Time to Run: Part One (Nick of Time) by John Gilstrap

Author:John Gilstrap [Gilstrap, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers & Suspense, Two Hours or More (65-100 Pages), Literature & Fiction, Thrillers
Amazon: B011G49DU6
Publisher: Lyrical Underground
Published: 2016-03-29T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

The bus nosed into its slot at an angle, one of a dozen identical vehicles. Together, they reminded Nicki of so many piglets nuzzled up to a sow. The rigors of the trip had wiped her out, and as always, the fatigue had brought on a bout of depression. It sucked to be her.

Nicki held on tightly to the aluminum guardrail as she eased herself down the stairs to the pavement below, where the steamy heat of the day took her breath away. People behind her buzzed with impatience as she took her time, apparently assuming that she moved slowly on purpose. So, this was Brookfield—or at least the bus-station section of Brookfield. Fetid and filthy, the station smelled little better than the vehicle that brought her there. Months-old trash jammed the gutters at the curb, and the sidewalk was nearly impassable, thanks to the horde of passengers hovering near the cargo bays of their motor coaches, clearly guarding their luggage from predators. She’d heard her dad wonder over the years if slums grew naturally in the shade of bus stations or if bus companies deliberately placed the points of arrival and departure in the worst parts of town. Now she understood the irony.

Nicki had no luggage other than her purse. Brad had told her that she needed nothing, and she took him at his word. She had her ID, the $500 from the ATM, and her meds. But for the shorts and T-shirt she wore, she had no earthly possessions.

Much to her surprise, that didn’t bother her a bit.

Stepping through the double glass doors, Nicki entered the station itself. It had the look of a place that might have once been a train station; not one of the grand palaces from the big cities, but just another stop along the way. The ticket windows were arched, and decorative bars covered all but a little slot at the bottom. Behind those bars, the workers looked every bit as tired and neglected as the building. The yellowed tile and stained fluorescent light fixtures told her that the “No Smoking” signs went largely unheeded, as did the “No Loitering” signs. Some of the loiterers looked firmly enough encamped to call the place their home.

This was the most exciting thing Nicki had ever done. The most dangerous. The most stupid. With all the nut jobs and evil people her dad had prosecuted over the years, she had to be out of her mind to meet a guy in a bus station two hundred miles away from home. Why didn’t she just put a gun to her head and blow her brains out?

She tried to tell herself that Brad wasn’t like that. He was sweet, not evil. Still, it had been five years since she’d seen him, and now that she’d finally arrived at their designated meeting spot, she realized for the first time that she might not even recognize him anymore. She’d been twelve years old back then, all chubby and gap-toothed, with a hairstyle that more resembled a boy’s than a girl’s.

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