He pressed the muzzle into my cheek. "Ask me not to."
Whatever I said, it wouldn't make any difference. The longer I held out, the longer I had to live. If I was wrong, if I had misread him, I would never know.
"Screw you."
Harrison looked over his shoulder at Robby.
"You've got his number," Robby said. "He doesn't like the thought of you doing his girl."
Harrison turned to face me. "You done it with her, boy? I can hardly wait to get my hands on her."
"Go to hell!" I choked on the words. Not her. Not Rachel.
Harrison studied my face, then nodded. "It's a start. Let's get the fuck outta here." He pulled me away from the wall, and Rich headed toward the doorway. "We'll drive by his apartment," Harrison said. "See if she's there."
Robby jiggled the coins in his pocket and cleared his throat. "Better not, Johnny. We gotta start tyin' up some loose ends, startin' with him."
Rich poked his head out the door, then jumped back as if he'd been shocked by a cattle prod. When he spun around, his eyes were wide with terror.
"There's a cop car parked outside the office." He almost screamed it.
"Shit." Harrison pushed me against the wall. "You're gonna get rid of him. If you don't, he's dead, and you're dead. Understand?"
I nodded.
Chapter 20
Harrison spun me around to face the wall, then cut through the rope that bound my wrists.
"Now," he said, "get rid of him. If I even think he's getting suspicious, I'll kill you both. Got it?"
I nodded.
"Good. Don't move out of my line of sight, or you're dead."
I concentrated on keeping my legs steady and stepped out of the barn.
Officer Walter Dorsett, tall, lean, and muscular, was headed straight for me. Fifteen yards separated us. He stopped when I did, and his hand moved instinctively to his gun.
I cleared my throat. "Hi, Harry. Nice night." My voice was hoarse.
Dorsett removed his gun from its holster and held it at his side. He looked toward the barn door and, without looking at me, said, "What are you doing here?"
"Just checking on a horse."
"Everything all right?"
"Couldn't be better, Harry."
He signaled for me to approach him. When I didn't move, he raised the gun with both hands and sighted on the barn door.
"I'll catch up with you tomorrow, Steve," he said loudly, then jerked his head toward the door. "What time?"
What time? What was he talking about? Oh… "Three… three o'clock."
Dorsett glanced at me, and in that instant, I saw movement in my peripheral vision. I turned toward the barn door in time to see Harrison squeeze off three shots. The muzzle flash was brilliant in the dark.
"No!" I screamed and spun around.
The force of the bullet slamming into Dorsett's chest knocked him off his feet. The gun slipped from his hand and clattered onto the asphalt.
"God, no," I sobbed. "No-o-o."
Harrison yanked me back into the barn. In my mind, I could still see Dorsett's lifeless form, dark and silent on the asphalt, his hand empty, palm face up, fingers curled toward the black sky.
"You killed a cop!" Rich screamed. "I can't believe it! You killed a fucking cop!"
"Shut up." Harrison shoved me against the wall.
"What are we gonna do now? We don't have a chance. They hunt-"
"Shut the fuck up." Harrison's voice cracked. "It's all your fault we're in this mess-"
"What?" Rich whined.
"If you hadn't done such a lousy job tying him up last time, he wouldn't of got away from us, and I wouldn't be here right now, finishing the job. A job you screwed up."
"It wasn't my fault. I did what you said. No one thought he'd get loose. At least I didn't do something stupid," Rich flailed his arms, "like kill a cop."
"Yeah, and I'd be stupider if I let you continue to fuck us up, wouldn't I?"
"Yeah," Rich suddenly became very still, "eh, I mean no."
Harrison casually pointed the gun at Rich and pulled the trigger.
The sound in the confines of the barn was deafening. The horse behind Rich crashed against the back wall of his stall. All of the horses near us shied and whinnied. I hardly noticed. Rich slid down the wall and crumpled onto the floor.
The bullet had shattered the ridge of bone above his right eye. The other eye was wide open, seeing nothing. His head lolled to the side, and a stream of watery blood trickled from his nose and mouth. There was blood spatter on the grillwork of the stall front and on the horse that stood trembling at the back of his stall.
I swallowed. The bitter smell of burnt gunpowder hung so thickly in the air around us, I could taste it at the back of my throat.
"Damn it, Johnny. You shouldn't have popped him here. The police might be able to connect him with us. And you shouldn't have used your gun."
"So what? I'll dump it when we're done."
"Well, we can't leave him here," Robby said.
"You!" Harrison grabbed my arm. "Drag him down past the hay barn."
I thought about the old abandoned fire road and the gate Dave and I had never gotten around to installing.
"Good idea." Robby studied my face. "We'll put 'em both in the trunk. That oughta make for an interesting ride, huh lover-boy?"
Asshole. I looked down at Rich and couldn't imagine it.
"Go ahead." Harrison shoved me toward Rich's body. "Get movin'. We ain't got all night."
I gulped a lungful of air and gripped Rich's ankles. When I lifted his legs and stepped backward, his body slid the rest of the way down the stall front, and his head hit the asphalt with a sickening thud. My stomach churned. I leaned against the stall.
The gun's barrel butted against my shoulder. "Get movin', boy."
I kept my gaze on Rich's legs, tightened my grip on his ankles, and dragged him toward the end of the barn.
"Robby, go switch off the lights," Harrison said. "We can make the rest of the aisle in the dark."
I watched Robby saunter toward the doorway, then as unobtrusively as possible, I glanced behind me. I had forty-eight feet to go-the length of four stalls-before I was level with the cut-through to the arena. If I timed it right…
I slowed my pace. Robby was almost to the bank of light switches. He paused and peeked out the doorway. Hurry it up, I thought. I slowed even more.
Twenty-four feet to go.
Robby's hand moved down over the switches and plummeted the barn into darkness. I continued backward more slowly and forced myself to wait until the timing was in my favor.
Robby and Harrison were silhouetted by the sodium vapor light, and I hoped the lighting would work to my advantage. Hoped they couldn't see me as easily as I could them. I watched Robby move down the aisle toward us. I drew level with the cut-through as he reached the halfway mark between the lights and us. I quietly lowered Rich's legs to the asphalt, then bolted into the arena. I figured I had about eight seconds before Robby made it back to the light switch.
Harrison didn't wait for the lights. He bellowed and shot wildly. The bullet cracked harmlessly into the arena wall to my left as I neared the opposite cut-through that led into aisle two. As I turned the corner into the aisle, I grabbed a lead rope off its hook and thanked God that someone had hung it where it belonged for a change. Another gunshot. Wood splitting. Closer this time.
The lights in aisle one flashed on. I skidded to a halt in front of the third stall from the end and threw open the door. Chase stood in the center of the stall, legs splayed, eyes wide with fear. The only horse in the barn who wore a halter twenty-four hours a day. I clipped on the lead, grabbed a handful of mane, and vaulted onto his back.