At Peace (83 page)

“Let me talk to him.”

“Girl, we gotta –”

“
Frankie,” Cal cut in, “stay on the
line.”

“Let me talk to him!” Vi demanded.

“
Shit,” Frankie muttered then he heard a
faraway, “here.”

Cal’s teeth were still clenched and he was
glaring at Benny who still had Ricky against the wall with a loose
hold at his throat but his eyes were locked on Cal.

“Joe –” Vi began.

“Honey, I know you’re freaked but you gotta
give the phone back to Frankie,” Cal told her.

“Why?” Violet asked.

“Because she’s got her shit together and she
can lead me to you.”

“But I know exactly where we are. Dad had a
boat up here. We’re –”

He heard Frankie cut in. “Violet, I hear
somethin’.”

“Where are you?” Cal asked urgently.

“Oh God, they’re here,” Violet whispered.

“
Violet, God dammit,
where are
you?
” Cal shouted but
the line was dead. “
Jesus fucking
Christ!
” Cal roared, snapped the phone shut, got into Benny’s
space to shove him aside and wrapped his hand around Ricky’s
throat. “Where’s Hart’s boathouse?”

Ricky’s eyes were bugging out and his hand
came up to claw at Cal’s arm but he managed to gag,
“Boathouse?”

“Boathouse!” Cal barked in face.

“Don’t know. Swear to God… don’t –” he
stopped speaking and started full on gagging, Cal released him and
stepped back.

He flipped the phone back open and dialed
home. Colt answered on the first ring.

“Colton.”

“Colt, ask Kate what her grandfather’s phone
number is.” Cal ordered.

“Sorry?” Colt asked.

“I don’t have a lotta time. Ask Kate what
Vi’s father’s phone number is.”

“Hang on,” Colt said and then Cal heard him
calling Kate and the phone was jostled.

“Joe?” It was Kate saying his name, his
second favorite way of hearing it.

“Hey Katy,” he said softly.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, baby.”

“Mom?” she asked, her voice tense.

“Gettin’ there,” he replied vaguely. “Now
listen to me. I need your grandfather’s phone number.”

“I’ll go get my phone,” she said quickly.

So Kate. She didn’t ask questions. She wasn’t
messing around. She knew he needed something and she was getting
down to business.

“That’s my girl,” he whispered.

“Everyone here is really freaked out,” she
told him and he knew she was walking and talking.

“Tell them they can relax,” Joe said and he
heard her short, surprised giggle.

“Jeez, Joe, that’s what you always say.”

God he loved that kid.

“I know you’re in a hurry but can you hang
on? Keira wants to talk to you,” Kate asked.

He couldn’t but he would.

“Yeah, tell her it has to be fast.”

“Right,” she said into his ear and then the
phone was away from her mouth when he heard her say, “It has to be
fast, Keirry.”

“I’ll be fast,” he heard Keira promise, then
in the phone, “Joe?”

Tied for second.

“Hey, honey.”

“Joe,” her voice broke on his name then the
tears were audible.

“Come here, darlin’,” Cal heard who he
guessed was Cheryl whisper and the phone moving.

“It’s me. I’m back,” Kate said. “I got the
number.”

“Give it to me,” Joe replied and listened to
it as she gave it and repeated it. When she was done, he said,
“We’ll be home soon, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she whispered.

“Love you, baby.”

“Love you too, Joe.”

He flipped the phone shut and looked at Benny
and Ricky who were both staring at him. Benny with a grin on his
face. Ricky with his mouth hanging open.

Cal ignored their reactions and said to
Benny, “They’re in a boathouse, north, on the lake. Vi said her Dad
had a boat there before we were disconnected. I have his number.
We’ll call on the way.”

Benny was already on the move when he said,
“Gotcha.”

* * * * *

We stopped in the trees, both of us breathing
heavy but we listened for footfalls in the leaves.

We’d been running willy nilly for what seemed
like hours, at first because we were panicked and didn’t know what
the fuck we were doing. Then because we were lost and couldn’t get
our bearings. Finally, we came to a spot that was familiar to me
and I knew we were close to safety.

