Page 119 of Alpha's Revenge Luna
“What’s going on?”
“Not now, Emery.We just need to get away from here.I’ll explain once home,” Dion tells me.
The car ride is a cocoon of tense silence.The hum of the engine feels loud and Kyrio glances at me in the mirror before turning the radio on.Dion’s eyes are fixed on some distant point beyond the road.His mind, elsewhere.
We don’t even make it out of my father’s pack territory when Kyrio speaks, his eyes glancing in the mirror again.“We’re being followed.”
“What?”I whip around, peering through the rear window to see a nondescript van trailing behind us.A van?I glance at Kyrio.
“It’s a van.”
“There are two black SUVs behind it,” Kyrio adds, taking a turn into the city instead of heading to the highway leading home.
“Where are we going?”I ask.
“The city, that stretch.We’ll be sitting ducks.We need to lose them and find an alternate route home,” Kyrio adds, and Dion glances at me.
“Are you sure?”Dion asks Kyrio, his calm façade finally cracking as he glances out the back window behind me.
“The vehicle has maintained a constant distance for the past eight miles and has been following us since we left her grandmother’s street,” Kyrio confirms, and my heartbeat quickens.But why would anyone be following us?
Panic claws its way up my throat, and I fight to keep my breathing even while Dion uses the GPS maps, zooming in and out of the city map.This isn’t just paranoia; this is real.Someone is tailing us, and the whys and who thrash in my mind.
“Can you lose them?”Dion’s voice is low, equal parts worried and murderous.Yet he isn’t worried about himself.I can feel that much.He’s worried about me being with him.
“I’m going to try, but I don’t know this city well.Find another way out of here.If not, I will try to double back,” Kyrio assures.The car suddenly accelerates as we approach a T section in the road.
My hands grip the seat, knuckles white as I brace for whatever comes next.Dion keeps scrolling the maps and pulling places up and I glance out the rear window to see the van picking up speed and turning onto the same street.Shit, I was hoping he was being paranoid.
“Fuck, find somewhere, Dion, somewhere crowded in case.”Kyrio’s eyes dart to the mirror meeting mine.He doesn’t finish what he is going to say, but he doesn’t need to, Dion seemsto understand whatever he is going to say before he stops.
“I’m trying...”Dion growls, his fingers moving over the screen quickly.“Next left,” Kyrio rips on the steering wheel, and I am thrown into the middle seat by the force.Dion calmly gives directions.
“There is a mall; it has an underground carpark,” Dion says.A mall?Why a mall?
The underbelly of the city swallows us whole as Kyrio steers the car into the gaping maw of the mall’s underground carpark.Shadows cling to the cold concrete pillars, and the fluorescent lights flicker overhead.Peering over out the window, we seem to have lost them after a lot of turns and two traffic lights that Kyrio ran through.
“There,” Dion whispers and Kyrio stops the car, parking it on the second level of the underground carpark.
Dion nods, his eyes scanning the rearview mirror one last time before Kyrio cuts the ignition.The silence that follows is oppressive, punctuated only by our shallow breaths and the distant echo of another vehicle entering the cavernous space.I peer out but it’s not the van or the black SUVs.
Dion climbs out of the car and Kyrio opens the glove compartment and I notice the Glock inside, but he doesn’t take that, instead he grabs his phone, shutting it.
“Listen,” Dion’s gaze meets mine, as I turn to climb out of the car when Dion opens my door.“You need to go up into the mall.Blend in.I’ll take care of things here.”
“What’s going on?”I ask, but he is already yanking me from the car.He marches me toward the stairwell instead of the elevator when I hear tires screech on the ramp leading in here.Dion shoves me inside the emergency fire exit.
“We’ll ambush them from below,” Kyrio says and Dion nods before Kyrio takes his shirt off then rushes off and jumps the barrier to the lower level.
“Go, Emery, now.I will come find you.”
The idea of leaving him there to face whatever is coming alone twists my gut.“No, I’m not leaving you—”
“Dammit, this isn’t up for discussion!”His voice is sharp.He reaches out, his hand firm on my shoulder, guiding me toward the door.“You’ll be safer in a crowd.I can’t deal with this while worrying about you.”
My heart hammers against my ribcage, each beat echoing the urgency of his words.I want to argue, to stay alongside him, but the look on his face tells me arguing would be futile.And deep down, beneath the layers of fear, I know he is right.
“Okay,” I relent, my hand trembling as I reach for the railing of the stairwell.“You’ll come find me?”I ask, and he nods.
