by Susanne Beck
"Oh. Yeah. Forget I asked."
"Go tell Critter to get the car out here."
"Will do."
As Pony left, I started forward again, this time breaking into a flat-out run. "Ice!"
"Hey, Angel," she replied, her voice and manner as casual as if I’d just met up with her coming out of the grocery store. "Just taking out the trash." She paused. "Nice gun."
I blushed. "Yeah, well, you were supposed to be out of there three minutes ago."
She shrugged her unencumbered shoulder. "One of the guys had a little problem with my bedtime story. He’s sleeping like a baby now, though."
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "Any other problems?"
"Piece of cake. You?"
"Not really. Except one of the cars is missing."
"I figured. There were three fewer guards than I expected inside."
Further conversation was cut off by the arrival of Critter, Pony and our getaway car.
"Pop the trunk," Ice ordered.
Walking to the rear of the car, I pulled open the compartment and stood aside as Ice dumped Cavallo inside. The small light illuminated his face, where a bloody nose and a rapidly swelling jaw bore mute testament to his meeting with my lover. He was deeply unconscious, though still breathing, and his hands were bound tightly behind him. After a moment, I looked up. "I didn’t know you brought handcuffs with you."
Ice smirked. "I didn’t."
"Kinky bastard, isn’t he."
As Ice slammed the trunk closed, the courtyard was suddenly lit by the twin beams of approaching headlights.
Grabbing my arm at the elbow, Ice opened the rear driver’s side door and pushed me in, then followed quickly. "Go," she ordered Pony, who’d replaced a slightly drunk Critter behind the wheel. "Drive out nice and easy if you can. If they follow us, floor it."
"I’m there."
"You can’t think they’re just going to let us go by," I said, disbelief plain in my voice.
"Stranger things have happened. But I doubt it."
Three men got out of the car after it had pulled through the gate. Three heads swiveled as we passed by. I resisted the urge to wave. Shouting "we’ve got your boss in the trunk, suckers!" was out as well, though I must admit I was sorely tempted. Giddiness does that to me, and having Ice alive and whole made me very giddy indeed.
"I don’t fucking believe it," Pony muttered as we left through the gate and headed down the dark road without any signs of pursuit. "They just gonna stand there with their thumbs up their asses all night?"
"You sound like you want them to chase us," I accused.
"Let’s save the arguments for when we get home, alright? Hit the gas, Pony."
"You got it."
If there was one area where I couldn’t find fault with Cavallo, it was his taste in cars. The acceleration was so smooth that, though I could tell we were moving at a high rate of speed by the shadowed scenery blurring by my window, it didn’t feel as if we were moving at all. The rich scent of leather wove a seductive cocoon around me, and when Ice reached out and gently cradled my hand in hers, I smiled and sank into the soft-as-butter seat and allowed my eyes to close.
The brief respite was over almost before it started. I felt Ice’s hand carefully withdraw from mine and felt her body twist, one broad shoulder brushing against my own. "What is it?" I asked, my eyes coming quickly open.
"Company," my lover returned, peering out the rear window, eyes narrowed to slits.
Squirming in the seat, I turned to look just in time to see the twin beams of headlights breast a small rise a mile or so behind us. "Could just be another traveler."
"If so, he’s in a hurry," Critter remarked, eyeing the rearview mirror. "He’s gotta be doing a hundred ten, easy."
"Take that turnoff up ahead, Pony. Let’s see if we can lose him in the desert."
Grunting in acknowledgement, Pony jerked the wheel hard and spun us onto the off-ramp with a minimum of fuss, though doubtless if Cavallo was awake, he didn’t enjoy the maneuver overmuch. Not that I would be spilling any tears over that particular thought, but it helped keep my mind from harping on the probability that we were being chased through the desert by a group of madmen at speeds humans were never meant to travel.
This close to the ground, anyway.
Twisting back in my seat, I snapped the shoulder harness over me, then checked the latch several times to make sure it was secure. No use tempting Fate any more than I already had, especially since cars and I weren’t the best of friends lately.
Next to me, Ice also turned to face forward once again, but not before giving me a grin that was half confidence, half glee.
