Chapter 7 #5
“I panicked. Some guy was like, ‘Hi, I’m Blake!’ And then two minutes later, they asked my name, and the first name that hit me was Blake, so I just tossed it out. Only then did I remember that was the other guy’s name. We’ve had beers to celebrate our Blakeness.”
“You definitely don’t look like a Blake,” I say.
“He thinks it’s the coolest thing ever that we share the same name. He even enthused about how we spell it the same. Like how the hell else are you spelling it? With a C?”
“A silent Q.”
He laughs and I glare at him. My joke wasn’t very funny, so he shouldn’t find it funny. He shouldn’t laugh. He shouldn’t try to make me see him as the person I was busy falling in love with—the person who I’d wanted to spend more time with and have a life with.
The SUV turns around the corner and my eyes seek out the road ahead of us, but I don’t see them at all. Did they already get that far ahead of us?
“In the trees,” Grayson says.
I turn and look as I realize that the SUV is tucked off the road in the trees.
Grayson glances over at me. “Well… I don’t exactly have a gun on me, so this is all you… unless you want me to do it and I can borrow your gun?”
He slows the car down, using the trees to tuck our vehicle out of sight.
“No, I got it,” I respond. I’d honestly prefer not to have to deal with it, but I can’t imagine sitting back and doing nothing when Antonio’s life is at risk.
“Okay,” he says. “I’ll do the best I can to provide backup.
” We quickly slip out of the vehicle and slink toward theirs.
I press myself in against the trees while Grayson looks over at me and smiles.
Smiles . Like what is he over there so happy about?
We could get shot in the next five minutes and be left dead on the side of the road, but he’s over there happy as can be.
I glower at him, which doesn’t seem to fix much.
Then I decide I really should be paying attention and hurry over to my next piece of cover. I can’t yet tell if they’re still in the vehicle or have left.
I inch forward a few more trees and then look over at Grayson, who is staring at me like we’re on the set of some romcom and he’s just locked eyes with the love of his life. Like what the fuck?
Making sure my eyes are wide and show my displeasure over this, I mouth, “Stay focused.”
This results in his smile widening. Like does he think I’m over here whispering words of love to him? Did he misread my mouthed words? Does he now think I’ve forgiven him when I plainly haven’t?
I cock my head and he just winks at me before slipping behind the next tree.
Like why is he even making his way closer?
He has absolutely no weapons on him. What is he planning on accomplishing?
Does he think I’m going to nurse him back to health if he gets shot?
Because I’m sure as shit not planning on it.
Using the protection of the trees for cover, I hurry closer to the SUV and finally get near enough to see that two guys are inside of the vehicle, and one looks like Antonio.
Three more are outside of it, and I can’t quite tell whether that’s all of them or if there are more that I don’t see.
Carefully, I start moving closer to see if I notice anyone else, but at this point, it’s apparent they don’t see me, and I have the element of surprise…
but Antonio is still in the vehicle, and I have no guarantee how safe he is at the moment.
Grayson nods his head to the side, signaling to me that he’s going to go around to the SUV, but he doesn’t have a gun or any type of weapon on him. What if they just shoot him in the head? What if he fucks up and then they take him hostage as well?
All of these uncontrollable scenarios race through my head as I realize I’m losing control of the situation.
I reach out to stop him, but he shakes his head and starts moving toward the far end of the SUV.
Feeling anxious, I almost rush after him, but I notice tension in one of the men a moment before he turns to look our way. If I’d rushed after him for some foolish reason just now, I would have been seen, and all of this would have been for nothing.
I just get caught up in this idea that I need to do it all. I need to shoulder everything out of fear of anyone else getting hurt or killed. Because if I do it all, the only life at risk is my own. And I care about that a whole lot less than I care about losing others.
I keep my eye on the SUV, waiting to see when Grayson reaches it, but there’s a guy trying to change the tire who is busy digging around in the rear hatch.
Reaching down, I pick up a rotting walnut that’d fallen from the tree and fling it.
It strikes a tree near the man at the hatch before falling down and rolling toward him.
The man immediately turns, and I see Grayson rush across the distance to the car, ducking down so he can’t be seen over it. I can’t see him from this angle, either.
“What the fuck was that?”
