Don't Back Down, page 4
Kelly opened the back doors. Fagan climbed in, and Billy took Lili from Cameron’s arms and passed her off to Fagan.
“Jesus, Cameron. You guys pulled off a small miracle here tonight finding her so fast,” Fagan said, then realized the little girl wasn’t just sleeping. “What happened to her? She’s unconscious! Has she been injured?”
“Biggers drugged her. I don’t know what with. Her breathing is shallow, and she was hypothermic when I got to her. She’s not allergic to anything we know of, and her parents will be waiting for you in the ER when you arrive. That’s all I know,” Cameron said.
He watched Billy Jackson climb inside. His last glimpse of Lili was Fagan putting a stethoscope on Lili’s chest and Billy buckling her onto the gurney. And then B. J. Kelly closed the back doors and climbed up into the cab, turned the ambulance around, then gunned it back down the mountain as loud and fast as they had arrived.
Cameron could still see taillights when the second ambulance appeared on the way up to get Biggers. As soon as it passed him, he dropped to his knees and put his arms around Ghost’s neck.
“You did it, Ghost! You found Lili. You are such a good boy.”
Ghost whined and licked Cameron’s chin. When Cameron stood, the dog moved a few steps ahead to lead the way until they reached where he’d parked.
A county officer was standing guard at Biggers’s vehicle.
“Waiting for a tow?” Cameron asked.
The officer nodded. “Yes. Taking it in to the forensics lab. Good job finding the kid.”
“Team effort,” Cameron said, then opened the passenger door to his Jeep. Ghost jumped in, settling in his spot as Cameron closed the door and circled the vehicle to get in.
The relief of sitting down, and knowing they had accomplished what they set out to do, was huge. It felt like he’d lived a lifetime from Rachel’s phone call to handing Lili over to the EMTs, but when he glanced at the time, he was shocked. Less than four hours had passed. It would be dawn soon. He shuddered, thinking what might have happened but for Ghost.
He laid a hand on the big dog’s head.
Ghost looked up at him and then began licking his paws.
Cameron sighed. He wanted to go straight to Jubilee, but his face was burning from the cuts and scratches of running through the woods, and he needed to get Ghost home. He passed the mailbox where Rachel had left her baby’s shirt, then another two miles down before turning up his drive.
Seeing the porch light still burning and the lights he’d left on was the only welcome he was going to get. There was no one waiting for him except the angel in his dreams.
Ghost sat up in the seat as Cameron pulled up beneath the carport. “Hey, buddy, we’re home,” he said.
He opened the door and got out, expecting Ghost to leap across the seats and follow, but instead he just sat, whining.
Cameron frowned and then circled the Jeep and opened the other door. Ghost still hadn’t moved, and then Cameron saw all the blood on the seat and the floor, and dark stains on the white hair on one of Ghost’s front paws.
“Aw, man…what did you do?” he muttered, then slid his arms beneath his dog, lifted him out and carried him into the house through the side door, and laid him on the kitchen floor.
It didn’t take long to find the deep cut on the paw pad. Cameron ran back to the Jeep to get his backpack and rifle, then knelt beside Ghost and pulled out the first aid kit. After sluicing the cut with water to remove debris, he applied antiseptic cream.
Ghost yelped once, then continued to state his objections with soft, intermittent whines until Cameron began wrapping the injured paw with gauze.
When he finished, Ghost tried to lick it again, but Cameron put his hand over the bandage. “No, Ghost. No licking.”
The dog looked up. Cameron cupped Ghost’s jaw, gazing down into the deep black eyes of the animal before him, and then leaned down—foreheads touching.
“Thank you for your sacrifice, buddy. You ran hurt. You didn’t stop because of what I asked of you. You have more courage than most men I know. No chewing your bandage off, okay? Now let’s get you some food and water.”
He carried Ghost to his food and water bowl, then went to clean up the mess he’d left on the kitchen floor while Ghost ate. Cameron knew he’d gotten scratched, but he had no idea it was so bad until he saw himself in a mirror. It looked like he’d gone four rounds with a bobcat and lost the fight. Still, there was nothing to be done but wash up and apply antiseptic. He would heal. He wasn’t as certain about Lili.
