Chasing Silver

by Jamie Craig

  “Because the bullet came courtesy of one Kirsten Henryk, and I don’t know if she’s still in the area.” Nathan released her arm and stood, walking over to his gun safe. “I want you to be here where it’s safe.”

  The bed squeaked, but a brief glance back showed Remy hadn’t risen. She stared someplace at the wall behind him, her features clouded. “If she can get to Isaac, she can get to anyone,” she murmured. “There is no safe anymore.”

  “Well, she hasn’t gotten to us yet. Look, I’m leaving this out for you.” He held up a small handgun before placing it on top of the shelf. “If I don’t have to take him back to the hospital, I’ll be back within the hour.” He walked over to the side of the bed, bending to brush his lips against her forehead. “Just stay right here in bed, yeah? I want to find you where I left you.”

  Her hand shot out to grab his wrist, keeping him from walking away after he straightened again. When Nathan met her eyes, he hesitated at the choked panic lurking in their depths.

  “Kirsten’s merciless.” It was surprising how even her voice was, in spite of the look on her face. “And nobody knows her better than I do. I want to go.”

  “And what if she’s waiting for you? All it takes is one bullet, Remy.” He gently pulled his wrist from her. “I don’t know why she shot Isaac, and he doesn’t know where she is now. I’m just picking him up. We’re not looking for her or going after her.”

  “You’re making a mistake.” But at least she wasn’t moving. She only watched him with those fathomless eyes. He had to turn away and grab his shirt to escape the pin of her gaze. “She won’t give up, you know. And you’re as vulnerable to a bullet as I am. More even, because you’re not taking her seriously.”

  Nathan took a deep breath. He knew Remy could be headstrong, but he hadn’t expected to be detained by this debate. “If I weren’t taking her seriously, I wouldn’t have an issue with you tagging along. Most likely, Kirsten doesn’t know Isaac has a connection to you. Which means, she doesn’t know who I am. She’s not after us. She’s after you. Do you want to give her more clues about where to find you?” He didn’t wait for an answer, tucking in his shirttails. “Now, Isaac is bleeding in some alley, and I don’t have the time to stand here and have this argument.”

  She didn’t stop him as he stepped into his shoes. She didn’t do anything until he was heading for the door.

  “Kirsten doesn’t do anything without a reason. And she’s not stupid. But you’re right. I’m the one she’s after. You’re just the one in the middle of the line she’s going to draw from Isaac to me.” Lying back down, Remy rolled over to face the wall. “Go help your friend. Try not to get killed.”

  Nathan hesitated for a moment, looking at her back and feeling oddly helpless. He had trusted her to keep her head in a situation far more dangerous than this. She had already saved his life once, and he knew she’d be quick to do it again. But that concern wasn’t at the core of the issue. He didn’t know all the facts. He didn’t know what happened or why. He didn’t know if Isaac had hit Kirsten. He didn’t even know if Isaac’s injury was as minor as he claimed. But Nathan had been trained to go into dangerous situations without all the facts.

  Remy was not. He couldn’t let her join him. Not in good conscience.

  “We’ll be back soon. Then we’ll sort out what happened and decide what our next move should be.”

  He waited for some kind of a response, but when none came, Nathan grabbed his cell and keys and walked out of the room. Part of him expected Remy to follow to continue the debate. Another part was relieved when she didn’t.

  The apartment was silent as he locked the door behind him.

  * * *

  She didn’t move for long seconds after she heard the lock snick into place. Every inch of her screamed in fury at Nathan’s inflexibility, but she had been able to tell from the firm set of his jaw he wouldn’t budge. Arguing was futile. A waste of energy she could direct elsewhere.

  Like finding Kirsten.

  Pushing back the blanket, Remy dressed swiftly, ignoring most of her new purchases to slip on jeans and a T-shirt. She would have much preferred leaving in the clothes in which she’d arrived, but those had been torn up by Kirsten’s knife. Why Kirsten would go to Isaac for help just to turn on him twenty-four hours later, Remy didn’t know, but whatever the reason, it couldn’t be good. Nathan was blinding himself to the very real danger she presented if he refused to see that. Odds were good Kirsten had found the connection back to Remy, so it was only a matter of time before she showed up on Nathan’s doorstep. And what if she found Nathan on his own somewhere? Kirsten would eliminate any obstacle in her path.

