Even in the Darkness. Shirlee McCoy

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ be.

      The bus lurched forward as Noah slid into a front seat. Several people still stood in the aisle, clinging to handholds and swaying with the motion. In other circumstances Noah would offer a seat to an elderly passenger as a sign of respect and honor. Not today. His black hair and tan skin might blend with the Thai passengers, but his height and large build gave him away as a foreigner. At this point, he couldn’t afford to call attention to himself.

      He settled back into the seat, listening to chatter and laughter, catching phrases and words—English and Thai, as well as several other languages he wasn’t as familiar with. It didn’t take long to determine the bus’s destination. Mae Hong Son. A seven-hour drive. Longer if the bus made tourist stops. The knowledge should have eased some of Noah’s tension, but adrenaline pulsed through him, warning him that time was running out.

      He glanced back, eyeing the cars and trucks that followed behind the bus. He’d been hoping for a few hours’ lead time. Had thought the men he’d left bound and gagged in the building where he’d found Tori would need longer than that to free themselves.

      He’d been wrong.

      He didn’t question the knowledge. It was part of who he was. Part of what made him a survivor in an industry where death lurked around every corner. The other part was faith—a deep understanding that all that happened was choreographed by God—who was much more powerful than any government, agency or enemy.

      It was that, more than anything, that had drawn Noah out of an early retirement and back into a game he no longer wanted to play; it was a deep knowing that he had to take the assignment. That something vital depended on it. Something beyond securing the box and stopping the distribution of millions of dollars’ worth of heroin.

      Maybe once Tori led him to their destination he’d get some answers. Noah wasn’t counting on it.

      Chapter Two

      “We share?” The young Thai woman who sat beside Tori held out a bottle of Coke, her face wreathed in a smile.

      “No. Thank you.” Tori’s own smile felt more like a grimace, her voice gritty from fatigue and dehydration. Despite her parched throat and empty stomach, she hadn’t dared get off the bus at the last tourist stop. Not when a dark sedan and white pickup truck had been following the bus since its first stop earlier in the day.

      “You come visit me in Mae Hong Son, yes?”

      “If I can. I’ll only be there for a short time.”

      “You come. We will be there soon. Ten minutes. Your family will meet you, yes?”

      “No. I’m meeting a friend.” Tori shifted in her seat, turning away from the other woman, hoping, as she had been hoping for the past seven hours, to discourage conversation. So far she hadn’t been successful. Which meant eventually other people would know she’d been on this bus.

      Sweat trickled down her temple, and she used the sleeve of her sweater to brush it away, ignoring the palsied trembling of her hand. Just a few more minutes and she’d be in Mae Hong Son. Then what? She glanced out the back window of the bus, saw the sedan a few cars back. The pickup was nowhere in sight, though Tori had a feeling it still followed. How much time did she have? Could she make it off the bus, make it to Chet’s jewelry shop before they caught her?

      She bit her lip, forcing back the panic that threatened to overtake her. She’d do what she had to do to escape the men who followed her. There was no other choice. Then she’d make her way to Chet’s shop. If he had the box, she’d take it and run. If not, she’d try to call the clinic again and hope that this time someone answered.

      The bus slowed and came to a stop, the cessation of movement bringing Tori upright in her seat. She craned her neck, trying to see what lay ahead. A green government truck sat on the side of the road, two armed military officers waving motorists over.

      “What’s going on?”

      “No worries.” The woman next to her patted Tori’s arm and seemed unperturbed, but Tori’s heart beat in double time, her hands clenched into fists.

      One of the soldiers stepped aboard the bus and leafed through the driver’s paperwork. Then scanned the passengers, his dark gaze resting on one person after another. Tori closed her eyes and feigned sleep, hoping to hide her eyes and the terror she knew shone there. For the second time in hours, she tried to pray, the knee-jerk reaction to terror reminding her of the desperate pleas she’d offered up as a child. Pleas that had gone unanswered.

      This time it seemed God was on her side. A few seconds after the soldier entered the bus, he stepped back outside, waving the driver on and moving toward the next car in line. The sedan was three cars back, the pickup truck right behind it. Now was Tori’s chance to lose anyone following.

      She didn’t hesitate, just waited until the bus rounded a curve in the road, and stood, hurrying up to the driver. “Stop, please. I need to get off here.”

      He shook his head. “Sorry. No stops.”

      “I have friends in the area. They said I’d be able to get off the bus before I reached town.” Please, please, let him stop the bus and let me off.

      For a moment she thought he’d refuse. Then he shrugged, downshifted and eased the bus to the side of the road.

      “Thank you.” She didn’t wait for his reply, just stepped outside.

      Warm sun. Damp earth. The harsh call of some creature in the jungle. The sound, the scent, the feel of freedom. Tori waited as the bus pulled away, watching to be sure it didn’t stop again, that no one else got off. Then she slipped into the thick foliage that lined the road, pulled off her hat, eased down into tall grass and waited.

      The sedan passed first, speeding by in a flurry of sound and motion. The pickup was next, coming more slowly. Tori could see it through the grass, inching along the highway. She sank down, touching her cheek to the cool, damp ground.

      Terror brought the world into sharp focus. A centipede scurried near Tori’s hand. Flies buzzed near her wrists, landing on the broken flesh. She didn’t dare brush them away. The musty aroma of rich earth filled her nose. Grass and leaves whispered an almost silent tune. And the rumbling chug of the pickup’s engine finally faded away. Time to move. Mae Hong Son was a few miles north. Soon there would be houses, people, someone willing to give her a ride to Chet’s jewelry shop.

      She forced herself up. Her body ached from fatigue and from bruises on top of bruises. Moving hurt. Walking any distance would be torture. She’d do it anyway. For Melody. For Melody’s parents. For herself. She couldn’t bear it if something happened to the Raymonds because of her.

      Already, the sun rode low in the sky, lengthening the shadows and darkening the landscape. By nightfall most of the shops in Mae Hong Son would be closed. If she didn’t hurry, she’d be too late to speak with Chet.

      She started jogging, jagged pain slicing through her side with each step. She wanted to sit for a minute, catch her breath, but there wasn’t time, so she kept going, passing stilt-legged huts with chickens scratching at the dirt beneath, wide green rice paddies that shone brilliant green in the fading light. A water buffalo meandered through hip-tall grass, its wide nostrils flaring, a brown-skinned child perched on its back.

      Up ahead was a busy tourist stop. Tori had been there before, had bought sweet rhambutan СКАЧАТЬ