A guy was sitting behind the wheel of his car on the other side of the street. He had a cell phone pressed to his ear and wasn’t paying any attention to his surroundings. The car engine purred idly, so I knew the keys must be in the ignition.
“Follow my lead,” I told Catalina, pulling the gun from the waistband of my jeans.
“What are you...” she started and then trailed off as she pieced together for herself exactly what I had planned.
I didn’t hesitate, marching straight up to the car. The driver’s window was open, and I stuck the gun through it, pointing the muzzle at the man’s head. “Get out of the car!”
The guy dropped his phone then turned to look at us, his nose wrinkled, his lip curled, as though he couldn’t believe our audacity of choosing him to steal from. “What the fuck?”
I jerked the gun at him. “I said get out of the car.”
“Are you going to shoot me, motherfucker?”
“I will if you don’t do what I say.”
“Fine.” The man threw the car door open and started to get out.
Catalina’s voice came from behind me. “Angelo, look out!”
“Shit!”
From out of nowhere, the man pulled a gun. The crack of a gunshot echoed through the air, and I felt the wind as the bullet whistled past my ear. Automatically, I squeezed off a shot in return fire, and he fell back, clutching his arm. God dammit. I’d never intended for anyone to actually get hurt.
The man still had hold of the gun and had fallen back into the car. The only way we’d be able to take that car now was if I physically dragged him out, and hoped he didn’t shoot me first.
The man lifted his weapon again.
“Catalina, run!” I yelled at her.
She took one look at the gun and grabbed my arm, yanking me away, too. I fired another shot, covering us both, and then joined her, both of us running down the street, away from what was now a crime scene. People would have reported the gunfire by now.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
The police would be called, without a doubt. They’d piece together who we were.
Our feet pounded the sidewalk, fresh pain from the bear trap wound shooting up my leg with every step. I gritted my teeth against the agony, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up this pace for long. We needed to find somewhere to hide.
“Through here.”
I veered off the street and slipped through a gap in a fence, Catalina close behind me.
We found ourselves at the back of a house. There was a car parked in the back. Wooden blocks were stacked nearby, together with an old tire. Perhaps someone had been working on the vehicle. I checked but couldn’t see any keys.
The back door to the house stood open.
We just needed to take shelter somewhere.
I could feel my control of the situation slipping from my fingers.
“Come on, in here.” I grabbed Catalina’s hand again and dragged her up the steps to the back door. We burst into a kitchen, both of us breathing hard.
A scream came from down the hall, and I looked up to see a woman with two kids. They’d spotted the gun, and the woman pushed her children behind her legs.
“Out, get out!” I yelled at them.
They huddled together, wide-eyed, hustling out the way we’d come. I didn’t want to hurt anyone else—especially not innocent people. I waited until they’d run out of the back door and then exhaled a long, shaky sigh. The woman was sure to call the police and tell them an armed man was in her house.
We were screwed.
I paced the front room, my fingers fluttering against my thigh. My pacing caused me pain, but I didn’t care. I deserved it. I’d messed up, and badly, and I wasn’t sure how we were going to come back from this.
“What do we do now, Angel?” Catalina watched me with distress.
“I don’t know. Give me a minute to think.”
I’d failed her. It felt like every turn I made took us deeper and deeper into this mess. I’d just thrown an innocent family out of their home, and there was a man in the street who I’d shot. The police were bound to turn up at any minute, and then we’d be taken into custody. I regretted letting the family leave. If we’d taken them hostage, at least it would have given us some bargaining power.
The shout of a horrifyingly familiar voice came from outside. “Angelo Cassidy?”
I went to the window of the front room and peered out. My heart sank.
Silas Cassidy stood on the front lawn, together with Elliot Torres and several other suited and booted men I didn’t recognize. I’d thought we would have more time, but they must have been close by and had followed the chaos we’d caused. I’d caused. This had been my fault. I’d made bad choices at every junction.
“It’s my father,” I told Catalina, my heart breaking in two. “They found us.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Present Day
ANGELO TWITCHED THE curtains, giving us a flicker of a view onto the yard out front, and the men standing there waiting for us. I felt sick with horror.
“We know you’re in there, Angelo,” the master called out to us. “Come out, and bring Catalina with you.”
Angelo turned to me and pushed the gun into my hands. “Take this. Go out the back. I’ll distract them.”
I stared at the weapon, heavy and cold in my palm. “No, I can’t. I can’t just leave without you.”
“My father won’t kill me.”
“But Torres might!”
“No, he won’t. Not unless he wants to make this fight even bigger than it already is.”
I clutched at his arm with the hand not holding the gun. “Please, Angel. Don’t do this. I can’t go on without you.”
“Yes, you can.” He yanked me closer and kissed me hard. “I’ll find you again, I promise.”
Tears blurred my vision. I didn’t want to do this on my own. Not without him. What would be the point in it all?
