by K. C. Crowne
"Thanks. That's very sweet."
She winked at me in the reflection and slicked on another layer of pink gloss.
Outside, it was growing dark already, and the streetlights glowed dimly through the heavy snow. From inside Carly's pocket, her phone beeped.
"Hmm, wonder who that could be?" As she unlocked her screen, her confusion intensified. "No way, the cab's here already."
"Really? In this weather?" Jared asked. "They must have been nearby."
"Who's ever heard of an early cab?" Jackson inquired, equally confused. "And you only called them two minutes ago. Takes at least half an hour from the depot usually."
He looked strangely concerned, but I didn't have time to question him because it was time to get out and have some fun.
"Come on," I said, grabbing Carly. "Let's go."
She linked her arm in mine, and we strutted to the door.
"Wait," Jackson called. "Let me walk you down to the cab."
Chapter 14
Jackson
"You really don't have to worry," Gabby insisted. "We'll be fine. The cab's right there."
I peered through the snow that fell from the indigo sky. The lights from the car shone auburn through the whiteness, the driver barely visible behind the windshield.
"Honestly. We're okay," Carly said.
"Yeah, we're not exactly little girls."
"I know. I know," I said. "Just wanna make sure you got there safely."
"To the taxi? What did you think would happen? That we’d get lost on our way downstairs?" Carly jeered.
"Yeah," Gabby laughed. "Do you think without your help we'll get trapped in an avalanche on our way down the sidewalk?"
They may have thought I was being ridiculous, but I couldn't help the feeling in my gut that told me something was wrong. I knew all the cab drivers in this town and where their depot was. If they turned up so quickly, they would have literally needed to be on this street already. And in this weather where hardly a car was out, it seemed unlikely.
You're overreacting. There's nothing wrong. The cab was probably just dropping someone off nearby when they got the call.
But no matter how much I tried to wrestle with logic, I just couldn't shake the thought that something was off.
As I accompanied the girls to the car, I opened the back door so Gabby could climb in after Carly.
"You look great," I told her. "You'll be careful, won't you?"
"Of course I will."
"If you need anything, call. I'll be around."
"I won't need you," she said, the words hitting me hard in the chest. "Seriously, we'll be fine."
The uneasiness was growing inside me. I looked inside the car at the driver, who remained silent while staring through the windshield. For a split-second, he turned his head ever so slightly, and his reflection was caught in the rearview mirror.
I didn't recognize him, and I thought I knew all the drivers in town. He noticed me looking and shrunk into the shadows.
"Come on," he said, his voice gruff. "I got a busy night ahead of me."
I froze. Was that a New York accent?
I looked down at Gabby and pleaded with my eyes. "I’ve got a better idea. How about I drive you to the gig?"
"What? Why would you do that? We're literally in the cab." She laughed at me, obviously thinking I had lost my mind.
"Come on," the impatient driver repeated. “We’ve got a ways to go in this weather. We need to get on the road if you’re gonna make your concert.”
"Gotta go," Gabby said. "Have a good night."
Before I could say another word, her door slammed shut and the wheels were spinning in the slushy snow.
Thinking fast, I reached for my phone and took a picture of the car just before it reached the corner. It was blurry and the light was weak, but it was just about clear enough to make out the license plate.
Something in my gut was gnawing at me, but I just didn't know what. It was the same feeling I had gotten in Afghanistan that told me danger was nearby.
Dialing Dylan's number, I stared after the car.
"Yo!" he said, answering on the third ring.
"You still in the office?"
"You're blessed with good timing, buddy. I was just about to leave for a much-needed drink."
"Okay, hold that thought. I need you to run a license plate number for me real quick. "
"When do you need it?"
"Right now."
"Like right now right now?"
"Yeah. Like immediately."
He whistled through his teeth, and I heard him settle back in his chair, the thing creaking beneath his lumbering weight as he sighed.
"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't urgent," I said. "I really think something weird is going on."
"Okay, fine. Send it over."
I hung up and texted him the picture, staring down the street as though the longer I looked, the more likely it was Gabby and Carly would come back.
Looking up at the window, I saw Jared looking down at me, wondering what the hell I was doing.
In my hand, my phone began to ring. Only two minutes had passed since I'd ended Dylan's call, and he was calling me back in record time.
"Hey? You get the photo?"
"I got it and I ran it."
"Already?"
"It's hot," he said.
"What is? The car?"
"The license plates. They're off a stolen vehicle."
"You're kidding me."
My stomach clenched itself into a knot as anger ran through my veins.
I knew there was something wrong. I should have stopped them!
"Who was in the car?" Dylan asked, his curiosity growing.
"Gabby and Carly," I explained. "That drink's gonna have to wait."
Chapter 15
Gabby
I shivered as the wind howled around us, shaking the car as we drove down Main Street. I could barely see two feet outside the vehicle, and from the lack of other headlights, I could tell we were the only car on the road.
"Hey, any chance of turning the heat on?" I asked the driver.
He made eye contact in the rearview mirror. "Sure, for a pretty thing like you."
