Unleashed

“What the fuck was that?!”

The look on Lyndsey’s face betrayed to me that she was yelling. I, however, couldn’t tell. I was barely able to hear her over the sharp ringing in my ears. I definitely hadn’t missed that. I looked over Tristan, making sure that he wasn’t severely injured. He had some sticks in his mussed up hair and a skinned knee, but he seemed alert and was definitely alive. That was a good sign.

“Oh my God! I can’t hear myself! I’m deaf! Oh my God!”

I brushed the dirt off of Tristan’s face and looked him over a bit more carefully. He had a scratch on his left cheek, but it wasn’t bleeding. His knee on the other hand, was. I needed to get us out of these woods and into a vehicle, and then I’d have Lyndsey clean him up with the first aid kit.

“This can’t be real. I’m deaf. Our house just got blown to smithereens. This just… On a fucking Tuesday?”

Once I knew that Tristan would be alright, I took pity on Lyndsey and her confusion. I grabbed her arm to get her attention before speaking loudly and slowly in hopes that she could either hear me or read my lips.

“You’re not deaf. The explosion just hurt your ears. It’ll wear off soon. Just… don’t yell. If they hear us, they’ll realize we’re alive.”

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head then. I’d meant to be reassuring, I guess that had failed. Before she could launch into a tirade that I had no time, nor ability, to listen to at the moment, I trudged on ahead with my son in my arms, waving for her to follow me.

And she did, though not nearly as quietly as I would have liked. She was starting to stumble a bit, either because her equilibrium was off because of the sound waves from the explosion or because she had a concussion. Only time would tell with that one.

By the time we’d reached the edge of the woods the ringing in my ears was fading and my heart rate had slowed down a bit. I was no longer panicking and trying to grasp at straws to save our lives. Now, I was calm and calculating. The stakes were still high, but I had an advantage now. No one should have survived that explosion, and whoever it was that had tried to kill us would have to wait for the fire to go out before they could go to retrieve the bodies. Only then would they realize that we weren’t there.

That should give me at least an hour lead. That was an hour to get us the fuck out of this town and on my way home. I was not looking forward to explaining this one.

“Fucking dress,” I grumbled when I tried to crouch and the pencil skirt prevented it. My work dress wasn’t exactly escape artist attire. Tristan was silent and clinging to my leg like a lifeline. He had no idea what was going on, his world was calm and quiet. Things didn’t blow up in the world I’d created for him, except for on the TV.

“Can you please tell me what’s going on?” Lyndsey hissed at me as she slumped to the ground, breathing heavily. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye and shook my head.

“Not now, later,” I answered, eyeing the parking lot that we had come up on. It wasn’t heavily lighted, thankfully, and the darkness of dusk would give me some cover. “Keep an eye on Tris and wait here,” I ordered, straightening myself up and pulling a leaf out of my hair so I didn’t look like I’d been walking in the wood for an hour. “When I cough, get over to me, quick.”

“When you… what the hell are you doing?”

I didn’t answer her this time. Instead, I strolled casually into the parking lot, pretending that I belonged there. I was, after all, just going to my car. My car just wasn’t technically mine. I tried the door of the first car I came upon, then another, and another. Locked, all of them. I tried a few more, being sure to steer clear of any that looked too new, I didn’t want to trip the alarm system on any of them. After a few minutes and about twenty cars, I came upon a late 90’s model Trailblazer. It was tan with a little bit of rust sneaking up on it, but it didn’t seem to be in awful condition. And the doors were unlocked.

It would do.

I coughed loudly and waited for Lyndsey to make her way over. I waited about thirty seconds and still didn’t hear her, so I coughed again, this time louder. Still nothing. Sighing, I resigned myself to being not so covert. This girl had a lot to learn.

“Cough, cough Lyndsey,” I practically growled. If I had to go back and get her and risk us getting caught, I would not be happy.

“I’m coming, I’m fucking coming,” she mumbled, running to me with the emergency pack slung over her shoulder and Tristan on her hip. “I don’t see why you couldn’t just yell for me.”

“Because what we’re doing isn’t exactly legal,” I sighed, grabbing Tristan from her and putting him in the back seat. “Get in the back with him and check out his knee for me.”

“Alright,” she mumbled, clambering in the vehicle and shutting her door as I jogged to the other side and hopped in behind the wheel. I turned in my seat to reach into the emergency pack, digging around until I came up a switchblade stashed just above the water bottles. “Whose car is this?”

