Page 30 of Kill Shot

Panicked Flight

Seb

Seb ran until his lungs burned and screamed out for relief.

He’d seen Frederick trailing after him, but somewhere along the way, he’d disappeared.

Perhaps he’d gone back home to report to his dad, or had seen Seb really needed the space to grieve, or whatever.

Seb didn’t care. He just wanted to be far away from whatever was happening in his house right now.

His chest ached as if he'd run an entire marathon, but he knew that it couldn’t have been more than a couple miles.

Maybe he would've been able to run longer around a nice, even track, but he had instead been hurtling down through trees and over dirt roads. He went in vaguely the same direction as he’d gone on the very first night that he’d met Nico, and the moment that he realized that’s where his subconscious had led him, he started to sob again.

That was the other problem. Running was one thing, and running through poorly lit trails was another, but running while crying uncontrollably was another matter entirely. His throat was dry and his face wet, but the pain in his body was nothing compared to the wretched misery in his heart.

When he finally did slow down to a stumbling walk, he was only distantly aware that he was on an asphalt road.

His thoughts were entirely consumed by wondering what he’d done wrong.

He couldn’t even begin to pick apart what had actually happened or what the confrontation between his father and Nico might have meant.

In order to stay sane, he just had to focus on what he had done wrong.

And there had to be a great deal that he’d done wrong. There simply had to be.

Should he have heard Nico out? When his father suddenly attacked him like that, claiming that this was all part of some scheme, shouldn’t Seb have asked what the hell he was talking about?

There was no way that Nico had actually plotted all this to get close to his father. It was simply too insane to consider. Why would anyone go to such lengths for that?

But Seb didn’t even have to say those words out loud to realize just how foolish they sounded. His father was a man who hired dozens of guards to protect himself and his son. It was obvious that he had enemies, but to think that Nico might be connected to them in some way…

Maybe Nico had just been shocked. Maybe that’s why he hadn’t reassured Seb that he hadn’t done anything wrong.

But no, Nico’s face had not been surprised, not even a little bit. He’d been full of hate, and nothing else. He didn’t even have enough affection for Seb to turn and look at him, to reassure him that this was just between him and Pablo Altamirano.

Even him saying that this was just business, no hard feelings would have hurt less than this total dismissal.

And then there was the matter of the guards.

Seb looked back over his shoulder, but nobody was following him.

He knew that it was a foolish thought, but he still took a sort of gleeful misery in the fact that none of them had followed him.

Maybe his father and all the men charged with looking after him didn’t care about Seb either.

The pain was a reliable companion, even when everybody else had abandoned him.

“Says the boy who ran away,” Seb muttered to himself, his voice so raspy as if he’d just run through a desert.

He didn’t even know if he was really headed in the right direction. He wanted to go to Caroline’s, she seemed to be the only one who truly cared, but he didn’t even have any money, and he doubted he could get a free bus ride or taxi to the city, not even if he asked nicely.

The sun had completely gone down, and a familiar sense of fear settled on him, but it wasn’t nearly as oppressive as it might have been. On the one hand, his father appeared to have been right that there were bad people out there that wanted to hurt him.

But on the other hand, that bad person was presently surrounded by all of his father’s guards. In a sense, stumbling down a desolate road was safer than being at home.

Seb fought back the tears that threatened to overtake him. He wiped them away, furious with his own body for still having more to squeeze out. Hadn’t he already wept and sweated enough? Did he even have enough water left in his body?

He patted his pockets, searching for his phone. It wasn’t there. Of course it wasn’t. Nothing seemed to be going right for him today.

Whether he had dropped it during his flight or he’d left it at home, it didn’t matter.

Seb looked around, trying to gauge roughly where he was. That’s when he realized that he wasn’t alone at all.

There was a car slowly following him from behind. It had its headlights off, and at first, he thought that it was simply parked, but it was definitely slowly rolling towards him, only as fast as a man might walk.

Terror gripped him for the first time in a long time. This was something he hadn’t felt since before he’d met Nico. Until now, Nico had kept all these fears at bay, offering a warm and comforting place whenever Seb needed it, but now that was gone.

And Seb was all alone, being followed by men who definitely weren’t his father’s guards. If they were, then they would have driven right up to him and let him know they were there.

His entire body ached, but he had to try to escape. His legs were heavy as lead with the first pounding step, but he forced himself to run as fast as his exhausted body could carry him.

He got all of five steps before the engine roared behind him, and the car closed the distance in a matter of moments. It screeched to a halt, and a door opened.

There was the crunching sound of footsteps, then a hand forcefully gripped Seb’s arm and arrested his progress completely.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

He’d been so blinded by everything he’d failed to pay close enough attention. He’d forgotten everything Nico and his father’s guards had drilled into him about staying alert to his surroundings.

Nico…

Seb choked back a sob, and the hand on his arm tightened.

“Fucking pathetic.” The voice was so full of hate and loathing that Seb nearly recoiled.

He still hadn’t looked up to see who had captured him. Truth be told, he didn’t want to know.

“Are… are you with Nico?” Seb asked, terrified of the answer. He still didn’t want to believe that Nico might be behind any of this, but what were the odds of someone else ambushing him on this road tonight?

“What does it matter?” the voice said, getting even closer to his ear. The hot breath was like a shock to his ear, dripping with condescension. “But trust me, by the time we’re done, you’ll be wishing that Nico had just put a bullet in your head.”

Seb never saw the blow coming. There was just a single instant of pain, then he was dead to the world.