Chapter 23
SPOV
He must have seen the look of recognition on my face and as he started to come toward me, I turned and made for the elevator. As the doors opened, I stepped in and hit the fob to take me up to seven, then stopped and thought about it. I was starting to panic and over think, was seven safe, could he get in there? As soon as I reached seven, I hit the fob to make the elevator descend to the ground floor hoping the man would use the stairs and would be too late to realize his mistake. Once at ground level, peeking around the corner I walked past the reception desk and out onto the street. Of course, no one stopped me, the man behind the desk probably hadn't a clue who I was.
So now I was once again out on the streets trying to think of where to go. Did I press my panic button or not, did I get rid of my trackers or not? If this man worked at Rangeman could he use them to find me before anyone realized I was gone. Shit, what the hell should I do? I mean if any of the men I knew had been there I would have gone to them, surely, they would know that.
By the time I'd finished my musings and just walking aimlessly, or so I thought, I'd actually ended up at the back of my building. Hell, it seemed an age since I'd been here, in fact the last time I'd been here was when those men had ambushed me after I'd buried Rex. The beginning of a plan started to form in my head, so I took the stairs up to my floor and went into the apartment. I didn't want to be here too long, for all I knew there were already people after me. I tried to ignore the state of the place, though it did look as though someone had done one hell of a job ransacking the place.
I took my watch off and went through my bag taking anything that could be a tracker and threw everything on the bed. I debated using my burn phone to call Les but decided to try later, after all I had no idea who that man had been. I grabbed some cat boots and a warm jacket out of the closet, a few items that might be handy and some beer from the fridge and then made for the stairs. I just hoped that Dillon was in, I mean he usually was. So here I was stood nervously knocking on his door. As he answered I saw his eyes fall to the beer.
"Steph, you got a problem with the apartment?"
"Dillon, I really need to come in"
He swung open the door allowing me in then closed it behind me, though he was still eyeing the beer suspiciously. You see here's the thing, I know, and he knows that I only give him beer when I needed a repair doing. As my breathing started to calm down, I was almost having second thoughts about this.
"Dillon, I think someone may be following me"
Not a lie, but not quite the truth, I took in a deep breath before continuing.
"I think one of Ranger's men may not be who he says he is"
"Those men in black?"
"Yeah"
"Do you know which one?"
"I know what he looks like but not his name"
Then I realized I could show Dillon what he looked like, so immediately pulled out my laptop and switched it on. Now I may not be that computer savvy, but I did know that when a computer was hooked up to the Wi fi it could be tracked. Well that was what I was telling myself, so in settings I set the laptop to airplane mode and then I opened the video file and fast-forwarded it to where I'd seen the man talking to Gauge.
"That's him"
He looked just like any other Merry Man, dressed in a black suit, but maybe his physique wasn't as good. I had no idea on height, maybe taller than me with brown wavy hair that touched his collar and good bone structure making him more good looking than a first look would say.
"So you want to stay here?"
"Just until I know they've gone or someone I trust turns up"
"Sure, you bring the beer"
The thing about Dillon's place that not many people knew was that he actually had windows just below ground level so I would be able to keep an eye on the car park. I was really worried that no one would turn up, yet at the same time really worried that they might so as I stood drinking my beer from the bottle I was hopping from foot to foot. I watched as a dark grey car came into the car park, and as two men got out. One I recognized as the Rangeman from the video, but I had no idea who the other one was, though the lighting wasn't the best out there. They stood not far from the window and I watched as the Rangeman took out his phone and made a call.
Shit, shit, shit I said as a ringing came from my bag, I had screwed up, I had totally forgotten about someone tracking my phone. Dillon took the phone from my bag and looked at the home screen.
"Unknown number"
"Don't answer it, oh god Dillon they'll find me"
"How?"
"They can track my phone"
"Like super spies do on the TV?"
"Yes"
"I've got an idea"
He pushed past me and looked through the window where I'd been stood and quietly opened it. We watched as the two men started to walk into the building and then as soon as they were out of sight Dillon looked at me with a smile and with a flick of his wrist he sent the phone skittering across the car park.
"Why did you do that?"
"They'll think you ran out of the building and dropped it"
Okay maybe that could work, but what now?
"I'm gonna head up the stairs and make out I'm checking for something in the storeroom on your floor"
"Dillon, you can't, they might hurt you"
I watched as he paled slightly, yeah Dillon knew what the crazies who came after me were capable of.
"Any other ideas then?
"Is there another way out of here?"
"Yeah, the steps at the side of the building"
Would that work, could I avoid them seeing me or following me? I just didn't know what to do. I could see Dillon was getting as worried as me, hell I shouldn't have come down here, what if they did something to Dillon? The look on Dillon's face changed and he spoke quickly and quietly to me.
"We'll both go"
"What you as well?"
"Yeah, I've got an idea. Put your boots and coat on, here use this hat to cover your hair"
I did as he said and as I tucked my hair up into the baseball cap, I looked in the mirror, maybe I could pass as a young man. I slung my bag over my head, so the bag was at my front and then followed Dillon. He was actually wearing similar clothes to me. Black boots, but black jeans and an olive looking coat to my dark brown one. We both had caps on so maybe this could work. I watched as he made a phone call and then we made our way to the door that would lead up onto the side street.
"Two minutes"
Two minutes, why two minutes? I heard why before I could see anything. As Dillon pulled the door open slightly, I saw a group of men walking and talking loudly on the sidewalk heading our way. As they passed the top of the stairs they stopped and two of the men took out cigarettes and started to light them.
That apparently was our cue. Dillon pushed me out with him as he closed the door and we were suddenly in the center of the group walking down the street. Wow he was a genius to come up with that idea. I so desperately wanted to turn around and see if we'd been spotted and I think Dillon maybe read my mind because he suddenly put his arm through mine making me walk slightly faster.
"Don't look, 'cos if they are following, they'll definitely spot you"
I had no idea where we were going, only that we seemed to walk forever and then taking a left I was suddenly in the darkness of a really seedy bar packed with men watching a ball game. It was noisy with them shouting at each move the players made, bottles hitting the tables. I was stood close to Dillon because I felt really uneasy being in here. I heard Dillon as he whispered in my ear.
"See that door Steph?"
"The one at the back?"
"Yeah, in a minute a few of us are going to run out of it and split up, just keep running girl and find somewhere safe to hide"
The minute came and all hell broke loose as bottles of beer started spiraling across the room and loud voices followed. As you can imagine with these men being half drunk and someone throwing comments about their beloved team a brawl started that just escalated. I held onto Dillon as we pushed our way to the door, avoiding a fist but getting hit with a bottle of beer. As we pushed our way outside, I noticed three other men who'd been with us on the walk and then everyone was running as the sound of sirens punctuated the air.
I ran down the alley, across a road and into another alley before stopping. Leaning against the wall to try and get my breath back, to slow down my breathing. Did I look back to where I had come from or find somewhere better to hide before doing that? Keep moving, the voice in my head told me, so that's what I did, dodging from shadow to shadow and behind dumpsters until I couldn't go any further. Squatting down, my back to a wall I fell apart, the tears welling up inside of me until I just had to let them out, pushing my hand against my mouth to stop any sound escaping. I don't know how long I stayed there for but as the tears slowed down, I knew what I needed to do.
I dug through my bag for the burn phone. I had no idea if my other phone had got broken when Dillon threw it into the carpark. As the phone came into my hand I breathed out a sigh of relief. I could talk to Les, he'd know what to do. I kept hitting the power button in desperation until I finally admitted it was dead. Now what, where could I go? Then an idea came into my head, yeah that's what I'd do.
