“Nice,” Lou whistled.
Brody threaded the microphone up between her breasts and taped it in place. “I hope you can get that sticky stuff off later,” Lou huffed.
“I heard that,” the man called from outside the stall. “Just tape the black box to her stomach and make sure there’s no loose cord.”
Brody ran the cord across her abdomen and taped it in place. Lou squirmed. “Would you be still?” he asked.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“You sure you want to do this?” he asked, his breath blowing across her belly.
“I don’t think I have a choice,” she responded quietly. “Not if I want my life back.”
Brody stood up and Lou drew her shirt back over her head. He leaned down and kissed her gently. “I’ll be right with you,” he said.
“You certainly will,” Wes replied as they walked out of the stall.
They had placed two chairs back to back. Wes threw some tape to John. “Tape the two of them up. We need for it to look like I tied them up out here to wait for Jerry.”
Brody and Lou sat back to back in the tall chairs. John tied Brody’s hands behind his back with the tape, yet made it loose enough to allow for some movement. Then he taped his mouth shut and taped his ankles together. Brody glared at him.
“I always did want to tell you to sit down and shut up,” John teased, drawing attention to himself. Brody felt John wrap his hands with duct tape once more and then he felt the give of the tape between his hands as he cut it where no one would notice. He did the same between his legs. When no one was looking, he slipped his pocket-knife in Brody’s back pocket. “Just in case you need it,” he whispered.
Brody nodded.
John moved to Lou and held the tape out in front of her. “I always had fantasies about you and me and duct tape,” he said with a grin. Brody protested with a grunt. John tied her hands in front of her and left her mouth free.
“That’s enough for her,” Wes said as they heard the crunch of gravel in the driveway. He nodded to John and the other men. “It’s business as usual on the farm, fellas. Get to work.” They all went out the side door of the barn and found positions near the barn. One man wore a Bluetooth headset that looked like it was probably paired with his smartphone, yet in reality it allowed him to hear any conversation from inside.
“Ready, Lou?” Wes asked. She nodded.
“This is always the worst part,” Wes muttered as he raised his hand. Lou didn’t realize his intent until after he had already hit her with the back of his hand across the side of her face. Blood dripped from her split lip and tears came to her eyes.
Brody flinched and mumbled against the duct tape covering his mouth. The tape that bound him to the chair held strong.
Wes wiped the blood from the back of his hand on his jeans and held Brody in the chair by pressing down on his shoulder. “If that’s the worst that happens to her today, we’ll be lucky.” Brody took in a deep breath through his nose as he saw Wes ball up his fist. Darkness clouded his vision as he took the blow to his chin. He slumped over in the chair, suddenly unconscious.
“It hurts less if you don’t see it coming,” Wes said to Lou over her muttered protest.
“Is he okay?” she lisped, her lip already swelling.
“Yeah. He’s just unconscious,” Wes mumbled as he walked around Lou. His cell phone rang. He flipped open the cover.
“I have them secure. In the barn,” he said, then closed the phone and put it away.
Moments later, Gary, the goon from the jewelry store, and Jerry, the boss, walked through the door of the barn.
“Well what do we have here?” Jerry asked casually, as though he was attending a social event.
Wes replied, “Sleeping like a baby is Brody Wester, who is still trying to figure out what the hell is going on.” He pointed to Brody and smirked. “And here we have Mary Lou Smith,” he said, pointing to Lou.
“So nice to finally meet you,” he said quietly as he lit a cigarette, then looking at Lou from head to toe. He reached to caress the side of her face. “Such a shame he had to hit you,” he said.
Lou was surprised to see that Jerry was a physically fit gentleman in his early forties.
“You killed my mother,” Lou stated blandly, using the back of her taped hands to wipe spit from her dripping lip.
“A necessary part of doing business, I’m afraid,” Jerry said as he raised the cigarette to his lips again.
“What do you want?” Lou asked. “The diamond?” Her eyes met his without fear.
“Among other things,” he responded.
“What other things?” Lou asked.
“Where is it?” Jerry asked, turning to Wes. Wes reached into his coat pocket and removed the large cask. He held it out to Jerry and flipped it open.
“I had forgotten how big that thing was.” He picked it up and held it in his hand, testing its weight. “That was what your mom saw. How big it was. She was desperate.”
“She beat you at your own game,” Lou sneered.
He grabbed Lou’s chin and squeezed hard. “No one beats me.”
Lou threw her head to shake her chin out of his hold. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“The only thing I can do,” he said, taking his gun from the holster beneath his jacket.
Lou stiffened as Jerry pulled his gun from the holster. She sat forward slightly, getting ready to move. She looked over her shoulder at Brody, his form still at rest.
“The only thing you can do is kill me.” Lou stated. “I never had any hope of coming out of this alive.”
