Chapter 29
Julian wasn’t thrilled with Petula’s call as he sat outside her headquarters waiting for her van to be loaded.
There had been a last-minute change to her route. Her new territory was an area pretty far northwest of town with which Julian was not familiar.
Julian, Statler, and the rest of the crew had at least been able to scout Petula’s previous route before she’d driven it, getting the lay of the land and making sure they knew where any trouble spots might be.
This morning Julian would be working blind.
He had a bad feeling about this. Things had been far too quiet over the weekend, with no sign of their perp even though Statler and his crew had scoured the entire area where the shooting had occurred.
Whoever this was, Jefferson or Bradly, they knew how to stay under the radar, and that was concerning.
“Keep your phone handy,” Julian told Petula before she hung up. “If anything looks suspicious at all, make sure you call me immediately.”
“I’ll be fine. You’ll be right behind me,” she told him with a certainty in her voice that had him feeling warm inside.
Julian loved that Petula looked at him as her safety net. After his shitty childhood years, where he’d basically been written off as a wimp by so many of his peers, Julian still got pumped when his current place in the world was validated.
“Just promise me you’ll be extra careful today,” he cautioned.
“I will,” she returned. “And you let me know if your arm starts bothering you.”
Julian chuckled. “It’s fine, Petula.”
“You’d say that if it was falling off,” she huffed. “I promise I’ll be careful. You have to give me the same consideration.”
“Fine,” he chuckled. “If I’m hurting, I’ll let you know.”
“There. That wasn’t so difficult, was it?” she chided playfully. Then, without hesitation, she added, “I love you.”
Julian would never get tired of hearing that.
“I love you, too,” he told her.
Getting off the phone with Petula, Julian immediately called Statler.
“What’s up?” Stat asked.
“I just thought I’d give you a heads up. Petula’s route was changed today at the last minute.”
“Well, that sucks,” Statler grumbled. “Where is it?”
Julian gave him a list of stops along the rural route that Petula had passed on to him.
“You don’t sound too happy about this,” Statler probed. The astute man had heard the misgivings in Julian’s voice.
Julian sighed. “I just… You know how it is with those of us who have…seen things. I’m having a bad feeling about today.”
Statler didn’t brush him off. As one military vet to another, he knew better than to poo-poo a fellow serviceman’s instincts, but he did try to deescalate Julian’s concerns. “Your itchiness could simply be because the last time you were out, you got shot,” he offered.
“Could be,” Julian agreed reluctantly. “But this feels…different.”
“Would you be more comfortable if I came and joined the wagon-train?” Statler offered immediately.
Julian wasn’t going to turn down that offer. “I would feel better. Yes,” Julian told him.
Statler sighed, but Julian could tell it was all for show. “Okay. Fine. I’ll finish up here. Give me forty-five minutes.”
Julian had heard the man’s band-saw going, and hated dragging him away from a project, but Petula’s safety came first, so Julian plotted out their trajectory for him.
Based on the deliveries Petula would make, Julian gave his best guess as to where they’d be in an hour, and relayed it to Statler.
“I’ll find you,” he returned. “And if I can’t, I’ll call.”
“Good. See you soon,” Julian agreed, and hung up.
The roads they were traveling were well off the beaten path.
Had Julian thought Petula’s other route was rural?
Hah. This one was really in the back-woods.
Often times there was only enough room on the roads they were traversing for one vehicle, with overtakes for when you met traffic coming the other way.
Which wasn’t often, thank god. The road forward was hilly and twisting, sometimes paved, but more often than not, dirt.
The going especially sucked in his little rental car. He’d opted to drive it today because it was easier on his stitches. Julian wished he had his truck. Petula’s van, ahead of him, seemed able to navigate the bumpy terrain without too much trouble.
Just over a half hour had passed since his call to Statler, and Julian was beginning to relax. A bunch of Petula’s sparse deliveries had been accomplished, albeit slowly, and there’d been no sign of trouble.
Yet.
A mile down a particularly windy dirt road—after leaving a package at a rustic, hermit-like shack—Julian dropped his rental into low gear to navigate a very nasty hill-turn, slowing to a crawl because of the ruts that had his car bottoming out.
He cursed, losing sight of the van ahead as his chassis scraped on some ridiculously deep, mid-road gullies.
