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Reborn(65)

By:Jennifer Rush


“Give me fifteen minutes,” I said.

“We’ll wait here for you.”

“Thanks, Chloe.”

“No worries.”

We hung up, and I relayed the conversation to the group as I tugged on some clothes Sam had given me.

I checked the bullets in my gun and slid it behind my back. “We should go. Now.”

“Wait.” Sam held up his hand. “You sure this isn’t a trap?”

“No. No way. Chloe is a friend of Elizabeth’s. They work together at a restaurant in town. She’s just some girl.”

Sam and Anna shared a look.

“Stop it, you two. I’m going. And I’d like it if you came with. If you don’t want to, fine.”

I started for the door.

“Obviously we’re coming, Nick,” Anna said. “We just want to be sure we’re smart about this.”

I hated it when they ganged up on me.

I didn’t want to wait as we hashed out a plan or dissected all the ways this could go south. I wanted to get to Elizabeth, and I didn’t want to wait another second.



We found Chloe parked along the curb in front of the park. An iron fence surrounded it, with an arched gate on each of the four sides. This park was quieter and smaller than the town’s main park. There was no playground here. No fountain. Just a lot of flowers, bushes, and picnic tables. A couple was spread out on a blanket in a patch of sunlight.

I could make out Elizabeth in the backseat, pressed against the door on the passenger side, her face buried in her hands.

Chloe met me halfway to the car. “She’s really upset right now. When she woke up, she started bawling. She keeps asking for you.”

I pushed past Chloe.

“Wait,” she said, and caught up to me. “Please, just be gentle with her.”

“I’ve never been anything but gentle with her,” I said. “I need to see her.”

I opened the back door and slid inside. It was silent. Elizabeth was folded in on herself, her hand covering her eyes. Her head lay against the door.

“Elizabeth? Talk to me.”

Nothing.

She didn’t even move.

I inhaled. I’d already proven to her that I sucked at consoling, but I had to try something. Otherwise I’d just look like a jackass.

I reached out to her, slid my fingers around hers, and pulled her hand away from her face.

Her eyes were closed. Her arm was limp in my hand.

“Elizabeth?”

Chloe opened the driver’s door, pinned herself in the crook of it, and pulled something from the seat.

I saw the flash of silver too late, heard the gunshot next. Heard Anna scream to Sam. Heard the pop of a tire.

“What the—” I started, but I wasn’t quick enough.

Chloe reached over the seat and pistol-whipped me in the face.

Everything went black.



“You are the worst bad guy in the history of bad guys.”

I blinked.

“You had her in your grasp and she got away. Slipped out a bathroom window? Isn’t that the oldest trick in the book?”

I didn’t make a sound.

The car was moving, but not speeding. If Sam and the others had come after us, Chloe had lost them.

“Yeah. Yeah. I know. My absolute, perpetual freedom for theirs. I got it. I’m on my way.”

Chloe hung up the phone and cursed. I moved just enough to glance over at Elizabeth. Still out.

How long had I been unconscious?

Did I still have my gun?

I slowly reached behind me. Nothing there.

I’d apparently been out long enough for Chloe to escape Sam and the others, and for her to stop to retrieve my weapons.

The car lurched as the tires left pavement and hit gravel.

Stalks of corn turned into a blur outside the window as Chloe pressed into the gas pedal.

We were on our way to the barn lab.

Shit.

I looked on the floorboards for something I could use as a weapon. Empty coffee cups. A tube of lip gloss. A notebook.

Nothing that would hurt.

What was the surest way to take her out?

Gun.

I didn’t have a gun.

Knock her out.

I could punch her, but from this angle, it’d be iffy.

Choke her. I could put her in a choke hold, but if she had a gun close by, she could shoot me in the goddamn face.

Seat belt.

And Chloe wasn’t wearing hers.

I charged upright, grabbed the belt, and gave it a yank so I had as much slack as I needed.

Chloe saw me in the rearview mirror and reached for her gun. I wrapped the belt around her neck, pushed my foot against the seat for added strength, and crouched.

My weight was too much for her to fight. The air left her lungs in one ragged gasp. She came up off the seat, lost her footing on the pedal, and the car slowed.

Chloe let go of the wheel. The front end swerved.

I tugged harder on the belt and felt my stitches pop. I bit down a cry of pain.