Chapter 47

Alicia's gun clattered to the floor and Ryan dashed for it. Nobody moved to stop him, partly because Kaden was still threatening me with a knife and partly because everyone was baffled.

Alicia? I remembered from the conversation I had had with Emma that Alicia was the name of Holden's sister, but she should be dead. This woman couldn't be Alicia, but she was. She'd recognised Holden and Holden had recognised her.

"Holden," she whispered, her voice so low that it was almost as if she hadn't said anything.

She had light brown hair, with honey-coloured streaks, that showed in the light of the apartment. I noticed that her face was pixie shaped: high cheekbones and a pointed chin. Her suit was cut to fit her slender frame. She was small, but still very bosomy and looked to be not much older than us.

"Holden, we need to go." Kaden tried to shake Holden out of his reverie.

Ryan held the gun in his hand, unsure what to do with it. He pointed it at Alicia, but then though better of it and turned it to face Holden.

"What are you doing? I asked Ryan, trying to grab the gun from him, but Kaden refused to offer me even a little room for movement. He tightened his grip on my waist, his fingernails digging into my belly.

"Shhh," Kaden hissed close to my ear, it left an uncomfortable ringing sound as it hit my eardrums.

Ryan pushed Holden towards the door and signalled to Kaden to do the same to me. This was the only way for us to get out of here alive. I just hoped Kaden's hand didn't slip and cut my throat, and that Ryan's finger didn't accidentally press the trigger and shoot Holden.

"My little brother." Alicia moved towards us, but Ryan swung the gun uneasily and that was enough to convince her that he had no clue what he was doing and that the gun was dangerous in his hands.

I expected someone else to move towards us, to block the exit, but nobody did. Ryan continued to push Holden, who didn't even try to help by moving his limbs. He was as stiff as a doll, it looked like his whole body had shut down.

"Move." Ryan shoved him and Kaden used his shoulder to help steer Holden in the right direction.

Once we had successfully made it out of the apartment, Ryan shut the door and placed the gun through the handle, so that the door couldn't be opened from the other side.

"Run!" Kaden told me, slipping the knife into his pocket. "I'll stall them."

I had a flashback of my mom telling me something similar. Why is everyone I love always sacrificing themselves for me?

"I'm not leaving without you." I refused to be swayed.

Kaden sighed, "Why?"

He couldn't have found a better time for us to have this conversation. I knew what he wanted me to say: that I loved him. Instead I responded with, "You know why." And as I said this, the door started shaking on its hinges. They had started pushing against it and after they gave up on pushing, they started shooting at the handle. It wouldn't be long before they were able to loosen the entire handle .

Ryan sensed the same thing I had, and began running down the stairs with my hand in his.

I looked back and was grateful to see that Kaden was right behind us, half pulling and half carrying Holden, whose eyes were barely open.

"I need to go back for my sister," Holden stated, but didn't fight Kaden. He was too shocked to do anything by himself.

Kaden seemed to be ignoring Holden's words and I wondered if he had heard him. Kaden held Holden with one hand, while he used his knife handle to break through the window of one of the cars. The window shattered and glass rained down onto the leather seats of the black sedan. It looked like a police cruiser, save for a yellow star shaped sticker that declared it was an FBI car. He reached through the broken window and pressed a button to unlock all the doors. I winced as the jagged glass cut into his arm. He threw Holden in the back seat and held the door open for me, but Ryan had already pulled me to the other side and opened the door for me. Kaden angrily slammed the door as Ryan climbed in the passenger seat.

When I turned to look at Holden, his mouth was gaping open and his pupils were twice their usual size. I put a hand on his knee, to try to stop it from shaking, but it didn't work. His vibrating leg only caused my hand to vibrate as well.

"You know how to hotwire a car?" Ryan spoke to Kaden.

"Don't you?" Kaden touched two wires to each other, making the car spring to life.

He wasted no time in speeding off, but it didn't surprise me that within a few seconds three other FBI cruisers were tailing us.

"There's no way we'll make it!" I screamed. "They have guns." I could just imagine them shooting at our tyres and our car coming to an abrupt stop, as all the air from the tyres escaped.

"Yes, we will," Kaden grinned. Was he enjoying himself?

"Do you get a kick out of life-threatening situations?"

