Chapter 5 - The Road Robert Left Behind
“You are absolutely not driving.”
Damian stood in the diner doorway as Evelyn pulled on boots.
She looked up.
“Do you know the trail?”
“No.”
“Vincent?”
“No.”
“Any of your men?”
Silence.
Evelyn zipped her jacket.
“Then congratulations. I’m driving.”
Vincent rubbed both hands over his face.
“I preferred her when she was making biscuits.”
Damian ignored him.
“The trail is dangerous.”
“So are the men outside.”
“You could be killed.”
“So could Noah if we stay.”
That ended the argument.
They moved quickly.
Weapons disappeared beneath coats.
Noah was carefully transferred into Evelyn’s old pickup, which had chains on all four tires.
“You keep tire chains behind the diner?” Vincent asked.
“I live in the Adirondacks, not Miami.”
Damian almost smiled.
Evelyn took the driver’s seat.
Damian climbed beside her.
Vincent squeezed into the back.
The remaining men divided among several vehicles.
Evelyn started the truck.
The engine groaned.
Damian looked at the dashboard.
“This vehicle is older than half my organization.”
“Insult my truck and you can walk.”
He raised a hand.
“My apologies.”
They left without headlights.
Evelyn took a narrow access road behind the diner.
Trees closed around them.
Snow and sleet blurred the windshield.
After two miles, Vincent leaned forward.
“There is no road.”
“There was in 1998.”
“That is not reassuring.”
Damian looked at Evelyn.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“A little.”
Then the radio cracked.
One of Damian’s men spoke.
“Vehicles behind us.”
Damian turned.
“How many?”
“Three.”
“They found the trail,” Vincent said.
Evelyn tightened her grip on the wheel.
“No.”
“What?”
“They found us. They don’t know the trail.”
Damian studied her.
“You have an idea.”
“Robert taught me something.”
“That sentence keeps becoming dangerous.”
She pointed ahead.
“There’s a fork in half a mile. Left looks safer.”
“And?”
“Left ends at an abandoned quarry.”
Vincent smiled for the first time.
“And right?”
“Barely looks like a road.”
Damian picked up the radio.
“At the fork, everyone goes right. Turn off rear lights.”
Vincent grinned.
“I like her.”
Damian gave him a look.
“Drive.”
Vincent was not driving.
He frowned.
“You know what I mean.”
At the fork, Evelyn turned sharply right.
Branches scraped the pickup.
The pursuing headlights went left.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Vincent laughed.
“They took it.”
Evelyn smiled.
“Tourists always do.”
Damian looked at her.
“These aren’t tourists.”
“Tonight they are.”
Twenty minutes later, County Route Nine appeared through the trees.
They had made it.
Damian’s phone received a signal.
Immediately, messages arrived.
Vincent checked his own.
“Our people can reach us from Albany.”
“How long?”
“Forty minutes.”
Damian nodded.
Then Cole called from the vehicle behind them.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“I got a message.”
“From whom?”
“My brother.”
Damian’s face sharpened.
“Read it.”
Cole did.
“Daniel escaped when they moved him. State police found him near Lake Placid.”
Relief swept through the vehicles.
Cole’s voice broke.
“He’s alive.”
Damian closed his eyes briefly.
“Good.”
Evelyn glanced toward him.
“You kept your promise.”
“We haven’t won yet.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I don’t celebrate until everyone is safe.”
Evelyn looked through the windshield.
“That sounds exhausting.”
“It is.”
They reached an old volunteer fire station twenty minutes later.
Damian’s people secured the building while Noah was treated by a retired paramedic who lived nearby.
By sunrise, the men who had surrounded the diner were gone.
State police had closed roads across the region.
Damian’s enemies scattered when they realized reinforcements were approaching from Albany.
No final battle.
No dramatic showdown.
Just survival.
Sometimes that was victory enough.
Evelyn stood beneath the fire station awning watching gray morning light break through the storm.
Damian joined her.
“You saved eighteen men.”
“Seventeen.”
He looked confused.
“You saved yourself.”
“I’m counting you.”
“Then eighteen.”
She smiled.
He became serious.
“You cannot return home yet.”
“My diner—”
“Can be repaired.”
“My house—”
“Can be guarded.”
“I don’t need guards.”
“Yes, you do.”
She turned toward him.
“Are you giving me orders?”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t going to work between us.”
Damian paused.
“Between us?”
Evelyn realized what she had said.
“So you heard that part.”
“Clearly.”
She looked away.
Damian stepped closer.
“Evelyn.”
“What?”
“When they said your name on the phone, I made a decision.”
She looked back.
“What decision?”
“That none of this would reach you.”
“It already did.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, Damian.”
His eyes held hers.
“I decided everyone could leave me behind if necessary.”
She stared.
“Including Vincent?”
“Including everyone.”
“Why?”
Damian did not answer immediately.
Because he himself did not completely understand.
Finally he said:
“Because you walked into a room full of dangerous men and saw hungry people.”
Evelyn’s expression softened.
“That doesn’t make me special.”
“To me it does.”
Before she could respond, Vincent opened the fire station door.
“Boss?”
Damian turned.
“We found out who ordered the attack.”
“Who?”
Vincent’s expression was grim.
May you like
“Someone you buried twenty years ago.”
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