Page 34 of Walker

“We’ve been played.” I let the vial fall from my hands and it shatters on the ground. “Fuck fuck,” I say over and over then I run to the alarm on the wall. I press the button and an alarm sounds throughout the prison.

Mr. Randoff walks to the window. He can’t get in unless he has the passcode. He smacks his hands against the window, leaving a bloody handprint behind.

He dips his finger into the blood and smiles as he slowly writes. Josh, my brother, says hello.

He wiggles his fingers at me, then disappears down the hallway leaving me utterly confused. How does he know Josh?

I run to the table and look at the file disoriented with my heart pounding the longer I read his file.

“What the fuck is going on?” Walker asks me.

“He and Josh were cellmates for years,” I say in a voice void of emotions, the reality of all of this slowly starting to sink in.

I’m fucked.

CHAPTER 8

SUMMER

We are locked in the prison for hours waiting until they catch Shane (Mr. Randoff). The wait is excruciating.

They find him before he can escape, the nurse was arrested for helping him try to escape.

Walker and Darren practically carry me out of the prison, and I’m set on the back of Darren's bike.

My mind hasn’t come to terms with what just happened. Josh. Shane. It explains why it seemed that he wanted to hurt me.

Walker cups my face. I sigh into his hands, closing my eyes. Why can’t people just leave me alone? I just don't understand why this keeps happening to me. First Josh and now Shane?

I came here to the prison to help people, and this is the outcome. There's another serial killer wanting to hurt me.

Walker kisses my forehead. “I'm so sorry that this happened, baby,” he tells me, leaving his lips lingering a few beats. “Let’s go home.” He puts the helmet on my head.

I watch as he goes back to his bike, and I can't resist the urge to look around the parking lot to see if I can see Shane even though I know he is inside of the prison locked up again.

The way that he acted inside of the prison is something that I will never forget. They start their bikes and we head back home. I keep my eyes closed, letting the chilly air calm my nerves.

I’m human, I can’t help but be scared. I want to be tough, laugh it off and let it roll over my shoulders.

I just can’t.

The seventeen-year-old inside of me comes to the surface; that was the hardest time of my life. The depression and fear that I had to fight every day. The nightmares of seeing Josh standing above me with a knife, ready to take my life.

The guilt finding out that he hurt other people who looked just like me; doing things to them that he can’t do to me.

That ate me alive, it still bothers me finding out what he did to them. The nightmares, God, I had so many of them.

I open my eyes when we slow down at a red light. Walker is staring at me, smiling. I lift my hand out for him to hold, our pinkie fingers intertwine with each other.

Walker pulls into a steakhouse parking lot; we follow him in. Darren turns off the bike when we pull up next to him. “We haven’t taken you out on a date yet,” Walker tells us.

Darren taps my thigh and I slide off the back of the bike, taking off my helmet and taking Walker’s hand and then Darren's.

“I like that idea.” I smile at them both, feeling much better.

Walker holds the door open for us both. We walk in and Darren kisses my temple as we stand there. The hostess comes up with three menus and we follow her to a booth.

Walker is walking in front of us and I can’t fight the urge to stare at his butt. God, the way he fills out those jeans, his dark Henley tight around his arms, the cut on his back pulling it all together.

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