A Whole New Crowd

by Tijan

  Oh my god. A sob tore from me, but I wasn’t crying. I wouldn’t. There had to be something. “No, Gray. No.”

  “Taryn—”

  I shoved his hand off and glared at him. “I said no.” Then I yanked my knife out, tore off the bottom of my shirt, put the knife next to his ankle, and tied my shirt around it. I yanked on the knot, making it tighter, and then I grabbed Gray’s chin and forced him to stare into my eyes. “Get. The. Fuck. Up.”

  He gave me a half grin, but I could see the strain. Pain flashed over his face and he grimaced. “You’re such a bitch.”

  “Yes.” I stood, grabbed him by both arms, and yanked him up. “I’m also selfish, and on that note, we’re leaving. I don’t give a shit how long it takes us.” I pulled out the gun and held it in front of me.

  ”Hold with both hands. Keep the thumbs separate. Firm grip. Support it and it will support you.”

  Jace’s instructions came back to me and I closed my eyes for a moment. We couldn’t run any further, but there weren’t a lot of footsteps. There was still hope. I could shoot them and we could keep going. Taking a breath, I let it out. Inhale. Exhale. Gray stood behind me and I waited, my heartbeat sounding in my eardrums. The person was close.

  ”If you shoot, aim for the chest, it’s the biggest target. The shoulder will wing. The leg will stop them. The gun is an extension of your arm. It’s a part of you. The firmer the grip, the better your aim will be.” Jace had been standing close to me when he said those words. We were at a gun range. It was years ago, but it was now too. I felt Jace there. He was still teaching me, as I was getting ready to shoot his men.

  Gray knew what I was doing. He placed a hand on my shoulder, giving me support and I raised my gun.

  Two seconds.

  I wasn’t going to shoot the shoulder or the leg. I was going to shoot the chest. Whoever was coming, it was him or us. It was going to be him.

  One second.

  My throat was suddenly dry. My finger went to the trigger. I was ready.

  “Taryn!”

  My finger started to squeeze, but I saw who it was and a guttural scream ripped from me. I dropped the gun, and bent over as I dry heaved. My heart was pounding. Oh god. I lifted my eyes back up, horrified. It was Tray. I choked out, “I almost shot you.”

  His eyes were wide, so wide that the whites of his eyes blinded me. He raked a hand through his hair, but dropped it and shook his head. “We have to go.”

  A thousand questions flashed through my head. What was he doing there? What did it mean? A look passed between us and we both knew there wasn’t time. I jerked my head in a nod, then went to retrieve the gun. Tray went to Gray, studying his ankle. “Can you run?”

  “Yes,” I said. He would have to.

  “No,” Gray said, casting me a wary look. “She braced it with her knife, but I can’t run.”

  Tray clipped his head in a nod, then moved so he was in front of Gray. “Get on my back. I’ll carry you.”

  Relief crashed through me, causing a riptide of hope among the panic and terror. We weren’t done. We could still get out of this.

  Gray glanced at me. He bit down on his lip.

  I stepped towards him. The relief faded and the panic surged once more. My voice trembled, “Get on him.”

  “Taryn,” he started, but Tray kneeled in front of him.

  Gray frowned, and then Tray threw him over his shoulder. He grinned at me. “Let’s go.”

  I nodded and started forward again, putting the safety back on, but I kept it in my hand.

  Tray was right behind me.

  Gray groaned. “My head is in your crotch.”

  “Yeah. Don’t get too excited.”

  There was laughter in Tray’s voice. Still going, I closed my eyes as the relief came back in. We could do this. As we kept running, I felt Tray behind me. He was urging me faster so I kicked it up a notch. We needed to get out before they headed us off. Another quarter mile passed. Tray’s breathing was steady. I glanced back. He had a firm grip on Gray, who had wrapped his arms around Tray’s torso to keep from bouncing around.

  Could we go faster? The unspoken question passed between us and Tray nodded. He moved around me and began to lead. I couldn’t smile. I couldn’t enjoy this, but the sight of him pulling ahead of me almost brought tears to my eyes.

  I pushed forward with a new burst of speed, and we were sprinting, going faster than Gray and I had been going.

  We would make it. I felt it in my gut.

  Seeing light in the distance, I shouted at Tray, “Did you leave the door open?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t look back. He kept going forward.

  “Is your brother coming?” I was shouting.

  Tray didn’t answer.

  “Tray?”

  He still didn’t answer.

  My heart dropped. We had no support. I had known, but I had hoped they would come for me. “TRAY!”

  A scowl formed on his face and he glanced at me. “They weren’t coming.” He held my gaze for a second. “Even for you. Chance said they would have to canvas the school first, but the pep rally put everything off.”

