The Box by Jeremy Brown (ebook reader play store txt) 📕

shed, directly into Connelly’s sights.

If Connelly shot him, it would be a mad scramble to get at Razvan before he had a chance to make more trouble.

It wouldn’t end well, Bruder knew.

He waited for the shot, for everything to start happening quickly with more shots coming from Kershaw and the machine gunner, people yelling and dying.

AK moved deeper into the shed, out of Bruder’s view, then popped on the cab of the combine, craning his neck to see over and past the other machines.

Bruder kept still, a dark lump among the shadows in the back corner.

He didn’t move the rifle, wary of any reflection coming from the optics lens.

He looked just to the left of the man with the AK, not wanting him to feel any eyes.

After a moment the man shook his head and said something to Razvan in Romanian, then disappeared behind the combine.

Bruder watched him walk past the far side of the opening, heading for the other front corner of the shed.

“AK is checking the back side,” Kershaw said.

It was where the truck had been parked before they put it in the pond, but the crushed stone left no tracks.

He wouldn’t find anything.

When Bruder brought the rifle back to look for Razvan, he caught a glimpse of him and Nora moving to the right, blocked now by the shed’s door.

Kershaw said, “I have Razvan. Nora is close but I have the shot.”

“AK?” Bruder asked.

“Behind the shed, no go.”

Bruder searched the back wall, knowing there weren’t any doors or windows, but maybe there was a crack or hole or seam, and when a shape moved past he could put a burst through the steel and Kershaw could take Razvan.

But there was nothing, just ribbed metal and wooden posts and crossbeams.

Rison whispered, “What about when he passes between the sheds?”

“Bad angle, I can’t see all the way through,” Kershaw said. “If he comes out to the front, maybe.”

Everyone waited.

Then Kershaw said, “Razvan is at the truck. He’s putting Nora in. No sign of AK.”

Bruder heard Connelly moving, scraping along the floor to get out from under the trailer.

Kershaw said, “Razvan is in the truck, he’s backing up. Nora is in the front with him, in the middle. I—wait, AK is there, he went all the way around the house. He’s at the corner of the porch, looking down at the pond.”

Bruder dropped down from the tractor and worked through the equipment, catching up with Connelly at the edge of the doorway.

“We can’t let them leave,” Connelly said.

He had his balaclava off now, and his hair was matted with sweat.

Rison stepped out of the shadows on the other side of the opening.

“What’s the move?”

“Nothing,” Bruder said.

Connelly glared at him.

“Nothing? We can’t let them take her.”

“They want her to get to you,” Bruder said. “She’ll be fine until then.”

Connelly turned and pulled a fist back, ready to pound it into the steel door, but kept himself under control. He sucked air in through his teeth and let it out in a low, seething growl.

Kershaw told them, “AK is getting into the truck, passenger side. Backing up, turning around on the grass. At the road. Turning north.”

Rison said, “North?”

“Machine gunner is packing up,” Kershaw said. “He’s following them. They’re gone.”

They waited a full minute, then Kershaw walked into the shed with the poncho over his shoulder. His face was sweaty and streaked with dirt.

The four of them met in front of the combine.

“We let them take her,” Connelly said.

Everybody knew that already, so nobody responded.

Rison said, “Why go north? There are other properties south of here.”

“They don’t have to search anymore,” Bruder said, looking at Connelly. “They have the woman. They think we’ll come to them now.”

Chapter Seventeen

Razvan drove with Nora wedged between him and Benj, who had his rifle butt-down between his knees. He was twisted to the left so he could look back at the house and barns.

He frowned at them and breathed loudly through his mouth, blowing air against Nora’s right ear.

She stared straight ahead through the windshield with her arms crossed, and Razvan thought she had the look of a long-suffering wife.

Benj said in Romanian, “Something’s going on back there.”

Razvan grunted and kept their native language going.

“Oh, she’s up to something. We’ll get some details when her man calls us back.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

Razvan grinned and glanced over at Nora, who met his eyes for a moment then went back to scowling out the window. When he smiled, the thin flesh around his eyes piled up and made his sunken sockets look even deeper.

“Then we’ll see what she knows. I suspect it’s nothing—she’s been a pawn for the thieves, I think—but maybe he’ll call us back if we leave him another message with some real motivation in it.”

Benj nodded.

Standard practice, about what he’d expected.

He looked back at the woman’s place, becoming a group of boxes in the surrounding flatlands.

“Why don’t you let me out here? I want to see what happens.”

“Like what?”

Benj shrugged.

“Maybe they’re watching the place, and they come crawling out of their holes when they see us leaving. If I spot anything, I’ll call you back in.”

Razvan thought about it, then shook his head.

“Costel and Luca are at the intersection up here. Anyone comes or goes, they will see them. I need both you and Mihail at the compound.”

“For her? She’ll be easy. The hard part will be making sure she doesn’t just die on you.”

“Not for her,” Razvan said. “For the thieves, when they come with the money. And for the men from Chicago.”

“Ah, shit. Them.”

“Yes, you see? We’re going to be very busy soon.”

He grinned at Nora again and pushed the truck faster.

“Give me the phone,” Connelly said. “I’m calling her back.”

“What for?” Bruder said.

He didn’t reach for the pocket with the phone.

Connelly’s mouth flapped.

“Uh, to make sure she’s alive?”

“And if she isn’t?”

Rison and Kershaw watched the conversation, back and forth.

“Then we go to war.”

“And what if she just doesn’t answer? What if Razvan does?”

“Okay, fine, calling is a