by Mia Knight
She walked outside and saw Blade standing at the top of the hill, looking out over the desert.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“Most of the safe houses are near cities where we can pick up supplies.” Blade jerked his head at the city lights. “How do you want to do this?”
Lyla blinked. Blade was asking for her advice? “What?”
“I’m not going to leave you here if you’re not comfortable.”
She wasn’t ‘comfortable’ with any of this, but they had no choice.
“I need you all to stay calm. My instinct says you should be safe here. I need to go to the city to call Gavin. He needs to know where we are. We could have gone to several safe houses and this is one of the oldest.” Blade glanced back at the house. “I would take Pat with me, but he doesn’t have extra clothes and I can’t afford to have him draw attention since he’s covered in blood. Can you handle him?”
“Yes. Carmen will stay with me.”
“I’ll take Beau so he won’t distract you if your dad acts up.”
Blade whistled and Beau came out on the front porch. When Blade opened the door, Beau hopped into the passenger seat. Lyla fetched the bag of ammo she brought along and slung it over one shoulder. She and Blade faced one another.
“Thanks for getting us out of there,” she said.
“It’s my job to keep you safe.”
Lyla went with her gut and wrapped her arms around him. Life was too fucking short. She was exhausted, terrified and hovered on the verge of despair and heartbreak. Blade was one of her people and she wanted him to know that. Blade didn’t hug her back. He felt like a marble statue. That didn’t stop her from giving him a hard squeeze before she drew away.
“Tell Gavin that I’m going to kick his ass when I see him again.” She would do worse than that if she survived.
Blade glanced at the bag slung over her shoulder. “Are you sure you can handle Pat?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Blade got into the car. She caught a glimpse of Beau’s doggy face as Blade drove away. Blade was indestructible like Gavin and her biggest defense... and he was leaving them to make contact with Gavin. She took her phone for granted. She also took Gavin for granted and now... Now everything was up in the air. She had no idea if her mother was dead or alive, the fate of the guards at her home was or what horrors the sunrise would bring. Her life had become a series of tragedies and trials. Where was her happily ever after?
“Lyla?”
She turned to see her father on the steps. “Yeah?”
“Where’s Blade?”
“He went into the city to make contact with Gavin.”
“He left us here?” he shouted.
Lyla tightened her hold on the bag of bullets. She wasn’t in the mood for her father’s belligerent attitude, which returned as soon as Blade left. Her father’s face went purple with rage. After looking into the masked eyes of a killer and facing certain death numerous times, her father’s tantrums were a walk in the park. She eyed him objectively as he huffed and puffed as if he had the ability to turn into the Hulk.
“Where is your husband?” he demanded as if he had every right to know.
Lyla walked up the steps and had every intention of ignoring him until he grabbed her arm and jerked her to a halt.
“Where is he?”
Lyla wrenched her arm out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me.”
“So he’s back to his old tricks, huh?” He sneered. “He gets you pregnant and then takes off and lets you deal with his mess?”
“You don’t know anything about my life. Shut up and stay put.”
Lyla walked into the house. Carmen was trying to entertain Nora who was awake and extremely fussy.
“Blade went into the city to call Gavin,” Lyla reported as she sat on the edge of the bed and took Nora and began to breastfeed again.
Carmen stretched out with her head pillowed on her arm. “Smart.”
“So it’s just us for now.”
All her training was to prepare her for this moment—a moment she never thought would come again. The fact that she had company made things worse, somehow, because there was more at stake than just her. Carmen and Nora were here and they were integral to her life. If she lost either of them... Where the fuck was Gavin? If he was in Maine—
“This is awful,” Carmen said.
Lyla focused on her. “What do you mean?”
Carmen tugged the blanket around her. “The waiting to see what happens next.”
Lyla brushed her finger over Nora’s cheek and was relieved to find it warm to the touch. “It’s a game to him.”
“Sick fucker. What’s the most painful way to die? That’s how he should go.”
She thought of her mother and squeezed her eyes shut as a flood of emotion filled her. Why take her mother? What did he want with her?
“Lyla, she’s going to be okay.”
Her vision was blurry when she opened her eyes. She blinked rapidly.
“She’ll pull through, just like you did,” Carmen said.
Lyla blew out a shaky breath. “I hope so.”
The sound of rapid footsteps made her stand. She looked through the open doorway at her father who walked from one end of the room to another, twisting his hands together and muttering to himself. Of course, he didn’t bother to keep guard. He was probably thinking of more shit to heap on her shoulders. She settled on the edge of the bed and saw Carmen’s eyes flutter shut as exhaustion took her.
Lyla sat quietly and tried to calm her whirling, chaotic thoughts. When Nora drifted off, Lyla set her beside Carmen who tucked her close. Lyla cleaned up in the bathroom and splashed her face once more. She was so weary, she felt sick, but she couldn’t rest until Blade came back. What if Blade couldn’t get in touch with Gavin?
When she exited the bathroom, her father’s muttering seemed even more frenzied. He didn’t seem to be aware of her presence. Was he finally reacting to mom’s kidnapping? She tried to catch what he was saying, but it was too low and jumbled for her to understand.
