Endurance - Jack Kilborn [64]
He glanced at Cam. The younger man didn’t seem scared. If anything, he seemed hyper.
Not for the first time, Felix questioned whether bringing Cam along was the right decision. On one hand, Cam loved Maria just as much as he did. To leave him languish unjustly in a psychiatric institution was wrong, especially when Felix needed help looking for his sister.
On the other hand, Cam had been in the institution for a reason.
For ninety-five percent of the time, Cam seemed entirely normal. But every so often Felix would catch him talking to himself, and saying some pretty bizarre shit. And several times over the last few months, Cam seemed to zone out completely, even when Felix was yelling in his face.
Then again, if I had his history, maybe I’d zone out too.
Still, the enthusiasm he showed while breaking John’s fingers was definitely not normal. Willingly hurting another human being—even if that person was a kidnapper and a rapist—was really dark stuff.
“We’ll be okay,” Felix said, more to reassure himself than Cam.
“I don’t think so,” Cam said. “I think he’s taking us somewhere to kill us.”
The matter-of-fact way Cam said it was chilling.
“He’s a police officer. He won’t do that.”
“He didn’t call it in,” Cam said. “Didn’t report back.”
“It’s a small town. There’s no one to report to.”
Cam shook his head. “He’s not the only cop in the county. There are others. Murder is still a big deal. But he didn’t call anyone. Base. The coroner. Paramedics. That means he’s going to get rid of us.”
Felix felt himself get very cold. He was mentally and physically a wreck, hurting in a dozen places, his mind alternately torturing and tantalizing him with thoughts of Maria. To think that he was going to die soon was almost too much to handle.
“Don’t worry,” Cam said. “It’s not so bad.”
Felix let out a half-insane chuckle. “What’s not so bad?”
“Dying,” Cam said.
Cam would know.
The police cruiser began to slow down. Felix looked around. Nothing but woods and darkness. A lump formed in his throat.
The lump got even bigger when the cruiser pulled onto the shoulder, into a copse of trees.
“Sheriff,” Felix said. “Please. Don’t do this.”
“Son, I can’t begin to describe what a pain in the rear you’ve been these last few months. Botherin’ the locals. Stickin’ your nose where it don’t belong. All for one little woman.” The Sheriff stared in the rear view mirror, looking at Felix. “There are other fish in the sea, boy. Didn’t your mama ever tell you that?”
“She’s alive?”
“Hell, ‘course she’s alive. I saw ‘er just a few weeks ago. Got my transfusion, and dipped my wick in ‘er honey pot. I tell you, she’s one sorry piece of tail. Does nothing but lay there and cry. I don’t see why you’re so damn anxious to get ‘er back.”
Rage replaced fear. Felix tried to get at the Sheriff by ramming his head through the Plexiglas partition between the front and back seats. The only damage he caused was to himself, opening up the cut on his head.
“Careful there, son. Y’all oughta save your strength. Fine looking young buck like yourself. I don’t personally care for none of that sodomite behavior, but to some of my brothers a hole is a hole is a hole. You keep acting so impetuous, you won’t last a week with my kin.”
Felix sank back in his seat. Of the countless nightmare scenarios he’d dreamed up to explain Maria’s disappearance, none were this bad.
The car hit a hump, bouncing Felix and Cam. If only Cam had been on his right side, maybe he could have reached Felix’s handcuff keys in his jeans pocket. But Cam was on the left—the wrong side—and he wouldn’t be able to dig them out, not with the Sheriff eyeballing them every few seconds. And Felix had been stretching since the moment he got into the car, and his hands hadn’t even come close.
Not that it mattered. Even if the cuffs were off, the Sheriff was still armed. Assuming he and Cam could somehow get out of the cruiser, they wouldn’t get far.
The police car stopped. Felix’s brain popped