Page 16 — The Run
The storm hadn't stopped. It only grew heavier, matching the rush of adrenaline that surged through Eli's veins. The house that once felt like a cage now felt like a ticking bomb. Every sound — the wind rattling the windows, the hum of thunder — made him flinch.
Adrian moved through the penthouse with calm precision, but Eli could see it in his eyes — the urgency, the calculation. He wasn't calm. He was contained.
"Take only what you need," Adrian said, throwing open a drawer and pulling out a sleek, black handgun. "No luggage. No trace."
Eli froze halfway to the closet. "You're serious."
"I'm always serious," Adrian said. "Especially when people want us dead."
That word — us — hit harder than the gunshot from earlier.
Eli swallowed and shoved a few clothes into a small leather bag. "Where will we go?"
Adrian didn't answer right away. His focus was on the window — scanning the dark street below, where headlights passed like ghosts. "Somewhere they won't expect. Somewhere off-grid."
Eli zipped the bag. "And after that?"
Adrian finally looked at him. "After that, we survive."
It wasn't the answer Eli wanted. But maybe it was the only one he was going to get.
---
They left before dawn.
The rain hadn't let up, and the city felt different in that gray half-light — quieter, lonelier. Adrian's black car waited in the underground garage, engine running, lights dimmed. He tossed his coat across the passenger seat and motioned for Eli to get in.
As the doors shut, the world outside vanished behind tinted glass.
The hum of the engine filled the silence.
Eli watched the city fade — the lights, the skyline, the life he'd known before Adrian. He should have been terrified. He should have wanted to turn back.
But all he felt was the weight of the man beside him — and the strange, reckless sense of belonging.
After miles of silence, Eli finally spoke. "You said they'd find us. Who are they?"
Adrian's hands tightened slightly on the steering wheel. "People I used to work for."
"Work for?" Eli's voice was soft, but edged with disbelief. "You mean—"
"Yes." Adrian's tone was clipped, final. "Before the company. Before the wealth. There were… other things."
Eli turned toward him. "Like what?"
Adrian's eyes flicked toward him briefly, then back to the road. "Contracts. Information. People who disappeared when they shouldn't have."
The implication hit Eli slowly. "You mean you—"
"Yes." His voice was sharp enough to cut through the quiet. "I killed for them."
Eli felt the air leave his lungs. For a long moment, he couldn't speak. The man sitting next to him — the man who had saved him, kissed him, touched him like he was something precious — had blood on his hands.
And yet, somehow, Eli wasn't afraid.
He turned his gaze back to the window, his voice quiet but steady. "Why did you stop?"
Adrian hesitated. The wipers swiped across the windshield, erasing rain like memories he didn't want to keep. "Because one day, I looked at what I'd become and realized I didn't know my own reflection. I built a life to forget — but they never forget."
Eli's heart ached, even as logic screamed at him to run. "And me? What do I have to do with any of this?"
Adrian's lips pressed into a thin line. "You weren't supposed to exist. They thought you were dead."
Eli blinked. "What?"
Adrian exhaled, his voice low, controlled — like if he spoke too loudly, the truth might shatter them both. "Three weeks ago, I found your name on one of their files. A target marked 'terminated.' Only… you weren't. Someone spared you."
Eli's pulse pounded. "So you took me in."
"I hid you," Adrian corrected softly. "But it wasn't enough. They found out."
Eli turned to face him fully, heart in his throat. "You risked everything for me, and I didn't even know."
Adrian's eyes flicked toward him again, sharp with something raw. "If I told you then, you'd have run."
"Maybe I should have."
"Maybe," Adrian said. "But you didn't."
Their gazes met — a fragile thread connecting two people running from different ghosts. And for the first time, Adrian looked less like the untouchable man Eli had met that night in the rain, and more like someone who had spent years pretending not to bleed.
---
Hours passed.
They stopped only once, at a gas station off the highway. The world there felt eerily normal — the smell of coffee, the hum of fluorescent lights, the bored cashier scrolling through his phone.
Eli leaned against the counter, watching Adrian fill the tank, his broad frame silhouetted in the rain.
When Adrian came back inside, he handed Eli a bottle of water and a protein bar. "Eat."
"You sound like you're used to running," Eli murmured.
Adrian gave a faint, humorless smile. "You learn to survive in silence."
Eli studied him for a moment. "You ever get tired of it?"
"Every day," Adrian said simply.
They stood there in the glow of the vending machines, neither of them moving. There was so much Eli wanted to ask, and so much he was afraid to hear. Finally, he whispered, "If you could go back… would you still have saved me?"
Adrian's answer was immediate. "Every time."
The words landed like a confession, and for a second, Eli forgot the danger, the lies, the blood. There was only that — the truth that lived between them, too heavy to ignore.
---
By nightfall, they reached the coast.
A small, abandoned safehouse sat at the edge of the cliffs, waves crashing below. The lights inside flickered weakly as Adrian turned them on. Dust filled the air, untouched for years.
"This was one of my old drop points," Adrian said. "No one should know about it."
Eli set his bag down and glanced around. "Should?"
Adrian's eyes darkened. "I burned every record of this place. But they're good. If they're tracking me, it's only a matter of time."
Eli sat on the couch, pulling his knees to his chest. "You think they'll kill you?"
Adrian turned toward him, his expression unreadable. "No. They'll make me watch first."
Something in his tone — quiet, honest — made Eli shiver. He looked down, gripping his sleeve. "Then we'll have to make sure they don't find us."
Adrian stared at him for a moment — really stared, like he couldn't believe Eli was still there. Then, slowly, a hint of something softer broke through his exhaustion. "You're braver than you look."
Eli gave a faint, shaky laugh. "You're worse than you pretend."
Adrian almost smiled.
He crossed the room, crouched in front of Eli, and brushed his thumb across his cheek. "You shouldn't have followed me into this."
"Maybe I was already part of it," Eli whispered. "I just didn't know yet."
The storm outside roared, wind howling like the ocean itself was warning them. But inside, it was quiet — the kind of quiet that came before the next fall.
Adrian leaned closer. "Get some rest. Tomorrow we plan."
Eli caught his wrist, his voice barely audible. "You'll stay?"
Adrian hesitated — just a second — then nodded. "I'll stay."
They didn't speak again that night.
The fire burned low, painting their shadows against the wall. Eli drifted in and out of sleep, the rhythm of Adrian's breathing the only sound anchoring him to the moment.
But sometime after midnight, Adrian's phone buzzed.
A message. No number. Just words.
> You can't run from ghosts, Cole. We're already here.
Adrian's heart stopped.
He looked toward Eli — asleep, peaceful for the first time in days.
And then he saw it.
Through the cracked window, a small red dot flickered across the floor — moving slowly, deliberately — until it stopped on Eli's chest.
A sniper's laser.
Adrian moved before he could think — diving across the room, grabbing Eli by the arm, pulling him down as the glass shattered. The gunshot echoed through the cliffs.
Eli gasped, eyes wide, disoriented. "Adrian—?!"
"Down!" Adrian barked, pulling him behind the couch. The firelight flickered madly as another bullet tore through the window.
"They found us," Adrian growled, reaching for his gun. His exp
ression was pure fury — not at the danger, but at himself.
Eli trembled, clutching his sleeve. "What do we do?"
Adrian met his eyes — cold, resolute. "We end this."