“It’s my fault.” Her fingers dig into my back. She’s holding me so tight, I’m not sure if she’s ever going to let me go. “I shouldn’t have—”
“Stop,” I demand and pull back enough to force her to look into my eyes. “You did nothing wrong and now it’s over, so I’m getting you out of here.”
In the near distance, I can vaguely hear the two men arguing but I’m too lost in the moment to be able to discern exactly what’s going on. I look back to my sister and force a smile. “Everything is going to be fine from here on out.”
She’s shaking now, tears painting black lines down her tired, pale, and dirty face. “Are the police here?”
“No.” I shake my head and swallow. “The police aren’t coming.”
“Who is he?”
I crane my head over my shoulder again, feeling as if I should do something to help Chase, but the last I saw, he had everything covered. I turn back to my sister. “There’s so much I have to tell you and I will, but I need to get you out of here first.”
She nods furiously and braces one arm back around my neck. I rise to my feet and with newfound strength and energy, carry her forward down the short hallway and kick open the door with one foot. When we pivot out of the short hallway into the long hallway, the sound of a gun firing steals my attention.
My heart skips a beat as I cock my head over my shoulder. I’m torn between doing the right thing and doing the other right thing. Both could have consequences, and I’m terrified of making the wrong choice. Half of my gut is telling me to not look back until I know Taylor is safe and sound and the other half is screaming that I need to check on Chase.
“Go,” she says lowly to me, but with enough conviction that I don’t second guess her. “I’ll be waiting right here.”
I turn back to her with a frown and shake my head. “I can’t lose you again.”
“You’re not going to lose me,” she says through a compromised smile. “Remember, you said you’d always find me, so go and do what you need to do and then come find me.”
I stand beside her, breathing heavy. I know what I’m going to do even if my body hasn’t committed to it yet. I nod at her before gently lowering her to sit against the wall. And then I’m off, ripping the metal door back open and running down the short hallway.
The short hallway now feels impossibly long. It’s like I’m running forever down a passage that never ends and with every measured kick of my feet against the concrete I take, it’s like I’m racing one step closer to my ultimate destiny.
I’m unarmed with nothing more than my wits, which are currently compromised by my emotions. Having left my gun behind on the floor so I could assist my sister out of the room, I’m defenseless.
But still I run towards that room.
More importantly, I’m running towards him.
To save him.
To make sure he’s okay.
To do something other than be afraid.
I cut around the corner and come to a stop just outside the room. Mason is kneeling on the floor with a bullet wound in his leg while Chase stands above him with his gun aimed squarely at the son of a bitch’s head.
A part of me wants him to pull the trigger. The other part of me—the part of me that’s new to this world of crime wants to beg him to spare this man’s life.
I never thought I’d be in this position. I never thought I could be this person, but between gritted teeth, I beg of Chase, “Kill him.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHASE
I cock my head back to Summer, standing in the opening with one arm braced against the wall beside her. She’s begging me to kill this man and I don’t know why I’m hesitating. There’s something about the way it slipped across her tongue, something about the way her words were laced with venom that makes me want to do the exact opposite of what she’s begging me to do.
Why? Because I know right now she’s after the satisfaction of knowing this man who’s hurt her sister suffers. Over time though, it’ll eat away at her soul. She’s simply too good for this world and I don’t know if I can allow that to happen. I don’t know if I can be responsible for turning a part of her heart dark.
Still, my finger flirts with the trigger of the gun.
“Come on, Chase.” He levels his eyes with mine with a rip-roaring grin etched across his lips. “You’ve been waiting forever for this.”
“Shut the hell up,” I grind out and try to steady my breathing. If she wasn’t standing behind me, if she wasn’t pleading with me to end this poor bastard’s life, I would have already pulled the trigger. “You don’t know what I’m thinking.”
“Please,” he scoffs. “Do you not remember?” His eyes peel sideways, towards Summer. “Has your boo thing here told you about what he did to me?”
“Kill him,” she seethes from behind me, this time she’s more demanding than pleading. “People like him don’t change.”
“That’s the point, honey.” He snickers and shakes his head. “I don’t want to change. But you didn’t answer my question.”
“Shut up,” I scream and jump forward, aiming the gun closer to his head. He’s playing the part of being a badass, but he’s out of allies and perhaps if I scare him enough, he’ll stop talking. “You don’t talk to her. You talk to me.”
“Fine.” He rolls his eyes upwards. “You took my wife from me. There’s nothing else you can take.”
“You’re wrong, about both things.” I push my tongue against my cheek, questioning if he even deserves the truth. “Your wife didn’t die.”
“Who the hell are you trying to fool?”
“You’re the one that’s already been fooled.” I cock the gun against his head. “She faked her death to get away from you. And yeah, I helped her do that because you’re a monster.”
He scoffs and waves me off with one hand. “You’re lying.”
