Don't Back Down, page 2
It was just after sunrise when Cameron Pope left his house, still wearing the shadow of last night’s whiskers and the clothes he wore for his daily run. He wasn’t one of those guys who needed earbuds and music blasting in his ears while he ran. Although his cell phone was zipped in an inner pocket of his windbreaker, he didn’t need to listen to motivational speakers or the news of the day. He’d been a soldier too long to be stupid enough to cut off one of the senses that had kept him alive. He was aware of every aspect of his surroundings, as was the big dog at his side.
Fog was still rising as he came down from the porch of the sprawling, single-story home he’d grown up in. The air was as still as the big white dog beside him. Where he went, Ghost went. It’s how they rolled.
A hawk took flight from a nearby tree as they started up the gravel drive, and by the time Cameron and Ghost reached the blacktop road at the end of his drive, they were running.
It was the feel of foot to earth, the blood racing through his body, the little clouds his breath made coming out of his mouth, the sting of cold air up his nostrils that reminded him to be grateful he still lived. Two tours of duty in a war-torn land and still coming back with all his limbs and senses was everything.
Ghost always ran a few yards ahead, unaware that this country did not have IEDs planted at the sides of the road. Always on the alert. Always clearing the way for his human. Their bond was deep. Unbreakable. Their faith in each other unwavering.
The road up the mountain was steep and curving and bordered on both sides by trees older than the humans who now lived on it. It was the land of the Pope and Glass and Cauley families. Their sprawling generations populated the Cumberland Mountains and the town of Jubilee in the valley below.
The blood of Cameron Pope’s Choctaw ancestors ran true in his dark eyes and black hair, but it was his Scottish great-great-great-grandfather who’d put the breadth and height in the DNA of the Popes who came after.
Cameron towered over most people, just like Pope Mountain towered over Jubilee, and his long legs carried him far and fast as he ran, chasing Ghost up the mountain, outrunning the ghosts of the war they’d left behind.
They ran up, then they ran back down and all the way home.
Cameron’s day had just begun.
Back inside the house, he fed Ghost, then headed up the hall to shower and shave. He came out dressed for the day and turned on the TV to listen to the morning newscasts as he made breakfast. Then a news bulletin interrupted the morning show, and he stopped, his focus shifting.
“We’ve just been alerted to an ongoing riot inside Abercrombie Penitentiary. Guards have been taken hostage. At least four prisoners are unaccounted for and are suspected to have escaped. The warden is in negotiations with the prisoners regarding the release of hostages.
These are scenes from within the prison moments after the riot began. It is unknown how the inmates were able to get out of their cells, so at this time, it is all supposition. We’ll keep you updated as more information comes in. Authorities are asking everyone in the vicinity of the penitentiary to lock their cars and houses and, if possible, stay inside.”
Cameron frowned. Every time somebody in this part of the state made a jailbreak, they headed for the most heavily wooded areas. Like these mountains.
He thought of his sister, Rachel, and her family who lived a couple of miles further up the mountain. He sent her a text, then plated his food and sat down to eat.
A few minutes later he got a reply.
Saw the same bulletin. Locked in.
Satisfied he’d done his brotherly duty, he finished eating, cleaned up after himself, and headed into town with Ghost riding shotgun.
The day progressed. He thought nothing more of the bulletin as he bought groceries, then swung by the hardware store for nails and caulking. There were some loose boards on the porch steps, and he needed to recaulk some windows before winter set in.
***
It was nearing midnight.
Rachel Glass was waiting for her husband, Louis, to come home from work and had fallen asleep on the sofa. She was so tired from her busy day and taking care of her lively toddler that not even the laughter and chatter from the late-night television show was penetrating her sleep.
It was the sound of footsteps on the porch that woke her.
Thinking it was Louis, she opened her eyes just as the glass in the front door shattered, scattering all over the floor. She leaped up screaming as a man burst into the room, and then everything stopped.
The man was staring at her in disbelief. Holy shit! Rachel Pope?
Rachel was in shock. Oh my God! Danny Biggers?
The last time she’d seen him, she had been in court, testifying against him for rape and assault. She grabbed the poker from the fireplace, and as she did, he jerked like he’d been slapped and came at her.
“Get out! Get out!” Rachel screamed and swung the poker at his head.
He ducked. “Can’t,” he muttered. “You got somethin’ I want.”
She screamed and swung at him again, but this time he was ready. He grabbed the poker out of her hand and threw it across the room, then doubled up his fist and hit her on the jaw so hard it knocked her off her feet. She flew backward, hitting her head on a corner of a table as she fell, and didn’t get up.
Danny Biggers frowned at the blood pooling beneath her head, unable to believe this was where they’d sent him. Then he stormed through the house until he found the nursery and the little girl asleep in her bed. There was a moment when he second-guessed his actions, but then he thought of the money she was worth and shrugged it off.
“Whatever,” he muttered. He wrapped her up in the blanket she was sleeping under, and took off with her.
Three-year-old Lili Glass was tiny, but when she woke up in a stranger’s arms, she let out a shriek that brought tears to Danny Biggers’ eyes.
