by Jae Hood
“I don’t know.” Tanner helped me up as the truck sped by without faltering. “We have to crank it up quick and get the hell out of Dodge before he parks.”
Tanner opened the car door for me but didn’t wait for me to enter, choosing instead to practically shove me inside. He quickly joined me and turned on the engine. Thankfully, it turned over on the first attempt. He backed out onto the road so swiftly my head jerked. He spun around and stomped it, sending me screaming. We spun down the road with no headlights on, balling like the Dukes of Hazzard.
Tanner flipped on the headlights, muttering to himself when only one flickered on. The glow of the moonlight shining down on the road wasn’t enough to lead us away from Amos, whose truck chugged and sputtered along the road. The beams from the pickup truck twisted in the darkness as he swung around in the parking lot of his business, turning in the same direction we faced as we pulled onto the road. The roar of an engine blasted through the air, louder than the sound of our old borrowed car that groaned and sputtered as Tanner willed it forward.
My ears were pounding. My heart thumped erratically against my chest, sending blood rushing through my veins. The exhilaration, the thrill of it all threw me into a Tanner-like element. He met my nervous and excited grin, smile for exhilarated smile.
Tanner stomped on the gas, leaving nothing but suffocating exhaust in our wake. He floored it across the heat-cracked pavement. Noticing a side road ahead, he slowed down, making sure not to slam on the brakes and leave tire tracks in our wake.
No bouncing of headlights shone in the rearview mirror. Somehow we’d left Amos far behind. Determination flowed from Tanner and through me. He turned down the back road, creeping so as to not turn up dust behind us. I was unsure how much time we had on our hands, or of the distance that lay between us and Amos, but his turtle-crawling made me anxious, made me want to burst open the windows and race through the woods.
He nosed the car down the road. We disappeared into the darkness with nothing but one working headlight illuminating our path. The road was submerged in the thick backwoods. The branches of the trees overhead reached out, clinging together, their kudzu- and wisteria-laden limbs forming a tunnel of darkness that we descended into.
The sound of my haggard breath broke the silence. The darkness became infiltrated with flashing lights up ahead, the red and blue shock of colors flowing through the trees and brush in a deliberate rhythm, faint but still clearly there.
Tanner slammed on the brakes, no longer concerned with the tires turning up dust. My body jerked forward, my head saved from smashing through the windshield by the safety belt I’d snapped on.
With my bottom lip quivering, I sat on the ripped, stained passenger seat, staring through the smeared front windshield at the lights ahead. The faintest of colors were quickly brightening the longer we sat. Tanner reached for my cell and dialed a number. In the silence of the car, I heard Graham’s smooth voice. As the droning of Graham’s voicemail played in Tanner’s ear, Tanner relayed what he expected me to do.
“Run,” Tanner said, pressing his thumb against the warped metal that locked my seatbelt in place. “When you hit the woods, don’t look back. Got it? Don’t look back, Rue. No matter what you hear.”
My mouth parted, ready to argue. That was when I noticed the fear in his eyes. Fear wasn’t in his vocabulary. Fear wasn’t an option. Still, it was there, blinding and obvious. Then, in the blink of an eye, he covered the expression with stony determination.
Tanner opened the glove box and dug around inside before removing two items. The glove box stood ajar, the inside light burned out, but still I saw what lay hidden under mounds of napkins, junk mail, and old candy wrappers: a small blue flashlight and a 9mm pistol.
After shoving them both into my hand, he pointed in the direction of the sky. “Run north and don’t stop until you hit the highway. Do you see that star? Follow it. That star will take you north, to the highway.”
“Polaris.”
“If it gets cloudy use your flashlight to—”
“Look for the moss growing on the trees.” I swallowed and nodded as I dropped my eyes to the flashlight in my hands. “The moss always grows facing north. I know how to escape the woods. My father taught me.”
“Don’t stop running, no matter what you hear. Keep running and don’t use the flashlight unless you have to.”
“I can’t just leave you here,” I whispered. “I know what you’re doing. You’re sacrificing yourself.”
He removed my ski mask, followed by his, and kissed my lips. “There’s no other option. Just go.”
