Rules of Survival

by Jus Accardo

  Shaun wiggled from the rocks and climbed to his feet. Helping me up, he asked, “So what’ll it be, Plan Girl? Mick Shultz?”

  I straightened and stretched, trying to get rid of the knot. All I succeeded in doing was making it worse. I’d slept in some funky positions before, but this one took a spot in the top five—bad and good. Shaun. I’d curled up beside him and drifted to sleep—not because we were shackled together, but because I wanted to.

  “Yeah. I think that’s the best bet we have for getting some solid info. Just one small problem.”

  He cocked his brow and I nearly melted. Damn. Each moment we spent together presented a new secret. A quirk or odd expression. The way the corner of his lip twitched as he slept. Small things that would have gone otherwise unnoticed, all there and glaring at me like the sun. “What?”

  “Finding him. My entire life, Mom never did anything using her real name. Since Mick is one of her partners, there’s a good chance he’s wanted for murder, too—or at the very least theft. And God knows what else. No way is he walking around with an ID that says Mick Shultz. He’d be using an alias.”

  Shaun frowned. “That’s a good point. Want me to call Pat?”

  “Not really…but I’m not sure there’s another option. There’s a woman in Dutchess—probably only a few hours or so from here—that Mom was sorta friends with. She might know something, but…”

  “But things with Gerald turned out badly. Who’s to say it won’t happen again?”

  “’Zactly.”

  “So…?”

  I sighed. “I guess we try Patrick again. I’ve got no idea how, but he was able to track Mom all those years despite name changes. Maybe he can figure out what alias Mick is using and point us in the right direction.”

  He nodded and took my hand. “I saw a pay phone around the corner when we came through last night. Should be safe to head back that way.”

  We wove through the woods, then the lot, as quietly as we could, and made our way around to the front of the building. It was still early. The clock on the bank sign across the street read 11:05.

  Shaun pulled out a handful of change and dialed Patrick. After seven rings, it went to voice mail. “That’s weird.”

  “That he didn’t answer? You keep saying that every time he doesn’t pick up, but honestly, he seems to never pick up…”

  Shaun frowned and hung up the phone. “This is a new thing. Pat never lets his phone go to voice mail.”

  “Well, maybe he’s still sleeping?”

  Shaun glared at the phone. “No way. Pat has never slept past six. Not in all the years I’ve been with him.”

  “You think something’s wrong?”

  “I’m not sure…”

  I glanced around the square. Signs of the lunch rush were beginning to surface here and there. There was a line out the door at the small coffeehouse a few storefronts down, and several people on the corner waiting for the bus. The paranoia in me didn’t like the growing crowd. “I don’t wanna hang out. I feel twitchy doing nothing.”

  “You think there’s more information in that note back at the cabin? Something that might help us find the evidence?”

  I closed my eyes for a moment and shook my head, wishing he hadn’t brought it up. “Don’t tempt me. I’ve already thought about it—but it’s a bad idea. Bad in the way Pompeii was bad… Going the first time was stupid. A second time would just be a death wish.”

  “So, your mom’s friend then?”

  I kicked at the large pebble by my feet. It skittered across the sidewalk, bouncing to a stop by the edge of the road. You’d think I’d learn. I’d done that once in a parking lot in California and the rock hit a shiny new Toyota. The driver screamed at Mom for half an hour before she handed him a hundred-dollar bill to cover the tiny ding in the side of his car.

  “No,” I said with a sigh. “After what happened with Gerald, I don’t wanna chance it. Whoever this Jaffe is, he’s got money to throw around.” I ran my free hand through my hair. “Honestly, I’ve got no idea what to do next.”

  “How about you come with me?” a voice said behind us. Deeds.

  Shaun and I froze.

  “Come on now, boy. Did you really think I was just going to walk away? Jaffe upped the price on this one’s head to a cool quarter mil.”

  Of course. When Patrick started asking questions, Jaffe must have realized he wasn’t going to haul me in and made sure the word spread. That’s how Gerald knew to call him. Now we probably had every bounty hunter on the Eastern Seaboard on our asses.

