Shock Point by April Henry Read Free Book Online

wanting to fit in at school—so is that the kind of boy you really want to be associating with?”
    Anything Cassie could say would just get her in trouble. She turned without speaking, walked inside, and went straight upstairs to her room. Behind her, she could hear her mom talking with Rick. She couldn’t make out the words, but she recognized the tone. They were arguing—about her.

eleven
    April 14
    Cassie managed to scrabble back against the bars, but Marty grabbed her by the ankle and yanked. Her shirt rode up and the ribbed rubber mat caught the bumps of her spine as he pulled her forward.
    Trying to keep the phone from Marty as long as possible, she stretched her arm over her head. Figuring she was already dead, Cassie screamed, “I’m in a white van on I-5 South with—”
    Her feet were on the ground now, her back still on the floor of the van, and Marty was on top of her, his soft gut against her belly, his breath sour and hot. His fingers encircled her wrist, shaking her hand like a terrier snapping a rat back and forth. She managed to hold on to the phone, gripping it so hard that it cut into her fingers. Then he slammed the back of her hand against the metal wall of the van, two times, three, until her fingers finally loosened. He snatched the phone up, turned it off, then pushed himself off Cassie and threw the phone down. Raising one of his heavy boots, he stomped and stomped until she knew the phone was nothing but a million pieces of black and silver plastic. JJ had run back and now stood behind Marty. His fly and his mouth both gaped open.
    Marty picked Cassie up by the shoulders and thumped the upper half of her body against the floor of the van. Her head hit the corner of her suitcase. Blood flooded her mouth when her teeth clacked down on her tongue.
    “You think you’re pretty clever, don’t you?” Spit flecked her face. He was breathing hard. “Do you know how hard it is to trace a cell phone call?”
    He dragged Cassie to her feet. Still holding her by one shoulder, he raised his other fist.
    “Don’t, Marty—you know they don’t like it when they got marks on them.”
    “Oh, this won’t make a mark.”
    The blow caught her just below the rib cage. Then Cassie was on the ground, with little broken bits of the phone pricking her face, and she couldn’t breathe. The air was stuck inside her and couldn’t get in or out. The pain of it made her vision go dark around the edges.
    Slowly something shifted inside, loosened a tiny bit, and she sucked in a breath, coughing. Breathing hurt just as bad as the blow itself. She barely noticed when Marty and JJ grabbed her under the arms and dragged her back into the van, then locked her handcuffs in place around the chain.
    For the next hour, Cassie tried not to give up hope. Maybe the police had heard what she said about a white van, and any second they would be pulled off the road. But as time crawled by and she heard no sirens, she realized it hadn’t worked. All that taking a chance had bought her was the loss of her phone and both Marty and JJ being pissed at her. Except JJ didn’t seem that pissed. He kept teasing Marty, telling him that he should have known that Cassie was a live wire and couldn’t be trusted.
    Okay. The phone was gone. Did she have anything else she could use? In the left hand pocket of her jeans was a twenty-dollar bill. She also had the keys to her house. Could she hold the two keys between her fingers and sweep them across JJ’s eyes like claws? At the thought, she looked up at him. He was watching her with a slack grin, which creeped her out.
    Then she realized she had a better weapon. The mini Swiss Army knife she used for a key chain! Her excitement immediately was deflated. The blade was too short, less than two inches long. Although maybe she could she use it to pick the lock? Except to do that, she would have to have her hands free.
    The border. That was the only answer. Didn’t you have to show papers there?