Illusion of Luck (21 page)

“
I’m not doing
that.”

Larry reached into his pocket and pulled out
the watch bomb remote. “When the time comes, I’m sure you’ll do the
right thing.”

Cynthia started doing the first cheer. Greg,
where are you? Please come save me. But nobody could possibly
figure out that Larry would bring her to Marshall, to Mav Stadium
at 4:30 in the morning. There would be no one to save her. She was
on her own.

She could either keep her left hand intact
by having sex with him or she could try to escape and probably lose
her hand. Could she run fast enough to get away from him? She was a
very good runner, so she doubted he could catch her. But if he
pushed that little red button and blew off her hand she might bleed
to death.

What would she do when the moment of truth
would arrived? She decided she’d rather give up her body to the
angel of death than to let Larry have it.

**********

Greg and company had stopped by the LaQuinta
in The Woodlands to pick up Sandy’s car. They had traveled to
Marshall at high speed, making only one quick pit stop.

When Greg turned north onto Maverick Drive,
he got the jitters. What if they had been wrong, and Larry and
Cynthia were still back in The Woodlands? But then he turned into
the stadium parking lot and saw the Jaguar.

He killed his headlights and Sandy followed
suit. Greg prayed Larry wouldn’t hear their cars—they needed to
make a surprise attack. There was almost no moonlight, but Greg
figured the street lights would allow them to see well enough to
slip up on Larry.

Greg walked to Sandy’s door and whispered as
he pointed, “Why don’t y’all go around that way and I’ll go this
way.”

They nodded in agreement.

When Greg turned the corner and saw Cynthia,
his heart began to pound. She was near his end of the field,
standing in the beam of a propped up flashlight. But why was she
wearing that outfit? He saw Larry striding toward her, carrying a
flashlight. Greg tiptoed toward them, confident he was hidden in
the darkness.

“
I told you what you were
supposed to do,” said Larry. “This is the part where you run out
and kiss me!”

“
And I told
you
—I’m not going
to do it,” she said.

Larry pulled out the remote
and held it up. “I believe you
are
.” He dropped his flashlight
and grabbed her.

She pushed him away.

“
You’re ruining everything,”
said Larry.

He lunged at her.

She swiped at the remote, and it flew into
the air.

“
Oh, you’re gonna regret
that.”

Larry turned around, picked up the
flashlight and began to search the grass for the remote. Then he
thought he heard an animal and raised his flashlight. But it was no
animal—it was a man—running straight at him.

Before he could react, Greg tackled him.

“
Greg.” Cynthia could not
believe her prayers had been answered. “Be careful—he’s
dangerous.”

Greg hopped on top of him. He knew nothing
about fighting, but that didn’t stop him from delivering three
quick punches. But then Larry popped him in the jaw, pushed him
off, and jumped to his feet.

Greg hopped up and ran at Larry again.

Larry turned and ran away from him. But then
he saw Sandy coming from the other direction. He considered running
across the field, but then he saw Rebecca coming toward him. And
she looked like she wanted to rip his head off. He was
cornered.

So, he ran to the stands, jumped up on the
ledge, and climbed over the railing. Greg and Sandy were close
behind. He started to go for the exit, but Sandy had it blocked.
So, he ran up the stands.

Rebecca stayed with Cynthia. They held the
two flashlights, pointing them at Larry.

“
You might as well give up,”
said Sandy. “There’s nowhere to go.”

Larry ran to the very top and climbed up on
the railing.

“
That’s gotta be at least a
thirty foot drop,” said Sandy.

“
Yeah,” said Greg, “don’t be
stupid.” Although, Greg kinda wished Larry
would
be stupid.

Larry climbed over to the back side of the
railing. “See you around, Chumps.” He jumped off.

Greg and Sandy ran to the top and looked
down.

“
Can you see anything?” said
Greg.

“
Nope. But he’s got to be
dead. Or at least have a lot of broken bones.”

Greg yelled down to him. “Hey, are you
alive?”

No reply.

They hurried down the stands.

“
Did he jump?” said
Rebecca.

“
Yeah,” said Sandy. “Throw
me your flashlight.”

Greg and Sandy took the exit and went behind
the stands to investigate the grisly scene.

“
No,” said Greg. “Don’t tell
me.”

There was a commercial garbage bin sitting
directly under where Larry had jumped from. And the lid was
open.

“
He couldn’t have known it
was here,” said Greg. “We
know
he couldn’t see it from
up
there
.”

Cynthia and Rebecca ran around to meet them
and found the two men standing in front of the garbage bin, shaking
their heads.

“
Is he dead?” said
Rebecca.

“
No,” said Sandy.

They heard an engine start.

“
There he goes,” said
Greg.

“
You’re kidding me,” said
Rebecca.

“
He really
is
lucky,” said
Cynthia.

“
Well, what are we waiting
for? Let’s go after him,” said Rebecca.

“
You and Sandy can, if you
want,” said Greg. He looked at Cynthia.

They ran to each others’ arms.

After a long kiss, Greg said, “Are you okay,
Baby?”

“
I am
now
.”

Sandy looked at Rebecca. “What do you think?
You want to chase him?”

“
I guess not. He’s got too
much lead time anyway. But, Cynthia, you need to go file a police
report.”

“
We will,” said Greg. “And
let’s go do it right now so we can get out of here—‘cause we’re
late for our honeymoon. That is, if you’re still up for
it.”

