Stealing Second (The Amendments Book One 1) (4 page)

Madison grabbed me by the hand and led me to one of the RV trailers. “Wait here,” she whispered. A moment later, she appeared at the door carrying a
heavy backpack. Even in the flickering firelight, I could see she was straining to carry it.

“Take this,” she ordered, “and put it on.”

I took
the frame-style olive green backpack from her and inwardly groaned. It was heavier than it looked. I could only imagine what it contained. She emerged from the trailer a few seconds later, wearing a knapsack.

“We’re goi
ng into the woods,” she said. “We’ve got to get away from here.”

I nodded. Madison took me by the hand
, and we began to jog deeper into the property. There was a half moon, and by the time we hit the woods, my eyes had somewhat adjusted to the light. The frame of the pack was digging into my ass, but with her kiss still fresh on my lips, I hardly felt it. I had no idea where we were headed, but as long as we were together, I didn’t care where we were going. Madison led me to a narrow trail and we jogged deeper into the woods. The night air was alive with the sound of chirping crickets. I was out of breath and sweating by the time she stopped. Wordlessly, she dug into my pack as I caught my breath. She removed a small flashlight and turned it on.

“You’re not going to die on me, are you?” she asked.

“I hope not,” I said. “What the hell is in this thing?” I asked. “The damn thing must weigh a hundred pounds.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. She stepped close to me and gave me a quick kiss. “You’ve got to trust me. We’ll need everything in your pack. How far did you say it was to your parents
’ place?”

“Sixty miles, maybe a little further.”

“That’s a two day walk, maybe even three,” she whispered. “Please don’t tell me that you’re having second thoughts. They could already be looking for us. Mike will kill you if they catch us. We’ve got to keep moving.”

“Mike?” I asked. “You mean the guy who owns the place?”

“That’s him. Why, would it have made a difference? He beat me, Gary. He’s a mean son of a bitch and I had to get away.”

“No, it wouldn’
t have made any difference,” I said, but I thought otherwise. I think it finally dawned upon me that I was risking my life for someone I didn’t even know. I thought of what Mike would think of me, stealing his woman, after he had been kind enough to offer me a place to stay for the night. “Let’s get moving,” I said.

We jogged along for another quarter mile before Madison turned into the woods. We were on a path, but it wasn’t much of a path
, and she slowed to a brisk hike. Over the sound of the crickets, I heard the sound of revving engines. Madison froze. She stood still for a second and then she turned to me. “They’re looking for us,” she whispered. “They’re on the ATV’s. There’s no time to lose.”

I nodded and followed Madison as she began to crash through the woods.
Thorny bushes and vines dug at my flesh. Behind us on the trail, I heard at least two ATVs. Would they see our footprints where we had turned and had taken the path? I honestly didn’t know, but the thought consumed me. If they did, they would be on top of us in minutes. We crossed a barbwire fence into an open field and I risked a look behind us. I could see the glow of bouncing headlamps in the woods. My shoulders ached and I began to seriously regret my foolhardy decision.

I followed Madis
on and we jogged along the wood line. My arms were bleeding and my chest was heaving. I wondered what it felt like to have a heart attack. At this rate, I felt it was a very real possibility. I gulped for air and felt lightheaded as Madison found a new trail, and once again the two of us disappeared into the woods. The trail here was wide and well maintained. She switched off the flashlight and we ran in the pale moonlight. If the men on the ATVs had discovered our trail and if they could cut through the barbed wire, they would be on us in an instant. We jogged down this new trail for a solid five minutes before I stopped. I was completely out of breath and soaked with perspiration.

“We can’t stop now,” she pleaded. “I know another trail. We’ve got to get to it before they catch us. Come on
, Gary. Please, it isn’t much farther.”

I shook my head and doubled over as I tr
ied to catch my breath. The ATVs were still on the first trail we had taken. I could hear them buzzing up and down it, searching for the place we had broken off and headed into the woods. A long minute passed. I finally straightened up. “I can’t jog anymore,” I said. “We’ll have to hike. I’m sorry; this goddamn pack is just too goddamn heavy.”

