“Pretty girl like you can do better than a villager.”
My hand clenches in Ben’s flannel shirt. “Thank you, but I enjoy a simple village life, and he treats me real good. Thank you so much for your interest though. I can tell you’re quite a man.”
I’m pleading with any force at work in the universe—Ben’s archaic god or anything else with power over human lives—that this will be enough to get the guard to move on.
But the universe is rarely kind, and today is no exception.
The guard’s face turns ugly in that way I’ve seenbefore. That expression that warns they’re about to make an aggressive move.
“Don’t shoot,” I bite out softly as I feel the tension in Ben’s body clench harder.
His hand was already on its way to his holster, but he stops it with a jerk. Instead of pulling his weapon, he strides toward the mini-truck where the guard is starting to aim his big gun.
He’s planning to kill Ben.
And then take what he wants from me.
There’s absolutely no doubt or question. I can see it clearly on his face.
But Ben gets there before the guard can level his weapon. He yanks the gun out of the guard’s hand and then slams the butt end hard into the side of his head.
The man slumps onto the steering wheel, hitting the horn.
Ben pulls him backward to silence the horn. I run over to check his pulse.
“He’s dead,” I say after a minute of detecting no heartbeat.
Ben killed the other man with one blow.
“Good call about not shooting,” Ben says, wiping sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. “I wasn’t thinkin’, but if a guard is shot, they’ll put effort into tracking who did it. They might connect it back to us.”
“Yeah. No need to risk it. I wish we could take this truck, but I think we might be able to stage this as anaccident. There’s a tree up there. Maybe he lost control and slammed into it.”
“That’s perfect. If it’s an accident, they won’t be lookin’ for a culprit and start asking questions in the village. The worst thing would be for them to connect the pesky rebel group with Teresa and her family.”
“I know. We’ve been so careful for so long. We don’t want to blow it now. But the accident could explain the head injury, and then they won’t be looking for anyone else involved.”
With this agreed, Ben and I get to work. I return the dead guard’s gun to its standard position and adjust his body in the seat. Then Ben shifts the transmission into neutral so he can push the mini-truck down the road until it’s on the top of a slight hill leading down toward the tree we identified. He changes the angle of the vehicle, lining it up with the tree, and then shifts it into drive, pushing down on the accelerator and then jumping off when the truck gets going faster.
It hits the tree with a loud, satisfying impact. The front of the truck gets smashed, and the guard hits the windshield violently.
Looking at it afterward, Ben and I agree it looks exactly right.
The guard lost control and crashed his truck into a tree, killing himself in the process.
With no reason to suspect anything different, they’ll likely not look any further than that.
Ben and I stare at each other for a minute. Then I nod. “Okay. That was unfortunate, but this is as good as we can manage. Let’s get out of here so no one happens by and sees us.”
“Yep. The asshole was askin’ for it. He really believed I was gonna stand there and let him take you without a fight.” He grabs my hand as we keep walking.
I’m not sure why he took my hand. Maybe some kind of urgent impulse. But he holds on to it as we hurry, walking as fast as we can until we’re well out of sight of the crashed vehicle and dead guard.
When it feels like we’re safe again, we slow down. My blood is still pumping, but I force myself to level off my breathing.
Ben is doing the same. He gives me a sidelong look. “Y’okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Really glad you were with me.”
