Page 104 of Intent to Kill
“Let’s just hold here for a bit and then we’ll keep moving,” Adam said, leading the pack.
“Adam, what the hell are we doing?” Dan hissed, the whites of his eyes shining, not an ounce of drugged red sting behind them.
What were they doing?Fuck if he knew.
Adam’s only reply was a tense shrug before he retreated farther into the alley.
“Seriously, what the fuck are we doing?!” Dan said, following him. “They are so fucking close on our tail. We’ve got nowhere left to go!”
Slowly turning back to Dan, Adam folded his arms, watching the outburst with eyes as tight as slits and mouth as sharp as a razor.
A moment later, there was a rumble nearby that froze them all. Adam, still the only one without fear, approached the edge of the alley and peered onto the street.
Blake’s men.
They turned up in droves with loud roaring engines and headlights as bright as the sun. Watching as their hunters rounded the street and continued north, Adam loosened a breath. They were safe for now, but not off the hook entirely. Their ten-minute lead had significantly shortened.
Adam nodded to his friends.
“Well? What are we doing?!” Dan said.
“You keep telling us to run, but... to where?” Carlos said, looking up with a pained expression. “What are we running toward? Where could we possibly go from here?”
Adam ran his tongue along his teeth, turning to Paul looking for support, though he wasn’t actually surprised when he didn’t find any.
“Paul?” Adam said.
“I’m sorry,” Paul whispered.
Paul had finally left Adam in the lurch. His always unwavering, and yeah, a little unfounded, support—gone. He had warned Adam numerous times how this would end.
He’d never intended to draw so much attention. He just wanted to be in charge of his own destiny. Sick of allowing someone else to decide whether or not he lived or died.
“We’re done here, we failed. End of story,” Paul said. “What are we doing now?”
Adam, annoyed as ever, stared at his feet. But no answer laid there either.Obviously.
He looked up to find his friends staring back at him, exhausted and unsure, but somehow still looking to him for guidance.
“We don’t have a choice,” Mercedes said, stepping in front of him to draw the attention. “We run, or we die. Nobody’s got some sort of brilliant plan here. You don’t wanna die? Then you run.”
They didn’t dare to argue with her, but they didn’t respond either. There was no passion glowing over them anymore. They only looked sad, exhausted, confused. Beaten. Just as Blake had wanted them to be.
“Fine,” Paul agreed, seemed that if he couldn’t support another of Adam’s grand schemes, he could at least support Mercedes’s desire to keep them all alive. “We run until we can’t anymore.”
The alleyway fell silent, with only the chirp of bugs echoing through the barren mess.
“This wasn’t supposed to be it,” Dan said, his throat catching. “We were supposed to be big. We weren’t supposed to fail.”
“Let’s just try to stay alive,” Paul said, patting him on the shoulder.
With heads hung, Paul and Dan helped Carlos to his feet and they headed for the street. Ready for what would likely be many more weeks of running.
Mercedes had inclined to follow them but seemed to notice that Adam couldn’t bring himself to move. He was stuck in that alley, inside his mind, arms folded and staring down at the rain-soaked bricks.
He watched as Mercedes tapped Paul on the shoulder. “We’ll catch up.”
Paul cut a glance to Adam, as still as a stone sculpture, and nodded once. “We’ll be in the liquor store.” With that he followed the others into the open street, leaving Mercedes and Adam alone.
