She glances at her watch, and I look at her curiously. “Have you got somewhere to be?”
“It’s almost nine o’clock. Max’s guards change over at nine.”
“They do?”
“I’ve been paying attention.” She hustles me toward a narrow steel reinforced door which is locked with a bolt and rusted-through padlock. “This is the only exit Max doesn’t have manned. I’m certain they don’t know about it because I checked earlier, and it looks exactly like the wall on the outside. Honestly, you can’t tell it’s a door at all.” She slides the bolt with force, so it releases the pressure holding the door in position. “There is a public phone ten miles south. If you go now, you’ll make it through Max’s guards without being detected.”
Cold air blasts into the room as she pulls open the door. It’s dark out, and the icy wind moans through the trees towering above the hotel.
A ribbon of light from outside illuminates the room, and I notice my gloves and cut on the floor beside Lily’s feet. Hidden by shadow, I didn’t see them until now. “Come with me.”
“You know I can’t run with my knee. I’ll slow you down.” She picks up my cut and gloves and hands them to me. “That’s why you need to go. Get help. If Max comes back, I’ll keep him distracted.”
“I’ve told you… I’m not leaving without you.”
“That’s the thing, Doc.” She steps in front of me. “I’m not giving you a choice.” Without warning, she pushes her hands into my chest and shoves me through the door, sending me crashing to the concrete pavement outside. Before I can get to my feet, she throws my gloves and my cut at me.
“Don’t forget about me, Doc,” she says, then yanks the door closed, and I hear the bolt slide back into place.
Just like that, Lily is gone.
There’s no way back in, so in the biting cold, I consider my options. I could raise all hell and let Max’s thugs know I’m outside so they can drag me back inside. But I have no doubt it won’t end well for either of us. Even if I claimed Lily wasn’t involved, they’d kill us both. Or maybe they’d just kill me and punish Lily by making her watch.
And if I die, I can’t help her.
If I leave now, we both have a chance.
Ignoring the cold, I run as fast as I can away from the abandoned hotel and into the shadows of the freezing winter night. With only the moon to guide me, I weave my way through the darkness. It takes me a while, but I finally make it to the phone booth ten miles down the road. By then, my fingers are frozen, and my body is numb as I stumble into the glass booth.
I need my Kings of Mayhem brothers to help me get back to Lily.
But when I reach for the phone, my heart drops to my stomach.
The cord has been cut, and the phone is dead.
DOC
I start walking. I don’t know where I’m going. All I do know is that I need to find help for Lily, and I need to find it fast because God only knows what her father will do to her once he finds out I’m gone.
He won’t hurt me, I promise you. Lily’s words replay in my mind.
Stumbling through the cold, I pray she’s right because I’m at war with myself. I know leaving gives us both a chance of surviving, but there’s a part of myself that hates me right now because he believes I should’ve stayed to protect her.
My life isn’t the one in danger, Doc, but yours is.
The wind picks up and whistles eerily through the trees, and I pull my hoodie tighter around my face. I’m in the dark, cold and alone, and terrified I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life.
Hours disappear, and I don’t see a single car.
My hope begins to fade.
I’m so cold I can barely think. I know I’m probably close to hypothermia, but I refuse to give up. Stumbling along the roadside, I shiver so much I think my teeth are going to shatter. Thank God the black bears are asleep, and it’s too cold for bobcats or coyotes, so there’s little chance I’ll end up as something’s dinner before help arrives. But this icy wind might be the end of me if I don’t get out of it soon.
When a car finally comes by, I’m so exhausted I can barely walk. Weakly, I wave it down and feel like fucking crying when it stops. The middle-aged couple inside immediately leaps into action when they see the condition I’m in. Relieved, I collapse into the slush gathered on the roadside, unable to go any further.
“Oh, my goodness, Luther, quick. Help him inside the car,” the woman cries.