Hard Silence (24 page)

“Can I use the ladies’ room?”

Jeff helped her to her feet. “You don’t have to ask. You’re not a prisoner.”

Oh, but she was.

Abby walked out of the room and across the hall on quivering legs. Trapped in the ladies’ room, she paced in front of the mirror and considered her options.

She could walk out there and put everyone in danger, or just walk out. The first wasn’t possible. She wouldn’t do that. But the second... No. It wasn’t good either. She didn’t want to leave her Papa here, thinking she didn’t want to see him. She wanted to ask about everyone she could remember, see whether he still lived in the house she dreamed about.

And walking past Jeff was almost impossible. He was like a magnet for the truth.

Gray couldn’t take her. He needed to be here to protect Maggie in case Wallis made it to town.

So...she’d have to run for it. In an orange jumpsuit, with no car. She’d have to steal a neighbor’s car. She didn’t have a choice.

This was a shitty option.

Angie Cooper, the dispatcher, came in with a sack. “We thought you’d be happier in your own clothes.”

Maybe God liked her a little bit after all. “Thank you.”

Once she was alone, Abby stripped and changed, then tipped the envelope up. Jeff’s car key slid onto the vanity, sparkling in the light.

Calling on years of dodging restaurant checks with Wallis, she twisted the jumpsuit into a rope and tied it to the door and then to the nearest faucet. It wouldn’t keep anyone out for long, but she didn’t need much time.

Holding her breath, she shoved her foot through the glass and kicked the screen loose. The alarm stole her equilibrium.

“Goddammit! Abby!”

Jeff.
She couldn’t let him catch her. All her life she’d done the wrong thing.
This
she could do right. She could protect him. “Get away from me! Leave me alone!” Ignoring the glass snagging her clothes, Abby climbed out the window and sprinted across the yard. The Audi was parked on the curb, and she didn’t hesitate. The engine roared to life and she punched the accelerator, spinning the wheels and fishtailing away as her crowd of protectors ran out of the police station’s front door.

* * *

Icy calm crept up Abby’s body as she stopped the car at the mouth of the driveway, out of view from the house and crept across her silent yard. She didn’t have much time. Either Jeff would figure out that Wallis would be coming for
her
, or he’d come to yell at her for stealing his car. Wallis had to be stopped before he got here.

The horses all trotted to the fence, the chickens clucked and squawked, and Jane’s bell clanged in the pasture. This was her home. Her life. She belonged here. Why the hell was she sneaking around her own home? Steeling her nerves, she tromped up the steps and through the open front door.

Wallis looked over her shoulder with a sneer. “Welcome home, daughter. We’ve been waiting on you.”

Beyond her, Cass and Evan were in tears on the sofa. Cass’s cheek was one large bruise, and her lip was split open. Evan was cradling Tug in one arm, and his other had a deep gash from elbow almost to wrist. Blood soaked his shirt and his jeans. Toby stood and took one halting step, whimpering and limping.

“Down, Toby,” Abby said. “Good boy. Stay.” Sure her dog was safe, she turned to Wallis. “I’m not your daughter. Never was.”

The air smelled like gas and the stove hissed from the kitchen. Dear God. She was going to blow them up.

“Close the door.”

“Do it yourself.”

Wallis kept a wary eye as she circled to the front door, closed it and bolted it shut. And stayed there. Abby cursed her temper. She’d put Wallis between them and their quickest escape route.

“Why is there crime scene tape in the field?”

“Because I told them where Buck was,” she said as she straightened to her full height. “I told them
everything
.” She walked in front of Cass and Evan. “You’re not going to hurt anyone else.”

Wallis slapped her, hard. Despite the ringing in her ears, Abby didn’t go down. She was finally big enough to stand up for herself. Instead, she kept her hands at her side and turned back to look at the paper doll who used to be her mother.

“Oh, but I am. Do you know what you’ve cost me, you whiny bitch? I
loved
Hale. He treated me like a goddess, and I was
happy
.” Her face was mottled red and pink. “And you ruined it. Just like Walt. You couldn’t keep your mouth shut, and I’ve lost the man of my dreams. This is all your fault.”

Remembering Jeff’s words, Abby shook her head. “No it’s not. You’re greedy and selfish. You always have been, and you always will be.”

The punch in her stomach doubled her over. Wallis snatched her hair, lifting her head and leaving her short of breath. Spittle dripped from her lips, and a kitchen knife glinted in the sunshine. “You don’t talk back to me, girl. And you don’t tell me what to do.”

