The man who took the first shot at Chance and me last night at the truck stop barges in, followed by four others, which crowd into the small, narrow space. As they advance it feels like the walls are closing in on me.
He ignores Lacy and Ariel and comes straight for me, yanking me upright by my hair and peering into my face. He’s a young man, can’t be much older than me, but the soot covering his face made him appear older. He smells strongly of fire and smoke. And something else too. Something bitter, tangy and disgusting.
“That asshole you were with last night, Chance, what’s he to you?” the guy asks me harshly.
“Not…nothing,” I say as firmly as I can. “He just works for me.”
“You’ll call him and beg him to come rescue you,” he says.
“He won’t come,” I say. “He hates me.”
“Bullshit,” the guy says and slams me against the metal side of the container head first. For a few moments I see nothing but bright stars against velvety black.
“Stop hurting her, Gazz,” my sister shrieks. “She did nothing to you.”
“And you just shut the fuck up,” he snaps at her.
“I’m alright, Ariel,” I mutter and a second later I’m not, as Gazz’s fist collides with my stomach, taking all my air and feeling like something exploded inside me.
“You’ll call him and you’ll make sure he comes,” he says. “Then we’ll take care of the rest. And if you’re really good I’ll even let you and your sister go afterwards. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
His voice is shaking with anger, the nasty smell around him growing worse and worse.
“He’s a lying piece of shit, don’t believe him,” Ariel says.
Gazz punches her in the face on reflex, not letting go of my hair as he does. She stumbles back into the arms of the man who shot my dad. He grips her firmly.
“Fine, I’ll put it another way,” Gazz says venomously. “You make the call and you make sure he comes here, or your sister dies right here and now.”
He gestures something to the guy holding Ariel and then the barrel of a huge gun in pressed against her temple.
“Just let them kill me,” she says. “It doesn’t matter. I’m already dead if we stay here.”
I’m shaking all over, everything that I’ve been fighting to keep out of my mind rushing forward like the dam on a raining river just burst open. Mom and Dad dead. My sister captive again. Both of us locked in a dark smelly room, the hours of us remaining who we are short and counting down fast. She’s right. Damn it, she’s right. But she can’t be. And Chance is the only one who can help us now.
“Get the phones,” Gazz barks at the men over his shoulder. Moments later, a man pushes through those crowding the entrance and holds a white plastic bag open in front of me.
My family's phones are all in there. Mom’s in its pink leather case with gold studs. Dad’s bare one. My sister’s with the Hello Kitty sticker on the back and mine with the cracked screen protector.
“Take your phone out,” Gazz barks at me.
I try to reach for it, but my arm is frozen, won’t do what I want it to.
If I make this call, I will be luring Chance to his death. If I don’t I’ll be killing my sister.
The choice should be easier. My sister and keeping her safe means everything to me. I don’t even know what Chance means to me. Most of the time he makes me out of my mind crazy and angry. The rest of the time he makes me calmer than I’ve ever been.
If he were here, everything would be alright.
So I reach for the phone.
“Tell him we locked you up in a container about a mile south from the truck stop you were at last night. And that we left you there,” Gazz says as I stare at the cobweb of cracks covering the black screen of my phone. “They’ll figure out where to come.”
“Don’t do it, Nic,” Ariel says. “We’re already dead anyway.”
Not if Chance comes.
Maybe I’m just thinking that to avoid facing the fact that I’m luring him into a trap.