Escape

by Deana Birch

  Fiona hugged me tighter. “Why does it all have to change?”

  Because I’d fucked up. I’d gotten selfish and proud. I’d convinced myself I could be something that I wasn’t. And I’d lost sight of what mattered. But I didn’t want to remind her of my faults. I wanted her to remember my strengths.

  “I wish it didn’t have to. But you are the toughest woman I’ve ever met. You’re going to be fine.”

  “I don’t want to go home.” Her words were quiet, as if she were admitting a horrible truth.

  “Neither do I.”

  But we had to. Maybe if I played my cards right with Anton, he would still look after Fi and she could continue to work the games. Then again, that would only ensure that she stayed under his control. Maybe I could pay for her freedom. After all, Anton was in it for the money.

  I kissed the top of her head. “Come on. Time to go.”

  I’d left my phone in the car and the sun had overheated it. I plugged it into the charger and as I pulled down the tree-lined road, a plan formulated in my brain. I could get Fiona and Violet out of Covington. I could use my money to give her a fresh start and a chance at a new life. It would require me paying my debt to Frankie, but hadn’t I already sealed my own fate by messing things up with Anton? The more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself I was right. And once Fiona would realize that it was a chance for Violet, she wouldn’t be able to say no.

  My phone buzzed and I thought it was just the fact that it had cooled down. But it kept buzzing and when I glanced at it, the masked number made my gut clench.

  “Where the fuck have you been?” Anton shouted in my ear.

  “We’re on our way back. Why?”

  “BTs want revenge. Rafa got a tip. We need all hands on deck. Get the fuck back here.”

  On the one hand, Anton wanting me back in Covington should have been a good sign that he wasn’t too pissed. On the other, he was a selfish prick most of the time, so him wanting me was probably more for my skills than friendship. He’d still ask me to leave once it all blew over. I was no fool.

  “What’s your ETA?” he asked.

  “Two hours if I speed.” I was sure that wasn’t the answer he wanted.

  “Jesus… Then fucking speed. I don’t need a courtyard full of blood.” He hung up.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Fiona

  Leo zipped down the highway, his phone lighting up with texts all the way to the city. I tried not to stare at him, but I was worried—worried that Anton was going to use him to be exactly the thing he’d been fighting against. Telling him that he didn’t have to go back would have been useless. As messed up as it was, Leo was loyal. He would never have left his friends to fight without him, especially if everything he’d told me was true. Skill and ego could make the muscle of pride flex to its fullest.

  When we pulled up to the complex, Leo hesitated for a brief second as he took in the scene in front of us. There were about twenty guys from Bradford beating the shit out of Anton’s crew with pipes. Only Jackson and Anton seemed to be giving it back as much as they were getting it. It was a full-out brawl. Even from the car I could see the blood splattering on the pavement. I recognized Scooter in a ball on the ground and one of the assholes who’d chased me down the block was kicking him repeatedly in the kidneys.

  “Sneak around the back. Go upstairs to your place, lock the door and stay fucking put.” Leo reached around my seat and grabbed a baseball bat.

  I didn’t answer. I slipped out of the car and jogged around to the broken emergency exit. With more energy than I’d had in months, I climbed the seven flights of stairs and was surprised to find the door to our apartment unlocked.

  Deep green eyes and a wicked grin sat on my couch. My mother was curled up at the opposite end, her sedated state so familiar but nonetheless shocking. Bile rose from my stomach and sat painfully in my throat as Violet smiled at our visitor, offering him her dinosaur.

  “Ah, Fiona”—the intruder licked his lips—“right on time.”

  Every muscle in my body tensed and the air was sucked out of my lungs. Mac—fucking Mac—tousled my sister’s dark hair as my mother lay out of her mind next to him. Only my eyes were able to move, and I shifted them around the apartment, trying to make sense of what I was seeing, but it was all a horrible blur. The only thing I was capable of focusing on was his wicked hand on my baby sister’s thin, dark hair.

