Lila’s face went pale as she listened and nodded along. She turned her back to Sawyer and finished the call in the living room.
“Everything alright?” Sawyer asked. His own phone beeped, and he checked his texts. “Shit,” he said, reading Rusty’s message.
“Word travels fast,” Lila said, from her seat on the couch.
“Rusty says an intruder broke into your parents’ home,” Sawyer said. “Looks like no one was there.”
“The dogs and the alarm scared him off. I told you, they work.”
“Intruders who are fast enough and armed don’t care about alarms or guns,” Sawyer corrected. “He left because your parents weren’t home.”
His phone pinged with another text from Rusty, this time, a grainy photo from the Morgan’s security footage of the intruder. His face was masked, but spikes of brown hair poked out. “Hard to see anything, but have you ever noticed a guy like this?” Sawyer held up the phone for Lila to see.
“He could be anyone,” Lila squinted at the screen. “I can’t see his face.”
“This was about forty minutes ago,” Sawyer said. “We’re going to need to get you – ” he couldn’t finish his sentence before noticing a red dot on Lila’s chest and quickly diving at her as a bullet blew through the window glass. Sawyer landed on top of Lila as she screamed, pinning her to the carpet. A cushion on the living room’s love seat exploded in tufts of cotton. Hans barked from the doorway.
Lila’s hands were clasped over her face. Shattered glass lay across the room. Sawyer braced himself over Lila, as he craned his neck to see where the shot came from. It had to be the roof across the street, but there was no one visible.
“Listen to me,” he said, pulling her hand away from her head. “We’re going to crawl toward the door and out of the apartment. Understand? Do not sit up. Do not get out from beneath me. Move.” He flipped her over onto her belly and helped lurch her forward. He could feel her body moving beneath his and the faint scent of jasmine flowers in the perfume she’d sprayed behind her ears. He wished he could get her in this position without bullets flying at them.
Get a grip, buddy. Now is not the time.
“Get to the door,” he said. “We need to get into the hall.”
Lila’s body trembled under his. “I can’t move.”
“You have to.” Sawyer wrapped his arm under her waist and dragged her toward the living room until Lila was able to uncurl her arms and use them to crawl.
“Hans,” she said, as they neared the hall door.
“I’ll get him. You still have your phone?”
Lila nodded.
“Give it to me.”
“Why?”
“Just do it,” Sawyer said.
Lila slipped it out of her pocket and handed it to him. Sawyer tossed it across the room.
“Might be traced,” he said. “Go out.”
Sawyer jumped up and threw open the front door, then lifted Lila onto her feet and tossed her out into the windowless hall. He grabbed a leash off the table by the door and called to the dog, who bounded after Lila. He slammed the door closed behind them.
“What now?”
Sawyer shoved Hans’s leash into her hands without a word and gripped her elbow. He tugged her down the hall towards a brightly marked stairwell. He called Rusty with his free hand, as they jogged down the service stairs.
“Sniper at the apartment,” he said. “Shot through the window. Yeah. No, missed. No. Yeah. Ok.” He hung up and shoved the phone in his back pocket. “We’re grabbing a cab and going to a safe house. We’ll have to take a few in case someone’s following.” They reached the ground floor and he stopped abruptly, turning Lila to face him.
“The police are on their way. Rusty is in contact with them. You need to get out of here, preferably unseen. Take a deep breath. You need to look like we’re leaving just to walk the dog. Understand? We’ll go out the back, round the block, and hail a cab. Ok?”
Lila nodded.
“Smile,” he said.
“What?”
“You look like you just got shot at,” he said. “You gotta be used to fake smiling. Do it now.” He pushed the door open and led her out into the lobby, ducking through a back door toward the building’s sales and leasing office, and the back-alley entrance.
Lila didn’t argue as she followed, Hans trotting along beside. Sawyer liked telling her what to do. She could probably be a lot of fun if she let her guard down, but now wasn’t the time to think about that. He scanned the adjacent buildings and roofs before hailing a cab. A car pulled over and he opened the door, ushering Lila and Hans into the backseat.
“Alright?” he asked, sliding in next to Hans.
Lila nodded. “But I don’t have my purse,” she said. “I don’t have any money.”
“It’s fine,” Sawyer said, passing a credit card up to the driver. “I’ve got everything under control.”
