Nowhere to Run - Chapter 2

     Michael grabbed Evie’s hand and yanked her out of the way.  The bullet hit the shed, splinters flying.  His hand clamped down hard on her wrist as he dragged her behind the shed and onto a back street. Shouts and sirens were coming from out in front of the house now, but Michael moved in the opposite direction.

“The police are here.” Evie said, but Michael ignored her. He pulled her along behind him, giving her no more consideration than the gun he held in his other hand.

     “Please, the police are coming. We’ll be safe.” She twisted her hand, pulling back and digging in her heels.

     “They can’t help us.” He tugged her along.

Michael’s only thought was to put as many miles between them and the boarding house as possible. The Team was out there, probably had men mingled in the crowd that was now gathering. There was no way they would be safe in the middle of the street with or without the cops. His best option would be to vacate the area as soon as possible. Regroup. Figure out what to do with the woman later. Right now he was afraid to leave her behind. If The Team thought she was with him there was no telling what they would do to her. No, he couldn’t risk it.  

A few blocks later they had zigzagged down so many streets and garbage strewn back alleys that Evie had no idea where she was. She waited until he slowed to peer around another fence and jerked her hand out of his grip.

“Stop! Where do you think you’re taking me?”

“Just keep moving.” He grabbed for her wrist.

Evie put her hands behind her back.

“No, I’m going to the police.”

Michael stepped in close, crowding her. Before she could move away he grabbed her arms. “You go to the police and we’re both dead. Do you understand that?”

Evie shook her head, “No, they can help us.“

“Stop it.” Michael quelled the urge to shake her. Make her understand. Instead he opened his hands and rubbed her arms. “There’s too much to explain right now. You just have to trust me. We stop now and it’s over.”

“What’s over? I didn’t do anything. If you’re in some kind of trouble I don’t want to be dragged into it. “

“I’m sorry.” Michael stepped onto the grass and leaned against the fence. Running barefoot over all the concrete and garbage had left his feet feeling like raw meat. The cool grass felt good.

“But they saw you with me so now you are in the middle of this. And I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not with you.”

“I know that, but the man who shot at us from the window might have a different idea. I’m—“ He gestured to his attire. “half dressed. I was in your room and, you know what that looks like.”

Evie backed away. “You barge into my room with a gun and now they’re going to kill me?”

Michael nodded. “We have to keep moving.”

“No.”

Michael reached out and grabbed her wrist. “We don’t have time for this, let’s go.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m going to find the police and tell them everything is your fault.”

“Hey! I don’t have time for the princess act.” He pulled her close, anger darkening his eyes. “I’m not going to have you’re death on my hands. Start moving or I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you.”

Michael started off. Dragging Evie behind him at such a fast pace she couldn't look behind without inviting whiplash. It was all she could do to keep up with him without stumbling.

Most of the time he was jogging. A pace that was more of a run to Evie as she struggled to keep up. At times he slowed to a walk, but then just as Evie began to relax and catch her breath, he would speed up again.

After what seemed like hours, her back was starting to ache and the muscles in her legs were screaming from exertion. Evie knew she couldn’t go on much longer. As they turned into another alley Evie dug in her heels, trying to force him to stop.  

“Please. You’re crazy. Stop.”

“Not yet, keep moving.”

“Please,” She pulled on her hand back trying to free herself, but his grip tightened. “You’re hurting me.”

As if burned, Michael let go of her wrist and turned to face her. What he saw gave him a stab of guilt. The woman he had been dragging across town was a mess. Trembling, she looked on the verge of collapse.  He had been running so hard he hadn't given her a thought and only meant to get them to safety.  Now, looking down at the delicate woman before him, his heart ached for what he was doing to her. He muttered a curse.

     “Let me go! Please, let me go.” Evie pleaded in a ragged breath as she rubbed her wrist.

They were in another disgusting, garbage-strewn alleyway in a not so good part of town and for a moment she thought he was just going to start running again. His eyes were moving back and forth, scanning the alley, watching, and listening to everything except her.

     “Please, I won’t go to the police. I won’t tell anyone.” she pleaded, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Please.”

     The last word was weary and barely audible, but its poignancy penetrated the professional veneer that once more coated Michael’s world.  A shield he had not worn in years and one that slid back onto him all too easily.

     “Please.”

It was barely a whisper, but it touched something deep inside. He pulled Evie back behind a dumpster and out of sight from the street at the end of the alley. 

Impulsively, he took her into his arms and pulled her close. “I’m sorry, it’s okay. I think we lost them.”

     She was a tiny thing, barely coming up to his chin, a little on the thin side if you asked him, but pretty all the same. He rubbed her back as she gave way to sobs.  He held her close as she cried, whispering soothing, easy words into her ear. 

"It's gonna be okay, darlin'. Everything is gonna be just fine. Don't cry." 

Michael’s bare chest was wet with a combination of sweat and tears. Now, with her pressed up so tight against him he could feel her legs trembling beneath her and realized how exhausted she must be. What was just a dash across town to him must have been so much worse for her. Another stab of guilt and Michael realized he had better find them a place to hide before she collapsed completely. The Team wouldn’t give up. He knew they’d still be searching for him. Yet, he stayed where he was for the moment and held her until she stilled and her trembling began to abate. She felt too good in his arms.

