She knelt next to Eric and stroked his hair. “Are you all right?”
He winked at her and jerked his head to the side. Her knife was lying on the deck just a few feet away. He had picked it up off the ground in his mad dash to catch them and tossed it into the boat.
She smiled back and winked as she slid her right hand out of its handcuff, having left it just loose enough to slip out of it. He should have put the handcuffs on her himself. She was not the helpless little girl Bryce thought she was, and she was about to prove it. Making sure he was watching the water and not them, she leaned over with as little motion as possible and picked up her knife.
Grasping it tightly, she sprung from her crouched position and lunged at him, intending to sink the steel into his shoulder blade. He saw her coming out of the corner of his eye and sidestepped at the last second so that she fell into the wheel, sending the boat lurching to the right and throwing everyone off-balance. Eric sprung up at the same moment and landed a solid punch into Bryce’s gut. He barely flinched before connecting a left hook to Eric’s jaw. As Eric hit the ground, Bryce aimed his gun and fired two shots.
Abby slammed into him from the side just as he did so, causing the bullets to miss—if only barely. Eric jumped up and tackled Bryce, sending him over the captain’s chair, his back landing on the throttle. The twin engines at the back of the boat roared as they redlined, and the nose of the boat pitched up sharply. Abby was sent toppling to the deck as Eric tumbled over the back of the boat and into the water. Abby screamed as he disappeared into the waves.
Still holding onto her knife, Abby grasped the side of the boat, struggling to stand. Bryce was still over the back of the captain’s chair, struggling to get up. His back was against the wheel and the throttle. His legs dangled over the back of the chair, like a child’s legs dangling over the side of a swimming pool.
Holding steady to the side of the boat, she brought her right arm over her head in a long arc, bringing the knife down and driving it deep into his left leg, just above the kneecap. Violently, she twisted her knife as his screams momentarily drowned out the roar of the massive engines. She felt the popping and twisting of his muscles and tendons. As he raised his right hand to fire his gun at her, she twisted again, harder. The pain overcame him, and his hand shook uncontrollably as he dropped the gun to grab his leg.
Ripping the knife from his knee, she grabbed his short, blond hair and held the blood-soaked blade to his neck, commanding him to stand. He pulled himself up, tears streaming down his face from the pain. His skin was gray, having lost any bit of color it may have had. Abby let go of his hair momentarily to back the throttle down. As she turned back to Bryce, she saw the flashing lights of a police boat in the distance.
She screamed in his face, “You get off on beating up little girls?!”
He said nothing. He looked to be moments away from passing out.
She didn’t realize it, but her firm grasp on his hair was about the only thing holding him up, and he collapsed to the deck in intense pain. She stepped on his injured leg and lowered her knife to his crotch as he screamed in agony. The police boat had stopped a few hundred feet away, but the lights reflected and bounced off the water and the gleaming surfaces of the boat.
As she pressed the tip of her knife hard against his pants, she asked, “You see those lights? That’s the only reason I don’t cut off your dick right now, you sorry sack of shit.” She made him roll over and lay face down on the deck. Abby stood next to him, her left foot pressing down on his injured leg, causing as much pain as she possibly could while waiting for the police boat to pull up alongside them.
Eric and Robert, followed by several policemen, jumped onto the boat. Eric grabbed her in a soaking-wet embrace. “Thank God, you’re all right.”
The police tied a tourniquet to Bryce’s thigh and crudely bandaged the huge gash above his knee. By the time they lifted him to move him onto their boat, his eyes were closed, and he could only moan in pain. After the police loaded Bryce onto their boat, they said something to Robert in a language neither Abby nor Eric understood. Robert and one of the officers conversed for a few minutes.
Robert turned to them. “He wants to know if I need to ride back with them?”
Abby was silent as they floated there. She looked at the island behind them. The thought of being on the same island as her husband made her stomach turn. When she remembered the huge number of men he seemed to have working for him on the island, that sealed the deal. “You should ride back with them.”
He thought about it for a moment. “You should come back with me. Stay for a few days. These men are going to have some questions for you.”
Abby shook her head. “How badly are they going to want to ask me some questions?”
Robert smiled. “I have a little influence around here. I think I might be able to help you with that.”
“Then, I have to go with my gut, Robert. I’m not going back there.”
Eric agreed. “Who knows how many guys he’s got with him? Why chance it?”
“Where are you going to go?”
Abby smiled. “I can’t tell you that.”
“How long do you think he’ll be locked up?” Eric asked, gesturing toward the police boat.
“Like I said, the laws are pretty lax around here. I know you don’t know much about your husband, Abby, but he is well-connected. I will do what I can, but if he spends more than a couple days in custody, I would be surprised.” He looked at Abby. “You remember those account numbers?”
She tapped her head.
“And, you have absolutely everything you need?”
Looking at Eric, she answered, “Absolutely.”