“If you don’t go, Catalina, then Torres will take you. You know what that will mean. I won’t be able to stand around and watch that happen. It’ll give Torres and maybe even my father a reason to kill me. You have to go, not only for yourself but for me, too.”
I’d never been so torn. How could I do this? How could I possibly turn and run from the man I loved? The man who was my whole world, and had been for as long as I could remember?
But it was what he wanted, and I could see his reasoning. If we both went out there, Torres would take me. If we both ran, we’d both be caught.
He gave me a shove. “Go, Catalina! Before it’s too late.”
Tears poured down my face. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. Now go.”
I turned and fled.
Chapter Twenty-three
Present Day
THEY WERE WAITING OUTSIDE of the house for me.
My heart had been wrenched from my chest at the knowledge I didn’t know when I’d see Catalina again, but I’d make it my life’s purpose to find her. First, I needed to deal with my father and Elliot Torres, and I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.
I stood behind the front door and sucked in a breath, and then called, “I’m coming out. Lower your weapons.”
I wanted to take my time. Every minute I delayed was another minute Catalina could use to make her escape.
“Just get out here, Angelo,” my father shouted back. “You can’t run forever. It’s better that you own what you did. Hand Catalina over, and we can all get back to our lives.”
“What are you going to do with Catalina?”
“Exactly what we would have done with her on the morning after her birthday. She belongs to Torres now. There’s no point in fighting this.”
“She’s a human being. She doesn’t belong to anyone. She’s her own person.”
He gave a smug chuckle that made me want to punch him in the head. “In an ideal world, I’m sure that’s true, but we’re very far from living in an ideal world. I thought I’d raise
d you better than that. Now come out here before I have to send these men in after you. You know things will get ugly if that happens.”
I didn’t want them to come into the house. If they did, they’d realize Catalina had already gone. The more time I could buy her, the better.
“Okay, don’t shoot. I’m coming out with my hands up.”
Sucking in a breath, I slowly opened the front door. I hoped Torres wasn’t just going to shoot me for what I’d done, but I wouldn’t have put it past him.
I took a couple of steps out onto the porch.
“Move farther away from the house,” Torres shouted.
I stepped down off the porch, joining them on the lawn.
“Where’s the girl?” he asked.
I glared at Torres. “Tell me what you plan on doing with her first.”
The side of his mouth curled in a sneer. “What do you think I’m going to do with her?”
“None of this was Catalina’s fault. I raped her and forced her to leave with me. Whatever you think about me, don’t take it out on her.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter how it happened. She might have been something special to me, but you made sure that isn’t the case now.”
“She is special,” I snarled.
He shook his head. “She’s just another girl now. Another set of holes to be filled.”
“You fucking bastard.”
Torres looked to my father. “Get the boy under control. It’s only because of our working relationship I’m even allowing him to live.”
“You heard him, Angelo,” my father said. “Behave yourself. You’ve already caused enough damage. Now, call Catalina out here.”
“She might have gone out the back way,” Torres suggested.
My stomach clenched at his insight.
My father laughed. “Don’t worry. She won’t get far on her own. She’s helpless out here. You never know, you might even enjoy the hunt.”
I hoped she had managed to get a good distance from the house by now, and despite what they thought, she wasn’t helpless. She had my gun, for one, but of course they didn’t know that.
Torres jerked his chin toward the house and addressed the two men he’d brought with him. “Go and check inside.”
Both men nodded like obedient dogs and trotted toward the property. My father and Torres both still had their guns trained on me, a silent warning not to try anything stupid.
The screeching of tires came from behind me, and I turned to find the car that had been parked at the back of the property come flying from around the side of the house toward us. I caught sight of Catalina’s face, her eyes wide with fear, her skin pale, behind the wheel. What the hell was she doing? She didn’t even know how to drive.
But it seemed she’d worked out enough to get the vehicle moving. The car cut across the front yard, barreling straight toward where my father and Torres stood with the remaining men. They all turned in surprise, and one of the men Torres must have brought with him lifted his weapon. He squeezed off a shot, and I flinched as the front of the car plowed into the men like a bowling ball into a set of pins. Bodies went flying, and the car drew to a halt.
“Get in!” she yelled, leaning out of the driver’s window to shoot at the men who were still picking themselves off the ground. The shots all went wide, but they were enough to send the men ducking for cover again.
I didn’t wait a moment longer, but threw myself into the passenger side.
She shoved the car into reverse and then took off again, veering wildly across the road. Gun shots echoed after us, and we both ducked.
But, somehow, we’d made it down the street.
I turned to her in amazement, barely able to believe what had just happened, and insanely happy to see her again. “Fucking hell, Catalina. You could have gotten yourself killed.”
She threw me a glance, her blue eyes wild. “I couldn’t leave you there. I just couldn’t do it. I found the keys in the kitchen as I was leaving, and it seemed like my only option.”
The car wove down the street, and an SUV heading toward us blared its horn.
