CHAPTER 9—THE FINAL SHOWDOWN
Donovan wasted no time. He ran back to Cody's car and slid behind the wheel. He revved the engine to life, probably stripping three gears in the process. He had no time to care, no patience to ponder. He reached across the seat and grabbed the cell phone. "Cody, keep tracking my car. Black Heart has Loralei." Without waiting for a response, he snapped the phone closed and tossed it over to the seat beside him. Black Heart was only half of his problem. There was still Kelly Bartlet to deal with, and he wondered where she would come in during this endless psychotic game. Loralei. He must get to Loralei.
* * *
Slowly, as if from a deep coma or a thick fog, Loralei regained consciousness. For a brief moment, she had forgotten what happened and where she was. When her memory began to come back, Loralei kept her body low in the seat. Slowly, she began to come around. Black Heart had choked her and thrown her into the back seat. Frank, she thought suddenly. What has she done to Frank? She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to fight away the fog. Black Heart hadn't touched him. He had to be behind them. Temptation nearly forced her to sit up and peer out the back window, but remembering who her driver was, she fight the urge. She lay still and tried not to move a muscle. She had gotten herself in this mess, and she would get herself out. Why didn't I listen to Frank, she thought. The answer was simple. She didn't listen because she loved him, and couldn't allow him to face these insane women alone. Another thought entered her mind: Kelly Bartlet. Where was the other woman? Were they meeting her somewhere. As Loralei shifted her body just the slightest bit, she focused her eyes on her shoes. She had begun to formulate a plan.
* * *
The cell phone beside Donovan rang. He grabbed the phone and flipped it open. "What do you have Cody," he demanded.
"She's heading straight for the city, Boss. Keep due north, and you won't lose her. Stay on the line, and I'll talk you right to her. Jake and Alex have been summoned, and they're on their way."
He closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "Thank you."
* * *
From her vantage point, Loralei couldn't exactly see Black Heart or what she was doing. She knew that the slightest movement would draw Black Heart's attention to her, especially if she could see her in the rearview mirror. Loralei shifted her position again and turned to her side. She kept her eyes on the rearview mirror where she could just make out Black Heart's eyes. She could have sworn there was no soul there, none at all. She brought her leg up as far as she dared. Moving was difficult in her current position. Not only that, but the chilly night wind was blowing in furiously from the shattered window. Every spot of exposed skin had begun to numb, and her fingers were stiff from the cold. Her throat ached miserably and seemed swelled a bit. The task wouldn't be easy, but she had never had a problem with stubborn persistence. If she could just get her hand down to her shoes, she might have a chance to end this before it began. More than likely, Kelly Bartlet waited at some remote location to assist the Black Heart in her mindless pursuit of revenge.
Black Heart's eyes were focused straight ahead. She wasn't worried about the bitch; she would probably remain knocked out for hours. She hoped she had actually killed the whore, but she had seen her taking shallow breaths. It didn't matter. She would die as soon as she found the perfect place to take her. She had no intention of waiting for her husband to appear. Why should she? He had done a very noble, but stupid thing when he allowed her to take the woman. Was he that blind? Was he that ignorant? He had to know she would kill her. Yet, he let her go anyway. So much for love and honor, she thought. Donovan had rather give up his old lady than sacrifice his own life for her. What a shame. What a damn shame. She laughed out loud, startling Loralei in the backseat. Up until then, she had been tugging frantically at her shoelaces. When she heard the dry cackle, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Loralei shivered. It wasn't from the cold. Black Heart's laugh was chilling and evil. It had been nearly a year since she had last tied up with her, and those wounds were still fresh, still aching. She waited for a few minutes before moving again. When she was certain Black Heart wasn't going to vocalize again, she resumed tugging at her shoelaces. Working one handed, it was rough going, and the damn lace didn't want to let go. She still had to pull the string out of the shoe and hoped that she'd free it in time. At that point, she had no idea where Black Heart planned to take her. Her heart raced madly as she finally managed to undo the tight loop. She hoped her luck would hold out a few moments longer.
