Behind the Lens (Home in Carson 1)

The car flipped over the hood deploying the airbags with a pop and then settled upside down, the car spinning slightly on the roof. The only thing holding her in place was her father’s foot on the back of her knees and the way her head lodged under the front passenger seat.

She wondered if her father survived the impact and the muscled man driving the car.

“Get me out of here, now,” her father shouted, finally releasing his foot from her knees.

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It happened slowly. First, her feet descended toward the ground, which was now the roof of the car, and then her head began to slip from its cubby under the seat. With no way to brace for the fall, Alexis’ shoulder took the full impact. The same shoulder that took the bullet.

A muffled groan cried from behind the tape over her mouth. Wetness pooled against her lower lids as her head collided against the metal.

From her position on the ground, she watched as the driver pushed aside the deployed airbag and wrenched his door open. Unleashing his seatbelt, he toppled forward but pulled himself upright as he moved out of the car. He spared no backward glance at his boss, or her. He took off on foot toward the woods.

Jerking her head in the other direction, she witnessed the aftermath of their collision, pileups of cars as far as the eye could see. The truck drivers began to step out of their vehicles, a few with weapons of their own raised toward her father’s car.

“You think that they’re here to save you?” her father’s voice drew her attention and she watched in horror as he took her own gun and maneuvered out of the vehicle, gripping her feet to pull her with him. No amount of wiggling would set her free.

Just as his son had done earlier, Lev stood with one arm wrapped tightly around her and the other with a gun pointed to her head. She had to give him credit for being smart enough to have her facing him. Had she been turned around, she would have bucked against him.

“Back up!” he yelled to the truckers as he took a step away from his car, having to drag her with him due to her taped ankles. She could already decipher his plan as his eyes darted around; with her as a hostage, he was going to steal one of the trucks to make his escape.

She really hoped that it didn’t come to that.

The truckers backed away, but never dropped their weapons. As he pulled her between the two trucks that blocked the highway, her view of the men drifted away.

“You’re a bigger pain now than you were as a child. Look what you’re making me do. You couldn’t just come without a fight. Pain in my ass, just like your mother.”

He dragged her a few more yards until he reached the driver's door of one of the vehicles. Pressing her against the metal of the truck, he pried the door open with the arm that had been wrapped around her waist, then pushed her up and inside the truck.

Alexis tried to fight. God, she gave it everything she had. Kicking, twisting, falling, but to no avail. He managed to get her inside and pushed her over until he was able to get inside himself, gun positioned at her the entire time.

Turning the key in the ignition, Lev moved to shut the door, only to find himself with a gun positioned at his head.

“Drop the weapon. Get out of the vehicle now with your hands up or so help me. I will blow your head into a million little pieces.”

Alexis cried behind the tape. Preston stood at the ready with his gun drawn at Lev as Cliff stood beside him, with his eyes trained on her.

“Think you two scare me,” her father said, trying again to pull the door closed.

Before she knew what was happening her father’s scream filled the cab of the truck, followed by the clanging of his gun onto the floor.

“You shot my hand!”

“You took too long. Resisting arrest. Now get out of the vehicle with your hands up,” Preston bellowed.

Her father stalled, his hand held tightly against his chest. She could tell he was weighing his options as he looked back and forth between the wheel and Preston.

Alexis was tired of waiting. Pulling her knees to her chest once more, she kicked at her father until he fell from the truck, his face landing on the hot asphalt. Preston immediately got to work cuffing Lev while he screamed that he wanted to go to the hospital.

Cliff didn’t watch. He launched himself inside the truck and pulled her to him. Even restrained she could feel his embrace wrap around her completely.

“Oh, sweetheart.” She was amazed to see the moisture filling in his eyes, his love for her evident in each tear. “This is going to hurt,” he told her, placing his fingers at the edge of the tape. She nodded and he pulled the strip. Her skin felt like it had been pulled off and she cried out in agony, Alexis’s body pulling away with each removal.

“I’m so sorry,” his voice was choked up as he lifted her ankles and repeated the motion, the sensitive skin throbbing afterward.

Hating to turn away from him, she did so to show him her wrists cuffed with plastic ties. Using a pocket knife dangling from the rearview mirror, he sliced through the thick plastic and set her free. Cliff didn’t have a chance to hang the knife back in place before she launched herself at him.

“You came for me!”