by Ryan Casey
Didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try, though.
She walked right up to Yuri and stopped before him.
“You ready?” he asked.
Aoife looked back at Kayleigh.
Saw her staring into space, still. Up to the right of this garage.
Then she turned around to face Yuri when she saw something.
Kayleigh wasn’t just staring into space.
There was a vent.
A ventilation shaft on the ceiling, right above her.
A little slither of light shining through.
She saw that ventilation shaft, and she wondered. A plan started to form in her mind.
A glimmer of hope formed in her mind.
She looked at Yuri, took a deep breath, and nodded.
“Ready,” she said.
“Good,” Yuri said. “Now get to work on Harvey. For your own sake. For your people’s sake. For my people’s sake. And for your friend’s sake.”
Aoife was going to ask some serious questions of Harvey, one way or another.
But one thing was for sure.
She wasn’t going to let Kayleigh be a bargaining chip.
She looked back at Kayleigh, then up at that vent, and then she followed Yuri back out into the light.
It wasn’t going to be easy.
But she knew exactly what she needed to do.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Aoife made sure nobody was watching her when she turned off the road back to Sanctuary and looped back into the woods towards Yuri’s camp.
She knew it was a risky as fuck move. One sniff that she was doing what she was doing, and both she and Kayleigh would be dead.
But one thing was for sure. She wasn’t having Kayleigh used as a bargaining chip. She wasn’t blindly killing Harvey because of Yuri’s threats. Whether his intentions were good or not, whether Harvey was the man he made out to be or not, she still wasn’t having him decide all the terms.
She was freeing Kayleigh. She was escaping Yuri’s camp with her.
And then the pair of them were going to go back to Sanctuary and confront Harvey together.
Then and only then would she decide what the next step would be.
She didn’t do deals with people who threatened to kill her friends.
She kept low and crept through the tall grass. She could hear voices up ahead at Yuri’s camp. Heard the wind rustling against the leaves of the trees all around her, and it felt like people were moving. Felt like there were eyes on her. Like someone was watching.
She knew there was a good chance there were people out here watching. She’d seen a few surrounding the camp when she’d left about an hour ago. But she figured it was more likely they’d followed her to track her progress, to make sure she was following the plan to the letter.
Harvey was to be dead by sunfall. And somehow, that news had to be transmitted back to Yuri.
For such a specific plan, there was still a lot of vagueness about the whole situation.
And it made her feel… well. Unsure. Uncertain.
She twiddled at the necklace Yuri had handed her. The one he’d told her to give to Harvey. A necklace belonging to one of his sons, Ross. The one his wife Caroline died wearing. A speck of blood splashed across it from when Ross was killed.
She still couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t accept it.
Harvey wasn’t a monster.
Right?
She peered across the camp, over towards the garage where Kayleigh was being kept. There weren’t many people about that she could see. Most of them were in the camp, sitting by fires, cooking, surviving. None of their attention seemed to be on the outside.
Which meant she had a perfect opportunity.
She had to get around the back of the garage. And then she had to climb up onto it and then find a way to drop down the vent and get inside to save Kayleigh.
They could use the chair she was tied on to climb back out. It looked tall enough.
At least she fucking hoped it was tall enough. That’d be a right old spanner in the works.
She clenched her jaw and waited there in the long grass until she was absolutely sure she was safe to move.
The second she got up and made her way towards that garage, she saw movement right up ahead.
She stopped. Froze solid. Didn’t move a muscle.
Someone walking right past her.
One of Yuri’s people.
She watched him pass by, step by step.
Don’t turn around. Please don’t fucking turn around…
But then it happened.
They started to turn.
And Aoife could do nothing but fall back to the grass and hope the bloke hadn’t seen her.
She lay there. Flat on her stomach, heart racing.
The man looked over in her direction. For a second, it looked like he peered right into her eyes.
Then he turned again and kept on walking.
She stayed as still as she could, even though she couldn’t stop shaking. Fuck. That was close. Too close.
She waited there a while, then realised she had to get a move on. Not only was time of the essence, but there was nothing stopping that bloke walking right back. Or another of Yuri’s people heading this way.
She looked through the trees, towards where that bloke headed.
And then she pushed herself back to her feet and moved as quickly and quietly as possible towards that garage.
She heard voices to her left. Footsteps, so close. She daren’t look at them for fear they might look back at her. She was in deep as it was now. She just had to keep going. Had to get there.
And then had to get the hell out of here.
She ran quicker towards the back of the garage.
When she reached it, she slammed against the brick wall at the back of it. Closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths as sweat trickled down her face.
“You’ve got this. You can do this.”
She took a few more breaths to steady herself when suddenly she realised she had another obstacle on her hands. The garage roof. It was too high for her to scale.
