Throwaway (28 page)

“Got it.”

“It’s got a bit of a kick,” he warned. “Pump
it like this to eject the shell and get it ready to fire
again.”

“Sure.”

“Your turn,” he handed the gun to her. She
hesitated briefly before taking it and trying to mimic his
stance.

The weight of the weapon was both terrifying
and empowering. She took careful aim and pulled the trigger.

“Holy…” she swore soundly. “I see what you
mean about a kick.”

“You learn the best way to hold it with
practice,” Hailey reassured her.

“Is everything okay?” Harmony bolted out the
front door.

“Yes, sorry,” Jessie felt guilty for waking
her up.

“That was a great shot,” Ethan pointed to the
sign they’d used as a target. “So now you just need to pump it and
it’s ready to go. Be careful you don’t accidentally fire it. Watch
where you’re aiming when it’s not in use.”

“I’ll be careful,” she promised.

“Here’s a box of shells. You shouldn’t need
them, but just in case.”

“Thank you.”

With Ethan satisfied that she could protect
herself and Harmony reassured they were not under siege, Jessie
stuck the gun in a corner in the kitchen and curled up on the couch
with Lobo to doze while she waited for word.

A knock at the door caused her to bolt
upright again. Jessie sighed and grabbed Lobo’s collar before
answering it.

“Captain Carter,” Jessie greeted Gabe’s boss
uneasily. She recognized the man with him as the uniform from
Nick’s. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Jessie,” he quickly recovered from the shock
of seeing her. “It’s good to see you in one piece.”

“Thank you, sir,” she stepped to the side,
allowing them in.

“We were hoping to see Gabe… is he around?”
Carter surveyed the house.

“No, I’m sorry. He’s still at the hospital. I
expected him back by now. Can I get you a cup of coffee while you
wait?”

She didn’t wait for a response before moving
to make a fresh pot of coffee. She needed something to keep her
hands busy. Their presence made her nervous again. Would Gabe be in
trouble now? Had she ruined his career?

“Seeing you here, it suddenly makes sense,”
Carter began conversationally as he accepted the cup of coffee she
offered him. “No wonder Gabe was so worried about the timing of the
raid.”

Jessie swallowed nervously, unsure how to
respond. She turned to hand Kevin his coffee and caught movement
out of the corner of her eye as he pulled a gun from his waistband.
She blinked in shock as he leveled the weapon on Carter, his aim
knocked off course at the last second by Lobo, who had lunged at
his arm. The bullet plowed into Carter’s shoulder, knocking him
back off the stool. Kevin swore and swung the gun at Lobo, who went
down with a yelp.

Jessie bolted out the front door before he
could regain his shot. He was right behind her. The woods offered
little coverage this time of year, so she made a beeline for the
cave. With the lights off, she was quickly ensconced in total
darkness. She knew her way well enough to feel along the edges with
a certain amount of confidence that she could make it all the way
to the back without falling in a hole.

The journey was slow. She could only hope it
was even slower for Kevin. A few times she had to release the wall
to stay on the path and during those times she prayed fervently to
anyone who might listen that she wouldn’t get turned around.

Kevin’s curses echoing through the cave told
her he was there, following her. Once she saw the distant glow of
an LED screen behind her. He was using his cell phone as a
flashlight. Knowing he wasn’t flying as blind as hoped, she picked
up her pace.

After a timeless eternity, she felt the
rickety railing that lined the natural stairs up to the shelf Gabe
had once told her about. The cold, slick Missouri clay caked to her
hands and clothes as she did her best to shimmy blindly through the
narrow corridor.

Sometimes the squeeze got a little tight,
thanks to her protruding stomach. She crawled at an awkward angle,
trying to fit through the hole without hurting the baby. Since she
couldn’t see anyway, she tucked her chin in effort to protect her
face. Gabe had mentioned a bat roost in this part of the cave.

She was so focused on bracing for the bat
encounter the sound of the waterfall took her completely by
surprise. Before daylight pierced the black, Jessie knew it was
close as the complete absence of light lessened. Then the first
welcome slices of sun reached her and she prepared herself for the
frigid water she would have to go through.

