Therefore, I didn’t hesitate. I put my hands to his shoulders and my foot in his hands. I had misgivings about this mostly because I had limited upper body strength so I had the feeling there was no way I was going to be able to pull myself over that tall fence.
I didn’t have to worry. Hawk didn’t give me a lift up. He gave me a lift up. Well past his waist, straight to his shoulders, boosting me with such strength and speed, he nearly hurled me over the wall. I was on my belly on the wall before I knew it. I swung my legs around and dropped down, soft knees, fell to my side and rolled.
Wow. Easy.
Not two seconds later, Aunt Bette followed me doing the same thing except hers was practiced, thus cooler like it wasn’t the first time she did it. Or the second.
I was thinking I now had proof Aunt Bette had secret ways when she grabbed my hand and pulled me aside as Hawk followed her. Then he moved and we moved with him. The fence ran along the side of a sleepy road, sleepy as in, no traffic. There was a black SUV some ways away from where we jumped over the fence. Hawk bleeped the locks. I went to the passenger side back, Aunt Bette to the front passenger seat.
“Down, no one sees you,” Hawk ordered.
“Copy that but do you have a secure phone? I need to call my husband,” Aunt Bette replied.
“Glove compartment,” Hawk answered, turned and through the gathering darkness another commando showed, Hispanic, shorter and leaner than Hawk. He didn’t speak. Hawk nodded to him, turned and nodded to Aunt Bette, his eyes sliced through me and then he and the other commando moved away.
I scrambled into the SUV. So did Aunt Bette. I got low. So did Aunt Bette. I heard her searching the glove box, I heard beeping noises then I heard her talking to Uncle Marsh.
But all I thought about was Lanie. I was safe now. I was breathing. I was unhurt. The same with Aunt Bette. I just hoped with all I had that when our rescuers returned with Lanie, they’d do it in one piece and she’d be in the same condition. Then I was going to hunt down Elliott my own damned self and wring his neck.
“Tyra?” Aunt Bette called when she beeped off the phone.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“It’s gonna be okay,” she whispered back.
I bit my lip.
Then I said, “I’m sorry, Aunt Bette.”
“You didn’t kidnap me and tie me to a chair.”
This was true.
We fell silent. Several minutes later, the door opposite me opened and Hawk deposited Lanie in the seat. I twisted and looked up at her, automatically reaching out to grab her hand.
“You okay?” I asked.
“No,” her voice trembled.
Oh God.
“Did they hurt you?” I asked.
“No,” her voice trembled more.
“Honey –” I started but Hawk was folding in the driver’s seat and he interrupted me.
“Debrief later,” he ordered, started up the car and we took off.
I wanted to ask who he was, how he knew we were there and why he’d rescued us but he scared me a little bit seeing as he obviously wasn’t the police and entered an uncertain situation somewhat heavily armed. Not to mention, he could scale a twelve foot wall without anyone giving him a leg up.
Since I figured Aunt Bette knew what she was doing, and she also kept her silence, I followed suit and held Lanie’s hand squeezing tight. She didn’t squeeze tight back and I heard a hitch in her breath so I knew she was crying.
I bit my lip again.
That was when I heard it, the familiar roar of Harleys. I turned and looked out the back window as I heard Hawk mutter, “What the f**k?”
I was right, Harleys and a lot of them. I saw Tack up front and it took everything I had not to cry out with joy or burst into relieved tears.