Stolen Innocents (The Shadow Series Book 2) (37 page)

***

“Shit!” Adam screamed as he watched the van barrel through the front of their father’s SUV.

“Where is Tristan and Aunt Bridgette?!” yelled Liam.

“I don’t know but O’Mara is getting away!”

Adam slammed on the breaks. There was nowhere for him to go. He couldn’t turnaround, and he couldn’t get out of the tunnel because of the wreck that blocked the exit. All that they could do was wait for help. Adam flicked on a flashlight and looked at his brother with a look of disbelief. As they sat there in the darkness the ceiling of the mine began to fall down upon them. Rock and debris crashed down onto the hood and windshield of the police cruiser with a crash.

They were trapped in the mine.

***

“No, Aunt Bridgette! You stay! Get to Liam and Natalie!”

“Tristan you cannot go after her alone!”

“Liam is hurt! You have to save him!”

Before Bridgette could stop her niece, Tristan bolted after Angie into the heart of the mine.

***

Cole drove the Jeep at an alarming speed up the middle tunnel that Bridgette and Tristan had used. In the foreground they heard a horrible crash and raised voices of several women.

“What the hell was that?!” Jack yelled from the backseat.

“We’ll know in a minute, were almost to the light.”

“My nerves! I’m getting too old for this shit!” yelled Jack.

“Please let them be okay,” prayed Joe from the passenger seat.

As Cole’s Jeep whipped out of the dark tunnel and passed the car wreck, he felt his heart stop for a second.

Tristan
.

“Stop the car!” yelled Jack. “Let me out!”

Cole slammed on the breaks as both he and Jack ran out of the vehicle and they ran to the demolished truck. Cole fell to his knees as grief poured over him. Jack screamed as he gripped his hair, looking as if he was about to rip it out. Fortunately, their devastation was short lived.

“Jack!” yelled Bridgette from the opposite side of the wreck.

“Bridgette?!” replied Jack, stunned to hear his sisters voice.

Bridgette had climbed over the wreck in an attempt to get to Adam and Liam. Natalie was beside her helping move fallen debris out of the way. Rocks had fallen from above into the spaces between the demolished van and the police cruiser.

“Do you need help?!”

“No! Go get Tristan! She ran up the mine after Angie!”

A look a pure horror washed over Jack’s face. Before Jack was able to come to his senses, Cole had bolted, racing further down the mine. Chasing after a killer of women, and the only girl he ever loved.

Chapter              27

June 21, 2000

Elkhart, PA

12:15 A.M.

“Please explain to me why I’m paying for a family plan on these cell phones, when nobody knows how to pick up the bloody phone?!” yelled Frank Kilpatrick into his black cell phone. He was trying to track down Jack but he wasn’t answering his cell phone. Frank and the boys had returned to Morrow Manor from the movies and found that the house was strangely empty.

“Something is wrong,” said Blake. “I know it… Where
is
everyone?!” he said nervously.

“We need to go find out what’s going on,” said Tommy rationally.

“Did you try calling Joe or Jenna?”

“They aren’t answering either.”

“What about Gus and Grandma?” Shane persisted.

“They are in New York…” reminded Blake.

“Alright, we need to go figure out what’s what,” said Frank as he put his truck back in gear.

***

“Liam! Can you hear me?!” yelled Bridgette into the mine.

Adam yelled back, “Its Adam. I can hear you. Liam’s trying to hold up… He just closed his eyes for a minute.”

Adam’s voice was muffled through the rubble.

“Tell him to open them immediately!” demanded Bridgette with concern rampant in her high pitched voice.

Adam shook his brother’s leg vigorously, “Wake up! Aunt Bridgette said that you have to wake up!”

Liam, “Stop!”

“Liam!” cried Bridgette from the opposite side of the wreck, “Do you hear me? Wake up! Stay with us! Do not go to sleep!”

“I’m here! I’m just tired! My entire body hurts,” Liam complained.

“Adam, where was he shot?”

“In the shoulder….”

“Did you wrap it to control the bleeding?”

“Yeah, I wrapped my uniform shirt around his shoulder. It’s soaked with blood now, though.”

“Are you hurt at all?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“I need you to try getting out of the car and pushing this debris towards me.”

“The rocks have us trapped in. Even the windshield is blocked.”

“Okay, hold tight! Joe and I are trying to get you guys out! Keep Liam awake, please!”

***

“Tristan!” Cole yelled down the dark tunnel where Tristan had just chased after Angie.

