Chapter Twenty-Three
The rain had turned the road into a stew of glistening rock, dangerous potholes, and slick mud, making it extremely treacherous.
Avery had finally figured out all the players as Rena cried half-hysterical into the phone. Rena was married to the asshole who had restrained her in Gianna’s room—his name was Brock, and he’d told Rena to take a hostage.
Her.
Sam was in the backseat. He was Rena’s brother, Avery was pretty certain.
He had a bullet in the leg, which wasn’t too bad since he could walk, and another in his side, which was bleeding through the bandage wrapped around his abdomen.
It was bad, and Avery wondered if it was already too late for him.
Avery blinked and stared through the windshield as the rain came down in sheets.
The wipers couldn’t keep up, the rubber blades hissing with every frantic pass.
Her fingers clenched the steering wheel hard, but it wasn’t like she had a choice.
The plastic teeth of the zip ties bit into the soft skin around her wrists, already sore from the first time she’d been restrained.
She was literally tied into the ten and two position on the steering wheel.
She could barely feel her fingers anymore.
“Okay, okay! We’re on our way,” Rena was saying.
It was clear that the storm was screwing with the cell phone reception, because for the last five minutes Rena kept saying what and Brock repeated himself.
“Will you be there? We have to go. We have to get out of here. I don’t care about those stupid contracts, I don’t care about the money, I just want to go home! ”
He must have given her a positive response, because she pocketed her cell phone and wiped her snotty nose with the back of her gun hand.
“Do you know where Privett Road is?” Rena demanded.
“Y-yes,” Avery stuttered.
“Go there.”
“It’s—it’s a long road.”
“Just get to it and I’ll tell you which way to go.”
“It doesn’t go anywhere. If you want to get to the highway, there’s a faster—”
“Shut up. And don’t fuck with me. My brother needs help. I just want to get out of this fucking state.”
She decided to stop talking. She’d find out soon enough.
“I’m okay,” Sam said from the back. “Sis, I’m okay.”
“You’re not!” Rena said and tried to force herself to stop crying.
“I can take you to the hospital in Whitesboro. It’s not even thirty minutes away, I can—”
“Shut up!” Rena screamed. She was losing it. Maybe she had already lost it. Maybe she would just kill Avery with the gun she had in her hand as soon as they got to Privett Road.
She had to figure a way out of this.
“Just drive,” Rena said, marginally calmer. “Drive. Nothing stupid, because if you get us stuck, we’ll be able to get out, but you won’t.”
Avery believed her. She slowed down as standing water rushed over the gravel road. They could be caught in a flash flood and Avery would be dead. They rolled through it, water splashing up on both sides like a ride at an amusement park.
But there was nothing fun about this.
Rena hadn’t told her which way to go on Orchard, so she’d gone left, away from her house because she suspected that Bobby would have headed home, and Avery didn’t want them to come across him in the rain.
She didn’t want her brother in any more danger than he already was.
Plus, while their house wasn’t visible from the road, their driveway was wide with a wooden archway that proclaimed Whisper Creek Ranch, Est. 1898.
Avery didn’t want Rena to see it and think that they could hole up there.
Not with her great- grandmother and family inside.
Then, at the county road that intersected Orchard, she turned right because that was toward town, toward civilization.
They’d first pass Greg Baldwin’s place, then they’d go through the heart of Verdacorp land.
Maybe someone would see her driving the Mendozas’ truck and become suspicious.
Maybe Gianna had already gotten out of her zip ties and called Sheriff Perez.
Maybe.
Maybe she was already dead.
Rena nodded. “Good, good. Keep it steady. Don’t get cute.”
“I’m not,” Avery said, her voice dry, raw. Her heart hammered as she slowly sped up now that they’d passed through the low spot on the road. “I’m just trying not to crash.” The truck hit a deep divot in the muddy gravel road and Sam grunted from the backseat.
“Be careful!” Rena screamed.
“I am!” Avery yelled back.
She risked glancing in the rearview mirror. Sam’s head was slumped against the window, his face a mask of pain. He looked over to his sister. “I’m okay, Rena.”
He kept saying that, but Avery knew he was anything but okay.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take him to the hospital?”
Rena hit her in the head with the gun and Avery saw stars. She swerved and almost drove them into the water-logged ditch. Rena grabbed the wheel and jerked them back onto the road.
“Just take us to Privett Road and I’ll tell you where to go from there.”
Rena didn’t know where Privett Road was, maybe Avery could trick her, drive all the way to …
“Stop!”
