Escape, the Complete Trilogy

by David Antocci

  He figured from here he could keep an eye on things. If anything suspicious came up, he would intervene and ruin the reunion. Otherwise, he would let them settle in and knock on the door a little while later.

  From his conversation with Ace, it seemed that the threat was nullified for the time being. However, JJ remembered that Robert said his security man had swiped the sister’s address, so someone else could come along any minute. He unbuckled his seatbelt and sat up on high alert, wishing he had his pistol that was sitting in his nightstand drawer just outside of Boston.

  A few minutes later, at the far end of the street, a taxi approached and eased to a stop against the curb on the opposite side of the street from Abby’s destination.

  * * *

  Abby and Eric sat in the back seat of the cab holding hands.

  “Are you nervous?”

  She smiled. “A little, yeah.”

  “It’s going to be fine,” he assured her. “You’re going to be fine.”

  “How about you? Will you be OK?”

  Eric chuckled a bit. “Don’t worry about me. Go, be a mom.”

  “How can I get in touch with you later? Where will you be?”

  He thought a second. “I don’t know. Do you still have that paper with your sister’s number?”

  She nodded.

  “You don’t need it anymore, so just give it to me. When do you want me to call?”

  She rummaged through her satchel, found the small yellow note with her sister’s address and phone number, and handed it to him, “Give me a couple hours?”

  “No problem.” He looked past her to the front door slowly being opened. “Look,” he pointed.

  Ava stepped out onto the front porch and stood, staring hopefully at the cab.

  Abby’s eyes welled up at the sight of her daughter. “Oh my God, she’s so big!”

  “Go,” Eric said. He held her face in his hands and kissed her on the lips. “Go.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you, too. Now go!” he said with a chuckle.

  She opened the door and stood frozen for a moment, staring at her little girl. As she stepped away from the car, the driver began to pull away.

  “Hold on a second,” Eric said. “I want to enjoy this.” He opened his own door and stepped out to lean against the back of the cab, watching their reunion and enjoying the moment from afar. He felt complete, not driftless with no job and no one to care about. He was so happy and thankful to have met Abby.

  Abby had crossed the street, and from twenty feet away, she couldn’t believe what a grown-up girl Ava had become. With her hair pulled back from her face, she looked like a little woman. “Hi, baby!” Abby called.

  “Mommy!” Ava jumped over the three porch steps and sprinted toward her mother.

  * * *

  Bryce came tearing around the corner at the end of the street where he saw a cab parked facing him on the left side, about halfway down. The GPS chirped, “Your destination is six hundred feet on the right.”

  He saw Abby and Ava running toward each other on the front lawn of a farm-style house opposite the cab. Overcome by rage, he floored the gas, and the five hundred horses under the hood roared to life.

  * * *

  JJ heard a loud engine behind him and looked in the rear view mirror to see a large black sedan jump forward and come rocketing down the road toward his position. He grabbed the door handle and jumped from the car, but he was in no way prepared to do anything that could stop what was about to happen.

  Abby and Ava were beaming, completely consumed by the moment. They ran to each other, and Abby lifted her up in her arms in a tearful embrace. Her heart felt like it would pound right out of her chest as she clung to Ava as tightly as she could, inhaling the sweet scent of her little girl.

  For all her awareness, Abby was completely oblivious to the two tons of steel careening toward her from a football field away.

  Eric looked down the street when he heard the roar of an engine that seemed out of place in such a quiet suburban neighborhood. He saw the large black sedan jump as the huge engine fed its full power to the wheels and drastically increase speed. He immediately realized its trajectory. Without thinking, he took off at a full sprint toward Abby, who was standing in the middle of the lawn holding her daughter, eyes sealed shut, tears streaming down her face.

  He screamed a desperate cry from ten feet away, “ABBY!”

  She whipped her head toward the scream. As she did, her eye caught a glimpse of the sedan bearing down on her as it jumped the curb at the edge of the lawn. Her head continued on a swivel toward Eric, eyes wide open as he crashed into her and shoved her and Ava as hard as he could, a split second before impact.

  30

  ERIC SAW HIMSELF as a young boy on his grandfather’s ranch, riding the tractor with his grandpa. His grandmother was waving from the house, flagging them down to come in for dinner. A moment later, he was in high school, laughing with his friends after their football game. They had lost, but went out to have the night of their lives afterward. Suddenly he got out of his old beat-up pickup truck at seven in the morning and strapped on his tool belt, ready for another day on the site.

  Then there was Abby, standing a hundred yards away on the beach, slipping back into her clothes. He knew she was special the first time he spoke to her, and he never wanted his life to be the same again.

  Time stood still on the lawn as he watched Abby fly through the air, eyes closed, gripping Ava tight. The front passenger corner of the car clipped her leg as she spun, landing on her back and cushioning Ava’s fall.

  She wasn’t unscathed, but she was safe, and the little girl was safe.

  Eric felt pure bliss.