She looked up the side of it and saw protruding bits of old metal pipe. It wasn’t a lot, but it would be enough. It had to be enough.
She went to climb when she heard a voice heading her way.
“Just go check it out, Stan,” a woman said. “I definitely saw something.”
Aoife’s entire body seized up.
Fuck.
They were onto her.
She climbed up the side of the garage. Tried to hold on to the protruding pipe but with no luck. Just kept on falling back off. Kept on losing her grip on it.
She gripped harder. Tried to get some leverage on the brick.
But all the time, those footsteps got closer.
“Shit,” she whispered.
She looked around. Looked for a brick she could hold onto. One that was sticking out or something. Or somewhere close that she could hide for now.
But she knew she didn’t have the time.
She knew it was now or never.
Unless…
She looked up at the top of the garage.
Then back over her shoulder, towards the woods.
Maybe she had to give up on Plan A, for now.
Maybe she had to go.
Maybe she had no choice.
But no.
She wasn’t leaving Kayleigh behind.
She wasn’t letting her be used as a pawn.
It might be your only choice…
She stood there, hands to the garage wall, and heard those footsteps getting closer, as her heart beat faster, faster.
And as she looked at that wall, knowing Kayleigh was so near yet so far, she realised she had no choice.
“I’m sorry, Kay. I’ll come back for you.”
She went to turn around and run away when she heard a voice right behind her.
“Not another move,” he said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
&nb
sp; “Not another move or you’re finished.”
Aoife heard that voice, and her stomach sank.
She froze. Stared at the trees ahead. Heart racing. Fists clenched.
“Seriously,” the man said. “Not another fucking move.”
Fucking hell. She’d been stupid. Stupid for coming back here and stupid for getting herself caught. And now she was going to get both her and Kayleigh killed.
And besides. Harvey was never going to be able to answer for the crimes he’d been accused of. Yuri’s people were going to die. So many people were going to die. All because of this decision.
She heard the footsteps getting closer.
“What the hell you think you’re doing sniffing around here?” the man said. It wasn’t Yuri, at least, which was something. She figured he’d just kill her right on the spot. “You’re supposed to be a long, long way away from here by now.”
Aoife kept still. She wanted to run. But she didn’t know if this man was armed. And she didn’t want to take her chances of being shot.
“Yuri ain’t gonna be happy when he sees you back here. He showed too much faith in you in the first place, Sanctuary scum. If it was down to me, I’d have killed you and that blonde bitch on the spot. ’Cause you can’t be trusted. None of you can be trusted.”
Aoife heard those words, and she knew she had another choice. A choice about explaining why she was here. About being honest.
It might backfire. It might not work.
But what other options did she have right now?
She took a deep breath.
This better work.
And then she turned around, hands raised.
“Hey,” the man said. He was unusually tall and gaunt. He was holding a pistol. “I told you not to move a muscle.”
“I’ll level with you,” Aoife said. “I’m here to save my friend.”
The man’s smile turned up, revealing a set of yellow-stained teeth. “Knew it. I knew we couldn’t trust you.”
“I’m here to save my friend because Yuri told me to get to Harvey the best way I could. I believed that was with Kayleigh. Not with her here as a bargaining chip. As a pawn.”
The man narrowed his eyes. His pistol right on her. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“You don’t make the rules. Neither does Yuri. The way I see it, we’re both caught in a civil war between two individuals. Harvey and Yuri. Why should people have to keep on dying because of the grudge they have against each other?”
“You’re full of shit,” the man spat. “I’ve seen people die. Seen them hunted down by you scum.”
“And I’ve seen people die at the hands of your people, too. Good people.”
“The explosion wasn’t—”
“Not just the explosion. Other times, too. And not always in self-defence, either. When you captured me and Kayleigh in the woods. Good people died then, too. Good people had their throats slit. And don’t go telling me for one moment that was some kind of optical illusion because I know what I saw. I know exactly what I saw.”
The man gritted his teeth. He didn’t exactly look for turning. But he at least looked like he was actually thinking about Aoife’s words, now. Her perspective.
“I really, really understand why you hate me and my people,” Aoife said. “But you have to see things from our side, too. And right now… all I can say is I want my friend out of the crossfire. And if you… if you let me help her, I will speak with Harvey. And I will make sure the people of Sanctuary know about these accusations, too. I’m sure my word doesn’t count for much to you. But it’s all I’ve got to give.”
The man held the pistol. Stared at her. He was so, so close to her now.
“If your word’s all you’ve got to give, then how the hell am I ever supposed to trust you?”
She opened her mouth to say something else, then realised she would be falling on deaf ears trying to get through to this guy.
So she had to try something else.
“You won’t shoot me.”
The man narrowed his eyes. “Huh?”
“I said I don’t think you’ll shoot me.”
