Page 4 of Wrong Turn

Kelly curled herself away in response, and he reached down beside her seat and pushed the lever. The seat reclined abruptly, and Kelly fell backward with a squeal. Joao let go of Lei and grabbed Kelly by the long tresses she was so proud of, pulling her backward into the seat with him. “Nice Blondie,” he said. “We party.”

Lei blocked out the sounds of her friend being molested by scanning around for some way to get help. A glance at the speedometer showed that they were going sixty miles an hour, so jumping was out of the question. Even if she regained control of the Mustang, trying to get loose at this speed would likely flip or tear the car apart.

But maybe Lei could get the attention of another driver? Lei spent a couple of interminable minutes trying to signal cars passing them too rapidly to register the struggle happening in the convertible.

Joao now had Kelly down out of sight in the back seat, her friend’s muffled cries raking Lei’s nerves. Lei peeked around the seat and got a glimpse of Joao’s hand on one of Kelly’s bare breasts, his other around her throat.

At least he’d put down the knife, too occupied with rape to bother with it. He thought he’d neutralized Lei—but she could stop this. She had to find a way.

Lei fumbled for the opening of the glove box, hoping by some miracle it wasn’t locked—but she’d closed the weapons in there with the car key, worried Kelly would find them and question her about bringing them. She’d sweated through lying about carrying a gun at the border crossing—Lei was not a good liar—but now she’d have to turn the Mustang off, remove the key, unlock the box, take out the case, and get the weapon out—all with bound hands and Joao not noticing.

Kelly gave a muffled scream, and the car bounced and fishtailed with the scuffle going on in the back seat.

There had to be something more immediate Lei could do.

She spotted the steel thermos in the wheel well that they’d filled with margarita mix this morning. Awkward with her tied hands, Lei picked it up. She swiveled, pushing herself upright, leaning between the seats, and lifted the thermos high.

Joao held Kelly down with a bent forearm against her throat, suffocating her as he fumbled with his pants zipper with the other hand. He was no longer paying attention to anything but what was between his legs.

Lei’s eyes met Kelly’s terrified ones as she brought the thermos down on Joao’s head with all her strength.

Joao collapsed over Kelly without a whisper.

Her friend gasped for air as Joao’s arm went slack. Kelly shoved at his body, whimpering and frantic. “Get him off me. Get him off me!” Kelly croaked. Tears streamed down her face.

Lei dropped the thermos and wriggled between the seats, picking up the huge combat knife that Joao had set aside.

“Untie my hands,” Lei said. Kelly plucked at the buckled belt around Lei’s wrists, freeing her, as Lei kept a wary eye on the unconscious Joao.

The convertible slowed. Lei swiveled around to look at the truck towing them. “Oh no. He must see something’s wrong.”

But that wasn’t it.

Fernando was merely turning off the main highway onto a dirt road. Pale dust belched up around them as the Mustang bucked through potholes at a much slower speed. Lei helped haul Joao’s body off Kelly, wedging him facedown onto the car’s floor area.

“Kill him!” Kelly exclaimed. Lei looked down at the man before her. It would be easy to cut his throat, stab him.A part of her longed to, but she shook her head.

“No. We still have to get out of this mess. We’re toast if we kill him now, in a foreign country, with Fernando to deal with. We need to neutralize him, though.” Lei pulled Joao’s arms up behind his back and wrapped the belt ruthlessly tight around his wrists. “He made a mistake leaving my hands in front. He underestimated us.”

“He underestimatedyou.” Kelly’s teeth were chattering. “I was just the idiot you’ve always said I am.”

“You expect the best of people,” Lei said. “I know better, that’s all. Now that we’re going slower, let’s see if we can get loose from the truck. You push Joao out into the road.”

“I can’t lift him,” Kelly panted. “How can I get him out?”

“Then stay down, out of sight. I need to make sure Fernando doesn’t realize what’s going on. He has to think you guys are getting it on back there.”

“You mean, I’m getting raped,” Kelly said. “This is so disgusting.” She grunted with the effort of trying to move Joao. “I can’t get him up off the floor. It’s going to take both of us.”

Lei turned to see what Fernando was up to, glancing at the clock on the dash. The whole struggle had taken less than five minutes.

The bald man had a mirror trained on them, and she noticed the gleam of light on his jaw, the glowing ember of a cigarette in his mouth. He glanced back, and she met his eyes with a glare. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and made a kissing gesture.

Lei shuddered.

Where had Fernando secured the hook under the car? Clearly, it was somewhere a lot sturdier than the Mustang’s plastic bumper, which was more for looks than function.

She needed her weapon.With the gun, Lei could force Fernando to let them go.

---