In the dark, Ten took a few steps near a tree where he felt safer, hidden. He could barely see at first, then his eyes adjusted. His ears pricked, too, as he listened to the soft sound of someone walking toward him. Whoever it was, they couldn’t see any better than he could. The steps halted, then moved again. Ten shifted his weight and a twig snapped under his feet. The footsteps of the other person came faster. When they were close, Ten stepped out and took a hit to the jaw, which knocked him to the side. The man threw another punch at Ten’s mid-section. He wasn’t ready for the punches, wasn’t in a stance. The man hit him again.
Ten was on his knees and the man began to reach under his arm. Again, Ten’s mind cleared and he rammed his head into the man’s groin, then stood, ramming the top of his head into the man’s jaw. He went down. Ten reached inside the man’s coat and found the pistol and pulled it out. He had never used one before, but knew the basic premise. He looked for a safety and unlocked it. He turned toward the man and pointed the gun, but couldn’t shoot him. He dropped down and reached into the man’s pockets and removed his car keys and stuffed them inside his backpack along with the pistol.
He swung around and ran back toward his house. If the man operated alone, then there’d be a car nearby. If he wasn’t alone, then… Ten decided not to step into the open.
He heard sirens and the loud horn of the fire department trucks coming. He rushed around the side of his neighbor’s house. Everyone was outside heading toward the fire. Ten pulled the keys from his pocket. The hit man wouldn’t leave his car nearby, so Ten wandered over a street and started to push the unlock button on the man’s keys. He continued to the next street and about halfway down the block heard the car beep, and saw the lights flash. He ran for the car, opened the door and jumped inside.
“Who are you?”
Ten looked over. A young girl sat next to him. She didn’t look particularly scared. “Friend of your dad’s,” he said.
“Is he coming?”
Ten started the car, pushed the lock button next to the door, and pulled into the street. “No. I knocked him out. He’s in the woods.” Ten turned toward the girl, who leaned against the door away from him. “Your dad killed my wife and dog.”
“I heard the explosion—”
“He blew up my house.”
The girl shook her head and made a face. She looked to be high school age.
Ten asked, “What’s your name?”
“Renda Parke,” she said.
“That your dad’s name? Parke?”
“No. He’s my step dad. Torry Esposito.”
“Jesus. The mob.”
“What’s your name,” she asked.
“Tempest, but everyone calls me Ten.”
“Tem?”
“No, Ten, like the number. It stands for Tempest Eugene Nesbit. There, now you know enough about me to get me killed.”
“You’ve pushed that button yourself,” she said. “So, where are you taking me?”
“Away for now, until I can think.”
“Why would anyone want to kill your wife and dog?”
Ten turned onto 495, heading north toward Boston. “Some project I was working on. I’m not sure, really.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m an engineer, bioengineering.”
“If you’re smart enough to be an engineer, you’re smart enough to figure this out.”
Ten had to laugh. “A bit precocious, aren’t you?”
She didn’t say anything. He kept driving. In a moment, her cell phone rang. She reached to the floor of the car for her purse.
“Hold it.”
She kept reaching and Ten shoved her back against the car seat with his arm.
“What are you doing?” she yelled at him.
“You’re not answering that. Let it go to voicemail.”
She cocked her head. “I know what my dad does. You must have done something wrong.”
“I’m an engineer on a top secret project. Nothing wrong in that.”
“Weapons?”
“No.”
“Come-on, you must know.”
Ten reached over and unzipped his backpack enough to shove his hand inside and pull out the pistol. “Shut up and sit quietly so I can think.”
“That’s my dad’s gun.”
“And you wouldn’t want to be shot by your dad’s gun. You’d be dead and he’d go to prison.”
“Not with your prints on it.”
Ten looked her square in the eye. “I know how to clean one of these up.”
She crossed her arms and sat with her back against the door.
Ten didn’t know what he was going to do with her. He couldn’t just leave her, and she didn’t look old enough to drive. What he did know was that they’d be after her dad’s car soon enough. He had to ditch it. He pulled off the highway when he saw a sign with several fast food restaurants advertised. There was a gas station with a convenience store. He put the gun back into the backpack. “You’re coming with me. If you make one peep, I swear I’ll take this gun out and shoot you. My life’s on the line here. I have nothing to lose.”
She nodded.
He got out and went to her side of the car to open the door. She slid out and walked beside him. Inside the store, he grabbed scissors, a razor, cheap hair dye, a few power bars, a couple bottles of water. “You want anything?”
She gave him a funny look. “No.”
At the counter, the guy pointed at a small television he was watching. “You look like that guy that died in a fire tonight.”
“That was a woman,” Ten said.
The attendant shook his head. “Whole family. Husband, wife, dog. Something exploded.”
“Well, I’m not him.”
“Obviously, man.” The attendant laughed. “You’re not going to dye your daughter’s hair are you?” He held up the dye.
Ten looked over at Renda. “Her friends are coming over.”
She smiled.
“That’s forty-seven, twenty-seven.”
Ten paid with cash. “There a bank machine here?”
“Next to the door as you leave,” the attendant said.
Ten stopped and withdrew $500 in cash, his limit. He’d do the same again tomorrow and the next day, until they closed him out. Once outside, he glanced around. A McDonalds sat across the street with a parking lot filled with cars. “Come on.”
“Now what?”
He grabbed her wrist and dragged her across the street. “You’d better start to cooperate or your dad can pick you up at the morgue.”
“You won’t hurt me. You’re not like that.”
Ten dragged her behind a bush and back-handed her. It hurt him to do so, but he had no choice. He didn’t know what else to do. He had to somehow show her that he meant what he said.
She started to cry.
“Your dad killed my wife. I will kill you,” he said. Something inside him knew he didn’t mean it, but something else inside him told him that he could do it if he had to. He let those two ideas argue it out while he grabbed her wrist again, and pulled her near the rear of the lot. He found a car with the window partway down and told her to shove her arm through and to push the unlock button.
She did what he asked.
“Inside.” He shoved her and she climbed over the console to the passenger seat while he kneeled next to the car and hot-wired it.
“How do you know how to do that?”
“I’m an engineer, remember. I know a lot of tricks.” He backed out and drove onto the street heading toward the highway again.
“They’ll just call it in as stolen,” she said. “You probably have about ten minutes.”
“Don’t need that long,” he said. He looked over at her. “Did I hurt you?”
She touched her cheek. “Nothing that hasn’t happened before.”
“Sorry to hear that.” Two exits closer to Boston and Ten turned down an exit ramp where he found a cheap h
otel. He passed it, drove the car off the road and into the back parking lot of a strip mall. Then he dragged Renda to the hotel, threatened her as before, and paid for a room. They walked up the stairs to an outside door. She never tried to get away, and walked with him as though they were friends. He opened the door to the room and shoved her inside.
“Nice,” she said sarcastically.
The room had one bed and a desk with a single chair in front of it. A dresser against one wall held an old television set. “Good enough for what we need.”
“How much time do you think you have?”
Ten removed the gun from his backpack and pointed it at Renda. “You’re cutting and dyeing my hair.” He removed his shirt.
“You’re pretty buff for an engineer.”
“I work out.” He waved the gun at her. “Let’s go.”
She followed him into the bathroom where Ten stepped into the tub.
“You going to let me go then?” she asked.
“We’ll see.”
Chapter 3