Broken Angel (10 page)

TWENTY

I
did it! I did it!”

Theo dropped from the rafter above Caitlyn into the hay beside her. Wisps of it clung to his hair.

She was breathing heavily in amazement as she watched him hopping around. She wanted to cry. Anything to release the tension. Before the rock knocked against Mason’s skull, he’d already turned the knife sideways and used the tip to pull upward on the fabric of her cloak, toying with her. She’d had no doubt he intended to slice through her skin and stomach muscles, gutting her like a deer as he’d promised. What she didn’t understand was why.

“I did it!” Theo said. “I did it! I was so scared, crawling on rafters, and I couldn’t see anything. I had to aim for the sound of his voice. And I did it.”

Caitlyn couldn’t cry. She wouldn’t allow it. She forced the numbness to return so she could react without emotion and do what needed to be done.

“Get his knife,” Caitlyn said. Mason lay beside her, blood pouring from a gash in the top of his head. What if he opened his eyes? Theo wouldn’t have a chance against the man. As much as she wanted to stay numb, terror threatened to seep past her defenses. With it would come paralysis.

“The knife!” Theo said. “He was going to cut you open, wasn’t he? I heard everything he said. I had that rock and climbed along the rafters, and I was afraid I might miss him because everything was a blur and—”

“The knife!” she snapped. “Now!”

Theo blinked as if she’d slapped him, but she’d have to apologize later. Didn’t the boy have any clue about the urgency of their circumstances? She wanted to shake him.

Theo dropped to his knees and felt around. “Where? Where?”

“To your right,” Caitlyn said. Less stridently. “We need to go.”

“Yes!” Theo said. “Got it!”

His fingers could barely fit around the handle.

“Hold the blade toward you,” Caitlyn held her hands in front of her, lifting them away from her body.

Theo moved the knife in place.

“You hold the knife still,” Caitlyn said. “I’ll do the sawing.”

She pulled her arms toward herself, until the twine between her wrists was tight against the blade. She moved her arms up and down, feeling the strands fall apart.

“How did you know I was here?” she asked.

“I was crouched by the gate,” Theo said, speaking in a rush of excitement. “I heard everything when the guy with the shotgun got there. I followed into the yard. Then Billy caught me when he was letting the horses out.”

“He caught you!” Caitlyn said.

They both looked at the big man—Theo called him Billy—who was silent. On the floor, on his belly.

“He found a rock for me,” Theo said. “He told me about the rafters and how to get up there. He told me what I needed to do.”

“True?” Caitlyn asked Billy.

He nodded. “He was wandering around out there like he was blind. I stopped him from walking into a wall. I had to show him where to climb the rafters, but he promised he’d save you.”

Caitlyn reached down and cut the twine around her ankles. She had so many questions. But this wasn’t the time to think or ask.

“I did great, didn’t I?” Theo said. “Up on the rafters, I was afraid. But I made myself do it. I’m brave, right? If I hadn’t—”

“Theo…later.” Terror tugged her from one direction. Numbness another.

“Right. Later.” He grinned, unoffended. “But wasn’t it great, dropping the rock?”

Caitlyn spoke to Billy. “The bounty hunter will kill you if he finds you tied up after we’re gone. You’re a witness.”

Billy nodded. “He doesn’t like me.”

He was like a boy in a man’s body, trusting, not begging to be cut loose. She might as well kill him herself if she left him trussed. And she understood the horror that he had spared her by sending Theo into the rafters.

“How do we know you won’t arrest us if we cut you loose?” Caitlyn asked.

“Hey!” Theo interrupted, before Billy could answer. “I can’t go back to the factory. I just can’t!”

“Theo, I can’t let him get killed.”

“I won’t chase you,” Billy said.

“What if he’s just saying that?” Theo blurted. “Don’t trust him.”

Caitlyn knelt beside Billy with the knife in her hand.

“Maybe we should hit him on the head with the rock,” Theo said. “Just a little. To slow him down.”

