AN

Sorry this took so long guys, but the lack of response kind of discouraged me for a while. Thanks to those of you who did review by the way, I am greatful for those. Anyway, I hope you guys are still reading this and please review!

Disclaimer-I own nothing.

No Escape

Chapter 27

Kon thanked God that the men's room at the little convenience store they stopped at was for one person at a time. He flipped on the light and locked the grimy door behind him.

With shaking hands, Kon powered on his cell phone-which seemed to take forever-and dialed Ichigo. Maybe he should have called the police, but he didn't have time to explain his parental situation before Yammy would become suspicious. Ichigo already knew what was going on. He could call the police.

"Kon. Are you safe?" asked Ichigo.

Kon kept his voice low so it wouldn't carry through the flimsy door. "Yeah. I'm at Igarashi's Gas Up, right outside of Hokkaido."

"Igarashi's Gas Up. Outisde of Hokkaido," repeated Ichigo, as if for the benefit of someone else nearby. "Stay there. Police are on the way."

"I don't know how long I can stall. I'll try."

Ichigo's voice was calm and sure, and it somehow helped Kon to find his own confidence. "You do what you can. We'll do the rest. I want you to stay on the line so we can track your cell phone, okay?"

"He might hear it."

"I'll mute it on my end so he can't hear anything we say. All you need to do is hang on."

Kon could do that. Help was on the way. Rukia trusted Ichigo, and that was good enough for him to do the same. "Okay. I gotta get back out there or he's going to start getting suspicious."

He put the phone in the pocket of his letter jacket to keep it close at hand. If he wasn't able to stall long enough for the police to show up, at least he'd be able to drop clues about which way they were going. The police would be able to follow them.

This was almost over. Within hours, his dad would be back in jail and out of his life for good.

Yammy pounded on the door. "Hurry up in there!"

"I'm coming. Just a sec," said Kon. He flushed the toilet and ran water in the sink just in case Yammy was listening.

Kon opened the door, and Yammy handed him an armload of bottled soda and snacks and a wad of small bills. "Pay for this while I go. Meet me by the car."

"Do you mind if I get a cup of coffee?"

"Yeah. Whatever. Just be quick."

Kon turned to go, but Yammy stopped him, grabbing his arm hard enough that it hurt. Kon took the pain without letting it show on his face. He didn't want to give his old man the satisfaction of seeing his pain.

"Don't do anything stupid, son." Yammy lifted up the front of his shirt enough that Kon could see the metallic gleam of the handgun shoved in his waistband. "I'm sure you wouldn't want anyone getting hurt."

Kon's vision narrowed until there was nothing else but that gun. There was no question in his mind that Yammy would use it. He would. He'd probably enjoy it, too.

Kon swallowed hard, trying to make room to speak so Ichigo could hear Yammy was armed. "I'll do whatever you want. Just don't shoot anyone."

Yammy clamped a hand hard over his mouth. "Keep your voice down, boy, and get your ass back to the car!"

Kon nodded, and Yammy shoved him away hard enough that he stumbled. A bottle of soda fell to the floor and rolled away. Kon scrambled after it, making note of which one it was. Who knew when a spewing bottle of soda might come in handy as a distraction.

The bathroom door slammed shut, and Kon carried his food to the front counter. "I want a cup of coffee added to this," he told the woman at the register.

Her nametag read "Ayumi," and she looked like he pictured a grandma should. She had short gray hair that she probably had styled once a week by a woman she called a beauty operator. The lines on her face were deeper around her mouth, telling him she'd shared a lot of smiles in her lifetime, and she wore a sweatshirt inviting people to ask her about her grandkids.

Kon didn't. He simply went to make himself a cup of coffee and prayed she'd live long enough to tell the next customer about them.

"Oh, sweetie," she said, "That coffee is old. Let me make you a new pot."

Kon was torn between wanting to stall like Ichigo had told him to and wanting to get Granny Ayumi out of harm's way. In the end, it wasn't really a choice. "No, thanks. I like the old stuff better."

She wrinkled her nose in distaste but shrugged. "You young kids sure have your own way of doing things. My grandson, Junichi, is the same way-eating things I wouldn't feed to a skunk."

Through the window, Kon saw a Hokkaido highway patrol car pull into the parking lot. Two policemen got out.

From the back of the store, Kon heard the bathroom door open.