Jerry shrugged. “I don’t have a choice. You’re a liability, just like your mother was.”
“You won’t walk away from this,” Lou said, hoping to antagonize him.
“Oh, sure I will,” he boasted. “Just like I walk away from all the others.”
“What others?” Lou asked. If she had to die today, she would at least get all the info the FBI needed to put Jerry away for a long time.
He waved the gun and took on an air of self-importance. “All the others who got in my way,” he said absently.
“Like who?” Lou asked.
Jerry got a gleeful gleam in his eye. He nodded toward Wes. Then their gazes locked. “You think I don’t know who you are?” he asked, raising his gun and pointing it at Wes.
Wes raised both hands as though surrendering. “Whoa, there,” he said, the corners of his mouth lifting slowly. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Wes reached for his own weapon but it was too late. Jerry pulled the trigger and the bullet slammed into Wes’s midsection. He fell to the floor of the barn with a groan, a surprised look upon his face. His eyes closed and he was still.
Brody used the opportunity to flex his hands and legs, unwinding them from the loosened tape. Then he stood quickly and stepped behind Gary, grabbing the shorter man around the throat with his forearm. He touched the knife to the man’s neck.
“Step away from Lou or I’ll kill him.”
Jerry shrugged. He raised his gun and fired. The shot hit Gary in the forehead and Brody felt him slump down toward the floor. He knelt over him, feeling for a pulse. There was none. Brody looked up at Jerry. “There are FBI agents all over the place outside. You’ll never walk away from here,” he said candidly.
“My guys took out your FBI agents ten minutes ago,” Jerry said. “So, now it’s just the three of us.” He raised his gun again and fired. Brody felt the bullet rip through his shoulder as he fell onto his back. Lou ran to his side.
“Brody! Are you all right?” she screamed, afraid because of all the blood. She touched the wound and brought her hands back, covered in red. Her hands shook violently.
Jerry stood a few feet away, absently cleaning his fingernails with a pocketknife. “Isn’t this touching?” he asked sarcastically. He turned his back to them and raised his phone to his ear, sure he had won.
Lou leaned over Brody and they both heard a “Pssst.??
? They looked over and saw John crouched by the door. He pointed over his head to the light switch. In the darkness, Lou and Brody would have an advantage. Brody nodded at him.
Seconds later, the lights flickered off in the barn. Brody whispered to Lou, “Run!”
“What about you?” she whispered back.
“Run!” he said again, and shoved her toward the door, slowly rising, himself. “I’ll catch up,” he said, trying to reassure her. “Go!” He shoved her again.
Lou silently crept toward the door and out into the night. She clung to the shadows created by the barn until she rounded the corner of the paddock. This particular area did not house horses so Lou crept silently and slowly forward, hoping to make it to the trail behind the barn, where she could run down the path and to safety. Just before she found freedom, she heard a voice behind her.
“Turn around slowly, Mary Lou, and look at me.”
Lou turned and raised her hands in the air. “Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with?” she asked.
“You’re so much like her, you know?” Jerry said quietly, walking toward her. “You could be her twin.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?” she asked.
He shrugged. “You take your pick.”
She nodded, biting her bottom lip. She watched him as he raised the gun again. She flinched as he pulled back the hammer. He straightened his arm and played with the trigger.
“You’re just too much of a liability,” he said. Then he felt it, a loud snort right beside his ear and he jumped, swinging around. He lifted his arms to cover his head as he caught sight of the horse rearing over his head, hooves flying in his face. He screamed as he took a blow to the temple and the shoulder. He dropped the gun as he fell to the ground.
Lou dove for it as she saw it fall and clutched it in her hand. She stepped back and pointed the gun but was unable to distinguish one form from another as hooves pounded the earth. The shrieks were the only thing that let her know he was still alive. Then the screams stopped and Jerry lay still on the ground. The once-wild mare stood above him, heaving in great gasps of air.
Brody and John heard the screams and walked close to Lou. Brody slowly took the gun in his own hand and pried her fingers from it. He passed it to John and said, “Hold this.”
John took the gun and aimed it at Jerry’s form, which lay on the ground. Brody walked slowly over and felt for a pulse.
“He’s still alive but he took one hell of a beating,” Brody stated, wincing as pain shot through his own shoulder.
Just then, the grounds came alive with the sound of police cars and ambulances. Wes walked closer toward them.
“How did you…?” Brody started.
Wes patted his chest and said absently, “Bullet-proof vest.”
Swarms of uniformed officers walked closer and a gurney was brought for Jerry.
Lou, barely able to stand on her feet, felt Brody’s arm slide around her waist, holding her up. She clasped her arms around his neck but he tensed beneath her hands.
“Oh, my God! You were shot!”
“Yeah, but it went all the way through.” Brody stated, brushing her hands away as she touched his shoulder.