Anxious to get to Jubilee, he stripped, washed his face and hands, applied antiseptic to the scratches that made them burn like hell, then quickly dressed in clean clothes before going back to check on Ghost.
The big dog had finished his food and had found his way to his bed by the fireplace, near the warmth from dying embers. But to Cameron’s dismay, the bandage he’d put on Ghost was blood-soaked. The cut was worse than he’d thought. He couldn’t leave him like this. He had to get him to the vet.
“Okay, buddy, this isn’t good. I’ve gotta go check on Lili and then you’re going to see Sam. You like Sam, remember?”
Cameron ran out to the Jeep, pulled an old blanket off the back floorboard, grabbed a handful of wet wipes to clean up all the blood, then put the blanket down in the front seat and ran back inside.
Ghost whined again when Cameron carried him out to the Jeep. Then Cameron went back to get his coat and locked the door behind him as he left.
Night was already fading, giving hints to the arrival of another day as Cameron passed the city limits of Jubilee. Streetlights were still burning. Delivery vans were already making rounds.
On a good day, Cameron would be running errands and checking on family who had their own shops here. But not this morning. The charm of the mountain village that had become a thriving tourist destination was lost on him today. The only things on his mind were Lili and Ghost.
Chapter 3
It was just after midnight and Ray Caldwell was in the penthouse of the Serenity Inn, the twenty-story hotel he owned in Jubilee. He was still awake when he began hearing sirens. He got up from his desk and moved to the windows overlooking the town below. When he saw a parade of flashing lights heading up the mountain, he turned away. What happened up there did not concern him.
About an hour later, he crawled into bed beside his wife, Patricia. Careful not to wake her, he soon fell asleep, only to be awakened in the early hours of the morning by more sirens going up the mountain. He pounded his pillow and turned over, thinking some meth head had probably blown up his lab.
Still mentally cursing the noise, Ray settled in and closed his eyes. He’d just gone back to sleep when he began hearing sirens again—but this time coming into Jubilee.
His twenty-four-year-old daughter, Liz, was asleep in her suite down the hall when the sounds of sirens reawakened her, too. “What the hell is going on?” she muttered, and rolled over onto her back. Sirens had been sounding on and off all night.
She glanced at the time and groaned, but when the sirens kept getting louder and louder, it dawned on her that they were coming down from Pope Mountain. Her heart skipped a beat, and then she was flinging aside her covers and running to the windows.
Cameron Pope lived up there—along with a whole host of other people he was kin to. It didn’t have to mean it had anything to do with him. And he didn’t know she existed. But that didn’t mean he was no longer on her radar. Liz Caldwell had never wanted for anything that money could buy—except Cameron Pope. She’d tried flirting once. He’d never even noticed her. But it didn’t stop her fantasizing about taking him to bed.
She watched the ambulance lights flashing red and blue as the emergency vehicles and police cars wound their way through the streets, and then they disappeared. Moments later, the sirens went silent. The ambulance must be at the hospital.
She fidgeted, wishing she knew what was going on, and then shrugged it off, crawled back into her warm bed, and closed her eyes.
***
Across town, Marshall Devon had been experiencing a similar night. He’d been hosting some of his investors in the penthouse of Hotel Devon when the first sirens sounded. Several of his guests went to the windows to look down into the town, wondering if something was on fire or if there had been a wreck. But when they saw the flashing lights driving through Jubilee and going up the mountain, Marsh commented.
“Likely some hillbilly blew up a still or a meth lab,” he said, which elicited a roar of laughter from his big-city friends, and the party went on.
Much later, when everyone retired to their rooms to spend what was left of the night, they were too out of it to hear the second and third round of sirens.
***
Cameron was sick with worry by the time he pulled into the hospital parking lot. He recognized nearly a dozen vehicles, most of which belonged to family members. He parked near the ER entrance, then glanced down at Ghost. The dog was panting and whimpering, his tongue lolling to one side. It was a sure sign of the dog’s pain and anxiety, and he hated that he was suffering.