Avery slammed on the brakes. The truck skidded over the waterlogged dirt road and nearly rolled into the ditch. Her heart pounded hard in her chest.
This was it. Rena was going to push her out of the truck and shoot her in the back.
Rena was looking at her phone. “Turn right in a half mile. That will lead us to Privett Road, then we’re going to turn right.”
They were going in a giant circle. Did Rena know that? There were only two houses on Privett before they reached Orchard Lane again. The Coulters on the east, and the Sudduths on the west.
Avery pressed the gas, but the truck didn’t move. They were stuck in the mud like it was glue.
“What the hell?” Rena said.
Tears burned behind Avery’s eyes. “We’re stuck.”
“The truck has four-wheel drive. Use it!”
Avery took her hands off the wheel, showing Rena that she couldn’t reach the gear shift.
Rena scowled, then put the truck in four-wheel drive.
Avery gently pressed the gas. Nothing happened at first, the engine roaring over the sound of the storm.
After the tires spun for a half minute, they finally gained traction and they were moving again.
She pulled out of the muck and drove slowly down the road.
Avery was shaking, the fear of the unknown was almost as terrifying as driving in this storm.
On both sides of the road the ditches were filled with water, the water falling faster than they could drain.
Soon the roads would be flooded and they’d really be stuck. Or caught in a flash flood and drown.
Then she spotted headlights approaching fast from the opposite lane. A blue Ram truck came into view, then slowed down as it got closer. The road was narrow enough that two cars could barely pass, and in this weather they had to be doubly careful not to drive into the ditch.
Avery’s heart leapt into her throat. She couldn’t see the driver through the rain, but she recognized that truck.
Ryan.
“Just drive,” Rena growled. “Drive straight, drive slow, give no sign of anything to that driver, understand? Eyes forward, don’t even smile.”
Avery nodded. She couldn’t speak through the lump in her throat.
As Ryan passed her on the left, they were both going not much more than fifteen miles an hour. Their eyes met briefly.
Ryan did a double take. Confused at first, then recognition.
Then the moment was gone. He had passed them. His taillights blinked red. Rena turned around in her seat.
“Was that someone you know?” she demanded.
“N-no,” Avery stuttered.
“Fuck,” Rena muttered and twisted in her seat to look out the back. Avery glanced into the mirror and saw what Rena saw.
Behind them, brake lights flared.
No, Ryan, Avery thought, but didn’t say. She didn’t want him to be caught up in this mess. At the same time she willed him to follow and tried to think about how she could use this to her advantage.
Rena swore and glared at Avery. “Son of a bitch! He’s turning around.”
She grabbed the wheel and jerked it. Avery’s hands, still clamped to the steering wheel, burned as the zip ties cut into her wrists.
The truck swerved violently off the road and Avery screamed.
Tires tore through wet gravel, then mud, then the world dropped out from beneath them.
They crashed through a rotted fence and tumbled down a muddy slope into the waterlogged ditch.
The truck slammed into the water nose-first, buried at a forty-five degree angle.
Avery’s head cracked the steering wheel.
Pain flared across her forehead. The airbag didn’t deploy.
She coughed, dizzy, disoriented, the roar of the water and pounding rain filling her ears. Thunder rocked the truck and Avery moaned.
Rena was climbing into the backseat. The two front doors were held shut by the water pressure, but the driver’s side back door was only partly blocked.
“Sam! Come on!” Rena shouted. She pushed open the back door, climbed out, partly in the ditch and partly on the slope. She yanked her brother across the seat and out. He stumbled, fell to his knees, got up and scrambled up the slope with Rena.
Avery blinked water out of her eyes. They were going to leave her here. They were going to leave her tied to the steering wheel to drown.
Ryan.
They were going to carjack Ryan, maybe kill him! Because he saw her and recognized her and came to help.
Rena didn’t look back. She half dragged Sam out of the cab and up the slope, her boots slipping in the mud.
Then she was gone.
Avery jerked against the wheel. The ties wouldn’t budge. Her hands were frozen, her fingers numb, her wrists bleeding and raw. Water poured in, covering her feet, moving up her legs. The truck groaned, the engine sputtered, then it died.
Through the pounding of the rain, she heard squeaking brakes and the blare of a horn. It seemed to go forever.
Ryan.
Then she heard a gunshot.
Ryan knew better than to get out of his truck, but Avery was in that ditch, and the truck was half underwater. What if she was unconscious?