The B Girls

No Way In Hell





Lucy took a deep breath and peeked around the corner.

No sign of Dawson's light.

Either he was waiting in the dark for her to show herself or he was gone.

Lucy was betting her life on gone.

After all, he got what he came for.

She stepped out and shuffled a few steps back toward the hole, prepared to turn and run if the light reappeared.

It didn't.

She shuffled a few more steps in the pitch black, making enough noise that Dawson would be able to hear her if he was waiting in the dark.

When all remained quiet and dark, Lucy dared to turn her headlamp back on. She held her breath but no shot rang out and no light came on.

She hurried back to the hole ignoring the wetness under her right hand and called down to Mae and Jane. "Everyone okay down there?"

"No worse than before the shooting," Mae called back. "What about you?"

"I'm not sure. I think I have a little wound in my side."

Lucy heard Jane say, "Shit."

"I'm on my way up," Mae said.

Lucy sat down near the hole and waited clamping down on her impatience. She didn't want to waste time. If she was seriously wounded wouldn't she be feeling weak by now?

Mae climbed back out of the hole at a record pace without a single twinge of vertigo. Amazing what a crisis could do for a phobia.

When she saw the blood covering Lucy from just below her left breast to her knee, Mae blanched.

"Lay down," Mae ordered.

Seeing the look on Mae's face, Lucy didn't argue. She must be a pretty terrifying sight. "It doesn't really hurt now."

Mae knelt down next to her. "Move your hand so I can see."

"I'm afraid to," Lucy said. Now that it came to it, she was scared. She'd seen those war movies where the guy takes his hand away from a wound and his guts fall out. She didn't want her guts to fall out.

"You have to. I can't see anything."

Lucy took that as a good sign. Her hands weren't all that big. If one hand covered the wound it couldn't be too large. She lifted her hand. Nothing happened.

Mae leaned down, focusing her headlamp on Lucy's side.

There was a tear in Lucy's coveralls about two inches long. Mae spread the sides of the tear apart, looked in the gap and breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like all the damage was to your skin. I think the bullet only grazed your side. It's still oozing but I think we can stop that with a makeshift bandage."

She rummaged through the pack she'd brought up with her and came up with an extra pair of socks. "This should do." She unrolled the balled socks, folded them in half and pulled the top of one back over making a thick, flat bandage.

Mae used her Swiss Army knife to cut a strap from Lucy's backpack to hold the bandage in place.

"You have to hurry," Lucy said as Mae strapped the bandage in place.

"What for? You're not bleeding to death and Jane seems to be past the shock stage," Mae said.

"No way in hell are we letting him get away with this. I need to get out of here and call down the fury of the B Girls on that a*shole."

"You want to go after him?"

Lucy winced as Mae pressed the bandage to her side. "Hell yes I'm going after him. Belle still isn't safe."

"Shouldn't we just let the police go after him?"

Lucy nodded her head making her light dance over the ceiling. "Them too. But I have to make sure he doesn't get a chance to hurt Belle. Besides, I'm pissed."

Mae finished tying off the bandage. "Fine. But I still don't like it."

"Don't worry. Now, I need the gun and the van keys."

Mae handed them over and turned to the hole. "Problem."

Lucy got to her feet and looked toward the hole. "Well hell." The rope was right where it started out--on the other side of the hole.

Mae studied the hole. "There's a ledge on the right side. Like the one we crossed over the water."

"Excellent," Lucy said. "When I get to the other side I'll toss you the rope so you can get back to Jane."

"This hole isn't filled with water. If you fall . . ."

"I'm not going to fall," Lucy said. She stepped to the right side of the hole looking for some sort of handhold to steady herself on the way over. "I'll only have to take one or two steps."

"Be careful."

Lucy shook her head. "No. I thought I'd be totally reckless and break my neck." This close to escaping from the dark she didn't intend to take and unnecessary chances.

Mae didn't say anything else.

Lucy studied the ledge for a few more seconds. "Okay," she said. "I've got this." She reached out to a small rock about head high. "One step to the middle." She put her left foot on the ledge and brought her right foot to join it. "And one step to the other side." She put her left foot on the far side of the hole, pushed off the wall and across. "See? No problem."

Lucy pulled enough rope out of the hole to make an easy toss.

