The Spider Thief (32 page)

Sucking in a breath at the pain, Ash reached down for Mauricio. “Come on. Let’s move!”

Mauricio climbed up into the pale beam of light, balancing in his penny loafers on the trunk of the car. A golden glow seeped up from below, reflecting on his skin. “There. Look!” Ash turned to follow his outstretched finger. The watery pool of sunlight fell on the gold spider, radiating outward in rings of warm reflected light. The spider crouched on the crumpled nose of the Trans Am, as if it had crawled out as far as it could go before plummeting into the abyss of the mine.

Ash couldn’t tear himself away from its luster. The rest of the world fell silent, and his mind filled with the familiar tug of its promises. It held the answer to all of his problems. With the spider in his hands, he would never have to run away again. From anything. He could have power. Wealth. Meaning. Everything he had ever searched for.

Careful of the broken glass, Ash climbed over the twisted frame of the windshield and out onto the rippled hood of the car. He could almost reach the spider from here.

“Ash?” Mauricio said, still standing on the car’s trunk. “What the hell? Come back!”

Mauricio could wait, Ash decided. He crouched, edging closer to the spider one small step at a time. He could have it, if he wanted it. After all of this, didn’t he deserve it?

From the far distance, Cleo’s voice called down to him. “Ash! Mauricio! Can you hear me?”

Mauricio yelled something back, but Ash wasn’t listening. He was so close. He stretched his arm out. He could practically reach it from here.

But he had to choose. Leave the spider and go back to his old life, on the run with Mauricio, taking off on Cleo again. Or embrace the spider and have a new life. One where he could have all the riches, all the power he needed. He would be invulnerable. Maybe Andres was right. Maybe he would live forever.

Mauricio and Cleo called his name. He wanted the spider so badly he could feel it trembling through him. But he had to choose. The gold spider, or them?

He squeezed his eyes shut, blotting out the burning sight of the spider and its hypnotic green eyes. He had to choose. Now.

He chose them.

He forced himself to turn away from the spider and its empty promises, and he looked up into Mauricio’s relieved face. Before he could say anything, a bloody hand rose out of the darkness of the ruined car, fingers spreading.

“Look out!” Ash called, too late.

Andres grabbed Mauricio’s ankle, pulling him down to his knees, dragging him in through the shattered back window. The wreck of the car shifted, just enough to make Ash’s stomach lurch. Somewhere above, a timber cracked and splintered. Rocks broke free from the mine wall and crashed down around them, deafening. Metal screeched and crumpled.

Ash climbed over the wreck of the Trans Am to where Mauricio struggled. He kicked down into the darkness, feeling his boot connect with Andres. Mauricio scrambled free, leaving one shoe behind in Andres’s bloody hand.

“Get out of here!” Ash gave him a push.

Mauricio started to climb, choking in the cloud of dust. Rough hands grabbed Ash’s shirt. Andres’s face rose up into the uneven beam of light, half covered in blood. “You were not chosen!” he shouted over the noise of the collapsing mine.
“I was!”

“Then take it!” Ash shouted, pointing down at the gleaming spider. “It’s yours!”

Andres turned to look and Ash shoved himself free of his grip. He scrambled out of the wreckage of the car and up the steep slope toward the light. When he risked a glance down, he saw Andres on hands and knees, scuttling across the Trans Am’s hood like an insect. He grabbed the gold spider and hugged it to him.

An electric silence crackled through the foul air, and everything seemed to freeze in place. From the deeper blackness above Ash, something rose up, blotting out the light. A huge mass balanced on eight looming legs. It radiated a wintery cold that stank like an ancient tomb.

Ash gaped up at the towering spider, unwilling to believe what he was seeing. His breath caught in his throat. He pressed himself back against the rough wall of the mine, feeling the stone fracturing behind him. Enormous as the spider was, it slid past him with an unearthly grace, its legs picking their way through the shadows.

His heart hammered in his chest. Deep inside, his mind refused to process the sight before him. It was a hallucination, he told himself. Some kind of toxin-induced flashback, brought on by the crash.