"This is hardly life threatening. They don't seem eager to use their guns. It's a car chase and I've never lost one of these before," he flippantly replied.

"Well, that's reassuring." I didn't hold back on the sarcasm that seeped into my words.

"I'm glad that you know you're safe in my care." Kaden swivelled around in his seat, resulting in the car veering to the left.

I didn't know which would kill us first: the FBI or Kaden's driving.

"If we make it out of this alive, I'm going to kill you." I clicked my seat belt in place.

"After we make it out of this alive, I'm going to kiss you," Kaden replied, stepping on the gas pedal, so that the car jerked forward.

Despite my complaints I had to admit to myself that Kaden's driving wasn't all bad. He somehow managed to weave in between large SUVs until we were heavily embedded in the heart of London traffic. The FBI cars were nowhere in sight, but I reminded myself that just because I couldn't see them didn't mean they couldn't see us.

"We have to ditch this car," Kaden decided after a while. "They know what car they're looking for."

"I would like someone to tell me what's going on here," Ryan said, ignoring what Kaden had just said.

"Not now." I shook my head. "I wouldn't know where to start." I couldn't put off telling him, but I could delay it until I knew what the best way to explain everything was. Who was I kidding? There was no easy way to explain murdering Calum or the other two people.

"How about you start with explaining the fact that you're mine?" Kaden butted in.

"What?" Ryan fumed, not sure whether to settle his eyes on me or on Kaden. Eventually he found it was easier if he faced forward and watched the road ahead.

"I'm not yours," I said calmly, even though my heart felt like it was being pulled in a million different directions.

"Yes, you are."

"Can we talk about this some other time?" I pleaded, gnawing on my bottom lip.

"Then what would you like to talk about?" Kaden banged the steering wheel.

"Nothing. Can't we just embrace the silence?"

"No," both boys said at the same time, and then finished off with glaring darkly at each other.

"Do you have a place for us to go?" I enquired of Kaden, finding something to talk about that would prevent a fight from erupting. "Or are we just going to drive to the end of the earth?"

"We're going to drive until we run out of fuel," he explained. "We need to put some distance between us and your FBI friends, and then we'll steal another car."

"You didn't answer my question," I pointed out.

"We're going back home. It should be safe there." I assumed when he said home, he meant the house we had been occupying, after the FBI had destroyed the Warehouse. Home was not the word I would use to describe it, but I guess it was the only place that could be considered safe; and wasn't a safe haven usually considered a home?

"Home?" Ryan ran a hand through his already ruffled hair.

I was saved from answering when Holden chose this moment to come to his senses. "I need to go back for my sister," he said, to nobody in particular.

He suddenly wrapped his hands around the seat in front of his and grabbed Kaden, choking him.

"Go back," Holden ordered.

Kaden rasped and tried to say something, but his words were slurred and sounded like a splutter.

Ryan tried to grab one of Holden's arms, but he was swatted away like he was nothing but a pesky fly.

The car started swerving, as Kaden was forced to release the wheel to try and dislodge Holden's hand from his throat. The car hit a tree and I was thrown into the back windshield, my seat belt tangled around my torso.

I tried to free myself while Ryan struggled to free Kaden from Holden's iron grip. I ended up ripping the seat belt out from where it was connected to the ceiling, and proceeded to help Ryan as best I could. Between the two of us we managed to get Holden's back against the seat, until he was once more in a sitting position.

He tried to move again, but I climbed onto his lap. My thighs were on either side of him and I put my hands on his cheeks, forcing him to look at me. The expression that crossed his face was that of a mad man, causing me to gulp noisily.

Kaden rubbed his sore throat and watched me with fear in his eyes. "Get the hell off him. He'll hurt you."

"My sister," Holden sobbed, his tears running down my hands.

"She left you to fend for yourself," I stated. "She let you think she was dead. She didn't bother to look for you. I don't think you want her back in your life." I grimaced at the harshness of my words. I couldn't think of anything else to say that would help this situation. The best I could do was remind him of the truth and hope this would put his hasty actions on hold, since going back the way we came would be a death sentence.

I touched my forehead to his. "Please, just breathe"

All emotion seeped out of his black eyes, and they became a mirror for me to see myself and how desperate and scared I looked. His eyelids drooped closed, and his head fell limply forward onto my shoulder.