“Sounded like something falling from a tree; stop panicking about everything. Just move quickly. I don’t see their SUV just yet.”
Though I can no longer see Grayson, I know I need to wait for him to give me the okay before I make any move forward. My eyes stay focused on the SUV, and just as the man is headed back to the hatch, I see the back passenger door open.
I watch Grayson enter the vehicle and know that I need to put my trust in him as I fire a shot into the air in the hope of doing this with the smallest possible number of people dead at the end of it. “Get on the ground!”
Of course none of them willingly get on the ground so I can refrain from shooting them.
Three are facing me and one is in the vehicle dealing with Grayson.
Of the three I can see, they all have guns they seem prepared to use and are so distracted by me that they don’t appear to realize that Grayson is collecting their only hostage.
I take a deep breath, well aware that I have to do whatever it takes to get Antonio out of this unharmed, even if that means killing all of them.
“We’ll shoot your buddy in the fucking head if you don’t come out here,” one guy calls. Like they think I’ll believe that they’re going to shoot the guy they want in the head. How gullible do they think I am? “Come on, now. You’re making a big mistake.”
“I don’t think I am,” I say as I slide out of cover just enough to shoot the guy closest to me in the leg. He goes down with a cry while I shoot the next guy in the arm and shift to the third guy who is firing his gun in my general direction at hyper speed.
Honestly… I don’t think a single one of his shots even comes close to me. And when he realizes this, he ducks down behind the SUV and presumably plays dead.
“Stay down or the next bullet goes in the head,” I warn the three men as I slowly make my way toward them. The one I shot in the arm has lost his gun, but the one hiding behind the SUV and the one I shot in the leg still have theirs.
“Throw your guns,” I say.
The one behind the SUV throws his gun so hard and fast that it ricochets off a tree and slides over to the guy I shot in the leg, giving him two guns.
He seems quite pleased by this as he lifts them both and starts shooting in my direction.
Dodging back behind a tree, I keep myself pressed tightly against it until he decides he’s done trying his hardest to execute me.
I really have no choice but to kill him.
I could shoot him in the leg again and see if that will make him stay down and compliant, or I can shoot him in the shoulder and hope he’ll put down both guns and listen to me.
My stomach squeezes tightly as I take a deep breath and turn to shoot him just as he’s flung forward and hits the ground.
I look up and see that the person holding the gun is Grayson, and he has Antonio tucked behind him.
“Let’s go. Quickly,” he orders as he reaches back inside their vehicle.
I can’t tell whether the shot was lethal or not, but the guy chooses to stay down this time. Grayson snatches up the case holding my rifle while Antonio runs toward me.
“Jesus Christ! Fucking hell! Shitty shit! Oh, all that is… something. Fuckity fuck,” he cries. “I nearly died.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say as I pull him behind cover. “I’m so sorry I left you.”
“I aimed and fired just like you said. The guy was three feet from me and I missed. I missed! I knew I’d miss, but I was like, ‘He’s only three feet from you! It’s physically impossible to miss,’ and I still missed. Ha… thank you for saving me. Both of you. Thank you.”
“I would like to say it’s my fault you’re in this situation, but I very much feel like it’s Felix and Lane’s.”
“I will never forgive them for this,” he decides. “Never. Until the day they die. I’m just making a list of shit they’ve dragged me into and shit that I won’t forgive them for. Hold on… how many did you shoot? I couldn’t see very well from my position.”
“I downed three and Grayson took care of the man in the vehicle with you.”
“There’s another—” he says a moment before a bullet strikes inches from my chest.
I tear Antonio back and Grayson shoves me behind a tree as another shot barely misses us.
At least Grayson has a gun now so I’m not alone.
I shove my rifle case into Antonio’s arms while I try to judge where the man might be in the trees.
I know the direction he fired from, but I can’t quite tell if he’s still there. And he clearly knows our position.
While I try to listen to the world around me, try to hear where he might be, Antonio presses tightly to me to whisper in my ear. “There’s backup coming. We have to go.”
I give him a nod so he’s aware I’ve heard.
“I’ll move and draw him out,” Grayson says, voice quiet as he begins to step past me.
I grab his wrist, absolutely hating this idea. “Don’t you dare. He’ll show himself, just wait.”