  “Quarter mil, huh?” I said as calmly as I could manage. “I guess I should be impressed? All that for little old me?”

  “What makes you think that you’ll be able to walk off the street with us?” Shaun responded, voice deadly. He nodded across the square to where a police car was just pulling up alongside the coffee shop. The officer slipped from the car, tipping his hat to a group of businesswomen as he disappeared inside the building. Taking a page from my book, he said, “What’s to say we don’t scream our heads off?”

  Deeds chuckled. “Go right ahead. I heard you talking. You’re trying to find evidence. I’m betting it has to do with who killed her mother, right? You scream now and the cops will nab her for the murder and she’ll never get it.”

  Shit. He had a point.

  “What about a deal?” I said, idea forming.

  “What kind of deal? Unless you got a quarter million in your back pocket, we got nothing to bargain for.”

  “No. Don’t have a quarter million,” I said. This was my area of expertise. Bullshit. “I do have a little less than a million, though.”

  Grayson Deeds, all about the greed, perked up. A spark of hunger flashed in his eyes and the right-hand corner of his lip tilted skyward. “Is that right?”

  Mom had one hell of reputation. It was greatly embellished—she’d said once that rumors were like giant snowballs rolling downhill—but I hoped I could use it to my advantage. At least long enough to buy us some time.

  “Um, look who you’re talking to. Why do you think she’s been one of the top five most sought after criminals for the last ten years?”

  “Bengali’s money,” he hissed. He stomped his foot and let out a shrill whistle.

  “Exactly,” I said, nodding. I had no idea who—or what—Bengali was, but it seemed to have caught Deeds’s attention and that was good enough for me. His mouth was practically watering at the possibility of getting his greedy paws on it. I went full speed ahead. “I know where it is. If you agree to let us go, I’ll take you to it. You can have it all in exchange for leaving me alone.”

  He smiled, revealing a large chip in one of his upper front teeth. It was the kind of thing that on someone else, might have given them character. On this guy, it looked trashy. “How do you know I won’t take the money and then turn you over anyway?”

  Of course he would turn me over. It meant twice the payout. But he didn’t have to know I knew. “What choice do I have other than to trust you? Kinda got us over a barrel, and I’ve got nowhere left to run.”

  He placed a meaty hand on Shaun’s right shoulder, and the other on my left. “Well then, kiddies. Let’s go. Car’s right around the corner.”

  …

  “You better not be bullshitting me,” Deeds said as we pulled into the First National Bank of Everett. “That Jaffe guy don’t care if you’re dead or alive when he gets you, and I got a nasty temper.”

  I’d directed him to Everett, a small town a little over five hours away. He had a lead foot, so it hadn’t taken us nearly as long as I’d hoped—but it looked like it’d been enough.

  “I promise it’s there—but we can’t get it right now,” I responded, eyeing him through the metal grate that separated the front and back seats. Most hunters had them, along with active child-safe locks on the back doors. Protection against rowdy marks looking to make a last-minute escape attempt.

  Deeds twisted in his seat to glare at me. His face turned b
right red—one hell of an accomplishment considering his orangey skin tone—and his eyeballs kind of bulged. If the guy wasn’t careful, he’d drop dead of a heart attack before he hit fifty—unless skin cancer got him first. “Why the hell not?”

  I nodded to the building, where a woman in a dark suit was ushering one last group of people from the bank.

  “Goddammit!” he yelled. He ripped off his seat belt and stumbled from the car, cursing the entire time. We watched him race across the lot and try to sidestep the woman and slip inside the building. She shut him down.

  They started arguing, but the woman stayed firmly planted in front of the door and kept shaking her head. A heated, colorful exchange followed—at least on Deeds’s part. He waved his hands around and stomped his feet like a child. Every once in a while I’d catch a word or two from across the lot. After a few minutes of this, the woman ducked back into the building and locked the door with a smug smile on her face.