Now we just needed to catch our breath.

“You think we lost them?” Frankie
whispered.

I knew Daniel Hart never gave up. We didn’t
lose them.

I looked at her and shook my head.

She looked through the trees then at me. “We
should separate.”

I snatched up her hand. “What? No!”

“They won’t know who they’re followin’.”

“So? They could catch either one of us but
–”

“You stay here, I’ll go. They’ll hear me,
follow me, you know the lay of the land. You wait awhile then go to
that shop you were talkin’ about and I’ll lead them away.”

This was a crazy plan and no way I was doing
it.

“What if they find you?” I asked.

“I’ll think of something,” she answered.

“That’s crazy!” I snapped.

She got close. “Violet, honey, you got no
shoes on. You’re in a t-shirt. You can’t be out here, running on
this –”

I cut her off. “I’m fine.”

She got closer. “Listen to me –”

I shook her hand at the same time I squeezed
it. “We’re not separating.”

“Vi –”

I lifted my other hand and wrapped it around
the side of her neck. I did this because Joe did it to me more than
once and when he did I shut up and listened to him (sometimes).

“We’re… not… separating.”

Frankie stared me in the eyes then she
nodded.

There you go. The hand to the neck business
worked even if you weren’t a huge badass rugged alpha male.

I filed that away for future reference and
then we both took off running.

* * * * *

Cal and Benny stood in the empty boathouse
with the broken window. There weren’t many but this was the third
one they’d been in. The second one had two dead men in it that Cal
recognized because they’d shot at him this morning. The boathouse
he and Benny were in was the closest to Hart’s and it was the one
where the women had used the phone. Cal knew this because the place
was dusty but the dust was disturbed and most of the disturbance
was around the phone.

Cal had Benny’s phone to his ear and Pete was
on the line.

“Where would she head?” Cal clipped into the
phone.

“
People. Civilization,” Pete
muttered.

That would be difficult. They weren’t far out
of Chicago but there weren’t a lot of either of those where they
were which was fifteen minutes out of Chicago but still right in
the middle of fucking nowhere.

Then Pete said on a near shout, “The
shop!”

“What shop?” Cal asked.

“Main road, half a mile up from the house we
used to have. Only thing on that road except the lake houses. We
used to drive out of our way to go up there so I could get the kids
ice cream. I didn’t want the ice cream to melt –”

Cal interrupted him, “So it’s half a mile up
from your old place, you mean north?”

“Yes,” Pete answered and Cal looked at Benny
and did the mental calculation from what Pete had told him.

“So maybe five, six miles from here,” he said
to Benny.

“Long way for her to go if she’s barefoot,”
Benny replied quietly and Cal was glad Vi’s fucking foot had time
to heal so both of them could be torn to shreds running through a
goddamned forest because fucking Daniel fucking Hart was right now
literally stalking his goddamned woman.

“Gotta go,” Cal said into the phone as they
headed toward the door.

“You’ll call?” Pete asked.

“I’ll call,” Cal answered and flipped the
phone shut.

Then he jogged behind Benny but followed him
to the driver’s side.

Benny turned to him. “I’m drivin’.”

“I’m runnin’,” Cal returned.

Benny’s brows shot up. “What?”

“I’m on foot. You drive to the shop. I’m
takin’ the woods.”

Benny moved closer. “Cal, you haven’t had
food, you –”

“Time’s wastin’, Ben.”

“You been shot twice,” Benny reminded
him.

“Grazed.”

“Cal, God dammit –”

“
They might catch them before they reach
the shop. They could be anywhere in those woods and they’re scared,
not covering their tracks and therefore leavin’ footprints,” Cal
pointed out and finished. “I’m trackin’ through the
woods.”

“Yeah, you get caught up in somethin’, we
only have one phone.”

“Go to the shop. They’re not there, brief the
people who work there, tell them to call the cops, tell the cops to
call Pryor and you drive the road. I find them, that’s where I’ll
lead them.”

“
Cal, I haven’t been shot today, or
shot
at
. Let me
run.”

