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Pulling in another deep breath, I wrap my hand firmly around the lever and pull down. A gust of air fills the trunk, but I don’t let go, I hold it tight and try to peek out. I can’t see much, but I can see it’s dark—that darkness partly because of the trees on either side of the car.
Heart pounding, I let the lever go and throw myself out of the trunk. The car’s not going fast, but I still fall hard, my body rolling across the rocky ground and my knees and hands scraping against the earth. When I see red from the brake lights bounce off the trees around me, I push myself up off the ground and start to run in the opposite direction of the car.
Suddenly, I scream when a car comes out of nowhere without headlights. My eyes meet those of a woman’s through the windshield, and her eyes widen, right before she jerks her car to the side and runs into a tree with a crunch. I watch her airbags deploy, filling the small interior of her car, then see the driver’s door open.
“What are you doing?” she screams, her face pale as a small trickle of blood runs down her forehead. “Run!” she wails, right before the sound of a gun going off fills the woods, bouncing off the trees surrounding us. I run toward her, grab her shaking hand, and pull her with me into the trees, hearing another shot, this one so close I feel bits of wood splinter off a tree.
“He has a gun,” I pant stupidly, fear filling my stomach as adrenalin rushes through my veins.
“I know.” She trips over a fallen tree and cries out, crashing to her knees. I help her up, dragging her with me. “I…” she starts, but I hear her breathing go strangled, like she can’t get any oxygen into her lungs. Hearing that, I know that even if I don’t want to, she needs me to slow down.
I look behind us and don’t see anything, just trees and darkness. I try to listen, but all I can hear is the sound of my heart pounding hard, sending blood rushing through my veins, and our heavy breathing. Seeing a large tree, I lead us there hoping it will provide enough cover for us to stop for a couple minutes. She falls against it when we reach it, her body doubling over, her breathing harsher than before. I scan the trees, my eyes searching for any sign of movement.
“Do you have a phone?” I whisper to her, and she jerks her head side to side. “Of course not.”
“C-cops,” she chokes out harshly.
“I know,” I whisper. “We need to get to a road and flag someone down.”
“No… I… I called. Coming.”
“You called them?” I ask, and she nods. “Do they know where we are?” She nods again, and relief fills me, but it only lasts a second. I hear a branch break close to where we are, too close to where we are. She hears it too; her head comes up and her already pale face loses color. Holding my finger to my lip, I watch her eyes widen.
“I hear you breathing,” we both hear at the same time, and my lungs get tight, my body locking at the sound of a deep voice—a voice I know. “There’s nowhere for you to run,” Dr. Hofstadter calls, and another branch breaks, this time even closer than before. “Do you really think I’d let you ruin my life?” Another branch breaks even closer. “Let your fucking boyfriend beat me up and not pay you back for that?”
We need to run. I just don’t know where to run to. Looking down at the woman, when her eyes meet mine, she must read my thoughts, because she nods. I motion to the side away from his voice, and her eyes close right before she nods, taking my hand I hold out to her.
Harlen
I slow down my bike and pull off on the side of the road behind two police cruisers that are parked blocking the entrance of a dirt road cut between the trees. I shut down my engine and listen to Wes, Everett, and Mic’s bikes shut off when mine does.
“Harlen?” an officer asks, as I prowl toward him, lifting my chin. “Cobi said you need to stay out here.”
“I bet he did.” I move past him and head for the road that he’s trying to block with his body. Unfortunately for him, he’s about a foot and sixty pounds smaller than me, making it easy for me to shoulder past him.
“You need to stay out here,” he repeats, grabbing my arm, and I tug from his hold, turn on him, and shove my finger in his face.
“You do not want to fucking touch me right now,” I growl, and he swallows, looking behind me, his body going even more alert seeing my boys at my back.
