Conrad

by Emily Rose

  I stared into his eyes and a small grin pulled at my lips, “You don’t look too bad yourself, Lucas,” I said.

  He chuckled, “I was only partly joking about what I said at Lila’s. I know it’s not something you want right now, but you aren’t making it easy. I hope you know that.”

  My gaze dropped from his, because those words were so similar to what Miles had said to me and I didn’t want Lucas seeing anything off about my gaze.

  I shrugged and went with a lame response. “I’m not doing anything.”

  Lucas reached up with one of his hands and placed it under my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his, “Lesley, you don’t have to do anything. You can just be yourself and it’s enough to drive any man within seeing distance of you insane,” he said.

  I was glad it was dark in this gym or he would have seen the way my shyness returned full force. I hated being complimented, because I never knew what to say back and I didn’t think I was any of the things people told me.

  So I went with the only thing I could say.

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  He smirked. “You’re welcome babe.”

  We danced in silence until the song ended and then Lucas led me toward the snack table where he went to work on our drinks, but in the process, some of the guys from the team caught him and they started chatting. I stood patiently and glanced around the crowd of students. That was when I spotted Noah across the gym. He sat next to Brad and they looked to be closer than I had ever seen them before. I smiled and looked away just as the song switched to So Cold by Breaking Benjamin.

  In the process of scanning the crowd, my eyes caught someone standing in the far corner of the room. He leaned against the wall and he was wearing an all-black suit along with a black ball mask, which hid everything about his face except his eyes. From this distance, I couldn’t tell what color they were, but I didn’t like the feeling I got as they watched me. Glancing away, I looked for Lucas and saw that he was standing a few feet from me, still chatting with the guys.

  Relief washed over me and I forgot about the weird moment, but it didn’t last long. I suddenly felt someone grab my hand from behind me and my heart shot through my chest as I spun around to come face to face with the guy I had seen standing in the corner of the room.

  I barely had time to register it was him before he started moving us toward the dance floor without my permission.

  Fear rocked through me and I tried to pull away from him, but his grip was extremely strong and I wasn’t going anywhere. Once we got to the center of the dance floor, he spun me back around and I crashed into him. My hands came out and pressed against his chest as he held me firmly in place by his own.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” he said in a deep, much older voice.

  I blinked as the fear raced through every part of my being and I froze in his arms as we continued to twirl around the dance floor like two ghosts in the cemetery.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  He looked around the crowd like he was watching for someone before he spoke, “It doesn’t matter. You need to leave. They know he’s at Lila’s and you need to warn him,” he said and then met my gaze.

  That was when I finally got a good look at him. He was tall, close to six-foot-four and he was definitely older than any of us.

  But beneath the black mask he wore, he had blazing whisky colored eyes.

  “Warn who? What’s going on?” I asked, trying to ignore the panic that settled over me.

  “I don’t have time to explain. Leave. Now,” he said before he released me and vanished back into the crowd as quick as he had showed up.

  I stood rooted to the spot and stared after him, but the fear I felt ratcheted up a notch with his words and I glanced around the gym. My other classmates all danced, chatted, and acted like nothing strange had just happened at all. Inside my chest, I could feel my heart racing with panic as I tried to check my surroundings and that was when I saw them.

  Standing in the furthest and darkest corner of the gym, I saw three figures. All of them were dressed in black, making them nearly invisible, but that wasn’t what sent my fear into overdrive.

  It was the fact that they all wore masks, the very same one I had seen painted on Josh’s locker.

  And they were coming this way.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Lesley

  The song switched to Monsters by Ruelle, but I wasn’t paying attention to the lyrics. I took off toward where Lucas had been with my heart pounding in my chest. Suddenly, all the noises around me were much louder than I remembered them as I shoved my way through the crowd of laughing people.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I looked around quickly for the three masked men and that was when I spotted one. He stood several feet behind me, hidden amongst the crowd, but he was close enough that I got a good look at the only thing visible about him.

  His eyes.

  They were a deep amber brown and they burned through me like a hot knife. In a panic, I looked around for the other two guys as I forced people out of my way and then I saw them.

  One stood on my right side, while the other guy stood several feet in front of me and blocked my path to where I saw Lucas over the man’s shoulder, talking to his teammates a few feet behind him, unaware of anything.

  Unlike the guy who stood behind me, the one in front of me had deep ocean blue eyes and they were also pinpointed on me in a violent glare.

  In fear, my heart skipped a beat and I spun around to race in the opposite direction of all of them, nearly tripping over the bottom of my dress. I managed to get my balance again and shoved a girl out of my way, who yelled back at me. I ignored her and raced toward the exit, which was only a few feet from me now.

  With my heart beating madly beneath my chest and my breathing coming out quicker than it should, I brought my hands up to shove the doors open. They banged against the brick wall of the gym and a rush of cold night air blasted me. I had barely gotten a few feet out of the doors when I heard it.

  An engine roared through the night and then Miles’ blacked out Chevelle skidded to a stop in front of me. My body crashed into the side fender and I caught myself on the warm hood of his car with my arms.

