Jailbird (29 page)

And then I heard the distinctive and
sickening sound of a fist connecting with face. I sighed and heaved
myself off the couch, marching into the other room with my guard
following behind me, nearly pleading for me to come back.

“Let her go,” I demanded before my filter
could kick in.

“Gladly,” his eyes sparked with an emotion I
didn’t want to name. He reached me before I could even take a step
back, one hand grasping me by the throat even as the other grabbed
a handful of hair. Terror was thick as bile in my throat. Memories
came flooding back, fueling the primeval panic that coursed through
my veins. I struggled for air, fought to regain some measure of
calm.

“Not here, Daniel. I’m a lawyer, not a
miracle worker,” Marty seemed almost bored.

“Bring the car around,” Winslow ordered the
guard. “I’ve tolerated her presence in my house long enough.”

After binding me with rope, the guard did as
he was told, holding the door open as Winslow shoved me into the
backseat. Elena was dumped in the seat beside me, her eyes wide
with disbelief and fright.

“This is your fault,” she hissed.

“Sorry sweetie,” I shook my head, refusing to
take the blame. “You’d have wound up taking this ride eventually.
All of his blondes do.”

“What do you know?” Winslow was eerily
calm.

An arched eyebrow was my only answer. Let him
wonder. If I couldn’t stop him tonight, I only hoped that Charlie
and Rachel would be able to stop him from ever hurting anyone
again. Of course, I had every intention of ending this prior to him
murdering me in the middle of nowhere, which seemed to be his
current plan.

The occasional passing car would light the
faces of the other occupants in the back of the Lincoln. Tears
streamed silently down Elena’s face. Winslow wore his usual pinched
expression. I hoped I looked stoic and not scared.

We passed a sign that read Kisatchie National
Forest, and I felt real hope flicker to life for the first time in
hours. The car slowed and pulled down an unmarked dirt road, coming
to a stop once out of the line of sight from the main road.

I might have heard Elena whimper once; I
couldn’t be sure. To her credit, she hadn’t collapsed into
hysterics—something I completely expected her to do. Having her in
tow would certainly slow me down, but I was pretty sure I could
keep her alive through the night.

We walked in silence. Winslow didn’t seem
prone to confessing like the villains in movies often did before
killing their prey. He seemed quite content with the hushed
processional. He led the way, pulling a rope that was tethered to
Elena, who was tethered to me. His henchman brought up the rear. He
seemed to know the drill, as if maybe this was something of a
routine for them.

I didn’t quite know what to make of Winslow’s
employee. At times, I thought there might be a human soul lurking
under all of those muscles. But I couldn’t reconcile how someone
with any humanity in him could so calmly participate in what was
happening here.

Sweat had begun to form on my brow by the
time we stopped. Moonlight glinted off the surface of a nearby
bayou. Cypress trees clung to the edge of the water and an eerie
silence hung in the air. It was as if all creation held its breath
at what was to come.

Winslow slowly pulled his cashmere scarf from
his neck, winding the ends around each hand, his eyes never leaving
mine.

“I’m going to kill Elena first, because I
don’t think you fully understand your situation, Kali. I want to
smell your fear before you die.”

“Neena.”

“Excuse me?”

“Neena. My name is Neena Russell now. Kali
Langston was a scared girl whose life was stolen by a monster.
Neena Russell is the woman standing before you now, and she’s not
going down without a fight.”

“Is this some sort of split personality
thing? Did you go crazy in prison, because this won’t have the same
meaning if you’re nuts now.”

I probably could have come up with a witty
reply if I’d thought hard enough about it. Instead, I kicked him in
the knee and shouted for Elena to run. Thank God she had the
wherewithal to listen.

“Don’t just stand there, get them!” Winslow
bellowed, his voice inhuman. After the briefest hesitation, the
guard followed us.

I heard the hiss over our footsteps just in
time to jerk Elena to the left, even as a large gator struck the
spot we’d been mere seconds before. She screamed and I barked at
her to shut up. I heard the guard yelp and knew he’d come across
our friend, too.

