The Dream Walker (22 page)

Chapter
50

Alaina ran barefoot throughout the warehouse. She tried to land on the balls of her feet so that she didn
’t make too much noise.

When Nico distracted George, she carefully slid around the side of the pallet, her head throbbing from hitting
the cement floor earlier. She’d winced when she saw George slug Nico, but she couldn’t think about that. If she could make it to the other side of the warehouse, maybe she would have a chance of sneaking up behind George and killing him. If there was a God in heaven, then Daniel wouldn’t be lurking around here. She was basing this assumption on the part of the conversation she’d heard between Nico and George, and she hoped she was right.

She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, her heart racing with anger and fear. That bastard George had laid his hands on her—and anyone, for that matter—for the last time.

A shot rang out, and she brought her hand to her mouth to muffle a scream. Oh, no. What if Nico had been shot? What if George had killed him?

“
Alaina!” George’s voice echoed around the warehouse in that eerie sing-song way. “Come here!”

Right. Like that was going to happen. She slid between another set of pallets and tried to calm her breathing.

She didn’t hear anything for a few minutes, but then a sound came from her right. George must have kicked a corner of a pallet or a bucket. She slid out from between the pallets toward her left and hid between two other stacks.

“
I know you’re in here, Alaina!” George called. He was closer than she thought, and her panic level soared. She looked around for some type of weapon. About ten feet away she saw a broken pallet, and there was a piece of wood with a sharp point. She ran over and grabbed it, then moved in-between another stack of pallets. Thin light filtered from the high windows, and she pushed her hair off her sweaty face. She firmly held the make-shift weapon in front of her. Her hand shook. Looking around again, she thought if she moved forward and to her right, she would be back to where she started. She needed to know if Nico was okay.

“
Alaina!” Nico’s voice boomed.

She stopped and listened. He said nothing else, and she assumed he was letting her know that he was alive. Hearing more movement behind her, she resumed her way through the pallets.

The dust caused her breathing to come in short spurts, and her eyes started to water. It was a really bad time for an allergy attack.

Moving through the pallets, she tried to remain as quiet as possible, and thought she was doing a pretty good job. Nico was up in the front of the warehouse by the door, and if her sense of direction was correct, she should hit a clearing very soon. Nico would be there, as would their doorway to freedom.

This thought motivated her, and she moved a little more quickly. She had to get to Nico.

She turned left and ran down a long row of pallets, when she was grabbed by her hair from behind. Yelling in pain, she fought as hard as she could to turn around and greet her attacker. George’s breathing was heavy and he smelled of body odor.

“Oh, Alaina,” George said, his eyes narrowing.

He hadn’t noticed the piece of wood in her hand. It was now or never.

It was as if she left her body or blacked out for a moment, and all fear left her. Replacing it was something she could only describe as cold, hard steel. As he tried to pull her close to him, she used his momentum and all her strength and lunged toward him, burying the stake in his belly up to the hilt. Then she pulled it out and did it again, over and over.

George let go of her hair and stumbled back. He lifted his gun, his aim shaky, and she looked around but there was nowhere to run—the damn pallets surrounded her. George took aim at her, and she closed her eyes as his finger closed over the trigger.

Crash.

Her eyes flicked open.

George had fell back into the tall stack of pallets behind him, and it swayed precariously in their direction. It moments, it would come falling down, burying her.  She willed herself to move, running as fast as she could, hoping to escape.

She heard the wooden towers begin to crash, one right after the other, a domino effect.

Chapter 51

Nico heard the crashing pallets, and ran toward the noise as best he could.
“Alaina!” he shouted.

The deafening noise of wood hitting concrete became louder, and Nico tried to move faster. His leg wouldn
’t work from being shot, and he was losing a large amount of blood. Shit was about to move into critical as far as his health was concerned.

“
Alaina!”

It sounded like the earth was opening up and Satan himself was about to make an appearance. Dust
thickened the air, and piles of pallets were falling as if they had been hit by an earthquake.

