Flynn
The first thing I’m aware of as my eyes blink against the morning sunlight is Trista’s arm draped across my stomach. The second thing is how much pain my body is in.
I wince, cringing against the sore muscles, the bruises, and the cuts that those fucking cops gave me last night. I’m trying not to move. Trying not to wake Trista up. Instead I lie still, coming to terms with my pain. When it’s settled down I realize I can hear the soft sounds of Trista breathing next to me. I smile, ignoring the pain it causes me.
Part of me still can’t believe that last night happened. I might have actually been beaten to death and this is just my own version of heaven. But even if it is, I don’t mind. I’m happy again. Trista took me back. I’m with her now. How she found out I was at the hospital I have no idea. But there will be plenty of time for explaining later. Right now, I’m just happy where I am.
I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. My hand finds Trista’s arm and I hold it. Her naked body is pressed up next to mine. I quietly turn my head and look at her. That red, wavy hair. That beautiful face. I crane my head down and kiss the top of her head, causing her to stir. Oops. She moves against my body, sliding her arm from my grasp, rolling onto her back and slowly blinking her eyes open. Her lips smack dry a few times. And then she looks over at me.
She smiles.
“Mm, good morning,” she says. I can’t stop from smiling back at her.
“Morning.” I lean down and press my lips to hers, kissing her. She kisses me back, her hand finding my chest, grabbing onto me. When our kiss is done she brings her head down to rest it on my chest. I watch the top of it rise and fall with each breath.
“How’re you feeling?” she asks.
“Still sore,” I tell her, and she immediately lifts her head up off of me. “Oh no, that’s fine,” I say, and she relaxes back down, tentatively. “I got beaten up by some cops last night. That’s why I was in the hospital.”
“Yeah,” I hear her say. “I know.”
My brow furrows.
“What? How did you know that?”
“Um, Merryn and I hotwired this guy’s car and went joyriding. On our way back we saw the fire, but when we showed up you’d already been caught and were being beaten up by the police.”
“Oh,” I say. My head is swimming with questions, and Trista answers one of them.
“We were hidden in the shadows,” she says. “That way we didn’t get caught. Then I dropped Merryn off and dropped off the car, and then came and broke you out of the hospital.”
I remember that part. “You said you were with Merryn. Do you mean, like, Jake Hawksley’s girlfriend Merryn?”
“Oh, yeah,” she says. “She and Jake got into a fight and he kicked her out of their apartment. She’s staying with me in the meantime.”
“Yeah, I heard about that,” I tell her, and now it’s my turn to inform her of something. “Lance told me when he came for Katie, his girlfriend. He told me about the shootout, and Will Silver, and what happened after.”
“What happened to you after?” Trista asks me. I take a moment before answering.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I walked a lot. And thought, a lot. I went back to the warehouse to get my bike. Nobody was there. Then I rode around and I … decided that I wanted to do something … for you.”
Trista pushes herself up, looking in my eyes.
“For me?”
I nod. “The drug facilities. I decided to destroy them all. I burned one down that first night and it felt … well, not amazing, but it felt like I was free of something. I got sloppy last night, though, and got caught.”
Trista shakes her head. “No, you weren’t sloppy. Will Silver was onto you. He increased security. Ugh, I should have told you.”
“How do you know that?”
“Merryn’s friend, who still works at PharmaChem, found out. Then Merryn told me.”
Will knew. No wonder it was like they were waiting for me. I didn’t even hear any sirens when the first cop hit me.
“Flynn, I’m so sorry,” Trista says. Her eyes are shiny with tears.
“Oh, no, shh,” I say, pulling her towards me and giving her a kiss. “Don’t be sorry. These last few days … well, this whole last month … has been strange. I mean, not bad,” I give her a squeeze, “but strange.”
She sniffs, nods. Gives me a watery smile.
“So, Merryn is at your apartment?” I ask her. Trista nods again.
“Yeah. I told her I’d be back last night. We should probably head over so I don’t scare her.”
“Okay,” I say, and Trista and I kiss one last time before getting out of bed.
