Thicker Than Water (35 page)

“You didn't have to come with me, you know,” she told him.

He glanced sideways at her, his eyes tired. “Yes, I did.”

“Why do you say so?”

“You telling me you don't know? Think about it, Jones.”

Pursing her lips, she tipped her head as she thought. “Oh,” she said at length. “You're still trying to make up for what you think you did wrong sixteen years ago, the day of the raid.”

He frowned. “Funny. I hadn't thought about that in quite a while.” He shrugged. “But it's not why I came.”

“Why, then?”

He sent her a searching look, then finally just shook his head. “Not now. It's not the time.”

“Come on, Sean. You must have an angle.”

He looked a little sad for a moment, but then he sent her a wink. “Always. Besides, I promised the kid she could take her driver's test on my car. And she needs a lot more practice.”

Julie swallowed hard and wondered. For a while last night, when he'd touched her the way he had, she'd started to think he might have something long-term in mind for the two of them. But she didn't know who the hell she was kidding. He wanted her sexually. She wanted him that way, too. She supposed there wasn't going to be anything more than that.

It was a good way to pass the time, wondering if she would give in and have a brief, sexual affair with him, turning it over in her mind. It didn't keep her from worrying about Dawn, didn't even calm her roiling stomach or sooth her frayed nerves. But it passed the time.

“What's the name of that road again?”

“Pine Tree Lane,” she said, glancing down at the map that was open on her thighs. “We should get off in about two more exits.”

“Great. We'll be there before you know it.” He nodded at her bag on the floor. “How about the cell phone? You have a signal yet?”

She pulled the phone out of her bag. “Nope. Not even a weak one.”

“It's the mountains,” he said.

He drove a little farther, and she saw the next exit sign, confirmed the number against her map and nodded hard. “Should be the next one. Off the ramp, straight about ten
miles, then hang a left onto Pine Tree. It winds its way up a mountainside.”

“It's up ahead, I can see the sign from here.”

She nodded, glancing at the dashboard clock. It was early morning, the sun was barely up. But she would be with her daughter soon, she told herself. Soon. What the hell was she going to do when she got there?

All too soon, she found out.

Sean took the exit, and the next ten miles seemed more like a hundred. But finally they were turning onto Pine Tree Lane and making their way along its winding length. Steep mountain stone rose up on her left, and there was a seemingly bottomless drop-off on her right. She felt like a spider walking up a wall.

“That must be it,” Sean said at last, pointing at the roof that was just coming into view up ahead. “We should park down here, walk the rest of the way.”

“Element of surprise and all that?”

He nodded. “Yeah, but you can ride piggyback.”

“I can walk.”

“Crush a guy's fantasies, why don't you?”

She smiled at that, because he sounded almost normal. As if every crazy thing that had happened in the past few days didn't exist. As if things were the way they were supposed to be, with the two of them exchanging killer barbs that cut to the quick and loving every minute of it.

He pulled the car onto the shoulder, got out. She got out her door, and when Sean leaned in from his side, reaching into the back seat for her crutches, she told him, “Leave them.”

“Jones…”

“Leave them. It barely hurts to walk on it.”

“You're a freaking liar.” But he left the crutches where they were and came around the car. “Come on, then. It's either the crutches or piggyback.”

“You don't have to—”

“Jones, will you stop arguing and wrap your goddamn thighs around my waist, already?” He turned his back to her and bent low. Sighing, she mounted his back, legs hugging his waist, arms hugging his neck.

“Not exactly what I have in mind when I mutter that line in my daydreams,” Sean said, “but what the hell.”

“Your rapier wit is killing me.”

He straightened easily and started hiking up the road.

She stared down at his head as he carried her. “Gee, is your hair starting to thin back here?”

“Don't even joke about something like that.” He glanced up at her, smiled a little. “Good to have you back, Jones.”

“Good to
be
back, MacKenzie.”