“Get in the truck, Benny.”

“Cal –”

Benny didn’t finish. Cal turned and ran into
the woods.

* * * * *

He was gaining. He wasn’t hungover and he had
shoes on and he’d had something to eat that day.

I should have let Frankie separate. I was
slowing her down.

“
Go!” I shouted, “go to the
shop.”

“We’re not separating!” she shouted back, her
hair flying behind her, running in front of me, she had my hand in
hers and she was holding on tight.

“Frankie!”

The gunshot rang out, it was so close I could
hear the hiss of the bullet through the air and we both reflexively
dove for cover.

By the time we rolled to our backs and looked
up, Daniel Hart was standing over us, pointing his gun at
Frankie.

“Liability,” he muttered then fired.

* * * * *

Cal heard the shot, it wasn’t close but it
wasn’t far away.

He stopped running and started sprinting.

Seconds later, he heard the second shot.

* * * * *

Benny had the windows open to the SUV, he
heard the shot, it wasn’t close but it wasn’t far away.

He pulled the Explorer to the side of the
road, shut off the ignition, tagged his gun and threw open the
door.

His boots hit the ground and he heard the
second shot.

He sprinted into the woods.

* * * * *

“Shoot me!” I shrieked.

He was pointing the gun at me but I was
staring into his eyes.

“You took everything from me,” he stated
calmly.

“
I took everything from you? You took
everything
from me!
” I
screeched.

“I handed you the world gift by gift. You
didn’t even bother to open the boxes.”

“You’re a lunatic. You think the world fits
in a box?” I snapped.

He leaned forward and his face twisted in a
way that I did not like.

“
You would know if you bothered to
open the fucking
boxes!
”

I leaned forward too, keeping his focus as I
heard Frankie dragging herself away.

“
I
do
know
what it feels like to be handed the world, you asshole!” I shouted,
“Tim did it when he got me pregnant at seventeen and then gave me a
beautiful life until you took his. Then Joe gave it to me again and
he did it just by giving a shit that I’d walked across a goddamned
yard in bare feet! And here I stand in front of you, and you think
you gave me the world when you don’t even care that I’m running
through a forest
in bare feet!
”

* * * * *

Cal stood ten feet to the side of Hart,
raised his gun and took aim

He did this listening to Vi and smiling.

* * * * *

Frankie’s head came up, her eyes hit Benny
and she quit dragging herself through the leaves.

Benny squatted low and put his finger to his
lips.

Frankie squished her lips into her nose and
mouthed, “Bare feet?”

Benny hoped to all hell that this meant the
blood coming from her middle wasn’t oozing the life out of her.

Benny grinned at Frankie, shook his head,
straightened, raised his gun and took aim.

* * * * *

Hart wasn’t listening to me firstly because
he was focused on his own shit and secondly because he was a
maniac.

“I built an empire and I put it at risk for
you.”

“
I didn’t ask for that, didn’t want
it,
still
don’t want
it,” I snapped back.

“
And now it’s gone,” he whispered, “because
of you.”

“Let me enlighten you, Mr. Hart. After they
put you away for a thousand years, by some miracle you get out and
you find a woman who catches your fancy, she doesn’t want an
empire. She wants you to give a shit. That’s it. She just wants you
to give a shit.”

He still wasn’t listening.

“I gave it all for you,” he whispered, his
voice quiet in a scary way.

“You didn’t give anything.” My voice was
quiet too. “You just took.” My eyes moved to his gun and I made an
invitation that I hoped he didn’t accept but instead would finally
fucking listen to me. “So take now. Take my daughters’ mother away.
Take again from Joe, someone who life hasn’t allowed to keep hold
of many good things. Take me.”

He raised his gun to point at my head.

I kept staring at the gun and I wondered if
Tim and Sam felt like this in their last moments. If they felt
their heart racing. If their throat had closed. If they felt every
inch of their skin tingling. If their mind moved to me, the girls,
Mel. If they sent out a prayer that someone would make us all right
when they were gone. If they hoped to all that was holy that we’d
never forget that they loved us.