Читать книгу The Nightmare Thief - Meg Gardiner - Страница 15
ОглавлениеGrier dropped to the dirt like a bag of sand. The shot echoed. Blood bloomed through his shirt. Autumn screamed, a loud, continuing wail.
Ritter shouted, “What are you doing?”
Jo lurched to her feet. And found a pistol pointed at her face.
“Don’t move,” Friedrich said.
A quicksilver fear rolled through her. Friedrich looked frantic. The gun was matte black. The bleak eye at the end of the barrel wandered across her face.
She struggled to keep her voice level. “I’m holding still. I’m unarmed.”
Peyton applauded. “Bravo.”
She wandered to the center of the clearing, offering a big, slow handclap. “Give Grier a hand.” She whistled. “Grier, you can get up. Take a bow.”
Autumn pressed a trembling hand to her mouth.
Peyton waved, broadly, at Jo and Gabe. “And welcome our newest escaped convicts.” She laughed again. “Don’t you get it? They’re with Edge.”
Dustin looked like he’d just pissed himself. Noah stood, hands raised, blinking like a strobe light. Gabe was sweeping the scene with his gaze, checking that nobody else with a weapon was behind him. He was looking for an out.
Von aimed his pistol at Ritter. “Get Grier out of sight. Into the trees.”
Ritter cringed across the clearing. He picked up Grier’s feet and began dragging him away. Von casually took out his phone and snapped a photo of the body.
Peyton watched, swaying. Grier’s face dragged along the dirt, painting a trail with blood. Slowly, finally, understanding fired in her eyes. She gasped. Then she ran for the trees jaggedly, arms extended, hands like starfish.
Von picked up the rifle and tossed it to Friedrich. “Get them all in the Hummer.”
He racked the slide on his pistol and charged after Peyton.
Autumn screamed, “No!”
Friedrich shoved her into the Hummer, then swung the gun toward Dustin. Hacking—“Don’t shoot me”—Dustin stumbled in after her. Autumn clutched at him. Friedrich leveled the gun at Noah’s knees.
“Chill, man. I’m going.” Hands out, gesturing for calm, Noah climbed in as well. Lark was right behind.
Friedrich grabbed Jo by the biceps and beckoned Gabe. “You too. Right now.”
Gabe’s gaze was riveted on Friedrich. On Friedrich’s momentum and direction and his jittering gun hand. Jo knew what he was thinking, what he was desperate to signal to her: Don’t get in the Hummer.
If she climbed in that vehicle she was trapped. The quicksilver ran cold in her veins. She balked in Friedrich’s grip.
He shoved the gun against her side and shouted at Gabe. “In, now. Or she gets a new orifice in her rib cage.”
“Don’t,” Gabe said. “Lower the weapon. I’ll get in.”
In the trees beyond the clearing, Peyton’s screams deteriorated into sobbing. Von reappeared, hauling the girl by her hair. She was barely keeping her feet beneath her.
Gabe climbed into the Hummer. Jo stood rigid on the dirt. Friedrich rose on his toes and put his orange mustache near her ear.
“This gun has fifteen in the magazine. If you’re not in the vehicle in two seconds, I’ll start with your boyfriend.”
Jo couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow. She climbed into the Hummer.
Von shoved Peyton in behind her, sobbing. The girl fell to her knees on the thick carpet. Lark grabbed her and held her tightly.
Ritter finished dragging Grier’s body to the trees and staggered back, tracked by the rifle under Friedrich’s gaze. Ritter’s eyes looked wild, spinning with shock.
“Hurry up,” Friedrich said.
Von turned to make sure Ritter was cooperating. Jo looked at Gabe. Last chance—the door on the far side of the vehicle. She scrambled across the Hummer.
Friedrich fired the pistol into the backseat. The report was shockingly loud. Fabric flew and cordite stank up the air. The screaming came from all directions.
“What the fuck?” Dustin yelled. His gaze rounded on Jo. “Hold still.”
He grabbed her by the collar of her jacket and yanked her back. She fell on her butt on the floor.
Jo sank her fingernails into his wrist. Then Gabe grabbed Dustin’s arm and twisted, quick and sharp.
Dustin let go. His eyes shone like cracked marbles. “What’s wrong with you?”
Von shoved Ritter into the passenger compartment, climbed in after him, and slammed the door. Friedrich jumped behind the wheel and put the huge vehicle in gear.
