by Bella King
I watched him but didn’t move back.
“Seriously, go around the corner or something,” Trent said, waving a hand back at me. He pulled out a lighter and flicked it on.
I moved back, going around the corner just far enough to stay protected from the blast. Trent was standing boldly in front as though he couldn’t possibly be hit.
“That’s not safe,” I called out to him, peeking around the corner as he lowered the flame to the back of the pipe.
He looked back at me and grinned. “I don’t give a fuck.”
An explosion that was much louder than I expected caused me to duck back around the corner. The cannon went off with tremendous force, rattling the inside of the tunnel and shaking dirt from the ceiling. Loose chunks full onto my leather jacket and into my hair. The whole place shuttered, and then grew silent.
I uncurled my body from its instinctual fetal position, and looked around the corner, squinting my eyes through the smoke to make sure Trent was still alive. It took me a moment to see his figure, standing tall in the smoke as laughter broke out from his mouth.
“It fucking worked!” he cheered, turning around to me. “We’re through!”
I crept around the corner and approached the dusty rubble slowly, trying not to breathe in the smoke-filled air. Trent didn’t seem to mind it. A toothy grin stretched from one of his ears to the other. He was overjoyed at making it through. He looked quite sexy in this way, standing there, having conquered his inanimate enemy to get to his brother in the city.
“There’s no time to waste. Let’s go,” Trent said, pushing aside rubble from the wall to reveal more dirt on the other side.
“Where is the exit?” I asked as he clawed through the dirt.
“Here,” he said, punching a fist through the loose soil and breaking out into the evening air.
This was better than the lake. We could wander freely if we wished, and nobody would know that we came from Bayside Academy. We didn’t have uniforms, and we didn’t look like we were on the run. As far as anyone could tell, we were a young couple having a pleasant evening on the town.
Trent crawled out of the tunnel first, then helped me out.
I shook the dirt from my hair as I looked around at the tress. “It’s really good to be out,” I said.
We were in a cropping of trees, but I could see the edge of the main city just a few yards away.
“We can stay at a hotel tonight, but I need to visit my bother first,” Trent said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me along. He was eager to get to the hospital where his brother was staying.
I took his hand off my wrist and placed my hand in his as we walked, wanting to walk as equals now instead of him leading me like he always did. He accepted my gesture but still walked two steps ahead of me as I scrambled to keep up. Some things never change.
We got to the road, and Trent immediately hailed a taxi. I felt strange being out in the open like this, thinking that I needed to hide so that nobody caught me. Trent, on the other hand, seemed more focused on his brother than anything else and acted like there was nothing wrong with hopping into a taxi immediately after escaping Bayside Academy.
“The hospital,” Trent snapped to the taxi driver as we hopped in.
The taxi driver gave a curt nod, and we were off, barreling down the slick streets of the city. I felt like I was in a whole new world, experiencing life once again for the first time. I hadn’t been locked up for even a year, and I felt like I had been gone for a lifetime. The world was so different outside of the system.
My hands were down on my sides, gripping the cracked leather seat as the driver took us down long stretches of roads cluttered with other cars, weaving through them as though we were riding a motorcycle and not a full-size car.
The look on Trent’s face reminded me of me as a younger woman, terrified on the day that I got the news my mother had died. It hit me like a sack of bricks, and I didn’t want to believe it. I was pale, sick, and didn’t eat anything for a week afterward. Trent looked like the younger me. What would I have wanted someone to do when I was scared sick about my mother?
I placed my hand on his thigh and gave it a squeeze. “You’re really strong,” I said to Trent, watching his face closely.
He gave me a weak smile. “Then why don’t I feel strong?”
I wanted to cry at his words, but I didn’t want to make this any harder on him. The pang of remorse was going off deep in my heart, and I knew that it was a thousand times stronger for him. It brought me back to the days that I had to experience the very same thing. I wouldn’t have wished it on my worst enemy.
“He’s not going to make it,” Trent said, shaking his head after a moment of silence.
“Why do you say that?” I asked, leaning in.
“I got a letter from him, and he said they didn’t think he was going to make it through the week. I spent the last couple of days in the tunnel trying to get through as fast as possible. To be honest, I barely noticed that you were gone.” He chuckled. “That’s pretty fucked up, I know.”
“No,” I replied, squeezing his thigh again. “You’re doing what you have to do. I’m just a nuisance half the time.”
“You’re not,” he said, a glint of anger in his eyes. “You’ve never been a nuisance. You gave me a chance when I thought you never would. That’s special to me.”
After all this, he still made me blush. Underneath all the tattoos and muscles, there was a fiercely loving man. I saw that now, and I wanted to keep it so badly. I wasn’t going to let some tough times get in the way of what we had.
“We’re getting close. If you don’t mind, I’d like to go in alone,” Trent said, taking a deep breath.
“Of course. I can wait outside,” I said. I didn’t want to interrupt such an intimate moment between two brothers. I didn’t know how close they were, but I figured it had to hurt one way or another. Losing someone, especially family, is hard, no matter how distant you are.
