The Fey (47 page)

“
You’ll never believe what
I found,” she said. “Come on.”

“
And if I say
‘no’?”

“
You’ll miss out.” Her
words were mixed with laughter.

John unzipped his sleeping bag and worked
his way out of the tent. Alex smiled at him.

“
You won’t need these,”
she said.

His clothing disappeared. The cold air blew
across his warm skin and he shivered wrapping his arms around
himself. When he opened his mouth to ask her what was going on, she
smiled.

“
Come on.”

Seeming to float a few inches off the
ground, she took off down the trail. Even running full speed ahead,
he was unable keep up with her. She waited for him like a bright
blue beacon in the dark night.

“
It’s here,” she said
pointing to the river.

“
Oh love, this water is
very cold. Let’s go back to bed” He reached for her.

She laughed and stepped into the water.

“
Join me,” she said. The
laughter in her voice rose above the sound of the river like the
tinkling of crystal bells.

Stepping into the ice-cold water, he walked
along the sandy river bottom.

“
This way,” she said.
“Come over here.”

His skin became numb in the frigid water. A
bright yellow moon moved from behind a cloud to light the way to
her. He slipped into the deep pool where she was swimming.

“
You’ll catch your death,
love. Come out of the river with me.”

Giggling, she said, “Come to me.”

Moving forward, he felt a flush of warm
water. His face must have registered shock because she laughed.

“
It’s a hot spring,” she
said.

The water warmed as he drew close to her.
She slipped her arms around his neck. He kissed her deeply,
savoring her touch and flavor. Under the bright moon, they lay
wrapped around each other. Her close, naked contact and the warm
water awakened his longing for her. Laughing, she moved on top of
him. With the moon shining over her blue shoulder, she kissed his
lips.

When he shifted to join with her, she
disappeared from his arms. In a breath, her weight, warmth and
closeness vanished. Certain she was teasing him, he turned to look
for her in the river.

His empty arms felt the cold first. The warm
flushed out of the river. He lay in ice-cold water. Storm clouds
blew over the bright moon. He called her name into the wind. His
eyes searched the dark for her blue light. Snow fell as he ran down
the path toward their tent. He found tent windblown, empty, and
cold.

Standing at the tent opening, John called
Alex’s name and strained his ears for her response. The cold wind
and snow finally drove him into the tent. Reaching to zip the tent,
he heard voices. Still naked, he jumped from the tent and ran in
the direction of the sound.

Breaking through a circle of pine trees, he
came to a clearing. With her hands tied behind her back, Alex
kneeled on the ground. She was dressed in black robes, the
traditional dress of a Muslim woman. A man stood behind her holding
a handgun to the back of her head.

John screamed her name and the man fired.
The front of her skull exploded and pieces of her brain and blood
splattered onto the pine needles. What had been Alexandra “The Fey”
Hargreaves fell forward to the ground.

“
Alex!”

John’s scream awakened the sleeping house.
Jumping out of bed, he paced the length of his room. What he could
possibly do? Tom pushed the door open.

“
What is it,
boy?”

“
Alex is going to
die.”

F

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

October 14 – 6:07 P.M.
Pike’s Peak National Forest

“
You will get on your
knees,” Sumit said. He pointed her gun in Alex’s
direction.

Eleazar arrived at the cabin with two
machine gun welding guards. After making certain Alex’s hands were
handcuffed, Eleazar punched her to the ground. Alex lay face first
on the ground with Eleazar’s Gucci shoe on her back. Sumit gave an
embellished report on the valiant efforts of the men and Alex’s
trickery. He exaggerated her easy capture. Eleazar laughed at
Sumit’s elaborate description of ‘raping the infidel.’

Alex bided her time. She heard Trece’s
whistle about ten minutes before Eleazar arrived. Her friends were
close. They would intervene when she gave them the signal or they
knew she was in danger. Right now, she was listening.

“
Alex,” Jesse’s face
materialized next to hers. “We still don’t know about
Sumit.”

