For You (The 'Burg Series) (81 page)

“Gag her,” Denny replied.

“What?” I asked.

“Gag her, Susie, the fuckin’ bitch. Don’t want her talkin’. Don’t want her runnin’ that sick mouth of hers.”

I looked at Susie. She was scared stiff, she didn’t have it in her to speak.

“She won’t talk,” I told him.

Denny looked at me and said calmly, “I don’t want to repeat myself again, sweetheart.”

I shook my head, still trying to buy time for Melanie and Susie and for me. “I don’t have anything to gag her with.”

“Find something. I’m sure she has some fancy-ass scarves somewhere.”

Was he serious? He was going to let me wander the house looking for a scarf?

I shot Susie and Melanie a look then muttered, “Be right back.”

Then I ran from the room.

* * * * *

Colt’s phone rang in his hand, he didn’t even look at the display before he flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Colton,” he said, his eyes on the gurney with Darryl strapped to it that was being wheeled into the bar, his mind on Feb and Melanie, his gut twisted in knots.

“Alec?”

It was his mother.

Fucking shit.

“Ma, I can’t –”

“A man has Feb,” she said on a rush and Colt felt ice water slide through his veins. “I’m in my car outside a big, fancy house on The Heritage. Street’s called Vine. A man’s got Feb and Melanie. He’s also got a gun. He took them into the house.”

“Vine?” Colt asked but he knew, Denny, that sick fuck, he knew.

“Yeah, Alec, one three eight Vine.”

Jesus, Susie’s house.

He looked at Sully. “He’s taken them to Susie’s.” His eyes went to Warren. “One three eight Vine. The Heritage. Susan Shepherd’s house.”

Warren, Rodman and Sully immediately turned and jogged away. Colt followed them, his strides long, his patience spent, he was fighting a fear that nearly immobilized him and Morrie was at his side.

“Ma, drive away,” he told his mother.

“Feb’s in that house with a man’s got a gun,” his mother told him.

“Drive away. Now.”

“I knew you weren’t safe so I been watchin’ and I saw –”

After forty-four years, Colt finally had something to thank Mary Colton for.

“Drive away, Ma.”

“Alec –”

“Do it.
Now.
”

She hesitated then whispered, “Don’t you get hurt.”

“Please, Ma, just drive away.”

“All right, Alec,” she said, “I’ll drive away.”

“Ma?” Colt called before he heard her disconnect.

“Yes, son?”

Then Colt said something to his mother he’d never said in his life or at least not saying it and meaning it, “Thanks.”

* * * * *

I went to Susie’s bedroom, straight to the phone by the side of her bed. I dialed 911. I had no idea how much time I had, Denny was crazy and he could do anything.

When I heard the voice in my ear, I whispered over it, my words hurried and hushed.

“This is February Owens, Denny Lowe has me, Melanie Colton and Susie Shepherd at Susie’s house. He also has a gun and an axe. He’s hurt people at J&J’s Saloon. I can’t talk anymore. I’m setting the phone down but not hanging up so you can’t talk either. He can’t hear you. I’m calling again on my cell in a few seconds, don’t let the operator talk when the call comes through. I’m going to keep my cell with me and the line open. That’s it. No more talking.”

Then I set the cordless on its side by the base and shouted, “I don’t know where she keeps her scarves, Alec! Ask Susie where she keeps her scarves!”“Just look around,” Denny shouted back.

I pulled my cell out of my back pocket and didn’t fuck around with scrolling to anyone’s number. I dialed 911 and then yanked my t-shirt out of my jeans and slid the phone in, display down, between my belly and my belt. I pulled the t-shirt back over it and tucked it around the phone.

“Found one!” I shouted my lie, but started searching and luckily found Susie’s scarves in the first drawer I pulled open.

I nabbed one and ran back to the living room, praying he hadn’t started without me but also that the 911 operator would keep quiet.

“You want me to gag her?” I asked loudly the minute I hit the room.

“Yeah, darlin’,” Denny said and I walked direct to Susie, my eyes sliding between her and Melanie, trying to tell them without words it was going to be okay and hoping I wasn’t nonverbally lying.

“What next?” I asked Denny as I gagged Susie.

“Erase,” Denny answered and I straightened and turned to him.

“What?”

“Erase,” Denny repeated, moving toward me, taking me by the arm and pulling me back.

“Erase?” I asked. “What –?”

“Gonna erase everything, Feb. All of yours, all of mine.” He lifted the gun and pointed it at Melanie as I stood and stared at him, frozen stiff with shock. “So we can get back to the way it’s supposed to be, gonna erase it all.”

He was going to shoot Melanie, I knew it, and he wasn’t going to hesitate.

I didn’t think, I just went for the gun but I was too late, he pulled the trigger when my hand hit his wrist and the gun exploded as the noise pounded against my ears and my heart stopped beating.

* * * * *

“He’s got a gun,” Morrie said, sitting beside Colt as Colt drove his truck to Susie’s.

“Yeah,” Colt replied.

“How’d he get a gun?” Morrie asked.

“Don’t know,” Colt answered.

Morrie was silent, staring out the windshield.

Then he said, “Joe-Bob –”

“Nope, not now, Morrie. Later.”

