Hunter
The barn was lined with stalls. Hunter started searching, hoping for some clue, some answers. In the first stall, he found nothing. Just the leftover bits of hay from whatever animal had once stayed there. In the second stall, the same thing. The third stall also had a metal bucket and a shallow layer of water that looked brown.
In the last stall, though, he found something much more valuable. A Kevlar vest. On the chest, in the spot he had shot Jeremy, was a tear in the fabric and an indentation with a bullet lodged in it.
This could only mean one thing, and he didn’t want to consider it. But he couldn’t face what was in front of him. Jeremy was alive. He had no idea where he might be or what he was doing at this moment. Did he have Vanessa and Opal?
He turned, ready to leave and continue on his search. Then he heard footsteps.
“Hey!” a voice called out.
Hunter turned to the side and saw another man in black walk out of a back room. He didn’t pause to think or ask questions. He raised his gun and aimed. At the last minute, he changed his mind. Instead of killing the guy, he moved his aim and shot his shoulder instead.
The bullet hit, sending a splatter of blood on the wood wall behind him. He slumped to the ground, moaning in pain. Hunter went over and kicked the man in the stomach.
“Where’s Vanessa?”
The man moaned and didn’t answer.
Hunter kicked him harder, and in the ribs this time. “This is how this is going to work. I ask the questions and you give me answers. If you cooperate, I might not shoot you in the head. Got it?”
The man tried to nod.
“I’ll ask again, where is Vanessa?”
“Don’t—know.”
Hunter slowly lowered his boot down on the man’s hand, allowing his full weight on it. He could feel the little bones moving and crunching as the man groaned. “Lying isn’t going to work for me, either. Shall we start with an easier question? Is Jeremy Beale alive?”
The man moved his head up and down.
Hunter looked at the man for a moment in horror. He hadn’t killed Jeremy. The thing he’d been dreading since he found the Kevlar vest was true. Whatever blood he had seen wasn’t from his bullet wound. Jeremy was still alive and walking around, and he most likely already had Vanessa and Opal.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Hunter said. “Was Vanessa here in this barn?”
He nodded again.
“What about Opal? Was she in here as well?”
He nodded yes.
“Are they together now?”
Another nod.
That was better than them being apart. If they were together, it meant only finding one location and breaking into one place to rescue them. But it also meant that most likely, Jeremy had them both. There was no hope that Opal had run off into the woods alone and gotten away.
“Time for some real answers now,” Hunter said. “You up for that?”
The man didn’t answer. Hunter grabbed the collar of his shirt and hauled him up to a sitting position.
“There. Now you’re up for giving me some answers, aren’t you?”
He didn’t respond, but slumped to the side, blood trickling from his mouth.
“Does Jeremy have Vanessa and Opal?”
He whispered, “Yes.”
“What were you hired to do?”
“Any—thing.”
“Anything. As in, anything Jeremy wanted?”
He nodded.
“Even killing Vanessa?”
“And Oliv—ia.”
“He hired you to kill Opal?” That couldn’t be what he meant. “Or kidnap her?”
“Both.”
What a sick fuck Jeremy was. Who would kidnap and then kill their own child? I guess when you beat your wife and kid, there was no telling what else you’d do to them.
“Where are they now?”
“Hotel,” the man whispered.
“Which hotel?”
“Oak—Side.”
“Are all three of them at the Oakside?”
He nodded. “Big—plans.”
“Big plans? What sort of plans?”
“Kill Op—al. Frame Van—essa—ah.”
“Frame Vanessa for Opal’s death?” What in the world? He was even more evil than Hunter could have possibly imagined. Whatever Vanessa had told him of Jeremy, she’d been far too nice. Jeremy might actually be the devil walking around in skin and bones.
“What’s the room number?”
“Top—floor.”
The man had gone pale and was barely breathing. Every word he spoke took enormous effort. He wouldn’t live another hour. Hunter considered for a moment. The man was probably in pain. He clung to life by threads because Hunter’s shot had been so close to main blood lines and hit near his heart. Calling an ambulance would do nothing for the man. Really, there was only one humane thing to do.
“Thanks for your help.” Hunter took out his gun again and shot him in the head.
The man slumped down, dead. Hunter wasted no more time. He had enough of the answers he needed. Now he had to get to Vanessa and Opal before Jeremy could kill one of them or hurt them worse than he had.
He ran to his car and slammed the pedal to the ground as soon as the car was started.
# # #
Vanessa watched as Jeremy tightened a tourniquet around her arm.
“What are you doing?” she asked. The other times she’d been given a shot to drug her, she’d been stabbed in the arm. This was different.
“You’ll see, darling. I just want to make you feel good. Give you a little taste of what I get to experience all the time.” He mixed some liquid together in a small cup, then sucked it up in a needle. “My favorite heroin, with just enough tranquilizer to make you think you’re in a dream.”
“Hunter will come,” she insisted. “He’ll save me.” Somehow he would find them. He’d go to where Opal had been, he’d see that she was gone. Maybe Mari’s parents had some information and could tell him something. She was counting on Nicholas being able to do the same for her. Hunter would barge through the door any moment and save the day.
Jeremy laughed. “Hunter? You want your little knight in shining armor to run in and whisk you off your feet, take you away into the sunset?”
“He’ll come.” Vanessa set her jaw.
“Oh, I’m counting on it. In fact, that’s part of my plan. It’s one thing to frame you for Opal’s death. But why not frame you both? If I leave one alive, there’s a chance that somehow, the truth would come out. This way, you’re both criminals that no one will listen to. You’ll sit in jail for years and years, paying for what you’ve done to me.”