My mouth brushed against his mumbled words. I gave him a slight nod and left the car. The door quietly closed behind me, a feeble attempt to not draw attention to my presence. The weight of his stare followed me. I stumbled down the slight embankment, the bracken loose and slippery, causing me to momentarily lose my footing. Once I regained it, I shot him one last look, wondering if this was the last time we’d see one another.
Then I was gone, disappearing into the black forest, leaving Tanner alone, leaving myself alone with nothing but the terrifying realization I may not make it out of these woods alive if they found me.
Or if they killed him.
That thought alone terrified me, forcing me to turn and face the road behind me. Tanner stepped out of the car, phone in hand. Quiet as could be, I backtracked into a ditch close to the road. Moonlight glinted off the gun, warm in my hand.
With the gun in my possession I felt in control. No matter how pissed off Tanner would undoubtedly be when he found out I hung back, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but me, Tanner, and that gun.
“I’m on County Road 316,” he said into the phone. “Amos is somewhere behind me. There’s a cop car ahead of me. They’ve got me hemmed in. Where are you? Rue’s in the woods headed north. She should hit the highway in the next thirty minutes. I need you to pick her up.”
Tanner pocketed the phone and got behind the wheel, but it was too late. An old pickup truck was gaining speed, along with the cop car that was now approaching from just yards away. There was no possible way for Tanner to get around the wide truck or the blindingly fast police car. There was no escape. He was trapped.
Trapped.
“Someone is gonna die tonight,” Lucy sang from behind me.
I turned toward my sister but was met with only the blackness of the forest.
The truck pulling up, turning up dust and rocks, recaptured my attention. When that old pickup truck came to a stop and not only Amos but also Matt and Saul poured out, I knew there was no escape for Tanner. There was no getting out of these woods alive. There were too many of them. Too many of them and only two of us.
Another vehicle emerged from around the bend in the woods, parking behind Amos’ truck. Tanner stared through the window, releasing the steering wheel from the death grip in which he held it. The police cruiser pulled up as well, edging up on the borrowed car’s bumper as the driver cut the lights.
The lights perched on top of the cruiser were only for show. If they shone too brightly for too long, the man slipping from behind the wheel, the man whose son Tanner had murdered in cold blood, couldn’t do what I believed he came there to do that night.
Buck Bridges came to kill Tanner and me.
Tanner emerged from the car at the same time as Buck. Buck held a gun steady in his hand. The door of the car slammed behind Tanner, shoved closed with the back of his boot. Tanner smirked at Amos, Saul, and Matt as they stepped away from Amos’ truck. That smile burned away at the sight of the people joining them from the other vehicle.
My uncle, Alex, and his daughter.
My younger cousin, who looked strikingly like me, stood slightly behind her father. She stared down at her dirty sneakers, bottom lip tucked between her teeth.
“Olivia.” Tanner frowned, shaking his head.
What the hell is she doing here?
A bitter chuckle escaped Tanner’s chest, breaking the ti
ght tension. The brothers exchanged confused frowns as his laughter suddenly became off-kilter and slightly maniacal.
“You’re kidding, right?” Tanner snorted, ignoring Buck as he drew closer with his gun. “You double-crossed us? You? The same girl I watched sit on her cousin’s, no, her best friend’s hospital bed and help paint her toenails? Why? Why would you do this?”
“He’s my father,” Olivia said, voice trembling.
Black spots peppered my vision. Disgust curled in my stomach.
“And Lucy was your best friend,” Tanner said. “What about Rue? What has she done to deserve your betrayal?”
Olivia said nothing. She stared down at the ground, stared down at the darkness. The gun trembled in my hand.
How could she?
“Who else is in on it?” Tanner demanded, sucking in a deep breath when the barrel of Buck’s gun suddenly pressed against his right temple.
“My advice to you,” Buck drawled, toothpick bobbing from the corner of his mouth, “is to shut up.”
