Out of the Storm

by B. J Daniels

  Jon was beginning to panic when the light in the distance turned green and the SUV pulled into the building. He tried to breathe a sigh of relief. But until Matthews got all the way through...

  To his surprise, the SUV came out the other side of the building minutes later. Jon shifted into gear, praying he didn’t get held up long at the crossing. He’d put in a call to Earl Ray earlier, asking for his help. Earl Ray had promised to do what he could.

  Now, as Jon drove toward the border crossing, he found himself holding his breath. So much was riding on his getting across and to Kate before it was too late... He told himself that she couldn’t have come into his life to be taken away so quickly. He held on to that hope as he pulled up to the red light and saw both of the officers in the glassed-in area looking at his stolen plates.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  COLLIN FELT THE blood rush from his head as he disconnected from the phone call. Speeding up, he dropped over a small hill, pulled off onto the first secondary dirt road he came to, slammed on the brakes and threw the SUV into Park. Swearing, he began to beat the steering wheel with his fist.

  “What’s happened?” Kate cried, sounding close to tears. “Is it Jon? Is he...okay?”

  He stopped swearing and hitting the wheel to stare at her in disbelief before he let out a bitter howl somewhere between pain and laughter. “Jon? You think I would get this upset over your precious Jon taking a bullet?” He saw her instant relief and wanted to backhand her. She had no idea how much trouble they were in. How much trouble he was in.

  “Jon wasn’t in the basement when Gerald went down to...release him. Add to that, I didn’t make the call before we crossed the border, and he’s pissed,” Collin said, spitting out each word. “Apparently, there’s another vehicle crossing at Opheim. He wanted to coordinate them with us. That’s why I was supposed to wait for his call.” He swore again as he looked into her wide green eyes. It hadn’t been all that long ago that he had lost himself in the depths of those eyes.

  “Jon got away?”

  “Yes, and no one knows where he is.”

  Her eyes widened a little more as if now wondering the same thing he was. What would Jon do once free? Collin realized from the look on her face that there was something else she was thinking. If Jon was free and so were her daughters, Collin no longer had any leverage over her. She was dead wrong about the tables turning, he thought. He had a bullet with her name on it. If she jumped out of the car and tried to run, he’d shoot her down in the middle of the road.

  Taking a breath, he let it out slowly and tried to calm down. He’d been nervous about crossing the border. But they had breezed through. Who gave a damn about the other vehicle that was crossing at Opheim? He wondered why it mattered that they cross at the same time. Just some stupid plan of Gerald’s.

  Collin had the drugs. They hadn’t been confiscated. He wasn’t on his way to prison. He wasn’t sure how bad the repercussions would be from double-crossing Gerald, but he realized he wasn’t that worried. As long as he made this deal, the man should be delighted that Collin had gotten the drugs through and overlook everything else.

  Now all he had to do was meet the distributor. But before that, he was to have gotten rid of Kate. He looked from her to the white empty landscape. This was as good a place as any. He could probably just dump her out here, and she’d die of hypothermia. He wouldn’t have to kill her himself.

  But he couldn’t chance that the stubborn woman would find a way to save herself. Reaching under the seat, he pulled out the loaded handgun he knew was taped there with the silencer on it. “This is all your fault.”

  * * *

  HE WAS BLAMING HER? Even in her fear, she wanted to remind him that he was the one who had gotten involved with drug-smuggling criminals. That he was the one who’d lied to her about this trip. Lied to her about how much trouble he was in financially. Basically lied to her about everything.

  Eyes narrowed, he was studying her with an intensity that told her this was the end of the line for them. For her.

  Kate felt her heart drop as she looked at him and the gun he was holding. Her pulse took off at the sight of the silencer on the weapon. No one would hear the gunshot. As if there was anyone around to hear. This was the way he’d probably always planned it to end. The whole wedding had been a ruse. He’d known she would never go along with becoming his partner in crime.

