Before I Go: A dark and tense psychological crime thriller. by Marie Reyes (the false prince series txt) 📗

be real careful though. I cut myself.” He pulled the protruding dagger of glass that he had cut himself on from the frame, before easing her towards him. He used the shard of glass to cut her cable tie so she could get out easier, making sure not to shred his fingers in the process. She crawled out the window towards him and he put his arms around her as she caught her breath, before going to check to see what became of Samuel and Che. They couldn’t hear them. Michael crouched down in front of the driver’s window. Samuel was gone. He could see Che hanging from his seat-belt. Blood dripped from his head onto the roof of the car. It looked like the exit wound of a gunshot.

“He’s gone,” Michael said, watching gray smoke billowing up from the car.

“Shit.” Josie backed away from a rustling sound, and the figure of a man came down from the roadside. Michael and Josie sprinted in the opposite direction towards tree cover. Maybe this was their chance.

“Stop. It’s me.”

Michael stopped in his tracks. “Miguel?” No other words would come to him. He had no idea what to say after what had happened.

“Where is he?”

“Who? Samuel. We don’t know. He must have ran off.” Michael looked in all directions, but it was so dark all he could make out was the shifting shadows of trees swaying.

“What are you doing here?” Michael still couldn’t believe he was here. In the middle of nowhere. Part of him wondered if his own body was still in the car wreck, unconscious, dreaming. He was having an out-of-body experience.  “Did you shoot the car? My memories a bit fuzzy.”

“Yes. I came to find you. I was pretty sure Samuel would have taken you here.”

“Why what is here?” Michael asked, but Miguel didn’t answer. Michael wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer anyway. “We can get in your car, get out of here.”

“Not without him. Samuel will die tonight. I’m not going to let him get away with it.”

“I’m so sorry. We feel awful. If it wasn’t for us.”

“Samuel is a psycho. One step wrong and he may have done what he did anyway. The families he’s done it to before.” Miguel looked like he was going to say something else, but stopped himself.

“We saw you get arrested. How are you here right now?” Josie asked, looking as surprised as Michael felt.

“They knew the whole thing was a farce. They had nothing. They had to let me out.”

“What are you going to do?” Josie asked, taking charge of the conversation.

“Find him.”

“But he could be anywhere by now,” she reasoned.

“I’m going to check around here. He must be injured. He can’t be far. You take Josie to my car. It’s parked up there.” He tossed his keys to Michael and didn’t give him time to answer before he traipsed towards the woods. Yet another person entrusted Michael with their car and assumed that Michael could drive. He passed the keys to Josie, and they started up the incline towards the road. “I’m worried about Alex. What if he goes back to Samuel’s?”

“He won’t.” Her casual tone bothered him.

“How can you be so sure?” He wasn’t looking forward to broaching this.

“Last night. I think you were already in bed. Me and Alex came up with a safe phrase for when he was checking out the hotel. If he was in any trouble, I told him to say the safe phrase. We came up with something that wouldn’t be obvious that he could say if he was in trouble, that wouldn’t draw attention, like if he was kidnapped or something.”

“What?”

“False alarm. I told him to say it was a false alarm. Although the tables were turned, I’m sure he knew not to come.”

“Thank fuck for that.” Everything started to make sense now. How she could have been so calm. “So is he going to call the police? They must know we’re missing by now.”

“Um, yeah. Probably not.” She grimaced.

“Why not?”

“He told me that he’s overstayed his visa. He doesn’t want to get into trouble.”

“Yeah but, that’s not life and death.” Michael felt a little hurt.

“I don’t know.” The slope started to flatten out as they reached the road. Miguel’s car was pulled up at the side. Even in the dark they could make out the black skid-marks from where Samuel’s car had lost control. The open road felt empty and exposed. Michael scanned the area, but there was no-one, just black road stretching into the darkness until it disappeared.

They hurried across the road to Miguel’s car and got inside. They didn’t know whether to turn on the engine, have the car ready to go, or whether that would draw more attention to themselves.

“Miguel could have easily got us killed when he shot at the car.” Josie mused, pulling down the sun-visor and glancing in the small mirror. “Wow. I look like shit.”

“He’s hell-bent on getting Samuel. Understandable given the circumstances.” Michael fixated on the dash-light that Josie had switched on. “You two have that in common.” He flicked off the light switch and watched Josie blindly rummage around the glove compartment to keep herself occupied.

“I wonder how long we’re going to have to wait here. We’re sitting ducks.” Michael shifted in his chair. “We can’t leave Miguel though, so I guess we’re stuck here. If only we had a weapon or something.”

“Like this?” Josie pulled a massive handgun from the glove box.

“Fuck,” Michael blurted, taken aback.

“Do you know how to use that?”

“How hard could it be?” she joked, as she inspected the firearm. “Listen, Michael. I’m sorry about back at Samuel’s. You were looking out for me and I know I’m stubborn.”

“It’s okay,” he said, hoping this wouldn’t turn into a conversation about the pentobarbital Samuel had found in his luggage. “You look like a bad-ass with that thing,” he tried changing the subject.

“When we get back to town, I’m going to the consulate. Do this the right way,” Josie said.