by K. C. Crowne
His face wrinkled as though he was close to crying, but then he took a deep breath and straightened himself.
I looked over at the table and saw two empty bottles of scotch lying beside an overflowing ashtray. How long had this guy been drinking? By the way he slurred his words, and the glazed look in his eye, I guessed a long time. But I could use that to my advantage. Drunk meant gullible. It meant stupid. It meant he was vulnerable.
"I just wanted him to see everything I had done and be proud of me."
"Oh, I’m sure he’s proud of you."
Moving forward, I tried to emphasize my point by tapping him gently on the arm, an act that repulsed me but seemed to make him warm to me.
"Do you really think so?" he asked, eyes shining as he looked down at my hand.
"Oh, yeah. He's watching you right now."
He smiled, his whole face warming up.
What a moron. Just hand him a few compliments, and he's putty in my hands.
"My best friend," I began. "Where did you take her? This place is so huge down here. What if she gets lost?"
He laughed out of his nose and turned back to the TV.
"Larry will take care of her," he said. "He's a good guy. Won't hurt her or nothin'. Besides, she ain’t who I wanted."
He peeled his beady eyes away from the TV screen and licked his lips as he shifted toward me.
Oh, shit. This is where it starts.
A lump formed in my throat as he edged toward me, landing a chubby, hot hand on my thigh. I wanted to smack it away, wanted to stomp on it and break his greasy little fingers, but I didn't dare.
"You're real special, you know that?"
His hand massaged my thigh, and I felt close to throwing up. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I tried to move, but my muscles were frozen solid.
"How about you take that coat off so I can see what's underneath," he said, tugging at my zipper.
"No!" I yelled and jumped off the couch.
The softness that shone in his eyes only a few moments ago vanished and was replaced by a vitriolic harshness that made the blood turn cold in my veins. He leaped off the couch and strode toward me, giving me no choice but to back away until I reached the fireplace. The backs of my legs began to burn as they approached the flames.
"You stupid little bitch," Benny snarled.
Thrusting his hand into the back of his pants, he pulled out a pistol and flipped it around his forefinger playfully. I imagined him practicing the act in the mirror thinking he was some movie gangster badass. He looked like a caricature of all the movie icons he worshiped. He may have been a cheap replica of The Goodfellas, but he was still a deranged maniac.
"First things first," he began. "Nobody says no to me. And I mean nobody. Especially not a girl. "
"Is that why I'm here? Because I said no to you at the bar?” I scoffed, tossing aside the sweetness. “Is your ego really that fragile?"
"Shut the fuck up!"
I flinched and recoiled, my legs burning even more as I had no choice but to step closer to the fire.
"I'll fucking kill you where you stand," he said.
I hated him. He was a coward, a weakling, a nobody. But as he held the gun and looked into my eyes, I didn't doubt for a second that he would kill me.
"Look, let's talk about this. Let's have a chat. It doesn't have to be like this. You can put the gun down."
He licked his lips again, his eyes focused on my body. "You're real cute when you're scared."
"I'm not scared," I replied. "I just want to know where Carly is. I just want out of here."
"You're not scared?” he said with an ugly laugh. “You're a terrible liar, you know that?"
I’d never hated anyone so much. Everything about him made my blood boil; the way he looked at me, his obnoxious voice, the way he thought he could keep Carly and me like prisoners. down here.
"And you're a sore loser," I said. "A pathetic, dollar store version of your father who can only get girls if he holds a gun to their head and kidnaps them."
At first, I wasn't sure he heard me. He said nothing and stood so still I wasn't even sure he was still breathing. But gradually, the anger grew in his eyes and his face became redder and redder as though he was reaching a boiling point. His hand gripped his gun, the other shaking uncontrollably with rage.
What have I done? Why did I say that? He's going to kill me.
It all happened in a split-second. He suddenly jerked toward me, the gun raised and cocked. My reflexes kicked into action, and without thinking, I stamped my foot into the fireplace and freed a burning log, kicking it toward him.
Immediately, the flames caught the precious fibers of the fragile designer carpet, fire licking at Benny's legs.
"Fuck!" he screamed. "You psycho bitch!"
He ran to a red button situated on the wall beside the door, the bottom of his pants leg on fire as he struggled to stamp out the flames. Slamming his fist into the wall, he looked around in terror as a long line of fire began to burn toward him.
"Larry!" he screamed. "Larry, get the hell in here!"
I ran, sprinting out the door as smoke filled the room.
I gotta get Carly I thought, holding my throbbing head. And I gotta show that asshole, Larry I'll always be the hero.
Chapter 18
Jackson
"Shit!"
I slammed my hands on the wheel as we reached yet another standstill, the snow blocking the wheels no matter how much I accelerated.
"This is impossible. We're getting nowhere!"
We'd been driving for a solid half an hour but had made little progress up the mountain. The snow was falling heavier by the minute, making the road impossible. Not a single other person was brave enough or stupid enough to venture outside, and we were in the only vehicle on the mountain.
"I can't see shit!" Dylan moaned as he wiped the condensation from the window with his sleeve.
