LEAP OF FAITH (26 page)

Now what?
She didn’t even know where Gage and Nick were positioned. If Gage had been incapacitated, that left either the front or the back door of the cabin unprotected, which meant there was a fifty-fifty chance of running right into the arms of the killer no matter what exit she chose. 
Gage
. What was happening? Was he injured, maybe lying out there bleeding while she struggled with indecision? This was all her fault!  If only she hadn’t… 

“Abby?” 

Abby was shaking so badly she had to clutch the phone to her ear to keep from dropping it. “Gage, thank God you’re all right. What happened? Are you okay, was it him?”

“Calm down, woman, I tripped and dropped the phone. Had a hell of a time finding it in the dark.”

Relief mingled with anger over the fright he’d given her. When this was over, Abby silently vowed to make her brother pay dearly. “I thought he’d caught you by surprise and cracked that thick skull of yours, for Pete’s sake! Try to keep from bumbling around out there, you’re really upsetting Prince.” She glanced towards the sliding glass doors, troubled by the discovery that Prince was still maintaining a vigilant watch on the woods. “Gage, I think I figured out who the killer is. Maybe I’m over reacting, but I’d like to speak to the Sheriff about it tonight.”

“That’s not a bad idea, honey,” he replied, keeping his voice low, “but if you’re going to point an accusatory finger, you better have something pretty compelling to convince him with. And while you’re at it, you may as well confess to this scatter-brained idea and tell him we could use some back-up. Prince doesn’t growl unless he senses danger and I’m getting that edgy feeling myself, which tells me you were right and our guest of honor is lurking about in the woods and plans on making a move soon.” 

Tears prickled at the back of her eyes. “Oh, Gage, you
will
be careful, won’t you? If anything happened to you or Nick, I could never forgive myself.”

“Nick knows to keep his head low, and there’s plenty of cover out here. Trust me, neither of us has any intentions of stepping in front of a bullet. Just stay clear of the windows and let me know what the Sheriff says about sending in the cavalry.”

“I’ll call you as soon as I’m done,” she promised. 

Abby disconnected the call and was inching her way through the darkened room to retrieve the flashlight from the kitchen when the glass in the sliding doors suddenly exploded with a thunderous crash. Momentarily paralyzed with fear, Abby could only watch in horror as the shards of glass were hurled through the air, hailing down over Prince’s head. She heard him yelp and knew she should do something to help him but couldn’t seem to make her legs work. A split second later, another shot sounded and hit the wall just behind her. She dropped to the ground, heart thumping furiously in her chest, choking on a sob when she felt the cell phone slip from her hand. In a panic, Abby swept her hand in front of her, cursing when the frantic motion sent the phone careening across the floor. 

Off to her right, Prince was little more than a shadowy form, the crunch of broken glass beneath his paws barely audible as he moved in silent stealth towards the gaping hole. Poised in the doorway, he stopped for a moment and angled his head to one side as if he was waiting for the shooter to make a sound and give away his position. The night was eerily quiet; even the usual din of crickets was absent. Had they scurried off to hide, frightened by the reverberation of gunfire, or was it the ominous presence of an unfamiliar predator that silenced them?

Abby let out a startled squeak when Prince barked twice and then leapt through the doorway, disappearing into the night. His presence had been a source of comfort, and now that he was gone she could almost taste her own fear. Where were her brothers? Were they still outside keeping watch or had they followed Prince? 

She could hear him barking but the sound was growing fainter, which meant he was going deeper into the woods. Logic told her Prince had taken after the killer and she was safe for the time being. Even so, her insides were shaking from the close call and the fact that her brothers were outside with that maniac, no doubt in hot pursuit and determined to extract revenge on the man for taking pot shots at her.

The urge to see what was going on outside was strong but not powerful enough to instill the bravado needed to get on her feet and risk having her head blown off. Still on all fours, she inched her way forward, cautiously steering clear of the moonlight that was spilling into the room. Sheer terrier gripped her by the throat when a dark shadow eclipsed the meager light, drawing her gaze up to the silhouette of a man filling the doorway with his large frame. She saw him duck inside, his feet crushing the glass beneath him as he entered the cabin, his head swiveling from side to side,
searching for her
. Abby scrambled backwards, certain she was small enough to worm her body between the sofa and the wall if she could only reach it before he spotted her.

It was impossible to tell which direction he’d moved off to with the roar of her heart thundering inside Abby’s head muffling the sound of his footsteps, and she didn’t dare slow her retreat to discern where he was. Even if she had, it wouldn’t have made any difference; the sudden shift of air around her detonated a chain reaction of internal alarms.
Oh, God, he was practically on top of her!
 A mortified scream was wrenched from her throat when two strong hands yanked her off the floor. One hand clamped down over her mouth while the other gripped her around the waist and pinned her back to a frighteningly solid chest. 

Abby struggled to free herself; a pointless endeavor against his brute strength, but she refused to go down without a fight. Where were her brothers? Where was Prince? Tears squeezed from the corners of her eyes.
I don’t want to die like this.
Even if he was merciful enough to kill her quickly, the thought of being buried in the woods with all those other women was almost as terrifying as being murdered. Attempting to pry the steel band from around her waist was hopeless, but she still had the use of her legs and a strong set of teeth! Abby pummeled his shins with several vicious kicks, taking advantage of his momentary shock to bite down on the fleshy part of his palm. 

It was a short lived victory; he subdued her in a matter of seconds by cinching his grip around her waist tighter and tighter until the need for air made her too weak to continue her assault. With her energy spent, Abby felt like a rag doll, although her mind was still rebelling against the inevitability of a violent death.
Think
, she ordered herself. Maybe she could convince him to let her go. After all, she hadn’t seen his face and he couldn’t possibly know she had figured out who he was, so he had nothing to lose by setting her free. Hysterical laughter bubbled up inside her; how could she convince him of anything when his hand was covering her mouth? 