He winked and I felt the urge to be sick in my mouth. There was nothing less attractive or creepy than a guy winking at you.
"You ladies are looking real nice," he commented.
"Um, thanks."
"You're in for a real treat."
"Yeah, we've been looking forward to seeing Roxi for months."
A sudden and loud laugh burst out from his mouth. "Yeah, Roxi. Hahaha."
Carly looked at me, her expression concerned.
"What the hell?" I silently mouthed. I shrunk back in my seat and shimmied up beside her. "I’m getting a real weird vibe from him," I whispered.
"Me too. But it's probably nothing," she replied. "Cab drivers are all a bit odd. "
"They're not all like this."
It was dark, but the faint glow from the dashboard showed his face, which was greasy and pockmarked with a scar on his cheek. He didn't look like the average taxi driver, and he didn't sound like one either.
Looking down at his hands, I saw a long line of gold rings across his knuckles, the kind your average cab driver could never afford. Then I saw something else that niggled at the back of my mind. The rosaries hanging from the windshield. I’d seen them before. I also noticed the air freshener on the wheel. I had been in this car before, but the kind old driver who had taken me safely home the previous night had gone, replaced by this guy, who had his eyes on me more than the road.
"You okay there, sweetheart?"
The lewd tone of his voice made me freeze and I grabbed Carly's hand. "We need out of this cab right now."
"What? You're nuts. How are we supposed to get to the concert?"
"I have a real bad feeling about this guy," I hissed in her ear. "There's something just not right about him."
"Relax. He's just some lecherous old guy hi
tting on you. You've had a few of them before, haven't you?"
"You ladies alright back there?" he called from the front, hearing our hushed, frantic whispers.
"We're fine," I said, trying to assuage his concerns. "Just gossiping."
"Ah, you girls and your gossip," he chuckled. He looked at me in the mirror again and licked his lips. My stomach churned.
We need out of here.
Quickly, I tried to formulate a plan. If we jumped out at the next stoplight, we might be able to hail another cab. But the chances of that were slim when there wasn't a single other driver stupid enough to be out in this weather.
Where were all the other people going to the concert? As I looked down the streets, I came to the same conclusion both Jackson and Jared had come to. The gig couldn't happen. It would be a death trap up there.
Still looking around frantically, I kept flicking my eyes to the driver. Call it woman's intuition. Call it a gut feeling, but I was overcome with the sensation that the man meant danger. It oozed out of him in the way he sat, the way he talked, and the way he kept looking at me. It was a look that said, ‘I have plans for you.’
As we reached the crossroads on the edge of town, I looked up and down for signs of other people, but the streets were bare, as I’d expected.
All we had to do was take a left, then it would be a couple miles up the winding road to the concert venue. But as the light turned green, and he pulled away, the car took a harsh, right swerve in the opposite direction.
"Hey! You're going the wrong way."
For the first time since we got in the car, he was silent.
"Hey!" I tapped him on the shoulder. "You're going the wrong way. The concert’s up there."
An insidious smile split his face in half from ear to ear. "Oh honey, we're going the right way."
My stomach flipped as my heart raced. I grabbed Carly and squeezed her hand so hard it hurt, a signal that something was seriously wrong.
"This isn't right."
Even she looked scared now and began looking out the back of the car as though there was some way we could claw our way back to the safety we had just come from.
"What do we do?" she whispered.
I thought fast, and there was only one thing that came to mind. "We'll just have to jump," I said. "The snow will cushion our fall."
A flash of fear came into her eyes, but she knew it was the only thing we could do. She nodded her head, sucking in a breath as if she were sucking in bravery.
"Wait until we slow at the next bend," I said.
She swallowed and nodded hard.
My heart was beating so fast I could feel the blood rush in my ears, could feel myself sweat despite the frigid temperature.
As the driver decelerated on the long, curving bend, I reached for the door handle and gave Carly and affirmative nod.
"Now," I mouthed.
In unison, we rattled the handles, but they wouldn't budge.
"What the fuck?"
The driver was looking at us in the mirror, the smile still on his face. He laughed maliciously. "Going somewhere?"
"Unlock the doors!" I yelled.
But he just laughed harder.
Shit shit shit. What do I do?
I yanked at the handle as hard as I could, hopelessly praying that the door would open. But even if I could open the door, the driver was speeding up, making the leap from the car deadly.
"He's going to kill us going at this speed," Carly cried.
"I'm calling the cops!"
The driver laughed again, a chortle that came from deep down in his belly. I didn't know what he found so funny until I looked at my phone. There wasn't a single bar of signal.
"You're not gonna be able to call a soul where we're going," he said.
I looked outside for signs of anyone who could help us, but there was nothing but trees and snow covering the narrow roads as the city gave way to the forest. I could feel the acute angle of the car as it turned upward. We weren't just leaving town; we were ascending the mountain.
"Where are you taking us?" I raged, grabbing his shoulder.
"Get the fuck off me, you little bitch!"