He gripped her thighs in his hands for added support as he marched along. Then the house came into view, and he veered off to the side, walking to a large boulder and lowering her to the ground so that it blocked her view of the house.

“You stay here,” he said. “I'll sneak up and get a closer look.”

“No.”

“You're impaired. I'm not. I'll be quicker, quieter and less likely to get caught.”

“If he sees you, he'll kill you.”

She looked around the ground, snatched up a short limb and marched out from behind the boulder toward the house. Every step sent pain shooting through her ankle, and she wished to God she'd listened to Sean. She was approaching
the house from the side, and she veered at an angle across the meadow beside it, toward the rear, rather than walking at it head on.

Sean, of course, was right beside her. “Goddammit, woman, why won't you listen to me? You think you have less chance of pissing him off than I do?”

“He could have killed me after the accident, but he didn't. I have to believe he had a reason. Mordecai
always
has a reason. He'd have no qualms about putting a bullet in you, though.” She limped faster. “Stay put, and let me be the one to take a look.”

“No way, lady. I'm not letting you go in there alone.”

“Afraid I'll scoop you? Get the big story all for myself?”

“We're partners. When are you going to get that through your head?”

She stopped hobbling and glared at him. He stood close to her and glared back.

“I didn't come down here for the story, Jones. I came down here for you and for Dawnie. And you goddamn well know it.”

She lowered her eyes slowly. “I really…wasn't sure.”

“Then you're an idiot.” He snapped his arms around her waist without warning, yanked her hard against him and covered her mouth with his, kissing her hard and fast and thoroughly. When he let her go again, she was breathless.

“Sean, I can't—”

“Shut up, Jones.” He scooped her up and carried her back to the shelter of the boulder, set her down, and then made his way slowly to the house, moving from one tree to another, completely exposed in between.

She held her breath as he darted ever closer to the house.
When she thought she saw something move beyond one of the heavily curtained windows, she almost shouted a warning that would have been heard by anyone inside.

Finally he got all the way to the rear of the house and the back door, and peered through the glass—just one quick peek; then he ducked again. She wondered if he'd seen anything, wondered if he'd
been
seen.

But she didn't have to wonder long. Something icy cold and hard pressed into the hollow beneath her ear, and a voice, laced with just the merest hint of the familiar Southern drawl, said, “Jewel, my precious. I'm so glad you could join us. It's gonna be just like old times, honey. You and me, Sunny and Lizzie, all together again. Come on, now. Come on with me, and not a peep now, or I'll have to put a bullet in your nosy boyfriend.”

He tugged her, and she went with him around to the front of the house and up onto the porch. He made her move far more quickly than she'd been moving before, and her foot was screeching with anguish every single step of the way. She couldn't see Sean anymore, and, dammit, she was longing to.

Then he was there, peering from around the corner of the house as Mordecai tugged her onto the front porch, then pulling back quickly.

But it was too late. Mordecai had seen him. He tightened his hold on her and said, “No, no, no, you don't. I don't think so. You just step on out here or I'll kill her.”

“Let her go,” Sean said.

“Don't delay—MacKenzie, isn't it? Didn't we have an appointment yesterday? You step on out now. It's her or you.” He thumbed the hammer back, pressed the gun to her chin.

“Don't do it, Sean!” Julie shouted.

Sean poked his head around the corner, met her eyes, held them.

“Good. Now, step all the way out, where I can see you. Come on, move it.”

“Don't, Sean. Run. For the love of God, run!” Julie cried.

But instead of listening to her, Sean stepped around the corner of the house, hands out at his sides.

“Thank you for making this so easy, my friend.” Mordecai jerked his gun away from Julie's head, aiming it instead at Sean. It exploded in Mordecai's hand, splitting her eardrums. She shrieked, but never heard the sound. Sean crumpled, landing in a heap in the grass. Mordecai opened the front door and dragged her inside, slamming the door closed behind them.