     With one shaky breath Evie fought to get control. As her sobs subsided, she realized she was clinging to this half-naked man. The hard planes of his chest under her cheek suddenly felt too warm, too intimate and she pushed away. Taking a step back, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

     His chest was streaked with mascara and Evie had the sudden urge to wipe it away, but she clutched her hands together. All he was wearing was a pair of tight jeans, the top button unsnapped. His broad shoulders and bare chest glistened with sweat. As if her eyes had a mind of her own, Evie’s gaze followed a single drop of sweat as it trickled down the valley of his hard chest. Weaving thought the scattering of dark hair, down across the ridges of his well-toned abs and disappearing into that intimate V where the zipper of his faded blue jeans didn't quite reach the top.       

     It was a moment before Evie realized where her gaze had wandered and she snapped her eyes up to meet this wild man’s penetrating stare. Evie’s stomach felt like it was caught in a falling elevator. Rising lightly, dropping and knocking her balance out of whack. She dropped her gaze from his and struggled to regain some control.

“Oh God.“ She choked out as her eyes lit on the gun still held in his hand and reality came slamming back. “Please, let me go.”

     Michael frowned at her now.  Her makeup was smeared away by her tears and two dark rivers of mascara ran down her cheeks.  Her once neat blond hair had all but pulled free from the ponytail.  She was dressed in a waitress uniform, now torn, dirty and streaked with his blood. Her stockings were a tattered mess.  He reached up and smoothed that silky hair back out of her pleading eyes.

     “You're not my hostage.” Michael said softly.

     Evie looked from his dark eyes down to the gun and back up.  He shrugged and stuffed it in the waistband of his jeans, taking that minute to snap them up.

     “You can go anytime.” He broke her gaze and scanned the alley once more.

     Almost afraid to believe him, Evie began to back away. “I can?”

     “But be careful," he warned, wanting to call her back. Knowing he could be putting her in danger just by releasing her. "They saw you. You could be a target now.”

     Evie stopped in her tracks, her stomach lurched, “A target? I can’t be a target.”

     “And don’t go back to the boarding house,” he warned her. “Even if the cops are there, they will still be watching for you. Or me. But they know I’m smart enough not to go back.”

     “W-who are they?”

      Michael paused, she was at the edge of the dumpster now. One more step and she’d be in plain view of the street.  If he knew these guys as well as he thought he did, they would be systematically searching the city in a grid pattern. It’s what he would have done, when he was one of them and they hadn’t run far enough yet, to elude the men of the Team.

     “They are very dangerous men. They will kill you.”

     “Why? I never did anything! I never saw anything!”

     “You saw what they did in the boarding house.”

     Evie stared at him as if he had two heads.  Fear blew over her like a cold, north wind sending shivers down her spine. She had seen what happened at the boarding house. The man in the hallway. Mrs. Rodriguez’s scream being cut short by gunfire. And the man in her window who shot at them. Evie would always remember his face, the way he looked when he took aim at them and she was sure he saw her face, too. Yet, she was no part of it. She could tell the cops she was just an innocent bystander.

     “And you were with me. They’ll think we were-lovers.” Michael added, watching carefully for her reaction. 

     “You?” Evie’s eyes went wide as saucers and she shook her finger at him. “I wasn’t with you. You broke into my room. You kidnapped me!”

     “We were together. That’s all he knows. He’d have to kill you now, because he can’t be sure how much you know.”

     “I don’t know anything!” her voice keened, rising another notch.

“Keep your voice down.” Michael urged, moving toward her, stepping out from the protection of the dumpster and turning to face the street she was backing toward. “By now they are searching the city.”

     “Who are they?”

Michael studied her for a moment, and his face softened just a bit as he looked into her verdant eyes. She was such an innocent. He felt horrible for dragging her into this mess.   

Evie was moving between him and the street now, giving her a clear path to escape.

If I just turn and start walking will he follow? What if I run? Will he shoot?

She hesitated, thought he was about to explain, when suddenly his expression changed.  His face hardened. The fierce look in his eyes stopped her. He pulled the gun from the waistband of his pant and pointed it at her head. Evie shut her eyes.

     BANG!

     The discharge from the gun was like a thunderclap that made her ears ring.  Blindly, Evie waited for the pain, the bullet and the ripping sensation. But it was Michael’s hands she felt as he pulled her forward, tucking her in close to his side.  Her eyes popped open in surprise at not being dead.

     Relief flooded through Evie and she rested her cheek against his solidly muscled chest. He didn’t shoot her!  Her knees buckled and if it hadn't been for his strong arm around her, she would have crumbled to the ground.

“Easy girl.” Michael said. “He won’t hurt you.”

When she turned and followed Michael's gaze to a spot on the ground behind her she saw the balding, husky man that had shot at them from her window at the boarding house.  He was lying on his back with one neat hole in the center of his forehead, his eyes open and staring at the sky, as if in shock that he had been shot.  A gun lay a few inches from his right hand.

     “Run.” Michael hissed in her ear and Evie didn’t need to be told twice.  She let him pull her by the hand and this time she ran willingly. His words finally sinking in about the men who were trying to kill them. She didn't know who they could be or why they were after them, but she knew Michael had just saved her life for the second time today.  Until this all got straightened out, she would be safer with him then on her own.  She ran for her life.

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