Chapter 10
“All right, we’ll be there soon.” Vincent turned off his phone and tucked it in his front pocket. “The lawyer is waiting for us on the east side. He’s got his office there.”
Nala nodded. East of the river wasn’t as nice as downtown, but a lot of the neighborhoods were definitely up and coming. Not a bad place for a lawyer to set up a private practice and get a good piece of real estate.
“I have no idea how long this is going to take.” Vincent nodded to the bodyguard on duty and backed his car out of its parking space. Rain splashed on the windshield long before Vincent was able to turn on the wipers. Good thing no one else lives on this street. Nala could hardly see the road in front of them. “You got the printouts?”
Nala motioned to the folder she carried in her arms. “Why would I be without it?”
“Making sure.” Vincent changed gears before easing down the empty street. “We can’t be too careful at the moment.”
Speak for yourself. Ever since Nala realized how much danger her life was in, all she did was be careful. Probably to the point of mayhem. Well, it was better than being dead anyway. “I can’t wait to rub Crow’s face in this shit.” Nala grinned as they waited at the nearest light. “I mean, this was totally obtained illegally, but the lawyer will know where to go from here… right?”
Vincent shrugged. “That is certainly the hope.” He readjusted his mirrors before putting his foot on the gas pedal. “I’m going to this lawyer specifically because he’s taken down corporate giants before. Just recently set up shop in Portland. From what I can gather, he can’t be bribed. That gives me a lot of hope.”
Nala glanced in her mirror. Through the waves of rain crashing down upon them, she saw the glimmer of a black car pull out and follow them down the road. Must be security. Wouldn’t be the first time they tailed them through downtown. Nala didn’t want to know how much Vincent was paying these guys to be badass. They made her feel like a member of the First Family. Too bad my parents weren’t born in America. So much for that presidential dream.
“What are we going to do when this is over?” she asked, watching dreary buildings go by as Vincent took the long way to the river. At this time of day it was probably faster than taking the main thoroughfares, especially when it came to the bridges. “I mean… I’m assuming we’ll still be together… right?”
The idea that this could possibly be over soon already felt absurd, but Nala had to hold on to some sort of hope. Yet when she envisioned a future without Xavier Crow, she had a hard time imagining it without Vincent either. I don’t want to think about that. A month ago, before she realized how much she was falling for him, it would have been a lot easier to go her separate way from him. Take his money. Maybe ask for some severance so she could move away from Portland and go somewhere cheaper, where her money would last longer. Now? Vincent was a man she admired, respected, and… adored. Gag! Nevertheless, Nala’s heart was beholden to his. And even if he had been forthcoming with his affections, it still didn’t make her assume they would have a happily ever after when all this was said and done.
Vincent glanced at her. “If you wouldn’t mind. I’m not going to kick you out of my house, Nala.”
He said it so softly that she almost couldn’t hear him. Does that mean he loves me? She bit back her words. Now was not the time to ask. Vincent was the calmest he had been in a day, and Nala did not want to upset that. The last thing she wanted was to give her boyfriend a heart attack… especially since he was driving.
“Hey, Nala…” Vincent’s eyes were locked on his rearview mirror. “If something happens to either one of us, I want you to know that I…”
He never had the chance to finish his thought. A bullet burst through the back window and right through the windshield.
Nala’s heart leaped in her throat; Vincent swerved the car onto another street. Cracks exploded against the windshield, barring any ability to see the road ahead. Yet Vincent craned his head enough to keep his eye on the ever-busying streets of downtown Portland.
The car behind them gunned the gas and came dangerously close to rear-ending them.
“Holy…!”
Vincent whipped the wheel to the left, throwing Nala against the window - even with her seatbelt on. Another bullet whizzed by the window, but thanks to Vincent’s quick reflexes, this one merely grazed the mirror on Nala’s side.
When she got a close look at the reflection, she saw beyond herself. She saw Hawk in the nondescript car behind them.
“It’s her!” she shouted, the car whipping onto yet another street. Vincent kept his head low as he stared at the road before him, the windshield wipers moving so quickly that it almost looked like they would fly off at any moment. “It’s that crazy-ass bitch!”