“Son of a bitch!” he shouted, and all but threw her into the front seat of his car, buckling her in as she was still shrieking for her mama.
He handed her a bottle of milk, thinking that would silence her.
Still shrieking, she threw it at the floor.
Cursing, Danny backed up, then spun out on the grass as he drove away.
***
Louis Glass worked the closing shift at Trapper’s Bar and Grill on Main Street in Jubilee. He was tired and cold as he left town and headed up the mountain toward home. All he could think of was a hot shower and crawling into bed beside Rachel.
When he turned off the road onto their driveway and saw a couple of lights still on, he smiled. Rachel was waiting up for him again. But when he pulled up and parked, he saw the front door standing open. Panic hit, and then he was out of the car and running into the house, calling Rachel’s name. She was lying on the floor between the fireplace and the sofa, with blood pooling beneath her head.
His heart stopped as he dropped to his knees beside her, desperately feeling for a pulse. The moment he realized she was alive, he rocked back on his heels with relief. He was reaching for his phone when it hit him.
The baby!
He ran down the hall to her room, turning on lights as he went. The little bed was empty. Lili was gone!
“Oh God, oh God, oh God!” he cried and grabbed his phone, his hands shaking so hard he could barely hold it, and made the call to 911.
“911. What is your emergency?”
“This is Louis Glass, at 33972 Winding Road on Pope Mountain. I just came home from work and found the front door open and my wife on the floor. She’s unconscious and bleeding from a head wound and our three-year-old daughter is missing. Help me! Please help me!”
He could hear the 911 operator dispatching an ambulance and relaying the same message to the county sheriff as he was running back to Rachel.
“Mr. Glass, is your wife still breathing?” the operator asked.
Louis dropped to his knees and felt again for a pulse. “Yes, but I’m afraid to move her,” he said, and jumped up and ran to get a wet cloth.
“Okay, just stay on the line with me,” the operator said.
Louis ran back to Rachel, put the phone on speaker as he laid it aside, and began gently wiping her face. He could hear the 911 operator dispatching services, but Rachel was his total focus.
“Rachel, baby…wake up! It’s me, Louis. Can you hear me? Wake up, love. I can’t do this world without you.”
He was still wiping the cold cloth on her face and neck when he heard her groan, and then her eyelids fluttered and she opened her eyes.
There was a moment of confusion when Rachel saw Louis’s face above her, and then his frantic expression registered along with the pain in her head, and she remembered. “Louis! He broke into the house!”
Louis groaned. “Don’t move, sweetheart. You’re hurt.”
Rachel started sobbing. “He said I had something he wanted.” And then it hit her. “Is Lili okay?”
“She’s gone, Rachel. Who took her? Who broke in?”
Rachel was sobbing. “Danny Biggers. It was Danny. I fought him, but then he hit me.”
The shock of hearing that name again—after all this time.
“I thought he was still in prison,” Louis muttered, and then he began hearing sirens.
Sound carried in the mountains. It would be a bit before they got here, but at least he could hear them now. He picked up the phone. The dispatcher was still talking when he disconnected the line to 911 and called his father.
***
Marcus Glass was a big man. A strong, youthful-looking man in his midfifties. He’d been a widower going on three years now and still hadn’t gotten used to sleeping alone, which was why he was dawdling about the house and folding laundry to keep from having to go to bed.
He frowned when his cell phone began to ring. A call at this time of night was never good news, and then he noticed it was his son, Louis.
“Hello, Son. You’re up late,” Marcus said.
“Dad! Rachel was attacked and Lili is missing. She said it was Danny Biggers. I don’t know which way he went when he left with her, but we need help. The police and ambulance are on the way, but they’re not going to start searching until they’ve talked to us. Call our people. Tell everyone on the mountain to be on the lookout. I don’t know how long he’s been gone, but not long because the front door was open but the house isn’t cold inside. Rachel’s head is bleeding and there’s a big bruise on her jaw.”
Marcus was in shock. “Lili’s gone? He hurt Rachel? What the hell? I thought he was in prison!”
“So did we. Whatever Biggers’s plans are, he’ll be up to no good. And if he’s on the run, he won’t go back through Jubilee. He’ll disappear in the mountains.”
Marcus heard the panic in his son’s voice. “Hold the faith, Son. I’m calling people now. If there’s a strange car on the mountain this time of night, we’ll find it.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Louis said.
The line went dead.
***
The law came up Louis and Rachel’s driveway with sirens screaming and lights flashing and an ambulance right behind it. Officers and EMTs spilled out into their yard and came swarming into the house.
While the EMTs were treating Rachel, Rance Woodley, the county sheriff, did exactly what Louis feared he would do and wasted precious time grilling both parents, even as they kept telling him they knew who took Lili, demanded to know why they hadn’t been notified Biggers was one of the escapees from the prison riot earlier in the day, and begged the police to go after him.
It was a nightmare of confusion, and then they caught a break.
***
John Cauley, Rachel’s uncle, lived near the peak of the mountain, and when he got the call from Marcus about what had happened, he flew out of bed, dressing in haste as his wife, Annie, scrambled to get his rifle and ammunition, handing it off to him on the way out the door.
