Читать книгу Echoes of Danger - Lenora Worth, Rachel Hauck - Страница 10

Dana jumped up to pace around the unlit, windowless room. “It might be just that, a coincidence.” She refused to believe Bren could be mixed up with the likes of Caryn Roark.

Tony dropped the papers on top of a pile that seemed to be growing from the dark brown carpet next to the chair. “Yeah, but what are the odds of two people from Ireland being in rural Kansas at the same time?”

Dana whirled to face him. “Caryn didn’t speak with an Irish accent.” Trying to remember how the woman had sounded, she admitted, “She is very cultured. Very formal. Maybe there was a trace, but Bren—he could definitely be Irish.”

“Maybe he was visiting the complex,” Tony offered as he popped the top on a soda, then took a huge swig. “Hey, I’m hungry. Want Chinese or pizza for dinner?”

Dana continued to pace. “I don’t care.”

“Pizza,” Stephen said from his crossed-legged stance on the floor in front of the television. “Stephen wants pizza.”

Dana watched as Tony conjured up the nearest pizza joint on one of his monitors and ordered a large with everything. She had to wonder if he ever left his apartment.

Having provided dinner, Tony turned back to her, his eyes as bright as the simulated picture of fish swimming on the monitor behind him. “Hey, you don’t want to believe this man is in with Roark, I know. But it sure looks that way. I’ve heard things about Brendan Donovan—how he doesn’t like to be in the limelight, how he shuns publicity, and maybe this is why. Maybe he’s one of her followers.”

Dana watched the bubbles floating on the screen behind Tony. “No, he was interested in the church, but when I asked him if he was a member, he…he said no.”

Tony’s lips tipped up at the corners. “Could he have been lying?”

She shook her head. “It was the way he said no, and the way he looked. I got the feeling he did not approve of the church at all.”

“Then why was he there?”

“I don’t know.” She sank back down on the couch. “All I know is that he protected me during the storm, and he helped us afterward. He even told me if I needed anything to call—”

Tony groaned, lifting his eyes to give her a long stare. “And you’re thinking about doing just that?”

She shrugged. “Well, I was. He seemed secure. I believe he’ll help me.”

“A perfect stranger! Get real, Dana.”

Before she could respond, a message came through on the e-mail again. Tony jumped over to the terminal to read it out loud.

“‘What is the most important thing in life? To lay down one’s life for a brother.’”

Dana looked around as if someone were watching them. “She knows I’m here, Tony.” Lowering her voice, she whispered, “She knows and she’s threatening Stevie again. She’s aware of his problems, and she could easily influence him if she gets her hands on him. I’ve got to get away from here!”

Tony grabbed her to pull her around. “Hold on. Where will you go?”

“I don’t know,” she said, a mortal fear pumping through her system. “I don’t know.”

“What’s the matter?” Stephen asked, his attention diverted completely from his video game to Dana’s frightened face. “Dana’s sad. What’s wrong, Dana?”

“Nothing, Stevie. I’m just worried, is all. Your pizza will be here soon.”

Stephen watched his sister. “You sure, Dana? You sure you’re all right?”

Tony clapped his hands together. “She’s just being a drag,” he said. “Hey, ready to take on the champ, pal?”

“Yeah,” Stephen said, “but I’m warning you. I’m real good at video games.”

“Give me that other control,” Tony said, his tone mockdeadly. “I’ll take you on anytime, anywhere.”

Dana, thankful that Tony was at least trying to pacify Stephen, thought back over the message they’d just received. How did Caryn Roark know she was here? Maybe she’d asked around town and found out that Dana and Tony were friends. Maybe she’d had them followed. Or maybe not. That would be too obvious for someone like Caryn Roark. No, whatever method she was using, Dana was sure it was very underhanded and very secretive. And very high-tech, since someone had obviously found a way to get to Tony’s computer files. But why was the woman still after her? She’d won, hadn’t she? Dana had lost the farm and she’d run away, to protect her brother, to think her way through this, to save her sanity. What more could the woman want?

What if the woman didn’t stop until she had Stephen?

