He climbed out the window, swung down, and tried to be as quiet as possible as he dropped to the porch roof. The shingles were slick from the rain, and he almost lost his footing on the sharp pitch as he landed. Bracing his legs apart, he put his arms up and waited for Michelle to jump, all the while praying that lightning wouldn’t strike and give them away. If there were others in the yard or in the boat, they would see them and sound the alert.
He reached for Michelle just as he heard glass breaking downstairs. It sounded as if it was coming from the back door. The noise was immediately followed by an earsplitting sound of gunfire coming from the front of the house. The bastards were organized. They were simultaneously rushing both entrances. They wanted to trap Theo and Michelle inside.
Michelle could hear them knocking things over downstairs. How many were there? She tucked the flashlight into the waistband of her jeans and climbed out on the ledge.
“Let’s go.” His voice was a low, urgent whisper.
She hesitated for a second or two, trying to focus, but then she heard the pounding of heavy footsteps on the stairs. She let go.
Theo caught her around the waist. She slipped, but he held fast until she recovered her balance. Staying close to him, she scrambled on all fours across the roof. The rain was coming down in sheets now. She could barely see her hands. She reached the edge, tested the gutter, hoping she could hang on as she swung her legs over, but the gutter was loose, and she knew it would make a racket if it fell. There were overgrown lilac bushes all along the side of her house. She put her hand over her eyes as she jumped into the center of the thicket.
Scurrying to get out of Theo’s way, she ran headfirst into a thick branch. It cut her cheek, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out.
“Which way?” she whispered.
“The front. Wait here.” He pulled his gun out. He edged his way to the corner of the house, ducked down, and then leaned out. The hood of his car was up, which meant they’d disabled it. He looked across the road, judging the distance to the swamp. He didn’t relish getting trapped and hunted in the maze of dense vegetation, but if they could run across without being seen, then he and Michelle could make their way to the crossroads.
A car was parked further up the road. He wouldn’t have seen it if the brake lights hadn’t suddenly gone on. Whoever was waiting inside had his foot on the brakes. A second later the lights went off.
Theo went back to Michelle. “We have to try to get to your boat. It’s the only way out of here.”
“Let’s go.”
They made it to the edge of the dock before they were spotted. Caught in the glare of a light shining down from the bedroom window, Theo pushed Michelle down as he turned and fired. He didn’t know if he hit anything or not. The light went out, and he heard shouting.
“Give me your flashlight,” he panted.
She pulled it out of her waistband. He grabbed it, held his arm out so that it wouldn’t be in front of them. Pushing her down again, he tried to cover her as he whispered, “Stay still,” and then flipped the light on.
The beam struck one of the bastards running toward them from the house. Michelle saw him clearly and gasped in surprise. Recognition was swift and shocking.
Theo fired twice before he was forced to turn the light off. Bullets were flying all around them, pinning them down. Theo aimed the flashlight at the other boat, turned it on, and there he was, another man, waiting for them. Squatting down low, he was looking through the scope of a high-powered rifle when Theo fired. The bullet struck the motor. He fired again as the man lunged over the side of the boat into the water.
Flipping the light off, Theo jerked her to her feet, and shouted, “Go,” as gunshots sizzled and cracked in the air around them, ricocheting off the tree and the dock. Michelle slid across the dock, grabbed hold of the post to keep from falling into the water, and then frantically worked to untie their assailants’ boat. Theo had already untied hers, jumped in, and was pulling on the engine cord.
She finally got the rope undone, and she pushed the boat as far away from the dock as possible. Theo was shouting at her to hurry. She jumped into her boat and fell back against Theo as he gunned the engine. A hail of bullets slapped the water around them.
Theo hunched over Michelle, trying to protect her and keep his head down at the same time. Turning the boat to the north, he shoved the lever down. The front end of the boat came out of the water, bounced back, then lurched forward. One bullet sizzled so close to his ear, he thought he felt the heat.
Looking back, he saw two men with flashlights running along the yard. Then one dove into the water. Theo figured he and Michelle had maybe a thirty-second lead to get away. He sat back on the bench and let her get up.
