Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

twisted the wing nuts that held it in place. He pulled the panel aside. His truck was parked in front of a clump of mesquite trees a little over forty feet away. Sydney was next to him now, waiting to hear the next part of his plan. The sounds in the cabin had changed. Danny could tell that the men were nearing the closed bedroom door. They took slow and cautious steps. Soon they would realize the cabin was empty. It was now or never.
    “I’m going for the truck,” Danny whispered as he strapped on the backpack. “Look for my signal when I get there. Then get moving. Don’t stop. Don’t look around. Don’t do anything but run. I’ll cover you.”
    Sydney hesitated. Danny shined the light in her face. “Sydney!” he hissed in a whisper. “It’s either that or die. Hear me?”
    “Okay,” she whispered back.
    “I need you to drive so I can shoot if I have to,” he said. Sydney hesitated again. But then she nodded.
    “The keys are in the ignition.” Danny touched her hand. “Wish me luck.”
    “Good luck,” she replied.
    Danny crouched on his feet, took a deep breath, and gripped the rifle across his chest. Then he burst out from underneath the cabin. He was running flat out, waiting for the rain of bullets he was sure was seconds away.

Chapter 24
    Sydney’s heart was in her throat as she watched Danny cross the wide-open field between the cabin and his truck. This was a bad idea , she thought. He had no cover, nothing to hide behind. All it would take was for one of the guards to look out the window and see him. With the tick of each second, Sydney kept waiting to hear a gunshot. She kept imagining Danny falling dead on the ground. When he finally made it to the rear passenger side of the truck, she breathed a sigh of relief. He turned around, and his eyes were instantly on the cabin windows. Then they fell on her and he motioned.
    Sydney remembered back to her days on the starting blocks, thinking more about keeping her muscles loose than the competition around her. Those ancient thoughts propelled her relaxed movements once again as she exploded forward.
    She made it to the driver’s door and looked back at the cabin. The guards still hadn’t detected their activity. Danny eased open the back door, and Sydney followed suit, opening the driver’s door. She slid into the driver’s seat and saw the keys dangling in the ignition.
    I can do this.
    Sydney looked back over her shoulder. Danny had twisted around backward in his seat. He was staring out the back window, his gun idling in his hands. He was ready to protect them at any cost. The least she could do was put her foot on a gas pedal and keep both hands on the steering wheel.
    Sydney had driven a car before, but it was only once, when she was a teenager. The result wasn’t good. She had plowed head-on into the only tree in the barren field her foster father had selected to teach her how to drive. Sydney’s fear of cars instantly transform to hatred and remained that way for several years after Knobby informed her of how her own parents had died. It was a car accident, or rather a murder that was planned to look like a car accident. Sydney didn’t get the chance to say good-bye, or even hello for that matter.
    As she sat in the driver’s seat, staring at all of the components that would allow her to control this metal beast, panic sparked in her gut.
    I can’t do this.
    She heard Danny whisper over her shoulder. “Get us out of here, Sydney.”
    Her hands trembled as she gripped the keys. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw a body pass by the window inside the cabin. Seeing the guards, men who were out to kill her, men who were controlled by the same people who ordered the death of her parents, steeled her resolve.
    I must do this!
    She turned the key and the engine roared to life. She dropped the shifter into reverse and tromped on the gas.
    The truck immediately got away from her. Her body lunged forward, her chest slamming into the steering wheel. She didn’t know what happened. She looked up in the rearview mirror again and saw that they were headed straight for the cabin. She slammed on the brakes. Danny screamed from the backseat. “Drive Sydney! Get us out of here now!”
    Sydney turned around and looked at him. He had been thrown to the floorboard between the seats and was struggling to get up when Sydney saw the guards, including Declan Drake’s still-bloodied face, crowd into the window. They took only a split second