“Me?” Vanessa was so deep in her emotions, she couldn’t contain her words. There’d been too much pain, and she no longer cared what she said. She hoped someone heard. One of his hired men. Let them know the real man they worked for. “You were the one who beat me. For years, you hit me and threw things at me, hurt me any way you could. You raped me, and forced me to do other things I didn’t want to do. If that wasn’t enough, you hit our child. You’re a sad junkie who lost everything by being a complete asshole. And because you have money, you’ve convinced people to think you’re special and to do what you say. But all you’re ever be is alone and miserable, living with what you’ve done. I hope you suffer every day. I hope you see our faces and it makes you sick.” She spit the words at him, but knew they would have little effect.
He grabbed her cheeks and squeezed hard. “You’re so cute when you’re trying to be indignant.” Then he let go and slapped her hard across the cheek. “You know nothing. You stupid woman. I had no choice but to put you in your place. A wife is meant to listen to her husband and do what he wants. If you’d tried being a good wife and mother, maybe I wouldn’t have had to discipline you. But you weren’t. And now you’ll pay.”
“Please don’t hurt Mommy,” Opal whimpered from by her side.
Vanessa looked over. Opal was awake now. They’d both been drugged and brought here. She figured it was some sort of hotel room, possibly an apartment. It was a large space. Several rooms and a small kitchen. They were in a bedroom. What made her think it was a hotel rather than an apartment were the signs on the doors. Escape plans. If only it were that simple.
What she didn’t know was what sort of hotel wouldn’t notice a woman and child being carried in unconscious. Did Jeremy have some sort of ownership in the hotel? Did he know the people and have them in his pocket, too?
Opal was crying, and every sound she made broke Vanessa’s heart. She wanted to reach over and comfort her daughter. She wanted to tell her it was going to be okay and to somehow make it be true. Maybe Hunter wouldn’t make it to them in time. Maybe Opal would be killed right before her eyes, and they’d go away forever. It seemed like the most likely thing.
After all, Jeremy always won. When he’d gotten her pregnant, her family and his made them get married. It wasn’t what he wanted, and it was the last time he’d lost at anything where Vanessa was concerned. Never mind the fact that Vanessa hadn’t wanted to be married to him, either. She had been perfectly fine being a single mother and leaving him out of it. But he’d held it against her. It was her fault for getting pregnant in the first place. Her fault for not getting rid of it quietly. Her fault that he was “stuck in this marriage,” as he often put it.
Every day since they got back from their short honeymoon, he’d been winning. He decided how things would go in the house, what the decor would be. He decided when the laundry and other cleaning would be done and who would do it—Vanessa of course. He decided what they watched on TV and what they would eat for dinner. When Vanessa was sick of it and through with trying to please her new husband, she tried sticking up for herself and voicing her own opinions. The first time he’d slapped her, she’d been so stunned, she almost run out the door to her mother’s house. But he’d stopped her, cried, and said he was sorry and that it would never happen again. She’d forgiven him and that night they had watched the movie she wanted to watch. He’d held her close, and it was maybe the greatest night of their marriage. Until the next week when she tried to surprise him with something different for dinner.
The hitting came more regular after that. Any time she did something he didn’t like, he’d smack her or punch her. One night after a particularly bad fight, he’d hit her hard enough for her to taste blood, and she’d tried to lock herself in the bathroom. He got the door open, and she refused to let him touch her. That was the first time he’d forced himself on her, and he seemed to get a taste for it. After-beating sex became a norm after that.
The first time Opal witnessed the fighting, when she was old enough to know what it meant, was when she finally told her mother. Opal had been up crying that Mommy had been hurt, and Vanessa didn’t know what else to do. Her mother had suggested she leave, but Vanessa had been too afraid. By the time she’d gotten enough courage, her mother had passed. Then, she had no place safe to go, unless she wanted to be on her own, which seemed even more impossible than leaving.
She’d tried, though. Five or six times at least; she’d made plans, gotten money, found a place. But she’d given up or he’d found out each time, and her plans were ruined. Until that last time. When he’d hit Opal hard enough that Vanessa had taken her to the hospital, that was what finally did it. She’d taken the money she had stashed from the last time she tried to leave and put her plan into action.
Of course, even in that, Jeremy had won in the end. Even though he’d agreed to the divorce, he’d found them quickly. Now they were all paying the ultimate price. He was done playing games. This would be the final go-around with him. The last fight. The one that ended it all. He would kill Opal, and send Vanessa to jail. And then he’d be rid of them both forever, just like he’d always wanted.
There was nothing Vanessa could do to stop it. This was happening. This was reality. Maybe Hunter would come, maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he would save them, maybe he wouldn’t. Whatever time she’d had with him, with Opal, when they were happy and free, that was all over now. That was a dream and her waking nightmare was unfolding in front of her. She’d failed yet again, let Jeremy win yet again. She had never been able to protect Opal, and now she wasn’t even able to keep her alive. Opal’s life would be over and so would Vanessa’s. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.
She closed her eyes, still refusing to let Jeremy see her cry. She pictured Hunter and their last kiss.
A loud, sudden noise made her eyes fly open and abandon her daydream. Someone was firing gunshots. In another room. In the main room, maybe, where the entrance was.
Several more shots close the door. Jeremy was on his feet and pulled open the door. There was a haze of smoke. From the gunfire? Then, he stepped into sight. Tall, strong, covered in a thin layer of sweat and dirt. Hunter.
Vanessa let out a sigh with the strongest relief she’d ever felt.