My body is killing me. I grab the bottle of aspirin Doctor Hartridge gave me and pop a couple in my mouth, drinking from the glass of water Trista brought last night. We both get dressed, me in new clothes, Trista in her old ones. I keep sneaking glances at her as she covers up her incredible body. When we’re both ready I pocket the aspirin and we leave the apartment, locking the door behind us.
My bike got left at the facility and is probably a twisted hunk of metal right now. I climb onto Trista’s bike behind her, holding onto her stomach for stability. We ride through the streets, past people going to work, opening up shops for the day. Finally we get to Trista’s neighborhood and reach her apartment, parking the bike and getting off. Trista goes to unlock the door but frowns when she turns the key.
“That’s weird,” she says.
“What?”
“The door is already unlocked.”
We hesitate for a second. “You said you dropped Merryn off last night, right? Maybe she just forgot to lock the door.”
Trista chews her lip. “Maybe.” She reaches into her jacket and pulls her gun out. I do the same.
We go into the foyer and Trista tries the door to her apartment. It’s unlocked too. She opens it quietly and we move up the stairs, not making a sound. A crunching sound reaches my ears as we near the top, and soon I realize it’s coming from the kitchen. Trista moves forward and I follow, both of our guns out. We peer into her bedroom and the bathroom, but they seem clear. Then we get to the kitchen, moving in. A very pregnant Merryn is sitting at the table, eating a bowl of cereal. She freezes when she sees us.
“What …”
“Merryn, did you forget to lock the door last night?” Trista asks.
Merryn looks at her strangely for a moment, and then blinks. “The door was unlocked?”
“Yeah.”
She blinks again, a few times. “Um … yeah. Yeah, that was me. Sorry.”
Trista exhales and flicks the safety back on on her gun, holstering it.
“Jesus, I thought maybe Will came back to try poisoning my mom,” she says, and she heads into her mom’s room, leaving Merryn and I alone in the same room.
I can’t remember the last time I saw her. Certainly not in any official capacity. I wasn’t there for the gun fight that killed Trista’s brother Sal. But I’d heard Jake Hawksley had a girlfriend who he knocked up. Indeed, she’s staring up at me like she has no idea who I am.
“Hi,” I say. I realize I’m still holding my gun and I hurriedly put it away. “Um, I’m Flynn.”
A wash of recognition comes over her. Trista must have mentioned me.
“Right,” she says. “Flynn. I’m Merryn.”
I lean over and we shake hands. Trista comes back in the room.
“Oh, right, Merryn. You’ve met Flynn before, haven’t you?”
“Actually, no,” Merryn says. “I joined the Chains right when the truce started up. And then … I guess we never got a chance to be introduced.”
“But we just met now,” I tell Trista. She nods.
“Okay, great. Well, I’m going to give mom her breakfast. Flynn, help yourself to some breakfast. I’ll join you guys in a bit.”
Both Merryn and I watch as she grabs some yogurt from the fridge, followed by a bowl and spoon. She dollops some of the yogurt into the bowl and puts the container back, heading into her mom’s room. When she’s gone Merryn looks up at me.
“There’s some cereal,” she says. “And milk in the fridge.”
“Thanks,” I tell her, and go to fix myself a bowl.
The atmosphere in the kitchen is quiet as I put my breakfast together. I don’t really know what to say to Merryn. I mean, what do you say to someone who’s technically your enemy?
“So,” she finally breaks the silence. “You and Trista are back together?”
“Uh, yeah,” I respond. My breakfast put together, I join her at the table. “It seems like it.”
Merryn nods. “We saw you, when you were getting beaten up.”
I nod, chewing a mouthful of food. “Yeah.”
“When Trista didn’t come back last night I kind of figured she went to find you.”
“She broke me out of the hospital,” I tell her. “Said she heard Will was going to come by and torture me or something.”
Merryn furrows her brow. “Torture you?”
I shrug. “That’s what she said.”
She stares down at her bowl of cereal as I keep eating, and after a moment she eats a spoonful too.
“I heard about you and Jake,” I say, and her head snaps in my direction, her gaze searching.
