Darcy was breathing hard when she reached the top of the hill where the street was. Her anger had cooled a little. Cooper’s stunt was stupid, but he did not mean any real harm by it. It was just that he was seventeen going on five years old.

Darcy walked down the nearly deserted street to the bus stop. As she stood there waiting for the bus, Tarah and Cooper roared by in the pickup truck. They yelled something at her, but Darcy pretended not to hear.

Darcy dreaded the long bus trip home. By car, the trip took about twenty-five minutes. But by the time she changed buses, the trip home would take an hour and a half.

Darcy had been sitting on the bus bench for ten minutes when she noticed an old silver Toyota parked under a tree down the street. An overweight, middleaged man wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap sat at the wheel. Darcy could not make out his face through the dirty front windshield. He seemed to be looking in her direction, but she could not be sure.

Darcy looked around nervously. She wished the bus would hurry up and come. There was no one else on the street, and it was getting darker as the sun slid behind the horizon. Darcy was not even sure what time the bus was supposed to come. Usually buses ran every thirty minutes, but maybe this was a less popular route and they did not run that often.

Glancing at the Toyota, Darcy was worried. What if that guy gets out of his car and comes walking over? What if he’s dangerous? What if he has a gun or a knife?

Suddenly the door of the sedan opened. The driver swung a leg out. He was getting out of the car! Darcy looked around the empty street desperately. Maybe she should just take off running. But what if he chased her? What if he had a gun and shot at her while she ran? She could not outrun a bullet!

Chapter 4

Darcy was about to sprint away when she saw the bus lumber into view. “Thank goodness,” Darcy sighed. The bus would be here in seconds. The man in the Toyota seemed to figure that out too. He got back in the car and slammed the door. He started the Toyota and made a U-turn in the street just as the bus doors opened. Darcy scrambled into the bus and slid her dollar bills into the fare box beside the driver. The driver gave her a transfer pass that almost fell from her shaking hands. She hurried to the first available seat beyond the handicapped section and sank gratefully into a seat by the window.