Lyla cracked open the front door and listened. There was absolutely no sound aside from her father’s faint footfalls. She held her gun at her side as she walked out on the porch and then down the steps. She had another gun in her bag. She thought of tucking both into her leggings, but that was stupid. Maybe she should get a belt with a double gun holster. She would look like a woman from the Wild West with a gun on each hip. That’s how she felt—as if she was part of a world where there were no rules and no safe place. In the underworld, one could never be too prepared.
The faint glow of the city was a beacon in the distance. The desert stretched out before them, covered in cacti, shrubs and trees. There was no road, which would make Blade’s progress slow and arduous. She wrapped her arms around herself as the cold penetrated. She closed her eyes and focused on calming her breathing. She was alive and Nora was safe. She couldn’t do anything for her mother at the moment. All she could do was stand here and wait for something to happen. Her fighter instincts were elevated. Even when her hand went numb, she refused to tuck the gun away. Everything in her screamed out a warning. Sadist was always one step ahead. How many times would she escape before she ran out of luck?
When her face was numb from the cold and there was no sign of a car, she walked into the cabin, which was only fractionally warmer. She walked into the kitchen and was debating whether to drink from the tap when she realized that her father wasn’t in the living room. The bathroom was empty and the bedroom door was partially closed. Lyla swung it open and had a split second to take in the scene. Her father stood over a sleeping Carmen and Nora. The bag of ammo was open and her father had her second gun in his hand.
A loud blast ripped through the room, startling Carmen and Nora awake. Lyla wasn’t aware of the fact that she still held her gun or that she pulled the trigger. Her father’s body jerked like a puppet on a strin
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Lyla
“Lyla, what—?” Carmen sat up, eyes wide with horror.
Lyla braced herself against the doorjamb as her legs trembled. She just shot her father who would have killed his granddaughter in cold blood.
“Lyla?”
Carmen’s voice roused her from her horrified stupor. Carmen stood on the opposite side of the bed, Nora clasped to her chest, face ghost white.
“Get her out of here,” Lyla whispered.
“What happened? Why would he—?”
“Carmen, go.”
Her mind was a blank slate of rage and denial. She vowed that Nora wouldn’t be exposed to this lifestyle, yet her grandfather had been shot less than a foot from her at four months old. She had questions for him and she couldn’t do it with Carmen and Nora present.
Carmen’s eyes locked on hers before she nodded abruptly and left with Nora. The sound of Nora’s screams faded as Carmen moved into the kitchen, leaving Lyla with her father. Lyla forced herself to move forward until she stood in front of Pat who pressed a hand to the wound in the middle of his chest. The bullet went clean through.
“Why?” she whispered.
“I had to,” he said through clenched teeth.
“You had to kill your granddaughter?”
Lyla felt as if she were having an out of body experience. Surely, this wasn’t real. Maybe she was having a waking nightmare. She watched blood gush through his fingers with detached fascination.
“Tell me why,” Lyla whispered.
He glared at her. “Fuck you, Lyla.”
His phone flashed in the pocket of his bloody pajamas, catching her attention. Even as her father tried to reach for it, she knocked his hand away and held it up.
A text from a blocked number flashed across the screen: Fifteen minutes out.
His phone had service. Lyla stared at her father as everything coalesced in her mind and the blood in her veins turned to ice. “You’re working with him?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he puffed.
Something erupted inside of her. Lyla kicked her father right over his bullet wound. He fell flat on his back with a tortured yell she didn’t hear over the roaring in her head. The taste of betrayal permeated her mouth. She raised the gun as she stood over him.
“Tell me the truth about mom.” When he didn’t answer fast enough, she pulled the trigger. He writhed beneath her, clearly in agony, but she felt nothing. “Talk.” She didn’t have time.
Fifteen minutes.
“They have her.”
“Why should I believe you?”
Although his eyes were dilated with pain, hatred gave him the strength to spit, “They raped her in front of me. One right after the other.”
The hand holding the gun wavered. She felt as if she had been kicked in the stomach.
“They told me if I wanted to see my wife again that I would go to your house.” His body shook as if he were receiving tiny electrical shocks. “It was supposed to end there. They didn’t know there was an escape route. There’s a bug in my phone that disrupts electronics, which is why the phones don’t have service.”
“You should have told me this from the beginning! We could have done something.”
Her father’s sneer was a weak imitation of his normal disdain. “Why? You think Gavin can solve this? He can’t. His shit has leaked into my life and now your mom... Now she’s...”
“Why kill Nora?” she asked, but there was no reply. He was gone.
Lyla jumped when the phone chimed, a reminder of the unread text. She tapped the text message and pulled up the exchange of messages from the blocked number.
We’re tracking you. Any sign of Pyre?
No, her father replied.
Where are they traveling to?
A safe house in Arizona.
Are they able to use their phones?
No.
There was a long lag and then her father said, Blade left to go to the city.
Good. Save us time. Take care of the brat. Don’t kill your daughter. He wants her.
There were no more messages from her father.