  How many times did Remy have to tell him that?

  It didn’t matter. She wasn’t sticking around long enough to put Nathan in any more danger. As much as she didn’t want to go, she didn’t want to see him hurt even more. One bullet. That’s all it would take. He’d said so himself.

  She took only the essentials. Half of the clothes she had purchased in Santa Monica would be useless if she was on the run, so those got left behind. One of Nathan’s shirts found its way into the pack as well as a bar of his soap, but Remy rationalized that as practicality rather than the hungry need to have a piece of him. She took the gun as well. It wasn’t her first choice as a weapon, but killing Kirsten would be easier if she could do it from a distance.

  When she saw the money on the nightstand, she hesitated. Cash was necessary; there was no getting around that. But she had promised it to Nathan for helping her and the thought of reneging on her word left Remy uneasy. She could always steal more later, whereas he was bound more stringently by the law. In the end, she only took a few bills, enough for a cheap hotel room and food for the next couple days. Nathan would understand. She hoped.

  She was almost out the door when it occurred to her to leave a note. With Kirsten in the forefront of Nathan’s thoughts, it was likely he would fear the worst when he got back and found Remy gone. She didn’t want that. This would be hard enough as it was.

  But what to say?

  It would kill me to see you get hurt.

  The past two days have been amazing, but…

  I’m going to miss you. I’m sorry.

  Nothing was good enough. It either said too much or not enough. In the end, Remy scrawled the briefest of truths about her plans and prayed Nathan would see the emotion behind the words.

  As she hurried down the stairs, her pack slung over her shoulder, she refused to yield to the temptation to turn around and go back. It was better this way. Safer.

  She would come back once Kirsten was dead. She only hoped it wouldn’t be too late for her and Nathan to pick up where they had left off.

  * * *

  The same silence he’d left behind greeted Nathan when he and Isaac returned. Isaac had insisted Nathan drop him off at home, but Nathan had ignored him. Not only did he not want to take any extra time in returning to Remy, he wanted to be sure Isaac was fine. Plus, they needed to have the discussion he had promised Remy they would have.

  “I’ll get a clean shirt,” Nathan said, as Isaac headed straight for the bathroom.

  “As long as it’s not that awful green one that looks like you shop at the outlet mall.” Isaac flicked on the light, stepping inside as the fluorescent flooded into the hall. “I look bad enough as it is.”

  Nathan rolled his eyes. “You know I keep only the finest designer threads for you, Isaac. Would you like the hand-stitched silk…” His words faded as he entered the empty bedroom. He looked over his shoulder, as if he expected to see Remy standing in the hall behind him, but she wasn’t there.

  Turning on the light, he stepped inside to investigate. His first thought was Kirsten had found her, but there were no signs of a struggle, no blood, nothing to indicate Remy had been removed against her will. He ran his fingers across her pillow. It was still warm. He glanced at the shelves. The gun he had left her was missing. A quick perusal of the closet confirmed some
of her clothing was missing as well.

  “I think you have a problem.”

  Nathan’s head snapped around to see his friend standing in the doorway, his bloodied shirt half-undone. Between his fingers was a torn sheet of paper, a piece of tape stuck to one edge. “She left you a note.”

  He was across the room in a flash, snatching it away from Isaac and scanning over its brief contents. Her handwriting was childish, large and bold. It reminded him of somebody else’s handwriting, but even in the haste he knew she had written it, the words were all too clear.

  I’m sorry, Nate. I can’t let her shoot you, too. Like you said, all it takes is one bullet, and then you’re dead and it’s all my fault. I’ll fix it. I promise.

  She didn’t sign her name. There was only a scrawled R and a scribble he couldn’t decipher.

  Something inside him snapped. “Well, that’s just brilliant, isn’t it? She doesn’t know Los Angeles at all. She doesn’t know anybody in Los Angeles. She wouldn’t have the first clue where to find Kirsten. And, oh yeah, Tian got a good look at her face last night. He has half his gang out trolling the city for her right now. Or all of them, if Cesar died.”

