Page 45 of Lies Beneath Secrets (Skeleton Crew #1)
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Lauren
Pacing back and forth, the need for a drink has never been stronger. It’s been hours since Con left and I haven’t heard from or seen Siena. The clubhouse has been unusually quiet. Until the faint sound of footsteps come to my door, then stop. With cold fingers, I grab the gun from the table beside the bed and quietly back myself up to the farthest wall in the room. My heart hammers in my chest the moment the doorknob jiggles. “Please be Siena,” I chant over and over in my head until whoever on the other side of the door gives up and walks away. I realize then I’m not even breathing and suck in deep through my mouth, then slide to the floor. My skin heats, but my limbs seem so cold at the same time as I force myself to draw in breath after breath until I’ve gotten close to calming myself down. I don’t even get a chance to allow myself the respite before pounding comes from the other side of the door. Almost like a hammer or something hitting the doorknob.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Over and over until the wood cracks from the force, and the knob on the inside of the room drops to the floor. I catch light through the small hole now created and watch as the small medal piece inside the hole is pulled free, letting the door swing open. I’m still on the floor, but my gun is pointed right at the person who is now standing in the doorway.
“Don’t shoot me,” Siena says with her hands up.
“Jesus Christ! You could have said something,” I hiss at her and get up off the floor.
“I did,” she defends herself. “Get up. We need to go. They probably heard that.” She waves at me to get in front of her. That’s when I notice she has her own gun. “Con is going to owe me big time for this one,” she jokes and leads me to a back door of the clubhouse that I haven’t seen yet. “Okay, so you’ll need to just go straight—” she begins to tell me the way to get to Knox’s house when shouting comes from the other side of the clubhouse. “Shit.” She pushes me outside and points. “Go that way. Run as fast as you can; they’ll be right behind you.” Without a second thought, I do as she says, not knowing where she goes after that until the sound of gunfire comes from behind me. I don’t turn back though. I can’t.
Each time my foot connects with the ground, I drag in a breath. My lungs are on fire, and I wish in that moment that I was maybe a bit more athletic. I don’t even remember the last time I took a run or even ran from something. Probably never. There’s no way for me to know where the hell I am. I can only hope that I’m running in the right direction.
The further I get, the more trees try to block my path. Low-hanging branches scrape at my arms while in some places, prickly bushes snag on my borrowed jeans. I do my best to jump over a tree stump in my way but only manage to trip myself. Rolling a little, I get to my hands and knees and get up again, pushing myself further and further until suddenly, the trees are gone. When my foot slips on a soft patch of mud, and my knee hits the ground, I realize I’ve reached a dip in the terrain. That’s when everything goes from bad to worse. My body slams into the cold earth and rolls without a care down the hill in the middle of the forest. Everything in my path beats me along the way as if Mother Nature is mad at me for attempting to flee through her woods. Only when my back hits a fallen tree do I come to a stop. Gasping for air, I do my best to breathe, to try to get myself up. The will to live and get to my next breath is the only thing keeping me going.
“Lauren.” My head jerks back toward the direction of my name. “Lauren!” It’s more of a whispered shout, and it’s coming from above me. “Lauren!” I do my best to push myself up from the tree and face the direction of the voice. It’s coming from a tall man with sandy blond hair similar to Knox’s. That has to be Kaleb, I hope. He’s waving at me to come toward him. “Hurry!” he calls out in that same muted yell. Pushing through the lack of oxygen, I crawl on my hands and knees up the hill toward him. I can’t get there fast enough.
Gunshots ring out the closer to the top I get. “Shit, they caught up. Come on!” Kaleb shouts as another gunshot fills the air. When his boots come into view, I force myself to my feet with the help of his gripping my arm. Another gunshot echoes around from the direction I just came from. The bullet barely misses us as it crashes into a tree beside my head.
“Fuck,” I manage to say as we run toward the house. I never thought seeing the ugly, rusty building would be such a relief but when it comes into view, I almost let myself relax a little. That’s until the wind gets knocked out of me for the second time in the last few minutes. This time, with it comes a pain that spreads throughout my back. It’s enough to get me to drop to the ground despite Kaleb’s efforts to keep me standing.
I hear Kaleb above me yelling something but can’t quite make sense of it. I do hear more gunshots before he reaches down and picks me up in his arms. “Don’t you dare fucking die! Con will kill me!” he shouts as he runs. Die? Why does he think I’ll die?
Doors slam and more shouting from Kaleb fills my senses as I’m placed on something soft. “Hold this there!” he instructs someone. I do my best to blink open my eyes and catch a glimpse of a younger girl above me before they fall shut again. Each breath I take seems to get harder, and my body continues to get colder. I’m being sucked into a black hole faster and faster with each second that ticks by. Then, when my body has decided that it’s had enough, I lose all consciousness.
Not before I hear more gunfire.