by M. O. McLeod
27.
Run and Seek
Leon didn’t care who he touched or how he touched them. All he knew was that he had to get away from Santino and the guys as quickly as possible. Night was falling, and the chill sank deep into Leon’s bones. He had to get out of the city, far away from everything and everyone. He knew he could make a new life somewhere else, someplace warm, or even out at sea on a yacht. All he had to do was hop on the first thing smoking and he was home free.
The problem was he was running north and not south, where the heat, the border, and freedom were. If he turned around to go back, Santino would be there with his two goonies. But up north things got colder, space got even tighter, and the people were not so nice. Then again, money was up north, and Leon didn’t have any at the moment.
He needed to lay low, get the boys off his trail for a bit. He wouldn’t need days but hours to think of a way south and out of the city. He was thinking he would have to go east to get around the barricades and the mayhem. Leon could take the bullet train that ran along the coast down to the border and cross over. By tomorrow afternoon he would be far from questions, the police, and Santino.
But where could he hide until the train departed without being noticed? The gym was out of the question—he could never go back there. He couldn’t go back to his brother’s house in south Alexandria either even though it was empty; the police had the place barricaded. Downtown Alexandria was too crowded and hectic around this time, and Leon would have a hard time trying to blend in with people who were dressed to party in the club scene. West Alexandria was residential, and he was sure the police and the news had tipped the section off to the night’s incidents in the other part of the city.
Leon had only one place he could hide out until the next day. He didn’t know where he would go when he got there. But as long as it was far enough away to keep Santino off his trail, that was all he needed.