"You’re enjoying this, aren’t you," I groused.
She shrugged, her expression unrepentant. "Beats doing laundry."
I had to laugh at that. If there is anything Ice hates more than doing the laundry, I don’t know what it is. While I, on the other hand, absolutely love it. There’s just something so satisfying in putting dirty, smelly clothes into a machine and pulling them out wonderfully clean and fresh. It’s just another example of the odd nature of our partnership, I guess. And one which I wouldn’t change for anything in the world.
"So far, so good," Pony remarked softly, her gaze split between the road and the rearview mirror. "Though with all the damn dust I’m kicking up right now, it’s hard to tell for sure. I’m just glad we’re doing this in the middle of the night. If it were during daylight, we might as well be sending up fucking flares."
"Just drive, Pony," Critter ordered, thumping her lover solidly on one well-muscled shoulder.
"I’m drivin! I’m drivin, already!"
"Make that right up ahead, then the second left. There are some mountains to the right. We might be able to ditch them there."
I looked over at my lover, my eyes opened wide. "Do you have an atlas in your head or something?"
"Or something," she replied, throwing me her best smirk.
"Looks like we lost ‘em," Pony replied after several moments without a sign of pursuit.
"Oh, they’re around," Ice murmured. "Take the next right you can and let’s get back on the highway. Once you’re there, run her as fast as you can. We need to get to the rendezvous point while it’s still dark."
"I’m on it."
Out on the highway, Pony opened up the throttle and we sped through the desert like the devil was on our tail. An hour passed quietly, and then another, before I felt Ice stiffen once again. "What?"
"They’re back."
"Damnit!" Pony shouted. "How in the hell could they find us? We took enough turns to confuse a compass, for Christ’s sake!"
"This car’s got a tracer on it," Ice replied.
"Like hell it does! Ice, I checked it out myself! It’s clean!"
"Tell that to our friends. Floor it, Pony. There’s nowhere to turn off for another ten miles. We need to outrun them."
"I say we stand and fight."
"We can’t. This area is too exposed, and too far from anything if we run into trouble. Just do as I say and drive. We’ll make our stand at the rendezvous point if we need to."
"You’re the boss," Pony grumbled, then stomped her foot hard on the accelerator. The car responded, dredging up extra power from somewhere, and we flew down the road at impossible speeds.
Ice gently removed my hand from it’s white-knuckled grip on my short skirt, and held it gently in her own. "We’ll make it, Angel," she said in a comforting tone.
Drawing in a shuddering breath, I nodded, wanting more than anything to believe.
Time passed. It could have been ten minutes, it could have been ten hours. I was too scared to tell the difference, to be truthful.
I knew enough, however, to know when we were finally close to our destination, especially when the headlights of our purloined car lit up a long copse of trees indicating a water source in the near vicinity.
"Left at the crossroads up ahead, right?" Pony asked.
"Yeah. Th
en go an eighth of a mile. There’s a small loop there. Go around it and park. Rio should be waiting for us there."
"Are they still following us?" I asked, not daring to turn around. A shootout was the last thing I wanted to be a part of, though if it came down to that, I’d be right there at my lover’s side, doing whatever I could to keep us whole.
"We’re clear for the moment," Ice replied. "Get ready to run the minute this car stops, though."
"You don’t have to ask me twice."
Following Ice’s directions to the letter, Pony turned on a sharp, if ill defined, hairpin curve and pulled off onto an unpaved path which was surrounded by tall, thick trees on all sides. As soon as the car stopped rolling, the four of us opened our doors and hopped out. Critter and I ran in the direction of Ice’s pointing finger, down toward the river, while Pony stayed behind to help Ice with Cavallo and the small amount of possessions we’d managed to accumulate during our stay south of the border. Rio jumped from behind a large tree, and brushed by me on her way to help Pony and Ice.
Hearing a rustling in the bushes to my left, I turned that way, to see a white-faced Nia peering out. "Hey," I whispered. "It’s just us."
