Twisted (18 page)

Since Noah has a tendency to
smoke out on the patio, I hurry to my other window and pull back the curtain,
peering out at the pool. It looks all clear. I rush back to the other window
and carefully climb out and reach a foot towards the nearest thick branch. I
manage to shut the window to within an inch of closing before I begin the climb
down. My foot slips once but I manage to safely climb to the ground.

As quietly as I can, I hurry
toward the gate in the fence that faces the side yard and I open it, slipping
out before shutting it behind me. Then I cross the side yard and hurry across
the lawn to the sidewalk. I glance up at Noah's room and I see his room is
dark. Relief sweeps through me as I walk quickly down the sidewalk while
pulling my phone out. I text,
Are you on the north or south end of the
block?

COLE: 
South

I'm already headed in the
right direction. As I make my way further down the block, I see that Cole is
leaning against his motorcycle as he waits. “What's going on?” I ask in a
hushed voice as I approach him. A dog barks somewhere down the block and I
grimace as I look around the darkened neighborhood.

Instead of answering, Cole
pulls me to him and presses his lips against mine. I can feel myself melting against
his chest as I sink into the familiarity of his kiss. I love the feel of his
tongue piercing and I realize just how much I missed this. There is a slight
hint of alcohol on his breath and it makes me wish for the old times, when
things weren't so complicated. Cole ends the kiss abruptly and pulls back. “Get
on.”

I stare at him with surprise
before backing up slightly with a frown. “It's one in the morning.”

“I'll have you back in an
hour.”

My arms cross over my chest instead.
“What's the favor?” I ask suspiciously. This is definitely way out of the norm.
He is up to something and I am betting it's no good.

He sighs and pulls me close
again, his hand resting on my hip as his lips brush mine teasingly. “You do
this for me and I'll owe you. Whatever you want, okay? All I need you to do is
to drive, it's that simple. Can you do that for me?”

“You want me to drive your
motorcycle?” I ask doubtfully as I peer up at him in the shadowy night. I wish
I could see his expression.

“No. Are you with me or not?”

“What am I driving?”

“A fucking car,” he says,
impatience creeping into his tone.

“Why can't Blake?”

“He's busy. Look, if it's too
much to ask you a simple favor, I'll ask someone else.”

Wariness creeps through me.
Whatever he's up to, I'd rather not be a part of but I'm also concerned about
him. Cole can be an ass at times but yet he still has a few redeeming qualities
that makes me want to give him more chances than he deserves. “Is Ethan
involved?”

“No, he's not.”

Okay, now I am
really
curious
to see what he's up to. “Okay, fine,” I mutter, caving. If all I have to do is
drive a car, it can't be all that bad.

“Climb on,” Cole says as he
swings his leg over the bike, looking at me expectantly.

I move towards the back of
the bike and ease a leg over, scooting up close to him as my arms wrap around
his waist. It feels good to be near him again. I bury me head in his back as
the motorcycle starts up and he pulls out into the street. I know I'm messing
up big time by spending time with him when I'm on the verge of breaking up with
him, but I can't help it.

Eventually, when the
motorcycle starts to slow down, I look up and see we are at what looks like an
old abandoned playground. It's dark out but even I can see that the swing set is
leaning and the slide is off kilter. This place is eerie and pathetically sad.

A chill of apprehension
slithers up my spine.

Cole cuts the engine and we
climb off. “We walk from here,” he says as he begins to push the motorcycle
towards the trees that line the back of the park.

The weeds are over grown and
they tickle my ankles. “What are we doing?” I ask with bewilderment as I trail
behind him. I just assumed that he was up to some sort of drug deal and wanted
me to drive and stay with the car in case things got ugly. Instead, I find
myself at an abandoned park in the middle of the night.

“You're not here to ask
questions,
Blayre
. You're here to drive.”

I can't help but gape at him
in the dark as we walk. I'm about to say something nasty in return but as we
enter the tree-line, I see the shadow of another motorcycle and someone is
standing near it. I can just barely make out Blake's form.

“You said ten minutes,” Blake
whispers.

Cole grabs my hand in his and
pulls me forward as he and Blake head further into the shelter of the trees.
“She didn't want to come,” he replies.

“I really want to know what
is going on,” I say firmly, yanking on Cole's hand to get his attention.

He sighs and moves closer,
peering at me. “Blake and I need to run an errand and we need someone to stay
with the car. It's that simple,” he says patiently.

“That's it? I just drive you
somewhere and stay in the car?”

“That's it. You trust me?”

“I don't know. Is this some
sort of drug deal?”

His arms slide around my waist
as his lips brush mine gently. “It's just a small favor. I was an ass this
week. I'm sorry.”

I cann
ot
believe I am
doing this. “Let's just go do this so I can go back home,” I grumble. Cole
squeezes my hand reassuringly before we catch up to Blake. I wince as I trip
over some twigs in my flip-flops. “If you would have told me we'd be walking
through the woods, I would have worn my sneakers. Why
are
we in the
woods?”

“We left the car behind a
couple of old warehouse buildings.”

“Whose car is it?” I ask
Cole.

“A friend's.”

“Why not take the motorcycles
to the car?”

“Christ,
Blayre
,
you ask a lot of questions,” Blake mutters from beside us.

“Well, I'm getting dragged
into this blind. Why not ask, Paige?”

“Paige and Blake aren't
getting along right now,” Cole says flatly.

I can't help but make a
sarcastic sound. “Neither are we.”

“Our shit's minor compared to
theirs.”

“Can we not talk about it?”
Blake cuts in sharply, irritation clear in his tone.

