Invincible(44)

“Holy shit. You killed a detective…”

My mind raced at what was going to happen next. This wasn’t just some illegal fighting thing. Not even the murder of Marcie, which both Wes and I had nothing to do with. This was real. This was in our laps. He had killed…

“No, sweetie, that guy wasn't a detective,” Wes said.

“What?”

Wes bent and grabbed the badge from the guy’s jacket pocket. He held it up and to me it looked pretty damn real. But then Wes turned it sideways and snapped it in half like a pencil.

I gasped. “What the…”

“It’s plastic. It’s fake. He’s not a detective. He’s not a cop. He was here to kill you. To get you. That’s what Phantom warned me about.”

“Phantom warned…”

“Hey Johnny!” a voice boomed. “Is that cunt dead yet?”

“Fuck,” Wes growled. “Come on. We have to hurry.”

I ran to the end of the desk. All I wanted to do was jump into Wes’s arms. But I couldn’t. We had to escape first.

“One second,” Wes said.

He got the gun from the guy’s hand. He tore open the door and we were out in the hallway. Not too far away was another man. Wes quickly opened fire, shooting over and over as we ran down the hall toward a door.

“Stop! Police!” the other guy yelled.

“Don’t listen,” Wes said as we ran.

We burst through the door out into the back lot of the building. Wes held the gun in one hand and held my hand in the other. There were a few cars in the lot.

“Wes! There!” I yelled when I saw his car.

“No,” he said. “I bet you it’s wired. We’ll blow up the second I try to start it.”

Like you did to my car, Wes?

Christ, sometimes it was hard to believe what brought me and Wes together. His attempt at murdering me set off this wild and lust filled romance between us. Put that in a romance movie, right?

Wes picked a car and opened the driver’s door. He told me to go around. By the time I got into the car, he had the steering column ripped open and was messing with wires.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Shane taught me,” Wes said. “A long time ago. He learned it from some guy. We were into action movies and shit. We always wanted to know how to do it. Shane used to steal cars for the hell of it. Don’t ask. Let me just…”

I watched a few sparks fly and then the car started.

It was like magic.

I smiled. “Holy shit. I can’t…”

A ping hit the car.

I turned and saw the guy from the hallway running after the car.

“Drive!” I yelled.

Next thing I knew, Wes was going backward. Pedal to the floor, the car throwing me forward.

“Don’t watch this,” Wes said.

I looked forward and braced myself.

I felt the impact as we hit the car. The entire car jumped and then stopped. Wes put it into drive and the car bumped as we ran the guy over a second time. Wes had gone from fighting to attempted murderer in about two minutes flat.

All because of me.

The tires screamed as he turned out of the lot and sped away. Then he reached for my hand and grabbed it tight.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I reached across and wiped a line of blood from the corner of his right eye.

“No,” I said. “Are you?”

“No,” he said.

We looked at each other for a second.

I suddenly wondered what was more serious - the feelings burning between me and Wes or the danger that waited and wanted us dead?





30.


(Wes)



Going back to the cabin probably wasn’t the smartest idea in the world, but I felt like we had no other choice. It was the only place we could go for food and shelter. And it was close enough in case something happened with Aton. My mind spun on what to do next. Call Tommy? Call Danny? Stay hidden and quiet?

No matter what, something was going to give again. They were going to keep coming after myself and Rose. In a sick way, it was like getting it on both sides. There were people after me and people after her. I felt like they were all coming after us for two different reasons, yet I couldn’t figure out why.

The ride to the cabin was in silence. It was my hand attached to Rose’s. Maybe driving the stolen car right up to the cabin was a dumb move, but then again, we had the car of a murdered woman, so what the f*ck difference did it make? At this point, the police were less of a threat than Luke - the Assassin - and whoever else wanted me and Rose dead.

Christ, for all I knew, maybe Aton put a hit out on me before he was shot. Maybe he knew the marriage thing was a lie. It wouldn’t be hard to prove I was lying about being married to Rose. It was just something that came to my mind and I knew it would tug on Aton’s heartstrings.

And it worked.

Now look at us… on the run.

I parked the car and shut it off. We had no keys to the car, obviously. It was weird how dumb shit could get lodged into someone’s mind. Something that seemed so useless like hot wiring a car. But Shane and I had to learn it. We dreamed of someday becoming heroic brothers in an action movie. We’d go and fight crime like vigilante detectives. We’d take the cases nobody wanted. We wouldn’t be afraid of guns, death, fights. And we’d learn how to wire cars, use undercover technology, and fire every weapon known to man.