The Hummer lurched forward, tires spinning, and slewed across the dirt in a brown swirl of dust. Von braced himself on the seat, pistol raised. Dustin’s chest rose and fell. His gaze was frightened and resentful. Peyton cringed into a ball on the backseat, sobbing, fingers jammed in her mouth. Beside her, Kyle Ritter stared at Von, his face blank and hard.
Autumn sat rigid, blinking like an otter in the sunlight, fingers clenching the plush red seat. Lark and Noah had tumbled to the floor beside Jo. They looked like stunned fish.
Von held the gun steady. “Everybody lock your hands behind your head.”
They cinched their fingers behind them. The narrow road rose up the mountainside. Friedrich accelerated. The Hummer had power, but in the altitude the engine labored. The trees whipped past. Von wiped his hand under his nose.
He gestured to Jo and Gabe. “Pockets. Empty ’em.”
They threw their phones across the limo. Von scooped them up.
He nodded at Gabe. “Back pocket too, hombre.”
Reluctantly Gabe took out his folded buck knife and slid it across the carpet to him.
“Nobody move. Not a muscle.” Von climbed over the bench seat into the driver’s compartment.
Peyton’s sobs subsided to whimpers. Autumn was shaking. “Grier.” She turned to Dustin, buried her face against his shoulder, and cried. He whispered in her ear, “Quiet.”
In the driver’s compartment, Friedrich shot Von a crazed look. “What do we do?”
“We keep driving. We get there, and then we deal with it.”
“You know that Dane’s gonna flip,” Friedrich said.
“Shut up.”
“And Sabine’s gonna have your balls for breakfast.”
Jo’s stomach was cramping. Von, Friedrich, Dane, Sabine. They were being kidnapped by the damned Trapp Family Singers.
Ritter looked stunned. “My first scenario. I can’t believe it.”
Gabe said, “You work for Edge Adventures?”
“Started this week,” Ritter said.
“You see this gang before today?”
“No. Just Mr. Coates, the head guy. And I don’t know where he is.”
He’s in the luggage compartment, Jo thought.
The asphalt ran out and the road became packed gravel. It kicked under the tires, loud and insistent. The Hummer bumped over a rut and everybody jostled against one another.
Von leaned toward Friedrich. Low and hard, he said, “We can’t just dump them by the roadside.”
Ritter whispered to Jo. “I thought something was wrong when these people showed up. They seemed surprised to see me.”
They crossed a bridge. The tires droned on the concrete. Jo caught a glimpse of whitewater in the river below.
Dustin inhaled. “We gotta do something.”
Noah, the quieter of the two college boys, murmured, “What?”
Von turned and stared at them. The gun loitered in his hand. “Keep quiet.” He turned back to Friedrich. “This is a clusterfuck of major proportions. We got three people we never counted on and the kids know what’s happening. We have to keep going. All we can do is get to the location and lock everybody down.”
Friedrich shook his head. “We’re screwed.”
“We’re screwed worse if we toss them out someplace.”
Friedrich glanced in the mirror, and Jo’s stomach gripped. She was afraid he was thinking, Only if we toss them out alive.
The Hummer boated over the gravel. The road was curving up a steep gorge. The tires ran along the road’s edge, close to a drop-off.
“Just don’t slow down,” Von said. “Volvo’s two hours behind us. We get there, we lock everybody down, we think it through.”
Dustin gritted his teeth and hissed, “We should jump them.”
Gabe gave him a slow, considered look. “What are you talking about?”
“We outnumber them. We can take them by surprise. Get control of the car.”
Peyton shook her head, quick little movements. “No,” she whispered. “Grier. No, no, no.”
The road curved strongly, following the river in a hard continuous turn. Everybody slid toward the left side of the limo. The vehicle bumped over the uneven gravel surface. The trees grew thick on the right side of the road. The mountains rose behind. The gorge yawned on their left.
Jo scrambled onto a seat and buckled her seat belt. Autumn watched and did likewise.
Dustin lowered his voice to a sharp whisper. “We can swarm them.”
Gabe didn’t move. “Bad idea.”
Dustin looked at Noah. “We can take them.”
Von glanced at them, suspicious, but they were speaking too quietly to be overheard. He resumed his manic dialogue with Friedrich.
Dustin’s breathing picked up. He whispered, “They’re going to kill us all.”
“This is not the place,” Gabe said.
Dustin turned to him, pale, almost seasick. “And who are you, some guy who works at USF? Me and Noah and Ritter here, we charge. Three on one. You can sit here with your girlfriend if you want, but we have at least three men who can do this.”
