Runaways (Orphans 5)

the fear in her eyes.

"I'm just giving you a compliment. Don't get so

uppity, Maria."

"My name's not Maria," Raven mumbled under

her breath, not wanting to talk to him any more than

she had to.

Paulio reached into his pocket and pulled out a

switchblade.

"We could cut some of that off and tie it to our

bikes, Duke, huh?"

"Good idea," the one practically on Raven's lap

said. The stench of whiskey was so strong on his

breath, it filled the car and turned my stomach. In the rearview mirror, I could see the look of

terror on Butterfly's face and the anger on Crystal's.

We were out in the middle of nowhere, no houses, no

other people and certainly no other traffic. They had

tricked us, just hoping we would take their advice. "How much money you got?" the one called

Duke asked me.

"We've got tons of money. That's why we're

driving such a nice car," I said with defiance.

Instinctively, I knew that if I showed any fear, we

would be even worse off.

"Oh, you're a wise guy, huh?" he said. "Maybe

we'll cut off your hair, too. Not that you have much." "What about her ear? You could wear that on

your belt, Tony."

The third man put his foot on the front bumper

and laughed.

"The toll is fifty dollars," Duke said, "but in

five minutes, it goes up to seventy-five."

"That's two minutes, Duke," Paulio said. Duke