“What?” I sit up in bed as he starts pulling clothes out of the drawers. He throws me a hoodie and a pair of jeans.
“Get dressed. We’re leaving in five minutes. I know where JD is, so it’s gonna take him twenty minutes to get here. So five minutes.” Ark walks out with a gym bag filled with clothes.
I get up and put on the clothes, then find my winter boots and slip those on too. Ark comes back with my fancy winter coat. “Put it on, Blue. And I don’t want any bullshit about leaving this loft, you hear me?”
I nod as he holds the coat open for me and I slide my arms into the smooth satin lining the sleeves. He waits as I button it up and cinch the belt at my waist. “Where are we going?” I ask as he takes my hand and tugs me down the hallway.
My heart is pounding as I’m led through the front door and we wait for the elevator. “Where are we going?” I ask again.
“A friend’s place. But she’s at work, so we need to stop there first.”
When we get to the garage, he stops and looks both ways, like someone might be following us. When he decides it’s clear, we run towards a Jeep. He opens the passenger door and I climb in. Then he closes it up and walks around the front of the vehicle, his eyes darting around, looking everywhere he can in those few moments.
It’s only when he gets in and throws something in the center console that I realize he’s got a gun. “What’s that for?”
He ignores me, just starts the Jeep and throws it in reverse, the tires screeching on the parking garage floor. We zoom around and hit the street. He stops before pulling out, looking left and right for what seems longer than necessary with the light traffic. Then he pulls out onto the street.
I have not been in a car since I was taken to the party the night before I escaped, and the motion makes me a little dizzy, especially since Ark is weaving in and out of traffic.
We drive for about fifteen minutes, and then stop at a Radio Shack. He grabs the gun and jumps out, leaving the Jeep running. “If anyone approaches you, honk the horn.”
And then the door closes and he takes off inside.
I look around. I have no idea where I’m at, but we are a little ways out of the city. It’s a big strip mall with tons of cars. We are parked right in front of the store, but honestly, how fast can Ark get to me if someone came up?
Who would try to get me? And just as I’m thinking that, I realize who we’re running from.
Not JD.
The people I escaped from.
My heart starts to beat faster. Because even though I might’ve been holding myself prisoner in the loft with Ark and JD, I always knew I was free to go. I just didn’t have the courage to walk out the door.
But if those people get me again, I’m done. They’ll beat me. Rape me. And then sell me or kill me or God only knows what. I twist around in my seat, trying to see all sides of the parking lot at once, but it’s too big. Several minutes go by, and I’m just about to reach for the door handle and go join Ark inside before I die of paranoia when he comes back. He throws a bag on my lap. “Open it up, Blue. Stick the SIM card in it and activate it for me as I drive.”
“What’s going on?”
“Just do what I say.”
Inside the bag is a prepaid cell phone. Ark reaches into his pocket and hands me a knife so I can tear open the sealed plastic. I press the power button and follow the onscreen instructions for activation.
We stop in a restaurant parking lot before I can finish, but this time, Ark turns the Jeep off. “We gotta go inside.”
“Seriously? We’re eating? Can’t you tell me what’s going on first?”
But he just gets out of the Jeep and walks around to my side and opens the door. He holds out his palm, and I let him help me out, handing the phone over in the process. He stuffs it in his jacket, keeps a hold of my hand, and we trudge through the slushy parking lot to the front doors.
Once inside, he starts looking all around. “Fuck,” he utters under his breath.
The hostess comes up and starts grabbing menus. “Two?” she asks.
And that word, I swear to God, gives me a little pain in my chest. It shouldn’t be two, I want to say. JD can get help. I can get help. We can work this stuff out. But Ark is not even thinking about JD right now.
“I’m looking for a waitress named Lanie. She works breakfast and dinner.”
“Lanie?” the hostess says as she tsks her tongue and huffs out a breath. “She quit ages ago. In fact, she walked one afternoon mid-shift and never came back. No one’s heard from her since.”
“What?” Ark asks. “When? How long ago?”
“Oh, pfffft. I have no clue. Hey, Ritchie?” she yells across the restaurant. “When did Lanie disappear?”
Ark squeezes my hand when he hears the word disappear.
“’Bout six, seven weeks ago?” the cook behind the counter calls back. “She pissed me off too. I was short that night.”
We are out of the restaurant before the cook even finishes his sentence. And when we reach the Jeep, Ark has the gun in his hand.
“What the fuck is going on?”
But he just blows out a breath and starts the engine. We pull back out onto the street and I know we are far from downtown, because the mountains over here are very close. “Goddamnit!” I yell when we starts weaving through side streets. “Talk to me!”
Instead, he throws the phone back at me. “Finish the activation. I need to text someone right the fuck now.”
“What did JD say? Why are we running?”
But Ark ignores all my questions so I just finish the activation process and hand him the phone. He tucks it under his leg, and then reaches for the gun as he pulls up to a little house in a very nondescript suburban neighborhood.
I grab him by the coat. “Where the fuck are we?”
“Lanie’s house,” he says, ducking a little so he can look up at the roof.
“Who is Lanie? And what are you doing?”
“Goddammit, Blue! Shut up. I’m looking for snipers.”