CHAPTER 19
Lee had crept closer and closer to the edge while Leatherneck baited Godric.
"Well, if ya ain't seen my dog, have you seen my chicken?"
"Your chicken?"
"Yeah, my chicken."
At this Godric looked good and frustrated at the apparent dumb hunter who had blundered his way into the scene. In fact, Godric actually took a step forward towards Leatherneck. In a split second Lee took in the location of the gun which Godric had hidden against his side. The opposite side from Amanda.
In a heartbeat, Lee reacted.
Like a lion going in for the kill, every muscle reacted accordingly with the rush of adrenaline. Lee leaped from his crouched position and sailed through the air with deadly accuracy.
His body connected against the back of Godric and sent the man tumbling to the ground beneath him while Amanda pushed away to the side.
Leatherneck reacted by grabbing Amanda and pulling away from the scene.
Billy and Francine rushed in towards where Godric had now rolled over and was attempting to aim for Lee's face with the gun in his hand.
Lee's reactions were far quicker and whacked Godric's hand that held the gun, sending it sailing through the air.
That's when all of Lee's rage kicked and he began to pummel Godric in the face. All of the bottled up emotions that Lee had harbored for Amanda's kidnapper bubbled to the surface like hot magma that had been corked up for far too long and now that the cork had been popped off, it burst out with a force equal to an atom bomb.
Godric wouldn't have stood a chance except for the fact that Billy managed to pull the angry agent off of. Godric would have used the opportunity to flee except for the fact that Francine had her gun trained on him.
"You make one more move and I'll kill you before you take your next breath," she snarled at him.
While Billy held Lee back, Francine kicked Godric in the side and told him to roll over. Then, using no gentleness at all, she whipped his hands behind his back and cuffed him.
"Now get up you son of a bitch," she ordered.
Godric slowly moved to a kneeling position and Francine, having no patience for him, hauled him up by his coat collar.
"Now, what do you say about a nice long stay at deluxe accommodations?" she said with a sarcastic smile.
Lee almost moved out of Billy's tight grasp but Billy harshly spoke.
"I want him in lock-up, alive Scarecrow."
"You're lucky, you know that?" Lee shouted at the man. "If I'd had my way you be a dead bastard by now. You hear me? Dead!"
Lee shrugged Billy off and moved to where Leatherneck was seated by Amanda.
It was not the reunion scene that Lee would have pictured. The reality of what he was seeing stopped him dead in his tracks.
She was kneeling on the ground, cowering with fear. Her dark eyes were like obsidian mirrors that revealed nothing more than stark terror. There was a bruise mark on one side of her cheek. Her hair, damp from the snowfall, hung limply down her much too thin face. Her lower lip was quivering and she reminded Lee very much of a frightened caged animal.
"Amanda," he whispered her name, wanting nothing more than to comfort her and to reassure her that everything was going to be all right.
The only response he received was a dark and haunted look that held no recognition, no acknowledgment of him.
And in that moment, Lee's heart shattered into a million splintered pieces. For in that moment he realized that Amanda wasn't any nearer to coming back to him than she had been an hour ago.
