Defy the Stars

  ‘Stay still’ Cody’s voice rose. His hand reached for the gun in his lap. ‘Stay still, you bitch. You ratted me out, went to the police. You told them everything.’

  ‘I didn’t.’ I bit my lip, my whole body trembling. ‘I made one anonymous call. Please.’

  The traffic ahead moved. Cody pressed on the accelerator and we sped away again. I looked around, but I couldn’t see Flynn in any of the nearby cars. It was too much to hope he’d be able to follow Cody through all this traffic anyway. I slid my hand inside my jeans pocket. If I could get my phone out without Cody seeing, I could dial 999.

  ‘No!’ Cody raised his gun again. He glanced angrily across at me. ‘Give me your mobile. And your bag.’

  I handed everything over. My bag contained both my purse and Flynn’s wallet. I felt lost without it.

  ‘Where are we going?’ I asked as we careered, too fast, around a bend in the road. ‘You can’t just—’

  ‘Shut up,’ Cody snapped. ‘This is all your fault.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You shouldn’t have seen what you saw . . . Bentham giving me that cash, the order to . . . to . . . And you shouldn’t have called the police.’

  ‘Okay, but . . . but . . .’ I hesitated, the enormity of my situation hitting me. It struck me that if I didn’t go to the police now, I really was turning a blind eye to Cody and Bentham’s horrific activities. Still, my first priority was to get away from Cody. I could still go to the cops even if I told Cody I wouldn’t. ‘You’re not thinking straight,’ I insisted. ‘I just made one, anonymous call . . .’ I caught my breath. ‘Cody, I don’t understand. This is all . . . totally outside anything I’ve ever done or seen or . . . or known. Please, I’m terrified.’

  I turned, my eyes filling with tears, and stared out of the window. We were zooming past rows of terraced houses. They blurred in my vision. How could this be happening? I had never felt so sick with fear. Another minute passed. From the signs outside I could see we were heading north, towards the M1 motorway. As Cody turned on to another main road, he cleared his throat.

  ‘You went to the police,’ he said. ‘I have a record already. It didn’t take much to convince them I was guilty, even if they couldn’t prove it. Plus Elmore – the guy I was supposed to “deal” with – has gone into hiding and Bentham is furious.’

  ‘Okay, but . . . but that’s over now,’ I said. ‘There’s no point making things worse.’

  Cody shook his head, muttering under his breath. We drove on, soon reaching the motorway. As we headed north a heavy rain started to fall from low, grey clouds. It struck me that I was nearly halfway to the commune. I badly wanted to be there again, among all the comforting and familiar sights and smells, with Dad and Gemma and Lily.

  ‘How old are you?’ I turned to Cody.

  ‘Nineteen. Almost twenty,’ he said. ‘Why?’

  I took a deep breath. ‘You don’t have to do any of this . . . work for Bentham . . . kidnap me . . . you’ve got choices . . .’

  There was a long pause.

  ‘I haven’t kidnapped you,’ Cody said.

  ‘Okay, then . . . then stop the car and let me out.’

  Cody swore but, to my surprise, he slowed the car.

  ‘Well stop and talk,’ he snapped. That’s all I’m promising.’

  ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Thank you.’

  A moment later we pulled off the motorway and into a service station car park. It was still raining hard. Cody headed to the back of the car park, away from the other cars. As we drove past, a man got out of his mini. Pulling his hood up he hurried into the building with the shops and cafés. Apart from the few people who were huddled in the shelter of the entrance, puffing on cigarettes, there was no one else in sight.

  Cody drove past all the parked cars, towards the trees that separated the shops and cafés from the petrol pumps. He pulled up, parking roughly beside a little corrugated iron shelter in a gap between the trees. As soon as he stopped, I grabbed the handle and pushed open my door.

  ‘Come back!’ Cody ordered. He lunged for me but I slid under his arm and out of the car. I charged across the tarmac. Cody reached me seconds later. He gripped my shoulder, swinging me around. The rain drummed down, cold on my shoulders.

  ‘You stupid bitch,’ he roared, raising his fist.

  I flinched. But instead of hitting me, Cody yanked on my arm, pulling me backwards until we were under the corrugated iron shelter. Three large bins overflowed with rubbish. Cody shoved me against the nearest bin and stood over me, panting heavily. His gun was in his fist, at his side.

