Page 78 of Zeke
That thought sends me into a panic because if he drives by, I’ll never make it back to my bike in time to follow him.
Thankfully, the road is quiet the whole way there. When we turn to walk down the winding dirt driveway through the trees, Eden stops us about halfway to the house.
“Okay,” she says. “Here’s the plan.” She’s talking to the group but looking at me, as if she thinks everyone else can follow orders but I can’t. Fair enough, I guess. “We’re going to sneak around the outside and get a read on the situation inside. Figure out where he is, where she is, and what kind of state they’re both in so we can figure out the best way to go in. Everyone on the same page?” she asks, her eyes still boring into mine.
“Yes,” I say as the other two murmur their agreement.
“Good,” she says. “Then split up. Let’s each take a side of the house. Check all windows before reconvening.”
We creep up to the house as quietly as we can. Justice and Eli go left, while Eden goes right, and I walk up to the window right in front of me.
I look inside, and at first, the filthy window seems too dingy for me to see through. But after a moment of focusing, I can make out a couple of shapes.
“No…” I whisper. Then, unable to restrain myself or my volume, I yell, “No!”
I see movement from inside and hear my brother say, “Shit!” but I’m already in motion. I land a well-placed kick in the center of the front door of the cabin. It flies open, giving me a high-def version of what I’d seen through the window.
The fucker who took Kira, Steve, is sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, gun loosely in his hand as he stares at a bed with an old, filthy mattress.
A bed where Kira is lying, unmoving, with her eyes closed.
The motherfucker turns around as I barge in, but he doesn’t have time to get his gun up before I’ve crossed the room, kicked the gun out of his hand, and pressed the muzzle of mine to his head. “Move an inch and I’ll fucking kill you,” I tell him.
He looks surprised, like he can’t believe I found them, that he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.
Eli, Eden, and Justice rush in behind me, and I hear Eli repeat his swear from outside before rushing to where Kira lies on the bed. I’ve never been so grateful that someone else who cares for her, even if that someone had been my competition up until a few days ago, is here with me so Kira can be well taken care of.
“You don’t understand,” he says, not moving anything except his eyes, which dart around between us like ping-pong balls. I realize he’s crazy even before he speaks again. “I’m making sure she’s safe. She can’t be my good girl if she hangs around with you people. She needs to be with me so I can teach her the right way to behave.”
This guy thinks he’s doing her a favor. He thinks she’s in danger from me when he’s the one who kidnapped her at gunpoint.
“She’s breathing,” Eli says, letting out a sigh of relief as he looks Kira over. “She’s just knocked out.”
“What did you do to her?” I ask, pressing the gun more tightly to his forehead.
“I would never hurt her!” he exclaims like I’m unreasonable for thinking he would hurt the girl he kidnapped and knocked out. “It was just chloroform to help her sleep. She’ll be waking up soon, and she’ll be able to see I was right.”
I shake my head, my lip curling in my rage. The fact that I haven’t put a bullet in his brain yet is proof I’m growing as a person. There was a time when I wouldn’t have been able to resist.
“The only reason you’re still alive,” I snarl at him, “is that she is. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t earn this.” I move the gun, pointing it at his leg instead, then pull the trigger before he can react, blowing a hole in his kneecap and hearing it shatter as the bullet goes in.
He screams and falls to the floor, grabbing his leg and rolling side to side. I kneel beside him, and he looks up at me through tear-filled eyes before clenching them shut in pain.
“You’re not going to follow us,” I tell him calmly and quietly, loud enough to be heard over his whimpering. “You’re not going to talk to anyone, least of all the cops, unless you want to go down for kidnapping and attempted murder, something I’m sure Kira would happily testify to once she’s awake.” I grab him by the face and force him to look at me. “You are never going to speak to her again. You’re never going to look at her, or even think about her. She doesn’t exist for you anymore.”
Eden and Justice both have their guns trained on him in case he tries anything stupid. I go to Kira’s limp body, and Eli steps aside to let me get to her. I scoop her up into my arms and carry her outside, not wanting her to be in there another second.
I barely make it ten feet when a truck and two bikes roar up the driveway, skidding to a stop right as Charge jumps out of the cab and runs to me. They must have finished at the apartment quickly when they realized he wasn’t there and came behind us for backup.
“Is she alive?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I bring her to the truck and lay her in the bed so Charge can look her over. “Just knocked out.”
I look back at the house and see Eden walk out, followed by Eli, who’s holding Steve’s gun.
Good. Now maybe Kira will finally be safe.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-NINE