Chapter 7 Aerin
AERIN
The ringing in my ears is so loud it feels like something is trying to bore down through my skull to reach my teeth.
Smoke and debris cloud the air, catching in my throat, and I cough violently before I’ve even opened my eyes.
Fuck.
What happened?
One second we were arguing, the next there was intense heat at my back and I was flying.
Wood splinters and fragments from the kitchen table surround me on the floor, along with chunks of plaster and crumbled tiles on the floor.
Thick, black smoke floods the kitchen and burns my eyes, forcing them closed in the second it took me to open them.
Everything hurts.
My heart pounds in my chest and my limbs throb, while a twist of hot pain radiates from the base of my spine.
Just as I register it, sharp agony spears through my wrist and I yell as the pain grows hotter and sharper with each passing second.
“Ahhh!”
Attempting to roll over, I’m suddenly dragged a few inches across the floor by my flaming wrist just as I remember that I handcuffed Falco and me together.
I was so angry at his treatment that I wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Now Falco and I are locked together as he brawls with a man on the floor next to me, and there’s nothing I can do to escape.
The stranger, wearing a black balaclava with an eye window, is on top of Falco and punching him repeatedly in the face. Falco’s trying to block with one arm while his other is weighed down by his connection to me.
Panic surges through me like a hot wave, strangling my already restricted breathing, and I choke, erupting into another coughing fit.
My noises draw the attention of the man on top of Falco.
His dark, furious eyes slide from Falco to me.
The moment our gazes meet, my insides turn to ice and the stranger lunges at me.
I scream and try to cover my face. But before his fist can make contact with me, Falco surges upward and punches the man straight in the jaw.
He flies over the top of me and lands in a heap amongst the remains of the kitchen table with no time to recover.
Falco scrambles over me, jerking my arm and injured wrist along with him, and I’m forced onto my side, then my stomach as Falco attacks the stranger with a powerful punch to the face.
He punches him again and again until they’re locked together in a grapple of strength and furious yells.
Blood trickles down Falco’s temple, his hair is streaked with dust and grime, and blood drips down from his bloodied teeth as he snarls in fury.
Then both his hands lock around the stranger’s throat and squeeze.
My heart lurches as our handcuffs force my hand to rest against the struggling man’s neck and shoulder.
Falco squeezes so hard his forearms bulge and the man beneath him makes a horrific, wet sound as he gasps for air that doesn’t come.
“Falco,” I croak, pulling against the handcuffs.
I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to see this.
I don’t want to feel this.
But I’m stuck, frozen in this bubble while Falco strangles the life out of a man, and all I feel is the blood running down my fingertips as it escapes the man’s burst lip.
“Falco!” Pulling as hard as I can, my wrist spasms and pain lances all the way up my arm to my elbow.
I have no desire to save the man trying to kill us, but I don’t want to be a part of it. I can’t. “Please!”
Falco is unwavering.
He’s a pillar of stone bearing down on this man who kicks his legs against the floor, slams his hands into Falco’s arms and shoulders, and dies a slow death.
I can’t move.
Horror grips me like a vice as I watch this man’s struggles weaken.
Then, out of the black smoke clouding the kitchen, another man stumbles into view.
“Falco!”
A sickening crack echoes beside me, then Falco rolls into me and several gunshots ring out. The second figure immediately crumples to the floor, dead.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t think.
There’s too much smoke. Too much heat. My ears continue to ring, then Falco’s face waves in front of mine. “Aerin?”
My tongue refuses to work and tears flood my eyes as I stare at him.
“Aerin,” Falco pants. “Talk to me.”
“I’m okay,” I croak softly.
“Good,” he mutters, raising our joined wrists between us. “Because this was really fucking stupid.”
“How was I supposed to know!” Not that my excuses even matter because he’s right. I wanted to teach him a lesson but did it when we weren’t sure we were even safe. “I’m sorry!”
“Little late for that,” Falco grunts, wiping away some of the blood from his brow as it spills into his eye. “We have to go.”
Falco stands and pulls me upward.