But still, he couldn’t will his body to move. He couldn’t force his hand to reach out. Just a few inches was all it would take to prove it was real. One moment to stretch his fingers out and brush the thing’s telephone-pole-thick leg as it swept past him into the depths of the mine, descending onto Andres. But some ancient instinct froze him to the spot.

In the terrible silence, Andres shrieked, an inhuman sound that seemed to go on and on, making the tiny hairs on Ash’s body stand up. Then the thing was gone, vanished from existence, and the mine crumbled down around him again in a deafening roar.

“Ash!” Mauricio scrambled and slid down to reach him. “Come on, man!”

Together, they climbed through the hail of sharp rocks and choking dirt, toward the light. Above, jagged wooden planks dangled from the mine entrance.

Ash grabbed a jutting timber and hauled himself up. He hooked one arm around the rotting wood and reached down for Mauricio. He lifted his brother toward the light, groaning, feeling the muscles in his arms tremble and threaten to give up. Mauricio scrambled to get a grip, his Dockers torn, one loafer missing, black sock caked with dirt. He couldn’t reach the edge.

Ash’s arms shook. He couldn’t hold on any longer.

A shadow passed across the mouth of the mine. Cleo. She reached down and grabbed Mauricio’s arm in a sure grip, suspending him between them.

She leaned across the lip of the mine, hair blowing in the wind, still wearing her bulletproof vest. Her fierce gaze met Ash’s. She was the most welcome sight he’d ever seen.

“I got you!” In one swift movement, she hauled Mauricio up over the edge into the sunshine. A moment later she came back, holding her hand out to Ash.

He huffed and reached for the rocky edge, his fingers slipping in the dirt. The timber broke and dropped away. He swung back and forth by one hand, then surged for Cleo’s outstretched arm. She caught him and held him, grimacing, as he got his footing.

One painful inch at a time, Ash scrambled up onto level ground and then collapsed into the grass. A cloud of dirt bloomed out past him, choking the air, coating them in gray.

Mauricio and Cleo helped him up. Together they stumbled away from the mine, up the slope until they could go no further. Mauricio sagged to the ground. Ash stood hunched over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. The mine entrance slowly collapsed in on itself, vanishing under a jumble of broken timbers and boulders.

“Did you see that, down there?” Ash huffed, pointing. “The spider.”

Mauricio shook his head. “Too dark. But it must still be down there. On the hood of the car.” He folded his arms tightly across his chest.

“You mean the gold spider, but that’s not what . . .” Ash shook his head. He looked over at Cleo, who stood staring into the sky, one hand shading her eyes from the sun. Tears streamed down her face.

“Cleo?” He put his arm around her shoulders.

Blinking, she pointed up.

Above them, the dark red V-shape of a hawk spiraled in the sky. Ash hadn’t seen one of those since he was nineteen.

“We got him,” Cleo breathed, choking back a sob. “We got Andres.”

“I know,” he whispered back. “You promised we would.”

She sagged against him. Ash held her tight, thinking back through the years to the night of the fire. To everything and everyone they had lost that night. And to what they still had left.

Mauricio, covered in dirt but alive, came over to stand with them, and Ash patted him on the back. Together, they watched the hawk circle away into the clear blue sky.

Forged

Ash drove the Torino at a sensible speed, trying not to think about the last time he’d been behind this wheel. He focused instead on how Prez was going to react when he saw it again. Hopefully, there would be no bodily harm involved.

He rolled through the junkyard at a walking pace, past rows of gutted cars and trucks, some of them missing windshields, doors, even entire front ends. He left the last row and drove into the back lot behind the building, where Cleo and Mauricio sat in the Galaxie with the windows rolled down. Moolah stuck his head out of the open window, tongue hanging. The only other vehicle there was DMT’s Porsche.

Ash pulled up in front of the Porsche and let the engine idle, liking the low rumble of it. He reached up and adjusted the brand-new chrome rearview mirror.

Prez slowly got out of the Porsche, eyes big. He was obviously trying to play it cool, but he looked like he was seeing a ghost.

Ash shut off the engine and got out, liking the smell of fresh paint. He tossed the keys into the air and caught them again.

Prez pointed at the Torino. “Ash, what . . .”

Ash waited for him to finish, but Prez just stared. Ash followed his gaze. The Torino did look good in the sunlight, shiny and new, like it had just rolled off the assembly line.

