He squeezed his eyes a few times, trying to adapt to the darkness faster. There was just enough light to see Joy’s general shape, standing next to a pile of broken porcelain where the urinals would normally be. Plumbing pipes stuck out from the wall. And the smell was less than pleasant.

  He wrinkled his nose. “This place needs an air freshener,” he muttered.

  Joy ignored his comment. “That door won’t last long. And they’re gonna figure out where we disappeared to sooner rather than later.”

  “Yup.” He scanned the bathroom.

  Sink. That was the place.

  Barely visible in the darkness, little glints of light reflected off two metal sinks and a hammered metal mirror hung above them. Two lumps of pale plastic next to the sink were probably the dispensers for soap. And he could just make out a metal paper towel dispenser on the wall.

  He searched around the base of the sinks, near the water pipe, feeling up to where it connected with the basin.

  Cursed when he didn’t find anything at the first sink.

  “What are you looking for?” Joy whispered.

  More noise from outside. Talking instead of gunfire. But the sound was too muffled for him to make out. Probably talking about how many ways they could kill him if they got ahold of him.

  “We have to find a way out of here?” Joy said.

  “Yup. Getting to that part. Just need to…” He felt along the second pipe, tempted to pull out his penlight, but he didn’t want to risk anyone outside seeing the light.

  He reached the basin. Nothing.

  Fuck.

  Howards had told him the flash drive was here. The sinks. He’d said the sinks.

  Panic started to kick in. Without that flash drive, he had no way of negotiating with Schmitt. No way to talk him into letting Joy go.

  He needed that fucking drive or he had no bargaining power.

  He scanned the bathroom, the broken pits of porcelain, the two stalls like black closets, their doors ripped off and laying in a pile on the floor. He and Joy had climbed down into one of those stalls. But he hadn’t checked them.

  The darkness inside the stalls was almost absolute, though. When he poked his head inside one, he could barely see the toilet.

  He was going to have to hunt with his hands.

  He sighed. Dropped to his knees, and felt around the base and back of the toilet. It was also metal, cold, with no cistern. And it stank like it hadn’t been flushed in a month.

  Swallowing a rise of bile, he hunted the ground, the base of the toilet, the area behind the bowl where the pipes led into the wall. Nothing.

  He scrambled around to the other stall, searching every bit of area he could reach.

  Just as he started reciting one of his grandmother’s curses, which he fully intended on using against Howards, his fingers brushed something.

  Something hard, and small, and rectangular shaped. Taped to the very back of the toilet bowl.

  Sink. Does this look like a sink to you, Howards?

  He kept that rant to himself as he pulled the drive and tape from the toilet. Outside the stall, he held the drive up, trying to catch the faint light coming in through the gap.

  All this for a little piece of metal and plastic.

  And if he could actually get the drive back to Howards without dying, he’d get paid.

  Never to return to the woods ever again.

  “What is that?” Joy asked at his elbow.

  “The thing that’s going to get us out of here.” He tucked the drive into his pants pocket and went to study the door.

  “Bar lock, remember?” Joy said.

  He nodded, his fingers working along the edge of the frame. And smiled.

  Hinges. He could work with hinges.

  He pulled out the little black, leather wrapped tool kit from inside one of the large inner pockets of his hoodie. The only thing he liked about sportswear were the pockets.

  “How’d you know I was a city boy?” he whispered as he felt around the hinges a bit more, then pulled out the tool he needed.

  “Your shoes,” Joy said.

  He glanced down, but in the dark, he couldn’t see his black loafers. “I love these shoes.”

  “They’re nice. They’re just not for hiking.”

  That was a fair assessment.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Shh,” he said.

  The hinges were rough and he had to scrape off a little paint to get a good grip on them. But he managed to get the screw out of the bottom one without making too much noise.

  Outside, everything had fallen silent. That wasn’t good. Even Moose had stopped bellowing.

  “Hope Moose is okay,” he muttered as he went to work on the top hinge.

  “They’re hard to kill,” Joy said, patting his arm.

  The screw holding the top hinge in place came loose.

  Just as something broke through the window in the other half of the building.

  Connor hurried to the toilet and lifted up to see through the gap.

  Smoke was filling up the bathroom.

  4

  “Time to go.” He dropped to the ground and raced back to the door.

  Joy wordlessly helped him lift the door up off the hinges. They pushed and shoved until they got the door free, pulling one side inward on the normally outward swinging door.

  The main door lock and the connection to the bar lock kept the door half closed, so they couldn’t drop it off completely, but they made enough of a gap to squeeze through and under the bar lock.

  Connor went first, scanning the surroundings before slipping out and keeping the door pushed inward so Joy could wiggle through.

  Schmitt’s people had to be around the front, waiting for the smoke to force them back out of the bathroom. No one at this side of the building shooting at them anyway.

  He grabbed Joy’s hand because he didn’t want to talk aloud. They hugged the building to reach the side where his rental was parked. The two back tires had been shot out.

  They wouldn’t get far on those.

