Trapped (2 page)

I
let the silence stretch for a couple of seconds and then pointed back
at Beth. "I'll go help Beth get your order pulled
together. It was nice to meet you…"

"Anton.
Anton Perez. And your name?"

"Kristin,
Kristin Madison."

Two
minutes later Beth and I put the finishing touches on his tacos and
she took them over to his table. Marge was in the back again,
probably counting inventory, and there wasn't anyone else in
sight, so Beth sat down and talked to Anton while he ate.

I
watched the two of them out of the corner of my eye while I started
cleaning up. He seemed much more relaxed with Beth, smiling and even
laughing occasionally at her jokes. On the one hand I was relieved;
this should mean I was off the hook for having ruined her chance, but
seeing them flirt prodded once more at the empty spot in my own life
that Beth had so casually highlighted earlier.

Soon
enough our shift ended and Marge came back out front to relieve us. I
could tell by the way that Anton and Beth were hanging around each
other that each was trying to find a way to leave together without
scaring the other off. I put my jacket on and pulled my keys out of
my pocket as I walked around the counter, but Anton stopped me before
I made it past the two of them.

"Kristin.
Beth tells me that there is a delightful view of the sunrise from a
nearby hill. Why don't the three of us go watch it?"

My
jaw nearly hit the floor. It took a special kind of arrogant to think
you could string along two girls at once. Even if that hadn't
been enough to turn me off instantly, I could see Beth's frown.
The trip up to the Overlook had obviously been her idea, but she
hadn't factored a third wheel into the plan.

I
shook my head. "Sorry, my family will be wondering where I'm
at, and I've got some tests I need to study for tomorrow so
I'll need whatever sleep I can salvage out of what's left
of the night. I hope you two have fun though."

Beth's
expression relaxed slightly, but Anton picked up a slight tremble as
if fighting some kind of consuming rage. I smiled at Beth and tried
to walk past, but Anton reached out and grabbed my arm with a grip
that was physically painful.

"Don't
be so anxious to miss out on this…opportunity."

I
was so astonished that for a second I couldn't even speak. I
tried to twist away, but he was just too strong.

"Let
go of me!"

The
only response I got from Anton was a sardonic smile, but Marge
started walking over to see what was wrong. She only had to take a
couple of steps; my flailing attempts to escape made the situation
pretty obvious.

"Leave
those girls alone or I'll call the police!"

The
world went crazy all at once. Anton stood, moving faster than anyone
I'd ever seen, and ripped the table from the next booth over
free from the wall. He'd let go of me, but everything was
moving too quickly for me to respond.

Marge
had just enough time to backpedal slightly, and then the table went
screaming by her, flipping end over end before slamming into the cash
register and the only phones in the building.

Anton
was still moving almost too fast for my eyes to register individual
motions, but somehow I had an impression of unhurried leisure as
another table took flight and then crashed into the far end of the
store, clipping Marge on the shoulder and knocking her against a
display.

I
took a step, more because I needed to check that Marge was OK than
because I was trying to get away from Anton, but the steel grip was
suddenly back around my arm.

He
had ahold of Beth now too and was effortlessly dragging us towards
the front. I kicked, clawed and punched, but he always seemed a step
ahead of me, manipulating my body by applying pressure to my arm so
that nothing landed with any real force.

I
had a split second to register that Marge was still motionless on the
floor and then Anton dragged the two of us out into the cool evening
air. Beth had started to wake up to the fact that we were in trouble,
but she was even more useless than I was.

We
were almost to the BMW now, and I realized Anton was muttering,
sliding back and forth between Spanish and English so quickly that I
caught only parts of what he was saying.

"Stupid
whores…ruin everything…have my fun…"

Somehow
Beth got in a decent kick. I heard a solid thunk as her boot
connected with his shin, but he casually threw her into the side of
his car. She hit hard enough that
I
practically saw stars.

I
took advantage of his momentary distraction to rake my fingernails
across the arm holding me, and he released me with an oath. Acting on
adrenaline and instinct, I managed a couple of steps away from him
before he turned to follow.

I
was still looking back at him when the first splash of red appeared
on his chest. The sharp crack of a handgun firing at close range
slammed into me with almost physical force and then repeated three
more times. I slowed down in astonishment as Anton not only didn't
die, he didn't even fall to the ground.

The
impacts had staggered him, but he reversed direction back to his car
with something nearly his normal speed.

"Keep
moving, damn it."

The
hunk from earlier was standing at the corner of the car wash, and
yelling at me hadn't slowed him as he squeezed off two more
shots. My ears were ringing, but I thought I heard a grunt as one
hit, and the whine of a ricochet as the other missed and zipped off
into the night.

Nothing
about the night made sense, but I found myself running again, this
time towards the car wash.

I
lost count of the shots as my blond hero calmly tracked Anton while
backing away, matching each step with another shot. As soon as I
reached him, he pulled me behind him, reloaded and emptied his pistol
into Anton's car so fast it sounded like a single long shot.

Before
the sound had even fully died away I found myself swept off of my
feet as the blond guy picked me up and sprinted around the car wash.
His car was there waiting for us, driver side door open, keys in the
ignition. He all but threw me in, I sailed across the bench seat and
hit the passenger door hard enough to bruise, and then we were
peeling out of the parking lot.

I
looked out at the side mirror and saw a flash of movement before my
companion threw the vehicle around the curve and onto the highway.

"Are
you hurt?"

For
some reason it took me a second to realize he was talking to me.

"Did
he hurt you?"

"I…I
don't think so. Not really."

It
was like my mind had been skipping and then suddenly started tracking
again. Everything came back to me in a rush and the sheer amount of
violence I'd just witness made me start shaking.

"Marge.
Beth. Neither of them were moving. We've got to go back!"

