Chapter 16
Sixteen
Waking from a dead sleep well before sunrise felt like trying to swim through concrete. It was only to stop Mackenzie shaking his shoulder that Gideon opened both eyes, more out of self-defense than wakefulness.
“That really hurts, Zee,” he said with a grunt.
“Sorry, but you’re sleeping like the dead and we need to go.”
He couldn’t be 100 percent certain he wasn’t actually dying.
His whole body was one throbbing nerve ending, and his head pounded like a timpani drum.
Nonetheless, he extricated himself from the sofa, made it cautiously to his feet, and drank more coffee that someone had prepared as he tried to absorb the details revealed the previous night.
Cordelia appeared. She’d pulled her hair into a long dark braid, and she was dressed in the same clothes, a radio clipped to her belt.
“It’s all set. We’ll ride most of the way until I drop off the horses to a lady I know who will evacuate them.
The last quarter mile will be on foot, but Jake will pick us up if he can. ”
“Jake, the pilot?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re positive you can trust him?”
“He’s sticking his neck out to help me.”
Gideon looked over the top of his coffee cup at her. “And why would he do that?”
“He owes me.”
“How?”
Cordelia shook her head. “Do you ever run out of questions?”
“I’m just getting warmed up.” He had a ton more. Facts he’d like confirmed. Motives he didn’t understand. And there was still something niggling deep in the recesses of his brain that he couldn’t put his finger on. Getting answers from her was akin to extracting teeth.
Cordelia heaved out a breath. “Jake and his wife, Willa, live on the ranch next to my stables. A couple months ago, Willa was out riding and her horse got spooked. It took off like a thunderbolt. I was setting out on a trail ride, so I intervened before she got carried into a real treacherous area or thrown. Jake says I saved her life, and he’s old-school about loyalty.
Once he flies us out, his debt is settled. ”
“A man who loves his wife,” Gideon said.
Cordelia sighed. “He adores her.”
There was a wistfulness in her tone that spoke of the love she’d lost. This part, at least, he believed was the truth. She’d loved Aaron and she mourned him. On that point, they could all three relate. They’d lost a best friend, a brother, a fiancé.
They took turns in the minuscule bathroom, and the mirror confirmed he looked as bad as he felt.
The scruff on his chin was not his style, and he longed for a shave.
Cuts and scrapes dotted his face, neck, and hands.
He suspected the wound from the bullet might need stitches, and that was only the beginning of a long list of damage.
A splash of frigid water infused some energy back into him but didn’t stop the myriad aches.
Get yourself together. Head on a swivel. These last few miles might be the most dangerous of all. The threat hadn’t diminished, and they were now depending on yet more strangers to enact their escape—strangers who could be bought for a price.
Cordelia provided them each a handful of cookies. “Sorry, I don’t have anything else right now.”
“This is just fine.” Oatmeal raisin wasn’t his favorite, but it tasted so amazing he might have to change his opinion. He and Mackenzie gobbled their cookies and washed them down with coffee.
Mackenzie zipped up her jacket. “Ready?”
Were they? Ready to sneak onto an airstrip under cover of darkness, avoiding a team of people bent on killing them, with a woman he believed was not completely forthcoming? He made sure the gun was loaded and easily accessible.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
Outside, the horses were already saddled, and he needed every atom of reserved strength to once again haul himself up behind Mackenzie. He held her around the waist as they started off through the freezing, pre-dawn air.
A novice horseman, he never would have chosen to ride in darkness with another wave of storm coming, but Cordelia led the way across some sort of trail he hadn’t even noticed. The horses seemed to know it well enough.
“I used to wait at the airstrip with the horses when Aaron would fly in. We’d sneak off to the cabin this way so no one could follow,” Cordelia said over her shoulder.
He noticed the way Mackenzie studied Cordelia.
Odd, he imagined, for her to suddenly be introduced to the woman who would have been her sister-in-law.
Had Cordelia’s presence returned Aaron to Mackenzie in some way?
After they fled, perhaps the two could somehow stay connected.
He suspected they’d find comfort in sharing stories about the man they’d both loved in different ways.
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “You okay back there?”
“Yes.” He snuggled in a little. It might be the last occasion he’d be able to hold her close. It surprised him how much he craved the connection that had only grown when they’d kissed the previous night.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, Gid. When they returned to the real world, God willing, he had a feeling she’d keep him at a distance while she again took up her mission to destroy Bullseye.
