The silence took over once again, and every passing second seemed to have the sound of my pulse grow louder and louder until it was like the ticking hand of a clock, reminding me how much time was passing. Deeks seemed to realize how deep I was receding into my own head and sighed, moving quietly to me before crouching in front of me, his voice barely a whisper, but comforting nonetheless.
“You listen to me, Ayda. We’re gonna be just fine, y’hear? I need you to stay low and move fast and quiet. Get dressed and grab your shoes. When the time comes, we’re gonna be running like Hell’s on our heels.”
He tapped my knee and nodded to the door, his body practically crawling into the middle of the hall as he listenedand waved me through. I did as he asked, rushing into my room and grappling around in the dark for what I needed. I dressed quickly with my running shoes on as I pulled my hair up into a tight bun at the nape of my neck. When I resurfaced, I was gripping a baseball bat.
“The hell you gonna do with that?” I swung it and Deeks shook his head, almost in humor. “Put it down.”
He reached for it and had barely propped it against the wall when there was a scratching below us. One of the men outside had obviously managed to get into the crawl space under the house. The small piece of courage I’d found bled from me as I stared down at the hardwood floor in consternation. That was what the scratching had been. They’d been pulling away the siding to get under the house. It was probably the most vulnerable part of the structure.
“Ayda? You ready to run?” Deeks whispered.
“Now?”
He nodded and offered me a hand, which I took gratefully. He led us both into the bathroom and looked out. Apparently the guy outside the window was the one that had been nominated to go under the house, and the only reason I could see anyone going there would be to get to the gas line. Maybe that was why Deeks had chosen the room as a hideout for us.
Pulling the string of the blinds as quietly as he could, he unlocked the window and worked it open. He made several hand gestures in my direction and as much as I paid attention, half of it seemed to get lost in the flashing spots that had taken over my vision. I nodded anyway, the gist of it being he was going first, but the moment his feet hit, they’d hear him and I needed to get out and just jump because he’d catch me. At least that’s what I deducted.
I knew I wasn’t ready for this; maybe I never would be, but I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. I was neck deep in shit and the only way out of it was to put on my big girl panties and face it like only a woman could. Deeks was already halfway out of the window, when I heard the window smash behind me.
We were out of time.
“Dude, I’m still fucking under here!” someone shouted from under the house. The sound was muffled, but I could make out the words clearly enough.
Then all hell broke loose.
I heard the growl of the flames before I smelled the smoke, and I’d barely looked over my shoulder when I saw the orange glow in the hall light up the whole house. Someone hollered and whistled on the other side beyond the flames, thankfully drowning out the sound of Deeks hitting the ground. Whether by design or accident, it masked the sound of his landing. I didn’t have time for any goodbyes to the memories that filled those four walls around me, and I had no time to mourn. I had to escape. If the gas line had been cut, the whole thing was going to go up in a ball of flames.
Swinging my body over the ledge of the window, the shout of alarm came mid-leap. As promised, Deeks caught me and gave me no time to catch my breath. His hand was in mine, pulling me across the yard in an all out sprint. I stumbled only once when I looked back to see the flames eating at the white painted house. The orange licked out of the windows as it claimed the last twenty-five years of my life, and every memory we had of our parents, in its gnarled and twisting grip.
“Ayda.”
Deeks didn’t need to say more than that. He had my full attention. My feet pounded the earth as I moved myself as fast as I could, hoping it was enough to get away. The sound of an engine came from the back of the field. The growl of the V8 and the kick of the dust washed over us as it slid ahead and fishtailed, before the brake lights lit up the night like it was fucking Christmas. The dark van was only visible because of the fire’s reflection, and the sudden wash of light as the back doors flew open revealed Tate hanging out, his arm wrapped around a rope as the other grabbed at Deeks.
Deeks didn’t blink. He pushed his legs harder, grabbed Tate’s hand and made a jump I didn’t think someone his size was capable of. He landed hard on his back, but didn’t stay down long before he was on his knees, one hand holding a rail at the back of the van, the other mirroring Tate’s and reaching out for me.
I’d never been much of a runner, but when your life was on the line and you felt the devil on your heels, you somehow managed to dig into the very depths of you and find a strength you didn’t know you had. I found mine when my eyes met Tate’s and I saw what it would cost him if I didn’t try. I’d promised him after our parents died that I wasn’t going anywhere, and I meant it as much then as I did now.
The growl that came from my lips pushed me the distance, my arms stretching as far ahead of me as they could as I felt myself speed up to the point that I wasn’t sure I could keep it up much longer. My fingers met Tate’s first, locking in as Deeks grabbed my wrist. Both of them pulled at the same time, and for a moment, I felt like I was flying as my feet left the ground and I was propelled into the van, rolling and hitting the back of the passenger’s seat with a grunt. Elegant, it wasnot, but it got me where I needed to be.
I didn’t bother doing a mental inventory, mainly because it didn’t matter and it wouldn’t make any difference. If I had a limb snapped into two, I couldn’t feel it through the adrenaline that had me bouncing between the seats and slipping into the one next to Kenny as we jolted over empty fields, the hissing of tall grass hitting the bottom of the van making the scene all the more eerie.
“Shut the fucking—” A gunshot cut off the command to close the door, but it was done anyway, the sound of bodies hitting the side of the van as Kenny swerved a hard right to avoid a tree stump. The bullets sounded too close.
“Tate? Deeks?”
“Good,” Tate shouted back. “Deeks is good, too. He’s drinking from his flask so he can’t answer.”
“Thanks, kid.”
“What? I—Shit! We have company.”
The silence after the flurry of expletives was almost deafening, making it easy to hear the roar of the motorcycle gaining on us. Kenny swerved, left and then right, breaking through a fence and onto the main road, the tires screaming and the van almost tipping as he straightened us out on the blacktop. I could barely breathe as it was, but I knew we were fucked when the bike opened up and shot forward, slowing only when it was level with my window. Kenny was trying to pull me out of the seat and shove me into the back and I would have let him if I hadn’t met the eyes of the biker beside me.
Drew looked homicidal. His jaw was locked in place, his scowl enough to make Kenny swear under his breath. He gave me a look, asking if I was okay, and all I could do was nod in return, still unsure if it was the truth because the ringing in myears and rush of my blood were blotting out everything around me. The only thing I knew with any clarity in that moment was the safety I felt with Drew’s presence.
His bike roared to life again and he pulled ahead, sliding easily in front of the van like the leader he was born to be.
Chapter Forty-Six
