UNDYING: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 3) Page 14

  “Tobias!” I scream, searching for his face in the darkness.

  I take another breath to shout for him again, but silver smoke fills my lungs. The thick, deadly smell forces me down onto the frozen ground. I cough it out, hoping my next breath will be clearer, but I can’t get the stench out of my nose.

  I feel it now. The light has found me.

  I turn around and the fire burns my face.

  ***

  “Claire!”

  My eyes fly open and I feel the thick smoke in my chest. I cough, trying to force it out. It’s clinging to my lungs, refusing to let me go beneath its crushing weight.

  “Tobias!” My eyes burn, completely watered-over, obscuring my vision.

  I feel his hands on me as he pulls me off the bed. “We have to go!”

  I see the bright light in the hallway; a red and orange flickering that can only mean one thing.

  Tobias leads me out of his room and we rush down the hallway together, passing by the flames covering the walls. I look down the stairs, seeing the straight path from here to the front door, not yet engulfed by fire.

  “Run, Claire!”

  I pause and look up at him. “What—” My lungs force the tainted wind out of me. I can barely speak.

  “Claire, go!” he shouts over the roaring flame behind him and pushes me towards the stairs.

  I grab the railing to keep from tumbling down, turning back around just as he kicks Charlie’s door open. My body lurches, begging me for fresh air. I maneuver down the stairs, constantly checking over my shoulder for Tobias, hoping to see him come out with Charlie, but as I reach the bottom, he still has not returned.

  “Tobias!” I scream as loud as I can, but the flame screams louder.

  I rush across the living room to the front door, cracking it open to feel the cold, winter air on my cheeks. My lungs force me to take a breath and I fall to my knees in the doorway, too scared to venture outside alone.

  “Tobi—”

  The ceiling cracks above me, breaking in two as the flame eats away at it. I roll out of the way, dodging debris that crashes down into the living room. My instincts push me out onto the porch, but I turn back to keep watch on the front door. My toes squish into the frozen snow with each step back I take.

  “Charlie!” I cry out, my voice getting lost in the roar of nature.

  I fall to my knees, too confused to act, as I watch my whole world burn in front of me.

  “Claire.”

  Oh, god…

  Please, no.

  He grabs me by the hair before I even turn around. His nails dig into my scalp and he pulls me back with all his strength. I see him above me, his battered, red features taking shape behind my veil of tears.

  “Rick, no—!”

  He slaps a wet cloth against my face and holds it there, pressing it hard against my nose and mouth. I gasp against it, inhaling the smell and taste of chemicals. I jerk away, punching and kicking at him, and his fingers rip locks of hair from my scalp. He releases me and I claw through the snow towards the burning porch as the wet snow bleeds through my jeans.

  “Tobias!” I cry his name, feeling the effect of Rick’s poison on me. My knees slip. My elbows buckle under my weight. Dizziness knocks me off balance, along with the boot of Rick’s heel slamming against my side to push me down.

  I roll over onto my back and stare up into the billowing, black clouds above me until I lose consciousness again.

  ***

  I feel it before I even open my eyes; the gentle rocking of a car. My fingers twitch on the leather seating. I stretch my toes, but I can’t feel them. It’s so cold.

  A seatbelt digs into my neck to hold me up against the seat. I will my eyes open and I find myself sitting in a car I haven’t seen in years.

  Rick’s car.

  I turn my head and there he is. His bruised knuckles grip the steering wheel. Traces of red, crusted blood still sit under his broken nose. He forces his eyes open as far as he can to watch the road, but they’re so swollen shut, I can barely even see them.

  He senses me move and looks over at me. “Hello, Claire,” he says, his voice soft and sure. I wince, noticing the holes in his smile. “Go back to sleep.”

  My senses want to obey him so badly, but I force my eyes to stay open. I look out the window and watch the blanket of white snow rush by outside. “Where…” I mutter, dropping the words as my tongue weighs itself down.

  “We just have a little errand to run…” he says, “and then we are going home.”