“Thank you, Samantha. After this, I want to turn a new page. I mean it. No more gang shit, and no more sneaking out,” he said, staring deep into my eyes.
“That sounds so unlike you,” I said with a small laugh.
He grinned. “I have to be better for both of us.”
“True. You have a lot to be forgiven for,” I said, not forgetting about his lies and trickery.
“Sure but be patient. I have a feeling it’s going to be difficult over these next few months.”
“I’m always patient,” I said, but that wasn’t entirely true.
He pursed his lips together and patted my leg as the taxi came to a stop outside of the hospital. “It’s time.”
Chapter 19
Night fell on the small city as Trent disappeared into the hospital. I stayed outside, bumming a cigarette off a nurse to take the edge off. I didn’t smoke, but it reminded me of Trent, so I puffed on the cigarette anyway. I could blame him if I got addicted.
I looked out onto the dark parking lot, noticing the little details of the outside world while I still could. Trent wanted to go back to leading an honest life and spend the rest of the year cooped up in the school. As much as I didn’t want to do it, I agreed that we needed to watch our step from now on. We were both on thin ice already, and the point of Bayside was to do better, not to end up in a prison cell for half of our adult lives.
I watched the thin smoke rise into the night air, marveling at how it moved. It's always the things that kill you that look the most beautiful. I was attracted to dangerous things more often since coming to Bayside. Trent was the perfect example of that. He could easily snap me like a twig if he got pissed off enough, and that was exciting for some fucked up reason.
I expected him to be a bit more subdued once his brother passed away, though. Stuff like that is difficult to get through, so he was going to have a rough road ahead of him. It was a strange way to start a relationship, but he probably needed the support now more than ever. His ex-girlfriend wouldn’t be getting in th
e way either. I had made sure of that.
I ashed the cigarette onto the dirty concrete sidewalk and flicked the butt into a trash bin nearby, taking in a breath of clean air before entering the hospital. I needed a cup of water and to sit down for a while. Even though I hadn’t been on my feet much today, I felt tired.
The double doors slid open as I approached them, and my eyes adjusted to the bright interior of the hospital lobby. I was surprised to see Trent already outside again. His visit with his brother hadn’t been very long.
“How’d it go?” I asked.
Trent shrugged. “It didn’t go.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, worried that we were in the wrong place.
“He died yesterday,” Trent said, his voice quivering as he spoke.
I took a step toward him, knowing that he needed support. I held out my hands. “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice only a faint whisper.
He nodded, and I could see tears in his eyes. “It’s okay.”
I knew it wasn’t. I could see that Trent was upset by the way he held himself. His shoulders were slumped inward, and his head was held low. He wasn’t the cocky and borderline obnoxious man that I was familiar with. His world had been temporarily crushed, and it showed in his eyes.
I didn’t have anything to say to him. Now wasn’t the time for words. I opened my arms, offering them to him so that he could grieve, and he accepted a place close to my breast, laying his head down against my heart and sobbing.
I hadn’t seen a grown man cry since my mother had died. It seemed like they always kept their emotions locked in, so when they did cry, you knew there was something horribly wrong. My father had never been much of a crier, but he cried for a long time after my mother died.
Experiences like that change people. My father changed, but unfortunately, not for the better when my mother passed away. I hoped that Trent would change for the better after this, but I didn’t know. He was still a bit of a mystery to me. All I could do was hope for the best.
After a few minutes of holding him in the artificially lit lobby of the hospital, I convinced him to move the mourning to a hotel so that we weren’t the center of attention. I still felt uncomfortable as a pair of escapees roaming around the city. We were drawing an awful lot of attention to ourselves this way.
Hailing another taxi, Trent and I made our way to the nearest hotel. We arrived in the lobby, check-in, and went up to the room. By this time, Trent had dried his tears and was starting to look like he was back to normal again. His recovery time was impressive, but I knew that there was still a lot of pain inside of him.
“Do you need some tissues?” I asked when we got to the room, looking around for them.
Trent shook his head. “I’m fine,” he answered, his voice a bit raspy.
“Do you want to just go to bed?” I asked, trying to be polite. I wasn’t sleepy yet, but he might be after his visit to the hospital.
He shook his head again and sat down on the bed, sinking into the soft mattress. I sat down beside him, gently placing my hand on top of his and waiting for him to speak.
“I’m sorry about Angela,” he said.
“I’m sorry about your brother. Angela isn’t important right now,” I replied, wondering why he was bringing her up again.
Trent looked forward to the blank TV screen in front of us. “She tried to hide the letters from my brother,” he said, sniffing softly.
“What a bitch,” I said, sympathizing with him.
“She was,” he said with a weak chuckle. “She was awful. I don’t know why I dated her at all.”
“Probably because you didn’t have me,” I said, only half-joking.
He laughed at that. “We two do look kind of similar,” he noted.
“I was going to say that, but I thought you wouldn’t see it,” I said. “She’s like me but worse.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, Samantha. You’re pretty terrible too,” he said, his sense of humor returning.
I smacked his thigh. “I’m a saint compared to you.”
