Under Different Circumstances

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Hearing the urgency in his voice, I reacted immediately. I gripped his hand tightly and sprinted towards the stairs leading up to the main road and away from the Riverwalk. At the top, we had to slow down to let a big truck pass by before we could cross the road. Jay used the deceleration to retrieve his phone from his pocket while I looked back at the man following us. He was running now too and was about to reach the bottom of the stairs. His face had turned bright red, and he was fuming and yelling at us.

"You're a dead man, Ryan! I'll kill you, you lying snitch!" he roared behind us, and I caught a glimpse of shining metal in his hand.

"Gun! He's got a gun, Jay," I yelled as we raced across the street and into an alley between two buildings.

Jay had his phone glued to his ear, cursing under his breath. "Sarge!" he yelled when someone picked up, "Jason Wright found me! He's currently chasing us, and he is armed!"

I shot a glance back at Wright who was just entering the alley and saw him lift his right arm. A loud bang echoed back and forth between the tall buildings, making me flinch. Jay pulled me around a corner where we came across a huge parking lot. Ducking down low, we weaved our way around the parked cars. The gravelly ground was hurting my bare feet, and every time the stones crunched under our feet, the sound sent cold shivers down my spine.

"We're in the parking lot where we arrested Luis last week," Jay whispered into the phone and hung up.

Instead of hiding between the cars, Jay steered us towards the building at the far end of the parking lot which had multiple doors. The first two doors we reached were locked, the third one swung open. Jay followed me inside into a short, unlit hallway with concrete walls leading only to another door. I tried its handle but it was locked.

"Damn it!" Jay cursed under his breath, closing the first door behind us.

Yellow light from a streetlamp outside shone through a square-shaped window in the door onto the door at the end of the hall. To avoid being seen, Jay pressed his back against the wall next to the windowed door, and I followed suit on the other side. Glueing my cheek against the wall, I looked over to Jay whose eyes were already pinned on me. Both of us had the same alarmed and scared look on our faces, but we stayed calm and worked on regulating our breathing.

Outside, we heard Wright yelling from a good distance away. He was presumably looking for us between the cars.

"Who is that guy? What does he want from you?" I hissed, "And why is he calling you Ryan?"

"Ryan is my undercover name. Half a year ago, I went under in a drug ring. Jason Wright was the boss's second in command. I worked the ring for a few weeks until we had enough evidence to arrest everyone involved and send them away for decades. Wright managed to flee, and we haven't been able to locate him since," Jay explained in a hushed voice. "He figured out that I was responsible for the arrests and sent me threatening messages to my undercover phone after everything happened. I'm not sure if he knows that I'm a cop, thou..."

His words were cut off by a loud rattling sound very close by. Wright had begun to check the doors along the building. More clattering, closer by this time, set my heart racing inside my chest. Beside me, Jay shifted slightly, grabbing a hold of the door handle from above, pulling it up so that Wright would think the door was locked when he tried it.

I heard crunching steps close in on us, and when Wright stepped in front of the door, his shadow was projected onto the door at the end of the hall. I sucked in a sharp breath not daring to release it or move a single muscle. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the tall man press his hands against the window to look inside. Then he pulled back and tried the handle. Jay was using all his strength to keep it level, pressing his lips together, his face strained.