Chapter Twenty-Two #2
I guess there’s only one way to find out.
Quietly, I move from vehicle to vehicle until I reach the closest Chevy. I peek under the car and see that the feet are no longer surrounding the original car but are spread out. When I slide the key into the door of the Chevy, it slides in with ease but refuses to turn.
I pull the key back and move around to the trunk as I look for the next car. There is only one more Chevy in this row, and if it’s wrong, I’ll have to move onto a different row. Or, I’ll have to try to hotwire it if it’s unlocked.
I crawl up to the door of the car and slide the key in.
I nearly cry when the key turns, unlocking the door.
Gently, I pull the door handle and the sound of it giving in is deafening.
I drag myself into it, making sure my head isn’t showing as I put the key in the ignition and turn it.
The car rumbles to life as I shove it in reverse and press hard on the gas.
The car leaps backward, and as soon as I’m out of the parking spot, I ram it into drive.
The engine screams as I hear a bullet strike the car.
Pain brushes my leg as I look at the tear in my jeans, but thankfully the bullet had barely touched me. Stones spit out the back as the wheels squeal and the car lunges forward. I turn it quickly as I cut through the grass and put the building between me and the gunmen.
By the time I reach the road, the car is up to ninety. I don’t know where the road leads or where I’m headed, but I know I’m getting the fuck out of here. I don’t have a phone, I don’t have any way to contact Lane.
I grab my seatbelt and buckle it as I near a car leisurely heading down the road. I anxiously look behind me before swerving around the car that’s going the speed limit and rushing past them.
When I pass the police officer out on duty, I’m going a hundred and ten.
I have never been so excited to see a police officer before.
But I don’t slow until he manages to catch up to me.
His sirens are blaring as he zeros in on me.
Only then do I pull the car over and turn it off.
I shove the gun under the seat as I anxiously wait for him to come to me.
I’m scared he’ll think I’m attacking if I jump out, but he seems to be taking a leisurely time coming out to see what I’m up to.
In the rearview mirror, I see the officer get out of his car as another car barrels down the road.
Unsure of what to do, I turn the car back on and throw it in drive just as the other vehicle swerves past the police car.
Realizing that there is no way I would be able to outrun them at this point, I unhook my seat belt and lunge for the passenger seat as the sound of gunfire fills the air.
I push hard against the door and leap out into the ditch.
I roll down to the bottom of it, slamming into the murky water as I hear the police officer fire his gun.
When I manage to right myself and look out of the ditch, I see that the officer has hit the tire of the fleeing car.
The car squeals as it jolts to the side before dipping off the road and slamming into the ditch.
The front of the car hits so hard that I swear I can feel it from here.
It flips over once before coming to rest on the hood.
“Stay down!” the officer yells at me. I gladly listen as he shouts something over his radio about backup.
“Can I crawl behind my car? I don’t want to be shot,” I say.
“Slowly, keep your hands where I can see them,” he says as he stays behind his car door for cover.
I keep my hands up and use my elbows and knees to crawl over to my car.
“Get on the ground!” the officer yells, telling me that someone got out of the vehicle.
Once safely behind my car, I peek around the edge of the bumper as Red stands up.
“Get on the ground!” the officer yells again.
Red lifts his gun up and shoots. The officer falls back, slamming into the side of his cruiser.
“Felix, come out here,” Red says. “You’ve done such a fucking splendid job destroying my life.”
“That’s what my mom liked to tell me too,” I say as I see the police officer reach out for his gun. He picks it up before slumping back down. He’s breathing hard as he holds the gun against his chest.
“I can clearly see why,” he growls as he stays clear of the front of the police car.
It tells me that he plans to avoid the camera, killing me and the officer before leaving our deaths for his men to be responsible for. He steps around so he can see me and lifts the gun up as the police officer fires.
Red stumbles back as the officer shoots him three more times. Red is watching me with a look of shock on his face as his eyes widen. His legs drop, and he hits the ground on his back as I stare at him.
“How many others were with him?” the officer asks. Each word sounds pained, and he’s breathing hard.
“I-I don’t know,” I say. “I’m sure at least a few.”
“Grab my radio, tell them I need a paramedic,” he says.
I nod and rush for the open car door. I step over him and grab the radio. I hit the button. “We need a paramedic. Please, quickly.” I drop the radio and rush over to the officer. The bullet hit his shoulder and blood is blooming out around the wound. “Are you okay?”
