Heartbeats Amidst Chaos, Part 3

7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven

T he blur of highway darkness, occasionally slashed through by the blinding headlights of other cars, whizzed by outside the windows as they drove in silence. Elio’s mind was like a giant puzzle board, covered with upside-down and irregular pieces that he just couldn’t seem to reconcile. Rissa had withdrawn into herself, slumping against the door as far from him as she could get.

Elio wished he could rally himself to comfort her or give her some kind of explanation, but he wasn’t even sure what the explanation was. The attack cemented in his mind that Miranda knew he was at the resort. She likely had known they were at the restaurant and had let herself be seen to drive him back to the cabin where the attackers were waiting.

This indicated that she might also be the connection between him and the bombing, though he almost couldn’t bring himself to believe she would be so petty. There was only one reason he could think of that she would want to drag him into whatever she had gotten involved in and set him up to take the blame. But was it enough?

Suffice it to say, the police footage Reagan reported had led them to the resort, the resort led them to Miranda, and Miranda led them to an attack by what appeared to have been his grandfather’s dreaded “shadow gang.” The connection was there; Elio just wasn’t sure what it was.

At this point, he was just running scared. It felt like the entire world was after him, and he didn’t know which way to turn. It only made things worse that he had dragged Rissa along for the ride. Every chance he’d had to cut her loose and let her go, he hadn’t been able to do it. And he hated himself for it because it was starting to look more and more like they weren’t going to get out of this without paying a very high price.

Unless he called in reinforcements.

His grandfather’s words echoed in his mind.

“You can only turn your back on your family so many times, my boy. Eventually, something will send you running to them for good.”

Elio didn’t want to get his family involved. He didn’t want this to become a gang war or get sucked into their machinations to the point where he was beyond extricating himself ever again. But there was one thing about his family that he knew for sure: They would be there for him. They would keep him and Rissa safe. And he had already determined that he would do anything to keep Rissa safe and make sure that she, at least, came out the other side of this unscathed.

A sign ahead briefly gleamed with a list of the amenities offered by the next exit, and Elio glanced down at the gas gauge, cursing under his breath when he saw that it was nearly empty. If he’d had more options and more time to choose a car—but he hadn’t. No use wishing now.

Rissa stirred at his expletive, and he glanced over to find her watching him. Her face was guarded, her blue eyes cool. He was pierced with the realization that he could read nothing in her expression and that this was intentional on her part. A deep, aching suspicion told him that this last string of events had been the last straw for her, that she had finally had enough.

He wouldn’t blame her if she wanted nothing more to do with him after today. But unfortunately, her life was now definitely in danger. They needed to stay together to stay safe. For the time being, she was stuck with him.

“I’ve got to stop for gas and to make a phone call,” he said.

Rissa just nodded. She looked like a broken doll huddled against the door, her bare feet pulled up under her and her dress dirty and frayed from their escape. It opened tiny fractures in Elio’s heart to see her like this; he didn’t dare give them too much of his attention for fear that they would open into yawning spaces that left no room for the survival instinct that was currently driving him.

He took the exit and guided the car toward the glowing lights of the first gas station he saw, pulling in and parking at a pump in the far back corner.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” Rissa said. She slipped her feet into the ruby-colored flats she had somehow managed to keep track of all this time and climbed out of the car without looking back.

Elio watched her head toward the back of the station, disappearing around the white brick half-wall that sheltered the entrance to the women’s restroom.

He started the car filling with gas, pulled out his cell phone and, after the slightest hesitation, dialed Vince.

His cousin picked up immediately.

“Don’t tell me,” the burly man growled into the phone. “You’re in trouble again.”

“How did you guess?” Elio’s attempt at a joking tone fell monumentally flat. “Yes,” he said simply. “I don’t know how, but Nonno’s ‘shadow gang’ found me again. And Vince—I saw Miranda.”

There was a pause. Then Vince said, “What’s that psycho bitch got to do with anything?”

“I don’t know,” Elio said. “But she’s involved. I’m positive of that.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Come and pick us up,” Elio said. “I’ll text you the location.”

“Who is ‘us’?” Vince asked suspiciously.

