Page 55 of Shine On Oklahoma

“Kendra, wait!”

For a big guy, he sure could move fast. Hewas behind her clasping her shoulders before she even made it tothe white door with the tacky metallic gold trim and a 2 stencileddead center. The owners hadn’t even sprung for the metal kind thatyou had to attach. Just paint and a stencil. The gold had bled ontothe white. She wanted to slam that ugly door off its hinges and goget her father. But Dax squeezed gently.

“Just in case someone’s in there with him,”he said soft, near her ear. “Let’s just take a peek before we gobustin’ in.”

Her hand clenched and unclenched on the gunin her pocket. Dax’s nearness couldn’t break the hold fear had onher. If Vester Caine had hurt Jack—She slid her fingertip back andforth over the safety catch. She’d never thought she had it in herto shoot someone, but now she wondered if maybe she did.

“Come on.” Moving beside her, Dax let onehand rest on her opposite hip, and crouched low as they crept tothe small window. They peered inside through the bottom edge of thebeige curtains.

Jack Kellogg was sitting up on the bed, onearm behind his head, watching TV. He had a motel issue water glasshalf-full of amber liquid in his hand and a cigar clenched in histeeth. It was fat and brown and sending a ribbon of gray smoke tothe ceiling where it became a cloud. She could smell it from whereshe was. A bottle of whiskey stood on the nightstand beside a wadof cash. Jack smiled at something on the TV while its light andshadows shifted on his face.

“That son of a—” Kendra lunged away from thewindow and pounded on the ugly door beside it. “Jack! It’s Kendra.Open up!”

There was shuffling, swearing, and then Jackopened up the door, still hopping to get his pants up over hisboxers. “Kendra! Damn I’m glad to see you.” He patted her shoulderin lieu of a hug and gave her his best fake smile, which wasn’tgood enough to fool her. “Good news, little girl. I got away.”

She punched him right in the face. His nosecracked and his body turned sideways from the force of the blow.The impact recoiled through her fisted hand and up her arm.

Jack stumbled backwards, and bent over,holding his nose with one hand. There was blood. “You better startexplaining fast, Jack or I swear to God—”

“You’re reading this all wrong, kiddo.” Thewords were muffled by his hand. He lifted his head but didn’t lookher in the eye. “I fed the two thugs chili-con-Benadryl and theywent out like lights, but when I headed out the door, there wasVester Caine himself on his way in.”

“Save the bullshit,” she said. “You broke thecode, Jack. You don’t game family.”

“Uh, yeah, your sister broke it first. Andyou helped.”

She felt her eyes widen.

“Yeah, I know you helped her pull one over onthe old man. But that’s beside the point.” He held up the arm thatwasn’t busy with his nose. The entire forearm was purple and brown.“Caine threw me into the basement, broke my freakin’ arm, I think.Scrambled my brain a little bit too.”

She wouldn’t put it past him to cause his owninjuries. She’d seen him do it before, to lend credence to a story.But maybe not this bad. His arm looked damn awful.

Dax said, “Your nose is bleeding, Jack.”

“I’m aware of that, Dax.”

Kendra stomped past her father and into thebathroom, where she cranked on the cold water and soaked a coupleof washcloths. “Keep talking.”

“Caine was gonna shoot me right there, whenhe saw his guys out cold like that. Would have, if not for you,Kendra. Your text saved my ass, made him decide to keep me aliveuntil morning.”

She came out of the bathroom while he wasstill talking, handed him an ice cold, wet cloth and he pressed itto his bleeding nose.

Dax was looking at her, a question in hiseyes.

“I texted the kidnappers that there would beproof I’d complied with their demands in the morning edition of theFree Times.”

Dax lowered his chin, aimed his eyes past hisown left shoulder, like he couldn’t look at her. Like the reminderof her deception caused him physical pain.

“I reclaimed my phone and a pocket knifeduring my first escape attempt. Idiot didn’t bother to search mebefore kicking me ass over elbow down that flight of stairs. Ididn’t remember if I’d managed to activate that phone locator appor not before I passed out. Didn’t know if it would even work.Screen was shattered. Apparently, it did.”

“And then what?”

“I passed out for a while. When I came to, Ipried out a casement window and ran for my life. Wasn’t sure ifthat newspaper text was a ruse or not, and I was pretty sure Cainewas gonna off me either way, so I got my ass outta there. Passedout in the woods before I got very far.”

“Uh-huh.” She was eying the room, thewhiskey, the cigars, the other set of keys on the nightstand. “Andyou what, went shopping while running for your life?”

“Slipped back inside when they startedsearching the woods for me. Took the keys to the only othervehicle, slashed its tires, and helped myself to some cash, whiskeyand cigars for my trouble. Took Caine’s car, too.” He sounded proudof it. “He’s gonna realize he messed with the wrong guy.”

“He’s gonna be furious. He’s not gonna letthis go, Jack.”

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