Chapter Twenty-Two
AYDA
My ears rang violently. The shot was in close quarters, and Rubin was standing just in front of me, within reaching distance. To his credit, he’d squeezed off his shot without hesitation. Rubin heard and saw the fight between Drew and Walsh, turned and raised the gun, pulling the trigger all in the space of a single heartbeat. He was still standing, legs shoulder width apart, both hands on the gun, and his grip completely steady. The only difference now was that his trigger finger was lying against the guard and no longer on the trigger itself.
My hands were trembling, and my legs felt weak. My heart was also having a real hard time finding it’s normal rhythm again.
Drew seemed as equally shocked as me, his eyes on the kid and filled with a disbelief I was clearly identifying with.
None of us moved, even with the sound of sirens growing louder and louder, and the mayor writhing in pain, only a foot away from Drew. I gave him a cursory glance, but it was all I was willing to give him after the hateful shit he’d thrown at his son. He was lucky he wasn’t dead.
He deserved to be.
The sound of the sirens continued to get louder, even as we stayed frozen, and it was only when Rubin lowered the gun that Drew and I seemed to find our motor functions again. If his father’s words or the venom in his tone hurt Rubin, it didn’t reflect in his eyes. They were still trained on Walsh, his normally smiling mouth now a flat line, and his jaw set even harder.
“We’re running out of time,” I whispered, the sound distorted by the fading ringing inside my ears. “We have to get out of here. Now.”
Drew moved quickly, scrambling to his feet as carefully as he could. Stunned wasn’t an emotion he showed often. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d seen the look he was wearing as he glanced at Rubin and back down at Walsh, repeating the action over and over again.
He took a moment to think, scanning the possible exits before his eyes settled on the window ledge. “Ayda, take Rubin to the bike. I’ll grab Walsh. He has to come with us now.”
I nodded my agreement, letting my eyes move between the two men before tapping Rubin on the elbow to get him moving.
“He keeps the keys to his BMW on the hook in the kitchen. Mom has the Land Rover with her in Dallas,” Rubin said as he pushed the gun into the back waist of his jeans. He glanced at me with a small nod as stepped out of the shattered window, the glass tinkling and crunching before he hopped over the edge with ease and landed beside me. He left without a backward glance at his father, and I only stayed long enough to meet Drew’s eyes before rushing to catch up.
“You okay?” I asked, unable to help myself as we slipped through the gate at a slow loping run. I pointed to the house three doors down and let him take the lead.
“I’m fine.”
He wasn’t, but that was something we could deal with later. Right now, I needed him away from this scene before the cops showed up. If we managed to get away with the cops not seeing Drew’s bike, all the better. We moved quickly over the yard, avoiding the main street, and slipped back to where we’d left Drew’s bike. It was something comforting and familiar for me, but anxiety bled from Rubin as he thought about riding it.
“You know any back roads?” I asked, attaching Drew’s helmet to the back and offering Rubin mine. Rubin took it from me and pulled the standard helmet over his dark hair, still avoiding eye contact as he worked.
“I ride my bike everywhere. I know every back road.” He paused and rested his hand on the bike’s tank, swinging his leg over it and looking more natural than I thought he would. Glancing up, he stared at me. “I’ll try and avoid damaging the bike, but I’ll make sure it’s not seen.”
I nodded, not really needing the assurance. “We trust you. Just be safe.”
“What should I tell the others?”
I glanced down the drive we were standing on and watched as a sleek black car pulled up to the end and idled quietly.
“Tell them Drew will call them if something changes.”
Rubin nodded and kicked the bike below him to life, with a nervous glance at the BMW now crawling to the end of Mayor Walsh’s drive. I didn’t know where this was leading any more than he did, but I fought the sudden instinct to hug him. Rubin wouldn’t have wanted that to happen in front of Walsh, I was certain of that.
“Go. Be safe.”
With a twist of his wrist, he took off slowly down the drive, and I followed, noting the subtle nod he gave to Drew as he made a small turn between two houses and disappeared.
Slipping into the car Drew was now driving, I finally found enough air to breathe and glanced over at him.
“He’s taking the backroads so he won’t be seen.”
Walsh groaned behind us, followed by him hissing through his teeth. Drew turned to look at him in the back seat, taking the opportunity to glance out of the rear window while he was there.
“We can’t head back to The Hut. Not with him in the back,” he said, staring at Walsh but clearly talking to me. “The note I just made this fucker write pleading his guilt should stall ATF for a while, but it won’t be long before they scour every inch of Babylon for him. The first place they’ll look is our property. It’s where they know Rubin’s been lately. We need to take a ride out of Babylon and dump this fucker, once and for all.”
“What are you gonna do?” Walsh croaked. “Kill me?”