  Still better than standing in the open and getting riddled with bullets.

  He edged toward the driver’s side door, Joy just behind him, both of them crouched low so they weren’t visible through the windows.

  She followed his lead without question or argument. He was definitely starting to like her. Something about a competent woman.

  He tried the car door. He’d locked it. It was still locked.

  Joy handed him the keys she must have kept in her pocket. The minute he pressed the open button, this car was going to make noise. The people waiting on the other side of the bathroom were going to know something was wrong.

  No help for it.

  He hit the button.

  Beep beep.

  He winced, threw the door open and motioned Joy inside. She started to move…

  A gun clicked.

  Connor and Joy froze. He looked up.

  Schmitt stood a few feet away. His gun pointed right at Connor.

  First thing Connor noticed? Schmitt wasn’t any more comfortable in the forest than he was. And he’d dressed even worse.

  A suit. Tie. Pressed shirt. All in black, which made him hard to see in the dark. Just the flat silver color of his thick, long hair and his white goatee stood out in the otherwise meager moonlight. He was so fucking tall, when Connor blinked, it looked like Schmitt’s head was hovering in the air without a body under it.

  That was fucking creepy.

  Schmitt smiled.

  Connor really hated that smile.

  “The flash drive,” Schmitt said.

  “I didn’t find it. You can check. Wasn’t in there. Just broken urinals and stench. I don’t recommend the stench.”

  “Ha, ha. The flash drive.”

  Connor hesitated.

  “The flash drive. Or we kill the ranger slowly instead of fast.”

  “I’d rather not be killed at all,” Joy said.

  “That’s not an option now.” Schmitt waved his gun at Connor. “Hand it over. Or you watch her suffer.”

  Joy gripped the back of his hoodie, her hands out of Schmitt’s line of sight.

  For a split second, Connor thought she was panicking, that she was looking for comfort with that gesture. Then he felt the bump of hard metal against his back.

  Her gun.

  Competence was extremely sexy.

  “I didn’t find it,” Connor insisted, raising his hands. “I don’t have it. You can search me if you want.”

  Schmitt considered him for a long moment, his expression thoughtful. “I could kill you and search you.”

  “You could,” Connor said. “But then if I did find the flash drive and hid it again, you’d never know.”

  “You’re lying to me.”

  “I lie a lot. You’ll need to be more specific. To which lie are you referring?”

  Schmitt cocked his gun. A showy, unnecessary move. But the threat was pretty clear.

  “The flash drive, Connor. Now.” He raised his gun.

  “Okay, okay, look,” Connor said. Then leaned to one side as Joy fired at Schmitt.

  She hit him in the throat.

  Connor blinked. He couldn’t have made that shot if he’d practiced for months.

  Schmitt gripped his throat, his face contorting. He raised his gun.

  Connor grabbed Joy and dove into the SUV.

  “Horrrnk!”

  The sound of hooves hitting dirt was like thunder.

  Connor pulled his legs into the SUV and slammed the door shut. Around the corner of the bathroom building, the rest of Schmitt’s men came running.

  Just as a whole bunch of moose came charging out of the trees.

  In reality, it was probably only about three of them. But in the dark, it looked like dozens of them. They were so overwhelmingly large. Connor watched, eyes wide, as the moose ran right over the top of the men, despite them firing multiple shots at the charging beasts.

  “Those bastards are as tall as the bathroom,” he muttered. He’d swear their antlers were wider than his car.

  “Don’t mess with a moose. Definitely don’t mess with more than one of them.”

  “I didn’t know they charged.” He couldn’t look away. The bastards were huge. He’d thought Moose looked big face-to-face. This was just…

  Terrifying.

  Joy patted his hand. “It’s okay, city boy. You get used to it.”

  Right.

  They watched the chaos in silence. Two of Schmitt’s men ran—the smart ones. One guy curled up into a ball as the moose stomped over him. Schmitt was lost to sight under the antler and hoof parade. At least one guy took the full force of a moose charging him with its head lowered and went flying back into the wall of the bathroom.

  Connor winced.

  “Ouch,” Joy said.

  “How long will they do this?” Connor asked.

  “Until they’ve worked off their irritation.” She crawled into the passenger seat of the SUV. “Wouldn’t recommend stepping out there right now.”

  “What happens if they charge the SUV?”

  “They’ll knock us over and might kill us.” She reholstered her gun and leaned back, watching the mayhem.

  “Good to know.”

  “What’s on that flash drive?”

  “Financials. Incriminating stuff. I’m passing them on to law enforcement.”

  “You aren’t law enforcement?”

  “Not…precisely.” He was a former thief and a current errand boy for the federal agent who’d kept him from a life sentence for a crime one of Connor’s former victims had framed him for. But that was a little too complicated for a first meeting. He settled for, “Private contractor.” As good a label as any.

  After about ten minutes, the sound of pounding hooves and bellowing beasts subsided. He reached for the door handle, but Joy put a hand to his arm.