  “Get in,” he called out the window.

  I didn’t hesitate. Racing to the passenger seat, I jumped inside and slammed the door, glancing toward the gym long enough to see the three masked men come rushing outside. They saw me just as Miles’ shifted and took off, squalling the tires in the process. But they weren’t going to give up that easily.

  Before we got too far away, I saw them jump into what looked like a black BMW and then they took off after us.

  I spun around in my seat just as Miles pulled out of the parking lot, nearly gaining air as we bounced over the curb before fishtailing back onto the main road. Bracing my hands on the dash and trying not to have a heart attack, I looked over at him.

  “Who are they? Why are they after me? What is going on Miles? How did you know?” I cried with panic.

  He shifted into a higher gear, pushing the Chevelle to its limits and putting as much distance between us, and the rapidly approaching BMW as possible. “Lesley, right now, I’m just trying not to kill you,” he said.

  My heart dropped and my skin felt sweaty with fear. I looked back and saw that the BMW was only a few car lengths behind us. “They’re still back there, Miles. Go faster,” I said, watching them as they gained on us.

  He obeyed and I heard the Chevelle’s engine roar with rage as he shifted yet again, putting a bit more distance between us.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  They were still back there and that wasn’t even the worst part. Out of nowhere, I saw a car join them as it came flying around the curve.

  “Miles, there’s more,” I said with a shaky voice.

  He glanced in his mirror just as I saw the car behind the BMW dart into the wrong lane, coming up on their side so that they were neck and neck. My heart raced when the other ca
r got close enough that I could actually see it.

  “Oh God… that’s Lucas,” I said.

  I had barely spoken the words when Lucas’ Mustang suddenly slammed directly into the side of the BMW, forcing it off the road where it began to flip several times. My hand came up to cover my mouth as I watched Lucas’ spin out of control before crashing into the ditch, coming to a rest with the driver’s side door against a tree.

  “Miles, stop! Go back!” I cried.

  At first, he didn’t stop.

  I looked at him through a blurry vision and that was when I realized tears had formed in my eyes. He met my gaze and for the longest moment, we watched each other.

  And then suddenly, he shifted down and the Chevelle’s engine revved as he spun us in a 180-degree turn, so that we were racing back toward where Lucas had gone off the road. When we reached him, Miles didn’t even have time to come to a complete stop before I was out of the car and running toward Lucas.

  Smoke rolled out from underneath the hood of the Mustang, which was bent a little, but overall not totaled.

  “Luke!” I called his name when I reached the passenger side of the car and yanked the door open, ignoring the loud pop it made in the process.

  He sat in the driver’s seat unconscious with a deep cut on the side of his head. Blood had run down his face and I saw that the driver’s side window was completely shattered. Fear spiked in my veins and I crawled into the car, grabbing his hand.

  “Lucas, can you hear me?” I said, ignoring the tears that fell down my cheeks.

  He didn’t respond, but I could see that he was breathing. Looking over my shoulder, I scanned the darkness for Miles and spotted him heading toward the BMW. I gently laid Lucas’ hand back down and crawled out of the car. With one hand, I ripped my heels off, held them in my hand, and raced barefoot after Miles.

  “Miles, he needs help. We need to get him to Lila’s,” I said when I got within a few feet of him.

  He didn’t look over his shoulder or stop walking, but he responded. “He will. There’s just something I have to do first,” he said.

  The fear I felt earlier still hadn’t faded and I slowed my steps until I came to a stop in the middle of the road, watching in utter disbelief as Miles walked straight up to the BMW where he kneeled next to the driver’s side door. He reached inside with one arm and checked the pulse on the driver before he went around to the passenger side to check that guy’s pulse.

  “Miles…” I whispered in a voice that warbled.

  He came around to the other side of the car again, so that I could see him, and our eyes met. “There were three guys, right?” he asked in a deadly calm voice.

  The look I saw in his eyes sent a wave of panic through me. It was dark and wild. The look you might see in your killer’s eyes.

  “Lesley, I need you to answer me,” he said evenly, as if all of this didn’t affect him at all.

  I couldn’t respond. My voice had locked up and I took a step back from him. He dropped his gaze only long enough to see my movement before he caught my eyes again. Before he could say anything else though, we heard someone moan in pain a few feet to our left.

  My heart picked up, but Miles was the first to move. He filled the space between us and the person who moaned.

  That was when I saw him.

  The third guy, the one with the amber brown eyes, laid sprawled out on the grass. Somehow, the mask was still in place but blood covered parts of his skin. Miles stepped over him and reached down to grab the mask, yanking it off his face with no gentleness at all. Finally, I was able to see the man’s face. He couldn’t be much older than me and he had dark brown hair, which also looked as if blood had soaked some of it.

  Coughing, the man somehow found the strength to speak. “We found… you,” he said before a wicked bloody grin pulled at his mouth.

  Miles stared at him a full minute before he reached down, grabbing the man’s hoodie and yanking him off the ground until their faces were mere inches from each other.

  And then he spoke. “Good, now you can give your boss a message for me when he shows up to clean this mess up. That is if you live long enough for that,” he said.

