The Echo of Violence by Jordan Dane Read Free Book Online Page B

the wall behind her, she stifled a scream. She pressed a tight fist to her lips, not wanting to panic the children more. The gunfire made her ears ring, and sounds were muffled in her head. Her captors had them moving in a line and winding through corridors. Kate never looked up. She kept her head down and made sure the children stayed together.
    Two men led them to a stairway that took them into a basement. The darkness swallowed them, and she lost track of the children. She whispered for them to hang on to the one in front, but she wasn’t sure they heard her. Gripping the shirt of the boy ahead of her, Andre, she held on and kept moving. Crouching low, she stepped down the stairs with aching knees. And when her tunic got in the way again, she hoisted thefolds of the garment, and the cross on her rosary beads clanged on a metal railing.
    One of the terrorists must have taken offense. In the dark, a hand grabbed her. He groped her body until he found what he wanted and yanked the rosary she wore. Beads fell to the floor. And she felt the force of his hostility to her faith, but she didn’t resist or give the man any reason to kill her. For the children’s sake, she had to do as she was told.
    When she reached the bottom level, she turned a corner and squinted. A dim glow in the basement came from narrow windows at ground level. And a pale gray washed over the cramped space of a storage area for the clinic, where wooden shelves held boxes and other supplies. She peered across the room through sore, watering eyes. In the sweltering heat, a layer of grit covered her skin, and trickles of perspiration crawled down her back and armpits. The smothering stale air and the lingering effects of the tear gas intensified her feeling of hopelessness by making it harder to breathe.
    At the first sign of movement at the windows, she ducked and reached for the children, drawing them closer.
    “Hold hands. Stay together,” she urged them, keeping her voice calm as she looked over her shoulder.
    Glaring lights from outside swept across the windowpanes, casting an eerie silhouette on the men who held them at gunpoint. And even though she suspected the police had the building surrounded, there were onlya few lights on this side of the clinic. Fewer police had staked out the rear. She had no idea what her captors were planning.
    If escape wasn’t an option, would they shift gears into a suicide mission? Desperate men resorted to reckless measures. And her gut twisted with a more disturbing thought. From what she’d seen of the Haitian police, all their lives were in danger. And bullets killed no matter who pulled the trigger. Were their captors the lesser of two evils?
    In another life, she would have cursed her predicament. Now their survival meant more to her than giving in to her own rage. Every ounce of her energy would be focused on getting the children and the other hostages through this ordeal. And although she found comfort in her objective, she knew these men would test her faith—and her humanity—before this was all over if she survived.
    A bolted metal door led to a belowground walkout. From what she’d seen of construction in Port de Paix, a cinder-block wall would give them marginal cover. But once they made it to the top of the outdoor steps, they’d be exposed to gunfire from the police. And she had no doubt their captors would use them as shields.
    What would the police do then?
    “Oh, God…please,” she whispered, fearing the answer. She made a quick sign of the cross to stop her body from trembling.
    The masked men peered out the windows and kept to the shadows of the storage room. They spoke in hushed voices in a heated debate she didn’t understand.One man pulled another weapon from a pack he carried. She couldn’t make out what it was. Kate could tell they’d assessed the danger, same as she had. And when their leader intervened, she held her breath.
    Whatever he decided, it would happen now.

CHAPTER 5
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