by JB Lynn
Pulling free of him, I looked to Zeke for answers, but he was busy mouthing, “Red coats. Red coats,” to whoever was in the car.
“Zeke?” I asked.
The passenger door of Zeke’s car opened as whoever had honked the horn started to get out.
A face, familiar, yet changed, appeared. The woman shielded her eyes against the sun and stared in the direction of the approaching helicopter.
A grimace of fear pinched her face.
And I came damn close to passing out.
Chapter Sixteen
I heard the woman say, “Get in the house,” but it sounded muffled and far away.
Everything swirled and dipped and spun. My heart stopped and then immediately galloped. I was ice cold and falling.
Zeke grabbed me.
Behind me, I heard Jack murmur a shocked, “Holy shit.”
“In the house,” the woman ordered again.
But I couldn’t move, my legs were boneless, unable to support me. Zeke scooped me up in his arms and carried me toward the house. Away from her.
“No,” I protested as we moved away from her. “Darlene.”
“It’ll be okay, Maggie May,” my sister promised, but I saw terror on her face.
The ominous whomp, whomp, whomp sound drew closer.
“Come on,” Zeke yelled over his shoulder.
Every step he took bounced me up and down, making my vision choppy.
Jack looked up at the sky and then back at my car. “DeeDee stay with Maggie,” he ordered.
Dutifully the dog bounded out of the car and ran up beside Zeke. “Scared Maggie,” she panted nervously.
Whomp. Whomp. Whomp.
It was the scariest damn sound I’d ever heard.
As we burst into the house, I saw Darlene and Jack following closely behind. I also saw Piss bringing up the rear, and I knew, I just knew that the door would be slammed in her face.
“Put me down,” I said to Zeke.
He unceremoniously dumped me and I almost fell in a heap to the floor.
“This way!” Zeke shouted, waving his arm for everyone to follow him.
Once I’d regained my balance I stumbled toward the door, that, as I’d envisioned, Darlene had shut the moment she’d gotten through it.
“Let them in,” I yelled.
“We have to get out of here,” my sister argued.
“Let them in.” I pushed her out of the way and yanked the door open.
I’d always thought that if I ever saw Darlene again, I’d hug her to me and never let her go, but here I was shoving her away.
Piss, with God riding sidesaddle, scooted inside.
I picked them up and cradled both to my chest as Darlene slammed the door shut again.
My sister grabbed my hand and dragged me to the kitchen.
“Where are the girls?” I asked.
“Dave will have sent them ahead.”
“They’re your daughters?” I guessed.
“Later, Maggie,” she muttered. “They’re getting close.”
I could hear the whomping over my thundering heartbeat so I knew she was right.
Zeke and Jack waited for us beside a hatch in the floor that led to a staircase.
“Ladies first,” Zeke insisted.
Darlene quickly clambered down the stairs.
“Where’s DeeDee?” I asked.
“She went ahead,” Zeke explained, giving me a gentle shove. “Go.”
I too hurried down the stairs, followed closely by Jack and Zeke.
“Hope no one’s claustrophobic,” Jack muttered as we began to hurry down an underground tunnel.
It smelled of dirt and worms. The path was crisscrossed with the shadows thrown by dozens, maybe hundreds of flickering luminarias lining the path. I wondered who had lit them all, but I kept my question to myself.
“Put me down,” Piss requested.
“Avoid the flames,” I urged, not trusting her to not overturn one of the candle-containing bags.
As soon as I’d returned her to the ground, she raced ahead, a blur.
“How long is this thing?” Jack asked.
“About a mile,” Darlene answered. She broke into a jog.
We all followed suit.
“Sensitive skin,” God groaned as my breasts bounced, no doubt subjecting him to the equivalent of the buffing heads at the car wash.
It hurt to run. My feet hurt. My lungs burned from the effort. A stitch stabbed my side.
I wanted to quit, but I also didn’t want to be a burden to Jack or Zeke. So I pushed on, past the pain, past the oxygen deprivation. I’d hoped that runner’s high would kick in, but it never did. There was just a new level of misery with each passing step.
“Almost there,” DeeDee barked encouragingly from up ahead.
A minute later, another staircase appeared.
Darlene shot up it, but I was gasping for breath by that time and just stood there.
“Come on, Lee,” Jack growled from behind me. “Don’t quit on me now. You’re made of sterner stuff than that.”
As a pep talk it sucked, but it was still enough motivation to pull my sorry, out of shape ass, up those stairs.