We all fall silent as we make
our way through the rest of the woods. When we break from the trees, I can make
out large warehouses in the near distance. We cross a small field and then the
guys lead me over to a break in the chain length fence surrounding the area.
Gravel crunches beneath our feet as we walk. This is kind of creepy and I look
around uneasily. I feel safe with both Cole and Blake here because I know they
can handle themselves, but I am still not comfortable sneaking around like
this. My gut is telling me this is all wrong.

“The car is over there,” Cole
says, pointing to the east side of the nearest building. We make our way over
to the car and Cole opens the back door and pulls out what looks like a
backpack and digs through it. “Here,” he says to me, holding out a sweatshirt.

“I'm supposed to put this
on?” I ask with confusion.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“
Blayre
,
just do it,” he says with exasperation.

Without a word, I slip on the
bulky sweatshirt.

“Put this on,” he adds,
shoving a hat at me.

“Seriously?” I stare at the baseball
cap in my hand with bewilderment. What in the world are these two up to?

“Yes,” he says, pushing a set
of car keys at me as well. “I'll tell you where to go.”

Doubt is really starting to
kick in. “We're not going to break the law or anything, are we?” I ask
suspiciously.

“No.”

With a roll of my eyes, I
pull the baseball cap on, shoving my knotted hair beneath it. Then I move to
the driver's side door and climb in. As Blake and Cole climb into the back, I
adjust the seat and the mirror. “Now what?”

“Turn on the headlights and
drive. Once you leave the warehouses, keep that hat down over your eyes.”

Okaaaay
. Common sense is telling me to bail on them but it's
a little too late now. I flip the headlights on and start the car. I try to
peer in the rear view mirror to look at Cole but it's too dark. As soon as I
drive away from the abandoned warehouses under Cole's direction, he reminds me
to pull my cap down.

“Okay, where are we going?”

“Head north.”

Nerves begin fluttering in my
stomach. I am getting the distinct feeling that they are definitely up to no
good and that this is not some drug deal they are dragging me into.

“Take a right, then the next
left.”

Once again, I follow his
directions.

“Take a left at this upcoming
intersection, head forward with the cap brim down.”

Why the hell does it sound
like he's crouching down beneath my seat?
“Why-”

“Don't talk. Just do it.”

My lips tighten and I stare
straight ahead until the light changes.

“Take the next right.”

It's one-thirty in the
morning and I note that there are very few cars in the area. My mind is going a
mile a minute as I drive. This entire situation doesn't seem right and I was a
fool for blindly agreeing to this.

“Pull in at the convenience
store at the end of this street.”

As I drive down the street, I
frown at his command. The convenience store? Really?

“Keep your head down. Do not
look up, do not look at the store. Just park the car up front and stay still,”
Cole orders as I pull into the twenty-four hour convenience store.

Dread is filling the pit of
my stomach. I don't know what I am doing or what is going on, so I follow
Cole's orders. I keep my head down and in the corner of my eye, I see there is
only one other car in the parking lot. Blake and Cole are doing something
behind me because I can hear fabric rustling.

“Ready?” Cole asks and Blake
immediately replies, “Yeah.”

I hear the car doors open and
out of the corner of my eye, I see them bolting for the store, black ski masks
covering their faces, black sweatshirts covering their clothes, and black
gloves on their hands.

The bottom drops out of my
stomach with dawning horror. They are robbing the store and making me their
accomplice! Somehow I manage to keep my wits about me as I keep my head tilted
down. My fingers tighten on the steering wheel as my heart races out of
control. Damn Cole! He lied to me. Paige had warned me all along that Cole was
good at dragging people down with him and here I sit. I want to scream at him
for doing this to me but I can't. All I can do is wait while I break into a
cold sweat. In a way, it was my own damn fault. How could I have been so stupid
tonight? I mean, seriously. I'd had bad vibes all along but instead of going
with instinct, I caved to Cole's pressure.

Muffled shouts come from the
store and I try not to panic. Then gunshots suddenly ring out into the night
and I flinch, my breath quickening with alarm. This is
bad.
Really,
really
bad. If I’m currently stuck in a nightmare, now would be a great time to wake
up.

Two shadows race out of the
store and up to the car. The back car doors jerk open and slam shut. “Go!” Cole
yells at me.

He doesn't have to tell me
twice. I put the car in reverse and back up abruptly, already knowing the car
lot is pretty much empty. Then I sharply pull the car around and drive out the
parking lot as fast as I dare.

“Slow down! Don't draw
attention to us!”

I draw in a deep breath and
exhale slowly as I try to calm down. The last thing we need is for me to wrap
the car around a utility pole. “Please tell me no one was hurt,” I whisper
pleadingly.

“We'll talk later. Just
drive. Take the next right and do not go above the speed limit.”

My hands are clenched so
tight around the steering wheel, I'm surprised I'm not crushing it. “Cole...” I
say in a thin voice.

His hand reaches around my
seat and he squeezes my thigh reassuringly. “It'll be okay. I promise.”

I really want to believe him.
We make our way back to the warehouse and I cut the engine and lights. Feeling
shaky, I climb out along with Cole and an oddly silent Blake.

Cole grabs the backpack and
tosses a gun inside. “Sweatshirts off. Give me the hat,
Blayre
.”

“Was that
you
who
fired those shots?” I ask with dawning horror.

“No. Some guy from the back
of the store fired at me. Hurry up.”

I quickly strip down and
watch as Cole shoves the hat and sweatshirts in the backpack and tosses the bag
in the car. Blake walks up with a large gas can he'd produced from somewhere in
the last minute. He douses the interior along with the backpack, as well as the
outside of the car, and along the back tire near the gas tank. When Blake is
finished, he tosses the empty gas can in the car.