  She met his gaze. This suddenly quiet Collin scared her more than the ranting and raging one. His look sent a chill through her—even more than the gun he now held. There was cold, raw hatred in his eyes. Her blood ran cold at the way he had the weapon trained on her heart.

  Her throat had gone dry. “Collin—” Her cell phone rang, making them both start. She recognized the ringtone, but it seemed to take him a moment to realize that it was her phone pealing and not his own. He laid the weapon across his thigh and dug out her phone. He took one look at the screen before his gaze shot up to hers, and he smiled.

  “It’s Jon calling for you,” he said, sounding both incredulous and pleased.

  Her heart jumped. “Maybe we should find out what he wants,” she said before she realized that Collin wanted Jon to hear the gunshot that killed her.

  “Maybe we should,” he said. As Collin answered the call, she considered grabbing the gun lying on his thigh.

  The sound of Jon’s voice stopped her as Collin put the phone on Speaker and handed it to her.

  “Jon?”

  He repeated what he’d said only moments before, but neither she nor Collin seemed to have understood his words. “You need to get out of the car,” Jon said with urgency. “The drugs aren’t in the car. They’re in another vehicle going to a different border crossing. The car you’re driving has a bomb in it. I’m not sure what triggers it. Don’t answer your phone in case—”

  “Bullshit!” Collin said loudly. Gripping the phone, she started to open her door, but he grabbed her arm. “You aren’t going anywhere. He’s making this up.”

  “We don’t have time to argue.” Jon’s voice was calm but determined. “I overheard Gerald on the phone outside the house before I got away. You and Kate are the diversion, so the real load can pass through another crossing without as much attention.”

  “Why would he lie?” Kate demanded of Collin as she tried to pull free of his hold on her. “Isn’t this exactly what you’d expect them to do? Double-cross you? Get rid of us both?”

  * * *

  COLLIN SAW KATE glance behind before reaching for her door handle again. His first thought was that Gerald had sent someone to take care of him. Not that he was buying into anything Jon Harper was trying to sell him.

  To his surprise, he saw the carpenter’s old pickup barreling down the road toward them. How had the man found them again? He swore.

  Kate had reached for her door handle, but he was faster. He grabbed her arm in a steel grip as he threw the SUV into gear and took off down the road. He could outrun that old pickup. Because he wasn’t letting Jon get his hands on Kate. Not again. He’d kill her before he’d let that happen.

  He let go of her arm, fairly sure she wasn’t stupid enough to leap out at this speed. The gun that had been on his lap fell to the floorboard. He saw Kate try to reach for it as it fell. He shoved her back.

  “There’s a bomb in this car,” she cried. “You heard what he said.”

  He shook his head. “That’s crazy. It makes no sense.” He hated that she had him doubting himself. Gerald was a first-class asshole, but why would he kill the two of them? What would be the point when Collin had promised he would get rid of Kate? Unless Gerald didn’t believe that he would. That he could.

  Swearing, he tried to concentrate on the narrow, snow-packed road that ran through the rolling foothills. He had no idea where he was going—just that he had to put some distance between them and the pickup. “Jon’s lying! He’s just trying to
get you out of this vehicle. Does he think I’m stupid?”

  “What if he’s telling the truth? Don’t you wonder why Gerald was so insistent that you call before you crossed the border? And why he’s so upset now? He said it was about a shift change. Did that ever make sense to you? Collin, Gerald’s the one you can’t trust.”

  * * *

  KATE TRIED TO reason with Collin but knew she was wasting her breath. He had his jaw set. She could tell that he’d rather see the two of them blown to kingdom come than do anything Jon said.

  Glancing back, she couldn’t see the pickup behind them because of the light snow the SUV’s tires were kicking up. Collin had the SUV floored, determined to lose Jon. “Collin, stop!” she cried. “Let this end here.”

  “Not on your life,” he spat. “No way am I going to let him take you.”

  At this speed, she knew it was dangerous, but he’d left her no choice. She grabbed for the steering wheel. What did she have to lose if there was a bomb in this car set to go off with just a phone call?

