“Who I am is not important. And I think you know why I’m here. Go sit.”
Sarah considered arguing, but since he had the gun pointed at her and there was nothing to distract him with, she decided her best bet was to just go along with whatever he wanted. At least for now.
She tried to take the seat nearest the wall, but he stopped her.
“No. That one, not that one.”
“But …”
“Just take the fucking seat and don’t argue. I really have no problem putting a bullet in you right now.”
Sarah sat down with her back to the room. It was freaking her out to have him behind her, not able to see anything he was doing. She heard movement and then him talking, but not to her.
“Yeah, it’s me. I’ve got one of them. I think it’s Sarah.” There was a pause and then, “Hey, you … you’re Sarah, right?”
“No, I told you … I’m Gretchen, asshole.” She decided to shelve her commitment to not swear anymore. These were desperate times.
The guy went back to what Sarah assumed was a phone call. “Yeah, it’s Sarah. The bitch is mouthy.” He was silent for a few seconds before continuing. “No, I haven’t done anything yet. We might need her to call the others or something, so I’ll wait until they’re all here.” Another hesitation came, and then, “Good. I’ll wait here. What do you want me to do when we have all of them?”
Sarah listened as hard as she possibly could for the answer to the bad man’s question, but she couldn’t catch what the person on the other end of the line was saying. The voice was too tiny to make out any words. She was hoping not to hear two syllables: Kill them. There were definitely more than two coming out of the phone, but they could have been anything. Like, kill them and bury the bodies. Her hands shook as she put them out in front of her on the table, pretending to examine her fingernails while her mind went into overdrive, trying to come up with a plan of escape.
***
Xena was sitting at Jonathan’s feet as he stood on tiptoes, trying to get the line for one of his noisemakers hooked higher up in the tree. A couple of them had gotten too loose during the night, losing the tension they needed to be effective.
The dog growled, and Jonathan froze. She never did that for no reason - that was James’ penchant. It was only when Xena felt threatened that they heard her make those scary sounds. She’d done it at Kevin when he’d been stupid enough to kind of bait her, but that was it.
Jonathan turned around, but saw no one. “Kevin?” he called out. “Is that you?”
Xena growled again, the deep timbre sending shivers up Jonathan’s spine.
“Kevin, if that’s you, you should announce yourself. I won’t be able to stop Xena if she comes after you.”
A voice came out from behind some trees - one Jonathan didn’t recognize. “Call your dog off, or I’ll shoot her.”
Jonathan dropped down into a crouch, putting an arm over Xena’s shoulders. He had no idea who this person was, but he probably had a weapon and sounded confident enough about using it. “Xena, no. Calm down, girl. Calm down.” Jonathan took several deep breaths, using the oxygen to fill his lungs and brain, getting his body ready to mobilize if necessary.
A man wearing jeans and a black t-shirt came out into the open.
I know that man! Jonathan schooled his features to remain bland. He didn’t know if it was critical that this man not realize he’d been recognized, but Jonathan decided it was better to have as many cards up his sleeve as possible. He studied the man’s face and demeanor. He’d been standing in the emergency room at the hospital, when we were there to check on Barry. Jonathan’s head spun with the ramifications. They’d been followed, first there and now here. What does it mean? Jonathan was short all the variables and insights he needed to figure out exactly what was going on. Pay attention to everything he says and does. There are clues to be gathered.
“Come on,” said the stranger. “We’re going back to the house.” He didn’t have any weapons out or showing; he just gestured with his hand.
Jonathan quickly decided his best bet was to just do what the man said, at least until he had a better idea about what kind of defenses he might have or what the man’s plan was. He made a move as if to walk that way, but Xena’s growl stopped him.
“I told you to shut the damn dog up.”
“I did, sir. I mean, I tried to. But she seems to have a mind of her own.” Jonathan was afraid to move now, but more because the dog was acting like she wasn’t going to let him go without a fight. He wasn’t even sure whose side she was on right now or if she was maybe suffering from a form of confusion. Obviously, she saw the guy as a threat, but beyond that, Jonathan had no idea what was going through her canine gray matter.
“Tell her to shut the hell up and go!” The man was obviously getting angry, fully expecting Jonathan to just jump and follow his orders without question or hesitation.
Jonathan looked down, trying to make his voice sound confident and very alpha male. “Xena! No! Down! I’m going to the cabin. Heel.” He moved one step forward, and she growled again, this time a snort coming out on her inhale. She definitely meant it - Jonathan was not permitted to go anywhere as far as she was concerned.
The guy reached behind him and pulled a knife out of somewhere. “Last chance. Go or she dies first, then you.”
He doesn’t have a gun or he would have used it already! He can’t hurt me if I keep the proper distance between us! Jonathan calculated his odds of success against the odds of getting stabbed if he stuck around, and made the only rational decision. He spun around and took off running. He sprinted as if his life depended on it. And it did. He was sure of it. There was no chance in the world that this person was here to just visit or threaten. His job was to exterminate, and Jonathan was his target. So were his sister, friend, and the mother of his child. But in order to save them, he had to save himself first.
