My eyes trail to the passenger mirror. I nervously watch to make sure nobody is approaching. No lights can be seen, no lights of the blue or red kind anyways. And I can no longer hear the wailing of the sirens.
But still, I keep my eyes peeled because I never know when something is about to happen. It's important to stay alert at all times especially in times like these.
From beside me and out of my view, I hear the engine roar to life. It steals my attention as I turn my head back to face Zach. And he’s smiling again, smiling a panty-melting smile.
"See, I know you better than you think."
"Nah,” he chuckles, “You just made an educated guess that is more based in stereotypes of bad boys like me than just being a simple lucky guess. You just automatically assume that I'm capable of hotwiring a car because of what I look like."
"No, I've just been around you enough to know that you are resourceful."
He pushes his door open and then slams it shut once more, forcing the light overhead to flicker off. And then he shifts the car into reverse.
I watch the trees blur past us as we begin to speed up. The headlights of the car highlight the road in pale white lights. Faster and faster we go, whipping around corners with a fast and furious pace. Just up ahead, just up on the horizon, I can see the city lights becoming closer and closer until we finally make our way out of the mountains.
It's the first part of surviving this long night. And though we've made it out of the woods, so to speak, I know the path that lies ahead is just as dangerous. If not even more so.
I know that this is about to be the longest night of my life, and I know that surviving until the next sunset is going to require more than luck. It's going to require skill and it's going to require trust between Zach and I, something we don't totally have. And it's not that I blame him for not trusting me completely. After all, I've led him astray before…
CHAPTER NINE
ZACH
As we exit the hills and head into the city, I shift against the seat as I try to dig my phone out of my pocket. When I finally manage to do so, I realize that my phone has taken a bullet to the proverbial chest. I've always prided myself on the fact that I have the toughest phone case available at any given time.
And it’s certainly a tough phone case considering it just took a bullet. There is a metal casing lodged into the back of the phone case. It probably saved my life if I’m being honest, but it didn't manage to save the phone. The phone itself refuses to power on from the blunt damage of the impact.
I guess it would be asking for too much for a phone to be able to take a bullet and still function. I grit my teeth and throw the phone into the backseat. It's no use to me anymore. I'll get a new phone when I can, when I can take a break from this disaster.
I look over at Lola and see the visual representation of relief passing over her beautiful and exotic face. She pushes herself back against the seat and sighs, and I think for the first time she’s starting to process the events of the last hour.
"Are you okay?" I question her and bat my tongue against my lower lip. "It's okay if you're not."
She cranes her head to me and looks me dead in the eyes. And in her eyes, I can see the faintest hint of glistening. I can see the faintest hint of real human emotion. But she forces a smile anyways and says to me, "I'm okay. Really."
“So, you are okay with the fact that your father was murdered?" It’s a loaded question, but I obviously know the answer on some level.
"It's still ridiculous, I know." She shifts her head to look back out the passenger window. "I know that my actions were going to lead to his death tomorrow night, but maybe this is just proof that I wasn't ready to pull the proverbial trigger. You know?" She looks back to me, her eyes begging me to confirm or deny whatever it is she’s feeling.
“I think family is a beyond-complicated thing, if I'm being honest." I tap my fingers on the steering wheel. "I mean, the only family I have left is Zane. But my parents were never like yours…" I wince, not able to believe I just said something so insensitive. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—”
“No, you're fine.” She shrugs, all the while continuing to stare out the window. For all intents and purposes, it's like I don't exist right now as she tries to make sense of the world around her. "You are right. You didn't have the same parents as I did. You'll never know what it's like to hate your father and love him at the same time. You'll never know the internal struggle between doing what's right and doing anything else. I know what has to be done. And with or without him standing on top of that roof top, I'm determined to finish this once and for all."
And she looks at me again, and this time I can see the tears welling up in her eyes. She can't hide them anymore. She can't pretend that she’s some robot who doesn’t feel. To everyone she's ever met, she's come off like an ice queen. And that's because that's the image she's comfortable with showing to the world. I reckon only a few people have ever seen her true face. And more than anything, I want to be one of those people. I feel close to her even when I shouldn't, even when I know that she could be sending me to my own early grave.
"So tell me you are still with me," she says to me lowly, and it’s almost like she’s pleading with me to stand by her side. "Tell me that you are going to help me finish this."
“I don't really have a choice.” I take a right onto an on-ramp to hit the highway. “For better or worse, I'm with you until the end."
"You know, it's funny…" She bows her head sheepishly. "I have no idea who I really am. I thought I used to know but I'm not even so sure about that anymore."
I reach across the gearshift and drop a hand on her thigh to comfort her. Her hand soon follows, traveling over mine and then holding onto me firmly. She squeezes even more tightly as a solitary tear streams down her face, breaking through the tough-girl exterior.