Abby lunged forward, knocking Wallis off balance. “Run!” The word ended in a shriek as the knife sliced across her back.

Wallis was already past her, chasing Cass and Evan and the dogs into the hall. Abby grabbed her around the calves, toppled her to the floor, and climbed on top of her. As they fought for the knife, Wallis wriggled around to face her, spitting and scratching like the demon she was.

Abby held on, clamping her knees to Wallis’s ribs and feeling them heave and give with every rage-filled scream. Her clothes ripped and tore under the clawed hands and taloned nails, and she wrapped her hands around the monster’s neck and squeezed. Power surged through her as Wallis’s eyes bulged and her screams faded to gasps. Kicks became heels thudding and scraping across the floor.

What the hell was she doing? She was
nothing
like this monster, and nothing could make her that way.

Abby released her prey and vaulted over her prone body. She ran to Evan’s room and slammed the door. They didn’t have long. She threw a chair through the window and pointed. “Git.”

Toby obeyed, but the humans stayed frozen in place. Abby shoved Cass at the window as Wallis threw her body against the door. “Out.”

Once safely outside, Cass reached for Evan. Abby lifted him and Tug, screaming as the clots on her skin broke open and her shoulder locked in place. He helped her by climbing the rest of the way on his own. His hatchet clattered to the floor.

His eyes were wide. “You’re next, right?”

The door gave behind her just as the house buckled in a deafening roar. The timbers above them cracked and groaned. Abby’s head hit the windowsill as she covered Evan’s hand with hers. “I am,” she lied. “Don’t look back.”

Wallis’s shriek echoed through the room, giving Abby just enough time to deflect the blow she’d watched so many times. Rather than driving into her back, the knife slashed across her ribs and arm. It was followed by a hard knee meant to hammer the pain home. Losing her breath, Abby sagged against the wall.

Wallis reached for the window. No. She wasn’t going to chase Evan the rest of his life. Jeff would find him and make sure he was safe. It was Abby’s job to stop the spider.

She head-butted Wallis, feeling the perfect nose squish and wetness coat her scalp. As Wallis staggered backward, Abby grabbed the hatchet and swung upward, blindly, from the floor. Then she braced herself for the return blow.

It didn’t come. Wallis’s empty gray eyes were large in her face as she dropped to her knees with the hatchet buried in her temple.

I didn’t mean to, Mama. I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad. Please don’t...

Abby knees buckled as she sank to the floor in the smoky room, as if they were finally sharing a mother-daughter moment.

Flames licked toward the door and crept across the ceiling, and Abby’s eyes drooped. Heat singed her skin, and smoke burned her lungs. She should get out of here. She would. In just a minute.

Chapter Twenty-One

Jeff lowered his arm and gaped as splinters rained across Abby’s front yard. Flames lapped at the roof and smoke bellowed from the front windows.

No.

Everyone turned wide-eyed stares to him, as if he knew what to do. They were shouting questions he couldn’t hear over the ringing in his ears. The vacuum trapped him inside his quaking bones with the scream building in the back of his throat.

No.

It was all he’d been able to think since she’d left the interrogation room, when Eric Freeman had called with the news that Wallis had been spotted in Hastings. Then the alarm had blared through the police station and the bathroom door had been blocked. And Abby had stolen his car.

He’d known then where she’d go, what she’d do...and he’d shut the word inside himself as they’d raced after her. Now, he was splintering apart, just like her house.

Movement caught his attention. Evan was running for his life, his face covered with soot and tears, and his clothes a bloody mess. Jeff caught him in a bear hug and held on even as the little boy struggled to get free.

“It’s me, buddy,” Jeff said. “You’re safe.”

Evan turned a wild-eyed gaze up at him and then crumpled. Cass was next, falling against his other shoulder. No one else came around the corner.

Jeff pulled Cass away and looked into her wide eyes. “Abby?”

The only word he could make out stopped his heart.
House
.

He shoved Evan at the first set of hands and pushed Cass into the next, and ran for the backyard with Gray at his side. The ringing in his ears faded, only to be replaced by his pounding heart and his heaving breaths. Those stopped altogether when he didn’t see her in the backyard. She was still in there. Smoke poured from the window.

“Stay out here,” he barked at Gray as he righted the chair under the window. “Catch her when I push her through.”

He swung into the window, blinded by thick, acrid smoke and kicked his foot in search of the floor. Instead he hit something that bobbled back to rest on his foot. A head.

