Chapter Twenty
I nearly dropped the coffee pot. “Let’s go inside, Muffy,” I called out, worried that my voice was shaky.
“She can stay outside,” Deputy Miller said. “I’ll watch her.”
“No.” My voice broke and I told myself to get it together. “It’s getting colder and I want her to come in where it’s warm.” I’d be the first to admit it was a lame excuse, but it was the best I could come up with on the spot. I went down two steps toward the yard and shouted, “Muffy!”
My little dog jerked her head up, startled. I understood why. I never shouted at her.
“Come on, girl.” It was taking every ounce of control I had not to fall apart there in front of the deputies, but I needed her to come with me.
Thankfully, my short tone caught her attention and she ran up the steps.
As I turned to go back up, something on the ground caught my eye, partially hidden between the porch and the bushes. A cell phone with a cracked screen.
Mason’s phone.
“Is everything all right, Ms. Gardner?” Deputy Gyer asked, sitting up straighter.
Fear bubbled in my chest and I took a deep breath to get control of myself. I climbed the steps to the porch, tripping on the last one. “Yes, of course. I just forgot I left another batch of biscuits in the oven. I don’t want the house to burn down.”
Wrong choice of words. A strange expression flashed over Deputy Miller’s face.
I opened the front door, and I walked in after Muffy, shutting and locking the door behind us. I set the hot coffee pot on a placemat on the dining room table and ran into the office.
Mason took one look at my panicked face and jumped out of his seat. “What’s wrong?”
I started crying, trying to catch my breath.
“Rose! What happened?”
“Deputy Miller…he…” I knew I needed to get a hold of myself, but I couldn’t.
Anger flickered in Mason’s eyes. “Did he act inappropriately again?”
He started for the office door, but I snagged his hand and pulled him back. “No! I had a vision.”
Mason grabbed my arms, bending down so his face was level with mine. “Breathe, just breathe. It’s going to be okay. What did you see?”
“He was running through a field. I think it was here on the farm. He said ‘I don’t see them,’ and then a guy growled, ‘Well, find them dammit.’” I looked up into his face. “The other man was Daniel Crocker, I’m sure of it.”
Mason’s face remained expressionless, but a flicker of fear passed through his eyes before determination replaced it. “Was it day or night?”
“Uh…day.”
“Where was the sun?”
“I don’t know, Mason.” I shook my head in frustration. “I was looking at the field.”
“Did you see the house?”
“No.”
“So you were looking away from the house. You were probably facing north.”
I stared at him, bewildered.
“Did you see any shadows?”
“I don’t remember.”
He pulled me over to the chair in the corner of the office and sat me down, kneeling in front of me. “Close your eyes and take a deep breath before trying to remember your vision.”
I did as he instructed. The field was in front of me, the grass trampled, but this time the shadows came in focus. “Yes, I can see them.”
“Which way are the shadows pointing? To your right or to your left?”
I squinted tighter. “Neither. They are kind of pointing in front of me, but not very much.” I opened my eyes.
“Rose, I know that not all of your visions come true. How sure are you that this one will?”
I shook my head, fighting tears. “I don’t know. I never know that part. We could change it, but I don’t know how.”
“How soon after you see a vision does it usually come true?”
“Sometimes soon, sometimes days later.”
“So this could happen today or two days from now?”
I nodded. “But there’s more. After I had my vision, I saw a necklace hanging out of Deputy Miller’s jacket. It was a St. Jude’s medallion.”
Panic filled his eyes. “Shit!” Mason growled, turning to search under his desk. “Where’s my goddamned cell phone? I swear to God it was right there.” His head popped up and he turned to look at me, his eyes steely.
I wanted to break down and cry but I needed to keep it together. “I think I saw it on the ground out front.”
Confusion washed over his face.
“It was between the porch and the bushes. The screen was smashed.”
His face reddened with anger. “Deputy Miller was in the kitchen with you when I came back into the house. He could have taken my phone.”
I sucked in deep breaths, trying not to panic.
“Where’s yours?”
I dug it out of my pocket, remembering I’d missed a phone call. I looked at the screen and saw Bruce Wayne’s name but there wasn’t a voice mail. Shoving the phone at Mason, I took several deep breaths, close to passing out.