“Concentrate on the road,” I told her.
The vehicle jerked and swerved. She did her best to keep it going in a straight line, but she’d never driven a car before.
We were going to get ourselves noticed if she kept going, though I was impressed by her effort since it was the first time she’d ever been behind the wheel. But there were bullet holes in the bodywork, which never looked good. I was pretty sure my father had paid off local cops to keep their noses out of his business, but we’d probably traumatized the poor family in whose house this had all taken place, and whose bullet hole-ridden car we were driving now.
“I’d better drive,” I said.
We put enough distance between us and the town, making sure my father and Torres weren’t close behind, and then Catalina pulled over. The car bunny-hopped to a standstill, and I pulled on the handbrake for her.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” she said. Her hands were still gripped tight around the steering wheel, but I noticed how she was shaking.
I reached over and gave her a brief, fierce hug. “You were stupid and brave to do that.”
“Maybe, but it worked, didn’t it?”
I didn’t have any argument on that front.
We kept going until it started to get dark, and then I pulled over so we could get some rest.
We’d lost the food we’d bought at the gas station somewhere along the line, and I knew we were both hungry, but there was nothing we could do about that all the way out here. We had no money, and we were wanted criminals. Not only that, both my father and Elliot Torres probably weren’t far behind us.
We slept in the car, with Catalina curled up on the back seat and me in the passenger seat, the gun rested in my lap for easy access. Though I was exhausted, I did my best to stay awake, worried that if I slept, I’d wake to my father and Torres peering through the window, their men surrounding the car.
I must have dozed at some point, though, as when I opened my eyes again it was no longer dark. Early morning sunshine filtered in through the window. I moved my body awkwardly, wincing as every muscle seized up in stiffness and my leg throbbed. Yesterday’s events hadn’t been kind to me physically, but I didn’t care about that. Just catching sight of Catalina curled up and still asleep in the back seat was enough to make me forget my aches and pains. She slept with her hand pillowed beneath her cheek, her dark curls half hiding her face.
She must have sensed me watching her as she jerked awake, her eyes fluttering open. She yawned and scrubbed her hand over her face.
“Hey,” she said, her voice croaky from sleep.
“Hey, yourself,” I said with a smile.
She moved to sit up and then winced. “Yikes. I feel like I’ve been in a fight or something.”
“You’re just stiff from sleeping all cramped up. It’ll feel better when you start to move around.”
She licked her dry lips. “I’m thirsty. Hungry, too.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
Neither of us had eaten the day before, and we were both dehydrated and starving, but we were safe and we were together, and that was the most important thing of all.
“We’ll figure something out,” I said, hoping we could. We were in America, one of the richest countries in the world. People didn’t just starve to death or die of thirst here.
We both climbed out of the car to relieve ourselves in the bushes, and then I got behind the wheel, and Catalina slid into the passenger seat. We got back on the road. I didn’t like that we were still driving a stolen car, but right now it was more important that we continued to put distance between us and my father. We couldn’t go back on foot right now, not without any supplies and no money. It would practically be suicide.
We drove in silence, both of us struggling from the lack of food and water. The weight of what had almost happened the previous day cloyed the atmosphere. It felt
as though we were on borrowed time, but neither of us wanted to face up to how fragile our future was right now.
Sudden lights flashed behind us, and there was the wail of a siren. My stomach dropped. Shit.
Catalina looked to me. “What do we do?”
I considered putting my foot to the floor, and trying to outrun him, but that wasn’t going to work. No doubt, he’d be able to get on the radio and have the road blocked further ahead. We didn’t know the reason he was pulling us over. He might not know who we were or what we’d done. It might just be that the bullet holes in the bodywork had caught his attention. It was better to play innocent, and then try to tackle him on foot. As long as I could keep him away from the radio so he didn’t run the plates or call for backup, we could keep this contained.
“Dammit.”
I signaled and pulled the car over. We hadn’t seen any other vehicles for some time now, so I wasn’t expecting anyone to interrupt us.
The cop car pulled in behind us, its light still pulsing.
“Just stay calm,” I told Catalina. “Smile and follow my lead.”
The slam of the police officer’s door came from behind us, and I glanced into the rearview mirror. I still had the gun, but I didn’t want to risk either of us getting shot, and if the officer caught sight of it, he might shoot before asking any questions.
Footsteps grew closer as he approached the car. I rolled down the window.
“Driver’s license and insurance,” the cop asked, leaning down.
“Did we do something wrong?” I knew I didn’t have either of those things.
“Just need to see your paperwork.”
“I’m afraid I was robbed a couple of days ago. The sons of bitches took everything.”
The police officer raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Can you step out of the car, sir?” He looked to Catalina. “You, too, miss.”
She shot me a look, and I nodded. I had the gun wedged into the waistband of my pants, and the minute he tried to pat me down, we’d be in trouble.
Unbound for Him Page 15