Chapter Eleven #2
I nodded then dragged my gaze back to the man’s retreating form, watching as he stopped at the curb.
When he turned to check for oncoming traffic, I noticed the goatee he wore.
It was trimmed differently than mine, but he looked…
I stood in place, not comprehending what I was seeing at first but then heard Rami calling my name and turned back to him.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Do you know that man, Wes?”
I shook my head and then turned to look at the man again. He was jogging across the street. “No,” I absently replied.
“He asked if I’d seen a man who looked like him,” Rami said. “He showed me a picture of—oh, wow!”
I stared at him in surprise. “What?”
“Oh!” Rami said, pointing to me. “You look like him…like the picture he showed me, Wes. Who—”
I didn’t hear the rest as I turned and bolted straight out the door.
The man was getting into the back seat of the car, and I immediately recognized the two men in the front.
They were the two men I’d seen beating up Father Gilmartin.
“Hey!” I shouted as the car started and began to pull away from the curb.
Three pairs of eyes turned to look at me as the driver suddenly stepped on the brake.
The mask of rage on the balding man’s face stunned me for a split second… right before I saw him hold up a gun.
I swallowed hard and reversed course, turning and charging as fast as I could down the crowded block.
I didn’t stop to look back when I heard horns honking and the squeal of tires because I was positive they were following me.
I ran across the street, ignoring a red light, making a driver come to a screeching halt when they almost hit me.
The near miss was followed by another horn and someone leaning out of the window and cursing to the high heavens.
I had no idea who they were, but I couldn’t outrun them on foot.
I charged through a gas station parking lot and darted down an alley, into a residential neighborhood as another squeal of tires and the gunning of an engine sounded.
I swore up and down, praying I could outrun them and also wondering who the hell they were.
Obviously, they’d been looking for me, checking with store owners.
Maybe they’d been the people who’d broken into my car.
Had they been to my old apartment? All I knew was, they were chasing me now, and at least one of them was armed.
I ran down the sidewalk, hearing another squeal of tires as the car—I had to assume it was theirs—turned the corner, right behind me.
I desperately looked for somewhere to hide and debated running up to someone’s door and pounding on it, begging to be let in, but there were families all over the place.
The last thing I wanted to do was put a child in danger.
My heart was pounding and my breath came in gasps as I tore down the sidewalk.
They were right behind me as I approached another corner.
A three-story office building stood on the corner. I recognized it as a neighborhood urgent care center.
I ran toward it, knowing the car was closing the distance.
I shot across the street and when someone hit the brakes, coming to a squealing stop, I waited for the sickening crunch of metal or the thud of a body.
But no crash sounds came and I didn’t stop to see where they were.
Gasping for breath, I raced through the building’s lobby doors as they swished open.
A security guard looked up as I ran up to the desk. “Can I—”
“Call the police! I’m being chased by an armed man!
” I screamed, heading for a door. Using both hands, I punched the bar inward, and crashed into the stairwell, running for the stairs.
I took them two at a time, knowing it was probably the stupidest thing I could’ve done since there was no way out but blind fear was pushing me on.
They’d seen me and would be following in moments.
I ran anyway, climbing the first set of stairs to a landing, and then a second set. I yanked my phone out and hit speed dial. Thank God I’d programmed in Patsy’s number last night. I hit the third-floor landing and slammed into another door just as the call connected.
“Hello there, Wes. How yer goin’?”
“Patsy! Those men are chasing me!” I screamed into the phone as I barreled down the hallway. Several office doors were off the hallway but the very idea of running into one of them, endangering everyone inside, was out of the question.
“What men?” The sexy sweetness in his voice was replaced by an urgency that frightened me.
I tried to gulp in air, feeling my heart beating wildly in my chest. “The two guys who beat up Father Gilmartin and the guy from the sketch. He has a gun, Patsy!” I yelled as I spotted a sign for a second stairwell at the end of the long hall.
I ran at full speed even though my lungs were burning from lack of air.
“Where are ya?” he yelled, cursing. He said something to someone and paused. “No, it’s not a smartphone so we can’t track him, dammit!”
“Don’t…have…address,” I gasped as I ran.
“Medical office building… two blocks southeast of Rami and Raj’s store.
Saw them there!” At the end of the hall, I hit the bar for the door and tumbled into the stairwell.
Two sets of stairs, one to the roof, the other downstairs.
Make a decision, make a decision, I chanted in my head, the panic rising.
But I ran for the roof, climbing the stairs two at a time. Patsy sounded breathless too, barking orders to someone, but I only caught a few words. Running and holding the phone to my ear was hard work.
“Hang on, Wes! We’re on the way!” Patsy yelled just as I reached the landing. I hit the security bar and spilled out onto the gravel roof.
“I’m on the roof!”
Patsy screamed something about diverting a bird in the air.
I looked around frantically, seeing nothing on the flat roof but a couple of large electrical and air conditioning unit boxes. I ran for one of them and ducked behind it, praying they wouldn’t think to look for me up here. If they did and decided to inspect the unit—I was dead.
They’d clearly been searching for me.
