Chasing Shadows

Part Two ~ Chapter Three

Amy:

            I guess being armed with a stick was not going to be suffice when greeted with five people pointing guns at me the minute I opened the door. “Drop the weapon,” one of them commanded. I let it clatter to the ground without hesitation.

“Someone take care of her,” one man nodded his head toward Julia, who had her hand over her mouth and tears streaming down her face. “Her scream’s already attracted unwanted company.”

“Oh, so I’m unwanted company?” the words were out of my mouth before I could even process them. Matt sent me a look to shut up and I slouched back and mumbled an apology. I’ve had so many guns pointed at me, at this point I knew my luck was bound to run out.

“Look,” Andrew said calmly, “you’re here for me. Please just let them go.” I looked over at him, shocked. So the mighty Andrew had a big secret, huh? “They’re not involved in this, this is my own problem and its unnecessary to drag these three into it as well. How about we let them go and you and I can settle this?”

“James… Oh, James. The time for being civil is long gone.” A lady stepped forward, pressing the gun towards James.

“Who’s James?” I couldn’t resist asking. Matt gave me another glare.

“My bad,” she smirked. “I meant Andrew. How convenient, they don’t know anything at all, do they?”

“Somebody tell me what the hell is going on!”

“Amy just stop talking!” Matt yelled at me.  Julia whimpered in the corner and slid to the ground. I bit my lip, trying to calm down. I was trying to talk away the fear that was slowly building up inside of me, for once a fear not associated with Mr. Grey at all. I hoped the more I talked it would tune out what was actually going on inside my head. Which was screaming, a lot of screaming.

“Sorry.” I threw up my hands in surrender. “It’s just, if I’m going to die, I’d like to know why first.”

The lady shrugged, nodding to her men. They held down their weapons, and I felt all four of us sigh a wave of relief. “So how bout it, care to share?” She still had her gun drawn, pointed straight at Andrew.

We’re all going to die today.

Who knew my death would come and Mr. Grey would have nothing to do with it? My thoughts were all over the place, every place but the one it should be at. Questioning what the hell Andrew was involved in that got him into this mess. Or should I say James?

I should have been terrified, but to be honest part of me was too occupied being curious.

“This was the life I wanted to leave behind,” Andrew said finally, anger in his voice I recognized all to well.

“You mean run away from.”

“Sure.” His eyes strayed down to the gun. He swallowed and turned towards us. “In my old life, I got into some bad stuff. Illegal stuff. It was pretty dangerous. So I changed my name, came to Hamilton, and found you guys. Then we got ourselves into a different mess, and my past life was just that, my past life. It wasn’t in the picture anymore.”

“No. No, no, no.” The lady with the gun shook her head. She turned to us and put one hand on her hip. “James here isn’t telling the complete truth.”

“Was it drugs?” Matt asked.

The lady laughed out loud. “Who do you think we are? Believe it or not, your friend here is probably the smartest one in this room.”