Page 45 of Barry
“How did I know? He recorded his death for me. He left it on his cell phone for me to discover. The military didn’t even bother to power up his cell before they shipped it and what was left of him back home.”
“Keep him talking. Wait! Never mind, we have a fix on the GPS. He must have moved her,” Ethan said, snapping Barry out of the thrall the words had thrown him into.
“I told them as soon as I could. As soon as I came out of my head, I told them.”
“But it was too late, wasn’t it? You saw him. Admit it!” the man roared into the phone.
“I fucking admit it! I couldn’t talk! I was locked in my own fucking head. I didn’t speak for almost a year! Check the records!”
“I don’t need to check anything. I watched my brother die.Youleft him. You and that waste of flesh captain. And they gave him a fucking Medal of Honor for his bravery. How brave do you have to be to leave a man behind?”
“All personnel, the coordinates are being sent now.” Ethan’s words were as sweet as honey, and yet she was in danger. He had a job to do. The next step. Concentrate on the next step.
“I want to see her.” Barry moved the conversation on. His mind was reeling. He knew he’d seen Fish. He knew it. The realization he wasn’t seeing things freed him and weighed him down at the same time. If only he could have said something. No! The next step. It was all that mattered.
“Oh, you will. Due east four clicks. Stop at the base of the small bluff, get off the machine, and raise your hands in the air.” Barry dropped to the ATV and hit the ignition. He gunned the machine and spun it toward the east, holding the gas and brake simultaneously. He sent a cloud of dirt into the air and dropped into the next valley. If he couldn’t see the ridgeline, the fucker couldn’t see him. He looked up, saw nothing but the hill before him, and shifted theATV into neutral. Revving the engine, he counted to five and then kicked it back into gear, launching back up the hill. It would be his standard operating procedure for every hill big enough. He was wasting time without looking like he was wasting time. It would give his backup time to get into place. He hoped.
CHAPTER 19
Looking through a swollen eye, Kathy carefully watched Jackson as he paced back and forth in front of the opening. His actions and mumbling had become increasingly violent. He stopped suddenly and grabbed a pair of binoculars from the dirt near where he was pacing. He lifted them, dropped them, and then lifted them again.
“Loverboy is on his way.” He picked up the phone and walked back to her. Grabbing her around the waist, he half-carried and half-dragged her to the entrance, where he dropped her, and she cried out as her shoulder took the brunt of the fall. Her mouth was gagged with a filthy rag. She tried to keep quiet. Any movement or sound from her seemed to be a trigger.
She stared out into the distance. The rising sun paintedthe land that stretched out below them with a pale-yellow highlight. Lying in a small patch of sun, she felt the warmth hit her skin. The agony of pain in her hands and feet, along with the wounds from Jackson’s rage, soaked up the warmth. Tears fell as she laid as still as she could. She couldn’t see Barry, but he was out there somewhere. He was coming for her. She knew Jackson wanted Barry to suffer, and he was hurt to her to cause Barry that pain. He’d suffered too much. His life had been so hard, and now …
Kathy jerked at the sound of Jackson pulling something from the back of the small depression in the hillside. He kicked her feet out of the way as he scooted the black plastic container next to her. He smacked the side of the box several times and popped the corner open.
Kathy froze at the eerie sound. A sound she’d been conditioned to fear. Rattlesnakes. Her eyes left the box, and her gaze traveled to Jackson. He was staring at her with a sneer. “You’ll never make it back to town for the antivenom. Even if he kills me, he won’t be able to save you. Maybe if there was only one bite. But …” He put her battery back in her phone and held it up, talking to the camera. “I want you to have a video of your woman dying.”
He went to the side of the cave and picked up a stick with a rope taped to the end. Her heart pounded so hard she couldn’t breathe as she watched. He used the crude tool and picked out a snake. It writhed at the end, dangling as Jackson shook it, making it madder. He hovered the snake over her, and she screamed and tried to beg him not to dothis. The snake dropped on her, and the bite was instantaneous and deep. Her hip combusted in searing pain and intense heat. The snake slithered away a few feet and coiled again. It lifted its rattle and warned the world with the horrendous sound. Jackson made a motion with the stick, and the snake launched toward the stick, striking at the air. After its move, it made haste toward a clump of rocks.
He shut the lid on the container, sat down, and stared down at her. The sharp pain of the bite echoed through her hip. The burning sensation of an iron pressed against her skin centered where the fangs had lanced her skin. She could feel the sweat roll down her brow and yet knew the morning wasn’t hot enough for the reaction.
“You chose the wrong man.” Kathy jerked her eyes open. She couldn’t breathe very well. Her nose was clogged from crying, and the gag prevented all but the smallest pull of air through her mouth. She panted and shook her head side to side with a purpose and intent no one could miss. It was an act of defiance, telling the man above her he was absolutely wrong. Barry wasn’t the wrong man. He was everything. She knew that in every cell of her body.
He sighed. His rancid breath no longer made her gag. She stared at him. The yellow tinge to his skin and the rotted teeth made him look like a monster. One of the made-up undead she’d seen on the television shows, only he wasn’t an actor. He was her reality. She dropped her head to the ground and stared at him as he began to speak. “You’re going to die. He won’t be able to save you. You see,killing him was never my intention. Pain,thatis my intent. I wanted him ostracized. A solo target is the easiest to manipulate. When that didn’t happen, I wanted him crippled, physically and up here. Drive him insane and torment him.” He tapped his head. “I want him tosuffer. When I figured out he was seeing you, I watched. I watched everything. I saw that damn dog, and you were important to him. The captain, too. I know where his woman looks for eggs every morning. I know where the kid’s playpen is in the house.”
Jackson stood up and looked out. “Hear that?” He glanced at her. She strained to hear anything through the rushing of blood in her ears. Then she picked it out. The sound of a motor.Barry. “He’ll have a choice to make. Try to save you or chase me. By the time he gets you back to town, I’ll be well hidden.” Jackson placed her phone against the black box. She knew the camera was on. She closed her eyes, not wanting Barry to see her like that.
“Open your eyes, bitch.” She did as instructed and stared into the face of her camera. “I want him to see, to know what you’re going through. I want him to see your pain.” He lifted the corner of the lid again, shoving the stick inside the box.
She shook her head.Oh, Barry. I’m so, so sorry. She knew he’d blame himself. She knew he’d regret his time with her and wished it had never happened so she wouldn’t get hurt. But the times she’d spent with him were the only moments she’d truly felt alive. She wouldn’t have changed anything.She stared at the camera and hoped he could read what she was trying to project.I love you. I will always love you.
“In position.”Barry heard again. He revved the engine and hit the next to what looked like his last hill.
“Alex?” Ethan’s question echoed his.
“We’ve got an angle problem. Working it.” That was Scott Evers.
“Visual?” Ethan asked.
“Alpha Five. I see her. She’s bound and on the ground.” Barry gunned the ATV. He couldn’t stop anymore; he was in the open.
“Barry, you know the plan.” That was Andrew’s voice. Hedidknow the plan. He’d been going over it in his mind since they left the diner last night. He knew exactly what he was going to do and what his assignment was, and he wouldn’t fail.
“The Op is active,” Ethan said as Barry launched over the last hill and stopped at the flat. He stopped the vehicle and got off. His legs and hands ghosted the vibration he’d fought for the entire trip.
He lifted his arms in the air as directed and looked up. Above him, about thirty feet away and ten feet up a slope, was a notch in the hill. A man stood at the entrance with a snake at the end of a stick. The snake hovered over Kathy.