Excerpt
Both vehicles pulled into a narrow access road leading down to the future site of Buttonhole Golf Course, which at the moment consisted of little more than vast open space and a seemingly endless expanse of dirt. Sanchez may have been familiar with this spot, but Floyd was not, and he was following very closely. Then the Nova’s lights went out and the car stopped suddenly. Floyd saw the brake lights flare and barely avoided rear-ending the vehicle. He shifted to park and took the keys with him. “Stay here and don’t do anything stupid,” he warned the couple as he stepped out of the Explorer along with Burdick, who was still holding the gun. Jason and Amy remained inside as the three occupants of the Nova exited and all five men converged between the two vehicles to discuss what to do next.
The half moon provided the only light, reflecting off the sandy landscape and casting everything in a ghostly glow. Day thought they had traversed some secret, undiscovered desert in the middle of Providence.
“Do they have any money?” Sanchez asked Floyd.
“No.”
There was a long pause. Nobody said anything as they looked from one another to the Explorer, where Amy and Jason were peering out at them.
It seemed as if their lack of planning had caught them off guard. They wanted money, maybe a vehicle, but there were two kidnapped victims with them and it hadn’t been determined yet what they were going to do with them.
Or had they?
They could have driven them to an ATM if it was their money they were after. They could just as easily have gained possession of the Explorer while leaving Amy and Jason behind. But they had done neither of those things.
Was this some kind of murderous game of chicken no one wanted to back down from, or had they wandered down a path of no return that they had all been in agreement about entering?
The fact was, for as bad as these individuals were, these were unchartered waters for all of them.
Sanchez was the first to voice their intent aloud, when in an almost an advisory tone he told them that they needed to kill the Amy and Jason. Burdick instantly passed the gun back to Floyd without being prompted. Floyd accepted the weapon as if it had been rehearsed. It was a symbolic gesture that was not lost on any one of them. Day made a point that the couple would be able to identify them.