Runner

by A. J. Summer

  “There, what’s that?” a guard asked. I could never get their names straight. “It’s her bag. Go get it,” Demitri commanded. “Are you sure?” the guard asked.

  I moved deeper into the reeds and crouched down until only my head was above water. A water fowl clucked nervously from her nest.

  “Shhh-shhh,” I said, like the stupid animal would understand me.

  A squishy thud sounded from the bank, followed by Demitri cursing loudly. “It’s Talon’s. Are you sure you saw her coming this way?” Demitri asked. “Yes,” the guard replied. “She’ll be back,” Demitri said before they finally walked off. He was right. I would be coming back. But not until I had all the money I needed to pay for our freedom. I exhaled loudly, and the water fowl ruffled her feathers, stretching her long black-blue neck, ready to squawk. I dashed forward and grabbed her around the neck…

  Fuck! I wake aching and covered in sweat. For a moment, I’m sure I’m still next to that river. The dead water fowl still clutched in my cold hand and a reed in the other. But as I slowly take in my surroundings, I remember that I’m at Runner’s cabin and it’s a rose I’m holding. The rose he gave me. Runner is sleeping soundly in his chair next to my bed. His adorable bedhead sexily smushed. My stupid hand reaches out, and I stroke the brown silky strands, just to make sure he is real. How did he make me forget about my sister so easily?

  And Runner is so stubborn, he just wouldn’t let me in, even after I realized I had feelings for him. Not even as a friend, and now finally, I feel like we might be something. Now, after I have what I need to help my sister. How do I do this without hurting him?

  He looks so peaceful asleep, the permanent scowl smooth over his handsome face. His lips slightly parted, just begging to be kissed. I touch my finger softly to his slight plumper lower lip, unable to resist.

  “Jenna?” he whispers huskily. My hand snaps back like it’s just been struck by a snake. The stupid nightmare still fresh in my mind. My heart shrinks and pangs painfully. I’d rather be back in that nightmare because it’s so much easier than this. At least there I could see the enemy I was fighting. I knew who to run from and why I was running. Here, I’m competing with what? I’m just fooling myself. I mean nothing to him. I might have started this on good intentions when I fooled myself into thinking I could get close to Runner and be his friend without falling for him. He was never supposed to be part of this betrayal. But now I know, and it makes it just a little bit easier.

  I need to focus. My original plan might have been tweaked a little, but it was still a good plan, and love was never factored into the original design.

  I climb off the bed slowly and start gathering my stuff. My wound aches and my head spins. I still can’t believe I got shot. “What are you doing? You shouldn’t be up,” Runner says. He runs a hand through his hair. He looks so damn good, and his sleepy voice sends goosebumps dancing over my skin. Tears form in my eyes and I blink them back, stunned at my own emotional distress. He asked me a simple question. But I feel so homesick all of a sudden. I need to finish this and get to my sister. And Runner really doesn’t want me here. I got what I came for. Now I need to leave. Stupid feelings be damned.

  “I just want to go home. You got me shot. I could’ve died. I can’t stay here,” I say, sealing the deal. He needs to see I don’t want to be here. With him. I need him to believe I don’t want to be here. My tears flow freely now. His expression becomes pained but he smoothes it instantly.

  “Okay, I’ll get Mike to drive you,” he says without a trace of emotion. And then he walks out the door.

  RUN

  *

  RUNNER

  After Mike loads Talon into the Indigo van and drives off, I grab the Jack from the cupboard and lock myself in my room. I can’t believe she made me believe she cared about me. I suppose I can’t blame her. She did get shot. I can understand that she’s scared. Maybe it’s better that she gets out now before things turn worse. Like me actually falling in love with her. I still don’t know what Daniel wants, but I’ll send the boys to make sure she stays out of any business Daniel still sees as unfinished. Maybe if Daniel doesn’t see us together, he’ll believe she doesn’t mean anything to me. Fuck! Who am I kidding? No one I know is ever safe. But I’ll keep her safe. She’ll be safe no matter what.

  My head is so messed up right now. I want to hate her for making me care. I want to keep her safe, because I care.

