Chasing Jenna (26 page)

I stopped, motionless as his words sunk in. I wasn’t as close to freedom as I thought, it was complicated. Everything was always complicated. Nothing is ever as it seems. I leaned back into him.

“I have a car parked a few blocks away, but I can’t carry you and get to the car before someone finds us. Do you understand?”

I nodded again, swallowing and wincing against the burning.

“When we go through this door, I need you to run as fast as you can to the library – don’t go anywhere else. My car is parked in the opposite direction. I’m hoping to confuse them by splitting up. I will pick you up; hide next to the building, on the side closest to the dorms, if you get there before me.”

“Then what?” I whispered, grabbing my throat as the words came out.

He stilled, staring down at me as his eyes roamed over my broken face. He pushed a piece of hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear. He knew what I was asking. Once we got out of here, where would we go? The police? According to Ryan, most of them were on The Brotherhood payroll and the others would already have me pegged as a killer. The school? They had to be working with The Brotherhood; how else would they have been able to get all my financial and personal information? My mom was dead and his dad was part of The Brotherhood – we had nowhere safe to go.

He leaned down and kissed my forehead quickly, then pulled me to his chest. I gripped him around the waist and held tightly, realizing we had no ‘then what’. Only this moment – nothing was promised after this.

He released me and led me to the door. “Are you ready?”

I nodded, tears filling my eyes again.

“One more thing, if I don’t come in 30 minutes, go back to the apartment. I left some things there for you that you will need. Don’t look for me.” And just like that, he pushed open the heavy door.

It was nighttime and there was a steady drizzle of cold rain falling down. I turned my face to the sky and welcomed the cleansing; I wanted everything that had happened in the last week to be washed away.

“Run!” he whispered and pushed away from me.

I stood, paralyzed, trying to get my bearings. I looked quickly to my right, there was a row of dumpsters, and past them the alley ran straight into a main street. I could see headlights from the heavy traffic. I blinked away the rain, trying to make a decision.

Adrenalin flooded my system. My heart started pumping at a crazy pace in anticipation of being chased. I looked from one end of the dirty alley to the other. I knew it was the quickest way to the library, but I couldn’t just run along the main street, so I hurried in the opposite direction, surprised at how alive I felt. I guess my desire to live outweighed any physical pain I was feeling. I stopped by the corner of the house, not wanting to rush out from behind any false sense of security it was giving me.

Marcus was gone; I couldn’t see him anywhere. I said a quick prayer that no matter what happened to me, he would be spared.

I heard all sorts of commotion coming from inside the house. The alarm must be going off and I was standing here just waiting to be caught again.

I took off into the darkness, finding a line of bushes at the edge of The Brotherhood property and laid down under their cover. I realized I would have to run across the road. I was so weak; I was gasping for air and trying to get my head to stop spinning when I heard him.

Cale walked along the sidewalk on the other side of the bush. He talked into his phone as his head went from side to side, scanning the area for me. I pushed my hand over my mouth, trying to hold in the terrified whimpers that were trying to escape.

His voice was low but the anger was undeniable. If he found me now, I think he would kill me right here where I lay.

“I don’t know what happened, I’m sorry. I’ll find her and the rest of them.” A car raced up and came to a screeching stop in front of him. The door opened, Cale jumped in yelling something to the driver and they were gone … chasing after me once again.

My heart started to pound as I realized, for the first time since this began, I was on my own.

>CHAPTER THIRTY<

It wasn’t easy getting to the library. I spent most of the time ducking behind cars and crawling behind bushes. My hands were cut and bleeding and my bare feet throbbed. Something inside of me kept me moving.

Once at the library, I was relieved to find a spot on the designated side of the building that gave shelter from the rain. The trees that stood next to the building were casting just enough shadow from the headlights of the traffic to make it a good hiding place. I was pretty confident no one would see me from the road, and I had a clear view of the traffic so I would be able to see when Marcus pulled up.

