Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
And at this rate, I’ll never see Riptide, Rebel and Mad Dog again. Why does that hurt the most? I’ve barely known them for a week, and somehow they’ve wormed their way so deeply into my heart. At least they aren’t here to get killed, too.
I was holding on okay until that point, but now the tears are pushing hard behind my eyes. I’m not even making it to my twentieth birthday, and I won’t be able to say goodbye to the few people I really care about.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m not going to take any joy in this. I’d hoped to pull this off without killing you, but I’ll do what I have to. With you gone and the Eagles killing Joker, life can get back to normal.” He almost sounds like the man I remember, and I hate it.
“It doesn’t. Make me feel better, I mean.”
“I figured, but I just wanted it out there.”
I turn away from him, watching the landscape pass by, searing every dead tree and jagged rock into my memory, knowing they’re some of the last things I’m going to see.
35
MAD DOG
Is that a dust cloud up ahead? I squint, but it’s hard to tell. I point.
Riptide must have sharper eyes than me, since he gives me a thumbs up. Fuck, have we done it? The road is narrower now. It’s been dirt for miles, the kind of terrain that’ll swallow a body whole, feeding it to the local wildlife and leaving nothing but bones.
If Melody’s dead, Clutch is gonna beg for death by the time the club is done with him. If by some miracle she’s alive, it’ll be the same, but probably faster. He’s gonna wish he never lived.
But Melody comes first.
We’re close when it becomes obvious that the car has noticed us. It weaves and a moment later, a gun points out from the left back seat window.
Fuck. I veer right, keeping an eye on the side of the road. If my tires hit loose dirt it would be fucking disastrous at this speed.
Rebel draws his iron, but after a moment, packs it away again. There’s nothing we can shoot at that couldn’t potentially hurt Melody in the process. Just gotta hope we get an opportunity after. Based on the GPS, this road’s about to end. Only way out is coming back this way, and they’ll be stuck. I signal for us to ease back and let the car run ahead. Not so far we don’t see it, but outta practical gun range.
And then it’s just a matter of running them down like persistence hunters.
The road starts to twist and turn, probably following the landscape, but it’s hard to tell in the dwindling light. And then the road widens into a plot large enough to park a few cars and still turn around comfortably. Some kind of utility building with paint flaking off and a broken antenna on top sits to one side. There’s a sign on it, but most of it’s faded. Something about environmental… research maybe? Doesn’t fucking matter. What matters is that Clutch has nowhere left to fucking run.
We skid to a stop at the edge of the lot, getting off our bikes and taking what cover we can. There isn’t much. A couple of tree stumps from when they cleared the spot and a power transformer that looks like it hasn’t done ten watts of work in at least ten years.
The car starts turning, but the moment it comes around to face us and three guns pointing at it, it stops. I don’t know the fucker in the front seat, but the two people in the back I recognize immediately.
I can’t shoot anyone yet, but we’ve got them.
“Let Melody go, and we might let you fuckers live. Don’t, and no one’s gonna find your bodies ever again,” Rebel yells as loud as he can. “This is your only fucking warning.”
“Let us go, and Melody lives. How’s that for a fucking counteroffer?” Clutch’s voice yells from the back of the car, followed by a scream.
Fuck.
“Trust me, Clutch, you do not wanna fucking test us on this.”
Honestly, the last thing I expect is for the guy in the front seat to dive into the back, crowding Melody and Clutch, but he does.
There are grunts and a shriek in there as the car shakes. The driver side back door opens and out tumbles Clutch with a frustrated yell, rolling right out into the open like a present for us. “Motherfucker!” he yells and then he sees us aiming our guns at him. “Fuck, don’t shoot.”
I smile, but it’s far from fucking friendly. Rare for us to get a gift bag like that. “Lie still, and we won’t.”
Riptide yells at the car. “Hey, generic goon number four thousand and three! Let her go, and we’ll let you walk outta here. We just want the girl back, and that fucker on the ground isn’t worth dying for.”