Chapter 6 Zane
Zane
“Ican’t go anymore,” Les says from beside me.
We’ve been running for hours and haven’t stopped.
Jay ran after us for a while, yelling threats, then just…
stopped. I didn’t like that at all. There’s nothing around us besides empty land and even emptier buildings.
We figured we would be safer in the woods than in one of the houses because Jay would look there.
We took out three guards, but that left two to help Jay, and we don’t know how many more he has at his disposal.
He knows where he’s looking; we don’t even have the first clue about where the hell we are.
“Just a little bit longer, Beautiful,” I reply, kissing the back of her hand tucked into mine.
“You’ve said that the last ten times,” she replies, and I could cheer with joy. The further we get away from that place, the more Les comes back to herself.
“I know. But we can’t stay in these woods.”
She tugs my hand to get me to stop. “We have to stop for a minute.”
I look into her tired blue eyes illuminated by the moonlight and search for somewhere we can hide.
I spot a big group of trees and lead her that way.
We hunker down behind them, and I pull her into my lap so she doesn’t have to sit on the hard ground in that thin nightgown.
I can’t even offer her a shirt because all I have on are dirty grey sweatpants.
I don’t know how much I have left in me to run, either.
We’re malnourished and dehydrated. Our feet are bleeding from being barefoot.
I have fresh wounds on my chest that occasionally bleed and a broken nose.
I cleaned it up the best I could on our way out with a towel I grabbed on the run, but it still hurts like a bitch.
She’s rigid against my chest until I wrap my arms around her, pulling her closer.
She melts against my chest, and I soak up whatever I can because I know I won’t get this anymore as soon as we find her guys.
No matter what happened back there or what we said, I know she will never choose me, and Ryder will never let me into her life.
“I don’t know how much longer I can go, Zane,” Les whispers, finally turning her head to look at me.
I kiss her forehead. “We can rest, but we have to start moving again soon.”
When we finally broke out of the backdoor, the sun was high in the sky, and I guessed it was around twelve or one in the afternoon; it started getting dark hours ago.
I hear a twig snap to our left, and our heads shoot in that direction. I listen closely and hear the soft rustling of leaves, like something or someone, is walking toward us.
“Get ready to run,” I whisper to Les, and she nods. Could he have caught up to us that fast, or was he biding his time until we stopped?
We hear another twig snap and take off, running like hell.
I’m not going to risk staying there like sitting ducks.
I keep my hand securely around hers and slow my stride as much as I can to match her shorter one.
We run until I hear Les struggling to breathe, and my breath is also sawing in and out of my lungs.
I jerk her behind a tree and pull her against me.
I strain my ears, listening for pounding feet behind me, and don’t hear anything; I risk looking around our hiding spot and don’t see anything either.
She’s shaking in my arms, so I pull her closer. I just want this nightmare to be over for her. She’s been through hell and back but somehow found the strength to help me fight to get us out of there.
After I killed the first guard, it was like a surge of adrenaline for both of us.
It took us forever to figure out how to get out of that nasty basement, but when we did, she was the only one who had been to that part of the house.
We stumbled on the guard in the kitchen, and he came at me hard.
Les jerked the closest weapon she could find, a huge butcher knife, and between the two of us, got him to where she could stab him.
I caught the guard by the door by surprise, quickly snapping his neck.
We pulled all their masks off to categorize who they were because these motherfuckers would pay for what they did to her.
“Zane,” Les whispers, pulling my attention to her. I look down at her, and she’s pointing in front of us. “There’s a break in the trees.”
I look one more time to make sure we just panicked and ran for nothing before grabbing her hand. We run full force towards the trees, and when we bust through, it’s just an open road, but you can see the city below us. I take a closer look around us, and this place looks familiar.
“We can’t stay on the road,” Les says, pulling me back toward the tree line. “It’s too open.”
“Beautiful and smart,” I reply, kissing her hand again.
She shakes her head but doesn’t comment.
We walk the tree line for miles before we see headlights coming toward us.
I pull her into the trees and push her to the ground, covering her body with mine before we’re seen, my heart hammering in my chest. I hear the car go by but don’t risk looking.
There’s only one reason someone would be out this way in the middle of the night, and none of it’s good.
I feel Les shaking below me and slide off her.
She rolls to her side, and tears stream down her face.
“Fuck. Did I hurt you?” I go to sit up, and she pulls me back down to lie beside her.
She shakes her head. “We have to stop.”
“Beautiful, we can’t lay on the ground,” I say, pushing her hair off her face. I run my finger over her cheek, wiping away tears.
“Where are we supposed to go?” she asks raggedly, trying to choke back a sob. “We don’t even know where we are.”
I need to search for a clue to tell us where we are, but I need her to stay safe. “You stay here, and I’ll go look around.”
She clutches my arm before I can move. “No. Please don’t leave me here alone.”
“Let’s walk further and see if we can find something. If not, we’ll find a place to lay low for the rest of the night,” I reason, rubbing her cheek again because I can’t help myself.
She nods reluctantly. Hopping to my feet, I help her stand. When I have her on her feet, I grasp both sides of her face. “I’m going to get us home,” I promise. She closes her eyes and nods again as more tears splash over my fingers. I gently peck her lips. “Hop on my back.”
“No. You’re just as tired as me,” she argues.
I turn around. “Get on.” I don’t give a fuck how tired I am.
If I can take an ounce of pain from her poor feet, I will.
I hear her sigh and expect her to argue more, but her little hands latch onto my shoulders.
She jumps up and wraps her legs around my waist, so I tuck an arm under her to hold her on.