D
awn sat across the pretty hardwood table from Ms. Marcum, finishing her breakfast of cold cereal and toast, even though she had very little appetite for it. They'd moved the table closer to the French doors of her bedroom, so they sat in a pool of morning sunlight. It would have been almost pleasant if she wasn't being held prisoner.

“Thanks for staying with me, Ms. Marcum. It's better when I'm not alone.” She needed to win her teacher over to her side, but it was extremely difficult to hide her increasing anger and frustration.

The woman smiled gently at her. “You can call me Lizzie, you know.”

Dawn nodded, decided to try to force it, even though it felt strange to call her teacher by her first name. Especially a first name that belonged to a teenager. She was Ms. Marcum.
She'd been Ms. Marcum for three years. And now she wanted Dawn to suddenly stop thinking of her that way, to think of her as…what? Her mother? She supposed she should be grateful Ms. Marcum wasn't asking Dawn to call her “Mom.” Mordecai or Nathan or whoever the maniac was, insisted she call him “Father.” She had managed to address him that way once or twice, sensing he would go postal on her if she disobeyed, no matter how sweet and loving he was trying to act. Sweet, loving men didn't kidnap their offspring.

“At least when you're in here, he doesn't keep the doors locked,” Dawn said at length. “I hate being locked in.”

“Once he's convinced that you won't try to run away, he'll stop locking you in. But he won't stop watching over you. Mordecai is always watching…over you.” She glanced toward the front door as she spoke, making Dawn frown, but then she went on. “It's really for your own safety, you know. If you took off in this terrain—well, anything could happen.”

“Yeah. I could be kidnapped by a maniac, for example. Oh, wait, I forgot. That already happened.”

Ms. Marcum pursed her lips. “He wouldn't appreciate your sarcasm, Dawnie.”

“I don't appreciate being held against my will.”

“I know.” The woman slid her hand over Dawn's on the table. “It's going to be all right. I promise.”

Dawn snatched her hand away. “I want to get out of here, Ms. Marcum. I want to go home. My mother was hurt in that accident, God only knows how badly. And besides that, she's got to be going out of her mind worrying about me by now.”

“I know. I know.”

“Maybe he'd let me call her. You could talk him into it, I know you could. He…he likes you. I mean, loves you, right?”

She smiled softly. “Not enough to risk losing you again, I'm afraid.”

“You have to at least try. Please, Ms. Marcum? Lizzie? Please? Just get him to let me talk to her. So I can tell her I'm all right and she can stop worrying herself sick over me. Please?”

She lowered her head. “I'll try.”

“Now?”

“As soon as he comes back inside.”

Dawn blinked, and her pulse seemed to skip. “He's not in the house?” She jumped to her feet.

“He thought he saw something outside,” Ms. Marcum said, following Dawn to the bedroom door. “He only went out to look. He didn't go far, Dawnie.”

She stopped there, her words cut off by a sharp explosive sound. Dawn swung her eyes to Ms. Marcum's. “Was that a gunshot?”

“I don't know. Dawnie, wait!”

But Dawn was off, racing into the hall and down the wide staircase. She heard a woman's voice cry out, and she ran into the foyer, where she saw Mordecai dragging her mom into the house, slamming and locking the door even as Julie tried to rip it open again. He turned and shoved her away from him, and she stumbled backward a few steps, then landed on her backside on the floor.

“Mom!” Dawn raced to her, falling to her knees beside her and into her arms.

“Dawnie. Oh, God, oh, God, you're all right.” Her mother hugged her hard, and Dawn hugged back, unable to stop the tears from running down her face.

“Sunny, get back to your room.” Mordecai's voice wasn't loud, just very firm and insistent.

Dawn lifted her head to glare at him. “Go to hell. You touch my mother again and I'll kill you myself! Look at her! Look at what you did to her!”

