Chapter 46 - Lily
Lily
The subtle bounce of his quick steps jolted me. I tapped between his shoulder blades. “Put me down. We can’t leave him there.” Dean stabbed my father. Oh God. “You don’t carry me without permission, remember?”
Dean suggested blaming him for Julian’s death. That’d send the sheriff’s entire army after us, hunting him, when I’d been the person who’d done it.
“I’ve heard a lot of stupid tonight, and that statement right there is worse than all the rest.” My body slid down his until my legs dangled, and our eyes met.
Cold sweat glistened on his forehead. “There’s no way I’ll let you go back there.
” He cradled me against him, arms around my waist. “How do you feel?”
“Horrible. Julian tried to—”
“I know. I’m proud of you. Don’t feel guilty for offing that asshole.
Talk is later.” My feet landed on the ground before Dean placed both palms on his thighs.
“Because this is a long night, and we aren’t close to done.
Stay here. In this spot.” He pointed to the ground. “Don’t go anywhere. Do not move.”
We hid in the shadows on the opposite side of the street from the sheriff’s station. I should go inside to turn myself in. It’d save Dean. Instead, a new determination won out. “No, we’re not doing that.”
Dean’s eyes narrowed. “Lily, you aren’t surrendering. That’s not an option.”
I followed him. “You don’t go anywhere without me. Never again. Don’t you ever leave me behind. If we’re escaping, we do it together.”
“Together.” He pulled me into a fast hug. “That’s my new favorite word. Not without you. Got it. Stay close to me because we don’t have much time.” He kissed my forehead. “We need a car. How about distracting that deputy while I steal one?”
His never-ending penchant for theft. “That’s perfect. We’ll do it together.”
Dean didn’t argue. “Stay close so I can get behind him. We don’t have long.” He kissed my cheek this time, undercutting his harsh tone. “It’s just us now.”
“Us. Let’s hurry.”
I crossed the street and waved at a deputy leaning against his patrol car. “Hey, there you are. The sheriff said there’s a problem back that way.” I pointed over my shoulder with my thumb. “Someone killed Julian Gustafson. Isn’t that horrible? They’re looking for whoever did it.”
The deputy drew himself up, recognizing me. “Hey, you’re that guy’s wife. The mayor’s kid.”
“Yes, have we met?” I offered my hand.
Dean snuck up behind him and grabbed his neck. The deputy yelped and reached for a weapon. His hands fumbled, groping in the dark.
Dean was faster. He twisted the deputy’s neck, forcing him to the ground.
“You killed him,” I said after Dean stood up.
He undid the deputy’s coat and checked his pockets. “Choked the life out of him. Not all of it. Left some behind.” He chuckled at his sick humor. “That was a joke, by the way. He’s alive. I knocked him out for a few minutes; that’s all. Oh, there they are.” He dangled a set of keys.
“Why a car?” I didn’t think to ask earlier.
“Cars are faster. Get in. We need to create a show.”
“What show?” My addled brain, overwhelmed by his absence and Julian’s death, struggled with his conversation switches.
Dean shoved me into the passenger seat and went around to the other side. “They keep fuel in their cars, and we don’t have any. Using a vehicle gives my legs a rest, and people notice cars.”
He made no sense. “But we’re trying to get away.”
“Get away and create a distraction.”
The falling snow created the ideal distraction. I’d prefer to use it than us.
The snow had started again while I was inside the grocery store warehouse. A delicate white sheet covered the street and sidewalks. If the expected winter storm had arrived, we needed an escape plan before it was too late.
“A distraction for what?” I asked.
“Talk later, yeah? Right now, we have minutes at most.” Dean flicked the cruiser’s knobs and buttons until flashing red and blue lights reflected on the windows, blinding me.
“Where are we going?”
“Your house.” Dean sped out, bringing me home again only a few short minutes later, where he slammed down on the brake pedal, turning us into a pair of twin projectiles. “Get out. Hurry.”
