Redemption (The Keepers of Hell Book 3) (12 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Two Earth years later…

     Jake and Shelly stood silently in the open doorway of the classroom where his charge was now teaching a class full of high school students. Lucy had picked up the shambles of her life and moved to Texas. She had even changed her name. Now, she was Lacy and she was doing what she had always wanted to do with her life. Teaching.

     He hated that so much time had passed, but time moved differently in Hell than it did on Earth. Jake had to keep reminding himself that he did his part, albeit forbidden, to help Lacy when she wrecked her car. The rest was her time to grow and change. Now Jake could see the spunk and the fire in her eyes that could only come from soul deep. It was what drew Ash to her and it was what was going to land her in front of Ash one day, just like he had been.

     Jake had done a complete background check on the woman and discovered that she had a master’s degree in teaching. She had also been learning to defend herself. Lacy had been taking Karate classes for months and was getting better at it every day. He could see the difference in her. It was obvious in the way she moved and in the way she carried herself.

     She was a whole new person. Jake felt a foreign emotion well in his chest. Pride. Not for himself, but for this woman who had beaten the odds and came back stronger than before. She pulled herself out of her abusive relationship and instead of hiding, she molded herself into a warrior.

     He watched as she scribbled something on the chalkboard and then turned to ask questions of her students. It was obvious that they respected her. Jake felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips. It didn’t matter whether the kids liked their teacher or not when it came to high school. What mattered was that the kids respected their teacher. Lacy had that in spades. She was no longer the timid, introverted woman he had first seen in her small house months ago. She was confident and strong.

     Jake was happy. For the first time in his life, he truly understood what it meant to be whole. He had been reluctant to welcome Shelly into his heart, but her forceful nature and her possessive streak had awakened something inside of him that he didn’t know existed. For the first time, he wanted something more. More than riches and fame, more than notoriety and infamy. He wanted life. Not just his own, but hers, because without her he was nothing.

     He had been selfish and greedy in life. He thought when Ash offered him a job that he would get a chance to make things right. He had been right and he had been wrong. The job had brought him to his place in life, or afterlife, as it was, but it was Shelly who had truly been his redemption.

     She had inadvertently pulled Jake out of himself and taught him what it was like to love. She was his perfect other half, meant to be his for all eternity. It was the stuff romance novels were made of and instead of cringing at the thought, Jake grinned.

     He still worried about the humans who had managed to hold her captive. True to his word, he had not left Shelly’s side while the humans were on the lamb. The fact that they had Shelly’s blood irked him to no end. Not only could they use it to summon Balthazar, but it could be dangerous to his woman as well. They could summon her again and she would be powerless to fight it. They could destroy her if they so desired, and they could use it to control her, putting everyone at risk. It was a risk he wasn’t ready to take.

     Jake took some measure of comfort in knowing that because of her bullheadedness, because she insisted on marking him, he could always find her. He smiled as he remembered that her initial marking had been to be an ass, to prove to the world that when Shelly claimed something or someone as her own, that she meant business. Now, the mating was mutual. If they did summon her, and lord better help them if they did, they wouldn’t hold her for long.

     Those humans had disappeared without a trace. Jake and Ash had searched the world over for them, but they were nowhere to be found. That laptop they retrieved was full of coded emails and files that made no sense whatsoever. Ash had put Mali to work on them, but it was slow coming. It was obvious that they had help from someone, but who? There were still so many questions left unanswered and Jake vowed to find those answers.

     He would protect his woman. His demon. His soul mate. His redemption.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

     Lacy had engaged her class for the entire period. She looked at her clock and realized that the hour and a half had flown by. She couldn’t help but feel a little proud of herself for getting her students interested and involved. She tapped her laptop to open the homework screen and said, “I will email everyone tonight’s assignment. Please remember to check it.” And that was when it happened.

     The intercom on her phone started playing a jingle. The students looked up in confusion, but Lacy knew exactly what it was. She looked at her intercom like it just stood up and did a little dance. What the hell? She wasn’t aware of any drills today, but they didn’t always tell anyone. But that jingle, it was specific. It was non-threatening, but it was the worst of them all as far as Lacy was concerned. It was the one that meant the school was under attack.

     Her heart stopped for a second and then thundered in her chest. Her cell phone beeped and Lacy knew without looking that it was the same warning, a backup for any teachers that were not in their classrooms. A part of her realized that this was probably a drill, but a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it was not.

