CHAPTER TWENTY
They were thirty minutes into the first Paw Patrol movie—Maria and Beverly lying on the floor while Talia and Katrina sat on the couch—when Talia accepted that Lennox wouldn’t be joining them. The weight that had been sitting on her chest doubled, threatening to stop her heart from beating. Regardless of his decision to take a step back from their relationship, she never thought he’d hurt Maria like this. Then again, maybe she didn’t know him nearly as well as she’d thought.
Since she muted the sound on her phone earlier to avoid interrupting the movie, Talia almost missed the humming vibration on the couch beside her. She eagerly reached for it, hoping it was Lennox texting to let her know that he was on the way. But instead, it was a text from security at the gate.
CODE BLUE
She sat up quickly, tapping on the notification to expand it, praying she’d see the word EXERCISE somewhere in the message. But there was nothing other than those two words—words that suddenly had her heart thumping out of control.
“What’s wrong?” Katrina asked softly, clearly picking up on Talia’s distress.
“Security alert.” Grabbing the remote, she turned off the TV. “Maria, Code Blue. We need to get to the safe room in the main house. Take Beverly’s hand and don’t let go.”
It said a lot about the training security made them do on a regular basis that Maria jumped up without complaint and took Beverly’s hand, running for the back door.
“What’s going on?” Katrina asked as she hurried to keep up, frowning as Talia stopped by the kitchen pantry to grab the emergency backpack. “What does Code Blue mean?”
Ignoring the question, Talia put one hand on Maria’s shoulder and the other on Beverly’s, then moved around them to step outside and look around. Satisfied that there was no one around, she turned and brought the girls out, nudging them toward the woods that ran along the left side of the cottage. Beverly had tears on her face now, but she was still following Maria’s lead.
“Straight through the garden and into the wood line,” Talia told Maria softly. “Stay low and quiet, just like we practiced.”
Maria tightened her grip on Beverly’s hand and ran in that direction, leaning over and staying low, just like they’d been taught. Motioning for Katrina to follow, Talia headed after them.
“ What is going on?” Katrina asked yet again.
“Code Blue means that one or more armed people have gotten onto the property,” Talia finally explained, splitting her attention between the girls and the surrounding area. “Someone on the security staff must have seen them in time to send out the automatic emergency signal. It sends a text to everyone in the family and contacts the police. When I get a Code Blue text, I’m supposed to take Maria and hide in one of the designated locations until help arrives.”
By the time Talia had finished with that explanation, they’d entered the sparse collection of evergreen trees that surrounded the property. The girls were already there waiting behind a little scrubby cypress tree, Maria still holding onto her friend with one hand while knocking out a text on her phone with the other.
“I’m just letting someone know where we’re heading,” Maria said softly before putting her phone away and turning her attention back to Beverly.
Texting her parents was a good idea and Talia would have praised Maria for being so smart and level-headed in a crisis, but then she got a good look at Beverly’s tear-streaked face and knew the little girl was on the edge of losing it.
Not that Talia could blame her. As she’d learned last night, she wasn’t made for this adrenaline and excitement stuff either. The only reason she wasn’t completely losing it right this second was because of the repetitive training they did when it came to this security stuff, and the fact that Maria’s safety depended on her keeping a clear head.
“It’s okay, Beverly. You’re doing great,” she whispered, kneeling down in front of the girl and putting a comforting hand on each of her shoulders. “We’re going to stay in the trees as we move toward the back of the main house then we’ll go inside and get into the safe room. We’ll be fine once we’re there.”
Eyes wet with tears, Beverly sniffed and nodded.
Katrina kneeled down beside them. “I don’t hear anything. Maybe this is just a false alarm.”
Before Talia could say anything, gunfire sounded nearby, making all four of them jump. Stomach lurching, she urged Katrina and the girls behind the closest tree. Talia’s heart stuttered at the memory of being in the van last night as it was torn apart by bullet after bullet.
“The shooting is coming from the main house,” Katrina said, her voice shaking a little. “What do we do now? Stay here and wait for help?”
Talia thought a moment, her mind racing even as more gunfire echoed in the night. “We can’t stay here. There’s too much chance of someone stumbling over us. If we can’t get to the safe room, we’re supposed to go to an alternate location.”
“The hidden room in the barn!” Maria whisper-shouted, her voice revealing pride at remembering the backup hiding place. “And if we can’t get there, Tom told us to head through the trees to the edge of the property and to the neighbor’s house at the bottom of the hill.”
“Exactly,” Talia said, having a hard time keeping a smile off her face, even in the midst of this terrifying situation. Maria was the most amazing little girl. “Let’s head for the barn. But slow and careful. Stay right beside us, okay?”
Maria nodded then adjusted her grip on Beverly’s hand before pulling her friend deeper into the trees, Talia and Katrina following right behind them. The sound of gunshots got even louder as they moved and more than once, Talia thought she could hear bullets smacking through the tree limbs above their heads.
“I didn’t know the Rybaks had a barn,” Katrina said as she ran beside Talia, one of her hands holding onto Beverly’s.
“It’s not a barn,” Talia said. “It’s the building where the grounds crew keep all their heavy equipment, but Maria calls it a barn.”
Five minutes later, the trees began to thin out as the outline of a large building came into view, silhouetted by the lights coming from the main house. The maintenance building was a prefab metal thing with a big roll-up door and few windows. Tom had set up a safe room in the back behind a set of roll-away shelves. Once the four of them got inside there, they’d be safe until help arrived.
Talia had barely taken the first step out of the trees when she heard the thump of heavy boots pounding the ground somewhere on the far side of the shed. For half a second, she thought it might be the security guards coming to check on the safe room. But those hopes immediately faded as she realized there were too many footsteps for it to be the guards. It sounded like there were at least half a dozen. Only three guards were on duty at any one time.
