Rating: PG –13
Author's Notes: Well thanks to Sweatergirl's super fast betaing you are getting to read this sooner than I thought! So thanks Sweatergirl, Maple Street Gang, and the preview master for the nice comments. This is a different kind of chapter but as the story goes on, it will make more sense.
The shuttle van lurched after hitting a large pothole. Sam put her hands protectively over the injured leg.
"Sorry about that," Richie said making a slight frown.
"It's fine," she lied, and reached for her travel bag behind her.
"Hey, wait and I'll stop so you can get what you need." Richie pulled off to the side of the road.
'Thanks," she said getting out of the van so that she could grasp the bag in the seat behind her. The bottle was easy to find and she popped two pills with ease.
"Don't you want any water with that?" Richie asked.
She shook her head, "They're down, I'm fine." She moved back to the passenger seat.
"Um…what are those?"
"My pills?" Sam asked and with a nod from Richie answered, "They are pain pills for my leg."
"Oh," he smiled. "Just was curious."
"How much longer until we get to the water slide zone?" Sam looked at the city landscape outside the window. She longed to see wild animals, trees that touched the sky, the sounds of rushing water; then she would know that she was closer to Jack.
Richie pulled back onto the road. "Still a ways. We have to pass through some smaller towns and then we'll be at Yellowstone. From there just a couple of miles."
The passenger sighed.
"We'll get there Ma'am, I promise."
"It seems so far away."
"We are going to Wyoming…have you ever been there before?" Richie was trying to just make some idle conversation to lighten the agent's darkened mood.
Samantha tightened her ponytail. "Yes, once."
"Oh, on vacation?"
"You could say that."
Richie frowned; having a conversation with this woman wasn't easy.
"So when did you go, when you were a kid or an adult?"
She shot him an icy look. "Can we drop it, please?"
"Sure," he swallowed, not sure what to do next.
The words came as a surprise to him. "I'm sorry, I'm just upset. I was here years ago when I was kid. We were visiting family…it wasn't pleasant."
"I'm sorry."
"It's in the past now."
A male voice came yelling through the radio on the dashboard, "Richie! Where the hell are you?"
"Shit!" Richie instantly grabbed for the walkie-talkie, "That's my boss- I forgot to tell him I was asked by the government…" His sentence was incomplete as the walkie-talkie was ripped from his hand.
"You can't tell him anything so just ignore him."
"But…"
"Richie, this is more important than your boss."
Richie nodded, not sure what to make of the situation, she seemed so nice and normal when he first met her. She was a FBI agent, he saw the badge. Badges could be faked. She had a gun, she was popping "pain" pills, a bullet wound in her leg…what if she was a criminal and he was helping her to escape? Fear took over his every pore. Sweat proceeded to drip down his back. His hands clenched the steering wheel.
Samantha, being trained to observe shifts in behavior, saw Richie's response to her action. Damn it! I scared him shitless; he'll want to drop me off at the nearest exit. Her head pounded as she thought of what she could do.
Richie pulled off the road.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I, um, need to use the restroom."
"There is no time for that."
"Well, I better make time." Richie rounded a corner to a waiting McDonalds.
She had to reach Jack, he needed her. Her head felt like it was breaking apart as if cinder blocks were falling on top of it. Removing her gun from its holster she pointed it at Richie. "Drive."
"Please," the van stopped and he was whimpering, "please don't kill me."
"I'm not going to kill you but I need you to bring me to the water slide zone."
"I can't." Tears were streaking down his face.
The pounding in her head wouldn't cease. "Get out."
Nearly falling out of the van, Richie ran to the McDonalds.
The police will be here soon, Sam thought. I have to get going. The map where Richie had pointed out the water slide zone laid on the dashboard. Looking it over, Sam switched seats and pulled the van out of the parking lot.
She speeded a long trying to gain time over the police she knew would be following her. What was the matter with her, why did she act like that with Richie? Shoving the questions aside she concentrated on the road ahead. I'm coming Jack.
He drowned two orange sodas and kept his eyes fixed on the payphone. He should call the police, he knew that. Something inside of him told him that the agent, Samantha, had just overreacted. That she hadn't meant to do the things she had. If he called the cops, she would be in big trouble and no one would probably find that man and his family in time. He couldn't live with their deaths on his conscience.
Pushing his hand through his thick curls he decided what to do: call the police and say his van was stolen but not tell the direction the person who stole it was going. The thief he would also describe as a large man.
Heading over to the payphone, a memory entered Richie's mind: the man and his family in the back of the van. The man and the woman were arguing in friendly tones, as if the children wouldn't pick up on it. The woman only yelled once to say, "I know I'm not like her!" It was only at that moment that Richie realized who the her was.
To be continued…
