Free The Stranger Beside Me by Simone Holloway Page B

he made her nervous.
    She squirmed in her seat. She had to take a breath and remind herself of the bizarre circumstance of their meeting. No matter how handsome the stranger was, she had to stay focused on getting to the police.
    She cleared her throat. “What’s your name?”
    The man paused briefly before answering, as if he had to consider the question. “John.”
    “John, I’m…” Her mind jumped from one name to another: Alison, Alex, Laurie. None of the names sounded right to her. Who was she? She frantically searched her pockets for a driver’s license or some form of identification. She came up empty except for a soggy piece of paper in her jeans pocket. It was a receipt for a motel room. The bottom was signed, ‘Jo Si…’ The last name was illegible. Whoever I am, she thought, I need to work on my penmanship.
    “Jo,” she said. Her voice wavered. “My name is Jo.”
    The man stared at her intently. “Are you sure about that? You sound uncertain.”
    Jo swallowed hard. “I must have hit my head or… I’m having a hard time remembering things. I must sound crazy to you.”
    John smiled. “You’d be surprised.”
    “Surprised by how crazy I sound? No, I think I would believe it.”
    She thought she heard him stifle a laugh. “No, you’d surprised by how unsurprising this is.”
    Alarm bells sounded in her head. Jo found the situation bewildering. “Why isn’t this surprising?”
    Before he could answer, the cabin of the truck was flooded with light. Jo turned to see the black SUV barreling down on them. John accelerated, but the SUV easily kept up with them.
    It was growing dark and the roads twisted and turned through the mountains. John had to constantly slow down and swerve to keep the truck on the road. After nearly flipping their car, he said: “Fuck it.” He slammed on the breaks, stopping at an angle in the middle of the road. The SUV had no room to maneuver around them.
    Jo’s heart raced. She looked back to the SUV, hoping to catch a glance of the men inside, but she was blinded by headlights.
    “What are you doing?” she asked.
    John unzipped the bag on the seat beside him. Inside were several weapons. He pulled out a handgun, checked the clip and tucked it into the back of his jeans. Then he took out a shotgun, cocked it and told Jo to get down.
    As he exited the truck, he turned to the SUV and fired into the windshield. Jo was torn between wanting to see what would happen and terror. Fear one out as she threw herself to the floor of the truck.
    She heard a man yell, then several gunshots followed by silence. Her hands shook as she raised herself up to peer out the back window. The SUV was being slowly driven by someone off the road. The vehicle disappeared from sight.
    Jo wasn’t sure what to do. John had left the keys in the ignition. Just as she was deciding to take the truck and leave, he appeared on the road. He bent over and looked at something. Jo squinted, but in the dark it was hard to make out what he was looking at.
    Then it hit her: it was a dead body. He took the dead man by the arms and dragged him off in the same direction as the SUV.
    Jo felt frozen by panic. This man was clearly dangerous. She knew she should flee but some foreign instinct told her to stay. She waited as John pulled a second body from the road and hid it in the trees.
    When he returned to the truck he was breathing heavily. He sat behind the wheel and stared out into the night. He ran a hand over his face and through his beard. He looked conflicted, or uncertain. Coming to a decision, he closed the door and turned the truck back onto the road.
    They drove in silence, passing through a small town and then another. Jo knew they wouldn’t be going to the police any time soon. A distant part of her thought: good. A strange combination of fear, confusion and relief washed over her. Why would she feel relief about John’s actions? It was all so surreal and yet, familiar.
    She looked at the gun