked. “And look at what good all those big plans did you. You landed right back in Miel, anyway, but with no money
and
no man. You shoulda taken up with a good man when you had the chance, Josie, and then maybe you wouldn’t be losing your family home.”

“You wouldn’t know what constitutes a good man,” she said. “Your sister told me you were married and had a daughter. What’s going to happen to them now?”

“They’re all going to be fine. Once I take care of you and lover boy, it’s all going to be better than ever.”

“Who hired you?” Tanner asked.

“A very important man who needs this land.”

“Frederick Shore?”

“I see that idiot Sam ran his mouth. Between being a loudmouth and a pansy, that was enough for Shore to know he wouldn’t be a good ally for the more delicate work involved in his plan. But that fool Sam will likely get a nice commission off my work once Vernon sells.”

“Vernon has your sister. When she gets done talking, he won’t sell.”

Rob laughed. “You think I told my crazy sister about any of this? She thinks I’m settling some high school score, and my employer has the perfect alibi in place for me. The word of an insane person won’t hold up against the word of a multimillionaire, and trust me, Marquette is off her rocker. With Josie gone, there’ll be no reason for Vernon to stick around. He’ll sell.”

Tanner’s mind raced, trying to come up with the least-risky option. He wasn’t about to stand there and wait for Rob to kill them both, and that’s exactly what would happen. Rob had been smart. No one would believe the clearly disturbed Marquette if Rob had an alibi that had been bought and paid for.

He looked at Josie, wishing he could communicate with her somehow. She looked him straight in the eye and gave him a barely imperceptible nod. He felt a surge of adrenaline course through his body. She was letting him know it was okay to take a risk. That she knew they were out of options.

If only there were some way to distract Rob, even for only a second, it might be enough time to get off that one shot that could save them both. Then he realized the swamp had gone completely silent. The thought had no sooner entered his mind that a bloodcurdling howl rang out, piercing his ears with its volume and pitch.

“What the hell?” Rob jumped at the noise and glanced wildly around.

The instant the pistol slipped from against Josie’s head, Tanner lifted his gun and fired.

He couldn’t risk hitting Josie, so the shot was off to the side and grazed Rob’s shoulder. Tanner cursed his aim, but Josie took every advantage and scrambled away from him and into the brush. Tanner squeezed off another shot as Rob leaped into the dark swamp behind her.

As Tanner ran after them, dark clouds swept back over the moon, pitching them in darkness. He saw a glimpse of movement to the right and spun around, slipping in the loose dirt. He regained his balance, but before he could take aim and fire, a blur of gray flashed in front of him.

He heard Rob scream—a terrifying wail that made his blood run cold, but it was too dark to see what was happening. Without any regard for safety, he ran toward the scream and slid to a stop in front of a body that was sprawled on the ground. He pulled out his penlight and shined it on the ground, praying it wasn’t Josie.

Relief flooded through him when he saw it was Rob, his chest slashed across his shoulder and down to his hip. Blood poured from the wound, and Tanner knew there was no chance of saving the man. He’d bleed out before they could get him out of the swamp.

As he dropped beside the injured man, Josie ran up beside him.

“It was the creature,” she said, her voice shaking. “I turned when Rob screamed and saw it.”

“Where is it?”

“It ran the opposite direction into the swamp.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded. “Listen.”

He stopped talking and realized what she meant. All the normal sounds of the swamp had returned.

“Is he dead?” she asked, looking at Rob.

“Not yet, but he will be soon.” As Rob leaned over the dying man, he opened his eyes.

“Why does Shore want this property? Why is it so important?” Tanner asked.

Rob shook his head.

“You’re dying. At least give your wife and children some reason to think you weren’t as bad as this looks.”

He coughed and blood trickled out of the side of his mouth. “He’s making weapons in his factory in New Orleans, but there’s been some heat there recently and his buyers are afraid the cops will catch on. They want to move the weapons manufacturing somewhere remote....”

“And this property offers a lot of bayous that lead to the shipping channel,” Tanner finished.

Rob nodded.

“Not to mention lazy law enforcement,” Josie added. “They could have manufactured tanks here and Bobby wouldn’t have noticed.”

Rob coughed again and Tanner could hear the rattling in his chest. He didn’t have much longer.

“The tattoo,” Tanner said, “what does it mean?”

“No. They’ll kill my family.”

“Not if you give me enough to dismantle them. It’s organized crime, right? And you guys are recruited out of the military as mercenaries for hire?”

Rob reached up one shaky hand and grabbed Tanner’s shirt. “I have a sick daughter. Promise me that she’ll get medical care. She’s the reason I did this. Promise me, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

“I promise,” Tanner said.

“There’s a man in New Orleans who runs it all, but I don’t know his name. Shore was only one of his chiefs.”

“A man with this tattoo murdered my father, Walt Conroy, over twenty years ago. Why?”

“I don’t know. We only know our own assignments.”

“Guess, then. Why would these men want him dead?”

“Because he was involved with them and wanted out, or he caught them using his business or money for their interests, and he had to be eliminated.”

Tanner nodded. With his father’s portfolio of companies and deep pockets, either could fit. It would be up to him and his brothers to find out which it was.

“Remember,” Rob said. “Remember your promise.”

Rob’s head fell back onto the ground, his vacant, dead eyes staring up into the darkness. In the distance, Tanner heard sirens approaching.

“Vernon must have managed to rouse the sheriff,” Tanner said.

“I completely forgot—I was calling the sheriff when I answered the door. I dropped the phone, but I bet they traced the call.”

“You, Vernon, I don’t care as long as someone with handcuffs shows up. We need to get back to the house and let Vernon know you’re okay.”

He started to walk away, but Josie grabbed his arm.

“Wait,” she said. “I didn’t get the chance to thank you for saving my life.”

“Seems it was the least I could do, especially after the way I hurt you.”

“I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt there, and assume you weren’t trying to hurt me. But I’d be lying if I said I understood why you didn’t tell me that we shared a past, no matter how slim.”

He stared down at the ground for a moment. Was it really worth it, laying it all out? The chance of rejection was huge, but even worse was the fear of living the rest of his life without taking the chance.

“Since we’ve gotten to know each other,” he said. “I’ve told you about some of my past. There’s a lot more that I’ve never told anyone, and I don’t know that I ever will. This town doesn’t hold good memories for me—my entire childhood doesn’t. There are some things you’re better off leaving in the past.”

Her expression softened and he knew she got it. In her own way, she’d been trying to do the same thing by returning home.

“I worked for your father in the fields,” he said, before he could change his mind.

She nodded.

“One day, he caught me watching you ride in the round pen when I was on break. He quickly let me know that you were better than me and off-limits. I understand now, why he did it. He loved you and he knew I wouldn’t be good for you. But it was a hard thing for a boy to hear.”

“I’m sorry my dad said that. It was wrong of him, regardless of his intention. I’m beginning to wonder how much of the animosity against me in this town was created by my focus on leaving and my dad’s putting me up on a pedestal.”

“Maybe it all played a part, but none of this is your fault. You need to believe that. Greed and envy were the only reasons for this. Mostly greed.”