  “Runner?” Jonah calls from my door. It’s only been a couple of hours since Talon left, and already I’m getting edgy. Every ticking second makes me even angrier at her, at myself. I can’t breathe in this room! Yet I don’t want to leave because I can still smell her in here.

  “Yeah.” I get up to unlock the door.

  “Are you cool?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I mean it. Are you okay?” Jonah walks over to my bed and parks his ass on it.

  “Make yourself at home.” I’m feeling agro as hell. I take a swig from the half bottle of Jack standing next to the bed.

  “She got spooked. Not everyone is made for our world. The damn girl got herself shot. It wasn’t your fault,” he says. He holds his hand up when I go to correct him. “Mike told me that she jumped in front of you. That she broke into the warehouse. What happened wasn’t your fault.”

  “What the fuck is this?” Maybe he is trying to help. It’s not working. “I don’t need a get-out-of-your-guilt speech, Jonah. For fuck’s sake.” I take another long draw from the bottle.

  “That’s your problem, right there. Go after her, make her see that she fits. I know you care about her. Fuck, every idiot with eyes can see you have a thing for her.”

  I snort at him. He might be right. But she left me, she can come back if she wants to. I’m not running after her. My phone rings on the bedside table. I pick it up and look at the screen. “Indigo” flashes on the screen. “Runner,” I answer. “What? That’s not possible.” I rise to my feet slowly. I can’t believe this shit happens today of all days. Jonah jumps up with me and watches me with a mixture of fear and interest. “I’ll be right there,” I say before ending the call and tucking it into my pocket.

  “Come on and let Mike know to get us at the Indigo.” I slam my room door behind me. I grab my keys and look at Mary and Ana sitting in front of the TV. They kind of went all quiet after Talon left. “You girls stay put. Don’t go anywhere,” I say. Jonah hovers at the front door for a second before walking over to Mary and giving her his gun. Fucking lunatic.

  * * *

  “We’re broke?” Mike asks for the third time while he paces back and forth in front of my desk. I stare at the bank statement on my computer screen. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I didn’t believe it when Stephan phoned me and told me the salaries returned unpaid. “Phone Mark and get him on this!” I say to Mike. I log into the other account. The one only I know about. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see the money is still there; it’s not a lot, but it’ll help until this shit is sorted out. It doesn’t help much right now. It’s a notice account, and even if I pull some strings, it’ll still be a three-day wait.

  “It has to be Daniel. Who else could get your codes, Runner?” Jonah asks from the window. He has his silver switchblade in his hand. Swinging it back and forth. A nervous gesture. I know he wants to go back and make sure Mary is okay, but right now we have shit to take care of.

  Mike ends his call and speaks to me and Jonah. “It’s going to take a couple of hours.” He goes right back to pacing again.

  “Reno.”

  “What?” both of them ask together.

  “Reno, the only other person with access to the accounts. But he is dead,” I say. I thrust my hands into my hair and squeeze my skull in an attempt to ease the migraine brewing. The room falls silent, the only sound the swishing of Jonah’s switchblade.

  “We still have cash, right?” I ask Mike. “At the loan house,” I clarify when he stares at me blankly.

  “Yeah, but that’s all we have. If we use
it and something happens, we’re fucked.”

  I hear what he doesn’t say. If we have to run, we have nowhere to go. We always keep cash in case we need to move fast. And cash is untraceable, easy, convenient. “We need to pay the staff. How much?” I ask.

  “’Bout twenty K.”

  Fuck, that will just cover it. “Go get it. I’ve got us covered. We just need a couple of days.” Mike shakes his head like he doesn’t believe me but gets up anyway. I phone Stephan and tell him to let the staff know they’ll get cash through the course of the afternoon. And then I phone Amanda and tell her to sort out the envelopes. I have other shit to worry about.

  By the time Mike gets back with the cash, my head feels like little demons are skating on my neurons. I call Amanda into the office, and she and Mike divide up the cash between the envelopes. Just as Mike fills up his second envelope, his phone rings. He looks at the screen. “Mark,” he says, pointing to the phone. I nod and he answers it while walking into the next room and out of ear shot.