I felt sick to my stomach, even as I bent over, trying to catch my breath. I felt like I was going to throw up as I sucked in huge lungfuls of air. Leaning against my metal hiding place, I slowly slid down to the gravel as my legs gave out on me, listening for someone to open the door.
“Wes! Wes, are ya still there?” Patsy yelled into the phone over a cacophony of noise. I didn’t know where he was, but it sounded chaotic.
“I’m here, Patsy. On the roof of the medical building. There’s an urgent care on the ground floor, with two stories above it.” I heard an odd whirring sound. It took me a few seconds to realize it was a helicopter.
“We’ve got yer location, three minutes out.”
Three minutes? I felt like throwing up. That was way too long. I didn’t want to scare him, but I was terrified myself. “Hurry, Patsy.”
“I’m comin’. Uniforms also respondin’. Stay on the phone with me.”
I nodded, more for my own benefit than his.
I shifted, looking around the AC unit at the door.
There was no lock and nothing on the roof to block it.
I slid back down, terrified as I shut my eyes, willing myself to calm the fuck down.
Panicking would do me no good at all. I only had to hang on for two and a half minutes more.
I shut my eyes and sent up a silent prayer that Patsy hadn’t been exaggerating.
“Wes?”
I startled at Patsy’s voice, forgetting for a moment that he was still with me. “I’m here.”
“Police are on the way. They may reach the buildin’ before we do. Don’t make any sudden moves. They have yer description but they’re lookin’ for a perpetrator who looks just like you, mo mhuirnín.”
I wasn’t sure if it was the Gaelic words for dear or the fact that it was Patsy who’d said them, but the warmth spreading through me had a calming effect on me almost immediately. “Okay, Patsy.”
“Two minutes, Wes. Almost there.”
I smiled. “I’ll be waiting.”
“Hang on.”
“Just keep talking to me.”
“Ya were at Rami and Raj’s shop?”
“I went for a walk and stopped in there this morning. I helped them in the storeroom for a few hours.” I remembered the promise of coffee and a sandwich I hadn’t gotten, and really, really hoped I’d make it through this alive so that I could cook those steaks for Patsy.
“One minute out, Wes. Almost there.”
I looked up, searching the sky for an approaching helicopter. Off to the southeast, I spotted a tiny dot in the sky and my heart raced for a whole other reason as my chest filled with hope.
It was shattered a second later when the door to the roof suddenly slammed open.
“They’re here!” I whispered, pulling the phone away from my ear so I could hear steps approaching as I held my breath.
The buzz of several people talking reached my ears, but I couldn’t make out how many there were and didn’t dare poke my head around the AC unit.
I kept my eye on the approaching helicopter as it got closer and closer.
When gravel suddenly crunched under foot, my heart was like a piston in my chest. They were out on the roof.
The helicopter was still more than a minute away. I debated showing myself, trying to reason with them, but my lizard brain reminded me it was safer to stay hidden until Patsy got here. I held my breath as steps approached.
“Check behind the electrical box and that AC unit!” One of the men barked orders.
“Yeah, check yourself. You ain’t the boss o’me,” came the gruff reply.
Boss o’me? I slapped a hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing out loud at the juvenile outburst. The sound of helicopter rotors got louder.
“What’s that?” one of the men said.
“It’s a chopper, idiot! What do you think it is?”
“It’s coming right toward us.”
I watched Patsy’s helicopter approaching, picking up the wail of sirens at the same time.
“What the fuck?” one of the men shouted.
“Cops! We need to get the fuck out of here!” The crunch of retreating feet on gravel rang in my ears, sounding better than anything I’d ever heard. Squealing door hinges sounded as someone yanked it open and when it slammed shut, I closed my eyes, and felt like passing out.
I lifted the phone to my ear. “They took off, Patsy.”
I looked up at the helicopter and realized the side door was open and someone was seated inside holding a long rifle in their lap.
I couldn’t make out the figure but knew he was taller than Patsy.
That’s when I spotted my man. He was standing behind the seated agent, wearing some kind of harness as he held the phone to his ear.
“I see ya, luv.”
I grinned, hearing only one word in that sentence…luv.
The helicopter flew overhead, and I stood to my full height as the pilot made a tight circle and came back. A cloud of dust and dirt suddenly swirled up into the air, and I was forced to take cover on the other side of the unit, covering my head with the jacket.
The whirring of the helicopter rotors roared directly above me, but it was the vague sound of crunching on gravel that suddenly got my attention.
I lowered the jacket and peered around the AC unit.
Patsy had rappelled to the roof and stood swaying beneath the hovering helicopter as he fumbled with his harness.
It fell away and the second it did, he looked up at me and grinned.
I bolted from my hiding place and ran straight at him, crossing the distance between us in record time.
Patsy held out his arms and a moment later, I’d thrown my arms around him and yanked him to my chest, exhaling with relief when his strong arms surrounded me.
“Yer safe now, Wes.”
I shut my eyes and squeezed him hard as I nodded against his shoulder. “Thank you, Patsy. Thank you.” The feel of his palm rubbing up and down my back soothed me like nothing I’d ever felt. I knew I was safe in his arms. Safe with my Patsy.
And I never wanted to let go.