As soon as she lifted her head, she realized they were headed away from civilization. “You have to turn around,” she told him.
“No,” he answered. “It’s too late to turn back. They’re going to come after us. Shine the light ahead.”
Michelle sat between his knees and directed the beam straight ahead. The light saved them from disaster. Another five seconds and they would have crashed into a dead tree stump sticking out of the water. Theo veered sharply to the left, then straightened the boat into a true course.
“Thank God, you grabbed your flashlight,” he whispered.
“There’s a sharp bend straight ahead,” she told him. “Slow down and turn right. Left is another dead end.”
Clasping his knee to balance herself, she turned and lifted up to look behind them. “I don’t see any lights yet,” she said with a wave of relief so intense it was almost painful. “Maybe they won’t follow us. Maybe they’ll leave us alone now that we’ve gotten away.”
When she turned around, he pulled her back against him. “I don’t think they’re going to give up. I think they’ve just gotten started. Did you see the scope on that rifle? They’re armed to the hilt. They came to hunt, and they aren’t going to give up without a fight. We’ve got to get to a phone and get help. Show me the quickest way to get back to town.”
“The bayou is like a big figure eight,” she explained. “If you had headed south from my dock, you would have gone around a wide bend and would have seen The Swan. We have to backtrack.”
“We’ll run into them if we do.”
“I know,” she whispered hoarsely. She hadn’t been screaming, but her throat felt raw. “There are at least twenty inlets that loop in and around. Some of them are dead ends,” she warned. “And some circle back. If they know about them, they could get ahead of us and cut us off.”
“Then we’ll slow down, and if we see their lights, we’ll take one of the channels and hide until daylight.” They were approaching another bend. “Which way?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. Everything looks different at night. I think this one circles back.”
“Okay, we’ll go left,” he said and steered the boat in that direction.
“Theo, I could be wrong.”
Michelle heard the sound of a boat motor roaring in the distance. The sound was getting closer even as they sped around another tree trunk.
Theo also heard the noise. He spotted a narrow channel, slowed the engine, and turned the boat once again. There were mossy branches hanging down almost into the water. He pushed them out of the way as they passed. Once they had made another turn and he saw how narrow the channel became, he turned off the engine.
Michelle switched the flashlight off. They huddled together and turned toward the sound. It was as black as the inside of a coffin. The downpour had subsided, and a soft drizzle was falling.
The swamp pulsated with life. Theo heard something splash into the water behind them. The bullfrogs suddenly stopped croaking, and the crickets fell silent. Something was moving, though. What the hell was it? The boat struck something then. He thought it might be another tree trunk, but he couldn’t be sure. The boat bobbed back, then stopped.
Michelle reached behind him, pushed a lever, and told him in a whisper to help her swing the motor up out of the water. “If we have to keep going in this channel, the blade could get caught in the mud. It gets shallow in some of these.” The boat tapped the obstacle once again. “There they are,” Michelle whispered.
They could see the light from the motorboat scanning the thicket like a lighthouse beacon, swinging back and forth in a wide arc, searching for them.
The light didn’t find them. Michelle took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. They had just gotten over another hurdle, and she took a minute to thank God for that blessing. They weren’t out of danger yet, but Theo had been right when he’d told her they could hide out until daylight and then get help. Soon there would be an end to this nightmare.
The hunters had gone on. The noise from their boat fading now. Michelle guessed that they would continue on for several more minutes before they’d turn around and backtrack, searching more thoroughly.
Theo’s mind was racing. Were they professional hitters? If so, who had sent them? Could the mob have tracked him to Louisiana? Were they here to retaliate for his part in convicting so many of their leaders? Had his being here put her in danger?
Michelle heard a twig snap above her. She glanced up at the branches a scant second before she felt a weight drop on her left foot. It took every ounce of willpower she possessed not to scream. Whatever had fallen was now slithering up her leg. She froze, her hand gripping the flashlight in her lap, her finger on the switch.
“Theo, grab the oar,” she whispered, trying not to move a muscle. “When I turn the light on, you’ve got to knock it out of the boat. Okay?”
