Chapter Thirteen – Chelsea
There was heat in the air that day, as though the universe was trying to warn me of something.
As I laid in bed beside him, I could feel it, though I had no idea what exactly it was, what to take from it. I just knew it was real: a prickling at the back of my neck, a heat rising up my spine, and not just the usual kind I felt from being this close to him.
He slept next to me, almost peaceful—as peaceful as he got, anyway. He still jerked around in his sleep occasionally, and I could see a furrow appear in his brow even as he rested. I wished I could reach inside his head and find out what kind of dreams he was having, but maybe it was better I kept my distance, better that I didn’t know just how far he had gone over the course of his life.
Once, as I pulled a cup from the cupboard, the glass clinked against another. And I felt him tense, even though he was standing a few feet away. I glanced around at once.
“Are you okay?”
His eyes were fixed on the cup I was holding, the glass chink clearly hanging in his head. But then, he brushed it off, shaking his head.
“I’m fine.”
I kept walking up to this point where I felt like he was going to open up, but then, he’d just shut down again. There was more to him, I knew there was. Ten days, ten days since we had arrived here—nearly three weeks after he had first taken me—and I was inching forward painfully slowly.
Or perhaps I just needed to believe that there was more to him for my own sense of sanity. I couldn’t stand the thought of having allowed myself to get so close to this man, only to find that he was nothing more than the hardened criminal he kept trying to convince me he was. I could see the pain in him, the shattering weight of what he had been through as a kid that still clung to him, but he wouldn’t make that connection and see how it had impacted him in the present day.
But that would require me to actually stick around him, and I knew that couldn’t happen. After the Dogs had found me before, I knew that they would be able to track us down again. It was only a matter of time before they located us, and when they did, I was sure Chuck would send the full force of their power down on this apartment. He took it seriously when something happened to one of his people, and while I might not be a fully fledged member of the Dogs the way my father was, I was part of that family. He wouldn’t let me face this alone.
Even if some part of me wanted to.
I swung my legs out of bed quietly, not wanting to wake Zane, but as soon as they hit the ground, my ears pricked up. I could hear something. No, someone—a voice outside, a noise that seemed familiar. I hurried to the window, pulling back the curtains, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw what was waiting for me out there.
The Dogs. At least half a dozen of them, including my father, rolling up on bikes opposite the apartment. One of them glanced up, as though sensing that they were being watched, and caught my eye, stabbing his finger up toward the window. Everyone else turned to look up at me, and I knew there was no way they hadn’t seen me.
I dropped the curtains, sickness twisting in my stomach. Zane had propped himself up on his elbows in bed, staring at me, a furrow in his brow.
“What is it?” he asked.
“You need to get out of here,” I hissed at him. I didn’t know what I was doing. Protecting him, after everything he had done to me? I must have been crazy. But I knew I couldn’t let him face all of them alone. I knew what they would do to him.
“What?” he demanded, sitting upright, eyes widening.
“They’re here. The Dogs. They’ve come to—”
“I can take them,” he growled, rolling out of bed and grabbing for his shirt. He stepped into his shoes where he had left them the night before. He’d carried me to bed when I had fallen asleep on the couch, and I was still dressed, but seeing his tattoos vanish beneath the fabric of his shirt made me start to panic. It felt like the last time I would get to see them.
“You can’t take them, there’s too many of them. Just... just go. There's a fire escape down the back of the building, right? Take that. Just get out of here.”
He ran his hand over his head. It had been long enough now that some of his dark hair had started to grow back, making him look softer than he had when he had first taken me.
“I’m not letting them take you—”
“You don’t have a choice!” I exclaimed. I heard a crash at the entrance to the building. They were already making their approach, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before they got here.
He stared at me for a moment and then muttered a curse beneath his breath. I could tell he didn’t want to leave me. And, hell, despite it all, I didn’t want him to go, either. The thought of watching him leave, knowing that I couldn’t find him again when it felt like I was just starting to get somewhere with him... it killed me. But what choice did I have? The Dogs wouldn’t care what I had to say about it, and maybe they should pay any attention to me anyway. I was crazy. Sick. Sick for wanting him and wanting this and...
A crash slammed into the front door, and I jumped.
“Please!” I begged him, my voice strangled. I couldn’t stand the thought of something happening to him. He probably deserved it, but I could see underneath the front he put up that there was something else there, something decent, a man who could be better…
“Fuck,” he muttered and moved toward me, clasping my face in his hands. I stared into his eyes for a moment as the sound of voices filled the apartment. It was a matter of seconds until they busted in here and he would have to run. I knew they wouldn’t think twice before they pulled the trigger...
He kissed me, mouth on mine for one more second, before he pulled back and threw open the window. The door to the bedroom exploded inward a moment later, and I leapt backwards, terrified. How could I be scared of the people who had been my family for so long? I knew it was crazy, but I couldn’t help it.
“Chelsea!” My father’s strangled voice cut through the noise around me. Despite it all, I felt a wash of relief hit me when I heard him speak my name, my dad, the one man I knew I could rely on above anyone else.
But as three other men filled the room, I knew it was far from over yet. I spun around just in time to see Zane swinging his leg out of the window, scrambling onto the fire escape below. Metal clanged against the building as he tried to make a break for it.
“He’s going down the fire escape!” Dad yelled. “Get him!”
“No, Dad, please—” I tried to reason with him, but I could tell he wouldn’t take in a word I had to say. He grabbed me and pushed me out of the room, and I tried to see past him, to make out what was happening to Zane, but I couldn’t make it out.
“Cut him off at the bottom of the building!” Dad continued. “We can still catch him!”
Please, please, please, just go as far as you can from here, I silently pleaded with Zane. I knew he was hot-headed and he would put up a fight if he got the chance, but he couldn’t take on all of these Dogs. He would wind up hurt, or worse...
“Are you okay, Chelsea?” Dad asked me as he turned his attention to me properly, looking me up and down.
“I’m fine,” I replied, my voice trembling. “But Dad, I—”
“You need to get out of here,” he told me as he steered me toward the door. “Come on, honey...”
I couldn’t argue with him. I could hardly even find the words to speak at all. I just wanted to tell him to stop, but I would have had to explain everything that happened between us before he would, and we didn’t have time for that. And besides, if my father found out everything Zane and I had done together, he would be even more determined to wipe him off the face of the map.
Outside, a handful of Dogs were racing around the back of the building to try and cut Zane off before he could get to the bottom of the fire escape. I followed them, breaking away from my dad, not bothering to explain what I was doing.
I caught my breath as I saw him round the final set of stairs toward the street below. His eyes were dark with what looked like fear, and he must have understood what he was facing now. If I remembered right, the car was parked around the back of the building. He just needed to get to it, and he would be out of here.
“Shoot him!” Dad roared. One of the Dogs pulled a gun. I screamed, diving toward him and knocking him off-balance before he could take the shot.
But I was too late. He wasn’t the only one armed. The world seemed to slow for a moment as I heard the gunshot ring out. I spun around just in time to see another one of the Dogs aiming his pistol and firing off a shot. I followed the trajectory of the bullet as Zane dropped to the ground below, my heart in my throat.
A spray of blood exploded from the back of Zane’s thigh as the bullet grazed him, but he didn’t stop moving, thank God. I watched as he vanished around the corner. The Dog went to cock his gun and pursue him, but my father lifted his hand to stop him before he could.
“Leave it,” he barked. “We’ll get him later.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. It might not be much, but it was something. I didn’t know how far he was going to get, but at least he had made it out of here. Not unscathed, but alive.
And I prayed it was going to stay that way.