  I stood facing him, my heart thumping. All I could see was his face and the shelter wall beyond. All I could hear was his ragged breathing and the rain beating loudly on the iron roof. The stench of rotting meat filled my nostrils. I was totally hidden here from both the shopping area and the petrol pumps beyond. For a terrifying second I felt sure I was going to die, that – whatever Cody had said about talking – he had brought me here to kill me.

  But Cody didn’t move. He just stood over me, his whole body rigid with tension. I turned away, fear racing through my head. I couldn’t think, couldn’t focus. And then it suddenly struck me that maybe Cody was as terrified as I was, that he didn’t really want to hurt me, that he simply didn’t know whether he could trust me to keep quiet or not.

  Which meant that all I needed to do was convince him and he would let me go.

  I made myself look at him. ‘Cody?’ I said, keeping my voice as soft and steady as I could.

  He glared at me.

  ‘You said we could talk so . . . so tell me, what do I have to say to convince you that I’m not going to go back to the police?’ In my heart I knew that as soon as I could, I was going to go straight to the nearest station, give my name and tell them exactly what I’d seen and heard. I had been wrong to keep quiet this long. Still, I didn’t have to mean what I said to Cody. What counted was the here and now and getting away in one piece.

  Cody shook his head. ‘There isn’t anything you can say.’

  We stared at each other. I was struck, as I had been the first time I’d met him, by the coldness of his grey eyes. Flynn’s eyes always burned with passion.

  ‘Listen,’ I said. ‘If I was going to give a proper statement to the police with my name and everything, don’t you think I’d have done it by now?’

  Cody moved closer. I shrank back, past the bin, against the rough iron wall of the shelter. Cody placed one hand on the wall beside my head, then he lifted the gun out and pressed it against my side.

  I wriggled sideways, trying to get away, but I was sandwiched between Cody and the huge metal bin. My heart was in my mouth.

  ‘Please,’ I begged. ‘Please, don’t hurt me.’

  There was a long, terrifying pause. Rain pounded against the shelter and then Cody leaned closer still.

  ‘If I let you go and you tell anyone about what you saw, I will come after you, do you understand?’

  I cowered at the low menace in his voice, my whole body shaking.

  ‘Do you understand?’ he repeated.

  ‘Yes,’ I gasped.

  ‘If you breathe a word, I will hunt you down. You and Flynn. I will kill you both.’

  ‘You all right, love?’ A male voice cut in over Cody’s threatening whisper.

  Cody spun around, pushing me in front of him, concealing his gun between us. I could feel the metal barrel pressing against my back.

  The man who had interrupted us was standing just outside the shelter. He wore a yellow uniform, a bin bag in his hand. His eyes widened as he saw the look of terror on my face. He dropped the bag. It landed with a thud on the ground.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he said. ‘Do you know this guy? Are you okay?’

  ‘She’s fine.’ Cody pressed the gun more firmly against my back. ‘Tell him.’

  ‘I . . . I . . .’ I could barely speak, I was so scared. I felt a strong urge to pee.

  Then the man strode right u
p to us. ‘She’s obviously not fine,’ he said angrily. ‘Come with me, love.’

  He reached for my arm. Cody pushed him. And then everything seemed to happen at once. Cody and the man struggled for a second. They spun around, staggering across the shelter, then outside into the rain. I caught a flash of Cody’s gun, glinting wet. And then a shot fired.

  I gasped. Cody backed away from the man, who slumped to the ground, his eyes closed. I stared at him, time slowing down. Blood was seeping across his yellow uniform. He lay still. Rain drummed on the shelter. In the distance I could hear raised voices, people shouting out, asking where the shot had come from.

  I stared down at the man. Someone ran over. Shook my arm.

  ‘River? Are you all right?’ It was Flynn.

  Relief flooded through me at the sound of his voice. I turned to face him. His eyes were wide, full of fear for me. I blinked, unable to speak.

  ‘Did he hurt you?’ Flynn asked.