Caitlyn glanced at Mason Lee, unconscious in the hay. She had to weigh the consequences of leaving Billy helpless against the risk to herself if they cut him loose. Again, she looked at the bounty hunter, and she remembered his knife against her belly. Her mouth tightened with anger, and she cut the twine around Billy’s wrists. Then she threw the knife down the corridor. “You can roll down there and get it yourself and cut your ankles loose.”

That would give them a head start if Billy couldn’t be trusted.

“Thank you.” Billy’s eyes never left her face.

“On the horse,” Caitlyn told Theo. The horse had stamped its feet and quivered during the commotion but hadn’t spooked. That suited her as it meant it was docile enough to trust. “We don’t have much time.”

She helped Theo onto the horse, then lightly swung herself up. With Theo sitting in front of her, she urged the horse out of the livery and into the darkness.

Billy stood at the open doors of the livery, staring out at the night that had just swallowed the fugitives. He held Mason’s bowie knife, hardly aware it was in his fingers.

Once again, he had to make a decision in a hurry. Should he worry about finding Sheriff Carney first? Or should he stop the escape? He was bound by duty to give pursuit but also bound by a promise not to follow them. The longer he took in deciding, the farther away they would get.

The dizzy feeling in his stomach returned, as he remembered the intensity in her eyes. He decided to give her and the boy as long as possible to flee. It would give Sheriff Carney a good reason to take away the deputy badge. Billy wouldn’t have any more of these kinds of troubles.

He felt good about this decision.

The horses were still in the yard. Nothing had happened to spook them. Billy planned to shut the gate and make sure they came to no harm, but first he should tie up Mason’s wrists and ankles.

When Billy turned, he saw that it was too late. His eyes were drawn to flames, already racing through the hay.

Then he saw Mason, who stood a few paces from fire. The side of his head was soaked with blood, and some had spilled over his eyebrows, turning his face into a mask. The pistol was tucked beneath his cast-wrapped arm. In his other hand, he held a lit match above another swatch of hay.

Billy took a step inside.

“Stop there.” Mason dropped the match into the hay. He drew the pistol out from his armpit and pointed it at Billy.

Billy stopped. A new set of flames sprang into life and raced away from Mason. Billy held the big knife, but it wouldn’t do any good against Mason’s pistol.

“You don’t know how bad I want to shoot you,” Mason said.

A loud crack echoed in the rafters over his head. It took Billy a moment to realize that Mason had fired the pistol.

Mason grinned. He lifted the gun chest high and advanced toward Billy. “Your word against mine. Want to stick around and see who they believe? Start running, or I just might wing you a little.”

Billy turned and ran.

Seconds after he made it outside the gate, the horses began to stream through it too, stampeding away from the fire and the smoke.

Mason hurried to the feed shed as the flames started to crackle.

It had taken all his willpower not to spin a slug through Billy’s ribs. Bad as he’d wanted to, however, he wanted to get Outside more. Delayed pleasure. With Billy alive and running, on the surveillance camera fleeing the fire, Carney would be forced to hunt down his deputy, clearing the way for Mason to find the girl.

Perfect.

As perfect as the injury on Mason’s head. Who wouldn’t believe Mason’s version of the events now?

But he needed Carney around to believe those events. Another kill he’d have to put off for the greater pleasure of getting Outside. Because what was far from perfect was the fact that the girl was gone.

Mason popped open the clasp of the door to the feed room.

The big man who managed the stable was conscious again, coughing and struggling against the twine that bound him.

“Fire,” Mason said.

“Cut me loose,” the man said. “I can help you with Carney.”

“Can’t. The boy that set the fire stole my knife.”

Mason had no intention of coming back, but if the man somehow survived, Mason didn’t want a witness to put him in an awkward spot. “I’ll come back for you.”

With his good hand, Mason grabbed Sheriff Carney by the ankle.

Mason dragged him out of the room toward the livery doors. All he needed to do was get Carney to the ground outside, but he wanted to be seen on the surveillance camera, and dragging him the extra fifteen yards took so long that when Mason turned back to the livery, the flames inside were dangerously high.

Good, Mason thought. Now, if it came down to it, nobody could fault him for staying out in the open. In a minute or two, it would be too late for anyone else to rescue the stable man.

Which meant Billy would be wanted for arson. And murder.

