I refocused my shot, targeting Gerard’s heart.
In a split second, Delilah crawled toward the pine. She stood and slipped behind the tree trunk. Gerard rushed toward her. A tree blocked my shot. He stopped walking, raised his rifle and stared toward her.
“Goddamn it, get out here!” he shouted. “You think that tree will hide you?”
Delilah didn’t move.
I didn’t know where Max and the others were. If I shot, I worried I’d hit one of them. I slid two feet to my right. Again I lined up a clear shot at Gerard with the mountain behind him. He moved, this time to the left of the tree, and peered at Delilah. “I can see you. This isn’t some stupid game of hide-and-seek. I told you get the hell out here!” he demanded. “Now! Or I’ll put a bullet through that empty head of yours, like I did that damn brother of mine.”
In that moment, another girl ran out of the cave, her hair long and dark blond. My brain flashed up the photo Genevieve Coombs brought to the station. It was Jayme. Distracted, Gerard didn’t see her. In a single leap, Jayme jumped on Gerard’s back, wrapped her legs around his waist and her handcuffed arms around his head. She dug in, gouging at his eyes, and he screamed.
He grabbed the cuffs’ chain, but she held tight, dropped the chain lower and tried to use it to strangle him. He pulled at her arms, then lurched back and rammed her into a tree. Frail, painfully thin, she refused to let go. He bashed her against a second tree, and she fell.
Jayme rolled and came to a stop in front of the cave.
Gerard turned and brushed a hand over his burning eyes. “Goddamn it, you ain’t worth it. None of you two’s worth it. I can get new girls anytime I want. I don’t need the likes of you.”
As he aimed his rifle at Jayme, Delilah flew at him from behind the tree. I couldn’t get a clear shot. I stepped forward, but stayed hidden. I needed that element of surprise. Delilah and Gerard wrestled, and his rifle discharged. The bullet struck rock, blasting off splinters of mountainside. Delilah fell, landing on her back. Gerard stood over her, smiled, and took aim.
I squeezed the trigger and took my shot as I heard others ring out from the behind the trees.
At first, Gerard looked startled, as if he didn’t understand what had happened. He stared down at his chest, stunned. Blood spread out, saturating his shirt. I marched toward him from behind the trees. We stood twenty feet apart, eye to eye. He looked at me as if surprised. I smiled. Clumsily, he attempted to raise his rifle. I lined up a shot and pulled the trigger.
Gerard spun a quarter-circle to his right, and then dropped. Blood oozed from a wound in the center of his forehead, the same spot where he’d shot his brother.
Max, Conroy and Mullins emerged from the forest. Jayme lay where he’d thrown her, sobbing.
Dazed, Delilah had shuffled to rest at the foot of a tree. She watched in silence as we approached her. She looked at Conroy’s uniform. I had my badge on my shirt. Her hands were dirty from scrounging for weeds, and her tears smeared a sooty brown as she tried to wipe them away. She gazed up at me.
Max checked on Jayme, holding her as she sobbed. “He unlocked Delilah, and he forgot to lock me back up to the wall,” she whispered. “He forgot, and I couldn’t be scared anymore. We had a plan. I had to help Delilah.”
A few steps away, Conroy watched as Mullins felt for a pulse on Gerard’s neck. A pool of blood collected around his head.
I sat in the dirt beside Delilah. I reached over and took my sister in my arms. I held her as she wept. Her words came in stutters. “He-he told me that you were looking for me.”
“You’re so brave,” I whispered. “But it’s over now. And he can’t hurt anyone, not ever again.”
Delilah pulled away and her eyes ran over me. “You look like Lily all grown up.”
“I think I do too,” I said. My eyes filled with tears but my lips climbed up slightly at the corners.
“Are you really my sister?”
“I am,” I said.
“Clara?” Delilah asked.
“Yes, I’m Clara.”
Epilogue
When we drove into Alber, Lily and my three mothers were waiting for us at the police station. Delilah ran to Sariah, and they sank together onto the floor, sobbing and laughing, holding each other and whispering.
Mother Naomi raised her hands to the heavens and cried, “Praise to the Lord for his goodness. He’s brought our daughter home!”
The others chimed in: “Praise the Lord, for he is good.”
I stood alone, watching, and Mother walked over. At least for this moment, her features had softened, and when she spoke I heard sadness and regret. “Clara, I am sorry for the way I acted. I should have believed that you’d come to help, not harm.”
“It’s okay.” I wished that she would have reached out to touch me. I thought that perhaps she could have said she was sorry for other things, the events that separated us for a decade. She didn’t. Our culture had strong talons, like the eagle. It held tight. I’d brought Delilah home, but I remained an errant daughter, an interloper whose very presence she believed threatened our family. “I’m glad Delilah is safe.”
Only Lily hugged me, whispering, “Thank you” through her tears.
Despite all we had been through together, despite all I’d done, the distance between me and my mothers persisted, a canyon that separated me from those who were mine. Mother’s sadness touched me, but I wondered if she truly understood how wrong she had been and that her actions could have cost Delilah her
