Disturbance

FORTY

The miles seemed endless. We wove our way on and off the main highway at Parrish’s direction, taking smaller roads for long distances. Once out of the San Bernardino Mountains, we drove in the darkness over stretches of desolate country, surrounded on all sides by the Mojave Desert. The air was cold and the sky dark and star-filled. Under other circumstances, I would have found it a peaceful place, a place of renewal. Over those hours, it was a journey through hell.

Parrish eventually grew tired of taunting me with threats and simply barked out directions that sent us east and west and back again, as if the car were a sailboat that needed to tack to reach north. I had been able to determine that we were gradually headed north. We stopped for gas once, but only Donovan was allowed out of the car, and then only to fill the tank and clean the windshield. I tried the door anyway, which made Parrish laugh. “Childproof locks. Don’t try anything else childish, or I’ll shoot not only you but anyone who tries to come to your rescue.”

Kai seemed able to sleep through anything.

At one point, when we were back on 395 but well away from the lights of even the smallest town, the SUV drifted across the center line and rattled over its bumps, then came back sharply into our own lane. A moment later, Donovan pulled off the highway. I didn’t see a sign, but this was one of those rural exits that boasted no gas station or, for all I could see, any human habitation anywhere nearby.

“What the hell are you doing?” Parrish snapped.

“Unlike you, I haven’t had a chance to sleep.”

“There’s a place not far from here where we’ll be stopping for supplies. We can all sleep then.”

“That’s great, but I’ve only had about four hours of sleep in the last forty-eight, and I’ve hit a wall. Someone else is going to have to drive.”

Kai, who had awakened when the car stopped, stretched and said, “I could do it.”

Parrish stared at Donovan through narrowed eyes, then said, “I’ll drive. Donovan will be back here, with Irene. Kai, I need you to take charge of my weapon. You must be on your guard.”

Kai eagerly accepted this responsibility. The doors were unlocked. Donovan moved to the backseat, Parrish to the front. I considered trying to use that moment to escape into the darkness and rejected it-with my ankles bound, I would get no more than a few feet from the car, and Kai was clearly hoping I’d do something to justify making his assignment a brief one.

Parrish locked the doors and began to drive. Kai shifted his attention to Donovan.

I watched Donovan almost as carefully as Kai did, and noticed Parrish angling the rearview mirror so that he joined Donovan’s audience. But almost as soon as Donovan had taken his place in the back, he closed his eyes. His breathing grew slow and rhythmic. I waited to see if he was faking it. If he was, he was convincing.

Parrish moved the mirror. Kai returned to staring at me the way a six-year-old might stare at a batch of cooling cookies. I broke eye contact with him, and only then did I catch movement nearby. Donovan’s left hand was on his knee, near the back of Kai’s seat. His index finger was moving. His hand could not be seen by Parrish or Kai.

I stretched as much as I could within my bonds, movement that, as intended, kept Kai’s eyes on me. Under the cover of rolling my head from side to side to as if I were getting the kinks out of my neck, I watched Donovan’s finger tapping on his knee.

If I hadn’t just spent hours honing my skills with Violet, I might have failed to recognize his use of Morse code.

…– ….-……-. -.- --…- -.-..- -.

Sleep if you can.

Right. It was so relaxing being in a car with two serial killers and a kidnapper, I was going to go off into dreamland and let them take me wherever they wanted to go. I wasn’t going to pay attention to where I was being taken or watch for any opportunity to escape before they took me there.

He could not be serious.

I watched Donovan more openly, without any need to feign my wariness of him. He stopped signaling me. His breathing slowed. I was nearly certain that he was truly asleep.

I looked out the window into the blackness of the desert and considered the other side of the question of sleep. I had spent most of the last twenty-four hours feeling terrified. I had done the physical work necessary for the care of Violet and Kai. I had engaged in two short, futile fights with Donovan. I was tired. I could feel the effect on my judgment and emotions.

If I did manage to escape, I would need to be as rested as possible to stay free from Parrish. I wasn’t going to be able to change anything about where I was being taken. Knowing the general direction we were headed, I had little doubt that we’d end up in the Sierras, where Nick Parrish had spent plenty of time before he was arrested.

I wasn’t sure that Donovan was an ally. I felt uneasy about the idea of sleeping while Kai pointed a gun at me.

But I wanted to be able to fight and run and do whatever else was required to survive, and I’d stand a better chance of doing all that if I conserved my energy now and rested. If I was too exhausted to think clearly, escape was even more unlikely.

Nick Parrish glanced at me in the rearview mirror.

I closed my eyes and leaned against the cold glass of the window. The last thing I remember telling myself before I fell asleep was that if Nick Parrish was watching me, it would be safer to stay awake.