Try Not to Breathe, page 35
How could Anna argue with that?
Her pace slowed. Should she go back too? Did Avery need her help? Anna had seen the workers, knew they looked ragged and exhausted, beaten down by their shitty lives. At least one of them had a baby. Could Avery protect them or help them by herself, especially against men with guns?
Anna stopped and looked back. She could find her way out of the woods and back to the farm. The path led there. And what about Brittany and the kids? Weren’t they innocent bystanders to whatever was happening at the farm? Would Avery know that?
Anna rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to stay warm. Her teeth chattered a little, as much from nerves and fear as from the chill.
She took one step back toward the farm. And stopped.
“No.”
She said it out loud, her voice like a shout in the quiet night.
The guard was there. Avery had tied him up like a hog, but maybe he had worked his way loose.
A voice in her head said, For once, listen to Avery. Listen to your family, if they can still be called that. Avery is in charge. Let her be.
Anna reversed her course and started moving up the path again, hoping against all hope that Avery was right and eventually she’d find herself in a place where she could get help.
Before it was too late.
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Avery passed Yates’ body again and crossed the bridge.
As she moved toward the north set of cabins, she walked cautiously. She worried about Hogan. If Hank jamming a knife into him a couple of times hadn’t disabled or killed the man, then he was going to be stomping around the farm like a bear with his paw in a trap. He’d be angrier and more dangerous than ever. And there was no way to know who he was going to take it out on.
Hank first. For sure. And Avery herself.
She wanted to find Hank and the others and get them out before any more harm came to them. If Anna found a way out and managed to reach help, then all the better. Someone might arrive to provide backup. Although Avery had her doubts about the local cops. She suspected Hardeman had been paid to look the other way, like a referee in a pro wrestling match.
As Avery approached the cabins, a group of people came toward her. She froze in the path, worried that it was Hogan and Collins coming to get her. But there were too many people—and unless they’d found reinforcements, it couldn’t be them.
At the front of the group, one figure emerged. Avery recognized the slender body and the scraggly beard. He walked with his body canted to one side, his right arm applying pressure to his left biceps. Hank. Like the Pied Piper, he was leading a group of workers away from the cabins and down the path toward escape.
He came closer, blood on his arm, skin pale. Sweat beaded on his forehead like raindrops. He looked to be holding on by a narrow thread.
“My God, you’ve been shot,” Avery said as they reached each other.
“Just once,” he said, wincing, as if the words cost him effort. “I’m lucky I stabbed Hogan before he tried to shoot me. It messed up his aim.”
“Still, this is a lot of blood. Too much.”
“Why did you come back, Avery? I thought you were getting Anna out of here. Couldn’t you find the trail? You need to go. Now.”
“We found it. I put Anna on it. But I came back because—well, I was worried about you. And I thought other people needed help.” She looked past Hank to the crowd of farmworkers. They looked scared, their eyes wide and haunted in the dark. Camila and Gilberto—and their baby. The guy Collins had beaten in the field. Tommy. Celina and Vladimir. She had made the right choice. “Let’s get all of you out of here. Where’s Hogan?”
“He’s on his feet. I saw him walk away. I think he went to get help. Maybe Collins—”
“I took care of Collins. He’s out of commission for a bit.”
“Nice. Everyone’s scared. They’ve always been told not to leave without permission.”
“Come on. Hogan won’t be far off. Let’s get everyone to the trail.”
Avery took a step that way and waved her hand at the crowd, who looked uncertain. Hank said something to them in Spanish. Avery understood one word. Peligro. Tommy nodded along, said, “Let’s go, people. This is fucked.”
“Easy, Tommy,” Hank said. “They’ll get moving.”
“I’m ready to go,” Tommy said, touching his bruised and swollen face. “Now.”
They all started walking, but Hank remained in place, still clutching his arm. He started shaking his head.
“Hank?”
“I can’t, Avery. If you hadn’t shown up . . .”
“No. Come on. I’ll carry you if I have to.”
“I’ll slow you down on the trail, and you have to move fast. And it’s going to be hard enough to move quickly with this group. I’ll make it worse.”
“What are you saying?”
“You take them out. You know where the trail is, so go. I’ll . . .” He looked behind him, in the direction of the other set of cabins and ultimately the big house. If Hogan was coming with reinforcements, he’d be coming that way. “I’m going to stay here. I’ll slow them down and maybe . . . maybe Anna will have found help by then. Or else . . . I don’t know.”
“Let’s all go. This is bullshit, Hank.”
“This is the right way. And you know it. Get them out of here. Or at least hide them in the woods until help gets here. If I stay right here in this clearing, I can slow them down long enough to give you a chance. It isn’t a big one, but it’s something. Go.”
“I won’t—”
“Go. Okay? Please.”
