Meant for Me (A Second Chance standalone) (28 page)

“Mason!” I shouted his name over and over, hoping he’d look
up, but he never did. I had no clue what was going on, at least not until Erick
pulled out his phone and barked out a command that would forever change my
life.

“When Mason gets done with Chase, I want you to kill him,
got it?”

“No!” I screamed, fighting against his hold. I screamed his
name again until one of the guys came up behind me and grabbed me around the
waist, putting his hand over my mouth. My screams were muffled, but it didn’t
stop me from kicking and fighting with all the strength I had.

Satisfied with the response Erick received on the phone, he
hung up and grinned smugly at me. “Now, since that’s taken care of, we can keep
going. I don’t like being played, Claire, and you’ll come to realize that very
shortly.”

The guy, who had me in his arms, handed me back off to Erick
who gripped my arm with punishing force and continued his rapid pace down the
hallway. It was hard to believe that within a span of five minutes I was
watching Mason pummel Wade into the mat, and the next, Erick grabbed me by the
arm while jamming a gun into my back. From the frantic conversation Erick had
with his guys, it all started when the video cameras all lost their signals;
they came up blank. Erick and his people were blind to what was going on
outside his underground compound, but someone from the outside had informed him
of the heavy armed police storming through the outside gates.

Erick fled with me in tow, and the one thing I couldn’t get
out of my head was the murderous way Mason looked when he flew over the ring
and went after Chase. It was the scariest look I’d ever seen on his face, and
one I hoped to never see again. However, the fear of never seeing him again
became real when the sound of the gunshot echoing off the tunnel walls rang
loud and clear.

“No!” I screamed over and over, tears streaming angrily down
my face. “Mason!”

He can’t be dead! This can’t be happening!
Jerking my
arm away from Erick’s grasp, I rushed past his guys and ran as fast as I could
up the tunnel. I had to get to Mason.

“Get her!” Erick commanded.

Through my tears I couldn’t see where I was going, but I
kept running until a large hand clamped down on my shoulder and tackled me to
the hard concrete floor. Pain exploded in my wrist when I landed and I could
feel the skin scrape away from my knees and elbows as I slid across the cement.
However, no amount of pain to my body could outweigh the pain in my heart.
Lifting me over his shoulders, the guy who tackled me trudged back to Erick,
who glared at me as if I was a petulant child.

“What do you want with me?” I cried breathlessly. Erick
rolled his eyes, not acknowledging the question, and turned on his heel,
leading us farther and farther away from Mason. I didn’t know if he was dead or
alive, or if he was writhing in pain waiting on someone to help him. For the
first time since all of this started, I was empty, alone, and honestly and
truly terrified.

The hallway felt like it went on for miles, and after a
while it ended up turning into a tunnel that separated into three different
ones. It was then that Erick came to a stop and addressed the others.

“All right, you all know what to do. We’ll meet in our usual
spot and figure out what’s going on. If we have to we’ll leave Vegas
immediately. We’ve done this before so you all know the drill.”

The guy who held me set me down, and disappeared off into
one of the tunnels along with the others. My knees were so weak that I
collapsed onto the wet, cement floor and sobbed, “If you leave, you’re not
taking me with you. They’ll find me,” I warned.

Erick chuckled and squatted down in front of me. “On the
contrary, Miss O’Briene. I’ve been on the run now for almost five years and
haven’t been caught yet, and I don’t plan on being caught now. What gets me,
though, is that someone led the police here. I was completely oblivious until
now. I should’ve known there was something wrong when I couldn’t get all of
Mason’s information. It was like his life completely went nowhere after he left
the UFC.”

“What are you talking about?” I cried.

Grabbing my chin with his firm hand, he jerked my face up
and hissed, “That’s right, Claire, play dumb. I bet Mason’s a cop, isn’t he?
Well, at least I don’t have to worry about him anymore. You know, this whole
time you’ve been stubborn and completely fearless. Under normal circumstances
that’s unheard of, not unless you knew help would be on the way or you’re
seriously a person who isn’t afraid of anything. No one is going to find you,
sweetheart. Your hope of getting out of this diminishes with each passing
second.”

Closing my eyes, I shivered and shook my head. “There is
still hope,” I whispered.

“Not for you, my dear. Everything you knew of life before is
now over. Now get your ass up and let’s go. Brody will be waiting for us at the
meeting point to pick us up.”

“Why don’t you just kill me now if that’s your plan? Why
prolong it by making me go with you?”

Jerking me up by the arm, he glared at me and thundered
impatiently, “Because that’s not my plan, Claire. I have another use for you
and you can’t do that being dead. Now come on!”

