The mood in the hallway flattened. For the first time, Ryker saw Monique Thibaud as a genuine threat, as though she were about to leap forward, teeth bared. Why the lie about Sophie?
‘So if she’s not here, where the hell is she?’ Henrik said to Monique, perhaps misreading the mood, because there’d be no more questions and answers now. Ryker’s only goal was to get out of the house without further conflict.
‘Have you seen what he did to my face?’ Jules complained to Monique, taking his hand away to reveal the gash above his badly swollen eye.
‘It’s an improvement,’ Henrik responded.
The anger on Jules’ face…
Monique didn’t look at either of them, didn’t respond to either, and instead kept her focus wholly on Ryker.
At least her focus stayed on Ryker until she momentarily flicked her gaze over his left shoulder.
Ryker spun.
Anna. Three yards away, by the morning room entrance, gun pointed at him. Clever. So her injuries hadn’t been too bad after all.
Ryker pulled his gun toward her. Fired. Knew the shot would miss – he’d fired too early – but also knew the pre-emptive move, and the commotion it caused, would give him an advantage.
Anna stooped and tried to move away. She fired, too, but Ryker was already on her. He spun again, on the move, and thundered an elbow into her head as he grabbed her gun arm. He pushed the gun up as she fired more shots. He prized the weapon away and it bounced along the floor, then, still holding her arm, he jolted forward and tossed her over his shoulder and to the ground with a thud.
Bruno rushed for him. Ryker ducked and missed the glancing blow. Further ahead Jules had pulled a gun. Henrik? Where was Henrik? Monique cowered by the stairs. None of that fighting look on her face now.
Ryker took a blow to his back from Bruno. Fired another shot that hit Jules in his foot and he hopped about then collapsed to the floor. Bruno had a gun in his hand now too. Anna’s? He lifted it to fire at Ryker’s chest…
Ryker leaped forward, wrapped his arms around Bruno’s waist, and sent them both flying. Bruno’s back cracked against a side table and Ryker’s weight pushed down on him as he let out a painful oomph. Ryker swiped the gun free and tossed it then smacked the butt of the gun he was holding in his other hand against the side of Bruno’s face. His head lolled.
Ryker bounced to his feet. Anna had pulled herself up, knife in her hand. Jules remained on the floor, but he was still armed…
At least, he was until Henrik rushed from out of a doorway and ran up to Jules and launched his foot into the guy’s face. He flopped to the floor. Monique cowered, though her eyes flitted to the gun Ryker had tossed. Would she go for it?
‘Come on, this way!’ Henrik shouted, before turning and running in the opposite direction to Ryker.
Ryker faced Anna and held her eye as he backstepped the way Henrik had gone. She got the point. If she launched herself at him, he’d shoot her, simple as that. She stayed where she was. After a couple more steps, Ryker turned and ran.
He moved through the hall into the large country-style kitchen. Spotted the open back door and felt the waft of cold air as he raced that way. He sensed the movement behind him. Only half-looked to see who had followed him as he fired a single warning shot that cracked into a cabinet and sent wood splinters flying.
Ryker rushed out into the open. A quick look around. No one in sight. At least, no armed guards, but he spotted Henrik standing by the open driver’s door to one of the two cars outside – a mud-spattered Jeep.
‘You drive,’ Henrik shouted before running around the front of the car to the other side.
Ryker sprinted forward and jumped into the driver’s seat. He pulled the door shut.
‘Keyless ignition,’ Henrik said, holding the fob in his hand.
Ryker pressed the brake and then the start/stop button and the diesel engine rumbled to life. Anna darted outside. Gun in hand. Bruno rushed out behind her, armed once more. No sign of Jules.
Ryker wound his window down as he selected reverse gear. He swung the car around. Fired off the remaining bullets in the gun still clutched in his left hand. The other gun, the one he’d taken from Anna the previous night, lay on his lap. The shots did enough to halt any immediate assault from Anna and Bruno. Ryker pushed the gearstick into drive and hit the gas. Only a couple of seconds later he had to hit the brake again to come to a skidding stop at the closed gates. ‘I’ve got it!’ Henrik shouted as he rushed outside.
Ryker took the other gun from his lap and fired off more shots in the direction of Anna and Bruno. No hits – his intention, really – and Anna fired off several rounds in retaliation, causing both Ryker and Henrik to duck.
‘Come on!’ Ryker said to Henrik, his foot twitching on the gas pedal.
Gates opened, the youngster dove back inside and was still in mid-air as Ryker slammed his foot on the gas once more. All four tires skidded for a second, sending up plumes of snow spray before the rubber found traction on the icy surface and the Jeep shot forward.
Another couple of shots from Anna. One clunked into the back of the Jeep. But as Ryker looked in his mirror again he saw neither she nor Bruno were giving chase.
Ryker tossed both of the guns out of his window.
‘What are you doing?’ Henrik protested.
Ryker didn’t respond, just kept on going until Monique Thibaud’s home faded into the distance behind them.
* * *
They drove on for twenty minutes, initially heading back into town – the only way they could really get away from the farmhouse without moving off-road and toward the ski slopes. Once through the town, they went north, until Ryker found a trail heading up into the mountains. He parked the car on a woodland track that – at least according to the Jeep’s GPS – didn’t go anywhere except further up.
‘Why did you throw those guns away?’
Ryker looked at Henrik. ‘That’s really the most important question you have right now?’
Henrik didn’t respond.