  The man laughed, “You have no idea what’s coming.”

  “No, that’s where you’re wrong. I think it’s you and your entire fucking crew that doesn’t know what’s coming, but you will. Make sure you tell your boss that too. Make sure you tell him that I’m going to burn his fucking world to the ground and then I’m going to put a knife right in his goddamn heart, making sure he feels every fucking moment of pain that I inflict,” Miles said before he threw the guy to the ground roughly and stood upright, stepping over him again and heading back toward Lucas’ car.

  The man laughed and coughed at the same time, but I was numb. Miles’ words ignited a fear in me that I had never felt before, because none of this was a joke.

  He was serious.

  And suddenly, Lila’s warning made much more sense. Miles and Dare weren’t low life drug dealers or professional arsonists.

  The Cross family was full of cold-blooded killers.

  Breathing heavily, I spoke before I had a chance to stop myself, “Miles stop,” I said before I turned my gaze to meet his.

  He stopped and waited for me to say something.

  Despite my fear and racing heart, I spoke with pure seriousness. “Leave,” I said without breaking my gaze from him, even as I felt the tears form in my eyes at my own words.

  Miles looked confused. “What?”

  I couldn’t help it. My hand came up and I pointed toward his car before I screamed at him. “Leave! You need to leave,” I said, wishing the tears would stop falling, but they didn’t.

  “Lesley, I’m trying to protect you. I would never hurt you,” he said and then stepped toward me, but I stepped back and he stopped, glancing down at the way I moved away from him before lifting his eyes back to mine.

  “You are a killer, Miles. You are fucking crazy. I don’t know how I’m supposed to trust you after tonight. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but clearly, it’s you these people are really after,” I said.

  He watched me with an unreadable expression on his face before he turned away from me, heading back to his car without another word. Trembling and holding my breath, I watched him get inside and then listened as he took off, leaving smoke behind his tires. It wasn’t until he was gone that I released my breath, letting the tears fall freely now.

  I dropped to the pavement and closed my eyes. Everything caught up to me then and I let out a scream that echoed throughout the night.

  And then I heard him. The guy with the mask laughed and spoke. “Tick tock, Lesley,” he said.

  Suddenly, I was so angry. Before I could stop myself, I shot up from the ground and rushed toward him. When I got within reaching distance of him, I brought my bare foot up and yelled as I kicked him square in the face as hard as my tiny leg would allow me to, ignoring the bolt of pain that reverberated up my leg. It was enough to knock him out and his head went limp to the side.

  “Fuck… you,” I whispered angrily and then turned away from him, racing back toward Lucas, while I pulled my phone out of the small purse I had wrapped around my body. When I got to the Mustang, I crawled back inside and checked Lucas’ pulse. It beat steadily under my fingers and that brought on a tiny bit of relief among the madness that coursed through me, but he was still unconscious.

  Sitting back in the seat, I unlocked my phone and started to dial 911, but then I paused as everything around me seemed to catch on. Calling 911 meant the police and I had no idea how I was going to explain any of this. I didn’t even know what this meant, so instead, I did the only thing I could do.

  I called Noah.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Lesley

  “Babe, I’m fine,” Lucas said as we walked out of the hospital and back toward Noah’s car that was parked near the back of the lot.

  I still kept my arm hooked through Lucas
’ and stayed in pace beside him, not convinced that he only had a minor concussion and some bruising. Noah walked on his other side and he was still dressed in his prom outfit.

  He eyed Lucas, clearly not convinced that he was okay either. “Dude, you literally crashed your car into a tree after knocking someone else off the road,” he said.

  Lucas met his gaze, “I was trying to save Lesley. I saw those guys follow her outside, but when I came out, she was already in—“ he paused like the thought caused him pain before he went on, “In Miles’ car and they were in that BMW, so I jumped in mine and followed them.”

  Noah shook his head and then got his keys out of his pocket as we came up on his car, “Well, I would like to know what the hell is going on. You’re lucky that you were eighteen or you would have your parents up your ass right now, although I’m not sure how you’re going to explain what happened to your car to them,” he said, pulling the driver’s side door open and then leaning inside to unlock the passenger side before he sat down.

  I opened the door for Lucas and then pushed the seat up, climbing into the back so that he could take the front. I had no idea how to explain any of this either, but it was clear that we were going to have to talk to Lila if we wanted any answers.

  This was serious and we could all be in huge trouble right now. I would have already called her if it wasn’t for the fact that I knew she was at work right now and she usually left her phone in her locker until she got off. Not to mention, I had no idea how to even begin to explain what happened to her.

  This was basically a hit and run, but it made it so much worse considering all, but one of the men in the BMW had died. I had never been in this type of situation and it scared me. I could feel my blood pumping quickly and the shakiness in my hands as the rush of pure adrenaline continued to flow through me.

  “So, what do we do now?” Noah asked, while he started the Nova.

  Lucas rested his head back against the seat and looked straight forward, “Well, I think we should figure out a way to get my car out of the damn ditch before the cops find it,” he said.