A sharp pain in his side sucked the breath right out of him.
It wasn’t until his attacker attempted to get to his feet that Jason spotted the knife in his hand and realized he’d been stabbed. Blindly, he reached out to his side for the sharp rock he’d seen earlier. Instead, he claimed a fistful of sand and dirt and threw it into the guy’s face. The man cursed and covered his eyes, giving Jason a chance to try and wrest the knife from him, but it was no use. He had to be six-five, two hundred and fifty pounds, at least.
Jason’s attacker got the better of him and rolled on top of him, the sharp tip of his blade hovering a few inches above Jason’s chest. Dizzy and weak, he realized he couldn’t hold him off much longer.
“Drop the knife or you’re dead.”
Jason squinted into the sun and spotted Angela. She was pointing a gun at the man’s head.
When the idiot looked over his shoulder at her, Jason pushed him off of him, rolled to his right, grabbed the rock he’d been looking for earlier, and bashed it against the guy’s head.
He toppled over with a thump.
“Is he dead?” Angela asked, worried.
Jason reached into the guy’s pocket and took his cell phone. He found a wallet, too, and flipped through the contents. “He’s breathing. He’ll be fine.” Pulling out cash and an ID, he said, “He doesn’t appear to be a cop or an FBI agent.”
Jason thought about waiting for the guy to come to so he could force him to talk at gunpoint, but there were too many houses overlooking the lake. It wouldn’t surprise him if someone had already called the police. “We better get out of here.”
“Take this,” Angela said, handing him the gun, “I don’t want anything to do with it.”
Jason shoved the cash, ID and cell phone into his pocket and then took the gun.
Her gaze fell to his blood-soaked shirt. “You’re hurt!”
“Barely grazed. Let’s go.”
She put out her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Give me the guy’s phone. Hurry.”
He did as she said, watched her open it, push a button, then lean over and press the guy’s thumbprint to the button on the phone. Nothing happened.
She used his other thumb next. “It worked.”
“What are you doing?”
“Unlocking the phone so we can see his contact list and then setting it so there’s no longer a password to get in.”
“You seem to know an awful lot about computer searches and phone technology.”
“I would love for you to think I’m a techie geek, but biometric technology isn’t exactly new. Most ten-year olds these days know how to scan their fingerprint and use that instead of a passcode.”
“Impressive all the same.” He looked around. “Done?”
She nodded.
By the time they made it back to the car, they heard sirens in the distance.
Angela helped him into the passenger seat, then scrounged around in the back for a moment.
“What are you doing?” Jason asked. “We’ve got get out of here. Now!”
She secured both passenger side doors and climbed back in behind the wheel, tossing him a clean shirt. “Use that to stop the bleeding.” She backed out of the narrow drive and sped across the parking lot, fishtailing onto the main road.
“Take a left onto Auburn Folsom when you get to the end of this road. Eventually, we’ll get onto the freeway and head west toward Sacramento.” He pulled his bloodied shirt over his head and used that to stop the flow of blood. It took some maneuvering, but he slipped into the clean shirt and then adjusted the position of the seat so he was no longer upright and in plain view.
“That’s not a graze. It’s worse than you thought, isn’t it?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Where are we headed?”
He gave her Colin’s address.
“Do you really think you can trust him?”
“I have no idea who I can trust any longer.” Although he’d never allowed himself to consider Colin as someone who might frame him for murder, he also knew it was time to get real. Everybody was a suspect. He couldn’t forget that. His life was on the line. And what about hearing Sophie’s voice in the background when he’d called his friend? What was going on between those two?
“What are you thinking?”
“Sophie. When I called Colin from the payphone this morning, I heard her voice in the background.”
“Are they living together?”
“I don’t know, but it’s time I found out.”
“We need to pull over and take care of that wound of yours.”
“Not yet. Get out of the area first. I’ll be fine.” He winced in pain. “Thanks for the help back there. How are you holding up?”
She kept her eyes on the road. “I’m fine.”
Sirens blared as a police car sped past in the opposite direction.
“Did your sister bring the computer?”
“Nope. She couldn’t find it.”