Chapter 58: Keep running
"My mother?" I feign shock.
"Yes, your mother." Luther clarifies and takes another swig from his whiskey. "And don't pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about. One of Henry's men actually work for me as a spy. They informed me about you being Henry's supposed daughter after overhearing your conversation with him."
"I-I'm sure this is a misunder--"
"Misunderstanding?" He arches his eyebrow. "I'm afraid not. My men are faithful to me and only deliver the truth."
"What if they are lying this time?" I ask.
"They know not to lie." He says. "If they do... they die."
"You're a sick man," I spit. "No wonder she left you."
That sentence immediately earned me a slap. The sound of Luther's hand meeting my cheek with great force resonated throughout his office.
"You sick bas-"
"Really? Bastard?" I prod further while ignoring the burning sensation of the growing hand imprint on my cheek. "Everyone knows that you took that leading role."
Hailey, Hailey, Hailey... do you want me to staple your mouth for you?
"I will kill-" Luther bites his tongue before finishing his sentence. He then clears his throat, before pulling the collar of his navy tux to straighten it out. "You know what?" He composes himself, "I'm not even going to bother myself with you. I'll just have someone to throw the trash out."
I hope that trash doesn't involve me.
With that blabber mouth, the trash is you.
"Tristan, send someone to get your girlfriend out of my face," Luther motions with his hand to Tristan, and walks to sit in his chair. "Now please."
"I'll Take her." Tristan walks to and pulls my arm, hurting me in the process. "Let's go." He orders me.
"Take your filthy hands off of me!" I shake me arm fervently until it is out of his grasp.
"Continue with this little rant, Angel," He whispers in my ear. "-and you'll be escorted by Luther's men. And trust me, they won't be as gentle."
"Don't call me Angel," I warn. "You lost that right the moment you betrayed me. I bet your friends were in on this too." I mutter, remembering how Chase and Jordan were also close to Henry and Luther.
I don't know if my ears betrayed me or not, nor if my imagination longed for these words, but I think he muttered words along the lines of...
I didn't betray you.
............................
Another day.
Another twenty-four hours of loneliness and excruciating silence.
This time I wasn't left seated in an uncomfortable metal chair, but was left chained to the lifeless walls and left seated on the painfully cold floor, without a soft pillow to sit on.
I haven't seen Tristan since the encounter with Luther, not that I want to see him. In fact, the thought of him causes bile to rise up in my throat. His once handsome face, to me now looks like something someone threw up. Disgusting and cringe-worthy.
The moment I find something I thought to be good, is the moment life smacks me hard in the face to the realisation that I will never be given a chance to be joyful. Instead I only deserve the painful perks of deceit, betrayal and hatred.
Life hates me.
I hate it as well.
The door shrieks open to reveal one of Luther's men I came to learn as, Danny. He is a man with a strong built, too muscular in fact, but it helps reduce his obvious old age. He seems to be a few years over fifty, quite evident by the fully white beard he is sporting.
"I brought food." He places a bowl of food on the floor then kicks it in my direction, making it slide until it crashes into my thigh.
"I'm not hungry." I mutter.
"Well you'll need you're strength for-" an almost silenced gunshot cuts through Danny's sentence and a blood stain begins to form on his grey shirt, right on the position of his heart. Danny's body then falls lifelessly on the floor, and I flinch due to the hard contact.
What just happened?
Through the door, appears Greg with a silenced gun, and a grinning Chase. "Nice aim, man." Chase pats Greg's arm.
"Would you hurry up and free Hailey?" Greg stares at Chase with a look which says: I know I'm good but would you hurry up?
"Oh, right!" Chase says before running towards. He kneels down and grabs the chains around my wrists.
This whole time I say nothing.
"I'm so sorry for everything, Hailey." Chase apologises and I notice the sincerity laced in his voice.
I still say nothing.
"Hurry up, Chase!" Greg whisper-shouts at Chase. He must be keeping guard.
"I'm trying the best I can," he responds. "It's not easy picking a lock with a measly bobby pin."
Chase fiddles with the chain's lock a few more times before it snaps open. My wrists immediately relax at the sudden freedom and I roll them a few times to release all tension.
"We have to go. Now." Greg commands.
"Let's go," Chase helps me to my feet which eventually buckle due to the long hours of not moving them, but Chase catches me before I could fall.
"Let go." I try pushing him away. "You are all liars! You all betrayed me."
"Hailey, calm down," Greg quickly rushes to my other side and tries to make me relax. "If you want to escape this dump, you'll have to come with us."
"No, I will not go with you!" I fight against their strong arms. "I'd rather be left here."
"Hailey, calm down!" Chase shouts at me, as if shouting will help relax a person in distress. "No one betrayed you okay? This was all part of a plan."
"You mean Tristan never meant to hurt me?" I don't know what, but something encouraged me to ask that.
"Except him." Chase faces the floor sadly. "We didn't know these were his intentions with you."
Somehow, at those words, my heart sinks further. I blame myself for thinking that maybe this was part of some scheme to finally let Luther off my back, but seeing Chase's and Greg's painful expressions, clarifies that he never really liked me.
Not one bit.
"We have to hurry up. They guards are probably getting suspicious." Greg informs us.
