Page 79 of Ruthless

Left alone with just the driver, I felt a momentary excitement. The other two men would be busy at the back of the van. Maybe I could slide the door open, jump out, and run fast enough to get away. Could I outrun them? We were in the woods. All I'd have to do was get far enough ahead of them to find a tree and hide. But there were three of them, and no doubt they'd all be on my tail once I made my move.

"Go!" someone yelled from outside.

The driver floored the pedal and revved the engine, but other than the van filling up with gas fumes, nothing happened. He cursed, "Fucking push harder!" The driver continued revving the engine. The van struggled, but remained firmly in the hole, rocking back and forth. "Harder!" he yelled louder, as if that would make a difference.

"You get your fat ass out here and fucking push!" Rocky hollered in an angry tone. "Todd will drive!"

I swallowed. Todd replacing the heavier, older driver might work in my favor. Todd was more like a boy, and he was gangly. He had no muscle that I could see. I feigned disinterest as the door opened and the two men made the switch. Todd barely gave me a look when he settled himself into the driver's seat, totally focused on the task at hand. I searched around the van for something that I could use as a weapon. Relief flooded me when I spied a lug wrench lying on the floor next to the spare tire. Smiling to myself, I relaxed and waited breathlessly for the right time.

"Go!" Todd yelled out the window.

While he was focused on getting the van out of the ditch, I scooted over and snatched up the lug wrench, and then quickly sat back down in my spot. He never looked behind him.

"Almost there!" Rocky yelled. "One more push should do it!"

I knew I had to move. I jumped up and hit Todd on the back of the head. Not too hard, I didn't want to kill him, but hard enough for him to grunt and fall forward. In the next heartbeat I jumped to the sliding door.

"Floor it, asshole!" My hand was on the handle to slide the side door open.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I could tell that Rocky was getting closer to the driver's door from the tone of his pissed-off voice.

I slide the door open and jumped to the ground, knowing that as soon as Rocky saw Todd slumped over the steering wheel he would look in the back and find me gone. I hit the ground running, straight into the trees, and didn't look back. I debated on tossing the lug wrench, but decided that I may need it.

"She's fucking gone!" I heard Rocky scream, just as I disappeared into the woods. "Goddamnit!" he swore again. "Find her, Carl!"

They sounded closer than they actually were. I ran blindly through the woods, hearing the heavy sound of my breathing and realizing that I was making enough noise to wake the dead. I couldn't help it. I would be dead at the end of the night if I didn't get away. I ran and ran, as if the ground was soft grass and not the stones and branches that carpeted it, cutting into my feet. I ran until the blood had rushed to my ears, turning them hot, until I was covered in scratches, and my clothes were torn.

Eventually I stopped feeling it. My feet were bruised and bleeding, but the more distance I put between me and them, the less it mattered. I was going to win or die trying. I could hear them crashing behind me from different directions and realized that they'd split up. They called out to one another, too stupid to realize that it gave their location away and enabled me to change directions. I had no idea where I was going, where I'd end up, but none of that mattered. I could find my way home later, after I'd lost them.

Oh, God, I kept on running, but ultimately I had to stop to catch my breath. I doubled over and clutched my legs above my knees, the lug wrench still in my hand, panting and sucking in air. I was so close to throwing up, so close to keeling over. I knew that I had to keep going, but I couldn't do that with empty lungs or the sharp stitch in my side. And then I heard it, the snapping of a twig. It was too loud to be an animal, and I froze, holding what little breath I had left. I did the only thing I could think of and dropped to the ground, lying as flat as I could among the tall grass.

I slapped my hand over my mouth to muffle the sound of my heavy breathing. Please, God, I prayed, my heart racing so fast that I was sure they would be able to hear it. I heard another twig break and closed my eyes tightly, feeling the sweat dripping down my face.

"I don't fucking hear her anymore!" the man named Carl panted.

"She has to be here somewhere! We have to find her!"

"She kill Todd? I'm gonna fucking kill her if she killed my boy!"

"I think he was just knocked out," Rocky responded. He was out of breath, too. "It’s his own damn fault, I told him to make sure there was nothing in the back of the van that she could turn on us." I heard him hock up a goober and spit it out. "You might as well come out, little pussy!" he shouted. "We'll find you sooner or later, and we ain't gonna be nice!"

I remained still and quiet, praying that they didn't discover where I was hiding. I could hear them moving around.

"She must have made it further than we thought," I heard Carl say. "She's gotta' be beyond those trees. What are we gonna do if we don't find her before dark?"

"We'll find her," Rocky said confidently. "I've waited four years for revenge. I'm gonna fuck the life out of her, right in front of Rebel, and then I'm going to put a bullet in his head. He'll pay for selling us out and getting everyone killed."

I could hear the grass moving with their foot falls. The need to get up and start running again was so strong that my muscles quivered, but I remained where I was, trying to wiggle myself deeper into the ground.

"What makes you so sure we're gonna find the bitch?" Carl asked exasperatedly. “She could be anywhere now. We need to keep moving."

"No. She's around here somewhere." And then I heard him laugh softly.

Carl grumbled, "What's so fuckin' funny?"

It was over. I knew what I was going to see when I opened my eyes, and I dared to glance up. Rocky was standing above me, his ugly expression full of smug triumph. He gave me a wink. I let the tears come.

"Hi there, pretty pussy." He reached down, clutching my hair brutally as he yanked me to my feet.

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