  Home. Red and orange flame fills my faded memory and fresh tears flow down my cheeks. I reach for the door handle, but my arms feel twice as heavy as normal and I can’t get a grip on it.

  Rick reaches across the seat and jerks my hands away from it. “Knock it off,” he barks at me. “Just go back to sleep, Claire. We’ll be back in Chicago before you know it and life will finally return to normal.”

  “Tobias…” I mumble, my tongue thick and dry.

  “Is gone,” he says. “Tobias is dead, Claire.”

  I push my numb feet against the floor to move myself up the seat. “No—”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re lying…” My voice comes out a whimper. Instinct moves my hands to my pockets in search of my phone. I can feel it beneath me, protruding out of my back pocket. My fingers wrap tight around it, but it slips from my grasp, feeling so heavy in my weak hands.

  Rick snatches it away from me and rolls down his window. “Claire…” He tosses it onto the street outside. “It’s all right now. There’s no one standing between us anymore. No Tobias. No Uncle Charlie. Even my father is gone. I killed him myself…”

  I shake my head, feeling the warm tears spill out even more.

  He scoffs. “Come on, don’t cry.” He nudges my numb face. “You know I always hated watching you cry. If it makes you feel any better… this is all your fault.”

  I sit up taller in the seat, throwing all of my focus into my limbs to revive them with energy, and look out the window. “I know this street…” I fight my blurry memories to recognize it.

  “As you should,” he says. “You were just here.”

  East St. Louis. This is Pike’s neighborhood. I swallow to wet my burning, dry throat. “What are we doing here?”

  “I told you,” he says with impatience. “We have an errand to run. Just one tiny loose end to take care of and then we’ll be on our way.”

  “Pike… You’re going after Pike?”

  “Beauty and brains, my love,” he smirks and throws his right around my shoulders to draw me in. I cringe as he plants a wet kiss on my forehead. “I knew I loved you for a reason.”

  I push away from him with all my strength, tossing myself against the car door. As I roll over, I feel another object poking out of my back pocket. I search with my fingers, feeling the hard curve of the handle.

  Rick’s switchblade.

  I look at him, fearing he’s figured it out, but he’s staring at the road ahead with determined eyes. I tug against my seatbelt, making sure it’s tight and secure, before gripping the knife’s handle. My fingers are numb, as cold as ice, and I can’t keep a steady hold on it.

  “You know, Claire…”

  I jolt in my seat, adrenaline bringing me back to life.

  He looks over at me and smiles. “I thought about it and I think I can finally forgive you.” I say nothing and rub my fingers together softly to warm them up. “It hurt when you betrayed me — a lot, actually. But—”

  “Go to hell,” I breathe.

  He reaches over and snatches my chin between his rough fingers. “That’s not very nice,” he growls, his broken teeth bared. “I’m trying to connect with you here. The more we communicate, the stronger we’ll be. Right?” I jerk my face out of his grasp. “Claire, I love you.”

  I push the knife against the seat, forcing the button down, and the blade snaps free.

  “Claire, say it back.”

  “No.”

 
“Claire,” he warns. “Tell me you love me.”

  “I’ve never loved you, Rick,” I mutter, staring straight ahead. “I never will. Tobias is—”

  “Dead—”

  “The better man.”

  He punches the steering wheel and the car lurches to the side. “Claire, I will be whatever man you want me to be, but you have to love me first.”

  I swallow the bile down my throat and pivot my hand to palm the knife handle.

  “Claire—” he fumes. “Either you say it now and I’ll—”

  I twist in the seat and swing my right arm around to attack him, aiming straight for his heart. The blade slides into his chest, slipping inside of him like butter. I push it inside until I can’t anymore and fall back into my seat, leaving the knife inside of him.

  He shrieks in pain and his arm jerks the steering wheel, forcing the car into the curb. We roll over and I close my eyes tight to shield myself from the broken glass and sparks bursting at my face.

  Metal crunches loudly in my ears, leaving a high-pitched ring wailing in my head. Time slows to a halt. Every moment feels a thousand times longer than the last. I scream out in pain, but I can’t make out what hurts.

