JODIE
My heart thrashes in my chest as I stand beside Sara at her living room window as the sky in the distance glows orange.
Reaching out, I take her trembling hand in mine.
“I love him, Jojo, but I hate this. I hate this so fucking much,” she whimpers.
“Jesse will be fine,” I assure her, wishing that I could say it with a little more confidence. “They’ll all be fine.”
My phone rings in my pocket and I rush to pull it out, hoping it might be Toby telling me that he’s far, far away from all of this, but I know it’s wishful thinking.
“Stella, what’s happening?” I bark. I’d called her not long after I first got here and calmed Sara down in the hope that she might have some answers.
“I have no idea. I haven’t heard from any of them. I’m watching their trackers though, and they’re in the valley.”
“Oh my God,” I whimper, and Sara’s eyes go as wide as saucers as figures dart across the street beneath us.
“Shit, Jojo. What’s happening?” Sara asks quietly, her voice cracked with emotion and panic.
“From what I can tell on social media, they’re attacking all the Wolves’ businesses. Where are you?” Stella explains.
“Above a bookies,” I confess.
“Owned by the Wolves?” Stella implores.
“Sar, is the betting shop owned by the Wolves?” I ask. But deep down, I already know the answer.
She nods as her tears spill over once more.
“Okay, you need to get out of there. Send me your address, and I’ll come to pick you both up and bring you back here.”
“Y-you can’t do that. It’s not safe.”
“I don’t have a choice, Jodie. If anything happens to you and I knew and did nothing, Toby would never forgive me. Now send me your address. I can be there in like, twenty minutes if the roads are quiet. I’m putting my shoes on right now. Send me the address.”
“Okay, okay.”
“Oh my God,” Sara screams as a bright orange flash fills the room.
“What’s happening?” Stella barks in my ear as I turn back toward the window, staring down in horror at the car that’s just gone up in flames right out the front of the shop below.
“Sar, we need to get out of here. Right now,” I say, my voice quaking with fear.
“Shit, shit.” She looks around at her home, her eyes wide as realisation hits her.
“Get out. I’m coming for you.”
“Okay.” I hang up and push my phone into the back pocket of my jeans. “Come on. Grab anything you desperately need, but we need to go now.”
“Y-yeah, okay.”
I pull my boots on as Sara runs to her and Jesse’s bedroom.
A loud roar rips through the air before the floor beneath me moves and the contents of the kitchen cupboard behind me rattle. More than a few things hit the floor, many smashing and making an ominous thud.
“What was that?” Sara asks as she comes running back toward me with a bag thrown over her shoulder.
“I don’t think we want to know.”