“You don't always have to be tough," I point out to her. "You don't have to carry the world on your shoulders. It's okay to be vulnerable, I guess that's what I'm trying to say."
"Are you really going to be the one to lecture me on this?" Her eyes meet mine and I can't help knowing that she's right. I'm simply one of the last people who have any room to talk when it comes to being open and vulnerable. I'm a textbook example of icing the world out. "Maybe when this is all over, I can finally let down my guard. But if I'm being honest, that scares the shit out of me."
"I think it kind of scares the shit out of everybody.” I shrug and take notice of a car coming up fast behind us. The lights on the car flash just before the car races past us going twenty to thirty miles over the speed limit. My heart skips a beat as I contemplate whether or not it could be Richard. But as he soon disappears into the distance ahead, merging into a cluster of cars, I realize that I'm just being paranoid.
I drive for another fifteen minutes or so. The traffic tonight is much more tolerable than normal. For some reason, there are as many cars on the road as there usually are at this point in time.
I take a familiar exit and hop off the highway. As I come to a stop at the light at the end of the off-ramp, Lola looks over to me. "Where are we going?"
“We are going to the safest place I can think of right now.”
“Yeah?” She furrows a brow. “Where is that?”
“If I told you—” I begin to say but as I accelerate through the green light, a van speeds through the intersection and crashes into the side of us. The blunt force of the collision pushes the SUV sideways before it rolls over and over and over again. And with each twist of the steel vehicle we are in, I feel more and more weightless. I feel as if we're flying.
And that's just what we are doing. The car flips over one last time until we land with the roof of the car against the asphalt. Metal clatters against the road from the car that sped into us.
The first thing I do is glance over to Lola to make sure she's okay. Though she looks disoriented, I think she's going to be fine. There are a few light scratches on her head but otherwise wh
en she reaches up to unbuckle herself, I know she's going to survive.
As she unclips her belt, she drops down to the roof of the car. I grab onto my own belt and release it, dropping to the floor beside her. From the van that crashed into us, two pairs of boots land against the ground.
This wasn't an accident, not to be Mr. Obvious or anything.
I look over to Lola and gesture with two fingers for her to run. She nods as if she understands exactly what I'm saying before she crawls through the broken glass of the passenger window. I follow her out the window and once we’re both parked against the side of the upside down SUV, I allow myself to take a few deep breaths before grabbing her hand and lunging forward. Our feet pad against the asphalt, our shoes crunching against broken glass.
I don't look behind us as we race forward and towards an alley between two abandoned brick buildings.
The familiar sound of gunfire rages from behind us. And I can hear the bullets lighting up the brick exterior, sending shards of rock and debris over our heads. I grab onto her hand again and make her run faster even when she doesn't think she can.
I find reassurance that we will be able to get away from the gunmen when I notice that they are not following us. They're too focused on trying to gun us down. It doesn't seem like Richard has the best mercenaries at his disposal. Because the truth is, I've felt more danger in a bar fight.
We take a hard right into a neighboring alley. It's a short alley and the road is just up ahead but when I hear squealing tires, my feet dig into the ground. We come to a sudden halt and I'm just waiting for the inevitable, but hoping that my senses are deceiving me.
Just then a white van, just like the one that crashed into us, veers into the alley.
The headlights blind me as the van begins to accelerate towards us. And this isn't a kidnapping scheme. No, they are going as fast as they can with the intent of running us over and making sure that we are dead. Lola seems frozen in place and it's almost a chore to drag her backwards and get her moving again.
"Run!”
My screaming at her seems to do the trick. She jumps into gear, racing so fast that she rushes ahead of me. I've never seen her run this fast, but then again tonight is the first time I've ever seen her in anything other than heels. I'm sure her choice of footwear is a decision she's going to look back on fondly when this night is over. As we come close to the intersection where we turned into this alley, I hear men racing up the adjacent alleyway. That leaves us with no choice but to run straight ahead and hope for the best.
Guns begin to fire again just as we reach the end of the alley. I let out a painful grunt as a bullet tears through my side. I stumble to the ground landing hard against the asphalt. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Lola coming to a dead stop. She twists on her feet and looks back at me in a way that just about makes me wish I were dead.
She looks terrified and I've never seen her like that before. She's always been so strong and so brave in the face of danger, but then again it's like we talked about. She's not comfortable with showing her vulnerable side.
But right now she's vulnerable,
Right now, I am vulnerable too. Bullets continue to fly through the air but she pays them no attention as she darts back across the alleyway, somehow managing to avoid and dodge all of the bullets threatening to tear her apart. She drops down and drags me out of the line of fire until we are safely hidden behind the thick brick exterior.
I'm basically lying in her lap as she tears the side of my shirt to inspect the wound. I've been shot before so I know that this is not a mortal wound. I know that most likely I'm going to survive, but it still hurts like hell. But I don't have time to sit here and wallow in self-pity.