I leaned against the building; my cheek pressed up against the bricks, wishing I could just blend into this wall and be invisible … like I wanted to be that first day I came here. I hadn’t expected anything unusual to happen to me. Why would I? Nothing unusual ever happens to me. I was the girl who could walk down a street and never actually meet the stare of another person. I hated it back then – hated the feeling of being so unimportant, no one even noticed you. Now I longed for it, but instead, the whole world was looking for me.

The rain continued to come down in sheets of drizzle, confident it left nothing dry. I shivered for the first time since I’d escaped and realized I must be cold.

I closed my eyes to rest; even though I knew it was careless to be unprepared … I was just so tired. The second my eyes shut, Ryan’s face appeared and my heart broke all over again. In my memory, he was smiling like the first day we met. He was so handsome and kind that day. Memories began flashing like a movie in my head, the two of us in class, the times in my dorm room with Katie and Marcus and Ryan … sitting in the dark, waiting for me to come home, on the night that changed everything.

My mind flashed memories of his face; the face I longed for, the face I loved … the face that lied and tricked me, then handed me over to the people who were determined to kill me. I couldn’t take this anymore; I had to rid my system of him. I rolled my forehead back and forth along the bricks, trying to erase everything about him. He wanted me dead. He’d even offered to come into the room and finish me off … but my heart still wanted to love him.

I heard a rustling sound and opened my eyes just in time to see a hand come from behind me and slip over my mouth. I bucked back against my captor, getting my legs up against the wall and pushing as hard as I could. This was not going to happen; I would either escape or die right here and now.

His other arm wrapped around my waist, pushing me toward the building, pinning me between the bricks and his body. I screamed into his hand. His face pressed hard against my cheek, whispering something in my ear, but I wasn’t going to calm down long enough to hear what this madman was trying to say. I knew what he wanted; he didn’t need to give me the play by play.

I wildly threw my elbows and kicked behind me to escape his hold. I closed my eyes and arched my back as hard as I could, while attempting to rip my arms from him. When I felt two
thuds
on my side, I instinctively opened my eyes to see what had happened. It was Angel – he stood on his back legs with both paws on me.

Startled enough to stop struggling, the person behind me took his opportunity and whispered in my ear, “It’s me, Marcus … don’t scream!”

He dropped his hands and I lunged toward Angel, throwing my arms around his neck and burying my face in his fur. Still holding onto Angel for the much needed comfort, I turned and looked up to where Marcus was standing. Angel nuzzled in closer and leaned his weight into me.

“Are you crazy? Why would you do that to me? I thought you were Ryan. I thought you were going to kill me.” He leaned down, taking his shoes and socks off. He threw the socks at me and I pulled them over my bare feet while he put his shoes back on.

“We have to go.” He reached down and grabbed my hand, helping me to my feet. “I drove by a carload of the Brothers over by the clock tower and got nervous that they recognized me. So I left the car and ran over here as fast as I could. Jenna, we have to find somewhere to go, there are too many people looking for you. We’re not safe out here.”

“Back to the apartment?”

He nodded his approval and I turned toward the street.

“Wait,” he said as he grabbed my arm.

I turned toward him, willing him to hurry with my eyes.

“There’s something I need to tell you about Ryan.”

Warning alarms sounded in my head and my entire body stiffened at the sound of his name.

I yanked my arm from his grip and Angel growled a warning at him. “Don’t talk to me about Ryan! I don’t want to hear his name – do you understand me? We stood staring at each other, rain covering both of us. Silence filled our standoff as he contemplated his next words. My heart raced with anger and betrayal. How could he bring him up? His brother had just tried to kill me and what was I doing? Standing here, trusting him. How stupid could I be?

“There’ something you need to know.” He said.

I interrupted him, not wanting to hear anything he had to say about Ryan, “No, there is something you need to know. I survived your brother and I will survive you. If you have any ideas of hurting me, also know this, I will kill you without hesitation.”

