Shine (Kentucky Outlaw Book 1) (24 page)

She heard footsteps around the corner and pressed herself into the building, hoping the shadows would be enough to keep her hidden.
 
Her head was aching and her arm was bleeding from the crash, but she didn’t know how badly Essing had been hurt.
 
He hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt, and she could tell he was moving slower than before, so he might’ve twisted a knee or an ankle.
 
She hoped so, anyway.

From the end of the alley Julie heard Essing say,
 
“You come out now and I’ll make it painless, but the longer I have to hunt you, the longer I’ll make it last.”

Julie tried to control her breathing, willing herself to be quiet.
 
In one hand she held her phone, in the other hand she felt the weight of the gun in her hand. She had thought having the gun would make her feel more confident, but it was doing the opposite.
 
She had never fired a gun before, and she wasn’t sure she could hit a stationary target, much less a moving one.
 
Would she even be able to fire at a person?
 
Her father always wanted to take her hunting, but she’d always refused, saying she could never kill something.

“Keep hiding,” Essing said, louder than before.
 
“I’ll show you how much I like to hurt people.”
 

He walked away from the entrance of the alley, so Julie crept out of the shadows and moved towards the other end, but she heard footsteps running behind her and turned.
 
Essing had faked her out, pretending to leave so she would expose herself.
 
Julie raised the gun and pulled the trigger, but it wouldn’t move, it was stuck.
 
She ran towards the other side of alley, but she had wasted too much time, and just before she was free of the buildings his weight was on her and they both came crashing to the ground.
 
The gun and her phone flew from her hands.
 
The gun went skidding under a dumpster and her phone smashed against the brick.

“Best to turn the safety off before trying to shoot,” he said.
 
His mouth was next to her ear and she could feel the heat from his breath.
 
Julie was flat on her stomach, Essing’s full weight on her back.
 
He grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled, jerking her head back.
 
She let out a shriek of pain.
 

He got off of her, grabbed her arm, and lifted Julie to her feet.
 
Dragging her through the alley he said, “I understand trying to survive, I respect that.
 
You put up more of a fight that your boyfriend.”
 
He pulled her harder and she stumbled to keep up.
 
“But you wrecked my car.
 
That I can’t forgive.”

Essing shoved her head into brick while looking for the gun.
 
He saw it under the dumpster.
 
He knew getting on his knees to grab it himself would leave his back exposed to her so he told her to get it.
 
“Reach down there and grab the gun.
 
Slowly.”

She got on her knees and stuck her hand under the dumpster.
 
She found the gun immediately, but pretended to keep searching while she blindly probed for the safety release.
 
She found a little knob next to the trigger and pushed it.
 
It clicked over and she was pretty sure it had released the safety, or at least she sure enough to bet her life on it, anyway.
 

Essing was watching her closely, so she couldn’t come back up with her finger on the trigger or he’d see what she was up to.
 
She thought up a plan that was pretty terrible, but she didn’t have much of an option at this point.
 

“Got it,” she said.
 

Essing was prepared for her to try something, so Julie brought her hand out slowly.
 
She had the gun in the palm of her hand, facing up.
 
Once her hand was clear, Essing reached down to grab it, but Julie lightly tossed it in the air then snatched it back, holding the gun in the correct position.
 
She fired quickly and Essing’s hand exploded.
 
The sound of the gunshot echoed loudly in the alley and Julie’s ears rang sharply.
 
Through the whine in her head, she heard Essing scream as he cradled his bloody hand to his chest.

Getting up off the ground as quickly as she could, she ran towards the end of the alley.
 
Once past the buildings, industrial lighting lit the entire area.
 
She saw a small utility road ahead that led into a series of large pipes and tunnels from the fertilizer factory and ran toward it.
 
Only once she was past the first pipe did she dare to stop and look back.
 
The ally was twenty yards away and Essing was coming out, still cradling his hand, the lower half of his shirt was covered in blood.
 
He was coming directly for her so she took another shot, missing by a mile.
 

She ran further into the pipes and saw that they all led into a large processing plant.
 
Running towards the plant she thought there might a worker or maintenance person around, someone who might help, but there was no one. She was on her own.
 
There were four bullets left in the little revolver and she wasn’t going to waste them by shooting from a distance.
 
She’d have to let him get close.
 
The thought of that made her stomach turn, but there was nothing else for her to do.
 

The first shot rang out, punching through the fiberglass body, just above the rear tire.
 
It had taken them longer to start shooting than Ethan would’ve guessed, but he’d now just passed the Remington city limits.
 
It might even be Officer Willbrook back there now.
 