“I can’t let that happen,” Dana said out loud.

Luckily Tony was making such a ruckus with Stephen, neither of them heard. They didn’t hear the doorbell, either.

“I’ll get it,” Dana said. “Probably the pizza man.”

“There’s a twenty on the counter,” Tony said, his eyes never leaving the blur of speeding cars on the television screen.

Dana opened the door and absently took the warm pizza box, her mind preoccupied with other things. Then she handed the delivery boy his money, her eyes touching on his briefly. He looked familiar—

“Thank you,” the boy said, a serene smile plastered across his skinny face. He left so quickly, Dana didn’t connect on why he looked familiar. Shutting the door, she said, “This is one large pizza, and heavily loaded from the weight of it.”

“Set it on the coffee table,” Tony said over his shoulder. “We’ll be there as soon as I finish winning this race.”

“Right.” Looking for a fairly level spot on all the magazines and papers on the long, beat-up table, Dana dropped the pizza box on top. That’s when the lid popped open just enough for her to see the gadget inside.

“Tony,” she said, her heart jumping right along with whatever was in the box. “Tony, come here a minute.”

“Hold on.”

“Now, Tony.”

Something in the panicked tone of her voice got Tony’s attention. “Pause it, Stevie,” he said as he pushed up off the floor. “What’s the matter—no jalapeños?”

Dana pulled him close. “No, something we didn’t order. Listen.”

He did, his eyes widening as they locked with hers. “Get Stevie,” he said, “and go, go as fast as you can. Get out of the building. It might be nothing, just a joke. Just go and I’ll come down and get you after I check it out.”

“I can’t leave you,” she said, her hands clutching his arm. “Come with us.”

“No way. I can’t let anything happen to my equipment.”

“Forget the computers. Come on, Tony!”

He leaned toward the box. “Go on. I know a little bit about detonating bombs. I learned it on the Internet. Go! I’ll call 911, I promise.”

Afraid to leave, but even more afraid to stay, Dana lifted Stephen up. “Listen, sport, I want you to come with me for a few minutes.”

Stephen looked confused. “Hey, what about my pizza? I want pizza.”

“We’ll eat when we get back,” she explained. “Right now I want to try out your new runners. We haven’t really had a chance to go for a good run since we got them.”

“Dana, now?” He rolled his eyes. “I’m hungry and I want to finish this game.” He placed his arms over his chest in a defiant stance.

The box ticked away.

“Now, Stephen. Don’t ask questions, just come on.”

“But I don’t want to run. It’s getting dark out there and we don’t know our way around. You told me, never run in the dark.”

“We’ll be okay. Now, don’t argue with me, Stephen.”

Throwing his controller down in a fit of anger, Stephen glared at his sister. “I don’t want to go.”

“But you are, sport.” Eyeing Tony, who stood staring at the ticking pizza box, she heaved Stephen by the collar, praying he wouldn’t have a tantrum. “We’ll just go around the corner.”

She reached the door, grabbed her purse and took one last look at Tony. “Be careful,” she said. “Call a bomb squad or something—call somebody, Tony!”

“I’ll be fine,” he said, his grin fixed and unsure. “Go, and Dana, you be careful, too.”

“Okay.” She felt the tears pressing at the back of her eyes. “Ready, Stevie?”

“No, no. Don’t want to go.”

“You don’t get to decide,” Dana replied. “We have to leave now, Stephen.”

They made it to the small lobby, where a security guard nodded indifferently at them.

Dana called to the man, “I think we’ve got a bomb threat in apartment 201.”

The guard snapped to attention, automatically reaching for the nearest phone. “Hey, wait a minute!” he shouted to Dana.

She didn’t stop. She pulled Stephen along at a brisk trot, mindless of his complaints. The city was dark and misty. It had been raining. Car lights flashed in her face, but Dana didn’t notice. She looked down the nearly deserted street.

She turned back to get a grip on her exact location, taking one last look at the apartment building. Then the earth shook and in a matter of seconds, part of the building blew up and out into the sky. The blast sent glass flying and bricks falling. Somewhere someone screamed and a baby began to cry.