I
reached for the door handle, half-formed thoughts of getting out of
the car crashing around in my head, only to be pulled up short as he
reached over and pulled me back against the seat.

"You
can't get out right now, we're doing ninety."

I
started to struggle, but his hand just clamped down with more force.
It didn't seem possible for him to restrain me with one hand
like that, but given all of the other things that had just happened,
it was pretty much the least important thing to be worrying about.

"Turn
around."

"I
can't do that right now. I hit him several times, but he's
even stronger than I was afraid of. If we go back he'll be
waiting for us."

"What
do you mean? You shot him! Even assuming that he was stupid enough to
come after you, seeing as you have a gun and he didn't, he's not
going to be attacking anyone now. He'll probably be dead before we
even get back there."

My
companion shook his head, but he released me. "You honestly
didn't see him as we were leaving? He followed us out of the
parking lot. I had to hit forty before he stopped gaining on us."

My
mind stuttered back to the flash of movement. I couldn't
explain it, but whatever I had seen had been the right shape and
size. I was trying to process what kind of person, what kind of thing
could possibly survive four or five bullets to the chest. My eyes got
even wider as he reached down to the seat between us and picked up
the empty pistol and slipped another magazine into it.

"Who
are you?"

He
didn't take his eyes off of the road, but he paused in the process of
sliding the weapon back into his shoulder holster.

"You
can call me Ash."

"I
can call you Ash, but that's not your name?"

"It's
best if we leave it at that. What do you want me to call you?"

"Kristin.
I mean that's my name."

"Kristin
it is then. You don't believe me, do you?"

I
shook my head before realizing that he wouldn't be able to see the
motion. "No. No I don't. Real life isn't like the movies.
People don't survive multiple gunshots like that."

"That
thing isn't a person. Not really, not in any of the ways that
actually matter. I'm sorry that you wandered into this, but if you
don't do exactly as I say over the next little while, not even I will
be able to keep you alive."

Ash
made me throw my phone out the window. It was a cheap piece of crap,
but I was surprised just how adrift I felt once it was gone. I'd had
vague plans of texting the police or something the first time Ash
fell asleep, but when I'd tried to tell him I didn't have a phone
he'd just reached over and fished it out of my pocket without even
taking his eyes off of the road.

It
felt like I should be freaking out. Ash certainly seemed to be
waiting for me to break down. I caught him looking at me out of the
corner of his eye a couple of times, but I never managed to engage
him in any kind of dialogue after his cryptic comment about Anton
being some kind of animal.

I
fell asleep after a couple of hours. If someone had asked me if I
would be able to sleep after being kidnapped by some kind of psycho
nutjob, I'd have told them no. Reality turned out to be a bit
different. I'd had a very long day before Anton tried to kidnap me,
and the adrenaline from the shootout had pretty much burned through
whatever stores of energy I'd had left. When the immediate danger had
passed, it took all of my willpower to stay awake, and even then, I
could tell it was a losing battle. Besides, for all that Ash was
obviously delusional, he hadn't actually done anything to hurt me
yet.

The
LCD display on the radio said it was noon when I finally woke up. It
took me a couple of minutes to realize that Ash was talking on the
phone.

"Look,
it's not negotiable. I either need a commitment for tomorrow, or I'll
find someone else to take care of it."

There
was a pause while whoever was on the other end of the signal
responded, and then Ash sighed.

"OK,
my guy will make sure you're compensated for it. I want the car they
are picking up cross-loaded in Chicago…no, I'll have someone
call with instructions as to the final destination. You just make
sure that driver doesn't stop between here and Chicago."

I
sat motionless on my side of the car, but I must have made more noise
than I'd realized when I woke up, because Ash turned to me as soon as
he'd hung up.

"You
get enough sleep?"

I
nodded cautiously, not sure where he was headed.

"You've
put me in quite a bind, Kristin."

I
wasn't quite sure what he was looking for. What could you say to
placate a psychopath?

"I'm…sorry."

"Don't
say you're sorry when you're not really sorry."

There
wasn't really anything I could say to that. I sat in silence waiting
to see what else he was going to say.

"I've
had someone monitoring events back in your hometown. That guy…"

I
inserted his name by reflex. "Anton."

"Right,
Anton made the front page. Not him actually, but the number he did on
the gas station did at least. Your friends are both in the hospital,
but they seem to be stable as near as I can tell."

Ash
paused again, but I still didn't know what he was after. A tiny part
of me seemed to think that I should be feeling something, but even
after so much time I still felt like I was in shock. It was too soon
for me to be feeling anything but numbness. After a minute he
shrugged and continued, but I got the feeling he was…disappointed
somehow.

"The
police are reporting some kind of violent confrontation, but they
aren't quite sure what to make of it. No bodies, but plenty of shell
casings and a surprisingly large amount of blood considering that
everyone but Beth and Marge left under their own power."

Now
I could see where he was going, but I wasn't sure how safe it was to
play along.

"So
you're saying that Anton trashed the gas station, bled all over the
place, and then picked up and left?"

"Pretty
much. He took the footage from the closed-circuit cameras before he
left, but other than that, you've pretty much got it."

It
wasn't smart to bait him, but I just couldn't help myself. If I
was going to die sometime in the next couple of days, then I was at
least going to say what was on my mind.

"Look,
it's a nice story, but you do realize you haven't given me any kind
of proof yet, don't you?"

Ash
shrugged. "I didn't necessarily expect that you'd believe me,
but I need you to understand certain things or neither one of us is
going to make it through this."

"Fine,
I'll play along. What do I need to know?"

"Your
friends are alive and in a known location, which is good for them,
but bad for us. If he'd killed them, or disappeared them, then that
would be an indication that he was placing the blame on them rather
than us. Since he's not, we can expect that he's tailing us."