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I shook my head. I couldn’t lose focus now. The first one got the upper hand, knocking the second one to the ground, but he wasn’t expecting the second one to cling to his clothes. They both landed hard and started wrestling with each other, and I knew if we were going to get out, it had to be now.
Staying as quiet as possible, I pulled Gabi farther down the alley. Once we were about halfway down, I spun us around and took off.
“Hey! Get back here!”
“Son of a bitch! I’ll fucking kill you!”
My heart pounded wildly in my ears as I ran as fast as I could. I had a death grip on Gabi’s hand and luckily, she seemed to be able to keep up with me alright. She only stumbled once, trying to look over her shoulder, but I pulled her along until we were spat out the other side.
There were way too many options on where to go next. The street we were on was small, with barely enough room for one car to go down. It meant the alleys across the street were that much closer, but they’d be able to figure out where we went. And we were in the middle of the block. Either direction left or right would take too long and they’d see us. I swung right and my eyes caught into something in an alley parallel to the one we had been in. Darting forward, I peeked inside and beckoned Gabi forward.
“Get in.”
ChapterThirty
Her mouth fell open,and she looked like she wanted to protest, but I could hear the curses of the men as they ran after us. We had maybe a few seconds. I laced my fingers and held them low to give her a boost. She grimaced and hustled over, hoisting herself into the dumpster. Once inside, she held out a hand and helped me in before reaching for the lid.
“No!” I hissed. “It’ll make it too obvious. Hide under the trash.”
She shot me a wide-eyed look, but I heard the men’s footsteps coming closer. Shoving her down, I covered her with bags of trash before burying myself next to her. It smelled awful, but it wasn’t something I was unfamiliar with.
“Fuck! Which way did they go?”
“How the hell should I know?”
“Just start looking! If the boss finds out we lost them, he’ll kill us!”
Their footsteps got closer and one of them growled, “Check the dumpster.” I felt the dumpster shift, like someone was leaning to look inside. “Anything?”
A few bags rustled, and I held my breath, but whoever was checking stepped back. “Nothing. They must’ve crossed the street.”
Their footsteps hurried off. When I felt Gabi shift, I reached through the trash bags until I found her arm, squeezing tightly.
“Not yet. It could be a trick,” I murmured.
“I think I’m going to throw up,” she whispered back. I grimaced. Putting a pregnant woman in a dumpster felt cruel, but it was the only thing I could think of. I used this method before, to hide from some scary drunks outside the club while I was waiting for Tiffany. I lost count of the number of times I had to hide myself to stay safe. I didn’t know how I would’ve handled it if I was pregnant too.
“It’s okay. Throw up if you need to. Just… quietly, okay?”
I heard her gag a few times. It sounded like she was muffling it behind her hands, but it wasn’t quiet enough. Not where people waiting wouldn’t have heard. I listened closely for a minute, just to be sure, before shifting the bags off me and peeking over the edge of the dumpster. The alley was clear and, from what I could tell, the men were nowhere in sight. Turning around, I pulled the trash bags off Gabi, offering her my hand.
“Come on. I think it’s safe.”
Just as I helped her to her feet, she lost the battle against throwing up. Spinning around, she threw up all over the bags that we’d hidden under. I held back her hair, giving her a minute to get it out of her system before urging her towards the opening.
“I don’t think I’m done yet,” she whimpered.
I nodded. “It’s the trash. The smell can get overwhelming. Gimme a minute. If I can find a magazine, I know what will help.”
She gagged a lot as we scrambled out. I got lucky that a little farther down the alley was a stack of magazines next to a recycling bin. I snatched one and flipped through it, feeling triumphant as I found the perfume insert. I offered it to her before looking for my own.
“I used to rub it on my face so I didn't smell anything else, but wrists work too. Just something you can smell when the stink gets too bad.”
She watched me as I rubbed the paper insert over my cheeks and wrists, then followed suit. Tentatively, she took a deep breath and sighed.
“Okay. It’s not perfect, but it took the edge off.” She patted her pockets and frowned. “I think I dropped my phone in the dumpster.” Glancing back at it, she grimaced. “I think I’ll just get a new one. We need to go that way, right?”
She pointed down the alley in the direction we came, but I hesitated.