     “Class,” she said, snapping into action. She had been through this drill two dozen times, she knew what to do, “When the bell rings, I do not want you to leave your seats. In fact, I would like for everyone to please move to the back of the room. We’re having a drill, I think.” The class didn’t argue. They too had been through the drill. Lacy moved quickly to the door of her class and gently pushed it closed. Then, she locked it. She didn’t know why, but something told her that this was not a drill and to keep her students safe. She looked back at her desk and thought of her nine millimeter that was tucked safely away in the locked drawer. She fingered the key that hung around her neck for only a moment before making her decision.

     She chose the largest kid in her class. “Jamie,” she said to him softly, “I need your help, please.”

     The boy stood and at his full height at well over six feet tall. He was a football player and built like a mac truck. “What ya need, Ms. B?” he asked her.

    Lacy stood behind her desk, facing Jamie on the other side. “I don’t like this,” she whispered. “I can’t explain it, but I just know this is not a drill.” The boy’s eyes widened but he remained silent. “I need you to block me from the camera’s view. Don’t look at it.”

     There was a camera in each classroom, at the back, so that the entire room was easily visible. Jamie nodded, knowing his back was to it.

     “What are we going to do?” he asked her. Lacy felt her heart swell with pride. This seventeen year old boy was showing more courage than most men.

     “I need to get something, and I don’t want you to say anything about it,” she said. “Just stand there and take the book I hand you, and then go back to the back of the room. Try to quietly gather as many students as you can and get them out of sight of the camera. I need you to act as if this is just a drill. A little annoyance would even be good.”

     Jamie nodded and put one hand on her desk, shifting his weight to appear more casual. Lacy smiled and then took the key off her necklace. She opened her drawer and carefully slipped her hand inside. She felt the cool butt of the gun glide into her palm and she took it out of the drawer without lifting it too high. No one but she and Jamie could see it. “Ms. B?” he whispered, fear clouding his eyes.

     Lacy shook her head. “I hope I am wrong. Never speak of this, please.”

     “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said too quietly for anyone but her to hear. All of the students had heard the rumors that a select few of their teachers had conceal and carry permits, they just never knew which ones. From the looks of things, Ms. B was one of them.

     She handed Jamie the folder that contained her great, great grandfather’s letters. “You keep that safe for me,” she said with a smile. He nodded once and held the folder to his chest as if they were a shield from the world. Lacy hated that she had put this on him, that she had let him in on her secret, but it was the only way she could retrieve her gun without anyone else seeing.

     “Good afternoon teachers and students,” a strange voice said over the PA. “By now you have probably figured out that this school is on lockdown, and if you have not, let me clear it up for you. No one leaves. Anyone who tries to leave will be killed. My team and I do not wish to cause harm to any of the students, but we will not hesitate to shoot if necessary.”

     Lacy pressed her lips together in a thin line. Then she heard the whispers and the sniffles of her students. Twenty-five children, all her responsibility. She looked knowingly at Jamie, who was still holding her folder tight to his chest.

     “Your principle is already dead, as is the rent-a-cop at the door. Anyone else who tries to alert any outside assistance will also be shot. When your government complies with our demands, we will be on our way, with no one else hurt.”

     Terrorists, Lacy thought. But why a school? The US Government does not negotiate with terrorists. She could tell by the faint accent the man speaking had that he was not a citizen. She didn’t know where he was from and she didn’t care. She was just handed a new mission in life and it was to get those students out of there alive.

***

     Jake watched as his charge shoved her fears aside and took action. He knew he wasn’t supposed to interfere, but there were five hundred kids in that school! So when the group of six men with assault rifles entered the building, he had warned her. He whispered in her ear that things were about to go to shit and fast. Shelly was at his side, and she made no move to stop him. She had even gone to the office to see what the men were up to while he kept watch on Lacy.

     “They’re going to blow it up,” Shelly said, appearing out of thin air. “They got one in the basement, setting it up. I don’t know much about explosives, but it looks pretty freaking big.”

     “We need Antonio,” Jake said. “Let’s go. Quickly.”

     The pair flashed to Ash’s office, hoping Antonio was there, and that he could get there in time to stop this from happening.

***

     Lacy couldn’t explain how she knew it, but she knew. Those terrorists had no intention of letting anyone go. She peered out of the small window in her door and saw that one man, dressed in black and holding an assault weapon, was walking the hallway, preventing anyone from escaping that route.

     “Shit,” she muttered under her breath. She walked quickly to the back of her classroom where her students waited for her. “We can’t stay here,” she said to them quietly.

     “We can’t leave!” one of the girls cried out. “They’ll kill us!”

     Lacy took the girls hand in her own and squeezed it. “If we stay here, we’re dead.” Lacy could feel the cold metal of her gun pressed into the back of her jeans and it gave her some measure of comfort. If anyone came into her classroom, they better be firing when they entered. She was fast and she was accurate, and she wouldn’t hesitate to protect her students. “I have a plan, but you all have to remain calm and do exactly what I say.”

