“My God,” Jed said. “So they paid him a visit.”
“Yes.”
“Todd was tortured,” Jed said.
“I know.”
“They made him talk. A man can only stand so much pain. But Todd didn’t know where Natalie or anyone else was. See? He could only tell them what he knew.”
“Like about you and the retreat in Vermont,” I said.
Jed nodded. “That’s why we had to close it down. That’s why we had to run away and pretend that there was nothing there but a farm. Do you understand?”
“I do,” I said.
He looked back down at Malcolm’s body. “We need to bury him, Jake. You and me. Out here in this place he loved.”
And then I realized something else that chilled me to the bone. Jed could see it on my face.
“What?”
“Todd never got the chance to take the cyanide pill.”
“They probably surprised him.”
“Right, and if they tortured him and he gave up your name, it stands to reason that he gave up Malcolm’s name too. They probably sent men to Vero Beach. But Malcolm was already gone. He came up here to this cabin. The house would have been empty. But these guys don’t quit easily. They’d just found their first clue in six years— they weren’t about to just let it go. They would have asked questions and pored through personal records. Even if this land was still in his late wife’s name, they may have found this place.”
I thought about all those tire tracks outside.
“He’s dead,” I said, looking down at the bed. “He chose to kill himself, and judging by the lack of decay, he did it very recently. Why?”
“Oh God.” Jed saw it now too. “Because Minor’s guys found him.”
As he said those words, I heard cars pull up. It was so clear now. Minor’s men had been here already. Malcolm Hume had seen them coming and taken matters into his own hands.
So what would they do about that?
They’d have set a trap. They’d leave someone behind to stake out the house in case someone else showed up.
Jed and I both rushed to the window as the two black cars came to a stop. The doors opened. Five men with guns came out.
One of them was Danny Zuker.
Chapter 34
The men kept low and spread out.
Jed reached into his pocket and pulled out a pillbox. He opened it and tossed the pill inside to me.
“I don’t want this,” I said.
“I have the gun. I’ll try to hold them. You try to find a way to escape. But if you can’t . . .”
From outside we heard Danny call out. “Only one way out of this!” he shouted. “Come out with your hands up.”
We had both ducked down to the floor.
“You believe him?” Jed asked me.
“No.”
“Me neither. There’s no way they’re going to let us live. So all we’re doing right now is giving them time to set up.” He started to rise. “Find an escape route out the back, Jake. I’ll keep them busy.”
“What?”
“Just go!”
Without warning, Jed knocked out a windowpane and started to pull the trigger. Within seconds, return gunfire raked the side of the house and took out the rest of the window. Shards of glass fell on me.
“Go!” Jed shouted at me.
No reason to tell me a third time. I commando-crawled toward the back door. It was, I knew, my only chance. Jed started firing blindly, keeping his back against the wall. I headed into the kitchen, still moving low across the acrylic. I reached the back door.
I heard Jed let out a celebratory shout. “Nailed one!”
Great. Four to go. More gunfire. Heavier now. The walls were starting to give way, the bullets weakening and now penetrating the wood. From where I was, I saw Jed get hit once, then twice. I started back toward him.
“Don’t!” he shouted at me.
“Jed . . .”
“Don’t you dare! Get out now!”
I wanted to help him, but I could also see how foolhardy that would be. It wouldn’t help him. It would just be suicide. Jed managed to stand. He was heading for the front door.
“Okay!” he shouted out. “I surrender.”
Jed had the gun in his hand. He looked back at me, winked, gestured for me to keep going.
I glanced out the back window, preparing to make a break for it. The house was right up against a wooded area. I could go into those woods and just hope for the best. I didn’t have another plan. At least nothing that would help immediately. I took out my iPhone and flipped it on. There was service. I dialed 911 as I looked out the window.
One of the men was in the back on the left, covering the door. Damn.
“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?”
I told her quickly that there were shots being fired and at least two men hit. I gave her the address and put the phone down, keeping the line open. From behind me, I heard Danny Zuker shout, “Okay, throw the gun out first.”
I thought that I saw a smile on Jed’s face now. He was bleeding. I didn’t know how badly he was hit, if his current injuries were mortal or not, but Jed knew. Jed knew that his life was over no matter what he did and with that, there seemed to come a strange sense of peace.
Jed opened the door and just started firing. I heard another man call out in pain—maybe another one of Jed’s bullets had found its mark—and then I heard the hollow pop of automatic gunfire tearing into flesh. From my vantage point, I saw Jed’s body fly backward, arms dangling overhead as though in a macabre dance. He fell back into the house. More bullets hit him, jerking his lifeless body.
It was over. For him and probably for me.
Even if Jed had managed to kill two of them, three would still be alive and armed. What chance did I have? I calculated the odds in nanoseconds. Almost zilch. I had one chance, really. Stall. Stall until the police could get there. I thought about how far out we were, about that drive up the dirt road, about not seeing any municipal-type buildings within miles of this place.
The cavalry wouldn’t be arriving in time.
Still the Minors may want me alive.
I was their last chance to get information on Natalie. I could tap-dance a bit that way.
They were approaching the house. I looked for a place to hide.
Stall. Just stall.
But there was nowhere to go. I stood up and looked out the back door window. The man was there, just waiting for me. I sprinted across the kitchen and back into the bedroom. Malcolm hadn’t moved, but then again I hadn’t expected him to.
I could hear someone enter the cottage.
I threw open the bedroom window. What I was counting on here—and really it was my only shot—was that the man in back was watching the door. The bedroom window was on the side toward the right. From where the guy had been standing when I saw him from the kitchen, he wouldn’t be able to see this window.
