Saving Us (23 page)

I kept my mouth shut, preferring being quiet over what it would be like to have my tongue cut out of my mouth.

“This is what’s going to happen. I am going to give you one minute to tell me where the safe is and don’t you dare tell me there isn’t one. I’m guessing this little housekeeper here knows exactly where it is.”

Lucy began to shake her head. She wanted no part of this. The poor woman had spent her whole life with the Mitchell family. I knew she didn’t want to betray them, but when your life is on the line, you will take drastic measures to save it.

I took the chance of losing my own tongue. “Lucy, just show him where it is. No money is worth your life.”

Rick cocked his eyebrow and looked down at me. He pointed his knife at me and then pointed it at Lucy. When she shook her head again, he brought the knife over to my stomach. I felt it pressing into my skin. All I could think of was my poor baby. Lucy stood up and tried to free her own mouth. Finally Rick took the knife off of me and freed her gag. “I’ll tell you, just please don’t hurt that innocent child. Please, sir.”

He started to laugh. “You think that child is innocent? That child was conceived in a dirty ass hotel room. It wasn’t made out of love. No man would ever love this little tramp. I found her roaming the streets and that’s exactly where her body is going to be found once I’m done with her. Mark my word, little lady, she won’t be missed.”

I went to back away from Rick, but as I did, I heard the gun drop from out of the back of my pants. As i
t hit the floor, Rick was quick to reach behind me and grab it.

“Looky here. What, did you think you could ge
t free and save everyone from me?” He pointed the pistol at my stomach. I tried to free my hands that were behind my back. They were getting looser, but not enough to get free. He pressed the gun harder into my skin. “How bad did you want to be a mother, Amy?”

I shook my head. “Please don’t do this. I will give you whatever you want. I have money. You can have all of it, just please don’t hurt my baby.”

He started laughing. “You don’t get it do you? I don’t give a shit about you or your baby. I want you dead and after I get what I want, that’s how it’s going to be.”

I backed myself up as far as I could go. If this really was my last moments on this earth, I needed to at least figure o
ut how to save those women. I didn’t want to have to die in vain. Conner needed to know that I was brave. He needed to know that my death had purpose.

Chapter 28

Conner

Colt stayed with my mother, Van and the kids, while John and I headed to the main house. I understood how he couldn’t deal with leaving his wife vulnerable when there was a crazy person out there. That man had come too close to Noah for Colt to be calm.

John and I had a plan. We knew what we had to do.
As soon as we found that Lucy was fine, we were going to head out into the woods and start looking there.

I was getting desperate. I had no idea how long that Amy had been missing and without a single phone call, I wasn’t exactly being handed a lot to go on.

Every single second that passed, left me with more concern that I wasn’t going to get to her in time. I shouldn’t have been thinking the worst, but I just couldn’t help myself. I was actually imagining the police coming to my house and telling me that they found her body, like Rick had threatened. It was difficult for me to get it out of my head. I’d never met someone that wanted a beautiful woman dead for no reason. What fueled him to be so cruel? How did someone like Amy get involved with that loser in the first place?

It wasn’t just that he took Amy. He had my child too. If I lost one, I knew it would be both of them. The chance of my child surviving would be slim to none. I couldn’t believe that I was thinking all of these terrible things. I needed to be optimistic and keep telling myself that they were going to be alright. I had to.

When we got closer to the house, I noticed that Lucy’s little car was still parked around the side. She had to be somewhere and just couldn’t hear us when we were calling. John and I got to the front door. “I’ll go find her and meet you back here. I’m sure she’s in the laundry room or somethin’. She can’t hear worth a damn anymore.”

John agreed and stayed on the porch while I made my way in the house. Just like all of the time lately, the house was quiet. I
walked through the dining room area and then into the kitchen. The house was spotless. I checked the laundry room and then headed upstairs. When I couldn’t find her at all, I headed for the family room, before meeting John outside. While going in that direction, I picked up my phone and dialed Lucy’s number. The ringing was coming from the family room.  I started running toward the sound and stopped dead in my tracks. Rick was standing there with Amy’s gun in his hand. Lucy was tied up on the couch, while Heather was on the floor close to her. As I walked toward them, he turned around and noticed me. As he did it, I saw Amy on the floor behind him. I went running toward her, but with one wave of the gun, I froze.

Rick had the gun pointed at Amy’s stomach. “You take one more step and I kill everything you love with one squeeze of this trigger.” He turned and looked at Amy. “Your
knight is here to save his damsel. I guess you can both die together.”

“The only person that’s goin’ to die is you.
Touch her again and see what I do to you.”

Rick paid no attention to my threats. He aimed that gun right at Amy’s stomach.
As soon as he turned his head to look at her, Heather came lunging at him with her hands still behind her back. The gun went flying across the hardwood floor and I didn’t waste any time going after that bastard myself. My body rammed into Rick’s. I swung hard, hitting him right in the jaw. His head swung around and he started to lose his balance. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and hit him again, right in the same place. Blood went flying and his eyes started to close. I held onto his shirt tighter and slammed his head against the floor. I wanted him to bleed. I wanted him to die watching me saving Amy.

I laid his knocked out body down and reached over to free Amy’s hands. She wrapped her arms around my neck and started to sob. “You’re okay, darlin’ Oh my God, I thought I lost you. You had me so damn scared.”

“I thought I was going to die.” She continued to cry.

I picked her up an
d carried her over to the couch Then I started to untie Heather and Lucy. Just as I was getting the last loop loosened on Lucy’s rope, I heard the girls scream. Rick had woke up and took a dive to obtain the gun across the room.