Madison covered her face with her hands, but she pulled them away and forced a smile onto her face. “Okay,” she whispered. “But we’ve got to move. Your life depends on it.”

I followed her and we moved along at a pace that was between a hike and a jog. Behind us, I could hear the ATVs had found our trail. I knew they would have a hard time making it to the fence. They would also have to cross it. But once they did, they had an open run to catch us. Madison must have noticed it, too. She picked up the pace and soon we were back to jogging.

Finally, she took a hard right into the woods and once again, she turned on the flashlight. The trail here was not maintained and once again, thorny claws ripped at my
bare arms. Still, we plowed ahead and crossed another fence. The ATVs were now roaring at top speed. I knew they had gotten past the barbwire and were now either in the open field, or perhaps they were already on the wide trail. Either way, I thought my life was about to end and I imagined what they would do to me.

Madison shut off the flashlight and pointed to the lights of a distant farmhouse. “My best friend lives there,” she whispered. “I’m going to see if she’ll
lend us her car. Come on, we’ve got to run.”

I held her arm for a minute as I caught my breath. The house
was about a quarter mile away, and I prayed my legs would carry me that far. She finally jerked her arm free and began to run. With nothing else to do, I followed her. She crossed another fence and once she made it through, she left me in the dust. I watched her disappear in the moonlight, racing ahead to the farmhouse. I was too exhausted to care. I stood there panting like a dog, listening to the ATVs in the distance. They were closing in, and I wondered if they hadn’t figured out where we were heading. I stepped through the barbed wire, nearly falling over under the weight of the backpack.

I was about two hundred yards from the farmhouse and watched as Madison let herself into the house. I forced myself to jog the rest of the way, unsure where I found the strength to do so. Like a drunk, I staggered up to the door knock
ed. A second later, Madison opened the door and beckoned me inside. She stood at the door and stared out into the darkness, as if she were trying to gauge how close our trackers were. I walked into the kitchen of the farmhouse and stripped out of the backpack. Unthinking, I began to unbuckle the top of the pack. I had to know what was so damned heavy.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said a deep male voice.

I looked up and found myself staring at a strikingly handsome cop. He was pointing a gun at me. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned.

“Oh, I’m not kidding, buddy,” said the cop. He was younger than
me, perhaps twenty-five, with blonde hair and biceps that threatened to split the seams of his sheriff’s uniform. “I should thank you for lugging that thing over here. I’ll bet it was heavy.”

“What the hell is it?” I asked.

“None of your goddamn business,” hissed Madison. She now held a handgun and waved it at me menacingly. “Clay and I are getting out of here. You can do whatever the hell you want. Mike is going to find you. I’m sorry about that, but he’ll kill you when he does. You might want to kill yourself before that happens. He’ll beat you, first. Come on, Clay. We’ve got to move it.”

The blonde cop nodded. He stared at me with ice blue eyes and smiled. “There’s a straight razor in the medicine cabinet. Maddie’s right, you should probably use it. I’d shoot you myself, but I don’t want to kill you. You might make a run for it, get into the woods and hunker down until daylight. That’s what I’d do. Take the straight razor. If they catch you, run it across your throat. Mike is a mean bastard. You don’t want to find out what I mean by that.”

“Thanks,” I wheezed. I was still out of breath, but I was growing angrier by the second. “You tricked me,” I said. “What did I ever do to you?”

Madison laughed. “Did you really think I was interested in you? Gary, I’m sure you’re a nice guy, but didn’t you wonder what a girl like me would see in a slug like you? Think about it. I’m sorry, but I needed someone to carry that pack. You volunteered.”

“You’re a bitch,” I stammered.

Clay strode across the room and struck me
hard across my cheek with an open hand. I tasted blood, but the embarrassment of being slapped nearly drove me out of my mind with fury. “Don’t move until we’re gone. Do you understand me, boy?”

