Legend_A Rockstar Romance

by Ellie Danes

  “Take the van now. We’ll drive out of here like we did before,” I said.

  Before Nathan could talk any sense into me, I slipped out of his fingers and ran. There was so much space that I picked up speed despite not being able to see a thing through the dark hood. I could hear the guard running up behind me, and I dodged to the side at the last minute.

  His partner’s laughter echoed across the warehouse. Then I heard a second pair of footsteps circling around me. I didn’t panic until I ran flat out into someone.

  He was thin and I knocked him back a step, but his grip was strong. “You must be Nathan’s lucky charm, eh?” he asked.

  “What?” I strained to hear him above the guards shouting.

  “He thinks I’m in a run of bad luck. It’s nothing compared to his debt. I hope you’re his lucky charm because his luck’s about to run out.”

  The two guards plucked me away from the man and dragged me back to the van. I hadn’t made it more than fifty yards.

  They shoved Nathan and I in the stripped-out back of the van. I huddled close to him and hoped he had used my distraction to get a weapon or at least a knife to break our restraints. The guards had learned from the first time and had wound multiple ties around our wrists.

  “Save your energy, Bree,” Nathan whispered.

  “What?” I was angry at how he sounded. As if I was child that had been run wild for no reason.

  “We shouldn’t talk.” Nathan’s voice was barely audible even though he was right next to me.

  My pulse was still jumping too fast to calm down. “I think we should talk. Let’s talk about how many friends you made while you were working here.”

  Nathan grabbed my wrists and squeezed until I shifted in pain. “Stop talking, Bree.”

  “No.” I wriggled away from him. “You’ve remembered something, haven’t you? And you were just going to go along with all the information like you’ve done this whole time.”

  Nathan caught me close and I could feel his lips moving against my ear. “I changed my mind. Keep it up, make it more dramatic. If we split up and stop talking the guards will relax. Then maybe they’ll start talking.”

  I shoved him back. “Fine. Then how about we talk about your gambling? Funny how you never mentioned your habit of going on wild benders and losing thousands of dollars.”

  “Bree, just listen,” Nathan pleaded.

  I lashed out again but the hood kept me from making contact. “Just stay away from me. This is all your fault. I’m done with you.”

  I wriggled across the van floor and pressed my back to the side opposite Nathan. The heat from the hood was itching my face and mouth, and I could feel tears burning behind my eyes. On top of it, the sudden quiet was unbearable.

  All I could hear was the road grinding along underneath us and the speed filled me with fear. How far away we were going? If we managed to get away, how would we ever make our way back to the border?

  Then the two guards started talking.

  From the first subtle jabs and chuckles, it was easy to tell they were family. Then they started talking about an uncle and it was clear they were cousins. They complained about how his will had been distributed and they had gotten nothing. Not once did they express any sadness over the deceased. It was all about money.

  The heartless conversation and the rocking lull of the van almost put me to sleep. Then one cousin asked the other how long they had to go.

  “About forty minutes. Then we’ll stop,” he replied.

  He didn’t say anything about the transfer or meeting the armored car. A twinge of fear moved down my back. What if there wasn’t going to be a transfer? All he had said was ‘stop.’ Why did that make me think we wouldn’t be going anywhere after that?

  I wanted to crawl to Nathan’s side and take some comfort in his strength. He would figure out a way to get us free. I couldn’t even think about what he would do, or how he wouldn’t stop. I had to believe in him.

  I took a deep breath and decided I had to believe in myself too. Just that thought was enough to loosen my tangled anxiety. I took another deep breath and got ahold of my fear. It wasn’t over yet and I couldn’t even imagine giving up. I pushed myself upright and concentrated on my breathing.

  Nathan was still with me. We had a plan. Now all I needed to do was believe we could pull it off.

  Chapter Eighty-One

  Nathan

  I waited and listened and wondered how much Bree was catching of their conversation. Did she hear about how their uncle purposefully bought suits too small so that none of his brothers could try to steal them? He might have been the runt of the family but he was the smartest.

  They didn’t mention how he died or if anyone would mourn the old man.

  Then they mentioned how long it would take to get to our destination. I didn’t like how the driver made it sound like they would just stop somewhere along the road.

  I wondered how worried Bree was and if she was now going into shock. Our plan to separate might have worked but now I couldn’t check to see if she was holding on. Stronger people than her had cracked in the same situation.

  “I told you not to bring that up,” one cousin snapped.

  “Hey, man, I’m not the one that lost the bet. Why would you even give him the money? There was no way he didn’t cheat,” the other guard said.

  I knew exactly who they were talking about. Javier had a special talent for goading people into outrageous bets.

  I stopped. How did I know that? It floated up from some memory and made my gut twist with guilt. Bree had been right to ask how many friends I had made in the cartel.

  “What was the bet?” I called out.

  The van suddenly slowed and both men whirled around, shouting at me rapid-fire to get down and stay silent. They went full force with an intimidation tactic and shouted at full volume for much longer than necessary. I was glad I had the hood on because the ridiculous things they spewed made me smile.

  “Shut your pig-snout face!”

