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When I’ve made it another full block, I chance a peek over my shoulder. That’s a mistake. He’s still watching me and, in those few seconds, I give him a full look right at my face.
The lights flash, the air torn apart by the keening sounds of the siren as he flips it on.
I take off like a shot.
If it were any other street in Acorn Falls, he’d have had me. We’re still on the main street, Oak Tree Road, so the advantage is mine. It’s how it’s set up. This part of the town is like a little village inside of a bigger city. Shops are built on top of shops, the wide glass windows open and inviting. Very few side streets veer off of Oak Tree, just little breaks in the road to allow people to access the back.
People, not cars.
What are my odds? I didn’t get that great of a peek at the cop, but he seemed like a big guy. His hair was thinning and I’m pretty sure I saw some grey; he’s older.
Come on, Riley. Think!
Would he be willing to get out of his car and chase me on foot?
I’m gonna find out.
I dart down the first opening I find, letting out a frustrated grunt when I come face to face with a five-foot-high, chainlink fence complete with a thick, metal padlock. I know why it’s here. It’s supposed to keep cars from trying to squeeze in between the shops to get to the alleyway behind it.
I can’t let it stop me.
Jeez. I haven’t done anything like this since I was fifteen. Sticking my battered, bruised, and bleeding bare foot into one of the holes in the fence, I grimace as the twisted iron bites into my instep before doing the same thing with the other one. I grit my teeth and climb.
Once I get to the top, I toss my body over the side. In my panic, I don’t shimmy down the fence the same way I went up it. Forgetting that I’m high up in the air, I hop the fence and land hard on the asphalt below me.
I don’t hear a snap or a crack when I hit, but my right ankles gives, then both of my knees buckle. I don’t collapse in a heap or anything, but I barely stay standing. A sharp, shooting pain screams up and down my right leg before it immediately turns dull.
I hope like hell I haven’t broken anything. It’ll definitely make my reckless running away a bit more difficult if I have.
Shuddering out a breath, my brain whirs with a hundred different possibilities. What am I supposed to do?
I hear the sirens whine. They’re getting closer. I might’ve been able to outrun him at first—and I was right, he didn’t get out of his cop car—but this is his beat. He knows this town way better than I do. I haven’t been back since I was fifteen and, even then, I only lived here for two years.
It doesn’t matter if he stays on the other side of the fence. The air echoes with the sound of another siren. The alley I’m trapped in is open on this side. For all I know, he’s sent out a call for help and he’s got his buddy from the radio coming for me.
This alley is wider than the narrow path that led to the fence. It’s designed for delivery trucks to reach the back doors of the businesses that line up along Oak Tree Road. If another cop car spots me, it’ll have no problem reaching me.
But not if I’m not here for them to find.
There’s a manhole a couple of feet away from the shadow of the fence. Luckily for me, the lid’s not sitting where it should. Maybe the town was doing work recently on this side street and they forget to reset it. Doesn’t matter. It’s my only hope.
I hobble toward it, sizing up the gap. There’s probably enough space for me to slip inside of it if I really try. And it’s not like the cop chasing me will ever expect me to do that.
No one in their right mind would choose to go into a sewer.
Despite my stay at Black Pine, I’m not crazy. I’m not broken, either.
What I am is desperate.
The Fae Queen wants me dead. Rys wants me for his mate.
Nine wants to repay his stupid debt.
What do I want?
I don’t know, but getting picked up by the Acorn Falls PD isn’t high up there on my list. So down the manhole I go.
It’s a tight fit. Tighter than when I forced my way inside of the Richardsons’ mausoleum. But I want this more, and my leg hurts even worse than my tender feet. I can’t run. My only choice is to hide.
