An Open Sky

Chapter Fifty-One ~Aidan~

All of the buildings looked the same. I drove past each one. I drove in circles. I was seeing double. My eyelids felt like deadweights. But I needed to find her.

                It must’ve been hours. What if she’s already dead? What if they’re not here anymore? My brain pulsated. I pulled over and rested my head in my hands. There had to have been something I missed. I was running out of time. People would start to get suspicious if the same car passed by every hour.

                I pulled back onto the street. A black Ford Mustang pulled out in front of me. I followed it to the stop sign at the end of the road. As I pulled up closer to the car, my eyes scanned the license plate. I’d seen those letters before…Images flashed through my mind. Images of a black Mustang pulling out of an alley as I cried over my dying girlfriend; a black Mustang pulling into the parking lot of my new school; a black Mustang driving away with Alexa in the passenger seat laughing…

                Jay was in front of me.

                He continued driving normally. He hadn’t seen me. I leaned up in my seat, my knuckles turning white as the force of my grip on the steering wheel increased. I decided to follow him, not that I had any other option. If he was here, Alexa was here somewhere too, and he wasn’t with her, which meant that she was safe, for now.

                He pulled into the local grocery store parking lot. I pulled in the back row, where I could watch his entrance and exit clearly. He stepped out and walked through the doors. I sat there, with suspicious eyes judging me as they went past, for what seemed like hours. Each pair of eyes set my cheeks on fire. I clicked on the radio, not that I paid attention to anything that was playing.

                Every time the doors swung open, my heart stopped. Once the doors closed again I could breathe.

                Then he stepped out.

                He had a small bag of groceries hooked around his arm. The bag was tossed into the back seat before he hopped in the car. I turned the keys, bringing the engine to life once again. It roared in front of me, the car rumbled, accelerating my already-racing heartbeat. Cold adrenaline pulsed through me as I turned a few cars behind him.

                I glanced at my bag through the mirror. The gun sat there, ready to capture another life. I shifted in my seat at the thought of me pulling the trigger, facing him, watching him fall, letting him bleed like he’d let Layla so long ago. The only difference: no one would be crying over him.

                This was it.