Every Second

38

New York Thruway

Dan drove for miles enveloped by gloom.

Eventually mountains began to ascend over the highway, and he recognized Mount Tremper dominating the skyline as he continued winding west. The scenery was beautiful, but he sensed menace in every shadow and every blind curve. He studied a stretch of road by a creek then a ramshackle outbuilding tucked in a dense stand of woods, as if he could somehow identify the final destination.

Sooner or later, everything was going to be decided. Whether he’d live or die, if he’d ever see his family again-it would all end. He could feel it. Everything that he valued became crystalline to him. It was not his job, not the house, not the bag of cash beside him or his reputation in Roseoak Park.

There were only two things he cherished in his life.

Lori and Billy.

They were all that counted in his world, and as he drove he vowed that no matter what happened-no matter what the assholes were planning-he would not make it easy for them.

“Turn right at that large boulder,” Vic said.

Dan pulled off the highway on to a paved, narrow course that cut into forest for a mile or two before devolving into a serpentine gravel road, the stones popcorning against the car’s undercarriage.

“Turn left at that big rock,” Vic said.

Dan slowed the car when he reached the jutting granite rock formation.

The turn’s entrance was all but concealed by shrubs that swallowed his vehicle as he rolled on to the earthen pathway. He inched his way delicately along the dirt strip, awakening branches that slapped and scraped against the wheels, the doors, the windows.

He traveled about fifty yards, coming to a small grassy clearing where Vic ordered him to stop and kill the engine.

Less than a minute later, Dan heard the distant crunch of gravel and the slap of branches against metal as an SUV lumbered into the clearing behind him.

Two men got out and approached the Chevy-Vic and Percy. He recognized them by their coveralls, but this time they were carrying what he thought were AK-47s.

They’re not wearing masks.

“Get out!” Vic called to him from outside the car.

Both men were white and in their early twenties. Vic’s long dark hair and an unkempt beard only added to his imposing height. Percy looked about the same age, with thick brown hair and a wispy beard.

Dan got out of the car while Percy opened the passenger door, seized the bag of cash, unzipped and checked it. Satisfied, he rezipped the bag.

“Where…where are Lori and Billy?” Dan asked.

Ignoring Dan, Vic watched Percy put the bag in the SUV.

“I did everything you wanted,” Dan said. “You said no one would get hurt. It’s done now…you can let us-”

“Shut up!”

Vic used his gun to march Dan to the rear of the SUV. Percy secured Dan’s wrists with plastic handcuffs then wrapped them with duct tape. He shoved him into the back of the SUV and covered him with a tarp.

Doors slammed. The SUV wheeled in a circle and returned to the road.

It hadn’t gone far when Dan was suddenly pitched to one side amid the roar and rumble of churning gravel as the SUV swayed violently. A horn blasted, and a faint stream of cursing and clanking passed, but the SUV corrected itself and continued.

As they gathered speed Dan felt hope fading like a dying star.