Part 26 (1/2)
Chewy yawned and stepped around her to face the wasteland mongrel.
It's true that it is not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog. Sometimes, however, it is simply the size of the dog.
Chewy strolled up to Logan's dog and raised her paw.
The mutt growled and stared up at the raised limb.
Chewy brought the paw down on the dog's neck and forced it to the ground. It struggled for a moment, trying to throw off the weight of the larger breed, but soon rolled over and began to whine.
Chewy let the dog stand, and offered a single mighty bark that drove the gray mutt scampering across the courtyard. The ma.s.sive dog strolled back to the pa.s.senger seat to resume her nap.
Logan's dog whined as it ran into the arms of Austin the boy bear.
”A dog!”
THIRTY-SIX.
”What are you going to do to me?”
Logan had dropped the kitchen knife in favor of a gun he had hidden in the Mustang. He held it on her as he accelerated down the open road.
”Sell you. I'm going to need something to get me started again.”
”Sell me? What would your son say?”
Logan smiled and chuckled, ”Son?”
Sarah stared out the window as the road flew by. Her thoughts of leaping from the car decreased as it sped up.
”I knew I shouldn't have trusted you.”
”I told you not to trust me.”
She sighed, ”So, the whole attack?”
”Mike Jackson and Jeff Williams. Good friends of mine. Mike probably died in the truck. You killed Jeff.”
”It was all staged?”
Logan shrugged. ”There's usually one skeptic in town. If it's someone important, I need to do something to get them to trust me. You're the first murderer though. You should be proud.”
”You're a d.i.c.k.”
”We do what we have to. Now, shut up. I'm trying to drive.”
”My father won't let you get away with this.”
”There's little he can do. There's nothing in that town that can catch this car.”
Sarah's heart sank. He was right. The town had a total of three running vehicles. The battered pickup was the only one that was reliable.
She returned to staring out the window. That's when she saw the Viper in the rearview mirror. She gasped and turned to look out the rear window.
Logan saw her reaction in the corner of his eye and checked his own mirror to see what had grabbed her attention.
For a brief moment he saw Jerry in the black V-10. Then the mirror exploded into fractured shards of gla.s.s.
”Where the h.e.l.l did he get that?” Logan pressed the accelerator harder and began looking for a way off the long straight road.
Gunshots continued to pock the body of the Mustang. The bookworm was good. The holes in the rear window were confined to Logan's side of the car. Not one endangered Sarah.
Apart from weaving behind the abandoned hulks on road there was no place to take shelter or lose the Viper. Logan knew it was a faster car and had to do something to lose him.
He turned to fire out the rear window.
Sarah grabbed his wrist and sunk her teeth into his forearm.
Logan screamed and dropped the gun in the back. It fell to the floorboard and bounced under his seat. He pulled his arm free of her grasp and smashed her across the face.
Sarah yelped as she flew into the pa.s.senger door. She sat up and spit blood at the con man. Neither was sure if it was blood from her mouth or from Logan's arm.
He struck her again, harder.
Sarah slumped over in the pa.s.senger seat unconscious.
Logan checked the mirror. Jerry had gained tremendous ground and was bearing down on the Mustang.
Free from keeping an eye on the girl, Logan was able to put both hands on the wheel and give the post-apocalyptic nomadic warrior a run for his money.
Jerry glanced at the speedometer. It read eighty and the ma.s.sive V-10 registered at a little above 1500 rpms. The open-topped car had always been a marvel to him and if he was thankful for the apocalypse in any way, it was that he was finally able to pick one up.
He had caught up to the Mustang easily and fired the warning shots to unnerve Logan. He couldn't risk killing the driver for Sarah's sake. It had seemed to work at first, as the driving had become shaky and erratic. But something had changed.
Without warning, the car had stopped swerving erratically and accelerated. Now it dodged and blocked Jerry's approaches.
Something had changed in the car. Logan was in complete control. Jerry hoped that Sarah wasn't dead.
Logan wrestled with the wheel. He cut left and right to stop Jerry from getting near the corner of his b.u.mper. The bookworm stopped shooting. Probably from a fear of hitting the girl.
Logan smiled. Jerry's weakness had always been other people. He was too caring, too unwilling to let anyone get hurt. Pinning the disaster in Colorado on the former librarian had been easy. Jerry's guilt prevented him from questioning the situation. He simply accepted that it must have been his fault.
But the man in the car behind him wasn't the same one he had framed. It wasn't even the same man he had shamed at the gates of New Hope. This man was dangerous.
The Viper was close. He could hear the sound of Jerry's engine over his own.
Logan shoved the cigarette lighter into the dash and risked reaching into the back seat. An open crate produced several sticks of dynamite.