Free Run Away by Victor Methos Page A

the main floor then to the front door. He looked out, making sure no one was around. The RV was only fifty feet away. They could run there in less than fifteen or twenty seconds.
    “Hey,” Hiapo said. “What about her?” He motioned to the young girl pinned underneath him.
    “Bring her with us.”
    Night in a rich neighborhood didn’t feel like nighttime in a poor neighborhood. Tate had lived in places where he didn’t feel safe even with his piece. But the street was completely quiet. No one would think about robbing one of the houses with fancy alarms and in a neighborhood with a quick police response. He chuckled to himself.
    He dragged the fighting woman out and over the massive lawn. She screamed once. He kicked her in the stomach, and she quieted down. Dragging her was too much effort, so he lifted her by her hair and forced her to walk beside him. If any of the neighbors saw, they might just think she was simply having a casual stroll with Tate.
    Carrying the young girl over his shoulder, Hiapo was right behind Tate. Sticks wasn’t anywhere to be seen. As Tate reached for the RV door, he stopped. Catching only movement at first, Tate turned his head to see a boy, maybe eleven or twelve, on a bike. His mouth was wide open, and his eyes were locked onto Tate.
    “Your mask, bra,” Hiapo said.
    He had forgotten he’d pulled off his mask in the bathroom. The boy was staring right at Tate’s face.
    “Let it go,” Hiapo said.
    Tate opened the RV door and threw Sharon inside. He whipped around and pulled out his pistol from his waistband. His first shot missed, but the second hit the boy in the cheek, flinging him off his bike.
    “Your face wasn’t the one he saw,” Tate said. “Now throw his ass in the bushes , and let’s go.”
    Sticks came running out of the house , his arms full of jewelry. He tripped once on the lawn and fell flat on his face before he rose again and sprinted for the RV. He looked down at the little body on the sidewalk. “Holy shit. What happened?”
    “Hurry the fuck up!” Tate shouted.
    Sharon was screaming, and he grabbed a roll of duct tape out of his bag of supplies. He taped her mouth then her wrists. Hiapo climbed into the RV after having moved the boy, and he stood glaring down at Tate, the young girl still on his shoulder.
    “How ’bout you ge t goin’ so we don’t get pinched?”
    Hiapo grunted and flung the girl into the passenger seat. Then he got into the driver’s side and started the RV. Several neighbors had come out of their homes.
    Finished with the tape, Tate dragged Sharon to the back and threw her onto the bed. She kicked at him, making him chuckle. Laughing, he grabbed her tits and made her squeal.
    Tate walked to the center of the RV and sat in the built-in table. He glanced out the window at the boy’s body. His feet were sticking out of the bushes, and the front tire of the bike still spun gently.

14
     
     
     
     
     
    The office was near ly empty. It was well past ten o’clock, and most of the attorneys and all the staff had gone home. But Richard Miller sat at his desk, tapping a pen against his shoe. He threw the pen onto the desk and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He’d had a headache all day, and no matter how many Excedrin he took, it wouldn’t go away.
    Ma ybe his scheme had been a mistake. Maybe he should call it off. He was bound to get something in the divorce. But if he didn’t, he would lose everything else. Richard’s father-in-law was a controlling partner at the firm, and he’d given Richard the job. And if he didn’t get any money or property, he would be left destitute in the most expensive region of the most expensive state in the nation.
    He sighed and rose. He hadn’t wanted it to come to this—any of it. All he wanted was a nice marriage to a girl who loved him and plenty of kids. He’d grown up in a family of five and remembered how much fun it was to have four best friends who could never leave him. He wanted that for