Waiting on the Rain by Claudia Connor

21

Luke walked into the barn and was nearly run over by his nephew, Mitchell. “Whoa, little guy.” He caught him around the waist which made him squeal and kick.

He was just about to put him down when he saw Stephen jogging down the barn aisle from the office. Luke opened his mouth to say sorry. He didn’t think he’d hurt him but—

“Damn, that kid’s fast. Thanks, man. I thought I’d closed that door all the way.”

Luke watched Stephen take his son, still kicking up a fuss, and toss him over his shoulder.

“Little troublemaker is determined to get into one of these stalls. And to be honest I think he’s going for the horse shit, not the horse.”

“Well.” He was still staring at his brother-in-law, not seeming the least bothered by his son’s crying. His sister’s chocolate lab bounded in from somewhere and came to his side. He gave the dog’s head a rub.

“Hey, I was just talking Hannah into running out for some lunch with me and this hellion. Want to come? Or I could bring you something.”

“No, thanks. I can hold things down here.”

“Thanks, man. I’ll just go whisk my wife away for a bit. We’ll be back in an hour.”

Luke moved on down the aisle, checking the swing of each lower stall door. He’d noticed one was off kilter but couldn’t remember which. Hannah and Stephen hadn’t been gone ten minutes before the office phone was ringing. Figuring he wouldn’t know the answer to anyone’s inquiry, he let it go to voicemail.

When the ringing started up again and didn’t stop, he stepped in, picked up the receiver from the wall. “Freedom Farm.”

* * *

Ava closedher eyes in relief. “Hi, could I please speak to Hannah?”

“She’s not here. I can take a message, but… Wait. Ava?”

“Yes.”

“Hey. It’s Luke. What’s up?”

“Nothing I… I just needed Hannah. I um…”

“Ava, what’s going on?”

“I’m fine, I just… I’m in kind of in a bind right now. I was wondering if…”

If what? If Hannah could come pick her up? She didn’t even know where she was.

“Ava what’s wrong?”

Luke’s voice had gone hard, demanding. And right about now she wanted someone hard. Someone take charge. It didn’t make her feel good about herself, but feeling capable wasn’t really a priority at the moment. “I don’t know where I am. I can open Maps but… I don’t know. I don’t know what it’s saying. I don’t know this street.”

“Okay. Can you do a screen shot? And send it to me?”

“I think so.” Luke repeated his cell number three times and she put it in. Then she went through the steps, going back to Maps, taking a screen shot.

Luke was saying something else but she didn’t hear. Her attention was focused on another voice to her right. A male voice. Talking to her?

“Hey!”

The voice came again, closer this time, followed by male laughter.

“Is there somewhere you can go and wait?” Luke asked. “A shop or anything?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice was shaking and now that she was talking to someone the tears were coming. “I—”

“Ava who’s that? Who are you talking to?”

Her hands were shaking so badly it took a few tries to get the screen shot.

She heard what she thought was a car door slam through on Luke’s end and a car start. He was coming. She took another deep breath. “Okay. I think I got it. I’ll have to hang up to send you the picture.”

“Okay. Send it and I’ll call you right back from my cell.”

The call ended and she felt immediately alone. She managed to get the text sent.

“Hello, madame.” The voice drawled out, dripping in fake courtesy. “Could I be of assistance?”

“No, thank you.” She tried to estimate how far away Luke was. She thought she’d been in the Uber somewhere between fifteen and twenty minutes. But she didn’t know if she’d been getting closer to Luke or farther away.

“No? You look like you could use some help?”

“No. I don’t.” They knew she was blind. The cane was a dead giveaway and useless as a weapon. She looked in the direction of the voice but it wasn’t close enough for her to gage the height. And he’d said, I, not we, even though she could feel there were at least two, maybe three. And one was moving slowly around to her other side. A line of sweat rolled down her back.

It was hard to read intentions when you couldn’t see a person’s eyes, couldn’t read their body language. But her instincts were screaming. Their hostile intentions dripping from the fake concern in their voice layered over their obvious glee at finding an easy target.