  The angry rise of Nathan’s voice had Isaac holding his hands up in mock surrender. “Don’t shoot the messenger, okay? Maybe she’s not as helpless as you think. We don’t know anything about this girl, remember?”

  “I don’t think she’s helpless. I think she’s a bit clueless. Look at this.” He gestured toward the money on the nightstand. “She took some, but not enough to take care of herself. Where is she going to stay tonight? Where does she even think she’s going?” He looked at Isaac. “She’s not far. Will you help me find her?”

  “Of course,” came the automatic response. “Whatever you want.” But he didn’t move out of the doorway. “Except…maybe her taking off isn’t a bad thing. That Kirsten is batshit crazy. This is your chance to get out while you still can.”

  “I know. I know I can just let her run, and she can keep running until Kirsten, or Tian, or somebody else catches up with her.” Nathan crumpled the note in his fist. “But I won’t.”

  Dark eyes solemn, Isaac nodded as if he hadn’t expected anything less. “Let’s patch up this hole in my shoulder and I’ll pop some painkillers. We’ll find her. She doesn’t stand a chance with both of us on her tail.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The night was sticky, the air wet and close without the benefit of rain to take the edge off. Leaning against the pole, Remy peered up and down the deserted street, wondering why the city would put a bus stop in a place buses never went by. How did people get around in this town?

  She stiffened when she saw the Mustang’s lights in the distance, rounding the corner for the parking lot on the other side of Nathan’s apartment complex. Damn it. She had hoped to be long gone by the time he got back. Now she didn’t have the luxury of waiting for a bus. She had to get moving if she wanted to make sure he didn’t find her.

  So distracted by Nathan’s Mustang, Remy didn’t notice the massive, silver Lexus LX until it rolled to a stop beside her. She ignored it and began walking in the opposite direction, head down, but it followed, crawling to match her pace. Finally, at the end of the block, the passenger window slid down to expose a smiling young man with crooked teeth.

  “It looks like you might need a ride,” he said, almost pleasantly.

  “Looks can be deceiving.” Keeping her features placid, Remy didn’t stop walking. She shifted the backpack around on her shoulders to make it easier to reach for the gun should the need arise.

  “Where are you going, little girl?” a second voice asked. Remy couldn’t see his face. “Where’s your daddy?”

  She had to fight not to roll her eyes. Idiotic pick-up lines never changed.

  Before she responded, the Lexus sped up enough to pull ahead of her, the back door popping open and three more men pouring out of the seat. The closest grabbed at her backpack, but the moment her foot came up to try and defend herself, he yanked and pulled her off-balance, causing the pack to slip from her shoulder and land on the ground between them.

  Another grabbed her from behind, wrapping his arm around her throat. “I believe I asked you a question. Where is he?”

  That was a real question?

  Damn, he’s strong.

  The Lexus idled, and the two remaining men in the car emerged. Remy’s heart jumped when she recognized the passenger, and for the first time, fear began to seep into her muscles.

  It was the muscleman who’d accompanied Tian at Rojo the night before. The one who had been tailing him before Cesar had shown up and interrupted.

  Deliberately, Remy relaxed. Tensing would do more than make the situation worse. It would show her cards, the surest way to lose. “My old man’s been dead for years. You’re welcome to go talk to him, but it’d be a pretty one-sided conversation.”

  The muscle nodded toward the car. “Get her inside.”

  The man holding her didn’t move. “Tian made it pretty clear he wanted Nathan, not his little slut.”

  The muscle narrowed his eyes. “Put her in the truck and shut your fucking mouth. He may want to fuck over Pierce, but I think this one will keep him satisfied for a few days.”

  Their disagreement was the distraction she’d been looking for. Slamming her elbow backward, Remy hooked her foot around her captor’s ankle, snapping it forward to make him pitch back. His arm loosened enough for her to wrench free, but she had only taken a few running steps before someone else tackled her to the sidewalk.

  Her head cracked against the concrete. Stars danced in front of Remy’s eyes, but she shook them off. Two, however, refused to disappear, sharpening as they raced closer and closer.

  Those weren’t stars. They were headlights.

