The Messenger

43

Amanda!” Tyler said, grabbing her arm to keep her from running toward the house. He moved with her to a hiding place behind a large tree. “Let’s not give them three hostages instead of one, all right?”

Reluctantly, she agreed. “Do you think it’s Evan and Daniel?”

“In all likelihood. But they must have approached on foot, which gives us an advantage.”

He took Amanda’s hand and began to cautiously move from tree to tree, until they were at a vantage point from which they would be able to see anyone leaving by either the front or the back door of Amanda’s house.

“The back door’s open,” Amanda said.

Tyler’s cell phone rang.

Daniel heard the sound of terror the woman made, which Evan apparently quickly cut off.

Daniel rushed up the stairs and found Evan struggling to hold her still. Daniel grabbed her feet. Evan took out his gun, and for an awful moment Daniel thought he might shoot her, but before Daniel could protest, Evan rapped it against her head. Her struggles ceased.

“You moron!” Daniel whispered. “You hit someone on the head, you can kill them!”

“She’s not dead, she was screeching before I even stepped into the room, and she won’t be out for long, so help me make sure she doesn’t yell her head off when she comes to-moron!”

Daniel took a closer look at the woman. “This isn’t the one!”

“What do you mean, this isn’t the one?”

“The one we want has dark hair, remember?”

The woman moaned. Her eyelids fluttered.

Evan swore bitterly. “Well, I still don’t want her screaming when she wakes up. Damn it, Adrian’s going to have my hide!”

They quickly bound and gagged her.

“Who the hell is she?” Evan asked.

Daniel spotted a purse and rifled through its contents. “Rebecca Clarke. Damn. This is Brad’s sister.”

“Maybe we can use her to get the other one down here.”

“Maybe…”

Hoping the details of a plan B might come to them, they stared in silence at the blonde, who continued to moan softly. Her eyes opened briefly-she seemed to be trying to rouse herself.

Daniel heard the sound of a cell phone somewhere outside and moved to the window. He carefully parted a curtain. “Someone’s coming!”

Tyler muted the ringing cell phone in frustration, and nearly didn’t answer the phone, but then he saw that the caller was Alex.

“Tyler-I thought I’d better let you know-Rebecca was all bent out of shape because supposedly Shade was nosing around Amanda’s house, and she asked my guard to take your dog back home-and he agreed and put it in his car and brought it here. Problem is, it wasn’t Shade. And now there are two dogs here-two Shades.”

“The second dog is up there?” He breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s fine. Its name is Wraith, I think. Can you tell them apart?”

“Well, yes, very easily. The new one-Wraith?-is a female.”

“Oh.”

“Yes,” Alex said. “She’s big for a bitch, nearly Shade’s size. They look almost identical otherwise. Rebecca apparently didn’t notice the dog’s sex.”

“Alex, listen to me carefully. This is extremely important.”

“All right…”

“Do not let that dog-or anyone from the house-come down here. Lock the gates, shut the dogs in-and don’t let anyone out, no matter what you hear down here.”

“Tyler, what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain it later. Don’t let any stranger who claims his dog is missing take Wraith. In fact, absolutely no one else enters or leaves until one of us calls you and uses the code word ‘ring’ in a sentence to let you know we’re not calling under duress, all right?”

There was silence, then Alex said, “Are you sure this is wise?”

“Alex, as of this moment, I can’t give you a more important job than making sure that those dogs do not fall into the wrong hands.”

“Someone wants to steal Shade?”

“Yes. And Wraith. So keep them there. They’ll also protect you and Ron and Brad.”

She laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence…”

“I didn’t mean it that way. Of course I’m depending on you to protect everyone there. I think the people who attacked Brad may be at Amanda’s house, so keep an eye on things for me where you are, all right?”

“Sure. Call me if you need me down there.”

He hung up and gave the phone to Amanda. “I want to rescue Rebecca, and you know I can do it-I’m able to defend myself, and they can’t really harm me. But I can’t be worrying about you, Amanda, which I would, and you’d just be-”

“In the way.”

She looked away from him, and he knew he’d hurt her. “I know you want to help, to be useful, but if anything happened to you-”

“I’ll stay here and call Alex if you aren’t out in a few minutes,” she said with a kind of determined calm. “I remember the code word.”

“This is important-if you really think I’ve been…taken out of action, ask Alex to release Shade. Run back to the house and stay there. And no police, right?”

“I understand,” she said. She hesitated, then hugged him hard and whispered, “Tyler, please be safe. I have such a bad feeling about this.”

“‘Be safe,’ huh? Not a wish I usually think of needing, but I’ll do my best.”

“Hurry-I don’t want them to hurt her. Yell if-well, if you think I can be of help.”

“I will. And if you see them taking her out by the front door as I go in the back, scream bloody murder, then run to a new hiding place.” He gave her a quick kiss and ran toward the house.

Daniel said, “It’s Hawthorne and the girl!”

“Wherever he is, that dog’s not far behind,” Evan said. “Let’s get out of here.”

They moved downstairs as quietly as possible, abandoning the blonde, and watched for a chance to leave.

“They’re moving closer!” Evan said.

“I don’t see the dog with them.”

“So what? Remember the last time? That thing disappears in the dark.”

“Hawthorne’s the one Adrian really wants,” Daniel said, “or his ring anyway. Why bother with the girl?”

As if to provide for Daniel’s plan, Hawthorne started moving closer to the house-without the girl, and with no sign of the dog.

“Fine,” said Evan, pulling out the gun again, “but I’m not taking any chances.”

“Don’t be stupid! The two of us can take him without all that noise.”

Evan ignored him.

They hid behind a large couch and watched as Hawthorne carefully peered around the back door. No sooner had Hawthorne stepped silently across the threshold than Evan fired three times in quick succession.