I emerged in another kitchen.
There was no one there.
I’d lost my sister again.
“Darlene!” I screamed, but it came out more like a croak because I couldn’t take a deep breath.
Jack was right behind me.
“Where’d she go?” I asked him.
He shrugged, almost as breathless as me.
Zeke followed him.
“Where is she?” I demanded to know. “Where’d she go?”
Instead of answering me, Zeke grabbed my hand and dragged me behind him. “Come on. We’re getting the hell out of here.”
“But—”
Yanking me outside, he said, “Get on the bus.”
I stared at a yellow school bus, festooned like it was headed to or from a championship sporting event.
“On.” Zeke shoved me in its direction.
I stepped on, Jack right behind me.
The driver grinned at me. “Take a seat,” Darlene said, closing the door and putting the bus into gear.
As I stumbled into the nearest seat, I saw that DeeDee and Piss occupied a row farther back.
Jack flopped his tall frame beside me. “Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?”
The engine rumbled as we picked up speed.
“What about Zeke?” I said. “We can’t just leave him behind.”
“He’ll be fine,” Darlene said.
“And the girls,” I continued, my voice cracking with panic.
“We have to make another stop,” Darlene said. “Now shut up and let me drive, Maggie.”
When I opened my mouth again, Jack slammed a hand over it, effectively silencing me.
I was pretty sure, from the amount of bouncing and jostling that was going on, that the bus hadn’t been built for the kind of speed Darlene was asking of it. I tried to look out the side window, but it was covered with a dark film.
Pushing Jack’s hand away, I turned in my seat and yelled, “You okay back there?”
“Fun!” DeeDee barked.
“Just peachy,” Piss drawled, though I could tell from the way her hair was standing up, that she didn’t mean it.
“I may be car sick,” God moaned dramatically. He posed on the top of the back of a seat, the back of his foot pressed to his forehead, ready to swoon.
“Hang on,” Darlene shouted. “This trip is about to get a whole lot crazier.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jack fumbled for a seatbelt.
“What are you doing?” I asked him in a voice only he could hear.
“I don’t want to die if this thing rolls.” He reached past me, feeling around. “I did a piece on it and some experts believe… A-ha!” He yanked a strap across my lap, buckling it efficiently. “Some experts think that seatbelts make buses safer.”
“Some?” I asked, kind of amazed that there was disagreement about it.
“It’s a complicated issue,” Jack admitted. “Pros and cons.” He snapped his own seatbelt on. “But I’m choosing to believe the pros.”
The bus came to a shuddering stop and Darlene threw open the door. “All aboard!”
“Mommy!” two little girls screamed simultaneously as the twins I’d recently met scrambled on board.
A lump rose in my throat. I didn’t have one niece, I had three. The knowledge brought tears to my eyes.
Darlene caught my gaze in the rearview mirror and gave a slight nod of acknowledgement.
“Buckle up, doodlebugs,” Darlene told the girls.
They happily skipped past me.
“DeeDee!” they cried when they spotted her.
The gun-wielding man, Dave, climbed aboard, rifle in hand.
His gaze flicked from the girls petting the dog, to me sitting beside Jack, to Darlene. He bent and quickly kissed her lips. When he straightened, he winked at her and said, “Hey honey, your sister stopped by today.”
Then he winked at me before striding to sit with the girls.
Closing the door, Darlene eased the bus on the road. This time she didn’t floor it, she just drove at the same speed as the rest of the traffic.
I wanted to ask her a million questions, but, seeing how she was biting her upper lip, her old tell that she was concentrating, I remained silent.
Behind me the girls giggled.
“I need airbags,” God declared.
Looking down, I saw him standing on my sneaker. Bending over, I scooped him up and deposited him in my bra with no one being the wiser.
When I sat back, Jack wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gave me an encouraging squeeze.
I felt marginally better until I heard the familiar whomp, whomp, whomp sound.
“They’re going to stop traffic,” Dave warned.
“Just stay calm. Everyone stay calm.” Darlene’s voice deepened, like she was fighting to quell a fear that threatened to overwhelm her. “Girls, Stage 3, just like we practiced.”
Whomp. Whomp. Whomp.
The sound was almost on top of us.
Twisting in my seat, I saw their father on his hands and knees pushing at a piece of the bus floor. It slid, revealing a space large enough for two adults, or two little girls and one parent to hide in.
“What have I done?” I murmured.