  * * *

  Abby sailed backwards and screamed in pain as the front corner of the car clipped her left leg. As she fell backwards, she watched in horror as the front of the sedan smashed into Eric’s leg. His thighbone and hip were shattered on impact. He took flight over the hood of the car, his head smashing into the windshield a split second later, launching him ten feet in the air up and over the roof.

  The airbags on the car blew as it smashed into the garage, and Eric came crashing back to earth behind it a second later.

  “ERIC!” Abby screamed as she tried to jump up, only to collapse back to the ground screaming in agony, her leg broken in two places.

  Ava was screaming hysterically, unable to form words.

  The door on the black sedan swung open and Bryce stumbled from the vehicle covered in white powder from the airbags. The car was totaled, but the driver was alive and still standing.

  Looking behind the vehicle, he saw Eric lying motionless on the ground twenty feet behind the car, and Abby just to the side, rolling around. He smiled to know that she had survived and approached her, gun in hand. “You thought I wouldn’t find you?” he shouted as he approached.

  Abby momentarily forgot about the searing pain in her leg as she laid eyes on Bryce. “You piece of shit!”

  He laughed. “So I’ve heard.”

  He walked right by her, continuing to Eric. She struggled through the pain and managed to get herself upright on one leg. “Leave him alone, you son of a bitch. You’re here for me. Take me.”

  Standing directly over Eric, he sneered, “Isn’t that sweet?” Without looking down he put two bullets in his chest.

  Abby screamed, “NO!” She lunged forward, only to have her leg collapse out from under her and send her tumbling to the ground.

  Bryce laughed, and then noticed Ava standing just a few feet behind Abby, absolutely frozen in terror. “Well, hello, dear,” Bryce said sweetly as he raised his gun and took aim at the child.

  Abby struggled to her knees and grabbed Ava close, “Don’t you dare, Bryce! This is your daughter,” she shouted.

  “Isn’t she the reason we’re here in the first place?”

  From her kneeling position, Abby put Ava behind her, using her own body as a shield. She stared past the barre
l of the gun and into his cold eyes. “We both know why you want me dead, and it has nothing to do with her. You’ll have to kill me first.”

  “So be it,” he said. Just as he squeezed off two shots, JJ came flying from the right and tackled Bryce at a full sprint, sending the two men tumbling to the ground.

  Abby looked down at her chest and watched as blood trickled from a hole just above her right breast. She looked toward Eric, ten feet away, his chest slowly rose and fell. She waited for it to rise and fall again, but it didn’t. “No,” she said quietly.

  Dragging herself on her hands and knees, she collapsed beside Eric. Taking his hand in hers, they locked eyes. His hand was limp and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. “Eric,” she whispered as the tears began to flow, “please...”

  She felt him faintly squeeze her hand for just a fleeting moment as his eyes went vacant.

  He was gone.

  It sounded worlds away, but she heard her sister screaming, “Someone stop him!”

  Blackness began to creep in from the edges of her vision as she slowly faded away. Lying on her back, she saw Ava appear over her.

  “Mommy!” She couldn’t say anything else. The terrified look on her face said it all.

  “It’s OK, baby,” Abby whispered with a smile.

  Her world faded to black.

  Epilogue

  HER EYES FLUTTERED OPEN, and she squinted in the harsh fluorescent light. There was a beeping sound to her left, and the faint smell of antiseptic in the air. Realization set in – I’m in a hospital.

  “Auntie Sarah, she’s awake!”

  Abby’s sister, Sarah came into view. Ava was smiling ear to ear. Sarah was smiling, too, despite the tracks of her recent tears.

  “I told you she’d be OK.” Ava smiled and leaned in to hug her mother.

  Abby gasped as Ava accidently pressed against her gunshot wound.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

  Abby gritted her teeth and smiled at her little girl. “It’s OK.”

  Sarah spoke up, “Ava, honey, can you go tell the doctors that Mommy’s awake?”

  “Yes!” she squealed, running from the room.

  Sarah sat down on the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

  “About as bad as you look,” Abby quipped, then smiled. “How’s Eric?”

  Sarah’s eyes welled up and spilled over. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Abby. I’m so sorry.”

  Abby stared blankly for a moment, trying to process what Sarah was saying. When realization set in, her own eyes gushed as she stared up to the ceiling, unable to breathe, unable to feel. She moaned and wept like a child, “NO!” Sobs wracked her body, causing excruciating pain to her wound, but she could not stop.

  Robert came running into the room, smiling ear to ear, “Abby!” As she looked to him through her puffy tear-soaked eyes, their eyes connected and his smile faded. “I’m so sorry, dear.”

  He came close and put his arms around her. She weakly held onto him as she shook with pain and sorrow.

  She closed her eyes and allowed herself to be swallowed by the emotion. Sobs shook her body as the image of Eric being hit by the car played over in her mind. The man she loved had made the ultimate sacrifice and given his life to save hers. Finally, after what seemed like an hour, Abby managed to get control of herself and calm her sobbing, if only to keep from upsetting her daughter who wanted today to be a happy day.