He didn’t understand. What it? What was she talking about? He didn’t question her, though. He simply picked up the oar, held it like a baseball bat, and waited.
“I’m ready.”
She flipped the switch on. Theo felt his heart lurch in his chest. He almost dropped the oar when he saw the hideous black snake. The monster’s forked tongue was darting in and out, as though he were anticipating the morsel he was going to bite, his triangular flat head poised above Michelle’s kneecap. He seemed to be looking into her eyes.
Time suspended as Theo swung the oar at the snake and hurled it into the water. He jumped to his feet and grabbed Michelle. “Son of a bitch,” he roared. “Son of a bitch.”
Michelle scrambled to her knees, her heart racing. She kept her flashlight beam trained on the snake, watching as it skimmed across the water into the bushes on the other side of the muddy bank. Then she scanned the water, reached out, and grabbed the oar that Theo had thrown out. Dropping it on the floor of the boat, she leaned back. “That was a close call.”
Theo was slapping at her legs. “Did he get you?” he asked frantically.
“No, he didn’t. He was probably more afraid than we were.”
“What the hell was it?”
“A cottonmouth,” she answered.
“Son of a . . . they’re poisonous.”
“Yes,” she agreed. She grabbed his hand. “Stop hitting me.”
“I just wanted to make sure there weren’t any others . . . ” He stopped when he realized how crazy he sounded.
“Any other snakes crawling up my pant leg? There aren’t any. Trust me, I’d know. Try to calm down.”
“How can you be so friggin’ calm? That thing was on your leg.”
She put her hand on his cheek. “But you got rid of it.”
“Yeah, but . . .”
“Take a breath.”
She wasn’t as calm as she sounded. When he put his arms around her, he could feel her trembling. “You know what?”
“Let me guess. You hate snakes.”
“How’d you know I was going to say that?”
She smiled as she pulled away from him. “I just had a feeling.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
He put his hand into the water to see if he could push the boat away from the bank. His fingers felt as if they were being sucked into the mud.
Michelle grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “You don’t want to put your hand in the water, not around here.”
He didn’t need to ask why. He pictured an alligator leaping up at him and shuddered over the thought. Grabbing the oar, he used it to push away. “Do you think this way cuts through?”
“I’ve lived here all my life and I know these waters, but in the dark, I’m still second-guessing myself. I think this one dead ends about a quarter of a mile from here. If we keep going, we could get trapped, and I don’t want to walk through the swamp. It isn’t safe, not at night, anyway. I think we should turn around and go back.”
“That’s got my vote.”
“When we cross back over, let’s use the oars and row across. If they’re out there, they won’t hear us.”
She picked up the other oar and helped him get the boat turned.
“If another damned snake lands in this boat, they’ll hear me, all right.”
Theo changed places with Michelle and used the oars to get them to the opening of the channel. He stopped, then turned to look. “What do you think? Can we make it back to your place? If I could get to my cell phone —”
She interrupted him. “We went too far downstream. We’d have to backtrack and that’s pushing our luck.”
“Okay. We’ll head straight across and hope there’s a dock close.”
He couldn’t see more than ten feet ahead of him but knew it was too risky to turn the flashlight on now. Michelle climbed over the bench so she could get to the motor. She put her hand on the cord, ready to yank it if they were spotted. She was worrying about everything now. When was the last time she filled the motor with gas? She couldn’t remember. What if they reached the middle and then the spotlight found them?
They were gliding across the water now. Theo’s powerful arms worked the oars like an expert.
She could see the light scanning the water. “They’re looking for us in the channels,” she whispered.
Theo kept rowing but glanced behind him. The beam of light was crisscrossing the water, but the boat wasn’t moving. It was about two hundred yards away.
“They haven’t seen us yet.”
“Should I turn the motor —”
“No.” His voice was urgent. “Hang in there. We might make it.”
A minute later, the beam turned back in their direction. Michelle didn’t wait for Theo to tell her to start the motor. She pulled hard. It didn’t catch the first time. Theo swung the oars in and shoved Michelle down as a bullet whizzed past his head. She yanked on the rope and cried out when the engine sputtered to life.