“True,” he replied. “I don’t really deserve you.”
“Don’t say that,” I scolded. “I never imagined that I would find someone like you. You’re special. I believe that.” I meant the words that I spoke to him. Even though we had a rough beginning, I saw something in him that made it worth the struggle.
Trent finally looked at me and smiled. “You’re the special one. Thank you for coming to the hospital with me. We may have missed my brother, but fuck if we didn’t try.”
“I’m sorry we didn’t make it in time,” I said.
“Don’t be. He’s in a better place now. Besides, I think it’s for the best. We made a promise to each other years ago when we parted ways,” Trent explained. “It might sound stupid, but we told each other that if one of us died from all this gang shit, the other one would have to give up that life and go straight. I guess I know what I have to do now.”
“He was doing the same stuff as you?” I asked. I hadn’t wanted to pry into why he had died, but now I was curious. It didn’t sound like it was from natural causes.
Trent nodded. “He was worse, actually. I got caught robbing. He was on some next level shit, smuggling guns and stuff like that. He was shot, but the bullet didn’t kill him until a while later. It’s crazy to think that he was sitting there in the hospital bed, knowing that he was going to die. It wasn’t like he was in a coma or something. That motherfucker was still conscious and writing me letters.”
“Wow,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s rough.”
“Yeah, but I know what I have to do now. It’s not fun and games anymore. This stuff is dangerous.”
I thought about my father and everything that he had done. When I got out, I was going to tell him how much I cared about him. I was lucky that he hadn’t met the same fate as Trent’s brother, with all the illegal things he had been involved with.
“I’m going to make this right. He didn’t die in vain,” Trent said.
“So, you’re not going to be with the Killers anymore?” I asked, hopeful.
“I guess not,” he replied.
I laughed. “Good, because it’s a stupid name for a gang anyway. Who thought of that?”
He laughed with me. “Jesus, I was the one who thought of it. You don’t like it?”
“No,” I said flatly.
“Well, you won’t have to hear about it anymore. I’m going to leave them, but I’m sure they’ll want to stay together anyway.”
“As long as they leave me alone. Your members were kind of creepy.”
Trent nodded. “I know. Plus, Angus and I have unsettled business. I’d like to make things right with him before I leave Bayside.”
“He never did get back to me about the black market stuff,” I said, rubbing my chin thoughtfully.
“Yeah, because you’re with me. He knows that, and he’s not going to get within fifty feet of you or I’ll break his goddamn neck,” Trent replied, his voice growing louder.
I patted his leg. “Calm down. You’re supposed to be a nice guy now, aren’t you?”
“Something like that,” he replied.
“Then relax. You probably need to get some rest tonight. It’s been a rough day for you,” I suggested.
“You’re right. Do you want to join me in the shower? We’ll save water that way,” he said with a playful grin.
It sounded like he wanted to do a lot more than just shower, but I wasn’t going to say no. After the night we spent together at the cabin, I had been craving more of him. Anything that brought me closer to him was a good thing. I wanted more.
We slipped into the bathroom, eager to get naked in front of each other again. I wasn’t as shy as we used to be. One night at the lake was enough to make me feel comfortable being exposed to Trent. Plus, I knew what I was going to get out of it this time, so it made me more eager to get undressed.
Even with everything that was going on, we couldn’t keep our hands off
each other now that we had some privacy. Trent still wanted to take a shower, but I was too busy feeling across his muscular body to care much about getting clean. Eventually, he managed to coax me into joining him in the shower.
The water was hot. That was a huge change from what I was used to at school. I immediately pushed him aside so that I could get more of it, forgetting about my wishes to have him fuck my brains out.
“Oh, now you want to shower?” Trent said, laughing and shaking his head while I melted beneath the hot stream of water.
I nodded, grabbing a bar of cheap soap and rubbing it over my breasts. “Are you going to help me?” I asked with an inviting grin.
Trent licked his lips and came toward me, his cock rising in the steam as he reached for my breasts. He played with them in the shower, letting them slip around in his hands without pretending to care about cleaning them.
I grabbed his cock while he played with my breasts, leaning deeper into the water as I felt the hot flesh in my hand. I was going to enjoy him right here in the heat of the water. I already felt myself growing wet, and he seemed eager to get inside of me to enjoy my earthly pleasures once more.
I let the soap slip out of my hand. “Oops, I guess I dropped the soap,” I teased, bending over in the water.
Trent took the hint and pushed his cock against my slippery hole, testing to see if he could enter. I pushed against him, letting the cock slide into my tight wetness. He groaned as I worked my pussy over his shaft, stretching it tight over his cock.
I wanted it to last longer this time, but there was little I could do to draw it out. Trent was too powerful, and quickly took control of my movements, clapping his hips against my ass as he pumped his cock in my pussy. I came twice during this, and he finished by blowing his load over my back.
Finally, I stood up, my body too hot from the water and sex combined and rinsed the semen off my back. Trent watched me with nothing but love in his eyes as I got cleaned up and stepped out of the shower to let him finish. I had been hogging all the water before, and he hadn’t gotten the chance to properly bathe.