We moved more slowly now as the vegetation
around us thickened. I knew I could disappear into these woods
easily enough, but Elena sounded like a herd of elephants moving
through the bush.

What I needed was enough distance between us
and our pursuer that I could get my hands out of their binds and
explain to Elena how to stay alive. After our run-in with the
gator, I was a little hesitant to nestle down in the
underbrush.

So we just kept pushing forward. I used the
rope securing us together to steer Elena and she noiselessly
complied. When I heard the crash of a car behind us, I knew
Winslow’s tentative grasp on sanity had snapped and for a second
time in my life, took a chance with the gators.

I shoved Elena to the ground, making my own
dive to pull us closer to the water and—hopefully—further from the
tires of the Lincoln Town Car. While we lay there, waiting to see
if we’d be run over or eaten, I worked to free my hands from their
bindings.

“Right about now, you ought to be real happy
that I’m a half-breed who was raised on a bayou,” I whispered
fiercely. “So keep your mouth shut and do exactly what I say and we
just might live to go back to hating each other in Hampton.”

I could feel her nodding in the dark, and I
knew the grit that made her a pain in my backside would be what got
us through this ordeal alive.

The car bumped along past us. We waited,
hearts pounding, for the taillights to disappear. Instead, the car
lurched to a stop. The engine raced and its wheels spun a deeper
and deeper hole in the muck as the driver hit the accelerator. Soon
the guard was out trying to push the car out of its hole while
Winslow shouted out the window.

It was obvious the car wasn’t going anywhere
and they’d figure that out soon enough. Then they’d be on foot and
would have a much better chance of spotting us where we were. With
the water at our left, our options were limited. If we went back
towards the road, we’d be easy to outdistance. Our advantage lay in
the forest. It was my briar patch.

I could only hope they were distracted enough
not to notice us as we crawled across the path beaten down by
Winslow’s tires, trying to reach the woods unnoticed. After a
breathless minute, I reached the cover of the trees with Elena
right behind me. She began to rise just before the tree line and
the movement did not go unnoticed.

“There!” Winslow called. We took off as if
the hounds of hell were nipping at our heels. I could hear Winslow
and his goon slipping and sliding and cussing in the mud. It would
be enough of a break for us to get away. It had to be.

When there was enough woods and night between
us, we slowed to a walk, silently picking our way through the
forest. Elena stayed right in my footsteps, moving as silently as a
small town princess knows how.

The moon struggled to break through the cover
of the trees. Without light, I had no way of really knowing we
weren’t going to run smack into our predators. I had to rely on
instinct and silence as my guideposts.

Up ahead, light seemed to pierce through the
night, unnatural and startling as it pointed at us. There were men
walking in a line. I could make out the rumble of voices but not
who they were or what they were saying. They seemed too calm, too
organized to be Winslow.

Without making a sound, I scaled a nearby
tree then reached down to hoist Elena up. As the group drew nearer,
I moved up further into the tree’s branches, hugging the trunk
close as they passed below.

“They could be anywhere in these woods. This
place is huge.”

“Ross said he got a kick out of feeding girls
to the gators. They’ll be around here somewhere.”

At that statement, Elena gasped. I rolled my
eyes and swore under my breath, even as the spotlight swung
upwards.

“Well lookey there. I don’t think that’s a
couple of coons in that tree.”

“Sorry,” Elena whispered up at me. I resisted
the temptation to swear back at her.

“Come on down, ladies. You’re safe now.”

I couldn’t see well enough from my vantage
point to determine who was standing below me. It didn’t sound like
the police chief, but I wasn’t willing to stake my life on it. I
found it highly encouraging that none of them had shot us out of
the tree yet.

Neither Elena nor I spoke and neither of us
moved. The man grumbled something under his breath as another tried
to coax us down. “Come on girls. Please don’t make us come up that
tree after you. Are you stuck? Do you need help?”

“I’ve never been stuck in a tree in my life,”
I spat before I thought. It goaded me to be patronized after the
night I’d had. I began to inch my way along the branch. Maybe I
could get close enough to the next tree to swing over to it. I’d
come this far, I wasn’t going down quietly now.

