Princess (17 page)

She was on her own.

She stared into the shadows. Musty air filled her lungs as she grabbed a rusty shovel and began to dig.

chapter
23

U
p on the steps, the deputy shoved back his uniform hat, scowling at Luellen. “What the hell is going on here? Who are those men?”

“My daughter’s missing. I have to find her.”

He swept a glance down the muddy hill. “Why are they—?”

“I can’t talk now.” Luellen’s voice was tight with panic. “She’s in trouble. He told me.”

“Who?”

“The man. The one who’s dressed like a woman. He’s some kind of soldier.”

The sheriff nodded. “Where did he go?”

“Down the hill. Into the woods, maybe. Hell, I couldn’t see. Now I have to find my daughter before—”

The sheriff pivoted sharply, gripping her arm. His eyes were icy. “Shut up.”

“What are you—?”

A Colt nudged the hollow beneath her throat. “I said
shut up.
Otherwise I’ll put three rounds into your neck. You know what a Colt can do at close range, don’t you?”

Luellen nodded mutely.

“Where is the animal?”

“I don’t know—”

He slapped her twice, hard enough to knock her back against the wall of the trailer.
“Where?”

Her eyes snapped from one side of the yard to the other. She licked her lips. “I—Ruthie put it outside.”

“You’re lying.”

“No. I swear it’s true.”

He slapped her again and spittle dripped down her chin, mixing with her tears.

“It’s out in the shed. I swear it. I’ll take you there right now and you can see for yourself. Just l-let Ruthie go.”

He shoved the Colt against her forehead, and she gave a little moan of fear as she looked into pale eyes the color of broken spring ice. “Lie to me and I’ll kill you. But I’ll kill Ruthie first, and I’ll do it to her while you watch.”

“It’s the God’s honest truth.
Please.
I’ll show you.”

He looked at her, his lips thinning with distaste. “I lost it once, but I won’t lose it again. I know the animal is here somewhere.” He shoved her, kicking her. “One scream and I’ll cut your throat. One lie and I’ll do the same to your daughter. You have that straight?”

She gave a low whimper, nodding.

“Good. Now show me the shed.”

He was right behind her as she stumbled down the steps, his hand clamped around her throat.

Exhausted from shoveling dirt, Jess huddled in the darkness, dust motes tickling her nose. She tried not to think about the rodents lurking in the gloom. As her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she studied the narrow window above her head.

That could be a better escape route than digging a tunnel. There was no reason to shudder and feel the walls close in. She’d handled her fear once before, and Jess swore she’d do it again.

Izzy was outside.

Hawk was outside.

And you’re still locked in.

Her heart hammered against her ribs, so she took a deep breath and held it, summoning all her willpower and control. Feeling her hip throb, she searched the ground and found that she was sitting on the fallen shovel. She gripped the handle, grateful for the sharp pain, which had shaken her from the past and reminded her that she was an adult, no longer a frightened teenager. She had no time to linger in a place of sad memories.

Her fingers gripped the worn wood as she stared up at the narrow window. The old fears shivered, closing around her and threatening to leap back with all their full, ugly power.

There were tears on her cheeks as she peered into the darkness, sniffing at the musty smells of dirt and rust. Something brushed against her arm, and she bit back a yelp of surprise.

Fur pressed against her, part of a warm, round body. Some kind of dog, Jess decided, though she couldn’t see the floor clearly. The round body leaned against her, nuzzling her arm, then climbed up into her lap. Blinking, Jess looked down into a pale oval face with huge eyes, a dark nose, and big, soft ears.

Not a dog. It had to be some kind of a bear. A slow, careful bear that seemed friendly and completely familiar with people.

Jess remembered Hawk’s harsh question the first time she’d seen him.
Where is it?

The answer screamed through her mind. The animal—whatever its value and secrets—was right here beside her. Goose bumps rose all over her body. Jess knew in that moment that she absolutely had to keep the animal safe until Hawk arrived.

There was a sudden hail of angry shouting outside, and men ran past the shed, their feet drumming. “I got the girl!” one of them called.

Jess heard a scream. Ruthie.

She looked around wildly, but all she could see was a pile of old cardboard boxes, some gardening tools and various bags of fertilizer. She still had her purse, but there was nothing in it that could get her safely up to the window. Luellen’s gun, taken from under the car seat, wouldn’t help her escape.

The bear tucked its head against her shoulder, and Jess stroked the soft fur, working desperately at the problem.

“Bring the girl here,” a man ordered, his voice coming from a distance.

There was no answer.

“Tonio?”

More silence.

“Damn it, Tonio—”

“Ruthie! I’m coming, honey. Stay where you are and—” Luellen’s voice broke off in a sudden grunt of pain.

“Come, Ruthie. Otherwise, I’m going to cut your mother up while you watch her bleed.”

Wind hissed through the trees. The chopper was gone. No answer came from Ruthie.

Jess listened with desperate intensity, trying to imagine exactly what was happening outside as more men ran past the shed. She reached into her purse and withdrew the gun she’d found in Luellen’s car.