Where was Alaina?

“Nico!”she shouted, and he looked from where the sound was coming from. He saw her to his left, running toward him, her arms and hands covered in bloo
d
.

“
Alaina!” he yelled.

When they embrace
d,
Nico longed to take her into his arms and carry her the hell out of there. However, gravity, nature, and the bullet in his leg had other ideas.

There still wasn
’t a way out. Yes, they could move outside and make a run for it, but he knew he was moments away from passing ou
t.

“
Where’s George?”he whispere
d
.

“
I . . . I think he might be dead, Nico. I stabbed him.”

Relief filled him. George was hopefully out of commission for good.
“Alaina, listen to me,”he sai
d.
“We need to find my phone.”

“
Where is it?”

Nico shook his head.
“I don’t know, baby. They took it from me when I arrived.”

The phone had a GPS, and if he called the Saviors, they could follow the signal to where he and Alaina were located.

The last stack of palletscrashed, leaving an eerie silence over the big space. Nico got dizzy again and felt his leg giving way. Now that he knew Alaina was safe, he was ready to give in to the blood loss. He was on his way dow
n
.

“
You need to find it, Alaina,” he said, hearing his own words slur. “Call Blake. He’s first in my contacts and always has his phone on. Tell him to run a trace.”

“
Okay,” she said, worry written on her face.

“
First, we need to find a safe spot in case Daniel comes back,” Nico said, blinking hard. Jesus, now there were three of her. Shit was quickly going south.

Nico looked around. Pallets surrounded them, and honestly, he didn
’t think he was going to be vertical for very much longer. “This is good,” he said, sitting down.

“
Where should I look, Nico?” Alaina asked.

“
After they took my cell phone and wallet, I saw Daniel take them to a room to the left,” Nico said, closing his eyes. The room spun at light speed. “Try in there.”

He heard Alaina leave and he leaned his head against the back of the pallet. Opening his eyes again, he was besieged by the dry heaves.

The last thought before his world went black was that his damn flip-flops were gone forever.

Chapter
52

Blake had been tasked with the grocery shopping for the week, and he silently cursed as he pushed the cart down the aisle. He hated shopping of any kind, but was glad that Jovan was tagging along. It was night, so the store wasn’t so crowded, but it was closing in twenty minutes. They needed to move.

“Let’s get some Oreos,” Jovan said, reaching for the bag.

“
It’s not on the list,” Blake said. “Beverly said to only get what’s on the list.”

Jovan narrowed his eyes as he tossed the bag into the cart.
“Is Beverly your mother now? For God sake’s Blake, grow a set. We’re big boys. If I want Oreos, I’m going to have them.”

Blake was about to retort when his cell phone chimed Michael Jackson
’s “Bad,” a joke Talin had played on him.

“
It’s Nico,” Blake said to Jovan. Nico had been MIA for a few hours now, and everyone was getting a little antsy on where he had gone and what he was up to. Blake was betting he was all over Alaina—a final good-bye type of thing.

“
Hey, man,” Blake said. “Where are—”

“
Blake!”

Blake froze and looked over at Jovan. No, this definitely wasn
’t Nico. “Who’s this?”

“
It’s Alaina. Nico and I are in trouble. He told me to call you and tell you to trace the phone. We need you to come and get us. Nico’s hurt, and I . . .” She began to sob.

“
Alaina, what’s going on?” Blake asked, trying to keep his tone even.

“
Oh, God, Blake. Please get us out of here.”

Blake left the cart in the middle of the cookie aisle and motioned for Jovan to follow.

“Where are you?” Blake asked.

“
We’re in a warehouse. In Casa Grande. We can’t go outside. Nico’s hurt. He’s unconscious!”

Blake raced toward the front door as fast as possible without drawing attention. The last thing he needed was to be busted for suspicion of shoplifting, and he hoped the glass door would part before him or he might need to walk right through it.

