Page 29 of The Hitchhikers
“You think I’m stupid?” Simon got to his feet, walking toward Alice until she was pressed against the counter. Beside her she heard Jenny gasp.
“No,” Alice said. “Of course not.”
“Where’s the rest of your money?” He reached over her head, yanking open cupboard doors, rummaging roughly through their food.
“Stop!” Tom yelled out from the bed. “Leave my wife alone. There’s cash in my shaving kit, and another traveler’s check in my coat pocket.”
Simon stalked to the bathroom. There were sounds of the cupboard opening, items being moved, and then his laugh.“Well, you weren’t lying this time, man.” He came out with the cash in his hand—four ten-dollar bills. Then he pulled open the small closet and went through Tom’s coat. He nodded in approval when he found the traveler’s check hidden in the inside pocket.
“Fifty dollars. Nice. But it wasn’t very nice of you to hold out on us.” He lunged toward Tom, gripped his throat, then leaned forward so that his weight pressed down. “You got more?”
Alice covered her mouth with her hands. She wanted to scream and yank Simon away, but she was too scared of what Simon might do to Tom in retaliation.
“You have everything,” Tom choked out.
Simon let go of his throat. “You better not be lying.”
“Simon, can we talk outside?” Jenny’s voice was sharp, high-pitched.
“Later, babe. We’re at a public rest area.”
“Please? I really need to talk to you,” she said.
“Fine.” Simon rolled the traveler’s check up with the cash, shoved them into his front pocket, then jerked his head toward the door.
They were leaving Alice in the RV. She had the exhilarating thought that the couple might forget the keys while they argued. She could lock them out and drive away. Her hopes were soon dashed when Simon gripped her bicep and dragged her away from the sink.
“Get on the floor.”
Not sure what he wanted, she slowly sat down, and hugged her knees to her chest.
“Put your hands behind your back.” She did as he asked, but not fast enough, and he roughly twisted her arms behind her body, then used his belt to strap them to the table leg. Jenny’s face was pale, but she didn’t say a word as Simon tightened the belt.
Jenny then followed him outside with only a quick glance back at Alice. Simon shut the door with a solid click. Footsteps, growing quieter, murmuring voices.
Alice rested the back of her head against the metal table leg. She looked at Tom.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
“Yeah. But he’s going to lose his mind when he finds out he can’t cash those checks.”
She remembered how Tom had sat at the table and signed each check in the upper corner so they couldn’t be stolen. Just like the bank had advised.
“What are we going to do?”
“We can hope someone gets suspicious and reports him. They’ll ask for his ID.” He shifted on the bed, with a groan. “Maybe it will scare him enough that he leaves us alone.”
Alice nodded, trying to stay positive for Tom, but she had a sinking feeling that nothing would stop Simon now. He was in too deep, and they were all going to drown with him.
CHAPTER 12JENNY
The air smelled of warm bread and French fries. Jenny closed her eyes and inhaled the scent, until the sound of tires on pavement startled her. She spun around as a red car zoomed past and made a sharp turn into the A&W. She stared after it, remembering how she’d wait for her mom’s cherry-red Volvo to appear around the corner of her school. Her stomach would be tangled in knots, the noise of the other kids fading. She didn’t laugh or play. Everything was narrowed to the moment when she could see her mother through the windshield. If her mouth was painted in bright lipstick, her hair done in barrel waves, it was going to be okay. But if her mother was wearing her large sunglasses and her hair in a scarf, Jenny didn’t dare make a sound.
She couldn’t sniffle, or rustle her books or clothes, and shenevercommented if her mother was late. It didn’t matter if she’d been standing for an hour in the pouring rain.
If she failed at any of those, her mother’s hand would lash out with a quick slap to the back of Jenny’s head, her arm, the exposed skin of her leg if she was in shorts or a skirt.
Simon reached for her now, pulling her out of the memories, and walked her into the shade of a tree near the river. He turned her to face him, and held her close, the warm skin of his bare arms encircling her waist and his thumb rubbing against her bicep.
