“Let’s go,” Reidar called to Gunnar after he saw Kelan leap safely onto the back and hang on to the vertical bars that made up part of the double doors’ locking mechanisms. He’d braced his feet on the horizontal steel beam that always hung from tractor-trailer rigs, designed to protect motorists from being decapitated in the event of an impact.
“That damn, wild-assed brother of ours is gonna get himself killed,” Gunnar snapped as he caught up with Reidar sprinting for the fence.
“That’s why we’re here. To make sure he doesn’t.” He cleared a rotten log and ducked past a low hanging limb.
Without another word, both men shifted into catamount form and sped up. Kicking free of their shoes and hampered only by their clothes, they made faster time through the woods and leaped the fence simultaneously.
Shifting back to human form, they climbed into the truck.
“I think I ripped a hole in this shirt going over that fence,” Gunnar muttered.
“Next time, jump higher.” Reidar cranked the engine, but there was nowhere for him to turn his vehicle around.
“Hang on. This is going to get tricky,” Reidar said as he jammed the gearshift into reverse, twisted around to look out the back, and stomped on the gas.
On the back of the trailer, Kelan hung on for dear life and prayed the next damn pothole wouldn’t knock him loose. He had to get inside before he lost his grip. He had to rescue Beth and his brother, but he couldn’t risk letting go while the fucking terrain was so unpredictable.
Another dip jarred him, so he used his knees to absorb the worse of the jolt.
Where the hell were his brothers? He shot a look over his shoulder at the passing trees, trying to determine if they’d passed the ATV trail or not. He couldn’t tell, because he couldn’t see much from quick glances while he focused on not falling off.
Then he heard an engine and the crunch of gravel as someone slammed on the brakes and the tires dug into the dirt. A roar behind him followed instantly by the sound of spraying gravel told him his brothers were coming, but he didn’t dare look back.
A hard jolt and sway accompanied the rig’s turn onto the highway, but the ride smoothed out even as the big rig began to pick up speed. Kelan slid his left hand down one vertical bar to the handle, while he hung onto the other one, and yanked. The latch opened, but it was far from silent. He had no time to lose. He yanked hard on the door and, with all his strength, swung himself inside.
It slowed the man down and gave Kelan time to regain his footing.
The professor attacked without a word, and Kelan went on the defensive, ducking a book thrown at his head and dodging an office chair the man sent rolling at him. Kelan knocked the latter object away, and it tumbled out the back of the trailer. He assumed the squeal of tires was Reidar’s effort to avoid the chair on the winding mountain road, but he didn’t have time to look back.
He clung to the cage and pulled himself forward, but had to throw up an arm and turn away when the professor let loose with a fire extinguisher at his face. The white powdery cloud cleared just in time for him to block a blow from the same canister, although the fucking thing hurt like a son of bitch. And it pissed him off. He launched himself at the man, and the two fell to the floor, punching and scrambling for an advantage.
As Kelan gained the upper hand, he heard a terrified squeal from Beth and saw her chair slip passed them, her feet shoving frantically at the smooth floor to stop her slide.
Kelan shoved off the professor and flung himself at her chair, snagging one branch of the wheeled base in time.
Kelan let go, but before he could push to his feet, Sindre shouted,
Beth squealed, and a blow to Kelan’s back knocked the wind from his lungs. He fell forward, sliding a few feet closer to the back of the trailer as the big rig continued its meandering climb up the mountainside. A quick grab of the tied-down ATV’s tire stopped him.
The professor bellowed, raised the canister and lunged forward.
Kelan rolled over.
Whitmore swung downward to strike the knockout blow.
Kelan barely dodged the fire extinguisher, its base clanging on the floor a mere inch from his ear.
He grabbed the professor’s arm and kicked out and up, catching the man in the gut and tumbling him head over heels clear of where Kelan lay. The professor’s cry turned into a scream of terror as his own momentum sent him sailing headfirst out the back door of the trailer.
Reidar cursed when he had to swerve to miss the damn chair careening onto the road. Gunnar braced a hand on the dash and kept talking on his cell phone to the police dispatch. He figured, and Reidar agreed, that with Beth bound in the back of the trailer, it was best to get law enforcement there as quickly as possible.
The two yahoos in the truck could scream all they liked about unusual chromosomes to the other nut-jobs in the state prison. No one was going to believe a former scientist and grad student convicted of kidnapping a woman.
“I can’t fucking pass this guy.” Reidar’s fingers hurt from the tight grip he had on the steering wheel. He continued to catch glimpses of the fight inside the trailer, and he wanted the truck stopped now. When a cloud of white obscured the view, he’d had enough and stomped on the gas, whipping his truck into the other lane.
“Yes, we’re nearing the top of the pass,” Gunnar was telling the dispatcher. “The big rig is…well, it’s beside us right now. Yeah, we’re passing it…. I know it’s dangerous! Just get someone the fuck here. There’s a woman’s life at stake, and the assholes have our cat.”
Reidar laid on the horn, trying to get the driver’s attention, but the man seemed to be in a world of his own.
Fortunately, his truck’s V-8 engine could out-pace the big rig on the steep climb. Just as they neared the top, Reidar whipped in front of the truck and braked, but paced in front of it to keep from getting run over as the semi came to a jarring halt. Thankfully it’d only been doing about thirty-five up the steep incline.
Tim jumped from the cab, cursing at them as Reidar and Gunnar left their vehicle and ran back toward the trailer. “Hey, what the fuck’s your problem?”
“You are, you dick-weed,” Gunnar snapped, running interference for Reidar who kept going.
“You enjoy kidnapping women?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Tim asked, following them until he too spotted what had already stopped Reidar in his tracks. “Who?” Tim choked on the question.
“’Bout time you showed up,” Kelan said, sticking out his hand to help Reidar into the back.
With a relieved grin, Reidar clasped his hand and climbed up. “Got here as fast as I could.”
Tim looked in the trailer and stood there wide-eyed and fidgety. “What the fuck happened?
Lizzy? Oh my God.” He turned to look back at the body.
Sirens sounded in the distance, but they were fast approaching as Kelan made his way over to Beth and began releasing her from the chair.
