Killman Creek (Stillhouse Lake #2)(89)

“Son, you need to tell that dog to stop.” The man tries a smile. “I done told you, your dad sent me. But I’m not going to fight that dog. I’ll kill it if it comes near me.”

He has a gun. I see it now, shoved in the waistband of his jeans. He puts his hand on it.

Boot lets out a loud, scary series of barks and lunges to the end of the leash. He’s big, and strong, and I can’t hold on.

“Boot, no!” I yell, but the dog isn’t listening to me. He’s jumping forward, hitting the ground, jumping again. Like flying.

The man jerks his gun out, but it isn’t a gun at all, because when Boot lands on his chest, he puts it up against the dog’s chest and I hear something like sizzling, and Boot yelps, high-pitched and awful, and rolls off. He falls, all his legs twitching and his head jerking. His eyes are wild and round.

I scream and run toward him, but the man is right there, in the way, and he grabs my arm and swings me around. His fingernails are long and dirty, and he isn’t my father, and something’s all wrong, Boot’s hurt, and I can’t get in that van, Mom always told us to never get in anybody’s car, to shout and yell and fight every step.

I try to pull free, but he wraps me in both arms and lifts me off the ground. I’m struggling, but he has my arms pinned under his. I kick at him. Boot’s still twitching, yelping like he’s in pain.

“Shut up, you crazy little shit,” the man shouts. I can smell toothpaste on his breath, and coffee. “You shut the fuck up or I will knock you out, you hear me? Cops are coming! We got no time for this. Don’t you want to see your daddy?”

I keep kicking. He can’t cover my mouth if he’s going to keep my arms pinned, and I start yelling again, but the man is rushing me toward the van, and even if someone hears, they won’t get to me in time, and I have to do something.

Mom wouldn’t let this happen to her. I don’t think about Dad at all. I remember my mom, who always, always stood between us and danger. She wouldn’t give up. I’m not giving up, either.

I kick again, harder, and this time, my boot heel connects hard with the man’s groin. I hear my knee click, and I get a flash of pain, but I don’t care, and when he yells and lets go, I start running. I can hear the sirens. I can see dust coming up in the air just on the other side of the hill. They’re almost here.

He hits me from behind with something before I’m more than half a dozen steps away. I stagger a couple of steps, and then I fall down.

Everything goes gray and soft, and then red with pain, and I can’t think. I can feel him dragging me by the feet.

I hear the siren get louder and louder, and I think it’s just in my head until I see Kezia’s black car come flying over the hill and barrel toward us, with built-in blue-and-red lights flashing in the front grille.

I can’t let him get me in the van. I know that. I twist and try to jerk the man off balance as he pulls me.

I see Kezia throw open her door and lunge out almost before the car stops. She has her gun drawn in the next second, and she’s aiming, and shouting, “Police officer, let the boy go!”

The other door is opening, too, and Lanny hits the ground running. She shouldn’t come at us, but she does. She’s running straight for us.

She’s getting in Kezia’s way.

Lanny is screaming my name—Brady, not Connor, because she’s so angry and so scared—and she tackles the man trying to pull me so hard it knocks his grip loose, and I bang my head hard into the road from the recoil. Everything goes soft. I scramble up, but the world keeps moving, and I can’t get to Lanny because she’s fighting with the man in the coat. I see Boot; he’s trying to stand up on shaking legs now, and he’s barking, but it sounds frantic, strangled, and he can’t help much, either.

Kezia fires into the air and yells, “Lanny, goddammit, get down!”

Lanny tries, but then the man grabs her by the hair and yanks her backward to hide behind her. He climbs backward up into the open doors of the van and pulls her in with him. I hear the sizzling sound again. He’s shocked her.

I try to get to her, I do, but he’s dragged her all the way up front, and now he’s dropping into the driver’s seat, and I can’t reach my sister . . .

The van screeches away. He hasn’t even closed the back doors, and they flop around until they slam closed as he accelerates around the turn by Sam Cade’s cabin. He’s going around the lake.

He’s going to get away.

Kezia is suddenly there, and I feel her warm hand on my face, turning me to see how much I’m hurt. I think I’m bleeding. I don’t know. All I can think is, I did this. I must say it out loud, because Kezia presses her hand to my forehead, and says, “No, baby, you didn’t. You’re okay. We’re going to find her. You just relax, it’s all right.” Her voice is shaking, and she takes her cell phone and dials. “Goddammit, where’s my backup? White van, heading around the lake! Confirmed child abduction, I repeat, confirmed child abduction, victim is Lanny Proctor, white female, fourteen years old, wearing jeans and a red down jacket, black hair, do you copy that?”

My head hurts so much I throw up. I can feel Lanny’s old book digging into my ribs.

I can feel when Boot limps over and starts licking my face.

Then I don’t feel anything else.