  They weren’t coming, echoed in my head. They weren’t coming, but he had.

  “Thank you.”

  He looked over at me again. I had so much more to say. I was sorry for the hotel. I was sorry that I didn’t know how conflicted I was about Jace. I was sorry for bringing him into all this. But I didn’t say any of it. We were almost to the door. There wasn’t enough time.

  “I’m here, Taryn.”

  My heart pounded, not from the adrenalin.

  He added, “I came.”

  “I meant what I texted you.”

  “I know.”

  When we made it to the door, we paused, slowing down to go outside, but I braked as I saw that the tunnel kept going. I hadn’t noticed it when I entered. Tray was outside, but he stopped and turned. I heard his feet on the gravel. Then he asked, “What is it?”

  “This tunnel. I bet it goes to the river.” That made sense. It was how they shipped their product out. My heart started pounding again. Jace’s probably had a secret entrance down there.

  “Taryn, we have to go—” As he said that, we heard shouts from the road.

  I shook my head. Three of us couldn’t hide. They would find us. Hearing the engine of their truck and more shouting, I said, “They’re at the front of the field.”

  Tray frowned at me.

  I looked around. “Did you drive?”

  “No. I walked in.”

  We had Gray. What could we do?

  “Taryn, they’ll search the woods for us.” They would find us. That was what he didn’t say.

  A different plan began to form. “Okay.” I shoved down the fear and looked around. “There.” Pointing at a clump of trees, I said, “Put Gray there.”

  “What?” He lifted his head from Tray’s side.

  Holding onto him so he wouldn’t fall and reinjure himself, Tray helped him down so Gray was standing on his own again. Then he started for the clump of trees, and called out from behind him, “What are you thinking?”

  “Gray, you stay there and hide. We’ll draw them into the tunnel. They’ll follow us and won’t look for you.”

  Tray helped him sit down, but Gray cried out, “What are you thinking? Stop doing this, Taryn. Whatever you’re doing, just stop it. We can all hide.”

  Tray hesitated. I waved him back over. “Text your brother, to tell him where Gray is.”

  “What are you two going to do?” Gray was shouting at me. “You can’t jump into the river, Taryn. There’s a goddamn cliff. It’s higher than what Olympic divers do. You can’t do that. No way.”

  Tray had pulled his phone out. He was already texting.

  “I know.” A knot worked its way up from my stomach, resting at the top of my throat. “I bet it’s how they’re smuggling whatever they keep in here. They use the tunnel so that means there’s an entrance down there. We can try for it.”


  The truck was right there. A few more seconds and they would see us.

  “We have to go. Gray, get down.”

  Tray reached for me. His hand wrapped around my arm and he pulled me close. A tender look was in his eyes and for an earth-shattering moment, time suspended. Was he going to say it too? Then he murmured, releasing me at the same time, “We have to make sure they see us.”

  Oh. It felt like an anchor dropped to my feet. I forced myself to nod. “Yeah. Good plan.”

  “We can close the door.” Spotting a piece of metal laying on the ground, he picked it up. “We can use this to wedge it closed. They’ll still get it opened, but it’ll slow them down.”

  It would give us another head start.

  The truck was closer. I started the countdown in my head. Three seconds. I moved back into the tunnel. I glanced at where we had come from, but there was no sound coming from that way.

  Two seconds.

  Tray was standing in front of me. He gripped the beam tighter.

  I looked for Gray, but he was gone.

  One second.

  Now.

  The truck veered around the last bend. Four guards were standing in the back of the truck. Each had a rifle in their hands and as they saw us, they jumped out of the truck before it stopped. They were sprinting for us. Tray heaved the door shut, then wedged the beam at the bottom of the door. They could still open it, but the beam would hold the door shut for a little longer.

  Then he turned, his hand touched my back, and we moved as one. We sprang forward.

  We soared down the tunnel. Tray was moving at such a fast pace, I couldn’t keep up. My lungs were straining. My legs stretched to the farthest stride they could go, and I pumped my arms, propelling forward. We had to get there. We had to find Jace’s exit.

  As we kept going, they were pounding on the door behind us. Gunshots sounded out, then silence for a second, and a deep thud after that.

  “Don’t pay attention to them.” Tray grabbed my wrist. He was pulling me behind him now. “The more you pay attention, the more it’ll slow you down. Keep sprinting, Taryn.”

  I felt his strength. I felt his calm. His hand gentled, slid to fit into mine, and he squeezed my hand. We ran side by side and then I stopped hearing the men behind us. We were getting closer to the river. The current was slamming against rocks below, but we could hear it echoing through the tunnel. It was becoming deafening and we wouldn’t have heard the guards anymore anyway.