The gun struck the side of Tanner’s head in a flash. My quivering hand smothered the gasp threatening to escape. Tanner’s head snapped to the side, white stars exploding in my own vision as I imagined the pain he felt while Buck pistol whipped him. Tanner fell against the car but quickly righted himself and turned back to Buck. I clenched my hands into tight fists, my throat tightening in blinding fury. A long, thin trail of blood trickled from Tanner’s temple. He swiped his hand against the wound, staining his palm with bright red blood.
“Did my son bleed?” Buck’s low voice grumbled. “Did my son bleed when you killed him? You did kill him, didn’t you, Tanner? My only child. You murdered him in cold blood.”
“What are you gonna do, Sheriff Bridges? Shoot me? I doubt it. There’re people who know where I am. They’ll look for me.”
“Like your uncle?” Amos said, lighting a cigar. “Speaking of Graham, he’s surprisingly absent tonight. Where could he be? You seen him, Buck?”
“He was sitting outside the judge’s house, watching in case we left our weekly poker game, right?”
“Where is my uncle?” Tanner asked.
Amos laughed. “Don’t worry, son. I’m sure he’s keeping poor little Lucy company wherever she may be.”
Before I could contemplate his confusing words, Tanner let out a loud curse. Boots scuffled and dark figures lunged forward. Buck moved at a surprisingly fast pace for a man of his stature and age, grasping Tanner’s shirt and yanking him against the vehicle. The wind was knocked out of him as Buck slammed his beefy fist into Tanner’s abdomen. Tanner doubled over once again, staggering on his feet as he sucked in a desperate breath.
Amos laughed again, strolling to where Buck had slung Tanner against the car. “What’s that old saying? He’s in a better place now? That’s it. Old Graham’s in a better place now.”
Tanner drew in a sharp breath, hands against his knees. “In a better place now? Like Lucy? Like my father? Like Jeb? Lucy is dead because of you. Dead.
“You’ve messed Rue up. You’ve messed up her brain. You set that hospital on fire. You killed innocent people. You burned them to death, you sick bastard. You killed your own niece because you thought she knew too much on you, too much on Davis. Now Rue is ruined. She’s ruined.”
You killed your own niece. Now Rue is ruined. Ruined.
Graham set the fire. Can’t be true. Lucy is safe, not dead. This isn’t happening.
“So I’ve heard,” Amos said, casting a thankful smirk at Olivia. “I’ve heard how she’s in denial, how she thinks her sister is traveling north with her boyfriend. Crazy’s always run deep in the Monroe family. My mother, Lucy, and now Rue. How does it feel, Tanner? How does it feel sharing a bed with a crazy girl every night? Do you like that? Do you like getting your rocks off on some delusional little girl? You do, don’t you? You love it, screwing your psychotic little whore every night.”
“Screw you.”
Amos laughed. “No, screw you. You’re pathetic, allowing her to live in her own little fantasy world believing her sister is alive tripping through the daisies somewhere. Oh, she’s near the daisies all right, but she’s not tripping through them. More like pushing them up.”
Tanner straightened his spine and spit on the ground. “And I’m next? I’m next, then Rue, and after that, what? You’re gonna kill everyone who knows the truth about who you really are, Amos? You’re gonna kill your own mother after that? Because she screwed a Montgomery? That’s what this is really about, right? It’s not about drugs, or money, or power. It’s about the fact that you were born the bastard child of a Montgomery, the bastard child of my own grandfather.”
“What’s he talking about, Amos?” Matt demanded. “What the hell is he talking about?”
“Nothing,” Amos said. “Just more Montgomery lies. He’s trying to turn us against each other—another lowlife trick the Montgomerys have come up with.”
Tanner laughed, shaking his head in disgust. “A trick? That’s the best you can do? What’d it feel like growing up, watching your father dote on his first-born son, Jeb? Did he love him more than you? Did he take him fishing? Rue says her father loved to fish. Learned everything he knew from his own father. Did he include you on those fishing trips, or did he leave you out? Is that it? You were stuck home baking cakes and pies with Nana Monroe while your younger brother was out fishing with a father who never accepted you.”
“He’s trying to play y’all,” Amos said. “I’m tired of listening to this fabricated bullshit spewing from your mouth. Where’s Rue? Where’s my whore of a niece?”