The wind howled in response, shaking the truck from side to side.
"Jesus Christ, you hear that?" Lucas asked. "You ever hear wind like that?"
"I’ve never seen snow like this," Jared commented.
He was sitting on the edge of the seat beside me, unable to stay still.
"We can't go on like this," he said. "We need help."
"Dax is on his way," Dylan assured him.
"Call him again."
"I've tried, but there's no signal up here. Can't even get online."
"This is fucking unbelievable," I said, stepping on the accelerator.
Below us, the wheels spun but the truck moved nowhere. Meanwhile, the snow was falling thick and fast, covering the truck like a blanket.
"We're gonna need to get out," I said. "How close are we to the Gianni estate?"
"Not close enough," Dylan grumbled. "There's no way we can hike from here. It would take us hours on a clear day. But on a night like this, chances are we wouldn't even make it."
"Don't get soft on me," I said, spinning around to look Dylan in the eye. "We've been through worse. We crossed the desert together thinking we were walking to our deaths. We've walked right into the line of fire thinking we would never see the other side. You're telling me you're afraid of a little snow?"
Dylan shifted in his seat and looked back down desperately at his phone again as though he was hoping a signal would magically appeared.
"This is different," he said. "The sand wasn’t up to our asses in the desert."
"Well, I'm sure as shit not going to just sit here and do nothing," Jared announced. "My sister's up there, and Gabby too."
"I agree," I said. "I'm not sitting in here waiting for help to come when nobody knows where we are. I mean, come on, guys. We can do this."
Dylan looked doubtful and gazed out the window. We couldn't see a single thing apart from the headlights glinting through the sheets of snow crashing down diagonally onto the truck. It looked as though we would step out and fall right off the edge of the planet.
"What
do you say, Lucas?" I asked.
"I've never seen snow like it," he said, "and I don't reckon we'll make it either."
"Lucas, come on!"
"I've got a wife and kids to think about."
That was true, and as we all thought about Sandra back home waiting for him, we all fell silent with the realization of just how serious the situation was.
"I understand," I told him. "There's no point putting yourself at risk."
"Oh, I'm putting myself at risk, all right," he said. "I said I'd never seen snow like it. Didn't say I wouldn't jump right out into it."
He grinned and slapped me on the shoulder. "We need to get Gabby and Carly back. I’m not sitting here in the truck all night feeling sorry for myself. I'm with you guys!"
“Are you sure?”
“It's your family,” he said. “If it was my family in danger, I know you'd be there for me.”
“You're damn right.”
A sense of relief swept over me. At least both Jared and Lucas had my back. We all looked at Dylan. He was still fumbling with his phone.
"So?" I said to him.
"I'm coming with you," he relented. "You know I'd never let you down."
I slapped my hand into his and shook it hard. "I knew I could rely on you."
"Always. But just so you know, I have a terrible feeling about this."
When Dylan had a gut feeling about something, you always took it seriously. He might have been one of the hardest men I'd ever met, but he was also the most calculating, the smartest, the guy who always thought with his head rather than his heart. He was the master of risk assessment, the kind of guy who always weighed options with rigorous methodology. If he was nervous about something, you had to be too. Hiking through the storm on foot was a death wish, but what else were we supposed to do?
"Let's do this," I said decisively, reaching for the door handle.
Beside me, Jared zipped up his coat, pulled his hood over his head and his scarf up over his nose.
He flashed me a look, gave me a thumbs up, then reached for the door. The second he opened it, the inside of the truck was filled with a whirl of screaming wind and snowflakes. A cold like no other penetrated my clothes through to my bones.
"Jesus Christ!" Lucas yelled from the back. "We’re not getting very far in this."
"We can try," I called, opening my door.
My first step saw me landing with the snow up to my knees. My second step made me use all my muscles as I struggled to raise one foot then another.
"Guys!"
Behind me, they were struggling to reach me.
Dylan is right. This is a bad idea. We can't hike through this. What if we get lost out here?
What if we die out here?
Dylan held his flashlight over his head and pointed it up the road. Except there was no road; the asphalt lay hidden beneath the thick, powdery snow.
"Now what?" Jared asked.
"Now we keep moving," I decided. "If I go first, you can fall in line in my footsteps."
"Sounds like a plan. Let's do this."
Pushing against the wind felt like I was powering through a brick wall. I’d never felt anything like it. Inside my gloves, I felt my fingertips tingle and become sore while my feet felt like solid blocks inside my boots. Looking over my shoulder, I could just about make out the vague shapes of the guys behind me.
"Everyone there?"
"Yep!"
"I'm here."
"Yup! All good!"
I plowed on, my legs burning with the effort of climbing through the snow. It was getting deeper, reaching up to my thighs.
We can't go on like this. We have to turn back.
But we can't. We have to find the girls.
I kept pushing until I reached a ledge of snow that was so deep and solid, I couldn't move an inch. Behind it, there was nothing but thick, virgin forest that stretched out into the pitch darkness.
"How much further?" I yelled down to Dylan.
He looked up at the sky as though he was trying to divine our location from the stars and frowned. “Judging by the distance of those trees and...”
