We were spotlighted.
“Let Camille go, and I’ll give myself up,” Erik shouted. “My aim hasn’t been off, either, ladies. If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
Someone laughed. Someone else snorted. I reeled. He would give himself up for me?
“Whatever you say, Erik,” the one with the scratchy, purring voice said.
“We’ll let her go, no problem,” another said.
I think she was in charge since she was the first to have spoken to us and had an authoritative ring to her voice that the others didn’t have. But even I knew she was lying—though I might have wished otherwise. No one shot at you only to let you go without incident.
“We really are innocent,” I said, trying again to make them understand as I squinted against the brightness of those stupid lights. Well, I really was innocent, at least. I couldn’t see the girls, not even a hint of them. I could see only orange and gold spots and the darkness that surrounded them, a darkness I wanted to be a part of. My eyes once again watered and I had to look down at my boots. “The napkin you saw him give me is blank. And I followed him because I was mad at him. I wanted to ask him why he gave it to me. That’s all.”
“Sounds like an interesting story and one I’d like to hear in more detail.”
I wish I could see them, judge their expressions.
“Surely you can agree to come in and talk to us.” This new voice was placating, soothing.
Good cop to the other two bad cops, perhaps. “I tried. You shot at me.”
“Give me another chance. I’ll play nice.”
“Don’t listen to them, Camille,” Erik barked.
I leaned my forehead against the coolness of the car door. My arm hung limply at my side, useless. My knees knocked together. I couldn’t have moved if my life depended on it.
Maybe it did.
“You run and hide until everything’s settled,” he said, “just like I told you.”
“For the last time, I said no!”
“What are you two arguing about over there?” the leader asked.
A hand suddenly cupped my shoulder and I gasped. I whipped my attention to the side, breath congealing in my throat. When I saw who was crouched behind me, I almost melted into a puddle of relief. Erik.
His expression was hard, guarded. “You should have run.” He didn’t look at me as he spoke, but kept his attention straight ahead.
“I couldn’t. You would be in way more trouble.”
His hand settled on my lower back. “You keep surprising me, Camille Robins.”
I kept surprising myself.
“I’m getting tired of waiting,” the purring one called. “I haven’t met my kill ratio this week, and you’re seriously pressing your luck.”
“Blow up the car then,” Erik taunted. “Our time is up anyway.”
I paled. Had he just told them to blow up our car?
“Don’t tempt me. A lot of people want you dead, Erik. I just want to talk to you.”
If I’d had the strength, I would have slapped my hand against Erik’s mouth so that he couldn’t respond. As it was, he didn’t incite her further. “Give me a moment to think,” he called.
“You don’t have any options but death or surrender.”
“Let me think, damn it!”
Pause.
“One minute,” came the response. “And the countdown begins now. If you haven’t made a decision by then, I’ll make it for you. I’ve already given you more leeway than I’ve ever given any other. The fact that we were once friends is beginning to mean less and less.”
“So why’d you do it?” he said quietly. “Why’d you really stay with me?”
A moment passed before I realized he was talking to me. “We have one minute and you want to talk about this now?”
“Yes. So hurry.”
“They already knew my name,” I replied, trying to absorb his strength. His hair hung low, covering his eyebrows. There were frown lines around his mouth. And yet, he’d never looked sweeter.
“You didn’t know that until a minute ago. Why?” he persisted.
He wanted the truth. Fine. I had nothing to lose at this point. “I couldn’t just leave you here to die.”
“Even though I ignore you at school?”
“Even though.”
“Even though you think I’m a drug dealer?”
I caught the phrasing and blinked. He’d said “you think.” Not “I am.” In that moment, hope that he was just a regular guy who’d been misunderstood bloomed and spread. “Yeah.”
His expression had become vulnerable. Soft. As hopeful as I felt.
“Even though.”
“Stupid,” he said, but there was a lightness to his tone that hadn’t been there before. “Brave.” And then he turned toward me and placed a soft kiss on my lips, shocking me.
The kiss didn’t last long, but it shook me to the core.
Danger was all around us and there was a mental tick-tock in my mind, but I didn’t care. Erik Troy had just given me a kiss. Not with tongue, like I’d dreamed of so many nights, but with caring—as if we were about to die and he wanted to savor his last few minutes on Earth.
Even though the kiss had stopped, he didn’t immediately pull away. I breathed in his scent, as warm and crisp as the night, basking in this stolen moment. So badly I wanted his arms to wrap around me, to hold me close.
But they didn’t, and I understood why. He couldn’t remove his gun from the girls’ sights. A sobering thought. And yet, this still managed to be the happiest moment of my life.
Maybe because, for the first time in my life, I realized I wasn’t promised a tomorrow. Maybe because I’d crushed on him for so many months. Either way, I took comfort from the action. My determination to make it through this ordeal (alive) intensified.
“I’m not worth staying for,” he said. “Ever.”
A few minutes ago, I might have agreed with him. With that “even though you think I’m a drug dealer” comment, I wasn’t so sure anymore. “Let me be the judge of that,” I replied.
He studied me for a moment. “I don’t know what to make of you. You’re—” Suddenly he squeezed off a shot in the girls’ direction. “Do not come any closer, Phoenix.”
“Damn it, Erik!”
“You promised me a minute, and I’ve got a few seconds left.”