  Finally, after what feels like an eternity, the car settles against the thick snow.

  Blood rushes to my head, as I’m held upside down by the tight seatbelt. I reach up to try and detach it as movement draws my eyes towards Rick.

  He grunts and coughs, his red eyes searching around in confusion. His shirt is stained red with his fresh blood and even more spills out of his mouth. I see the blade still poking out of his chest.

  “Claire—” He reaches out to me with weak hands, but I push them away and focus on freeing myself from confinement.

  I push my seatbelt free and gravity slams me down against the hood. His knife falls from above, landing right next to my face. I jerk away and look up to find he’s pulled it out of him and now reaches to free himself from his own seatbelt.

  I grab the bloody knife and crawl out of my broken window. My entire body aches, but the cold blinds my senses as I pull myself from the wreckage.

  “Help!” I scream down the abandoned street and my voice echoes back at me. I push myself up to try and stand, but the agony bones cracking in my foot brings me back down. I whimper in pain, overwhelmed by the throbbing taking over my leg.

  “Claire!”

  I turn to find Rick crawling out of the window behind me. My body trembles against the extreme cold and snow, but I push myself to survive, crawling on my hands and knees across broken shards of glass. I look up, fighting my blurred vision, and see Pike’s gym on the corner.

  “Get back here!” He chokes the words out of him, disjointed and cruel.

  I keep moving, refusing to take my eyes off the red snow beneath my bleeding fingers. He’s moving fast; I can hear him shifting against the ground to pull himself up, but I don’t dare look back. “No, no, no,” I whisper, urging myself to move faster.

  To stay alive.

  Pike’s gym sits before me, just a few more feet away. I reach out for the door, stretching my arm as far as I can, but the handle slips from my blood-soaked fingers.

  “Claire, wait!”

  I don’t stop. I try again, this time twisting harder, but the door is locked tight. I push up onto my knees and pound against the window with open palms. “Pike!” I scream, praying that he’s inside.

  Rick falls to the ground and I look back to find him lying face down on the sidewalk with a long, red trail behind him. I whimper with fear, dreading the moment when he’ll lash out at me, but he lies still against the snow as a deep red puddle crawls out from beneath him.

  “Holy shit, Claire.”

  I shriek and turn back to the door. Pike stands behind me, stunned and confused as he scans the scene on the street with his swollen, red eyes.

  “Help me.” I drop the bloody knife. It clangs against the concrete stair and drips red droplets by his feet.

  Pike lowers himself to his knees and reaches for me. “Come on…” He lifts me off the ground.

  I wince in pain. “It hurts…”

  “I know,” he soothes. “I got you.”

  He carries me through the dark gym, fighting against his own fresh wounds to keep us upright, and climbs the stairs to his room. I shake in his arms, so much so he can barely keep his grip on me. I cling to him with the last ounce of strength I have left until he lays me down on his mattress.

  “Where’s Tobias?”

  A sob attacks me, drilling deep into my core. I try to answer him, but I can’t get the words out.

  “Okay, okay—” He takes a quick step back. “Just stay here, Claire.”

  “W-wait!” I reach out to him. “Rick’s still there—”

  “Claire…” He grabs my shaking hands. “I’m pretty sure he’s dead.” I pause and let the words sink in as he grabs a thick blanket off the edge of the bed and lays it across my lap. “Stay here,” he says again.

  “Where are you going?”

  He sighs and throws his coat on over his shoulders. “I’m going to take care of it.”

  I listen to his boots thump down the stairs, each one drifting farther away from me until there’s nothing but silence.

  Chapter 15

  The Unkillable

  “Claire?”

  Voices call out to me through a darkened haze. My arms and legs feel stiff, but warm. Every move I make leaves my body screaming in pain, even before I embrace consciousness.

  “Claire, wake up.”

  His voice. It can’t be real. It’s a cruel mirage, one whose sole purpose is to make a fool out of me.

