Page 135 of Hellbent

Evan waited until they’d cleared city limits to pit-stop. He parked behind a liquor store and wrapped David’s forearm using gauze pads and an Ace bandage he’d pulled from the first-aid kit lodged beside the spare tire.

The alley behind them gave off the sickly-sweet odor of spilled beer. Flies swayed above an open Dumpster. Broken glass littered the asphalt around it; somebody had practiced empty-bottle free throws with a twelve-pack, showing all the accuracy one would expect from somebody who’d drunk a twelve-pack.

The hatch was raised, David sitting at the edge of the cargo space, his legs dangling past the rear bumper. Crouched before him, Evan smoothed down the bandage and snared the fabric with the metal clips to secure it.

Joey came around to check on their progress. “All good?”

David turned his arm this way and that. “Yeah. Can this be stitched once we get there?”

“Get where?” Evan asked.

“To the Program HQ or wherever.”

Past the boy, Evan sensed Joey pull her head back slightly.

“We’re not going to any HQ,” Evan said. “You’re not joining any Program.”

David’s tone hardened. “What are you talking about?”

“That’s no longer an option,” Evan said.

“No way. That big guy said I could be part of it.”

“That big guy will dispose of you if you don’t make the grade,” Joey said.

David spun to face her. “I’ll make the grade,” he said. “It’s all I ever wanted.” He glared up at them. “I want a way out. I finally got it. And you want to take it from me?”

“These guys killed Tim,” Evan said.

“Then Tim wasn’t good enough.”

“Watch your fucking mouth.” Joey stepped forward, shouldering Evan aside, her intensity catching him off guard. “He died for you.”

David’s mouth pulsed as he fought down a swallow. But his eyes stayed fierce.

Joey leaned over him. “You don’t even know what the Program is.”

“I don’t care what,” David said. “I don’t care. I want to go back with the guy who took me. I want something better than a shitty life in some shitty facility.”

“Did Jack teach you anything?” Joey said.

“Yeah. To be better. I deserve better than this.”

Joey said, “None of us deserves anything.”

“Maybe so,” David said, hopping to his feet and finger-stabbing at Joey. “But that’s my choice. I’m not going with you if you’re not part of the Program. You take me back to those guys, or the first chance I get, I’ll tell that you kidnapped me.”

His features were set with a bulldog stubbornness that seemed well beyond his thirteen years. Given the life he’d led up to now, that made sense. Hard years counted double.

Evan had been a year younger than David was now when he’d stepped off the truck-stop curb into Jack’s car and never looked back. He thought about who he was then and what he thought he knew.

Evan said, “Is there anything we can say to dissuade you?”

David’s face had turned ruddy. “No.”

“Can we give you more information to—”

“No.” The boy was on tilt, his nose angled up at Evan, shoulders forward, fists clenched by his hips.