“All right, then.” He shrugged his shoulders, not sure what to say. His eyes were glazed over, as if he was struggling not to cry.
Abby hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you. For everything.”
To their surprise, Eric did the same thing.
Robert was back on the police boat, which pulled away and sped back toward the island as he watched from the back and waved to them one last time. After a few minutes, the sound of the police boat’s engine died out, and the flashing lights were nothing but a distant flicker. Abby and Eric were alone on their boat without another person in sight. They held each other for a long time as the boat bobbed gently in the water, and the sky began to lighten. As the sun crested the horizon and the orange, early-morning beams shone on their faces, it revealed a clear and cloudless sky.
Eric fired up the engines, and they began cruising. They had no particular destination in mind, just away from where they had come. He stood behind the wheel with Abby by his side, her arms wrapped around him.
“Where to?” he asked, smiling and looking out toward the endless sea.
She looked up at him and smiled. “A new life.”
Bringing him close, she kissed him as she ran her fingers through his thick, sand-colored hair.
A new life.
Epilogue
ABBY AND ERIC lay in bed, their bodies covered by thin, silk sheets. The ocean breeze gently drifted through the French doors that opened onto the beach and the water in the distance. Since being hit in the head back on the island, Abby had been having dreams about her past. They were spotty and lacked detail, but were clearly lost memories, trying to surface. They revealed her life with Eric was better than any life she had ever had before.
Ten months ago, after they’d parted ways with Robert, they cruised south for several days, stopping only to gas up the boat a few times, buy food, and purchase an inflatable raft. They drifted a few hundred yards off the coast of what looked like a fairly busy island one night, and over dinner, decided it would make a good spot to start their new journey. In the middle of the night, they inflated their raft, and Eric swam under the boat with an oversized screwdriver, removing the engine compartment plugs. They disabled the bilge pumps that had been keeping the water at bay—which had been trying to flood the lower compartments of
the boat, since Bryce had sent two bullets through the deck and hull. The compartments flooded within a couple of hours, and the boat eased under the water to the bottom of the ocean as they watched from their raft.
After paddling to shore and spending a few days on the island, they spent the next several weeks hopping ferries and water taxis from island to island. They were searching for a small, quiet place to call home. They landed in a small villa on an isolated beach, where they spent their days on an extended honeymoon. The locals were mostly farmers and families. There was one television in the village that only got reception on the clearest of days; otherwise, there was no connection to media. It was truly and completely off-the-grid. Given the lack of communication with the outside world, it was nearly impossible for anyone on the island to know who they were. If any of them did, no one ever let on.
They had learned they were on one of the more remote islands of the seven-thousand that spanned three-hundred square miles. Although the chance of being found here was extremely remote, Abby still found herself looking over her shoulder and locking the doors for several months. Not anymore. She finally felt safe.
Abby snuggled close to Eric, enjoying what had become their routine afternoon nap. She loved the feeling of being close to him. She often thought how lucky she was to have found herself on that island nearly a year ago, lost and afraid. She had grown into a stronger person and found the love of her life. It was a trial, that much was for sure, but well worth it.
As she lay against his chest with her eyes closed, she felt him sit up a little.
“No, I’m not ready,” she whispered. “Just a few more minutes.”
Eric tapped her on the shoulder, and she opened her eyes.
Standing at the end of their bed was a young boy they knew from the village. He was maybe twelve years old, and he worked in the small outdoor market where they bought their food. His pin-straight, black hair was a mess, his dark skin was soaked with sweat, and his black eyes were panicked. He was scared and out of breath. He held up a piece of paper with their photos on it. “A man in the village; a white man,” he said in English. “He is looking for you.”
ESCAPE
Past Sins
David J Antocci
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase and additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Copyright © 2014 David J Antocci
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this novel, visit the author’s website, www.Antocci.com
1
ABBY CROUCHED LOW in the underbrush. The fading echo of gunshots still rang in her ears. Her loose brunette curls were soaked with sweat and matted to the sides of her face. Her drenched tank top clung to her small frame.
He was out there.
She couldn’t remember exactly how long it had been, but it felt like Bryce had been hunting her for days. She had hardly slept in that time. She stayed low, remaining still and quiet. Even breathing seemed like too much noise.
He was close. She could sense it.
Abby gripped her knife tightly, ready for action. The sound of a mosquito buzzing by her ear caused her to instinctively swat at the unseen assailant, which also knocked aside a branch. Forty feet away Bryce turned in her direction, swinging his gun out in front of him. He couldn’t see her, but she was looking directly at his face.
She could see his ice blue eyes glowing with hatred. Sweat poured from his short-cropped blond hair as he took a few steps toward her, his limp from their last meeting obvious. Abby had torn nearly every tendon and muscle he had above his knee when she plunged her knife into his leg nearly a year ago. Bryce had kidnapped her to take her out to sea and murder her, until she turned the tables on him with some help from Eric. Now she regretted that she didn’t just finish the job and kill him on the boat when she had the chance.
