Killing Chivalry

Chapter 3 - Knight in the Big City

He stood behind her as she peeked out the door and down the hall, then they both slipped out of the apartment. They couldn't go downstairs with the cops hanging around. So instead, she led him to a door that accessed the roof.

It was locked, and she knelt to lift a corner of the threadbare carpet. "Make sure nobody surprises us."

He edged away so he could see down the stairs, but still keep his eye on her.

She brushed her hand through dust and dried carpet glue, groping for the key she'd borrowed from the maintenance man a few years ago. He'd quit before she could return it, and she never bothered to bring it back to the new guy.

Once she unlocked the door, she dropped it back to the floor and kicked the carpet over it again. The door opened on a rickety staircase that led to another door at the top.

As they climbed the stairs, she wondered where they'd go once they got away from the apartments. There were any number of places within walking distance. She reached out and shoved at the door that led onto the roof, stepping out into the morning sun.

The rooftops of this line of apartment buildings were all connected, and she'd snooped around up here enough to know where they could climb back down to street level. She peered over the edge to check on the position of the police officers. Two of them were just entering the building with notebooks in their hands. She ducked back and glanced at the man.

"We need to go."

He nodded, looking over his shoulder at the staircase and clenching his hand on the guitar strap across his chest.

Airyn guided him along until they reached the last building on the block, where they ran out of roof. She checked to be sure the police weren't in sight and pointed at the parapet where the fire escape wrapped around and disappeared to the street below. "We'll go this way."

The guy gripped her arm and she looked up into his dark, serious eyes. Her stomach did a little flip. He was definitely younger than he looked. She recognized the overwhelmed kid behind the calm expression.

"You don't need to do this, my lady. Your police are the least of our worries." His gaze slipped past her to the street below, and over the facades of the buildings beyond. "Devlin will not stop looking for me until he has my head on a pole. I don't want to expose you to that. He'll have people after me very soon now, and they will find me."

Airyn settled her weight on the first rung of the steel ladder and swung her other foot over. "Look... I appreciate the concern, but I don't want the police catching either of us."

He kept watch as she made her way down the ladder. When she was a third of the way down, he shifted the guitar case on his back so it'd be out of his way and put his hands on the parapet. He lifted his leg over the wall and gasped once, but made it over the edge without any more trouble.

He was slower descending than Airyn, and after she jumped down, she nervously peered up and down the street until he reached the last rung. There was a five foot drop to the pavement, and when he landed, he staggered and pressed his hand to his side, his face going ashen. He breathed carefully for a few moments, then slowly straightened.

Airyn squinted at him. "You should really go to the hospital, you could be bleeding inside or something."

"I'm fine, I assure you. It will heal quickly enough without a doctor's care."

She sighed. "Whatever." Walking to the mouth of the alley, she waved him forward. "If you're so healthy, let's get moving then."

He fell into step beside her. Her stride naturally settled into that block-eating brisk walk that got you from A to B as quickly as possible when you didn't have a car in the city. There was no destination in her mind, but she moved away from the apartments and the park toward the larger shopping areas to the north. There was less chance of being picked out of a crowd, and a better chance of finding help if she needed it. She glanced at the man out of the corner of her eye and noticed he was holding his ribs and his eyes were set with determination and pain, but he was keeping up.