Xena kept pace with him, no longer growling. The two of them leaped over branches and divets in the ground, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the man, running in the opposite direction of the cabin. Jonathan knew if he didn’t turn soon, he was going to end up at the pond. He put his head down and channeled all his available energy into his legs. The thousands of miles he’d run in his life had prepared him for this one moment, and he wasn’t going to let it end with being caught.
Crashing sounds coming from behind them told Jonathan he was being pursued, but the lack of any gunshots let him know his assumption had been correct. No gun! I have a chance!
***
Kevin was staring up at one of the noisemakers hanging from one of their lines, waiting for Jonathan to finish fixing it.
He turned and looked out in the direction of the driveway. He couldn’t see it from here, but his ears were tuned in for the sounds of the motorcycle approaching. Candi should be back anytime, assuming all went well at the library and grocery store.
James was barking like a fool off in the distance, making him wish he was close enough to throw something at him. That dog was a serious pest sometimes. Good thing he was so smart with the fetching stuff. Kevin’s goal when they got back to the real world was to have Sarah teach him how to fetch cans of soda from the fridge. Now that was a useful skill for a dog to have.
The crunch of dry leaves behind him was the only clue he had that he was no longer alone in that section of the woods. He turned around to greet Jonathan, wondering why he didn’t just yell that he was finished. He caught a flash of yellow teeth and a bad mustache in his field of vision, but had no time to connect the idea of a stranger sneaking around out in the woods and the threat to his safety before a sharp pain blossomed across his temple and the lights went out. He slid into a deep, unconscious sleep, his brain short circuiting the entire way down.
***
Sarah stood when the door to the cabin opened, ready to scream out a warning, but slowly sat down again when she realized it wasn’t one of her family there. She remained twisted a
round so she could watch the two killers interact.
“What’s up?” asked her captor of the second man.
“Found one of them out in the woods. Big guy. Knocked his ass out. He’ll be dead to the world for the rest of the day, at least. No way could he get up from that. Maybe I already killed him. Crack!” He laughed, proud of himself.
“What about that fucking barking dog?”
“Same. Down for the count.” The second man walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, reaching in and taking out a bottle of water.
“You should’ve just killed it.”
Sarah gasped at their callousness, but the second man didn’t even acknowledge her presence. And now he was just taking their stuff as if he owned it and talking about hurting her family. She scowled at him. He was so going down if she had anything to say about it. She prayed he was wrong about Kevin. He was way tougher than anyone realized; he’d proven that enough times on the rugby field.
“I was going to, but then I saw that other guy and didn’t have time to take care of it. It’s just a friggin mutt anyway. Worst it could do is bite your ankle.”
“Where’s Jimmy?” asked the gunman.
“I dunno. I haven’t seen him. He’s out there somewhere taking care of that other kid. Where’s the fourth one?” asked the second guy.
“Not here. Ask her where she is,” the gunman said, pointing in Sarah’s direction.
Sarah turned back around, refusing to acknowledge them now. They’d get nothing from her. She heard the sounds of his shoes crossing the room and then the chair next to her being pulled out. Refusing to look over, she stared at her fingernails, acting as if her manicure was way more important.
“Where’s the other girl?” came the voice of the second man.
Sarah said nothing.
“I got your friend out there in the woods who’s dead asleep with a big lump on his head. I got no problem going back out there and finishing him off with this,” he said, placing a huge and very lethal-looking hunting knife on the tabletop. “So tell us … where’s the other girl?”
“Shouldn’t you have a Russian accent?” Sarah asked.
The guy gave her a half smile. Maybe it was meant to be something nice, but all it did was make Sarah’s stomach contents curdle.
“So you wanna play, huh? That’s fine.” He stood. “I’ll be right back. I’m gonna go cut that guy’s ear off and bring it in here for her.”
Sarah stood up and screamed, “No! Don’t do that! I’ll tell you where she is!” What’s the harm? She’s far away, and Kevin will never forgive me if I let them cut off his body parts. Hell, I’ll never forgive me if I let that happen.
He walked back, slowly, as if he’d much rather be out dismembering her brother. When he got to the table, he faced her, standing much too closely for her comfort. “You don’t wanna play anymore?” He lifted his knife up and brought it slowly to her chin, stopping when the point was just barely touching it. “That’s too bad. I was looking forward to playing a little game with you.”
She tipped her head back as far as she could to avoid being cut, but she felt the sting of his blade as it dug into her skin anyway. A warm trickle of blood came to the surface and bled down her neck in a slow stream.
“Leave her alone,” said the guy on the other side of the room. “We need her alive, at least for now.”
The knife left Sarah’s face and she tipped her head back down, resisting the urge to punch the guy in the nose and kick him in the balls.
He turned his head and scowled at his partner. “You don’t give me orders, Jack.”
“No, you’re right. I’m just repeating the orders of the guy who does. So leave her alone and get the information from her so we can get the hell out of here. If we found them, so can the others; and I don’t want to be anywhere near here if that happens.”
Sarah could hear her pulse in her ears. Who are the others? More assholes with knives and guns or the police? She had a feeling asking would be fruitless, but she tried anyway. “Who are the others? The FBI?”