  “Don’t say another word or we’ll tie you to the roof instead!”

  It took a certain type of creativity to sustain a long line of threats without sounding silly. They didn’t have the talent.

  Then I heard the scrape of a barrel against the bottom of the van. The guard in the passenger seat picked up a sawed off shotgun and leveled it at me. I recognized the sound as he let off the safety.

  I held my bound wrists up in the air and laid down on the floor of the van, arms stretched above me. Still, I had to wait at least twenty more seconds before they stopped yelling and the van picked up speed.

  In the silent aftermath, I could hear Bree. She was taking long, slow breaths and she hadn’t screamed. She was holding on and we were going to make it.

  Then I waited, uncomfortable on the hard floor of the van. I felt all the ruts in the road right in my ribs, and my arms began to ache. I counted my own breaths and copied Bree’s slow pace. It wasn’t long before the cousins started chatting again.

  They didn’t say anything more about our upcoming ‘stop.’ Instead, they went back to discussing their uncle and the unfair distribution of their inheritance. It sounded like the cousin who was currently driving the van, had a reputation for being terrible with money. His cousin rode shotgun and came up with a hundred ways to poke fun at him.

  The driver’s voice grew strained. “I don’t need math lessons. What I need are some better opportunities.”

  I lifted my head. “I bet some of that inheritance would really help replace what you lost to Javier.”

  I heard them both whirl around again, ready to shout me into submission, but there was a pause.

  “You know Javier?” the driver asked.

  “Ask him about our trip to Vegas sometime,” I said.

  The guard in the passenger seat snickered. Bree must have been my good luck charm because suddenly I knew exactly how to put our plan in motion.

  “We don’t need you to tell us what Javier wa
s like in Vegas,” the passenger-side guard said.

  “Just like you didn’t need to tell your brother how you were in on the bet with Javier?” I asked.

  There was a shocked silence. Before the passenger-side guard could protest his innocence, the driver slammed on the gas. He found it easy to believe his cousin had scammed him out of money and he was angry that he had fallen for it.

  “Sounds like it was a lot of money,” I said. “How much did you get in your cut? Ten percent? Or did Javier whittle you down. I’ve never met anyone better at negotiating.”

  I sat up and chuckled.

  Neither cousin noticed. They argued between them, the past offenses and irritations pouring out so quickly I couldn’t keep up. I leaned against the side of the van and grinned inside my hood.

  The driver couldn’t pick a steady speed. He was so certain his cousin had betrayed him. The passenger couldn’t sit still and his seat creaked as he squirmed this way and that trying to defend his honor.

  Any time there was a lull, I made up stories about bets I heard Javier had won.

  “Did he ever tell you about the time he bet a deep-sea fisherman he couldn’t land a fish without a net. The fisherman fell in the water and Javier cruised around him for an hour, drinking all his beer.” I chuckled to myself.

  I knew the discord I had struck was really working when they started to bring up family holidays and slights from when they were children. At one point the driver must have stolen the passenger’s girlfriend and that’s where the real testosterone started filling up the cramped van.

  All through it, I fought the urge to crawl to Bree’s side. I didn’t want to disrupt anything or distract our guards. I strained to hear her long, steady breaths, but it was impossible as the cousins’ argument grew louder.

  Soon they were shouting and the driving was becoming even more erratic. I hung on and new it was almost time.

  The plan was going to work.

  Chapter Eighty-Two

  Bree

  After the eruption of shouting that had silenced Nathan the first time, I was more determined than ever to control my fear. I concentrated on my breathing and counting long, deep breaths in and out. It was working until Nathan opened his mouth again.

  Who was Javier?

  I had never heard of Nathan talk about anyone by that name, and here he was empathizing with the guards over something Javier had done. And the guards believed him.

  They started bickering amongst themselves, an argument that quickly spun out of control. Soon they were reminding each other of awful childhood pranks they had pulled on each other. And the entire time, the driver kept ramming on the gas pedal and then letting off as he argued with his cousin.

  I hung on and let the bickering wash over me. The only thing I couldn’t let go of, though, was Nathan’s familiarity with this man named Javier.

  My skin crawled. Was Javier the one that had caught me outside the van? He had called me Nathan’s lucky charm. It made it seem even more likely that the two had been gambling buddies.

  No. That wasn’t right, I told myself. This was all just part of the plan. We had tried for hours to come up with a way to sow the seeds of dissent between our guards and the comment about Javier had worked perfectly. Maybe it was just something Nathan had overheard, remembered, and used to his advantage.

  Then he told a funny story about some outrageous bet Javier had made. It seemed so outlandish but true that my head spun.

  It was possible that not only had Nathan known this Javier well, but that he had regained his memory completely.

  The other interruption to my spinning thoughts and the cousins’ arguing was a phone call. The passenger-side guard picked up his phone and had a hushed, monosyllabic conversation with whomever was on the other end.

  “Yes. Okay. Yes. No. Not yet. Yes.” He hung up the phone and didn’t say anything else.

  “Really? You’re not going to tell me? I’m the driver,” he cousin roared.