  With a satisfied smile on his pale face, Mac stood and rubbed his palms together. “I knew there was something off about Leo parading you in public. That’s so desperately out of character for him…”

  The vulgar and haunting exchange we’d shared at the poker game weeks prior flashed in my mind. Mac took slow strides until we were face-to-face. His spicy cologne almost made me gag and the flakes on his skin reminded me of scales on a venomous snake. I had no doubt that his metaphorical fangs were about to latch on to me and release their toxic blow. He’d been waiting for me, expecting me.

  With breath that stunk of warmed-over death and a rotten gut, he said, “My sister tells me they’re all quite fond of you.”

  I studied his eyes, his deep green, forest-like eyes. They were emerald pools I’d only seen on one other person in my life—the fucking doctor. Mac ran a crooked finger down my cheek and I shuddered.

  “Leo—”

  Mac scoffed and shook his head. “Leo is busy, my darling.”

  Two bald men from Bradford came into my peripheral vision—one from the kitchen and the other from the hallway. I didn’t need to look to verify Justin’s presence as the one by the stove. Mac glanced in their directions then back to me, and he narrowed his eyes. My heart raced and my head spun. I was fucked.

  “Here’s my educated guess… You can tell me if I’m right—and I do so love to be right.” A glib smile plastered his pitted cheeks. He walked back over to Violet and sat down in front of her.

  I tried to breathe but my trembling chest didn’t seem to want to expand.

  Mac continued, “You ran down that street and Leo saved you. But, since Leo belongs to Anton, so does your protection.” Mac spread open his hands like an offering on both sides, and they pointed to both of the assholes staring directly at me with disgust. “This makes you valuable to both them and me.”

  I was sure the walls of the apartment were tightening around me—restricting like a trash compactor from all sides. I had no defense, no escape. The ease with which Violet accepted his smile and touch reminded me of how starved she had been for attention. I was a fool to have left her.

  Violet climbed up on the couch and Mac opened a book. He complimented her on identifying the picture of a yellow candle. A new fear iced my veins. What would Mac do if I didn’t comply with whatever the fuck he was conjuring up for me in his obscene head? Worse, my new back-up plan was Justin.

  My mother was probably ounces away from an overdose, if not on the other side of it. Mac didn’t look like the type who was afraid to pull that trigger. Justin definitely wasn’t. If they did so, even in the best-case scenario—which was horrible to think about, my mother dying and finding anything good about it—I would most likely lose Violet to a social worker, at least for a while.

  But worse, so much worse, was the impression I had that Mac, who continued to stroke Violet’s soft dark hair, would take her, a fucking child—the sweet little soul I’d fought to shield from her mother’s disease for over two years, the reason I got up in the morning and the only purpose in my shitty life.

  Christ, I’d been horribly selfish going away with Leo. I’d created the gap in Violet’s safety and let Mac creep right in. A lonely tear ran down my cheek and I wiped it away before another could think it needed company. Somehow, I managed to swallow over the baseball of fear in my throat.

  “It’s going to be nice, finally making some money off your ass.” Justin moved in front of me and his sour breath flipped my stomach.

  I was going to leave with them. That was painfully obvious. My only hop
e would be not to abandon Violet completely.

  “Let me take the baby to a friend’s and I’ll go peacefully. No tricks. I promise.”

  The same nefarious grin I’d seen on Mac’s face when I’d walked in appeared on his disgusting cheeks.

  “So sensible. So smart. I knew I liked you.”

  Trying hard to fight the shaking that was commandeering my body, I managed to walk over to the couch and signal for Violet that I would pick her up. She pointed to a brown bear in the book and I was thankful for her young age and that she couldn’t smell my fear.

  But as soon as her warm body was pressed into mine, the floodgates opened with a stark realization that if it wasn’t the last time I would hold her, it was definitely the last time I would hold her before a chunk of my soul would be ripped out of my body.

  All of Leo’s warnings had been spot on. I was going to be raped, either by Justin or worse…whatever it was that Mac had planned for me.

