Shiver

eye, Sam watched as he gingerly touched the far side of his thigh just below the constricting belt and winced. She couldn’t see the wound itself—it was on his outer thigh—but she surmised it was bad. His face hardened as he glanced up and caught her looking at him.
    “First thing we need to do is lose the BMW. It’s got a GPS in it, and believe me, as soon as they realize what’s happened they’ll be tracking us by it. What’s involved in unhooking it? Can you do it from inside the truck?”
    He didn’t sound like he was about to lose consciousness.Damn. Sam shook her head even as the thought of being tracked by GPS made her heart beat faster.
    “I have to get out to work the winch.”
    He gave her a long look. “You’re going to run away from me the first chance you get, aren’t you?”
    The answer was so obvious that she didn’t know why she even bothered to lie. “No.”
    “Maybe I better explain that those guys you shot back there are just a small part of the crew who’ll be looking for us as soon as they realize that I—we—escaped. They’re ruthless, vicious killers, and they’re going to keep coming after us, you understand?”
    Just the idea that a gang of ruthless, vicious killers might be coming after her made Sam nauseous.
    “Us?” Sam shook her head. “Oh, no. Uh-uh. There’s no ‘us’ in this. There’s you. They’re coming after you. Not me.”
    “I hate to burst your bubble, baby doll, but they’re coming after you, too.” His voice was grim.
    Sam felt cold sweat popping out around her hairline. “Not if you let me go.”
    “It’s too late for that. Even if I didn’t need you to drive, you’d only wind up getting yourself killed.”
    A single traffic light suspended on a drooping wire marked the Y-shaped intersection. It was red although they were the only vehicle within sight on either road. Even though they were still a couple of blocks away, Sam started applying the brakes, and they in turn started to groan in protest. She paid no attention as she considered her next best step. Story ran east. Eastwas the direction she meant to take. East led to people, possible escape opportunities, the heart of East St. Louis, and eventually, home and Tyler. North-south, following the path of the river, was the other choice. South led to a whole lot of nothing, while north eventually provided access to the Poplar Street Bridge, which carried three interstates across the Mississippi into St. Louis itself and beyond.
    As the intersection grew closer, she applied more force and the brakes groaned louder. Sam took a deep breath and looked at him. “I’ve got a kid, okay? A four-year-old boy. Whatever you’re into, I can’t be a part of it. I’m a single mother, and I’m all he has.”
    He looked at her for a moment without saying anything. His eyes narrowed. His lips tightened. “I’m sorry to hear that.” Sam was just starting to think that maybe her words had made a difference when he added, “I hate to break this to you, but that doesn’t change a thing. You think the people who are chasing us are going to cut you any slack because you’ve got a kid? Nice dream world you’re living in.”
    “If you let me go—” Desperation laced her words.
    “We’ll talk about it,” he interrupted. “Later. Once you get me to where I want to go.” He paused, glanced away, looked back at her. “So, where’s your kid?”

CHAPTER FIVE
     

     
    T he question jolted Sam. No way was she telling him that.
    “What’s it to you?” The look she shot him crackled with suspicion.
    “They can’t find you, they might very well go after him. It’s the way these bastards work.”
    Sam’s chest tightened with horror, rendering any answer impossible for the moment. Her stomach plunged straight to her toes. As they reached the intersection, she smashed the protesting brakes into the floor, grinding them down until the truck came to a full stop.
    “They’d go after a little kid?” She found she could talk again, barely, as the truck, swinging wide, got under way once more. The idea that Tyler might be in danger flooded her system with icy waves of panic. It was an effort to try to think clearly, but she did her best. And what she came up with was, rush home, grab Tyler, and run.
    Only she had to ditch Quasimodo first.
    “They take him, they get leverage. They kill him, it instills fear.”
    “Kill him?” Heart thudding, Sam had to consciously order herself to take a breath.