20. Last Chance
20
Last Chance
“Why didn’t you go, Winter? Why did you look back?” These are the words I’ve been hearing on repeat for the past twenty minutes. I wish I had an answer to give him. But I don’t. Hearing him scream in pain was all it took for me to break my promise.
And I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant he’d be okay.
“I couldn’t leave. They were going to kill you, remember?” I try to think of all the possible scenarios. Each time, they end the same way: with Mr. Traitor shoving me back inside and tying me to a chair. “Plus, Blake was outside. He would’ve stopped me anyway.”
Haze scoffs. “Maybe but you could’ve tried. That’s all I asked of you.”
They decided to move us out of the basement, which means they’re either ready to kill us or… they’re ready to kill us. That pretty much summarizes it.
We’re now in the reception room, both tied to chairs with our hands behind our back. Of course, they made sure to place Haze’s chair and mine in opposite directions so that we can’t see each other’s faces or do anything that would allow us to find comfort in one another.
Finding out that Blake was a traitor felt like getting my heart ripped out of my chest at first, but then, the answers to every question I ever asked myself about him came to me. Things started to add up and make sense. Like the first time a gang tried to kill me at the party and Blake mysteriously disappeared without an explanation. He wanted me to die. Or the time he busted me for spending time with Haze and I just happened to receive a message from the unknown number at the exact same time. It was him all along. Working on both sides.
I guess I trusted him to the point of overlooking these gigantic red flags. Shame on me for believing in him.
Tanner’s guys went out of the room several minutes ago to make some calls. Something about needing backup in case we pull a stunt like that again and actually succeed.
“Can you untie yourself like you did earlier?” I ask.
“I wish. They learned their lesson. I don’t know how to get out of handcuffs.”
I sigh, throwing my head back. “Awesome.”
“We need to get to the microphone and turn it on.”
I look to my left to see Haze’s jacket on a table a couple of feet away. I can’t even begin to imagine how many people trespass here. Must be why Tanner was so worried about the noise. The neighbors probably have 911 on speed dial.
“From there, all we have to do is hope the connection isn’t broken and tell the East Side where we are.”
“How’d you even know we were in the hotel, by the way?”
“I used to come here before it closed. It used to look good, believe it or not.”
The ripped curtains, stained carpet, multiple cigarettes butts, and empty beer bottles scattered all over the floor make it near impossible to imagine. I’m sure it was marvelous once upon a time, but now… it’s the definition of a dump.
“Bring your chair closer,” he says.
I do as I’m told, desperately trying to move the piece of furniture without falling backward.
“I can reach you. Don’t move.” I feel his fingers grazing mine as he works his magic behind me.
A couple of seconds is all he needs.
“It’s done. Go!”
The searing pain of the ropes on my wrists fades away, and I know that if we ever get out of here, I’ll have to ask him to show me how he does it. Realizing there’s just one slight problem, I look down to my feet that are still tied together.
This is great.
Jumping like a rabbit it is.
I can hear Haze hold back a chuckle when I begin the most ridiculous “walk” of my life toward the jacket on the table.
“Turn it on.”
“How?” I ask, examining the tiny microphone that fits in the palm of my hand carefully. It’s no wonder that Tanner’s guys didn’t find it.
“The switch’s on the side. It’s easy.”
When I see a gleaming green light blinking, any trace of shame I might’ve felt when I was leaping ridiculously vanishes.
It was worth it.
“We have no confirmation that the connection is strong enough. They might not hear us, but we have to try.”
“Kendrick, it’s me, Winter. I’m alive and with Haze in the abandoned hotel on Route 9. Tanner did it and he’s got backup. A lot of backup. Including Blake—yes, he’s a traitor. I wish I didn’t have to tell you like this. Bring as many guys from the East Side as you can.” I repeat the message as many times as possible in case they didn’t catch it.
I turn back to look at Haze. “What do we do now?”
“Now… we wait and we hope that they heard us.”