  “We’ll finish up here,” I say to Amanda when Jonah eyes her then the room Mike is in nervously. “Go,” I snap when she looks at me like I’m speaking a different language. She hurries to her feet, almost knocking the cash from the table. I take a deep breath and walk toward the door holding it open for her. I’m about to lose my shit, and she doesn’t deserve my anger. When I turn around, Mike is staring at me with a blank expression. “What?” I know I’m going to hate whatever he is about to say.

  “You better sit down,” he says.

  “Just fucking say it.” I don’t have time for girly dramatics.

  “Mark found who took the money, and it wasn’t Daniel Migelli.”

  “Okay, so who was it?” Jonah says quickly when he realizes I’m about to beat the crap out of his best friend.

  “The money was wired to…” Mike’s throat constricts as he swallows hard. I wave my hand impatiently for him to carry on. “To a Talonia Blake.”

  “What?” He must be fucking with me. He wouldn’t fuck with me. I’m going to kill him if he is fucking with me.

  “Check your email,” he says, already walking to my computer. He opens my mail and clicks on the one just received from Mark. There’s a bunch of technical bullshit with a couple of traces and names I don’t know. But the end result, the final stop in the trail, says it all. “Talonia Blake, age 22, social security number…” My vision goes black, and I pick up the laptop and hurl it through the big glass window behind me.

  “That fucking little bitch!” My hands are shaking, so I clench them into a fist. She fucking used me.

  “It could be Daniel setting her up. She had to know we’d find out it was her. How would she get the codes anyway,” Jonah says calmly. I don’t know. I can’t even think right now.

  “I think Jonah is right. It’s all too easy; she only diverted the money three times. Even an amateur could’ve traced that. Why transfer it into her own account in the end?” Mike asks.

  “Well, let’s find out,” I say as I dial her number. I squeeze my phone so hard I hear the plastic crack. The call goes straight to voicemail. I drop my phone, not trusting myself to not break another window. “Voicemail.” I know it was her. She played me and I fell for it. She had my dick all woven up in her web of lies.

  “She could be sleeping. She’s on painkillers. The girl is working through a lot of shit right now,” Jonah says, making sense again. I nod. But what do we really know about this girl? Nothing, save for her being Ana’s friend.

  “Mike, go to her apartment. Jonah, I know you want to get to Mary, you go speak to Ana. Find out everything she knows about Talon. Let’s get some info on this bitch.” Two birds, one stone. I don’t miss the way my heart pangs on that last word. If she’s betrayed me, I’ll kill her myself. Nobody fucks me over.

  The boys leave without a word, and I call Amanda back into the office to finish up the envelopes. She sits at my desk, lifting her eyes every couple of minutes to look at me. I see her eyeing the broken window and glass on the floor. I ignore her. Let her think what she wants. I take another sip of my water. I need a clear head. Fucking Talon. She better be at home sleeping. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to let her into our lives without checking her background. But where did she get the codes.

  “Mr. Runner,” Amanda squeaks from my desk. I look up at the wide-eyed girl. “I’m done, sir,” she says. She’s standing at my desk fidgeting with her white silk blouse. I nod. She stands frozen for half a beat before scurrying away like a frightened little mouse. I smile.

  “Get Stephan here,” I shout. She jumps and closes the door behind her quickly. My smile grows an inch. She’s such a jumpy little thing. I sit back in my chair. I hope Daniel Migelli is behind this. But this morning was just too weird. This whole week she’s been hammering on being my friend. Getting me to care about her. Crawling beneath my skin, infecting my brain with her sweet promises of more. And then, all of a sudden, she leaves. A couple of hours later my money disappears.

  My door sweeps open, and a pale-faced Mike enters my office. Yeah, I fucking thought so. My fingers curl into the leather arm rests of my chair.

  “She’s gone. I broke down the door when she didn’t answer. Everything is gone, looks like she left in a hurry,” he says, panting slightly. I guess he ran all the way up here.

  “Well, fuck me sideways.” I’m not really surprised. She was a very expensive lay.

  “Runner?”

  “Yeah, Mike,” I say, putting the same emphasize on his name that he used on mine.

