Page 14 of Between Control and Chaos
We head out of the resort, down the mountainous winding road, and follow it south to Route 93, the main thoroughfare.
I hear Luca’s sigh of relief. “I’m so glad you’re okay. You are okay, right? Jayden didn’t hurt you physically, touch you?—”
“I’m okay,” I say, reassuring him. “I was held in a basement, and I managed to sneak out through a window.”
“Good. From now on, I want you to carry a gun with you, everywhere you go.”
I laugh at his request. “Come on, Luca. That’s not realistic. For starters, I’m not bringing a gun with me to school or when I’m carrying Zeke.”
“We’ll discuss it further when you get home.”
I roll my eyes and tip my head back on the headrest. “You’re so bossy tonight.”
Luca fusses under his breath. “Am I?”
Like he can’t tell? Maybe he’s oblivious to it, but it’s impossible for me to miss.
I glance out the window as we drive back onto the main road, and a shiver courses through me. It wasn’t that long ago that I was walking on this road, alone, in the dark.
I pull my coat tighter.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Luca says.
“Just … thinking,” I confess.
He chuckles, sounding lighter, happier. “Don’t do that too much, or you might give yourself a headache.”
“Asshole,” I joke with him, and then the air rushes out of my lungs in a scream.
A gunshot rings out through the vehicle out of nowhere.
The loud gunfire pierces my eardrums, making them ring as I grab the back door handle and yank at it.
It refuses to open.
Who the fuck child-locked the door?
I drop the phone. I can hear Luca’s voice; he shouts out my name. It’s distant and sounds far away in the chaos surrounding me.
“Moreno’s been shot!” I scream, seeing him hunched forward, blood dripping from his head. “Nico shot him. I can’t get out the back door.”
“Shut up!” Nico shouts at me, and I lunge forward, wrapping my arms around his neck, choking him, trying to cut off his oxygen supply. He grabs at me with one arm, the SUV swerving on the road before he lifts the gun, shooting blindly at me.
Fuck.
The bullet misses, hitting the back window, shattering the glass in the trunk.
There’s another way out.
I climb over the backseat and into the trunk, There’s no interior handle, no release from the back that I can spot. I use my elbow, my coat protecting me as I break away the remaining of the shattered glass and pull the latch on the trunk from outside.
It doesn’t budge with the doors locked.
Shit.
My only other option is to jump out the back window. We’re moving at quite a fast clip, and I can’t jump without risking severe injury.
Then again, getting shot is far worse.
