“Who’s at the door?” Tina mumbled as the pounding on their motel door came again for the second time in a row.
“Jack! Wake up!” a muffled voice called.
“What the fuck?” Jack growled as he tried to shake off the blanket of sleep. He and Tina had returned to the room about eleven last night and then made love until early in the morning. He squinted at the clock: 7:18.
“Jack!” the voice called again as the pounding continued.
“Coming! Keep your pants on,” he growled as he rolled out of bed. It didn’t even register in his half-awake state that he had been called by his real name instead of his new identity.
Pants on and weapon in hand, Jack opened the door. “Seth? Michelle? What the fuck are you doing here?”
“We have a problem, Jack. It’s Goremykin. He’s trying to screw us. He tried to pull the money back,” Seth said.
Jack blinked a moment as he tried to catch up. “Hold on a second. Tina! Get dressed!” he called over his shoulder.
The moment Tina disappeared into the bathroom, Jack swung the door open. “Come in. Fuck… You said Goremykin tried to pull the money back? Why?”
“I don’t know. But he did! The money is safe. As you know, Greg had already paid it out, but had he not…”
“Goddammit! That slimy Russian bastard! Every time I turn around he tries to screw me. I bet that was his man after all that tried to steal the cars.”
“You and Tina need to go to ground. He knows you, knows your name. I can take the cars and dump them somewhere.”
Jack sat down on the bed, placed his gun beside him, and scratched furiously at his head. “Why would Goremykin do that? He doesn’t have the cars. If he would have just waited another few days he would have had them. Why would he risk fucking us now, while we still have them?”
“I don’t know. But you need to run while you still can.”
“What’s going on?” Tina asked as she stepped out of the bath.
“Goremykin is fucking us,” Jack said.
“Why are you here?” Tina asked Seth and Michelle.
“We came down so you and Jack can walk away. We’ll take the cars and hide them until we can find another buyer.”
“Why didn’t you just call? For that matter, how did you get here?” Jack asked.
“I couldn’t take the chance. He gave you the phones after all. Michelle and I rode down. Marshall told me where to find you.”
Jack scratched at his head again. Too much was happening too fast. “Something doesn’t add up. I need to call Greg and find out about the money.”
“No! Don’t do that. You told us the kind of power and influence Goremykin has. He may have Greg’s phone tapped. That’s why we rode all the way here. We had to speak to you in person.”
Jack reached for his phone. “Let me call Goremykin. Something about this isn’t right.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Michelle asked quietly. “Right now he doesn’t know you are on to him. If you tip your hand, he may spring his trap.”
Jack sat still for a moment, then placed the phone back on the table. “This whole deal is fucked up.”
“Listen… he doesn’t know Michelle and me. We’ve never spoken to him. Let us take the truck. You take your car and run. Get new identities, identities that Goremykin doesn’t know about,” Seth encouraged.
“Can you drive a truck?” Jack asked.
“You can show me. I’m sure I can do it. It’s all interstate,” Seth said.
“What do you think?” Jack asked Tina.
Tina stood with her arms wrapped around herself, rubbing her skin as if cold. “I don’t know. I don’t know why Goremykin would do this. Why go to all the trouble and expense for the truck? Why didn’t he just screw us at the beginning, when he knew we had the goods? He practically forced us to drive the cars to Savannah. It doesn’t make sense. None of this does.”
Jack picked up his phone again. “I’m calling Goremykin to find out what the fuck he’s doing.”
“Wait!” Seth shouted. “Just wait a minute. You’re making a mistake. You’re going to get us all killed!”
Jack paused as his brow wrinkled. “Seth, what’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing! Look, if you don’t believe me, let Michelle and I ride as blockers. Then you’ll see,” Seth pleaded.
Jack dialed his phone.
“Who are you calling?” Seth asked.
“Marshall,” Jack said as the phone rang.