  “What the hell?” he cried as he tried to hold her off and keep up his speed. The SUV began to fishtail on the snow-packed road as she kept fighting him and jerking at the steering wheel. He was forced to slow down to stay on the road.

  She unsnapped her seat belt and attacked him, jerking the wheel so hard that for a moment, she thought the SUV might roll. If there was a bomb in it...

  Collin backhanded her, knocking her into her seat. The blow stunned her, and for a moment she couldn’t see anything but white as snow began to wash over the windshield. She realized that when he’d swung at her, he’d lost control of the vehicle. He was fighting to get the SUV back on the road and failing.

  As they went off the road, the front end of the SUV plowed through the deep snow, burrowing in deeper. A wave of white rushed up over the windshield, seeming to bury them as the SUV came to an abrupt stop.

  Kate felt dazed from the blow and the jarring stop, her movements slow and uncoordinated. Get out of the car, her brain was screaming. Get out! Over the pounding of her heart, she heard the tick tick tick of the engine as it began to cool and Collin’s heavy breathing. He’d apparently banged his head against the side window. She realized that the airbags hadn’t inflated.

  As her brain seemed to catch up, she grabbed the door handle again. She had to get out, had to get away. She pulled the handle and pushed the door, but the snow was so high that it didn’t want to open. She was trying again, pushing as hard as she could, feeling the snow slowly begin to move away, when Collin picked up the gun from the floorboard and pointed it at her.

  “If there is a bomb, then we are going to die together,” he said, deadly quiet, and he aimed it at her head.

  She threw her body against the door. It fell open, and she fell out into the soft, fresh snow, the door slamming behind her. She heard a pop, and the side window shattered, the glass falling over her like tiny ice cubes. Hurriedly she crawled through the snow toward the back of the SUV. She heard Collin swearing as he tried to get out of the vehicle, the snow blocking him in. She heard her side door open. He was coming after her and when he found her—

  His swearing was drowned out by the roar of Jon’s pickup engine. He came to a stop where the SUV had left the road, a light snow cloud settling around the truck.

  “Kate, get away from the SUV,” Jon yelled just a second before, to her horror, she heard Collin firing the gun. Pop, pop, pop.

  The pickup’s side window shattered. She couldn’t see Jon. Heart lodged in her throat, she couldn’t even scream as she struggled to drag herself out of the deep snow in the ditch and onto the road. She rushed to the pickup as Jon crawled out the passenger side. He had a gun in his hand as he crouched down beside her.

  “Katie. Run up the road over the hill that way,” he said, pointing back the way they’d come. She was shaking her head, mouthing I can’t leave you again over the sound of Collin’s gunfire and the tinny pings of the bullets ricocheting off the pickup’s body. “Think of Mia and Danielle. Do it for me. Please.”

  At the sound of more shots from Collin’s gun, she felt Jon’s shove and took off running up the road. She heard more shots, only louder as Jon returned fire, no doubt providing cover for her. She could see the hill ahead. She didn’t think. She didn’t question what Jon had told her to do. She trusted him. She just ran, praying he would be right behind her.

  * * *

  COLLIN STOPPED SHOOTING. There was no sign of Jon Harper and that made him nervous as he stayed by the open driver’s-side door. He realized he was still standing by the SUV in a couple feet of snow. In the adrenaline-powered excitement, he hadn’t felt the cold. But now it settled around him. The deep, snowy quiet, the aching chill that had started with his feet and now moved up his body into his shoulders.

  He shivered and waited, ready should there be any movement around the truck. Only minutes had gone by. He looked up the road. He could see Kate. How quickly she’d done as Jon had ordered her. It grated on him since she would have argued with him. Crazy woman. A bomb in the car? She’d believe anything if Jon Harper said it was true.

