Salvation (6 page)

He smiled at me then. It was the first
time I’d ever seen a full smile from him, and it lit up his whole face. “You’re
amazing,” he whispered. “I still can’t believe how well you’re handling all of
this.”

I watched him for a long moment, then
said, “Tell me you’re not a criminal.”

“Oh, I’m definitely a criminal.”

I frowned at that. “I can’t be so
totally wrong about you. I just can’t.”

“You’re not.” He was still smiling at
me.

“You’re really frustrating,” I told him,
and started to sit up.

Vincent grabbed me and pulled me back
down. “Stay low for just a few more seconds. Once I know we’re clear, we’re
going to have to run for it.” He looked deep into my eyes for a few moments, then
reached up and brushed my hair from my face, so incredibly gently, his
fingertips sweeping down and lingering on my cheekbone.

“Stop being nice. I’m trying to be mad
at you.”

“As well you should.” He raised himself
up a bit and looked around. “They’ll circle back around soon, we have to do
this now.” He reached across me and opened my door. “Run for the shadows at the
back of that building and get behind those recycling bins. I’ll meet you there
in a few seconds. If the Escalade pulls into the parking lot, just run. Don’t
look back and don’t stop for anything. Find a twenty-four hour convenience
store and call the police.”

“I thought we couldn’t go to the
police.”

“I can’t. You can. Run, Trevor, and stay
low.”

I bolted from the car and did as he
said. Being out in the open was a lot scarier than being inside the SUV, and my
pulse was racing as I reached my destination and wiped my sweaty palms on my
jeans. Vincent climbed out the passenger door too, clicked it shut as quietly
as possible, and ducked out of sight among the parked cars.

Fear prickled through me as the Escalade
rolled slowly past the entrance to the parking lot. A huge white guy with a
buzz cut and some sort of tattoo on his cheek leaned out the open window,
scanning his surroundings. I held my breath and pressed myself against the
building, trying to make myself invisible.

After a few seconds that felt like a
lifetime, our pursuers continued on down the street. A moment later, Vincent
appeared beside me, startling me so much that my heart leapt in my chest. He
took my hand and said, “Come on.”

We cut through the apartment complex,
then down a back alley. We had to cross a fairly big street next, and Vincent
crouched down behind a parked car and looked both ways. “What happens if they
catch us?” I asked.

“Let’s not find out.”

He was still holding my hand as we
bolted across the street, then cut down another alley. “Where are we going?”

“I know someone with an apartment not
far from here, that’s where we’re headed.”

The city was really quiet this time of
night, so we heard the big SUV before we saw it. “Shit,” Vincent muttered, and
pulled me into a darkened doorway right before the Escalade turned into the
alley. He let go of my hand and took something from his pocket, then fumbled
with the locked doorknob. Fear welled up in me and I whispered, “Oh God,” as
the front bumper came into sight.

A split second later, Vincent dragged me
through the door, quickly shut it behind him and relocked it from the inside.
“They may have seen us,” he whispered. “Come on.”

Vincent took my hand again and we ran
down a long corridor of a grade school, past rows of little lockers and
children’s artwork. We could hear a door being kicked in, presumably the same
one we’d come through. “I really wish I had my gun,” he muttered, then stopped
running and looked around. “But, failing that....” instead of finishing his
sentence, he pulled a nearby fire alarm. Immediately, a deafening shriek filled
the building and red lights began flashing.

He pulled me into what turned out to be
the library, looked around, then led me to a little storage closet. It was a
tight fit, so he sat on the floor and I ended up straddling him, sitting on his
lap. The alarm was slightly muffled once the door was closed, but still
painfully loud. I pressed one side of my head against his shoulder and clamped
my hand over my other ear.

It was several very long minutes before
someone cut the alarm. A moment later, the lights came on, spilling under the
door of the little closet.

“How long do we have to stay here?” I
whispered, my ears ringing.

“It’ll be a while. The people chasing us
probably cleared out as soon as the alarm went off, but I assume they’re
watching the outside of the building now and waiting for us to come out. The
fire department must have arrived and shut off the alarm, and they’ll most
likely sweep the building room by room to check for fire, which will take some
time. That’s actually who we’re hiding from now, since I don’t want to get
arrested for breaking and entering.” Vincent shifted a bit and took out his
phone, fired off a fairly lengthy message, then returned it to his pocket and
wrapped his arms around me.

I made myself comfortable on his
shoulder and asked, “Who did you text?”

“My version of the cavalry. They’ll make
sure no one’s outside waiting for us when we can finally leave the building.”

It took maybe an hour for the fire
fighters to search the school. When they got to the library, we heard one of
them say, “What is it with kids and false alarms?”

“We were just as bad at their age,”
another said.

“Yeah, but at least we had the sense to
pull the alarm during the school day, so we’d get out of class. We never busted
any doors down to do it, either.”

I relaxed a little after they left the
library, and Vincent began stroking my back soothingly. “I’m sorry about all of
this,” he said, his tone hushed so he didn’t give away our location. “I’d never
forgive myself if something had happened to you.”

“I know,” I whispered. “Just get us out
of here after the fire department clears out.”

“I don’t know that I want to get us out
of here.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll probably never speak to
me again after tonight, so I want to make this last as long as possible.”

“I really shouldn’t, you know.”

“I know.”

His hand found my chin in the darkness
and Vincent kissed me softly. When I didn’t stop him, he took the kiss just a
little deeper, sliding his arms around me. But after a few moments, I pulled
back and said, “I’ve known you for less than a day, Vincent. In that time, I’ve
been taken on a high speed car chase, run from dangerous thugs, and committed
felony breaking and entering. What do you do for an encore?”

