Chapter 13
Ever
Well, that had to be the worst song lyrics I’d ever heard.
And, unlike the song played in clubs the world over, no one in the crowd was, in fact, putting their hands up.
Instead, relying on the odds of sheer numbers, the mob around us turned toward one of the few exits, pushing and shoving their way to the doors in an attempt to flee arrest, sandwiching Katy and me in the middle of the fray.
I ditched the sign I’d brought with me, satisfied that V had at least seen it, but not so much that it had caused him to have his face rearranged by the Second Coming of André the Giant.
And also, there was the chance now that my calling him a motherfucker would be the last words I would ever “speak” to him again.
“Over here.” Katy grabbed my arm, pulling me in the direction of an opening in the mob that was quickly filled in by a mass of sweaty, smelly men, who were making us the non-consensual meat in their sandwich.
More and more people swarmed around us, rendering any form of movement impossible as our bodies were pushed against the backs of the men in front of us.
Whatever we did, we had to stay on our feet.
If we went down, we’d end up as tomorrow’s headline, our trampling broadcast for everyone to hear.
“Ever,” Katy said, reaching out for my hand again. “If we die, I just want you to know that when you were at work a couple of months ago, I used the house key you gave me to get into your house and borrow a sweater from your closet.”
“The purple wool crewneck I tore up my house to find while you were lounging on my couch drinking my wine?”
“That’s the one.”
“Okay, so bring it back.” My fingers interlaced with Katy’s when our hands finally reached each other between the sweaty bodies that were threatening to crush us alive.
“Yeah, so, I would, but I was attacked by a rogue drop of mustard while wearing it, and when I tried to wash it—”
“What do you mean you tried washing it!”
“Yeah, my bad.”
“Can you at least give me its corpse back?”
“What the fuck, Ever? Considering our present set of circumstances, that was highly inappropriate. But no, I can’t. It’s buried in a landfill somewhere. I’ve been putting aside money to buy you a new one. Since we’re all going to die, can you forgive me?”
“Get the fuck away from her!”
That voice. So different, yet so familiar at the same time. I turned my head as far as I could just in time to see V landing a punch to the head of the man behind me. Stunned, the middle-aged man collapsed to the floor.
“Come on,” V ordered, having the presence of mind to disguise his voice even in our present circumstance.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him, with me tightening my grip on Katy and pulling her along with us.
Katy’s hand gripped mine tighter as we followed behind V, who was using the sheer size of his body to plow through the crowd.
Outside, sirens blared, making me wish I’d worn earplugs, and after spending the last hour standing on a concrete floor, shoes without heels.
I’d only worn the heels to try to stand out in the crowd to make it easier for V to find me and see the sign I’d spent an hour making, solely because I thought glitter from the dollar store would be a nice touch.
When the mob of people thinned out ahead of us, V directed Katy and me to take off running to a stairwell a few yards away.
Yet another reason why the heels were a shitty idea.
In my defense, I didn’t know I was going to be running from the police tonight, which was na?ve on my part considering the company I was keeping.
When we reached the stairs, I stumbled down the broken concrete, having to use the corroded iron banister that divided the stairs in half to brace myself.
“Having issues, little bird?” V stopped behind me, looking over his shoulder.
“When am I not having issues?” I took a step down another dilapidated stair, nearly losing my balance again. “I’ll just take off my shoes and—”
“Like hell you will.”
And just like that, one moment I was barely standing on my own two feet, and the next, I was being manhandled by a muscled, masked, tatted, sex god who had thrown me over his shoulder like the weight of my body was nothing more than a joke to him as he hauled ass down the stairs without breaking his stride.
“There’s broken glass all over. I don’t need you cutting your foot open. Pain would be more than happy to stitch you up, but he wouldn’t be gentle about it.”
“With a name like Pain, that’s a hard pass on letting him touch me at all.”
“According to him, women like a little Pain.”
“Cute. I’m more of a fan of men who follow me around and peer through my windows at night to watch me sleep, personally.”