Frozen in horror at first, Dana sprang to life. “Tony!” she cried as she ran back toward the building. “Tony!”

Stephen screamed, too, then began to cry. “Dana? What happened? Where’s Tony?” His screams turned into a high-pitched wail that would only get worse if she didn’t calm him down.

People began to run out into the streets, pushing and shoving, questioning. Dana held Stephen close, watching as the remainder of the building settled back into itself, hissing and burning. What used to be Tony’s apartment was now a hollowed-out hull with charred, tangled computer equipment strewn across its blank face. The air was heavy with smoke and falling cinders, the acrid smell cutting off her frightened breath. Closing her eyes, she bit back the tears wailing inside her. A silent scream roared through her pounding head. This scene was too familiar. This was too soon, too quick, too much.

Tony was dead, and it was her fault. All her fault.

“I have to find him,” she said out loud, grabbing Stephen to pull him back toward the building.

Sirens blared all around her; paramedics arrived in ambulances, pushing the sightseers and shocked neighbors aside.

“Tony,” she said, trying to tell someone, anyone, where he was. “Tony is in there.”

“Step aside, ma’am,” a young fireman said. “We’ll find your friend, but you can’t go in there.”

Shocked, Dana could only nod. She gripped Stephen so hard, he cried out again. Easing up a little, she held him close, her eyes searching the crowd. Maybe Tony had gotten out, too.

Please, God, let him be okay.

Then she spotted the pizza delivery boy in the crowd. He raked a hand through his bob of a haircut, then leaned back nonchalantly on the fender of her parked truck. He gave her the same serene grin she remembered from—

“From Emma’s store,” she said in a shaky whisper. The other customer. The one who’d run out when the storm had hit.

One of Caryn Roark’s boys.

A chill careened down Dana’s back. They not only knew where she was; they had planted a bomb just for her.

“I’m sorry, Tony,” she whispered to the horrid scene in front of her. “I’m so sorry.”

With that she waited, watching the grinning boy as she talked quietly to Stephen. “Listen, sport. We’re going to have to get away from here, because, well, some bad people are after us and we’ve got to find a safe place.”

“Mean people?” He sniffed and looked up at her, his body rocking back and forth in shock.

She nodded, her eyes watching the teenager across the way. She couldn’t lie to Stephen, and she couldn’t do anything more for Tony. They had to run, to get away, and she needed Stephen to understand the urgency of their situation. “We’ve got to sneak away, somewhere where they can’t find us.”

“What about Tony? Don’t leave Tony, Dana.”

She swallowed hard, her hand tightening on her brother’s shoulder. Stephen wasn’t supposed to be in such situations. He wasn’t supposed to be removed from his daily routines. And without his medication, he’d soon be bouncing off the walls. If she couldn’t handle all of this, how in the world would her little brother? “I don’t know about Tony,” she admitted. “I hope he got out.”

“Do we have to leave now?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid so. We can’t take the truck, but don’t you worry. I’ll take care of you, I promise.”

She tugged him close, her eyes on the teenager standing in the crowd, watching her every move. Her gun was in the truck. “Here’s what we’re gonna do, Stevie.” She directed him around, away from the bomb scene. “We’re going to start running. We’re gonna run faster than we ever have. I want you to concentrate, like you do when you’re in track, or playing football. I want you to run as fast as you can, but don’t leave me. Don’t let go of my hand, okay. We have to stay together, no matter what. Okay?”

“Okay. Good thing I’ve got on my Ruby Runners. Yeah, Ruby Runners are fast.”

Thinking of Brendan Donovan, Dana nodded. “Yeah, let’s just hope they live up to their name.”

And so they ran, following the yellow ribbon of the street-lights, following the dirty gray-black ribbon of the sidewalks. They turned a corner that circled to the back of the apartment complex. She didn’t know where they were going, but she had to get away from that pimply-faced teenager with the stringy brown hair and the vacant eyes.

“Did you find her?” Caryn Roark asked into the slim, silver phone at her ear.

“Yes and no,” came the shaky reply. “We found her and we tried to scare her.”

