Fighting (28 page)

Ethan
smirked at me and blocked two more of Spencer's hits before suddenly advancing
and getting him in a headlock.  Spencer was out of breath, unlike Ethan, who
calmly wrapped his arm around Spencer's neck and hauled him back over to the
couches.  Spencer jerked out of Ethan's grip and they both collapsed back on
the couch.

"Evasive,"
Ollie complimented him.

"Alex
taught me that," Ethan grinned.

"You're
welcome," I said. 

Brooks
had ignored that whole exchange and was staring at the coffee table, lost in
thought.

"If
they're still looking for us, which I'd bet my Swiss Bank account that they
are, they'll be looking for a group of six, so we'll need to separate for a
while."

"For
how long?" August asked.

"Few
days," Brooks said.  "Long enough to lie low and then regroup in a
place he wouldn't be able to guess.  He'll exhaust time and money and probably
patience.  If he doesn't give up altogether, he'll at least become frustrated
that he can't find us.  Our ultimate destination is another safe house on the
coast.  We'll meet there a week from today, and hopefully by then we'll know
what he wants and come up with a proper strategy."

"Strategy? 
You mean we're not just letting this guy go?" Spencer asked hopefully.

"No,"
Brooks said vehemently.  "We can't just let him go because I know him, how
he thinks.  He won't leave us alone until he gets what he wants."

"What
kind of resources does he have?" I asked.  "Are we going to see our
faces splashed all over the news as wanted criminals?"

"Got
you covered," Ollie said.

"When
you came to the compound, Ollie essentially erased every photo of you on
record," Brooks explained.  "He deleted your social network pages
that you had abandoned anyway, plus all the pictures you were in, your school
yearbook photos, even your driver's license photo has been distorted.  You
exist, but at the same time, you don't."

"And
he doesn't have your real name unless you gave it to him at that party,"
Ollie said.  "All the records that we kept on each of us at the compound
were destroyed before we even left the building.  I had programmed a fail-safe
in the event of an emergency.  As soon as the alarm was tripped, all of our
files were permanently deleted and there is absolutely no way they can be
revived.  They wouldn't even be able to turn on our equipment.  And they burned
the house down, --"

"The
bastards," Spencer interrupted.

"So
any clues they might have found are gone," Ollie continued. 
"Essentially, the only way he would be able to find a photo of you is if
the party had cameras, but we checked.  They didn't."

Holy,
holy crap. 

"You
are the shit, Ollie," I said, astonished.

Ollie
smiled somewhat modestly.

"What
about Ben?" Ethan asked before I could.

"Ben
left an hour before the attack, and while that's naturally suspicious, I don't
think he had anything to do with it."

"What
about Murphy and Ross?  Gwen?" August asked.

"Ross
went out on a date, if you can believe it," Brooks said.  "He didn't
show back up before the attack and obviously he'll have heard that the place
burned down by now.  Murphy and Gwen don't live at the compound, so they should
be fine.  I'll get in touch with them all soon and catch them up."

"How
did he even know to target us?" I asked Brooks.

"Fletcher
most likely doesn't know you or your real names, but he knows mine.  He
probably spotted me at the party and he knows I have a team working on the
opposite side of him."

"So
he had a starting point," Ethan said.

"We
go off the grid, we commit to it," Brooks said.  "Completely.  No
bank account activity, no phone calls on anything but landlines, no contact
with family or friends.  You can't log into any,
any
accounts on the
internet, not even email."

"What
if we make up a new account once we get somewhere far away?  How are we going
to communicate with each other on the road?" I asked.

Brooks
stood up and walked over to the kitchen counter.  He brought back three cell
phones.

"These
are burner cells.  Use them once and then throw them away.  That's it until we
meet at the cabin by the sea," Brooks said.

"What
is it with you and cabins?" I asked.

"They're
homey."

"There's
a story here, isn't there?" I asked suspiciously.

Brooks
ignored me and sat down to dig through the bag he brought with him.  He
withdrew some papers and flattened them on the coffee table in front of us. 

