He also sent up a plea to Elyxandre. To be safe. To be happy.
One step at a time, hands raised in the air to show he didn’t have any sort of weapon, he began to back into the attic space toward where he claimed Kennedy was hiding. Of course, Judah didn’t like that.
“Stay where you are, Dr. Vaughn. Don’t make me shoot you.”
“You said you wanted to see Kennedy and Ryker. I’m going to get them.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Judah growled. “I told you to call them to come to us.”
“If you’re worried, come with me. If I’m lying to you, then you can shoot me, and you’ll know.”
“Call them here!” The boy’s voice became strident. Lucas was getting to him. Good. If he was emotionally overwrought, he’d follow, afraid to let him out of sight.
“No, Judah. If you want to see them, you’ll have to go to them.”
Then, in an act of desperation and probably stupidity, he turned his back on Judah and walked slowly into the dark recesses of the attic.
Straining his ears, he heard what he thought was a gasp from Kennedy and a whimper. However, it didn’t seem to register to Judah. Good. He had the boy’s attention. The question was, was he following Lucas or holding his ground?
“I don’t want to shoot you!”
He could hear anguish in the boy’s voice. He sounded close.
Out of the darkness, his voice rang out. “I don’t think anything’s going to prevent that now, do you, Judah?”
Suddenly, there was a clatter from the stairwell, as if one of the kids had fallen down some of the steps in their hurry. Hopefully, neither of them was hurt.
He looked over his shoulder at Judah’s anguished scream. The boy had run to the doorway, aiming his weapon down the stairs, firing off two shots at the couple. Prompted into action, Lucas quietly, and as quickly as he dared in fear of making noise, ducked out of sight and didn’t stop until he was as far back into the space as he could get. He turned down one of the aisles of shelving, then realized his mistake. He’d miscounted and gone down an aisle that had no exit except the one he just turned into.
He was trapped.
SECRET STAIRS
ELYXANDRE
Quint called in his reinforcements.They now had two Texas Rangers, a highway patrolman, a sheriff, an FBI agent, a game warden, and an entire fire station surrounding the hood of Quint’s squad car. The warden and the firefighters from Station 7 were going to cast a wider net inside the preserve, just to be sure. The other variety of officers were going to work in pairs to clear the building with help from other precincts arriving on scene. They’d just laid out their plan to canvas the building when they heard shouts coming from the distance.
All heads raised and turned in the direction of the school as two pops sounded. All of them went for their sidearms.
“Gunfire!” TJ Rockwell, the highway patrolman, confirmed.
Two figures ran across the front of the school. Kennedy, her arm around Ryker’s waist, was half dragging Ryker, who was clearly in pain, given his uneven gait. Both were constantly looking over their shoulders, as if they expected to be chased. Although it broke protocol to do so, the two rangers jumped into immediate action and went to meet them, moving between them and the doors, weapons drawn to protect them from behind.
Arriving at the car, they were hustled to the other side of the vehicle and pushed to the ground to provide some measure of protection while the rangers stayed on the opposite side, watching for anyone else to emerge from the building.
Ryker kept his arm around Kennedy’s shoulders as the girl sobbed uncontrollably. Two firefighters started to look them over while a third covered them in blankets and offered them water.
Elyxandre crouched down in front of them. They were dusty and disheveled. “Ryker, are you okay? Are you or Kennedy hurt?”
“Judah hit me pretty hard with a pry bar in the knee. I don’t think it’s broken, but it’s not in the best of shape. He still has Dr. Vaughn. We had a plan to lure Judah further into the room so that Kennedy could get out, and I was supposed to push a bookshelf over on him, but he didn’t fall for it.” He took a shuddering breath. “Dr. Vaughn sacrificed himself so we could get away.”
Her stomach rose into her throat. Nausea bubbled up, and she had to turn and take a few steps away to vomit into the grass. A hand came to rest on her back as she stood there, hands on her knees, hunched over. It was too painful to stand up. He couldn’t be gone. She’d feel it. Wouldn’t she?
Another hand showed up beneath her with an open bottle of water. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and stood shakily, the hand still at her back. “Drink,” the voice of the person next to her ordered.
She took a mouthful of water, swished it around, and spat it out on the ground. After a second rinse of her mouth, she took a large swallow of what remained in the bottle.
Whirling around, she went back to stand in front of Ryker and Kennedy. “Where?” she croaked. “Where are they?”
