Runaway Love by Jodi Flanagan (ebook reader library .txt) 📖

shirt, and his long blue jeans, but his hair was all messy, like he was stressing out and pulling out his hair. I coughed, my mouth all of a sudden dry. Michael heard me and looked at me.
“Taya, I am so sorry. I just kind of freaked out when I heard the cops at the door. I didn’t mean to stab you. I am really sorry.” Despite the throbbing in my right shoulder, I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked directly at him. “Liar,” Michael shook his head. “You knew exactly what you were doing, and why you were doing it.” He shook his head again, and I continued. “You can’t stand the thought of sharing me with any other guy, but guess what honey. I been with lots of guys, I even slept in the same bed as your friend Ethan.” Michael’s eyes darkened, “see, that right there. You get upset by the thought of it.” His face was getting red again. “Calm down, I was just kidding about the whole Ethan thing.”I looked at the driver’s seat spotted Ethan. I looked back at Michael. “How did we get out?” I looked behind me, there was a moving heap of blankets. I stared at it for a moment, something drawing me to uncover it. Michael grew tense beside me as I reached to do just that. I saw the golden blonde curls and I jumped to the other side of the lump. It was Damien!
~Damien~
I was standing outside of the hotel room, anxious to see if Taya was actually inside. I tapped the door in my special code, hoping that she would get it. I waited for a long moment before I heard her mimic the pattern. I sighed a great deal of relief. She was still alive!!
The cop behind me asked if she was in there, and I nodded. The other officers got into position ready to knock down the door to retrieve Taya, and the criminals. We all stopped in our tracks when Taya screamed in pain. The cops instantly hurried to get the door knocked down, they would have used the key but the manager insisted that he didn’t have a copy or a master key. Taya’s scream stopped and was replaced by a single sob then nothing.
When the door was knocked down, a gun was fired from the inside. I was swept up and brought to the end of the hall by an officer, for safety. Then I watched in horror as one by one the officers fell, their lives being taken away by the bullets that were aimed for the kill. After the last officer went down, a guy from the inside looked out with the gun drawn, checking for other officers. He saw me, and motioned for me to come closer. I shook my head, I was frightened. He held the gun that brought down almost ten officers. He sighed and walked over to me, I cringed against the wall, then at the last moment I thought of Taya. I took a deep breath as the young guy approached. He got right in my face and raised the gun to my head. He just looked at me, stared into my eyes as he cocked the gun. When he was about to pull the trigger I reached up with my left hand and pushed the gun away from my head. The gun went off.
I blinked when the gun went off, but there was one thing I was sure of; I wasn’t hit. I looked down and laughed. The gunman shot himself in the foot! Before the guy could recover from the pain climbing up his leg I grabbed for the gun. Despite the hole through the guy’s foot, he still knocked me out cold when I reached for the gun. The last thing I remember was feeling the warm metal of the gun, and a blow to my head that sent my head reeling.
I was getting shaken, and I was glad. I wanted to be awake, I needed to be awake. I opened my eyes, and almost cried. There, right in front of me, sat Taya. She was still alive, but by the looks of her, not for very long. I opened my mouth to speak but my mouth was too dry. She looked down at me, tears filling her vision. “You came to rescue me didn’t you?” I nodded, still unable to speak. Then, to my amazement, she hit me. Hard. “You dummy!! You could have been killed! What in God’s name were you thinking?” I sat up, slowly. The pain in my ribs was making it hard for me to breath, but I tried not to let that show, there was no need to worry her more. “I wanted to have the chance to say that ‘I love you.’”
The second it was out, I regretted it. She shouted, “No!” and reached for me. She grabbed my shoulders and threw me like I was a ragdoll. When I hit the wall, I heard her scream in pain, I turned and looked at her. I shook with anger as my gaze fell on her leg. There was a knife sticking out of her leg, Michael’s hand still holding onto the handle, his eyes wide with shock.
“Taya, I am so sorry! That was not supposed to happen!” Tears were streaming down her face as she went to pull the knife out. I raced over to her side. “No, don’t pull it out. It may have nicked an artery.” She nodded, and I turned to the asshole. “She has to go to the hospital, she has too many stab wounds and she may have lost too much blood by the looks of her shoulder. Michael shook his head, “no hospitals.” I asked him why and I wanted to smack him. His answer was so selfish; it was basically that he didn’t want to get caught. I laughed, “Well you should have thought about that before your guy shot the cops dumbass! I was there to get Taya out safely, and you and you ‘helpers’ was only going to have to serve weekends for two months. Now, that they are all dead, you are screwed! So, why not just make sure that the woman we both love lives long enough to see the next sunrise?” Michael looked at Taya again, scanned over her bloodied form, and nodded.
Epilogue
~Taya~
A few days after Michael, Ethan, and his father were jailed for their crimes, was I treated for my stab wounds. I left immediately from the hospital and left for the wake. Anne was really dead. The only friend that I kept for more than a year was dead, because of me. I dressed in a strapless black dress that went to my ankles with a slit up my knees, my brown hair held up in a messy bun and flat shoes. I descended the hospital stairs, and was met at the doors by Damien. He looked so much better; the haunted expression from seeing so many officers being shot down by Ethan was slowly fading. Damien kissed my temple and grabbed my hand. Together we walked towards his mother’s car hand in hand looking for a better year than the one we just shared.
The wake was a tear fest. Everyone was crying, including me. Damien just came for me as a moral support, a shoulder to cry on so to speak. However, the people sharing happy memories of Anna were interrupted by an officer showing up. He looked around the room, and once he spotted me he walked towards me. I stood up, taking Damien with me.
“Taya Siros?” I nodded, not wanting to hear what came next. Judging by his face, this was not good news. “I am terribly sorry to be the one to tell you this, especially on such a hard time as this.” I nodded, “officer I would much appreciate it if you just told me out front instead of beating around the bush.”The officer nodded, and took a breath. “Michael and Charles Santiago, as well as Ethan Hopkins have escaped from their jail cells early this morning.” I grabbed a hold of Damien’s shoulder for support as he continued. “I was ordered here to be you guard for the time being until they are all apprehended.” I wasn’t looking at him. I wasn’t even looking at my beautiful, handsome boyfriend. I was looking out the window, and into the evil faces of Michael and Charles Santiago. They were here, and they were both determined to kill me.
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Publication Date: 09-18-2010

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