"Okay,
so like I said, we're going to split up.  Ollie, you're with me.  August and Spencer
are together.  And that leaves Alex with Ethan," Brooks said.

I
looked at August when I said, "I don't want to split up."

"We
have to," Brooks said.

Then
I looked at Ollie.  "Well then, wouldn't it be better if the three oldest
were paired with the three youngest?" I asked, letting a bit of my worry
shine through.

"It
would be less conspicuous this way.  August and Spencer are closest in age, so
they can be brother and sister or a couple without anyone giving them a second
glance.  Same for you and Ethan.  And I'm Ollie's uncle," Brooks said. 
"If Ethan were paired with August, they might come to the conclusion that
they're brother and sister with a big age difference, but I don't want anyone
to even consider any other option.  They'll remember you more clearly that
way."

Ethan
was sitting right across from me, and he scooted to the edge of the couch to
steal my focus.  "Alex, it'll be okay," he soothed.  "We're all
trained and prepared for this.  They're not normal kids.  They'll be
fine."

I
stared back at him, focusing on his words and the confidence with which he
spoke them.  I nodded my head and relaxed because I knew he was right.  He gave
me a small reassuring smile and reclined back in his seat.

"Tomorrow,
after all the fire fighters and other first response personnel have completely
abandoned the area, we'll head out," Brooks said.  "Ethan, you and
Alex will walk out of the forest to the east for about five miles.  It opens up
at a road, with a few restaurants scattered on the other side.  They'll be
parking lots full of cars for you to choose from.  Ollie and I will go west and
come out on the highway right by a local airport hangar.  I have a car waiting
in one of the warehouses there.  August, you and Spencer will go north for
about ten miles and that leads to a high school.  You'll need to leave in time
to blend in with the other students leaving the parking lot.  You can either
take a car or hitch a ride, just get out on the road away from here."

We
all nodded receptively and I looked at Brooks curiously.  "Do you really
have a Swiss Bank account?"

He
looked at me blankly and shook his head.  "Of course not."  But then
his lips betrayed the ghost of a smirk as he turned away and I knew he was
lying. 

Brooks,
that sneaky bastard.

We
killed time watching the news, choosing which routes to take and making plans
for our individual groups.  We were all anxious to either leave or fight back,
but with neither option available, we tried to stay productive.

I
dropped down beside of Ethan and we went through our bags together, seeing what
weapons and resources we had between us.  He left to fix himself a drink but
when he came back to me, he wasn't holding a glass of ice, he was holding two
bags of ice.  He sat back down beside of me and didn't even ask permission
before he put a hand on my collar bone to press me back against the couch
cushions.

"What
the hell are you doing?" I asked.

"You
need to ice your bruises."

He
nestled a bag of ice around my ribs and I put my foot down.  Figuratively.

"Hey,
cool it with the nurse act.  I can take care of myself," I said.

"It's
just ice."

"No,
you feel like you owe me," I argued.  "And that's ridiculous."

"I
do not," he defended.  "I'm just trying to take care of you."

"I
don't need you to," I returned instantly.

His
expression changed and I swear I saw something akin to protectiveness flash
across his face.  "You liked it last night."  My muscles tensed up
because I let that truth slip out last night, but also because it sounded a
little dirty.  I tried not to smile.  "Stop fighting me," he said
resolutely, not backing down.

"
You
stop," I said, still agitated but kind of wanting to laugh because we
sounded like two petulant five year olds.

"You
know what I mean."

I
furrowed my brow.  "It's fine, I'm fine."

"Alex,
just
let
me," he said impatiently.  "Okay?"

I
grit my teeth together to keep from responding and sighed with defeat as I
leaned back against the cushion.  I stayed beside of him the remainder of the
evening, too tired to distance myself from him.  When we ran out of things to
do, we all watched TV together.  Ethan got more comfortable beside of me and
eventually fell asleep.  I just came off of eleven hours of sleep, so I was
wired until around midnight and even then, I wasn't actually sleepy.