“That doesn’t sound promising,” Caryn replied into the phone, the rage inside her simmering in a calm facade of control. “What happened?”

“We followed her from the sheriff’s house, all the way into Kansas City. She went to an apartment downtown. We monitored the apartment and we were able to get into the electronics system. We sent your messages via e-mail, hoping she’d leave and we could nab her outside. But she didn’t leave. Until a few minutes ago.”

“Where is she now?”

“Uh, we don’t know. The bomb—”

“You set off a bomb? You idiot, you could have killed them both. I need them alive and shaken, not dead and completely stiff. How else will I find what I need?”

“We were only trying to scare her out of the building, but it went off and…Derrick made it too powerful…and the building blew up. She got away in all the confusion and now we’ve lost her.”

Caryn glanced around the stark white of her office. Everywhere she looked chrome and glass reflected her image back at her. Forcing a serene look back to her face—she didn’t need extra wrinkles over this bit of trouble—she said into the phone, “You’d better find Dana Barlow and that stupid brother of hers. Do you understand me? Bring them to me alive. No more shooting or bombs, or you will be sorry you ever failed me.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Caryn hung up the phone, then placed her fingers together. Admiring the smooth creamy tone of her perfectly manicured fingernails, she sat down in the white leather chair behind her desk, then glanced at the clock. “Almost time for late prayers. I’d better calm myself down.”

After all, it wouldn’t do to upset the children unnecessarily. No, that wouldn’t do at all.

Dana looked over her shoulder, thinking they’d outsmarted the smirking youth who’d been caught in the sway of the crowd gathering to view the bombing sight. She didn’t see anyone behind them.

“Ahhh!”

Stephen’s scream and the tug of his body being pulled away from hers brought her head around.

Someone was holding her brother.

“Let him go,” she said to the dirty mass of a man standing in front of her. Winded and tired, she squinted at the huffing figure holding her squirming brother. “Tony?”

“It’s me, doll face.”

Dana threw herself into Tony’s arms, tears of relief streaming down her face as she reached around Stephen to hug Tony. “You’re all right. Thank goodness! How did you get out of there?”

“Can’t breathe,” Stephen said, his hands flapping between them.

Tony pushed Stephen back toward Dana, then bent over to take a deep, calming breath. He was covered in dirt and soot from his head to his feet. His left temple was cut and bleeding, his bifocals were bent, but all in all, he seemed to be okay.

“Well,” he began, breathing between words, “when I opened the box, I realized the bomb was too complicated for me—not your average-grade pipe bomb, more like an alarm-clock bomb. So I grabbed my cell phone and I hauled myself away. I took the back stairs, screaming and yelling to people as I went. I dialed 911, told them I had a bomb ticking in my apartment, then I got outta there.”

Dana sighed long and hard. “And just in time. Oh, Tony, if anything had happened to you…”

“Hey, I’m all right. My computers are gone, but don’t look so sad. I’ve got a back-up system at the main office downtown. And I’m fully insured. They haven’t won yet.”

“Why are they after us?” Stephen asked, rocking back and forth on his feet. “Why, Dana? Why?”

Dana gave her brother a worried look, then followed it with one to Tony. Too scared to stay out in the open, she pulled them both over to a cluster of trees that formed the beginnings of a huge park. A sign a few feet away announced the fenced area as the Wyandotte County Lake And Park Grounds. “We don’t know why they’re after us,” she tried to explain. “But I think our neighbor is trying to scare me. I made her mad, and apparently, she doesn’t forgive and forget.”

“But she runs a church,” Stephen said, thoroughly confused. “Church people are supposed to follow the ways of the Lord, and forgive everyone. Should forgive, Dana.”

“Not this particular church lady, sport. For some reason, she’s got it in for us.” She didn’t dare tell him that Caryn had threatened him.

Slumping down against an ancient oak tree, Stephen asked, “Dana, are we ever gonna get back home? Stephen wants to go home.”

Dana brushed his hair out of his face. “Sure we are, sport. Sure we are. But it might be a while, and I can’t promise we’ll have anything left to go back to. You just hang in there, okay.”

