I turned and looked at Dumpling.
“That’s right, old man,” he said. “It’s showtime now.”
“Where are they right now?” I said. “In a boat? Is that what I heard?”
“Who said that?”
“Harry said that. He said they were in a boat.”
“So yeah, they are. They’re in a boat. With the money.”
“Why do they need to be in the boat?” Even as I said it, I already knew the answer.
“That’s part of the deal. Two Indians. One million dollars cash.”
“For Corvo,” I said. “That’s who we’re talking about.”
“We don’t need to talk about him.”
“Why not? Are you afraid of him?”
“Shut the hell up,” he said. “Just keep quiet.”
“Or what, are you gonna shoot me?”
He jabbed the gun barrel into my ribs. Hard. I spent the next two minutes trying to breathe again.
“What you’re telling me,” I finally said, “is that they sold out Vinnie and Buck to save their own skin. That’s what you’re telling me.”
“Nobody will miss them.”
“I happen to know they sold out a dealer in Sault Ste. Marie, too. You know what happened to him?”
“I have a feeling you’re gonna tell me,” he said, “whether I care or not.”
“Corvo tortured him. He cut him up and let him bleed to death. At least, that’s what it looked like.”
“You saw it?”
“After the fact, yeah.”
“Okay, then,” Dumpling said. “So now we know. Thanks for the information.”
“You guys don’t get it.”
“What?”
“They’ll do anything to save themselves. Anything.”
“What are you saying?”
I tensed up, waiting for another jab in the ribs.
“Don’t you think it’s funny? Having you drop them off at the dock? You think they’re really gonna wait for you?”
“All right,” Sugarpie said from the front seat. “Everybody shut the hell up right now.”
“You both know I’m right,” I said. “You both know you’re next.”
Dumpling jabbed me again and everything flashed white.
“He said shut up. So just shut up.”
My whole side was in spasm now. I tried to relax my muscles. Breathe. Relax. Breathe.
“You’re making this easy,” he said. “I’ll give you that much.”
I didn’t know where we were. We’d left the shoreline and now it was just trees on either side of us. Now and then the trees would break and I’d see wetland. Yes, plenty of swamps around here, I thought. That’s where we’re going. Far away from anyone else. My body won’t be found for days. Or weeks. Or maybe never.
These guys weren’t going to give me anything close to a fair shot at getting away, that much I knew for sure. Certainly not with my wrists still zip-tied together. But I had to try something. Even if it was a long shot. At some point, I had to roll the dice.
I looked around the backseat. There was nothing to grab on to. I looked above me, below me, to both sides. Then I looked out the windshield. Still nothing but trees. Then I looked at the rearview mirror.
A car behind us.
A white car.
I tried not to show any reaction. I let out a breath, closed my eyes, dipped my head down. Counted to ten. Then I opened my eyes and looked around again, just happening to glance at the rearview mirror.
I couldn’t quite make out what kind of car it was. I definitely couldn’t see the driver’s face. But the driver sat tall enough, I thought for sure it was a man, and I couldn’t make out anybody in the passenger’s seat.
One man driving a white car, just like the car Lou had rented. Who even buys white cars anymore? They all go to rental companies, right?
We made a right turn. There was an interior lake on our left. I took another quick look at the mirror. The white car could have turned the other way, but it hadn’t. It was still about forty or fifty yards behind us.
“Is that car following us?” Sugarpie said.
“You’re being paranoid,” Dumpling said, without even looking out the back window. “There’s like five roads on the whole island, remember? There’s always somebody behind you.”
“Yeah, but this guy said he had a bunch of friends with him.”
“And you believed that? Come on.”
We went down the road about another mile. Sugarpie slowed down as we came to another intersection. He was peering into the rearview mirror. He could have gone straight and stayed on the same road. He could have taken a right and gone back north on another road. He chose option C-take a left and drive down a trail that wasn’t a road at all.
“The car went straight,” he said as he started rumbling down the trail. We were in a Jeep Cherokee, after all, so it wasn’t entirely crazy.
“Told you,” Dumpling said. “Now slow down so you don’t get us all killed.”
“If I slow down, we sink in the soft ground. Speed is life. That’s what the pilots say.”
“Yeah, well, we’re not in a plane.”
“Just relax. We’re almost there.”
The car didn’t follow us, I thought. That could mean one of two things. Either it was Lou and he made a quick decision not to take the car down this rough trail. Or it wasn’t Lou. And really, why should it have been? Why should I be so lucky as to have him show up when I really needed him?
No, stay positive, I thought. You’re gonna find a way out of this. Even if you have to do something stupid, all by yourself. You’re certainly good at being stupid.
There was another trail branching off to the right. It was even rougher and narrower, if that was even possible. Sugarpie took the turn and kept going, the branches slapping at both sides of the car.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Dumpling said. “We’ll never get out of here.”
“I know what I’m doing. I’ve been down this trail before.”
“What, do you have a meth lab out here or something?”
They both laughed at that. A little too hard. They were whooping it up and in another minute they’d be shooting me and watching my body disappear into the swamp.
The ground rose slightly and Sugarpie gunned the engine. The tires spun for a moment and I thought the vehicle would be stuck for sure, but then it found purchase and we rocketed up to the top of the mound. He left the engine running, opening the driver’s door and getting out. Then he opened my door and pulled me out. I was just about to take my shot at him, but then I realized that would never work. I had to get Dumpling first, as long as he had the gun.
As I stood there waiting for him to come around from the other side of the vehicle, the mosquitoes were already buzzing around my head and landing on my neck. Officially not my biggest problem at the moment, but it was annoying as hell not to be able to slap them away.
“God damn,” Sugarpie said. “Where’s the bug spray?”
“Never mind that,” Dumpling said. “Let’s take care of this so we can get the hell out of here.”
Sugarpie grabbed my arm and pulled me over toward the front of the vehicle. The edge of the swamp was about ten feet away.
“Start walking,” he said. “Straight ahead.”
“So you can shoot me in the back?” I said. “I thought you guys had some guts.”
He grabbed me again and spun me around so that I was facing the swamp.
“Walk,” he said. “Right now.”
I turned around so that I was facing them again.
“I’m not making it easy,” I said. “If you’re gonna kill me, you’ll have to look me in the eye when you do it.”
“I’m pretty sure I can manage,” Dumpling said from behind him. “Especially now that you’re being such a pain in the ass.”
“Come do it then. Come shoot me like a man.”
“Let me do it,” Sugarpie said. He tried to take the gun from the other man, but Dumpling slapped his hand away.