Cole couldn’t see Tristan anywhere, but he heard two voices in the short distance ahead. From behind him, Cole heard the heavy tromp of a boot crushing against the dirt floor of the mine. Jack followed behind Cole, close on his heels. As the two men reached the end of the tunnel, they could hear a conversation break out between two female voices. Jack lifted his right index finger to his lips indicating the need for silence as he and Cole exchanged nervous glances. With bated breath, they listened to the heated exchange.

***

Moonlight shone brightly into the cavity of the Bone Tree and illuminated the spot where Angie and Tristan were standing. They stood just feet from one another, both in an aggressive stance, ready to take on the other should their emotions spill over into violence. The pale glow of the moon acted as a strange spotlight, casting Tristan and Angie in an eerie spectral glow. Angie glared at Tristan with a hostile but vacant expression on her face.

Tristan glared back, “You don’t frighten me.”

Angie shrugged her shoulders and quipped, “I don’t care.”

“You’re not going to get away with this,” Tristan assured her in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I don’t care about that either,” quipped Angie in a nonchalant tone.

“So tell me Angie, what the hell
do you
care about then?” asked Tristan becoming irate.

Angie laughed darkly as she took in Tristan’s face but she did not answer the question at hand.

“You only care about yourself. That is it. There is no other explanation for your actions.”

Angie casted a venomous stare at Tristan as her once-pretty face morphed into something else. She was allowing her true self to come forth. Angie’s rage was spilling over and taking reign of whatever acute amount of self-control she still possessed.

“Little girl, you just don’t get it. Do you?” spat Angie in a hoarse voice.

“You’re right. I don’t. I don’t get why you feel that it’s okay to kill people that you’re supposed to love,” said Tristan bluntly.

Angie scoffed at Tristan. She could not control her envy or rage anymore.

“Love?! What does love have to do with it?! These people didn’t love me!” screamed Angie in a most petulant voice.

“I guess when anger and hatred have polluted your soul so absolutely, it is hard to understand or see that people actually did care about you. Your parents gave you a second chance.”

“Look girl, the world wasn’t just handed to me. I worked for everything I’ve had, and it was all stripped away from me. I wasn’t raised with a silver spoon in my mouth.”

“And I was?”

“By looks of it.”

“Looks can be deceiving.”

“Trust fund kid, right?”

“My father can barely afford to heat our house, thank you very much.”

“Everything in my life has been stolen from me.”

“Angie, you’re not the only one who has had a rough life.”

“Strolling all about town with no cares in the world with your little boyfriend. He’ll hurt you one day, you know. They all do.”

“You know nothing about him. Or me, for that matter.”

“How hard of a life could you have possibly had?! You live on an estate, you go to a prestigious private school and you probably never had to fight a single one of your own battles.  I’m sure you never had to know the likes of what I went through.”

“My life has been harder than most people care to know, and I fight all my battles. I have no problem going toe to toe with an asshole like you.”

Angie was taken aback with Tristan’s tone. Angie assumed that she would be the easiest target to take down because she knew she didn’t have to take her, she could just lure her in by taking her friend. She never saw her as a real threat.

“My life hasn’t been a walk in the park. How can you just walk around like a normal person, as if Bernard doesn’t haunt your every waking moment?”

“Because he doesn’t! I refuse to let him control my life or live rent-free in my head!” Tristan spat with anger.

“How can that be?! He ruined me!” Angie demanded.

“You let him,” quipped Tristan with an agitated look on her face.

“He turned me into what I am.”

“That’s no excuse to kill people,” said Tristan matter-of-factly.

“What would you know of it?!” Angie yelled as anger coursed through her body.

“I know that you loved Bernard Kendricks… I know what he did to you… and I know you didn’t fight back. That’s the difference between you and me. You let him destroy you. I never gave him the chance. I fought back,” said Tristan firmly.

Angie’s lips twisted upward into a strange smile as she stalked circles around Tristan. The moonlight gleamed down upon Angie’s thin frame, exposing her sickly face and dark circles. 

“He made me into the person I am.”

“You’re proud of that?”

“I’m a victim.”

“You’re only a victim if you allow yourself to become one.”

“You make it sound
so
easy…”

“It’s not easy, but it’s a choice. You can choose to let his actions be what shapes and defines your future, or you can move past it, and bury it to rest.”

“Secrets cannot be buried.”

“But they can be laid to rest once you’ve come to terms with what happened.”