Page 141 of Antihero

A crack and a crumble.

Goliath flopped down onto his back again, gnarled hands shuddering over his ruined face.

Yanking the leg, Evan squirmed another flex-cuff through the loop around the bobbing cleat, cinched it around the anchor ring, ratcheted it tight.

Goliath heaved his leg once more, the anchor actually shifting in the sand. One flex-cuff wouldn’t be enough.

Heaviness suffused Evan, concreting his eyelids, slowing his breaths, pulling him into sleep. He fought it, hands working furiously.

Another zip tie.

Another.

Another.

Sliding and tightening, sliding and tightening until a web of high-tensile nylon 6/6 ensnared the mammoth ankle.

Evan crawled toward Goliath’s face, pinning the near arm with his knee.

“Who hired you?”

Goliath smiled through blood-matted beard. When Evan’s chest hitched, that dagger of pain stabbed his left lung.

He punched Goliath on the caved cheek. “Who sent you?”

Goliath’s head rolled back in the sand, came forward again. “You can beat me till yer tiny little fist shatters, but I ain’t telling you shit.”

Evan believed him.

The rain had slowed but the air still felt electric, violent.

He waded out of reach on his knees, found the strength to rise again, and staggered toward the road. He was breathing sounds and smelling colors and the world around him was moving drunkenly of its own accord.

Though bound at the wrists and ankles, the boy had squirmed his way over toward Evan’s gun. Evan stooped as he passed, picking it up.

Teardrop lay motionless a few feet away, face buried in mud. He was going to suffocate in full view of Anca in the car.

Evan kicked him in the ribs. Groaning, he flipped over.

Zzt. Zzt. Two more zip ties rendered him inert.

Nineteen seconds.

Evan heard a scrabbling noise.

Jimmy was bent over the side of the car, hands zombie-clawing at the passenger door. The handle had retracted, so there was nothing to grab, but Anca’s terrified face was right there on the other side of the window.

When Evan blinked, his eyes threatened to stay closed. His knees unlocked and he almost toppled. Pulling his legs forward, he neared Jimmy.

Jimmy took no notice, kept at his half-conscious efforts.

Evan made a fist around his pistol, used it as a makeshift brass knuckles, and hammered him on the side of the head.

He fell stiffly.

Evan collapsed next to him. Patted his cargo pocket.

No zip ties left.