“And what makes you so fucking confident about that?”
“Because as much as you despise me… you need me. Yuri needs me. I’m the best chance he has at taking Harvey out. And the way things stand, I’ve technically not done anything wrong. You shoot me right now, and your chance is up.
“Bullshit,” the man said. “Get on your fucking knees right this second.”
But Aoife didn’t.
She stood there, stared into this man’s eyes. Fully aware that this was risky as hell. Tantamount to suicide.
But what other choice did she have when she was backed into a corner?
“You let me walk away from here with Kayleigh. Or you fire a bullet at me, and it’s over. All of it is over. Your best shot at taking Harvey out, and it’s gone. Do you really want that on your conscience?”
“Don’t talk to me about conscience,” he said.
“Then let me get to my friend. Look away. Just look away for a few minutes. That’s all I ask. Lives will be saved. On both sides. And… and I can’t do this without her.”
He narrowed his eyes. Lifted his pistol, pointed it right at her head with his shaking hands.
Aoife was acting on pure adrenaline now.
“Let me get my friend, and let us leave this place. It’s all I ask.”
The man shook his head.
Then he looked away.
Tightened his finger on the trigger.
Aoife braced herself for the blast.
Braced herself for her bluffing to fall apart.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
And then she heard the deafening bang fill the silent air.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Aoife heard the blast, and she knew what it meant.
The deafening ringing of gunfire echoing in her skull. Piercing, so loud it felt like it’d burst right through her eardrums. He’d pulled the trigger. He’d pulled the trigger, and he’d done what she hadn’t expected him to do, but what’s always been a risk: he’d killed her.
But…
She was still thinking.
And other than the ringing in her ears, she didn’t feel any pain or discomfort.
She was still alive.
She opened her eyes, which she’d squeezed shut instinctively, and she saw him standing right before her.
He had his pistol raised into the air. And he was looking right into her eyes.
“What…” she started.
“You have about a minute to get your friend out before someone comes to investigate the gunshot,” he said. “You’d better get moving.”
Aoife couldn’t move. She was completely rooted to the spot.
“Your time’s ticking,” he said.
She didn’t even think.
She ran. Ran to the side of the garage this time, running into the same problem as before. Leverage. She couldn’t get up. She couldn’t climb.
She could hear shouting cutting through the ringing in her ears now. Hear footsteps heading this way.
She had to stay focused. She had to think quickly. She was running out of time.
She searched the garage. Searched for any place she could climb up. But she kept on coming back to those protruding pipes. And she knew that was going to be her only shot.
“Better hurry,” the man said. Staring at her, pistol still in hand. “You haven’t got much time left.”
“Fuck,” she said.
She found herself facing the garage back wall again. And this time, she knew there was no backing out. She knew she had to climb the wall. She knew it was now or never.
“Fuck it,” she said. “Here goes nothing.”
She grabbed one of the sharp pipes sticking out of the brickwork. Put all her weight onto it.
And then she heaved herself up.
It wasn’t easy. But she felt like she had more leverage this time. Fuck, pr
obably the panic of the whole situation helping out a bit.
She dragged her foot up the side of the wall, scraping it on the rugged brick in the process, grazing it. She winced through the pain, head still spinning, ears still ringing, time running out.
She got her foot onto the broken pipe.
And then she knew she only had one more move to make.
Reach out for the garage roof.
Get up there.
Then get to Kayleigh.
She went to grab the garage roof when she felt the pipe below her foot snap away.
She felt herself falling. Felt herself descending to the ground below.
But her fingertips were on the edge of the roof.
She clutched on. Wincing. Heart racing. Holding on by a thread.
“Come on, Aoife. Come on.”
She pulled herself up with all her force.
Dragged herself harder than she thought she was capable.
And then she shuffled onto the garage roof.
She wanted to lie there for a few seconds. Wanted to stay there and catch her breath.
But she knew she didn’t have any time to waste.
She stood up. Ran over to the metal grating on top of the garage. Had a horrible image of it being pinned into place and not being able to get in…
But when she reached it and grabbed it, it fell right away.
She stared down into the darkness of the garage below.
“I’m coming for you, Kay,” she said.
She didn’t know how the hell they were going to get out of this mess.
But she was going to find a way.
She held her breath and dropped down into the darkness.
She looked around. Looked to her left and her right.
But then, a crippling sense of dread surrounded her.
“Kayleigh?”
She walked around the garage.
Looked for the chair Kayleigh was sitting in.
Looked for Kayleigh.
But the more she looked, the more she searched the darkness, the more a horrifying realisation began to set in.
Kayleigh wasn’t here.
She stood there. Heard the footsteps approaching outside. She didn’t understand. She’d been in here. She’d been in here, and she’d managed to fight her way back to her.
And the man outside…
