“Three.”
“I need to see some ID,” the man said, unamused. Another cop appeared at his side.
“Two.”
“Um, yeah, sure,” I murmured. I turned my body and tucked Ethan behind me as I pretended to go for my wallet. “Baby, he needs to see ID,” I said to Ethan over my shoulder in the hopes of placating the cop.
The leather of my wallet hadn’t even cleared my pocket when I heard the distinct pop in my ear followed by another one. A second later, an explosion rocked the air around us. I grabbed Ethan and pushed him against the wall, covering his body with mine. The cops started yelling and then they were running. I grabbed Ethan’s hand and stuck my head out of the alley. I could smell and hear the fire before I even saw it. It was at least two blocks over in what looked like some kind of junkyard. Both of the cops who’d been talking to me were running in that direction, yelling into the communication devices on their shoulders. I tugged Ethan towards the car. Two more cops ran past us towards the fireball.
“What was that?” I asked Jace as I began trotting towards our rental.
The man snickered in my ear. “Propane tank,” he said. “No casualties,” he added. I merely smiled at that because I knew Jace would have taken every precaution not to injure an innocent bystander.
“I’ll call you if we need anything else,” I said as Ethan and I got into the car.
“You bet,” Jace said and then the comm went silent. I removed it from my ear and focused on getting us out of there.
I managed to keep to the speed limit as I maneuvered the car through traffic and headed towards the road that would get us out of D.C. and back into Virginia and on our way to the hotel. But inside I was totally fucked up. Between the adrenaline rush of our close call and the lingering sensation of Ethan’s mouth on mine, I was barely holding it together.
Ethan wasn’t doing any better.
“Ethan,” I said softly as I tried to calm myself.
“He won,” he whispered. And then he went silent as tears tracked down his face.
I let him be and focused on getting us back to the hotel. About ten miles before we reached our destination, I pulled the car over long enough to swap the plates out. I always kept a spare set of license plates in my bag for times like this. With all the security cameras on the streets, I didn’t want to worry about the cops knowing what car we were driving. And if they happened to figure it out, the fake plates would throw them off. I knew it was likely overkill, but I wasn’t taking any chances. It would be easy to put the regular plates back on the car just before we returned it to the rental agency and since Ronan had rented the car under an alias, I knew we wouldn’t be tracked that way.
I called Ronan as we neared our hotel to give him an update and told him I’d call him back later to discuss next steps.
Ethan still hadn’t spoken by the time we reached the hotel. When I opened the door and moved out of the way to let him enter, he walked towards the bathroom. The mirror and sinks were outside the actual bathroom so I could see him as he leaned against the vanity and stared at his reflection. I closed and locked the door. Both sets of curtains were drawn so I opened the heavier, outer ones so light could filter into the room through the sheer inner curtains. I watched Ethan in silence as he studied himself in the mirror, his expression blank.
I was shocked when he suddenly lashed out at the mirror with his fist, like he was striking at himself. He let out a guttural scream and then he was tearing at the few items sitting on top of the counter like the complimentary toiletries and box of tissues. I strode up to him and wrapped my arms around him from behind, pinning his arms so he couldn’t hurt himself.
“I tried so fucking hard, Cain,” he shouted as his body shook and tears coasted down his face. “I can’t…I can’t do it anymore,” he whispered harshly.
“Do what?” I asked softly.
“Be strong,” he murmured. “Fight.” He was silent for several beats before saying, “Hope.”
“Look at me,” I ordered softly. His eyes lifted to meet mine in the mirror. “You’re not done, do you hear me?” I said firmly. “You’re not done fighting and you sure as shit aren’t done hoping. I’ve never met anyone as strong as you, Ethan.”
Ethan held my gaze for a long time and then carefully pulled free of my hold. But he didn’t walk away from me. Instead, he turned around to face me. “Please don’t do this to me, Cain,” Ethan whispered.