Bone Deep (30 page)

“The baby plays with the dog.” Tom’s reading voice was slow but confident as he deciphered the words then stopped to examine the accompanying picture. “The dog chases the ball.”

He traced a finger over the picture and repeated under his breath, “Baby.”

Sarah looked over his shoulder at the colorful illustration of a chubby baby and pudgy puppy with a bright red rubber ball. She thought about the Samuels’ litter of pups and wondered if she should get one. It might be nice to have a dog around the place again. Then her eyes drifted to the baby and her heart skipped a beat. She started counting days.

Her period was late
,
about a week late
,
which wasn’t that much and normally wouldn’t have given her
any
pause. Tonight it
started her panicking
. She looked at Tom, sounding out the next sentence, and thought about all the times they’d used the condoms Grace had provided ... and all the times they hadn’t.

It was too soon to start worrying, too late
not
to worry, but Sarah tried to
put
the idea from her mind
for now
.

Tom finished his lesson and she read their chapter of Twain before they went upstairs
to bed
. When Tom reached for her, she told him she wasn’t in the mood. For the first time since she’d brought him home they fell asleep without making love first.

Sarah was deeply asleep when the shock of cold air on her skin
woke her
. Tom
had thrown the covers back and was jumping out of bed.

“What?” she asked groggily
.

“Fire. The barn.” He thrust his legs into his jeans and
ran for the door
.

Sarah was still trying to process his words. “What?”

“The barn’s on fire.” He
was out the door and pounding down the stairs before she could move.

Instantly awake,
Sarah
got up and
pulled
on some clothes. She pelted down the stairs, hit the switch for the porch lights and slammed
out
the front door.
T
he
black
silhouette of the barn against the midnight blue sky showed no sign of smoke or glow of fire but she could hear
Edison
’s frightened whinny and Millie’s bawling.

Tom was already halfway across the yard.

Sarah started to r
ace
after him. She took two steps across the porch
when
strong arms
seized her and
pulled
her hard
against a man’s body
. Her attacker
pinned to her
arms to her
sides
and a sharp blade
pressed into her ne
ck. Sarah sucked in her breath
and her pulse skyrocketed to a new level of
frenzied
panic.

“Tom!” a voice roared next to her ear.

Across the yard, Tom halted.

“Come here. Or I’ll
cut
her throat.”

Tom
turned and slowly walked toward them
. Behind him, a
n orange
glow
now
show
ed
through the barn windows
.

Tom reached the edge of the porch
and stared up at Sarah and the man holding her hostage. She couldn’t read his expression, but shock best described it.

“Stop right there. Down on your knees. Hands behind your head.”

Sarah smell
ed
whiskey on the man’s breath and the rancid stink of
his
sweat as he held her
tight
in his powerful grip. She would have tried to wiggle away, but the
cold metal
pressed into her throat held her still. She heard a strangled whimpering and realized it was herself.

The man took a step forward dragging Sarah with him. He stood on the
edge of the
porch just above the top step.

“I made you, you pathetic freak
. You belong to me.
If you’d stayed where you belong, none of this would have happened.
L
ook
at the trouble you’ve
caused this woman.
”

“Let her go. I’ll go back with you.” Tom knelt
with
his hands clasped behind his head
, h
is
gaze
dropped submissively toward the ground. “I’m sorry.”

“Now you’re sorry? Too late,” Reed slurred. “Look up. I want you to see what you’ve done.”

Between one breath and the next Sarah felt the knife leave her throat and a burning sensation
across her chest, t
hen the
blade
returned to her throat. She glanced down to find a slice in her cotton shirt
with
a thin line of darkness welling out of it.
She thought the cut on her breast should hurt more than it did and suspected it would eventually.

“If you move, if you try anything, I’ll cut her again.
And again.
Do you believe me?”

“Yes,” Tom whispered.

Sarah felt
dreamlike
, observing but not feeling what was happening to her. Littl
e details caught her attention, like
the
whites of Tom’s eyes reflecting
the moonlight and
Edison
’s screams
becoming increasingly frantic. She could smell smoke now.

Reed continued. “You know I’ll kill her if you don’t obey me?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Here’s what I want you to do. Stand up, take down your pants and show me your prick.”

Tom
rose
and obeyed. His flaccid penis lay small
between his legs
.

“Did it give you pleasure?” Reed whispered in Sarah’s ear, sending a
wave
of revulsion through her. “Or did it scratch? You know I wrapped it in barbed wire for a reason.” He called out to Tom, “To remind you that nothing but pain lies there. The cock twists you up with desire, makes you want what you can’t have. Even leads to killing sometimes.”

