“No!” he breathes, and his eyes begin to grow heavy. “Promise me, Meadow. Promise me you’ll take the case, and you’ll get it to Raide? Change your name. Leave the club. Leave this place. They’re dangerous; they’ll kill you. Promise me you’ll do this for me. It’s all I’ve worked for...Promise...Meadow...”
Who will kill me? I don’t understand.
“Please,” I whimper, feeling warm tears touch my cheeks as they slide from my eyes. “Don’t make me go. Don’t make me leave you here.”
He begins to gasp for air. “I’m g-g-g-going to die, baby. P-p-p-promise me...you’ll do this...”
I look into my father’s eyes, and I realize I’m about to lose the only family I’ve ever had. Without him, I have no part in the club he associates with. He’s been all I’ve had since my momma killed herself four years after I was born. He’s been my friend, my dad, my hero, and everything I’ve fought for...and now he’s going to die. My vision blurs as I take his hand, pressing it to my heart. You can’t stop death, but you can make it easier. I give him the one thing he needs from me, and I swear in that moment I’ll make sure I do it for him.
“I promise, Daddy.” I disguise my trembling with the firmest voice I can muster. “I swear I won’t let you down.”
CHAPTER 2
ONE YEAR LATER
You can run but you can’t hide, I know what lies deep inside.
I lower my glasses and rush across the road, head down, hoodie covering my hair. A small woman standing outside the door watches at me as I dart around behind the gas station, backpack tightly wrapped around my shoulders, clipped at the front. My sneakers are worn, and they squeak on the pavement as I scurry into the ladies toilets. I rush into the small, crappy room, kicking in the doors, and when I realize it’s empty I lower my hood.
My long blonde hair tumbles out as I remove the cap from my head that was sitting firmly under my hoodie. It’s my usual look these days: jeans, sneakers, singlet top, hoodie, and a cap. It’s the easiest way to disguise who I am when I’m forced to get out in public. I lower my face, and turn on the tap, filling my hands with water and splashing it on my skin. I close my eyes, letting the cool calm my nervous, frightened body.
They’ve found me.
It’s only the third time Axel Wraithe has managed to catch up with me in just over a year, which isn’t bad considering he’s got sources, and I don’t.
He’s the President of the MC club Angels In Leather, and he’s been chasing me since the moment my father sent me running with information on a USB drive. I’ve never plugged the drive in to see what’s on it. I’ve never had the chance. Whatever is on it, though, I imagine is extremely important. He wouldn’t be chasing me like this if it weren’t.
Axel wouldn’t have killed my father if it wasn’t something he needed.
Would he?
I still don’t know what went down that day. All I know is that whatever my father has on this drive, Axel wants.
Axel used to be a part of our family, so to speak. He used to come over, and talk to my dad, and hang out with me when I was a little girl. That was until one day, when he went missing for about six months. When he came back again, there was something different about him. He was darker, angrier, and he hated my father with a wild passion. They became sworn enemies, and were constantly at war. He stopped speaking to me, and I rarely saw him. Until the day he saved my life.
Just after I started running, I heard that Axel had upended the town looking for me. Any friends I had, he went to them. Any person who knew me, he harassed. He was looking for the information. The information I’ve been running with for just over a year. The information that’s clearly been more important than anything else that’s come up in that time, because Axel hasn’t stopped looking for me.
Which means I haven’t rested.
There have been times I’ve wanted to just give in and let him take it from me, but then I think of my father’s face the day he died in the front of our SUV, and the desperation when he made me promise to run, and deliver this USB. If I let him down...I’ll never live happily. This is my mission, and sadly, it’s become my life. I don’t have anything else. Without this, I’m nothing. I have nothing...no one.
I have been struggling to find Raide. He’s not at the police department anymore, and without resources, I don’t know where he is. No one will give me any information. So here I am, in a women’s bathroom, trying to calm myself down and figure out a way to escape Axel a third time around.
He’s not an easy man to escape. He’s a goddamned genius, and he’s managing to get closer and closer to me no matter what I do. I have to think of something new.
I pat my face dry with my sleeve, and stare in the mirror at the empty blue eyes looking back at me. Most girls my age would be out partying, falling in love, enjoying their life, their jobs, their friends...but me, I’m running, living a criminal life that I never chose. On the rare days I get when I manage to relax, I find myself imagining what it would be like to just be normal.
I shake my head. It’s never going to happen.
I hear the distinct rumble of Harley-Davidsons outside, and I know they’ve stopped. I feel my palms become clammy, and my heart speeds up. I have to get out of here, and into the trees behind the gas station. They’re thick and lush, and I can run for miles through them.
The problem is getting out. This was the closest place I could find to gather myself, and it took Axel a matter of minutes to locate me. It’s never a coincidence with him. Never.