House of Fire (Unraveled Series) (28 page)

“He’s not my father.”
Evie gritted her teeth, her fists clenched in tight little balls.

“Family drama.” He
waved his hand, dismissing Evie. “You should be proud to call that man your
father. He’s ridding the world of evil single handedly. One by one, he’s
plucking each of the scummy bastards off this earth so that women and children
can walk around this community without being fearful. So you can both walk
around safely, unharmed. That’s something to honor, don’t you think?”

Delaney hesitated,
carefully dissecting the information spewing from Schaefer’s mouth.
Lies. It
all had to be lies.
Holston was anything other than honorable.

“And the women he’s
trafficking? What happened to those women?” Evie’s eyes narrowed on him.

Schaefer let out a
low laugh that formed deep in his gut. “That’s what you think he’s doing? That
he’s trafficking women?” He turned to Delaney, her face stoic as she waited for
more lies to pour from his mouth.

“You, too? You both
think Holston is trafficking women?” He let out another howl before he stopped,
his face becoming suddenly serious. “He’s doing the opposite. He’s letting them
free. He buys them and sends them on their way. With one condition, of course.”
He raised his eyebrows into two perfect arches.

“That he kills the
trafficker,” Evie finished, her voice both genuinely surprised and disgusted.
She hung her head down; her entire being hated the words that had come out of
her mouth.

“Ding, ding, ding.
We’ve got a winner,” Schaefer said as he turned to Evie. “But I have to admit,
it’s gotten a little sticky since you killed Gunnar. It was a lot easier -
cleaner - before you did that.”

“He deserved it,”
Evie snarled at him.

“What about President
Givens?” Delaney interrupted. Florence’s emerald eyes and stinging red shirt
drifted through her mind.

“Givens? The ring
leader. The mob boss of it all,” Schaefer said. “He had it coming to him. It
was Holston’s final call. He had wound his way through all the henchmen; Gunnar
taking them out one by one until Holston got to his second-in-command, Kurt
Dodd. It finally led to the last man standing, President Givens.”

“No,” Evie whispered.
Delaney ran through the initials on Gunnar’s arm. All initials of sex offenders
or traffickers.
It can’t be.
Florence had to be one of the girls he’d
released.

“So, here you two
are, ruining his tightly-knit master calling. He’s finished you know. Done with
all his work. A big payout is headed my way.” Schaefer grinned a shit ass
smile. “Early retirement.”

“Did Sanchez tip you
off?” Delaney asked, her legs sticking to the chair with sweat.

“Sanchez?” Lieutenant
Schaefer’s face fell into a perfect stillness before it curled into that cheap
smile Delaney wanted to smack off. “I work alone. The money is best that way.
Sanchez doesn’t know a thing.”

Delaney finally
believed Lieutenant Schaefer; the cocky fraud finally had the opportunity to
flaunt his identity. At least Mark, James and Michael were safe.
Hopefully.
Lieutenant
Schaefer turned back to Evie, resting his hand on his Glock before casually
pulling it out and pointing the barrel in between Evie’s eyes.

“I should maybe let
Delaney do this since she’s such a good shot,” he mused at a stunned Delaney.
“Yeah, I saw you at the range, but you didn’t see me. You see, I’m good at
disguising myself, covering my tracks. That’s why I was hired. But enough of all
this banter. I hope you both feel the remorse setting in. The feeling that
you’ve crossed a line you shouldn’t have crossed. You should have followed my
lead.
His
lead. It would have been much easier that way. I think
Holston’s words were ‘kill or be killed,’” he said as he pressed the barrel
into Evie’s forehead. Evie held her head steady, her eyes resolute as she
stared at him. She was willing to accept the fate ahead of her. She had come up
short on seeking her revenge on Holston, but Evie wouldn’t die a sniveling
child begging for her life.

“NO!” Delaney
screamed, her voice echoing through her head and off the walls of the kitchen.

He glanced back at
Delaney, pulling the gun slowly off Evie’s forehead. “Good stuff, isn’t it?
Would you like to go first, instead? Holston told me to keep my hands off you,
but you’re making me change my mind. It could be an accident. You jumped in
front of Evie while trying to save her. A heroic effort.” Schaefer pulled the
gun toward Delaney, the barrel sifting through the air until it landed in front
of Delaney’s face. She stared at the black hole of the barrel, waiting for the
explosion to emerge. She wouldn’t hear it; she wouldn’t see the smoke filtering
from the end. If she had any luck, it would all turn black - in the blink of an
eye.