With a quick nod, I allow them to lead me out of the room into a dimly lit passage. Instead of taking the same way Tristan had led me through to Luther's office, we go in the opposite direction. We scurry quickly down the passage way and come to a stop at a cherry wood door which the boys waste no time in kicking it down.
"Uh oh," Chase says too fast.
Three men, with armed hands, stand before us. Clad in black suits and one of them has a pair of shades hanging on the bridge of his nose.
"Hurry up, Luther's men already sniffed a rat." One of them says.
"What?" Greg asks in confusion.
Then the lightbulb in my mind lights up.
Henry must've sent a couple of his men to help us like we had asked him to do. But I still can't believe that I had to negotiate with him in order for him to take the role of protecting his own offspring.
"Okay, thanks for the heads up." I thank them. "Come, let's go." I pull the two confused guys beside me.
Soon, we all make a run for it. Passage after passage, we run with no stopping with three men behind us as well.
"There they are!" a voice shouts behind us.
"Dang it!" Greg mutters. "They found us."
"Keep running," one of Henry's men call behind us. "We'll hold them off."
And so we kept on running for dear life.
...................
The light blinds me the moment we push the door open. We have finally made it out. It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the bright sun, which later turns out not to be the sun but a very bright guard lights. The night sky explains the lights drawn across a very high fence secluding the building we just escaped.
But this is not the building I remember coming to.
"Hailey!" A voice shouts out and someone pushes me out of the way of an oncoming bullet shot my way.
I fall hard on the sandy ground and a loud 'umph' escapes my lips along with a thud. I look to see the cause of the commotion and right before my eyes, stands a myriad of armed men shooting at each other.
The war has begun.
"Are you okay?" The person who also fell with me asks me.
"Yeah," I respond and turn around to see Jordan next to me, but with a now bleeding wound in his arm. "But you're not," I point to his bleeding arm.
"I will be," he grins like the idiot he is.
We both stand up and take cover behind an old beat up truck, where Chase, Greg and surprisingly Conner stood.
"What is he doing here?" I ask angrily. "He wants to turn me to the devil."
"He's with us." Greg explains. "He agreed to help you escape."
"Are you sure?" I scoff. "Because as far as I remember, he was the one who tried kidnapping me a couple of weeks ago."
"Hailey," Conner speaks up. "I'm sorry. I had no choice."
"Save it!" I shut him up. "I don't care right now."
"Hailey, I'm se-"
"GUYS!" Jordan shouts at us. "At a time like this really? Wait until we actually get out of here."
My brother and I clamp our mouths shuts.
"Now," Jordan pulls out a gun from his waist belt. "Take this," he hands it to me, "and I want you and Greg to go to the other side of the building where you'll hopefully find a cut fence. Escape through there, while we try knocking out the maniac."
"Okay." I release a nervous breath. "Let's go, Greg." I say before running in the destined direction.
Adrenaline begins pumping through my veins, giving my legs the required energy to launch me further than ever.
"This way," Greg calls out ahead of me and motions for me to follow him. "Watch out!"
I react speedily to his warning, quick enough to see a man running towards me, and I quickly aim my gun at him and fire a shot which ends up hitting his thigh, causing him to tumble down.
"Good one," Greg praises me as we continue running.
Almost having reached the narrow escape opening Jordan said would be there, I spot a familiar figure fighting with another person I can't clearly see.
"Tristan," I breathe out.
Steps falter until I eventually stop at the scene. I hear grunts of pain and thuds of fists colliding with a body. Tristan seems to be winning, landing a jaw-breaking uppercut right on his opponent's jaw.
I step closer the while trying to make my steps as discreet as possible. The nearer I get, the more the volume of their voices increased.
"You were supposed to help," Tristan punches the other guy, "-save," again. "her!" And again.
"Oh please," a familiar voice says, "-as if I'll help ever help-" Tristan cuts the guy again by landing another killer punch on his already bruised face, knocking him out cold.
"Hailey," Greg tries pulling me. He must have realised that I was not following him anymore and came back to fetch me. "Come on."
I pay no heed to him and keep my focus on Tristan's tense body. I take a step further to look at the unconscious body.
Stanley.
Before I can fully register what fully happened, a man with an aimed gun appears behind Tristan who has back turned to him.
"Tristan!" I shout and catapult myself to shove him out of harms way, but that means putting myself in danger... danger of the excruciating pain of a bullet entering your body.
"No!" I Tristan shout before caging me in his arms. "Hailey, Hailey, stay with me," I feel his hands caressing my cheek, but I eyes begin closing due to the pain in my abdomen.
"Tristan..." I manage to say before drifting into unconsciousness.
........................
A/N: Finally! The second last chapter is done and dusted. Probably not what you guys wanted but this had to happen.
Thanks again for awesome support throughout the book and the million reads!
Until next time! (well, the last time..)
Tristan: how could you end the last chapter of the book like that?
Author: *shrugs* I was bored.
Tristan: but you could've at least not caused someone to shoot her.
Author: hey, at least it was to save you!
Tristan: couldn't you have saved me another way?!
Hailey: guys...
Author: I wanted some action!
Hailey: guys...
Tristan: action?!
Hailey: GUYS!!
Author and Tristan: WHAT?!!
Hailey: *yells in pain* could you both shut up?! and, Author, please right the last chapter so that we find out what happens next!
Author: *begins typing away* on it!