“I know!” Vincent jammed his hand against the stick-shift and slammed his other hand on the horn. Some poor homeless woman with a cart full of clothes and tarps screamed before jumping out of the way, upturning her cart and spilling cloth and denim all over Everett Street. “Fuck!”
The mishap caused Hawk to swerve to avoid crashing into the woman now running around in paranoid circles. More rain came down, obscuring the scene as Vincent hurried to switch streets yet again.
They were lucky that these streets were relatively empty at this time of day. They were not lucky that a homicidal maniac was right on their tails - because here came Hawk again, a fucking fly that they couldn’t swat with a rolled up newspaper no matter how much they tried.
“Vincent!”
“I know!”
Adrenaline pumped in Nala’s veins. Her instincts told her to leap out of the car, to roll on the wet sidewalk and take her chances with a homeless camp set up in a nearby park. Yet the logical side of her brain said that was insane. Yeah, sure, maybe Nala wouldn’t be trapped in this car, putting her life in Vincent’s busy hands, but she would also be an easier target. How could she outrun Hawk? In her car? She was probably fitter, faster than Nala. She also had a gun. That was sort of a big issue.
But if I jump out, she’ll probably come after me and leave Vincent alone. Nala only thought that because she would be the easier target. Perhaps Vincent was the bigger target, but Hawk probably didn’t care who she killed as long as she got one of them finally. Not that there was much time to analyze this situation. Nala was fucked, no matter how she approached it.
“Ah!” Nala’s bile lifted from her stomach and into her throat as a third bullet shot through the back window. She didn’t know where this one went. She didn’t have time to assess her body. Vincent was gunning the gas and swerving around any traffic getting in his way.
The whole situation was surreal. Nala had seen plenty of car chases on TV, but to actually be in one? To hear the inevitable sirens in the background? To feel the rush of adrenaline in the most terrible way possible? Tears of fear and anxiety wanted to burst from Nala, but she was in too much shock to process them. Trapped in a car with no control over what happened, all she could do was bend over in her seat and cover her head with her hands, making her a much smaller target for any wayward bullets.
“Hold on!” Nala didn’t know what gear Vincent shifted the car into, but shit was fast, woozy, and pumping blood as much as it pumped horsepower. Tires crept onto narrow sidewalks. People out shopping or parking their cars screamed as they jumped out of the way. Nala saw a horrible end no matter what happened. Either they were shot or they crashed, like Desirée had. Like Othello had. I think I would rather be shot in the head!
She had to trust Vincent. She had to trust his ability to remember city geography as he sped across a bridge and entered another part of town. A flatter part of town.
Easier for Hawk to catch up.
But also easier for them to get away.
Sirens echoed in the distance. Who was chasing whom? Were they both being pursued by police? Was it Hawk being tailed? Or… the worst scenario possible… did she have them in Crow’s pocket, and they were both chasing Nala and Vincent? Make my death swift, God. Nala didn’t pray much, but she did now, with her hands folded in her lap and her lips muttering a hasty prayer.
“I can lose her!” Vincent barely touched his breaks as he swerved around a corner, honking his horn every second as people jumped out of the way. He ran a red light, causing a spattering of people and cars to compensate.
Nala saw the horror before it arrived. A large intersection. A red light. No time to stop. And no time to wait for Hawk to catch up and smack them into oncoming traffic anyway.
Vincent would do that on his own.
Screams erupted from every direction. Vincent cursed at the top of his lungs, whipping the steering wheel this way, holding himself back, and pointing in the other direction. Nala remained curled up in her seat, belt far away from her throat in case it got any ideas about decapitating her.
Horns that did not belong to Vincent’s car blew up. Through every window - whether broken or not - Nala saw a riot of colors through the rain. Cars. Trucks. People. Bags. Signs. Buildings. This part of Portland was about to get a face lift. Luckily it did not come from Vincent, who managed to maneuver his way through the red light without a scratch.
The same couldn’t be said for the cars behind them.