“Stay, Ghost! I’ll be right back. I just need to check on Lili before we get Sam out of bed, okay?”
Then he got out, locked the door, and ran inside, searching the faces in the lobby as he stopped at the desk. “Lili Glass. Where did they take her?” he asked.
The clerk looked up, recognized him as more of the family, and pointed. “Through the double doors, Cameron. At the end of the hall.”
Still moving in haste, Cameron pushed the doors inward. He saw B. J. Kelly at the nurses’ desk signing paperwork, and Fagan and Billy carrying fresh supplies to their ambulance. And then he saw the family, filling the entire north end of the corridor. All of them standing in total silence, watching the closed door to Room 7.
They turned en masse at the sound of Cameron’s footsteps, then engulfed him with hugs, quick pats on the back, and whispered murmurs of “God bless you.”
Cameron went straight to Marcus.
“How is she?” Cameron asked.
“We don’t know. Rachel and Louis are in with the doctor,” Marcus said.
“You’re more patient that I am,” Cameron muttered. He pushed past the crowd and slipped inside.
The sight of Lili’s tiny body lying motionless beneath the covers and hooked up to all manner of machines and IVs was overwhelming. He stopped, in shock at the sight.
The doctor was still talking when Rachel heard the door open behind her. She turned, her eyes widening when she saw Cameron, but she said nothing.
Cameron saw the bandage on the side of Rachel’s head and the darkening bruise on her jaw, and for a moment, he was sorry he’d let Danny Biggers live, but then he made himself focus on what the doctor was saying.
“Breathing is better. Blood pressure is stronger, but we’re going to have to watch for other side effects. We’ll know more in the next twenty-four hours,” he said, and then noticed Cameron was in the room. “I’m sorry. And you are?”
Rachel answered for him. “Dr. Leeds, this is my brother, Cameron Pope. He’s the one who found Lili.”
“Good job, Mr. Pope,” the doctor said. “You saved her life. Another hour and we’d be having an entirely different discussion here.”
“Ghost did it,” Cameron said.
Leeds was taken aback by the comment, and it showed. “A ghost?”
Cameron shook his head. “No, a dog. His name is Ghost. He was a bomb-sniffing dog in Iraq. He saved my ass more than once there. We came home together.”
“You both did it,” Louis said. “We’ll never be able to thank you enough,” and he gave Cameron’s shoulder a quick squeeze.
The doctor eyed Cameron’s face. “I’d say your face needs some attention, too. What happened?”
“It’s just scratches from running through the woods in the dark. I’ll heal. Is Lili going to intensive care?”
“Yes, for now,” the doctor said.
Cameron frowned. “What about Rachel? Does she have a concussion?”
“A slight one,” Dr. Leeds said.
Cameron eyes narrowed angrily as he turned to Rachel and Louis. “The sorry son of a bitch. This didn’t have to happen. I want to know why you and Louis weren’t notified he had escaped.”
“I’ve already had that same discussion with local authorities,” Louis said.
When Rachel moved back to Lili’s bedside, Cameron followed.
“Rachel, honey, now that I know Lili’s in good hands and is going to recover, I won’t stay. I need to get Ghost to the vet. He has a bad cut on his right front paw. I don’t know when it happened but he never slowed down and never quit running. I didn’t even know about it until I got him home and saw blood in the car seat and on the floorboard.”
“Oh no! I’m so sorry,” Rachel said. “That dog is amazing. He loves you so much, he’ll do anything for you.”
“Works both ways,” Cameron said, and gave her a quick hug. “Give Lili my love. Tell her Uncle Cam says as soon as she’s all better, he’ll bring her cookies.”
Rachel smiled through tears. “You two and your cookies. I’ll tell her. And just so you know, Louis and I owe you forever.”
“You owe me nothing. Call me to keep me updated on Lili, and go easy on yourself for a few days, too.”