Jesus, what was he going to find in there?

Sucking in a breath of fresh air, he dropped to the floor. Smoke and fumes burned his eyes and coated his nose. Swinging his hand in front of him, he touched a leg and then felt up the body until he reached an elbow. He grasped a thick hank of long hair. Abby.

Pushing her up the wall, he shoved her into Gray’s waiting hands and then clawed his way out. Dropping to all fours, he coughed and wheezed as he fought for fresh air and wiped the tears from his eyes.

Abby wasn’t doing that. Gray was already at the corner of the house, bellowing across the yard for a medic.

“
No
,” Jeff roared as he scrambled across the grass. Putting his hands over her sternum, he pumped by instinct. The first downward push soaked her shirt collar in blood.

“Gray!”

His friend slid next to him. “Christ.” He stripped off his shirt. “Where?”

“Her neck, I think.”

Gray applied pressure, and Jeff pushed again. Abby’s ribs cracked under the pressure, and Jeff winced. But she didn’t. And blood spread across her jeans and the grass beneath her.

He was killing her. He pulled his shirt over his head and shoved it at Gray. “Her ribs, too.”

Another push revealed another hole.

“I’m out of hands,” Gray said.

Jeff put his lips over Abby’s cold, sooty ones and breathed, felt her chest heave in response, but just the once.

“Don’t you do this to me,” he shouted as he forced her heart to pump. “You hear me you stubborn woman?”

The EMT’s ran around the side of the house. As they took over CPR, Jeff dropped to the ground, his lungs burning and his arms shaking.

“Breathe,” Gray muttered beside him. It took Jeff a moment to realize the command was aimed at him.

“Get Evan out of here. He doesn’t need to see her like this. Ned too.”

Gray nodded and stood. “I’ll bring your car to the hospital.”

Alone, Jeff sucked in a shaky breath and counted the slices in Abby’s clothes. She hated knives. And she’d had no one between her and the monster—nothing to protect her except a flannel shirt.

“We’re ready,” the EMT said as they lifted Abby to a gurney. Jeff ran beside them, through the silent yard, past the horses standing guard, to Toby, who was waiting next to the ambulance.

Jeff stroked his head. “I’ll take care of her, buddy. You mind the stock.”

They bounced and jostled down the lane, the blood bag swaying on its IV pole, the alarms pealing because her blood pressure was too low. Artificial breaths rasped through the cabin along with the EMT’s rhythmic counts of chest compressions.

When his breathing labored, Jeff stepped in, glad for something to do. “Let me.”

He straddled her waist and started compressions, counting out loud as he went. All the while, he stared at her face, tracing his gaze across the arch of her brow down the turn in her nose and along the bow in her lips, which were tinted blue. Her lashes were singed, and under all the soot her skin was too pale. “Don’t give up, Slugger,” he muttered as he pushed her sternum and felt her ribs give.

Halfway to town, they switched again. Which meant, when they arrived at the hospital, Jeff wasn’t on the gurney that raced down the hall. He was alone, half-naked, cold, and covered in filth and blood, while she left him again.

His rubbery arms still shaking, he leaned against the wall and fought for breath. He’d lost count of how many times she’d disappeared on him, how many times he’d chased her, caught her only to lose her again.

“I want Abby!”

Recognizing the watery scream, Jeff pushed himself upright and sprinted into the small emergency ward, stopping only to steal a scrub shirt from a pile of clean uniforms. At the end of the aisle, he brushed the last curtain aside. Evan was curled at the head of the gurney, his back flat to the wall while he cradled his wounded arm. The blood combined with the dirt, mud and soot stuck to his orange-and-white shirt, and tears streamed in rivers until they reached the delta of his chin.

His stare was wild and bright. “Not you,” he screamed, curling tighter. “Abby!”

Ignoring the nurse and fighting to keep the gurney steady, Jeff climbed onto the bed and wrestled with the terrified boy.

“Stop it, Evan.”

“Mama!”

Using his body, Jeff weighted the little boy against the mattress as the doctor barked commands for sedatives.

“I
hate
you,” the little boy howled, bucking underneath him.

The rest of his sentence was muffled as Jeff held his mouth closed, forcing him to inhale the medication. When he let go, Evan dissolved into sobs.

Pulling the child into his lap, Jeff let him cry until the sedative took effect. Evan’s head drooped against Jeff’s chest, and his sobs diminished to tears and hiccups.

