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Feeling like an idiot for even contemplating her earlier thinking – that it might be just a change of clothes Ray carried – she reviewed her foolishness and called herself the same names she’d heard all her life.
Stupid. Idiot. Dumb shit.
She’d wanted to believe she’d built a mountain from a molehill. Hadn’t it seemed possible since she’d seen Ray leaving the house earlier dressed as Raven?
Jess now understood Raven had probably gotten into the school earlier with her Raven student card and then switched identities… most likely in the girls’ locker room at the school. And she hadn’t left the bag in her locker. Instead, Raven, now being Ray, carried it around the school with him because of what he had inside. Absolutely certain about her theory, Jess made up her mind.
Though terror of ending up back in jail engulfed her once again, she pushed the thought from her mind. Lori came first. She began to make her way to warn the agent and got caught up in the crowd heading out to the hallway to spend the halftime period getting coffee and snacks.
Pushing against the excited people, she tried to focus on Ray but lost him in the crowd. Suddenly, gunshots rang out, coming from the locker room. Players began to pour out. Fear stamped on each face as they pushed and forced their way through the door to freedom. Jessi saw Lori and Walker swing around, both jumping over chairs and pushing aside seats, hurrying in the direction from where the shots had been fired.
Closer, Jessi snuck in around the last horrified player leaving and found herself in an empty locker room. Voices in the next door coach’s office were clear. Using the second doorway that came from that room, she slunk down and snuck toward the opening to see what was happening.
Ray, his back to her, had the rifle slung over his shoulder and he was trying to convince Mellie she needed to come with him. “We have to leave now Mellie. Or they will come in and kill me. I won’t go without you. I don’t want to die alone. You’re my angel, my love. If you come with me now, we can escape.”
Jessi heard the panic in Mellie’s voice and had a huge respect for the girl who still managed to keep her tone level and her words calm. “I-I can’t go with you. I don’t even know you. My parents would ki… be mad at me for even talking to a stranger.” Mellie stood well away from Ray and every time he stepped closer, she moved back.
A noise came at the doorway from the auditorium and Jessi saw first Walker and then Lori enter. Ray swung to aim. Realizing her person would soon be in danger, Jessi rushed up behind Ray, jumped on his back, and grabbed his neck, trying to force him to drop the gun. Frantically, she ripped at his throat in panic and tried desperately to pull him down.
Stronger than her, he managed to get the gun up in his hands and let loose a volley of bullets. Still refusing to release her hold, she clung, praying Lori hadn’t been hit.
Walker, realizing the danger, had flung himself in front of Mellie and a bullet caught him, flinging him back against the wall… Mellie being brought down under him.
Lori, now in the open, saw Jessi’s struggle and jumped in to help the poor girl get control. With a punch to Ray’s stomach intending to stop his struggling, she followed with a wicked slice to his arm which made him drop the weapon.
Flung back against a hard object by his obscene strength and forced to let go, Jessi watched from the floor in horror as Ray became manic.
Screaming vile obscenities, he lunged for Lori, fingers like claws and teeth gleaming like those a wild animal might expose before an attack. The agent fought back each assault, her training obvious. Jessi jumped in again and tried to hang onto Ray’s feet to stop him from going after Lori and got kicked in the face.
Pandemonium prevailed until a furious male voice yelled so loudly that Ray and the others stopped dead. “Raven!”
Shocking everyone, upon hearing that tone, the rabid beast turned into a simpering pussycat.
“Daddy.”
Chapter Fifty
Lori couldn’t believe how a wonderful, warmhearted, normal evening of fun could become a nightmare in a matter of seconds.
The sound of the rifle first alerted them that there was trouble. Both her and Beau had rushed toward where the sounds had come from. She’d heard Beau’s ragged voice scream his goddaughter’s name and her heart dropped to the bottom of her chest with a painful thud.
Coming through the door behind him, she saw the moment when the fought-over rifle became aimed his way only to have Mellie be directly in the path. She sensed Beau’s move to protect the girl and in the back of her mind, she knew he’d been hit. But so many things were happening at once, she couldn’t stop to find out.
It was at that moment she saw Jessi wrestling behind the male figure trying to stop him from shooting again that she rushed forward to help the girl.
A scream clogged her throat as panicky adrenalin kicked in. Releasing a vile word, and with all her strength, she punched the gun holder in the stomach. When it seemed to do nothing to stop the wicked force, she slammed his arm, hoping to make him drop the weapon. When it worked, she saw him fling Jessi off.
Hitting the side of the desk with a thud, writhing in agony from the hard wood connecting to her back, the girl lay there stunned.
Lori now faced a wild animal alone. She’d never seen another human act so viciously before, talons instead of fingernails and teeth bared to lunge at her… stop her… hurt her. The human had been taken over by a beast whose eyes glittered with a hatred so intense, it shriveled Lori’s normal instinct to only use the necessary force and made her strike out hard and fast.
At one point, she noticed that Ray’s legs were being caught from behind and again saw Jessi’s panicked face, her teeth gritting with determination to help. Before she could take advantage of this help, a loud voice broke into Ray’s snarls and a scene straight out of a fantasy movie occurred. The wild creature turned into a coy baby.
“Raven!”
Raven’s father, the man who’d called out, forced his way to where she’d dropped to the floor, now a conciliatory little girl. The large man gathered her in his arms. Hysterical before, the gun toting killer now lay peacefully nestled there, a threat to no one.
Lori gathered a wounded Jessi toward her and whispered, her throat tight with emotion, “Are you okay, baby?”
