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“Let me get closer. See what we’re up against.” Daniel started to inch forward. Ray caught his arm and shook his head.
“My turn.”
“Susana will kill me, anything happens to you.”
Ray moved ahead of him anyway. Daniel stayed close. They eased up on the porch. Ray took one long step and leaned against the wall, angled his head for a quick glance in the front window. He nodded. Daniel followed suit.
Two men in the living room. One woman. They had her tied to a chair. A man in camouflage was waving a lit cigarette in her face. It connected with her cheek. She screamed. The man struck her with the back of his hand, her head snapped to one side and dropped. No more screaming.
“Idiota!Did you knock her out?” A guy in a baseball cap got in the other man’s face. “She ain’t gonna tell us nothing knocked out.”
“Keep looking. It’s gotta be here somewhere. Juice ain’t smart enough to stash it anywhere else.” The men drifted away from the woman’s inert body slumped in the chair.
“Now.” Daniel nodded at Samuel.
The front door wasn’t even locked. Daniel smashed through, rolled to his right, Samuel went left. “Police. Freeze! Everybody down on the ground. Down on the ground.”
The men didn’t listen, of course. They never did.
The spray of gunfire lit up the house. Daniel dove behind the couch. He could hear Samuel’s short bursts of angry breathing, but he couldn’t see Ray. He stuck his weapon over the top of the couch and took his shots, three in rapid succession.
“DEA. Everybody down on the ground! Freeze! Down on the ground.” The firepower this time was much more intense. Camouflage man tried to run for it. A DEA SWAT team member took him out with one shot. The man in the cap flung his weapon on the ground and dropped to his knees, hands in the air. “Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot.”
“On the ground! On the ground, hands behind your back, thumbs up!” Samuel slapped his handcuffs on the man, his knee on the man’s back for good measure. “Where’s the little boy? Where is he?”
The guy squirmed under Samuel’s knee. “What you talking about, man? We ain’t got no little boy. He wasn’t in the car. He ain’t here, neither.”
The man in Army fatigues, writhed on the floor, blood dripping through his fingers where he pressed his hand to his shoulder. “Cállate!Shut up!”
“Where’d he go?” Daniel got in his face, shoved him against the wall, the barrel of his gun smashing the man’s nose. “You saw him? Where’d he go?”
The guy struggled against Daniel’s grip, but fierce anger gave Daniel more strength. The guy stopped moving, his face stoic. “I seen him in the car. But after it crashed, he wasn’t there no more. I looked around.No estuvo.”
“Back off, Daniel. Now.” Samuel’s hand tightened on his shoulder. “You need to back off now.”
Daniel eased back a step, whirled, and shoved past Samuel.
“He was in the car,” Samuel called after him. “He got away. That’s good.”
“He’s out there alone.” Daniel pushed through the front door, let the screen door slam behind him so hard it rattled. Thunder rolled and lightening cut a jagged pattern across the dark sky. He doubled over, trying to breathe.
“Alone.”
Chapter Thirty-four
His legs felt heavy. His head pounded. Benny lifted one foot and then the other. Counting the steps to twenty and then starting over. It seemed as if he’d been walking along the highway forever. At first, every time a car passed, he dropped into the ditch and hid, afraid to take a chance. Now he stuck out a thumb. He needed a ride. Otherwise, he’d never get to Mr. Daniel’s. The darkness wasn’t lifting. Rain dampened his face and clothes. A cool wind blew, making him shiver. Or maybe it was the thunder rolling overhead followed by flashes of light that lit the scenery around him. He’d never been outside in a storm before.
He wanted to lie down, curl up, and sleep forever. Every step made his ribs and chest ache more. He stumbled, pitched forward, and caught himself as his knees hit the ground. The jarring sent pain shooting through his entire body.
A car passed, the first one in a long, long time. He didn’t have time to stick out his thumb. He tried not to cry. The car slowed, slowed more, then pulled onto the shoulder of the road and started to creep back toward him.
Benny’s hand flew to the gun in his waistband. He’d tucked it in tight, secure, under his T-shirt. A man with little bits of white hair around a shiny, bald head rolled down the car window. “Hi, there. I’m Pastor Don Henderson. You look like you could use a ride into town. I’m going as far as my church up north of the city, if you care to get in.”
Benny looked at the pastor man’s face. A pastor worked in a church. Like Pastor James at Greater Good. Daniel said pastors worked for God. It would be okay to get in a car with someone who worked for God, wouldn’t it? He wavered. What if the man lied? God would be real mad. The inside of the car looked warm. What could it hurt? Benny could protect himself now. The gun had bullets. He’d checked.
Benny climbed in. The inside of the car smelled like coffee and cough drops. The heater generated waves of warm air that enveloped him better than a blanket. The radio played a familiar Sunday school song. He sank back into the seat, overcome with the desire to close his eyes and sleep. His nose ran. He sniffed and wiped with his sleeve.
“Here.” The pastor man handed him a box of tissues from the seat. “Got a little cold myself.”