“You heard about us?”
“Just that you got in a fight.”
She visibly relaxes. “Oh … right.”
I shrug again, chewing cereal. “Sucks that happened to you. But the fighting might be over soon.” She looks at me again. “I went by the warehouse and it’s not in a good state. I get the feeling the Bullets are done. So there’s no more fighting.”
She nods slowly. “There’s still Will Silver …”
“Ah yeah, that’s true.” I take another bite of cereal. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens there, too.”
Trista comes back into the kitchen. She puts the empty bowl and spoon in the sink, then grabs a fresh one from the cupboard.
“Merryn, I’m sorry I didn’t let you know about last night,” she says as she fixes herself some cereal too.
“Oh, that’s all right,” Merryn says. “I fell asleep pretty early anyway.”
Trista finishes getting her cereal ready and sits at the table too. But just as she’s about to take her first bite, the doorbell rings. We all freeze, looking at each other.
“Are you expecting someone?” she asks Merryn, who shakes her head, looking confused.
“No.”
Trista looks at me, and then puts her spoon down without eating the cereal and gets up. I get up too. She slides her gun out of its holster and moves silently to the top of the stairs. I follow, but keep a distance. Behind me I hear Merryn get up from the table too, her chair scraping back. When I reach the top of the stairs Trista goes through the door at the bottom. I’m about to follow her, but I turn to look behind me and Merryn is at the doorway to the kitchen, looking scared.
I’m about to lift my hand to silently motion her back inside the kitchen, to safety, when I hear the outer door open. And then Trista’s voice makes me stop.
“Oh!”
I turn back and look down the stairs, unable to see who she’s talking to.
“What’re you doing here?”
A mumbled voice, deep and male. I feel like I recognize it, but I can’t say from where.
Trista’s voice again, “Yeah, she’s up here.” And then footsteps and the outer door closes. When the one at the bottom opens up Trista starts up the stairs, followed by Jake Hawksley.
My eyes widen and my stomach drops. The last time I saw Jake Hawksley was at the warehouse, where he kidnapped Trista after trying to kill us both. And now she’s welcoming him into her house! I mean, I guess there is what Trista said happened … the whole shootout and her being around when Jake kicked Merryn out. But still … it’s a strange sight to see.
Trista reaches the top of the stairs, followed closely by Jake. She’s put her gun away already. She steps to the side and I see Jake stop, looking past me. It’s like he doesn’t even know I’m here. I turn and see Merryn still standing in the kitchen doorway. She’s staring back at him.
“Jake …” she says. Her voice cracks.
“Merryn,” Jake says. “I … I don’t … I’m so sorry, Merryn. For what I did. How I acted. For everything.”
“Jake …” Merryn’s voice cracks. She swallows, but Jake goes on.
“Merryn, listen to me. I’ve spent the last two days thinking. Feeling like shit. Trying to figure out what I can do to feel better. I was thinking about what happened at the warehouse. I let my emotions get the best of me. I realize now that you didn’t try to go behind my back. You’re not like that. I was blinded by my own thing. I didn’t realize that what you were doing was for everybody’s benefit. You weren’t being selfish. I was the one being selfish. And then, last night …” He shakes his head. “I had this dream. I had a dream like it the night before, but last night … I dreamed that I came here on my bike. It was foggy out. And you came down and invited me up here, to that room,” he indicated Trista’s bedroom, “and we made love. We fell asleep after, but when I woke up I was in my own bed.”
Merryn lets out a sob, and I see that she’s been silently crying this whole time. Her eyes are red, and her cheeks are shiny with tears.
“Jake, that happened!” she chokes out. “It wasn’t a dream. You came here last night and we made love!”
Jake looks shocked. “What? But … it was foggy …”
“I know,” she nods, letting out a laugh. “I saw the fog too. Just like the dream in the night before.”
His mouth is open. “I wasn’t dreaming?”
She shakes her head, laughing again. She walks towards him and he starts towards her, the two meeting in the middle of the hall. They embrace, hugging tightly, and then pull their heads back just enough to kiss. I can feel my throat tighten up watching them. I look over at Trista and she’s watching this spectacle too, her eyes shimmering.
