Chapter Thirty-Eight
The Interlude
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"I can't believe you," I huffed. We were running down the stairs together, making our way to the first floor.
"I didn't really think. For crying out loud, Kayli, it's your fault as much as mine!"
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me! How is it my fault at all?"
"You told me to arrest you!"
"And you're the idiot who locked the other manacle around your wrist!"
"I wouldn't have even brought out the handcuffs if you hadn't told me to!"
We ran out the door to the first level and made our way to the fire exit at the side of the building. We'd decided that going out the front door wasn't the best of ideas, even if Lee had no one keeping watch. Good things never happened to people who walked out in clear view of the side street.
And it wasn't easy, running when you were attached to someone else.
"You could've thought, just for a second. 'Hmm, I wonder if I should handcuff myself to Kayli'," I mimicked his deep tone, "'Oh, wait a minute, I don't have the key and linking myself to her would be an utterly foolish, daft, idiotic, moronic thing to do'."
"You KNOW I don't think straight around you. No, allow me to correct that; I don't think of anything BUT you. Do you know what this past week was like?"
He ran faster, his long legs eating up distance. Even with my fitness training I was struggling to keep up, not that I had a choice, with the short 10cm chain between the two cuffs. It was either run or be dragged.
"I went through the same thing!" I protested.
He turned a right corner sharply and, me being on his right side, had to quickly avoid hitting the wall. My movement drew our arms straight, the chain pulling taut.
He looked back over his shoulder. "Don't lag behind Kayli."
I nearly stopped running. It wasn't the words that got to me but it was his tone. It sounded like he was speaking to a stranger, someone he didn't know and had no feelings toward. We made it to the door and Liam quickly jumped up and pulled out the wire that connected the door to the alarm. Then shoved the door open. I stumbled out after him.
"Liam, you know I had to go." I was no longer yelling. "I couldn't just laze around in your arms while my friends were in trouble, as much as I wanted to!"
"You could have asked me to help. You could have asked me to be by our side." He sounded very young.
My heart seemed to melt, hot liquid spread through my chest.
"But-But you... I couldn't have asked you to break the law... I thought..." I felt flustered. "You're an officer, a LASER agent, someone who ensures the rules are followed. You wouldn't even let me skip school."
We reached his car and I was forced to get into the driver's side and then scoot over to the other seat, climbing over the panel in the middle. He turned on the engine, which purred quietly, and drove out onto the road... manually.
"Liam, you can't drive with one hand. And I don't particularly want you pulling my hand around as you steer and change gears."
He swerved to the side and braked, hard. His breathing was fast and he stared straight ahead. I was too intimidated to speak.
"I would've helped," he whispered harshly. He turned to me, his eyes dark, especially with no light coming into the car from outside. The night was gloomily dark, the storm clouds covering the moon and the stars.
