Defy the Stars (13 page)

‘You said we could talk so . . . so tell me, what do I have to say to convince you that I’m not going to go back to the police?’ In my heart I knew that as soon as I could, I
was going to go straight to the nearest station, give my name and tell them exactly what I’d seen and heard. I had been wrong to keep quiet this long. Still, I didn’t have to mean what
I said to Cody. What counted was the here and now and getting away in one piece.

Cody shook his head. ‘There isn’t anything you can say.’

We stared at each other. I was struck, as I had been the first time I’d met him, by the coldness of his grey eyes. Flynn’s eyes always burned with passion.

‘Listen,’ I said. ‘If I was going to give a proper statement to the police with my name and everything, don’t you think I’d have done it by now?’

Cody moved closer. I shrank back, past the bin, against the rough iron wall of the shelter. Cody placed one hand on the wall beside my head, then he lifted the gun out and pressed it against my
side.

I wriggled sideways, trying to get away, but I was sandwiched between Cody and the huge metal bin. My heart was in my mouth.

‘Please,’ I begged.
‘Please,
don’t hurt me.’

There was a long, terrifying pause. Rain pounded against the shelter and then Cody leaned closer still.

‘If I let you go and you tell
anyone
about what you saw, I will come after you, do you understand?’

I cowered at the low menace in his voice, my whole body shaking.

‘Do you understand?’ he repeated.

‘Yes,’ I gasped.

‘If you breathe a word, I will hunt you down. You
and
Flynn. I will kill you
both.
’

‘You all right, love?’ A male voice cut in over Cody’s threatening whisper.

Cody spun around, pushing me in front of him, concealing his gun between us. I could feel the metal barrel pressing against my back.

The man who had interrupted us was standing just outside the shelter. He wore a yellow uniform, a bin bag in his hand. His eyes widened as he saw the look of terror on my face. He dropped the
bag. It landed with a thud on the ground.

‘What’s going on?’ he said. ‘Do you know this guy? Are you okay?’

‘She’s fine.’ Cody pressed the gun more firmly against my back. ‘Tell him.’

‘I . . . I . . .’ I could barely speak, I was so scared. I felt a strong urge to pee.

Then the man strode right up to us. ‘She’s obviously not fine,’ he said angrily. ‘Come with me, love.’

He reached for my arm. Cody pushed him. And then everything seemed to happen at once. Cody and the man struggled for a second. They spun around, staggering across the shelter, then outside into
the rain. I caught a flash of Cody’s gun, glinting wet. And then a shot fired.

I gasped. Cody backed away from the man, who slumped to the ground, his eyes closed. I stared at him, time slowing down. Blood was seeping across his yellow uniform. He lay still. Rain drummed
on the shelter. In the distance I could hear raised voices, people shouting out, asking where the shot had come from.

I stared down at the man. Someone ran over. Shook my arm.

‘River? Are you all right?’ It was Flynn.

Relief flooded through me at the sound of his voice. I turned to face him. His eyes were wide, full of fear for me. I blinked, unable to speak.

‘Did he hurt you?’ Flynn asked.

I shook my head. The man on the ground still hadn’t moved. Cody was standing, wide-eyed, just a metre away, the gun still in his hand. Flynn darted over to the man. He dropped to the
ground and pressed his fingers against the man’s neck. Time seemed to stop altogether and then Flynn looked up. His face was drained of colour. He turned to Cody.

‘He’s dead,’ he said. ‘You killed him.’

I tore my eyes away from the body on the ground. Cody was standing, open-mouthed, the gun still in his hand. Flynn stood up. He backed away from Cody and reached out for
me.

‘Okay, Cody,’ he said. ‘River and I are going to leave now.’

I took Flynn’s hand. He held it tightly, pulling me towards him. I stumbled across the rough concrete. Litter fluttered around my feet – a burger wrapper, an old scrap of newspaper.
My brain couldn’t seem to process what had just happened. I looked back at the man on the ground. His face was still, his eyes closed. He looked asleep. Yet blood seeped from his stomach. He
was dead, Flynn had said.

Dead.

I couldn’t take it in. A whole life wiped out. Someone’s husband. Someone’s son.

Flynn kept his eyes on Cody as we backed away, past the shelter, towards the car park. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, a light mist on my face. I held tightly to Flynn’s hand.