Eleazar mashed his foot against the wound on
her left arm.

“
I don’t like
him.”

Alex blinked to indicate that she
understood.

With his hands clamped around the knife
wound, Eleazar pulled Alex to standing. She wobbled on sore
battered legs and knocked into Eleazar. He stepped back to keep
from falling. His guard slapped Alex’s face but caught the edge of
the niqab instead. The scarf and head covering slipped from her
head. Sumit moved forward, pressing himself between the guard and
Alex, to replace the niqab.

Eleazar sneered at Alex.

As a way of displaying her submission, she
bowed her head. Covered in scarves, Alex smirked. For a year and a
half, this tiny man, at least five inches shorter than Alex,
terrified her. Peering at him from her submissive gestures, she
felt a cloud move away. Eleazar was merely a little man behind a
green curtain. She survived his dangerous parlor tricks and games.
She will survive him today.

Sumit and the guards were another story.

“
What do you want from
me?” Alex asked.

Eleazar hit her across the face. “Insolent
woman. How dare you speak to me?”

Alex closed her eyes for a moment. Her
tongue ran across her teeth. Nothing loose. She would have spit at
him but her mouth was covered by the niqab in front of her face.
She swallowed the blood that pooled into her mouth.

“
What is this?” Eleazar
asked holding up a Zippo lighter.

Sumit pressed the muzzle of her handgun to
the back of her head.

“
You will answer when
spoken to.”

“
It’s a lighter,” Alex
said.

“
How does it work?”
Eleazar asked.

“
Unlock me and I’ll show
you,” Alex said.

She returned to her submissive stance. She
felt Eleazar’s eyes scour her skull. Her only chance was if Eleazar
believed that he could control her. When she felt Sumit unlock the
handcuffs, she knew that she had won the first battle of deception.
Rubbing her wrists, she moved the Mini-tool to a more accessible
position.

With her eyes lowered, she held her hand out
for the lighter. Eleazar dropped the Zippo into her hand. Flipping
the hinge top off the Zippo, she flicked the round thumbwheel a
couple times without success. She shook the lighter to see if it
had fuel.

“
I cannot work it with
gloves on.”

“
You may remove them, my
dear,” Eleazar purred. “I’m certain you are tired. Please sit
down.”

She set the lighter on the edge of the small
Formica table. Pulling on one finger at a time, Alex moved the
unnoticed Mini-tool toward her palm. She moved in slow deliberate
movements working to keep the Mini-tool from falling onto the
floor. She dropped the glove, with its hidden prize, onto her lap
and picked up the lighter.

Turning the lighter over, she said, “I
wondered where this was.”

“
My associate took it from
you after he shot you.”

“
How did he manage that
with my bullet in his brain?” she asked.

Eleazar’s hired gun raised his hand to hit
her but Eleazar raised his hand to stop him.

“
You remember?”

“
I remember,” she
said.

She flicked the lighter but was unable to
get a flame. Something nagged at the back of her mind. Jesse
appeared behind Eleazar.

“
Your lighter is broken,”
Jesse said. “You broke it a couple days before we were
shot.”

Alex shrugged, “The lighter’s broken.”

“
I am aware of that,”
Eleazar said.

“
How can I help?” Alex
asked She bowed her head in mock submission.

“
It is my understanding
that this item controls an area where my property is
stored.”

Alex puzzled. What is he saying? She felt
movement in the room and peeked out above the niqab. Eleazar
motioned the men away from them. Sitting down across from her at
the table, he changed his tack.

“
Listen, Alexandra, all I
want is my property. It’s nothing personal. Over the last months,
we’ve become such good friends. I know that you want to give me
what I need.” His voice was kind and loving.

Alex nodded. Here we go. He’s trying to
control me. Fucker.

“
How can I help?” she
asked.

“
That’s the spirit. Good
girl.”

Eleazar’s voice was like a caress. His hand
reached across the table to hold her gloved left hand.

Alex forced herself not to show her
revulsion to him. She was grateful for the robes and niqad for they
covered her automatic responses. No wonder women loved wearing
these things. Alex blinked.