She couldn’t run. Didn’t know if there were any other people around to call to. And if they were hunters, if she were the prey, looking weak, looking vulnerable, would only draw them in.

Why hadn’t she let someone drive her? Stupid. She knew better. Knew this town didn’t have the same resources as the city. Maybe her parents were right to worry, maybe—

Her phone rang in her hand but before she could answer it, it was knocked away. She instantly grabbed her wrist where a hot sweaty hand had touched her.

“Looks like you’ve got a call. Why don’t you let me answer it for you?”

It kept ringing. He wasn’t going to answer it.

“This is a nice phone, don’t you think?”

She followed the sound of the ringing as it flew from her left to her right.

“Sure is a nice phone.”

“Give me my phone,” she said in her most assertive voice. Don’t let them think you’re afraid. Keep the appearance that you’re in control. “That’s my boyfriend calling,” she said without thinking. “He’s on his way.”

“Oh, yeah? I got a car. I can take you wherever you want to go, baby.”

His insincerity and body odor permeated the air.

A man yelled from across the street and she thought maybe she was going to get some help. The men around her stepped away but no-one came to her rescue. There was yelling, cursing, and she prayed Luke came fast. She could still hear the men nearby. Minutes passed. It felt like hours. Then she heard them mumbling to each other, coming close again.

“Hey, Baby. I’m back. You miss me?”

“I’ll hold your bag,” another, new voice said, and ripped it from her hands.

She stepped back and recoiled at the feel of a body at her back, the scent of cigarette smoke and sweat.

Where had he come from? How many were there?

She was helpless. She couldn’t run. She couldn’t fight. Her parents had warned her about this very danger. Had told her not to put herself in this position. But here she was.

Ava felt a hand on her shoulder and tried to jerk away, raw fear pounding her ears. Then she heard the low roar of an engine coming fast, a screeching halt, and a door slamming.

“Hey! Get the fuck back!”

It was Luke. In an instant, the hand on her shoulder and the body belonging to it were gone. There was a grunt. The sound of a body falling to the concrete of the sidewalk and her bag dropping beside her foot.

“Hey man, no foul. We were just helping.”

“Like hell,” Luke said then the only sound was grunting. Pounding and grunting and… crying. There were curses, some Luke, some strangers, and the sickly sound of flesh and body slamming against the pavement near her feet.

“Luke?”

She didn’t hear him answer and huddled against the wall, trying to stay out of the way. Praying Luke wasn’t overwhelmed by their numbers. Did he have weapons? A gun? She should help. What could she do to help? A body knocked into her, sending her sprawling to the ground on hands and knees. She scrambled up, backed away as far as she dared.

It went on and on, seemed to go on forever, before she heard other voices, then sirens.

“Hands on the wall!”

That command from a male voice was repeated by a female. She didn’t know if they were yelling at her but she reached out for a wall. She only felt air.

For a second she felt what she thought was Luke’s hand on her arm then, “Hands on the wall,” again and the hand was gone.

“Luke?”

“You okay, ma’am? Can you stand by the car?”

She didn’t move, but took a step forward, reaching out for Luke. “Luke?”

“Stand by the car, ma’am!”

A gasp of surprise escaped when she felt a firm grip on her arm.

“Don’t touch her!” Luke yelled. “Keep your hands off of her!”

Then the hand on her arm was gone and she heard Luke curse.

“On the ground! Hands behind your back!”

Then more sirens, more cars screeching to a halt and car doors slamming. She stood there, frozen in place, nothing to ground her.

“Just stand right there, Ava.” Luke’s steady voice came to her, giving her something. Wishing she could touch him, that he could touch her. But she could tell by the direction of his voice that he was no longer standing.

There were other voices now, talking over each other, some close, some several feet away. Some coming through a radio. There was a call for an ambulance.

She heard a woman’s voice, one she hadn’t heard before. “That’s the one who was helping. Those are the ones giving this lady a hard time.”

“She’s blind,” someone else said. “They were messing with a blind girl.”

“I started to come over then this guy came up. He beat the hell out of them, that’s for damn sure.”

