Every Second

69

Coyote Mountains, New York

Lori could breathe again.

“They’re gone,” she whispered to Billy, still trembling in her arms.

“You’re sure?”

“Let’s go, before they come back!”

Taking great pains, she very slowly moved the bushes enough to slip away. Adrenaline pumping, they continued rushing through the woods. Their legs ached. Their faces and hands were bloodied, stinging with cuts and scrapes from branches and needles.

They pushed on.

Lori thought of the helicopter that had passed in the distance. It was gone now but it might return. Maybe they’re looking for us. The possibility gave her hope.

Lori begged God to let them find a hiker, a house, a road-anything.

Help us! Please!

They heard a rushing that grew louder as they came to a clearing and a small cliff over a fast-flowing river. She crouched down with Billy and scanned the banks in both directions.

“We’ll follow this river,” she said. “There’s got to be help along here somewhere.”

“I’m thirsty.”

Lori slid off the backpack, pulled out the water bottle, unscrewed the cap and passed it to him. Billy took a swallow-then froze. His eyes widened at something behind Lori. She turned to Jerricko Blaine, who’d stepped from the woods leveling his gun at them.

The water bottle hit the ground as Cutty appeared and seized Billy.

“Don’t you hurt him!” Lori lunged at Cutty but Percy jerked her back and punched her in the gut, forcing her down to her hands and knees, gasping for air.

Vic snatched the backpack and pulled it open.

“We’re losing time,” Jerricko said. “We’ll prosecute them right here. Cut those vests off. We don’t need them anymore. Record the video. We’ll do the boy first.”

Cutty produced a large serrated knife and sliced off the vests.

The bombs were never real, Lori realized. But what did it matter now? She and Billy were backed up at gunpoint to a flat patch of earth. Percy pulled Billy’s arms behind his back and tied his hands with a strip of rope. Then he tied Lori’s hands. Vic had been rummaging through the backpack and dumping the contents on the ground.

“It’s not here! The laptop’s not here!”

Jerricko’s eyes narrowed at Lori.

“Where’s our computer?”

Lori refused to speak.

In one clean motion, Cutty clenched Billy’s hair, yanked back his head to expose his throat and pressed his knife to his skin.

“No! Don’t hurt him!”

Billy shook with fear as tears streamed down his face.

“We killed your husband. The kid’s next!”

“Mom!”

“Don’t hurt him!”

“Where’s the laptop?”

Lori looked at Billy.

I need to buy time.

“I-I hid it.”

“Where?”

She pointed her chin to the forest in the proper direction.

“I marked the spot.”

Jerricko stared at her. “You’re going to get it for us. You two stay here with the boy. Untie her hands, so she can move faster. Let’s go!”