Chapter 47
Ryan
" W hat's going on?" Lily asked Ethan standing off to the side.
Her questions made the tightening of my chest worse because I couldn't tell her.
"Please," I begged.
Matt gulped before jumping up from the spot on the ground I'd sunken into. He whipped out his credit card and handed it to her. "Why don't you give us a moment?"
I prayed she wouldn't resist, because I didn't know if I'd be able to survive this. Falling over on my back from the pain, I tried rocking myself to see if it would help. It didn't. A soft, "Okay" from Lily helped to ease it a tiny bit, but not much at all.
All of our phones went off together again. "What the fuck does Tyler want?" Eric swore when Lily was out of earshot.
"Where are your meds, do you have them?" Matt patted my pockets, breathing a sigh of relief when he found them. I was such a fucking waste of space lying here, being a burden once again. I was trying my best. "I'll get you some water."
Eric looked at me and back at his still ringing phone. He had a moment where my best friend shone through, or maybe I was just imagining that his worrying included me at all. As he walked away, I watched as he put his phone to his ear.
Ethan stepped toward me and crouched. With a sigh, he started coaching me through my breathing. I wanted to scream at them that it wasn't helping, but at the same time, they were being my friends. It was an internal battle that didn't do well for the whole anxiety thing, I'm telling you.
"What's he saying?" I came up on my ass to ask Ethan, still gripping my chest as my mind tried to convince me that I was dying.
"Don't worry about that. Just focus on your breathing," Ethan stroked my back.
I tried not to push him away.
Thank fuck, Matt came rushing back with the water and I swallowed the pills like a lifeline, giving myself a few minutes for it to kick in before reaching for my phone and checking my messages to see if Tyler left any for me. "What's he saying?" I repeated as I marched over to Eric who spun around to look at me, pale. His jaw slackened.
"Well, what is it?" Matt demanded.
"They've found us, haven't they? I thought booking the Airbnb with a fake name wouldn't allow them to track us, but they're the mob, of course they fucking have. We're gonna have to go, aren't we? Matt, get your jet ready..." Ethan blubbered on.
"Will you shut the fuck up?" Matt hissed, taking the words straight out of my mouth before I could say them and land myself on the wrong side of them again.
"It's Tyler." Eric raised the phone.
"Yeah, we fucking got that," Matt grunted.
"Just rip off the bandaid, we'll deal with it together. I promise you, I'll prove to you that I'm not a liability..." I was saying.
"It's over," Eric gasped, releasing the breath he'd been holding.
"What?" I had a moment of distortion and I didn't know if it was caused by the leftover tremors of my anxiety or that ridiculous statement. "What's over?"
He took a deep breath, his pupils big and bold. "It's Tyler. He says it's over."
Another deep breath knocked him off his feet this time and he sank to the ground, kind of like where I was just now, except he wasn't freaking out.
He was still a blubbering mess.
A smile stretched wide across his face. Eyebrows pinched, I looked at the rest of the guys.
"I think he's lost it," Ethan echoed my thoughts.
"I haven't. Shut up." Eric looked up at us, trembling. "He's taken care of it."
"I'm confused. What's that supposed to mean? Taken care of what?" I asked.
"What do you think it means?" Eric shot back. "We're free."
Free. I repeated the word over and over in my head and waited for the effects to hit.
Freedom should hit differently.
Tyler and Eric wanted me to believe that after weeks of heartburn, going out of my mind, looking over our shoulders, and fleeing America less than twenty-four hours ago, it was over like that? In what fantasy world?
"Yeah, Eric. I'm sure he's dealt with it. Just like he assured us the bodies wouldn't be discovered until he was ready, I'm sure everything is fine and dandy now." I paced away.
I didn't have time to think about minding my words and not stepping on their toes when my mind was screaming at me that it wasn't okay to breathe yet.
"Stop being so pessimistic, negative Nancy." Eric narrowed his eyes.
I faked a smile against my constricting lungs. "Realistic, more like. Excuse me for not joining you in fairyland when our lives are at stake!"
Eric groaned and rolled his head. "Don't tell me you're going to keep fucking things up. Why can't you accept it when things are good?"
Massaging my chest, I turned away from him. I didn't have the energy to argue.
"He does have a point though," Matt said with a begrudging glance in my direction before cutting his eyes back to Eric.
"Matt, please don't ruin the moment by sticking up for your boyfriend," Eric mocked.
"Eric." Ethan stepped in. "It's not unreasonable for us to be concerned about Tyler's promise. Are you just so ready for it to be over that you're willing to accept this without questions?"
"What do you take me for? A shell head?" Eric retorted.
"A shell head?" Ethan twisted his face, splitting a glance and a smirk between Matt and me.
A smirk. It was small. But my heart skipped a beat at the potential it promised.
"Look, I spoke with him, okay. There are things he can't share with us, for our safety, but you didn't hear him. There was no messing around, no hesitation in his voice. Power..." He paused. "...oozed from him." Eric's brows pinched and he rubbed his two fingers together, searching for what he meant to express. He looked up at us with an assuredness in his eyes. "He sounded...different. There was a finality to his words." Eric nodded. "I believe him. We're free."
He rose to his feet and his face split into a grin.
Ethan, Matt, and I looked at each other. Am I the only one who thinks he looks and sounds crazy right now?
Eric's smile twitched, his eyes wide. "Look, he says it's different this time, right? He has it under control. Now, for fuck's sake, can we please celebrate?" He swallowed a gulp of air and released it. "Take a moment to breathe, get fucking wasted, celebrate with our lady, take Paris by fucking storm, please? I fucking need this. I don't want to waste another second thinking about this whole shitshow ever again."
"I'm sorry. I'm going to have to hear it for myself." My throat constricted as I tapped the call back icon.
"Ryan." He picked up after the call rang out the first time.
"Tyler. What do you mean it's over? Why should we believe you this time? Your 'word' didn't count for much last time," I challenged.
There was no mocking in his tone. None of the annoying cockiness I'd come to associate with Tyler. "It's up to you whether you want to believe me or not. But it's done. Don't call me back on this number."
An abrupt cut of the dial tone and silence in my ear, the kind of silence that should have sent me into a massive panic attack. But I turned to Eric, a strange peace warming my blood. Matt and Ethan's mouths dropped open, waiting.
My heart was racing, but call it intuition or something, there was an ease in some far part of my brain that flooded my bones with security. "I think I believe him too."
"What?" Ethan gave a slight shake of his head. "Did he put a spell on you guys or something?"
"I'm telling you. It's the way he says it. There's something different about him." Eric looked at me and I nodded.
Ethan scoffed. "I guess I have to hear this hypnotic reassurance myself." He pulled out his phone.
"He says not to call him back on that number," I said.
"Hmph." Ethan dialed anyway, failing a few times before tapping the phone against his chin.
"So, what do you say? May we live our lives now?" Eric begged.
Ethan and Matt looked at each other before looking at me and Eric. They nodded. "I guess we'll take your word for it."
And as far as living my life now that Tyler had taken care of the threat? I could try.