The look of defeat on his face tells a story of its own. He isn’t used to feeling weak… helpless.
“So… they’re either coming to get us, or our message disappeared into thin air and never reached them.”
Haze’s eyes divert to the floor. “Pretty much.”
Footsteps come tumbling down the hall the next second.
Panic takes over him. “Come back. Fast.”
I drop the jacket where it belongs and jump back to the chair I just escaped from. Sliding into the same position I was previously in, I hold my hands behind my back in an attempt to fool them into thinking I’m still tied up. I’m barely back into position when Tanner’s right-hand men enter the room and glare at us angrily.
“Tanner and his guys are on their way. Don’t even think about trying to escape again,” Owen spits.
He’s still wearing his coward mask.
Then enters the one person I still can’t get used to seeing in the bad guy’s team: Blake.
“Look who we’ve got here—Mr. Bad Boy and the East Side girl.”
I can’t stop myself. “Don’t forget Mr. Traitor.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Can you believe it? She’s tied to a chair and she still tries to play smart.”
“How could you?” The words burst out of my mouth.
“Well, you see, I’ve become familiar with something called staying on the winning side.”
“We trusted you. Kendrick called you his brother.”
“I do hope he can forgive me one day and understand I had no choice. As soon as you showed up, I knew the East Side would go to shit. And guess what? It did. There was no way I was staying on this sinking ship.”
“No choice? You could’ve stuck by your friends—that’s a choice. But you know, whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“You talk a lot for a girl whose life is literally in my hands.” He leans forward, his fingers trailing down my cheek. I pull away in disgust.
“Where’s the East Side now?” I ask.
“They think I’m off meeting a source who has info about the kidnapping, those dumbasses. They’re so desperate to find you they would’ve believed anything. You should’ve seen their faces when they woke up in the car in front of Haze’s house. They couldn’t understand why they’d just passed out when you needed them. I bet they still think one of their enemy planted the sleeping drug into the car.”
It feels like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders. They’re okay. They’re alive.
“You know what’s funny?” Blake plays with a strand of my hair before letting it fall back on my shoulder. “I used to think you were cute. Until you followed us to the meeting, that is. It took me a while before I actually changed sides. But Tanner just had so much more to offer… I couldn’t say no. I knew I had to get rid of you.”
I cry. “What did I ever do to you? Why do you hate me so much?”
“Oh, but you see, I don’t. I don’t hate you at all, Winter. I don’t care much for you, to be honest, but you know who does? Haze.” He smirks, “And the worst part is you actually think he wants more than to jump your bones.”
Haze doesn’t answer nor deny it.
“Do you really think he would’ve laid eyes on you if you weren’t the East Side girl? He may care about you now, but if you hadn’t been Kendrick’s cousin, you’d be another one of his conquests that he’d laugh about with his friends.”
He’s lying. That’s not the Haze I know.
“Stop,” Haze huffs.
“Why would I do that? The girl deserves to know the truth. She’s a temporary girl. Just like they all are. Just like Riley.”
My lips part. Riley?
“But he didn’t tell you about her, did he?”
I wait for Haze to explain himself. Wait is the key word here.
“How the hell do you know about that?”
“Of course he didn’t tell you. Why would he tell you he got a girl pregnant?”
My lungs collapse.
Haze is a father?
“Don’t you dare talk about things you don’t understand.”
“Oh, but I do understand. She was sixteen when you got her pregnant, wasn’t she? Then you left her to rot. Because even though you said that you cared, in the end you were still this heartless piece of shit, and she was still a temporary girl.”
“Enough,” Haze barks.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? For me to stop divulging your darkest secrets? You don’t want Winter to know you’re a father? You don’t want me to scare her away? Well, don’t worry, she’s too stupid to be afraid of you. If she was even a little bit smart, she would’ve run away from you a long time ago.”
“I’m not a father. She said she’d get an abortion.”
“And you never cared to check?” Blake spits.
Haze’s words seem to have left him at first.