He was right. She could tell by looking at him that he might not make it very far. And if they hoped to get the ragtag group down to the trail and off the property, it would take every bit of good fortune they could find.
It ripped her heart in half to leave him behind.
She lifted her shirt and brought out the gun she had taken from Collins.
“This might help. Can you hold it?”
Hank took it. “I can hold it well enough to make some noise.”
“Will you try to be careful?”
“We’re a little past careful. Go.”
“No, Hank . . . I—I’m going to stay with you.”
“You’re going to go. Now.”
Avery waved the workers forward, and they started moving, heading down the path toward what she hoped was safety.
She said, “I’m sorry we didn’t—I didn’t handle things better. Between us. I’m glad you dragged me out of that pond, but it also seems like everything started to go wrong then. You know?”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for. Just go.”
He turned his back and started past the firepit, toward the far side of the clearing. He moved slowly, like a man who was wiped out on his feet.
Avery wanted to say more but couldn’t think of anything.
Besides, she was the Pied Piper now, and she needed to get her charges as far away from Hogan and the Combs family as she possibly could, as quickly as she could.
She fell in behind them as they moved down the path.
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The north set of cabins came into view.
Hogan tried to breathe evenly, to keep his heart rate level. He gripped the pistol, hoped he’d be able to use it if he had to.
He hoped he didn’t have to.
Taylor asked, “Where’s the cop?”
“In his cabin, on the left.”
When they reached the clearing, a voice called out from the far side.
“Hold it.”
Both men froze in their tracks. Hogan cocked his head to one side, tried to figure out who’d spoken. The male voice rang with authority. Not like one of the farmhands speaking. They’d have known better.
He thought he knew—
“Who’s that?” Taylor asked. “Collins?”
“Don’t come any farther,” the voice said. “Just stay there.”
“It’s the cop,” Hogan said. “He’s in the brush past the cabins.”
“I thought you—”
“I don’t know,” Hogan said. “But it’s him. Has to be.”
Hogan had fired up close, but it had been dark and his arm and back had been burning. His shots could have missed, could have flown harmlessly over the cop’s head and become embedded in the rear wall of the cabin.
But what could the cop do to them? His only weapon had ended up in Hogan’s back. And now Brittany had it.
Hogan stepped forward. “Okay, cop. Whatever your name is. We’re just trying to find out what’s going on with our employees. They all seem to have flown the coop. See, that’s taking money out of Mr. Combs’ pockets. This is his land and his business. So we want those folks to just come on back, return to their cabins, and get back to work. That’s it. We don’t have a quarrel with you either, even though you put a knife in my back. Twice. Let’s just all cool down and keep everybody safe.”
“Your employees are leaving. You stay there and let them go.”
“I imagine your girlfriend is trying to take them off the farm,” Hogan said. “But Mr. Collins might have something to say about that.”
“Mr. Collins is incapacitated.”
Hogan felt a cold wave pass through him, a combination of anger and surprise. He stopped for a moment, then shook his head. “That’s bullshit.”
“Just stand there, both of you. Just wait. Everyone will be gone, and then you can do whatever you want with me.”
Hogan started forward, his grip on the gun tightening.
“Be careful, Hogan—”
Hogan moved past the campfire, saw the open door of the cabin in which he had shot at the cop. As he moved, something whistled past his head, followed by the crack of a report.
“Get down,” Taylor said.
The cop had a gun. And he was using it.
Another shot went past Hogan’s head. He dove to the side, taking shelter behind the cabin wall. Taylor did the same across the way.
The cop had a gun. Collins’ gun. Collins really was incapacitated. And they were pinned down, helpless to stop the workers getting out and blowing the lid off everything.
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Avery and the workers crossed the wooden bridge over the river and moved on down the trail.
Avery led the group, knowing full well they were going to pass Yates’ body. She suspected that the group could handle the sight, that they’d seen plenty in their lives, but she still felt protective. She wished none of them had to see anything like Yates’ dead body, facedown in the dirt.
But when they reached it, the workers barely gave it a second look. They’d heard the shots, so they knew what they were dealing with. Avery found herself slightly sickened by the body, something in her core shaking as they walked past it. But the others kept their reactions to themselves.
Once they were past Yates, and the trail started to make a slight downward slope toward the fields, Avery allowed herself to feel slightly better. She knew the way to the trail. She could get them all there. She could keep them safe.
She tried not to think about Hank. The bullet wound in his arm. Hogan and whoever else from the farm closing in on him. Hank putting himself between them and the workers so everyone could get away . . .
His actions didn’t surprise her. And she tried to take comfort in believing in Hank’s toughness and resourcefulness. If anyone could find a way out, he could.
A shot cracked.
Everyone froze and ducked, even though, Avery could tell, the shot had been fired back at the cabins. Back where Hank stood guard, protecting them.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Let’s keep moving.”
