The Buried (31 page)

“No Dani?”

“I don’t see…wait.” A pause. “He’s looking into the backseat area and talking. She must be there.” Another beat. “The door to the Explorer is opening.”

Quinn looked at his phone again, but the door in question was on the other side and he couldn’t see much of anything.

“Orbits is getting out,” Nate continued. “So is the driver of the sedan. They’re talking…okay, Orbits is opening the back door. The Wolf is getting out now…she’s looking into the sedan.”

Quinn was starting to get frustrated about not having a direct line of sight, but then the front passenger door of the Explorer opened. The motorcyclist slipped out quietly and moved around the back of the SUV.

“Nate, be ready,” Quinn said. “Daeng, follow me.”

__________

“H
ERE WE GO,”
Orbits said as Stafford pulled the sedan beside The Wolf’s vehicle. He reached for the door but stopped and looked back, first at Bianca and then at The Wolf. “I’m going to get out. Don’t shoot me.”

The Wolf gestured at his door. “Please.”

He exited and motioned for Stafford to do the same. Once the other man was out, he asked in a hushed voice, “Any problems?”

“All good,” Stafford responded.

“Has Parnell seen anything?”

“I haven’t heard from him.”

No news was good news.

“Mr. Orbits? Is everything all right?” The Wolf called from inside the SUV.

“Just fine,” he said.

He opened the sedan’s back door. Danielle Chad lay across the rear seat, her head at the other end. Stafford had tied a cloth around her mouth so apparently it hadn’t been
all
good.

“It’s showtime, baby,” he said. He looked back at the SUV. “If you want to see the merchandise, now’s your chance.”

After exiting her vehicle, The Wolf bent down and looked into the sedan.

“Well, well. Miss Hayes. It’s been a long time.”

Hayes
? Orbits hadn’t heard that name before, but it obviously meant something to the girl, because the defiance she’d been wearing as a second skin was showing cracks.

“Okay, you’ve seen her,” he said. “Authorize the final payment and she’s all yours.”

The Wolf straightened back up. “Good idea. I’ll need my computer.” She climbed back into the Explorer, but instead of grabbing her laptop, she shut the door.

__________

S
TAYING LOW, QUINN
and Daeng moved over to the SUV. Quinn gestured for his friend to remain near the front end, where Daeng could watch the driver, and then headed to the back. The motorcyclist stood at the other corner, gun in hand, peering at Orbits and The Wolf.

Quinn could hear the two talking on the other side, something about payment and computer. A moment later, the Explorer rocked slightly, followed by the door slamming shut.

Taking this as her cue, the motorcyclist moved around the corner toward Orbits.

__________

O
RBITS
TWISTED AROUND
to find a smiling Bianca pointing her gun at him.

His own weapon was still under his jacket. He might’ve been able to pull it out, but he’d never get a shot off. So he threw himself into the sedan on top of Danielle. From outside, he heard the spit of Bianca’s weapon, the bullet sailing through the spot he’d been.

He grabbed his pistol but the barrel caught on his jacket. The weapon slipped from his hands and slid under the front seat. He felt around for it but couldn’t find it.

Two more shots went off, one from Bianca’s direction, the other coming from where Orbits had last seen Stafford.

Giving up on the gun, Orbits threw himself into the front seat as more shots were fired. When he started the engine, Stafford fell against the hood, his face covered with blood.

Son of a bitch!

Certain that Bianca was only a step away from putting a bullet in the back of his own head, Orbits shoved the car into reverse and slammed the gas pedal to the floor.

__________

B
EFORE QUINN COULD
get to the other side, he heard two sound-suppressed gunshots. As he sneaked a look around the corner, he saw Orbits’s other man pop up from the other side of the sedan and fire his weapon. The motorcyclist returned the favor, her aim a lot better than his.

Quinn rushed in behind her and placed his gun against her back. “Drop it.”

She froze.

“Last warning.”