He stared at her and at Julie for a long moment, and Dawn expected him to explode. But he didn't. He noted the bandage on Julie's head, the wrapped ankle, the exhaustion and pain etched on her face, Dawn thought. Then he drew a breath, closed his eyes briefly. “I didn't mean for you to get hurt, Jewel. I was only trying to force you to pull the car over and stop.”

Julie leveled a furious glare on the man. “You could have killed us both. Dawn and me. But you risked it anyway. That's not love, Mordecai. That's not what a man who loves a child does.”

“You know nothing about what I feel for my daughter. Nothing.” He pushed a hand over his shaved head and paced a few steps away before facing her again. “How many came with you? Who else knows?”

“No one.”

He stared at her as if trying to decide whether to believe her; then his eyes shifted to Dawn's again. “It really was an accident, what happened on that road, Sunny. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

Dawn wanted to swear at him, but she sensed he was near the end of his patience.

“And what about Sean?” Julie asked. “Was that an accident, too?”

“Sean?” Dawn looked at her mother. “What happened to Sean?”

Mordecai sent a look across the room, toward where Ms. Marcum waited at the bottom of the stairs. “Take them both up to Sunny's room. Stay there until I tell you differently.”

Ms. Marcum hurried forward, while Dawn helped her mom to her feet. Julie rose and, leaning on Dawn, began to limp toward the other woman, but halfway there she stopped and just stared. She blinked back tears. “Oh, my God. Lizzie?”

“Hi, Jewel. It's been a long time.”

“But—but how? I don't understand.” Julie frowned then, her arm closing protectively around Dawn's waist. “Are you a part of this?”

“Mom, let's get upstairs.” Dawn sent her mom a look, and when Julie met her eyes, Dawn knew she'd gotten the message. It was one of those exchanges they shared so often, when they didn't need words to tell each other the really important things. Dawn knew better than to push Mordecai much further. And she thought she might be starting to get through to Ms. Marcum.

With an imperceptible nod, Julie continued limping across the room, and she let Dawn and Ms. Marcum help her up the stairs. Below them, once he saw they were following his orders, Mordecai began running from room to room, looking out windows, checking the locks.

“What happened to Sean?” Dawn whispered when she was sure they were out of earshot.

“Mordecai shot him,” Julie said softly.

“Is he…?”

“I don't know.” She looked to the other woman. “Is there a window where we can see the front lawn? He was lying there, in the grass just off the end of the porch. I have to look. I have to see.”

“No. I shouldn't. Mordecai said—”

“Please?” Dawn asked. “It'll only take a minute.”

After a nervous glance down the stairs, Ms. Marcum nod
ded and led them to one of the rooms on the opposite side of the house from Dawn's. “He gave me the grand tour last night,” she explained to Dawn. “After you went to sleep. I think you'll be able to see from here….”

Julie broke away, limping rapidly to the window at the far end of the lushly furnished but unoccupied bedroom. She pushed the lace curtains wide and stared down at the ground, and Dawn hurried to stand beside her, looking all around, but seeing nothing. “Where is he?” Dawn asked.

“I don't know. He was…he was right there.” She pointed.

“Then he's not dead,” Dawn said, and she said it emphatically. “He must have been able to get away.”

“Not away. Maybe undercover, but not away. He's still out there somewhere. And Mordecai will find him and—”

“Mom, how can you be sure? He was hurt, but he probably made his way back to the car—you guys must have had a car, right? So he probably managed to get back to it, and he's gone for help.”

Julie shook her head slowly. “He won't leave us here. He won't.” She licked her lips. “He knew Mordecai would shoot him—he just stood there and let it happen. To protect me.”

“Oh, God, Mom.” Dawn embraced her mother again, burying her head on her mom's shoulder. “He'll be okay. He has to be. I can't believe this is happening.” She lifted her head, then rested her forehead against Julie's, blinking away her tears. “At least you know he loves you.”

Julie frowned, turning away, blinking rapidly. “Don't be silly, Dawn.”