She laid her head on his other shoulder and took a deep breath. “Is it over?” she asked.
“Looks like it,” Brody said quietly before kissing her on the nose. Then he let himself be led away by paramedics.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lou rode along with Brody in the ambulance to the hospital. It took hours for them to get x-rays, clean the wound and give him some IV fluids and start antibiotics. Wes came and went, updating them on Jerry’s health through the night. He suffered from a concussion, several broken ribs, and a broken femur, but he would survive.
“At least he can do his time in prison,” Lou sighed. Then she narrowed her eyes and looked at Wes. “He will go to prison, right?”
Wes nodded. “We have him on attempted murder, murder, theft, and a number of other crimes. I can guarantee he’ll never live another day outside of prison in this lifetime.”
Lou sighed and sat down on the side of Brody’s bed. “Thank God it’s over,” she said, taking his hand in hers. Wes walked out of the room.
Brody rubbed the back of her hand with the pad of his thumb. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
“Much better than you, it seems,” she responded, smiling at him. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
He puffed out his chest and grinned, “Happy to be of service.”
She leaned forward and kissed him quickly on the lips just as John walked into the room.
“Oh, man. Would you two cut that out?” he joked, covering his eyes.
“What are you doing here?” Lou asked, turning toward John.
“I thought you guys could use a ride home,” John shrugged. “Besides, I didn’t have anything to do after they cleaned up all the mess at home.”
“Everyone gone?” Brody asked as he sat up.
“Yep. They all cleared out. I called Jeb and Sadie. They’re coming home tomorrow.”
Lou smiled. “I can’t wait. I just want things to be back to normal.”
“What’s normal?” Brody asked, joking.
“Who knows,” Lou shrugged. “But I want some of it.”
The doctor came in a few minutes later and discharged Brody. They went home and, when they walked into the kitchen, John hung his hat on the peg by the door and turned to Lou. He kissed her gently on the forehead.
“When did you get to be so grown up?” Lou asked playfully as she reached up to hug him.
“Same time you did, I reckon,” he shrugged and smiled.
“You saved the day today, John,” Brody said, clasping his hand.
“Aw, shucks,” John replied. “Weren’t nothing you wouldn’t have done for me.”
“You better believe it,” Brody said.
John turned to walk down the hallway to his own bedroom. “Night, all,” he threw back over his shoulder as he did so.
Lou turned to Brody and took in the sling holding his arm in place and the pained look on his face. “I am so sorry you got caught up in all this,” she said.
“I’m not,” he replied.
“You’re not?” she asked.
“Nope. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” he said, sliding one arm around her waist and drawing her close for a kiss.
“Ready for bed?” he asked.
Lou helped him undress, gently removing his shirt and then replacing the sling for the night. He slid between the sheets naked, and she crawled in with him, fitting her head against his neck. They fell asleep instantly, his breath blowing against her nose and hers tickling the hair on his chest.
****
Brody and Lou slept late the next morning and, after she helped him shower and dress, they shared a box of Lucky Charms in silence. She stood quickly when she heard tires crunch in the driveway and ran out onto the porch. Sarah jumped from the truck and flung herself in her mother’s arms, talking animatedly about the trip she had just taken. Lou hugged Jeb and Sadie and then John took Sarah to play so Brody and Lou could fill them in on what happened.
They sat quietly discussing the past few days at the kitchen table when they heard a short, crisp knock on the door. Lou opened the door to find a small, wiry little man wearing thick glasses. He extended his hand to Lou and said, “Nice to meet you. I have an appointment with Dr. Wester today.”
She stepped aside and let him walk past her into the room. Brody rose from the table and extended his good hand to shake with the small man. “We have an appointment to read your mother’s will today, sir,” he gently reminded Brody.
Brody turned and introduced him to the group as “my mother’s attorney.”
“Let’s go to the study where we can have some privacy, shall we?” Brody said, walking toward the hallway.
The small man stuttered, “Actually, Dr. Wester, I need to assemble a group of people. I need to
see Jeb, Sadie, John, Sarah, Lou, and you, all together.” He walked over to the kitchen table and laid his briefcase down, flipping the locks. He removed a file full of papers and looked expectantly at the group. “Is young John in residence?” he asked hesitantly.
Lou went to the door and called John and Sarah inside. When everyone was assembled at the kitchen table, the attorney started to speak.
“Dr. Wester, your mother left explicit instructions on how her estate is to be divided. It is quite a large estate. Your mother has invested heavily in the past years and those investments have always paid off.” He took a deep breath. “To Dr. Wester, she has left the home and the grounds on which the home sits. This includes the contents of the home on the date of her death and the all possessions herein. To each person seated at this table, Margaret Wester has bequeathed an equal sum of $500,000 per person. That includes the child.”