Zion was rushing to me now. “Are you alright?” she asked.
She gave me her hand and I struggled to my feet. The head kick had made me a bit woozy.
By the time I started getting back to my feet, he was gone. The man was gone like the wind. He had taken the money and he had vanished. What the hell? A vest. He must have been wearing a vest. Of course.
Shit.
That was of course when Al and the cops came onto the scene. They saw him take off and ran after him. I doubted they would catch him. Wow, what incompetence.
“We’ll get him,” Al said. “Are you ok?”
“Bullshit!” I screamed. “You won’t catch shit. Dammit. Where the fuck were you? I was fighting with this asshole a damn minute.”
“Easy. We were coming. We had to hide well enough out of sight. That means a little farther away than we’d liked.”
“And you didn’t tell Zion that, did you?” I asked.
“Well, no. I didn’t see how it was relevant.”
“You bastard.” I felt like decking him. “You used her as bait and you gave her no backup. You were willing to sacrifice her. Hell, you expected that shit.”
“What do you want me to do? We have to get these dangerous assholes locked up. It’s a war. Sometimes there are casualties.”
“I see,” Zion said. “So, I’m a fucking casualty. Well, fuck you.” Zion reared back and punched Al square in the mouth.
She then walked away heading towards my truck. I couldn’t believe it. She had assaulted a police officer which held a hefty prison sentence, but Al wasn’t going to say shit. He would never let his pride go there. The bastard had set us up though. He was willing to put people’s lives at risk to get his bad guy. That was all he cared about.
“Man, you’ve changed,” I said.
Al wiped blood from his lip and glared at me and Zion. One of his officers tried to go after her but he held him back. “Let her go. Don’t worry about it.”
I didn’t even glance back. I wasn’t sure he was my friend anymore, or would be ever again. That fucker. How dare him.
Zion got in my truck and sat down slamming the door behind her. We didn’t say much on the way back to my house either. But I had made up my mind.
“We are leaving,” I said.
“What?”
“Yeah, we are getting out of my house. I have a place we can go to, somewhere I don’t think they will find you. It’s not running; it’s regrouping. We need a different strategy. We need to find these guys, hunt them down one by one and take them out.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I mean it. I want to get them.”
“Now it’s personal since you fought them?”
“No, it’s personal since they tried to kill you again. And they have admitted that they will stop at nothing to ensure you are dead. This will never end.”
“You don’t think they’ll just take their money and go somewhere they can hide? Like some tropical paradise in Brazil or something?”
“They could, but I think the egos are in the way.”
“Ok, so when are we going?”
“Right now. We will swing by the house and get some clothes and then head on out. It’s about a four hour drive up north, but I think it will work. They are probably following us, tailing us some way, but I think this will put a little bit of a barrier there.”
“Ok, whatever you think. It sounds better than any plan I’m coming up with.’
“Good.”
I wasn’t sure this would work, but it was worth a shot.
Chapter 11
Zion
I kept thinking about the gun coming up to face me and how frightening it looked, but at the same time it didn’t look that frightening. It looked small and simple. It was a simple pistol. How much damage could it really do? That was going through my mind when I saw that gun in his hand. But I knew what it would do. I would lose my life. I would be dead. That was all it would take and I would be no more of this world. I felt sick, but I held it together. I didn’t want to show him any fear. I could display no weakness. No. I had to just let it go from me.
We packed our bags quickly at Bill’s house and then we left. I wasn’t sure exactly where we were going, but I was glad to get away from the city. It was becoming far too dangerous for me. I was leaving my life behind and my job but at least I was alive. That was the most important thing.
Al texted Bill that Chelsea had been found safely. His team had tracked the location where the others were hiding, or had been hiding. They had been given the signal to evacuate and had done so quickly. I wondered if the cops had arrived just in time to save Chelsea’s life. I didn’t see these guys just letting her live after I tried to screw them over. But they had the money and they had gotten away. Their freedom was more important than killing her to prove a point.