"You go ahead and get your coffee," said Granny Ayumi. "I'll ring you up."

Kon didn't know what to do, so he tried to pretend everything was fine. He wasn't being held against his will by his gun-toting ex-con father. He was just picking up some snacks for the ride home.

The sweat drenching his palms proved him a liar, but he ignored it. He knew if he so much as looked toward Yammy, he'd be able to tell that Kon was working against him.

The electronic doorbell chimed as the cops walked in. "Evening, Ayumi," greeted one of the officers.

"Hi, Daisuke, Seijiro. I was just about to fix a fresh pot of coffee. Interested?"

"Yes, ma'am."

They sounded so casual that it had to be a coincidence they were here. Surely these couldn't be the police Ichigo said were coming. No sirens. No lights. These men didn't even have their guns drawn.

Granny Ayumi came over to where Kon was adding sugar packets to his coffee one at a time. He'd lost count of how many he'd used, but it didn't really matter. His nervous stomach would never settle down enough for him to actually drink the stuff.

"Excuse me," said Granny Ayumi. "Mind if I scoot in here and make some fresh coffee?"

Kon's mouth was too dry to speak, but he nodded and shuffled to one side.

"That's enough sugar, son," came Yammy's warning voice from behind him. "We gotta get back on the road if we're going to make it home in time for your sister's birthday party."

That lie jarred him just enough that he actually flinched. Hot coffee sloshed over the side of his cup, burning his hand.

Kon gasped and jumped back, shaking drops of coffee from his skin.

"Oh, sweetie! Let me get you some ice," said Granny Ayumi.

Yammy grabbed Kon by the back of his jacket and shoved him toward the door. "He'll be fine. Let's go, son."

Kon's hand screamed with pain, but he ignored it. All he wanted to do was get out of here before someone got hurt. The police could catch up with Yammy farther up the road, where there was no Granny Ayumi around to become a target.

"It will only take me a second," said Granny Ayumi.

Yammy wasn't waiting. He grabbed Kon's arm and pulled him toward the door.

"Don't do anything stupid," growled Yammy in Kon's ear.

The radios the patrolmen were wearing squawked to life. Kon couldn't understand the codes the dispatcher used, but he did catch his father's name come over the static-y line.

Yammy came to dead stop. It lasted only a second. Maybe the cops hadn't even seen it.

"Excuse me, sir," said one of the cops. "Can you please hold on a minute?"

"We're in a hurry, officer," said Yammy.

"This will just take a moment."

Kon looked over his shoulder. One of the policemen was speaking into the radio. The only word Kon caught was "backup."

This was going to end badly, and from the tension quivering through Yammy's body, he knew it, too.

"Sir," said the cop, this time more firmly. "I need you to put your hands where I can see them and turn around slowly."

Yammy let go of Kon's arm long enough to spin him so he was facing the cops and loop a thick arm around his neck. Kon was too shocked to react. He'd known for a long time that his father was a worthless waste of oxygen. Kon had been beaten and smacked around more times than he could count, but never in his most disgusted imaginings had he thought that Yammy would use his only son as a human shield.

Kon staggered under the betrayal. It ran so deep he was sure his very soul bled out the last hope he had that his dad cared for him even a little. He only wanted Kon back because he was Yammy's possession. His property.

"We're leaving," said Yammy to the police. "Get out of the way and no one will get hurt."

"I'm sorry, sir. We can't let you leave with the boy."

Ayumi came back out from the storage room carrying a dish towel for the ice pack she was going to make him. She froze in place when she saw what was going on.

Neither one of the patrolmen so much as glanced her way. Their eyes were fixed on the threat.

Kon felt Yammy reach for his weapon with his free hand. There were three targets in the room, and Yammy wouldn't hesitate to take out all of them. Even Granny Ayumi.

No way was Kon going to let that happen.

"He's got a gun!" shouted Kon.

Yammy's grip on his neck tightened until Kon could no longer breathe. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the gun in Yammy's hand shining in the fluorescent lighting.

Both officers pulled their weapons. They'd spread out enough that Yammy couldn't possibly keep his eye on both of them.

Ayumi cowered on the floor near the donut display, repeating a low, terrified mantra of "God, no."

Yammy pulled his gun free and alternated pointing it at the two men. "I'm going to walk out that door. If you try to follow me, I'll kill the boy."