When
the others left for bed, I woke Ethan up.  I slid my palm over his chest and
his eyes popped open and focused on mine.  He yawned as he sat up and I removed
my hand from his chest.  I rubbed my eyes and we walked up the stairs
together.  We separated and took bedrooms directly across from each other.  I had
just closed my door and removed my socks when there was a light knock at my
door. 

"You
got more drugs for me?" I asked Ethan. 

Only
it wasn't Ethan.  It was Spencer.  He stared at me wearing a conflicted
expression and before I could ask what was wrong, he stepped forward and flung
his arms around me, hugging me to him tightly.  I stood there frozen with shock
for a moment before I wrapped my arms around him. 

I
felt a warm glow in my chest that radiated out to the rest of my body, and I
squeezed him tighter.  Over his shoulder, I saw Ethan's door crack open and he
looked out at us curiously.  His eyes warmed and he leaned against the door
frame, watching.  Spencer held on for a few more seconds and then let me go and
left without a word or a backward glance. 

I
looked back to Ethan when he spoke.  "Nobody told him to do that," he
whispered.  I grinned and he stood there a second longer and then said,
"See you in the morning."

"Yeah,"
I whispered. 

"Okay,
we're all set to leave," Brooks said just before noon the following day. 
"These two way radios will work until we're out of range from each other,
so only use them if you have an emergency situation and need backup."

We
stood in the forest and said our goodbyes, purposely keeping it lighthearted
because it wasn't a permanent separation.  I hugged August and Ollie and bumped
knuckles with Spencer.  Brooks walked over to me and placed his hands on my
shoulders.

"I'll
see you in a week," he said.  He looked like he wanted to say something
else, something more serious, but instead he said, "Don't release Ethan to
the world with a gun on his own.  He'll devastate it."

I
laughed softly.  "I have the weapon cache.  He has the money," I
assured him.

"Good,"
he smiled.

He
squeezed my shoulders and then turned around and slung an arm around Ollie's
shoulders, setting off for their trek.  Spencer and August turned and left in
their direction, leaving Ethan and me standing there alone among the trees.

"Ready?"
he asked.

Ethan
and I were alone but we were also
alone
; for the next week, we had no
one to rely on but each other and it took facing that for me to realize just
how safe I felt with him. 

"Yes,"
I said confidently.

He
set a brisk pace for our walk to the restaurant parking lot.  I adjusted my
messenger bag so that it wouldn't jostle against my thighs with every step I
took.  Ethan had abandoned his knapsack at the cabin and I crammed what little
he wanted to take into my bag, keeping our load light. 

It
only took us a little over an hour to reach the road.  I pointed to a
restaurant that was packed with cars for the lunch hour rush.  We didn't stop
walking when we reached the lot, both browsing around for a suitable ride.  He
zeroed in on something in the distance and picked up his pace to approach it. 
I caught up to him and peered around his shoulders to see what he was looking
at.

"You
want a bike?" I asked, startled at his choice.

"Yeah. 
We'd be able to zip in and out of places quickly, and fit places that cars
can't go," he reasoned.

"Yes
but we would both have to ride it.  Together."

"Yeah."

I
scanned over the details of the black bike and thought about how much of a
double-edged sword snuggling up to Ethan on the back of this kickass street
bike would be.  It'd be awesome, but it'd also be a tease.  He read the concern
on my face and placed his hand on my elbow to walk us a few feet away from the
bike and behind another vehicle, in case someone were to notice us and find it
suspicious that we were just standing there.

"I'm
a good driver.  You don't have to worry about that."

"It's
not that," I said.

"Then
what is it?"

No
way in hell was I letting him in on the real reason.  "Nothing.  It's
nothing."

He
narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously but let it slide.  "We need the
keys.  I'll be right back," he said.

Less
than five minutes later, he emerged from the restaurant and gestured for me to
walk to the bike.  He jumped on and I took a deep breath and put my hands on
his shoulders for balance.  I threw a leg over the bike and got settled as the
engine purred to life.  I moved my hands from his shoulders to his waist but
apparently he wasn't satisfied with my grip, because he took my hands from his
waist and pulled me closer to him, so my front was plastered against his back. 
He wrapped my arms securely around his waist and pressed my hands below his
chest pointedly.