  The tunnel was becoming lighter. We were almost to the end and then the tunnel suddenly straightened and we were there.

  The edge was right in front of us. Tray twisted, throwing his body to the side. A scream ripped from me. I was going over. I couldn’t stop myself, but Tray yanked me back. I fell into his body and he wrapped his arms around me, shielding my fall with his body. His shoulder slammed hard against the wall and he grunted from the impact, but we had stopped. We hadn’t hurled off the edge.

  “Shit.” His voice was right next to my ear. He tightened his arms around me, holding me for a moment. “That was close.”

  The drop to the river was high. The tunnel was cut off. There was no platform. It was a complete drop to the river. Even the embankment was dangerous. Boulders and rock riddled the path to the river. If we jumped, we could hit the rocks. Dead. If we jumped and avoided the rocks, we’d be pulled under from the current. Dead again.

  Tray was inspecting it with me. “We’re screwed.” He put it perfectly.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “No, there has to be a door somewhere.” I began pushing on the wall. Maybe it was hidden. Maybe there was a rope they used to lower things down? I scanned the floor, but found nothing. “There has to be.”

  “Taryn.”

  I was shoving at the cement walls now, but there was nothing. It was a huge slab of cement. That was it. A choked sob was sitting in me, doubling in size. I started pounding harder on the wall. This couldn’t be the end.

  “Taryn.”

  He was calm. How the fuck was he calm?

  “Taryn.” Tray was right behind me. His hand touched mine, coming to rest on top of it. He stood there, right behind me, with that one hand stopping me. His lips grazed my skin and he whispered, “There’s no door.”

  No… He was probably right. A whimper left me now. I couldn’t hold it back in. “I’m so sorry, Tray.”

  His other hand wrapped around me, and he folded his body over mine, hugging me from behind. I bit down on my lip to keep more sobs from escaping.

  No, no, no. It couldn’t end like this.

  He turned me around, then looked down at me. His eyes were full of love, patience, kindness, and strength. I absorbed all of them, feeling them mingling with the storm of rage, fear, and gloom inside me. I choked out, “I’m sorry about Jace, about the hotel.”

  He shook his head. “Shut up. You didn’t even know yourself. I get it.” He hesitated then. “Did you mean it?”

  My text. I nodded. There was no hesitation on my part. “Yes.”

  “That’s enough for me.” Bending down, his lips rested on top of mine. He didn’t apply pressure, he just let our lips touch each other, feeling the slight promise of more. He said, “I love you too. It’s why I came.”

  I had gotten him killed. I knew without a doubt that’s what was going to happen. I looked up into his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Shut up.” Then he cupped the back of my head and kissed me. I clutched at him, losing myself in the taste of him. He had come for me. He had done it because he loved me. Euphoria began to fill me. It built, climbing on top of a fevered rush. We were probably going to die, but we were together. It was the best way to go out.

  Then a loud bang thundered over our heads. Tray pressed me back, using his body to protect me again. At the same second we moved, a slab of cement dropped where we had been standing. He saved my life again. Shit. We looked up to see a gun pointed right at us.

  Jace.

  My heart dropped.

  Tray moved me back, closer to the edge of the tunnel and Jace dropped down through the hole. A rough voice called down, “Is that them? Open the other hatch.”

  Still holding his gun steady, Jace knelt, felt under a rock, and pulled it up. The side of the wall moved back and an older man wearing a black button down shirt and tailored black pants stepped through the clearing. His skin was tan and weathered from too much sun. His eyes were beady and they were fixed on me. They narrowed as he asked, “Is this that girl?”

  This must’ve been Galverson.

  Jace didn’t answer him. He was staring at me. There were bags underneath his eyes and a slight curl in his top lip, so I knew he was furious. His grey eyes pierced through me. A black shirt hugged every inch of his chest, falling over black cargo pants. He was sweaty with dirt all over him. A scrape of mud was on his cheek, as if his hand rubbed his face and left it behind. My eyes fell to some tears in his shirt. Blood seeped through them and the stench of dried blood wafted to me.

  “Lanser.”

  Tray’s arm curled around me, pushing me behind him, but I had the gun. My hand was squashed between us. They didn’t know I had it, Tray felt the barrel pressed against his back. I knew he was doing this on purpose. We needed any advantage we could get.

  Galverson scoffed and turned to Tray. His eyes narrowed. His head tilted to the side, and he pursed his lips forward. “You’re that Evans boy?” He hit Jace in the shoulder, whose only reaction was to slide his eyes sideways. Dark hatred stirred in the depths