Nate regained consciousness and, looking around to see where he was, realized what had happened. “You tricked me,” he said to Shawna, who was tied up with him, back-to-back on the floor in a spare bedroom. “You bitch,” he said, “Why did you bring me here?”
Shawna, who had been conscious for about ten minutes, attempted to calm Nate down. “Look,” she implored, “I’m in the same mess as you now. The only thing that matters is us getting out of her. Alive."
In other circumstances that might have calmed Nate down. But not today. And not when Nate looked at the doorway and saw none other than his former girlfriend, the woman he had been searching for, Amanda, standing there, looking at him. With a smile on her face.
“A-Amanda?” Nate stammered. He could not believe his eyes. The woman he had been trying to find for the past two weeks was right before his eyes, dressed in a halter top and panties, and looking none the worse for wear.
Before Nate could say anything else, Amanda cut in. “You bastard,” she said angrily. “You dumped me, left me to fend for myself, got me kidnapped by this bitch here and used as her play toy. Well, the tables have been turned. It’s me now that will be dumping you. And it won’t be pleasant for you.”
A long black arm encircled Amanda’s waist. Henry’s other arm played with Amanda’s breast as the two of them decided what to do next. “Let’s go get things ready to get rid of these two,” said Henry. Amanda and Henry left to prepare.
“You believe me now?” asked Shawna. “Unless we work together we’re both going to wind up dead. Let’s see if we can loosen up this rope they have us tied with."
Thirty minutes later, armed with a .38 caliber revolver, Henry and Amanda returned to finish things. And that was when Nate and Shawna made their attempt. A struggle ensued that lasted only a few minutes. Two shots rang out. Then silence. Two had prevailed, two were dead. But which two?
Later that night, at about 3 A.M., a car pulled across the dirt lot to the local landfill. Two people got out and opened the trunk of the car, rolled out what appeared to be two bodies wrapped in plastic, and heaved them over into the landfill. By morning a bulldozer had covered things with a foot of dirt, forever burying the two victims.
A day and half later, after continuous driving across the country, a pair of very tired people pulled into the parking lot of a lonely diner on the outskirts of Tucumcari, New Mexico. They got out of the car, went inside, and ordered a meal.
The waitress remarked to the short order cook, “You see more and more of that nowadays, don’t you think?”
“See what?” said the cook.
“You know,” said the waitress, “A mixed couple, black and white. Those two look happy with each other, cuddled in the booth.
The woman got up from the booth, kissed her partner, and went to the bathroom. On the way she thought to herself, can I ever really trust him?
Back at the booth, Nate sat sipping his coffee. Can I ever really trust Shawna, he thought?
The border with Mexico, their destination, was only a few hours away. After that they planned to make their way to Costa Rica, which did not have an extradition treaty with the U.S.
Shawna returned to the booth and kissed Nate again, longingly. Both had a fleeting thought. A person can just up and disappear in the wilds of New Mexico. Especially someone you couldn’t trust.
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