Delaney’s heart
stopped as she saw an outline of a man emerge from behind Lieutenant Schaefer.
The man lunged forward, a silver glint sparkling in Delaney’s eye high above
Schaefer’s head.
James.
Schaefer followed Delaney’s gaze back, but he
was too late. Delaney recognized the color and shape of the object. The
sharp-tipped digging shovel crashed down on the side of his head with a THUD.
He staggered back, fumbling to keep his footing as he held the gun loosely in
his hand. It jolted unevenly in his hand as he tried to squeeze the trigger
toward James who was bringing the shovel back to swing again.

BANG. The shot rang
out, the sound reverberating in Delaney’s ears. Delaney screamed as the shovel
came barreling down on Schaefer’s head again. THUD. THUD. THUD. James rapidly
swung three successive hits at his head, Schaefer too slow to put his arm up to
cover his head. BANG. Another shot rang out. A sudden RAP, RAP, RAP knocked in
Delaney’s ears. Evie rocked in her chair, clattering to the ground in front of
Schaefer’s feet. He glanced down at Evie’s body giving James enough time to
deliver a final blow to his head. Lieutenant Schaefer crumbled to the floor,
the gun clattering to the ground beside him. James dropped the shovel with a
clang and snagged up the gun, pointing it at the pile of police uniform on the
ground. Schaefer writhed in pain, his body curled in a tight fetal position
while Frank Sinatra’s voice continued to croon from the other room.

“Kill him,” Evie
cried out from the ground next to him, still bound to the now cracked chair.
She thrashed around, wiggling to maneuver her hands out of the twine. The loose
backrest gave her enough slack, her hands slipping out from beneath the chair.

James shook his head,
still pointing the gun at Lieutenant Schaefer’s body. “I can’t,” he muttered.
“Let’s just go.”

“Find a knife in the
cabinets. Cut us loose,” Delaney yelled as she watched Schaefer cover his head,
his body convulsing on the floor.

A pool of blood
spread beneath his head, soaking the dingy floor. James took a step back, the
gun still pointed at Schaefer as he opened the first drawer. Then a second. A
third. He made his way down the line while Schaefer moaned on the floor next to
Evie who was busy maneuvering her legs from the broken chair with her freed
hands. James emerged from the third drawer with a rusty fillet knife. He thrust
it forward into Evie’s outstretched hands. She finished cutting her last leg
loose, scrambling to stand next to James to grab the gun from his shaky hand.

“Cut her loose,” Evie
ordered as she nodded toward Delaney, shoving the knife back into James’s hands
before she stepped toward the black writhing uniform. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Oh my God, James.
Are you okay?” Delaney studied James’s body as he sprang toward her and wound
around the back of her chair. She felt her hands jiggle back and forth, the
blade grazing against her skin until the twine released. She pulled her hands
around the front of the chair.

“I’m fine. He
missed,” James said as he bent down to start working on the ties on her ankles,
“What the hell is going on?”

BANG. BANG.

Delaney and James
both instinctively ducked their heads, turning at the sound to see Evie
standing over Lieutenant Schaefer’s lifeless body. Plink. Plink. The shells
clattered to the floor with an empty clanging. She had buried two shots into
his skull.
Double tap
.

“JESUS,” James
shouted as he turned back to Delaney’s legs, vigorously sawing the knife at the
rope. Delaney felt the twine release, her right leg pulling from the chair. He
moved to her left leg, the motion repeating, when a voice croaked behind her.

“What’s all this
noise about?” Janice appeared in the kitchen, aiming a double barrel pump shot
gun at Evie. The sawing motion on Delaney’s leg stopped as she felt the last
bit of tension release. She pulled her leg free, although her body stayed
planted in the chair. James gripped the knife in his hand as he stayed bent
near Delaney’s leg.

“Look at the mess in
my kitchen,” Janice’s voice rose as she looked down at Lieutenant Schaefer’s
body on the ground. She pointed the barrel at Evie. “You killed that poor boy,
you evil little thing.”

“Don’t make me do
this, Janice,” Evie warned as she pointed the gun straight at her, her body in
a steady stance. Janice shifted the weight of the gun onto her shoulder.

