“Ellie, fuck, are you okay?”
“What’s going on?” I said. My mind was reeling. I couldn’t think.
“It’s okay, it’s fine, I’m getting you out of here.”
Liam stood and looked down at the man, who was on the ground, groaning. He kicked the gun away from him and stomped down on his shoulder.
“Tell Colm he can go fuck himself,” Liam said.
“Fuck you, Liam,” the man on the ground grunted.
Did they know each other? I couldn’t get my frazzled mind together. Blood was pounding through my ears.
Liam kicked him again, harder, and the man stopped struggling. I stared, my entire body locked in fright and confusion. Liam turned back toward me, putting the gun into the waistband of his pants, and knelt down next to me.
“It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
“Who is that? What are you doing here?”
He looked me in the eye. “I promise, I’ll explain everything to you. But we need to get out of here right now.”
“But, we have to call the police.”
“No, no fucking cops.”
“That man was going to kill me. I saw them dumping bodies. We have to call the police.”
Nothing made sense, and I knew I was babbling, but I couldn’t help it. What was Liam doing here?
He shook his head again. “No cops, Ellie. You can’t trust them. You can’t trust anyone right now.”
“What are you talking about? They’re the police.”
“Ellie, look at me.”
His hands squeezed my shoulders, and I looked him in the eye. He looked tired and disheveled, but for a moment I felt safe. Something told me I needed to listen to him. It was completely crazy, everything was completely crazy, but he had saved my life. He had stopped that man from murdering me in broad daylight in my own apartment.
“Please, listen to me. If the cops could protect you, I’d take you there myself. But they can’t. We have to go, right now, before they show up. I’m guessing someone already called them.”
“Okay,” I said softly.
He stood and grabbed my hand, pulling me up against him. I felt his warmth and his strength, and I began to slowly regain some measure of control over myself. I stopped trembling, although the freezing cold terror still lingered in my gut.
“Come on,” he said, and he began to move out of my apartment. I held on to his hand and let him lead me out my apartment door, down the stairs, through the building’s busted-up entry, and out into the street.
We passed the black van, heading toward another car idling behind it. He opened the door of the black sports car and nodded. I got in, and he circled around to the driver’s seat and climbed in. He put the car into gear and began to reverse very fast back down my block and into the intersection. He turned the wheel, spinning us to the side, and began to speed down the street, wheels spinning and tearing up rubber, leaving small puffs of smoke, heading away from my apartment.
Chapter Eleven: Liam
My hands were shaking like crazy as I swung the car out onto Broad Street, heading back toward my territory. The recoil from the gun as I shot Max in the shoulder lingered in my muscles, and the sound of his grunt as I knocked him out kept replaying in my ears. I hated that Colm was so much of a monster that he’d murder an innocent girl in her own apartment, and I hated that Max was such a scumbag that he was willing to do it.
More than anything, I hated myself. I hated that I was involved in the business, especially when animals like Colm were running it. I hated that Ellie was dragged into it, and I hated that I had to tear her away from her life. But I didn’t regret saving her.
The danger wasn’t over, though. I had to drop her off at my safe house, and I had to get Richie and his mom out of the city.
“Where are we going?” Ellie said.
“Somewhere safe.”
“Fuck, Liam, he was going to kill me.”
I didn’t answer. What could I say to her? She was a civilian. She only knew about that kind of shit from movies and TV.
“How did this happen to me?” she asked.
I tensed my jaw and shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“How did you know he was there?”
I sighed. “I promise I’ll explain everything when we’re at my place.”
I took a hard left and sped through the narrow streets. I entered my territory and kept moving, heading for the fringes. I had to stop at the restaurant, but I couldn’t bring Ellie there. Instead, I was taking her to a house I had been renting for the past few years, ever since I entered the business. Nobody knew about it except for me. I paid the bill under a fake name, and I always paid the rent in cash. My dad had taught me how to make the place untraceable, and it was the safest place in the whole city that I knew about.