But instead of dragging me behind him, he suddenly ducks and wraps one strong arm around my legs, then he lifts me up and over his shoulder.
The gun is abandoned on the ground as he chooses me over the weapon.
I’d complain but with our other hands locked together, I have to trust he has a plan, and this is definitely faster.
Falco sprints from the kitchen but not before I get a painfully long look at the two dead men in the kitchen.
One shot to death and the other, utterly silent with his head stuck at an unnatural angle.
Falco broke his neck.
He’s strong enough to do that with his bare hands?
My stomach lurches and the burn of bile creeps up the back of my throat as Falco kicks open the back door and sprints out into the garden.
I clutch at the back of his shirt with my free hand, struggling to control the urge to vomit as I’m jostled about on his shoulder.
As firm as his grip around my legs is, he’s running without much care.
We have to get away, we have to—
“Falco!” I yell too late and the third man who darts around the side of the building opens fire just as I scream.
The jolt that moves through Falco as he’s shot is terrifying.
The impact makes his body shudder and coil forward, then I’m free-falling through the air as Falco topples to the ground.
I land hard on the grass, the impact forcing all the air out of my lungs in a harsh gasp.
My wrist twists painfully as I land next to Falco who hits the dirt and doesn’t move.
“Falco?” I croak, fighting to get air back into my lungs while I roll over.
The chain connecting the two manacles of the cuffs has become painfully twisted, forcing the cuffs into a jarring angle that cuts into my wrist.
“Falco!”
He doesn’t move.
He’s face down on the ground with blood rapidly spreading across the back of his shirt.
In a blink, I’m back in the restaurant being carried away from his bleeding, motionless body.
Not again.
“Falco!” I slam my hand into his back, shoving at him with all my strength, but he doesn’t move an inch. “Please don’t be dead! Oh my god don’t be dead! Don’t be dead, don’t be”
A fist latches onto my hair from behind and drags me away from Falco as far as I can go with Falco a deadweight attached to my hand.
I kick out, my bare feet catching on cold blades of grass and damp soil.
A grunt follows the fist in my hair, frustration that I’m unable to move any further.
As I’m thrown to the ground, a boot comes flying toward me when I try to brace my hand in the dirt.
With no time to move, the impact hits me hard in my ribs and sends me rolling over my arm trapped to Falco, twisting it underneath me.
Hot pain throbs at my shoulder and I’m rolling off my arm when that fist is back in my hair, hauling me up a few inches.
His hand collides with my face, slapping me so hard my teeth rattle around my skull and my eyes roll.
I hit the dirt with a wet gasp, blood flooding over my tongue.
Then he’s on me.
A heavy weight across my hips and two meaty hands sealed around my throat.
His fingers interlock and suddenly he’s crushing my windpipe with all his might.
Coldness and amusement flare in the stranger’s eyes as he stares down at me, choking the life out of me.
I don’t know him.
I don’t recognize him.
Why does he want to kill me so badly? What did I do?
It’s such a distant thought that cuts clear through the fogged panic in my mind as he chokes the life out of me, shaking me violently a few times as if to entice death to come faster.
This man and the ones from the nightclub.
What did I do to deserve this?
Why me?
Suddenly, the hands vanish from my throat and sweet, clear air pours into my lungs with eyewatering clarity.
It hurts, like each mouthful of air contains razor blades that tear up my throat on the way down, but it’s worth it.
I gasp and gasp, mouthful after mouthful of air while coughing and choking.
My tongue swells against the roof of my mouth as if my body is trying to warn me about too much air, but I’m panting desperately.
Where did he go?
My wrist jolts painfully and through my tears, I spot Falco.
He’s using a shard of tile slate that must have dislodged from the roof of the house in the explosion.
He brandishes it like a dagger, tearing the edge through the man’s throat like a fine blade.
Blood pours like a waterfall from the man’s throat, covering Falco’s hands and splashing my own while soaking into the grass below.
My stomach burns and coils in on itself, then I gag and spew up last night’s noodles.
“Aerin.” Falco’s back in front of me, cupping my face with one bloodied hand while I cough and gag.