She tried to see through the waterfall ahead
to be sure she wouldn’t be nose diving into danger, but couldn’t.
Space was tight and she had no clue what was on the other side, but
going back wasn’t an option. Lobo and Carter might die if she
stayed put waiting for a cavalry that might or might not
appear.

She took a deep breath and thrust herself
into the bone chilling cold. Ice ran through her veins as she
emerged on the other side, gasping for air. She gave her
surroundings a cursory glance to figure out where on the property
she was.

The back of the house was a couple hundred
feet away. Jessie gulped some air into her lungs and forced her
frozen legs into action. She sprinted across the lawn, hoping
against hope that the back door was open. As she neared her goal,
Kevin’s head appeared when he emerged from the front of the
cave.

He burst into action, racing for the front
door as she barreled through the back. Carter and Lobo were gone
but she didn’t have time to wonder what had happened to them. She
dove for the shotgun, pumping it as he crashed through her front
door. Without thinking, she took aim and pulled the trigger.

She pumped the gun again and took aim, her
breath coming in rapid heaves as she stood trembling and ready to
fire again if needed. It took her a second to realize that the
first shot had more than done the job.

Slowly, she set the gun down and sank to the
floor. Too shocked to cry and too tired to move, she just sat and
shivered. The heat of the house pierced her frozen skin,
compounding the tremors that already wracked her body.

“Jessie? Jessie? Oh thank God. Are you okay?
Jessie?” Harmony flew at her from the stairs, falling to the floor
to pull Jessie into an embrace. “I have the man and your dog. I
took them upstairs. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Gabe?”

“He still isn’t answering his phone. Neither
is Vance.”

“Ethan. Call Ethan. I don’t know how to reach
Bobby. Ethan will,” Jessie could barely think. She was so cold.

“Okay. Is his number in your cell phone?”

“Yeah. Or Hailey.”

Jessie was vaguely aware of Harmony calling
Ethan and the conversation they had. She was so completely
overwhelmed. With an injured man and dog upstairs, a dead man on
her doorstep and two people she loved missing, she couldn’t begin
to process what should happen next.

All she wanted was for Gabe to be there. She
wanted him to take her face in his hands. She wanted him to kiss
her in a way that cleared her mind of anything but him.

She closed her eyes, picturing his face, his
arms, his laugh. How blissful it would be to slip into oblivion—to
let her subconscious revel in warmer memories.

But there was this stupid, nagging voice in
the back of her mind that told her it wasn’t fair to leave a
nineteen-year-old kid to handle this chaos on her own. She pushed
herself up off the ground and placed the shotgun on the kitchen
island.

“Ethan didn’t answer his phone,” Harmony
seemed dangerously close to losing her grasp on calm.

“Cell coverage is horrible in these hills,”
Jessie rationalized. “They could just be in between pockets of
coverage. I know the closest hospital is in Springfield. That’s
about an hour away. How bad is Carter?”

“The wound itself isn’t bad, but he’s lost a
lot of blood.”

“Is Lobo?”

“Hurt, but I think he’ll be fine.”

“Okay. Let’s load them into the Plymouth.
We’ll head to Springfield and keep trying to call on the way.”

The urge to panic was shoved firmly aside.
She pulled on her boots and coat, ignoring the layer of mud and
clay that covered her. Together, she and Harmony went to check on
the patients. Lobo whimpered softly, but stood to greet Jessie. He
kissed her face as she knelt to thank him for saving her life twice
in twenty-four hours.

Carter was pale but awake. His pasty
complexion worried Jessie. Harmony had used a sheet to staunch the
flow of blood. Making it to the hospital was a long shot, but
staying here was a death sentence.

“If you lean on me, do you think you can make
it back down the stairs?” Harmony held an arm out to Carter, who
nodded weakly and accepted the help. Jessie followed behind them,
her dog limping at her side. She grabbed a pillow off the couch on
their way out.

Once the cop and the dog were situated in the
back seat, she fired the old car to life and the makeshift
ambulance headed for the main road. But not before cranking the
heat up.

