Black Hills
Page 127

“Oh. Well, what did Lil say?”
“About what?”
“About the guy. When she came over.”
“I didn’t see her either.”
“But… She was going over. I don’t see how you could’ve missed her.”
“Maybe she got hung up.” Eric shrugged it off. “She wanted to help Matt when he got to the cougars. Listen I’ve got to get back to-”
Lena simply grabbed him by the sleeve of his T-shirt. “I’ve just come from Matt. She’s not there, and he’s waiting for her.”
“She’s around somewhere. So okay, we’ll look around. I’ll check the commissary, you check her place.”
“She knows Matt’s waiting,” Lena insisted, but she hurried over to the cabin. She knocked, then pushed open the door to call out. “Lil? Lil?” Baffled, she walked straight through, and out the back. Maybe the office, she thought.
When she jogged down the steps, she heard the jingle of the phone. Relieved, she glanced back, expecting to see Lil striding along with the phone to her ear. But there was no one. She turned back, following the ring.
She snatched the phone off the ground, flipped it open.
“Hey, Lil, I just saw my mother off, so-”
“Tansy, Tansy, this is Lena. I think something’s really wrong.” She began to run toward the office cabin. “I think we need the police.”
***
ON A STRETCH of road between the farm and the stables, Coop tightened the lug nuts on the spare tire of a minivan. The two kids inside watched him like owls while they sucked on sippy cups.
“I really appreciate this. I could’ve changed it, but-”
“Looks like you’ve got your hands full.” He nodded toward the windows. “It’s no trouble.”
“You saved me a lot of cursing.” The young mother beamed a smile. “And took care of it in probably half the time it would’ve taken me, not including breaking up the fights inside. We’ve been running errands all day, so they missed their nap.” Her eyes sparkled with a laugh. “Boy, so did I.”
After sending the kids a wink, he rolled the flat around the back of the van to stow it. He shook his head when she offered him a ten-dollar bill. “No, but thanks.”
She leaned in, rooted around in the grocery bags. “How about a banana?”
He laughed. “I’ll take it.” He replaced the tools, gave the kids a quick salute with the banana and made them both giggle, then closed the door. “You’re good to go.”
“Thanks again.”
He walked back to his truck, waited for her to pull out. He did a U-turn to head back the way he’d been coming when he’d seen the van on the side of the road. In about half a mile, his phone signaled a voice mail.
“I got your Hefty bags, Grandma,” he muttered. “And the big-ass bottle of Lysol.” Still, he punched the key to play the message.
He has my mother.
Coop slammed on the brakes, swerved to the shoulder.
After the first flash of heat, everything in him went to ice. He punched the gas, pushed speed dial for the sheriff.
“Put me through to him. Now.”
“Sheriff Johannsen’s not in the office.”
“You patch me through to wherever the hell he is. This is Cooper Sullivan.”
“Hey, Coop, it’s Cy. I can’t really do that. I’m not authorized to-”
“Listen to me. Ethan Howe has Jenna Chance.”
“What? What?”
“He may have Lil by now, too. You get Willy, and you get him over to the refuge. Now. Fucking now.”
“I’ll get him, Coop, Jesus God, I’ll get him. What should I-”
“I’m heading to the refuge now. I want Willy there, and as many men as he can get. No air search,” he said quickly, fighting to stay focused. “He’ll just kill them if he sees copters. Tell him she said she’d leave me a trail. I’ll be following it. Do it.”
He shut it off and burned up the miles to Lil’s.
LIL SAW HIM sitting cross-legged at the mouth of the cave, the crossbow in his lap. His face was raw, cross-marked with vicious scratches under the streaks of war paint he’d applied. She thought of the bearded man who’d set off Lena ’s radar.
He wore a braided leather strap around his head, with a feather from a hawk woven through it. On his feet were soft leather knee boots, around his neck a necklace of bear teeth.
It would’ve been funny, she thought, this half-assed play at being Indian. If she didn’t know how murderously serious he was.
He lifted his hand in greeting, then slid back into the cave. Lil climbed the rest of the way, held her breath, then followed him in.
It opened after the first few feet, but was still low enough she had to crouch. Deep though, she noted, as she watched the pale light of the lantern.
He sat in that light with a knife to her mother’s throat.
“I’m here, Ethan, you don’t have to hurt her. If you do hurt her, you’ll get nothing from me.”
“Have a seat, Lil. I’ll explain how things are going to be.”
She sat and wanted to tremble. Cuts and bruises marred her mother’s face, her hands. Blood stained the rope around her wrists, her ankles.
“I need you to take that knife away from my mother’s throat. I did what you asked me to do, and I’ll keep doing that. But not if you hurt her more than you already have.”
“She did most of this to herself. Didn’t you, Jenna?”
Jenna’s eyes said everything. Run. Run. I love you.
“I’m asking you to take the knife off my mother. You don’t need it. I’m here. I’m alone. That’s what you wanted.”
“It’s just the start.” But he lowered the knife an inch. “Everything else was just the start. This is the finish. You and me.”
“You and me,” she agreed. “So let her go.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’m not wasting time on stupid. I’m going to give you ten minutes. That’s a good head start for somebody who knows the hills. Then I hunt you.”
“Ten minutes. Do I get a weapon?”
“You’re prey.”
“A cougar, a wolf, have fangs and claws.”
He smiled. “You’ve got teeth, if you get close enough to use them.”