Chapter 146
Chapter 146
-Hailey-
As soon as Logan closed the door, I ran to it and pressed my ear against it. I stood there listening to his bootsteps recede down the hallway and descend the stairs.
“Well, look who finally decided to join the party,” Ramirez’s voice carried triumphantly. And vile. Logan Nash You’re a ha man to find lately. Holed up in here like a rat in a wall.”
“What do you want?” Logan’s response was a controlled explosion.
“Just following up on some community concerns. Word on the street is you’ve been a busy boy. Firearms possession. Association with known felons. Conspiracy to… well, the list is growing.”
There was a short pause. I could imagine his smug smile. “Your parole officer is very interested. A warrant’s being drafted a we speak. Thought I’d give you the courtesy of a heads–up. Maybe you want to come down to the station, have a chat, get ahead of it.”
It was a transparent, pathetic power play. Logan was constantly violating his parole just by breathing in the clubhouse But the cops had always looked the other way, picking their battles.
So for Ramirez to show up now, with backup, making specific threats… this was Sam’s doing. She’d called in a favor from a cop with a hard–on for the Warriors, and Ramirez had been all too happy to oblige. He got to harass Logan, and she got her distraction.
My distraction.
The confrontation escalated. I heard River’s voice, sharp and pissed. The scrape of chair legs on the floor. The united st in the club’s posture, closing ranks.
“You got nothing,” Logan spat. “So you can take your courtesy and your backup and get the fuck off our property
“Are you threatening me, Nash? In front of all these officers?” Ramirez’s tone was mocking now. “Ikk tsk. That’s another violation right there. Intimidating a law enforcement officer.”
More shouting. Talon barking orders for everyone to calm down.
The police were digging in. This wasn’t going to be a quick exchange. They were going to milk this make a show of it keeps everyone occupied and looking at the front door.
My heart was trapped in my throat. This was my window. It was open, and it was closing with every second Logm spent arguing downstairs.
But I waited. I forced myself to count to sixty. Then again. The noise from below was a constant, angry drone No on coming upstairs. He wasn’t sending Scarlett.
Finally, I pried myself away from the door and went back to the bedroom. With my heart still in my throat, thig a pair of black jeans out of the dresser and pulled them on, followed by socks and boots I pulled a t–shirt over my head
Then I went to the foot of the bed and shoved my hand under the mattress, pulling out Logan’s hoodie, It felt like I was stealing a piece of him.
I didn’t put it on yet. I clutched it to my chest and padded out into the dark living room. The police lights still dashing around the edges of the curtains.
3:52 am D
Chapter 146
EL 15 vouchers
I went to the kitchen and yanked open the junk drawer. My hand fumbled past tape and loose screws, finding a notepad and a cheap ballpoint pen.
I stood hunched over the counter. I clicked the pen.
What did you say to the man you loved when you were about to break every promise you’d ever made?
The words wouldn’t come. My mind was blank white panic.
I saw his face. The fractured look in his eyes when he’d left. The trust that was already broken, waiting for this final hammer blow
I put pen to paper and scribbled without much thought.
* Logan –
I’m sorry. I have to do this.
Please don’t follow me. You can punish me all you want when I get home.
I love you.
– Hailey. *
It was pathetic. Inadequate. It explained nothing and asked for everything. But it would have to do.
I pulled out my phone and double checked that every trace of my conversations with Sam and Anatoly were deleted. I knew Logan would try to follow me.
And maybe Ledger could retrieve the messages somehow. Maybe part of me wanted him to.
But by then it would be too late to stop me.
I folded the note in half and set it on the counter, and I placed my phone on top of it like a paperweight.
Then I slipped the hoodie on and zipped it up. The sleeves hung past my fingertips and the bottom hem went halfway down my thighs. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and pulled the hood up. The thing was a cavern, and I felt like a supervillain doaked in black.
I went to the living room window. The one that looked out over the back alley, away from the main gate where the circus was unfolding. I threw open the curtains, and.
the latch was stuck.
Logan had just replaced the old one, and the new one hadn’t been used yet. I took a deep breath and musled it open, wincing at the loud noise it made. I forced the sash upwards
I stuck my head out and glanced down the alley in both directions. After a second thought, I ran back to the bestroom and dug in the closet again.
When I returned to the window, I had one of Logan’s dusty old leather riding jackets draped over my arm
“Add this to the list of things you’ll have to forgive me for,” I muttered under my breath.
The arguing was immediately louder when I climbed out onto the fire escape. They must have backed Ramirez and his goons out to the parking lot, I needed to move faster.
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8:52 am
Chapter 146
I pulled the curtains closed, then the window, and I made quick work of the fire escape ladder.
ස
0:91
55 vouchers
I was careful not to look up at the security camera… like it mattered. They wouldn’t need to see my face to know it was me
I dropped to the ground and my boots slapped against the pavement loud enough to echo up and down the alley. I crouched down and pressed myself against the wall, waiting for a sign that anyone had heard it.
Nothing. Only the continued shouting from the front of the building and the wail of a siren blocks away.
The perimeter fence was twenty feet away. Chain–link topped with razor wire. A security camera was mounted on a pole near the corner, pointed along the fence line.
Thanks to Logan’s mistrust, and his recent need to keep me under his thumb, I knew the patrol schedule by heart
I knew a guard passed this point every four minutes. I didn’t have to wait long, but the waiting still felt like eternity.
About a minute later, a silhouette passed at the far end of the alley. One of Viktor’s guys.
I gave it another fifteen seconds, then I moved.
I pulled the hood tighter around my face and darted down the alley. I found a foothold on the fence and hauled myself up One foot, then the other foot.
I threw Logan’s jacket across the razor wire and finessed my way over it.
By ‘finessed‘ I mean ‘struggled.‘ It was not graceful.
I clung to the other side, scrambled down, and dropped the last few feet to the sidewalk.
I landed in a crouch and pain shot up through my ankles. But I was out.
I didn’t look back. I ran down the alley, across a deserted side street, toward the next block.
My lungs burned.
I made a mental note to start exercising more.
If I made it out of this alive.
A pair of headlights flicked on halfway down the block. Not the pulsating blue and red of the cops, but the steady white glow of a parked, unmarked sedan.
The passenger door swung open as I approached
Behind the wheel, face pale and serious in the glow of the dashboard, was Sam
8:52 am D%
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