“She pulled two of her own teeth out of her own mouth the night before. She was that afraid of you. She hated you that much. You’ve spent all this time plotting your revenge against me—”
“Do you think this started out about being about you?” He cracks a malevolent grin and shakes his head. “No, this was about two easy targets in a mall parking lot, which I didn’t authorize, but Tommy and Porter couldn’t resist. It was only after I realized that you were helping her that the goals changed, and congratulations by the way.”
“For?”
“Because you win again,” he grunts out before pulling back his black jacket to reveal a bomb strapped to his chest. He quickly reaches for a remote control with a red button and palms it in one hand. “But you’re still going to lose.”
I swallow nervously, my mind being overrun with flashbacks to the war and the kid selling DVD’s. The same kid that was used as a pawn to take out my comrades in a brutal act of war. I’m too lost in my thoughts that I lose just enough control of the situation, allowing him to climb fully to his feet.
“You didn’t think I’d have a back-up plan?” He grins and takes a measured step towards me, forcing me to take an equal step back. “I’ll see you in hell before I ever let you win again.”
I wet my dry lips. Not seeing a way out of this, I realize my only hope might be to negotiate with this monster, but he doesn’t deserve that. If it weren’t for Summer standing right behind me and Taylor out in the hall, I’d take the shot.
But it’s too much of a risk with his hand so close to the trigger. If I raise the gun any higher, he’ll blow us all to hell and back.
“You really going to kill yourself, Mason?”
He shrugs with apathy. “I imagine the police will be here soon, and I’d rather be dead than spend my life in a cage like a zoo animal.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way…” I say, careful with my every movement as I drop the gun to the floor beneath me. “But if you’re going to push that button regardless, then please just let these girls go.”
He glances over my shoulder at Summer and cracks a wide
open grin. “Nah, they can stay for the party.”
I can’t bring myself to look back at her, though I want to. If I’m going to die, I want her to be the last thing I ever see. At the same time, I can’t look at her because I’m ashamed of myself for dragging her into this mess. If she dies here tonight, there’s no way I’ll find myself in heaven. The guilt alone would be enough to damn me to hell for the rest of eternity.
I push both hands out in front of me, trying to reason with him. “You can kill me. You can do whatever you have to do, and these girls aren’t going to stop you. They just want to go back to their normal lives. They will let you go.” I step forward carefully and kick the gun towards him so that it collides with one foot. “Just please let them go.”
He laughs manically as his eyes peel to the gun on the floor.
Bang.
The remote control drops to the hard floor, cracking in half and I’m frozen waiting for the bomb to go off. But it doesn’t. Mason’s dead body, with a hole in his pale ass head, lands face first with a loud thud against the concrete, blood splattering outwards.
I throw my head over my shoulder to get a good look at Dom standing behind me with his gun still held steady. We both nod at each other and out of the corner of my eye, I notice Summer sighing with relief before sliding down the hard wall to take a short rest.
“I thought you were never going to show,” I say to Dom with what little breath I have left.
“Traffic was a bitch, but you can bet your ass I was going to be here for this.” He pushes the gun back into his holster and lays a palm on my shoulder. “I’m sorry for not believing you earlier.”
“You saved my ass, so there’s no sweat off my back.” I reach forward to shake his hand in the way that we do it; the typical bro handshake that comes before pressing our chests together and patting each other on the back. “You’ve always been my favorite, you know.”
“Really?” He arches one brow and nods his head in amusement. “You mean to tell me the twins aren’t your best friends?”
I sigh and chuckle. “I feel like they’re always off on vacation.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt your bro session,” Summer interrupts, stealing my complete attention. “But can you do all of that later, because I’m tired and I want to get out of here sooner than later.”
Dom cocks his head to me with an unmistakable grin on his face. “She might be a keeper after all.”
Yeah, that’s what I keep saying.
# # #
The sun is rising in the near distance, coming up over the hills of the valley and burning bright as it tends to do out here in the desert. It’s going to be a sweltering day in California but I’m hoping to be inside winding down with the cool air blowing across my pretty ass face.
The sounds of squads—cop cars, firefighters, and ambulances—can be heard from down the road, but it’ll be another few minutes before they arrive if my calculations are correct. And when they get here, Dom and I need to be gone, but there are things that need to be said and loose ends that need to be tied up. Taylor, wrapped in a blanket sits in the back of the stolen van with her feet kicked out over the edge.
Summer steps towards me while Dom waits in the white car he arrived in. He honks the horn, but he’s going to have to wait. I cock my head over my shoulder and flip him the bird. Brotherly love and all that.
“We survived,” she says with a flat grin. She’s smiling because she’s relieved or maybe she’s just truly happy to be alive because maybe she didn’t think that was a possibility. Maybe she thought this was a suicide mission. “All of us. Me, Taylor, Rick, You, your friends.”
“Everyone but Mason and his ragtag team of henchman.”
“Yeah.” She chews into her bottom lip, teeth mashing against sweet precious lips that I want nothing more than to taste right now, but I know it’s going to have to wait. “I’m happy this nightmare is over for you, but Dom and I really need to get out of here?”
