Page 21 of Protecting Kelli
He snorted. “As if.”
“You two ready?” the employee asked.
Flash turned. The man had an impatient look on his face.
“Your stuff is over there,” he said, pointing at a plastic crate sitting off to the side.
Flash wanted to ask what the guy’s hurry was but held his tongue. He quickly walked over to the crate and pulled out two towels. Kelli followed him and without a word, they dried themselves off as best they could, then got dressed.
Flash could admit he was sad to see Kelli’s curves covered up once more. Out of habit, he double-checked his wallet to make sure everything was still inside. The last thing he wanted to deal with was his credit card being stolen.
He approved of Kelli doing the same thing with her purse, looking inside to make sure all her things were still there. “Ready?”
“Ready,” she said with a firm nod. “I’m ready to hit the buffet. Even though I don’t think we burned many calories today, I’m still starving.”
“Me too,” Flash agreed, then held out his hand.
Kelli glanced at it, then at him, and for a second Flashthought she’d blow him off. But to his relief, she wrapped her fingers around his.
They walked toward the minivan hand-in-hand…and any contentment Flash might’ve felt disappeared as they climbed into the vehicle. He had no idea what it was that had him on such high alert. But something just didn’t feel right.
It wasn’t until the driver pulled out of the dirt parking area that he realized this wasn’t the same minibus they’d taken to the tubing place. It was more run-down. There was trash on the floor and the seats weren’t nearly as clean as the ones in the other vehicle.
Flash sat next to Kelli in the seat behind the driver. He remained ramrod straight as he watched out the front of the minivan. Driving on the left side of the road always seemed a bit disconcerting. Seeing cars come at you from the “wrong” side of the road felt as if they were always two seconds away from a head-on collision.
They’d been driving for five minutes when Flash realized they were going in the wrong direction. They were headed away from the resort instead of toward it.
The bad feeling intensified.
“Hey, where are you going?” he asked the driver.
“To the resort,” the man answered tersely.
“This isn’t the right way.”
“Of course it is. You aren’t from here. I know a shortcut to get you back faster.”
Kelli’s grip tightened on his hand, but Flash didn’t dare look away from the road in front of him. He did his best to see street signs, to find any landmark he could use later to find their way back. Because he knew without a doubt that they weren’t taking a shortcut. His gut churned.
Things got worse when the driver slowed down, then stopped for a man standing on the side of the road. The guy climbed into the front seat of the minivan and as soon as the door shut behind him, they were moving again.
The newcomer turned around and met Flash’s gaze. Then he looked at the driver, frowning. “What the fuck? Why’re there only two?”
“Everyone else was whining about going back. I couldn’t exactly tell them some had to stay behind.”
“Damn it!”
“Stop the bus,” Flash ordered. But the men ignored him.
“I knew you’d fuck it up.”
“This isn’t my fault!”
“The hell it’s not!”
As the two men argued, Flash once again interrupted to bark, “I said, pull over. Right now!”
The man who’d been picked up turned around, and this time he had a pistol in his hand. He pointed it right at Flash’s face and said, “We aren’t stopping. Shut the fuck up, unless you want a bullet in your head.”
