She nodded, ignoring the tears wetting her blindfold.
“No, you’re not.”
“She ain’t smart either,” the driver said.
“Well, we’ll just see about that.” She heard him crouch in front of her and the smell of sweat, cologne, and mint came back in range. “Before his pulse stuttered and stopped, your brother finally got a little bit smart. He tried to tell us where he kept the money and the product but he was tripping balls by then. But you know what he said? He said he kept it all in a secret place.”
Oh, God.
“And he said the two of you went there as kids, huh? Very sweet.”
Oh, Jesus. Brian. Why?She and Brock had just been there, and she hadn’t seen a thing. How could she have missed it? Was it all tucked back behind a rock or in a hole?
“So that means you know where it all is.” He gripped her face again, his fingers pressing her cheeks painfully into her teeth. “I’m going to ask you where that is and you’d better be smarter than your brother and answer me with the truth. You gonna do that?”
She nodded, the bandana over her eyes now soaking wet.
“Yeah? You’re going to tell me?”
“Yes,” she croaked. This was her chance. Her next words would either buy her time or kill her on the spot. “But the thing is, even if I tell you, you won’t find it.”
“Really? What does that mean?”
She licked her dry, cracked lips. Copper. “Like he said, it’s a secret place. I could tell you where it is and you’d walk right past it a hundred times. And people will see you walking around there, and they’ll catch you.”
“This is bullshit,” the driver said. “She’s fucking with us.”
“No, I’m not!” She was breathing fast, trying not to hyperventilate. “I’m not. I just know that if I tell you and you can’t find it, you’ll think I lied and you’ll come back here and kill me. I don’t want that. I want to live.” She sniffled. “I just want to live.”
“So what do we do, huh?” A strong mint smell from his breath as he leaned in closer.
“You let me take you to it, you find whatever he has stashed there, and then you let me go.”
The driver laughed. She heard him walking toward her.
“I’m serious. I don’t care about what’s there. You can have it. I’m just trying to get the hell out of town. I finally have a chance and I’m not going to do anything to mess that up. I don’t know what you look like. Either of you. It was too dark in the car,” she lied. “I don’t know who the cop was, either, or even if he was a cop. He was fake, right?”
Someone grabbed her cuffed hands and found her index finger. She felt taped fingers against her skin. “You want me to break her finger or just tear the nail off?” the driver asked the other man over her shoulder.
“No, please! I’m not lying. You know kids, right? They find hiding places where adults can’t find them. That’s what we did, and you won’t find this place. It’s…it’s in the cliffs over the St. Vrain, okay? Even telling you that, you can’t find it on your own, or even if you do it’ll take you forever and people will see you. But I can take you right now while it’s dark and then I’ll forget everything about tonight, okay?”
The longest moments of her life passed before the man said, “Take her. If she’s lying and you can’t find the stuff, kill her and leave her there. If it’s such a secret place, no one will ever find her, right?”
* * *
The driver kept her blindfolded and tied down in the backseat, his only words, “Where now?” whenever he needed new directions. Brianna took him the back way, hoping she was giving Brock more time to figure out where she might be.He’d have to be practically psychic though.
Unless…
Maybe Hicks hadn’t lied to her entirely. Maybe Brock was at the hospital not because Brian was dying but because he miraculously woke up and told Brock what he’d said to the horrible man about the secret place.
Such a slim chance.
But one she had to take. She’d already bought herself at least an extra couple of hours, right?
Brianna gave him final driving instructions and minutes later, the driver parked near the embankment they’d have to climb to get to the secret back entrance.
“You’ll have to take off the blindfold when we get out. I can’t lead you up the hill otherwise.”