“Bruce Wayne?” Mason looked up from the phone. “You missed the call?”
I nodded. “The last time he called me was right before Crocker’s men showed up.”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the chair and into the kitchen, reaching for his gun bag on the table. He pulled out a shotgun and laid it on the table.
The implications of that gun scared me even more. This was really happening. “There’s something else,” I said. “Before I had my vision, Deputy Miller tried to get me to go around the house with him. Alone.”
Mason’s face paled. “He was trying to abduct you.” He stopped and punched a number into the phone, “Jeff, it’s Mason. We’ve been compromised. It’s Deputy Miller.” His voice was tight and official. “No. I can’t wait. He just tried to abduct Rose. I’m getting her out of here now.” He paused. “I’m going to take the old truck and go out the back gate. I’ll meet you at the Methodist church—” He looked down at the phone and tossed it onto the table. “Goddammit! He lost cell service.”
To my irritation, I started to cry again.
Mason moved in front of me. “It’s going to be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I nodded but I didn’t believe it. If there was one thing I’d learned, it was that bad things happened to people all the time. Mason would do everything in his power to protect me, but he couldn’t guarantee my safety. No one could.
I took a deep breath and held it. Strangely enough, it made me feel better. “What are we going to do?”
“You heard my plan. We’ll take the truck and meet Jeff at the Methodist church parking lot in Clearwater. Moore County. Jeff’s the only person in the sheriff’s department I know we can trust.”
“Only he didn’t hear that part.”
“He’ll call back.” Mason loaded a shotgun and laid it on the table. “I’ll tell the deputies that I’m going to check the fence again, but we’ll take off instead. It should buy us enough time to leave the county.”
“Where will we go if he doesn’t call back?”
“I don’t know.” He stood and put a hand behind his head. “I’ll need to think about it.” His voice hardened. “We should call the state police.”
I stood and grabbed his hand. “I know someone in the state police we can trust.”
He searched my eyes then nodded. “It won’t look strange if you’re the one to call him. He was your boyfriend and he’s with the state police. You’re scared. Spin it that way in case they’re listening to your calls. Make it believable.”
“You think someone is listening to our calls?”
“I have no idea, but I’m paranoid enough at this point to go there. Maybe that’s why my call to Jeff was dropped.”
I took a deep breath. “Are you sure you want me to call Joe?”
“Rose, I’m not the jealous type,” he said, his voice gruff. “Even if I was, what kind of ass would I be if I didn’t want you to ask for his help? The reason I didn’t think about it before was because I honestly thought we were safe here.” Pain covered his face. “Obviously I was wrong.”
“Okay.” I reached over the table for the phone and pulled up my speed dial numbers. Joe’s name was still on the list, but after several rings the call went to voice mail. “Joe, this is Rose. I need to talk to you as soon as possible.” I glanced up at Mason and he nodded. But I couldn’t say the next part while facing him, so I spun around. “Joe, I’m in trouble and I need your help. It’s about Daniel Crocker. I’m really scared.” My voice broke. What would this call do to him? Joe had been devastated when I left him at the nursery. Would he think I wanted him back? “Just call me. Please.” I hung up and put the phone down on the table, pushing it away as though it were tainted. I tried not to think of the similarity to the call Savannah had made to Joe before she was attacked.
“You did the right thing.” Mason grabbed my waist and turned me to face him, wrapping his arms around my back and pulling me into a hug.
“That call could kill him, Mason. He begged me to give him another chance. What if he thinks I want him back and then finds out I don’t? What will he think of me then?”
He buried his hand in my hair, holding me close. “No matter what happened between you two, he obviously still loves you and wants you to be safe. He’ll be glad you called.”
“He might not want to call me back.”
“If he gets the message, he will.”
I looked up at him, questioning. “What do you mean if he gets the message?”
“His fiancée might be screening his calls. I saw the way she was watching the back room while you were in there with Joe. She’s terrified that you’ll take him back.”
“Hilary would screen his calls?” But even as I said the words, I knew he was right. She’d already done it this past summer when she was working with Joe in Little Rock.
