Too Young (The Jewel Project #1)

Chapter 14.1 - Survival of the fittest

"Are you kidding me?" Tom came to Sam's side. "The psychotic cannibal is Snitch Gravel's man? Then again, duh!"

Sam couldn't help but agree that 'psychotic cannibal' was the perfect name for that man.

The weirdo leered once his eyes fell on Tom. "Well, well, it's the little animal. I'll gut you this time. You and your little girlfriend."

"Stand back, Cannon. We had specific orders, so find your instrument," Von Crooken said.

Cannon hardly tore his gaze away from Tom and started searching inside the net again.

"Please, let's shoot that guy before he eats us," Tom said.

For the first time in his life, Sam felt like a pansy for not wanting to shoot anyone. Whatever followed couldn't be good.

"Oh, I won't eat you." Cannon returned his attention to Tom, the hunger in his eyes so obvious that it seemed to contradict what he'd just said. "But I'd put this right through you." He took out a small dart. "You know what this is?"

"Poison?" Tom asked as though he didn't care and was only humoring Cannon, but Sam saw his fists clenching.

"It's a special type. Made it myself. It paralyses the pray for a few minutes. Then it burns. And the pain will make you wish you were dead. You'll be in agony for hours And after the torture, the blessing finally comes. You die."

"Put that away, man! You might sting someone by mistake!" Von Crooken grabbed the hand Cannon held the dart in. Cannon waved him away and pointed to his slotted belt.

"Let's step on it and get this over with." Sam didn't want to give Cannon the chance to find whatever he was looking for. Probably some sort of gun to fire that dart.

"We could hold on to Von Crooken and exchange him for the ruby," Jerry suggested.

"Yeah, okay. But how do we get him out of there without releasing the entire rabid pack on us?" Tom asked, still watching Cannon.

"We could bring them down slowly and make a grab for him. I don't think they'd move much seeing we have guns pointing at them," Steve said shrugging.

Sam didn't like the idea much, but Von Crooken was probably the only person Snitch Gravel gave a crap about. The rest of the men... they couldn't force all of them to carry stuff around like they'd done with Clive. He'd think what to do about them once they got Von Crooken down.

Kyle, Jimmy, JT and Clive untied the ropes keeping the trap in place and started lowering the net slowly. Sam kept his eyes on Von Crooken, waiting for any indication that he was up to something. Von Crooken suddenly grinned.

"Stop!" Sam called out. There was no way he'd let them down if Von Crooken seemed happy about it.

"What, you want us to pull him out like this?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, like that would work," Jimmy said, rolling his eyes.

Von Crooken's face contorted in anger as he spotted someone behind Sam. Sam frowned and wheeled around. Gina stood frozen in mid-step, staring at the net with wide eyes.

"You stupid girl! Can't you even tell which is west and which is east? You're lucky you— " the rest of the phrase was replaced by a scream of surprise.

JT let go of the rope to advance on Gina and the net plunged towards the ground. Jimmy and Kyle jerked forward and the roped slipped out of Jimmy's hands. Kyle sunk his heals in the ground, but was almost lifted off his feet. Jimmy grabbed the rope again, pulling as hard as he could. Steve dropped his rifle and immediately came to their aid. The net stopped a couple of feet from the ground.