My legs moved, but my body was still back with Mason
wherever he was. If he was gone, I’d rather be dead than live my life with
Erick doing God knows what on what borrowed time I had. That wasn’t life; it
was an empty existence that I wanted no part of. Up ahead, the tunnel came to a
dead end, but there was a ladder that led up to what looked to be a metal
pothole you would see in the roads.

“You go first, Claire,” Erick ordered, pushing me toward the
ladder.

Looking up, I took a deep breath and slowly started to
climb, one step at a time. When I got to the top, Erick climbed up beside me
and pushed the metal cover open with ease. It was dark and quiet outside from
what I could see, and I had no clue where we were at until I stepped out of the
hole. We were just around the corner from Tyler and Stephen’s gym.
If I
could get away, I could run to them,
I thought desperately to myself. I
didn’t know if they would be there, but I had to try.

I had one quick second to make a move, except before I could
get my legs running, Erick grabbed my ankle, making me fall face first onto the
road. The road was deserted, but I screamed as loud as I could anyway.
Struggling against Erick’s hold, he tried to keep a firm grip on my leg while
pulling himself up the rest of the way.

“Goddammit, Claire, you must seriously have a death wish.
Stay still or I’m going to break both of your fucking legs,” he growled.

My survival instincts were in full force and the one thing
that came to mind were my training sessions with Mason and Tyler. They taught
me some defense moves and I never thought I would need them … until now.

Since Erick’s face was unprotected, I twisted my body as
fast as I could and thrust my palm up toward his nose as hard as possible. I
heard and felt something crack when I made the hit and almost instantly his
nose gushed with blood. Shouting, his eyes watered and he immediately grabbed
his nose, letting go of one of my legs.

When his other hand disappeared behind his back, I knew he
was reaching for the gun.
He was going to kill me.
With my legs finally
being free, I wasn’t going to give him that chance so I kicked him in the face,
not only once, but as many times as I could, screaming desperately out of fear.
When I stopped kicking, Erick’s head hit the edge of the road, rendering him
unconscious, before he fell what had to be twenty-five feet to the cement
bottom. The sickening sound of the thud his body made as he hit the ground made
me completely and utterly sick. Clutching my stomach, I crawled to the edge of
the road, dry heaving and choking on my tears. There was no way he could
survive that kind of fall and if he did it would be a miracle.

Oh, my God. I just killed someone.

I had to get help, but all I wanted to do was wrap myself in
a ball and cry. I might have lost Mason and possibly killed someone all in the
same day.
How am I going to recover from that?

Even though I was exhausted and scared, I wiped away my
tears and pushed my legs as fast as they could go to Tyler and his father.
Their gym was only about a half mile from where the pothole was and I knew I
could get there within three minutes. It felt like I was going in slow motion,
especially when the gym came into view and the lights were still on inside.
They
were there!
I could even see Tyler in there lifting weights.

In three seconds I would be at the door … one … two … three!

Smashing the door open, I shut it and locked it behind me,
clutching my chest and hoping my heart would stop hurting. It was broken.
Sagging to the floor, I curled into a ball and finally gave in to the overwhelming
grief and fear I didn’t allow myself to feel before.
I didn’t have to be
strong now.

“Claire!” Tyler shouted. I could hear his steps, fast and
hard on the floor as he ran up to me. I knew he was touching me, but I couldn’t
feel him even when he lifted me in his arms and carried me to the back.

“Dad, call the police, now!” he yelled.

Tyler rocked me in his arms and held my face to his chest. I
was spattered in blood and my legs and arms were skinned up from the falls I
took before sending Erick down his twenty-five foot fall.

“He’s dead,” I cried, burying my face in his shirt. “I think
they killed him, Tyler. They killed Mason.”

“Oh my God, Claire,” he breathed sadly. “What are you
talking about? Were you robbed? I thought you went back to California this
morning.”

“No, I never made it back,” I whispered. “They took me and
now it’s over. It’s all over and he’s gone.”

Everything after that happened in a blur and I couldn’t
remember if I spoke to the police or not. The ambulance came and took me away,
and Tyler stayed with me the whole time. Every time I opened my eyes he was
there, holding my hand. I kept imagining it was Mason with me the whole time,
and in my dreams it
was
him so I tried to stay in my dream world for as
long as I could. It was better there.

“Claire, can you hear me? Wiggle your toes if you can hear
me.”

The voice sounded so familiar, but that voice didn’t belong
in the hell I was in. She needed to leave before my hell consumed her, too.
Knowing I would see the same pain in her eyes, I didn’t want to open mine to
witness it. Mason was gone … her cousin was gone, and I was alone.

“Melissa?” I whispered sadly.

“Oh my God, Claire, yes it’s me. We’ve been so worried about
you. We got the call last night and came first thing this morning,” she cried.

Feeling around for her hand, I grabbed it and squeezed
tightly, hesitantly opening my eyes in the process. Melissa was right beside
me, eyes puffy and red from crying.