Chapter Twenty-Eight
A stream of sunlight from the top of the window nudged her eyes open only for her to shut them again. A streak of white lightning ripped through her skull. Becca quickly remembered her circumstances where she laid on the floor still taped to the chair, the iron leg of the bed only inches from her head.
She lay listening for any clue to what was going on outside or, for that matter, inside. The door rattled and remained closed. She tried to turn her head, but couldn’t. A few short seconds passed before it rattled again.
“Danny? Is that you? What are you doing out there?”
Becca strained to hear.
“Jacob?” She held her breath. “Is that you out there?”
“Sssss....”
She gasped.
The door rattled again, the lock clicking and the door banging open. Jacob half-crawled into the room, leaving a trail of water in his wake. He kicked the door shut and collapsed on the floor. He took long, shaky breaths through his nose, his body visibly trembling.
“Jacob, I know you’re hurt, but Danny could come back any moment. You need to help me free my hands. Can you do that for me?”
He grimaced with every movement as he dragged himself over to her and started working at the tape.
“If you can get one of those springs off of the bed frame, the pointed end should cut through it.”
In spite of his many injuries, Jacob unhooked a spring and sliced into the bindings. It took a little doing, but he finally managed to find the end and began unravelling it from her body.
“Once my hands are free, I can take over.”
Her heart ached at the pain she saw in his eyes.
It seemed to take an awfully long time before the tape loosened enough for her to dig the phone from her pocket and press redial.
“We need a distraction.”
“Becca?” His voice cracked.
The sound of Randy’s voice made her heart ache. “We need your help. In five minutes you need to create a diversion so we can get the hell out of here.” She hit END, not wanting to risk Danny finding it. She was already worried he’d see the water puddles Jacob had left.
He lay on his side now, breathing hard, eyes closed. Beads of perspiration covered his face. She quickly peeled the tape from her legs and righted the chair to finish taking the remaining adhesive strips from around her waist.
“Jacob, the cops are going to create a diversion.” Becca hurried to the window and pushed the mattress aside. She blinked rapidly into the morning sun’s rays. They were on the second floor, and below them a small roof hung over the mudroom.
“If I can get this open, I think we can throw the mattress on the roof below and jump to it easily enough.”
Jacob moaned and briefly closed his eyes; exhaustion played on every feature of his tortured face. He’d been through hell and back, and now she wanted him to jump out a window.
“Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out. The minute we hear anything, it’s time to make a move. Okay?”
The door suddenly burst open, and Danny appeared before them.
“How the hell did you get up here?” Spittle sprayed from his mouth, and he firmed his hold on a gun, aiming at Jacob’s head.
“Don’t do it, Danny. He was only trying to protect me.” She stood slowly. “You know there’s no escape, but it’s up to you how far this will all go.”
Danny turned the pistol on her. “You’re right. He was only trying to help you. It’s always all about you, Detective.” He looked down his nose at her. “I should have done this long ago.”
He pulled the trigger.
Gunshot deafened the small room. In the same instant Danny took his shot, Jacob grabbed her ankles and pulled her to the ground. He quickly rolled on top of her just as another shot resounded in the small space. An explosion rocked the house, and Danny bolted from the room. Becca gasped for breath, the weight of Jacob having knocked the wind from her.
“Jacob?” A sickening feeling churned in the pit of her stomach. She pushed Jacob off of her, laying him on his back. The rise and fall of his chest she’d come to rely on rose and fell no more. Blood seeped out from beneath him. Becca inched her way back until she hit the wall and buried her face in her hands.
A burst of gunfire forced her to set aside her grief and prompted her to act.
Becca worked at opening the window. Below, a number of officers in tactical gear ran single file to the back of the house.
“Argh!” She used her pent-up anger and frustration to force it open, rewarding her with layers of paint cracking until it finally gave way. She pushed out the screen and watched it tumble to the ground.
Becca wrestled with the mattress until she finally had it lain over the windowsill and slid it out, landing on the roof below like she’d hoped. She took one last look back at Jacob’s still form.
“Thank you.” The words stuck in her throat on her way through the opening. She jumped.
Pandemonium surrounded the farmhouse. Smoke and clouds of dirt and debris made it almost impossible for Randy to see what impact the onslaught of bullets had ensued.
Chief gave the order to cease fire. An eerie silence fell upon the acreage as the dust settled, giving them a better look at the back of the house where the clapboard had been shredded and the glass shattered. However, there was no sign of Danny.
“Do you think we got him?” Randy’s pulse raced as he scanned the ruins for signs of life.
“Let’s find out.” Chief spoke into his radio. “Send a couple of men in full gear to investigate.”
Almost immediately two men ran forward in sync. Out from the rubble staggered Danny with gun in hand, a huge smile plastered on his blackened face.
“Freeze! Drop your gun!” The bigger man shouted out. Both men went down on one knee and took aim. “Drop the gun and put your hands up.”
“It’s been fun, gentlemen.” Danny spun on his heel and shot into the house. An explosion rocked the ground, and everyone ran for cover.
Randy looked over the hood of Danny’s car to find the entire back engulfed in flames and Danny nowhere in sight.
“Becca.” Randy jumped to his feet and set off running only to be manhandled to his knees.
“I can’t let you go in there. We did the best we could, my friend.”
Chief’s words did little to console him. After everything they’d been through, to lose her like this.... Randy buried his face in his hands and choked on a sob, a gaping hole in his heart.
Chief’s radio sounded. “We’ve got her. We need the EMT stat to the east side of the property.”Alan spoke hastily.
Randy ran with the EMT to a cluster of men by the tree line. A smoking mattress lay off to one side. He pushed his way through the growing crowd and stopped suddenly. A plethora of emotions battled within him to find Becca lying on the ground. A few wisps of her once luxurious red hair clung to a badly blistered scalp. The rain suit she wore was literally melted to her side. Men in white uniforms worked quickly, bandaging her wounds and monitoring vitals.
An ambulance with its lights flashing crossed the property and stopped a few feet shy of them. The emergency personnel carefully moved her to a stretcher and covered her with a silver, quilted blanket. Randy forced his way through to where they lifted her into the back. He tried to climb up inside only to be dragged back by fellow officers.
“Get off of me!” He struggled to break free. “Becca!”
“You got to give them room to do their job.”
The chief’s voice of reason ended his fight. He watched in horror as one of the attendants inside pressed his