“They’re following us. What can I do?”
“For now, keep watch.”
Four sets of headlights approached, with matching sirens on a couple of them.
“They found Julian, and they’re coming after us.” Dean popped the trunk, and its weak light turned on. He checked the contents. “A grenade would be helpful. Or a rocket launcher. What is it with small towns and their lack of military gear? That’s another joke.”
The sheriff sent men to track us down, and Dean indulged his humor. “You should join me in freaking out.”
“Panic kills. Survival is easier when you laugh. Dark humor helps. You asked how I keep it together. This is one way.”
The distant car lights reflected off the snow, creating a long white tube that made it difficult to count individual cars.
“Three, maybe four cars. No idea how many people. Hurry.”
“A taser?” Dean tossed it back inside. “If they’re that close, it’s too late. Get inside the carport.”
I followed him inside and stooped to see under its partial walls.
Dean carried a pen-sized flashlight in his mouth. He unwound several towels from a narrow object. It was the shotgun he’d stolen from those men at the red brick house.
“Don’t lose this,” he said, giving me the weapon. “Take this, too.”
He handed over the small flashlight. I moved it so his body’s outline glowed in the frigid air. Individual hairs stuck up from the goosebumps on his exposed arms.
I swallowed. “You’re freezing.”
“I’ve been cold before,” he said, squaring his shoulders.
I took off my jacket. “You need this more than I do right now. Put it on.”
He ceased moving boxes to face me. “You know me better than that. Suggest it again, and I’ll put you over my knee.”
“Keep refusing, and I’ll do the same.”
“Promise?” Dean moved another box and shivered.
I wished panic drove the movement instead of the dropping temperature.
The four cars drew closer.
Blood rushed in my ears. I pulled Dean’s jacket back on, and it simultaneously warmed me and chilled me. Slow breaths. Panic never helped, and Dean had enough challenges.
Dean moved a dark object out from its hiding place against the inside wall.
“My brother’s motorbike. I forgot he had it,” I said.
“Let’s hope it works. Better, let’s hope I can drive it. My bike skills aren’t the best.”
“You know more than I do.”
Dean fiddled, and the bike sprang to life. “Get on.”
“What about helmets?” Four cruisers turned onto the driveway. My voice rose. “They’re here. Hurry.”
The stolen cruiser’s red and blue lights flashed, a beacon drawing the sheriff’s men to us. Dean’s diversion worked.
“And we’re gone,” Dean said.
I wrapped my arms around his waist and burrowed into his icy back, pressing against him, hoping to transfer some of my body’s heat to him.
The snow fell, thicker than it had been only a few minutes ago, as we took off down the street and away from Deer Lake.
I clung to Dean as I shivered from cold and fear. Wind struck my ears and lashed my hair. My nose stung. Dean’s heavy coat offered protection from the oncoming storm, while his only protection was a thin shirt.
Headlights followed, a couple dimming as we broke away, while two more kept up their pursuit.
I looked back as Dean turned off a dirt road, so the motorbike’s engines echoed through the trees. My breath hitched. Another car gone. I cried out, letting him know. Dean didn’t respond.
The temperature dropped as the night wore on, and Dean’s body took the brunt of it. What did he experience as he used his body to protect mine? I held him tight as he drove.
Our escape continued as Dean turned left and left again. A green sign reflected off the motorcycle’s lamp long enough for me to read a word.
Preserve
In our rush to escape, I forgot to ask our destination. We were down to one pursuer. “We’re not alone,” I yelled, hoping he could hear me this time.
Dean turned again rather than respond.
Trees lined both sides of the road as it narrowed to a single lane. Dean took a right, and whoever followed drove past. We were alone.
Alone in the middle of the forest, as the snow thickened. “Where are we?”
Dean didn’t respond to this question either. Either the wind stole them, or he didn’t know.