‘I tossed them because we have no use for them. One of them was spent, the other one only had a few bullets. But more than that, we don’t need them. For whatever reason, Monique Thibaud and her heavies are after us now, and the local police will side with them. If we’re stopped, in a stolen car, having weapons will only make everything worse for us.’
‘I thought you were a better shot than that,’ Henrik said.
Ryker stared at him. ‘I’m a very good shot.’
‘They why didn’t you get them?’
‘Because I don’t know if they deserved it.’
‘After what they did on the mountain? And just now? That’s twice they’ve shot at us.’
Henrik was right, yet Ryker still didn’t know why Monique Thibaud and her guards saw him and Henrik as a threat.
Henrik glared at Ryker. ‘You’re angry at me,’ he said.
Ryker was.
‘For which part?’ Henrik asked, sullen. ‘Attacking that guy, Jules? Searching that house to discover her lie? Finding the key for this thing so we could escape?’
Ryker shook his head.
‘What? You’ve nothing to say to me now?’
‘You’re a lousy team player,’ Ryker said.
Henrik practically snarled. ‘Take a look at yourself.’
‘Oh, don’t worry. I’m well-aware that I work much better alone. I’ve always preferred it that way.’
He saw a flicker of hurt in Henrik’s eyes.
‘But at least when I’m teamed up, I understand the change in dynamics,’ Ryker continued. ‘I understand it’s not just my ass on the line. I understand the need to communicate so we’re all working together, rather than just running off doing our own thing.’
‘Coming from you, that’s the biggest load of bullshit I ever heard.’
‘I might even have agreed with your approach. Sneaking off like that to the bathroom. Attacking Jules so you could rush around the house. If you’d explained that’s what you wanted to do, we could even have come up with something better.’
‘No, we wouldn’t have. Because I hadn’t planned any of that. It was an impulsive decision because I knew she was lying to us. I took some initiative.’
‘You were reckless. Again.’
‘You just don’t like that I take charge sometimes.’
Perhaps Henrik was right about that. But he was fifteen years old.
‘We wouldn’t have found out about Sophie if I hadn’t done all that,’ Henrik said. ‘Monique would have kept on feeding us crap about her family until we were shown out of there. I’ve moved this thing on.’
‘This thing? Which is what?’
‘You know what. Helping a teenage girl whose family was murdered, and whose sole remaining relative is lying about her disappearance.’
Ryker took a long inhale then sighed.
‘So what now?’ Henrik said.
Ryker thought for a while. ‘We have several choices.’
Henrik rolled his eyes. ‘Please don’t tell me one of those choices is we walk away, for good.’
It was. In fact, it was Ryker’s favored choice in many ways. Certainly, it was the choice that carried the least risk for them both.
‘You’re so obvious sometimes,’ Henrik said with a grin now. ‘So what else?’
Ryker tried not to return the look. He wanted to be angry, but…
‘I think it’s too risky to stay in St Ricard. For now. We’ve just been involved in a shoot-out. We’re in a stolen car. We already think the police and other locals are bowing down to Monique Thibaud for whatever reason. We’ll find it difficult to move freely here.’
‘But there are answers here,’ Henrik said. ‘She knows a lot more than she told us. Not just about that night but about what’s happened to Sophie since. And like you said, other people are involved too. Yes, we’ll be under watch here, but if we’re careful…’
Ryker’s brain whirred. Was there an ulterior reason for Henrik to be so keen to stay around St Ricard, despite the risks?
‘Plus there’s plenty still to figure out here,’ Henrik added. ‘We could go to Sophie’s old home. It’s empty now, there might be clues there as to what happened. And what about the dam project I told you about? Corinne Thibaud was opposed to that, big time. We could find out who the key players are who wanted to make sure that project went ahead, whatever the cost.’
‘Or we could move away from St Ricard altogether for a while,’ Ryker said.
Henrik slumped. ‘I thought we took that option away.’
‘No. I mean, we could go to Lyon. It’s where the Thibauds’ supposed killers came from, you said. We can track down their gangs. Find out what they know, see if we can find out who put them up to the murders.’
‘Or find proof that they were never there at all.’
Did such proof exist?
Ryker mulled the options. Henrik watched him silently. For a while.
‘What do you think happened to Sophie?’ Henrik asked.
‘She survived that attack,’ Ryker said. ‘She was taken in and sheltered by her aunt. Do we at least believe that?’
‘I think so.’
‘So at some point after she was rescued, she disappeared. Either of her own accord or…’
Ryker dwelled on that.
‘Or she was kidnapped,’ Henrik said. ‘It’s possible she’s being held hostage. That someone is ransoming her.’
It was possible.
‘Another reason to stay in St Ricard, then,’ Henrik said. ‘Those people weren’t that scary. Bruno, Jules, Anna? We’d get the better of them again. We should go back and find out everything Monique Thibaud knows about her family’s murder and her niece’s disappearance.’
Ryker smiled. He had to admire Henrik’s confidence, at least.
‘What?’ Henrik said, clearly agitated by Ryker’s reaction.
‘We will ask her. But you want to make sure Sophie is okay, don’t you?’
He could see in Henrik’s eyes that he really did. How had he become so infatuated with a young woman he’d never even met?
‘Then we’ll go back to confront Monique Thibaud another time,’ Ryker said. ‘If someone’s taken Sophie, it makes sense that it’s the same people who set up the initial attack on her family. Perhaps the intention was always to capture, not kill her.’
‘Why?’
‘Good question.’
‘So we’re going to Lyon to find out?’
Ryker started up the engine.
‘Yes, we are.’