“Hey, Jack. I didn’t expect to hear from you for a couple of days. Are you in Savannah already?”
“No. I’m here with Seth and Michelle. I—”
“What?” Marshall interrupted. “Seth and Michelle are there? What are they doing there?”
“Seth claims Goremykin is trying to fuck us. Get in touch with Greg. Don’t call him, go see him. Find out what the fuck is going on with the money, then call me back.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
Marshall is quiet for a moment. “Okay. Give me a couple of hours and I will call you back.”
“Make it quick. If Seth is right, everyone needs to scatter.”
“Okay. Quick as I can.”
“Thanks, Marshall,” Jack said before he ended the call.
“I wish you hadn’t done that.” Seth murmured.
“Why? He’s not going to call him.”
Seth wiped at the sweat forming on his forehead. “Things are getting out of hand, that’s all.”
Jack stood up from the bed, picked up his weapon, holstered it, and stuck it in his waistband. “You’re telling me. Let Tina and I get cleaned up, and then we’ll have breakfast while we wait on Marshall to call me back.”
Seth licked his lips nervously. “I think we need to get on the move as soon as possible.”
“If Goremykin hasn’t kicked our door in by now, he isn’t likely to do in the next hour. Relax,” Jack said.
“We’ll wait for you outside,” Seth said as he stood. “You want me to start the truck?”
“Thanks, but no. I still have to load my car. Just let Tina and I get our showers, then we’ll load the Audi and have breakfast. Marshall should be back in touch with me by then.”
“Okay, Jack,” Seth said as he jerked the door open. “We’ll play it your way. I hope you don’t regret not letting me help.”
“It’ll be fine, Seth.” Jack said. He needed some time think this through.
“What’s eating him?” Tina asked as the door clicked behind Seth and Michelle.
“I don’t know. Stress? I just can’t get my head around Goremykin screwing us like this. Like you said, it doesn’t make sense.”
Before Tina can answer, they hear Seth’s voice roar outside. “Get away from the truck!”
By the time Jack yanked the door open, Seth was pounding across the parking lot toward the truck. “We saw someone trying to get into the truck!” Michelle cried.
Jack looked but didn’t see anyone, and didn’t see any place for someone to hide either. He watched, pistol in hand, as Seth rounded the truck at a dead run.
A moment later, Seth reappeared and trotted back. “He was too far away… I couldn’t catch him,” Seth panted.
“What was he doing?” Jack asked.
“I couldn’t tell. Looked like he was trying to open the door,” Seth gasped as he tried to catch his breath.
“Fuck. Tina, we’re leaving. Check us out while I load the car.”
***
Fifteen minutes later, Jack joined Tina in the cab of the truck. “Are they going to block for us?” Tina asked.
“I couldn’t talk them out of it.”
“This doesn’t strike you as fishy at all?”
“It doesn’t just strike me, it punches me right in the mouth. But I don’t know who to trust. Once we get rolling, we’ll be safe enough. If Goremykin tries any shit I’ll run his ass down. This fucking truck will punch a hole in just about any road block he wants to set up.”
“And if it’s not Goremykin?”
“If it’s Seth? Then I will fuck him in the ass.”
“Okay,” Tina breathed.
The minute they began to circle around to get on I-10, headed East, Seth and Michelle roared away to scout ahead.
They had been on the road for less than ten minutes when Jack’s phone rang. “Jack,” he said.
“There’s a roadblock just before Baton Rouge,” Michelle’s voice came over the cab’s speakers. “They are letting cars and bikes through without stopping, but they are stopping semis with trailers that could hold cars. There were two on the side of the road with their trailers open.”
“Fuck!” Jack snarled, and immediately began to slow. “Tina! Find me a way around!”
“We’re turning around at the next exit and coming back,” Michelle said.
Tina punched furiously at the satnav. “Turn around. Go back the way we came and take I-49, Louisiana 167, north to Shreveport. We can pick up I-20 there,” she commanded.
