12. Lilah #3
Another alarm starts somewhere below me and then another. The entire building erupts with noise.
I smell smoke. My eyes snap to the door. A thin, gray line slips underneath it.
No.
I move backwards. The phone connects.
"Emergency services, which service do you require?"
"Fire. Police. Both." I cough as the smoke thickens. "There's smoke in my building and someone's outside my apartment. I think someone's hurt."
I give the address just as another alarm joins the others. The smoke coming beneath the door gets darker. I run to the bedroom, to the window fire escape.
I shove it open and lean out, cold air hits my face. I look down: nobody, the alley is empty. I look up and nothing. My phone starts ringing.
Kai.
Relief hits so hard my knees almost give out.
I answer. "Kai."
"Lilah." His voice is sharp. "What's happening?"
"Jinx was outside, he's bleeding. He told me not to open the door and then he disappeared. Savage isn't here and now there's smoke coming under the door."
"Did you open it?"
"No."
"Good. Don't."
"I'm not."
"Where are you?"
"Bedroom."
"Fire escape?"
"Yeah."
"Look down."
"I did. There's nobody there."
"Stay on the phone with me."
I cough again. Smoke is starting to creep into the bedroom.
"Kai, I have to get out."
"I want you on the fire escape. Stay where I can hear you."
I climb through the window. The metal is freezing beneath my bare feet. "I'm out."
"I'm coming back."
"Where are you?"
"Ten minutes."
Ten minutes. I look at the smoke gathering behind the window. I don't have ten minutes.
"Start down," he says. "Slow and keep talking."
I grip the railing. "I'm moving."
"Good."
I take the first set of stairs, my hands are shaking, but I make it down one floor.
"Kai?"
"I'm here."
I keep moving, the phone is pressed so tightly to my ear it hurts. I make it down another floor. Almost there, but then I freeze.
"Lilah."
I stop and everything inside me turns to ice. Not because I don't recognize the voice, but because I do. I haven't heard it since Connecticut, I haven't wanted to hear it since the cabin. Since Lucy.
Slowly, I look down and see Evan standing at the bottom of the fire escape.
He smiles. "Hello, Lilah."
My fingers clamp around the railing, and Kai is saying something through the phone, but I can't hear him. All I can hear is Lucy screaming and all I can see is blood, the knife, and her hand reaching for mine.
When you get out of here, live enough for both of us.
"Lilah?"
Kai, God, I suck in a breath. "Evan."
Silence, but when Kai speaks, his voice has changed, harder, darker, angrier. "Get back inside."
I look toward the window above me where smoke pours through it now. "I can't."
"Lilah, listen to me. Do not go down another fucking step."
Evan's smile widens and then he moves slightly to the side, revealing Jinx. He's on his knees against the wall, blood covers one side of his face, his hands are behind his back and there's a man standing behind him with a gun pressed against his head.
Oh God. "Jinx."
His head lifts. "Lilah, don't."
Evan looks up at me. "Come down."
"Fuck you."
He laughs. "Still got that mouth."
"Kai—"
"I'm here."
Evan looks at Jinx and then at me. "Come down, Lilah."
"No."
The man behind Jinx presses the gun harder against his head and Jinx closes his eyes. "Don't fucking do it," he says.
My stomach twists as Evan sighs. "You always did make everything difficult."
"Let him go."
"You come down, he walks away."
"Lilah, no." Kai's voice is hard in my ear. "You stay exactly where you are."
I look at Jinx. Blood drips from his chin onto his cut. He came here because of me, he's hurt because of me, and I know what a gun sounds like when it goes off in a small space, Omen taught me how to use a gun. I know what it looks like when someone you love stops breathing in front of you.
I can't do it again. I can't watch another person die.
"Lilah." Kai knows; I hear it in his voice. "Don't."
I close my eyes. "I'm sorry."
"No. Lilah, you fucking stay there. I'm almost—"
I hang up. My hand shakes as I lower the phone. Evan watches me descend the final flight. "Good girl."
"Don't call me that."
His smile disappears. Good. I reach the bottom but don't step off. Instead, I hit record on my cell. If he kills me, if he kills Jinx, I want there to be proof of who did it.
"Let Jinx go."
"You first."
"No."
His eyes narrow.
"Gun goes down and he walks away."
For a second, nobody moves. And then Evan nods, and the man behind Jinx lowers the gun. "Untie him," Evan directs.
"Lilah—"
"Shut up, Jinx."
Even now, he looks offended. Good. He's alive enough to be offended.
The man cuts whatever is binding his hands. Jinx immediately tries to get up. He makes it halfway before his legs give out.
"Go," I tell him.
"I'm not fucking leaving you."
Evan pulls a gun from the back of his waistband and points it at Jinx. "Then I'll make the decision easier."
I step off the ladder. "Stop." Evan looks at me. "I'm here."
His gaze moves over me. "Yeah." I hate the satisfaction in his face.
"Now let him go."
Evan gestures with the gun, and the other man grabs Jinx beneath the arm and shoves him toward the mouth of the alley. Jinx stumbles and turns. "Lilah."
"Go."
His face twists. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Because I made the choice, not him.
He takes another step and the man moves behind him.
I see it a second too late.
"Jinx!"
Something comes down hard against the side of his head. His knees buckle and he hits the ground. "No!"
I lunge toward him, but Evan catches my wrist. Every instinct in me screams. I twist hard and drive my knee forward, but he knows it's coming. His grip tightens.
"Still fighting."
"Always." I slam my heel down on his foot.
He swears, and briefly, his grip loosens. I wrench backwards, almost free, but the other man catches me from behind, and an arm locks around my waist.
I scream. Not because I think anyone will save me. But because Kai told me once that if somebody ever tries to take me, to make as much fucking noise as possible. So I do, I scream until my throat burns. I kick, scratch, bite. My nails catch skin and somebody curses.
Evan grabs my face. "Enough."
I spit at him and his expression changes. There he is, the man from the cabin. The calm mask slips and I see underneath it. "You should've stayed gone," he says.
"I tried."
Something hits the back of my legs and my knees buckle. Hands drag me toward a black SUV parked beyond the alley.
No. Not again.
I fight harder. Then I remember, my phone’s still recording. Kai will come here, I know he will. I loosen my fingers and let it fall; it hits the ground beneath the fire escape.
The rear door of the SUV opens, and I catch the frame with both hands. "No!"
Someone pries my fingers away; I kick backwards and connect with something solid resulting in a grunt. Then I'm shoved inside; I twist immediately, but Evan climbs in after me, and the door slams shut, locks engaging.
My chest heaves, my hands shake, but I look him straight in the eye.
He smiles. "You really thought that biker could keep you from me?"
Kai. God, I’ll never forget the sound of his voice on the phone. Stay exactly where you are.
The way he looked at me this morning when I called him by his name.
I swallow. "You've made a mistake."
Evan leans back against the seat. "Have I?"
"Yeah."
The SUV starts moving. I look through the rear window as the alley disappears behind us, at my apartment, and my phone.
I turn back to Evan. "He's going to come for me."
His smile widens. "I'm counting on it."