“I didn’t mean to shoot him!” Caleb leaned over and rammed his own head into the dashboard several times.

“What happened? Oh my God, what the fucked happened?” Bray said frantically. She rose up behind him, trying to look over his shoulder.

“You shot someone?” I grabbed Bray by her waist and pulled her away from Caleb and next to me.

“Back off!” Caleb screamed at us.

He looked at Tate, his eyes full of fear and anger and regret. “I-I fucking swear it, Tate. I-I didn’t mean to hit him. I was only trying to scare him.”

“You robbed the store?” Bray asked. “I can’t believe he robbed the fucking store!” She was looking at me again.

I put my hand over her mouth gently. “Bray, please, just be quiet,” I whispered.

She was shaking. I was shaking.

Tate slammed his fists down on the steering wheel. I counted six times before he almost lost control of the Jeep and had to grab the wheel to steady the vehicle. We fishtailed in a quick jolting motion until the Jeep straightened up. I could smell the burnt rubber from the tires.

“What are we going to do?” Caleb said nervously.

Tate swerved to the side of the road and came to a sudden stop. I caught Bray just before her mouth hit the back of Caleb’s seat.

Tate fumbled for his cell phone somewhere in the front seat and called nine-one-one.

“A man was just shot,” he said into the phone and then proceeded to give the operator the location of the liquor store.

Caleb got out of the Jeep and started walking down the center of the road. Tate followed. We watched them argue in the street for a moment.

“I did it to get money to pay Rocky!” Caleb yelled. “So you wouldn’t have to use all of your savings!”

“And robbing a liquor store makes it better?!” Tate roared. He hit Caleb in the face.

Caleb stumbled backward and almost fell, but he didn’t hit back. “I was only trying to scare him! I shot but I aimed at the wall! I didn’t mean to hit him!”

“What are we going to do, Elias?” Bray asked, her whole body trembling.

“I don’t know, but we can’t stay with them.”

Just then Tate jumped back inside and Caleb followed. Before we could even protest, the Jeep lurched into forward motion. We fell heavily against the seat and then forward again.

“Let us the fuck out!” I tried to shout over the radio and Tate and Caleb screaming at each other in the front. But I don’t think Tate even heard me, he was so blinded by rage.

“I’m not doing this anymore with you, Caleb!” Tate said. “This is it! I’ll always love you. You’re my brother. But I never want to see you again!” Then his voice began to rise. “What the fuck, man! I just pulled the same stunt they did!” He pointed at us. “I fucking ran to protect your ass! What the fuck was I thinking?! I’m not going down for you! Not anymore! Not like this!”

We sped by a maroon-colored minivan.

“Slow down, man,” I said nervously from the backseat. “You’re going to get us all killed.”

Minutes later we pulled into another convenience store parking lot. Bray and I jumped out quickly before Tate even put the Jeep into Park. I grabbed her hand and pulled her next to me.

Tate and Caleb started fighting in the front seat. Tate was on top of him, pummeling Caleb with his fists. But this time it was far from being a harmless brotherly squabble. Tate was a merciless animal, raining down blow after blow after heavy, bloody blow onto Caleb’s face. I was afraid he was going to beat him to death.

I let go of Bray’s hand and she screamed at me as I ran around to the passenger’s side of the car and opened the door. Caleb fell out halfway and I grabbed him by the arms and helped him out the rest of the way. Tate was outside of the Jeep and standing over Caleb on the asphalt before I even had a chance to pull my arms from underneath his.

“Back off, Tate! You’re going to make a bad situation worse!” I put up my hand, hoping to get him to back down. His balled fists hung bloodied at his sides. His face was twisted with rage. His tats almost looked alive as the muscles in his arms hardened and became more pronounced against the white backdrop of his shirt, also stained by Caleb’s blood.

“Please, man, just back off,” I pleaded one last time with him.

Tate’s conscience took control of him again and he took two steps back. His chest rose and fell with heavy, deep breaths that he could hardly steady. I finally let go of Caleb and stood back as he picked himself up from the ground. Blood streamed from both of his nostrils. His left eye was already swollen. He reached up and wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth with the side of his hand.

I looked over to see Bray running into the convenience store.

I ran after her, and I could only wonder what the hell she was doing. I followed her to the ladies’ restroom facilities and without a thought, I barged right in. I didn’t give a damn if there were other people inside. I was worried about Bray. I was worried about what she was capable of.

The stall door shut with a vociferous bang! and seconds later I heard her throwing up. I wondered why she didn’t just throw up outside, but it was such an insignificant curiosity that I didn’t bother to ask.

“Baby, are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be OK.” She threw up a few more times and I went over to the sink to wet some paper towels for her.

Bray came out of the stall and I started wiping her face and mouth.

“What are we going to do?” The floodgates opened and she broke down in tears, pressing her arms against my chest. I wrapped one arm around her back and the other behind her head.

“I think three days is too long,” I said. “I think it’s time we went home.”

She looked up at me, and I kissed her forehead.

“I’m not going home,” she said softly. “I never planned to.”

I shook my head. “W-What are you saying? Bray, we have to go home. There are no other options.”

“I love you, Elias, but I’m not going home with you. I’m not going to jail.”

We were interrupted by a few screams inside the store and then I heard, “Everybody get on the floor!”

It was Caleb’s voice.

And that was how we ended up here. In this moment. Holed up in the back of a convenience store with cops surrounding the building.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Present Day

Elias

Caleb has been holding me, Bray, and five other people inside the store for the past two hours. The store clerk and two customers have been sitting in the candy bar aisle just feet from us. I can smell urine. I think the woman with the brown hair and wearing a long, flowered dress pissed on herself at some point. Bray and I haven’t moved from the wall in the hallway next to the restrooms.

My mind is overloaded with… with a little bit of everything. A part of me wants to feel absolutely numb to all of this, but it’s only a small part. The rest of me is fearful but focused. I have to stay focused to get Bray out of here unharmed. I don’t think Caleb will hurt us. I really don’t. But I’m still afraid of what he might do, how far he will go.

Tate never made it into the store when the cops swarmed the parking lot and jumped out of their cars, drawing their guns. Caleb told us that he had pushed Tate away when Tate tried to follow him inside. He didn’t want Tate to go down with him like this. Whatever that meant.

I still have a bad feeling sitting sour in my stomach. As if what’s already happened isn’t enough, I still feel like the worst is yet to come.