“Quick, get inside the building!” she ordered, tugging on Maria’s hand as she took off across the gravel-filled area in front of the shed. She didn’t bother looking over her shoulder, only praying Katrina and Beverly were keeping up.
The door to the maintenance building was never locked for this exact reason but as she grabbed the knob, Talia felt a moment of panic at the idea that the door might not open and they’d be stuck out here in the plain sight when the bad guys came around the building and saw them.
But the knob turned and a moment later, they were inside. Once there, Talia stumbled to a halt at the maze of tractors and other lawn maintenance equipment filling the darkened interior of the shed. Still holding onto Maria’s hand, she led them around the obstacles even as the sound of deep voices reached them from right outside the door. A moment later, the knob began to rattle as it turned.
One glance at the wire shelves that hid the safe room on the far side of the building and Talia knew they’d never make it in time. Not with all the heavy equipment between here and there.
“Hide!” she whisper-shouted, nudging Katrina and Beverly in one direction while she and Maria went the other way. Maria resisted for a second—probably not wanting to be separated from her best friend—but there was no place in here large enough for all four of them to hide in at once so splitting up was the only option.
They’d barely made it around the first gigantic mower when the door jerked open and men started pouring inside, calling out to each other to find the light switches and clear the entire place. Ducking lower, Talia pulled Maria deeper into the shed, looking for someplace safe to hide— anyplace . Her search grew frantic, fearing at any second that the building’s lights would turn on and they’d all be found.
Talia’s heart was threatening to fight its way out of her chest when she saw a big boxy contraption attached to the back of one of the green tractors, held a few inches off the ground with heavy chains along the front side hanging down like a curtain. She’d seen the landscapers dragging the thing around the outer parts of the property recently and assumed it was some kind of mowing attachment. But all she cared about was the space under it. Hopefully, it’d be high enough for them to slip underneath.
“Under there,” she whispered, pointing toward the chains.
Maria didn’t even hesitate. She simply dived for the floor and started wiggling forward, parting a section of the hanging chains with surprising agility and sliding under the boxy thing like it was no big deal.
Since she was bigger than Maria, it was harder for Talia, especially when the lights suddenly turned on and all her body wanted to do was freeze like a deer in headlights. But Maria reached out and held the chains aside, motioning for Talia to hurry.
Finding courage in Maria’s eyes, Talia kept moving, sure at any second she was going to catch her back on a sharp piece of metal and tear herself wide open. It didn’t help when she finally made it under the mower and saw the collection of sharp rusty blades only inches away from her body. There was absolutely no reason they should turn on and yet the idea that they might terrified her all the same.
She had no time to get her irrational fear of being torn apart under control before a pair of boots appeared alongside the mower inches from her face. From the corner of her eye, she saw Maria quietly tapping out a text on her phone.
“Where’s the damn kid?” a deep voice demanded.
Talia immediately recognized it from the big man they’d seen on the surveillance van videos and audio feeds.
It was Keller.
The men started moving away from the mower, forcing Talia to wiggle as close to the side as she could to hear more of the conversation.
“How hard can it be to find a kid and her nanny?” Keller added. “Rybak is playing games and I need that little brat to get him in line. Now, find them! They couldn’t have gone far. Tear this place apart if you have to!”
Keller and the other man continued talking but had moved too far away for her to make out what they were saying. Part of her was relieved they were going but the stuff Keller said about tearing the place apart still had her worried. Talia didn’t think anyone would stumble over her and Maria, but what about Katrina and Beverly?
Having no answer to that question, all Talia could do was lay there under the mower and worry until another thought struck her. What the heck had Keller meant about Bogdan playing games? Weren’t they already working together?
That thought was interrupted when the lights in the building went out, plunging the space into darkness once again. It was all she could do not squeak in alarm.
A few moments later, there was a series of thuds as heavy boots moved across the concrete floor followed by the sound of the door closing. Maria immediately started wiggling out from under the mower, but Talia caught her arm. Only after a full two minutes of silence passed did she finally relent, allowing Maria to slip out. It took a little more effort for Talia to do the same. It was harder to get out from under the mower than getting in there had been.
“Head for the back of the shed,” Talia whispered as soon as they found Katrina and Beverly. “The safe room is behind the metal shelves. Once we lock ourselves in there, we’ll be okay.”
Those words had barely left her mouth when the lights turned back on, revealing Keller and three other men standing there, all of them smiling as they held their weapons casually in their hands.
“I thought you’d crawl out of your hiding place once the lights went out. Guess I was right,” Keller chuckled, turning his attention toward Maria and Beverly. “I didn’t realize the McDaniel kid would be here but I’m certainly not complaining.”
At a gesture from Keller, one of the other men stepped forward and grabbed Maria and Beverly, turning to drag them toward the door, with orders to take them back to the vehicles. Both Talia and Katrina charged forward, reaching for the girls, who were screaming in fear.
“You ladies aren’t going anywhere,” Keller said in a menacing tone as the other two men reached out to grab Talia and Katrina by the arms, holding them back easily no matter how much they struggled.
As the other man dragged Maria and Beverly out of the maintenance shed, Talia realized that Keller intended to kill her and Katrina.
“Deal with them quickly,” Keller said as he turned and headed for the door after Maria and Beverly. “Then get back up to the main house and figure out what all that shooting was about. I’m leaving now.”
The confirmation that they were about to be killed terrified Talia so much she could barely breathe. But worse than all that was the thought that Maria and Beverly were alone now just as afraid. It had been her job to keep that little girl safe, and she’d failed.