The B Girls (29 page)

She crept back toward the corner in the dark, eyes
searching for any sign of Dawson's flashlight, listening for movement or
voices.

Everything remained still and dark.

###

Evil bitches.

James Dawson clamped down on his rage.

Going after them was an indulgence he couldn't
afford.

He didn't know which one of them had fired the
lucky shot that had hit him in the leg but it didn't matter. Once he put the
Declaration up for auction, he'd have more than enough money to pay off the
treasure hunters and the doctors. He'd find a new doctor, a new treatment for
Adele. And once she was well, he'd publish a book about the Declaration. His
professional life was about to take off. Talk about turning lemons into
lemonade.

It wasn't like he was stealing. No one really owned
the document after all.

He pulled off his hood, folded it into a pad and
strapped it to the wound on his leg with his belt. That would have to do until
he was able to get somewhere safe.

There was no way of knowing how far the sound of
the shots had carried and he wanted to be away from here before anyone had a
chance to come investigate.

He picked up the cracked jar and headed out of the
cave.

He'd been away from Adele for too long. She'd be
worried about him and ready for her medication.

Lucy took a deep breath and peeked around the
corner.

No sign of Dawson's light.

Either he was waiting in the dark for her to show
herself or he was gone.

Lucy was betting her life on gone.

After all, he got what he came for.

She stepped out and shuffled a few steps back
toward the hole, prepared to turn and run if the light reappeared.

It didn't.

She shuffled a few more steps in the pitch black,
making enough noise that Dawson would be able to hear her if he was waiting in
the dark.

When all remained quiet and dark, Lucy dared to
turn her headlamp back on. She held her breath but no shot rang out and no
light came on.

She hurried back to the hole ignoring the wetness
under her right hand and called down to Mae and Jane. "Everyone okay down
there?"

"No worse than before the shooting," Mae
called back. "What about you?"

"I'm not sure. I think I have a little wound
in my side."

Lucy heard Jane say, "Shit."

"I'm on my way up," Mae said.

Lucy sat down near the hole and waited clamping down
on her impatience. She didn't want to waste time. If she was seriously wounded
wouldn't she be feeling weak by now?

Mae climbed back out of the hole at a record pace
without a single twinge of vertigo. Amazing what a crisis could do for a
phobia.

When she saw the blood covering Lucy from just
below her left breast to her knee, Mae blanched.

"Lay down," Mae ordered.

Seeing the look on Mae's face, Lucy didn't argue.
She must be a pretty terrifying sight. "It doesn't really hurt now."

Mae knelt down next to her. "Move your hand so
I can see."

"I'm afraid to," Lucy said. Now that it
came to it, she was scared. She'd seen those war movies where the guy takes his
hand away from a wound and his guts fall out. She didn't want her guts to fall
out.

"You have to. I can't see anything."

Lucy took that as a good sign. Her hands weren't
all that big. If one hand covered the wound it couldn't be too large. She
lifted her hand. Nothing happened.

Mae leaned down, focusing her headlamp on Lucy's
side.

There was a tear in Lucy's coveralls about two
inches long. Mae spread the sides of the tear apart, looked in the gap and
breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like all the damage was to your skin. I
think the bullet only grazed your side. It's still oozing but I think we can stop
that with a makeshift bandage."

She rummaged through the pack she'd brought up with
her and came up with an extra pair of socks. "This should do." She
unrolled the balled socks, folded them in half and pulled the top of one back
over making a thick, flat bandage.

Mae used her Swiss Army knife to cut a strap from
Lucy's backpack to hold the bandage in place.

"You have to hurry," Lucy said as Mae
strapped the bandage in place.

"What for? You're not bleeding to death and
Jane seems to be past the shock stage," Mae said.

"No way in hell are we letting him get away
with this. I need to get out of here and call down the fury of the B Girls on
that asshole."

"You want to go after him?"

Lucy winced as Mae pressed the bandage to her side.
"Hell yes I'm going after him. Belle still isn't safe."

"Shouldn't we just let the police go after
him?"

Lucy nodded her head making her light dance over
the ceiling. "Them too. But I have to make sure he doesn't get a chance to
hurt Belle. Besides, I'm pissed."

Mae finished tying off the bandage. "Fine. But
I still don't like it."

"Don't worry. Now, I need the gun and the van
keys."

Mae handed them over and turned to the hole.
"Problem."

Lucy got to her feet and looked toward the hole.
"Well hell." The rope was right where it started out--on the other
side of the hole.

Mae studied the hole. "There's a ledge on the
right side. Like the one we crossed over the water."

"Excellent," Lucy said. "When I get
to the other side I'll toss you the rope so you can get back to Jane."

"This hole isn't filled with water. If you
fall . . ."

"I'm not going to fall," Lucy said. She
stepped to the right side of the hole looking for some sort of handhold to
steady herself on the way over. "I'll only have to take one or two
steps."

"Be careful."

Lucy shook her head. "No. I thought I'd be
totally reckless and break my neck." This close to escaping from the dark
she didn't intend to take and unnecessary chances.

Mae didn't say anything else.