“I’m sorry,” I choke. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”
“Don’t.”
“You—you got shot, oh my god I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”
“Aerin!” He barks my name sharply, but his voice isn’t as loud as it could be. We lock gazes and pain writes across his face in waves. “We have to get to the car.”
I nod slowly and scramble to my feet. Falco moves more slowly. He’s in pain, he’s been shot and god knows what else.
Get to the car. “Wait…what car?”
“Trust me,” Falco gasps.
Easy.
This time Falco takes my hand in his and together we sprint to the end of the garden.
He kicks open the gate, and we stumble out into the alley where a black car rests near the mouth, silent and dark.
Falco sprints toward it with me in tow.
When we reach it, he drops down to one knee and seeks out the key hidden above the back tire, then he shoves it into my hand.
“You have to drive.”
“What?” I gaze up at him in shock. “I can’t drive!”
“Have you never driven?”
“I-I mean I know the basics… Maybe once or twice with my brother around the estate, but I don’t know how to drive properly!”
“You have to—” Falco cuts himself off with a wince and his shoulder sags forward. “You can do this.”
“No, I—”
“Aerin!” He barks my name again, all power and command as he opens the passenger side door. “I believe you can do this. You have to do this.”
I have no choice.
Clinging to the car through the passenger door, I crawl over the middle and settle into the driver’s seat.
Falco follows and pulls a gun from the glove box, then starts the car with a press of a button.
“Drive.”
“Where to?” I gasp, placing my trembling hands on the wheel.
“Just drive. I’ll guide you.”
My head swims and my heart pounds so hard and fast it’s like a blur.
Nothing feels real as I slam my foot down on the accelerator.
It’s like I’ve been swept away from my own body and am observing everything from above rather than being present.
As I pull out onto the road, it becomes clear why I have to drive.
Several cars are immediately in pursuit and Falco is the only protection I have.
I’m driving through sheer instinct as buried memories crawl up from the depths of my mind and help me with how to keep the car on the road while Falco hangs out the passenger window and shoots at the trailing cars.
He can’t lean out too far thanks to our locked wrists, but it’s enough to shoot out a few tires and reduce the chasing cars from three to just one.
One car that refuses to give up.
I race from street to street, following Falco’s barked directions of when to turn, when to slow down and when to speed up.
Every red light I race through makes my chest so tight I can’t breathe as I await a crash that doesn’t come.
The city flies past in a blur, tears pour down my cheeks, and, every time I swallow, the ghost of that bastard’s hands clench around my throat.
Falco’s at the end of his ammo when the last car finally swerves, clips a parked vehicle, and flips over onto its roof.
We leave it in the dust and Falco finally sags back into the car, panting.
“You did good, Aerin,” he says breathlessly. “Great driving.”
“You sure?” I squeal back. “Because I feel like I can’t stop. If I stop, we’ll crash!”
“Keep driving,” Falco groans, shifting slowly in his seat. “Fuck…Aerin?”
“What?” I glance at him and my stomach lurches. He’s as pale as a sheet, graying like death is already taking him. “Oh my god why do you look like that? Falco, what’s happening!?”
“Keep…driving.”
“Falco!”
He reels off an address. “Drive there, okay? You…you have to drive there.”
“Falco, don’t you dare. I’m scared, you can’t leave me!”
“I’m losing…a lot of blood…so you have to…you have to drive there, okay? Keep…driving. I’m not going…anywhere.”
Every word sounds like it takes immense effort. Given how he slashed that man’s throat, it’s impossible to tell where his blood ends and Falco’s starts, but he’s moving and blinking slower with each passing second.
We’re going to die.
If he passes out, we die because there’s no way I can keep him alive.
“Falco, please,” I gasp. “Don’t leave me. Please.”
He doesn’t.
Somehow he remains conscious all through the long drive to the address he gives me.
Just as I screech to a stop outside a dark building, his head lolls and his chin hits his chest.
“Falco!”
Just as I yell his name, my car door rips open and a scream of terror tears from me as a shadowy figure lunges into the car.