As the pistol fell from her hand, the sedan shot backward, the open rear door smacking into the motorcyclist and shoving her against Quinn. Together they whacked into the Explorer and tumbled to the ground.

The woman tried to grab his gun but he was having none of it. So she spun around until she spotted her own weapon several feet away and dove for it. Her fingers had just touched the hilt when—

“Not a good idea,” Nate said.

Nate’s gun was pointed at the woman, while Ananke and Daeng had their weapons trained on two people still inside the SUV.

Quinn jumped up and yanked open the Explorer’s back door.

“Out.” He grabbed The Wolf’s arm and jerked her out, then pressed his gun against the base of the driver’s neck. “You, too.”

The driver did not resist.

While Quinn picked up the dropped weapons, Nate and Ananke quickly patted down the driver and the women, confiscating a Glock 9mm from the man but finding nothing on the women. Daeng zip-tied their hands and ankles.

“Let’s go,” Quinn said, and climbed behind the wheel of the Explorer. He smiled at The Wolf. “Thanks for the ride.”

 When the others were inside, he whipped the Explorer backward and raced away from Karl’s K-4.

“Nate, call the cops,” he said. “Have them pick up The Wolf and her friends.” He checked to make sure his comm mic was on. “Orlando, Orbits is heading your way.”

No response.

“Orlando?”

CHAPTER
39

O
RLANDO STARED IN
the direction of the unseen gas station, trying to visualize what was going on from the less than descriptive conversation coming over the comm. Something had gone down, that’s for sure. It sounded like her friends had gotten the upper hand.

She was starting to think maybe it was all over and they could get back to their lives when she spotted a gray sedan heading north at an unusually fast speed. She watched it approach. It appeared to have only one occupant.

It wasn’t until the car passed by that she was able to get a good look at the driver.

Ricky Orbits.

She started the car and pulled onto Highway 4, a couple hundred feet behind him.

__________

F
OR THE FIRST
thirty seconds after Orbits sped away from Karl’s K-4, he watched his rearview mirror more than he watched the road ahead. He was sure The Wolf’s Explorer would be right on his tail, but so far, it didn’t appear to have even left the station.

At some point, though, they would come. And this piece-of-crap sedan would never be able to outrun them. He needed a place to hide, somewhere they would never look.

The abandoned café they’d used the night before was coming up in a few miles, but it was right off the highway and seemed too exposed.

Hold on.

There was one place that only Orbits knew about, and it was definitely not just off the highway.

Feeling like he might have a chance, he continued north until he reached the unmarked dirt road.

__________

O
RLANDO PICKED UP
the call after the third ring.

“Nate?” she said, her voice coming out of the speaker.

“It’s all of us,” Nate told her.

“What happened back there?”

“Later,” Quinn said. “Right now you need to keep an eye out for—”

“Orbits?” she asked.

Quinn paused. “Yeah.”

“He buzzed by me a few minutes ago. I’m following him now.”

That explained why her comm wasn’t working. She’d driven out of range.

“Does he know you’re behind him?” Quinn asked.

“I don’t think so. He’s flying down the road, but not any faster than when I first saw him. Please tell me that you got Danielle so I can back off.”

“We didn’t. He still has her.”

She swore under her breath. “What happened?”

“It’s complicated.”

“What about The Wolf?”

“Left her and her people tied up at the gas station and called the cops. We’ve got her Explorer.”

“You weren’t kidding about complicated.”

“Where are you?”

“We blew past Meriden about a minute ago,” she said. “If we’re lucky, the highway patrol will pull him over.”

“That puts us about three minutes behind you. We’ll try to—”

“Hold on, he’s slowing,” she said. “Dammit, I’m going to have to drive by him or he’ll suspect something.” She said nothing for a few seconds. “He’s turning down a dirt road.” She gave a quick description of where the road began. “Okay, he’s out of sight. I’m going to double back.”

“Just wait at the turnoff until we get there,” Quinn said.