  Still no movement by the pickup. Maybe he’d gotten lucky and wounded him. He considered pushing through the few yards of snow between him and the road to check, but he wasn’t sure how much more ammunition he had in the weapon. He’d lost track of how many times he’d fired. He would have to dig another clip out from under the seat.

  But he hesitated, realizing that first he had to know the truth. The passenger-side door was still standing open. He reached back to grab the large box with the wedding dress in it. Earlier he’d put the two back seats down to shove the box forward when he loaded their suitcases. When they’d gone off the road, the box had come crashing forward and was now against the back of the two front seats. He lifted a corner of the box. The heaviness of it assured him that it was exactly what he knew it to be. A wedding dress full of drugs. No way was Gerald going to blow that up, so there was no bomb. It had all just been a ruse to get Kate out of the car—and it had worked.

  His cell phone began to ring. He pulled it out.

  “Don’t answer it!” Jon yelled as he suddenly came barreling around the front of the pickup, diving from the edge of road to grab for him. His cell phone dropped into the snow as Jon grabbed his arm and drove him backward away from the SUV. Collin tried to fight him off as the two grappled with Jon driving them both farther back.

  Jon was yelling something Collin couldn’t hear, when the phone quit ringing—and Collin realized he still had the gun in his hand.

  He swung around with just enough room between them to point the barrel at Jon’s midsection. He pulled the trigger. The shot made a puff sound with the silencer on it in the closeness between them. He pulled the trigger again. Click. Click. Click.

  “You fool,” the carpenter said, his hand going to his side. Blood seeped from his fingers as he stumbled back.

  Collin swung the gun, catching Jon in the face and knocking the man backwards. Caught off guard, Jon stumbled and fell over a rise. Collin watched him roll down into what appeared to be a gully, blood staining the snow in his path. He wanted to go after him and finish him, but he could barely see where he’d landed. He waited for movement.

  Behind him, he heard his phone begin to ring again. He turned to look up the road. Kate had stopped at the top of a rise in the road, but he could tell she was already heading back. As if she could save Jon now.

  If he’d had ammo in his gun, he would have taken a shot at her. He probably couldn’t have hit her—not at this distance with a pistol with a silencer on it—but he damned sure would have tried.

  He turned back toward the SUV and the ringing phone. He couldn’t wait to tell Gerald that he’d taken care of everything. He had the drugs, he’d gotten them across the border, he’d taken care of Jon Harper and was about to finish things with Kate. He’d get another clip a
nd go after her. Or maybe he wouldn’t have to. Maybe she would die of hypothermia before he found her.

  What began to sink in was what Jon Harper had been yelling as he’d tried to drag him away from the SUV. The stupid fool really believed there was a bomb in it. Collin might have believed it, but he’d felt the wedding dress box. It had been heavy. Just like when he’d picked it up at the shop.

  As he reached his open door of the SUV, he saw his ringing phone lying in the snow down in one of the holes his boots had made. He started to reach for it and stopped, remembering how Jon had been screaming for him not to answer it.

  Collin shook his head as he pushed the seat forward and pulled the heavy dress box toward him. It wasn’t that easy to lift off the lid. He’d finally had to tear it to look inside. He felt instant relief. Thick sparkly fabric.

  His phone quit ringing. He started to close the box when he saw something that shouldn’t have been in there. He felt his heart drop as he lifted the edge of the fabric.

  Rocks? They’d been piled onto more padded fabric and then covered. When the SUV had gone off the road, though, they’d all shifted, so now two of them were visible. Rocks? He was trying to get his mind around what he was seeing when he moved the top fabric and saw what was nestled in the middle of the box. His blood ran cold. An armed explosive device sat huddled in a nest of even more of the expensive-looking fabric. He thought about the woman telling him not to look inside, not to disturb it and to be gentle carrying it.

  His phone began to ring again, making him jump. At the same time, a tiny light began to blink on the explosive device. He swore and tried to turn and run, but he’d only taken a step in the deep snow when there was a flash of blinding light, a cracking noise and then nothing.

  * * *