Stolen Innocents (The Shadow Series Book 2) (36 page)

“Somebody must have gone to get them because Jack’s truck is gone…” said Joe as he looked out the front window.

Cole thought for a moment. Frank and the boys were still out at the movies. Jack was sound asleep. The only other person home was Tristan. Cole’s heart raced as the thought came to mind.

“Tristan….”

“Where is she?”

“She must have gone herself…”

Suddenly, Adam’s police radio squawked loudly in the dining room. Joe listened closely to hear what was happening. Liam’s voice rang out loud and clear over the radio, “Officer in pursuit of black van, license plate number PAJ08256. Silver SUV belonging to Jack Morrow is in pursuit of the van. Shots fired on Mountain Road. Abduction of a white female, age seventeen, Natalie Piedmonte. It is believed that two females are in the truck. Tristan Morrow and Bridgette Kilpatrick. The van is headed towards the Wilhamette Mines! The perpetrator has been positively ID’d as Angela Jean O’Mara. I repeat, the perp has been ID’d as Angela Jean O’Mara.”

Cole ran to his father’s side and got there just in time to hold him up.

“Oh, my God. All three of them. Oh, my God…” Joe said weakly as the color faded from his face. Cole held his father up. Joe looked like he was on the verge of a heart attack. His face turned beat red and his eyes carried a forlorn look.

“Sit down,” Cole instructed as he ran back into the living room and slipped on his sneakers.

“Jack! Get up!” yelled Cole as he grabbed his keys off of the coffee table.

“What?!” Jack said groggily as he jumped to his feet. His eyes were wide and alert.

“What’s happening?! Where’s Tristan…”

“Just get your shoes on and get in my Jeep. We will explain on the way.”

“No tell me now. Where is my daughter?!” Jack demanded with wild eyes.

“We need to go get her. Something has happened down in Elkhart.”

Jack’s chest began to seer as his heart raced. He could feel his blood pressure rising by the second. Suddenly the radio squawked to life again as Adam’s frantic voice boomed out of the speaker:

“Two more shots fired! Patrol car E5 in pursuit of black van in the mines. Silver SUV veered right, out of line of fire. Identities of the women in the SUV are confirmed as Tristan Morrow and Bridgette Kilpatrick. Natalie is still alive in the back of the van, we can hear her screaming. Officer discharge, badge #7274! Perpetrator took a shot on the police cruiser. Another shot! Officer down! Officer down! We need medics down here!”

Before Jack could say “Let’s Go,” Cole was already in the Jeep with the keys in the ignition. Both Jack and Joe’s minds were in a state of total shock. Cole seemed to be the only one thinking rationally.

“Not again… Not again…” Jack kept saying over and over again.

“Snap out of it, Jack!” yelled Cole as he demanded that Jack get in the back seat of the Jeep. Jack did as he was told, surprised at Cole’s direct tone.

“You, too!” Cole yelled at his father.

Tears were filling up in Joe’s eyes. He was absolutely beside himself.

Hadn’t the Morrow and the Piedmonte families suffered enough?

Joe didn’t know what he would do if anything happened to any of them. His worry was not only focused on Natalie, but on Tristan and Bridgette as well. Then there was Liam, who had been shot. Joe prayed that the medics would get there in time.

“Strap in and hold on!” yelled Cole as he pounded his foot down on the gas pedal sending them catapulting down the mountain in the dark of night. Cole could do nothing but focus on the road in front of him. He could not worry that his sister was kidnapped. He could not worry that Tristan was in the mine fighting to get her back safe. He could not worry about his friends Liam and Adam who were in a fire fight against the sick woman who was responsible for so much devastation. All that Cole could do was focus on getting there. If he let his heart take over his head, he’d break down on the spot. Cole, the typically mild mannered and cool customer of the bunch, was proving just how cool under pressure he was. But as calm as he appeared, he would turn down right vicious if any of the girls were hurt.

***

“Hold on, Liam!” Adam said nervously as he took off his shirt and wrapped it across Liam’s shoulder and under his arm.

Blood soaked Liam’s uniform shirt where Angie’s bullet had pierced the skin and muscle of his shoulder. It had just missed the bone by an inch. Liam thought the bullet might be lodged in his chest because the area over his heart hurt worse than his shoulder did.

“Hold tight, bud. We’re gonna get her.”

“I’m fine! Just go! Do not lose her!”

With determination and vengeance in his eyes, Adam sent the patrol car bolting into the darkness after the murderer.

***

Natalie pushed her fingernail through the tattered rope that bound her wrists as she tried to free herself from her binds. She kept at it, and slowly the rope began to fray. Strand by rough strand, she weakened the rope until finally she was free. Immediately her hands flew up to the rope around her neck, which she untied quickly and removed the black pillow case. Finally, she freed herself of the binds around her ankles. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark light in the van. She glanced at the floor of the van and was alarmed by what she saw. There were bags upon bags of cocaine and marijuana piled on top of one another in the back of the van. At her feet lay an ax that was bloody and rusted. Suddenly, Natalie had an idea. Natalie grabbed a bag of cocaine and she ripped into the bag with her sharp finger nail. She grabbed the ax with her free hand. Slowly and quietly, she crawled on the floor of the van until she was just behind the driver’s seat. Angie was still shooting her gun out of her window back at the police car that was right on her tail. While Angie was distracted, Natalie capitalized. Natalie ripped the bag of cocaine open over Angie’s head as white powder fell everywhere. Angie couldn’t see anything as the cloud of white polluted her vision. Natalie rose over Angie with the ax and as her kidnapper hacked and coughed, she slammed the butt of the ax into Angie’s bald head. As the van catapulted to the end of the tunnel, Angie’s head slammed into the dashboard with a violent thud.

