He peeled out onto the road, his gaze flicking to the rearview mirror constantly. “What the hell are we supposed to do now?”
“We have to ditch the truck,” I said, letting my voice tremble.
“Not gonna happen. I just got this truck. I’m not-“
His gaze snapped to mine, but he didn’t finish his sentence when he noticed the gun I had trained on him. I purposely let my hands shake, giving off the air of terror. His eyes widened and slowly moved back to the windshield.
“Would you like to tell me why you’re holding a gun on me?”
“I don’t know you. I don’t if you’re here to bring me back to my husband or not, but I can’t take that chance.”
His brows furrowed. “What are you talking about? Your husband?”
It was all a lie. One that I planned to keep going until I either ditched this guy or figured out what his agenda was. “Did he send you?”
“What are you talking about? I was there with you on the side of the road. I was almost crushed right alongside you. How could I possibly be working for your husband? I don’t even know who you are!” he shouted.
“Yeah? Then what were you doing at the gas station?”
“Getting gas,” he said incredulously, his eyes flickering to the gun. “That’s usually what people do there.”
“You were watching me. I saw you watching me the whole time, and then a knife was in my tire and you magically appeared.”
“I didn’t magically appear. I live in this town. I get gas there regularly. And if you want to know why I was staring, it’s because I thought you were hot.”
I couldn’t decide if he was lying or not, but from my experience with men, they could all lie easily with smiles on their faces. It was just too convenient, but I had bigger problems right now.
“Look, we need to get rid of the truck. We need to make you disappear.”
“I can’t just disappear. I have a life, and as soon as I drop you off at the police station, I’m going to get back to it.”
I snorted. “Are you really that stupid? They saw your plates. They said they were getting rid of all the evidence. If you go back home, they’ll kill you and your family.”
He shook his head, laughing slightly. “What kind of world do you live in?”
“Apparently, I’m the only one that lives in the real world, because when those men crashed into us, I took that as a serious threat.”
“No, this doesn’t happen. This is a small town. We’re in Indiana. Nothing ever happens in Indiana.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Ever heard of the Spilotro brothers? They were found dead in 1986 right around here, beaten to death and buried in Willow Slough.”
“They were gangsters.”
“Yeah? What about Larry Eyler? The Highway Killer? That happened around here too. So, don’t sit there and tell me that this shit doesn’t happen around here. You have so many freaking cornfields that it’s easy to bury a body, which is exactly what will happen to us if we don’t get rid of this truck!”
He thought about that a moment and then cleared his throat. “Assuming that I believe you, where would we even get rid of the truck, and then how would we move on after that?”
“Do you have any swamps around here?”
Josh
“Are you sure this is a good place to dump the truck?” she asked for the third time.
We’d been hiding out in a cluster of trees, waiting for dusk to fall. There was a swamp that we could dump the truck in, but there were houses around. We couldn’t just do it in broad daylight.
“I’m sure. The Kankakee River always floods and this swamp never goes down. Even if it does, they won’t find the truck until we’re long gone.”
She nodded. I noticed the gun was still in her lap and she had a tight grip on it. I knew how to fire a gun. I grew up hunting after all, but that was with rifles, not handguns. And I wasn’t stupid enough to try and take the gun from her when she was shaking so bad. That was asking for an accident. Besides, she seemed truly terrified and that gun appeared to be the only thing giving her strength. I just hoped she didn’t shoot me.
“I’m Hannah,” she said after a minute. “I just thought…maybe you should know my name.”
“Josh.”
“So, you’re a mechanic around here?”
I nodded. “I work at the shop in town.” I huffed out a laugh. “Well, I did.”
“I’m really sorry you got dragged into this.”
“Then stop pointing the fucking gun at me.”
“Not until I’m sure you didn’t have anything to do with this.”
“And how the hell am I supposed to convince you that I didn’t?”
“You can’t.”
“Look,” I said, pulling out my wallet. She immediately raised her gun, but when I showed her my wallet, she lowered it marginally. “My license. I live in in town in an apartment.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. My husband could have hired you because he got word that I was in the area.”
I sighed and put my wallet away. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you. I stopped on the side of the road to help you and suddenly…” I snorted in laughter.
“Is this funny to you?”
I rubbed my eyes, shaking my head. “Lady, this is so fucking far from funny. Someone tried to kill us, now we’re on the run, ready to dump my brand new fucking truck in a swamp and go God knows where. I don’t know a single fucking thing about you! And who the hell is your husband that he would send people to kill you? Did you witness a murder or something?”
“Look, the less you know, the better. He’s not someone you want to mess with and he’s very powerful.”
“Did you know that when you married him?”
She squinted out the window and sighed. “Sometimes you don’t get a choice in things that happen to you.”
I rolled my eyes. This woman was one non-stop unanswered question. “So, what the hell do we do from here?”
“We’ll have to find another car and get out of here.”
“I could ask one of my brother’s to meet us,” I said, pulling out my phone.
She snatched it out of my hand and pulled out the sim card, then smashed it under her boot and tossed the phone.
“What the hell? That was my phone!”
“And that’s how they’ll find us!” she shouted. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“About what?”
“You kept a phone on you? Are you stupid?”
“No, I’ve just never taken On The Run 101.”
She rubbed her hand over her forehead and sighed. “We need to do this now. If they’re tracking you already, then it won’t take them long to find your last phone location. We need to dump the truck and run.”
“Yeah, sure, no problem. I’ll just go drive my thirty-thousand dollar truck into the fucking swamp, leave my family, and go on the run with a crazy, married lady that says people are coming after us.”
“If you would rather take your chances with them, then by all means, stay behind!”