  I shook my head. The man on the ground still hadn’t moved. Cody was standing, wide-eyed, just a metre away, the gun still in his hand. Flynn darted over to the man. He dropped to the ground and pressed his fingers against the man’s neck. Time seemed to stop altogether and then Flynn looked up. His face was drained of colour. He turned to Cody.

  ‘He’s dead,’ he said. ‘You killed him.’

  15

  I tore my eyes away from the body on the ground. Cody was standing, open-mouthed, the gun still in his hand. Flynn stood up. He backed away from Cody and reached out for me.

  ‘Okay, Cody,’ he said. ‘River and I are going to leave now.’

  I took Flynn’s hand. He held it tightly, pulling me towards him. I stumbled across the rough concrete. Litter fluttered around my feet – a burger wrapper, an old scrap of newspaper. My brain couldn’t seem to process what had just happened. I looked back at the man on the ground. His face was still, his eyes closed. He looked asleep. Yet blood seeped from his stomach. He was dead, Flynn had said.

  Dead.

  I couldn’t take it in. A whole life wiped out. Someone’s husband. Someone’s son.

  Flynn kept his eyes on Cody as we backed away, past the shelter, towards the car park. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, a light mist on my face. I held tightly to Flynn’s hand.

  ‘I didn’t mean this to happen,’ Cody said. His eyes were blank with shock. ‘It was an accident, I was just trying to push him away.’

  ‘We know,’ Flynn said soothingly. ‘We know, it’s okay.’

  I glanced around as we edged further backwards. In the distance I could see people running around, clearly still trying to work out where the gunshot had come from.

  ‘Stop!’ Cody said.

  I looked back at him. He had raised his gun again. His hand shook as he cocked the weapon. ‘I can’t let you leave,’ he insisted.

  Flynn gently drew me behind him so that he stood between me and Cody. ‘You don’t have a choice,’ he said, keeping his voice soft and low. ‘River and I have done nothing wrong. You can’t keep us or—’

  ‘I can do what I like,’ Cody snapped, a cold arrogance returning to his voice. ‘Get in the car.’

  ‘No. Cody, this isn’t like when Bentham orders a hit,’ Flynn insisted. ‘River and I can both see that what happened was an accident. But it still happened. And if you hurt us you’ll just make things worse. You have to let us go.’ As Flynn spoke those last words an edge of panic crept into his voice.

  ‘I’ll explain what happened,’ I added. ‘The guy was trying to stop you hassling me. There was a fight. I’ll tell everyone you didn’t shoot him on purpose.’

  Cody marched towards us. Flynn stiffened, his arm reaching around, checking I was still safe behind him. I moved away, facing Cody down.

  ‘Please, Cody,’ I said, staring at the gun in Cody’s hand.

  ‘Get in my car.’ Cody pressed the gun against my ribs so hard that I gasped. He glanced at Flynn. ‘Both of you.’

  ‘All right. Okay, just don’t hurt her.’ Flynn held up his hands in surrender but I could see the fury – and the fear – burning in his eyes. He backed away as Cody shoved me towards his car.

  ‘Get in the back,’ Cody ordered. I fumbled with the door handle, my hands shaking.

  Cody turned to Flynn. ‘You can drive,’ he said.

  We all got in the car. Flynn’s jaw was clenched as he took the keys from Cody and started the engine.

  ‘Go.’ Cody levelled his gun at Flynn’s chest.

  Flynn put the car in reverse. As we pulled on to the main part of the concourse, two men ran towards us. One was pointing beyond us, towards the body of the man on the floor. The other turned and looked, horrified, into the car. I couldn’t tell if he saw Cody’s gun, but he must have sensed we were somehow involved with the shooting because he waved his arms.

  ‘Hey!’ he shouted, trying to flag us down.

  ‘Go!’ Cody insisted. He thrust his gun at Flynn’s ribs.

  Flynn stepped on the accelerator and we roared away. I looked around, through the back window. I half expected someone to be following us, but the two men were now bending over the dead man’s body and no other vehicles were moving through the service station.

  We turned on to the M1. Flynn drove north at Cody’s instruction. The rain stopped and the sun came out. None of us spoke. The shock of what had just happened settled inside me.

  Cody had killed someone. I had witnessed the murder.

  It changed everything.

  After a while, Cody demanded to know how Flynn had found us and Flynn explained that he’d followed us in his car, not realising we’d left the motorway until after the turning, then doubling back.

