Silent Run(96)

For a moment everyone froze. Then they all moved at once.

Victor let go of Caitlyn to grab for the gun.

As Caitlyn fell to the floor, Sarah ran to her, sweeping her up in her arms.

Jake kicked the gun farther away from Victor and tackled him. But Victor had at least forty pounds on Jake.

Sarah wanted to help, but she needed to protect Caitlyn first. Jake would want her to run. And that was what she would do. She turned toward the door, then gasped in horror when she realized the door was blocked.

There was another man facing her now—another gun pointing straight at her head. And on the man’s wrist was the tattoo of a tiger. Rick, another Harvard boy gone bad.

Casting a quick look over her shoulder, Sarah saw Victor shove Jake against the far wall. Jake’s head bounced against it so hard a picture frame came crashing down. Jake fell to the floor while Victor staggered to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth and nose, fury in his eyes.

Jake looked like he’d blacked out, Sarah thought as she saw his eyes flutter closed. It was over. There was no way she could escape now. They were going to die.

“Should I shoot her?” Rick asked.

“No, I want the pleasure,” Victor answered, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. There was an evil light in his eyes as he looked at her. “First your baby, then you.”

“You just got out of prison,” she argued desperately. “You have your life back. If you kill me they’ll track you down. You’ll go back to jail.”

Victor shook his head. “No one will ever know it was me. They’ll think it was him. Everyone knows you were running from someone—who better than your ex-lover? Time to say good-bye, Jessica.”

Sarah couldn’t say a word. Fear paralyzed her throat. There was not a damn thing she could do to stop him. Or was there?

She pressed Caitlyn’s tiny head against her breast. “She’s just a child. She’s innocent. Let me put her down, and then you can kill me. Please, Victor. I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t kill my baby.” She knew her pleas were falling on deaf ears, but she had to try. If Victor had one ounce of humanity in him, he’d let Caitlyn go. But as she looked into his eyes, she knew that whatever humanity he’d had was long gone.

“She has your blood, the blood of my enemy.” Victor bent down to pick up the gun that had slid halfway under the bed.

She turned back toward Rick, hoping to find some compassion in his eyes, but they were ice-cold. The man had no heart, no soul. He’d spent just as many years in prison as Victor had. There was no way he would let her go. He would have killed her already if Victor hadn’t said he wanted to do it himself. “She’s just a baby,” she said helplessly.

Caitlyn began to cry again, obviously sensing Sarah’s growing panic.

And then the unthinkable happened. Dylan came out of nowhere, ramming Rick from behind, sending the large man sprawling across the room, colliding with Victor. The two men got tangled up together.

The gun skittered out of Rick’s hand, hitting Jake in the side of the leg.

Jake’s eyes flew open, and he scrambled to his feet.

As Dylan went after Rick, Jake rushed Victor again.

With the doorway free and clear, Sarah ran from the room. She had to get Caitlyn to safety. To her shock Catherine was running up the stairs, determination in her eyes, a baseball bat in her hands.

“Take Caitlyn. Give me the bat,” Sarah said.

“No way. She needs you, Jessica. You’re her mother. Now get the hell out of here.”

Catherine charged into the bedroom like a female warrior.

Sarah heard a thud, then a boom as a gun went off.

God, she prayed the bullet hadn’t hit Jake or Dylan or Catherine. She covered Caitlyn’s ear with her hand and raced toward the stairs. As much as she wanted to help, her first priority had to be Caitlyn. She had just reached the bottom of the stairs when her name was called.

“Sarah.”

Her heart came to a thudding stop.

Jake stood at the top of the stairs. His face was bloodied and bruised, but his eyes were triumphant. “Victor is dead.”

“What about—”

“Knocked out,” Dylan said, dragging Catherine toward the stairs. “Thanks to our leadoff hitter here. Someone call nine-one-one. I want to make sure that guy doesn’t wake up.” Dylan headed back toward the bedroom as Catherine dashed down the stairs past Sarah, heading for the phone in the living room.

Jake walked down the stairs, his gaze never leaving his daughter. Caitlyn was still crying, her face buried against Sarah’s breast.

Jake looked like there were a million things he wanted to say, but no words crossed his lips. His hand came to rest gently on Caitlyn’s back. He closed his eyes as if he couldn’t believe he was touching his child again.