DMT got out of the Porsche and folded his arms, smiling widely.

Ash grinned at the encouragement. He held up his empty hand. “Now, I know it’s not the same. It’s not a hundred percent original anymore, and that pretty much cans it as far as historical value goes. Right? But look at the bright side.” He held out the keys. “Now you can drive it.”

Prez studied the keys for a moment, squinting, then snatched them like a kid grabbing candy.

“Also, I’ve got a brand-new title.” Ash pulled the folded piece of paper out of his pocket. “I sort of borrowed the VIN number from the car I got the new parts from. So everything’s legit. And let me add—” Ash took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I hope this fixes things.”

Prez gave Ash a long look. “You know, comes right down to it, you ain’t half bad.”

Ash smiled.

“D,” Prez called.

DMT put his game face back on and lumbered over. “Yeah, Boss.”

“You want a cheeseburger?”

The big man looked confused for a moment. “Yeah, okay.”

“Good. We goin’ out for cheeseburgers. This time, I’m drivin’.” Prez smacked him in the chest. “But don’t let me start eatin’ like this every night. You know better than that.” He limped to the Torino, stopping only to shake Ash’s hand. His hand felt paper-thin but strong.

Cleo and Mauricio got out of the Galaxie and came over. Moolah trotted past Ash, bypassing him, and ran up to Prez just as he opened the door.

“Hey, pooch.” Prez bent down and petted the dog. Moolah trotted around, tail wagging.

“Moolah!” Ash called, kneeling down. “Moolah, come here!”

Prez’s teeth shone as he laughed. “Got to feed him some chicken cacciatore every once in a while, man. Makes a big difference.” He patted Moolah. “Go on, pooch, get.”

The dog trotted back to Ash, panting, and nuzzled him. “Good boy,” Ash murmured.

The Temptations blared out across the lot as Prez got the striped Torino started. He rolled to the street, saluting Cleo with one finger. The tires chirped as he accelerated away. The engine wound up, echoing the length of the street.

Ash stood, and Cleo leaned against him. “That was really sweet.”

“Just wait’ll he checks under the hood and finds Antonio Fargas’s signature.”

She gave him a quizzical look.

“Huggy Bear,” Mauricio explained. “From the TV show.”

“Oh.” She fixed Ash with a skeptical look. “It’s authentic, right? Not a forged signature?”

Ash grinned. “I’ll never tell.”

She shook her head.

Mauricio leaned inside the Galaxie and came out with a Frisbee. He turned to face Ash. “
Now
can I go back to film school?”

Ash grinned and mussed his hair.

Mauricio ducked away and tossed the Frisbee past Moolah. The dog chased it, and Mauricio followed him. “I’ll meet you back at the hotel.”

“You think he’ll really go back to school?” Cleo said softly, watching Mauricio run after the dog. “After all of this?”

Ash shrugged. “If he thinks the world won’t fall apart without him. How about you? You okay?”

She let out a long breath, staring off into the sunset. “Without my badge, I feel sort of . . . I don’t know. Lost. Like I had a list of things to do, and now I can’t find the list.”

“You’re not thinking of going back to the FBI?”

“No. Oh, no,” she said. “But I’ll figure something out.”

“You always do.”

They headed back to the Galaxie. The sun slipped behind the mountains, casting a last coppery glow on the curves of her face. “I don’t know how this is going to work,” she said, “between you and me.”

“You got the charges dropped. I’m a free man.”

“I mean in the long run. If we’re not chasing a million dollars or a gold spider or something.”

He opened the Galaxie’s door for her. “You want it to work?”

She nodded. “I do.”

“Then we’ll figure it out.” He kissed her. When she finally let him go and climbed into the car, he came around and got in beside her. He turned the key and the Galaxie came to life. As the engine settled down into an easy rumble, Ash looked across the huge bench seat and gave Cleo a crooked smile. “Hey, it’s not like we’re cursed.”

THE END

Get free bonus chapters, sneak previews, and exclusive deals in your email!

Join now at http://LaurenceMacNaughton.com/free
.

Did you like
The Spider Thief
? Please consider giving it a review on
Amazon
or
Goodreads
!