“Did you get all that?”
“Yeah, we got. Hang on, we’ll be right there.”
“That motherfucking Goremykin. I don’t know what his game is, but I’m going to make it my life’s ambition to kill that fucker,” Jack snarled as he prepared to exit the interstate.
At the bottom of the exit ramp, Jack made a left and crossed under the interstate before he made another left onto the entrance ramp. He tromped the throttle to the floor as the Kenworth bellowed up the ramp, straining under the demand Jack placed on it.
Back on the interstate, Jack kept his foot hard down as the speedometer climbed past eighty, then ninety as the truck gave its all for their escape. They were almost back to Lafayette when Seth and Michelle roared by.
They bellowed through the interchange in Lafayette as Jack exited I-10 onto highway 167. Tina thought they were going to rear-end a car on the exit ramp, but Jack dodged onto the highway with scant feet to spare, then buried the throttle again, the truck bellowing in fury as it surged ahead.
“Talk to me, Michelle,” Jack said when his phone rang.
“Another road block, just like the last one.”
“Exit here!” Tina shouted and Jack immediately stomped the brake, the truck stuttering and shaking as it skidded. Tina hung on as the trucked shook until, at the last possible moment, Jack jerked the wheel to the right and down an exit ramp.
“Right at the bottom. Michelle! We just exited onto highway 190, Ronald Reagan Highway, heading East to Baton Rouge,” Tina called as the truck bounced and lurched around the corner on the edge of control.
The moment the Kenworth righted itself Jack floored the throttle again and the truck began to claw for speed. “Up here, make a left onto 105.”
“Do you know where we are going?”
“Working on it. I’m trying to keep us on back roads until we can get out of the area. They can’t block all the roads, can they?”
“Good thinking. Michelle, did you get that?”
“I heard. We’re coming Jack, just as soon as we can turn around.”
Jack exited onto a much narrower, less well-maintained road. It was still completely passable, but there was almost no traffic.
Tina kept punching at the satnav as she spoke to Michelle. “I’m going to keep us on these little back roads until we can work our way north to I-20.”
As they continued on highway 105, Tina began to relax. They had a nice, long run through the boonies and were unlikely to be stopped here. If they could just make it Melville, they could stop and regroup.
“Jack,” he said when the phone rang.
“Jack, it’s Michelle. How much does that truck weigh?”
“I don’t know, why?”
“We just passed a sign that said there was a bridge up ahead with a weight limit of thirteen tons.”
Jack glanced at the satnav screen. “Nothing about it on the satnav.”
“It was a construction sign.”
“Fuck!” he snarled as he lifted off the throttle. “I can’t turn around here. There’s no way.”
“Can you stop? Seth and I will turn around and then come back.”
“Yeah, okay. Fuck!”
“I’m sorry Jack,” Tina murmured.
“It’s not your fault. You did the best you could, and it was a good idea. At least now we have some time to think about what we are going instead of charging around blind.”
“What are we going to do?” Tina asked.
“See what you can do on the satnav. If you can just find a road, a parking lot, anything that I can pull into and maybe turn this bitch around.”
Tina is still poking at her phone and the satnav in the truck when Seth and Michelle rumble up.
Jack climbed down out of the idling truck. “Well?”
“Bridge looks pretty scary. Narrow with chunks missing from the concrete.”
“Tina is trying to find a place to turn around. How far to the bridge?”
“Not far. A few miles,” Seth said as he killed the bike and Michelle dismounted.
Jack’s phone rang and he thumbed it on. “What have you got, Greg?” he asked as he turned, looked at the ground, and plugged his other ear with a finger to mute the clatter of the idling truck
“What the fuck is Seth talking about? Nobody has tried to take the money back,” Greg said into his ear.
Jack looked up… and stared into the barrel of a pistol. “Thanks Greg. I’ll call you back,” he said as he thumbed his phone off and dropped it into his pocket.
***