Storm Season (23 page)

Instead, he walked, turned onto a larger street three blocks down, and stopped a young boy who was tossing a ball with his sister in the yard. “Excuse me,” he said once the boy had the ball and was in no danger of being hit if his sister wasn’t paying attention. “Do you know how to find George’s inn?”

Jasper couldn’t remember the name of the inn―wasn’t sure he’d ever known it, to be honest―but it didn’t matter. The boy rolled his eyes, assumed the universal expression children got when they thought adults were being stupid, and pointed down the street in the direction Jasper had come from. “That way. Turn right onto Blossom, go down two blocks, then left on Fallen Oak. You can’t miss it.”

“Thanks.” Jasper flashed a smile at the kid, turned around, and started in that direction. He walked at first, the bag he’d been carrying held loosely in his hand, but he couldn’t shake the desperate need to find Tobias and get out of town or the feeling that he was being followed despite the empty street, and by the time he reached Orchard, he was jogging. He would have been in a flat-out run by the time he turned on to Fallen Oak, but his muscles still hurt from earlier and his legs refused to push him any faster than a jog.

By the time he reached the inn, he was winded, each breath hurting a little more than the last. It made moving painful, but Jasper only allowed himself to stop long enough to check that the office was locked, George nowhere to be found, before he went on to the room they’d rented to gather up their things.

That didn’t take long at all, though Jasper kept glancing over his shoulder as he loaded their bags as well as the one from the store into the back of the truck. Only once was there someone watching him―a young couple with their dog―but with each passing moment the feeling of being watched increased. By the time he got everything into the truck, including the filled gas cans he’d dropped off that morning and asked to be delivered, he was starting to understand Tobias’s nervousness. It felt as though there was someone hiding behind every tree and building, as though someone was going to jump out at him every second, and even going inside the room to leave the key and the money didn’t help. There was nowhere to hide. No one could possibly be inside, yet Jasper dug the money out of his wallet as fast as he could and set it on the bed under the key without counting it a second time. “Sorry, George,” he said to the empty room, as he looked around one last time. “I hope it’s enough.”

The feeling didn’t go away, not even when Jasper climbed into the truck and started it up. He was safe here, safer than he’d be anywhere else in town, and yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed to move, to go, to get away from the town and the men who had somehow managed to slip into it.

The problem was that he didn’t know where to go.

“Where in stormy weather are you, Tobias?” Jasper asked as he shifted the truck into reverse. He had to hope that toward Shaleton was the right answer, that Tobias had managed to figure out how to get out of town on the right road, and that he was somewhere that Jasper could find him before he got too far.

There was always the possibility that Tobias was still in town, still trying to make his way back to the inn, but Jasper didn’t have time to wait. He refused to consider that idea, just as he refused to consider that Tobias could have gotten lost and left town on the wrong road or, worse, that the men had found him after they’d given up on finding Jasper. If Jasper let himself consider that anything other than finding Tobias walking along the road toward Shaleton was a possibility, he’d be frozen with indecision and that wouldn’t help him or Tobias.

An engine rumbled nearby, startling Jasper out of his reverie, and he looked out the window to see the van pulling into the lot next to him. “Sleet!” he cursed, banging his elbow into the lock on his door as he slammed his foot onto the gas, sending the truck shooting backward just as the men started to climb from the van. Jasper couldn’t spare much attention for them as he jerked the transmission into drive, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw two of the men climb back into the van while the third―who hadn’t been chasing them earlier―stayed in the lot, waving them on.

He only had a split second to wonder why before the truck raced forward, quickly reaching speeds that were unsafe in town. The van bolted forward as well, only a few seconds behind him, and a quick glance in the rearview mirror killed any thought Jasper had of slowing for the safety of the townspeople. Instead, he pressed his foot harder against the gas pedal, pushing the truck to its maximum speed, and hoped that he would be able to lose the van before he had to risk innocent lives in order to get away.

J
ASPER
whipped the truck around another corner and floored it again, forcing his eyes to focus on the road ahead instead of the rearview mirror. He thought he knew where he was now, thought he knew which roads he needed to take to get on the main road out of town, but he didn’t dare take that last turn without being certain that he’d lost the van. He hadn’t seen it in two turns, but the desperate need to drive faster and faster hadn’t left him and he didn’t dare start searching for Tobias until he was certain that the men weren’t still behind him.

A quick glance in the mirror as he approached his turn showed him that the road was still clear, and he slowed the truck a little before swinging it around the corner. This time, there were no squealing tires to give him away, and when the truck was fully around the corner, Jasper let himself breathe a tiny sigh of relief.

It didn’t last long. He still had to find Tobias, get out of town, and figure out how to lose the men again while they were traveling along the same road to the same destination, but at least he’d overcome the first hurdle. Or so he hoped. He drove the truck at a more sedate pace, using caution as he got closer to the center of town where all the people seemed to be gathered, but he couldn’t stop himself from glancing in the rearview mirror every few seconds, and the one time he saw a vehicle behind him, his heart rate jumped.

It wasn’t the van, just a car that presumably belonged to one of Haversdon’s residents, but the sight brought back the tingling along Jasper’s spine and the unavoidable urge to press the gas pedal all the way to the floor until the car was left in his dust.

He resisted, barely, his foot twitching over the pedal every time he glanced in the rearview mirror, even after the car turned onto another street, leaving the view behind Jasper clear once more. By the time he reached the main road out of town, he was sweating, his hands threatening to slip on the steering wheel.

