Wolfhunter River (Stillhouse Lake #3)(98)

I floor it.

“Mike!” I yell. “Hold on!”

“Yeah,” he says. He sounds quiet now. No jokes. This is Mike Lustig in combat, steady as a rock.

The windshield is a cracked, crazed mess of webbed glass, but I don’t have time to deal with that. I ignore the damage and try to see past it. Sharp turn coming up five seconds. Four. Three.

Another shot drives through the windshield, and another. Both miss me, because the angle’s growing more and more acute. The cracked glass doesn’t help the shooter either, and I’m cramming myself into the far left corner as I drive. I swerve and keep my foot down; the back tires scream and shimmy, and I correct as it fishtails.

“Incoming from your six!” I yell, because now we’re past the shooter’s position, and he’s got time to swing around in his perch and try to get me from the back. He might be able to see Mike from that position, depending on his elevation. He’ll take whatever target he can get, and maybe just spray and pray at this point.

I sink down into the seat and keep the gas pedal jammed to the floor. I hear more shots thunking into metal, breaking more glass. “Call out!” I say.

“Present!” Mike yells back over the roar of wind streaming in. Pieces of glass are breaking free and whipping into my face. I can’t slow down. This asshole is a pretty good shot. If I can make it to the next curve . . .

I can’t.

A tire blows—whether it’s from a bullet or just the stress, I don’t know—but the whole car jerks sideways as physics rips the rubber apart. I can’t slow down. I keep the thing moving. But I can’t keep it straight.

“Brace!” I yell, and set myself, because I know we’re going into the ditch. I can’t stop it in time, and something in the steering feels loose and shattered. We’re screwed.

And then the car rolls.





17

CONNOR

When Mom goes with Mrs. Pall, Mr. Sparks smiles at the three of us—me, Lanny, and Vera—and puts his finger to his lips. He goes to the door and quietly shuts it. “There,” he says in a low voice. “Now. We need to get you somewhere safe in case the police demand entry, regardless of our wishes.”

He takes a remote control out of his desk and presses a button, and the bookcase over on one side silently swings out from the wall. The only thing I can think is, That’s really cool, because I’ve never seen anything like that except in the movies. It’s like a Batman trick.

It sounds like he’s doing something good for us, but I’m not so sure. Why wouldn’t he do this when Mom could see? I don’t want her not knowing where we are. So I look at my sister. “Lanny?” I’m asking her because I don’t know for sure, and she will.

She looks at the hidden door, then at Hector Sparks. She’s frowning. “Maybe we should wait for Mom,” she says.

“There’s no time,” Sparks says. “Do you want Vera to be caught? Perhaps killed?”

Lanny shakes her head. She gives up and heads for the hidden door. I don’t like it. I’m not sure why, not at all, but I just don’t. So I go to the office door to tell Mom.

I hear something click in the door before I get there. When I try to open it, the knob won’t turn. “Mom!” I bang on it. Hard.

“Quiet!” Mr. Sparks snaps. “Go with your sister, boy. You’ll be safe down there.”

I turn around. He’s standing behind his desk, still. “Open the door!”

Lanny’s turned around now, and she and Vera are standing there watching. “Connor?” my sister says. “Come on. We should do what he says.”

“Not until we tell Mom!”

Mr. Sparks sighs, opens a drawer, and says, “I truly did not wish this to be difficult. But you brought this on yourselves.” He takes out a gun. It’s an old one, a revolver, like something you’d see in an old black-and-white movie. But it’s a gun, and I freeze. So do both the girls. “I need you all to go downstairs at once.”

“You do have her,” I blurt out. “Ellie White! You kidnapped her!”

Mr. Sparks frowns at me, as if I’ve said something really dumb. “Don’t insult me. I’d never hurt a child.”

“My brother’s a child!” my sister says. She sounds angry and terrified at the same time. “You leave him alone!”

“He’s over twelve,” Sparks says, like that makes sense. “I didn’t abduct that poor girl. I wouldn’t. And if you three are good and obedient, I promise that you’ll be perfectly all right. But right now, get in that room, or I promise you, I will shoot one of you right now.”

He scares me.

I want my mom to break down that door and find us and take that gun away and kick his ass, but I think she doesn’t even know we’re in trouble. I’d yell, but I’m afraid that would make things worse. So I keep my voice quiet. “Mom will come for us,” I tell Lanny. “It’s okay. Do what he says.”

My sister doesn’t argue with me. It’s just about the first time that’s happened, but I don’t get to enjoy it. She leads Vee into the opening of the bookcase.

“Boys should be seen and not heard,” Mr. Sparks says. “You’ll have to be taught how to behave. But I believe you have some promise, young man. Once you’re removed from the influence of your mother . . .”