  “Hey, look who it is,” the muscle said from behind her, his voice gruff with excitement. “Let’s give him a proper welcome.”

  The man on top of her hadn’t moved, his weight crushing her against the sidewalk. Though she couldn’t turn her head, she heard the distinctive clicks of a handful of guns being cocked, and she knew Nathan must have seen them all, but the Mustang didn’t veer or slow.

  Two rapid gunshots punctuated the air, their origin unknown. After a moment, something sickeningly hot landed in a fat drop on the top of her head. The man slumped on top of her, suddenly much heavier. Horrified, she shoved the body away, noticing a perfect round hole in the top of his head.

  “Get down,” a familiar voice shouted, and then everything happened very fast.

  Remy had lived with violence too long to ignore orders from a trusted source.

  Diving back to the ground, she rolled away from the street, using the dead body of the man who’d been pinning her as cover. Only when she was tucked behind it did she dare to see what was going on. Her blood froze at the tableau.

  The Mustang was parked half on the sidewalk, the dead body of the young man who had first offered a ride crushed beneath its tires. Isaac stood behind his open door, using it as a shield as he trained his gun on the men remaining, while Nathan stood over the prone form of Tian’s muscleman. Blood filled the cracks in the concrete.

  The three men on their feet moved fast, diving into the Lexus. The tires squealed as the driver floored it, sending a cloud of burning rubber and exhaust into their faces. Isaac fired after them, but the SUV didn’t slow. Remy wanted to shout at Nathan to get down, they could still be armed, but she didn’t speak, he didn’t move, and nobody fired again.

  “Did you get the plates?” Nathan asked over his shoulder as the taillights disappeared into the night.

  “Got ’em.”

  Nathan turned back to her, his face marked with concern. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah.” Her hand rose to her head, feeling gingerly for any signs of blood. All she encountered was the rather large knot where she’d smacked against the sidewalk. “Yeah.”

  “You better call this in,” Nathan said to Isaac as he holste
red his gun. “I’ll take her upstairs.”

  Remy frowned as she pushed herself upward, ignoring the wave of dizziness. “I’m not going back, Nate. I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  She stared at him. He had asked that with a straight face.

  “Kirsten shooting your buddy ringing any bells?” Her eyes flickered to Isaac. “Of course, he’s standing, so maybe that was an exaggeration, but it doesn’t change facts. Kirsten’s dangerous, and I’m not going to let you be the next one she goes after.”

  Nathan rolled his eyes. “And the preferable alternative is for you to get kidnapped? Look around you, Remy. This is my life. Kirsten may be new, but she’s hardly unique. You don’t want to listen to me? Isaac, you tell her.”

  Isaac started to shrug, and then winced, his shoulder slowly settling back down. “He’s right. I’m pretty much his only friend. Everybody else wants him dead.” He seemed to consider his assertion for a moment. “Well, except for you, it looks like.”

  “That’s the long and short of it, Remy. I can understand if you don’t want to be caught in the middle of my shit.” Nathan gestured to the dead bodies. “But don’t think you’re doing me any favors by running.”

  The thought that he was the one with the muddle of problems made her laugh out loud, though she was quick to stop when her head throbbed. He frowned, casting a glance back to Isaac, but didn’t say a word, waiting for her to respond.

  “Why did you come looking for me? Why didn’t you let me go?”

  “Because I don’t want to see you dead.” Nathan held up his hand as she opened her mouth to protest. “Yes, I understand, Kirsten is the big bad boogie monster, and if you don’t leave, we’ll all die. She’s the worst human being ever on the planet. In twelve years of fighting the dregs of Los Angeles, I couldn’t have met a more profoundly evil person. Right, I get it. But you running off alone to be kidnapped and murdered is not going to make the situation better.”

  Her lips twitched and before she could stop it, Remy was smiling, bending to scoop the backpack from the ground. “I’ll give you the better off not dead part.” She closed the distance between them, stepping around the dead body and the blood still flowing from the man’s wounds. When she tilted her head back to look up at Nathan, her smile softened, and she was pretty sure her eyes reflected the burn in her gut at knowing he’d cared enough to come chasing after her so damn quick. “We’ve got to start being more selfish, I think.”