“Shut up, bitch. And tell me where that other little whore is, before I go remove parts of your sleeping friend out there.”
Sarah swallowed the insult that was on the tip of her tongue. “She’s in town. She left hours ago. We don’t expect her back until … tomorrow.”
“Bullshit. She wouldn’t leave you guys for a whole day.” He looked over at the guy with the gun. “She probably went in for supplies. Their fridge is empty. She’ll be back probably any minute.”
“Good. We’ll just wait for her then. Once we have them all together, we’ll figure out what they know and then take care of the problem.”
“Take care of the problem?” asked Sarah, unable to keep the fear from running her mouth. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
The guy sat down again next to her and laughed quietly, using the tip of his knife to carve some letters into the top of the table. “It means, pretty girl, that you are going to take a little nap. A dirt nap.”
“Shut up, asshole. You’re not going to help the situation by getting them all wired up.”
The man in front of Sarah shrugged. “I don’t give a fuck about helping the situation. I came here to do a job, and I’m going to do it. Simple as that. Like it or not. That’s life.” He smiled at her, revealing uneven, grungy, yellow teeth.
Sarah cringed at his disgusting face and horrific promises. She could almost hear Jonathan’s words in her head, telling her their odds of survival had just gone down, knowing that the man in front of her was insane. He didn’t just kill for money; he enjoyed it. He probably had a collection of body parts at his house. The blood drained from her face again as she realized she was probably staring into the eyes of the man who would take her life from her. And the life of her unborn child.
“Where the fuck is Jimmy?” asked the guy with the gun, distracting Sarah from her mother’s instinct that had started to bloom across her chest, making her heart beat double-time. “That asshole should have been back by now.”
“Want me to go look for him?” asked the guy with the knife, abandoning his carving job and standing.
“Yeah. Go find him and bring him back here. And tell him if he’s fucking with that kid, he’s going to answer to me.”
“I doubt that’s gonna do anything to scare him,” said the guy as he walked out the door.
“Well, it better!” yelled the gunman at his partner’s retreating form. “I speak for Baskov, you know!”
“Yeah, yeah!” came the faint response.
Sarah heard nothing for a few seconds and then just the gunman acting frustrated.
“Fuck! Goddamn asshole idiots. Why do I always get stuck with the degenerates?”
“I find it highly amusing that you don’t include yourself in that group,” said Sarah, feeling just a tiny measure of safety over the fact that he’d kept the other guy from hurting her brother. And he had chosen a gun for his weapon, which told her that he preferred to kill from a distance and move on. It struck her as slightly less psychotic than the hunting knife that was big and sharp enough to kill a grizzly bear. She glanced down at the table and read the name carved into it with the lunatic’s blade: Zed.
“Shut up, you stupid bitch. You have no idea what you’re talking about.” His cultured tone disappeared. Maybe it was the stress doing it, but now he sounded like a guy faking being a man with a nice haircut and clothing.
“Are you going to let Zed kill us?” Sarah asked, wondering if he’d bite.
“How’d you know his name? I didn’t use it once.” He walked over to stand next to her on her right side, the opposite one from where Zed had been sitting.
Sarah slid her arm over on the table, covering up the carving as casually as possible. “Oh, we know about all of you. Jimmy, Zed, you … Jack. The FBI told us to expect you and to set off the silent alarm as soon as you showed up.” Sarah was busy pulling false information out of some secret dark recess of her brain tha
t may have existed as a result of watching too many action films with Kevin at the helm of the remote.
“You don’t have a silent alarm to the FBI. Do you think I’m a complete idiot? They’d have agents here if they knew where you were or that you were being followed.”
Sarah shook her head. “Nope. This is how they decided to let it play out. They knew you’d be watching us and would see them if they were here. Plus, they’re not far, so like I said … they’ll be here any minute.”
As if on cue, footsteps came running up the porch stairs and the front door burst open.
***
Candi was flush with the success she’d had at the library and grocery store, and in a huge hurry to get back and share the news with the others. Jason and Stephen had both answered her emails, and the information they’d given her had lit a fire under her butt. Things were happening, and they needed to make some decisions.
She pulled off the main road and onto the dirt road, but she hadn’t gone far before she came upon a car parked over on the shoulder. She pulled up next to it and peered in the windows. It was a nondescript sedan, reminding her of a typical rental car. There was nothing inside it but a single manila folder lying on the front seat. Something that looked like a photograph was sticking partway out of the top.
Candi’s blood pressure zoomed up. Something felt very wrong about a car being out here at all. Why would someone stop so far from the house and the main road? All of the answers that came to her were bad. She shut off the motorcycle and put the kickstand down, making sure it was going to stay up before she let go of the handles and walked around to the other side of the car.
She tried the front passenger door and found it unlocked. Reaching in with a shaking hand, she took the folder off the front seat and opened it up. She stopped breathing for a few seconds when she saw the first item.
It was her driver license picture. Her heartbeat roared in her ears as she paged through the other papers inside. Each of their DMV photos was there, printed in color. A couple other papers were with them, one of them a copy of a receipt from a cell phone store, another a printout of a map of the area with several Xs in outlying areas. One of those markings was directly over the spot where their cabin was located.