  As I held Violet tight and tried not to sob, I looked at my mother. The disease had devoured her, sucked out every capability, possibility and ounce of potential happiness from her body. She was nothing more than a shell of herself, no help to me or Violet.

  Justin said, “We need to go. That asshole Ricci is helping their odds.” He slid a phone into his back pocket.

  My heart stopped. There had still been a foolish piece of me who’d thought I’d had a bit of time, a moment to figure out how to wake up from the nightmare.

  Mac rose and grabbed my elbow. “You heard him.”

  The Bradford prick from the hallway moved toward us, dug a small plastic bag out of his pocket and waved it in front of my face. I pushed Violet’s head into my shoulder and shot my eyes to Mac.

  “That’s just a little bit of insurance to make sure you don’t fuck this up. He’ll stay here. If you scream or blink in Morse code on our way out, your mother will magically overdose. I’m letting you leave Violet with someone in exchange for your composure. Don’t make me regret it.” Mac motioned for me to leave.

  Every step was a death sentence. Justin, Mac, Violet and I proceeded down the hall and tiny threads of hope tried to weave themselves into my heart. I silently pleaded to any energetic power to send help—to dispatch anyone in Anton’s crew my way. I pictured Leo and his disappointed eyes after Callie. I’d done this. I’d set these lurid wheels in motion.

  With Violet still tightly wrapped in my arms, I entered the elevator and my body shook as I reached to push the button for the third floor.

  Mac cut in front of me as I drew back my hand. “Pull yourself together or I take you both.”

  I nodded, wiped my cheeks, and let out a stuttered exhale before kissing Violet’s sweet head. The doors closed and the ride was over too soon.

  The third floor was empty, all of the crew probably still battling their foes in the courtyard.

  “We’ll wait in the stairs, but don’t think for one second I’m not watching your every flinch, Fiona. Do this the easy way and no one gets hurt—not your friend, not your mother and not that little girl in your arms.”

  The paradox in his words almost made me laugh. We would all be hurt. It was only a matter of perspective and time. They slipped into the stairwell and left the door open a crack. Mac’s green eyes glowed like cursed jewels in the dark shadows next to the evil dark slits of Justin’s. There was no doubt in my mind that the threats were real.

  When I got to Lisa’s door, I desperately wanted to take one last loving look at Violet. I longed to hang on to every detail of her innocent face, give her an explanation that would somehow justify my absence from before and after. But if I did any of that, if I caved to my heart, I would break. I would melt down into a puddle of tears and hold that baby until she was ripped from my arms. I would wail and fight and kick and scream.

  And all that would risk her. The exchange Mac had offered left me no choice but to play along. That was why instead of doing any of those things, instead of toying with my little sister’s future, I straightened myself and knocked on Lisa’s door.

  When there was no answer, a new panic took hold of me. What would I do if she wasn’t there? I knocked again, hoping my previous one had been too soft.

  “Lisa?” I called out. “It’s Fiona.”

  The door cracked open and Lisa peered at me from behind the chain.

  “Hey. Can we come in?” I asked, my plan formulating with each word.

  Lisa darted her eyes around me. “Scooter said not to let anybody in.”

  “Yeah, I know. Leo said the same. It’s just that my mom is on a bender and I don’t want Violet to see her like that. Can we stay here? Please?”

  After a long exhale and nibble of her bottom lip, Lisa said, “Yeah. Sure. I can’t see anything from my window, so it will be nice to freak out with someone else.” She closed the door and released the chain before opening again.

  “Oh shit,” I faked, “I forgot her bunny. She’ll never go down without it.” I transferred Violet into Lisa’s arms. “I’ll be right back.”

  Lisa fumbled a little, then went right into caregiver mode with sweet words to Violet. A glance more would have ruined everything, so I didn’t look back as Lisa closed and locked the door behind me, my sister perched on her hip.

  My strides down the hall were my last taste of freedom before Mac pulled me into the stairwell and gripped my upper arm. Justin spoke into his phone as we descended but I couldn’t understand his words. There was a deep buzz between my ears and I was sure the only thing keeping me grounded on the earth was the pinch above my elbow from Mac’s sweaty hand. Somehow, when we arrived at the emergency exit, the trio from my apartment had reunited.