I bit my lip and whipped out the blade, shoving it into the ignition of the Trailblazer and turning the engine over, grinning when I heard the engine rumble. “For now… ours,” I grinned, feeling a small rush run through my system. “Buckle up sunshine.”

Twenty minutes on the road, and my son finally spoke. I was beginning to worry that he had gone into shock, but Lyndsey had been watching him diligently for signs. Even if she didn’t know what was going on, she made sure to look after Tristan. I have no idea how I’d be handling this without her, even with all of her annoying questions.

“Mommy, I’m hungry.”

I glanced back in the rearview mirror and met the sleepy eyes of my three year old. Poor boy had to be exhausted. I smiled grimly and turned down the radio.

“Will you grab him a granola bar out of the backpack?” I asked Lyndsey, who had been attempting to bandage a cut on her arm. She looked up at me incredulously.

“A granola bar, Taylor, really? He hasn’t eaten since lunch.”

“Well I can’t exactly take us through a drive-thru right now, can I?” I barked. I knew it wasn’t very substantial, and I knew he needed to eat something better, but we hadn’t come across a restaurant since we left. I’d been sticking to old country roads, hoping that it would help us avoid being pulled over or spotted.

“Can’t we just stop somewhere, just for a few minutes?” she questioned helplessly. She still hadn’t gotten any answers from me. To be honest, I couldn’t give her many, not even I knew what the hell was going on. I just knew how to keep us alive.

“No.”

“Why not? Geez Taylor, it’s not like it’s matter of life and death…” she trailed off before meeting my grim look in the mirror. “Oh shit. It is, isn’t it?”

I nodded and thanked her when she handed Tristan his granola bar before grabbing one for herself. “What the hell is going on Taylor?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” she scoffed, pushing herself between the two front seats so she and I could talk without Tristan overhearing. “Someone just blew up the fucking house, and you seemed to have known it was going to happen. You stole a car, and now you’re driving us to the middle of fucking nowhere. This shit doesn’t happen, not in real life. So what the fuck is going on?”

“I honestly don’t know,” I sighed, rubbing one side of my face sleepily. My own exhaustion was starting to hit me now. “I haven’t dealt with this shit since before Tristan-“

“You’ve dealt with this shit before?!”

My usually calm and reasonable friend looked like she was about to stroke out. I suppose I can’t blame her. This isn’t exactly a typical situation to find yourself in.

“The fuck are you, a secret agent?” she hissed, her face showing her feelings of betrayal. Well fuck.

“Not quite,” I laughed, wincing when her face showed more hurt. “I’m sorry.”

“For what, getting our house blown up, making me an accomplice of grand theft auto, or just generally scaring the shit out of me?”

“One, I did not get our house blown up. I have no idea why that happened. Two, what I’m doing is to keep us alive. A criminal record is the least of your worries right now,” I stopped long enough for her to indignantly ask me what she should be worrying about right now before continuing. “I’m sorry that you got pulled into this, and that it happened. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my past.”

“Your past… right. You mean that part of you that you’ve pretended didn’t exist?”

“Yeah, that.”

She groaned and climbed over the center console, settling herself in the passenger seat. Tristan was too sleepy to care that he was alone in the back at this point. He’d gotten half his granola bar down before he’d started nodding off. Good, hopefully he can sleep through most of this drive.

“Think it’s time to fill me in a bit?” she questioned, though her voice left no room for argument. I had no right to at this point anyway. I’d put her future and her life in jeopardy, I might as well fill her in a bit.

“I used to be involved in organized crime.”

“What?” she sputtered, spitting the drink of water that she had taken all over the dashboard. “You’re an investigator for the DA! You put criminals away!”

“I was a criminal before I started putting them away,” I shrugged. “But I got out of the life, to raise Tristan. I didn’t want him brought up like I was, in that life.”

“You were brought up that way?”

“That’s why I use my mother’s maiden name,” I nodded.

“You mean your last name isn’t really Adams?” she asked slowly. I shook my head. “Then what the hell is it?”

“Haner,” I mumbled quietly, wondering just what her reaction would be.

“No really, you’re a secret agent, right?” She laughed, leaning back comfortably in her seat in an attempt to enjoy the joke I had pulled over on her. Only when my face remained straight did she become somber again. “Oh fuck, you’re being serious, aren’t you?”

Notes

Soooo here's the second chapter.

Comments and ratings would be awesome. Thanks for reading. :)