“
I wonder how your mother
is doing,” Alex said.

Eleazar’s hand jerked up.

“
She’s in the custody of
the King of Jordan.” Alex gauged her voice for neutral keeping her
eyes on the lighter. What had she done to this lighter? Something
specific, she remembered that.

“
My mother is dead,” he
said. He stared at her bowed head.

“
Not yet,” Alex said. “But
execution by hanging is automatic for terrorists in Jordan. Your
children, however…”

Eleazar reached across the table. Grabbing
Alex’s shoulders, he shook her with force. She looked him in the
eye.

“
What are you talking
about?” he asked.

“
Maybe you should
call.”

Speaking in rapid Arabic, Eleazar requested
a cell phone from one of the men. They informed him that their
phones did not receive cell service in this area.

“
We can get service in the
clearing in the back,” Sumit said.

Alex slipped the Mini-tool up the left
sleeve of the abaya and pulled the right glove onto her hand. She
reached for the lighter but Eleazar snatched it from her hand.

“
This is mine,” he
said.

She blinked. Feeling the muzzle of a machine
gun in her back, she stood. The guards pushed her out of the cabin.
She stumbled, falling face first onto the ground and the guards
began kicking her. In the dust and flying pine needles, she slipped
the Mini-tool into the palm of her hand.

“
That’s enough,” Eleazar
said. “We don’t want to kill her yet.”

By the time they pulled her to her feet
again, she had opened the steel arms of the Mini-tool exposing the
needle nose pliers. She heard Trece’s bird whistle asking if they
should respond. She shook her head slightly.

“
On your knees.” Sumit
pushed her to the ground.

Falling to her knees, she knew she was going
to die. Sumit was going execute her in this clearing. Her life was
over.

Letting out a breath, she longed for a kiss
from John, a hug from Matthew, a chance to listen to Trece’s verbal
diarrhea, an argument with Troy, a smoke filled conversation with
Ben, a sweaty workout with the White Boy, a rolling of her eyes at
her mother, a strategy session with her father, a shot of whiskey
with Colin, a chance to hear Erin laugh, another moment nestled in
Raz’s safe arms, a shopping trip with Samantha and more than
anything, she longed for Max. Then, like a short life, the longing
was gone. She resigned to her fate.

Bowing her head, she made the sign of the
cross and began to pray the rosary.

Eleazar stood with his back to her. He spoke
in forceful Arabic into a cell phone. He became more and more angry
as the conversation progressed. Turning around, almost spinning in
place, he nodded to Sumit.

Sumit cocked her handgun.

Alex closed her eyes and waited for the
bullet.

Sumit pulled the trigger.

Thwook.

An arrow shot Sumit through the shoulder,
rotating his shoulder back. The shot went wild.

Startled, the guards looked around for the
shooter. Eleazar screamed “Kill her”. The men raised their machine
guns, clicked off the safety, but never got a shot off. They fell
forward with arrows through their hearts.

Silence. A slight wind blew a tree limb to
creak against another limb. Eleazar’s head jerked toward the sound.
Sumit pulled the arrow from his shoulder and moved back to Alex.
Eleazar stood looking around him.

Rotating out the knife of the Mini-tool,
Alex popped to standing. In two quick steps, she held the knife
against Eleazar’s throat.

“
You don’t want to do
that.” Eleazar used the voice he was certain controlled
Alex.

“
Yeah, you know, I really
do.” Alex scratched the sharp knife against his throat. A bead of
blood dropped to the collar of his expensive suit. “That’s going to
stain.”

Sumit’s right arm was covered in his blood.
His left hand held her handgun. He fired in Alex’s general
direction before another arrow shot him through the left shoulder.
Screaming, he fell backwards. Alex’s handgun flew from his
hand.

They heard the sound of someone walking
toward the clearing. Zack Jakkman appeared through the trees. He
picked up Alex’s handgun. Clicking open the magazine, he checked
for bullets then cocked the gun.