Page 33 of Under Dark Skies

Layla

"What in the fuck are you doing here?" Rafe growled at the female in a husky voice. She had spiky dark hair and dropped the blade, instead aiming a gun at him. "Who sent you?"

"Nice dick," the woman sneered. He stood about three feet away from her ready to do battle again. Both were a little out of breath from the struggle that abruptly came to an end momentarily when Layla flipped on the lights. She quietly gathered their clothes and watched as the stranger slowly put a wrist comm up to her mouth and spoke into it.

"I'm in need of some back up here," she commanded while she kept a wary eye on Rafe.

"Who else is with you?" Rafe demanded in an impatient tone.

"On our way!" replied a voice over the woman's comm.

"God damn it!" Rafe reached over and grabbed Layla around her waist, hoisting her and the bundle of clothes over his shoulder. "Sayonara, bitch!"

With three long strides of his massively muscled legs, they were out of the tiny room and turned to run down the hall. "And here I thought we'd get to rest before running again!" he said.

"That's what you get for thinking!" Layla added in a sarcastic tone. "I can run you know; I’m not broken!" A shot fired behind them and a thud as it embedded into the door across from their room, barely missing Rafe's ass.

"Fuck!" the woman yelled as she appeared in the hall, training her gun on his back and Layla’s head. But she didn't give chase.

Rafe quickly carried her the short distance down the hall to the stairway and ducked inside as a bullet from the woman's gun grazed his heel. "OW! Damn it to hell!"

"Oh my god!" Layla shouted as the bullet whizzed by and hit the ceiling to floor length window in the lower corner. It shattered it into a thousand pieces with a loud crash.

Once inside the stairwell, he set her down and grabbed his foot, taking a quick look. "Holy shit! The bitch got me! Not by much though."

They scrambled for their clothes and dressed as quickly as they could under the circumstances. "We have to get out of here and fast!" she exclaimed, trying to take charge of the situation.

Together, they hopped down the two flights of stairs and he peered through the final door. "It's clear. Stay close." He warned her as he took hold of her hand.

An alarm sounded when Rafe pushed through the door and they entered the cool air of the early morning. They ran across freshly broken shards of glass into a dimly lit parking lot and hid behind a gray Subaru.

"Let's see if any one of these cars are unlocked," he said, as he ducked between cars to hide. "There's bound to be some dipshit that doesn't lock his doors."

Layla followed closely behind him until she came to a row, and turned away from him to search down the aisle of idle vehicles. Layla peered behind herself and there was still no sign of the woman or whoever was helping her. So she stayed low and continued to check doors of cars until she heard a short whistle.

Standing cautiously, she turned to see Rafe motioning for her to come to him. Finally, he found a black corvette unlocked and he looked at me with a devilish grin on his face. "Must be some dumb fuck to leave this car unlocked. "Get in." He climbed behind the wheel and began looking for the keys.

As she sat down in the bucket seat across from him, she rifled through the glove box to search feverishly for the keys. Finding them in the console between the seats, she handed them to Rafe. The glint in his eye said more about the thrill of driving such a vehicle than did his voice.

"Ready to rock and roll, baby? This asshole doesn't even deserve this car," he placed the key in the ignition and turned it. The car roared to life and he yelled excitedly. "And away we go!" he shouted as his foot pushed the pedal to the floor.

Layla peered out the passenger window to see a grouping of about five people watching as they peeled out of the lot. The car lurched forward, then to the left onto the street and she was thrown against the window, hitting her head.

"Damn!" Layla exclaimed, reaching a hand up to rub the knot that was already forming on her forehead. She glared at him for a moment while he raced the car up the street and out of their assailant's view.

He chuckled and slapped the steering wheel. "That's what you get for looking back!"

"To the nearest train station," she said, eyeing him angrily because of his punchline. "And not a moment too soon, I might add."

"Good luck to those fuckers if they try to follow us," Rafe said while he steered the car wildly around a corner to the right.

"At this pace, I don't think they can catch up to us," Layla said as she looked through the back window, checking to see if they were being followed. "No one back there."

"This baby's got some get up!" he smiled playfully, like a kid that just got what he wanted from Santa Claus. "These city streets will help to keep them off our tail, but not for long."

She looked down at her hands and rubbed them together from the coolness of the morning air. The light of the sun could barely be seen up different streets as he raced the car south, closer to the train station's location. The tall buildings, their inhabitants just beginning to come to life, loomed over them in a protective huddle, hiding their position from the unknown assailants.

She placed a hand on Rafe's thigh and leaned over, kissing him on the cheek.

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