BANG. The shot pulsed
above Delaney’s head. THUD. Delaney didn’t need to turn around to know that
Janice had fallen. The record player still sang, Sinatra’s voice jumping to
“Fly Me to the Moon.”

Delaney sprung from
her chair, pulling James up with her as she wrapped her arms around him. She
buried her face into his chest, feeling the safety of his arms envelope her.

“We have to get out
of here. We have to find my mom before he takes her away,” Delaney said.

“This is a crime
scene. We’ve got to call someone,” James urged, pulling her away to look into
her face.

“Like the cops?” Evie
laughed as she waved the gun at the police uniform on the ground. “That’s not
going to get us anywhere. You saw it yourself. He almost killed us. Delaney’s
right, we have to get out of here, but not before I take care of Ken.”

“Evie, just leave
him,” Delaney pleaded as she carefully stepped over the body to avoid the
blood. James slid the knife onto the counter, hesitating as he looked down at
the drawers.

“Shit, my prints are
everywhere,” James said as he scanned the cabinets and then the shovel lying in
the middle of the kitchen.

“Self-defense,” Evie
said as she stepped over the body. “Besides, you didn’t kill him anyway. I
did.” She moved into the dining room, emptying another shot into Janice’s skull
before disappearing into the clutter of the house.

“Delaney, who the
hell is she?” James asked as he pulled Delaney into his chest again. She
huddled against his cotton t-shirt, his smell comforting her as she eyed the
pool of red that had finally settled. She inhaled, waiting for the sound of the
double tap from the other room.

“My sister,” Delaney
finally said. “Anna Jones.”

“What?” James asked,
pushing her body away from him to look into her face. “Did you say sister?”

“Yeah, that’s me,”
Evie said as she walked back into sight, bending down to pick up the shotgun
next to Janice’s body. She held both guns in her hands, casually, as if it was
a perfectly natural thing to do - that two guns had always belonged in her
hands.

“What about Ken?”
Delaney asked as Evie moved back to the kitchen.

“He’s snoring loud as
hell. Slept through it all. That poor bastard looks like death so I figured I’d
let him die the slow, painful death he deserves. I think it might be a little
too easy to let him off with two shots in his sleep. Too peaceful. Plus, I need
to save as many shots as I can,” Evie said as she stopped in front of James and
Delaney who were still embracing in the kitchen. “Let’s go.”

Delaney looked up at
James, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“If you’re going, I’m
going,” James said.

“Where are we going?”
Delaney asked.

“The only place left.
The place where it all started,” Evie said. Delaney watched as the black dress
drifted past her, the dried streak of blood running down her back like a thick spine,
disappearing into the blackness. “You might want to keep that knife.”

***

James’s SUV engine
roared to life while Evie dug through the rented Focus tucked along the side of
the woods. Delaney closed her eyes, trying to push out the vision of the crematory.
Its deteriorating red brick and reaching smokestack remained scorched in her
head. She envisioned all the dead bodies burning to ashes.
How many had it
been?
So many more than twenty-two. That didn’t count Ethan. Joe. The
Mayor. The rest of Ken’s body count.
She shuddered as she thought of Ken
waking up to see his wife’s body on the floor of the dining room. He would
cremate her, right along with Schaefer. The ash burned in her throat as she
thought of her own lifeless body being pushed into the flames, Evie’s body
alongside her. It would have been them both had it not been for James. She
reached out her hand to rest it on his thigh.

“Thank you.” Delaney
leaned across the console, pressing her lips into his. Warmth flooded through
her body, his lips gently caressing hers in a passionate kiss. She felt his
hand graze her cheek and move to cradle her neck. She lost herself in the
moment, her body succumbing to his touch until he finally pulled his head back
lightly.

“You already thanked
me. About a million times,” James said with a small smile. “I’m just so
relieved that I got there when I did.”

“How did you find
us?” Delaney asked as she watched Evie open the back door of the Focus, her
head disappearing into the car again

“When you didn’t
answer your phone, I knew you had to be in trouble. I set up your iPhone on the
iCloud about a month ago before you went out for a jog. I tracked your phone
here,” James said. “I pulled into the field and started tramping through the
woods, hoping that I wouldn’t find your body. That’s when I saw the house and
then the police car. I figured that’s where you had to be. I grabbed the shovel
that was resting against the house, and you know the rest.”