I was kidnapped! Shit. Doug was wasted on drugs and driving up a narrow logging road. The weather was getting worse. Snow was piling up, making the road even more dangerous. Amber’s breathing was growing shallower.
I had to do something and do it quick, but what? Doug had a shotgun.
Maybe I could talk some sense into this kid. I kneeled between the front seats of the van. Doug immediately put one hand on the shotgun in his lap. “Where are you taking us?” I asked him.
“I’ve got to find someplace to hide,” he said. “Like you said, we’ll wait it out. Once the search-and-rescue guys are gone, we’ll get off this mountain. Amber and me will take off.”
“Do you really think she’s going to want to go with you after all this?”
He didn’t answer.
“Doug, turn this van around,” I told him. “I know you don’t want Amber to die. Take us back to the search-and-rescue camp.”
“You can’t tell me what to do!” He whined like a much younger kid. “I’m the one with the gun.” He patted the shotgun. “I’m in control here. Not you.”
I slumped back on the mattress in the back of the van. Amber groaned and shifted slightly. I turned her on her side, in case she threw up. That way, she wouldn’t choke on her own vomit. I couldn’t think what else to do for her.
I lifted Amber’s arm to take a close look at the bruises there. They were red now but would turn purple by morning. Doug had clearly grabbed her arm hard enough to leave these marks.
“You hurt Amber,” I told Doug. I checked her scalp. “Her head is bleeding. Did you hit her?”
“No!” he cried. “I love her. I took her up to Little Mountain viewpoint to tell her that. I packed a picnic.”
“You knew she would be on the wilderness trail.”
He nodded like he was proud of himself. “I know everything about her. She jogs there the same time every day. I parked close to the path and waited for her.”
“You kidnapped her,” I said.
“No!” He took his hand off the gun and slapped the steering wheel. “I just wanted to talk.” I saw his face in the rearview mirror. He was anguished. I thought he might cry again.
“When she saw me on the trail, she told me to get lost,” he said. “She just walked away from me like I was nothing.”
“So you forced her into your van.” Just like he forced me, I thought. With a gun. “Were you already stoned then?” I asked. “Doug, think about it. Would you have done any of this if you hadn’t taken those drugs?”
He didn’t answer for a moment. He seemed lost in the memory of that afternoon. The van skidded on the wet snow. Doug turned the wheel hard to keep the van on the road.
“She fought me and hit her head on the door,” he said. “Why did she have to fight me? I never wanted to hurt her.”
“You’re hurting her now,” I said. “Can’t you see that?” I smoothed Amber’s hair away from her face. “You gave her too many sleeping pills. If she doesn’t get medical help, she will die.”
“I only wanted to make her stay with me so I could talk to her. After I took her to the viewpoint, she tried to get away again. I stopped her and told her I’d take her home. I said we’d eat the picnic I made first. I made her drink the juice.”
I pointed at the thermos on the front seat. “You put the sleeping pills in that,” I said.
“Yes. We ate the picnic and she fell asleep. I had to drag her to the van.” I thought of those marks on the ground that I’d seen at the viewpoint. So I was right about them. Doug had dragged Amber backward, covering his own footprints.
“Do something,” Doug said. “Make her better.”
“I’m not a nurse or a doctor,” I said. “Even if I was, we would still need to get Amber to a hospital. If you don’t take us back to the search-and-rescue camp right now, Amber will die.”
“No!” he cried. “Fix her up. Do something for her!” The van slid to the side. Doug over-steered in the other direction and nearly drove into the bank.
“You’re high on drugs,” I told him as he drove on. “You shouldn’t be driving.”
“I’m fine.”
“Let me take over. I’ll drive Amber to the hospital. I can drop you off somewhere. You can take off.”
“Shut up. Just shut up. You don’t know shit. I’ll never leave Amber.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand why you are doing this.”
“I love her.”
“You have a funny way of showing it,” I said.
“I told her I loved her. I told her I’d do anything for her.” He started crying again. “She said she didn’t care. She’s seeing that asshole now.”
“Liam Peterson, you mean.”
“We only broke up a couple of weeks ago, and she’s already with him. She must have liked him before, when she was with me.” His hands gripped the steering wheel harder. “If she’d only listen, I could make her come back to me,” he said. “I could make her love me.”
“You can’t make someone love you,” I told him. “Especially not like this.”
I glanced down at the girl’s pretty face. “I don’t think you’re in love with Amber. I think you’re in love with the idea of Amber. She’s a basketball player. She’s popular. You want to be popular, like her.”
Sitting there in that van, I realized I was talking about myself as much as Doug. I had no real feelings for Trevor. I just liked the idea of him. I liked the idea of dating a firefighter.
“She’s got to love me,” Doug said quietly.
I just wasn’t getting through to this kid. He was too drugged up and emotional to think clearly. There was no way I was going to talk my way out of this situation. I had to act, and act now.
I leaned between the two front seats and pointed out the driver’s-side window. “Look out!” I cried, to distract him. Doug turned his head, and I grabbed the shotgun from his lap. But he caught me and yanked the gun out of my hand. He fired the weapon by accident as he did so, blasting a hole in the windshield.
“Shit!” Doug yelled. He dropped the gun to the floor and put up both hands to protect his face. I turned the steering wheel hard to the right so we wouldn’t drive off the road. The van careened into the bank.
I heard the crunch of metal as the front end slammed into rock. My body was hurled to the floor between the seats with the impact. Then everything went deadly quiet.