  “You won’t believe me anyway,” the other cousin retorted. “Since you won’t believe I didn’t have anything to do with Javier’s bet. Do you really think I could take home a slice of winnings and not have my wife find out? Call her.”

  “You have to tell me. We’re not just out here driving around for fun.”

  “Fine. There’s been a change in plans.” The passenger-side guard hesitated again. “I’ll tell you where to go when we come to it.”

  “Tell me now or you’re walking,” his cousin snapped.

  “It’s Plan B. Remember Plan B?”

  The driver slapped the steering wheel. “There was no Plan B and if there is a Plan B now you better tell me about it.”

  “We’re not heading for the bunker anymore.”

  I held my breath. Was it good news or a death sentence? I couldn’t tell and suddenly all my concentrated effort on being brave flew out the window. I shivered and bit my lip, hoping he would say more.

  “They’re not going to the bunker anymore either,” the passenger-side guard said.

  “Am I turning around? Is there a new location? Why can’t you just tell me? This is just like you. That’s why I know you helped Javier set me up. You love just seeing me squirm,” the driver shouted.

  “I didn’t set you up. I didn’t make any money off your loss. I can’t believe you don’t believe me,” his cousin spat back.

  “Tell me now or walk,” the driver said.

  “We’re to execute them en route then return to the warehouse,” the passenger-side guard said.

  They both fell silent, acknowledging that fact that Nathan and I had clearly heard what they had said. In the awkward quiet, I crawled across the van and threw myself against Nathan’s side. The driver switched on the radio and neither guard said anything more.

  There wouldn’t be any transfer to an armored car. We wouldn’t be able to use the guard’s argument as the perfect distraction to make our break for it. We were riding along until they picked out the right dusty ditch to leave our bodies in. Then they would drive off and leave us under the blazing desert sun.

  I cowered against Nathan’s side and pretended I was crying. Then I wriggled close enough to whisper in his ear.

  “We’re still sticking to the plan, right?” I asked Nathan.

  “What? Didn’t you hear them?” He whispered low enough that we couldn’t be heard over the radio.

  “They’ll have to get us out of the van sometime. What else can we do?” I asked him.

  Nathan was quiet. I could feel him trying to come up with something to say, but he had nothing. We had no other choice. Either the plan worked or we didn’t make it away alive.

  “How come you sound so calm?” Nathan asked me. I could tell even through our black hoods that he was smiling.

  “What else am I going to do? Sit in the corner and cry?” I asked.

  I felt his silent chuckle. “So, what do you suggest?”

  “I think the plan remains the same. They’re poised to fight again any second. We stick to the plan,” I said.

  Nathan hesitated. “We have to get them out of the van. Then we have to get loose. This isn’t anything like what we talked about.”

  I shrugged against his arm. “Close enough. We can do it.”

  Nathan shook his head. “It’s too reckless. I’m glad that you aren’t feeling scared but bravado will only get us killed quicker.”

  “Fine,” I hissed. “What do you suggest we do?”

  I heard Nathan’s teeth grind. “We stick to the plan. But you have to relax. Waiting for the right moment is the hardest part. It has to unfold at its own pace. If we try to force it, we could ruin the only chance we have.”

  I nodded, rubbing my cheek against his shoulder so he felt my agreement. Then I sat back and struggled to wait for our one and only chance.

  Chapter Eighty-Three

  Nathan

  There was no reason for the guards to be so rough with us. The van door flew open and they grabbed me by my heels. I ki
cked back just before they dragged me out of the van and I dropped to the sun-baked dirt. Bree landed on top of me and then both guards kicked us and told us to get up.

  I fought the urge to take them both out. It didn’t matter if I was wearing a blindfold. I already knew six ways I could kill them.

  But I refused to make things worse.

  Instead, I pulled Bree close as I helped her up. “They’re angry. That’s good. Just think of them as kindling. There’ll be a fire soon enough,” I whispered in her ear.

  The guards shoved each other as they pulled their weapons from the van and closed the front doors. I heard them lock but thought the side door was still hanging open.

  Someone out there must have been watching over us.

  “Hey, I can lend you the money you lost to Javier,” I said. “All I ask is the chance to go back and get a little revenge on him myself.”

  “Tempting,” the passenger-side guard said. He was shorter than his cousin and stood near the front wheel of the van.

  The driver shoved me from behind. I could feel he was taller than his cousin but a lanky, uncoordinated type. He pushed me into his cousin on purpose.

  “Start walking. Past the van,” he said.

  “What, you want them laying in the middle of the road?” the shorter cousin asked. “You don’t think we’ll hear about that?”

  “I don’t care what you think,” the guard behind me snapped. “I still say you are walking back to the warehouse.”

  “Why don’t we all drive back and have a little chat with Javier?” I asked.

  I slowed my feet down, refusing to move past the front of the van. The guard behind me prodded me in the back but just then his cousin made some reference to a long-ago birthday party. The taller cousin growled and stepped around me to tell the shorter man off.

  Bree crept up behind me.

  “Is the van door still open?” I asked.

  Bree used my back for balance and reached out one foot. She slid it along the van and then confirmed that the side door was still hanging wide open.