The numbers of cars chasing him had grown from two to four, so maybe now it was big enough to warrant the news copters out of Lexington.
 

He would’ve been happy with himself for lasting this long if he could think of anything besides Julie.
 
He hadn’t spoken to her in ten minutes and when he tried calling her back the call had gone directly to voicemail.
 

Another shot hit the Mazda.
 
The front end shook violently and the smell of burning oil and rubber filled the car.
 
It was almost impossible to keep driving straight, Ethan’s arms were ramrod straight and about to seize up with the tension of keeping the steering wheel steady.
 
Fuck his arms, fuck the car, Julie was out there, not more than two miles away.
 
He was less than two minutes away and he silently begged the car to just hang on a little longer.
 

Smoke poured out from under the hood and the rest of the road was a straightaway, he wasn’t able to lose them around curves anymore and with the state of his car the cops caught up to him easily.
 
A cruiser smashed into his rear bumper.
 
Ethan shook, but held on, and he cursed loudly.
 

He was almost there when a bullet finally found its target and blew out the rear driver’s tire.
 
The RX-8 gave all it had, but it just wasn’t enough.
 
Ethan lost control of the wheel, the remaining three tires squealed and he skidded off the road, hitting a concrete barrier.
 
The car flipped through the air, landing on its nose hard.
 
It flipped onto its roof and skidded down a deep embankment where it hit a large rock, flipped back again and finally came to rest along the tree line.
 

Ethan opened his eyes, which was about all he could manage.
 
He tasted blood in his mouth and his head felt like it was full of cotton.
 
Over the hiss of the busted engine he heard voices shouting from the road above.
 
He tried to get his seatbelt off, which was tricky, but he managed.
 
The door hung ajar and he pushed it as open as it would go.
 
He dumbly pushed against it again but got the same result.
 
Then he saw the tree right outside what was left of his window.
 
He pulled himself out of his seat by grabbing the door, cutting himself in the process on the broken glass, and finally slid out of the car, just to find out his legs didn’t work.
 
It was like he was a marionette and most of his strings had been cut.
 
He crawled away from the car and got behind a tree just as a flashlight swept over the car’s remains.
 

“Son of a bitch, he’s gone,” yelled a voice.

“No he ain’t.
 
Dumb bastard must’ve gotten thrown out.
 
We’ll find his body down there.”

Ethan grabbed a branch and pulled himself up.
 
He didn’t let go until he was sure his legs would support him.
 
They finally did, and he took two steps and vomited.
 
There was a sharp pain in his side when he breathed, but he put one foot in front of the other and kept going.
 
Slowly the ground started to rise up to meet the road, but after ten minutes he was far enough from the cops not to be noticed.
 
He got on the road and made better time on the pavement, keeping a constant watch for anyone who might spot him.
 
The pain was getting worse and he was starting to feel it all over his body, but he wasn’t limping so badly now.
 
His side, on the other hand, was now filled with an intense burning, but he pushed that to the back of his mind.
 

A couple more minutes and he was finally next to one of the warehouses, directly across the street from a Cadillac with the back end up in the air, the rest of it out of view down in the canal.
 
He leaned up against the wall of the building and allowed himself a small rest.
 
She could’ve gone further down the road, but that would’ve kept her in view if she was being chased, so down the alley between the two warehouses was the most likely place.
 
Down towards the other end he saw the smashed remains of her phone.
 
He took that as good news.
 
He couldn’t call her, but now he knew why she wasn’t answering.
 
Ethan exited the alley and looked around.
 
The collection of pipes from the fertilizer plant seemed liked the place Julie would head, but he wasn’t sure.
 
Then he heard her scream.

Julie hit the pavement hard, feeling the breath knocked out of her.
 
The side of her face was on fire and her mouth tasted like it was full of pennies.
 
Before she could recover from the blow, Essing was on her again.
 
He grabbed her jacket, pulling her back to her feet, the slammed her against the pipe.
 
Reaching into her pocket she fumbled with the gun and he snatched it from her.

“Little tip, if you’re think you’re going to use a gun, pull it out and keep it ready.
 
You don’t want to be grabbing for it when you really need it.”
 
He put the gun in his waistband.
 
“See, I’m putting it away because I don’t need it.
 
After what you put me through, I’m going to be using my bare hands.”

Julie kicked and punched at him, but with little effect.
 
He pulled back and struck her stomach.
 
The air went out of her and she would’ve buckled to her knees he hadn’t been holding her up.
 
She didn’t think she had ever been hit that hard, but she also couldn’t remember a time when she’d actually been hit.