Another slice of Kon's soul shriveled and died. He was amazed by how much it hurt. Even more amazed that he was still alive and breathing after suffering a blow like that from his own father.

"That's not going to happen," said one of the officers. "Put the gun down. There's nowhere for you to go. Every road is blocked."

"He's my son! He belongs to me! You have no right to take him away," growled Yammy.

Kon clawed at his arm, struggling to get enough air into his lungs to breathe.

"You're hurting the boy," said the second officer in a calm tone.

"I'll do a hell of a lot more than hurt him if you don't get the fuck out of my way!" Even as he said it, Yammy's arm tightened.

Kon's vision filled with spots, and he tried not to panic. Maybe he should just give in and pass out. Yammy wouldn't be able to hold him up and keep an eye on both police officers. It was worth a shot. At this point, he didn't have a lot to lose.

Kon went limp, and Yammy staggered under the sudden shift of weight.

His gun went off. Kon's vision gave out, and the deafening noise combined with his sudden blindness was enough to send Kon headlong into panic. He forgot all about his plan and started fighting like his life depended on it. He landed one or two solid blows before all he was hitting was air.

Somewhere to his right, he heard a frantic scrambling sound, a sickening thud, then another, and finally, the sound of something hard crunching.

Slowly, as Kon gasped for air, his vision started to come back. He sat up and surveyed the scene.

Granny Ayumi was crouched over one of the policemen, whose skull was grotesquely sunken on one side. He wasn't moving.

The second officer lay twitching in a puddle of his own blood. He struggled to operate the radio at his shoulder, but his body wasn't cooperating. His bloody fingers slipped on the plastic.

Yammy stood there, the butt of his gun smeared with blood and bits of skin. He was breathing hard and looked pale and terrified. "We gotta go, boy."

Kon wasn't about to leave that policeman here to bleed to death. Even if the whole mess hadn't been his fault, he still couldn't have left him. "I'm staying."

Yammy grabbed a fistful of Kon's hair and jerked him up to his feet. "You're coming with me!"

Kon felt a blind rage take hold of him, and he let it. He was tired of being afraid. Tired of being pushed around by the one man who should have been willing to do anything to take care of him. He balled up his fist and slammed it hard against the side of Yammy's head, knocking him down.

Pain shot through his hand and up his arm, but he ignored it.

Yammy pushed himself to his feet and aimed the gun at Kon's chest. "Get in the fucking car, boy. This is your last warning."

No. Kon was not going to be pushed around any longer. He was nearly a man himself. It was time he started acting like one.

He planted his feet and gave his dad a hard stare. "Shoot me if you want, but I'm staying here."

Sirens wailed in the distance, getting closer.

"You might as well stay, too. There's no way you'll be able to outrun the police in that crappy car of yours."

"Fuck!" shouted Yammy.

"It would be best if you turned yourself in."

Yammy's face darkened to an angry red. "I'm not going back to jail."

Kon shrugged. "We'll see." He truly didn't care. Either way, Yammy was out of his life for good. He wouldn't let it be any other way. All the fear he'd carried around for seventeen years evaporated. Yammy no longer held any power over him.

"You're no fucking son of mine."

Kon nodded slowly and allowed himself a little smile. "That's the only good thing you've ever said to me."

Yammy sneered, then raced out of the store and fled across the parking lot, toward a neighborhood. Kon wanted to watch him so he could tell the police where he'd gone, but the bleeding man needed his help more.

Kon scrambled to his side. The bullet Yammy fired had gone into the man's neck. Blood seemed to be gushing out of the wound with every beat of his heart. He pressed a hand to the wound, praying he could slow the bleeding enough to keep him alive until help arrived.

"Kon!" he heard Ichigo's voice faintly, as if coming from a long distance.

It took Kon a moment to remember the phone in his pocket. He pulled it out with one bloody hand. "Ichigo, two policemen have been hurt. Bad. Send help."

"It's already on the way. Just hang on."

Blood was still pooling on the floor despite Kon's efforts. Ayumi was breathing into the body of the second man, but with a head wound like that, Kon was pretty sure he was already gone. "Tell them to hurry. He doesn't have long."

AN

Okay, so as thrilling as this chapter might be, by now you must know my rule. That is, since neither Ichigo or Rukia appeared in this chapter, you guys get another one. So move on up! But review first, please. I'm begging you!