I turned away from him and crossed my arms. Clay smiled at me and picked up the backpack. “Holy shit,” he grunted. “This damn thing is heavy. Thanks buddy.”

A second later, they were out the door. When they opened it, I could hear the roaring of the ATVs and knew they were nearly upon us. I stole a look out the window and confirmed my suspicions. I spotted Clay and Madison as they ran to the garage, but the ATVs had also spotted them, suddenly silhouetted against the garage in the headlights. I heard the crack of a gunshot, quickly followed by another. Stupidly, I dashed away from the window and ran into the bathroom and spotted a water glass. I filled it three times before it satisfied my thirst.

There were more gunshots, dozens more, and I found the straight razor where Clay had said it would be. I closed the cabinet and opened the blade
. Outside, all I could hear was the sound of idling engines. With nothing to lose, I walked back into the kitchen and peered out the window. From where I stood, I could see three bodies; two were sprawled out next to the pair of idling ATVs, and the other was next to the garage. None of them moved. I knew I had to get out of the house and forced myself over to the door. The gunshots would alert the others in Mike’s camp to our position. They would be headed this way, but they would take the road and be here in minutes. I had to get out of there.

I opened the door and stepped outside, feeling like a trapped rat. I ran to the garage and found Clay, his clean uniform was now soaked with blood. His eyes stared lifelessly at the orange yard
light glowing brightly overhead from the top of a telephone pole. I took a quick peek back at the downed men by the ATVs. I recognized one of them from the bonfire. The other one didn’t look familiar. I was just happy it wasn’t Pete.

Somehow, Madison had survived. I leaned over and picked up Clay’s gun, another revolver, and held it at the ready as I walked around to the front of the two-car garage. The big overhead door was open
, and I could see a trail of blood on the cement apron. Madison had dropped her gun there, and I stooped to pick it up and stuck it down the front of my jeans. I took a deep breath and stepped inside. Madison was crawling across the floor of the garage, dragging the heavy backpack behind her. Clay’s cruiser was parked there, passenger door open, Madison’s knapsack sat on the seat. I couldn’t see where she was hit, but she was losing a lot of blood.

“What’s in that goddamn thing?” I asked.

She hadn’t noticed me and jumped when I spoke. She turned and stared at me for a long moment. “Help me, Gary,” she moaned. “Help me and I’ll make you the happiest man on this planet. We’ve got to get out of here.”

I laughed. “We’re not going anywhere,” I said. I stepped
past her and grabbed her knapsack, walked to the back of the car and placed it on the trunk. I was somewhat angered to find it barely weighed ten pounds. I walked back over to her and dropped the straight razor at her feet. I wrestled away
my
backpack, which is how I now thought of it. “You might want to run the blade of that razor across your throat before Mike shows up. I hear he’s one mean bastard. I don’t want to kill you, but I don’t want you to be tortured, either. I’m leaving, Madison. Thanks for all the fun. Those were some good times we had, huh?”

“You can’t leave me here,” she pleaded. “I’ll do anything, Gary. I’ll love you, I promise I will.”

I laughed. “You’d really love a slug like me?” I asked. “I doubt it. Sorry. Good luck with Mike.”

“No!” she cried.

But I had already set Clay’s gun down on the trunk of Clay’s cruiser and was strapping on the pack. When I had it cinched around my waist, I retrieved the revolver, looped the knapsack around my wrist and walked out of the garage. Behind me, Madison began to wail. I walked over to the ATVs and examined each of them. One had a full tank, while the other only had a quarter tank of fuel. I took aim with Clay’s revolver and popped off a shot into one of that machine’s gumbo tires. It quickly went flat. With Madison pleading and screaming obscenities, I straddled the other ATV and sped up the driveway. On the narrow asphalt highway, I turned away from Mike’s place and gunned the engine. I hung on to the handle grips with all my strength and watched the needle on the speedometer climb up to sixty. The machine had a small windshield, but still my eyes still began to water.