There was a figure ahead, silhouetted in the sunlight, and Jasper forgot the danger as his heart leapt. Before it occurred to him that it might not be Tobias, he had already covered half the distance between them.

“Tobias!” he called, rolling down the window and leaning out as far as he could while still keeping his hand on the wheel and his foot on the gas pedal. The figure stopped, stiffened, and slowly turned, looking back at Jasper while still silhouetted in the sunlight. Jasper couldn’t see his face, but he knew even before the figure started walking toward him that it was Tobias, and he hit the brakes.

The truck coasted to a stop about ten feet away from Tobias, and Jasper slid out, the tension melting from his shoulders as Tobias broke into a run. When he was close, Jasper stepped forward with his arms outstretched and closed the distance between them so he could tell that Tobias was unharmed. They collided about three feet from the truck, Tobias hitting Jasper with enough force to send him stepping back for balance.

You’re all right!
Tobias slung his arms around Jasper, hitting him in the back with the grocery bags.
You got away!

“Yeah.” Jasper hugged Tobias back, surreptitiously checking him for injuries, and stepped back, holding Tobias by the shoulders so he could give him a visual inspection. “I lost them not long after I lost you and managed to find my way back to the inn. Figured I ought to get our stuff so we could leave once I found you.”

They didn’t follow you?
Tobias gazed toward Haversdon.
I thought about going to the inn, but then I thought they would look there and I didn’t know if you would make it back or if I would be able to get into the truck or hide or anything. I figured heading out of town would be safer—they might not think of that right away, especially if they were chasing you.
He ducked his head.
Sorry.

“It’s all right.” Jasper patted Tobias on the shoulder. “I figured you’d headed out of town when you weren’t at the inn by the time I got everything in the truck. Good thing, too,” he added, his tone sobering. “They showed up in their van just as I was ready to leave, so I didn’t have time to wait or look anywhere else. I just drove.”

Tobias’s shoulders tensed.
Did they follow you?

“I lost them.” Jasper slid his hand down Tobias’s arm and took one of the bags.

Are you sure?

“They weren’t behind me when I turned onto this road.” Jasper shrugged. “I hadn’t seen them in a few turns, actually, but it won’t take them long to figure out where I’m going.” He glanced back up the road as the tension between his shoulder blades increased, again urging him to move. “We should go.”

Tobias followed Jasper’s gaze and handed him the other bag.
Yeah. If they’re on the road, it won’t take them long to get here, even if they think we’re in town. They’ll just wait for us in the next one instead of trying to find us here.

Or they could do both. The man they’d left behind suddenly made sense to Jasper, and the knowledge sent a chill down his spine that urged him to move even faster. Whatever these men wanted with Tobias, they were clearly willing to do whatever was necessary to get it, and they had access to resources that Jasper didn’t.

They needed to move.

T
HE
feelings of urgency and terror faded as the day progressed, but Tobias didn’t stop looking over his shoulder, and Jasper found himself unwilling to stop for more than a few minutes all day long. Even though he knew intellectually that the men were far behind them and that they’d likely had their own issues getting out of Haversdon, he couldn’t completely shake the feeling that they needed to put as much distance between the men and them as possible.

As it turned out, that was a good thing.

The sky stayed clear, but when they were about an hour out from Needa’s Crossing, the weather tracker they’d picked up at the hardware store beeped from its place behind the bench seat, and Tobias twisted around to peer down at it.
There’s a storm,
he said, pressing one elbow against Jasper’s shoulder as he continued to peer down at the screen behind them.

That much was obvious―the tracker wouldn’t have beeped otherwise―but it didn’t give Jasper the information he needed. “How close?” he asked, pressing his foot down a little harder on the gas pedal. Regardless of how close it actually was, if it was close enough to make the tracker beep, they needed to get in sooner rather than later and Jasper wasn’t pushing the truck to the limit just yet.

Close.
Tobias shrugged, his elbow moving against Jasper with the movement.
I can’t really tell, but it’s moving fast.
He pulled the tracker out from behind the seat and handed it to Jasper as he turned around.

The road was clear and lined by fields, so Jasper eased his foot off the pedal slightly and risked a glance down at the tracker. The storm was a large dark spot in the lower corner, moving closer and getting bigger with every refresh of the screen. Even with this less-than-accurate portable tracker, it was clear that this storm was a big one, and that if they didn’t beat it to Needa’s Crossing, they would be in trouble.

Is it bad?
Tobias asked, settling in next to Jasper and peering down at the tracker as well.

Jasper handed it back to him so he could put both hands on the wheel, pressed down hard on the gas again, and nodded. “Could be. We might beat it, but if it picks up any speed or we run into any problems, it’ll be close.”

Can we go faster?

“Not much. The road’s bumpy and we’re carrying a lot right now.” Plus, if he pushed the truck too fast, the gas mileage would drop and they might be forced to stop outside of town to fill the tank again. Jasper thought they had enough to get to Needa’s Crossing―he’d filled the tank when they’d stopped to eat lunch―but he was afraid to drive it too hard with the approaching weather.

Hailstones.
Tobias shifted, pressing closer to Jasper as he pulled his legs up onto the seat. It was the same position he’d assumed many times during the drive thus far, but after the tentative kisses they’d exchanged in Haversdon, it was far more distracting, and Jasper suddenly found it hard to focus completely on the road.

“We’ll be all right,” he said, forcing his gaze, at least, to stay where it belonged. “We’re only about an hour out. Even if we get caught in it, we should be close enough to town that we can make it in.”