I gently push myself off her and groan out in pain as I rise to stand. She joins me by my side and holds onto me as if I'm fragile. But she, of all people, should know better.
"We have to get out of here,” she says to me.
"No shit,” I grumble under my breath in a soft chuckle. “We’re only about a mile away.”
CHAPTER TEN
LOLA
Not wanting to make Zach walk the remainder of the mile to get to where we were going, I hailed a cab. And when we shuffled inside the back of the yellow cab, the driver’s eyes glared at us in the rearview mirror. So I offered the man a hundred dollars to not say anything or ask too many questions about why Zach was injured with a bullet wound in his side.
It's not a fatal injury, not even close. In fact, the bullet only grazed his side. He's going to be fine but still I didn't want to make him walk that long distance after being shot. And besides, I figured we stood our best chance of actually reaching our destination if we were inside of a vehicle.
The cab pulls into a gravel lot and approaches an old, abandoned factory. There are three white cars parked outside the building next to two black SUVs. They all look like company cars, with no indication of a personal vehicle in sight.
The cab driver applies the brakes and we come to a stop just outside what looks like the front door. Zach had said that this was the safest location he could think of, but I'm starting to question his sanity. Unless there is a super secret bunker inside, then I don't see how this is save at all.
Maybe it's safe because he believes nobody will be able to find us here. Or maybe it's safe for other reasons. All I know is that right now it doesn't matter. I just want to get out of this cab and inside the building.
I push open my door, climb to my feet and race around the other side of the cab to open Zach’s door for him. When I lean down to assist him, he averts my help and climbs to his feet on his own.
"Thank you, but I'm fine." He closes the door behind him and braces a hand against my back as the cab driver pulls away. "Well, this is it."
My eyes shift back to the factory. “What is this place?"
A smile hitches across his lips, defying any sense that he's feeling pain at all right now. "I told you. This is the safest place I can think of right now. In fact, it might just be one of the safest places in the world outside of a presidential bunker."
"But it looks like in abandoned factory."
"Yeah, that's kind of the point.” He reaches for my hand as he begins to pace towards the front door. "This is where we do all of our research. This is our homebase."
"For Ford Security?” I question, but the answer seems obvious. "So, this is the elusive hideout. I was beginning to think that it didn't exist."
"It's just that it is top-secret." He shrugs with a gentle chuckle. "We are not supposed to bring anyone back here but it seems like everyone else has been lately so why the hell not?"
He opens the front steel door for me and then holds it open as I make my way inside. I'm hit with an instant smell of musk, dust, and rust. It's a potent combination that sets my senses on fire and not in the best way possible.
The space of the main floor is mostly empty with the exception of concrete pillars that hold the building in place. There's a yellow railing that goes around the catwalk that circles the entire place. And to my right is another door that looks like it leads to an office.
I follow him into that door and into what looks like a functional office. There are a few desks and quite a few chairs. There is even a computer on each desk. However I get the sense that it's all just a front. There has to be more to this room because I don't see any doors except for one small door behind one of the desks.
I actually begin to get a little excited at the prospect that there might be a secret bunker after all. This is some serious superhero shit and I'm loving it. I always fancied myself as the kind of girl who would grow up to be a villain. I always figured I would take after my father.
But there was something inside of me that changed just a few short years ago. It was a nagging voice in the back of my head screaming that I didn't want to be anything like my father. I found myself feeling emotions that I didn't want to feel. I found myself weighed down by the burden of my father’s actions.
Tha
t's when I first realized that I couldn't be my father's daughter.
Zach opens the door in the back of the room to reveal what looks like a very small room. If I didn't know any better, I would say it's about the size of an elevator shaft. But that would be insane, right?
Well it's obviously not that insane.
Once the both of us are inside the small room, the doors sling to a close. And when Zach reaches forward and presses a button, the elevator begins descending down the shaft. Behind me the brick walls give way to concrete walls. And when we come to a stop at the bottom, the doors sling open once again.
And it's a breathtaking view of a high tech facility right out of the pages of the comic book. I've always known that Zach, Zane, and whoever else he associates with were capable of playing in the big leagues. But I never imagined an operation like this.
He steps out of the elevator first and I follow suit. But when my feet land against the concrete floor, I can't help but come to a stop as my eyes take in the entirety of the place. The ceilings are high and the space is vast, almost as big as the main floor above.
There are two doors to the right and two doors to the left. And just up ahead is a series of computer monitors that are all shut down, the screens black. All the way on the far side of the facility is a steel door that leads to what looks like an interrogation room. And right in the middle of the floor is a training mat with all of the best physical equipment. I'd take a wild guess that an Olympic athlete could train here.
I imagine it was in this very facility that Zach became the strong man he is today. I'm not doubting that he has always been strong. After all, someone doesn't build a body like that just overnight, but I’m assuming working here has only worked to strengthen his physique.
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