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“Toby, do you trust me?”
“What?”
Adam’s stare was more focused than Toby had ever seen. He’d rushed her behind the isolated rest stop a few seconds ago. All Toby knew was that Ben was still out front, and that he was talking to someone.
“Do you trust me?” he repeated, more forcefully this time.
“Yes…?” She shrank back a bit, half afraid that the whole New Zealand season was a ploy to kidnap her.
The color drained from Toby’s face as Adam pulled out a knife.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispered rapidly. “Ben needs our help out there. I think they’ll bolt once they see us—pretty sure they don’t want innocents getting hurt. Understand?”
Toby had more questions than answers, but with Ben apparently in trouble, she had no choice but to nod.
With a steady hand, he positioned the knife in front of Toby’s throat, subtly guiding her as they stepped back out front. She felt her heartbeat speed up as she raised up her hands, trying to look as innocent and defenseless as she possibly could.
“Shit,” she heard Adam breathe.
Just a minute before, Ben was having a forgettable conversation with a stranger. But now that stranger had the barrel of a handgun pressed against Ben’s chin, a wolfish smile spread across their face. Ben was sweating and wide-eyed, but his jaw was set defiantly.
They soon noticed Toby and Adam, and turned their head to the pair. “Interesting,” they said. “Are you here to save your boy?”
“Put the gun down or she gets it,” Adam spat.
Toby immediately tuned out their conversation. It didn’t matter what they were saying, anyway—all she wanted to do was get Ben and Adam out of there as soon as possible. Since Sam had already driven to the airport, only Adam’s car remained. If she sprinted, then she might be able to… no, it was too far away for all three of them to enter in time without the stranger retaliating.
Her heartbeat quickened even more as she ran through her options. Hiding in the bathroom was a terrible idea, bolting would mean she’d leave her friends behind, she didn’t have anything on her to fight back…
The stranger’s strident voice interrupted her thoughts. “Enough playing around,” they growled, their smile replaced with a look of hatred. “If you let her go, I’ll just bring him somewhere else. If you don’t…” They let the possibility hang in the air.
“Dammit, they're bluffing, right…?” Adam muttered, his knife wavering slightly.
Toby was running out of time. Ben was going to get kidnapped, or worse, and she just would watch it transpire.
But with half a plan in her head, she wasn’t about to let that happen.
As quickly as she could, she grabbed Adam’s knife, keeping it away from her throat as she kicked her legs behind her hard enough to make Adam collapse to the pavement. At the sudden commotion, the stranger’s head whirled toward the two. Seizing the opportunity, Ben clocked them in the head; they lost their grip on the gun and it flew toward Toby. He seemed to reach for something under his shirt, but swore as he found nothing and the stranger recovered from the attack. They delivered a punch to his chest, and Ben reeled back from the blow.
Toby’s hands were bleeding; they hurt like hell from gripping the blade, but she tossed it aside and scrambled to pick up the gun. Ben’s face was bloodied as he endured more strikes from the stranger. Adam was still on the ground from the kick. The stranger’s smile returned as they threw Ben to the ground. Toby was the only one who could stop this.
Hoping to god this would work, she aimed as best she could and pulled the trigger.
The next thing she knew, Toby was in Adam’s car with Ben in the passenger’s seat. She looked at her palms. Both were bandaged well, though they were bloodstained and she felt the fresh wounds beneath them. Her ears briefly rang, but the sound dissipated after a moment.
Ben, who was wiping blood off his face, seemed to notice her movement and turned toward her. His face was bandaged as well, and his hair looked like a rat’s nest, but he was awake, alert, and not seriously injured.
All Toby and Ben could do was stare at each other for several minutes. Finally, he spoke up.
“Guess you have a few questions, huh?”
“Ben,” Adam cut in, “don’t just—”
“Yes, I do, Ben. What”—she pointed her hand behind the car—”was THAT?”
Her words were met with silence.
Once again, Ben took the lead in the conversation. “Well... there's a lot you don’t know,” he sighed. “About what we do besides Jet Lag.”
“Please, just look the other way on this,” Adam said. “If you don’t say anything, you probably won’t get bothered about what you about what you did.”
“What I did?” Toby repeated. Adam and Ben roped her into this. She didn’t do anything.
But even so…
“You don’t remember?” Ben asked. “You were so still when we left, but I thought you were just thinking about everything, not, like, in shock.”
“No. I can’t recall anything after I… shot them…”
She looked back at Ben. There was too much blood on his face to be from his already bandaged cuts, and there was too much on his body than could have come from his brief struggle.
“Ben, is- is that blood yours?”
He shook his head silently.
“Look,” Adam interjected before she could properly process that answer. “If you can’t sleep tonight, just keep reminding yourself that it was self-defense. If you feel like there’s someone out to get you after this, call Sam, he'll know what to do.” He exhaled deeply. “And please, remember that there’s nothing in it for you if you turn yourself in. This never happened.”
The firmness in his last sentence silenced Toby. She said nothing about her emotions—she could hardly comprehend them herself. A million thoughts were running through her head at once. But Adam was right, the best thing to do was forget about this whole ordeal. So, she pulled out her phone and scrolled aimlessly, letting the distraction push her emotions to the farthest recesses of her mind. Rage, astonishment, uncertainty, confusion—almost all of it, in time, was forgotten.
The only feeling that persisted, deep down, was satisfaction.