“I will. Now go see to Ghost. Between Louis and me, we have all kinds of extra help at our disposal.”
Cameron passed the doctor on his way out of the room, but the moment he emerged, he was inundated again by the waiting family.
“The doctor says her prognosis is good. They are giving her something intravenously to offset the drugs Biggers gave her. She’s going to the ICU out of caution. That’s all I know. They’ll be out soon and you can talk to them yourselves,” he said, then walked back up the hall and disappeared through the double doors.
Still concerned about Ghost, he ran back to the Jeep, but he needn’t have worried. Ghost was curled up in the passenger seat, and the bandage was still seeping fresh blood.
“Good boy,” Cameron said as he slid in behind the steering wheel. “Now to get Sam out of bed.”
He glanced at the time. It was just after 6:00 a.m. as he pulled up the vet’s number and made the call, hoping Sam was not out on an emergency somewhere.
The call rang several times, and just when he thought it was going to voicemail, Sam Carson answered. “Hello. This is Sam.”
“Sam, this is Cameron Pope. I hope I didn’t get you out of bed, but Ghost is hurt and I’m in Jubilee. Can I bring him to the office?”
“Yes, of course. I was in the shower. What happened?”
“He’s got a bad cut on his paw. It’s a long story.”
“Give me fifteen minutes. I should be at the office by then.”
“Thanks, Sam. I really appreciate this,” Cameron said, and hung up. Then he started the engine and drove away.
It took ten minutes to get across town to the vet’s office. He was just pulling up in the parking lot when the lights began coming on in the office, and then Sam was standing in the front door, holding it open.
Cameron breathed a sigh of relief. Sam would know what to do.
“We’re here, boy. I know you hurt, but Sam will make it better.”
***
Sam Carson knew nothing about the kidnapping or the terror that had been on the mountain in the early hours of the morning. But when Cameron said it was a long story, he guessed something serious had happened.
He called Leslie Morgan, his vet tech, told her they had an emergency coming in and to meet him at the office, then quickly dressed and left his house on the run. He crossed the parking lot between his house and the clinic, unlocked the back door, and went inside, locking it behind him and turning on lights and turning up the heat as he went.
A few minutes later, he saw headlights through the front windows as they swept across the back wall. That would likely be Cameron. Leslie lived on the other side of Jubilee and it would take longer for her to arrive.
Sam went to the front door just as Cameron got out and circled the Jeep.
“Need help?” Sam called out.
“No, I’ve got him,” Cameron said, and came toward the office carrying Ghost like a baby.
“First room on the left,” Sam said, pointing across the lobby, then followed Cameron into the exam room.
Cameron laid Ghost on the table as Sam entered. Ghost wagged his tail when he saw Sam, but Sam was focused on the blood-soaked bandage on Ghost’s right front paw.
“I washed it out as best I could and wrapped it so he wouldn’t lick it, but the cut is deep and won’t stop bleeding. I don’t know how long he ran on that cut, but he never slowed down,” Cameron said.
“Your face doesn’t look so hot, either,” Sam said as he approached the exam table. “Hey, Ghost. I need to look at your paw, okay? Let’s get this gauze off.”
Ghost whined.
Cameron put his hand on Ghost’s shoulder. “Stay, Ghost. You’re okay. I’m here.”
Sam frowned. “What the hell were you two doing?”
“Chasing a kidnapper up Pope Mountain.”
Sam gasped. “What? Who got kidnapped, and how did you wind up in all that?”
“Remember Danny Biggers?” Cameron asked.
Sam paused, looking up in shock. “You mean the man who… Uh, your sister’s attacker?”
“Yes. He was one of the inmates who broke out of Abercrombie. He attacked Rachel in the middle of the night and took Lili. Louis came home from work a few minutes later, found Rachel unconscious on the floor and Lili gone. They called the sheriff, and then they called the family, and every able man on the mountain came running with their dogs, including me and Ghost. I don’t know when Ghost got hurt, but he never stopped running. He found Biggers with Lili, and by the time I caught up, Ghost had him begging for mercy.”