“How the hell do you even know about Riley? I haven’t heard from her in years.”
“Oh, that’s funny. Neither have I. She never wrote. Never called. All because of you. You knew her parents would kick her out, and they did. Well, I lost my sister that day, my only real family—and now you’re going to pay.”
Haze sighs in realization. “You’re her brother. The one they sent away.”
“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.” Blake begins to walk around us in circle. “You can’t even imagine my surprise when I heard that she’d run away. My parents were never the same. My mother would’ve done everything to get her back home, but my father couldn’t stomach the thought that his daughter was the trashy girl who’d gotten pregnant at sixteen. They divorced five months after. You destroyed my family. You’re the reason I might never see my sister ever again.” He punches Haze in the face as hard as he can.
I wince in helplessness. I don’t want to judge him, but what does that say about him? He let her down and alone with a baby at sixteen.
“If I wasn’t tied to a chair right now…”
“Keep making threats, Adams.”
“Is that why you’re working with my brother? Because you want to kill me?”
Blake snorts. “Kill you? Please. Your brother would never allow that. He still believes that you can be saved. But we have something in common, him and I. We both want her gone.” He turns to me.
Haze raises his voice. “What does she have to do with any of this?”
“I don’t know about your brother. He says he wants to set you back on the right path. As for me, I’m just doing to you the same thing you did to me.”
He pauses for a dreadfully long moment.
“Taking someone you care about away from you.”
He tilts his head to the side as he analyzes me thoroughly. Then he says the three most terrifying words I’ve ever heard in my life.
“Hold her still.”
Tanner’s guys don’t flinch. One of them leaves the room and comes back with a baseball bat. I see it, and in this moment, I know… miracles don’t exist.
The first man pins my body down with all his strength while the second holds the bat up in the air. I can’t move my arms. All I can do is scream and wiggle. How ironic that even when my arms are free, they’re not.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Haze screams, fighting to get out of his chair. “I’ll kill you. I swear to God.”
“Enjoy the show” is the last thing I hear Blake say before his guy takes a powerful swing at my leg and I scream in the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt.
I don’t shed a tear. Somehow, I know my misery is what they want and I’ll be dead before I give it to them.
In that moment, as I hear Haze shouting at the top of his lungs to get them to stop, I wonder if my life has been what I wanted it to be. I see myself growing up in Canada without a father and wonder if he’ll show up to my funeral. I remember every little moment I wasted being sad. I think of every single person who told me to stay away from Haze, and I wonder how different things would be… if I had just listened .
“That’s enough,” Blake says.
“You’re dead. Dead, you got it?” Haze shouts.
Through the tears I hold back, I look at the traitor standing tall in front of me. He’s smiling.
“I hate to cut this short, but Tanner’s going to want to see results, and well… I’m getting bored.”
He gets something out of his pocket.
A gun.
This is it Winter, you’re going to die .
He points it at me. “Any last words?”
My eyes darken. Unbidden, a voice plays in my head on a loop. And that voice… is Haze’s. “Do you want to be a damsel in distress? No? Then prove it.”
I’m not dying today.
“Yes.”
I pause.
“You were right, Haze. One move makes all the difference.”
Blake frowns, “What?”
From there, the events unravel so quickly the traitor can barely keep up. He doesn’t expect my hands to be free, which gives me the advantage. I use the technique Haze taught me to disarm someone by chopping at his wrist with one hand and pushing the barrel of the gun in the opposite direction with the other. Blake’s face drops as his gun crashes to the ground several feet away from him.
He’s trying to pick it up when another gun goes off in a deafening noise. At first, I think that one of Tanner’s guy fired at me, but I’m still here when, clearly, I should be dead and bleeding out on the floor.
The shriek of pain that follows explains everything.
Blake’s lying on the ground, his leg covered in blood as he bawls his eyes out.
“Here comes the rescue squad,” a voice screams as people rush inside the building from every possible entrance.
But it’s not just anyone.
That voice belongs to Will.
The East Side is here.