Cynthia had been through quite an ordeal.
And if it had been any other kind of trip, she would have cancelled
it. But this was their honeymoon, and doggone it, she was not going
to let Larry destroy it. “Sure. All I need is a good meal and a
shower.” Then she remembered she was still wearing the ridiculous
cheer leader outfit. “And a change of clothes.” And a little sleep
would be nice, she thought. “Oh—and I need help with this.” She
held up her wrist.

Rebecca pointed the flashlight at it. “You
need help with your watch?”

“
It’s got a bomb in it. At
least that’s what Larry said. That thing I knocked out of his hand
was the detonator. He told me if he pushed the red button on that
remote, or if I tried to take off the watch, my hand would get
blown off.”

Rebecca looked more closely. “Probably a
fake.”

“
I know—but I didn’t want to
chance it.”

**********

As Larry drove out of town, he felt
invigorated. Things had gone terribly wrong, yet his luck had saved
him again. He had truly taken a leap of faith this time, and in
doing so, through his belief in the God of Luck, he had
become…invincible.

Now,
nothing
could stop him from
getting what he wanted.

And what he still wanted more than
anything…was Cynthia.

Chapter
28

It was 6:45 AM when Rebecca’s cell phone
rang. She and Sandy were on their way back to Dallas in his car.
“Hello?”

“
Hey, Rebecca, this is
Cynthia.”

“
Hi. I’ll put you on speaker
so Sandy can hear too. How did it go at the police
station?”

“
Fine, I guess. The watch
bomb was a fake.”

“
Yeah, but still, I know you
were glad to get that thing off your wrist.”

“
Right. So, they took my
statement. They didn’t look like they were going to do much about
it, but I guess at least now the police will be on the lookout for
him.”

“
Yeah. And if he gets pulled
over for speeding or whatever, they’ll see that there’s a warrant
for his arrest.”

“
Well, we’re just glad to be
done with it. Right now we’re driving to Shreveport to catch a
flight to Orlando. We’ll get there around 2:00. I doubt we’ll go
into any of the parks today since we’re both dead tired, but it’s
only Monday, and we’ll be there until Saturday. So we’ll still have
plenty of time left.”

“
I just hope you’re not
overdoing it—after all you’ve been through.”

“
Well, I guess the smart
thing would for me to go home and collapse for a week. But I just
don’t
feel
like doing the smart thing.”

“
Yeah, I don’t blame you.
But at least once you get there you can spend the rest of the day
in bed.”

“
Definitely.”

“
Oh, yeah, for
that
too.”

“
Yeah.”

Rebecca could hear the tired smile in
Cynthia’s voice. They make a great couple, she thought. She had
already spent enough time with Greg to see how much he loved her.
And after witnessing the joyful reunion that morning, she knew
Cynthia loved him just as much. They were so lucky.

“
Well, y’all have a
wonderful honeymoon,” said Sandy.

“
We will. And thanks again
for everything y’all did to help rescue me.”

“
You’re welcome.
Bye-bye.”

As soon as they hung up, Sandy said,
“They’ve never had sex.”

“
You’re kidding.”

“
Nope. They wanted to wait
until they got married.”

“
Oh, man. So, they wait all
that time, and then just when they’re about to go crazy in bed,
Larry shows up and steals her away.”

“
That’s right.”

“
What if Greg had never got
her back? I’ll bet then he would have wished they had already done
it—at least once.”

“
Well, I don’t think so.
Once Greg makes a commitment, he sticks with it.”

“
What about you? What would
you have done?”

“
Oh,
I
wouldn’t have waited. But, if
for some reason I
had
waited and then lost my
bride on my wedding night, I’d be kicking my own butt from here to
next Tuesday. To me, Greg has funny ideas about some things. But I
respect him for it. He does what he thinks is right.”

“
So, you think they were
foolish for waiting?”

“
No, I’m not saying they
were
foolish
.”

“
You’re just saying
that
you
wouldn’t have waited.”

“
Right.”

“
Like you couldn’t wait to
rub up against my butt and touch my boobs.”

Sandy grinned sheepishly. “What?”

“
You thought I didn’t notice
what you were doing when we were in bed together at the
LaQuinta?”

“
On
the bed together—not
in
bed together.
There’s a big difference.”

“
Whatever.”

“
And it was only
one
boob.”

“
So, you admit to taking
advantage of me while I was sleeping?”

“
Well, apparently you
weren’t
sleeping.
Otherwise, you wouldn’t have known
what
I did.”

“
Really? Well, just what
would you have done if I hadn’t woke up?”

“
Well, I…”

“
Where else would you have
touched me?”

Sandy tried to think of a witty
response.

Rebecca didn’t wait for one. “If I had been
a sound sleeper, you might have taken off my clothes.”

Sandy smiled at the thought of feeling her
naked body.

She punched him hard in the arm.

“
Hey. Why’d you do
that?”

“
Because I’m serious, but
you think it’s a big joke. Have a good laugh on Rebecca,
huh?”

Sandy’s smile was gone. “I’m sorry.”

“
You ought to be.” Rebecca
looked straight ahead. “Next time…wake me up first so I can enjoy
the whole thing.”

Sandy turned his head so
fast, he nearly gave himself a whiplash. “
Next
time?”

“
Yeah—assuming you want to
date me.”

“
Uh…yeah, I want to…date
you.”

“
Hey—what did you almost
say? You want to
what
me?”

“
I’d love to go out
with.”

“
No, no. You’re not getting
off that easy. What is it you want to do to me?”

Sandy spit it out all at
once. “I want to do
everything
to you and
with
you. Okay? I
really like you a lot. Is that what you wanted to hear?”