This
was the closest I'd ever really been to him other than hugging him when I had
my mental breakdown, and this was definitely going to last longer than a hug. 
I decided to focus on the bright side, which was having an excuse to wrap
myself around him and have him close.  He pulled out of the parking lot, and I
squeezed my thighs around his in excitement and to hold on better. 

Not
going to lie, I did it mainly because I could get away with it. 

I
figured if I was going to get it done, I should do it right (thanks for that,
Brooks), so I adjusted my position and got more comfortable, pressing even
closer to him so there was zero space between our bodies.  He knew it was my
first time on a bike, so for the first ten minutes or so, he drove under the
speed limit, letting me become accustomed to riding.  He was thoughtful like
that.  My hair was in a pony tail and it was slapping around on my neck and
into my eyes and mouth.  After I reached my limit of that annoyance, I clasped
my hands to his shirt front and pointed one hand to the side of the road.  He
glanced at me in his peripheral vision and pulled over. 

"This
is going to be a bitch to untangle," I muttered.

Ethan
twisted his neck to watch what I was doing.  I dug around in my bag for a hair
brush and quickly ran it through my hair, making pained faces when it pulled
uncomfortably at my scalp, and then braided it to the side of my head. 
Understanding crossed Ethan's face and he turned back to face the handlebars as
I resumed my cozy position without reluctance.

He
pulled back onto the road and my eyes got caught on a silver sports car that
was parked near the entrance of a gas station.  I tracked it with my eyes as we
flew by it picking up speed, and then all of my muscles tensed around Ethan and
I started yelling at him frantically.

"That's
them!  That's the guys who came after us!"

I
glanced behind us and saw that the silver car peeled out of the parking lot and
were hot on our trail.

"Ethan,
they're coming after us!" I shouted in his ear.

"Hold
on!" he yelled.

I
was already squeezing the life out of him, but I held tighter, still.  He sped
up and completely disregarded the speed limits.  He took the first turn off and
we ended up in the middle of a town, with cars and people everywhere, not
unlike that first time Ethan and I raced to the vineyard.  This had much more
potential though, because with few exceptions, if you could walk on it, you
could drive a bike on it.

The
car was catching up to us but having to work harder than us to swerve around
cars.  Ethan was keeping tabs on them in the side mirrors and I tried to be as
still and quiet as possible so that I didn't distract him.  The car swerved
into the oncoming traffic lane to pass a car and that's when Ethan took a sharp
right into a parking lot.  We flew down the lane and almost clipped a guy
walking with a briefcase.  He was so close that I could have reached out and
stolen his coffee as we barreled past.  The car squealed into the parking lot
right as we got to the end of it.

Ethan
turned left onto another road and took the first alley on the right.  He did
this several times, weaving between cars and people like it was second nature. 
We were zigzagging between roads and alleys, appearing and disappearing on
roads so quickly that the car was having a lot of trouble keeping up.  And
that's when the gunfire started.

I
yelled out when the first bullet ricocheted off the wall feet from my head but
quickly reined it in, rerouting my terror to my knees and hands so that they
pulsed and tensed when I felt the urge to yell.  Which was almost constantly. 
If our hostage Gary was telling the truth, they weren't trying to kill us, just
scare us into submission.  Complicating things for all parties involved, we
weren't the type to simply give up and submit.

They
gained some distance on us and began firing again.  Ethan turned left onto a
road, but this time he swung to the far left, meaning we were now driving
against
traffic, weaving in and out of lanes.  People were honking their horns left and
right, and I knew it wouldn't be long until the cops came, and that wasn't good
seeing as how we were driving a stolen vehicle. 

We
were coming up on an intersection, and Ethan had to slam on the brakes to avoid
colliding with a turning transfer truck.  We almost had to come to a complete
stop, but Ethan jumped the curb and drove down the sidewalk.  The car almost
came to a stop too, and was still moving when one of the men jumped out and ran
up to another motorcyclist waiting at the stop light.  The man tried to punch
the guy in the face to steal his bike, but the motorcyclist was wearing a
helmet so the man only ended up hurting his hand.  He shook it out and the
motorcyclist headbutted the man with his helmet, sending him falling to the
ground.  I laughed out loud as Ethan squeezed us between two cars and around a
curve.