“Winter!” Kendrick’s voice rings in my ear, and I’m overwhelmed by a thousand emotions. The numerous fighters Kendrick brought easily manage to get Owen and Man Number Two under control. Too bad Tanner’s not around to witness his evil plan fail. Will unties me and sets Haze free after he steals the key to the handcuffs from a knocked out Owen.
“Get them out of here,” Kendrick calls to his friend. “I’ll take care of the traitor.” He then gets on top of Blake, pulling him up by the grasp he has of his collar.
“Kendrick, I—”
“No, you don’t get to speak. You are dead to me from now on. You are nothing. If you ever try to hurt my family again, I’ll kill you and make it so painful you’re going to wish you were never born, you hear me?” Kendrick circles Blake’s throat with both his hands.
“I’m sorry. I had to survive,” he chokes out.
Kendrick spits in Blake’s face as a response. “Yeah, well, what’s the point of surviving if it’s to spend the rest of your life alone?”
The punch he gives him when he finishes his sentence renders Blake unconscious.
“Come on, we have to go. Now!”
Kendrick throws something into the room and a foggy cloud of thick gas quickly fills up the atmosphere as we rush out of the building through the nearest entrance.
It’s over. The nightmare is over.
My cousin’s voice cuts through the uproar. “Run. Get to the car.”
We see it—Kendrick’s car in the distance. Alex is waiting inside. I bite my lower lip roughly, reliving the excruciating pain I’ve been through barely minutes ago every time I take a step forward. I’m supposed to be running when even putting pressure on my toe hurts me.
“Her leg. She’s hurt,” Haze screams through the chaos.
We’re this close. This close to escaping.
But when we hear rattling gunshots, my first instinct is to run… and my leg can’t take it.
I collapse to the ground, screaming in agony.
The asphalt doesn’t hurt. What truly hurts is the big chunk of glass entering my flesh.
Cutting my leg open with what I assume to be a beer bottle and bleeding profusely feels nothing like I expected. The pain isn’t even the worst part.
Watching my last chance to escape burst in flames is.
Haze bellows from afar, “No!”
I try to get up. I know Tanner’s guys aren’t far behind. I’m holding them back. They need to leave me.
I close my eyes, unable to see the red fluid gushing out of me any longer. I feel brawny arms pick me up from the ground. He’s running, holding me up like I’m weightless.
“No, no, no. Fuck! Winter, stay with me.” I recognize Haze’s voice instantly. It sounds so close but yet so far. “Open your eyes.”
“What the hell happened?” Kendrick’s voice is followed by the sound of a car door being slammed open. Haze puts me in the back seat and scrambles inside, followed by Will. The vehicle takes off in a booming roar.
Every ounce of strength I ever had leaves me, my body no longer listening to my brain. I always had no tolerance for pain, not to mention a phobia of blood ever since I was a kid. I struggle with my time of the month. So watching liters of blood pour out of me? I don’t think so.
“You’re going to be okay. It’s over,” Haze says. “Open your eyes, Winter. Look at me.”
Using the very last of my energy, I open my eyes, just enough to see the pain in his.
Even if I do survive this, Haze lost the fight. He has to hold up his end of the deal. We can never see each other again.
It’s now or never. I have to tell him how I feel.
“Haze, I—”
He cuts me off, his voice trembling. “Don’t speak. Save your strength.” He tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear. I can feel and hear the car screeching down the silent roads. I think back to the multiple gunshots. There’s no way nobody in the neighborhood heard it. The cops are probably already on their way.
I can feel myself slipping away… from life… from reality…
From him.
Haze whispers, “It’s my turn to speak.”
All my senses dissipate, and I can’t bring myself to fight it anymore. The darkness takes over me.
“Keep her awake,” Kendrick yells.
I can no longer speak or move a muscle.
But he makes it better.
Four words. Sixteen letters.
He said it. I bet he thought that I wouldn’t hear.
But I did.
And I’ll never forget it.
“I love you, Kingston.”