"Oh thank god," she half-sobbed. Standing up, she came out of the bush and wrapped me in a desperate hug. "I never want to go through that again. I’ve been so scared, waiting for everyone, thinking that the border patrol was coming down the road any minute. And Rio wasn’t any help at all."
"It’s alright. We’re here now," I replied, hugging her tightly to me. "And we’re getting ready to go home."
"God, that sounds so good to me right now."
Pulling away, I smiled at her. "Yeah. Me too."
Grabbing my hand, she led me down the short path to the river. "C’mon. We got a boat. Not very much of a boat, but as long as it floats, I’m not gonna complain."
The river was wide, black, and silent as death. It also stank of decay, and I was quite glad that I would be crossing it in the dark, because I had absolutely no desire to see what, exactly, was causing such a stench.
"Ta-da!" Nia sang, throwing out her arm in a dramatic gesture. "There it is."
I looked. Then squinted. Then cocked my head. Well, I supposed, technically what I was looking at could be called a boat. Course, I’d seen larger beds, but Nia was right. As long as it floated....
"Um...are all of us going to fit in there?"
Was my first question.
"Who’s going to row?"
Would have been my second, had I time to ask it. Which I didn’t.
Ice led the way down to the shore, and after gesturing Nia and Critter to the very back, she dumped Cavallo’s still unconscious bulk in the middle. Pony came behind her and tossed the duffel bag with our gear in it on top of him. "Now what?"
Ice’s answer was interrupted by several soft ‘popping’ sounds coming from behind us. "Angel, Pony, get in the boat! Now!" Reaching behind her, Ice pulled her gun from the waistband of her jeans. "I said now!"
Before I could even think to move, Pony grabbed my wrist and all but threw me into the boat, which rocked wildly with the action and almost capsized. Then she jumped in, pinning me inside with no chance to escape.
"Get outta here!"
"No!" I screamed. "Not without you!!"
"Go!!"
Reaching forward, Critter grabbed the oars and began rowing the second Ice kicked the boat away from the shoreline.
"Ice!!!"
More popping sounds, and Ice turned away and ran up the embankment toward the sounds of shooting.
"Goddamn you, Critter! Stop!" I grabbed for the oars at the same time as Pony grabbed me, and the resulting flailing almost caused the boat to tip once again.
Critter regained her grip on the wooden oars, and we began moving again as I struggled against Pony’s tight hold.
"Let me go, goddamnit!"
"Stop struggling, Angel! I’ll knock you the fuck out, I swear I will!"
"Try it, you son of a bitch! Ice!!!"
Two small splashes sounded to our immediate left. It didn’t take a genius to know they came from bullets attempting to halt our getaway.
"Critter! Faster! C’mon! Row!!!"
Grunting with effort, Critter put her back into it and I could feel the boat pick up speed beneath me as Pony shielded my body with her own, still taking care to hold me so tightly I feared my ribs would shatter.
"Let. Me. Go!!" My teeth were so tightly gritted, I thought sure they’d break off at the gumline.
"I won’t warn you again, Angel." Pony’s breath was hot on my cheek. "Keep struggling and you’ll tip us. Critter can’t swim and neither can Nia, so you’d best be still or I’ll crack you one. I swear it by any fucking god you wanna name."
"Well throw me overboard, then, because I... ."
The rest of my words were cut off as I heard Pony give a soft groan and felt the weight of her body collapse over me, bearing me right off the wooden seat and to the floor of the boat.
"Pony!!" I could hear Critter’s muffled scream as I tried to struggle from beneath her lover’s limp, full weight
"Keep rowing!" Nia’s voice was pitched high with terror. "Oh god! Keep rowing!!"
"Pony!!!"
I could tell Pony was still alive by the movement of her chest against my back and the soft moan of pain near my ear, but I didn’t know how to tell Critter that from my position.
Then I heard splashes, loud ones, and suddenly our boat was moving again, twice as fast as it had before. We hit the riverbank hard, and Pony’s weight drove into me, causing my face to slide against the splintered wood of the boat’s bottom, the resulting sting bringing tears of pain to my eyes.
Then, like a blessing from on high, the weight was lifted from my chest, hips and head, and when I looked up, I met the concerned expressions of people I knew.