Then another shot cut through the night. The same gun.
Hank? Holding them off?
Or being gunned down?
“This is getting really bad,” Tommy said.
“Keep moving,” she said again, waving them forward.
The tension in Avery rose. If Hogan and the others managed to get past Hank, they could come down the trail behind the workers and her. Close in on them.
Something moved on the trail ahead of them.
Avery slowed her pace, squinted her eyes to stare into the dark. She tried to make out the movement on the trail.
The figure resolved into a man-sized shape. Stumbling up the trail toward the top of the hill. Stumbling but moving toward them.
Collins.
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Avery froze.
The rest of the group saw Collins as well. Since they’d been living under his thumb, they knew what it meant to come across him in the dark. After he’d told them all to stay inside no matter what. They had defied his order.
When Collins spotted them, his posture stiffened. He wobbled a little, though, no doubt feeling the effects of the blow Avery had struck.
But he was on his feet, facing them.
And he was pissed.
“What the fuck is this?” he asked.
“Piece of shit,” Tommy said, his voice low.
Even in the dark, Avery saw Collins’ gaze fix on her.
“Who do you think you are?” he asked. His hand went to the back of his head, gingerly touched the spot where Avery had whacked him. “Do you know what you’ve done? Do you know how bad this is going to be for you? For all of you? Todos ustedes.”
Avery sensed the unease as it passed through the group. Some of the workers started to back away.
But where would they go? With Hogan and Combs behind and Collins ahead?
“A la cueva.”
The voice was low. Avery recognized it. Camila.
She said it again, loud enough for the group to hear. But not Collins.
“A la cueva.”
It might be the best chance they had. They outnumbered Collins, but did Avery really want to stake everything on trying to physically overwhelm a man in the dark? She couldn’t know what other weapons he might have. Even with an injured head and a likely concussion, he’d be a tough adversary. Angry and ready to fight—like Hogan with the knife in his back.
She didn’t want to expose the farmworkers to attack or injury.
But if the group reached the cave, maybe they could hide there. Avery didn’t know how big or deep it was, but maybe they could avoid the men until help arrived. The cave also offered a clear view of anyone approaching—and might enable them to defend themselves with anything available: rocks, sticks. Anything.
“Go,” Avery said. “A la cueva.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Tommy said.
They started to move that way.
“Fast,” Avery said. “Rápido. A la cueva.”
The group moved down the path that paralleled the river, and headed for the cave.
Only Avery remained in place—face-to-face with Collins.
Collins came forward, his hands raised.
He looked like a wrestler getting ready to grapple.
Avery had taken him once, down by the crops. But she’d surprised him that time, come up behind him and gonged him with a rock.
In a direct confrontation, even with him hobbling because of the injury, she didn’t think she could fight him off. Her only hope was to slow him down, give the workers a chance to get to the cave and hide.
But once Collins was past her, it would be easy for him to quickly catch up to the farmworkers. And how far behind were Hogan and Combs? How badly would they treat those who had defied them?
Avery’s mind raced.
Collins approached. There were no rocks to grab. But Avery bent down, scooped her hand in the dirt. She brought up a handful and flung it, aiming for Collins’ face. Some of the dirt struck him in the eyes, temporarily blinding him and knocking him off-balance.
He grunted, lifted his hands to brush at his face.
Avery could have run forward, tried to knock him down again and dash for freedom the same way Anna had gone. But she couldn’t leave the workers to fend for themselves.
She turned to run down the path and toward the cave. She risked a look back, saw Collins lumbering her way.
Another shot was fired, that one in her direction.
Hogan?
“Avery, run.”
It was Hank.
He had saved her ass once again.
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Avery pounded down the path that ran parallel to the river.
As she went, the river grew wider and the force of the rushing water increased.
Another shot sounded behind her, but she kept running. She refused to look back. As she got closer to the cave, she felt the temperature drop dramatically. At least fifteen degrees.
She ran what must have been a thousand feet and finally caught up with the crowd of workers. The ones at the rear of the group, including Camila and her baby, turned to look back at her as she approached.
“Inside the cave,” Avery said. “Quick, hide inside.”
Whether they all understood her words or not, they understood her meaning. Avery urged them along, making pushing gestures with her hands. She hoped they could get inside there, press themselves back into some obscure corner and wait for help to arrive. Even if it took all night. Avery checked her watch—it was almost two. Four hours until sunrise. By then—surely by then—Anna would be back with help.
The cave mouth resolved into view in the dark. It was easily three stories high and as wide as a small house. The river ran through the left side of the cave opening. On the right was the cave floor, large enough for at least fifty people to crowd in comfortably. They all filed in, the sound of the river now so loud as it echoed off the rocky cave walls that they could barely hear anything they said to one another.
“Move back. Move to the back,” Avery said.
