Page 96 of Outsider

Bertrand reaches for my arm. “Turn around. You know the drill.”

I pivot away from him. He makes a grab for me, but I’m faster and he misses. I throw myself into a run toward the mudroom. I envision my .38 in the cabinet. Top shelf. Speed loader next to it. My coat on a hook. Boots against the wall. I’ve gone two steps when Mercer comes at me from behind. Full-body tackle. He rams his shoulder into the small of my back. His arms go around my hips; he throws his weight against me. I go down fast, hard enough to bruise bone, no time to break my fall. My cheek strikes the floor, dazing me. I try to roll onto my back, get my feet up to kick him. But he’s too strong. Too heavy. Fast for his size.

“Get off me!” I scream.

He thrusts a knee into my spine, puts his weight into it. “Stop resisting.”

I’m facedown on the floor, unable to move, unable to breathe. Mercer’s knee grinding into my back, pain radiating down my spine. I hear the children crying openly now. Then his hands are on my arms. Zip ties looped around my wrists and yanked tight enough to cut off the blood supply. Another layer of dread settles in my gut when strong arms grasp my ankles and secure them together.

The next thing I know I’m yanked to my feet. Mercer turns me around and shoves me onto the sofa. Feet bound, I fall unceremoniously onto the cushions. Breathing hard. Helpless and angry now. Nothing I can do about any of it.

Removing another zip tie from beneath his coat, he kneels at Adam’s feet and secures the Amish man’s ankles together. When he’s finished, he gets to his feet, jabs a finger in Sammy’s face. “If you untie them, I’ll come back for you. I’ll kill your dad. Your sisters. Then I’ll kill you.” He hefts the shotgun, stopping just short of pointing it at the boy. “You got me, you fucking little pussy?”

Sammy stares at the man, his mouth open and quivering, and he swallows hard. “Ja.”

I stare at Mercer, fury humming in my blood. Next to me, Adam sits unmoving, saying nothing, taking it in, but I don’t miss the anger simmering in his eyes. Sammy snuggles close to his father. Crying, Annie and Lizzie have climbed onto the sofa on the other side of him, their legs curled, expressions frightened.

“Fire!” Bertrand shouts abruptly.

I glance over to see him striding toward the kitchen, eyes on the window. “Bitch set the shed on fire.”

From where I’m sitting, I can’t see the shed, but a smidgen of hope blooms in my chest.

“Shit.” Mercer darts to the kitchen doorway, looks out. “Let’s go.”

Without another word the two men rush through the kitchen and out the back door.

CHAPTER 32

I wait until the back door slams. “Sammy! Go get a knife! From the kitchen! Quickly! Cut me loose!”

The boy’s eyes go wide. “But the man said…” He tosses a questioning look at his datt.

“It’s all right,” Adam tells him. “They’re gone. Get the wire cutters. In the drawer by the sink. Go on now.”

Sammy scrambles off the sofa and darts to the kitchen. I hear drawers being opened and closed.

“By the sink! Samuel, hurry!” Adam turns to me. “Katie, who are those men?”

“Cops,” I tell him. “Bad cops.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to stop them.” I look at him. “Where’s the closest phone?”

“The Freezer. On Ithaca Road.”

The community building where the Amish rent freezers to store meat. I’ve driven by the place dozens of times. “Too far without a vehicle,” I tell him.

I’m combing my memory for something closer when he says, “It’s less than a mile if you cut through the woods. There’s a path.”

Sammy rushes back into the room, thrusts a pair of wire cutters at us. “These?”

“Ja,” says Adam. “Katie first. Hurry now.”

I lift my feet, thrust them at Sammy. The boy falls to his knees so fast he slides across the floor a few inches. Holding the wire cutters in both hands, he snips.

“How do I get to the path?” I ask Adam. In the back of my mind I wonder if Gina was able to get to her cell, which had been charging in the Explorer.