“Neena, where are you going?” Elena whispered
harshly.

“For the love of… don’t you ever shut
up?”

“Neena, listen to the girl. You don’t want to
do something crazy in your condition…” the calm man
rationalized.

“What do you know about my condition or its
limitations?” I snapped.

“Will someone get the chief and his buddies
over here to talk some sense into these girls?” the first man
spoke. I had gone as far as I could on the branch I was on and
monkeyed my way from branch to branch until I found myself in the
next tree over.

“Neena… I don’t think I can do that,” Elena
seemed to panic a little at the thought of being left alone.

“Have faith in yourself,” I shot back,
already working my way towards the next tree. I wasn’t about to
stay still and wait to meet the chief’s buddies. I’d seen who he
liked to hang out with.

“Come on now, Ms. Russell. Please come down.
We’re really trying to help.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“If you’ll come out of the tree, I’ll show
you my badge…”

“Men with badges in this town are as corrupt
as your mayor. I don’t think so,” I was panting now with the
effort, but I’d crossed the trunk and was making my way towards the
other end of the tree. The patient man followed below, his
searchlight still fixed on me.

“We’re different. We’re FBI… from the
Alexandria office. Your husband contacted us to report you missing.
He’s here, we’ve sent for him.”

“I don’t believe you,” I stopped moving.
Tears sprang to my eyes. Could Charlie really be nearby? “If you’re
FBI, why didn’t you identify yourselves from the beginning?”

“To be honest, we were all a little surprised
to find you ladies in a tree,” he chuckled before growing serious.
“We were all looking for bodies.”

“If my husband is here, I’ll just wait where
I am until he arrives.”

“I’ll one better ya, ma’am. I’m going to call
him on my walkie-talkie. If you hear his voice, will you believe
me?”

“Maybe,” I was trying to figure out what
trick the man had up his sleeve. Was he luring me down so he could
snatch me? Wouldn’t he have just killed me already if that was his
plan?

“Team 3, this is Special Agent Pratt… can
someone put Mr. Russell on the box?”

“No can do, Mr. Russell took off when he
heard you found his wife. He should be there anytime now.”

“Convenient,” I began my monkey-walk to the
next tree.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

So many things happened in that next moment,
it was hard to process it all. The patient man got a radio that
Winslow had been found just as I heard the thundering of hooves
approaching.

“Neena,” Charlie was calling my name. I could
hear him over the horses, but I still couldn’t see him. Stunned, I
slowly began to lower myself branch by branch. I dropped to the
ground beside the patient man.

“Good evening, Mrs. Russell,” he tipped his
hat and smiled at me. I regarded him warily, but then my attention
was taken by the large, dark horse that came through the thicket,
pulling to a quick stop in front of us. Lights seemed to be
bouncing everywhere as more men appeared. From the flurry of voices
around us, I knew that Conrad, Manny and Sheriff Taylor were the
men on the other horses.

And then I was in Charlie’s arms, swept into
an embrace and peppered with kisses. We were both talking at once
and laughing and crying. He held me so tightly I could barely
breathe and the baby kicked in protest. But I didn’t care; I clung
to him just as tight.

We resurfaced to realize that we had a small
group standing around us smiling. I hugged my brother and Manny and
rather sheepishly shook Special Agent Pratt’s hand. Then like a
magnet to metal, I was back at Charlie’s side. Arm in arm, we
watched the men trying to figure out the logistics of getting Elena
out of the tree. I buried my head in Charlie’s arm when I couldn’t
stop the giggle that bubbled up.

“It’s not nice to laugh,” Charlie admonished,
unable to keep a straight face himself. Eventually she was in her
father’s arms and we seemed ready to leave the woods.

I didn’t ask Charlie what had happened and he
didn’t ask me. We rode together on his rented horse, content to
bask in the knowledge that we were safe and together. The rest
could be shared later.

I felt so incredibly secure with his arms
around me. His scent and his warmth curled around my senses,
filling me with peace. The movement of the horse nearly rocked me
to sleep.