A blast from Danny’s gun turned a riding lawn mower into a raging inferno, sending an officer flying through the air in eerie silence. Judging by the force needed to launch a body like that, Danny must have planted some kind of explosive. He knew a single bullet couldn’t ignite the gas tank.
Chief spoke into the radio strapped to his shoulder. “Team One, open fire.”
A barrage of bullets slammed into the aged clapboard, where Danny fired from only moments before. Wood and glass flew in every direction.
“Cease fire!”
An ominous silence permeated the farm. The acrid stench of burning fuel set his throat ablaze and he covered his face with his arm. His eyesight blurred, as he tried to access the situation through the haze.
A short exchange of gunfire crackled from the front of the house, quickly followed by a resounding boom and billowing smoke floating up into the trees.
“Jerry? Are you there?” Chief spoke into his radio with no response.
“Alan, do you think you can get up there without him seeing you?” asked Chief Thomson. “I need to know what the hell happened up there.”
The officer dropped the shield over his face before hunkering down and weaving his way through the trees. It seemed a lifetime before Randy heard the radio crackle. “Team Two is down. I don’t see any survivors. It looks like some kind of trip wire. They never even made it to the door.”
Chief looked at Randy in horror and disbelief. “He’s got the place wired. Alan? Can you see into the house?”
“There’s a light coming from the front room. Hang on.”
With baited breath, Randy waited for the response.
“The room is empty. There’s nobody there.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
In the midst of all the chaos outside, Danny stormed into the room with knife in hand. He no longer resembled the clean-cut cop she’d worked with over the years. His face now blackened with soot and always perfect hair askew. Becca squeezed her eyes shut and prayed she wasn’t about to die.
Danny cut through the tape binding her to the chair and picked her up. She tried to bring her hands up to rake his eyes, but only succeeded in lightly brushing her fingertips across his cheek, the effects of the drug far from over.
“Ha! You’re something else, Becca. Welcome back.” Amusement now danced in his eyes. He wasted no time in running upstairs with her to a sparsely furnished bedroom where he sat her on a chair and quickly bound her to it.
All the while she prayed.
“Scream all you want. It won’t make a lick of difference.”
“What about Jacob?” She hardly recognized the rasp coming from her mouth.
“Jacob? I could care less what happens to him. He’s no threat to anyone.” His lips curled in a snarl, and he narrowed his eyes at her. “You, my dear, are my trump card. You’ll be safe up here for now.”
He quickly pulled the mattress off of the bed and propped it up against the narrow window, engulfing the room in darkness. He paused beside her and said, “I really hope you’re not afraid of the dark.” His tongue circled the inside of her ear before he continued out of the room.
A shudder ripped through her and she willed away the urge to vomit. The door closed behind him, and a key rattled the lock with a final click.
She wagered Jacob still lay on the couch. Whether he was alive or dead was another matter. Becca squinted, trying to adjust to the darkness. Moonlight streamed in through an uncovered space at the top of the window.
This time he’d taped her good. Her hands stuck out the bottom of her bindings, slowly losing sensation from the lack of blood supply. She took a good look around the room. A single bed sat against one wall and a small chest of drawers stood nearby it. Her breath hitched.
“It’s an old iron bed frame.” She had a bed like it when she was little and knew the ends of the springs were very pointed and sharp.
Becca sat at an angle in the corner, at least four feet from the bed. With every ounce of strength she could muster, she tried to throw her weight in hopes of bouncing the chair across the room. Unfortunately, her strength didn’t match her determination. Her frustration level reached an all-time high and she screamed.
“Chief? Randy? I’m upstairs! Can you hear me?” Becca threw her weight in the direction of the bed and crashed to the floor, her head hitting the iron frame.
“Shit!” Her world spun and the all-too-familiar darkness swept her away.
Danny shivered in unbridled expectation. He could hardly wait until they happened upon his other surprises. His smile broadened upon hearing Becca’s screams.
Jacob sat propped in the corner where he’d moved him to, only now he’d acquired a rather foul odor about him. Danny turned up his nose and pulled the guy up to his feet, uncovering the reason for the stench.
“You dirty fucker.” Danny dragged him to the bathroom and into the tub, positioning him so his head rested below the rim. The blocking drug made things almost too easy. He put the plug in and turned the cold water on. “I guess I’ll see you later. That is if I come back in time.”
Danny left the bathroom and stopped in the middle of the now vacant front room. The picture window framed a stupendously star-filled sky.
“The calm before the storm.”
Danny smiled and sauntered to the dining room where the contents of his duffle bag lay strewn across the table. He set the lantern down and pulled the pocket doors closed. Armed with a hammer and several wooden planks he’d leaned against the wall, he began nailing one at a time across the doors. Several minutes later, he stood back and shrugged, having used all eight planks when three would have sufficed.
“I’m a little worried. He’s too quiet in there.” Randy took the binoculars off the car’s roof. He focused them and then checked each window. Nothing stirred indoors or out, not even the leaves on the trees.
A guy from the special task force ran over and squat between them.
“He’s blocked a window with a mattress on the second floor. Maybe that’s where he moved Becca and Jacob.”
The chief’s radio crackled. “Chief, he’s closed off the doors leading into the front room. We believe he’s in the dining area now. Even if we get inside, we have to get through those doors. The guy has been hammering away for the past twenty minutes.”
“Thanks, Tim. Keep an eye on him.”
“Copy that.”
“The fucker’s nesting—getting everything set up for the long haul.” Randy flicked the toothpick away that he’d been chewing on for the past hour.
“If he’s busy doing that, he’s not bothering Jacob or Becca.” Chief rolled his neck.
Randy stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles. They were biding time for daylight. The EMT had left with six of their men in body bags. They couldn’t chance another attempt and set off another of Danny’s traps.
The Florist was far from stupid. He knew if Jacob and Becca were with him, they wouldn’t be planning an ambush.
Chief put a hand to the small of his back as he stood hunched over, out of sight. “It will be dawn soon, and then the real show can get started. I need to take a leak.” He wobbled off down the side of the barn.