I walked past him to the back of the building and stole a glance around the corner to make sure no one was there. When I turned, his eyes were on me.

“I would never hurt you.”

I huffed out a sarcastic laugh and tried walking past him but he grabbed my arm. “Please Jenna, I need you to believe me.”

I looked up into his blue eyes, the familiarity of them made my heart skip a beat, and pissed me off at the same time.

“You aren’t the first Kitson brother to make that promise to me … forgive me if I am not one hundred percent trusting.” His eyes flashed understanding; he nodded once and dropped his hand.

“Back at the house, you said you’d left something at the apartment I would need. What was it?”

“I left the papers I found in your file. I tucked them between the mattress and the box springs.”

I needed those papers. If there was any chance that I could get the police involved, or anyone to listen to me, I need some sort of proof of what was going on inside that house. Something solid, more than my word, because as Cale had so kindly pointed out, I was easily erased. I nodded my approval at him.

“One more thing; there’s also a bag of money, new ID’s for us and a couple of guns.”

My heart stopped and the world spun. I put my hand against the bricks to steady myself. It had never occurred to me there might be another option. I could run.

>CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE<

The run back to the apartment was easier than I’d thought it would be. Less than an hour ago, I thought I was going to die, so I guess anything is easier than having someone beat the life out of you.

Angel took the lead, scouting ahead and checking around all the buildings. I was confident no one would surprise me by jumping out; Angel would have them by the throat before they could touch me.

So our biggest concern was the people on foot and in the cars. Since all the sane people had found somewhere to hide from the drizzle, which now resembled a light sleet, all we had to do was hide from the traffic.

My feet were past the point of throbbing and had simply lost all feeling, but they somehow kept me upright and moving forward. My chest felt like a cement block had taken up residency on it, but I continued to suck in the frigid air, each breath harder than the last.

We came out of a half-empty parking lot to the backside of the building I’d been calling home for the last week. I knew the only way to get to the apartment was through the alley where Angel and Becky had found me. My throat tightened at the thought of being out in the open with only an occasional dumpster to hide behind. Marcus and I stood with our backs to the building. We both desperately needed a rest.

How’d you get all that stuff?” I took a deep breath and looked around the corner. It was dark and there were people sleeping next to the dumpster. The street was relatively quiet tonight, but the other end of the alley was brightly lit up from the stores across the street. Angel had already started trotting down the alley.

“What? He asked in a breathy whisper.

“The money, the guns, the ID’s – how did you get all of it?”

“You can do a lot of things when you have the right amount of money.”

I nodded at him.

“But when, when did you do it?”

Angel had circled back and the light tapping of his toenails grabbed my attention as he came back around the corner, obviously irritated we didn’t follow him the first time.

“Let’s just get inside and I’ll tell you everything.” He nudged me with his arm, encouraging me into the open alley.

We slid along the wall of the building quickly, trying to be as quiet as possible. I kept watch in front of us while Marcus kept his eyes behind us. We stepped over the people that slept by the dumpster and made our way to the edge of the alley. Knowing we were about to step into the light of the streets, I gave Marcus a pointed look – he nodded once and followed me out into the artificial light. We kept our eyes on the ground and ducked once again into the darkness of the building entrance. I stood bent over, my hands on my knees, trying to fight off the hyperventilation that threatened to take over. Marcus stood at the door, looking back and forth making sure no one was rushing into the building. His breathing echoed off the filthy walls. When he was sure no one was following us, he came over and rubbed my back softly until I could breathe again.

I looked up the open staircases and wondered how I’d ever make it up that far. The warmth of the building made my frost-bitten feet burn.

Marcus gave me a small smile, “Almost there.”

We started up the stairs, staying close to the banister – once again with me leading and Marcus watching to make sure no one came in the front doors. Once we reached my floor, we moved so our backs were against the wall, still watching over the banister for anyone approaching.