The Vacation by John Marrs
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About the Book:
How far would you run to escape your past?
Venice Beach, Los Angeles. A paradise on earth. Tourists flock to the golden coast and the promise of Hollywood. But for eight strangers at a beach-front hostel, there is far more on their minds than an extended vacation. All of them are running from something. And they all have secrets they’d kill to keep…
Excerpt:
PROLOGUE
Venice Beach, Los Angeles
“That’s her,” the driver yelled to the three men waiting in the rear of
the transit van.
He pointed a gloved finger in the direction of a slender woman walking
along the sidewalk up ahead.
“You sure?” a gruff voice asked. “It’s pretty dark out there.”
The driver was very sure. He’d watched carefully as his target walked
with purpose in her high heels. He recalled her appearance an hour earlier as
she made her way up a stainless-steel pole before slowly, seductively
descending.
“Yeah, man,” he replied. “You don’t forget a pretty little ass like that
in a hurry, even from this distance.”
He was confident their mark was completely oblivious to her impending
fate. She stopped suddenly, searching for something that was seemingly wedged
in her clutch bag; the streetlamps and neon shop signs illuminated the glitter
in her hair. The driver lifted his foot slightly from the accelerator and
dipped the headlights as he continued to stalk his prey. Meanwhile, his
colleagues slipped black balaclavas over their heads and adjusted their bodies
into position—one knelt with his hand gripping the door lever, ready to open it
on command; another held plastic restraints, and the third clasped a hunting
knife with a serrated blade.
“Ready?” the driver asked. They grunted in unison.
The van sped up, but not so fast as to throw the hunters from the
positions they’d rehearsed earlier that day. Then, as it pulled up alongside
the woman, the door flew open and the first of her assailants sprang out.
The man with the restraints was the first to reel backward into the
vehicle as a bullet from her revolver tore its way through his shoulder blade,
taking fragments of collarbone with it.
For a split second, the flash from the gun’s muzzle illuminated the
van’s interior as she pinpointed two more would-be assailants poised to drag
her inside. Twice more she pulled the trigger; twice more she heard the men
screaming. The driver remained rooted to his seat, baffled by how off-kilter
their mission had suddenly gone. They had been so confident of its success that
there was no Plan B.
“Go, man, go!” yelled a desperate voice as another bullet found its
target.
Tires squealed as the van lurched forward, veering across the median and
then crisscrossing back toward the sidewalk.
A combination of adrenaline and fury propelled the woman to kick off her
heels and run after it, firing twice more and shattering its rear windshield.
The vehicle clipped an LA Times newsstand, hurling newspapers into the air;
they fell like large chunks of confetti.
She fired one last time, but the van had already corrected itself and
sped off out of range. Then she watched in horror as that final shot sent a
stranger up ahead, carrying a backpack, sprawling face forward onto the
pavement.
Time froze as the consequences of her last reckless bullet resonated.
She had just killed an innocent tourist.
Excerpted from The Vacation.
Copyright © 2023 by John Marrs. Published by Hanover Square Press, an imprint
of HarperCollins.
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About the Author:
John Marrs
is an author and former journalist based in London and Northamptonshire. After
spending his career interviewing celebrities from the worlds of television,
film and music for numerous national newspapers and magazines, he is now a
full-time author. His books include No1 bestseller and Netflix series The One, The Passengers, award winning What Lies Between Us and The Good Samaritan.
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