I grabbed fistfuls of Mason’s shirt. “I really am scared.” My fingers quivered, loosening my hold on his shirt.
“I know. I am too, but for an additional reason. Only five people know we’re here. What if Crocker gets to Jeff? I’d like for someone on the outside to know we’re in trouble. Otherwise it would be too easy for them to make us disappear and come up with a believable explanation.”
I shivered.
“God, Rose. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so blunt.”
“No, don’t hide things from me. I have a right to know.” The room was spinning and my vision was fading, but my irritation superseded my fear. I will not pass out. I sat down on the edge of the table so I wouldn’t fall over and tried to take a deep breath.
“Give me the phone. I’ll call the state police myself and hope I don’t get cut off.”
As I started to hand it to him my phone buzzed and I looked down to see a text message from Bruce Wayne.
Get out now. They’re on their way.
Mason read the message over my shoulder. “Dammit.” He reached for the phone, but the screen went blank as the phone died.
I cringed. “It only had ten percent power this morning.”
Mason’s body tensed as he tossed the phone on the table, his voice was gruff. “We have to go. Now.”
I stood, my body reacting in slow motion.
He glanced at my arms. “Get your coat.” He grabbed the shotgun off the table. “But don’t let the deputies see what you’re doing.”
I nodded and hurried into the living room to grab my jacket before returning into the kitchen.
Mason zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Did they see you?”
“No.” I glanced down at my dog, who had been unusually quiet since coming inside. “What about Muffy?” I asked, worried to hear his answer.
“We’ll take her with us, of course.”
Relief flowed through me.
He headed for the back door. “We need to leave now. But if we run out to the barn and the deputies see us, they’ll know we know something. We don’t want to make them suspicious, so we’ll walk… But walk quickly.”
“Okay.”
I followed him outside, and he reached for me, his fingers curling around the side of my hand. When we were halfway to the barn, he turned to look back the house. I couldn’t make myself do the same, terrified I’d see Deputy Miller pointing a gun at us. Instead, I glanced down at Muffy, who seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. She was sticking close to my side like she had been all morning.
When we reached the barn, Mason released my hand and gave one of the old wooden doors a hard shove. I gripped the other door and pushed too, leaning my shoulder into it when it wouldn’t budge.
Once we had the doors open, Mason placed his hand on the middle of my back and pushed me toward the passenger door of the truck. He tossed the bag into the back, but then he caught sight of something that made him curse.
“What?”
He gestured to the wall. “Stay here.”
I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but when I glanced down, I saw for myself. The tires were flat. Mason circled the truck before coming to a stop in front of me, anger in his eyes. “Someone’s slashed all the tires.”
“The deputy,” I whispered. “I saw him come out to the barn.”
Mason put his hands behind his head and looked around, his eyes wide with panic. “Your coat’s not heavy enough. When I checked the weather forecast this morning, it said snow was moving in within a few hours.”
“You don’t have a heavy coat either.”
He stood in the doorway, glancing between the house and the woods. “Goddammit. How did I let this happen?”
“What do you want to do?”
His gaze landed on mine. “Run into the woods.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“Help me shut the doors. We can buy some time if they don’t know we’re back here.”
We closed the doors from the inside, and then Mason started to rummage through the cabinets.
“Let me help, Mason. What are you looking for?”
“Anything that will help us keep warm.” After he had found two saddle blankets, he grabbed his bag out of the truck and set it on the tailgate so he could pull out a rifle.
“Here.” I shrank back when he tried to hand it to me. “Take it, Rose. I hope to God you don’t have to use it, but I want to know you have it.”
I gripped the cold metal, pointing the tip toward the ground.
“Do you know how to work the safety?”
“No.”
He showed me and made me flick it on and off twice. “Are you good now?”
“Yeah.” No.
He stuffed the blankets into the bag and slung it over his shoulder.
The sound of revving engines filled the air.
Mason rushed over to the double doors and looked through the crack. “They’re here. We’ve got to go.”
I joined Mason at the door, pressing my face against the wood slats. I watched three pickup trucks screech to a halt in front of the house. Men’s voices boomed in the distance, the words muffled in the wind, but there were no gunshots. Did that mean both deputies were in league with Crocker?
