“We’ll need both of you,” Beckett said, turning to face them from the small fireplace in the sitting room. The small room felt crowded with only the three of them inside with the door closed, and looking at Darcy, Blake was glad no one else was present. It was going to be a grueling trial and the fact that such a well placed individual was part of it only promised to make it even more public.
“I’ve been working on a deal for you,” Beckett pointed his pipe at Darcy, “you won’t be prosecuted if you cooperate.”
Darcy folded her hands in her lap and nodded once before her eyes lifted meeting Blake’s.
“Don’t worry you’ll be well protected,” Beckett continued. “Blake, your testimony will go a long way to bringing this down. The fact that you were wounded in the line of duty will bring the public to our side. I want you to focus on the bank robbery, and shooting. We won’t focus on the bootlegging since emotions run high on both sides of that issue. Understand.”
“Yes sir.” Blake looked back to Darcy who nodded. He could tell she was frightened. She had already suffered so much in this ordeal. Even now she was still healing from her own wound.
“I’ll fetch you tomorrow at nine then. Wear your uniform.” The older man paused turning to look at Darcy. “I’d find something more modest to wear as well young lady,” he chided. “We want people to empathize with you, not focus on who-what- you were.”
“Yes sir,” Darcy managed, meeting the man’s eyes. “I’ll do my best.”
“Good, then get some rest, you’ll both need it.”
Beckett strode to the door pulling it closed behind him with a snap.
Blake gazed at the door for several seconds as everything seemed to fall into place. Pulling his mind away from the conversation he turned to look at Darcy who sat by the window gazing out into the sunny street.
Standing he hobbled to her side reaching down and taking her hand in his. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked.
“I think so.”
“You’ve been very brave.”
Darcy shook her head pulling her hand from his. “No, you are the one who has been brave. If they had discovered who you were that would have been it. I knew where my path was leading all along. At least this way I won’t have to go to jail.”
Blake bent at the middle, reaching out and placing a finger under Darcy’s chin forcing her to look at him. “Darcy, you have a whole life ahead of you yet. You aren’t just escaping jail, or punishment, you have an opportunity to start again.”
Darcy pulled her face away from his piercing eyes to look out the window again. “It’s not that simple,” she said. “I have so much to atone for, so many things to put right.”
“The only thing you need to put right is your heart,” Blake persisted. “All you have to do is ask. Reach out and take the gift that is right in front of you.”
Darcy refused to turn back to see the pain and sorrow in Blake’s eyes. He didn’t know her, what she had done. She needed to make amends and maybe in time God would be able to forgive her. “You’d better get some sleep,” she said softly. “We have a long day ahead of us.”
Blake leaned forward placing his hand on her cheek and turning her face toward him once more. The sound of a rifle shot and the shatter of glass spurred him to drag her to the floor with him as something hot tugged at his sleeve.
“Blake! Blake!” Darcy’s panicked whisper pierced his heart. “Are you hurt, did they hit you?”
“No, no, I’m not hit.”
“Someone found us,” Darcy whispered as sirens blared outside.
“We’d better get out of here,” Blake said, rolling to his knees with a hiss of pain and grabbing her hand. “Come on.”
The door to the sitting room burst open and a dark shadow fell across the floor. Blake could just make out his father’s silhouette pressed against the door frame, a soft glint of light indicating the gun in his hand.
“Move it son,” Clay Allen called. “Are you hit?”
“No, we’re fine,” Blake called back as he pulled Darcy through the door and to the side of the hall.
Clay slipped, cat like, into the room and sidled up to the window, twitching the curtains away from the shattered window, but seeing nothing.
“Looks like this isn’t over just yet.” With quick fingers, he reached through the window and jerked the shutters closed. “I’ll take first watch.”
The door down the hall slammed open and Blake reached for a pistol that wasn’t there.
“Allen!” Beckett’s voice carried down the hall. “You better not be dead.”
“We’re safe,” Blake shot back, helping Darcy sit up against the wall.
“I’m having my men button this place up, and I’ve got a sharp shooter on the roof in case they come back for another try.”
“How’d they find us?” Blake spat. “No one knows where we are other than my family and you.”
“I suspect I was followed,” Beckett growled. “I should have been more careful. I should have known that Hawkins contacts go far deeper than we knew.”
Clayton stepped back out of the sitting room a hard glare on his face. “You’d better keep my boy safe,” he hissed, his amber eyes all but glowing in the low light. “He’s done everything you asked of him, now it’s your turn to protect him and Darcy.”
“We will, we will.” Beckett looked up seeing the feral glint in the other man’s eyes and shivered. He could see where Blake got his tenacity. “I’ll hand pick every man on the detail for the drive tomorrow.”
Clay nodded, pulling a pistol from his waistband and handing it to Blake. “Best keep sharp,” he said, then trotted off down the hall to the kitchen.
Beckett ran a hand over his face. “We might have even bigger fish