TWENTY-ONE

T
here was enough moonlight to give Caitlyn a clear view of the road. She wished she could put the horse into a gallop. Even a trot. But she was too keenly aware that she and Theo were fugitives, out after curfew, and afraid that the sound of thudding hooves would draw attention.

“I like the moonlight.” Theo sat in front of her on the horse. “In the factory, we never saw the moon or stars.”

He was leaning back, and she had wrapped an arm around him because he was shivering so badly, but she held the reins in her right hand.

“Hush,” Caitlyn said. Any noise unnerved her, even with the sound of the fire engine sirens echoing through the valley. Her focus was on escape. When they cleared the edge of town, she could risk putting the horse into a trot.

The moon cast shadows, and the paved road ahead looked like a pale ribbon that disappeared at the curve of the hill. If she turned in the saddle, she’d be able to see the glow of a fire behind them. The livery. It wasn’t her concern, she told herself, and there was nothing she could have done to prevent it.

Her attention returned to Theo’s shivering. She realized she’d been too harsh. Would it really endanger them if they whispered a conversation?

“You were brave in the livery,” she said. “You rescued me like a hero.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

She could almost feel him grinning. Little rascal.

“What number after 941 can only be divided by one and itself?” she asked.

Maybe that would put the boy to sleep. There were hours ahead of them, lonely travel on the road. If Theo slept, maybe his shivering would end.

“You really want to know?” he asked. “Really?”

“Really.” Caitlyn smiled in the dark.

“Then I’ll figure it out and tell you.”

For a moment, it seemed peaceful. Without the past and the future on each side of this moment, it would have been idyllic. But the past and the future were inescapable—and were immediately imposing on the tranquillity.

“What’s that?” Theo said, sitting straighter. “I hear something.”

Caitlyn pulled the reins. Too late. A man on horseback came out of the trees and blocked the road.

He was armed the way Mason had been armed. Shotgun. He swung it up and pointed it at the horse.

Finally. A decision easy for Billy to make.

He’d been following the girl and the boy, staying back far enough not to be seen, wondering exactly how to ask for help without scaring them.

He needed them as witnesses because Mason was right. The surveillance camera did show Billy to be guilty. But to arrest the girl and the boy would be breaking his word. Maybe there was a way, though, that Sheriff Carney wouldn’t arrest them. Carney would take away Billy’s badge for letting the fugitives go, and Billy could be relieved of his law enforcement duties, maybe even go back to work in the livery. Except it was burned down now, so he’d have to find other work until it was built again.

Billy felt like it’d been a lot of thinking for him, while walking and half jogging to stay close enough to the horse not to lose the fugitives, but far enough back so they didn’t know he was there.

They’d turned around, though. Riding just ahead of another man on horseback, also with a shotgun like Mason Lee’s.

Billy had no doubt this was a bounty hunter in Mason Lee’s gang. A whole band of them were in town. That meant Mason would soon enough have the young woman captive again. Billy also had no doubt that Mason would kill her, if for no other reason than she was a witness to the events in the livery.

Billy stepped into the shadows behind a tree as they approached. He wasn’t armed, but he’d have to stop the bounty hunter.

The woman and the boy on the horse passed the tree. Then came the bounty hunter on his horse, holding the shotgun.

Billy turned sideways. The tree probably wasn’t wide enough to hide him completely during the day, but the branches would serve as a shroud. He crouched to push off, and he ran forward on his toes, staying bent, coming up behind the horse. A slight scuffing of his shoes on the ground gave him away. The bounty hunter reacted too slowly as he tried to turn in his saddle, and by then Billy was close enough that the hunter couldn’t get the shotgun barrel around and between them in time.

One handed, with a powerful heave, Billy grabbed the man by the back of his collar and yanked hard, pulling him loose from the saddle. For a moment, the man hung there, feet flailing. With his other hand, Billy found the shotgun and yanked it loose from the man’s grip.

Without letting go of the man’s collar, he let the man fall to his feet. Billy threw the shotgun away, so he had a free hand.

The man twisted but couldn’t get loose. He swung at Billy with a wide punch that Billy caught in the center of his palm. The smack of flesh echoed.