  “I heard the wreck outside. When I went to check it out, I wasn’t expecting to see her lying out there…”

  “Open your eyes, Claire.”

  I obey him, forcing my eyes to open despite knowing the disappointment I’ll feel when I do. It’s not him. It’s not possible. Bright lights burn my vision, piercing their sharp rays into my throbbing head.

  A hand rests on my cheek, both soft and familiar. It nudges me, pulling me out of my dark dreamland.

  I see his green eyes staring back at me, full of nervous relief. “Tobias?”

  He smiles and runs his thumb across my bottom lip. “Yeah, it’s me, Claire.”

  “Tobias!” I push myself off the bed and throw my arms around his neck, ignoring the strong pains holding me down. He latches on to me and buries his nose in my hair. “He told me you were dead—” I choke on my tears.

  “No, I made it out,” he whispers in my ear. “When I did, you were gone.”

  I pull back to look at him and notice the black ash staining his face and neck. “Charlie?” I ask, fear gripping my heart.

  “He’s okay. A little burned, but… he’s okay.” I fall against him again and he holds me still.

  “She’ll need a hospital,” Pike says from across the room. “And after that, a really stiff drink.”

  I loosen my grip on Tobias. “And Rick?” I ask Pike. Tobias turns around, just as eager to hear that answer as I am.

  Pike pauses and looks down. “He won’t be bothering you anymore.”

  My insides twist with nausea. I killed him. I actually killed my stepbrother. I glance at my trembling fingers, still stained red with blood.

  “The police won’t ignore a wreck like that for too long — even in this neighborhood,” Pike continues, looking at Tobias. “You should get her out of here.”

  Tobias nods and looks at me. “Can you walk?”

  I bend my toes and a hissing pain shoots up my leg. “I don’t think so…” He pushes forward to pick me up.

  “They won’t find anything,” Pike says to Tobias. “But if they do, it’ll lead to me. Not her.”

  “Thank you,” Tobias says to him, meaning every syllable of it.

  I wrap an arm about his shoulder and look up at Pike. “What will happen to you?”

  He takes a quick breath. “Well, it’s like you said, Claire�
�� maybe I deserve to be locked up.” We stare at him for several moments before Tobias finally takes a step towards the stairs. “Take care of her, Tobias.”

  Tobias pauses and I feel his grip tighten. “I will.”

  Pike nods at me with a small smile. I notice the grime on his jeans and hands; evidence that will soon be destroyed or washed down the drain.

  “Bye, Pike.”

  He says nothing in return and watches us descend the stairs.

  Tobias steps outside with me and I look down the street. Breaking glass and crunching metal echoes in my head, but I push the memory aside. A chemical smell invades my nose and I look down to find the path to the wreckage covered with something strong. I bury my face in Tobias’ shoulder to shield myself from it.

  “Ammonia,” he says. “Pike said it’ll keep them from getting your blood out of the snow.”

  “That was smart,” I say with a muffled voice. I glance around, thinking I’ll see Rick lying at our feet, but he’s gone. His car remains on the road, but it’s somehow been turned upright again. I’m actually curious to know how Pike managed that one. “Rick grabbed me as soon as I stepped outside,” I recall. “The next thing I remember is waking up in his car.”

  Tobias carries me across the street. “I knew something had happened. You wouldn’t have just wandered off.”

  “He told me you and Charlie were gone. Thomas, too. He came back here to kill Pike before he took me back to Chicago.”

  Tobias shakes his head. “He must have snapped…”

  “Obviously…”

  “Once the ambulance arrived, I called Amy.” He looks at me and smiles. “You had an army of Alphas out looking for you.”

  “I did?”

  “For a little while,” he chuckles. “Then Pike called to let us know you showed up at his doorstep.”

  We reach Charlie’s truck and he opens the passenger side door, taking extra caution not to bump my swollen foot. He lifts me up into the seat and steps up to look at me in the light. “Let me see you…” He cups my cheeks with both hands. His eyes wander my face and I see my reflection in them. Bruised and broken.

  “Is it bad?”