Ava couldn’t keep up with the voices, all moving around her. Coming closer then farther away. She had no idea how many people were here now. She rubbed her palms on her jeans, wanted to sit down, was about to, right there on the sidewalk. She jumped when she felt a hand on her arm again. This time it was more gentle.

“I’m officer Dennison.”

It was a man, older sounding than the first two police on the scene.

“It’s okay, Ava,” Luke said, still several feet away. “It’s the police.”

She didn’t shrug the man off, but she didn’t feel comfortable being led anywhere. Didn’t feel comfortable getting too far away from Luke.

“This your phone?” someone asked.

She held out her hand. Felt for the shape of the pop socket stuck to the back of her case. “Yes. Thank you.”

The sound of another car pulling up fast had her taking a step back. She didn’t know how close she was to the street. This car had no sirens and the second the door opened there was a string of curses.

Fuck,Luke thought. He was face down on the gritty sidewalk, his blood still running hot and as if things couldn’t get any worse, Nick was on the scene.

“Get him up. Get him up,” Nick said again, his voice sounding just as disgusted as it had every time Luke had screwed up.

“Get him the hell up. FBI.”

With his hands still zip tied behind his back, Luke stumbled against the wall as he stood. “Didn’t know the FBI responded to street fights.”

“Is that what this is?” Nick’s brow shot up. “A street fight?”

His seventeen-year-old self wanted to sneer at his brother. Tell him that’s exactly what it was and he could just fuck off. The only reason he didn’t was because the look of disappointment on his older brother’s face made him feel more than anger now. It made him feel.

Then his brother was giving orders. “Get those fucking ties off my brother.”

That surprised him, that Nick would be so quick to claim him.

Nick ripped off his sunglasses, rubbed at his forehead then gave Luke a long, studied once over. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Is she okay?” Luke looked over for Ava, saw where she was standing but couldn’t see her face, as there were three cops around her.

“I think so. Let’s see the hands?”

Luke held out his hands.

“Not too bad considering the other guys.”

Luke took his first look at the assholes, all on the pavement. Four men, all early to mid-twenties, in sagging jeans and T-shirts. And all in various degrees of hurt.

Another officer, the one who seemed in charge, left Ava and came to him.

“Sounds like, from the lady, it was a straight up Good Samaritan deal. We’ll get your statement, then you can go.”

Luke told him in as few words as possible what had happened. He answered the officer’s questions, repeated himself when prompted.

“Any idea how she ended up on this end of town?” Nick glanced around? “Not much around here. No shopping.”

“Said she got spooked,” the officer said. “Told the driver to let her out.” Garbled radio speak came through the officer’s radio on his hip. He pulled it off and stepped away.

Nick looked at Luke. “One of them’s wanted for questioning in a case I’m on,” Nick told Luke.

“Oh.” So Nick hadn’t peeled out of work like his ass was on fire to come see his little brother’s latest screw up.

“You’re free to go. Take care of her. I’ll take care of this.” Nick looked at the four in cuffs and his partner taking a facial of one of the guys with his phone. Nick clapped a hand down on Luke’s shoulder, a purely brotherly gesture. He gave his brother a tight smile and went to Ava.

“Ava.” He held out a cautious hand. “Hey. It’s me.”

Ava turned toward his voice and reached out with shaking hands. She looked so damn scared. What if he hadn’t answered the phone, or made it in time? Then his arms were around her and she was clinging to him. Luke closed his eye and held her as much for himself as for her. He buried his nose in her hair, inhaled, assuring himself she was okay as he moved one hand up and down her back.

Too soon, she pulled back. “I’m okay,” she said, and wiped a shaky hand over her face, smoothed her hair back.

Still holding her shoulders, he looked at her a long moment, then led her to his truck. He put her in, drew the seatbelt across her body. Even if she was perfectly capable, he needed to take care of her right now. He set her bag in her lap and closed the door. More like slammed it, as is entire body was still vibrating. He quickly rounded the hood and got in.

