Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“I can’t leave you here, Tess. There’s a chance they will shoot first. We’ll follow the trail we marked and make our way to the meeting point with Marcum. You’ll stay with him.”
“You’re leaving me behind?” I ask, and I’m sure the worst feeling in the world is having someone you love, admit that to you. My panic, hurt, and fear all roll together, and I fight to keep from drowning because that’s how it feels.
“Let’s go,” he says, not giving me an answer. His hand wraps around my wrist, and we go to the back door.
He opens it carefully. My body is strung tight. I had this thought that the minute we opened the door a hundred guns would be pointed at us. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. However, in the distance I can hear sirens. They’ll be right on our heels. Max takes off running, pulling me with him. My legs feel like jelly, and even the salty ocean air is doing nothing to help me breathe. Why was staying at the beach such a good idea? It’s so wide open! We should have already been in the hills. You can hide in the hills or something right? My heart is beating so hard; it’s robbing me of air. I swallow down the bile that keeps trying to rise in my throat. I can hear yelling and chaos behind us. I don’t turn around to look. I’d rather not know.
We’re headed down the beach to a small shed. There’s a side by side ATV that the club keeps. I know the plan because Max and I have gone over it so many times. We get in it and take off, going over our escape plan in my head. At the end of the beach there’s a pier, under the pier, there’s a walkway that cuts back into the main drag. That will lead us into a marina full of sailboats. From there a quick turn and we can be back to the swamplands—an area that will make it harder for us to be tracked. It all sounded well thought out when Marcum and Max discussed it before. Now it sounds and feels like sheer lunacy.
Max opens the shed door, and I stand there stupidly because that’s what you do when you’re in shock. I’m staring around looking lost. I feel lost. That’s when the bullets start. They sound distant? Or maybe it’s just that way because of the dull roar and feeling of unreality in my head. I’m not sure. The bullets pinging off the ground feel close though. Bullets must hit the sand because it dusts around me as the gunfire grows. Apparently whatever has happened makes them think it’s safe to fire around me? Or, Max is right, and it’s no holds barred.
“Tess, damn it! Take cover!” Max’s voice jars me; it’s either that or the bullet that whizzes by us when he comes out and grabs my arm.
I feel a sharp sting of pain, but I don’t have time to worry about it because Max is manhandling me into the ATV. I barely have time to hang on before he’s behind the wheel, and we’re sliding out of the shed, backwards on two wheels. It fishtails in the sand; bullets hit metal and Max’s hand shoves my head down, hard. He keeps his hand there for a few minutes; he needed not worry, because I’m busy trying to suck air into my lungs, and I’m too terrified to look up.
“Keep your head down, Tess. We’ve lost the ones on the beach, but we may yet get caught when we cross back through the marina,” he barks. I don’t respond. I’m not sure I have a voice.
It’s hitting me. I’m not sure it had until this point. It is now. I’m on the run with a wanted felon. I’m no longer a hostage. I’m someone who has aided a known felon. As we somehow make it through the marina and continue into the swamp, still in the ATV for now, the only thing I can think is…
Now I’m a wanted felon, too.
I’m a fucking asshole. I thought I had everything under control and handled. I was so damned wrong. I look over at Tess. She’s pale, and I don’t think she’s said two words to me since we parked the ATV and started hiking. We’re almost to our meeting point with Marcum and the boys, and I know that’s where I will lose her. It’s for the best. I have been living in a dream world. Marcum will fix it so that the cops treat Tess as an innocent victim. Her life will go back to normal. She will still have a life, and she’ll be happy. Tess deserves happiness.
“We’re almost there, Kitten.” She doesn’t answer. Is she mad? I’m feeling guilty and I shouldn’t. She made choices, the same as I did. I warned her and warned her.