* * *
Donovan kept his ear glued to the phone as he weaved in and out of traffic following Cody's exact directions. Every turn Black Heart took, he matched it. He stayed a safe distance behind so as not to arouse her suspicions. His greatest fear was that Black Heart would see him. If she did, he didn't doubt that she would murder his wife and unborn child without hesitation. Of course, he wasn't naïve enough to believe that Black Heart intended to keep Loralei alive any longer than necessary. His wife was Black Heart's leverage, and she intended to use it to draw him in, to lead him to her partner, and eventually to his death. He realized that the widow was crafty enough to know that he would not stay away. The longer the odyssey stretched out, the more frustrated Donovan became. If he lost sight of the car, he would never see his wife again. He listened to Cody's instructions and blocked them out all at the same time. His voice had taken on a seemingly droning quality. North. Northwest. Veering toward exit 45. It went on and on. He held onto his sanity and his focus. He could not zone out again.
* * *
Loralei worked the shoestring loose, finally pulling it free. She would have very little time to carry out her plan. There would be one chance. She could not screw this up. Black Heart glanced up at the rearview mirror. She kept her eyes locked on it for an undetermined amount of time. She saw something very disturbing and strange. There appeared to be a car following along behind her. She took an exit on purpose just to see if the car followed. She smiled a little when it hung right with her. Tricky tricky, she thought. The bitch's husband had decided to ride in on his white horse. This was not such good news for the bastard's wife. He had to be idiot following her. How had he kept up with her? She didn't understand. When she peeled away from the scene, she had left him standing. Yet, he had caught up with her. In the passenger's seat, she noticed a cell phone. She wondered if Donovan's number was in it. She knew he would have a cell phone. Men like him couldn't live without them.
* * *
Cody's droning voice was interrupted by a series of short clicks. Call waiting, he thought. What the fuck? He took the phone away from his ear and glanced at it. The caller id/call waiting flashed an incredible number: the spare cell phone. Without hesitation, he hit a button to divert Cody for a moment. "What do you want," he spat, instantly knowing who it was.
"You prick, I'm not stupid. I know you're following me. Don't you think I know that trick? It's the oldest one in the book. I'm sorry to say that I'm disappointed in you, baby. I thought you'd try something more original than that. Get back. I'll contact you when I need you. I swear, I'll pull over and finish the job right now. You wouldn't catch me before I ended it. Tire tools can crush skulls in no time. I've experimented with it tonight, so I know."
Distracted now by the phone, Loralei knew it was her chance to get at the Black Heart. If she didn't move now, she'd never move at all. She sprang suddenly to life, popping up in the backseat as if she were some maniacal 'Jack-in-the-Box.' She held the shoelace taut in her hands and brought it up and around Black Heart's throat. Completely taken by surprise, Black Heart's hands flew off the steering wheel, and the phone fell onto the floor.
Donovan heard the struggle from his end of the phone, and he could see the car swerving this way and that. He prayed that the car wouldn't burst head-on into the rapidly passing cars. Horrified, he began yelling into the phone, ordering Loralei to stop, but she wouldn't listen, couldn't listen. She appeared to have gotten the upper hand, but again, he was not naïve, nor was he hopeful. He knew what was going to happen, and there was no true way to stop it. He could only pray that Loralei wouldn't be harmed. Without hesitating, he switched back to Cody and instructed him to summon an ambulance. He feared that they would need it before long. Up ahead, the car began to spin out of control. His heart stopped as it rapidly turned a full 360 degrees at least three times. At such a high speed, it was sure to roll over. The car spun crazily one more time before eventually sliding into a shallow culvert at the side of the highway. The headlights faced the oncoming traffic. Donovan let up on the gas and slammed his foot hard on the brakes. The tires squealed wickedly, leaving rubber for several miles. The anti-lock brakes took hold and the car finally came to a jarring halt. Working on automatic now, Donovan drew his weapon and ran toward the car. He didn't notice an approaching SUV that sliced over the median as if were nothing. Backup had arrived.