  ‘I heard the shot just after I saw your car,’ Flynn said. ‘I was only a few metres away, on the other side of those bins.’

  I cleared my throat. My whole body felt tight and tense. ‘Cody, please, where are you taking us?’

  Cody ignored me.

  ‘Do you even have a plan?’ I went on. ‘I saw you kill that man. We can tell everyone that it was an accident, but you have to take responsibility for what you did, you have—’

  ‘I don’t have to do anything.’ Cody swore. He kept his gun trained on Flynn, but glanced over his shoulder at where I was sitting on the back seat. ‘Nobody knows we were even at that service station. No one saw us.’

  ‘At least two people saw this car,’ Flynn pointed out. ‘And the three of us inside it.’

  ‘We’re going to dump the car soon.’ Cody pressed the gun against Flynn’s ribs, making me gasp. ‘Take the next turning.’

  I sat back, my heart racing. Flynn drove on in silence. After a minute or so, Cody took the gun away from his side and laid it in his lap. None of us spoke as Flynn pulled off the motorway.

  I glanced at the road signs but couldn’t seem to take in the names. I’d never heard of any of the places. Cody ordered Flynn to take a series of turnings, gradually steering him away from the main roads. We drove on for another thirty minutes. It was late afternoon now. Mum would be wondering where I was, maybe even making phone calls to my friends. Dad would most likely be on his way back from the commune with Stone. He had probably texted me already to tell me when he would arrive at Mum’s and that he wanted to pick me up straight away so that he could hurry home to Gemma and Lily.

  I felt a pang of misery and guilt at the worry my silence would cause them all. They didn’t deserve any more anxiety because of me. I looked at Flynn, still driving. His jaw was clenched, his shoulders hunched. He was angry and scared, and trying not to show he was frightened. I thought of the way he had stood between Cody and me when Cody raised his gun.

  That was love, wasn’t it? True love? I closed my eyes. I couldn’t seem to think straight about anything. All around me was chaos. Ahead only danger.

  ‘I need to let my parents know I’m okay,’ I said at last. ‘Seriously, they’ll—’

  ‘Shut up,’ Cody snapped.

  Flynn glanced at him. I could see he was
itching to tell him not to talk to me like that, but fearful that antagonising Cody might provoke him to start waving his gun about again.

  We were travelling along a small country lane now. I had no idea exactly where we were. Cody seemed to know the area well, giving Flynn precise instructions about which turnings to take. We drove and drove. The sun grew lower in the sky. And still we drove. I was desperately thirsty, though too scared to feel remotely hungry, and I badly needed to pee.

  At last Cody told Flynn to stop the car close to some trees. He got Flynn out and forced him on to his knees on the ground, then ordered me outside too.

  ‘I need to go to the loo,’ I said.

  ‘In the trees,’ Cody said.

  He let me go over behind the nearest tree. Despite the earlier rain it was a mild evening, only a soft breeze cooling the warm air. As I peed on to the ground, I thought about making a dash for it. Cody wasn’t far away, of course, but maybe I could lose him in the wood.

  What about Flynn? I couldn’t leave him here.

  I stood up, a new determination filling me. There were two of us against only one Cody. I was quick and Flynn was both quick and strong. Surely, between us, we could overpower him, gun or no gun?

  I strode back to the two of them. Flynn was still kneeling on the ground, his hands clasped behind his head.

  ‘Get up,’ Cody demanded.

  As Flynn got to his feet, I caught his eye, trying to signal my intention that I was ready to fight and to run. He gave me a quick, sharp nod. We walked through the trees single file: me first, then Flynn, with Cody just behind him. I could hardly breathe, waiting for Flynn’s signal. He was still trying to talk to Cody, to calm him down, but I could hear in his voice that he held out little hope of being able to reason with him. Neither did I. Cody seemed totally in control of himself, showing no sign of his earlier panic. I didn’t know where he was taking us or what he was going to do, but it was obvious he had some definite plan in mind.

  ‘There’s no way out of this, wherever we hide,’ Flynn was saying. ‘You have to sleep, you’ll have to find food and water, you’ll be on the run and you’ll have us to deal with. It’s too much.’