“This.” He kissed me again and my entire
body responded. Despite everything, the attraction between us was overpowering.
It was another couple minutes before I wrestled down my lust and sat back, my
palms on his shoulders.

Vincent wrapped his hands around my
waist and said quietly, “Tonight you’ve gotten to see the world I live in,
Trevor. You saw way more than I ever would have wanted to show you. My life
isn’t always going to be like this, just so you know. But right now, this is my
reality. It’s ridiculous to think you’d want any part of it, but I’m asking you
anyway to please give me a chance.”

He kissed me again and I murmured,
“You’re making it really hard to say no to you.”

“Good.” He took me in his arms and
cradled me against his chest. It felt wonderful to be held by him like that.
The fire alarm beeped once and then the lights went off. Vincent said, “They’ve
just reset the system, so the fire department will be clearing out soon.”

“Think it’s safe to open the closet
door? It’s getting hot in here.”

“I think so.”

I opened it a crack while Vincent sent
another text, the screen lighting up his face in the darkness and reflecting
off his glasses. I peered into the library, then crawled out on my hands and
knees and leaned against the back of the big checkout desk. “Damn, you’ve
escaped,” he whispered.

“I have, but I’m easy to catch.”

“Let’s see.” He crawled over to me,
swung me onto my back and planted a kiss on my neck. “Catching you was too
easy. There was no sport in it,” he said before kissing my neck again.

“That tickles.” I squirmed under him and
tried to suppress a laugh.

“Does it? How about this?” He ran the
tip of his tongue up my neck.

I flailed around, biting my lip to hold
in my laughter, and he caught my wrists, pinning them to the carpet as he
chuckled and said, “Oh man, that’s so cute.”

“Shh! We’re going to get busted.”

“The building’s empty, no one can hear
us. So there’s no reason not to do this.” He licked my neck again, continuing
all the way up to my ear this time. I let out an embarrassing squeal, and then
we both burst out laughing.

Suddenly, we were illuminated in the
bright beam of a flashlight. “Wow, I must have stepped through some sort of
alternate dimension portal when I entered the library,” a woman’s voice said.
“Because in the normal world, I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard you laugh,
Vinnie.”

He let go of me and sat up, his
expression instantly grim as he brushed back his hair. “I thought I told you to
wait outside, Carla.”

“And I didn’t. So sue me. Are you going
to introduce me to your playmate?”

Vincent got up and held out his hand to
me, then hauled me to my feet. “Carla Dombruso, Trevor Dean. Carla’s my
cousin,” he explained. She looked like she’d just stepped off the Jersey shore,
all big hair, big chest, and big jewelry.

I was a bit flustered since she’d walked
in on her cousin licking me, and mumbled, “Nice to meet you,” as I straightened
my clothes.

“Wow, he’s a cute one,” she told
Vincent. “Young, though. You meet him here at the elementary school?” She
flashed him a wide, teasing grin.

“How old are you, Trevor?” he asked me.

“Almost twenty-one.”

“He’s almost twenty-one, Carla.” Vincent
sounded exasperated.

“I was
kidding
! Don’t get your
shorts in a bunch, Vinnie, especially right on the heels of me finding out you
actually have a personality!” She brushed back her thick, black hair, then
flung an arm around my shoulders and walked me out of the library, a cloud of
perfume enveloping me. “You, I like,” she said to me. “That one there,” she
tilted her head toward her cousin, who was eyeing her warily, “he’s the most
uptight person in the history of uptight people. Or, he
was
, until
tonight. I have no idea what’s going on between the two of you, but keep it up,
because I could get used to a Vinnie that actually laughs.”

Her assessment of Vincent surprised me.
Okay, sure, that was exactly how he’d seemed at the party (which now felt like
it was a lifetime ago), but all evening he’d been animated and fairly
talkative. I wondered if it was the danger or me that brought it out in him.

“Alright, boys,” she said, stopping in
the hallway, “we’re going out a window. This place has an antiquated alarm
system and Lenny couldn’t tell which doors it’s wired to, so we decided not to
take any chances. Give me a boost.” She hopped up on a bench in her spike heels
and Vincent hoisted her up to high window before we climbed out after her.

There were five cars and eight people
lined up in front of the school. “So that’s the cavalry, huh?” I asked. It was
kind of a rag-tag group, several of them dressed in pajamas and overcoats. It
was hard to believe they’d somehow chased away the thugs that had been
following us. But then a sixth vehicle pulled up and a bunch of huge guys piled
out and joined the gang on the sidewalk. Okay, now that I could believe.

“Kind of. They’re all my cousins,”
Vincent said. “I texted
one
of them, by the way, but they travel in
herds.”

“You’ll never believe what I walked in
on!” Carla yelled. “Our boy Vinnie was rolling around and giggling on the floor
of the library with this cute little snack cake! Isn’t that a hoot?”

“I was not giggling,” Vincent insisted.
“Men don’t giggle.”

No one heard his protests. They were too
busy guffawing and making cat-calls, which was super embarrassing but also
pretty funny. I had to grin, even as the color rose in my cheeks.

“So, snack cake, is it serious between
you and our cousin?” someone called. “Or was it just a case of lust in the
library?”

“His name is Trevor.” Vincent said.

Again, no one heard him. They were off
and running on the lust in the library theme, all of them trying to outdo one
another by throwing out suggestions like Shagging with Shakespeare, Fucking
with Faulkner, and Diddling with Dickens. Man, what a family. My grin turned
into a smile.

When the ruckus died down, I said, “You
left out Humping with Hemingway.”

“Oh, I like the snack cake!” someone
exclaimed, and there was much gleeful agreement.

“Can we please break this up sometime
before
the S.F.P.D. shows up and wants to know why we’re loitering at an elementary
school?” Vincent said.