He reached down and
cupped
Sarah’s crotch
.
“This is what calls you, Tom, but your cock is what drives you to it. I should have castrated you as a child and spared you the pain.”

It
was then
Sarah
realized
she and Tom weren’t going to make it through this. Not only was Reed insane, but logically he couldn’t let them go
after doing this
. He would kill her and without the threat of injury to Sarah
to control
Tom, Reed would have to kill him too.

“Zip it up,” Reed snapped, sounding suddenly sober. “Then pick up that gas can and pour it around the house.
W
et the siding.”

Tom moved to obey, while smoke billowed out around the doorframe
of the barn.
Edison
still
screamed and thumped his hooves against his stall.

As Reed watched Tom pick up the can, he relaxed the knife’s pressure against Sarah’s neck. Forgetting that he had a live woman in his arms, he dropped the blade
a little and relaxed his hold on her
.
Sarah seized the
momentary lapse to twist
away from him. She felt a sting as the blade nicked her neck, but she was free. She grabbed Reed’s wrist with all her strength and dug her nails into it, shaking it until the knife flew from
his grasp. It arched
through
the air and fell
into the darkness.

Sarah spun away from
Reed
and stumbled down the steps. Tom noticed her movement, dropp
ed
the gas can and
came running
.

Reed lunged down the stairs after Sarah,
reaching for her
arm, but she dodged away.
Howling in rage,
Tom charged Reed
and tackled him back onto
the porch floor.

Sarah
tripped on the bottom step and
fell to her knees. She
glanced back at
the
two
men.

Tom crouched on top of Reed, who was sprawled beneath him. He lifted the man’s head and slammed it against the floor. Reed
threw Tom off of him and
into the railing with a crash of splintered wood
, then he
scrambled across the porch
to grab Tom’s
shirtfront and dr
i
ve a fist into his face.

Sarah
crawled across the ground
search
ing
in the dark
for the knife
which she thought
had landed in the chrysanthemums.
A metallic glint caught her eye and she scooped the blade up from the ground.
She hesitated, torn between helping Tom and
saving
the animals from the fire.

But Tom
seemed to be doing fine in the fight. He
was back on top
and pummeling
Reed
.
Sarah ran for the burning barn.
Her feet pounded over the ground and she seized the handle of the sliding door. In the seconds before she slid it open,
she realized
the animals
had fallen silent.

When she
opened the
heavy door, flames f
uel
ed by fresh oxygen shot
out at her
. She raised her arms to protect her head and
stumbled
backward.
Heat blistered
her skin. She backed up
fu
rther, searching for an opening in the wall of fire, but there was none.

She ran to the side entrance. Smoke rolled from under the crack of the door and she could feel heat through the wood. She
grasped
the handle
and singed her hand
. Afraid to open the door and face another flare-out, Sarah
searched
for something to smash the door inward. A
large
boulder lay nearby. She heaved it up, wrenching her back, and hurled it at the wood door. The heavy stone crashed through
the weakened wood
and again flames shot out. There was no
way for her to enter there
.

Sarah
raced around the barn to the last
available
door, the one leading
into
the corral.
She
vaulted over the fence and ran to the third entrance where the wood seemed warm but not scorching hot. She turned the handle
and
kicked the door inward. There were no flames but clouds of smoke billowed out. She lifted her shirt over her nose and mouth, eyes tearing
from
the acrid smoke
, and ran
into the building.

Darkness engulfed her
.
T
hick smoke obscured everything. Her eyes
stung, and her chest ached from holding her breath
. She blinked and tried to focus. Flames burned to the left and right of her. Straight ahead was a wall of fire ... right where the animals’ stalls should be. It was too late
to save Edison or Millie
.

Sarah
ran
out of the building
and inhaled
a lung full of fresh air
to replace the smoke that burned her lungs. The
smell
of burned
fur and charred flesh
mingled with the smoke,
and
she ached
at the loss of her beloved animals.
S
he
moaned
as she gazed at the blazing barn.

But
there was no time to
mourn
now, as she raced
back around the building to
go to Tom’s aid
.
She still had the knife Reed had dropped, and if necessary, she was willing to stab him with it.

It turned out her help wasn’t needed.

The men were
in the yard, locked in a lethal embrace
, brutally punching each other.
As she
drew near
, Tom kneed
Reed
in the stomach
, doubling him over
.
Then he
knocked
the carnival man
to the ground
and
straddled him
. Tom held him down by the shoulder and
drove a fist into his face over and over. His blows landed like a hammer, striking without pause. Tom emitted a loud grunt with each
punch and h
e kept
pulverizing Reed’s face long after the man
had stopped moving.