“I’ve never once peered through your window to watch you sleep.”
“Bet you’ve thought about it, though.”
The silence from him told me I was right.
“Finally,” a male voice I didn’t recognize spoke when V reached the bottom of the stairs. I raised my head to look over his shoulder, catching sight of his three teammates, whom I had watched fight earlier in the night.
“Oh. My. God,” Katy said under her breath in awe.
“Ever, I think we were asphyxiated between those burly men up there, after all. Because this has got to be heaven. We’re in heaven with four masked men, right?
And look, it divides up evenly, not that I’m opposed to sharing, if you know what I mean. ”
“Sorry, but this was what I was up against up there,” V answered whichever man had called him out.
“Why are you talking like that?” the man in the green mask asked.
“I know why he’s talking like that.” A familiar voice chimed in. “Hey, Ever. Nice to see you again.”
Katy glanced up at me. “Well, I guess we know who you two are.”
“Hi, Cole. Lovely to see you again. The security system is still working great. Top-notch job.”
“We don’t have time to play catch-up right now.” The man in the green mask was all business and clearly the leader of the group. Frustrated, he shoved his body against the door, inviting a gust of ice-cold air to rush inside. “Go!”
The men motioned for Katy to exit first, with V following behind her, and then the rest of them filing in behind us.
“I can walk, you know,” I said, annoyed about being slung over V’s shoulder like he had clubbed me over the head and was taking me back to his cave.
“Really? Because I’ve seen you walk before, and it isn’t pretty.”
“Just put me down!”
“Negative. We’re going to be sprinting through those woods ahead of us. You’ll never make it in those heels you have on.”
“She wouldn’t make it in regular shoes, either,” Katy called back, eliciting a chuckle from V.
“Glad I’m such a source of entertainment for the both of you.”
We ran across a short expanse of asphalt, headed to the trees shrouded in darkness behind the building as the commotion from the front of the building escalated.
I hated the dark, loathed this time of year when daylight was scarce, but I had to admit that it had our back now, shrouding the six of us under a blanket of near invisibility.
“Run, run, run,” Mr. Green Mask commanded as we tore off toward the tree line, jumping into the woods as soon as we reached the bare pillars of bark.
It may already be dark outside, but factor in the woods, and it was positively pitch black.
V was right, I would have one-hundred percent killed myself trying to run through the trees.
“Keep going west about a quarter mile, and we’ll reach the parking lot where my van is parked.” I could barely make out green mask’s form in the woods now, even as he and the other men ran behind us.
“Holy shit, Ever,” Katy said, her breathing having become heavier from more than just the added cardio. “We’re being chased by four masked men through the woods. It’s too bad we’re also running from the cops, or else I would be recording this to put up on TikTok right now.”
“Unpopular opinion: Running from the cops makes it hotter,” I called back to her.
“What’s so special about being chased by four masked men?” The man in the green mask asked.
“You can blame MaskTok for that bullshit,” Cole replied. “Women go crazy over a man in a mask.”
“Trust me, Ever knows.” Katy snorted right as her foot caught a fallen tree branch and she stumbled forward, caught by one of the other three men.
Every snap of a branch or crunch of a leaf in our vicinity acted like fuel, propelling us forward in the dark, headed toward the light ahead of us as though it was leading us to the promised land.
“Take your masks off,” Green Mask commanded when we reached the ridgeline.
Underneath me, I could feel V’s body stiffen, but not in a good way.
“Oh, yes,” I said, giddy, “do take off your masks.”
When we cleared the woods, V finally set me down, quickly motioning for the others to join him in a huddle near the back of a CVS.
“What is going on?” Green Mask asked, obviously irritated with V.
Huh. Must be not all of his buddies know about me.
“I call dibs on the one that just manhandled me through the woods like some George of the Jungle shit,” Katy said, watching the four still masked, half-naked men huddle in a circle together. “What do you think the giant cross inked across his back means?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, shivering slightly in the chilly night air. “Maybe he’s a priest or something.”
