A second impact hits the side of my pickup this time, forcing us completely off the road in a cloud of smoke and screaming tires as I do my best to disengage from the contact. My battered Dodge is no competition for the armored vehicle. It’s almost twice as heavy as us and my efforts to stop our sideways momentum are useless under the onslaught.
Through the ringing in my ears I hear Faye and Ana sobbing behind me as we teeter on the edge of a small incline.
“Fuck! Fuck!” Blake yells as the bigger truck backs up to rams us again. Knowing that this is my last chance I slam it into gear and try again to get us clear. The diesel engine screams in protest fighting against the more powerful vehicle as it slams into us again. It's no use.
The last thing I see as we tip sideways over the small incline is Blake's head smacking against the window beside him. He flops inside his restraints, clearly unconscious as we roll twice before my truck shudders to a crashing stop on its side.
The moments before I am oriented enough to check myself for injuries feel infinite. I'm okay. Banged up for sure, but I've survived worse. Blake is still out, hanging above me in the passenger seat, the safety belt the only thing keeping him in place.
Faye and Ana are okay. I think. They are both crying and Faye keeps asking me if I'm okay. Finally I’m able to give her a quick affirmative, needing to reassure her as best I can in this fucked up situation.
I need to get out of this truck if I have any chance of protecting her and Ana. I have no doubt whoever did this is on their way down here, but with Blake suspended above me I'm trapped.
Voices come down the incline and I know, instinctively, that they are here for the girls. I reach for the KBar I keep duct-taped under my steering wheel in case of emergencies and cut myself free of my seatbelt, falling heavily against the door. Turning toward the back seat intending to climb over and somehow prevent what is coming.
I need to protect my woman, and her friend, no matter the cost.
“Can you get out of your seatbelts?” I shout at them. They are still sobbing and I can see that they are stuck like Blake. I will have to get back there and cut them loose and somehow prevent them getting injured in the process.
I am swinging my leg into the space between the front seats when the back door lifts open and large hands reach in and grab Faye by the arm, slicing through her seatbelt and dragging her screaming through the opening. I roar with the rage exploding inside me.
I'm jammed in the small awkward space trying to climb out after her when something hits me in the head. Hard.
I fall back toward the dash, dazed and barely conscious. Blood flows down my face from a laceration on my scalp, getting into my eyes and momentarily blinding me. Scrubbing my sleeve over my face to clear away the blood only takes me a minute. At least I think it’s a minute. I’m having a hard time remaining alert. By the time my vision clears, Ana is gone too.
Blake stirs above me, moaning and starting to fight against the seatbelt restraining him. I have to get us out of here. Now.
And then we have to find my girl.
Faye
I still haven’t figured out exactly what happened back there. Now Ana and I are in the back of the truck that pushed us off the road. I saw the dented front fender when they dragged me up the hill and shoved me into the back. It’s the kind of truck that banks use to transport money, The armored kind. No wonder it was able to smash Travis’ big pickup off the road.
There is nothing in the back where they are holding us. No way to escape. It’s as secure as a jail cell. A moving one.
After I was shoved inside, I checked for something I could use as a weapon. I heard them say that they were going back for Ana, and I had hoped that I would be able to get us free somehow.
No such luck.
By some miracle I seem to be okay. A little bruised from the accident, and my shoulder hurts from being dragged out the door by my arm. It could be
worse. I know if I have to I can still fight to protect myself and Ana. If it comes to that I don’t think she will be able to do much. When they pushed her through the door she collapsed at my feet, sobbing. She finally calmed down and stopped crying, but it took a while. She’s a little battered from the accident but says the baby is moving and that was my biggest concern.
I can’t tell what direction we are going. I was pretty dazed when they pushed me into the dimly lit mobile cell. I’m not sure how long we have been back here either. It’s probably been a couple of hours. There isn’t any way to tell. I just know that it took a while for Ana and I to calm each other down.
We also checked again, to see if there was anything that I had missed that might help us escape. Of course there isn’t.
Just once in my life I would like for something to go my way. I thought it had happened. I was finally where I wanted to be, with the man of my dreams, and now… now I’m in the back of a freaking bank truck going God knows where… and I really need to pee.
“I really need a bathroom,” Ana whispers, echoing my thoughts, which would be a little funny under any other circumstances. Instead we are sitting together on the floor, holding each other up, both of us needing a bathroom and having no idea when our captors will be stopping. It could be a long night. The road has mostly been straight for a long time now. If I had to guess, I would say we are most likely still on the road to Vegas. Which means we should be stopping soon. I hope.
“Me too.” I whisper back to Ana. We have been staying as quiet as possible, just in case they can hear us back here.
Hopefully they stop soon—otherwise things are going to get messy.
After a while longer Ana lies down beside me and rests her head on my lap. Her eyes are full of tears when she looks up at me. “I heard one of them mention Don Dominic when they were shoving me in here,” she finally says, her voice shaking.
The name means nothing to me, so I wait for her to continue.