  “I found this.” I didn’t even see the newspaper in his hand until he throws it onto my desk. And there in the birthday notifications is a picture of me and Mia. I didn’t even realize it’s my birthday. I’m twenty-five years old today. A quarter of a century. I suppose my twin felt it was necessary to celebrate it. The old me turned twenty-five today. Runner turns twenty-five next month. “Fuck,” I breathe out heavily.

  “Do you think she knows?” Mike asks.

  “Knows what?” I can’t believe I forgot my own birthday. Shit, I’m getting old.

  “The page was open like that on the coffee table. It doesn’t look like you. I mean, you can only see half your face. And you had that facial reconstruction shit done after you smashed your cheek on that fall.” He is talking too fast, like he is trying to convince himself.

  “Oh, that. Unless she’s working for Daniel, that little piece of information doesn’t mean anything to her.” She won’t live long enough to use it anyway. I didn’t really get that much work done on my face. Just a job to fix my broken cheek bone, but then they had to fix the other side as well to make the two sides look the same. And they straightened my nose. Never liked the crooked thing anyway. I suppose if you knew me before and saw me now, you could make the connection. That’s why I try to stay away from Bailey.

  “So she’s really gone?” I ask, choosing to ignore the fact that Talon might have planned this thing from the start, and that she probably knows who I am.

  “Looks like it. What do we do now?” Mike asks.

  “Check the airports, bus stations. I’ll check the car rentals. That piece of trash of hers won’t get her far.”

  “Okay.” Mike starts heading for the door.

  “Where the fuck are you going?” I ask.

  “To check the airport and then the bus station.”

  “Use your phone. It’s faster,” I say, pulling the phone book out of my drawer and holding it out to him. He nods and starts looking for numbers. I go out to reception and grab the telephone book from Amanda’s desk. She’s not there, probably banging on the fire escape again. I don’t have time for her shit, so instead I go back to my office to phone the rental companies. Let’s hope Talon is stupid enough to use her cards to pay for her travel expenses.

  After we phoned the airport, bus companies, and all the rental places I can find, I’m sure we’ll never see that girl again. Mike phoned Mark to see if he can find security footage from the ai
rport and bus companies when it became clear she didn’t use her own name. I’m not even seeing the images on Amanda’s laptop anymore. Watching hour after hour of countless faces I don’t know, rushing in and out of the airport terminal pisses me off. But there’s just a tinge of sadness in there, and that really grinds my nuts. I’m furious that she betrayed me, that she fucking used me!

  “Bingo,” Mike shouts and points at the screen. And there’s Talon standing at the airport desk. The epitome of deceit. Sweet seduction with a poisonous bite. She doesn’t look nervous at all. The only thing giving her away is the way she keeps looking over her shoulder.

  “That’s right, bitch, we’re coming for you,” Mike says, dialing on his phone again. I almost punch him when he calls her a bitch, but the bitter taste of her betrayal is still fresh. She deserves everything that comes her way.

  “Uh huh, 09:15 this morning. Teller 5,” Mike says over the phone.

  I freeze the image on the screen and look at Talon. How did she fool me? Maybe love is blind. I bite my tongue and almost spit around the word. Not love. Lust. Lust is a drunken, blind whore that finds pleasure in fooling stupid people into thinking someone else cares.

  “Thanks, Mark,” Mike says then turns to me with a big smile on his face. “She booked the flight under the name Christina Blake.” He looks pleased as shit with himself.

  “Where’s she going?” I ask impatiently. “Africa. South Africa. Fuck knows what’s there,” he says, bouncing on his feet. He is eager to get going. So am I. I’m going to show Talonia Blake exactly what happens to people who betray me.

  “She must have a fake ID. Clever little girl, booking a flight under a false name. Now let’s see how fast she can RUN…”

  TALON

  I can’t wait to get out of this country. I keep thinking Runner is going to show up and haul me back to the cabin, probably by my hair. That’s if he doesn’t just shoot me on sight. I won’t put it past him to do exactly that. Guys like him don’t digest betrayal very well. I already know I can never come back here.