After taking a few steps, he stopped again to listen. He stood there facing squarely in her direction. He was tall, and had a broad chest that made a perfect target. She silently wished she had better knife-throwing skills. She had a clear shot, but wasn’t about to disarm herself and take the chance that the knife would sail wide of her target and land in the trees behind him.
That gave her an idea, though. What if something else went crashing through the trees behind him, distracting him and giving her a chance to make a move? Without taking her eyes off Bryce, she felt around the forest floor until her hand lay upon a rock just a bit smaller than her clenched fist.
She had to aim carefully. She wanted to throw it wide to his right and high enough that he didn’t see it sailing by his head. With any luck, it would fly over him silently and crash into the trees behind him. He would turn around to see what it was, providing her the opportunity to pounce on him from behind.
Abby lay still, waiting for the right moment. Bryce was scanning the trees in her direction. She couldn’t risk throwing it when he was looking in her area. He would see movement, and she would be found.
She wished she knew how many shots he had left. When he had been chasing her ten minutes ago, she had the thought that she was supposed to count the shots so she would know how many he had left. She was certain she saw this in a movie at some point. She counted five, and then realized she had no idea how many shots he actually had to begin with, so she gave up. How many bullets are in a clip? Abby had no idea, and realized she would simply wait for the clicking sound of an empty chamber.
Hopefully that would come sooner than later.
She palmed the rock in her hand as he scanned past her location. With his eyes diverted, she took a deep breath. Now or never, she thought. She cocked her arm back and launched the rock through the air. It sailed directly over his head and cleared the initial trees beyond him. It crashed through several large palm branches before slamming into the thick trunk of a tree with a thud, ricocheting off and crashing through several more branches before coming to rest on the forest floor.
Bryce whipped around toward the commotion, gun up and firing away, hoping to hit Abby. He was completely unaware as she sprang from the undergrowth forty feet behind him and raced through the trees straight toward him, the sounds of her movement masked by his gunfire.
They both heard the click click click of the empty magazine at the same time, the sudden silence revealing Abby hurtling through the trees and coming up fast behind him, knife in hand. Bryce glanced over his shoulder to see her coming. He slammed a fresh cartridge into his gun and loaded one in the chamber as he spun to bring it eye level.
He didn’t move fast enough.
Abby pounced as he turned. He managed to fire off two harmless shots into the air. Although they had gone off inches from her head, neither the danger nor the concussive sound of the gunfire fazed her. She twisted the gun from his grip and sprang up with it pointed at his head. Lightening fast, he slapped it out of her hand as though she were a child, and they both watched it land in a small stream ten feet to Abby’s right.
Empty handed, she reached down to retrieve her knife from its sheath, only to find it gone. Her thoughts were unclear, and she couldn’t remember losing it. She swore that she had sheathed it just before grabbing the gun, but the fact was that it was gone.
Bryce smiled as they stood staring at each other. Each soaked with sweat from the tropical heat, and their lungs working overti
me to suck in enough air. Separated by no more than an arm’s length, Abby felt a primal fear in the pit of her stomach. Though her memory was missing, she knew that she had been in a situation much like this one before. The close proximity to this madman was setting off alarm bells in her head that drowned out all other thought.
Bryce sized her up. She was small, just over five feet, but strong and fast. She was beautiful, her gorgeous amber eyes still holding an innocence, though the scars on her arms and dirt smears on her face made her look tough and rugged.
Abby stared back at him. He towered over her at a sound six feet, his confident chest puffed out. He was a man who commanded what he wanted and was used to things going his way. He didn’t just look tough, he was tough. A professional killer when he had to be.
She was faced with a choice — stand and fight, unarmed and overmatched, or run. Her mind said run, her heart said fight, and her feet refused to cooperate with either. It was as though she were cemented in place. As she saw his large right fist swing through the air toward her face, she swiftly ducked forward and under it, and took off at a sprint through the trees, running alongside the stream.
Abby had spent countless hours traversing the terrain on this island. She did not think Bryce had even half a chance of keeping pace with her, never mind catching her. However, as she glanced over her shoulder, she saw him gaining on her with what she could only describe as superhuman speed. Her mind couldn’t process how he was able to move so fast.
She tried to pour on the speed, but he came up fast and tackled her. Abby hit the ground first, cushioning Bryce’s fall with her small frame and losing the air in her lungs. She laid on the ground, defenseless, his massive frame pinning her down.
She frantically scanned the tree line in search of Eric. Where are you? Just a short while ago he had been by her side, and then disappeared without warning or explanation. I need you now, where are you? Her eyes probed the forest, finding nothing but vegetation and boulders. Eric was nowhere to be found.
Escape, the Complete Trilogy Page 23