“Rissa is with me,” Elio admitted. He sighed, recalling his last conversation with his cousin and feeling like somehow, everything had just come full circle in the worst possible way.

“The hostage?” Vince’s voice was smug. “I knew there was more going on with you two than met the eye.”

“Please, bro. Just come get us.”

Elio hung up and returned the nozzle to the gas pump. He glanced toward the women’s restroom, wondering why Rissa had not yet reappeared. This time, he noticed the scrubby woods behind the station and how closely they crowded to where Rissa had disappeared. He was abruptly struck with a wave of fear.

What if whoever was after them had somehow tracked them here and had been waiting to grab her, just as they had been waiting to grab them back at the lake? Was that even possible?

Stuffing his phone in his pocket, Elio set off at a jog across the lot.

He came around the corner of the half wall just in time to see Rissa turning away from an ancient payphone that hung on the wall next to the restroom door. Elio felt a surge of relief followed by a jolt of apprehension as Rissa tilted her chin back and looked at him with challenging eyes.

“Did you just call someone?” he asked. Panic had been lurking just below the surface of his outward calm, and he felt it stir at the realization that Rissa may have been even more done with him than he suspected.

“Why shouldn’t I have?” she retorted.

“Who was it?” he asked, fighting to keep his voice even.

“Why does it matter?” she asked. Her hands were clenched in front of her, worrying the material of her dress. Elio was floored by the realization that her anxiety might be directly related to how abrupt and gruff he had been since they had been attacked. He consciously softened his tone, guilt sucker-punching him in the stomach.

Somewhere along the way, he lost track of the reality that Rissa’s faith in him was entirely reliant on just that—faith. She didn’t know as he knew that he was not guilty of everything everyone had been accusing him of. She had simply chosen to believe that he was not.

He had been dragging her along for the ride, without explanation, ever since the shock of seeing Miranda and then being attacked at the resort, and he only now saw how much it had shaken her.

If she just called the cops, it serves me right, he forced himself to think, even as his heart rate accelerated with dread at the thought.

“I’m just worried about who we can trust right now,” he said slowly. “Somehow, whoever is after us seems to know exactly where we are all the time. We’ve got to figure out how to get off their radar. I called my cousin,” he added. “He’s coming to pick us up and take us somewhere safe.”

“You’re worried about who to trust and yet you called your family into this?” Rissa’s voice shook with incredulity. “Weren’t you just telling me a couple of nights ago that they might be a danger to me?”

“It’s not like that now,” Elio said. “My family will stand behind us, Rissa. They’ll protect us.”

“They’ll protect you, ” Rissa said.

Whatever she was about to say was cut off by the sudden revving of an engine. She and Elio both turned, throwing their hands up to shield their eyes as a pair of blinding truck headlights swept across them and then pinned them in their beam. The engine revved again and there was a squeal of tires. Then, the truck was screaming toward them, picking up speed as it approached.

Elio moved on instinct, throwing himself in front of Rissa and wrapping his arms around her as he shoved her behind the half wall and toward the building. Brakes shrieked and the hot smell of burnt tires filled his nostrils as the truck tried to pull up and turn sideways, blocking them into the corner. But whoever was driving had miscalculated and instead, the vehicle slammed broadside into the brick half wall with a deafening crash and yelp of twisting metal.

Hunks of brick and mortar showered down around them, pelting Elio’s shoulders and back as he shielded Rissa with his body. One huge chunk cracked against his neck and the back of his head, slamming his face into the ground. Elio grunted as pain ripped through his skull.

He must have blacked out for a moment because the next thing he knew, hands were flinging the rubble from his shoulders and yanking at his arm. A voice was saying, “Get up! Can you get up? We have to run!”

He gave to the pull of the hands on his arm and staggered to his feet. Then, he was running through wet grass and the branches of short trees were slapping him in the face while roots twisted up beneath his feet. A sharp, muffled crack echoed off the building behind him, and he ducked and turned. Glancing back, he saw a truck wedged beneath a heap of mortar and brick and a black-masked figure leaning out the window, both hands gripping a pistol that looked to be pointed straight at him.

A hand yanked his, and turning back, he ran on, faster and faster until they were swallowed by darkness.