Where are we going?” I barked at Emil.

“Take a left here.”

The tires groaned as I took the turn a little too sharply, leaving skid marks in my wake. I knew that things would go much better if I only took a deep breath and calmed down, but I just couldn’t – not with Stacey’s ex-boyfriend sitting right beside me. It made me sick to my stomach. A part of me just wanted to beat him to a pulp – to make him suffer for everything he’d done to her.

“Alleyway.” Emil pointed. “Should take you right down to the spot. They are taking a boat out of the river,” he explained.

“Why didn’t you tell us that from the beginning? They could be miles down the Thames at this point!” I growled, starting to lose my patience with this man.

Even though the alleyway was narrow and the terrain was made of cobblestones, I sped up. I couldn’t let them get away. I just couldn’t. This nightmare ended today.

Eventually, the alleyway ended in a dock. There was a tiny motorboat on the water, bobbing idly. No one was there. I turned and grabbed Emil by the collar. “I swear to God, if you lied to me, I’m going to make you regret it.”

Suddenly, however, the boat’s engine came to life. A rugged man with a full beard, dressed in a prison jumper, hopped onto the deck and started to unravel the rope from the beam.

Oh no, you don’t.

Without thinking, I flew from the car and drew a gun. It felt heavy and wrong in my hand, but I nonetheless wrapped my finger around the trigger and fired.

Pop!

The world stopped for a moment, everything working in slow motion. My shoulder ached with the recoil. I ignored it and blinked, trying to make sense of the scene, trying to get the ringing out of my ears.

Pop!

A bullet whistled past my ear, narrowly missing me.

And then, everything came back to its lightning-fast pace. Leticia was on the boat, firing at will. I rolled onto the deck, avoiding injury. Once I reached Shadow, I grabbed him, holding him against my body like a human shield, my knife against his throat. “Come on, Leticia, shoot.”

She stared at me, hatred in her eyes, her gun still in hand, trying to point at my head. She considered it, but she eventually put down her weapon.

Shadow, having received a blow to his abdomen, was in too much pain to put up a fight. I guess his time behind bars had made him soft.

“What do you want?” Leticia called out.

“Turn yourself in.”

“Fat chance,” she screamed. “I’m not going to rot in some prison cell for the rest of my life.”

“Well, it’s the only choice you have.”

“No. It’s not.” She smirked, grabbing the gun and pressing it to her temple. “Goodbye, Ned. Too bad we never got the reunion I was hoping for.”

“No! Don’t!” I yelled, dropping Shadow and running toward her. Before I could get there, Cruz had tackled her to the ground, effortlessly disarming her and throwing a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.

“Let go of me!” she snarled, fighting back like a wild animal. She managed to headbutt Cruz pretty hard, disorienting him. In a last-ditch effort, she tried to jump off the side of the boat, but Franklin caught her, holding her in an impossibly tight bear hug.

Her eyes were wide and full of panic. She spotted Emil. “Don’t just stand there! Do something, you idiot!”

To my surprise, he just shoved his hands into his pockets and said nothing.

Maybe there was still hope for him after all.

I walked up to her. “Tell me,” I said. “Why did you do all of this? How do you know who I am?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know,” she spat out.

I looked at her, trying to figure out the mystery. I didn’t know this woman.

“Oh, come on.”

I tilted my head in confusion.

“High school,” she finally said, her rage disappearing into depression.

High school? Was she one of my classmates? I think I would have remembered someone like her.

“I’ve since dyed my hair.”

Leticia Black. I repeated her name in my head, and suddenly it hit me. My eyes widened, and I stared at her with a newfound curiosity. No, it couldn’t be. Leticia Black had been in the grade below me. Blonde. Petite. Usually kept to herself. I had been her math tutor, managing to boost her grade from a C- to an A. She had adored me for a while, but I had never paid her much attention. At that age, all I’d really cared about was leveling my MMORPG characters and going on fake quests. Girls weren’t really in my vocabulary.

“What happened to you?”

“What happened to me?” She laughed. “Everything.” She shook her head. “But I don’t expect you to care. You didn’t then, and you don’t now. Some of us are just unlucky, I guess. We fall into the wrong crowds because there is no one to pull us back out of the darkness. I guess that’s what happened to me.”

“But… you were so smart. You were going to go to college.”

“Sure. I was. Then I discovered a funny white powder. Fucked up my life. Then I was taken by that creep.” She tilted her head toward Shadow. “He was the only one who looked at me like I was a person.”

“But… you could have asked for help.”

“Yeah, from who? You? You didn’t give two shits about me,” she growled. “But you know what? I don’t even care. Lock me up. Let me rot. I’d rather do that than spend another fucking minute talking to you.”

She stepped forward. Franklin followed, towing her toward the car.

Cruz lingered for a moment before he picked up Shadow, arresting him as well.

Emil got into the car of his own accord.

Stacey and I were the only ones left.