Finally Jake and Merryn release their embrace and he turns to us. When he sees me he blinks, once again looking shocked.
“Flynn?”
I nod, feeling a bit sheepish.
“Yeah,” I say.
“What are you …” And he looks at Trista, then back at me. “Oh god, man … I’m so sorry, for what happened.”
But I shake my head. “It’s okay, man. Water under the bridge.”
“No,” Jake shakes his head. He steps forward from Merryn, towards me. “Really. I’m so sorry. I was hot-headed. I got … blind, with anger. For what I did,” he faces Trista, “and for taking you … giving you to the cops.”
“It’s okay,” I tell him. He looks at me again. “We were in rival gangs. We each wanted each other dead. What happened made sense at the time.”
“Wait,” he says. “Were?”
I nod. “Yeah. I mean, I’m out of the Bullets anyway. They were pretty well getting ready to kick Trista and me out before you guys showed up. But even then, I have a feeling the Bullets are no more. Will abandoned us. Turned his back on all of us.” I shrug again. “It’s probably better this way.”
“Flynn was getting his own revenge,” Trista pipes up, and we all look at her. She looks fiercely proud. “He was trying to burn down their drug-making facilities. He managed to get two of them before he got caught. I busted him out of the hospital last night.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly my revenge,” I tell her. “I was doing it for you.”
“You burned down two of Will Silver’s drug buildings?” Jake asks me, and I nod. “Did you have any help?”
“No. It was just me.”
He nods slowly. Looks at Trista and me.
“So there’s actually a new development,” he tells us. “With Will Silver.”
“Oh, honey,” Merryn says. She takes his hand in hers.
“No, it’s not just me,” Jake assures her. “And it’s more thought-out, not just running in with guns blazing. But it’s a bit complicated.” He looks around at us. “Craig Silver came to me.”
I blink. “Craig Silver? Will Silver’s son?”
“What?” says Merryn.
Trista asks, “You mean the guy who was there when Will killed Captain Hartridge?”
“I know I know, trust me,” Jake says, quieting us down. “Trust me, I’m being careful with him. I brought Lance and Katie in on this too. The four of us came up with a plan together. Basically, she’s going to pretend to be a client interested in investing in PharmaChem. Craig set up a meeting for today at noon. She’ll go in, say she’s interested but she heard about the fire from the night before last,” he nods to me, “and she wants assurance that the other manufacturing buildings are secure. So she’ll let Will choose a place to show her, she and Will and Craig will all leave to go check it out. She’ll call Lance, tell us where he’s taking us, and then we’re going to go meet them there, where we’ll finally kill Will Silver.”
He finishes speaking. I feel speechless, and it seems like Trista and Merryn are too.
“How do you know you can trust him?” Trista asks.
“I don’t,” Jake responds. “I warned Lance and Katie about that too. We’re all going to be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. If things get suspicious, then we’ll stop it before things get too far.”
“Jake …” Merryn says, and he looks at her. “After everything Craig did …”
“He actually came looking for you,” Jake tells her. “He told me this story … he says Will is getting crazy. Acting out … the thing with the police captain in the hospital, and then he wanted Craig to kill this kid, Nathan Willow.”
“Nathan Willow?” Trista’s eyebrows fly up.
“Yeah. Him and his mom.”
“Are they okay?” she asks. Jake nods.
“Yeah. Lance and Katie have them in a safe place.”
Trista seems to work things through in her head. “I’d like to see her,” she says.
“Well,” says Jake, “if you want, we could all go over there. I should meet up with them anyways, to make sure the plan is all set.”
“Okay,” Trista says. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Jake looks at Merryn. “Is that okay?”
Merryn’s still holding his hand. She puts her other hand over it.
“I just want you to be safe,” she says.
“Don’t worry. I will be.”
Jake and Merryn share a kiss, and then Jake pulls out his cell phone.
“Let me call Lance to let him know we’re coming over. And then we’ll go.”