I sprung forward trying to get to it faster than him.
Our hands met at the base of the gun. As I attempted to punch him in the face, he jerked his hand, with the gun, away from me. He pointed it right at me and then laughed as he moved it to face Amy. “As much as I’d like to kill you, I think it would be more fun to let you watch her die. If you have anything you want to say to her, you better say it now. You have about ten seconds to get it all out.”

I had one chance to save Amy and the baby that I already loved so much. They could live a good life, even without me in it. My family would take care of them. They would keep them safe and
make sure that they never had to worry about anything. My mother would love her grandchild and they would be able to remember me through that child.

They were my
responsibility, my only reason for living. I had to try and give them more time on this precious earth. In all of my life there had been one constant. It was my love for the land. I wanted Amy to have the chance to appreciate the small things in life. I looked toward her. She was crying so badly. In a few moments she would be crying even more, but hopefully she would have a chance to get free of this evil man. “Darlin’ you are the only woman that I have ever loved. You know that, right?”

She nodded. “I love you, too. I love you so much, Conner. I wanted you from the first moment you saved me. No man has ever compared to you.”

As she said it, Rick looked her way. It was enough to give me a window to make my move. “No matter what, you take care of our child, Amy.” I lunged my body toward Rick. “Run!” We went rolling on the floor. I saw Amy out of the corner of my eye. She got up and started running out of the room.

I swung my arm arou
nd to hit Rick, but he was able to move out of the way. In the background I could hear screaming. I needed to keep him down so the girls could get away. I pushed myself into him again. My body felt heavier and I used it to my advantage. I held it over him, keeping him from moving. The room started to feel cold. I tried not to notice it, but it was freezing. I swung at Rick one more time, missing him again. He managed to free himself of my hold. Then he stood up and punched me in the face. I felt his whole fist slamming into my jaw, but for some reason I couldn’t feel the pain of it. Maybe it was just the adrenaline. I went to lift up my hands to grab ahold of Rick, but they felt too heavy to move. I tried again and this time I actually made contact. His head went sideways and his body stilled. He was laying down beside me.

Everything was getting blurry again.

My eyes were still open but I couldn’t see anything.

I needed to know if Amy was alright. Had Lucy and Heather gotten out of the room too? Did John finally come in to check on us? Why couldn’t I think clearly?

Something was wrong.

My eyes went back into focus. Someone was standing over me. They were yelling at me, except I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I couldn’t tell who they were. This made no sense.

Where was Amy?

Did she get free?

What happened to Rick?

My body was being touched. I could feel that. The person in front of me was saying something important. They were telling me to hold on. They were begging me to stay awake.

But I was awake. I had beat Rick. He was laying somewhere, injured.

Chapter 29

Amy

One minute I am fearing for my life and the next Conner is coming in to save me. I don’t know how he found us and I don’t even care. He was there , exactly where I needed him to be.

Rick held that gun close to my belly. I could feel my child moving around inside, like they knew that we both should be running away from this crazy man. I just couldn’t take the chance. I knew if I tried to get away he would become more enraged and try to kill me.

In a matter of minutes, I think I had gone through every single emotion possible. If anyone could get us out of this situation, it was Conner.

Rick pushed all of his buttons and even though I was scared to death, I could smell the testosterone in the room. Rick hated Conner, just as much as Conner hated Rick. They had words and then they went after each other. When the gun went flying and they started wrestling around the floor, I did as he told me and started to run out of the room. It wasn’t until I heard the one single gunshot that I froze in place. I was afraid to look back, knowing that it had a fifty percent chance of being Conner instead of Rick.

A
few things happened simultaneously. I heard John’s voice calling us to run out of the house. I turned and rushed to find Conner. Rick got up and started coming towards me.

He had blood all over him, but still came at me. I looked around and didn’t see the knife anywhere. On the floor lay Conner’s body. I froze, unable to comprehend just what I was doing. I had to get to Conner. He had to be okay. This couldn’t be happening, not to him, not to us.

I turned to hear Rick growling and lifting the gun up in front of me. “If I were you, I’d turn your fat ass around and start walking. There is nothing you can do for him now.” He came up behind me and grabbed me. “You’re going to help me get out of here and then we are going to find out how to get me my money.”

I wanted to tell him that he didn’t have any money and because he had shot Conner, there would never be any. The family would stop at nothing to
see Rick pay for hurting their kin. I closed my eyes and kept moving. He pushed me to walk faster.

John appeared in the doorway with his gun cocked. “Put down the gun and get your hands in the air. It’s over Rick. I’ve got the house surrounded.”

Rick pushed the gun into my stomach. It was hurting me, but I was afraid to cry. I was afraid to let myself feel anything, especially when I knew that Conner was in the other room, bleeding. I just wanted to see him. He needed to know that I was right here. He needed to know that I would never leave him.

I knew I was panicking inside. The more I tried to breath
e and be strong, the more I feared I was failing horribly. “Rick, please. Think about this. If you hurt me, they are going to kill you.”

He pushed the gun into my stomach harder, almost knocking the wind out of me. “Shut the fuck up, bitch!” He pushed me forward again. “I think you’re here all alone. I think I’m going to walk right
out the door and there ain’t a damn thing you’re going to do. Besides, if you shoot me, I will still have time to get a bullet in this little bitch here. Now, toss me your gun and back away from the door.”

John just stood there, aiming the gun at Rick. “This is your last chance. Let the girl go.”