“That would be my luck.”
One by one, the men looked up at Katy and me, and we waved at them with smiles on our faces as they continued their heated powwow.
“The one in the blue has been quiet,” I observed.
“Yeah, that’s because your mystery man gestured to him to stay quiet when he saw him standing at the bottom of the stairs.”
“What?” I looked up at V and the man in blue. “Are you sure? What kind of gesture? Maybe you misinterpreted it.” Katy put her index finger and thumb together, drawing them across her lips as though they were gripping a zipper. “Huh. There’s no misinterpreting that. I wonder how I missed it.”
“I mean, your ass was in his face at the same time you were dangling over his shoulder, staring at his ass, too, so it’s completely understandable how you could have missed it.”
The council of hot masked men disbanded, having adjourned their impromptu meeting. Cole and the man in the green removed their masks while V and his cohort in blue left theirs on.
The man in blue must be a clue to his identity.
“Hot damn,” Katy said, eyeing the maskless men. “I had high hopes Mr. Green Mask would be good looking, but I was completely prepping myself for a Beauty and the Beast scenario.”
“A Beauty and the Beast scenario?”
“You know, when the Beast turns back into a prince and is more facially challenged than we thought he would be.”
“I don’t know. I thought he was kind of cute.”
“Well, now I’m highly questioning your taste in men.”
“You weren’t before?”
“What? With V? A masked stalker is everyone’s type.”
“I’m Malachi.” The man formerly in the green mask walked over to us to introduce himself.
“And you’ve met me,” Cole said.
“Nice to meet you, Malachi,” I said, looking up at his face, illuminated partially in the streetlights. His dark hair was slicked back with sweat; his light eyes sparkled even in the low lighting. I’d say I’ve heard great things about you from V, but V doesn’t tend to tell me anything.”
“So I hear.” Malachi sighed, reminding me of a disappointed dad.
“Be patient with him. He has his reasons.” V and his still silent cohort joined Malachi and Cole.
Behind his mask, I swore I could almost see a shy smile on V’s face.
“My van is parked in the parking lot behind us. Where did you park your vehicle?”
After the insanity of the night, I had to search the corners of my brain for the place I had parked. “At a gas station down the street from the building we were at.”
“The church parking lot across the street was full, so we avoided parking there,” Katy added. “Probably more cars parked at that church for an illegal fight than there’s ever been for an actual service.” She started to chuckle at her own joke but was silenced by a raised eyebrow from Malachi.
“Good,” Malachi said. “The police are probably too preoccupied at the church to check the comings and goings at the gas station. We should be good to head out there in a few.” He turned to head back to his van, signaling for us to follow him with a nod of his head.
“Let’s get in the van before we draw attention to ourselves out here. ”
I hadn’t seen Katy so flushed by a man outside of Ian Somerhalder before, which, in a way, Malachi actually kind of looked a little Somerhaldy.
As though second-guessing herself at first, Katy cleared her throat before she spoke with her eyes glued to the elaborate piece of art on Malachi’s back, lengthening her strides to keep up with him. “I love the cross on your back.”
“Thanks. I got it done after I graduated from Wakefield.”
“Oh, is that a university or a trade school of sorts?”
“It’s a seminary.”
V snorted, stifling a laugh when Katy stopped walking, her mouth agape in what had been a record scratch moment for her. Perhaps seeking confirmation that Malachi hadn’t been screwing with her, she looked at the other men, who all nodded.
“Fucking Christ.” She gasped, slapping her hands over her mouth. “Oh, shit. Jesus. God, I’m sorry. You know what, I’ll just shut up now.”
“Well, you broke Katy. I hope you’re pleased with yourselves.” I laughed, reaching my arm around her back to comfort her.
“I’m going to have a lot to confess after tonight.” She leaned her head on my shoulder, but I noticed she was still watching Malachi with the same intensity I had when I watched my Keurig brewing my coffee in the morning.
“Don’t worry,” Malachi shot back, “so does Vengeance.”