“Fact is, if you got caught right now, all they’d do is ship you back home to your mansion on a hill. While the rest of us would get thrown right back into another interment camp and doped up out of our minds again. Or shot.”
Finally I’d had enough. “What is your problem? I’m trying to help you and your family and everyone else’s. You’re right, I don’t have to be here, and I don’t have to try to help. But I am. So why are you giving me grief about it? You should be thanking me.”
“Because I don’t like you and I don’t trust you. I don’t like what you stand for, what your whole family stands for, getting rich off the imprisonment and mistreatment of others who don’t have your connections or money. And most of all, I don’t want your help.”
“Then why’d you come? You didn’t have to come with me to get the bus. You volunteered, remember?”
“I’m only doing this to ensure you don’t screw this up. Believe me, if I could afford to rent the bus on my own, I would. The only reason you’re here and I’m not doing this on my own is ‘cause of your money.”
“I don’t have money. My mother does. There’s a difference. Maybe I should just give you some. Then you can get your family some bus tickets—”
“So then you can make me look even worse in front of my wife and kid? I don’t think so.”
I took another deep breath, but it burned in my chest. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to stop being a kid, to realize what you’re doing here. For you to take responsibility for your decisions and your actions. I want you to grow up and see that you’re holding a whole lot of lives in your hands right now.”
I snorted. “You think I need you to point that out to me? I already know if I don’t help you guys, you’re going to screw this up just like you almost screwed up everything with your stupid decisions at the gas station. What were you thinking, killing that cop? And then you wanted to kill the gas station attendant too? He was just some kid working the wrong shift on the wrong day. But you wouldn’t have any problem killing him anyway, would you?”
“Not if it meant protecting my family. I’d kill a thousand cops and gas station workers if it meant keeping Pamela and Cassie safe,” he muttered, staring out the passenger side window. “Including anyone who gets in our way of renting this bus.”
“You’re not going to kill anyone else on this trip, Steve. Not if you want to keep tagging along with our group. Every person you kill just brings more heat on the rest of us. We’ve got hours to go till we get to Sioux Falls. We don’t need even more people trying to hunt us down along the way.”
“Oh yeah? And if I do take out someone else, what you are going to do about it? You going to try and take me down like you did those guards at that camp last night? Or how about all those people you killed last summer?” His face twisted into a sneer. “You think it’s fine for you to judge me, but you’re not so spotless yourself, are you? Or did you think only your town’s outcasts had heard about that?”
My throat knotted, forcing me to swallow hard.
Again I heard the shouting from that night, saw the blue and red flashes lighting up the woods, heard Damon yelling out my name for help followed by his last words. Run, Hayden!
And then I’d lost control, my fear twisting my willpower as it exploded out of my control, killing him and everyone else and nearly myself too, the whole world turning into shades of gray and navy and black. And then it seemed like only seconds later I was waking up in the hospital…
“You and I aren’t so different,” Steve went on, his words yanking me back to the present. “We do whatever it takes to survive. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do now. I’ll try to keep things cool as long as I can. But if it comes down to using force in order to get a bus, then that’s what I’m going to do. And I hope you’ll be smart enough to either help or stay out of my way. Understood?”
Oh yeah, I heard him loud and clear.
But I still wasn’t going to let him kill anyone else on this trip, no matter what it took. I had enough names and faces on my conscience to deal with when I looked in a mirror as it was. No way was I going to let him add another death onto the list.
The GPS broke that train of thought, the female voice directing me to turn off the interstate at the next exit. I took the turn a little too fast and had to force my foot to ease up on the gas pedal. Having a wreck was the last thing we needed.
We headed down the town’s main street in silence, the GPS’s instructions the only sound now as we took the last two turns then pulled into the bus rental company’s pitted gravel and dirt parking lot. Only one beat up old truck sat at the front of the small main building. But at least four or five buses of different types formed a hulking row behind the building under a tall, open ended metal shed, and the main building’s lights were still on.
“All right, give me your ID,” Steve muttered after we parked near the building’s front door.
Adrenaline pumping, I dug out my wallet from my back pocket and gave him my driver’s license. He stared at it for a moment, tilting it so the parking lot light shown down on it through the windshield. He pressed it between his hands, closed his eyes, and began to mumble something I couldn’t quite make out.
I waited for some sort of sensation to hit me. But I didn’t feel anything at all. After a moment, he handed me the ID.
Before I could look at it, he raised a flat hand in front of my face, his jaw set with determination, and started mumbling again. I braced myself for pain, but again I felt nothing. Was he even applying the effect yet?
“How long till—”
“It’s done.”
I looked in the mirror and swore. I looked like my dad minus the gray hair and crows feet. Steve was a borderline sociopath, but I had to admit at least to myself that the guy had skills. “Can you do this to anyone?”
“Anyone who lets me. Or has a weak will to start with.” He opened his door and got out. “Now hurry up and let’s get this done before it wears off.”
Yeah, that made me feel real confident.
CHAPTER 12
A bell dinged over the door as we entered the office. The man behind the counter looked up, his eyes squinting. The fluorescent lighting was just bright enough to show white sprinkled throughout his whiskers and the few hairs combed over his head. A maze of wrinkles cut through his still partly tanned face. He looked like he should be wearing overalls and riding a tractor under a hot sun instead of working at a bus rental.