Billy held the man’s fist.

“Stop,” Billy said. “I don’t like hurting people.”

The bounty hunter tried to kick Billy’s knee, but his shifting of balance was enough to alert Billy, and with his iron grip on the man’s fist, Billy jerked him sideways.

The man kicked at Billy’s crotch. When Billy turned and took the blow on his hip, the hunter threw his other fist, catching Billy’s eye socket. It felt like his eyeball had exploded in a flash of white. Something else was white too, the explosion of rage inside Billy.

Time and again he’d been pushed around and beat up and mocked. No more. No more pain. As the next fist came swinging in, Billy blocked it with his bicep. He let go of the man’s other fist, and for the first time in his life, he threw a counterpunch, hooking it into the man’s ribs.

The audible crack surprised Billy. The man sagged.

But it wasn’t enough. Billy hooked another one around, pounding the man’s head with the side of his fist. As the man was falling, Billy grabbed with both hands and tossed him like a sack of feed.

There was a horrible thump. The man didn’t move.

Billy’s rage immediately became remorse. But he turned to the bounty hunter’s horse, which had sidestepped away in confusion. Billy grabbed the loose reins and pulled it close.

He discovered he was panting, amazed and perplexed and sorrowful at what he’d inflicted on the bounty hunter.

“Wow,” the boy said, teeth chattering. “Do that again.”

Billy didn’t have time to answer. The young woman pushed Theo against the mane, goaded the horse, and sent it into a gallop.

No time to think either. Billy pulled himself into the saddle of the bounty hunter’s horse and began chasing the two fugitives. It took him a couple of seconds to get into the rhythm of the gallop.

Slowly he closed the gap but only because the woman on the other horse was fighting to keep the boy in the saddle. Then the boy fell.

A moment later, she eased out of the gallop and pulled her horse to a stop.

“Keep it walking,” Billy said. “Let it cool down. We’ll turn it back to Theo.”

She hesitated, as if preferring defiance, then kicked the horse’s ribs to nudge it forward and away from him.

“I’m all right!” Theo yelled from behind them. “Really.”

“You,” the young woman accused. “You made a promise not to chase us.”

“I did.” Billy thought of the unconscious bounty hunter behind them. Or maybe the man was dead. Even if witnesses cleared him of setting the fire, how could he explain that?

“I just want you to record something on my vidpod,” Billy said. The horses were breathing hard. “So Sheriff Carney will know what really happened in the livery. ’Cause the cameras make me look guilty. That’s all. And now that I might have killed one of Mason Lee’s bounty hunters…how will anyone believe me if you don’t help?”

Billy looked at the girl, waiting for her answer. He held his breath. If he went back to town without something from her, it’d be worse than losing his deputy badge. He’d probably be sent to a factory.

Theo reached them. “Don’t want to do that again!”

Caitlyn ignored Theo and cocked her head. “What’s your name?”

“Billy Jasper.”

“Billy, you think anyone is going to believe anything I say, on the vidpod or even in person? Someone that Mason Lee is chasing? Think they’re going to believe that a near-blind kid climbed the rafters and dropped a rock on his head?”

She was right. And better at thinking than Billy. His hopelessness overwhelmed him. “What do I do?”

“Forcing us to go back won’t help you.”

For the first time that he could remember, a decision came to Billy with suddenness and clarity. It almost stunned him. It certainly frightened him—but there was no other way.

“Let me come with you two,” Billy said.

“You don’t know where we’re going.”

“I know you can’t go back. I can’t either.”

For several long moments, she studied him. Billy held his breath again.

“Hand me your vidpod.”

He was surprised at how much her answer disappointed him. He’d been ready to change his life with that simple decision. Now he’d have to go back and hope her testimony would protect him from the factory.

He unclipped the device from his belt. She held her hand out for it. Instead of speaking into it, with a quick movement of her cloaked arm, she flung it into the trees.

It was far more shocking to Billy than if she’d pulled out a shotgun. He couldn’t even react by speaking.

“There it is, Billy Jasper. You can go look for your vidpod. Or you can join us.”