“Do you really think I’d take her with me to break into your office?”
“I thought you said she’d be with him,” Amos said to Olivia.
“That was the plan …” Olivia’s voice trailed off.
“Speaking of plans,” Tanner said. “You Monroes, y’all must take us Montgomerys for idiots. I always have a backup plan, you know. Do you honestly think I tell Rue everything? Is that the way it works with the Monroe men? You lie in bed at night exchanging your dirty little secrets with your wives?
“Rue has always known there’re things she’d be left in the dark about in our relationship. My family, we have connections everywhere. Did you really think I was stupid enough to sneak into your office without a plan B? What do you take me for, an idiot kid running on half a brain?”
“What do you …” Saul spoke.
Tanner looked down at his watch. “It’s about time.”
Buck cocked the gun he held, pointing it at Tanner’s head. “About time for what?”
The men jumped as Tanner hit the ground, rolling sideways and forcing himself under the car. That was when the world around us skyrocketed. A thunderous explosion filled the air. The fire in the sky burned so bright it blinded me. Shards of glass and metal rained down all around us.
Olivia’s shrill scream cracked through the night. Adrenaline pushed through my veins, but I was frozen with fear and couldn’t move. Tanner belly-crawled to the opposite side of the car. He jumped the ditch, inches away from my prone body. He hit the tree line and disappeared inside the dark forest, never looking back.
Coming to my senses, I stood to follow but became rendered still by the scene in front of me. Olivia’s hair and clothes were engulfed in flames, her screams amplified by the woods. Men hollered, some fighting the flames on Olivia’s scorching body as they threw her to the ground, some yelling as they noticed me backing into the dark woods.
Shots rang out in the night, the whizzing sound of bullets pushing me forward. I twisted and ducked below low-lying branches and swaying trees. Polaris stood bright and bold in the sky, beckoning me north to where I was supposed to be waiting for Tanner.
Bracken crunched beneath heavy boots behind me. The only other sounds were the popping and cracking of a burning car, the screams of a newly disfigured girl, and the wheezing bursting forth from Buck’s chest as he descended closer, emptying his gun of his las
t bullet.
Chapter 26
I didn’t even realize I’d been shot. I was too wrapped up in my desperation to get to him as Buck’s gun emptied and Tanner’s voice broke in the distance.
The sound of Buck’s low curse fueled my escape. His wheezing breaths and the crunch of boots filled the night air, intermingling with mine. Twigs and leaves of low-lying branches slapped across my face, arms, and legs.
I stumbled on exposed roots, nearly losing my footing before regaining my balance and darting forward. The only source of illumination was the moonlight pouring through the trees and the North Star shining brightly overhead.
The ground gave way in an unexpected dip. I slid down a steep hill, sputtering curses below my breath. I landed near a wide creek on my hands and knees.
The earth was covered in soft birch leaves, splattered with a black-red liquid. I stared down at the stain in the moonlight. Liquid dripped from somewhere above. Looking upward, I saw nothing but the night sky.
Sticky, thick wetness spread over my shirt and tickled my neck. I pressed my hand against my neck then held it up in the moonlight, staring dumbfounded at my fingers.
Blood. My blood.
I was stunned for a moment, blinded by the sight of my own blood on my hand, until I heard the sound of male voices at the top of the hill closing in on me.
Forgetting my injury, I surveyed my surroundings, frantic in my search to get away. A large tree leaned over the creek, thick and aged with the soil burrowed out just beneath. Long roots roped in and out of the soil at each side. The tree burst forth from the earth as though it were fleeing the confines of the deep forest, just as I was. Thin, scraggly roots hung down below the base of the tree, clawing across the surface of the creek water, partly hiding the shallow indentation underneath.
I fell into the water, slipping and crawling across the slick creek bottom until I reached the base of the tree. I grasped the roots, pulling them apart and praying to all that was holy that a beaver wasn’t burrowed somewhere inside. The dark water and black hole swallowed me up as I pressed my body into the tight cavity. Water rushed over my mouth and nose occasionally.