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Despite getting the warning, the sound continued to pierce my skull. Cringing, my head dropped between my shoulders, a frivolous and pointless attempt at getting away from my own demons. I went for my AirPods but barely made it to my pocket when I realized I wasn’t the only one affected by the alarm.
Wait. What?
My head shot up. People were wide-eyed and whipping their heads around like ghouls on Halloween. Chaos erupted even as the sirens continued to pierce the night.
Shit. Sirens.
I glanced at Kruger to see if he was hearing them too. Before I even made it to my bro, people started yelling.
“Cops!”
“It’s a raid!”
Several sets of gymnasium doors along the one side shuddered and boomed when they burst in. The wailing sirens turned even louder, drowning out the party music, and red and blue flashing lights competed with the fluorescent green.
“Run!” someone roared.
And then shit hit the fan.
2
Arsen
One minute, I was spinning some sick beats while checking out a fine piece of ass, and the next, the cops were busting up my good time.
Dickweeds.
People scattered like cockroaches beneath a bright light, stampeding all the exits as cops in black gear stormed inside. Adrenaline filled me with urgency and the instinct to flee, but instead of obeying my body’s demand, I stayed rooted on the platform and used the height to stare back into the disordered crowd. My eyes went right to the place he’d been tempting me with his sexy-as-fuck moves, but he was gone. Quickly, I scanned the surrounding area, but it was too chaotic to know where he’d gone.
A sharp whistle cut loose behind me, and I turned as Eli yanked his fingers from his lips and gestured for me to come on. I leaped off the stage, and my friend cuffed me on the shoulder, motioning for us to head for the closest door.
The place was emptying, but it was a slow process because people were crowding the exits and generally acting like bumbling, drunk idiots. So much for all the single-file lines we always had to form for emergency drills.
The cops used it to their advantage, grabbing people here and there to slam them onto their bellies on the grimy floor.
“This way!” I called to Eli, motioning in the opposite direction toward a door not many would know about. The only reason I did was because I’d used it to bring my equipment inside. Shit, my equipment.
I glanced to the stage, debating on going back. That shit was not cheap, and beyond that, I liked it. Grimacing, I watched two officers hop up on the platform. Never mind.
I turned back, noting a few canine units pushing through one of the doors. What the fuck?
“We got to go!” Eli lamented, his dark eyes widening as he took in the search dogs. Saying nothing, I pushed him ahead, and we took off in the direction away from the crowd. The old bleachers were all shoved up against the far wall, half folded in with a few busted sections still sticking out. The ceilings were high, the beams doing nothing to buffer any of the sounds that were just as loud over here because of the echo.
A set of double doors sat near one of the partially unfolded bleachers, which helped conceal its presence. “There!” I directed Eli, and a loose chain hanging off the handle banged against the door when he nearly fell into it.
“Go,” I demanded, glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one was after us as he threw his weight into it, half tumbling outside.
I started to follow, but movement out of the corner of my eye slowed my steps. Whipping my head around, I peered into the shadows beneath the bleachers. I picked him out instantly, his white T-shirt like a spotlight in the dark. His back was shoved against the wall, his shoulders hunched in, head bowed so low his chin touched his chest.
Worry slammed into me, making me forget I was supposed to be on the run. The chain on the door rattled, and Eli’s head appeared from the other side.
“Arsen! Get your ass out here!”
“Hey!” a deep voice yelled, accompanied by a shrill whistle.
The body beneath the bleachers cringed, trying to fold in on itself more.
“Stop right there!” the officer yelled as Eli bolted out into the dark.