But she’d changed, hadn’t she? Begun to feel again.
He craved the chance to watch her heal. His cheek brushed her damp hair.
He’d try, he decided, to stay close to her, if she’d allow it.
His inner pessimism told him his rosy vision wasn’t going to come true.
A proud woman, she wouldn’t want a witness to the messy process of healing.
And she wasn’t going to want him around reminding her of what she’d lost. Four days ago they were enemies.
Now the thought of parting with her made him ache inside.
What is wrong with you, Gideon? His brothers would tell him he’d lost his mind, and they’d be right. Survival should be his chief and only concern at the moment.
The ride became a tedious rhythm of clopping hooves and pattering rain that continued until Cordelia finally slowed her horse. Mackenzie followed suit.
In the distance, headlights revealed a truck hitched to a horse trailer. A figure was silhouetted in the window, the tip of a cigarette glowing.
“That’s Willa,” Cordelia said. “You two stay back here out of sight. I don’t want her to have to lie if she’s ever asked about you. Jake’s kept her in the dark about transporting us. It’s better she doesn’t know.”
They watched from a distance while Cordelia and Willa loaded the horses into the trailer. After a quick hug, Willa drove away.
Cordelia called them over and they set off on foot.
The ground was muddy, but Gideon was so relieved to be off the horse, he paid it no mind.
The movement helped warm him too, and an hour later they descended along a pitched trail.
At the edge of the woods, across a stretch of flat ground, was a small hangar with metal doors thrown wide and a narrow runway lit by small red blinkers.
Behind the hangar he could make out the rotors of a helicopter inside a fenced area.
Their escape was so close he could taste it.
When they exited the woods, Cordelia’s friend Jake was waiting in a battered Ford. He nodded at them. “Willa said to tell you she made it to the highway. Glad she’s clear of this place. Let’s move it.”
He was an impossibly thin man whose tall frame seemed too big for the vehicle. They climbed in the truck and Jake took off. He didn’t say another word until they’d arrived and walked into the hangar.
“Bathroom’s there if you need it,” Jake said, pointing. “I’m wheels up in five minutes and I’ll leave you behind if you aren’t in the seats.” He turned on his heel and left through the back door.
Mackenzie hurried to the restroom while he looked around the hangar. Only one aircraft was present in the drafty space, a sleek Cessna.
Gideon’s father had flown as a younger man, taken him and his brothers once or twice. Good memories. He wandered over and skimmed his hand along the wing. “Pretty bird.”
Cordelia sniffed. “Should be. It’s Bullseye’s private jet. He’s got too much money to bother moving it out of flood range. That’s how rich he is. He can throw things away and people too.”
Blood money. The black script painted on the nose caught his attention. He read the name and his heart shuddered to a stop. He read it again.
A stylized heart sketched around one word . . . Bellamy.
His pulse slammed into overdrive. Mackenzie opened the lavatory door. He quickly jogged to her. “Change of plans. We have to get out of here. Now.”
Mackenzie stiffened. “What’s wrong?”
Cordelia was looking at him, puzzled.
“She’s been lying to us.”
“What are you talking about?” Cordelia said.
“Why don’t you tell us the part you left out?” He palmed his weapon, certain there was an ambush coming.
Cordelia shook her head. “I don’t . . .”
He pointed. “Bullseye’s plane . . . it’s called Bellamy. Your last name. There’s no such thing as coincidence, so don’t even try that one. You’re connected to him. Fess up.”
Cordelia’s shoulders slumped. “Bellamy is my mother’s name. I use it as a last name to avoid questions.”
The confirmation ratcheted his adrenaline even higher.
Mackenzie’s mouth fell open. “Are you saying Bullseye—”
“Is my father, yes,” she said.
In the silence, he heard rain start to fall, drilling the roof. He eyed the big metal door. “We go right back out, Zee. We’ll get to the woods and regroup.” How, he didn’t know, but they’d figure it out.
Cordelia shook her head. “You won’t make it.”
“Gideon.” Mackenzie stared past his shoulder. “I see lights.”
A set of headlights appeared in the distance. Immediately he hit the button on the wall and the hangar doors began to slide closed.
“Rear exit then.” The yard, where the helicopter was their only option. The fence was an obstacle, but it was climbable if Jake didn’t interfere. Who knew if the story Cordelia had told them about him was real?