Suddenly gunfire exploded in the air, seeming to come from all sides at once. Jess clutched the bear, curling protectively toward the wall as noise thundered around her. She shuddered as a round ripped through the roof and another split the thin wooden wall.

The window shattered, and glass rained down on her face and shoulders. By instinct she put her body between the animal and the window, as pain burned down her cheek from the rain of glass slivers.

Someone hit the door. The lock shook, and then light filled the space, blinding Jess.

“I told you she was in here. I saw her looking for the girl.”

Terrified, Jess watched a dark shape loom against the light with a gun leveled.

“Get the bear, Tonio. Chavez promised us a million in reward money, remember? We’ll split that million on a nice beach in Acapulco, with good tequila and some prime ass for the rest of our lives, no?”

Laughter spewed toward Jess.

“Come on out, honey. Bring your little friend over here to Tonio. We’ll take good care of you.”

As Jess frowned at the looming figure, a deep, almost unknown part of her brain took charge, recalling her shooting lessons with Summer.

Grip. Sight. Fire.

She cradled the Colt with both hands, flipped off the safety. Without squinting, she lined up the sights. The man named Tonio was still laughing as she squeezed off three quick shots.

chapter
24

H
awk hit the ground running, and in seconds he was hidden beneath the trees. He had pinpointed the location of the men on the ground and wove through the woods until he came out behind the big sycamore tree near the trailer. He took the first target out before the man could feel the prick of his knife. A second target was crouched behind a derelict Ford truck with a rifle trained on Luellen.

Hawk dispensed with him via a single blow to the neck.

Neither man had time to whisper a cry of warning.

The man beside Luellen called to someone out of Hawk’s range of sight, and feet pounded past the truck. Silently Hawk faded into the rows of corn, crouching between green leaves that hissed in the chill wind.

He fingered his earphone. “Izzy, do you copy?”

There was no answer.

Hawk didn’t allow himself to dwell on grim possibilities. Until the missing bear was safe in government custody, he didn’t have time for emotions of any sort.

He peered around the rusty fender and saw Luellen’s daughter, held captive by a man in wraparound amber shooter’s glasses. The girl’s face was white with fear.

Hawk calculated a quick shot to the man’s temple, but realized there were buildings behind them. He couldn’t risk harm to the lab animal.

Or to Jess and Izzy.

Where were they, and where in the hell was the government’s missing bear?

He heard the crack of three bullets fired in sharp succession. The sound appeared to come from a dirty shed halfway down the hill.

“Tonio, what the hell is going on down there?”

Hawk recognized Emilio Chavez in spite of his sheriff’s uniform. The man just kept turning up like a bad penny wherever stolen technology and illegal weapons were involved. Now he shoved Luellen in front of him in a tight grip as he walked through the yard near the trailer.

Quiet as smoke, Hawk crept between the rows of corn, crawled around a pile of old tires, and came up on Ruthie’s captor from behind. He saw her mouth work as she struggled with her terror.

The man jerked Ruthie up the hill, cursing when her feet slipped in the mud. “Hurry up, you fool.” He glanced up the hill, cursing. “Where’s Tonio, Chavez? Why doesn’t he answer?”

Seconds later Hawk’s big K-Bar knife blade snicked through the man’s neck and blood sprayed the grass.

Hawk grabbed the girl as she swayed, one hand across her mouth in case she screamed. It was a tough break, he thought grimly. The kid was barely twelve and she’d just seen a man killed in front of her.

He took a quick glance up the hill. Izzy slipped around the trailer, crouched behind a discarded recliner, then nodded at Hawk and pointed silently down the slope.

Hawk gave a quick nod and turned to Ruthie. “Listen, honey, I’m going to get you hidden inside this truck, okay?” His whisper was low at Ruthie’s ear. “I’m going to help you and your mother, understand?”

The girl was shivering, but she managed to nod jerkily.

“Okay. Now I’m going to take my hand away from your mouth, but I need for you to stay absolutely silent. Do you understand?”

She nodded again. After Hawk removed his hand, he carefully opened the rusty door to the truck and helped her climb inside. When she was curled up on the floor out of sight, Hawk covered her with an old seat cushion. “Where’s Jess?” he whispered.

“In the shed. I l-locked her in. I was afraid that she was here for the bear my father brought me.”

A pulse began to pound at Hawk’s temple. “Your father, Richard Dickman?”

“Yeah. That’s why you came here, isn’t it? That’s why the others came here—the bear has to be really valuable or my stupid father wouldn’t want it.” She swallowed hard, tears slipping down her cheeks. “When he asked me to hide it, I said sure. I mean why not? It was so nice, so cute. Even my mom didn’t know it was here until this morning.” Ruthie sniffed. “I begged her not to tell anyone.”

“Where is the bear now?”

“In the shed behind the sycamore tree, down the hill from my garden. The lady’s there, too.”

“You mean Jess?”