Ava didn’t say anything, but he could hear her breathing. Her face was pale, her fingers gripped so tightly on the edge of her bag he thought they might snap.

“Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

“No. Everyone’s asked me that. I’m not hurt. Are you?”

“No.” He’d been pinned down under heavy fire. He’d had teammates pinned down, which was a thousand times worse. But even then he’d maintained a steady calm. This was different. This was Ava and seeing her in danger, seeing the fear in her eyes—that had struck a particular nerve. He’d known he had the capacity to kill. Knew he would kill to protect his home, his family. But this felt different.

He started up his truck, backed out and headed away from the scene before he went back and killed someone. The world didn’t need scum that preyed on the helpless. Thinking what could have happened, what they could have done to her, to Ava, if he’d been just a minute later—

He tried to relax his grip on the steering wheel, then thought to hell with it. To hell with deep breathing. He slammed his palm hard on the steering column. Hard enough he felt the zing up to his elbow and hard enough to make Ava jump at the sound. Shit. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. How many were there?”

“What?”

“How many? When you got there?” she asked, her voice still shaky.

“Four,” he said. She hadn’t even known how many. For some reason that scared him more than anything as it demonstrated just how helpless she’d been. And Nick hadn’t said right there what case the perp was wanted in, but he’d find out.

“Thanks for coming. If you could take me home, I’d appreciate it.”

Luke heard her, but he had no intention of taking her home. Not yet. Not until he’d recovered from seeing her standing there like a lamb surrounded by wolves. And made sure she’d recovered.

“I’m fine,” she said, when he gave no sign he’d heard her. “Nothing happened to me.”

He took a turn too fast and Ava’s hand shot out to the console between them to brace herself. “Slow down. You’re making this into way more than it is.”

“I don’t think I am.” And from the way her voice shook he knew she may be telling herself it was no big deal, but she wasn’t feeling it. But he eased up on the gas and at the next light made a right onto a quiet, empty street. He pulled the car over to the side, put it in park.

Her paper-thin veneer of composure didn’t fool him. She sat rigid, her hands clenched, one still on the console and the other on her bag. Her eyes were closed and closed tight and her brow was pinched so hard it looked painful.

He was a man of action. His natural inclination was to funnel anger and fear into a plan. Something tangible he could do. When he’d gotten there, seen the men surrounding her, he’d known what to do, without hesitation. But now…Now he didn’t know what to do for her.

He reached out, put his hand on her neck and felt her jump. “Sorry,” he said, but didn’t remove it. He just touched her, felt her rapid pulse, gave her a gentle, what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze. “Take a breath.”

She did, blowing it out on a shaky exhale.

“Nice and easy. That’s it.” He rubbed his hand slowly up and down the back of her neck. “What the hell were you doing there by yourself, anyway?”

“I…” She swallowed. “I was going to the gym. To swim.”

“To swim,” he repeated, looking at her then realized she didn’t know. “You ended up on the wrong side of town all alone because you wanted to swim?”

“I like to swim. I didn’t know I was on the wrong side of town. I don’t know if the driver got lost or was going a different way. I usually pay better attention if I’m in a cab or Uber. But then I usually know exactly where I am and where I’m going and…”

She rubbed her hands over her face then dropped them to her lap. “Traffic moves so slowly in the city it’s not that hard to keep up. I panicked and I asked to get out. I shouldn’t have.”

“Don’t do that again.”

“I won’t. That was stupid.”

“I mean, don’t go swimming.”

“What?” She turned her face to his.

“Don’t take an Uber, a cab. Go by yourself. Whatever. Just… don’t.”

“Excuse me?”

There was a snap in her voice and he noticed some of her color was coming back.

“Don’t treat me like that. Don’t make me feel like I’m not capable.”

“I don’t mean to do that. I—”

“Never mind.” She held up a hand meant to stop him from speaking. “Just take me home.”

“I’m not taking you anywhere just yet.”

Her eyes were open now and narrowed right at his. “Are you trying to make me mad?”