He mumbled under his breath as he tried to figure it out, then gave up and reached into his jacket pocket for his old compass. He squinted at it, then looked back up to the mountain.
“Four miles at a rough estimate,” he said. “Fuck, that's a long way in this weather.”
"We can't walk four miles in this!" Jared shouted, his voice mingling and drifting off in the wind.
"We have to," I said steadfastly. "We don't have much of a choice."
But even I knew it wasn't as easy as I was hoping to be. With all my strength, I took another step into the snow drift and couldn't move any further. We were blocked in completely, the only way out being the way we'd come, and even that was filling up fast.
"We need to make a decision," Jared said. "And we need to do it now."
Go back to the truck and wait for help.
Don't you dare, you fucking coward. Go back to the truck and you'll be a failure. You're a fighter. A SEAL. The best of the best.
"I say we head back to the truck," Lucas called.
"Me too," Dylan agreed. "It's literally impossible to walk any further."
"I'm still going," I said. "I'm walking."
"You're crazy, Jackson. You're not really going to walk through this for four miles, are you? You can't! Nobody can."
"Watch me."
"Jackson, no!" Dylan said, grabbing me by the arm. "You'll die out there. What if there's an avalanche or you fall?"
"I've handled worse," I said, yanking my arm away. "If you guys wanna leave, go."
"Don't do this," Lucas said. "We've got your back. But none of us can walk through this. We don’t have the proper gear to get through it."
I took one last look at them before looking out into the darkness. I could go it alone if I had to.
"You're really going to do this," Jared called after me.
"I am."
"You can't. I won't let you." He gripped my coat and pulled me toward him.
"We're going back and waiting for Dax."
"The hell we are! Get off me! Gabby and our sister are out there!"
"Hey, guys calm down!" Lucas intervened. "Hands off each other!"
"I'm going!" I insisted. "I'm going and I'm bringing those girls back!"
"Jackson, you're crazy!" Dylan yelled. "You can't! You'll—"
His words fell away as the roar of an engine eclipsed his voice. High beam headlights shone through the snow and wind, revealing a large, steel plow attached to a red truck careening towards us on oversized snow tires.
A horn sounded, screeching through the darkness like a ship in the night. I felt the rumble of the truck's engine move up from the ground and into my guts. It was coming right at me like a steam train. Did the driver even see us?
"Jared!" I threw myself at him and pushed him out of the way, the two of us tumbling over the edge of the road and only landing when a tree blocked us.
We lay in a heap, staring up at the stars as the trees swayed back and forth in the wind, their branches creaking and grinding against one another. Looking up at the road, I heard the truck screech to a halt and Dylan start flailing his arms around wildly.
"You crazy motherfucker!" Dragging myself to my feet, I gathered my bearings and pulled Jared up. "You hurt?" I asked him.
"No. What the hell just happened?"
We watched as the driver's door to the truck opened and a figure emerged wrapped up without an inch of skin showing. Slowly, he pulled down the scarf around his face and I approached, ready to give the guy a peace of mind.
"What the fuck did you think you were doing? You could have killed us!"
Unwinding the scarf, I could now see his face. It was more weathered than I remembered from our days taking IT classes together with a few lines formed around his now mature eyes, but he was unmistakable.
"Dax! You son of a bitch. You came!"
He threw his big, bear arms around me and laughed. "Did you really think I wouldn't?"
"I thought you were hell-bent on running us over."
"Chill," he said. "I saw you straight away. I wasn't even close to hitting you."
"Yeah well, it didn't feel that way."
He looked around the group and did a quick head count. "Everyone inside," he said. "Before you all die of frostbite."
We all piled in, our heavy bodies pressed up close in the truck's cab. The heat was blasting out of the vents in the dashboard, and we all fought for a space to warm our hands.
"So you gonna tell me what kinda trouble you boys are in?" Dax asked as he closed over his door.
"You wouldn't believe us if we did."
"Try me."
"My sister Carly and Gabby have been taken,” I explained. “We traced them to the Gianni Estate."
Dax frowned and stared into each of our faces as though he was searching for a sign that we were messing with him.
"You're really being serious.”
"Why else would we be hiking up here in this?" I asked.
“I've been hearing the rumors,” Dax said. “About Benny Gianni.”
“They're not just rumors. He's really here.”
Dax's frown intensified.
“Where's the Gianni Estate from here?”
“About four miles up that way,” Dylan pointed. “Reckon you can turn this thing around?”
“This old girl's got the turning radius of an oil tanker, but I think I can do it.”
He put the truck in reverse, the wheels skidding against the snow and ice. Around us, the wind sung its frozen siren song through the trees.
“You weren't really going to walk up there, were you?” Dax asked.
I nodded, although I knew how foolish it was.
“You're still a crazy bastard,” he laughed and punched me in the arm. “You always were up for anything.”
With the engine groaning, and Dax fighting with the pedals, the truck eventually began to turn.
“I'd suggest not looking down,” he said. “Off the side of this mountain there's a good two-hundred-foot drop.”
At last, we were on the right track, the truck moving up through the already plowed path of snow.