She had a white-knuckled grip on the steering
wheel as the car sailed around the roller-coaster roads. They
nearly lost the back end on a particularly sharp curve and Jessie
backed off the accelerator a bit.

Ice still covered the roads, invisible but
effectively turning the winding blacktop into a skating rink.
Harmony revealed her Catholic upbringing by the litany of hail
Marys she was sending skyward in between attempts to reach someone
on the cell phone.

“Oh dear Lord,” Harmony squeezed her eyes
shut. “Tell me again why we didn’t just dial 911.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s no 911 service in
Ava. And I’d be shocked if they had more than two ambulances in
town—both of which headed to Springfield this morning… from my
house.”

“Don’t you think they’d be back by now?”

“Do you have their phone number?” Jessie
snapped. “This seemed like the fastest way, okay?”

“No, no. It’s fine. It’s fine,” Harmony was
most likely trying to convince herself as much as Jessie.

The phone rang and both women were torn
between weeping and cheering.

“Hello?” Harmony answered, mouthing the name
“Ethan” at Jessie as she listened. At the first break in the
conversation, she filled him in on their current status.

Jessie could hear Ethan’s response from the
driver’s seat. It was obvious he blamed himself for leaving.
Harmony listened intently to him then hung up to relay the
information to Jessie.

“There’s a hospital on the south end of town.
They’re all there. We’re supposed to call when we get close and
he’ll have someone meet us at the emergency entrance.”

“Did he say where Vance and Gabe had
been?”

“No. He said they’re okay, but I got the
feeling that was up in the air for a bit. I’ll feel better when I
see them for myself.”

“You okay back there?” Jessie glanced in the
rearview mirror. Carter’s eyes were closed. At first glance it
looked like she might have lost him. “Harmony, he’s not dead, is
he?”

“No,” she twisted in her seat. “He’s still
breathing. But he doesn’t look good.”

“Great,” Jessie groaned. “I do not need
Gabe’s boss to die in my backseat. That would be bad.”

“I think we’re almost there. Look… there’s
the exit Ethan told me to watch for.”

Harmony navigated Jessie to the hospital,
calling Ethan again when it seemed they were close. An army of
medical professionals met them at the door, but Jessie only had
eyes for the man standing at the front of them.

He looked ready to climb out of his skin he
was so frustrated with waiting. She eased the car into park, taking
a second to close her eyes and take a few deep breaths while Carter
was removed in a flurry of activity.

Gabe was there, at her side. He opened the
car door and knelt to the ground beside her, taking her hands in
his. They stared at each other for a full minute, their eyes saying
all the things tumbling around inside that they just couldn’t
voice.

“Come on, let’s get you inside,” Gabe stood,
pulling her out of the car and into his arms. “Harmony, are you
okay?”

“Physically? Yes,” she smiled a little
shakily.

“Room 204.”

Harmony needed no more than that. She was out
of the car and off in search of Vance.

“Lobo,” Jessie pulled back on Gabe.

“Ethan will take him to the vet.”

As if on cue, the car was being moved. She
hadn’t even noticed him. Knowing Lobo would be taken care of, she
allowed herself to be led inside.

The ensuing flurry of medical care left her a
little dazed… dazed and wishing she’d married Gabe sooner. She knew
her life savings would be gone when they were done. If it weren’t
for the baby, she would have insisted she was fine. As it was,
she’d gladly hand over every earthly possession to know the baby
was okay.

Once the doctor informed her “Your daughter
is fine,” she found the first real measure of peace in her day.
They had shooed Gabe out of the room, but she could see him,
though. Worry etched every line on his face and his eyes never left
hers.

“She’s fine,” Jessie mouthed, watching as the
weight of the world melted from his shoulders at his comprehension
of words. A smile broke across his face. Jessie’s own smile was
muted. Now that she was warm, now that the baby was safe, all she
wanted was sleep. The last of her strength slipped away and she
closed her eyes, if only for a minute.

Gabe’s face was the first thing she saw when
her eyes opened again. At the slightest movement, he was leaning
over her, brushing the hair from her face.

“Why am I hooked up to all of this crap?”
Jessie scowled at the IV protruding from her hand.