This was their escape plan, one they’d rehearsed regularly, considering how quickly the girls took their places in the space, and I was here, messing it up. Hell, for all I knew I’d brought this danger to their doorstep.
I fumbled to remove my seatbelt. “Let me drive the bus.” I jumped to my feet. “You hide.”
Darlene shook her head. “Won’t make any difference.” She pulled the bus off the road, watching her husband in the mirror as she did so.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him climb into the space. With a heartbreaking look of resignation, he slid the floor piece back into place, effectively hiding him and the girls.
“Let me try,” I urged as a helicopter landed on the road ahead of us.
“He knows who you are,” Darlene said quietly. “He knows who all of you are.”
“Who’s he?” Jack asked, not taking his eye off the helicopter and the black-suited men climbing out of it. Behind reflective sunglasses they surveyed the area. Searching.
Looking for us.
“Redcoats,” Darlene whispered.
“But he’s dead,” Jack countered. “Lethal injection a couple of years ago.”
At least one of us had an idea of what the hell was going on.
“Aldric is dead,” Darlene agreed. “That’s his brother, Cyril, who’s coming.” She pulled a revolver and pointed it at Jack. “Sorry about this, Mr. Stern.”
Jack threw his arms up in surrender.
I leapt between them. “What are you doing?”
“Saving my family,” Darlene said with conviction. “I can’t allow your reporter friend to reveal their hiding place.”
“I wouldn’t,” Jack promised.
“I’d do anything to save them. You understand that, don’t you, Maggie?” Her gaze locked on mine.
Hell, I’d killed people for money and to save people, but I didn’t think it was the time to make that kind of confession. I knew I couldn’t lie to her, so I told my version of the truth, “But I wouldn’t do it at the expense of innocent lives.”
“You always were the one who wasn’t selfish,” Darlene murmured bitterly as she fiddled with the trigger guard.
I used her moment of distraction to my advantage, throwing my entire body at her.
We grappled and fell to the ground, fighting for control of the gun.
“Sensitive skin!” God shouted from near my sternum.
And then came the explosion.
Chapter Eighteen
For a moment I thought Darlene had shot me, but then I realized I didn’t feel any pain.
Then I worried that she’d somehow been shot, so I rolled myself off her, looking for blood. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“We’ve got to back up!” Jack shouted, jumping over both of us and jamming his tall body into the driver’s seat. “Now! Now! We’ve got to get out of here.” He stared in horror of what was ahead of him.
The helicopter had exploded and fire was spreading toward us.
The terrible grinding of gears shook the bus as he forced it into reverse.
“Hang on!” he yelled.
With one hand, I grabbed a seatbelt, wrapping it around my wrist, with the other, I grabbed Darlene’s hand.
Jack floored it and the bus shot backward, bouncing so hard, I was convinced I wouldn’t have any teeth left if I survived the wild ride.
“Sensitive skin,” God bellowed.
“Stop! Stop!” DeeDee barked.
Jack spun the wheel, and I thought he was going to roll the bus over, but he fought to right his error and we started moving backward and downward.
“Brake! Brake!” Darlene yelled.
I wasn’t that together. I just screamed in terror as the ground fell out from beneath us and gravity took hold.
I’m pretty sure Jack’s scream matched mine in both pitch and volume.
And then, miraculously, we hit the ground with a soft thud and rolled to a stop.
“Everyone okay?” Jack asked after a long moment.
Darlene and I disentangled ourselves from each other and sat up.
“DeeDee? Piss?” I whispered. “Are you okay?”
“Okay,” DeeDee panted. “Tongue bit.”
I hurried back to her, a trip that was treacherous since the bus was pitched at an angle, with the rear lower than the front.
“Help me,” Darlene begged, before I could reach the dog.
Turning, I saw that she was trying to open the hiding space. Together, we managed to shove the lid off.
“Mommy!” the girls cried out in unison. “That was the bumpiest ride ever.”
“Sorry bugs.”
Her boyfriend, or husband, or whatever he was, looked decidedly green about the gills, so I hurried past him to check on the dog.
Sure enough, her tongue was bleeding, but her eyes were bright with excitement. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I whispered.
“Dokey okey,” she replied.
“Piss?” I whispered. “Where are you?”
The cat didn’t answer.
“Piss?” I raised my voice to make sure she’d hear me.
“That’s a bad word,” the girl in the pink coat said.
“I think it’s the name of her cat,” Darlene explained.
“Piss?” I shouted, hurrying toward the back of the bus.
