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Realization dawned on me as I involuntarily drew breath. Hansen was here with Agent Larkin.
He must have heard me. He stopped moving a few feet to my left.
“Evans?”
Yup, that was him.
Get the fuck out of my head.
I couldn’t deal with this. I got up on my feet and bolted for the now open door to my right, banking on him not shooting me, either. I heard him shouting my name after me, but didn’t hesitate. I had no control of where Agent Larkin was, so I simply headed toward the river. I sprinted as fast as I could, managing to avoid stumbling over the various clutter on the ground. How was I supposed to follow orders and handle a cop who was already working with my enemy?
I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn’t turn to check if it was only Hansen or the both of them. I kept running, heading straight for the river. The footsteps behind me slowed a bit. He probably thought the river would stop me as a natural barrier.
Wrong.
I had been here before a few years ago. I knew exactly what to do. I pushed on, keeping up the speed, and when close enough, I dove. I soared through the air a moment, actually smiling at the sensation, hearing him yelling my name somewhere behind me.
I hit the water with a shallow dive, not wishing to break my neck. The water was deep, but not deep enough to go straight down with your head first. The cold water hit me like a punch to my whole body, but despite it being early fall, I knew it wouldn’t kill me. I remained under the surface, the stream already moving me as I kicked my shoes off, making swimming easier. I kept myself under the surface as long as possible. The good thing about rivers is there’s only one direction to go if you let the water take charge. In this case, that was down toward the town center and eventually the bay.
I broke the surface and drew breath, the cold embracing me like a horny drunk. Still, as I floated on my back a moment, and looked back toward Gary’s lot, I saw a figure standing on the river bank.
Get out of my head. Get out.
Shit.I had made him hate me. The worst part was that I didn’t really blame him. I forced myself to think of something else, and started swimming both to keep moving so as to avoid freezing and to get away faster. Well, I thought as I was taken into town anyway, Tegan was getting a house guest tonight.
Chapter 3
I awoke in dry clothes,feeling warm and comfortable the next morning, a crunching sound being the culprit in disturbing my slumber. I looked up, eyes heavy with sleep, and saw Tegan at the kitchen counter staring at me with a no-good smile on her lips, happily chewing cereal.
“You had a sex dream,” she proclaimed and had another spoonful.
“What?” I stuttered, grasping for a dream that was out of my reach as consciousness claimed my attention.
“Dude,” she said, pointing at me with her spoon. “You totally had a sex dream.”
“Stop saying that,” I mumbled, starting to realize what she was implying. I rubbed my eyes a moment, also realizing Gerard and Annalise had been right. I’d slept heavily the night through, and the food last night had done me good. Despite feeling like I could sleep the whole day, I actually felt better than yesterday.
“So?” Tegan pressed as I sat up on her couch, blankets all around me. “Who was it about?”
“Gary,” I said, glad she’d asked. That meant I hadn’t mentioned names in my dream.
Tegan snorted. “Fine. Don’t tell me. Anyway…what do you think?” She indicated her hair, which was bright red. I was sure it had been its usual black last night.
“You did that now? How long have I been asleep?”
“It’s almost noon. You’ve been sleeping like a rock, until the end there.” She gave a knowing smirk at that.
“Yes, thank you,” I said, and looked at her hair again. The red was too bright to be natural, but with the curls and waves of her bangs, it looked stylish, as it always did with her. She had a light blue dress on, slim waist, and big skirts. Eye make-up heavy and lipstick bright red. “You’re unusually dolled up today,” I said.
She shrugged. “I have a date after work. And I have a later shift. No time to go home in-between.”
Lucky her. I had apparently dreamed of the guy who’d been chasing me with a gun.
Way to look out for warning signs, Margaret.
I sighed and got up from the couch, joining her in the kitchen corner of her apartment. “It looks nice,” I said. “It’s very you.”
She smiled happily, knowing I meant it, despite us looking like complete opposites every day. Diving into rivers and the likes didn’t make it easy to wear anything especially pretty.