  We walked at a swift pace down the dirty alley and to the street. Through the narrow gaps between brick buildings, I caught a glimpse of Leo swinging a bat at a tattooed, bald head. Anton’s arms were being held behind him and another one of his rivals came at him with a metal pipe. Before the bloodied asshole could land a blow, Anton kicked both legs up and twisted the pipe between his booted feet. He headbutted backward and the quick distraction was all it took for Leo to whack the guy struggling with the pipe.

  “Come on,” Justin urged. “Time to take you to your destiny.”

  A beep of the alarm unlocked the doors of a white SUV. The dude holding the keys climbed into the driver’s seat as Justin jogged around to the passenger side. Mac opened the back door and slid in, tugging me with him. As the ignition cranked, Mac’s spicy scent floated under my nostrils while he bent over me and slammed the door.

  The tires screeched and the speed forced me backward. From the seat pocket in front of him, Mac retrieved a vial containing a clear liquid, and he bit the plastic top of a hypodermic, holding it between his teeth.

  My skin crawled like a million baby spiders searching for their refuge.

  Mac spat the top on the floor and charged the needle. “This will keep you nice and docile until we get you to your final destination.”

  I stared out of the tinted window. The prick and sting hit my bare thigh and chocolate eyes widened in horror from the passing courtyard.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Leo

  A white SUV tore up the street and the fuckers from Bradford Towers around us dropped their pipes and ran in its direction. They piled into matching white trucks, some flipping us off and laughing as they retreated from the carnage that was our crew.

  I dropped the bat to the bloodstained ground. Both Jackson and Anton were leaning over and catching their breath. Rafa moaned to my left. He slowly sat and spat onto the pavement. Scooter was the worst—a whimpering ball and the farthest away from us. The rest of the crew hadn’t gotten it that bad. Bradford had known who to target.

  The odd thing was, they’d picked the fight but left before they’d finished it. And yet, that first SUV had come from somewhere else. I wiped my face with the bottom of my tank and walked over to Anton.

  “It was a fucking trap,” I said for his ears only.

&
nbsp; “Raf!” Anton surveyed the crew. “Call the doctor. Jax, get everybody inside at our place stat.”

  The groans and moans followed the crew into the building. Jackson signaled for help with Scooter, and they carried him by his hands and legs past the bench while Rafa held the door with one hand, his phone at his ear in the other.

  “You okay?” I asked Anton, once the place had cleared.

  “Yeah.” He sniffed. “Those skinny fuckers aren’t that scary if they don’t have a weapon.”

  The white SUV flashed in my head and landed a blow to my gut much more painful than anything I’d sustained during the brawl. “Something else went down. I can feel it. They’d planned it. We’d known they were coming. They could have showed up with guns, but they wanted a fight. At least two of them weren’t fighting when they took off and everybody else followed.”

  “You’re right.” Anton spread his fingers. His hands were covered in scratches and blood. He flipped them over and flexed them in and out. “I need a fucking shower and probably some antibiotics. Dirty fucks.”

  The sight of the courtyard would scare the shit out of the people we were trying to protect and put a crack in any kind of confidence they had in our crew, not to mention that it was bad for business. We’d taken a blow, not just to our bodies but also as a collective. If Anton’s clients and community couldn’t trust him or believed that they were safer without his crew, we were as good as dead. There would already be rumors and gossip. Anton needed to show that he was still solid, in control of the turf. All the rest of our personal bullshit could wait.

  “I’ll rinse this shit down and be back in a minute.”

  Anton nodded and clapped me on the back. “Thank fucking God you got here when you did.” With his head hung low, he walked away in brooding silence. I found the hose on the side of our building in the narrow pathway that led to the alley.

  I was missing something. I was sure of it. With a twist of the faucet, the hose stiffened and shot out freezing water. I rinsed my hands first then sprayed the blood, teeth and patches of skin into the grates that led to the park.