Ruthie nodded. “I thought she wanted the bear, and I freaked. I mean, it was so helpless, so alone, and really hungry. My friend and I read about what they eat, and we finally found some eucalyptus at the florist’s today. It was fresh and she ate a lot of it.”

“You did a good job, honey.”

“I don’t want it stuck in some zoo. I was afraid that Jess and that other old lady might be trying to take the bear away, like maybe they were investigators from the state or something.”

“Don’t worry, the bear won’t be put in a zoo,” Hawk said. “But you need to stay here. Don’t move, no matter what.”

At Ruthie’s nod, Hawk closed the truck door carefully.

Outside, Chavez’s men were on the prowl.

Jess stared at the body on the floor. The air was filled with the sour, metallic smell of blood. Her stomach twisted with waves of nausea and the gun shook in her hand. She’d killed a man. His blood covered her jeans and darkened her arm.

Shuddering, she forced her gaze away from the floor, back to the bear that still gripped her chest.

It was too much to take in, so she put everything but survival out of her mind.

With the bear secure in her left arm, she pulled the dead man’s body farther inside, then closed the door. Her body shook as she sank against the wall, hidden behind a worktable. Her fingers curled around Luellen’s handgun, gripped rigidly in front of her.

Feet raced past outside. Angry shouts echoed across the clearing, followed by a volley of gunshots.

Something scratched against the door, and Jess leveled the pistol for a second time.

The door latch moved.

“Jess, are you there?”

Her fingers shook. She didn’t answer.

“Jess, it’s Hawk. I’m outside. Are you okay in there?”

Relief punched through her, but even then her arm stayed level. Voices could be faked, after all.

A crack of light outlined the door, widening slowly. Sunlight slanted into Jess’s eyes, blinding her, and she heard the male voice break off in a curse.

“Are you hurt, honey?” Hawk stepped over the bloody body on the floor of the shed. “Talk to me, Jess.”

She let her arm fall, keeping the bear tight against her chest. The air felt heavy, and she couldn’t seem to breathe.

Hawk’s shadow fell over her. “My God, you found Princess.” He knelt beside her on the dusty floor. “Why don’t you let me take her now?”

Jess couldn’t register what he was saying. As he reached out, the bear pushed closer against her.
“No.”

“Okay, then she goes with you. But we have to move out now.” His voice was absolutely calm, as if bullets weren’t cracking nearby and a man wasn’t lying dead at his feet. “Can you stand up, honey?”

Jess pushed upright, feeling a stab of pain above her eyes. But the sensation faded as Hawk motioned her to the door, checked outside, then pointed down a muddy path.

“Go. I’ll be right beside you.”

Her feet were bare, Jess realized. Her legs hurt.

Funny, she hadn’t even noticed.

Hawk glanced across at Jess. Her face was streaked with blood, her clothes torn, her eyes dilated. She was probably in shock, and she looked like hell. But for the moment she was up and mobile, and he couldn’t stop for anything until the bear was safe.

He flicked the button of his walkie-talkie, scanning the hillside. A Humvee transport was waiting back in the trees, but getting there wasn’t going to be a picnic.

He tapped Jess’s arm, pointing behind the rusted truck where Ruthie was hidden. Nothing moved around him as Hawk clicked the
TRANSMIT
button again, this time two quick taps, a prearranged signal to his team to indicate the discovery of their “package.”

He touched Jess’s shoulder. Her gaze locked on him and he saw her struggle to focus.

Shock and possibly worse. He couldn’t stop to find out if she was bleeding. He had to get them out of harm’s way.

With the bear still cradled at her chest, Jess swayed, then followed him over the muddy grass toward the woods.

As they ran, three members of Izzy’s team emerged from cover, making a human shield with their Kevlar-clad bodies. Without a word, the group ran in a tight wedge toward the dark wall of trees. They were only a few feet from safety when they heard Luellen scream.

Hawk didn’t slow, though he heard Jess’s gasp.

“Keep going,” he ordered.

Behind him Emilio Chavez’s shout exploded down the hillside. “Bring the animal to me. If not, the old woman is the next to die. Two bullets in the stomach, slow and painful.”

“The old woman?” Jess faltered, her eyes cutting to Hawk’s. “He means Izzy.”

“You have until I reach five,” Chavez shouted, his voice tight with fury. “I begin now.”

Hawk grabbed Jess’s arm and forced her forward, his face expressionless. There was no sound from Izzy, but Hawk didn’t expect one. The man was a pro and he would have expected nothing different.

Jess stumbled and Hawk pulled her the last few yards until the shadows closed around them. When she looked up, Hawk saw that her face was wet with tears.

“One,” Chavez shouted, his voice echoing in the sudden stillness.

The Hummer was waiting. Two men jumped out, surrounding Jess. One of them reached for the bear, but Hawk shook his head silently. He leaned close to her and touched her cheek. “Go on, honey. Take good care of Princess for me.”

She nodded, the bear still clutched protectively in her arms. Hawk didn’t stay to see her climb stiffly into their transport. He was already racing through the woods, headed for the slope at the back of Luellen’s trailer.