No response.

“Orlando?”

“She hung up,” Nate said.

“Get her back.”

Nate called her again but was sent straight to voice mail.

Quinn squeezed the steering wheel.

Dammit!

__________

O
RLANDO HEARD WHAT
Quinn wanted her to do, but screw that. Who knew where the dirt road went? Orbits could be out of reach by the time the others reached her.

“Orlan—”

She turned her phone off and circled back to the turnoff for the dirt road. Orbits’s sedan had kicked up a small cloud of dust obscuring much of her view, but if she was having a hard time seeing him, he’d have the same problem with her.

She turned across the highway and headed down the road.

Not quite a mile in, she came to a T-bone intersection. Once again, it was dust that gave Orbits away. She followed for at least another mile until the dirt cloud disappeared. Ahead, the road was empty.

Had Orbits hidden while she drove by? She twisted around as far as her body would allow, but she could see she was alone.

She backtracked to the point where she estimated his dust trail had ended, but there was nowhere for him to go. It was as if he had vanished.

She killed her engine and climbed out of the car. After a few seconds she heard a motor somewhere in the wilderness on the east side of the road.

She walked down the shoulder, trying to judge exactly where it was coming from. About thirty yards back, she spotted an opening in the brush, just wide enough for a car. On the ground were two wheel ruts, overgrown with grass, and nailed to old fence posts on either side, half hidden by the brush, were faded
NO TRESSPASSING
signs.

She had no idea what could be back there, but Orbits must have known. He’d headed directly here.

She hurried back to her car.

__________

O
RBITS PARKED IN
the same spot he had the night before. It was different here in the daylight, not quite as eerie.

He opened the back door and felt around under the front seat until he found his gun. After he put it back in his holster, he cut the ties holding the girl’s feet together and pulled her out. “Recognize this place?”

If she did, she showed no sign of it.

Grabbing her arm, he said, “This way,” and pushed her into the woods.

After a few minutes of walking, they came to the barbed-wire fence.

“Sit,” Orbits commanded her.

Once she was down, Orbits looked around until he found a couple of suitable branches of similar size and used them to separate two of the wire strands, creating a hole wide enough to duck through. As soon as he was sure the braces would hold, he made the girl go through first before following.

When they had reached the door in the middle of the clearing, the girl looked at it with a sort of awe, which made him think maybe this
was
her first time here.

He moved her over to where the tumblers were, pushed her to her knees, and flipped open the Plexiglas lid. “Open it,” he said.

Through her gag, she said, “Go to hell.”

“We don’t have time to mess around. Open it!”

She stared at him, unmoving.

He pulled his gun out and placed it against the side of her head. “You either put in the combination or I pull the trigger. That’s a promise.”

When she didn’t respond, he fired a bullet into the ground next to her leg and then aimed the gun at her head again. “Open it now.”

__________

D
ANI AND MARIANNE
had never discussed this possibility. The assumption was that the location would never be found. That was their job, to keep it out of the hands of others.

She remembered once asking Marianne why they couldn’t just forget where it was and have it be forever lost? But she already knew the answer. The promise they’d made in memory of their mother and to each other. The promise to, if not balance the scales, then tip them a little bit in that direction. It was their duty, their familial penance.

If her captor were not alone, she would have chosen death rather than let him inside, knowing she wouldn’t have a chance of escape. But no one else was here and the man was clearly agitated. He’d likely make mistakes she could take advantage of.

Live
, Marianne whispered.
Finish our work.

Dani leaned over the tumblers and, with her hands still tied, turned them one by one until she’d input the full combination.

From below the steel rose a soft hum.

Dani jumped back as the hydraulic hinges began lifting the door open.

 “Nice!” the man shouted.

When the door was out of the way, he and Dani looked in. A set of footholds were cut into the concrete wall below the door, running down like a ladder to a wide landing about eight feet down. On the left side of the landing was a door.