He took off in his old Land Rover and headed for the main road. As soon as he reached the blacktop, he started down the mountain, thinking Biggers would not have had time to get up this far this fast and hoping maybe he’d meet up with him on the way. But he saw nothing, and his worry grew.
And then a few miles down he drove up on an abandoned car with two doors standing open.
John grabbed a flashlight as he got out and then looked inside the car. The first thing he saw was a Styrofoam cup with droplets of milk still in the bottom. Then a baby bottle half-full of milk on the floorboard and a pile of uneaten cookies in the passenger seat. After a quick search around the car, he saw tracks in the ditch leading into the woods and followed them, then found a scrap of blanket caught on brush and more tracks in the forest leading up the mountain. It had to be Biggers!
John’s heart was racing as he ran back to the road. His hands were shaking as he pulled out his phone, praying he’d get a signal strong enough to make a call.
***
Rachel was holding an ice pack against her forehead. Her eyes were swollen from crying, her head was still bleeding, and she was shaking so hard she could barely speak when her phone suddenly rang.
The sheriff jumped up, shouting. “Put it on speaker. If it’s the kidnapper demanding ransom, we’ll—”
Louis turned, shouting in anger over the sheriff’s orders. “Ransom? Have none of you heard a word we said? You just told us Danny Biggers broke out of prison. We should have been notified! It’s your fault we were unprepared! Biggers knows we don’t have money. He’s on the run, not hanging around waiting for ransom. He already got what he came for.”
Rachel took a deep breath and then screamed, “Stop shouting! All of you!” Then she answered the call and put it on speaker. “Hello?”
“Rachel, honey, this is Uncle John. I found an abandoned car on the road about four miles up from your place. There’s a baby bottle with milk in it and a pile of uneaten cookies in the passenger seat. I also found tracks and a piece of blanket caught on some bushes. He took to the woods, sugar. I’ll let the other searchers know.”
“Oh my God, oh my God… Thank you, Uncle John.”
“You rest easy, darlin’. We’ll find Lili and the bastard who took her.”
Rachel was sobbing. “Thank you, Uncle John, thank you.”
Woodley stared in disbelief. Let the searchers know?
“What searchers?” he shouted.
Louis snapped, “Our family. Our friends. I called them while I was waiting for you people to even show. They’ve been looking for a stranger’s car for the better part of thirty minutes now, while you’ve been here arguing with us.”
“Son of a bitch,” Woodley muttered. “Amateurs on the mountain at night. God knows what will happen now.”
At that point, Louis lost it and pointed at the front door.
“Nobody up here is an amateur at anything to do with hunting or tracking. Between them and their dogs, if Biggers is still in the woods, they will find him. If you’re interested in helping, then get the hell out of my house and go do it!”
Woodley’s face turned red as he began issuing orders to his men. Within moments they were exiting the premises and heading up the mountain to catch up with the search party.
But the searchers were already on the mountain with guns and dogs when they got the update from John Cauley. They came out of the trees and crossed the road to the other side and began looking for signs, while Louis went out to his shop, got a piece of plywood, and came back and nailed it over the broken window on their front door.
Chapter 2
Cameron Pope was dreaming of an angel. Reliving the moment in the hotel lobby when he’d first seen her.
She smiled at him and that was all it took. He’d never believed in love at first sight, but it felt like he knew her—had always known her. Through a thousand lifetimes she’d been his.
Now it was his last night on American soil before shipping out for a second tour in Iraq, and all he could think was This can’t be happening. It had taken so long to find her, and tomorrow he’d be gone.
One of them moved first. He still didn’t remember if it was him or her, but they were suddenly face-to-face and she was looking at his fatigues and the duffel bag on his shoulder, and a strange look came over her.
What happened next was the stuff miracles were made of.
He could still remember how they fit, body to body, and the tears in her eyes as she came apart in his arms.
And then his phone rang, yanking him from the dream. The scent of her perfume was nothing but a memory as he rolled over in bed. He heard Ghost leap to his feet and the click of toenails on the cold pine floor as he came into the room.
Cameron groaned as the phone continued to ring. “I hear it,” he said, patting the head of his huge German shepherd as he turned on the lamp.
But then he saw his sister’s name pop up on caller ID and frowned. This time of night? It couldn’t be good. When he answered and heard her sobbing, his heart stopped.
“Rachel? Honey? What’s wrong?”
“Danny Biggers was one of the men who escaped from Abercrombie! He broke into our house tonight before Louis got home and took Lili. We called the sheriff. Louis called his dad. Our people are on the mountain with the hounds. You know Danny. He knows the mountains. The law will never find him on their own. Uncle John just found an abandoned car about halfway up the mountain. Biggers is in the woods with my baby.”
Cameron was already out of bed and getting dressed.
“Did Biggers say anything to you?” Cameron asked.
Rachel hiccupped on a sob. “It was weird. When he first saw me, he was shocked. Like he hadn’t expected to see me, and then we fought. He knocked me out. Louis came home from work and found me on the floor and the baby gone. Find my baby, Cameron. You and Ghost. Please find my baby. Louis put the little shirt Lili wore yesterday in our mailbox for you. You’ll need it for Ghost.”
