Undercover (Boyxboy)

Chapter Seventeen

Harry

I had never run so fast in my life – I was always the endurance type. I wasn't one for speed per say but if I had to, I could keep on running for miles.

This time, however, I needed both speed and endurance – they had cars and I had legs. But the pain in my chest and my ragged breathing told me that I needed to stop and hide out for a while. I couldn't go on – I had been running from the hospital, taking alleyways and dodgy shortcuts, for over half an hour.

Besides the pain in my feet and chest, my arm was killing me. I had wrapped a torn strip from my shirt around it, trying to keep it from bleeding any further. The pain was almost enough to bring me to my knees but I had to keep going. I had no time to even think about what was happening – I was waiting to run around a corner and see Dawson at any second.

I stood under a doorway to a deserted building in the far outskirts of the city. I wished I had kept the phone and not destroyed it now that I knew the likelihood of Dawson catching me was slim. But at the time I had just panicked and assumed I would be caught – I literally had twenty seconds to type the text before I smashed it and kept running.

I could only imagine the look on Ethan's face when he received it. I bet he tried to call me the second he'd read the text, which was why I destroyed the phone instantly. I questioned my strength on being able to decline his phone call – he would have just convinced me to head for the motel but that would have been downright reckless.

If Dawson had been tailing me I would have led him straight there – straight to the place where the person I loved more than anything was hiding out and also where I had sent my big brother to.

I leaned my head against the filthy doorway which had old chipping paint falling from it at the slightest touch. I definitely wasn't in a nice area – most of the buildings were either deserted or looked deserted.

I felt a fluttering of nerves – what was I going to do? I hadn't anticipated this. I never thought I would be isolated from the group, running for my life. I either thought I would die or we would succeed. Simple. But no – of course in my fucked up life, things had to get messy.

Georgie's face flashed into my mind for the first time since I'd ran from the hospital. A stabbing pain of grief and emotion had me gripping the wall of the building, angry and vengeful tears springing to my eyes. I had been strong for Hugh and Ethan back in the car – and to be honest, the shock had stopped any form of grief coming to the surface.

All the nights Georgie chased me around the common rooms for teasing him... all the games of darts and pool... A gasp left my mouth and the tears were running steadily down my cheeks. He was gone. Gone for good and never coming back. Just like Freddie. Just like my mother. Would Kim and the gang blame me if we ever saw them again? Probably. Georgie was important to all of us. Is.

I heard a loud bang from somewhere in the near distance and my silent sobbing ceased immediately, fear overpowering the over-whelming grief. I was almost glad for the fear – it stopped the pain. It stopped me from thinking about him.

I needed to get out of here – and fast. The streets were dimly lit, if even, so I had little room to navigate. The wound in my arm was painful but I knew it was only a flesh wound. All the same, I would need to get medical attention for it but I couldn't go to a hospital. I was stuck between two walls closing in slowly but surely. One wall was Dawson and my father and the other was the risk of infection and further problems to my health if I didn't sort the fucking bullet in my arm.