Morrie was silent again and Colt concentrated on driving, thinking about time, how much had elapsed, what was Denny’s intent, why he’d gone off target. He was supposed to be hunting for Colt, not Susie, not fucking Melanie. Melanie could barely handle giving herself a paper cut. She’d come undone being a hostage. Colt didn’t know what this meant. He didn’t know what it meant for Susie, Melanie or Feb. He didn’t know how much time they had.

“A fuckin’ latte,” Morrie muttered.

“I need you to be cool, Morrie,” Colt told him.

“If I hadn’t –” Morrie started.

“If you hadn’t, you’d be hacked or full of holes too,” Colt told him.

“Better’n scared shitless he’s got my sister.”

Morrie was wrong. If he thought he was right, he just had to ask Jayden Whelan’s wife.

“No, it isn’t, not when you got a wife and two kids at home,” Colt said.

“I was buyin’ a latte, Colt.”

“You were doin’ something your sister wanted you to do. You think Feb’s happy about where Joe-Bob, Darryl and Marty are now? Do you think she’d want that for you? For Dee? For Palmer and Tuesday?” Morrie made a guttural noise and Colt went on. “Focus, Morrie, this ends today and you and me, we don’t need to lose control and fuck it up.”

Morrie paused then blew out a breath before he said, “Yeah.”
 

“You with me?” Colt asked.

“Yeah.”

Colt turned on Vine and he tried to take his own advice, he tried to keep control, be cool but all he could think was he promised Feb he’d keep her safe and, at that moment, she was far from safe.

* * * * *

“What the fuck you doin’?” Denny shouted but I was staring at the bullet hole in the wall beside where Melanie’s head used to be.

She’d fallen to the side, into Susie who had also leaned away. Both of them were crying behind their gags which worked for me since neither of them were bleeding.

Denny pushed me away and stared at me. I had to think fast, I had to buy time.

“You shot at Melanie!” I yelled.

“I gotta erase –”

“Colt wouldn’t shoot at Melanie!” I yelled over him, he went stock-still and his face went funny, not a good funny, a
bad
funny.

“What’d you say?” he asked quietly.

“I said Colt wouldn’t shoot Melanie. And he wouldn’t have hacked up Angie. Or Butch. Or even Pete. Colt’s about good. He’d never hurt
anyone
. You’re not supposed to hurt anyone!” I shouted.

“I’m not Colt,” Denny told me. “I’m Alec.”

I shook my head again, short, fast, all the while blinking. I didn’t understand.

“You’re Alec,” I said to him.

“I’m Alec,” Denny agreed.

“And Alec is Colt.”

Denny shook his head then he grinned. This wasn’t a good grin either, it, too, was a bad grin and it scared me to the depth of my soul.

“No, Feb. I’m Alec. I’m yours, Alec has always been yours. But Colt, he’s different. He’s wrong. He hurt you and, for that, he’s gonna die.”

* * * * *

Colt pulled in, parked, exited the truck and scanned the surroundings.

There were four cruisers which had lined up at angles to the house as well as Sully’s unmarked car, Colt’s truck and Warren and Rodman’s black SUV.

“Go in low,” Colt ordered Morrie who’d come around the back of the truck to Colt’s side. Colt bent double himself, running nearly in a squat to Sully who was crouched behind a cruiser.

“What’ve we got?” Colt asked.

“The SWAT team’s en route, they’ll be at least another ten minutes,” Sully answered.

This was not good. Ten minutes was a long time, too long.

“Any visual?” Colt asked.

“Curtains just been pulled, he’s seen us,” Sully replied.

“Hard not to see,” Morrie muttered and they heard more sirens in the distance so Morrie went on, “and hear.”

“Fed’s said go in hot.”

Colt lifted up and looked at the house, curtains drawn, door closed, no visual, then he crouched low behind the cruiser.

“You see Feb?” he asked Sully.

“Nope, just Denny.”

“Fed’s plan?”

“Talk him out.”

“So, are they gonna do that tomorrow or just after they take a tea break?” Morrie asked, his eyes on the conferring Warren and Rodman that were crouched behind another vehicle, Warren on the phone.

“Denny’s gone rogue, he’s off plan. They don’t know what to do with him. They’re talkin’ to Nowakowski,” Sully said as he lifted up and looked through the passenger windows at the house before he went low again.

“What –?” Colt started but stopped, his muscles petrifying instantly when they heard gunfire inside the house.

* * * * *

“Oh my God. Oh my God,” I chanted as Susie’s eyes came to me, pain and fear etched in them.

Then she slumped to the side, blood oozing from her chest.

Melanie was whimpering, she’d thrown herself off the couch and was trying to crawl away, not an easy thing to do on your belly, in a panic, with your hands tied behind your back.

My first thought was to help her but Denny turned to Melanie, aimed the gun, and I had to move fast. I lunged at his arm and caught his wrist, jerking it upward when he fired.

“Stop shooting at them!” I screeched.

Denny threw me off again and glared at me. “Gotta get this done.”

“We need to call an ambulance. You’ve shot Susie,” I yelled.

“Shoulda started with her first. World could easily do without Susie Shepherd,” Denny declared.

“That isn’t your call,” I snapped. “You’re not God.”

He tired of the conversation, looked over his shoulder at the windows and, with utter yet bizarre calm, he announced, “We gotta hurry, cops are here.”

And thank God, thank God for that.