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Not beta-ed so all spelling and grammar mistakes are mine and the spell checker's.

The Accidental Hero

Chapter 4

Ryan stood still as the trigger clicked and looked into the eyes of the masked man, so much for that little plan.

"Where's Pete?"

Ryan flicked his head towards the bed.

The masked man walked backwards, keeping the gun trained on Ryan. He looked down at the floor.

"Shit…you do that slick?"

Ryan nodded wearily. Fuck it… there was no point in lying. The man returned to where Ryan stood and rewarded him with a blinding backhander across his face. Ryan felt his nose explode sending a stream of blood across the floor. Ryan stood his ground.

"Where's the woman?"

"Gone."

"Shit…shit."

Ryan could see the panic in the man's eyes. Part of him was relieved that the man knew this job was one hundred percent botched now…part of him was dreading what was going to happen next. A jittery, pissed off guy with a gun was not a good thing.

The man looked around the room and noted Kirsten's jewellery box on the side. He grabbed it and started to stuff the contents in his pockets.

" Is there a back way out of here?"

Ryan was tempted to tell him no and buy Kirsten some time to get help but the best thing was to get them out of here as fast as possible. The back way meant that they wouldn't have to enter the main part of the house again…that meant keeping them away from Sandy and Seth.

"There's a path that leads down to the beach."

Ryan wiped his nose on the back of his hand, it was still bleeding steadily…the bastard had broken it again. Ryan wondered if he qualified for the Guinness Book of Records yet with the amount of times he'd broken his nose.

The man paced up and down for a minute…working out things in his head. He swung round and spat at Ryan.

"We're getting out of here before the cops show… seeing as you incapacitated Pete, you are gonna have the pleasure of carrying him."

When Ryan didn't move he lifted the gun level with his head.

Ryan got the message. He sighed and walked slowly over to the bed. The guy was skinny but Ryan didn't relish the thought of lugging him down the beach path.

"Move it…!"

Ryan bent down and grabbed the unconscious man's arms, he heaved him upwards and pulled him over his shoulder in a fireman's lift. He shifted him to make it more comfortable. He regretted hitting him so damn hard now, the pervert was a dead weight on his back and although he was fairly strong the beach path was steep and long.

"Get going and remember, I'm right behind you."

Ryan felt the gun nudge his back. Crap… this just kept getting better and better.

"Now get going…fast."

Ryan navigated his way outside, around the pool and down the path that led to the beach. He was sweating heavily now and his legs were killing him. They reached about halfway when he stopped briefly to hitch the weight up on his shoulders once more. That's when he heard the voices carry from above.

"You better pray that they don't come down here boy…now move."

Ryan felt a spurt of energy brought on by an adrenaline rush and he increased his pace. The gun nudging his back once more reminded him that this was not a romantic midnight stroll in the moonlight.

As they neared the bottom the path became a steep, sandy incline, Ryan had trouble keeping his balance and his bare feet slid the rest of the way down. He landed on his ass in a heap at the bottom 'Pete' hit the ground with a thump.

The man crouched down next to them and rolled 'Pete' onto his back, cupped his hand around his jaw and shook his head around trying to get a response from him.

"Shit…how hard did you hit him boy?"

Ryan muttered 'Not hard'…he kept to himself the fact that his wrist still ached from the force of the swing.

"You better pray that he's O.K."

Ryan stayed silent and listened to the man curse him.

"Get moving again…we ain't staying still."

Ryan got up and lifted Pete again; his shoulders groaned at having the weight back once more. Ryan took a deep breath and trudged up the beach. They'd walked about a half a mile when they heard the voices behind them.

Ryan felt the gun in his back again and the man pulled him into the scrub at the side of the cliff. The bushes gave them some camouflage in the darkness. Ryan shrugged Pete onto the sand. He was roughly pulled down and felt the cold barrel of the gun under his jaw.

"You say anything and I blow your head off …got it."

Ryan thought that that such a stupid thing to say, so clichéd. Like he was going to risk yelling out when a gun was resting at his neck, getting his brains rearranged was not an ambition of his. He was just relieved to get a breather at this point.

They both heard the sound of people moving down the shoreline. The voices carried to where they hid.

"So …what are the chances of this kid turning up alive?"

Ryan heard a laugh.

"I bet you fifty bucks that he'll be stinking up a dumpster somewhere in a few days."

"Martinez, you sick puppy…. I heard that the kid is an ex-con just living with the family, I wonder if he was in on it? That would explain how they got away so fast."

"Naaa…doesn't explain the blood at the scene Parker. The kid is dead and we're wasting our time freezing our butts off out here looking for him. The perps are long gone and the Sarge knows it…he's just keeping the family sweet cause they pay our wages. I'm telling you some bum will find his bloating corpse while rooting though a dumpster for a snack…lets just hope that it's away from here 'cause I don't want it to be on my beat…nothing worse than the stink of a week old body Parker, trust me."

The voices came near and the flashlight beam swung past their hiding place. Ryan held his breath.

"Hell, consider the beach searched…. they aren't out here…Lets just get back and grab a hot cup of coffee, I'm freezing my nads off here."

The sound of their laughter retreated back up the beach.

Ryan gave a wry smile to himself. It was good to know that the police were taking the search for him seriously. He should have known, He knew from his Chino days not to trust the bastards with finding the correct way to the urinals without written directions.

The sound of a low groan from the prone body next to him shook him out of his reverie.

"What the fuck?" Pete muttered as he slowly raised himself. He pulled his mask off and brought his hand to the back of his head.

The gun was pulled away from him as the other guy went over to his accomplice.

"Cody…what the hell happened?"

Shit…. shit, Ryan wished they wouldn't keep letting stuff slip, He didn't want to know their names he didn't want to see their faces. He wasn't stupid and neither were they. The chances of them just letting him go had just dropped considerably. He glanced back to see that Cody had also removed his mask. Great, things were not looking good.

This was just perfect. Why the hell hadn't these two just picked a different house to burgle? If they had have he'd still be sound asleep in his bed now, not sitting on the cold sand with his feet cut to ribbons and his sinuses killing him. He could feel the twin bruises forming already around his eyes from the blow to his face and God knows what shape his nose was in.

The two men continued to murmur to each other, and then both swung their eyes in his direction. Pete looked like he wanted to rip his head off, his face twisted in anger.

Ryan felt his stomach flip… He had a glorious image in his head care of Officers Parker and Martinez…fuck, the dumpster was looking like a distinct possibility now.

He lowered his head and gave a bitter laugh, he just hoped that they didn't choose the dumpster round the back of the 'Crab Shack', he knew from experience that it was only emptied once a week and the stink of the rotting crustacea would mean his body would never be found.

He ran his hand through his hair.

He looked up as both men stood above him.

This was not looking good at all.

TBC

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