He was biting back curses as he reached for his phone to call Petula and tell her to slow down and wait for him, when an ominous and extremely loud crack to his right, had his gaze darting upward.
Growing up in Maine, he knew that sound.
A falling tree.
Fuck!
Julian weighed his options in a blink, and stomped on the brakes. Speeding up on the rough terrain wasn’t an option. But even with the reflex-action he’d taken, Julian knew he was screwed. Almost before he’d registered that thought, a large tree fell, straight across the path of his vehicle.
Julian ducked down, covering his head instinctively as the huge thing crashed not onto the road, but into the car.
The airbags went off, and Julian felt the blow in every part of his body.
As the air inside the car slowly cleared, he coughed and was able to push aside the deployed bags, ascertaining that he wasn’t actually injured. Bruised, for sure. Then he felt…wetness. Dammit. His arm was bleeding again, but at least he wasn’t dead. That was good.
Looking at the front end of the vehicle, however, he shivered. It had been close, and the tree that had fallen was freaking enormous.
Julian thought he might be imagining things when he felt fresh air on the back of his neck. but when he turned to look toward the rear, he swallowed hard. A massive piece of the tree had pierced the roof, bisecting the seats, virtually trapping him in the cocoon where he sat.
Damn. If he hadn’t hit the brakes when he did; if he hadn’t been instantly aware of the danger, there was no doubt in his mind that he would have either been crushed by the girthy trunk up front, or skewered by the encroaching branch in the back.
Either way, who knows if he would have survived?
Julian was still feeling a bit dazed from the airbag hit, but he was in his right mind enough to know that he had to call Petula, tell her what had happened, and have her wait for him. He patted around on the seat.
Where the hell was his phone? He’d had it in his hand…
Shit. It must have flung somewhere during impact.
He quickly made sure his gun was still in place in his underarm holster, and was relieved to find that it hadn’t been dislodged.
Julian bent down with renewed determination to find his phone, patting first around the console, then the floor, but he had no luck finding the frigging thing. It didn’t help that the branches of the fallen giant were currently making it dark in the car, so he couldn’t see worth a damn.
Maybe he could alert Petula a different way.
With a quick rundown of his options—which were limited—Julian ended up leaning on the horn, thanking his lucky stars that it still worked. He hoped it would indicate to Petula that he was in trouble, but he couldn’t count on it.
What he really needed to do was get out and follow her on foot. Julian was a fast runner, and at the speeds Petula was having to maintain on the uneven terrain, he might be able to catch up even if she didn’t stop when she noticed he wasn’t on her tail any longer.
What choice did he have?
Julian grabbed for the door handle and…
Stuck.
The driver side door was completely immovable; crushed backward in its jamb from the blow to the hood.
Fuck that.
Julian hoisted himself over the middle console to the passenger seat and went for that door.
Pulling the handle, he sent up a prayer of thanks as it opened, but…
Nope. No such luck. It cracked only an inch or two, then stopped, impeded by a large branch.
Julian groaned at the set-back, but he wasn’t close to giving up.
Leaning slightly, he positioning himself at a ninety-degree angle from the door, drew his legs into a tight tuck, then kicked out with all his strength.
The door moved, but only by an inch.
Still, it was progress.
Julian wasn’t discouraged. Determination was on his side.
He put all his concentration into continued strikes.
Petula didn’t like her temporary route. Not one bit.
And she was hoping it was just that. Temporary. She certainly wasn’t going to complain to her boss. If the bitch knew that this route was not to Petula’s liking, she wouldn’t put it past the sour-puss to make the change, permanent.
Checking that her next stop was still ten minutes out, Petula paused when she heard…a horn? Strange. This one wasn’t warning of someone coming around a corner toward her. This one had come from behind.
Petula slowed to a crawl, shifted her eyes from the road to her rearview mirrors, and…
Where was Julian?
There was no sign of him. When last she’d looked, he was only a few hundred feet behind. Of course, there was that bend in the road that could be hiding him. He could show up any minute. But…
She had doubts.
Was he having car trouble?
Petula wouldn’t dismiss that, considering the size of his vehicle and the conditions in which he was having to drive.
She made a quick decision, stopped, and told herself she’d wait for him to show.
Seconds ticked by, and after forty or fifty of them, Petula knew something had to be wrong. She was going to have to walk back—since turning her van on this road would be impossible——and see if he needed a lift.