“Maybe.” Better mad than shaky. He didn’t like the uncertainty he saw or her pale face. She’d had a scare but she wasn’t crying. Hadn’t leapt into his arms when he’d arrived, not that he’d given her a chance. He laid his hand over hers, tightening his grip when she would have pulled it away. “Just hang on. If you don’t need a second, I do.”

She sighed, leaned her head back to the headrest.

When he felt he was more in control, he put the truck in drive, then took her hand back in his.

They drove in silence … Until he turned onto the road leading to Freedom Farm.

“Wait. Where are we?”

He stopped at the top of the hill. “How do you know we’re not at your house?”

“Because there’s no hill just before my parent’s house for one thing. I want to know where.”

“Amazing,” he murmured, shaking his head. “We’re at the barn, or almost.”

“I told you to take me home. I don’t want to go for a ride right now.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Look, I can take you home, but you’re pale as a ghost and you’re still a little shaky. If you thought your parents were overprotective before, well… they’re going to know something happened the second they see you. I thought we could just take a minute. Let you calm down a bit, get some water, something to eat.”

She wasn’t the only one still shaken. He didn’t particularly want to run into his sister either. Which reminded him he should probably tell her he’d run out after saying he’d stay put.

But it was more than that. Ava’s guard was back up, he could see it in the set of her face. If he wanted her to trust him, and he did, this hadn’t been the best way. “Ava. I’m sorry. I thought maybe we’d go for a walk, or a ride. If that’s doesn’t sound good, I’ll take you home right now if that’s what you want. Whatever you want.”

She blew out a breath, turned her head to her side window. “I don’t like not knowing where I am.”

“I know. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.” He put the truck in park and put his window down, then hers. “We’re at the top of the hill. You were right about that. The road rises just a little after you leave the main road then takes a steady roll down to the front of the barn. You can just see the top of the barn from here.”

She lifted her face to the open window, the warm breeze fluttered blond strands around her face.

He reached over, took her small hand between his massive ones. “Do you want me to take you home?”

“No.”

She didn’t say anything else for a long moment. Then she looked at him, her eyes full of unshed tears and he felt a hammer blow to his chest.

“I hate thinking, knowing, that I can’t take care of myself.”

Luke caught her chin, tilted her face up to his. “That’s just bullshit. How long have you lived in New York?”

“Ten years. Twelve.”

As much as he feared for her, his fear was not what she needed from him right now. “I’m thinking that’s long enough for you to have heard of women being abducted, murdered? Hell, not just there, but anywhere.”

“Sure.”

“Were they all blind?”

“No.” She wrapped fingers around his wrist, slowly lowered his hand from her chin. “That’s not my point. I’m not one of those people who think, oh, I can do anything despite my disability. I don’t. I know there are things I can’t do.”

He rubbed his hand across his mouth, unsure what to say. Was she waiting for him to agree with her? Maybe to chastise her again for getting a ride to go do something she had every right to do? He closed his eyes a moment, and chastised himself instead.

He focused on the dark behind his lids. He didn’t know if that’s what she saw. The absence of light. Of anything.

“Name one,” he finally said after a long silence.

“What?”

He turned to take in her profile. She was so strong and vulnerable, so smart and beautiful. And her usually stubborn chin that was dropped toward her chest just now. “Name one thing you can’t do.”

A wry laugh left her lips and she frowned. “There’s more than one and I’m not complaining or fishing for compliments. I’m not looking for you to feel sorry me.”

“I don’t feel sorry for you. That’s ground we’ve already covered.”

“Well, then I don’t need a ‘pump up, let’s look on the bright side’ talk.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not a pump up, bright side kinda person. And I’m just asking you to name one.”

“Fine. I can’t drive.” She turned, gave him a triumphant look. “That’s one. I’m also not great at puzzles. Probably wouldn’t make a great sniper,” she added, seeming to relax a bit more. “Movie critic. Art Critic.”

“Pfft.” He waved those off. “Critics are full of shit.” He started the engine and put the truck in gear. He didn’t want her feeling like she couldn’t do things. He wanted her safe and he wanted her smiling.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s what we’re doing and we’re about to knock off number one on your list.”