***

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?!” asked Bridgette nervously as Tristan did ninety miles per hour through the dark mine.

The wooden beams above looked like they were ready to give way. The cavernous setting and close quarters were making Bridgette more nervous than the thought of an armed serial killer was.

“Positive.”

“How can you be so sure?!”

“Because I’ve been down here before!”

Bridgette looked at her niece with a perplexed look on her face.

“When?!”

“When Kendricks moved me from the fishing shack. He hid me down here.”

Bridgette’s face turned from perplexed to somber. It was so easy to forget that her intelligent, beautiful, and courageous niece had been through so much as such a young age. From that point on, Bridgette trusted Tristan more as a confidant than as a child.

***

Cole’s Jeep flew through the entrance of the mine as the men were catapulted into darkness. Immediately, they heard shots ringing out further up the tunnel. In the back seat of the Jeep, Jack cocked his gun. He then cocked a second and passed it to Cole.

“Time to end this.”

Cole looked at Jack through the rearview mirror.  Jack nodded firmly to Cole as they held eye contact. After all they had been through, Jack finally got it. If there was anyone he could trust Tristan with it was Cole, and he definitely wasn’t going anywhere. Though he was young, Cole had already decided that he was in this family for the long haul. Angela Macklon-O’Mara picked the wrong family to mess with.

***

“Does this tunnel never end?!” yelled Bridgette becoming increasingly agitated.

“We’re about halfway through. This empties out into the same open space as the other tunnel though. Kendricks called it the heart of the mine.”

The sound of gun shots echoed through the long tunnels of the mines and ricocheted off the rock walls and the dirt floor. Dust scattered as the bullet cut through the dim light of the mine.

“I hope we make it in time,” Bridgette said with worry.

“We will,” said Tristan with fierce determination as she pushed down harder on the gas pedal causing the truck to go even faster through the mine.

***

Natalie dropped the ax to the floor as the white cloud caused her to choke. She tried not to inhale it, and pulled her shirt up over her mouth and her nose to guard her from the toxic drug. Angie had not lifted her head, but the van continued to speed through the darkness. Natalie knew that she had to get into the front seat and get control of the vehicle, somehow. The van was careening out of control as the sides of the van scraped along the mine wall. Sparks flew backwards into the windshield of the police cruiser at an alarming rate. Natalie climbed into the passenger seat. She watched Angie warily as she tried to determine if she was unconscious. After several seconds without movement, Natalie was fairly sure that Angie was knocked out cold. She reached over her kidnapper’s body to grab hold of the steering wheel but before she had the chance, Angie’s hand shot up and gripped Natalie’s wrist – trapping it in a skeletal cage.

***

Adam held his shirt in place over his brother’s wound as Liam winced with pain. Liam was trying to stay strong, but the pain was excruciating. Adam veered through the tunnel as sparks from the out of control van rained down over the windshield.

“She’s losing control up there. I think Natalie is trying to fight back.”

Liam sighed loudly as his pain intensified.

“Hang in there, bud.”

“I’m fine! Let’s pick up the pace!”

As Adam glanced over in worry at his brother, Liam rolled down his window.

“Grab my gun out of my holster…”

“What?”

“Just do it!”

Adam did as his brother asked, while keeping his eyes on the road.

“Here,” he said as he passed the gun to Liam.

Liam lifted his uninjured arm out of the car as he aimed the hand gun at the swerving black van. Liam squeezed the trigger, determined to gain some leverage in the chase. The gun released a loud bang as the bullet catapulted through the mine and bounced off the van’s rear bumper. Liam squeezed again, and a bullet crashed right through the van’s back window, effectively smashing the glass to bits. Liam shot again, this time blowing a hole in the car’s rear right tire, sending the car crashing into the light at the end of the tunnel.

***

“I see a light…” said Bridgette, with hope in her voice.

“We’re nearing the heart…” said Tristan as she once again picked up speed. As the SUV shot out of the dark tunnel and into the light, Tristan jerked the steering wheel hard as she cut off the exit to the other tunnel.

“If she wants out she’s going to have to go through me.”

Within a split second, she saw the oncoming lights. Everything happened so fast. Just when Tristan thought she had met her end, once again, she felt her aunt pulling her into the back of the car, out of the driver’s seat. As the lights swallowed Tristan’s vision, she watched the van tear through the front of Jack’s SUV. The seats where Tristan and Bridgette were sitting, were now replaced with the exterior of the van.

“C’mon!” yelled Bridgette as she pulled Tristan to the very back of the SUV. She pushed the back doors of Jack’s truck open as she and Tristan ran on foot. Just ten feet ahead of them, Angie O’Mara was running for cover.