Nala would never forget that moment. When she looked in the side mirror, she saw three cars smack into one another, a flurry of pedestrians run away screaming, and enough smoke to be mistaken for another cloudy day. Before she could find out if a fire erupted from the pileup, Vincent turned down another road and swerved around cars until they were on the nearest bridge taking them into Washington.
It wasn’t until they were halfway across the Columbia when Vincent finally slowed down, his eyes almost never leaving the rearview mirror. “I think we lost her in that crash,” he mumbled. “If it didn’t get her, it at least slowed her down.”
Even so, Nala found it very fucking difficult to calm down. Her heart continued to beat incessantly in her chest; her breath was caught in her throat like a whirlwind. Nala had come this close to death yet again, and she was the one about to explode in tears and vomit.
“We’ll have to dump the car,” Vincent muttered. “Otherwise they’ll know where we’re going. Plus, cops.”
Nala looked around. They were in Vancouver now, surrounded by cars with Washington plates and road signs shaped like a dead president’s head. “Where are we going?”
Vincent puffed out his cheeks as his brain continued to tick off a list of things he had to do. “We’ll head toward Seattle. I’ll grab some cash at an ATM when we dump the car.”
“Dump the car?”
“You heard me.”
Oh, she did. The moment they were in the countryside, Vincent prompted her to get out before he had the chance to pull off the side of the road. He parked his car behind a small grove of trees. It wouldn’t be enough to cover it forever, but it should be enough to give them a head start… wherever they were going.
They got out, taking whatever valuables they could carry… which wasn’t much. Nala had her small backpack and Vincent had his wallet. He brought his keys with him, not that he would need them.
He grabbed a large wad of cash from the nearest ATM and peered around a quiet town in search of something. Hawk? Cops? No. It was a used car available for a few hundred bucks. Vincent paid extra cash in exchange for the seller’s silence. The way the gruff looking man nodded… He probably thinks we’re drug dealers. Nala had never felt dirty like this before. She kinda liked it, if only because it took her mind off the terrors they had been through.
This car was far from being as nice as Vincent’s old one. It grumbled. It shook. The seatbelt barely worked, but Nala made it work, because the last thing they needed was to be pulled over by police. Vincent kept to the back roads as they headed north to Seattle, where they, in his words, could lay low for a while. Nala had no idea what to expect in the next few hours, let alone days.
They didn’t say a damn thing the whole drive to Seattle. Nala fought back a wave of shivers that could have either been illness or more fear. When will I be safe again? She looked to Vincent, whose grim face was set and sticking to the road before them. Signs announcing turn offs to the outskirts to Seattle eventually appeared. Nala wondered what they would do once they got there. Did he have friends? A safe-house? Were they wanted now? Nala tried to sink into her uncomfortable seat and take a nap, but sleep did not come easy with her adrenaline still on high.
It wasn’t until they were checked into a hotel outside Seattle when Nala finally allowed herself to breathe, and it wasn’t an easy breath. Even with Vincent sitting on the bed with her, their eyes staring emptily at a picture of a vase of daisies on the wall, Nala still waited for another bullet to whisk by or for the car she was no longer in to swerve in either direction.
Finally, she threw herself into Vincent’s arms and held on for dear life.
“It’s okay,” he said, patting her back. “We’re safe for now. We’ve got a car nobody is looking out for. I’ve got cash so I don’t have to use my card. I can easily hack the GPS in our phones. I’ve got a fake ID so I can get us rooms…”
“You’ve got a fake ID?”
“Sure do. They’re easy to get, especially with my connections.”
He’s probably seen fake IDs being made since college. Those tech geeks… “Is there anyone we can trust here? I don’t know anyone in Seattle. Crow owns half this city too…”
“That may be so, but there was nowhere else to go in the moment. If we have to, I can sneak us down the coast toward California. I’ve got some friends there who may be able to help us.” Vincent pulled away from her and gave her shoulders a firm, reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry, darling. Rest. I’ve got some calls to make.”