‘I didn’t mean this to happen,’ Cody said. His eyes were blank with shock. ‘It was an accident, I was just trying to push him away.’

‘We know,’ Flynn said soothingly. ‘We know, it’s okay.’

I glanced around as we edged further backwards. In the distance I could see people running around, clearly still trying to work out where the gunshot had come from.

‘Stop!’ Cody said.

I looked back at him. He had raised his gun again. His hand shook as he cocked the weapon. ‘I can’t let you leave,’ he insisted.

Flynn gently drew me behind him so that he stood between me and Cody. ‘You don’t have a choice,’ he said, keeping his voice soft and low. ‘River and I have done nothing
wrong. You can’t keep us or—’

‘I can do what I like,’ Cody snapped, a cold arrogance returning to his voice. ‘Get in the car.’

‘No. Cody, this isn’t like when Bentham orders a hit,’ Flynn insisted. ‘River and I can both see that what happened was an accident. But it still happened. And if you
hurt us you’ll just make things worse. You
have
to let us go.’ As Flynn spoke those last words an edge of panic crept into his voice.

‘I’ll explain what happened,’ I added. ‘The guy was trying to stop you hassling me. There was a fight. I’ll tell everyone you didn’t shoot him on
purpose.’

Cody marched towards us. Flynn stiffened, his arm reaching around, checking I was still safe behind him. I moved away, facing Cody down.

‘
Please
, Cody,’ I said, staring at the gun in Cody’s hand.

‘Get in my car.’ Cody pressed the gun against my ribs so hard that I gasped. He glanced at Flynn. ‘Both of you.’

‘All right. Okay, just don’t hurt her.’ Flynn held up his hands in surrender but I could see the fury – and the fear – burning in his eyes. He backed away as Cody
shoved me towards his car.

‘Get in the back,’ Cody ordered. I fumbled with the door handle, my hands shaking.

Cody turned to Flynn. ‘You can drive,’ he said.

We all got in the car. Flynn’s jaw was clenched as he took the keys from Cody and started the engine.

‘Go.’ Cody levelled his gun at Flynn’s chest.

Flynn put the car in reverse. As we pulled on to the main part of the concourse, two men ran towards us. One was pointing beyond us, towards the body of the man on the floor. The other turned
and looked, horrified, into the car. I couldn’t tell if he saw Cody’s gun, but he must have sensed we were somehow involved with the shooting because he waved his arms.

‘Hey!’ he shouted, trying to flag us down.

‘Go!’ Cody insisted. He thrust his gun at Flynn’s ribs.

Flynn stepped on the accelerator and we roared away. I looked around, through the back window. I half expected someone to be following us, but the two men were now bending over the dead
man’s body and no other vehicles were moving through the service station.

We turned on to the M1. Flynn drove north at Cody’s instruction. The rain stopped and the sun came out. None of us spoke. The shock of what had just happened settled inside me.

Cody had killed someone. I had witnessed the murder.

It changed everything.

After a while, Cody demanded to know how Flynn had found us and Flynn explained that he’d followed us in his car, not realising we’d left the motorway until after the turning, then
doubling back.

‘I heard the shot just after I saw your car,’ Flynn said. ‘I was only a few metres away, on the other side of those bins.’

I cleared my throat. My whole body felt tight and tense. ‘Cody, please, where are you taking us?’

Cody ignored me.

‘Do you even have a plan?’ I went on. ‘I saw you kill that man. We can tell everyone that it was an accident, but you have to take responsibility for what you did, you
have—’

‘I don’t
have
to do anything.’ Cody swore. He kept his gun trained on Flynn, but glanced over his shoulder at where I was sitting on the back seat. ‘Nobody knows
we were even at that service station. No one saw us.’

‘At least two people saw this car,’ Flynn pointed out. ‘And the three of us inside it.’

‘We’re going to dump the car soon.’ Cody pressed the gun against Flynn’s ribs, making me gasp. ‘Take the next turning.’

I sat back, my heart racing. Flynn drove on in silence. After a minute or so, Cody took the gun away from his side and laid it in his lap. None of us spoke as Flynn pulled off the motorway.

