Alpha Draven

Chapter Two

Lilah.

I wasn't ready to die. I couldn't die. I had three beautiful babies waiting for me to come home and take care of them.

When I had walked out of our apartment earlier this evening, I was convinced tonight would be the night Carter would propose. Why else would he have been so secretive the past week?

And just last night, I saw him stick something into his pocket, looking like a ring box.

"This is a prank. This…Aaargh!" I screamed, anger and hurt clawing at me with a vengeance. I couldn't believe this was happening. I also knew I wouldn't have to keep to my painful thoughts much longer because I would die any minute now.

My eyes shot frantically around the room, looking for anything that could help me get out of this mess. But with the panic loud inside my ears and tightly chained to the wall, I knew the chances of making it through this were next to impossible.

Hot tears fell over my cheeks, and I sucked in a deep breath. "Why. Just why…"

Then acceptance settled in. It was slow and horrible—like a venomous snake slithering through my insides and making my entire body numb.

I was going to die.

I would never see my precious babies again. They'd grow up without knowing their mother, in foster care—most likely, as they would have no one else to go to once I was dead.

My last wish slipped from my tear-stained lips, "Please. Please let them have beautiful lives. Please—" My voice cut off as my eyes fell on my salvation.

It was the smallest, most damned little thing, sparkling beneath the light like a diamond. The one thing that might change my fate; it was a key. The same key that Carter used to open the lock and place on the chain binding my wrists.

"Yes. Yes. Yes!"

My problem now was to get the key and free myself. I kicked off my one sneaker, then tried to pry off the sock using my other foot. The attempt was pointless because I chose to wear the tightest pair of socks I owned today.

I accepted the feat, using my sock-clad big toe and dragging the key toward me.

The lowest I could bring my hands was the same height as my chest. This meant I had to pick up the key with my sock-clad foot. It was much harder said than done.

I tried once, twice, three…I kept dropping the damn thing. On the third attempt, it skidded almost out of reach from me across the floor, taking a painful strain out of my thigh to get it back again. "I'm never, ever wearing compression socks again if I make it out of here. So help me…Come on!"

I ignored the throbbing pain in my thigh, repeatedly attempting to pick it up. I lost count of how many times I'd dropped it, certain at that point the bomb timer was wrong.

My mind kept going back to thinking that this was a prank. It had to be…It was my birthday, for heck's sake!

"Yes!" The moment I lifted my foot high enough to reach for the key and felt the cool metal between my fingers, hope blossomed inside my chest.

After this, everything moved in slow motion. Slower than my body could move or for my mind to process. It was as if anything and everything went blank.

It was just me, my loud breathing, and the light spilling across the parking lot in the distance calling me.

It promised life. A chance to see my babies again.

I had no idea how I reached the door, but somehow, I did. I could hear the click—the sound those bombs made right when they were about to go off. At least—I was sure that's what I heard.

It was like you see in the movies. The hero took a huge leap, and the building exploded behind them—burning debris spotting the night sky like furious, flaming insects.

Unlike in the movies—falling face-first into the pavement hurt like a b***h. It was a glorious confirmation that I was, in fact, still alive. When I tried pushing to my feet to get away from the searing flames, I redacted that thought and cussed out Carter in all the colorful words my mind would conjure up.

"Happy f*****g birthday to me," I gritted, limping away.

***

"Look, it's all I have on me." I placed a hand on my hip, flinching from the burning sensation on my palm. It wasn't every day I took a dive to the pavement and lost almost all skin on my palms, knees, and chin. Even my jaw was throbbing from the fall. "Look, this goes for three-hundred dollars minimum if you buy it secondhand. You can buy about ten pairs of those. They go for thirty dollars tops. And that's for brand new. Please?"

The middle-aged lady removed the stained cap from her head and ruffled the dirty hair on her head. When she placed the cap down, her lips drew tight as her beady eyes fell on the Armani belt I held out to her with my other hand. She nodded at the golden bracelet dangling on my wrist. "Throw that in and we have a deal."

"For a pair of crummy, filthy sneakers with holes—"

"Look, girl," she stabbed a finger at my chest. "If it's all you have, it's worth a lot. But you wouldn't know that, would you? I bet you never had to eat off the pavement a day in your life."

"I'm sorry, it's not what I meant. I just—"

She huffed, crossing her arms to her chest. "I ate maggots out of the trash this morning. For lunch, I had a moldy, half-eaten tuna sandwich. Have you ever gotten sick of rotten fish before? It's horrible. But I ate it, because I was starving."

I knew at this point she wouldn't let me off easy. I sighed, too tired and in pain to argue. I slid the bracelet off my wrist, holding it out to her. "There. One-thousand dollars worth of stuff for the sneakers."

The woman grinned, revealing a set of rotten teeth. She grabbed the goods from me, picked up the dirty old sneakers beside her and held it out to me. "How about those socks? It gets cold out in the street at night."

I reached for the sneakers, but she pulled them back. Was she for real right now? "If you can't tell, I'm stuck out on the street. Just like you."

"Yeah, well," she shrugged. "You're pretty. You just have to look at any man and they'll take you straight home and feed you. Me? I scare even the boogeyman at this point."

My lips drew down. "I'd rather cut off their balls before I let another man get near me."

"Ooof. Scorned, are we?" she asked, her eyes zeroed in on my sock-clad feet.

I muttered a slew of curses, pulling off the socks and handing them to the woman. "There, happy now?"

She threw the sneakers at me. "You have a box to sleep in, tonight, love? I have an extra. But it'll cost me your—"

"Forget it. I have something to take care of." I pulled on the sneakers, shuddering in disgust as I pressed my heel into something sticky inside the shoe. "Thanks."

"You know where to find me if you need anything else. Good doing business with you." The woman turned, heading for the homeless couple snuggled together against the wall of a candy shop and handing them the bracelet. Their faces lit up, and they both waved at me.

I offered them a weak smile, pulling on the second sneaker. At least someone was having a better evening than me.

All I wanted was to go home, take a warm shower, and curl into bed. Only one problem; I no longer had a home. There was no way I was going to the place I shared with Carter.

This brings me to my next problem—I had exactly thirteen hours left to figure out where I would stay with my babies. Carter paid the babysitter to take care of them until tomorrow after lunchtime. The one good thing he did was insist the babies stay over at the babysitter's place for the evening, claiming he wanted to spoil me and have alone time with me.

I snorted loudly, resulting in bypassers shooting me questioning looks. "What? Never seen a crazy person before?" I snapped at them.

The group of people—consisting of two men and two women faced away, picking up their pace.

To say I was in a foul mood would be an understatement. In the hour I've been roaming the street, hoping to find a solution, and going through hundreds of ways of getting hold of money or a place to stay—I came up with only one that was promising.

It was quick and might cover my ass for weeks until I find a job. But it would be risky.

Anything for my babies.

"Time to piss off Draven Blake even further," I smirked to myself, rounding the corner and heading straight toward the upper side of the city.