Like some sort of modern-day cavalry, the Amazons had come over the hill once again.
Montana and Cowgirl quickly, but gently, grabbed Pony, while others hauled Cavallo from the bottom of the boat and onto dry land, none being particularly careful with where or how hard he landed.
I scrambled to a sitting position just as Cheeto stepped forward and offered me a hand. "C’mon, Angel."
"Not a chance," I growled, moving up so that I was sitting on one of the benches and grabbing the oars.
"Angel! Don’t!!"
"Watch me."
With swift, sure strokes, I pulled away from the bank, determined to make it back to the other side as quickly as I could. Some of the Amazons jumped back into the river in an attempt to halt my progress, but I made sure that their efforts were futile in the extreme.
Nothing, not heaven nor hell nor anything else was going to stop me from getting back to Ice.
Halfway across, I bumped into...something...hard enough to rock the boat. When that something grabbed onto the side with a bloodied hand, I almost tipped it over myself scrabbling to get away.
"It’s me!" came a harsh whisper from below.
I froze for a split second, then scrabbled back the way I’d come. "Ice? Ice, is that you?"
"Yeah, it’s me."
"Oh, thank you God! Wait a second. I’ll try and pull you in."
"Can’t. Rio got hit. Just row back for shore as fast as you can."
"Where is she?"
"I’ve got her."
"Where are the others?"
"Taken care of. Just row."
"Ok. Let me turn around on the seat."
It’s amazing how fast and how easily you can move when you’ve a mind to. Switching positions quickly, I grabbed the oars and began rowing. Ice’s hand disappeared for one heart-stopping second, before reappearing over the stern.
Then I rowed for all I was worth, the extra weight I was towing slowing me down not at all.
Once again, the Amazons met the boat in the shallows and helped pull it onto shore. Ice lifted Rio and carried her onto the bank before laying her gently down on her back. I scrambled out of t
he boat and knelt down next to her.
It was bad.
Very bad.
Rio’s normally deeply tanned face was white as a newly-laundered sheet, except for the wide streams of blood which drained from her nose and mouth.
"Ice?" I whispered, looking up into the stone mask she’d pulled on to hide her emotions.
Ignoring me, she ripped Rio’s shirt open to expose a vastly muscled chest and torso which was marred by three tiny holes, no larger than American dimes, if that. The two in her belly were oozing a slow, but steady stream of blood. The third, in her upper right chest, was bubbling with pink froth with every breath she took.
Tearing her own shirt off, Ice quickly folded it, and pressed it hard over the chest wound. "C’mon, Rio," she murmured as she reached with her free hand to the side of Rio’s neck, searching for a pulse. "C’mon. Fight."
At the touch of Ice’s gentle fingers, Rio’s dark eyes fluttered open. They were painfully aware, and my heart seized in my chest. "Hey," I whispered, smiling as best I could.
"Aaaaaa... ." One hand lifted from her side and hung there, trembling. "Aaaannnn... ."
Grasping it, I pulled it up to my cheek and held it there, the tears starting to fall freely down my face. "I’m here, Rio. I’m here."
"Ssssooo." She coughed and dark blood streamed from her mouth, but her eyes never wavered. "Sorrrrry."
I choked out a sob. "Don’t be sorry, Rio. You saved our lives. You just concentrate on pulling through this, alright?"
"Sorrrry!" she said again, her hand curling to a fist in my own.
Taking in a shuddering breath, I nodded. "I know," I whispered. "I know. I forgive you."
Her hand relaxing in mine, the faintest ghost of a smile twitched her bloodied lips. "Thaaank youu."
Then she turned her head, just slightly. Her other hand lifted, and Ice caught it and held it tight. "Aaam... ?" She coughed again and her eyes rolled briefly up in her head, before returning their intense stare to my lover. "Aaamazon?"
Ice’s lips pursed, and I knew she was holding back tears by sheer force of her formidable will. Her eyes, though, were bright and shiny. "Yes," she replied, her whisper harsh with unshed tears. "Yes, you’re an Amazon."