  “There’s no money, is there?” Shaun said as he yanked up on the door handle. As I’d expected, it didn’t budge. He sighed and settled back in his seat to watch Deeds yell at the woman through the door. Every so often he’d slam his fist against the glass. This only made the woman smile more.

  “Oh, there’s money—just not a million dollars’ worth. I told you, Mom kept some cash in all her boxes. We never knew where we’d end up from one day to the next. It was her way of covering all the bases.”

  “So what are you planning to tell him when he sees it’s not there?”

  “We just need to make sure we’re gone long before morning,” I said as Deeds gave up and stalked back to the car.

  Shaun nodded, a look of admiration in his eyes. “That’s why you had him drive all the way here. So the bank would be closed.”

  “Don’t gush,” I said, grinning. “I know I’m brilliant.”

  “Couldn’t sweet-talk her into letting you in, huh?” Shaun said with a snicker as Deeds yanked open the door and dropped into the driver’s seat. He started the engine with a violent jerk. “I guess you need to work on your routine.”

  “Shut your mouth or I’ll shut it for you,” he demanded. “Looks like we’re all stuck with one another for the night. We’ll be back here first thing in the morning when they open.” He stomped on the gas pedal and zipped the car from the lot.

  We didn’t drive far. A block or two from the bank, tops. Deeds swung the vehicle into an end spot at the edge of the Everett Motel’s dingy lot, then slipped from the car in silence, presumably to get a room.

  There was garbage everywhere. Scattered fast-food wrappers and black plastic trash bags—one of which he tripped over on his way to the registration booth. If the parking lot was this bad, I didn’t even want to know what was waiting for us inside. I had a strong stomach for most things, but bugs squicked me out. One roach and I was going to lose it.

  As soon as his attention was occupied, Shaun tilted back and brought both feet up to kick at the grate separating the front and back seats. “If I can get into the front, I can hot-wire this rust bucket.” But the grate wouldn’t budge. “This is obviously not our moment.”

  “It’ll come,” I said, hoping it sounded more convincing to him than it did me. “I mean, he’s gotta sleep, right?”

  Shaun slumped against his door. Nope. He wasn’t buying it, either. “In theory, yeah. But Grayson Deeds is known for his unethical methods. The sooner we put distance between us and this asshole, the better.”

  “Unethical methods?” I wriggled my wrist, rattling the shackle chains. “You mean there are ethical methods?”

  Shaun’s cheeks flushed. “Well, no… But, for example, there was this blue-collar embezzler a year or so ago that Deeds tracked down. James Mendez. The guy was slippery. Pat tried tracking him, but he kept missing him. Mendez had been running for two years. Dude was a major flight risk. Deeds nabbed him in Dakota and drove almost an entire state with Mendez strapped to the roof of the car before cops pulled him over.”

  That wasn’t unethical. That was just plan insanity. “Why?”

  Shaun shrugged. “How much energy would you have to put into escaping, if you’d just driven nearly one hundred miles going seventy strapped to the roof of someone’s car?”

  I inclined my head toward the building, a new kind of fear blooming in the pit of my stomach. “He’s coming back.”

  Shaun caught my gaze and held it, hazel eyes so intense I found myself holding my breath. “Just be careful. Don’t say anything to set him off. He’s crazy.”

  A moment later, Deeds slid back behind the wheel and pulled the car around the side of the motel. A part of me had hoped there would be people—other cars, at least—that might provide some form of distraction and possibly present an opportunity, but there was nothing. Other than Deeds’s car, there was a red SUV with no license plates and a missing passenger’s side tier at the far end and that was it. The place was deserted. My eyes fell to the building. Spray-painted across several of the doors was Satan sees everything.

  Deserted? I couldn’t imagine why…

  “This is how it’s gonna work,” Deeds said, opening the back passenger’s door. “You’ll be quiet and cooperate, and then in the morning we’ll go and get my cash. I’ll let you go, and you can be on your way before lunch. Everyone’s happy.”

  I wanted to call bullshit, but bit my tongue. Even the most unjaded person could see he was lying. The overdone, fake smile, the way his right eye kept twitching… He was like an evil version of an overgrown Oompa Loompa—and he had more tells than an amateur poker player.