She jerks in place, confused. “Why?”
“Because I’m not supposed to be here, remember?” I kick my boot against the sand, sending grains of tiny particles into the still breeze. “I don’t think we did anything wrong, but we were still violating countless laws for the sole reason that we were acting outside of the law.”
She drops her head, realizing what this could mean, but not what it really means. She presses a hand firm against my chest. “But I want to see you again.”
“If that’s not the most mutual feeling thing you’ve ever said, then I’ll be damned.”
She nods, her lips hitching into a beautiful smile. “I was hoping you would say something like that.”
“You seem like a huge weight has been lifted.”
“That’s because it has. I have everything I need.”
“Except a house,” I point out, for which I receive a hard punch against my chest. I recoil and hold my hand against the wound. “Ouch.
She forces each of her hands into the pockets of her jeans and swivels on her feet slightly, like she’s a nervous schoolgirl or something, right out of a porno. “Do you want to know something stupid?”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve known you for less than seventy-two hours…” She digs her hands back out of her pockets—that was fast—and caresses a hand softly against my hard chest. “But I think I love you.”
“That’s probably the trauma speaking,” I try to laugh it off, but… “But if it’s not, then I’m kind of crazy about you too.”
She takes a measured step towards me, cutting through whatever little distance is between us. “I’m not asking for forever.”
“Forever sounds nice,” I muse out loud and push dark curls out of her face. “It also sounds like forever,” I say playfully, and push my tongue against the inside of my cheek as I take a mental picture of the way the sun paints her in absolute beauty. She glows under the light of the morning stars.
“We’ll take it a day at a time.”
“What about my work?” I clear my throat. “Can you deal with it?”
“Deal with it?” She chuckles and slaps her hand playfully against my chest. “Hell, I think I’d like to join the team.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I scowl with a shake of my head. Just to be clear, I repeat my words. “That’s definitely not going to happen.”
“Because I’m a girl?”
“Because you’re not exactly trained for this stuff.”
“Good excuse.”
“And I never want to fear for your life again.”
She combs one hand through her hair and sighs. “You know what I’ve learned throughout all this?”
“What is that?”
“That safety is relative and you can’t keep me safe forever.”
“I can try, and that’s enough for me.”
Dom lays on the horn in the background, the loud honking cutting through what should be a romantic moment. But I’m not going to let him ruin anything with his impatience. Though the sirens are screaming a little louder than before and they’re drawing closer by the second. I know I need to wrap this up soon, I just don’t want to.
“They’re coming,” she says with a groan. “So you’re going to need to go.”
“There’s just one thing I need first,” I say, stealing her gaze, stealing all of her attention. She looks up to me with big, beautiful, curious eyes. And I don’t need to say anything to be understood. I lean down and press my lips against hers. Behind closes eyes, I can see my future. If there was ever a time to believe in fate, now would be the time. Fate has brought us together and I’m praying that it’ll keep us together, because kisses like this are rare.
I hold onto each of her cheeks as I delve deeper into her mouth, reveling in the way she brings out the best of me with nothing more than a look or a kiss. I want to taste every part of her, but I know that’ll all have to wait.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see two police cars speeding around the corner ahead and rac
ing straight towards the warehouse. That’s my cue to break away from the kiss and take a measured step back.
“I’ll see you on the other side,” I say to her while I continue to pace backwards.
“Is that a promise?”
“It’s a threat.” I watch her roll her eyes and chuckle to herself and then watch as she watches me leave. I chew into my lip and take one last, long look at her. I’ll see her in a few days once everything simmers down, but it’s about to be the longest few days of my life.
I spin around on my feet and race towards Dom’s car, jump into the passenger seat as he speeds away, kicking gravel and sand into the air.
“I think I’m in love,” I say to him, banging my hands on the dashboard.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
I point at the road ahead. “Just drive, asshole.”
“You know I’m your boss, right?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I wave him off, my attention now focused elsewhere.
I watch Summer become smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror, like she’s disappearing into the earth, but she’s stolen a permanent spot in my heart. When this all blows over, when everything turns out okay. When Summer and Taylor go back to their lives, and Rick comes out of the hospital just fine… That’s when I’ll see her again.
I can’t wait to feel her touch, to feel her lips pressed against mine. Can’t wait to hold her tight in my arms, safe from the world outside. Can’t wait for so many things.
But most of all, I can’t wait for our first date.
First, actual, real date.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SUMMER
THREE MONTHS LATER
The final school bell rings, sending shockwaves through my ears as I reach for the eraser to begin cleaning the day’s work off the oversized dry-erase board. The students rise from their seats, slinging their bags over their backs before rushing out of the room.
The weather is still nice outside though autumn is looming overhead. It’s always nice out here though, especially compared to other parts of the country. People are willing to spend ten times more in Los Angeles, and a lot of that has to do with the always beautiful weather.
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