Mae caught it. "We'll be waiting."

"I'll send help," Lucy said.

She trotted to the cave entrance surprised to find the late afternoon sun shining. The pop-up thunderstorm had passed, but not nearly as many hours had ticked off the clock as it felt like.

She glanced at her watch before starting the climb down to the creek. Five o'clock. Plenty of daylight left to get help for Mae and Jane.

She climbed down and followed the path Dawson had jogged up a few minutes earlier.



###



The van was right where they'd left it. She ran the last few steps, shed the top half of her coverall and dug the keys out of her jeans pocket.

Dawson couldn't be too far ahead of her and there was only one practical way back to civilization. With luck the cops would catch up to him before he could get to Belle and hurt her.

She threw herself into the driver's seat and jammed the key into the ignition and started the van. She grabbed her cell phone out of the center console and dialed 911. Putting the phone to her ear she reversed around and stomped on the gas throwing gravel and fishtailing a little. Who knew the minivan could do that?

"Nerves of steel," she told herself. No worries about getting a ticket. A cop appearing was her fondest dream right now.

"911 what is your emergency?"

She rocketed down the gravel road.

Good question. "There's a man with a gun on . . ." What the hell was this road? Think! "He just left the parking lot by Breakleg Creek in Cohutta. Call Ranger Leonard. Tell him Lucy Deen . . ."

She realized there was another vehicle up ahead.

Maybe it was Ranger Rick making his rounds.

"Ma'am?" The 911 operator tried to get her attention.

"Hold on."

When the gravel road dumped out onto a two lane asphalt track the car ahead turned left. Not the ranger's pick-up truck. It was a late model SUV.

It had to be Dawson.

How had she caught him so fast?

It didn't matter.

He was about to learn he'd f*cked with the wrong woman.

"The man is driving an SUV. A silver one. I don't know what kind. I'm behind him on Bear Ridge Rd."

She pulled onto the asphalt road and stepped on the gas, intent on catching him.

"Ma'am you don't need to follow him. I have an officer in route."

Lucy ended the call and concentrated on getting herself under control. Dawson should probably hope the police caught up quick.

He wasn't driving fast, apparently not having the same feelings about police intervention as Lucy. She pulled up to his bumper within a few seconds.

She smiled maniacally when she saw his eyes widen in shock in his rearview mirror. Evidently he hadn't expected any of them to make it out so soon.

He picked up speed.

She kept pace, gripping the steering wheel until her hands hurt and struggling to maintain her nerve as the road twisted and curved its way down the mountain.

He glanced into the mirror again and this time Lucy saw fear.

She couldn't blame him. Rational behavior didn't seem to be her strong suit at the moment.

Dawson's brake lights flashed.

Lucy was a fraction of a second slow to respond.

The van tapped the SUV's bumper at an angle as they entered a curve. The SUV spun. Metal screeched as the passenger side of the van and the rear bumper of the SUV slid across each other.

The SUV skated off the road.

Lucy fought the van and managed to bring it to a stop with the right wheels in the dirt.

Saying a prayer of thanks for her automatic seatbelt habit, she turned to see Dawson was moving around in the driver's seat of the SUV.

Lucy realized things could get ugly very fast.

She struggled free of her seatbelt and shoved the flopping top half of her coverall aside to reach the gun tucked in her climbing harness.

Gun in hand, she threw open the van door and climbed out. "Don't move!" she yelled. "I have a gun! The police are on the way!" She threw in the last in the faint hope he'd believe it was possible.

She stepped up into the doorway of the van and braced the gun on the roof, pointing it at Dawson. He was still trying to get free of the SUV. Would he shoot?

With multiple millions of dollars at stake--probably.

The SUV door opened.

"I said don't move!" Lucy shouted. "I swear I'll shoot you."

Lucy couldn't see Dawson's hands.

His answer was a laugh. "Only people who won't pull the trigger say that."

His hand appeared around the edge of the SUV's door and he fired.

The back window of the van exploded.

Lucy flinched and fired back.

Her position, braced on the roof of the van made her aim better than his.

Dawson went down.

Shaking, Lucy deliberately moved her finger away from the trigger of the pistol and waited.

Dawson didn't move.

What the hell had she done?