They were literally driving blind.
“Slow down, Ulrich!” Onyx wailed. “You’ll put us in the water!”
Ulrich took his foot off the gas. Be patient, Ulrich thought. Just a bit longer.
Just as quickly as the fog had enveloped them, it was gone, as if a giant hand had reached down and lifted the thick white blanket of clouds away. Ulrich looked in the rearview mirror, assuming they’d escaped.
He was wrong.
The Ford was right behind them.
“Do it!” Fortunato screamed at the bellman inside the Ford.
“Do what?” he asked.
“Ram them. Knock them off the bridge!” Fortunato demanded. The bellman hit the gas, pulled alongside the Chrysler, and turned into them hard.
The Ford smashed into the side of Ulrich and Onyx’s car, sending the Chrysler careening to the left side of the bridge.
“Ram them again!” Fortunato screamed, seeing Ulrich foolishly determined to get away—both hands clasping the steering wheel—his wife screaming in the passenger seat next to him.
The bellman did as instructed, turning into the side of the Chrysler again, the two vehicles crashing into each other.
Ulrich turned and looked out the window to see Fortunato’s face in the passenger seat of the car next to him, less than three feet away.
Fortunato told the bellman to hit them again, but just as the Ford turned toward them, Ulrich jammed his foot on the brake, tires squealing to a stop. The Ford sailed past them, directly into the side of the bridge and through the cables to the water below. Moments later the crash of the car plummeting into the water could be heard.
Ulrich exhaled. “Ha! I beat you!” he yelled. He glanced at Onyx, her hands covering her face. “It is over now, Onyx. You will never be bothered by these men ever again.”
It was now oddly silent on the bridge.
Onyx slowly lowered her hands and looked at Ulrich. Clearly, he had more secrets than she had allowed herself to admit, and Onyx was growing tired of being so naïve.
A police siren began whirring in the distance. “We must go,” Ulrich said.
Who were those men, Ulrich?” Onyx asked for the third time since nearly being run off the Golden Gate Bridge by Fortunato Spilatro and The Palace Hotel bellman, both of whom were now resting in a watery grave.
Ulrich said nothing.
Ulrich knew he needed a place to hide, fully understanding now the extent to which The Owl would go to track him down.
“What have you done that is so bad that men would tie you to a chair and torture you? Tell me!” Onyx yelled.
Unsure how much he wanted to tell his wife, Ulrich concocted what he felt was a believable story, with a few kernels of truth worked in here and there. “They are from Las Vegas,” Ulrich started, then decided that was all the truth she could handle.
“Las Vegas?”
“Yes, I beat them out of a lot of money in a poker game,” Ulrich continued.
“You mean you cheated these men?” Onyx asked.
“No, I didn’t cheat them—I bluffed them,” Ulrich said. “I had a busted straight, but I fooled them by going all-in on a big pot. The stupid men folded their hands, and I won their money.”
“I don’t understand,” Onyx said. “They came all the way from Las Vegas to San Francisco because you won a poker game?”
“No, it was because I made the mistake of showing them my hand afterward. They didn’t like being made to look stupid, which is what they are—stupid men who were tricked by a smarter person.”
“Why not give them their money back, Ulrich? So they’ll leave us alone?” Onyx asked.
“A man does not give back what he has won fair and square,” Ulrich said. “I will find us a place where we will be free of them.”
But it wasn’t until he and Onyx had crossed from California into Oregon that Ulrich knew where that place would be, recalling the photo Claudia had shown him that first time they’d slept together. It was a photograph of a lighthouse—set high on a cliff, with ocean waves crashing below—a place she said a couple could go and disappear forever.
Of course, Claudia was suggesting the place was perfect for her and Ulrich to disappear together, not Ulrich and Onyx.
What was the place called again? Crystal Harbor? No, that wasn’t right. Crimson Bay? Crystal Cove?
Then he remembered.
Crimson Cove.
Chapter Forty-Five
Orlando, Florida
July 5, 2010
Koda climbed up the stairs leading from the basement, which in recent years had become nothing more than a storage area for a plethora of belongings long forgotten.
Forgotten.
The thing Koda wondered as he turned out the light and closed the basement door behind him was: Did he simply forget about the telescope? Or was there a part of him that had subconsciously blocked out the memory, as the psychologist suggested he’d done with other portions of his past?
The idea that there were things he knew—and yet didn’t—bothered him greatly. Perhaps it was time to go back to therapy, if not with the same doctor he’d seen in the past, maybe another.
Koda pushed through the door leading to the deck and stepped into the darkness to find all the guests were still there, but everyone had gone completely silent.
Koda stopped dead in his tracks.
He looked at his father and saw the stricken look on his face. He looked at his grandfather, and the old man dropped his head, avoiding eye contact.
Something was terribly wrong. “What? What is it?” Koda asked.
Mika took a step forward out of the darkness, holding Koda’s cell phone in her hand. “Robyn, the bartender from DJ’s, she called your phone and I answered it.”
Koda felt a sick feeling sweep over him. He’d given Robyn his number in case of an emergency, and there was no reason for her to call, especially at this hour. Whatever it was, he knew it wasn’t good.
Mika took another step forward and said, “Dane is dead.”
“The universe is impressed when you find the courage to stand with others. What matters more, however, are the times you find the courage to stand alone.”
The 31 Immutable Matters
of Life & Death
Dear Reader,
I know you didn’t see that coming.
Well, there’s more twists in store up ahead. It’s too late to turn back now. The tangled web grows thicker as we peer deeper into their lives.
Will Onyx and Ulrich’s new life in Crimson Cove bring the happiness she’s craved?
Koda is devastated. Can he survive and pick up the pieces again?
And what of Declan? Things don’t always work out the way one plans.
There’s more to read.
Get started now on Onyx Webb: Book Three Now
Sincerely, Diandra Archer
p.s. Leaving reviews makes authors’ dance with happiness.
Onyx Webb: Book Two Page 17
