Courage Under Fire (Silver Creek #2) - Lindsay McKenna Page 0,3

alongside of her to protect all bird species, just as she was fighting to save bees.

Sighing, she got up, knowing that she’d never go back to sleep.

The phone rang. Frowning, she picked it up.

“Hello?” Who would be calling at this time in the morning?

“This is the sheriff, ma’am. Am I speaking to Ms. Cari Taylor?”

“Yes?” A frown creased her brow as she sat down on the edge of her bed. “Why are you calling me? What’s wrong?”

“Ma’am, your stepbrother, Dirk Bannock, just escaped from the prison. The officials from that prison called us about it. We’ve already contacted your parents, and now we’re letting you know.”

Gasping, Cari shot to her feet. “What? Dirk broke out? He’s on the loose?” Instantly her heart thundered in her chest, and she felt suddenly dizzy, abruptly sitting down, her one hand wrapping into the quilt cover across her bed. Was she still dreaming? This was a nightmare! It couldn’t be true!

Oh, God, if it was?

Dirk had entered her life when her mother married Blake Bannock, a civil engineer. He had a son from his former marriage, Dirk, when he married her mother, Nalani,

Terror ripped through her. She suddenly felt faint from the shock. “B-but, he was in for twenty-five years for murder!”

“Yes, ma’am, we know. We have an all-points bulletin out to all law enforcement, and we’re working with the prison directly to find and apprehend him.”

Pressing her hand to her chest, feeling the pounding of her heart, adrenaline racing through her, she whispered frantically, “But he promised to come after me! He threatened me in open court. He’ll kill me!”

“Yes, ma’am, we’re very well aware of that. We are sending a police unit over to your home. They will be on watch twenty-four hours a day.”

Her throat ached, and she squeezed her eyes shut, hot tears streaming out of them. “H-he said he’d kill me. You have to find him!”

“We’re doing our best.”

“What about my parents?” Dirk hated her mother and her. He was competitive and wanted all the attention of his father, who now shared it with his second wife and Cari, a product of Nalani’s first marriage. Dirk had hated her the moment he met her. He saw her as direct competition.

“They also have police protection.”

“But for how long?” Though Dirk had threatened her mother, the biggest part of his hatred was reserved for Cari. She’d seen him fire the handgun at his girlfriend, Denise, and murder her. He was a cold-blooded killer. In court, a psychiatrist had labeled him as sociopathic. His world consisted of his rules and regulations. He defied the laws of society at every turn.

By age twelve, he was selling drugs at his school. And that was when he became an addict. By age fifteen, Dirk had amassed a group of boys who sold the drugs over an even larger area where they had lived. And by the time she was sixteen years old, and saw him murder Denise, he was a regional drug lord. And as much as law enforcement tried to indict him for drug running, Dirk was incredibly intelligent and was able to avoid being caught.

Until Denise. She felt sorry for the girl then, as she did now. Dirk was a law unto himself. Cari wondered during the trial if he’d murdered other kids. If so, it had never been found out. But her intuition, which was very strong, told her that Denise had not been his first victim. Or his last.

“How long can you give us protection?” she demanded.

“Ma’am, we can’t do it forever, but we will make sure while we try and hunt him down, that you are protected twenty-four hours a day.”

That wasn’t much consolation because Cari knew how smart Dirk was. He hadn’t graduated high school, disappearing into the massive suburbs around their home with his gang. She’d seen it all happen with her own eyes, never interested in taking drugs or selling them, which he’d wanted her to do. She’d told her parents about his illegal activities, and they had talked with law enforcement, spent tons of money with psychiatrists and social workers, to try and “save” Dirk.

But none of that type of support had worked. Dirk was out of control with a fierce, focused need to have his own “army,” as he’d referred to his drug gang. And, he hated women. Especially her. Dirk had created a tattoo when he was twelve to make the boys around him feel like they were part of something special. Anyone wearing