Once he reached the hot, humid night air, he said, “Listen to me, Alaina. We’re going to hang up now. That phone needs to stay on, okay?”

“
Okay,” Alaina said weakly. “The battery is low, but I’ll leave it on until it runs out.”

“
Good job, Alaina,” Blake said, trying to keep her calm. “Tell me about Nico’s injuries.”

Blake reached the car as she told him Nico had been shot and stabbed. Not good news. Looking back, he saw Jovan jogging out of the store, the bag of Oreos in one hand, a carton of milk in the other. Blake rolled his eyes, shook his head, and hoped Jovan had paid for the damn things.

“What’s going on?” Jovan said as Blake pushed the button on the key fob, unlocking the doors.

Blake put up his finger, giving Jovan the
“hold on a second” gesture over the hood of the Hummer, and said, “Alaina, are you playing us?”

It had just occurred to him that Alaina might be aligned with Daniel. After all, she
’d been in the damn meeting that started the whole thing. Maybe she was trying to bring all the Saviors into their demise.

“
What?” she shrieked, sounding desperate. “Are you kidding me?”

Blake shut his eyes and pulled the phone away from his ear, figuring Alaina was either an excellent actress or she was telling the truth.

Based on the desperation in her voice, he was going to go with his gut and say she was telling the truth.

“
Okay, okay, Alaina,” he said as calmly as possible. “Just hang up the phone and we’ll trace it.”

“
Thank you, Blake,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

Blake hung up and tossed the phone to Jovan.
“Go into my apps and find the one titled, 'I’m going to find you, fucker.'”

Jovan shoved an Oreo into his mouth.
“Seriously?”

Blake nodded as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“Yeah. Talin loaded it on my phone a week before he died.”

It was quiet as Jovan munched on his cookies and scrolled through Blake
’s apps. “You know, I didn’t know that,” he said. “Before, we used to have to go back to the silo to trace a GPS, and now it’s right on your phone.”

Blake nodded, recalling when Talin had installed the app on his phone to try it out, claiming that if anyone
’s phone was worth blowing up, it was Blake’s. Blake now wondered if Talin had been setting him up to follow in his footsteps.

Blake couldn
’t think about it now. He had to focus. “Where to?” he asked Jovan.

“
East on I-10.” After a minute, he said, “Damn, this thing really gets down to the nitty-gritty. From the map, I bet we can get within ten feet of where the phone is. In fact, the signal is moving now.”

Blake stepped on the gas and got on the freeway entrance, heading east.

There was silence for a moment as Blake maneuvered traffic and Jovan chewed on Oreos.

“
You better call Noah and give him directions,” Blake said. “Tell him we’re going to need Cohen. Nico’s hurt.”

Jovan shoved another Oreo in his mouth and dialed on his own cell phone. Blake listened as he related the news, then Jovan hung up and opened up the milk.

“You got a gun or something?” Jovan asked, then took a long drink.

Blake smiled. He didn
’t have a gun. He had a duffle bag full of guns from shooting practice the other day on the desert gun range. It had never been unloaded from the Hummer.

“
We’re solid,” Blake said. “It’s all in back. And what’s with the cookies and milk?”

“
If I’m going to have to kick some ass, I figured I better get gassed up.”

“
Milk and Oreos—the fuel of a true Warrior,” Blake said. “Did you at least pay for them?”

“
Of course,” Jovan said, sounding offended by Blake’s question.

They rode together in silence for a few moments, the only sounds being Jovan munching on cookies and the rustling of the bag.

“Do you think Talin knew he was going to die?” Jovan asked.

Blake thought about that for a moment.
“No, I don’t. No one knows for certain when they are going to die, only that they will.”

Jovan nodded.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It just seems like Talin was setting you up to take his place, Blake,” Jovan said, mirroring Blake’s earlier thoughts.

Blake remained silent, pondering Jovan’s words.
“I hope he’s at peac
e,
” he finally said.

Jovan nodded and shoved another Oreo in his mouth.
“Me too, man. Me too.”