Part 36 (2/2)
Angela stepped into the pool house's humid air last and followed the men as they sprinted for the door at the far end of the s.p.a.ce. Behind the door lay the staircase leading down to the underground corridor connecting the pool to the ma.s.sive main house. She had briefed the team on the structure's layout as they'd headed up the James toward Rosemary in theBoston Whaler .
At the doorway, they huddled together. ”Let me go first,” Angela whispered to the leader.
”Please don't put me in this position, Ms. Day. Please stay back.”
”I'll be fine,” she said, pulling out the pistol Jake had given her. She opened the door and crept slowly down the stairs, aware of m.u.f.fled voices ahead as she and the rest of the team reached the bottom step and the corridor.
She moved forward, gun drawn, her heart racing faster as the voices grew louder and the words discernible. She recognized Chuck Reese's deep baritone, Hunter's giggle, and then Caroline's high-pitched tone. Then a voice that sent s.h.i.+vers up her spine. It was exactly as she had surmised. That could be the only explanation for the voice she had just heard.
Angela and the men moved into position outside the playroom door, inside of which the Reese family was a.s.sembled. The leader tapped her on the shoulder, then pointed, indicating that two of his men would lead the a.s.sault. That there would be no argument this time, and she nodded.
The leader held up three fingers, then two, then one, then pointed at the doorway and waved. The first two men tumbled into the large playroom, Glocks drawn, followed by the team leader, the other two men, then Angela.
It was exactly as she had antic.i.p.ated. Chuck Reese and Caroline were sitting in large easy chairs. Hunter was on the floor, playing. And Bill Colby was standing behind Reese. What she hadn't antic.i.p.ated were the three armed guards against the far wall. Men of Colby's command who brought their rifles down and began firing as she hurled herself behind a wooden chair in a far corner of the room.
Serenity turned to chaos, the angry spray of automatic gunfire tearing apart walls and bodies. Colby's shouts. Caroline's shrieks. Hunter's screams.
Angela rose up from behind the chair just as one of Jake's men tumbled back against a wall, his body riddled with bullets. One of Colby's men was doubled over as well, clutching his stomach, a dark river pouring from his abdomen. Chuck Reese was scrambling across the floor toward Hunter and Hunter was crying hysterically. She fired at another of Colby's men who was aiming at one of Jake's men, and he went down, shouting in pain and grabbing his thigh. Then she turned her gun on Colby who was racing for the door, firing twice.
She barely felt the bullet pierce her arm. At first it seemed like nothing more than the sensation of hot grease hitting her elbow, a searing sensation that would pa.s.s after the initial pain. She swung her firearm in the direction she believed the bullet had come from, focused on the last of Colby's men who was standing, and tried to pull the trigger. But her fingers failed to respond, and she dropped the pistol and grabbed her arm, aware that the man she had been aiming at had dropped to his knees and collapsed. Suddenly it seemed like her arm was going to fall off.
She glanced down and saw crimson dripping through her fingers, and her head began to spin. She looked away and up into the eyes of the leader, trying to think of anything but the searing pain.
”You all right?” he shouted.
She nodded, not at all certain she was. But then he was shoving Hunter into her arms and the little boy's panic-stricken grip gave her strength.
”Mom!”
”It's all right, honey. Everything's all right,” she said, tears streaming down her face, aware that the whine of bullets was gone. ”Mommy's here. Mommy won't let anything happen to you.”
The room had gone still except for the groans of the wounded and Caroline's sobs. Colby, his three men, and two of Jake's squad were down. The leader of the team had already secured Chuck Reese, and another of Jake's men was escorting Caroline out of the playroom, her anguished cries fading as the man led her away.
”I've got to get you and your boy out of here, Ms. Day!” The leader was tugging on her good elbow. ”There could be more of Colby's people around!” he shouted.
”Okay,” she agreed groggily. But as she staggered from the playroom, Hunter's tiny hand clasping hers, she heard shouting down the corridor toward the house. ”What's going on?”
”There's a guy down the hall holding a black woman hostage!” the leader hollered, dragging her along.
”What?” She stopped, halting on the first step leading up to the pool. ”What did you say?”
”Come on, Ms. Day! I can't have you hanging around here. I must get you out of the area. Let's go!”
”No!” The man down the corridor was Sam. And the woman was Liv. Carter Hill had lied. They hadn't killed her. They'd brought her here when they'd kidnapped Hunter. She nodded down at the boy. ”Get him to the boat! I'm staying.”
”Ms. Day!”
”Do it!” she screamed.
The leader gazed at her intently for several moments, then clutched Hunter and raced up the stairs.
Angela watched until they had disappeared, then staggered down the corridor toward the shouting voices.
”I'll kill her, I swear!”
Angela came around the corner of a doorway to another, smaller playroom a hundred feet down the corridor from the room where they had just recovered Hunter. Sam Reese stood with his back to the far wall with Liv directly in front of him, one hand clasping her neck, the other a revolver pointed at her head. He was wild-eyed, the hand holding the revolver shaking crazily. Liv's eyes were shut tightly, tears streaking her face. Her wrists were secured behind her back.
”Get out of here!” he yelled at Jake's man, who was aiming his weapon at Sam from the doorway. Then he saw Angela. ”Tell him, Angie. Tell him I'll do it. You know I will.”
”Get out of here, Ms. Day!”
But Angela ignored the order from Jake's man, stepping into the room, clasping her bleeding elbow. She watched as the gun shook wildly in Sam's hand, and as Liv's eyes flew open at the sound of Angela's name.
”Don't come any further, Angie!” Sam yelled.
She took several more steps.
”Ms. Day, get back!”
”You set me up, Sam,” Angela said quietly, now just a few feet away from him. ”All of that talk about us having a better relations.h.i.+p. Bringing Hunter to me because he needed me. Defying your father. All lies. You and your father were setting me up so Carter Hill could kidnap Hunter when he was with me. So it could look as if I were the bad person when he was taken from me. That was your out. What were you going to do? Kill Hill and install your own man at Sumter? Thennegotiate Hunter's return.”
Sam smiled but remained silent.
”But you left too many tracks leading back to Rosemary.”
”You always were too smart for your own good,” he hissed.
Angela took another step forward, and Liv moaned as Sam pressed the barrel of the revolver hard against her temple. ”What are you going to do, Sam?” She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Jake's man had moved into the room, sliding along the wall next to the doorway so he could maintain a clear shot at Sam. ”Kill me?”
”I will if you don't get out of here.”
”I'm not leaving.” She wouldn't either. She hadn't been able to save Sally, but she was going to save Liv. ”Not without my friend.”
Sam laughed harshly. ”Then I'll kill you both.”
”Let her go and take me.”
”No.”
They were only a few feet apart now. ”Could you really shoot me, Sam?” she asked softly. ”Could you really kill me?”
Sam gazed into her eyes, holding Liv's chin tightly. ”Don't make me do it,” he pleaded.
”Let her go. I'll help you. I promise.”
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