One
down. 

Ethan
dropped back onto the road again and we flew down the road in a regular lane,
breaking the speed limit but otherwise not breaking the law.  The car was
struggling to catch up as Ethan took a turn that would lead us to the highway. 
As soon as we merged onto the highway, Ethan drove straight down the dotted
lines, squeezing between cars and exceeding
that
speed limit by at least
thirty miles, so we were nearing ninety miles per hour, which was as terrifying
as it was exciting. 

Who
gets into a car chase their first time riding a bike?  That would be me.

We
were slowly losing sight of the car, and Ethan veered into a regular lane,
weaving only when absolutely necessary to avoid further detection from the
car.  Ethan passed a transfer truck in the far right lane, and got in front of
it.  Two miles later, the truck flicked on his turn signal to exit the highway,
and Ethan took the exit as well, using the truck as a shield against the car
chasing us.  We had to slow down for the exit ramp and the car whizzed by us
but immediately hit the brakes and jumped the bank to take the exit as well. 

Fuck! 
We were so close to escaping undetected!  We raced down the exit ramp after the
car and it slammed on the brakes and turned to the side, trying to trap us on
the exit ramp.  The transfer truck behind us slid across the pavement in its
attempt to avoid a collision.  Ethan swerved around the car as they realized
their mistake and gunned it to miss the semi.    Ethan whipped his head side to
side to check the oncoming traffic lanes right before he jumped onto the two
tier concrete roundabout island and drove straight across.  The car followed as
soon as it corrected on the road and I heard something slam into the raised
roundabout platform; most likely their fender breaking. 

The
road was a ramp that led back onto the highway.  As soon as we got to the end
of the entrance ramp with the car catching up to us, Ethan skidded to a stop
and spun the back tire as we pivoted on the front tire and turned a complete
one eighty.  He let loose on the brakes and we flew by in the opposite
direction of the car and back to the intersection. 

I
know it was petty, but I couldn't resist giving them the one finger salute as
we raced by them.  The car tried to stop and change gears to turn around, but
there were too many cars behind them and not enough room to squeeze by them and
chase after us. 

Ethan
took a left at the roundabout intersection and he didn't let off the gas until
we had driven at least twenty minutes with no sign of them or any other of Fletcher's
men.

Speaking
of Fletcher, his rate of survival was dropping by the day with the amount of
shit he kept putting us through.

We
drove for close to another thirty minutes before we had to stop and refuel.  As
soon as the bike came to a stop, I jumped off and rounded on Ethan.

"That
was beyond awesome," I praised him.  He just stared at me, waiting,
because he knew me well.  I took an aggressive step closer and yelled,
"But I knew we should have taken a fucking car!"

"Alex,"
he said in an attempt to mollify me.  He glanced around the lot but there was
only one other car at the pump, and the driver was inside the store.

I
threw my hands into the air and kept yelling.  "They were shooting at us! 
There are no
doors
or
windows
on a bike to deflect bullets!  I'd
take a bullet for you any day, Ethan, but I'm not
asking
for an
opportunity!"

He
swung off the bike and faced me.  "That would have been a lot harder to do
with a car."

"Did
you hear the part about where
they had guns!
" I nearly screeched.

"Yes!"
Ethan yelled back, temporarily jolting me out of my fit. 

He
rarely raised his voice.  He almost always kept his cool.  That was part of his
dangerous aura that I liked so much.

"Calm
down," he clipped.  "You knew that it was a possibility that they'd
be staking out the roads outside of the forest and you still got on that bike
with me.  What does that mean?" he asked me pointedly.

"That
I'm an idiot and
was
asking to get shot at," I spat.

"Alex,"
he grated with even less patience.

"What
do you want from me, Ethan?  We were just in a real car chase with real bullets
flying within inches of us.  You're great at calming me down, but did you ever
think that maybe I need to express emotions to expel them?  I spent years
bottling shit up.  I try not to do that anymore!"