Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 104

McKenzie

“We have to go back!” I beat the back of the driver’s seat, causing Will to flinch. “We have to go back! He might be alive!”

“He’s not,” Will said.

“You don’t know that!” I screamed, pummeling the cage.

He turned his head and gave me a sad, grim look. “I do know that.”

The finality of it crushed my spirit. I slumped back in my seat and covered my face with my hands, crumpling in on myself. “Oh God.”

“He was a good man,” he said quietly. “I’m sure God will welcome him with open arms.”

I glared at the back of his head through the cage. “Seriously? You’re going to say that to me after all the damage you’ve caused?!”

Will sighed. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I never should have come looking for your parents.”

“Damn skippy you shouldn’t have!” I yelled, but it came out as more of a croak.

“I can’t change what I’ve done. But I will keep you safe.” It wasn’t so much a statement as a vow.

“You’ve been doing a bang-up job so far,” I said nastily then regretted it. The man had just been looking for help. There was no way he could have known all this would happen. Or that he’d had a tracking device in him like a dog for who knew how long.

Could I honestly say, with a piece of work for a grandfather like his, I wouldn’t have gone searching desperately for someone—anyone—to help me?

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. You’re doing your best,” I amended.

“Thanks, but I deserve whatever you have to throw at me,” he replied. He glanced in the rearview mirror. “You can cry, you know. I won’t judge.”

Wasn’t I crying? I touched my cheeks and realized that I wasn’t. “I think I’m in too much shock. It hasn’t hit me yet.”

“Fair.” He flicked his eyes back to the road.

Go past this light, then at the next one, turn left. Siri’s voice was steady, calm. Even pleasant.

I wanted to chuck that bitch out the window, but we needed her to get to our destination. “I wonder who Uncle Jake is sending to help us?” I mused aloud.

“No clue. But it’s got to be someone he really trusts.” He took the left then looked back at me again. “I am really, truly sorry, McKenzie.”

A lump formed in my throat, and I swallowed hard. “I mean, I’m not going to say it’s okay, but I will say I understand. It’s not your fault, Will. It’s your grandfather’s. I mean, what were you supposed to do? Be all happy about getting money from buying and selling people?”

“I should have figured out a way to handle things myself,” he sighed. “I don’t even know what I expected your parents to be able to do. I just know they went up against Goliath and won. I was hoping they could somehow help me do the same.”

“If they’d let you talk to them, maybe things might have turned out differently. Who knows?” I shrugged. “We’re just stuck now, I guess.”

“I guess so,” he agreed.

We fell into an awkward silence, Siri the only voice breaking it from time to time.

In fifty-three miles, turn left…

And then Siri went silent for a while. I didn’t expect we’d hear her again until two miles to the left turn.

The sun set. Streetlights became fewer and further between. In the dim light of the moon, when there weren’t oncoming headlights—and soon there were very few of those as well—I saw corn fields turn into forest. Without streetlights, the woods seemed to press in on us.

In two miles, turn left… Siri said.

“She’s just too damn cheerful,” Will muttered.

“I know, right?” I responded, hunching my shoulders. “Isn’t there a funeral Siri?”

“Maybe hearses get her.” He tapped the glowing screen, clearly trying to find some less chirpy setting for Siri.

I laughed. Then I felt bad for laughing. Uncle Jake was dead. Still, the laughter kept rolling out of me until I was holding my sides and hysterical. Tears rolled down my cheeks, and I sobbed and laughed at the same time. It was super weird.

He took the left turn, and then we were on a dirt road. Not gravel. Dirt. The squad bumped over tree roots, rocks, and uneven patches. “We’re almost there,” he said. “I think it’s at the end of this… whatever this is. Road? Driveway?”

“O-Okay,” I managed to choke out.

Will and I stopped at a destination where there wasn’t a building in sight. In fact, it seemed as though we were just at some random place in the middle of the woods. “Okay,” he said. “I sort of thought we were going to a cabin or something…” He opened his door and the dome light came on. He looked at me in the rearview mirror, then got out and opened the back door.

“Hey.” He slid in next to me and put a hand on my arm. “We’re going to get through this.”

I hiccupped and kept laughing/crying.

Much to my surprise, he inched closer and opened his arms, inviting me in.

I really didn’t know what else to do to make myself calm down. I leaned into Will, and his arms closed around me, holding me tight.

