Page 110 of Jace 4Ever
His second shot went wide, and I was able to pull the door to the street open. He fired a third time, but I dove out of the way and it imbedded in the rock of the staircase.
I tore down the street into the growing twilight. I heard another shot bounce off the sidewalk, and I really hoped it didn’t hit anyone. I took the corner as wide as I could and started running up Amsterdam. The guy was still behind me, but his gun had disappeared.
The next light was green across Amsterdam and I took it, running as fast as I could. I knew there was an entrance to Riverside Park ahead and I knew I could get into the Freedom Tunnel. Once I was there, I could hide and think.
Another bullet whizzed by, and I started to run across the street. As he followed, I ran back. Manhattan had the most annoying length blocks ever. Short north and south, long east to west, and naturally, I was running west.
Riverside Drive appeared as still another shot was fired and I’d completely forgotten the Joan of Arc memorial was closed for refurbishing. The next place to enter the park was down four blocks—thankfully the short blocks.
As I got to the crosswalk there, I saw the light turning yellow for me. I ran like hell, into the park and heard a screech and swear as the light went green for the northbound traffic.
“Gun!” Someone behind me screamed, and since he’d been spotted, the guy opened fire with his remaining ammunition, trying to aim, but not really having the patience.
I ducked down the path, looking for a cut through that used to be there. I found it pretty quickly and hopped onto it. That took me through more wooded areas and out to another path that wasn’t directly connected to the crosswalk or the path into the park.
I slowed to a jog and listened. I didn’t hear anything, but I found another cut through about two hundred yards down the way, and took that to head toward the entrance of the tunnel.
God, I had been hunted down in my own place by my own brother.
There was no way I could ever go back. Everything that had been so perfect just an hour ago was now destroyed. All because I had stopped a revenge killing. Marilyn was dead. I guessed everyone on set was either dead or had a price on their head.
This was the mafia. Not some piddly ass street gang, like Jerrod had been involved with. This was La Cosa Nostra, the people who would kill you for breaking a vow of silence.
How had he gotten in with this? Why was he stepping up into hits for the fucking mob? He had a place that Nelson paid for, because my fiancé knew what my brother meant to me. And instead of figuring his life out…
He had just completely destroyed mine.
I couldn’t go back. I didn’t have a place to live. I was very sure I couldn’t stay in the city. I had a debit card I couldn’t use, no cell phone, and forty dollars in my wallet.
Everything I had worked for, everything I had done to survive, all that I succeeded at was for nothing. I was right back where I started.
Emotions threated to bring me to my knees, but the entrance to the tunnel appeared and I somehow managed to stumble my way toward it.
This was illegal now, trespassing in the Freedom Tunnel. When I had been homeless years ago, it hadn’t been. There had been nearly a thousand people living here, and living deeper in the abandoned tunnels.
That’s where I had to go, for now. I needed to hide, I needed to just get away and make sure no one would hurt Nelson.
The glint off the ring finally broke me, and I stumbled, crashing to my knees.
I had nothing.
“Hey.”
Something poked my shoulder, and I waved it off.
“Hey, wake up, you can’t stay here, man.”
I tried to roll onto my back and hit a wall. A cold, concrete wall. And the ground was littered with gravel, sticking me in various places.
“Come on, man. Wake up. I can’t carry you and it’s almost time for the inspectors to come through.”
My eyes finally agreed to open and everything that had happened came rushing back. The house, the gun, my brother, the death threats. I sat up, and a wave of dizziness hit me.
“Take it easy. Looks like you bonked your head good. Let me help you up. You’re dressed awfully nice to be down here, mister.”
“I…I need to hide.” I managed to force the words out through a raw throat.
“I can help you up, get you into the tunnels,” he said.
