Page 63 of Hoodoo House
“We’ll make this simple,” said Lightning Bolt, who seemed to be in charge. “You give us the computer, and you don’t die.”
Charlie felt like throwing up.
“Charlie,” Declan said in a calm voice. “Give the man the laptop. Slowly.”
“Right,” was the only word he could come up with.
Declan looked at the biker and said, “It’s in the back seat. My friend will have to crawl in to get it.”
Lightning Bolt looked at the blond biker who had patted Declan down and said, “Watch him from the other side. If he does anything stupid, shoot him.”
Charlie started to shake. Tears clouded his vision.
“I’ll get it for him,” Declan said. “I wouldn’t want your friend to shoot, miss and accidentally take one of you out.”
Declan motioned to Charlie to stand out of the way, then slowly reached into the car and flipped the latch seat, allowing the driver’s seat to snap forward. Charlie winced at the violent motion of the car seat. Declan remained calm. He reached into the back seat and lifted out the laptop. He backed up. “Can I ask what this is all about?”
Charlie screamed in his head,Don’t talk to them. Just make them go away!
Lightning Bolt said, “All you need to know is that Monarch’s been watching. They know all about that old house you’ve been visiting. And they know you’ve got the computer. They’ve got eyes everywhere and nothing escapes them.”
Declan nodded and handed Lightning Bolt the computer.
Charlie hadn’t moved a muscle. He focused on Declan. Declan nodded at him. Charlie wasn’t sure if he was trying to tell him everything would be okay or if it was more of ait’s been nice knowing you. Sorry about this.
Charlie watched Lightning Bolt walk to his bike and put the laptop into the pannier on the back. The biker who’d opened the gate to the parking lot mounted his own bike. The last to saddle up was the blond. Charlie was starting to feel that they might not die, when the blond pulled his gun out of the waistband of his pants.
Charlie closed his eyes and waited for the pain. He heard a gunshot, then the roar of the motorcycles starting up and departing. He carefully opened his eyes, expecting Declan to be lying on the ground, but Declan wasn’t there. Then from behind him Charlie felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped.
“It’s all right. You’re okay. You did well,” Declan said.
Charlie felt Declan’s arms around him.
“They’re gone now. I’m so proud of you. You did everything you were supposed to do.”
“I don’t feel like I did.”
“You did better than I did the first time this sort of thing happened to me,” Declan replied. “And you did better than the Beast.”
“What do you mean?” Charlie asked.
Declan turned Charlie around and showed him the car. The back right tire was flat.
“He shot my car! That fucking asshole shot my car!”
“Yup.”
“What do we do now?” Charlie asked.
Declan shrugged. “I figure there’s no point in calling the police. We might as well just change the tire and keep our appointment. This puts things in an entirely different light.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Between the roadside attack and the time it had taken to change the tire, forty-five minutes had been added to the journey. It was close to four-thirty in the afternoon when Declan and Charlie pulled into the parking lot of the RCMP detachment in Drumheller. Before they left the car Charlie asked, “So what are we going to tell the police?”
“The truth.”
“All of it?”