He nods, but I’m not sure if he’s being truthful or not. “Fine. Why were they after you?”
“Because I know something I shouldn’t,” I say as I set my hand against the wound and hold pressure on it to stop the bleeding. “Can I use your phone?”
He doesn’t answer, just continues to stare at the smoking car in the distance, so I pull the phone out and search for a number to contact Chicago’s homicide department. By the time I finally get through to someone, I hear sirens.
“I need to talk to García,” I say.
“Who is this?”
“I’m with Lane Price,” I say, knowing that she won’t know me, but might respond to Lane’s name.
“García isn’t here at the moment.”
“Then Walsh! Let me talk to him!”
“Just a moment…”
She must put me straight through because he answers quickly. “Hello?”
“This is Felix, I was with Lane and—”
“Where are you?” he says.
“I don’t know. The side of the road. I’m with a police officer, but he’s down, and I think Red’s dead but there’s a bunch of them.”
“Alright, stay on the line as I try to figure out your location,” he says, as sirens begin to drown him out. The noise is piercing, and I can’t hear anything Walsh is saying.
The police cars swarm us as they park, and the men and women exit their vehicles with guns at the ready.
“Hands up!” they shout at me.
“I’m putting pressure on his gunshot wound,” I say as I put the hand with the phone in it up in the air.
Two officers descend upon me as the rest move forward. I watch as one checks Red, but he must be dead because the man waves them on. They move over to the flipped car as a woman relieves me of my medical duty and begins working on first aid.
The ambulance is the next to arrive, but by then they’ve pulled a man out of the car and have him restrained. I can’t tell how many more are in the car or whether they are deceased or not.
The paramedics are instantly on the officer as I back off and slump down next to the back tire of the police car. Now that the others are disarmed, they move onto me. A woman kneels next to me.
“Are you alright?” she asks.
“Fine,” I say. “What should I do?”
“We’ll have the paramedics look you over, but I believe someone from your department is coming to pick you up.”
I didn’t know I had a department.
An unmarked vehicle pulls up, and I look up. I don’t recognize the driver, but I jump up and rush toward the car when I see Lane in the passenger’s seat. As he pushes the car door open, I dive in and grab onto him.
“Felix,” Lane says as he grabs me. “Oh fuck…are you alright?”
I bury my face against his neck as I squeeze him as hard as I can. “I thought I was going to die,” I admit. It’s muffled, but I know he’s heard me because he squeezes me tighter.
“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have let you go alone. I shouldn’t have involved you in any of this. Please tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m fine. I’m fine, I promise.”
“Hey, is he lying? I can smell blood.”
The driver, who had been getting out of the car, ducks his head back in. “I don’t know, he’s got blood on him, but he’s still breathing, so I deem him fine.” He heads off to join the others, leaving Lane and me alone.
“I was so scared, but I was so badass, Lane. I like…stabbed someone with glass, stole a gun, held Red at gunpoint, and stole a car. Oh, and I kicked a man in the balls so hard he was crying.”
Lane squeezes me harder. “You did good, but you also didn’t do anything García told you to do. He told you to just do what Red said and we’d come to find you. I doubt Red told you to do any of that.”
“Yeah…García did say that, didn’t he?” I say, not really caring at all. The only thing I care about is never moving from this spot again. “Did Jasmine get to you?”
“She did, she gave me the drugs. García has someone talking to her who is getting as much information out of her as we can. Red may be dead, but we have to destroy what he’s built and with this, we can. We have witnesses, we have locations, and it sure didn’t help that Red shot a cop.”
“He was really pissed. I think he thought he could just…kill us both and leave the bodies of his men behind to get blamed.”
“I was so scared when I heard that someone was hurt. I was so scared it was you,” he says as he kisses my cheek.
I cling to him desperately, scared that this is all a dream, and I am still stuck in that room with Red. “I’m fine. I cut my hand, but I’m fine.”
“How bad is it?”
“It’s not horrible, but it hurts,” I say, not wanting to get off his lap.
“Okay, we’ll have someone look at it,” he says.
I sink into his warm, strong arms. I don’t want to go anywhere else. There is too much safety in these arms. “Lane, I love you, you know that, right?”
“Of course. I love you too,” he says as he kisses me on the cheek. And that’s all I need. All my anxiousness, my terror, my adrenaline is just washed away, and I’m left feeling oddly raw and vulnerable. But tucked against Lane’s chest, I feel safe and loved.