Gabe’s eyes flashed, briefly, and dimmed again. “Not yet. Not here.”
His gaze slid toward the window. The Hummer was rocketing along the rutted gravel road, bouncing like a runaway covered wagon. To their left, an eroded gradient dropped into the depths of the gorge. There was no guardrail.
Jo whispered, “Dustin, look outside. Don’t be rash.”
They had no margin for error. The gorge was so deep that she couldn’t see the bottom. The light swept across the interior of the limo as they continued to bowl around the long, sweeping bend.
Friedrich’s hands jerked back and forth on the wheel like a cartoon character’s. “We are screwed. Royally.”
“Shut up.”
Von got out a cell phone and punched numbers. As he did, a chime echoed from his pocket. Jo recognized the sound: It was her phone, sending a message. Von pulled her cell out.
Dustin’s breathing accelerated. “He’s distracted.”
Dustin tensed. Gabe shot out an arm to grab him, but Dustin was beyond reach and in motion. Shouting like a wild man, he threw himself at the front seat.
Von heard the disturbance and turned, phone to his ear. Dustin lunged into the driver’s compartment and tackled him.
Friedrich’s head whipped around. “Shit—”
Gabe moved too, fast as a snake. Ritter was a beat behind him.
Jo saw Dustin’s flailing legs and grunting face. He was fighting Von for control of the gun. Noah scrambled toward the melee. The pistol waved in Von’s hand. Jo watched it swing. She couldn’t possibly reach it. She couldn’t get anywhere close to helping.
Friedrich gaped and lifted his foot off the gas.
“No,” Von yelled.
“Faster—don’t let them jump out.” Friedrich slammed on the power again. The Hummer leapt forward.
With Dustin in the way, Gabe couldn’t get close enough to grab Von’s gun. Instead, he swept his right arm around the headrest, grabbed Von by the hair, and smashed his head against the door frame.
“Dustin, aim the gun away from us,” Gabe said.
Von twisted and submarined and kicked like a trapped bull. Gabe slammed his head against the door frame again. With his left hand he gouged at Von’s eyes. Von’s knees came up and his feet kicked the dash and the gearshift and the windshield. Friedrich turned his head.
Von’s boot connected with it. Hard.
Friedrich’s head snapped sideways. He jerked the wheel.
Jo had a sick, falling sensation. No, don’t. Stay on the road.
Friedrich hauled the wheel back and straightened out.
The gun in Von’s hand fired.
Jo ducked. Peyton and Lark screamed. The windshield spidered and the Hummer swerved. Von kicked furiously. The pistol waved in the air. Dustin clawed at Von’s hand, trying to grab the gun.
“No, turn the barrel away from us,” Gabe repeated. “Pin his hand against the dash and aim the gun away.”
Von’s legs muscled wildly back and forth. Ritter dived for his knees. Gabe continued battering Von’s head against the door frame. Von weakened. The Hummer veered left.
Jo yelled, “Steer. Hold the wheel and stop the car.”
Lark threw herself onto a seat and grabbed a seat belt. She wrapped her arm through the shoulder strap and gripped it like a vine. The Hummer shuddered. The left front wheel caught the lip of the hill. Friedrich jerked the wheel, fighting, foot still to the floor. Jo saw Autumn’s eyes gleaming with fright.
From the driver’s compartment came grunts and shouts. The gun boomed again. Then again. Glass shattered and Friedrich’s hands dropped from the wheel.
The Hummer straightened momentarily and tilted. The light turned in the sky, shadow overtaking the window.
“Oh my God,” Autumn said.
Then everything went sideways, fast. Jo hit whoever was next to her. She cried out. She saw Gabe, arms around the headrest, gripping Von’s head. He let go, grabbed a seat belt, and braced himself. He snapped the buckle and grabbed for Lark.
The front of the Hummer angled down, sliding, fast. Through the window Jo saw the slope, covered with trees and boulders.
They flipped.
The Hummer capsized, hard. The roof of the car hit the slope with a crunching sound. The windows shattered. People flew around the interior of the limo. Jo hung on to the shoulder strap of her seat belt like a commuter in a subway car that had just been kicked into a tumble cycle. The gorge steepened, and upside down, they slid forward down the slope. Jo saw light, shadow, felt the roof crushing. Dust blew through the shattered windows. She saw boulders and the silver glint of water at the bottom of the gorge. Her mind went firework white. They were going down, all the way.
