I stare at the gun in her hands and can tell she’s about to throw it into the bushes. “Take that with you, don’t ditch it.”
I glance back at the guy who is holding on to his neck and writhing on the ground, and I see the other guy starting to stir. I have no idea if he will die or not, if his friend will save him, or how close Jones is to all this. I’m guessing he’s in a car around the corner, waiting for them, waiting for their collected prize.
“We need to get out of here,” I tell her, taking her gun and slipping it into my coat pocket. Then I grab her hand, and we start running as fast as my beaten body will allow.
We stagger through the trees to where I had been hiding and then follow the tree line that borders the railway tracks along the back of the park, not looking back.
We’re about to cross the road when the screech of wheels fills the air, and a black SUV rounds the corner, followed by another. This isn’t the police coming to the rescue—this is something else. They aren’t here to save us.
I wait, trying to figure out the best option. If we run through the streets, the chances of Jones and whoever else my father has on speed dial finding us are pretty high, and I’m not sure how long it will take to find a cab or wait for an Uber.
So I wait until there’s a break in the action, and I pull Seraphine across the street the other way, heading to the apartment building that looks abandoned from the outside.
“Where are we going?” she whispers as we run up the slick stone stairs to the main door. All the apartment names next to the buzzer have worn off, and when the door opens, I’m not surprised.
We step inside. There’s a broken chandelier above the foyer with only one broken light. The place is damp and dirty. I lead Seraphine over to one of the two doors on this floor and try it. It’s locked. Same with the other.
“What are you doing?” she hisses at me. “Blaise, we need to call the cops. We need to . . . oh God, I don’t know. What if I killed him?”
I give her hand a tight squeeze. “We need to get somewhere safe before we can think about anything else, okay?”
I lead her up the stairs to the second level, to the empty apartment I spied from down in the park earlier.
It’s also locked, but I knock and wait. The sound of our breath fills the space in the hall.
I put my ear to the door and listen.
Silence.
I take a chance.
I run my shoulder up against the door in a jab and it flies open, the lock weak.
Just as I thought, it’s empty except for a threadbare love seat and a coffee table with a broken leg. A thick layer of dust coats everything and has scattered into the air like snow. I reach for the lights, and only one comes on, in the kitchen. It’s weak and won’t stop flickering.
Seraphine stands in the middle of the room and stares blankly at the studio apartment. I close the door behind us and then get the love seat, pushing it up against the door since I broke the lock coming in.
Then I head over to the window, keeping a low profile and staying close to the wall. I sidle up along the side of the shutters and peer out.
There is one SUV farther up the street, and I can just make out dark shadows passing underneath the light in the park. Then some of the shadows disperse, heading out along the streets in different directions. They run right past this building, which makes me relax just enough to be able to think about our next move.
I leave the window and head to Seraphine, who is still standing in shock, shaking from head to toe.
“Hey,” I say softly, placing both my hands on her shoulders. She flinches, eyes wide as she looks at me, like she forgot I was here at all. “You’re safe now. You’re going to be okay.”
She shakes her head violently. “I . . . I shot that man. I killed that man.”
“You don’t know that,” I tell her, trying to get her to meet my eye. “And even if you did, you had to do it. He would have killed me, and then he would have killed you, and you know that’s what would have happened.”
But she’s not looking at me. She’s staring at nothing, eyes wide, chin trembling.
“You’re okay now,” I tell her again, squeezing her shoulders. “I’ve got you. Okay? Nothing bad will happen to you, we just have to stick together and figure it out. For now, we’re hiding in here. His men are searching the streets right now to see where we would have run. After a while they’ll give up and we can leave, but for now, we have to hide.”
“No ambulance came,” she says. “Why didn’t they call an ambulance for him?”
“Because these guys don’t operate on that side of the law. You do know that they were meaning to kidnap you. Fuck knows what would have happened if I hadn’t been there. And if you hadn’t brought that gun. I’m not even going to ask where you got it, I’m just glad you had it and had the guts to pull the trigger.”
“I was aiming for his head,” she says softly. “I missed.”
“It doesn’t matter. You stopped him. You saved us both.”
Finally she meets my eyes, reaches for my forehead with a shaking hand. “You’re bleeding.” Her fingers gently press near the wound, as if she’s trying to see that I’m really alive. “Oh God, Blaise.” The way her gaze stops at my brow and my nose and my eye tells me that I’m not looking too handsome at the moment.
“I’m fine,” I tell her, and truly the pain isn’t sinking in yet. I’ll deal with it when it comes. “Just a few scratches. I’ve been in worse.”
“You actually fought them off.”
I wince. “Not really. If I had, there would have been no need for your gun. I’m sorry you had to use it.”
She blinks at me, taking it all in. Then her eyes widen in shock, overwhelmed and lost. “What happens now? He, Jones, he’s still out there. They’re going to come looking for me, for us.”
I nod. It hurts to swallow. I’m sure I have bruises up and down my throat. “I know. We have to plan our next moves really carefully.”
“I can’t go back to work. I can’t go to my apartment. He’s going to kill me. Your father is going to kill me.”
“I’m not going to let him do anything to you. I promise.” My words come out sharp and harsh, but I desperately need her to believe me. I won’t ever let anything happen to her from now on, and if it comes down to my father, then I’ll kill him myself if I have to, if that’s the only way we can be free.
“I’m alone,” she says before she gasps, her hand dropping from my face and going to her chest, starting to breathe erratically. “I’m alone, I’m alone. Oh God, I can’t breathe, I can’t fucking breathe!”
She drops her purse, starts pulling off her coat, shaking it from her like it’s covered in snakes. The apartment has no heat, it’s freezing cold, and I try to put the coat back on her, but she pushes me away. She pushes so hard against me that she goes flying backward onto the ground.
“Fuck!” she yelps as I get to my knees beside her. “Fuck!” she screams again, her eyes pinched closed as she starts to wail, crying and convulsing with sobs.
“Hey, hey,” I say to her softly, trying to bring her up, cradling the back of her head with my hand. “It’s okay.”