“We should get to the bedroom, as Mordecai told us,” Ms. Marcum said in a harsh whisper.

That seemed to distract Julie, because she looked up at Ms.
Marcum, and her face darkened. “What are you doing here, Lizzie? Why in the name of heaven would you have stayed involved with a lunatic like him all this time?”

Lizzie looked stricken, but Dawn spoke before she could. “I don't think it's like that, Mom.”

“She's right, it's not.”

“Maybe you'd better tell me what exactly it
is
like,” Julie said.

Lizzie nodded. “Jewel, I was barely alive when they pulled me out of the wreckage of that compound. I was in a coma for months, and when I woke, I didn't know who I was or what had happened to me. It took years to regain my memory. As soon as I did, I started searching for the two of you. But it was a long time before I finally found you.”

“And when was that?” Julie asked.

“Four years ago. Dawnie was only twelve. Seventh grade. And she was so happy. You were—God, Jewel, you were a better mom than I ever could have been. I could see that. Anyone could see that.”

Frowning, Julie sat down on the bed. It seemed as if she'd just run out of energy to stand. “You've known where we were for four years?” She shook her head slowly. “And you didn't say anything? You didn't try to see Dawn, or…”

“Oh, I saw her. I saw her every single day.”

Julie looked blank. Dawn closed a hand on her shoulder. “Mom, Lizzie is Ms. Marcum.”

Her mother looked stunned. “You? You're her teacher?”

She nodded. “I wasn't trying to meddle in your lives, and I never even thought of trying to take her back. God, Jewel, I was the weak one. Don't you remember? You were the one always protecting me, looking out for me. You were the one who figured out that Mordecai was drugging us. You were the
one who figured out a way to smuggle untainted food in from the gardens so that we could get our minds back, and you were the one who came up with the plan to get us close to Mordecai so we could find a way to escape. Dawnie wouldn't have survived to be born if not for you. And none of us would have survived that raid.” She lowered her head. “I knew you were the best mom my Sunny could ask for. She was so happy, and she loved you so much. I could see it. I couldn't even think about disrupting the life you had built for her.”

Julie blinked slowly. “And every parent-teacher day, every open house, every time I set foot in that school, you managed to be absent or called away on some assignment or something.”

Ms. Marcum nodded. “I just wanted to be where I could see her from time to time. Watch over her. And also protect her. Because I was sure Mordecai hadn't died in that fire, either. I was convinced of it, even though sometimes I questioned my own sanity.” She bit her lip. “I saw those obituaries. Sirona and Tessa. I recognized them. And I knew—I knew he was back, and I knew he was coming.”

Julie blinked. “You're the one who sent me the obituaries,” she whispered.

“And I was the anonymous caller. I was trying to warn you. So you could protect Dawn. Not that he would ever hurt her—he wouldn't. You have to know he wouldn't.”

“Who are Sirona and Tessa?” Dawn asked, having lost the thread of the story.

Julie looked at her. “Two other girls who escaped the compound with you and me that day.”

“And you think Mordecai…killed them?” Dawn asked. Her voice shook a little, even though she tried not to let it.

“No, of course he didn't,” Ms. Marcum said with a quick glance back toward the door. “He wouldn't have hurt them. I think they killed themselves when they were forced to face how deeply they'd betrayed him.”

“You're still as deluded as you ever were, aren't you, Lizzie?” Julie asked.

She shook her head. “You never understood him, Jewel. But I did. I knew, when I got the news that Dawn had been taken, that it had to be Mordecai. And I remembered all the promises he made to me about how he was going to establish a new church, with himself as the head of it. The new Messiah. And how he had this plantation house in Virginia that he'd bought and was having renovated. We would be a family, the three of us, Mordecai and me and our baby girl, and we'd live in our home at the highest point in Heaven, the only house on Pine Tree Lane. Number one. He said it was fitting. I remembered it all.”