Donovan heard a loud crashing noise followed by slight movement coming from the passenger side of the car. Regardless of who was climbing out, he held his weapon up and kept the figure in his sight. To his left, Alex and Jake had crouched in similar stances. He hadn't noticed them; he couldn't. His mind was focused on the body extracting itself from the car. He drew his face into a vicious snarl as he recognized the person freeing herself. Black Heart. She had not come out unarmed. She wielded the tire tool, ready to strike. To his utter disappointment, she seemed unharmed. Incredibly, she was smiling. Her smile was one of tremendous victory. He heard shouts coming from his team, yelling for Black Heart to drop the tire tool. Of course, she wouldn't. She didn't intend to give up, not now, not ever. She raised the piece of steel and did exactly what Donovan hoped she'd do. She began rushing toward him, with every intention of throttling him. He called out a command for her to stop, but she did not listen. Without hesitating a nanosecond, Donovan did what he had been trained to do when faced with a direct threat. He put a bullet right between her eyes. She stopped as if she were surprised she'd been shot. In her last few seconds of life, she stared at Donovan, cursing him for killing her, for ending her reign. He wasted no time tending to Black Heart. He left her for Alex and Jake. He holstered his weapon and ran toward the car.
He peered into the smashed window and saw Loralei's body huddled against the far end of the car. Her face was turned away, almost buried in the seat. He didn't know if she were alive or dead. His mind played back to her last battle with Black Heart. He couldn't believe he was experiencing the same emotions, the same terror as he had before. Donovan tried to open the door, but had little success. It had apparently jammed shut and wouldn't budge. The noise hadn't roused her at all. Please, God, no. Don't take her from me now. He leaned into the car as far as he dared. Her body was just out of his reach.
"Loralei? Baby? Wake up. Look at me, Loralei. Open your eyes and look at me," he demanded. He held his breath and watched as her body stirred just the slightest bit. He hoped that she had sustained nothing more than a concussion, but he was certain her injuries were far worse than that. "Come on, Loralei. I can't reach you. Give me your hand, my love. Can you do that for me?"
At first, Loralei thought she was dreaming. She thought she had simply gone to sleep and had a horrible nightmare. This wasn't really happening to her. It was happening in some bizarre, vivid dream world that refused to release her. However, as she came out of her daze, her body was a mass of pain. Every muscle, every bone screamed in protest at her unnatural position. This was no dream. The only stable thing, the only good thing about all this was hearing Donovan's voice. She focused her foggy eyes on his face. Yes. She could see him clearly. He was right there.
"Baby," he whispered harshly. "Can you move?"
She managed to nod her head. A swarm of fuzzy dots attacked her, and for a moment, she thought she would pass out. After a moment, the dots went away, and she began to regain her lucidity piece by painstaking piece. She could move. She didn't think there was anything wrong with her arms or legs. Nothing appeared to be broken. There were dozens of sprains and muscle strains, but she had no trouble moving. To prove her point, she reached out to Donovan, groped for him. He took hold of her, and she felt tears filling her eyes. She was so close to him that she could feel the scratchy sensation of his facial hair and smell his cologne.
"Hold onto me," he said. "I must get you out of here, but I need your help if you can."
Loralei had no trouble holding onto him. That was the easy part. Helping him was a bit more difficult. The horrible sensation of pins and needles prickled down her arms, legs, and feet. Her limbs had apparently fallen asleep during her tight crouch against the door. She felt Donovan's strong arms pulling her forward as her own body tried to assist him. She felt the tingling sensation of being lifted into the air. Once her feet touched the ground, her legs buckled beneath her, but Donovan was there to catch her before she fell. He tried to lift her up, but she wouldn't let him. His supporting arm was good enough. Her mind began to get clearer and sharper. She stopped walking for a moment as she focused her eyes on Black Heart's body. She tore her eyes away from her and focused them on Donovan's face. When his eyes met hers, he thought she was going to say something about Black Heart. However, he instantly shoved that thought aside when he read the panic in them. The baby. During her painful extraction from the car, she hadn't noticed the cramping pain in her middle. She became sharply aware of it the instant she went into her husband's arms.
"No, Frank," she cried, "God no!"
Without waiting for her to say one word, without caring if she protested or not, he lifted her body into his arms. There was no time to wait for an ambulance.
Jake tore his eyes away from the body of the Black Heart and noticed Donovan racing Loralei toward the SUV. "Stay here and finish this," he said to Alex. "I'll take them to the ER." He ran up to Donovan and opened the back door. "Stay with her back here, I'll drive," he said.