The urge to laugh was quickly replaced by a ripple of fear when she felt his warm breath against her cheek. Abby jerked her head away, repulsed by the feel of his skin touching hers, and yet…the prickle of unshaven stubble stirred something deep inside that she couldn’t quite define. Slowly, slowly, the turbulent emotions began to subside only to be thrown back into turmoil again when he whispered her name. It wasn’t possible! But a tender kiss to her temple proved Abby wrong. She tried to speak, but what came out was little more than a muffled grunt.

“Easy, sweetheart,” Jack’s deep voice warned, “we’re not sure where he’s at.”

The instant Jack let her go, Abby whirled around and flung herself in his arms. It felt so good to be pressed against the firm muscles of his chest, safe and secure; it was where she belonged. Closing her eyes, Abby allowed herself a moment of pure joy. He was really here, holding her close, surrounding her with his love. Jack would protect her and when this horrible night was over, things would go back to normal. Assuming they caught the real killer.

“Jack,” she whispered hoarsely, “how did you get out of jail?”

"It’s a long story, honey. The Sheriff and two deputies are out there with your brothers.”

“Thank God! I was just about to call the Sheriff when he shot through the glass doors. Jack…I know who it is.”

“Everett Mizzerach?”

“Yes, but…how did you figure it out?”

“What Anya said kept nagging at me. It didn’t make sense to call me
Mister
Jack, even if she honestly believed it was me. I thought of the few men in town who might have been mistaken for me, but it still didn’t make sense. I repeated the name over and over in my head until it finally hit me. She wasn’t saying Mr. Jack, she was saying
Mizzerach
. I imagine the state of mind she was in, it came out in slow syllables and sounded like Mizz-er-ach. Is that how you figured it out, too?”

Abby thought about all the hours she’d spent diligently extracting bits and pieces of information until the full picture emerged. Briefly, she told Jack how she had eliminated everyone except Everett. “I was looking too deep when the answer was right in front of me the whole time. I suppose like the Sheriff and the rest of the town, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.”

“Actually, the Sheriff came to the same conclusion we did.”

“Is that why he let you out?”

“Not exactly. When I phoned your dad…”

Abby pulled away from him in surprise. “You called my dad?”

“After Sherri told me what you two were up to, I had to do
something
,” he said reproachfully. “They wouldn’t let me talk to the Sheriff so I called the one man I knew had the power to get to him and make him listen. I explained everything to Sam. He contacted the Judge and relayed what I’d told him, and she arranged to have me released. On the way here, the Sheriff told me he’d figured it out too, but was hesitant to arrest Everett before he had any evidence, especially after he had already made the mistake of arresting the wrong man twice.”

“What do we do now, wait here until they catch him?”    

“No, we need to get out of the cabin. It’s too dangerous with so many windows leaving you exposed. Who knows if he has a scope or where he’s at?”

A scope?
Oh, God, what had she gotten herself into? Even more frightening was the risk her brothers and Jack were taking in order to protect her. “But we can’t go outside, Jack! We’ll leave ourselves wide open, and you’ll be a much easier target than me.”

“We have to risk it. If we can get up the path to my cabin, we can take the motorcycle and be out of target range within a few minutes.”

“What about Gage and Nick?”

“I was with Sheriff Crane when we damn near stumbled over Gage hiding near the path. The Sheriff sent his deputies around to cover the house so he and Gage could follow Prince. They’re pretty sure Prince chased Mizzerach into the woods, but we can’t take the chance he’s still close enough to take a shot. Even if he didn’t see us drive up to my cabin, he would have heard the engines. We passed his truck about a quarter of a mile down the road; he’ll be desperate to get to it and I doubt if he’ll care who is in the line of fire.”

“Maybe he didn’t hear them,” Abby said, frantic to keep him from going outside. “I didn’t hear anything, so it’s possible…”

“No, Abby. You didn’t hear us because that lunatic had just taken a shot at you.”

“But…”

“Listen to me, honey, we need to get out of here
now
.”

Abby couldn’t see Jack’s face, but there was no mistaking the anxious note in his voice. She could only imagine what he’d gone through when he heard the gunfire and didn’t know whether she had been hit or not. She understood why he wanted to get her out of there and she trusted him to keep her safe, that wasn’t the reason she was balking. What terrified her were the lengths he was willing to go though to insure that happened. Reluctant as she was, Abby didn’t protest when he kept a firm arm around her waist and guided her through the darkened room.       

Abby was already a bundle of raw nerves, an anxiety ridden state of mind and body that kicked into hyper drive when three shots rang out in rapid succession and echoed through the woods. It was impossible to tell exactly where it came from, but off in the distance, Prince was going crazy, which meant Everett Mizzerach had doubled back towards the cabins. She and Jack were relatively safe…or at least they would be once they reached his cabin, but she was worried sick about her brothers. Her eyes migrated to what was left of the glass doors. Gage and Nick would be cautious, but they were at a definite disadvantage because Mizzerach was obviously familiar with the surrounding woods. Distracted by her troubling thoughts, she must have veered towards the shattered doors because she suddenly found herself being pulled in the opposite direction.

“We’re too exposed if we go out that way,” he said. 

Jack was right. Besides having to duck through the jagged edges of glass, the deck and backyard were illuminated by the moonlight, making them incredibly vulnerable until they reached the path where tall foliage would provide the cover they needed. Their best chance of escaping undetected was to slip out the front and circle around back. From there, it was a short distance to the path, which meant they would only be out in the open for the few seconds it took to sprint across open ground. Ready or not, it was time to go.

***