Page 63 of Better Run
Almost faster than I can register, Jayden punches him in the face. The man crumples.
“Think you can put your filthy hands on something that doesn’t belong to you?” Jayden punches him again. The man cries out.
Cole laughs.
“Stop!” I step forward, but Jayden doesn’t even turn around.
“You don’t even deserve to breathe the same air as her.” He punches him again.
I grab his arm and hold it as tight as I can. “Fucking stop! He didn’t do anything!”
Cole snatches me off Jayden and pulls me back. Jayden continues to punch him; in his torso and back and head. All because of me. Because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I tremble in rage and scratch and swipe at Cole. He picks me up and throws me into the back of the truck.
“Stay, little one. Or we’ll kill him. He’s lucky we aren’t.” He slams the door so hard that the cab shakes. I scramble to the window. The man isn’t fighting anymore, just curled up on the hood of the car. Something in Cole’s hand glints in the light. A knife. Jayden moves aside, and Cole snatches up the man’s hand. There’s a flash and a scream, and I see blood on the man’s hand in a long gash across his palm.
The voices are muted. “If you breathe a word of this to anyone, we’ll kill you, Mr. Joe Robinson of…214 Main Avenue.” Cole slaps something into the man’s hand on top of the gash. A driver’s license. “As far as you’re concerned, you lost a bar fight, yeah?”
The man nods his head, his whole body shaking. I make out him saying, “I didn’t know, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I have a wife and a dog; please don’t kill me.”
Cole slaps his back like they’re friends. “What bar were you at?”
“T-The Rainbow.”
“What happened?”
“Got in a f-fight.”
“Good. Now get out of here.”
He scrambles into his car, and it peels off. I’m shaking. My vision is tunneled on the two men. They wait until he’s driven off and then get back in the truck.
I stare blankly ahead. My body is strangely still and emotionless. “You are monsters.”
Cole throws me a blinding grin. Jayden doesn’t look at me.
“God, I’m hungry.” Cole looks into my eyes then his gaze dips down to my crotch.
Anger fills past the fog, and I seethe, “No.” How could he be horny right now? Cole turns on the radio and kicks his feet back into the dash. He flicks his knife around in his fingers.
“You can’t do this.” My voice is droll, “We can’t keep living in this…bubble. I have a boyfriend. A life. A house and a car. I have a life. You have to let me go.”
The car goes silent except for the radio. I feel the energy shift. Fear spikes through me.
“Man, I thought she had more sense than that.” Cole looks to Jayden.
Jayden cuts a glance back to me. “If you want that piece of shit to keep breathing, you’ll stop talking about him. He doesn’t deserve your attention.”
Who, Kyle? “No! You can’t just threaten everyone around me!”
“Yes. I can.”
“You’re going to get caught! You can’t keep getting away with this. Your luck will run out, and you’ll get caught.”
“Will I?” He looks at me. There is no emotion in his gaze.
“Yes,” I hiss.