Stephen looked around. “This place is spooky. I want my baseball cards.”

Hoping to distract him, Dana pointed to his shoes. “Boy, you ran so fast in those Ruby Runners.”

Stephen stared down at his feet. “Ruby Runners. Yeah, I have Ruby Runners. I like them. They make pretty noise.”

Dana figured her brother was talking about how his new shoes squeaked. “That will stop once you get them broken in.”

Tony stood and took in their surroundings. “The park’s okay, but sometimes vagrants do hang out in there.” He lifted his chin toward a secluded spot behind a service building, then his eyes flashed wide. “Hey, I know someone who might be able to help us. He lives on the edge of the park.”

“Are you sure?” Dana asked, afraid to trust too many people. Or cause anyone else to get hurt.

“Yeah.” Tony nodded as he stretched and brushed at his clothes. “He’s a retired police officer who doesn’t always play by the book, if you get my drift. Leo will know what to do.” Then he stopped and gave Dana a sharp-angled look. “But I have to warn you, Leo is really weird. I met him when I went to fix a computer at a local church. He was attending an AA meeting there. Helped me move some tables so I could get to the plugs. We kinda clicked, but he’s out there, if you know what I mean.”

“Great,” Dana said, too tired and worried to argue. “That’s comforting.”

Tony took her by the hand. “But I trust him, Dana. He’s helped me out of a lot of tight spots.”

Dana decided that was good enough for her. Tony didn’t trust that easily.

“Okay, let’s go,” she said, turning to grab Stephen by the hand.

“C’mon, there’s a hole in the fence over there where I climb through to go jogging sometimes. We’ll cut through and be inside the park. We’ll be safe there, at least. We can call Leo from my cell phone.”

“No,” Dana said. “What if they trace it?”

“Good point.” He put the phone back in his shirt pocket. “If they found you here, and planted a bomb in a pizza I ordered online, then it stands to reason they can find us anywhere.” Then he shrugged. “Leo’s house is just on the other side of the park.”

“Let’s head deeper into the park,” she said, taking Stephen by the arm. “At least out in the woods they can’t link us to any computers.”

They hurried along, following a trail that circled the lake. The woods were quiet, except for a few nocturnal animals here and there.

“Sure is dark,” Stephen whispered, his hand clutching Dana’s arm. “Don’t like dark, Dana.”

“Lots of shadows,” Tony added, sticking close to Stephen’s other side. “Nothing to worry about, sport.”

“Hope they didn’t see us come in here,” Dana whispered back.

“Are there any bears in here?” Stephen wanted to know.

“Nah, but we might run into a deer or a fox. Maybe a really mean squirrel or two.”

“Hush,” Dana said, smiling for the first time in a long time. Then she thought about the bomb again. “That was definitely a strong message back there. I hope no one was hurt or killed because of that bomb.”

“Well, we can’t get information out here,” Tony said, his tone mourning the loss of his lifestyle. “They destroyed my computers!”

Tony guided them through the vast park until they reached the other side of the perimeter. “There,” he said, motioning toward a street beyond the fence. “I know another place where we can climb through the fence.”

They headed up a hill where a clump of trees formed black shadows on either side. The scent of decayed leaves assaulted Dana as she tried to catch her breath. Giant sycamore trees stood sentinel, their pale gray bark looking ghost-white in the muted moonlight. The night was so still, Dana could hear their breathing growing more rapid, could hear the patter of their shoes on the worn, cushioned path. It was if they were alone in the center of the world.

“Through here,” Tony said, guiding them behind a clump of hedges that covered a torn part of the fence.

Soon they were in a small yard that backed up to the park. Dana squinted toward the square, squatty house in front of them.

“Let’s just see if Leo’s home,” Tony said. But he didn’t sound very confident.

They were halfway up on the back porch when a huge figure jumped out in their path, growling and snarling at them like a madman. They all three screamed in unison, then clung to each other, Dana holding tight to Stephen while Tony held tight to her.

Dana took in the sight before her, thinking this had to be some kind of macabre dream and that surely she’d wake up in her bed, in her little farmhouse, all safe and sound.