  She opened her eyes. “Just, please, please tell me they have the death penalty in Canada.”

  She watched as Robert and Sarah exchanged a look.

  “What?” Abby asked.

  With a slight quiver in his voice, Robert said, “He got away.”

  Abby’s eyes opened wide, “He WHAT?”

  Sarah recounted the story, “A man tackled him as he shot you.”

  “JJ,” Robert interjected.

  Sarah continued. “The police say that’s probably why you only got hit with one of the bullets.”

  Abby stared at Robert, “Tell me this isn’t true.”

  “It all happened so fast,” Sarah said. “They scuffled; Bryce lost the gun. The man – JJ, I guess – JJ went to grab it, and Bryce kicked him right in the side of the head. He went down. At this point, there were sirens screaming everywhere around us. He looked back at me. I was standing by you, holding Ava. He saw you on the ground, soaked with blood. Then he smiled and just took off. I screamed for someone to stop him, but he had grabbed his gun and stole the taxi you came in. He was gone before the police even got there.”

  “They can’t find him?” Abby was beside herself.

  “They found the cab this morning, a few hours south in a little fishing village on Lake Ontario.”

  “This morning?” Abby asked. “How long was I out?”

  “Nearly twenty-four hours,” Sarah said.

  Abby sighed, “Well, they found the car. They’ll find him soon enough, right?”

  Robert spoke. “They think he crossed the lake to the U.S. border.”

  “So, that’s it? He’s gone?”

  “They’re chasing a ghost,” Robert said. “Until he turned up in your sister’s front lawn, the world thought he was dead. The police have nothing to go on.”

  Abby sat in shock and stared at the wall. Bryce had taken everything from her and was walking out a free man.

  Robert picked up the newspaper from her bedside table. “There is one silver lining, Abby, that you should know about.”

  He handed her the paper where she read the headline

  Trial Island Mystery Couple Found Dead

  She looked at Robert. “What’s this?”

  “You’re dead, Abby. At least the world thinks you are.” He leaned in to whisper, “I have a little bit of power and influence, and this is the story that’s going out. It was already out there that you were married to Bryce. So, the story is that a mob hit man killed you and Eric. The world thinks you’re dead. More importantly, as far as Bryce is concerned, he killed you.”

  “So what’s the silver lining?” Abby said through her teeth, wondering if the searing pain she felt was the bullet wound or her white-hot rage boiling up inside of her.

  “You’re free, Abby. It’s done. It’s over. He killed you. You don’t have to worry about him anymore. We’ll get you back on your feet, and you can live out the rest of your life with your lovely daughter and be safe.”

  Abby’s eyes stared through Robert like daggers. “So let me get this straight. Two weeks ago, JJ found me on my island and gave me the news that Bryce was dead. For the first time in months I thought I was finally safe. Yet, I’m lying here in a hospital bed nearly having been killed, Eric was killed – and you’re telling me that now I’m safe because Bryce thinks that I’m dead?”

  “Precisely,” said Robert, nodding his head somberly.

  A sinful glare came over Abby’s face. “Then he’ll never see me coming.”

  ESCAPE

  Dead End

  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 an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  Copyright © 2015 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 BREAT
HED SLOWLY, trying to calm her pulse. She sat with her legs crossed under her in a small clearing in the forest. A bead of sweat trickled down her brow despite the crisp morning temperature.

  This is supposed to help? she thought to herself.

  It did when she was moving. Forty-five minutes of intense yoga occupied her mind and forced her to concentrate on her breathing, on getting through the pain.

  Although her bullet wound had healed several months ago, each time she stretched her arms above her head it felt as though the muscles in her shoulder might tear all over again. The pain alone was enough to make her break a sweat.

  The pain was good. The sweat was good. It kept her mind occupied more than yoga ever could.

  Sitting on a bed of fallen leaves, birds chirping all around her in the early dawn, she closed her eyes and let her mind momentarily wander. As it often did, it wandered to Eric.

  She saw him smile as he told her, “I love you, too. Now go!” That was the last thing he ever said to her.

  Almost, she reminded herself.

  The absolute last thing he ever said came just a few moments later as he desperately screamed her name, “ABBY!” seconds before her ex-husband’s car slammed into him as he shoved her out of the way. The car had been gunning for her. She should have been the one taking the full force of the hit. Thanks to Eric it only clipped her and broke her leg.

  Just breathe, she reminded herself, counting her breaths and attempting to clear her mind. It will help.

  And yet, she watched helplessly in her mind’s eye as two tons of steel slammed into the love of her life at sixty miles per hour. His head smashed into the windshield and his neck snapped in slow motion.

  In and out. In and out. Feel the anger leave your body.

  His body sailed over the roof of the car, thrown ten feet in the air by the impact.

  Breathe out, Abby... breathe out...

  He seemed to float in the air for an eternity as she watched, horrified, unable to do a thing.

  Breathe...

  His body struck the earth with a thud.