  My guess was that Grayson Deeds didn’t lie very often. He probably didn’t need to in his line of work. Or more to the point, didn’t bother. I’d never heard of a hunter apologizing to a mark, much less making up a story to put them at ease. They were more of the snatch-and-grab type.

  Shaun and I both nodded, then extracted ourselves from the car. Deeds knew what he was doing and had gotten the corner room on the first floor. He walked behind us with a strong grip on both of our shoulders and handed the key to Shaun once we made it to the door.

  “Go head. Unlock it.”

  It was smart really, and a small part of me admired him for it. By having Shaun unlock the door, there was no chance he’d be distracted—even for a second. Because a second was all it took to lose control of the situation. And with that much money at stake, Deeds wasn’t taking any chances.

  He locked the door behind us and glanced around the room. “What should I do with you two for the night?” he said to himself. He set his bag down by the door and scanned the room, eyes lingering on the bed.

  “No idea,” I mumbled. “But I’ve got some thoughts about what you can do with yourself…”

  Beside me, Shaun tensed and Deeds whirled around. His fingers dug into my shoulder and I had to bite the inside of my lip to keep from yelping at the pressure. There’d be a serious bruise there in the morning. That is, if he didn’t squeeze my arm clean off. “What was that, missy?”

  “Ya know, Deeds…” Shaun said quickly. “Pat isn’t going to be happy about this.”

  He chuckled and let go of me. “Oh yeah? What’s that? Me infringing on his turf?”

  “There is that, yeah. But I was talking about me.”

  Deeds folded his arms and flashed us a smirk. “You?”

  “Blood or not, I’m Pat’s family. You’re basically keeping his kid hostage.”

  “Then let’s consider this payment for the two of you poaching Andrew Flynn in Texas.”

  Shaun’s eyes widened. “Flynn? The two-bit con with the three-grand price on his head?”

  “That’s the one. I was contracted for that job.”

  “So were we,” Shaun countered. “Every hunter with half a brain knows most people double-and triple-book jobs. They’re covering their bases.” At his side, the pointer finger on his right hand flicked back and forth. “There were probably ten people contracted for that job.”

  It took me a minute
, but I finally realized what he was doing. Giving me a distraction. A chance to really look around without Deeds’s gaze on me. Get the lay of the room.

  I took advantage. The room had one large window at the front—right by the single king-size bed. Not an option. It was a corner room, so there was the possibility of a small window in the bathroom, but that wouldn’t work. There’d never be enough time—or more likely, an opportunity. Unfortunately, as far as planning an escape went, I wasn’t seeing a ton of options. Hell, I wasn’t seeing any. And then I caught sight of his bag. He’d dropped it by the door when we’d come in. There were a couple cell phones peeking out. But it was too far away. We’d never be able to reach it.

  A shadow loomed over my head, accompanied by a dark chuckle. “And what are you looking at?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “Thinking about making a run for the door, huh?” he prodded.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t realize I’d been eyeing the bag. “Caught me,” I said lightly. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”

  Deeds grabbed both my shoulders and gave a slight shake. The shackle chains rattled and sharp pain shot up my arm. “I can—and will. Let’s get it straight. You try to make it out that door, and I’ll see to it you never walk again. Are we clear?”

  I didn’t need Shaun’s warning to simply nod my head. The tone of Deeds’s voice was enough. He meant it. I had no doubt. If he caught us trying to escape, God only knew what he’d do…

  We had to be very careful.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Around eight, Deeds decided it was time for dinner. For him—not us. Before he left, he’d used his own pair of handcuffs to secure us to the bed frame. One cuff on Shaun’s left hand, and the other on my right, he threaded it through one of the bars at the bottom of the bed. He even took it one step further than that. As an extra method of security, he also cuffed my right foot to the frame with another set. While he’d been setting the whole thing up, a part of me wanted to joke that he should add duct tape, too—just to be safe.

  I kept my mouth closed when I saw a roll of it peeking out from the top of his bag.