Taking the supplies from the nurse, Jeff cleaned the wounds and then held Evan’s thin arm in his hand while the ER doctor conducted his exam.

“Are you going to duct-tape them?” Evan murmured. “Abby said she did that.”

“No, buddy. No tape.” Jeff’s heart banged against his ribs and his throat closed off. Abby...duct tape plastered in her bloody hair, cold and alone in the bathtub, working up the nerve to cut her femoral artery.

Abby in jailhouse orange, telling that horrible tale, stealing his car, running from him...

Abby limp in his arms, her ribs giving under his hands, her lips cold against his.

Abby... Abby... Abby...

“There we go, all done,” the doctor whispered.

Evan twisted his arm, looking at the bandage. “It doesn’t even hurt. I guess it will, huh? Like the last time I was here.”

“Yeah,” Jeff managed the word.

“You didn’t even tell me not to cry.” Evan looked up at him.

Jeff wiped his hand across his face, clearing the moisture into his hairline. “You can if you want to.”

“I was so scared,” Evan said, cuddling closer.

“Me too.”

The little boy was still for so long, Jeff thought he’d fallen asleep. He shifted to lay him on the gurney.

“It’s my fault,” Evan said. “I told her where we lived.”

Jeff tilted Evan’s chin and stared into his saucer-like eyes. “It was
not
your fault. She was a bad guy.”

“Abby was really brave,” Evan whispered.

She had been brave. And stupid. And stubborn. Why did she always have to do everything on her own? Why didn’t she trust him?

Evan yawned and snuggled closer. “She’s gonna get better, right?”

“Yes.” She would, through sheer stubbornness alone. She’d fight through hell for this little boy. She already had. She’d battled for everything in her life. Alone.

Go away. We can’t date. Leave me alone.
Hell, she’d thought he’d moved another woman in with him after their horrible first date.

How many times was he going to risk losing her because she didn’t trust him? How was he going to handle it if he lost her?

“Are you leaving now?” Evan mumbled. “Like in
Jack Reacher
.”

Jack Reacher
? Seriously? She slathered the kid with sunscreen but she let him watch vigilante movies?

Before Jeff could answer, Evan’s eyes closed. Jeff’s heart stuttered, and he focused on the little boy’s chest, refusing to blink until he saw it move in a deep, even inhale. He sat and watched Evan sleep, all while creating nightmare scenarios that left Evan in the house, a victim of a monster. But it didn’t even have to be a monster. It could be the perfect family who took him away. And there wouldn’t be a damn thing to do but stand aside and watch him go. To lose him, too.

Jeff put Evan on the gurney and pulled the sheet to his chin, tucking him and making sure he was warm. The little boy didn’t stir, even when Jeff ruffled his rust-colored hair. At least the sedative had made goodbye easier for one of them.

He walked into the hallway and faced a tiny, empty chapel.

Dark paneling and a slate floor were lit by low lights designed to look like candles at the prayer rail. An arched ceiling was decorated with delicate curved beams. The cross was suggested by lighting, rather than actually constructed, and angels stood in opposite corners—one hiding her head beneath her wing as she prayed, the other kneeling.

Jeff went to the rail, dropped to his knees, and bowed his head, covering his ears with his hands. It didn’t muffle his memories of her wails when she’d come into the interrogation room, of the explosion, of CPR. They mingled with Evan’s screams. Someone knelt beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Jeffy?”

Cass. He’d forgotten about his baby sister. He lifted his head. “Are you okay?”

She turned to him, and the lights glanced and flickered over the bruises mottling her face and arms. Their mother was going to freak out. He hadn’t protected his family. He’d introduced Cass to death and danger. He’d led a killer straight to her and left her to fend for herself.

“Don’t look so stricken,” Cass scolded. “It could’ve been much worse. Abby was an Amazon.”

“She
died
, Cassidy.” He ached in places he hadn’t known existed. “And Evan... God, Evan... I swore—” His voice broke. “I swore I’d never...”

Cass squeezed his shoulder. “She’s going to be fine. Come sit with us. They’re all worried about you.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

She left, and he glared at the angel kneeling in prayer. No way in hell was he going to that waiting room. He wasn’t going to sit there and remember the first time he saw her. He wasn’t going to wait for her to wake up and push him away. Or worse, have her not wake and then die a little bit every day.

Leaving the chapel, he turned his back on the waiting room, strode out the door and found his car where Gray had parked it.

When he passed the city limits sign, he ignored the ache in his heart and the itch in his brain.