He yanked his arm away from me and pushed me back, but it did nothing to subdue me. If anything, it just made me angrier.
In the dim light, with the car moving slowly up the steep incline and my heart beating faster and faster, there was only one thing I could think of doing. Pulling off my scarf, I reached around the back of his seat and pulled it tight over his eyes. He immediately panicked and raised his hands to his eyes as the car skewed to the right.
"You'll kill us you, psycho bitch!" he yelled.
“Stop the car!”
As my hands clamped around his face, the wheel spinning out of control in front of him, I saw a hint of red popping out from his sleeve. A tattoo of a red dragon. Identical to the one Benny Junior had.
It was so obvious now. Who else could he be?
The car came to a screeching halt, the hood crashing into a wall of snow at the edge of the tree-lined road. We could finally make our escape. As I rattled the door handle, I realized we were still locked inside.
"Let us the fuck out!"
“You bitches aren't going anywhere!”
At last, with the car at a standstill, he wrestled the scarf from his eyes.
“What have you done to my car, you fucking bitch?”
Even through the darkness I could see how red and rabid with rage his face was. He looked ready to leap in the back and strangle the life out of me. Beside me, Carly was desperately dialing nine-one-one, but with no signal, it was pointless.
Quick as a flash I saw his hand shoot out through the darkness in search of me. Then I saw Carly, a scream tearing at her mouth as she launched her phone at him. It struck him across his temple with an instant stream of blood breaking the skin.
Leaning forward, I hit the button for the locks and all the doors simultaneously clicked open.
“Run!”
Grabbing Carly's hand, I dragged her out into the snow and we took off sprinting, barely able to see a thing with only our survival instincts guiding us away from him.
"You little sluts! I'll kill you both!"
He staggered out into the snow after us, but blinded by his own blood and dazed from the injury, he could only wobble through the snow.
"Gabby, wait! I can't run in this snow."
With the snow growing thicker and deeper, we slowed to a halt unable to run any further.
We collapsed into it as it reached our knees, then our thighs. The wind howled around us, whistling in our ears as it lashed the hair into our eyes. I tried to see Carly, tried to hear her voice, but it was coming from nowhere and everywhere as I soon became blinded by the snow and wind.
The only thing to light the way were the blurred headlights from the cab. In front of them, I could just about make out the shape of the driver's lumbering body. His hand reached to his hip before pulling out the unmistakable shape of a gun.
"Gabby!"
A shot rang out as he fired into the air.
"Carly!"
Out of nowhere, her hand reached my sleeve and pulled me deeper into the forest. We gripped the trees, the only things to keep us safe and upright.
"We can't make it through this!" she screamed, her voice swallowed by the wind. "Try calling the cops again!"
I fumbled for my phone but couldn't see a thing on the screen. I tried to tap out the numbers, but it felt like I had lost control of my limbs.
"There's no signal. Fuck!"
"What do we do?" Carly's voice was a distant wail through the wind.
"Where is he?" I yelled.
We both looked toward the headlights, but his body was out of view.
"He'll be looking for us," Carly whimpered.
"Come with me. I have an idea."
Grabbing her sleeve, I pulled her close to me, and we slowly circled our way back to the cab.
"What are we doing? He'll fin
d us."
"The last place he'll be expecting us is back in the car. He'll think we're still hiding in the trees."
And as we returned to the cab, I saw I was right. There was no sign of him.
"Dumb bastard left the keys in the ignition," I said as I reached the driver's door.
The engine was still rumbling, steam from the hood rising into the air.
"Come on. Let's take this baby back down to town."
I jumped in the driver's seat with Carly leaping in beside me.
"Think you can reverse this thing out the snow?"
"Hell yeah I can."
"Feels like we're Thelma and Louise."
"With hopefully a less tragic ending."
Before my foot could find its way to the gas pedal, I felt something cold and hard press into the side of my head.
"Move an inch and I'll shoot."
Slowly, I swiveled my eyes toward the open window where the driver stood, blood pouring out his head.
"Get in the back," he ordered.
"I don't think so."
"I said get in the back!"
He cocked the gun and rested his finger on the trigger. By the look in his eyes, I knew he was eager to squeeze it.
"Get. In. The. Fucking. Back."
There was no arguing with him. I might have been brave, but I wasn't stupid. All I had to do was look at him the wrong way, and he'd kill me.
"Okay," I relented. "I'll get in the back."
Chapter 16
Jackson
"Why did you let them go?" Jared yelled. "You were right there when they left!"
"How was I supposed to know the car was stolen?"
"You said you were suspicious about the driver,” he growled me furiously. “And you knew about the weather. They shouldn’t have left the damn house."
"You let them leave!" I reminded him. "You could have stopped them too."
"Whoa, guys. Calm down," Dylan interceded, stepping between us. "We can sort this out. Jackson? Have you tried calling her?"
"What do you think? I've tried a dozen times. Goes straight to voicemail."
"Could mean there's no signal," Lucas piped up from his desk. "If he's driven them up the mountain, they won't get a single bar."