AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I had to let him go…
“I’ll consider it,” Mr. X voice snapped me back to the restaurant. “Have fun, kids!” Before I could find my voice, he was on his feet.
“Mr. X where are—”
He slapped a credit card on the table, muttering something to Alex before rushing toward the entrance.
“Damn!” I stared after him, then my eyes darted to Alex. “Are they out?”
His face was grim. “No.”
The one word was enough to shatter my world. They had to be. There was no more time.
“He left you here with me,” Alex said it as if that alone was the worst crime, and it took a moment until I understood. He would never allow me to leave the mansion without an entourage of guards unless he was there himself. He left me here. Unattended. Sure Alex was here, but… my eyes widened in surprise. “He trusts me.” I thought out loud. “He believes I won’t run.”
Alex narrowed his eyes. “If you do—”
“I won’t!” I cried out. I meant it. I wouldn’t. Mr. X believed me when I said I had nowhere to go. He didn’t know I knew Marc was alive, but it didn’t change anything.
A ding had Alex whip out his phone, and the relief on his face made me sag in my chair. They were out. We did it. We— “What?” my voice was hesitant. So was the look on Alex’s face. The relief turned to dread, gripping my belly so tight it hurt. I swallowed the lump rising in my throat and waited for him to say it. When he didn’t speak, but just kept on looking at me, something in me snapped. “Just say it!” My shrill voice turned heads of several couples seated near us.
“He had to leave your guy. He couldn’t make it.”
I heard the words but refused to understand. This was not how we planned it. It couldn’t be real. What Alex was saying…
My eyes filled with tears, and I quickly blinked them away. We already had an audience. I couldn’t cry here, but it was so hard not to, when all I could see before me was Marc back in that horrible cell, and Mr. X finding him. He’d kill him for trying to escape. He’d definitely kill him and there was nothing I could do to help him. I failed.
“Let me see.” Before Alex had time to react, I snatched his cell off the table and read the latest text.
‘He didn’t make it. Left alone.’
It was written in black and white.Still, accepting it was impossible.He didn’t make it.My eyes burned, but I refused to cry.
My gaze slid to Alex, and something inside me hardened. “If he dies, I won’t hold up my end of the deal.”
He let out a slow breath. To calm himself? To keep from exploding on me and making a scene?
“You have no choice but to stay with me,” he hissed, “You have no one else.” The threat in his voice was as clear as the pain gripping my heart. He was right. I had no one. I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing myself to stay strong.
Then I opened them, fixing them on Alex. “I’d rather take my chances alone than stay with you.”
The idiot who broke me out was long gone. He fled the moment he believed I was down for the count. I couldn’t blame him. But did I need his help? More than I ever needed anyone before, and it fucking sucked to admit it, even to myself.
If I could make it off the ground without blacking out, I’d be surprised. I could barely focus, and the mere thought of moving terrified me. If I stayed still, I was able to breathe, to see a way out of the pain. But I couldn’t fucking lie here.
A screech of car tires from the other side of the wall reached me. Then a door slammed shut, and Mr. X’s voice shouted to what I could only assume were guards he summoned at arrival.
My pulse skyrocketed, sending blood to my muscles in strong bursts that increased the throbbing. It took all I had to roll off my injured side. Gasping for air, I struggled to my feet, stumbled, and nearly fell again as I forced myself to stay in motion. Cradling the broken arm to my stomach, I ran. The ground blurred in front of me, swayed and rolled under my feet as I pushed forward. I swallowed down vomit, choking on it. My eyes watered from the strain. My breaths were fleeting, out of reach and hard to catch. And my heart. My fucking heart was pounding holes in my chest. It hurt. It fucking hurt. Black dots danced before my eyes, and for a microsecond everything stilled. Then it came rushing back.
Fuck. I was too close to losing it. If I fell now, I’d never be able to get up. Voices shouted in the distance, sudden lights bathing the area around the house in bright white.
Driven by an unquenchable need to live, I ran. Fueled by adrenalin and the last reserves of power I could muster; I increase the distance between me and the estate.
I ran until I couldn’t breathe, and then more. Through bushes and fields, crossing roads and clusters of trees slowing me down. I ran until my legs gave out, and the uneven ground under my feet turned into asphalt. I felt myself fall in slow motion, the hard ground rising to meet me.
A blaring sound echoed in my head, and the unmistakable noise of a car skidding to a halt followed. I hit the ground, and before I could scream, I was out.
*
