They had seconds. She had to get them out.
She tried to move the bar again.
“I’m trying,” she shouted. “I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else. They took my…” She swallowed. Now wasn’t the time to make excuses. She had to save her breath and her strength. The smell was horrendous.
The ropes were still attached to the ends of the bar. She looked up. There was nothing to throw them around to get leverage. She wiped her eyes with her forearm. The smoke was billowing under the door now. It was almost unbearable. What must it be like in the garage?
Focus!
They were screaming now. It set her teeth on edge. It hadn’t been long but she couldn’t imagine the hell they were going through in there.
She squatted down in front of the door, aware that it could explode in her face at any moment. She didn’t know if the Jaguar was still approaching. She couldn’t hear a thing over the roar of the flames and the creaking, warping metal roof.
Come on. You dragged it onto the roof several times. You can do it.
But lifting it wasn’t a problem. Working it loose from where it was jammed into the bracket was the difficult part. She’d done it before when she practised, but never in a hurry.
She took a deep breath and roared as she rose up and shoved her palms under the bar. It shrieked and scraped out and landed on the ground with a hollow metallic thud. She jumped back.
Panting, she grabbed the door handle. She pulled her hand away. It was searing hot. She put her sleeve over her hand to try again, but the door came crashing down on her before she could try again. She managed to sidestep it just in time.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she cried as the four strangers hurried out. The reality of what she’d just done was starting to dawn on her. “I thought you were… why did you even…” she shook her head as someone grabbed her by the throat and propelled her forward.
“What the hell were you thinking? You could have killed the lot of us!”
“No!” Si croaked, clawing at his hands to free herself. “Please… no time… we have to get out of here.”
“We?” one of the women coughed. “We?”
Si looked around desperately. These were normal people and look what she’d done to them. They were bug-eyed with fear and gasping for breath in a way that sent them into coughing fits. She’d almost killed them. But there was no time to think about that now.
“Listen!” She tried to shout but her voice came out as a squeak because of the hands around her throat. “That car. It’s coming here.”
Something crashed to the floor in the garage and made them all recoil. The grip on her throat loosened and she stumbled back out of his reach. She was only feet away from the yard. She could lose them in there. She could get away.
She faltered. She couldn’t leave them in those men’s hands. “I’ll explain everything. You’ve got to follow me. I have a car. Now! Come on.”
“You almost killed us. Why should we follow you?”
They turned and started to talk amongst themselves.
“We need to get out of here.”
“How? We left the bikes in there. We’ve got to go back and get them.”
“No!”
“Well how else?”
Si chewed the inside of her cheek. Go! Leave them. You can find Max another way.
And then it dawned on her. This was the other way. The gun. If she had a gun she could hide in the scrapyard and shoot the men from the Jaguar one by one. The last one would tell her where Max was—she’d make sure of it. Then she’d take their car. She had no need for the Renault if she had the gun.
“Will you listen to me? I have a car. I’ll trade you—”
The growl of the engine stopped and they all turned to her with stunned expressions.
“Into the yard,” she hissed. “Come on.”
33. Annie
Annie coughed again and gasped for breath. Was this a trick? They stumbled after the girl. Whatever it was, they didn’t have much choice. They had to get away from that garage and whoever else was coming.
The yard was a mess. The towering piles of rusty car parts looked like they hadn’t been touched in years.
“Come on,” the girl hissed. “This way.”
Annie couldn’t hold it back any longer. She fell to her knees on the wet gravel and cringed as her mouth watered and the contents of her stomach emptied out in front of her. Tears filled her eyes. As the seconds passed and that garage filled with smoke, she’d been convinced that that was the end. She still couldn’t believe they were out. Her ears rang from the sound of Olivia’s desperate shrieks. The flames hadn’t reached them, but they wouldn’t have needed to. They had had seconds left at most before they succumbed to the smoke.
Part of her wished she had.
She retched again.
They were all watching her.
“Come on,” the girl hissed. “We have to get out of here. They’ll find us.”
Annie stood and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. “Why should we trust her?” she muttered.
“We have no choice,” Terry said, patting her back. “The bikes are destroyed. She says she has a car.”
Annie looked at the girl again. Rage washed over her. How could she just stand there looking at them when this was all her fault? Poor Olivia looked like she’d aged ten years in the space of ten minutes and Clive hadn’t stopped coughing since they got out. None of them had. They’d been this close…
She marched forward and grabbed the girl’s arm, wrenching it up until it reached the point where a little more pressure would snap bones. “What are you playing at? First you try to kill us; now you’re offering us a car. What’s your game?”
“Annie, stop. No…”
“Why? Why should I?” She pulled her gun from her pocket and shoved it against the nape of the girl’s neck. “What’s stopping me from blowing your head off and taking your keys?”
“Annie, don’t…”
“Please,” the girl shrieked. “Please. I didn’t know who you were. I thought you were the ones who took Max.”
Her terror cut through Annie’s anger, but not fully. “Who’s Max?” she snapped.
“My boss. He owns this place.” She opened her mouth wide and wailed. “You ruined everything. Now they’re going to get us. I had everything set up. I’ll never find him now.”
Clive leaned forward and gently steered the gun away. Then he pulled her to her feet. “Take us to the car. Now.”
“I need one of your guns. Then you can take the car.”
“I’m not giving you a gun. What do you want that for?”
She jumped to her feet. She was coiled up like a snake, ready to run at any moment. Annie took a step closer to prevent that. “Shut up and take us to the car.”
Rough male voices floated towards them from outside the yard. Annie’s heart hammered even harder.
The girl looked at each of them in turn and then glanced behind her, as if making her mind up about something. Annie started to cough and stifled it as best she could. If those men heard…
The girl was practically twitching with fear in a way that made her look possessed.
“She’s not faking it,” Annie gasped. “And if what she said about those men is true…”
They started to run. Clive had to practically drag Olivia along with him. She hadn’t been coping since they got out of the garage.
Annie coughed as quietly as she could and gripped her gun tighter.
The towers of metal that surrounded them were so high they blocked out what little sun there was. Pools of water shone iridescent from leaked fuel, which drew her mind back to what had just happened. It felt like the smoke and soot was clinging to every pore of her skin.