Lucy studied the ledge for a few more seconds.
"Okay," she said. "I've got this." She reached out to a
small rock about head high. "One step to the middle." She put her
left foot on the ledge and brought her right foot to join it. "And one
step to the other side." She put her left foot on the far side of the hole,
pushed off the wall and across. "See? No problem."

Lucy pulled enough rope out of the hole to make an
easy toss.

Mae caught it. "We'll be waiting."

"I'll send help," Lucy said.

She trotted to the cave entrance surprised to find
the late afternoon sun shining. The pop-up thunderstorm had passed, but not
nearly as many hours had ticked off the clock as it felt like.

She glanced at her watch before starting the climb
down to the creek. Five o'clock. Plenty of daylight left to get help for Mae
and Jane.

She climbed down and followed the path Dawson had
jogged up a few minutes earlier.

###

The van was right where they'd left it. She ran the
last few steps, shed the top half of her coverall and dug the keys out of her
jeans pocket.

Dawson couldn't be too far ahead of her and there
was only one practical way back to civilization. With luck the cops would catch
up to him before he could get to Belle and hurt her.

She threw herself into the driver's seat and jammed
the key into the ignition and started the van. She grabbed her cell phone out
of the center console and dialed 911. Putting the phone to her ear she reversed
around and stomped on the gas throwing gravel and fishtailing a little. Who
knew the minivan could do that?

"Nerves of steel," she told herself. No
worries about getting a ticket. A cop appearing was her fondest dream right
now.

"911 what is your emergency?"

She rocketed down the gravel road.

Good
question
. "There's a man with
a gun on . . ."
What the hell was
this road? Think!
"He just left the parking lot by Breakleg Creek in
Cohutta. Call Ranger Leonard. Tell him Lucy Deen . . ."

She realized there was another vehicle up ahead.

Maybe it was Ranger Rick making his rounds.

"Ma'am?" The 911 operator tried to get
her attention.

"Hold on."

When the gravel road dumped out onto a two lane
asphalt track the car ahead turned left. Not the ranger's pick-up truck. It was
a late model SUV.

It had to be Dawson.

How had she caught him so fast?

It didn't matter.

He was about to learn he'd fucked with the wrong
woman.

"The man is driving an SUV. A silver one. I
don't know what kind. I'm behind him on Bear Ridge Rd."

She pulled onto the asphalt road and stepped on the
gas, intent on catching him.

"Ma'am you don't need to follow him. I have an
officer in route."

Lucy ended the call and concentrated on getting
herself under control. Dawson should probably hope the police caught up quick.

He wasn't driving fast, apparently not having the
same feelings about police intervention as Lucy. She pulled up to his bumper
within a few seconds.

She smiled maniacally when she saw his eyes widen
in shock in his rearview mirror. Evidently he hadn't expected any of them to
make it out so soon.

He picked up speed.

She kept pace, gripping the steering wheel until
her hands hurt and struggling to maintain her nerve as the road twisted and
curved its way down the mountain.

He glanced into the mirror again and this time Lucy
saw fear.

She couldn't blame him. Rational behavior didn't
seem to be her strong suit at the moment.

Dawson's brake lights flashed.

Lucy was a fraction of a second slow to respond.

The van tapped the SUV's bumper at an angle as they
entered a curve. The SUV spun. Metal screeched as the passenger side of the van
and the rear bumper of the SUV slid across each other.

The SUV skated off the road.

Lucy fought the van and managed to bring it to a
stop with the right wheels in the dirt.

Saying a prayer of thanks for her automatic
seatbelt habit, she turned to see Dawson was moving around in the driver's seat
of the SUV.

Lucy realized things could get ugly very fast.

She struggled free of her seatbelt and shoved the
flopping top half of her coverall aside to reach the gun tucked in her climbing
harness.

Gun in hand, she threw open the van door and
climbed out. "Don't move!" she yelled. "I have a gun! The police
are on the way!" She threw in the last in the faint hope he'd believe it
was possible.

She stepped up into the doorway of the van and
braced the gun on the roof, pointing it at Dawson. He was still trying to get
free of the SUV. Would he shoot?

With multiple millions of dollars at
stake--probably.

The SUV door opened.

"I said don't move!" Lucy shouted.
"I swear I'll shoot you."

Lucy couldn't see Dawson's hands.

His answer was a laugh. "Only people who won't
pull the trigger say that."

His hand appeared around the edge of the SUV's door
and he fired.

The back window of the van exploded.

Lucy flinched and fired back.

Her position, braced on the roof of the van made
her aim better than his.

Dawson went down.

Shaking, Lucy deliberately moved her finger away
from the trigger of the pistol and waited.

Dawson didn't move.

What the hell had she done?

Lucy watched for a few more seconds but Dawson
stayed put.

"I'm coming over there to see if I can help
you. If you even twitch I'll shoot you instead."

He didn't respond.

Lucy stepped down and walked around the front of
the van keeping her eyes glued to Dawson. She couldn't be positive but it
looked like his gun was on the ground just out of his reach.

She moved faster, keeping her gun trained on him
praying he wouldn't move. Praying even harder that he was still alive and could
tell her where he was holding Belle.

He moaned when she got to him. The gun was indeed on
the ground. She kicked it out of reach just like she'd seen on TV and looked
him over to try and see where he was wounded.