What Keeps Our Hearts Beating

Chapter 21

Brasen had been tied up and thrown into the backseat of the car with a gun placed menacingly at his head.

"Keep him quiet until we get to the bridge," Heir Golub's voice sneered. They put a gag in his mouth to keep him quiet as they approached the front desk.

Heir Golub's song-like voice sang out in her flirtatious manner to the guard and Brasen realized how she got away with a lot of things. She used to say being beautiful was a benefit when getting away with murder.

He wished he had saved Zoey when he had the chance, hoping Lacey was able to find Sandra in time.

Lacey...who had backstabbed him. Who was probably pissed that her one chance of survival slipped through her fingers. But the way she had gazed at him when the gun was against her head. He couldn't turn off his feelings for her, believing in her despite all odds and all the logical senses of his being to forget her. He couldn't help but believe she had still found a way to save Zoey. That she would find a way to save him in the end.

The guard asked for Mrs. Halloway's ID and she continued flirting with the guardsman, the gun pressed harder against Brasen's temple, as he fumbled with the knots around his wrist. Despite Heir Golub's warning to use a knot he couldn't get out of, he had prepared his hands like his father taught him to be slackened while the guard tied him up. Probably underestimating him as a normal teenager, but Brasen smiled wickedly. He was anything but normal.

Despite the gun against his head, he worked the knots slowly and meticulously, knowing no matter what happened he had to get the militarized drug away from Heir Golub. Even if it cost him his life.

The guard gave the go ahead, asking for Mrs. Halloway's number and she laughed mischievously and said maybe next time. Brasen knew very well there was not going to be a next time as she hid him in the middle of nowhere, her prize to do her bidding and create more serums and use his blood to create militarized robots. It was difficult to breathe under the blanket, but he continued to fumble slowly with the knots, now that the car was moving again and the guards released their hold on him, assuming he was no longer a threat.

"Brasen, get ready for a new chance of life!"

Suddenly there was a bump and a blast as the tire swerved out from under them, the car swerving as Heir Golub tried to keep control of the car, cursing as the car swerved and came to an abrupt stop. It was then they realized Brasen's ankle bracelet was blinking and activated.

"Grab the boy!" she shouted, but Brasen managed to pull his hands free at that moment, throwing the blanket at the guards to blind them and quickly kicked open the door, grabbing the suitcase with the serum in his right hand.

"Shoot him with the tranquilizer!" Golub yelled angrily but Brasen didn't stop despite the arrows flailing, just missing him as he raced forward. The rain was pounding on his body as he slipped and slithered down the hill, reaching the lake he knew was here, having seen it so many times from the library window. His legs waded into the lake, and immediately his fingers went to work on the lock on the suitcase. It snapped open and he gazed over his shoulder, hearing voices and the guards searching madly for him in the rain. He tried to cover the ankle bracelet but the red light continued to blink menacingly. Realizing he didn't have time. Either Heir Golub or Weber would find him, and he wasn't sure what the worst of those two evils was.

He cleared his head, dumping the contents of the vials hastily into the water. The rain blinded his eyes, as he ensured each vile was empty of his creation, watching it sink beneath the surface, Drowning from existence.