I glanced at the road signs but couldn’t seem to take in the names. I’d never heard of any of the places. Cody ordered Flynn to take a series of turnings, gradually steering him away
from the main roads. We drove on for another thirty minutes. It was late afternoon now. Mum would be wondering where I was, maybe even making phone calls to my friends. Dad would most likely be on
his way back from the commune with Stone. He had probably texted me already to tell me when he would arrive at Mum’s and that he wanted to pick me up straight away so that he could hurry home
to Gemma and Lily.

I felt a pang of misery and guilt at the worry my silence would cause them all. They didn’t deserve any more anxiety because of me. I looked at Flynn, still driving. His jaw was clenched,
his shoulders hunched. He was angry and scared, and trying not to show he was frightened. I thought of the way he had stood between Cody and me when Cody raised his gun.

That was love, wasn’t it? True love? I closed my eyes. I couldn’t seem to think straight about anything. All around me was chaos. Ahead only danger.

‘I need to let my parents know I’m okay,’ I said at last. ‘Seriously, they’ll—’

‘Shut up,’ Cody snapped.

Flynn glanced at him. I could see he was itching to tell him not to talk to me like that, but fearful that antagonising Cody might provoke him to start waving his gun about again.

We were travelling along a small country lane now. I had no idea exactly where we were. Cody seemed to know the area well, giving Flynn precise instructions about which turnings to take. We
drove and drove. The sun grew lower in the sky. And still we drove. I was desperately thirsty, though too scared to feel remotely hungry, and I badly needed to pee.

At last Cody told Flynn to stop the car close to some trees. He got Flynn out and forced him on to his knees on the ground, then ordered me outside too.

‘I need to go to the loo,’ I said.

‘In the trees,’ Cody said.

He let me go over behind the nearest tree. Despite the earlier rain it was a mild evening, only a soft breeze cooling the warm air. As I peed on to the ground, I thought about making a dash for
it. Cody wasn’t far away, of course, but maybe I could lose him in the wood.

What about Flynn? I couldn’t leave him here.

I stood up, a new determination filling me. There were two of us against only one Cody. I was quick and Flynn was both quick and strong. Surely, between us, we could overpower him, gun or no
gun?

I strode back to the two of them. Flynn was still kneeling on the ground, his hands clasped behind his head.

‘Get up,’ Cody demanded.

As Flynn got to his feet, I caught his eye, trying to signal my intention that I was ready to fight and to run. He gave me a quick, sharp nod. We walked through the trees single file: me first,
then Flynn, with Cody just behind him. I could hardly breathe, waiting for Flynn’s signal. He was still trying to talk to Cody, to calm him down, but I could hear in his voice that he held
out little hope of being able to reason with him. Neither did I. Cody seemed totally in control of himself, showing no sign of his earlier panic. I didn’t know where he was taking us or what
he was going to do, but it was obvious he had some definite plan in mind.

‘There’s no way out of this, wherever we hide,’ Flynn was saying. ‘You have to sleep, you’ll have to find food and water, you’ll be on the run
and
you’ll have us to deal with. It’s too much.’

Cody said nothing. He was keeping his gun firmly trained on Flynn, only occasionally glancing over at me.

‘The police will find your car, even if you dump it,’ I added. ‘They’ll work out where we are.’

‘I’ll get another car,’ Cody said, suddenly breaking his silence. His voice was like a chip of ice. ‘I’ll burn the old one, it’ll take ages for the police to
connect it with me.’

We reached the edge of the trees and emerged on to an open field. The ground was rough and strewn with pebbles across the grass. Cody forced us on. I stumbled over the stones and Flynn reached
out his hand to steady me.

‘Get back!’ Cody ordered.

Flynn let his hand fall to his side.

We walked on. The ground sloped sharply upwards as we rounded the corner of the field. I gasped. We were higher up than I’d realised. A white chasm opened up in front of us. Chains with
Keep Out
notices ran along the edge.

‘Where are we?’ I asked.

Cody said nothing.

‘It’s a chalk quarry,’ Flynn said.

I stared down at the ravine, its white walls roughly hewn out of the earth.

‘Why are we here?’ Fear gripped my throat.

Cody ordered us under the chain. We shuffled forwards to the very edge of the quarry.

‘On your knees, both of you,’ he ordered. ‘Hands behind your head.’

I sank to the ground. Flynn knelt beside me. Cody levelled his gun at the back of Flynn’s head and I suddenly realised what he was about to do.

‘
No
.’ The word slipped out of me, a desperate gasp.