A thin layer of white coated him, turning his thick, dark hair into an unnatural salt and pepper. Flakes landed on his thin shirt and melted. More hit his legs, leaving dark, wet patches.
We had no hats or scarves, nothing except his thin shirt and a single coat to protect us. We needed fire or shelter, and we needed them soon. For all his protests, even Dean Montgomery would lose to winter.
The motorcycle teetered while the wind continued its onslaught.
Dean slowed. “It’s done,” he hollered as the engine sputtered and choked.
The bike slowed, and the silence grew as the fuel gave out.
“Time to get off,” he said.
I swung my hips off the bike and stretched.
Oppressive trees pressed us in from each side. Dark forms at night, with glowing white wisps on their branches. I had no idea where we were or where we were going.
Dean’s hard shivers worried me. His body trembled as he guided the bike into the woods to hide it from any potential pursuers.
“This way. It’s not far,” he said, pointing at the empty road in front of us.
It faded to a black hole only a few feet away. I didn’t want to go.
I fished the small flashlight out of Dean’s coat pocket and turned it on, appreciating its meager light as we walked.
Dean stumbled over his words, taking care with each one. “Get that off. We may need it later.” The violence in his shivers increased in the short time we’d stopped moving.
If we depended on the small light to save us, we had no chance. I turned it off. “You’ll freeze out here,” I said. My fear escalated with each tremor in his body.
“I’ve been cold before.”
Another variation of the same stubborn line. “Use the coat for a little while. You need to get warm.”
“Keep it.” He forced my arms back through its sleeves.
“Don’t be stubborn. What happens if you develop hypothermia or frostbite out here?”
“Then eat my corpse and save yourself.”
I couldn’t take any more of his dark humor. “You’re not funny.”
He rubbed his arms, though the effort did nothing to slow his shaking.
“We’ll share it. For me, please.” I unzipped the coat, and the bitter cold lashed my exposed chest.
“Keep talking, and I’ll put you over my knee right now. One last fantasy come true before I freeze to death.”
I gave up and wrapped my arms around him as we took several more clumsy steps forward.
Dean allowed it, undercutting his earlier bravado, and I prayed that some of my heat had transferred to him.
The wind picked up, bringing thicker, heavier snow.
Neither of us spoke. So much we needed to say, and it had to wait. My worry for Deer Lake, Julian’s murder, and the sheriff. Dad. Our unfinished argument.
All I heard was the wind’s cruel whistle through the trees and the hard crunch of our feet on the ground.
Our pace slowed as our steps weakened. I kept the rhythm in my head. One step. The other leg. Step. Another leg.
Besides me, Dean’s body quivered as his legs threatened. A knee hit the road.
“Get up,” I begged. “You have to move. Can you hear me? Dean, get up right now.”
My body protested. The muscles in my back burned as I pulled him forward, carrying his weight.
“Tell him who you are,” Dean stuttered.
“Tell who?”
“He’s miserable.”
Dean’s body staggered to the ground.
Tears streamed down my face. “Dean, please don’t do this. I need you. Do you hear me? I need you with me. You promised to keep me safe, and you can’t do that if you give up now.”
He didn’t answer.
“Please. I’m begging.” I wiped my cheeks and turned the flashlight back on.
“You forced me to come with you all this way. You promised to protect me, so get up and move your ass right now. I’m ordering you.
On your feet, soldier. Keep your promise.
Do it. Get up.” I put my arms under his and lifted, screaming from the effort.
Dean staggered to his feet. His judging eyes met mine. They terrified me.
My fingers and toes throbbed. I ignored them.
We marched on, a pair of clumsy soldiers moving in a clumsier line.
“Is it real?” Dean asked after we passed a large rock.
“The boulder?” I was confused.
Dean lost his balance and righted himself without answering.
A large shape appeared, and I blinked because it couldn’t be real. Square shapes didn’t exist in nature.
I turned on the flashlight and cried out.
A cabin.