Except Nala couldn’t rest. She lay on the bed, afraid to take off any of her clothes even though they were the only ones she had in her possession. This reminded her of staying in hotels around Portland. Except things were even worse now… it actually wasn’t like their previous situation at all!
“…I’m serious. I have all the evidence we need to get an arrest and a conviction. Yeah, I hacked it. Do you think I would admit otherwise?” Vincent must have been on the phone with the lawyer they were supposed to meet. “I need your help. No, stop, listen. I know you don’t want to get involved, but you were involved the moment you met that man. He’ll keep making your life hell until this is over, so you really want to help us right now. Okay? Good.” Vincent sat at a table in the corner of the room and jotted something down on a complimentary notepad. “Make sure you hire some security. I can give you a number. If they’ll let you, have a guy at the hospital. I’m serious, Lucian…”
Lucian? Nala turned over.
“I know you’re freaked out, man. How do you think I feel? It’s what I’ve been telling you since the beginning. You think you know the guy, but he’s a fucking killer. That Hawk has tried to kill us twice now, and I have all the evidence I need to prove that she killed my fiancée and my girlfriend’s sister. You think he won’t come after you and Clara too? He already has!”
Silence. Vincent glared at his phone as Lucian said whatever he had to say.
“No. Don’t leave Portland unless you have to. I need someone there, especially since I don’t have access to my computers. I need you to do me favor. I need you to look up the address of Jay and Marguerite Jones. Yes, I’m serious. They are somehow involved with this. Crow killed their kid. At this point, anyone in The Aviary who hasn’t been touched in some way by Crow’s disgusting deeds is probably working with him. Look into that as well. Look for any tragic or mysterious deaths in the other members’ families. Yeah, you remember Crow’s girlfriend Raven? That was Nala’s sister. I’m not fucking with you. Start digging. You’re already in hot water, you might as well enjoy the bath.”
When Vincent hung up, he sat on the edge of the bed next to Nala and put a hand on her side. “So what now?” she asked. “What are we gonna do? I doubt the police here are any help either. If anything, they want our asses as much as the ones in Portland do. Or anywhere. Oh my God, Vincent, how fucked are we?”
“Pretty fucked,” he admitted. “That doesn’t mean we can’t get through this, though. Our main goal right now is to not get killed or arrested.”
“Oh, well, that’s easy.”
He ignored her sarcasm. “We need to get the evidence into the hands of someone who can do something with it. The news? He probably owns all of it around here. Still, it won’t hurt to look into it.” Vincent tightened his grip on Nala. “I’m so sorry it has come to this. I knew going into The Aviary that I was putting myself at risk. I should have thought more about you as well, but…”
“Back then, I was your means to an end. Things have changed.”
He nodded. “I’m sorry. I was short-sighted.”
“You did what you thought was right. Do you think I was planning things any better? I don’t blame you for any of this, Vincent.”
“I’m glad.”
Nala sat up, resting her head on the brunt of his shoulder. “Could you do me a favor? Could you hug me and say that we’re going to be okay? Even if you’re lying, I want to hear it.”
Vincent drew her into his arms and kissed the side of her head. Nala had to fight back the urge to cry into the crook of his neck. Be strong. Now is not the time to show too much weakness. Anything could happen at any moment. Fuck.
“We’re going to be all right, Nala.” She knew that voice was fake. There was no way Vincent could say that so reassuringly. “At the very least, I’ll make sure that you’ll be all right. I’ll do everything in my power to protect you. Because I…”
Nala’s breath caught in her throat for the tenth time that day… and this time it had nothing to do with adrenaline. Is he going to say it? This would be a helluva time to admit that he loved her!
“Because I wouldn’t make it if I lost you too.”
That was as close to a love declaration as Vincent Lane would ever make. Nala rolled into his arms, letting her cheek feel the softness of his clothes. I’m here. He’s here. We’re safe for now. I couldn’t be safer with anyone else in this world. I fucking love him. I know he loves me. That’s all that matters.
Whatever happened now didn’t matter. Nala was scared, but she was still willing to go down if Vincent was by her side. She hoped he felt the same exact way. He had to. For his sake - and hers.