Stealing Second (The Amendments Book One 1) by Nicholas Antinozzi Page B

long as you keep up your end of the bargain, I’ll cut you in on a share of the money. I’m not saying half, but I promise you that it will be enough so that your grandma never has to worry about affording her medications ever again. Does that sound fair to you?”
    Violet smiled brightly and nodded her head. She then gave me a one-armed hug and rose to her feet. “Are you ready?” she asked. “I think we should get moving.”
    I nodded my head and got to my feet. I felt better after sharing my secret with her and I could see that I had energized her. Violet bounded back to the bikes and thanked me no less than four times before putting on her helmet. I tried to imagine how I would’ve felt, hearing that story at her tender age. The thought energized me and we rode off at high speed.
    Starting low, but gaining volume with each passing minute, thunder began to bellow behind us in the western sky. We rode for another hour , and I began to see familiar landmarks. The storm moved slowly but steadily as we continued to pedal. Now and again, lightning flashes would light up the blackness and each time it did I held my breath. Occasionally, I could hear the whine of vehicles on the concrete of the interstate. I had known there would be some traffic, and if my ears weren’t playing tricks on me, it sounded like barely a fraction of what normally passed that way at this time of night. The farm was a mile east of the interstate and on still nights like these, it was rare not to hear at least a few vehicles as they whined by in the distance.
    Our farm was a few miles north of town , and I had charted a course that would bring us to the interstate at a point nearly due west of there. Once we arrived, we ditched the bikes in the woods and crouched down in the tall weeds at the fence. A National Guard truck trundled by heading north, totally unaware of us. Two minutes after that, a camouflaged Humvee sped southbound.
    “Once we make it over the fence,” I whispered, “we’re going to run like hell until we reach the other side, okay?”
    Violet nodded, excitedly. “I’m pretty fast. I hope you can keep up.”
    “Okay, are you ready?”
    “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
    I was just getting to my feet when I heard the sound of an other approaching vehicle. My heart lurched in my chest when I heard it stop, and I realized that it was at our backs on the highway we had just traveled, not on the interstate. I heard a door slam and the vehicle moved on. Violet and I crouched down as low as we could. I remember feeling angry, but also more frightened than I had ever been. Somehow I had been more prepared to die after my escape with Madison. I no longer felt that sense of bravado. I was in charge of the welfare of a child and I couldn’t let her down. I curled up in front of her, trying to protect her in case someone started shooting. For a long time we waited.
    Finally, when I thought the coast was clear, I rose to a sitting position. Violet followed my lead. The night was as black as coal and I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Suddenly, a flash of chain lightning lit up the sky, and I found myself staring into the face of a soldier in full battle gear. He had his rifle trained on me. “Don’t move!” he hissed.
    Instinctively, I stuck my hands in the air. I turned in the last flash of light to see Violet had done the same. Once again, we were plunged into darkness. I heard the soldier jog up to our position. “Don’t shoot,” I pleaded. “We’re unarmed.”
    “Where are the others?” asked the soldier in a gravel voice.
    “Others? I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s just me and the girl, I swear to God. We’re trying to make it over to my parents’ farm.”
    “You had better not be lying to me.”
    “He’s not,” said Violet. “My mom is a soldier. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
    The soldier crouched down next to us and began searching the area with the red beam of a tiny