Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

flashes of gold. It made driving a misery.
    The sun sank beneath rain as the road started upward in a series of twisting, tight turns that reflected its origins in horse-and-buggy days. Instead of gutters, water was hustled off the road by giving the pavement a slant up on the bluff side and down over the growing drop off on the driver’s side. Sheets of dirty water sluiced across the road, shot through with occasional tongues of mud. The higher they climbed, the more muddy the road got.
    “You’d think they’d maintain it better,” Lacey said, bracing herself on the dashboard again.
    Ian didn’t answer.
    The downhill side of the road was scalloped from old slides where chunks of the shoulder had slid off into the riverbed. The uphill side had mounds of mud and pebbles that had drooled down the bluff and piled up at the pavement, making the road even narrower. As soon as someone dropped a ’dozer blade across the road next spring, it would be fine. Until then it would be lousy.
    Remembering the guard’s warning, Ian kicked on the high beams. They didn’t do much. It was the time of day that wasn’t light or dark, when distances were tricky to judge even when it wasn’t raining.
    “If you see any rocks—” Ian began.
    The windshield exploded.
    Lacey’s scream drowned out the flat crack of a gun.
    A rifle, Ian thought as he fought the waves of darkness sweeping over him. A fucking turkey shoot
    Even as his vision went black, he tried to yank the steering wheel so that the truck would turn away from the drop off, but it was too late. Everything was slipping through his hands.
    Lacey grabbed the wheel and tried to keep the truck on the road.There was a sharp crack! The truck jerked and bucked and sagged down on her side and began crabbing, tires fighting for traction. The rear wheels were already off the road, dragging everything down with them as they sank. Tires spun independently, spraying water and mud in rooster tails toward the riverbed a hundred feet below. It wasn’t a straight drop, but it was a steep one.
    The truck shuddered backward toward the void.
    The left front tire caught traction. The truck stopped sliding and started vibrating with a horrible grinding sound. For an instant Lacey thought it would hold in place, but the downhill weight was too much. The truck quivered backward. She yanked open her seat belt and Ian’s.
    And then she felt it all sliding away.
    “Ian!” She dragged him toward the passenger door, taking advantage of the angle of the seat. “We’ve got to get out before the truck goes over!”
    He might have groaned. She couldn’t hear much above the sound of the engine. Then his head rolled and she saw his face.
    That’s not blood on him. It can’t be. I won’t let it be
    She kicked open the door and half fell out onto the road, pulling Ian after her. She didn’t feel the slam of the hard surface on her shoulder or the drenching chill of the rainwater sluicing over her. All she felt was the shudder and wrench of her breathing.
    And Ian’s.
    He’s alive. Oh, God, he’s alive
    Behind her, the truck groaned and jerked and then simply disappeared. The crash and bang of metal told her that the truck was tumbling faster and faster, gaining velocity with every second.
    From the corner of her eye she saw movement. A man was sliding down the bluff toward them. Relief swept through her—help was on the way. Then she saw the outline of the rifle and knew that it wasn’t a rock that had broken the windshield or the sound of a tire exploding that she had heard. Someone had tried to kill them.
    Now he was coming down to finish the job.
    Hide. We have to hide
    There was no cover on the road. No way to haul Ian up the bluff. Nowhere to go but down.
    She took it.
    Ian shook his head and began struggling against the hands pulling athim. With the strength of pure adrenaline overdrive, Lacey shoved against him, taking both of them into the only safety she could find. When he felt the ground give way, he knew what was coming. He grabbed her and wrapped her close, trying to protect her as they went rolling and tumbling and sliding down the bluff into the darkness below until they slammed up against something bigger than they were and stopped moving.
    Ian groaned. The first wave of dizziness had passed, leaving in its wake the nausea and blurred vision of a concussion. He’d had worse ones before. He could function if he had to. And his instincts were screaming at him that he had