Mason headed for the opposite end of the barn. “We can slip out back and head into the woods.”
“Then what?”
“The forest is dense from this area of the county all the way up through the border of Moore County to the north. We can try to make it there to locate the sheriff or the state police.”
“Okay.”
He looked down at me. “It’s going to be rough. The hills are larger here, which is why the forest is dense. It doesn’t make for good farmland, so it never got developed.”
“I can hike through the woods, Mason.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. Crocker’s guys are good ole boys. He’s bound to have some experienced hunters in the group. And trackers.”
The full meaning of what he was saying sunk in.
He stood behind the partially open back door, staring out into the woods. “Try as I might, I can’t come up with any other ideas.” His gaze shifted to my face. “What do you think?”
“Me?” I asked in shock.
“You’re in this too, and from past experience, I know you think well under pressure.”
I gave my head a slight shake as I tried to come up with a suggestion. “We could run for the fence at the end of the property and find a farmhouse to call the state police.”
“True, but what about your vision?”
Crappy doodles. “You’re right. They were looking for us in the fields.” I looked up at him wide-eyed. “I don’t know, Mason. I guess the only choice is for us to search for people to help us or head into the woods.”
“Either way we run a risk of getting caught. The question is which gives us the best chance?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
“Then let’s assume your vision is true. That means we could potentially buy some time if we head for the forest.”
“Okay.” I was grateful that he was including me in our decision. The need to concentrate was helping me rein in my fear. “Do you know which direction to go?”
“Ideally we’d head north to Moore County, but the fields lead north. So we can head east a bit in the woods and then turn north.” He looked down at my little dog, who was sitting at my feet. “What about Muffy? Can she keep up? Will she alert them to where we are?”
I squatted and turned her to face me. “Muffy, we’re going on a walk and I need you to listen to me.”
Her tongue hung out of her mouth, but her eyes were focused on mine.
“No barking. And no running off. You have to stay with me.” I leaned into her face. “This is very important, Muffy.”
She stood up on her back legs and licked my chin.
It was the best I could do.
“Do you think she actually understands?”
“I don’t know, but she’s given me reason to trust her in the past. She’d gotten me out of some tight situations.”
“Good enough for me.”
Banging and shouting came from the direction of the house. They knew we were gone. The sooner we left the better. “Then let’s go.”
Mason looked down at the gun draped over my shoulder. He pulled it off and turned it around, grimacing. “If it hangs this way, you can lift it and point. The other way you’ll fumble with it.”
I couldn’t even imagine shooting someone, so I didn’t see the point. “Maybe I shouldn’t have this. What if I shoot you by mistake?”
He lifted the barrel and examined the side. “The safety is on. Don’t touch it and we’ll be fine.”
Pushing the door open, he took a step out of the barn and glanced in both directions. “Okay, it’s clear.”
He held the door for Muffy and me. The wind felt colder than before we’d entered the barn and the sky was a darker gray. Mason carefully closed the door and followed my gaze.
“The storm’s moving in quickly. That doesn’t bode well for us, although the wind will make it more difficult for them to track us by sound.”
We ran to the edge of the forest, clomping over the dried leaves that covered the forest floor. The brush was thick at the edge, so we would have to force our way through it.
Mason turned back to look at me. “This is going to seem counterintuitive, but I want to head south for a while before we veer into the woods. If we charge in now, they’ll be able to figure out where we went in from the broken brush.”
“Okay.”
“The huge risk is that they’ll see us from the house, but we’re both wearing dark colors, so we won’t jump out at them unless they know where to look.”
He turned to the right and skirted the tree line while Muffy and I followed close behind. After glancing at the house, Mason picked up the pace.
Shouting broke out behind us and Mason stopped and pulled me into the shadows of the trees and down to a crouch. Muffy followed, lying on the ground next to me. I reached down and rubbed her head.
Three men burst out of the back door of the house. One of them pointed to the barn and then the field, and the others took off in the indicated directions. But my attention was squarely on the man who’d given them their orders and was standing in the middle of the yard, his hands on his hips.
“It’s Daniel Crocker.”