hiked back to the road, bursting through the thick brush and running along the shoulder. They didn't want to be caught exiting the woods just as a car happened to be driving by. But there was nothing.
Tony and Brian hurried back up the lonely road to their stolen F-150 in silence. The sun had sunk beneath the trees now, and there was a very good possibility that Michaels wouldn't be found until morning, which would suit their purposes perfectly. Placing the heavily damaged briefcase securely on the bench seat between the two of them, Tony slid into the beat-up Ford and fired up the truck's tired engine. Then they chugged slowly away from the site of the ambush.
Chapter 13
Nick was exhausted. He had never realized until now just how much effort, both physical and emotional, was involved in burying a loved one. Sure, he had been to plenty of funerals before, but putting your great-aunt in the ground after eighty-five years of life was a lot different than saying good-bye to your wife, especially when she had been just twenty-nine years old, taken from you without warning in a single violent instant.
"Honey, you need to get some rest." His mother brushed his shaggy hair from his eyes, something she had been doing since he was a little kid and something he had always hated. "Lisa wouldn't have wanted you to wear yourself down and get sick; I'm sure of that."
"Yeah, I know." Nick breathed deeply and looked at his watch.
Two hours until he had to drive his parents to Logan Airport to catch their flight back to Dayton.
Everyone else who had gathered to bury Lisa was already gone, and Nick was anxious to be alone so he could grieve the way he badly wanted and needed to. He was touched by all the support the throngs of friends and relatives had provided, but Nick had not truly been alone since those first few horrible hours after the police officers had shown up four days ago with the news that his wife was gone. Irrevocably and permanently gone.
With everyone using his house as a staging area--people coming and going at all hours for days, and his parents staying in the house with him--Nick felt as though his entire focus had been on remaining strong for everyone else, keeping up some sort of ridiculous charade where he convinced the onlookers who were watching him so closely that he was doing just fine.
The fact of the matter was that he was doing the opposite of just fine, whatever that was. Just crappy? Just stunned? Just lost and rudderless and totally numb? He hadn't yet had a chance to contemplate how he was going to continue without Lisa or whether he even really wanted to for that matter.
It wasn't like he was contemplating suicide; he knew Lisa would never forgive him if he were to take his own life. But since the very first day he had met Lisa Harrison, way back in high school, Nick had never given one solitary thought to the possibility that he might not spend the rest of his life with her. Now that the exact scenario had come to pass, Nick hadn't the slightest idea what to do next.
"Listen, Mom, maybe that's a good idea. I think I will take a short nap. I'll make sure I'm up in plenty of time to drive you and Dad to the airport. Don't worry."
"That's fine," she said, gliding gracefully out of the bedroom and pulling the door softly closed behind her. Moments later Nick heard the whine of the vacuum cleaner running at the other end of the house as his mother finished getting the home in tip-top shape before departing for Ohio.
Sleeping was out of the question, of course; Nick had simply used that excuse as a convenient way to maneuver himself into some time alone. In a way he felt badly, knowing his parents were going to be leaving soon and he wouldn't see them again for months, but he needed to be by himself. He rose and paced around the room, walking from the bedroom door to the dresser filled with his dead wife's clothes, behind the foot of their bed to the window, then back to the bedroom door, starting the
Tony and Brian hurried back up the lonely road to their stolen F-150 in silence. The sun had sunk beneath the trees now, and there was a very good possibility that Michaels wouldn't be found until morning, which would suit their purposes perfectly. Placing the heavily damaged briefcase securely on the bench seat between the two of them, Tony slid into the beat-up Ford and fired up the truck's tired engine. Then they chugged slowly away from the site of the ambush.
Chapter 13
Nick was exhausted. He had never realized until now just how much effort, both physical and emotional, was involved in burying a loved one. Sure, he had been to plenty of funerals before, but putting your great-aunt in the ground after eighty-five years of life was a lot different than saying good-bye to your wife, especially when she had been just twenty-nine years old, taken from you without warning in a single violent instant.
"Honey, you need to get some rest." His mother brushed his shaggy hair from his eyes, something she had been doing since he was a little kid and something he had always hated. "Lisa wouldn't have wanted you to wear yourself down and get sick; I'm sure of that."
"Yeah, I know." Nick breathed deeply and looked at his watch.
Two hours until he had to drive his parents to Logan Airport to catch their flight back to Dayton.
Everyone else who had gathered to bury Lisa was already gone, and Nick was anxious to be alone so he could grieve the way he badly wanted and needed to. He was touched by all the support the throngs of friends and relatives had provided, but Nick had not truly been alone since those first few horrible hours after the police officers had shown up four days ago with the news that his wife was gone. Irrevocably and permanently gone.
With everyone using his house as a staging area--people coming and going at all hours for days, and his parents staying in the house with him--Nick felt as though his entire focus had been on remaining strong for everyone else, keeping up some sort of ridiculous charade where he convinced the onlookers who were watching him so closely that he was doing just fine.
The fact of the matter was that he was doing the opposite of just fine, whatever that was. Just crappy? Just stunned? Just lost and rudderless and totally numb? He hadn't yet had a chance to contemplate how he was going to continue without Lisa or whether he even really wanted to for that matter.
It wasn't like he was contemplating suicide; he knew Lisa would never forgive him if he were to take his own life. But since the very first day he had met Lisa Harrison, way back in high school, Nick had never given one solitary thought to the possibility that he might not spend the rest of his life with her. Now that the exact scenario had come to pass, Nick hadn't the slightest idea what to do next.
"Listen, Mom, maybe that's a good idea. I think I will take a short nap. I'll make sure I'm up in plenty of time to drive you and Dad to the airport. Don't worry."
"That's fine," she said, gliding gracefully out of the bedroom and pulling the door softly closed behind her. Moments later Nick heard the whine of the vacuum cleaner running at the other end of the house as his mother finished getting the home in tip-top shape before departing for Ohio.
Sleeping was out of the question, of course; Nick had simply used that excuse as a convenient way to maneuver himself into some time alone. In a way he felt badly, knowing his parents were going to be leaving soon and he wouldn't see them again for months, but he needed to be by himself. He rose and paced around the room, walking from the bedroom door to the dresser filled with his dead wife's clothes, behind the foot of their bed to the window, then back to the bedroom door, starting the
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