“I’m not going to tell you it’s going to be okay because I don’t want to lie to you,” he said softly, his breath ruffling my hair. “But we are going to get through this. We’re both smart, capable adults. And as far as we know, your parents are okay. There’s a lot of reason to hope.”

“Uncle Jake is dead,” I rasped. “And probably Uncle Billy and Uncle Horace, too.” My tears soaked into his sweater. It felt soft against my cheek. Cashmere? Why the fuck am I worried about what his sweater is made out of right now?! I berated myself. Still, there was something comforting about it, like a nice, warm security blanket. Or maybe it was the man in the sweater. He smelled like days spent lying out by the pool and nights drinking fine cognac. There was just something very solid and relaxed about him.

My breathing evened out, and I stopped my gasping, hiccupping giggles.

Will rubbed my arms with his hands. “That’s better.”

I did feel better. And felt bad for feeling better. But me losing my cool right now wasn’t going to help anybody. “Are we supposed to wait here for Uncle Jake’s contact, do you think?” I asked, turning my attention back to the situation at hand.

“Let me check the phone.” He held onto me a beat longer than necessary, and I could have sworn he breathed in the scent of my hair. But he let go before I could be sure and went back to the front seat, taking the phone out of the cupholder. “I’m not… oh. There’s a text from an unknown number. It says we’re supposed to switch cars here.”

“Switch… to what? I don’t see a car,” I said, scooting out of the back seat. My shoes crunched on dead leaves.

He jumped then relaxed when he saw it was just me. “Maybe it’s under a tarp or something. Here.” He turned on the phone’s flashlight and began pointing it around.

Sure enough, not five yards ahead of us, there was a camo tarp off to the side of the path. He turned off the squad and pocketed the keys then guided us to the tarp.

Together, we pulled it off a nondescript silver Camry with Wisconsin plates.

There was a low ding, and he looked down at the phone screen. “Another text. Says keys are above the visor.”

“I hope the tires are still good,” I said with trepidation, wondering how long the Camry might have been parked out here in the middle of nowhere.

“Only one way to find out.” He opened the driver’s door and flipped down the visor. A key fell into his hand.

“We’d better hope the battery’s still working, too,” I added. I went around the side of the car and got into the passenger seat. I wasn’t going to fight over who got to drive. I was barely out of an attack of hysterics. Will seemed to be the most solid one of the two of us right now. Our best bet was for him to drive.

He got in behind the wheel then frowned at the phone. “It says ditch this phone.”

“What? How are we going to know where we’re going?” I asked.

“Check the glove compartment,” he said, and I knew he was quoting the text word for word.

I opened the glove compartment and took out a paper map. The kind that folded. I’d never seen one in my entire life. “Uh…”

“Is there something marked on it?” he asked, leaning over as I unfolded the map.

Sure enough, there was red marker highlighting a route into Iowa. “Yeah, someone traced a route.”

“Good.” He tossed the phone then shut the driver’s door. “Buckle up.”

I did, just as headlights shone down the road behind the squad car. “Um… Will? I think—”

“I think we need to get out of here,” he agreed without even catching the end of my sentence. He started the car and pulled out onto the dirt path.

The Camry bumped along violently as we followed the road the other way. I hoped it came out on a street and that we weren’t going to be cornered, but it wasn’t like we could go back the other way.

Mercifully, the dirt path led us straight to blacktopped road.

“All right, navigator, which way are we going?” he asked.

I admired his even, patient tone. I was freaking out. “Um…” I looked down at the map. I was a sophomore in college. I could do this. “Left. No! Right. Which way is Highway 35 South?”

“Left.” He turned, and we started down the road.

I glanced at the speedometer. “You’re not going very fast.”

“I’m going the speed limit. If we get pulled over, then we’re done,” he pointed out.

Oh. “Oh, right.”

Headlights showed up behind us, and someone began speeding up our tail. “Shit,” Will said, looking in the rearview mirror.

“Is it the people from the woods?” I asked anxiously.

“I don’t know for sure, but it’d be quite a coincidence if it wasn’t. We’re the only two cars on this stretch of road, as far as I can tell,” he grunted.

As the car behind us got closer, I saw that it had bars in front. “I think they’re going to ram us.”

“I think so, too,” he said.

“What do we do?” I asked, looking at Will.

He set his jaw. “We go faster.” And he stomped his foot down on the accelerator.