Donovan was in no shape to argue. He placed Loralei into the backseat gently and climbed in after her. Jake closed the door behind them and didn't hesitate to jump to the front. Bringing the engine to life with a roar, Jake glanced into the rearview mirror. Donovan had cradled Loralei's body against his. Her face was buried in the hollow between his throat and shoulder. She clutched at her abdomen and softly cried 'nononono.' He watched as Donovan's hand fell atop hers. He began to whisper quietly to his wife. Jake didn't even attempt to decipher Donovan's words. In that moment, Jake understood more than he wanted. He peeled out onto the highway and pointed the SUV toward the nearest ER.
* * *
Jake sat in the ER waiting room thumbing through a magazine. It had been at least two hours since Loralei and Donovan were taken back. He had received a couple of phone calls, and wasn't sure if the news he had received was good or bad. He supposed it was a little of both. He wanted to broach the subject with Donovan. He needed to know, but he also didn't want to elbow in on what appeared to be a very sticky situation. Jake had never seen the boss such an emotional wreck. It was a first. Of course, he remembered when Donovan briefly went rogue, but it was nothing like this.
He looked up as Donovan entered the room. The look on his face indicated that the news was bad. "How is she," Jake asked.
Absently, Donovan ran his hand over the nape of his neck. "She-ah," he spat, his voice breaking a bit. He cleared his throat and tried again, "She lost the baby." Jake started to say something, perhaps to simply utter 'I'm sorry,' but Donovan held up his hand. "No," he said. "I'm not leaving her tonight. I trust that you can fill my shoes for a couple of days?" Jake nodded and tried to speak again. "Wait," he said. "Find Kelly Bartlet. I don't care how long it takes."
"Donovan, we don't have to worry about Kelly Bartlet. Apparently, the widow murdered her. They found her body stuffed in the trunk of a car about an hour or so outside Rockbridge."
He nodded. There was a sad, vacant look in his eyes. "Thank you," he said. "For everything." He then turned away and walked back toward the triage where his wife awaited him.
* * *
Donovan had never thought he would be at Loralei's side in another hospital room. He didn't want to make comparisons to the time before, but he couldn't help it. Tonight, her body had taken a beating, and there was no chance that her pregnancy could have withstood the damage. About twenty minutes ago, she had cried herself to sleep. She would only be in the ER for another hour or so before a room could be prepared. The hospital would hold her no more than a day to monitor the slight concussion she had sustained. She would recover, but the mental anguish would haunt them both for a long time. As he had done so many months previously, he took one of her hands in both of his and held it up to his lips.
"How you must hate me," she said suddenly, groggily.
He looked up at her and shook his head. "Hate you? Why would I hate you?"
"If I had listened to you, if I had gone on to my parents as you asked, I wouldn't-" she spat through her tears, "wouldn't have lost the baby."
He went to her bedside and took her into his arms. He cradled her head to his chest. "No, Loralei," he whispered. "You went through too much in the last couple of days, and your body couldn't take it. Don't do this, don't blame yourself. I don't hate you. I will never hate you. I love you. Do you understand? I love you. I will always love you. We will have a baby. It wasn't time for us right now."
Suddenly remembering something else, she drew away from him. Her eyes were filled with tears as she searched his face. A look of horror had etched cruel lines in her face. "Frank? What about the other one? Kelly Bartlet?"
He brushed a sweaty lock of hair off her brow. He shook his head and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Don't worry about her. She's gone."
At first she didn't believe him. Was he protecting her again? "Gone?"
"Yes, love, gone. She was another of Black Heart's victims," he said softly.
Her unshed tears began to fall out of her eyes, and were swiftly replaced with newer ones. Since being admitted into the ER, she had shed a river of tears, but still she had more. "Like our baby?" She went willingly into his embrace. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm so damn sorry," she cried against his chest.
Donovan closed his eyes. His own heart ached so very fiercely, and he felt every ounce of pain radiating from her body. He took it all in and held onto her tightly. "No, Loralei. Don't. Please don't. There is nothing for you to be sorry about. Nothing."
She wasn't convinced, and wouldn't be convinced for weeks to come.