Once she wraps her arms around my neck, and I know she’s securely in place, I take off toward the road, staying within the trees.
We walk about two miles before the road starts sloping down, bringing us closer to the city lights below, and I realize where we are.
“We’re in Abandoned Hills,” I tell her, looking around, trying to figure out which way to go now.
Les squeezes my neck. “If we keep going down, we can go to Concrete Row.”
I stop walking. “You want to go to gang territory in the middle of the night?” I ask and realize how stupid that is. Les leads those gangs. “Never mind.”
She breathes, and I swear it sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “Did you forget who I am?”
Sort of. “No. Which is the best way?”
“Let me down,” she says, wiggling on my back, and I reluctantly let her slide to her feet. “That way,” she says, pointing down the hill. She tugs my hand, and I feel relief wash through me.
If we can make it there, we can call for backup.
“Ghost’s pool hall is right around the corner,” Les whispers from our hiding spot.
She waited until we were in the middle of Concrete Row to tell me that some of these gangs weren’t hers, and they weren’t fans.
And here I am, waltzing her into the middle of it in nothing but a nightgown that’s practically see-through.
We creep to the corner she was pointing at, and the pool hall comes into view, still lit up, but the closed sign on.
“That’s his car,” she whispers, indicating the blacked-out Dodge Challenger sitting to the side.
“I don’t like this,” I repeat for the millionth time.
“What else are we supposed to do?” she asks and tugs my hand. “He’ll help us.”
“I’m a fucking cop, Les,” I hiss.
She stops and turns to me, taking both my hands. “He won’t hurt you without my word.” She squeezes. “I wouldn’t be here without you, Tesoro.”
She starts tugging my hand again, and I follow behind her.
Walking around the back of the building, we find a door; she takes a deep breath, bangs on it, and then steps back.
It takes several times banging on it before it’s finally shoved open.
A blonde guy about three inches taller than me narrows his eyes before they widen when they land on Les. “Alessa?”
She nods rapidly. “Hey, Ghost.”
“Holy shit. Get in here,” he says, opening the door wider.
I follow close behind her, trying to stay with her, so he knows I’m not letting her walk in alone.
He looks at me with a glare but doesn’t say anything.
He jerks off his button-up shirt and silently hands it to Les.
She takes it with a shy smile and pulls it on.
It swamps her, fitting like a dress, but it does the trick of covering her; he gets major points for that.
He walks us into a backroom with a large table in the middle full of gangbangers who know exactly who I am.
When they spot Les, they all jump to their feet, mostly out of shock and respect.
Ghost leads her to a chair at the table, and she sinks into it with a grimace; I sit beside her, her hand still tucked into mine.
Ghost rounds the table and sits in front of us. “What the fuck? I feel like I’m staring at an actual ghost.”
She smiles, but it’s wobbly. I know she’s trying to hold back tears in front of these guys. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ll call Ryder,” Ghost says and jerks his phone out of his pocket. As much as I’m glad she’s safe, I dread what happens next. “Man, I need you at Shooters. Now.” He listens to whatever Ryder says. “I’m staring at Alessa.” Ghost nods and hands the phone to her.
“Ryder?” she whispers, and she can’t stop the tears from falling. “It’s really me.” She listens to him with tears streaming down her face. “I love you too. So much,” she says, then hands the phone back to Ghost. “They’re on their way.” I can’t imagine the relief he just felt.
“Damn,” Ghost says, running his hand through his shaggy hair. “They busted up that house today looking for you. They’ve been searching around there for you all night.”
“We got out this morning,” I answer when she starts crying harder.
I pull her to my chest and ignore his narrowing eyes.
“Can you tell your boys to stand down?” He looks at Les for her answer; no way he’ll listen to me.
When she nods, he waves his hand, and they all sit back down.
“Thanks,” I grit out. I’m so fucking uncomfortable.
Most of these guys I’ve arrested at one point or the other.
I’m not their favorite person. “Do you have a first aid kit?” I ask. I need to look at her poor feet.
He nods before standing from the table and striding to a row of cabinets.
He walks back over and hands it to me. I turn my chair around, then hers.
Pulling her feet gently into my lap, I wince at the sight.
They’re cut, bruised, and bleeding. One of the other guys hands me several cleaning wipes so I can clean the dirt as much as I can.
“You need to do something about that chest,” Ghost comments sitting back down.
I glance down and shake my head. “I’m not worried about me.”
Ghost grunts, so I focus on Les. She’s holding her breath, but I occasionally hear her choke back a whimper. I get most of the dirt and blood off before digging in the kit for antiseptic. “I’m sorry, Beautiful,” I apologize before swiping it across her feet, knowing it will sting like hell.
“It’s okay,” she says quietly.
I put thick gauze on the bottoms of her feet before wrapping them in bandages to hold them on. It isn’t perfect, and she needs a professional to look at it, but it’ll hold until that can happen. I rub her ankles and sit her feet back on the floor. “Thank you,” she whispers.
“Anytime, Beautiful”
We sit there for the longest time, staring at each other, neither believing we’re finally out.
Ghost glances down at his phone before jumping up and jogging to the door.
One by one, Les’ guys spill through with Ryder in the lead.
I prepare myself for the inevitable but bite off any bitterness when someone pushes from the back of the group.
Les makes a choked sound before jumping to her feet.
I can’t explain the noise, but it ripped through my heart.
“Gage!” she yells, hitting him mid-stride and wrapping her arms around his neck. He wraps his arms around her waist and lifts her clean off her feet. “They told me you were dead,” she cries.
I don’t know who’s crying harder, her or Gage. The rest of her guys surround her, and she’s lost within their bodies.
And lost to me.