“O-okay,” I stammer.
I’ve never been really intimidated by Hugo, but then again, I never heard him this furious before.Just as I prepare to relay the message to Savvy, the cruiser makes a sharp turn and I lose my balance, slamming headfirst into the center console.
Then there is a squeal of tires, followed by another abrupt turn, tumbling me to the other side.
“Bess?What the fuck, Bess?Answer me!”
A little disoriented, I scramble to find the phone that slipped from my hand in the chaos.As soon as my fingers encounter the familiar silicone casing, I grab on and bring it to my ear.
“I’m here, I lost my balance.”
“Who are you talking to?”Savvy fires in my direction.
“It’s Hugo, he says he’s right behind us and for you to drop back.”
She darts a quick glance in my direction and I catch her wince, right before she returns her attention to the road.
“Tell him to pull up beside us.The idiots are turning up the dirt road to the old quarry.They’re heading into a dead end.”
“Put me on speaker,” Hugo barks in my ear.
I do as he asks and slide my phone on top of the laptop mounted to the center console, so he and Savvy can yell at each other instead of me.Reaching up, I gingerly explore the side of my head I banged with my fingertips, it feels wet, and I discover split skin over a nice goose egg.Wonderful.
But my attention snaps back to Savvy when I hear her curse.
“Fuck, he’s jumping.”
Jumping?Who’s jumping?
I couldn’t stop myself from poking my head up to look for myself if I tried, just in time to see Ken hanging off the open door of the van bumping through the gates of the old quarry in front of us.
Then my blood freezes as I watch him let go in the middle of the open quarry, his body almost bouncing off the hard ground.
A scream is torn from my chest as Savvy hits the brakes to avoid hitting him, almost knocking me over again in the process.
Her sharply issued, “Stay,” slides right off my back as I reach for the door handle and stumble out of the vehicle.
Savvy gets to Ken first, her weapon drawn.Dismissing any potential danger, I drop down on my knees next to my brother’s still body.
“Jesus, Bess,” my friend grumbles behind me.
I do a quick scan of Ken’s body for blood or, God forbid, holes.Then I gently swipe at the shock of graying hair so I can see his face and am surprised to find his eyes open.
“Are you okay?Ken?”
“My leg.”
The words are ground out through clenched teeth.
I turn around to take a closer look and this time I notice the dark stain spreading on the inside of his pant leg about thigh height.
“Savvy, he’s bleeding.”
“Already calling it in,” she assures me.“Put pressure on it, while I get my kit.”
At this point I don’t even know what happened to the van and the armed kidnappers and I don’t care, I’m more concerned with the blood I feel slipping from between my fingers.
While Savvy goes to grab her first aid kit from the cruiser, I lean my full weight on my hands, trying to keep as much of my brother’s blood inside his body.