  “Give them more time to clear out. We go out too soon, they’ll charge again.”

  He settled back in his seat.

  Joy nodded when the coast was clear, and they climbed out of the SUV at the same time.

  He didn’t look too closely at what the moose had done to Schmitt or the three others who hadn’t managed to run away.

  “Well that’s unpleasant,” Joy said. “Glad the moon’s not full.”

  “Why?”

  “Too much light.”

  Fair. “That was a good shot, by the way.”

  “Thanks. I’ve had a lot of practice.”

  “Shooting guys in the neck?”

  “Target practice. First time I’ve shot a human.”

  “You okay with that?” He turned to see her face in the dim light. She was pale, but her expression was calm.

  “I’ll live with it.”

  He considered his SUV. “Can I get a lift back to somewhere civilized? Then we can call in the calvary to deal with…” He gestured at the bodies. “So long as you don’t think the moose will eat them or anything.”

  “Moose won’t. Wolves might.”

  “There are wolves in these woods.”

  “Cougars and bears, too.”

  “I hate nature.”

  “Wait’ll I tell you about snakes and spiders.”

  “Shut up.”

  She smiled a little, some of the color coming back to her face. “Come on, city boy. Let’s get you and that flash drive out of here.”

  They walked the long way around the bathroom to avoiding the bodies and moose mess.

  Connor scanned the area as they moved across the open parking lot to her four-by-four, looking out for the men who’d run. No sign of them.

  “You really working with the law, or are you conning me?” Joy said.

  “What if I was conning you?” he asked, genuinely curious.

  “I’d still get you back to civilization. But I’d give you a fake number.”

  “You assume I’m going to ask for your number?”

  She smiled and climbed into her truck.

  He smiled too.

  He glanced back at the square cement brick building. The smoke bomb Schmitt’s people had used on the women’s side had dissipated. There were chunks of cement blown out of the bricks. Bunch of dents in the metal door. Someone was going to have a hell of a time explaining that mess.

  He was just glad it wouldn’t be him.

  At the edge of the woods, just beyond the bathroom, he spotted the glimmer of eyes. A moose stepped away from the trees, far enough into the dim moonlight to show off his antlers. Then he snorted and turned back into the forest shadows.

  Connor shook his head.

  Who knew breaking into a fucking rest stop bathroom would result in all this.

  What a night.

  Thank You

  Thanks for reading VACATION DEADLY! I hope you enjoyed the stories, got a few chuckles, and were able to escape to some fun settings. Although maybe not the rest stop bathroom Connor had to deal with.

  As I mentioned in the Introduction, these stories fall right into some of my favorite fiction genres, but I only seem to commit action-adventure thriller every so often. One of those places is my book GALILEO’S PENDULUM, which is the start of an action-adventure series with a science history twist. If you prefer good old soft-boiled mysteries, you might enjoy my Percy James series, where the front desk clerk at a small boutique hotel in New York City gets the dubious pleasure of seeing a lot of weird stuff. And occasionally finds herself uncovering deeper mysteries.

  For more on my books and to keep up to date on my fiction, you can follow my website, check out my store, or follow my BookBub page or my author page at your favorite book vendor. I can occasionally be found on Instagram (mostly talking about baking and sports, but sometimes I talk about my books), or you can follow my Facebook Page.

  If you’d like to know more about everything I write, you might consider joining my newsletter. Especially if you like action stories with a contemporary fantasy angle.

  Thanks again for reading VACATION DEADLY!

  Books By Kat Simons

  Mystery and Thriller

  Ross and O’Neill Adventures

  Galileo’s Pendulum

  Percy James Mysteries

  Movies May Murder

  Cookies Can’t Crime

  Diamonds Do Damage

  Replicas Risk Ruin

  coming soon

  Pick Your Genre Collections

  Who Steals a Dragon

  Contemporary Romances

  Designed for You

  Poinsettias and Possibilities

  Captured by You

  Coming soon

  Paranormal Romance

  Dragon Thief Series

  Seven Families: Wolf Series

  Tiger Shifters Series

  Romancing the Leopard: A Tiger Shifters-Cary Redmond Crossover Novel

  Destiny Cats

  Urban Fantasy

  The Cary Redmond Series

  Cary Redmond Short Stories and Collections

  Demon Witch Series

  Joan of Kerry Series

  Contemporary Fantasy

  Haunts and Howls Collections

  *Tombstone Wizard * The Unshattered Sword * Destiny Through the Cats Eyes * Going Out of Business: Everything’s for Sale * Anger Management * Demonic Dates * Friday’s Curious Shop * The Museum of Small Art’s Everyman * Burning Inside a Stone Circle

  About the Author

  Award-winning author Kat Simons’ debut action-adventure thriller, GALILEO’S PENDULUM, brings a mix of science history and fast-paced adventure to a little light forgery as her heroes race around the world to save an ancient relic. Her upcoming action-adventure mystery stories combine similar elements of adventure, world travel, and science—some of Kat’s favorite topics.

 

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