“No.” She shook her head, her upper lip curled. “No way.” She grabbed one of his hands and half stood. “I can’t leave you here. You have to come with me. Come on. Just try getting up again. You gave up too soon.” Her face was so white. A blue vein fluttered in her temple.
“Cheyenne” – he hardened his voice – “I can’t. If either one of us is going to survive, you have to get to that road as soon as possible.”
A QUARTER-MILLION DOLLARS, TWO GUNS, AND A DEAD MAN
Griffin was so cold. His whole body vibrated. And each time he shivered, it ran down his leg to his ankle. It felt like the ends of the bone were grating together, but he couldn’t stop shaking. He remembered shaking like this in the burn unit. The nurses had told him it was shock and then wrapped the unburned parts of his body in white blankets warm from a special dryer.
He tried to tense his body so that he would stop shaking, but it didn’t help. Every shiver was echoed by a wave of pain that radiated from his ankle to his pelvis. Trying to conserve the little heat he had, Griffin curled on his side. But he was still just as cold, if not worse, and now a new side of him was wet. The backs of his clothes were already stiffening with ice.
He didn’t know how long he lay there before something roused him out of himself. At first Griffin thought he was imagining it, but then he definitely heard something. He corrected the thought. Someone. Moving through the forest. And voices, too. He couldn’t make out any words, but the tones were familiar – Jimbo and TJ. Arguing. That was familiar too.
“We just go back to the house and take the truck and go,” said Jimbo. “Go before Roy has a chance to rethink this. Screw them. We’ve got our money.”
“But where are we supposed to go?” TJ sounded confused.
“Don’t you get it? There isn’t any more ‘supposed to.’ We can do what we want. We each have a quarter of a million dollars. I think I’m going to Brazil. I’ve always wanted to go to Carnaval.”
“What about TJ?”
“What about you?” Jimbo echoed.
“Am I going with you?”
Jimbo didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then he said, “Maybe it’s time we did things on our own.”
“Hey!” Griffin yelled. “Hey!” He levered himself up on one elbow, ignoring how much it hurt to move.
“What the hell was that?” TJ sounded spooked.
“It’s Griffin, dummy,” Jimbo said. “Hey, Griff – where are you?”
“Over here. I’m hurt.”
A few seconds later, they were standing over him.
“Well, well, well. What happened here?” Jimbo seemed to be dressed in every coat he owned. He stood with one fist on his hip. The other hand held a rifle. TJ stood two paces behind, holding his own gun.
“I’m hurt. I was trying to track Cheyenne down when I stepped into a hole.” Griffin pointed. “My ankle’s broken.” He looked past them. “Where’s my dad?”
“Driving the roads, looking for her,” TJ said. Turning to Jimbo, he took a mobile from his pocket. “Should we call Roy?”
“You’re going to have to call someone,” Griffin said. “I can’t walk. You need to get someone out here to help me.”
“Hold on a minute, Teej.” Jimbo cocked his head. “Where’s Cheyenne?”
“She hit me in the head and knocked me out. Didn’t you see my note?”
“We saw the note.” TJ leaned closer to look at Griffin’s ankle. He shook his head. “Did you find her?”
“I was getting close right before I stepped into the hole. I could hear her over there.” Griffin pointed in the opposite direction from the way Cheyenne had gone. “But before you go looking for her, could you call my dad?”
“He’s busy, like we are,” Jimbo said. “Trying to find the stupid girl you let slip through your fingers.”
Griffin didn’t like the way this was going. “Then could you carry me out? I can’t put any weight on my foot at all.”
TJ stretched his free hand in Griffin’s direction, but Jimbo touched his arm, and he stopped. Then Jimbo pointed at something with the nose of his rifle.
“What’s that?”
Griffin looked. Lying next to him was the striped scarf Cheyenne had worn around her neck. It must have come off when she lost her balance and fell, trying to help him up.
“I – I don’t know.”
“Hey, that’s Cheyenne’s,” TJ said slowly. “I thought you said you didn’t catch up to her.”
“I didn’t.” It seemed painfully clear he was lying. “She just dropped it here, and I found it.” It made sense, but he should have said it first thing. Now they would figure out he had let her go.