     It took some convincing, but her students were finally on board with her. “They can access our video feed from the office,” she told them. “That’s why we are standing below the camera, where it can’t see. As far as they know, this is an empty classroom save for the teacher.” She waited to make sure they were following her. “They don’t know we’re in here.” She looked at the ceiling and something told her that her way out was up there. The vent! “I need someone tall and strong,” she said.

     Jamie stood. “What can I do?” he asked.

     “Lift me up by the wall to that vent up there,” she said.

     Jamie held his hands together in front of him and Lacy stepped into them. He hefted her up and she finagled herself so that she was sitting on his shoulders. She reached up and popped the grate off the air vent. She lowered it carefully and one of her students took it from her.

     “We are going to have to be extremely quiet. I want you to get in there and head that way,” she pointed toward the east side of the building. “It’s away from the office and there is a large fan that leads to the outside. Move slowly and carefully. Do not make a sound. If you hear something, don’t move. Don’t give them any indication of where you are. When you get to the fan, stop. Do not go outside until I am there. Do you all understand?”

     Twenty-five heads nodded. “Good. Now, let’s get you all out of here.”

     Lacy helped Jamie lift each student into the duct system. They did as she asked and moved as silently as possible, until the only student remaining was Jamie. “There is no way I am fitting into that vent,” he told her. Lacy had already known that, but she had hoped.

     “I’ll figure something out,” Lacy told him.

     “I’m going with you,” he said firmly.

     “Jamie,” she said, “You can’t. I don’t know if I’m even going to get out.”

     “Of course you will, Ms. B,” he said. “You will because you’re the shit and you’re the smartest teacher here. I know it and I am going to help you.”

     “Jamie, I can’t. I can’t let you come with me.”

     “Ms. B,” he said quietly, “I know I am just a kid to you, but I am strong. I can fight. If this were the Civil War, I would be a soldier now. I am going to help you whether you like it or not.”

     Lacy didn’t know what to do. She was torn between protecting the child and accepting his help. “Hang on,” she muttered and got out her cell phone. She texted all the teachers she had numbers saved in her phone for, telling them to send their students out the way she did. Then she looked back at Jamie. “We aren’t going to have much time,” she warned him. “As soon as the camera is out, I will have to shoot the man in the hall. Are you prepared for that?”

     “No,” he admitted, “But if it means we all get to live then let’s do it anyway.”

     Lacy waited until she got confirmation from the other teachers that their students were on the move before she made her own move.

     She climbed up Jamie’s back and disconnected her camera. She knew that would alert the men in the office and the one in the hallway would come to investigate. She was not disappointed. He was stalking down the hall, right in her direction. Lacy pulled her gun and eased the hammer back. “Stay behind me,” she told Jamie. She unlocked her door and opened it a crack. When the man was close enough that she could see that he had brown eyes, Lacy took the shot.

     The would-be assassin dropped to the floor. Knowing the sound of gunfire would get things moving, Lacy grabbed Jamie’s hand and they ran through the hallway.    Another man dressed in black rounded the corner and Lacy didn’t hesitate. One bullet, straight to his head. He dropped like a sack of rocks. Lacy reached down and grabbed his rifle as they ran past.

     Voices were coming their directions. Frantic shouting. Lacy needed to hide Jamie.

     Over there
, a voice said to her. She didn’t see anyone and didn’t care. There was a janitor’s closet within reach. She yanked open the door and shoved Jamie inside. “Stay,” she commanded him.

     She closed the door just in time to see two more men coming her direction at a run. She raised her gun and fired twice. The first shot was dead on, the second missed, plunging into the wall behind the man.

     He growled as he came closer to her. Lacy fired again, this time hitting him in the shoulder. She raised the rifle at the same time he raised his own. She fired first, releasing a spray of bullets on the man.

     As soon as she was satisfied that he was dead, she went back to the closet where Jamie hid. “Come on,” she said and he ran after her. They were nearly out.

     “Just a little further,” she said, and when Jamie didn’t answer her she stopped and turned around. One of the men had Jamie by the neck and had a gun to his head.

     Her heart sank. Oh no… “Let him go,” she said.

     The man laughed. “I don’t think so. Where are the rest of the students?”

     Lacy shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me.”

     “You must not care very much for this one,” he said, pressing the gun harder to Jamie’s temple. “Shall I dispose of him for you?”

     “Let him go,” Lacy said again with conviction.

     “Tell me, Teacher, can you fire that weapon faster than I can blow this kid’s brains out?”