The man was huge. The moon acted as a spotlight as he bent forward. His shirt gaped open to reveal a tattooed chest. That massive chest was heaving up and down as he stared at them, his eyes holding them penned with an unnerving glare. His hair was a mixture of gray and black, and hung around his face in flowing straight locks. He wore twin white feathers on either side of his parted hair. They hung down around his ears, making him look like a giant winged bird. A pair of army fatigues covered his legs, and heavy hiking boots encased his feet. Each time he inched toward them the silver bangles on his massive arms jingled a warning.

For a full minute, the man stared at them and they stared back. In her mind, Dana kept thinking they should run, but her feet wouldn’t obey the shouting command.

Finally Stephen spoke. “An Indian. We found an Indian.”

The man stepped forward again, and they all retreated another inch. “You’re trespassing,” he growled.

“Leo, it’s me, man,” Tony said, his voice shaky at best. “It’s Tony. We were in that building back there—the one that blew up. Someone planted a bomb in my apartment—actually, in my pizza.”

“This is Leo?” Dana whispered, her arms protecting Stephen as he stared up at the imposing man in front of them.

“Yep,” Tony said, indicating the little frame house behind the man. “He lives right here. But he likes to roam the park at night sometimes.”

“Uh-huh,” Dana replied. “And he’s supposed to help us?”

The man stared at them, then snarled. “Get out of here, Tony.”

“Okay.” Tony tugged at Dana’s arm. “Let’s go.”

“But what about—”

“He might be having a flashback,” Tony said under his breath. “We don’t even want to be here for that, trust me.”

“Then let’s go,” Dana said, frightened all over again.

They were just about to do that when more sirens blasted through the night, startling all of them. Dana, Tony and Stephen took that as their cue, and started to make tracks back toward the woods.

Dana ran right smack into the strange man. He’d also heard the sirens, and now he was trying to block their way. He grabbed Dana to keep them both from toppling over.

“Let me go!” Dana shouted, her eyes widening as she stared up at the man. Even in the darkness, she could see the fear in his eyes. “Please, let me go,” she said again, hoping this weirdo wouldn’t harm them.

“Do you hear that?” he asked, his eyes brightening like a shard of crystal. “Hear them? They’re looking for me.”

Tony stepped forward. “Yeah, and they’re coming to take you away. Let her go, man.”

The man looked at Tony as if he’d just noticed he even existed. “They won’t get me if they can’t find me.”

Tony seized that notion. “Yeah, well, if you don’t let us go, they will find us, Leo. And they’ll find you, too. And it doesn’t look like any of us want to be found just yet. We came to you for help, man. Can you understand that at least?”

The man jerked his head around. “You hiding out?”

Dana didn’t dare make a quick move. She’d heard about people like this man. People who lived in their own little worlds; people who went berserk and killed everyone in sight. People who lived in the park, in the dark, people who lived on the fringes of reality. From the way he was dressed, and the way he acted, she’d say this man was on the verge of some sort of rampage, and she didn’t want to stick around to find out what it was.

“We’re trying to get away,” she said in a calm voice, her body protecting Stephen behind her. “So we do need to keep moving.” Inching closer, she added in a whisper, “And you’re frightening my little brother. Mister, we’ve had one really bad week, and you’re not helping matters.”

The man waited for the sirens to die down, then he released her to step back. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I used to be a cop, and when I hear that sound, well, it reminds me of things I don’t want to think about.”

Stephen’s eyes lit up. “A cop? Wow! Policemen are our friends.” He shook his head back and forth. “Got to get away from bad people. Bad people are after us. Policemen are our friends.”

Dana grabbed her brother by the collar. “Hush, Stevie. Let’s just get going now.”

Leo lifted his head. “What kind of bad people?”

Tony sighed, then wiped a hand across his dirty brow. “Look, Leo, we don’t want any trouble. We have to keep moving. This woman and her brother are being harassed by some strange cult—the Universal Unity Church—and we need to get out of here.”

“Caryn Roark, the woman who speaks with a false face,” the man said, nodding his head in slow motion. “I’ve heard stories about her.”