Fifteen minutes out.
Lyla swallowed bile and knelt beside the bag of ammo in the corner. She grabbed her second gun and stuffed bullets and magazines into her pockets. She didn’t look at her father as she walked out of the bedroom. Carmen was in the kitchen with Nora strapped to her chest.
“Lyla?”
“They’re on their way.” She stared at her daughter who cried pitifully. Like them, Nora was overtired, scared and confused. They were in the middle of nowhere with no backup and Sadist’s men on the way. Terror threatened to obliterate her icy composure. This was it. She could feel the walls closing in around them.
“Sadist?” Carmen whispered his name. “He’s coming?”
Lyla held up the phone. “They’ve been tracking us.”
“Is Uncle Pat...?”
“He’s dead.” The words fell from numb lips. “We have to get out of here.”
“And go where?”
“We can’t be in the house when they get here. We have to make a run for it.”
Carmen opened her mouth to argue and then closed it. “Okay.”
They ran onto the porch and down the steps. Lyla cautiously approached the incline and searches the desert landscape. She didn’t see any headlights or hear the sound of an approaching vehicle, but she knew they were out there. Fifteen minutes. Fuck.
Lyla rounded the house and started after Carmen and Nora. The canyon loomed around them, protecting and trapping them. Was there a way through? A cave they could hide in? They wove around cactus that towered six feet high, waist high shrubs and creepy looking trees without canopies. There were scorpions, snakes and God knew what else out here, but they had no choice. The moon cast enough light for them to avoid being impaled by the spines of the overgrown, wild cactus.
Lyla skidded to a halt as the phone vibrated in her pocket.
Why are you on the move?
Lyla held the phone away from her as if it turned into a snake. How could she be so stupid? Of course they were tracking the phone. Her first instinct was to toss it as far as she could. The other part of her knew that the key to finding her mother and possibly the identity of Sadist was in this piece of evidence.
“Hold up,” Lyla called. “I’m going to call Blade.”
“Run and call him!” Carmen retorted.
“They’re tracking the phone.”
Carmen stopped in her tracks. “Call him and toss it, Lyla.”
Lyla dialed Blade’s number and promised she would thank him for forcing her to memorize it. Her heart thudded in her ears as the phone began to ring. She glanced back the way they had come and was surprised at how much ground they covered, but they were nowhere near the base of the canyon, their only hope for cover. Just when she was afraid that the call would go to voicemail, he picked up.
“Who is this?”
“Blade, it’s me.” Lyla clutched the phone with both hands.
“Lyla? Whose phone is this?”
Her throat closed up.
“Lyla?”
“He’s dead.”
“What? Who?”
“My dad. I shot him. He was going to kill Nora.”
“Fuck.”
“You need to come back, Blade. They’re coming. They should be here any minute. My dad’s phone was interfering with the signal. They’ve been tracking us the whole time.”
“Get out of the house.”
“I am. We’re heading toward the canyon.”
“I spoke to Gavin. He’s in New York. I’m on my way back.”
The ice in her veins spread to her heart. Gavin was miles away. By the time he got here it would all be over. She was truly alone with Carmen and her daughter in the middle of nowhere with a team of trained killers about to arrive any minute.
“He said they gang raped my mom in front of him.”
The words burst out of her mouth before she realized she was going to say anything. She ignored Carmen’s horrified gasp.
“He has her, Blade, and he wants me too. They told my dad to kill Nora and take me.”
“Lyla, run.”
“What about mom?”
“Lyla, you’re my first priority. You find a place to hide and I’ll find you.”
“But the phone—”
“Get rid of it. Hide. Stay alive until I get there.”
Blade hung up. Lyla stared at the screen as another text appeared: Did you take care of the kid?
Lyla gripped the phone so hard, she was surprised it didn’t shatter in her grasp. Lyla turned off the phone, put it in her pocket and stared at the edge of the ridge.
“Come on, Lyla,” Carmen said, her voice sharp and urgent.
“Go, Carmen.”
Carmen stomped back to her with a mewling Nora. “What the hell are you doing? Lyla, we’re sitting ducks out here.”
“We should split up. They’re going to find Pat’s body and realize we’re on foot. They won’t kill me, but they have orders to kill both of you. You have to go, Carmen.”
“Lyla, don’t do this to me.”
“Carmen, promise me you’ll take care of her.”
“Lyla, no.”
“Promise me!”
Carmen grabbed her arm and tried to pull her along. “We’re going to stay together!”
Lyla twisted out of Carmen’s hold and pressed kisses over her daughter’s face. Nora wailed pitifully and gripped Lyla’s clothing. The placid remoteness that allowed her to think began to fracture as she gently unfurled Nora’s tiny fingers and stepped back.
“Go, Carmen.”
“I’m not going without you!”
“They’re going to find us quick, especially with Nora crying,” she said above her daughter’s howls.
Carmen’s terror was easy to read even in the dim light.
“You run and don’t stop, Carmen.”
“Please,” Carmen whispered, shaking her head as tears streamed down her face. “Please don’t leave me.”
-->
