Risen To The Top

CHAPTER 9

In his life,Alex had done many crazy things but this was the craziest.

The air was cold against his face as he leaped into the air, the building crumbling and going up in flames behind him.

 The hard ground came rushing at him. Unable to stop the momentum, he lifted his leg to take the brunt of the impact.

A roar erupted from his chest as his whole body connected with the solid hard ground, pain splintered through his body, especially his leg. He had angled his body so his legs could take the fall and held his hands tight around his head as he crashed to the floor.

Everything went dark.

*****

With every ounce of strength she had left Joanne tried to hold herself together, Marshall had called her late last night telling her about the fire at the prison, she had rushed here, driving all through the night and here she was, in Marshall's cramped up apartment, Marshall was lucky, he wasn't on shift last night but immediately he heard of the fire he had rushed straight to the prison.

He had called her, telling her he couldn't save her dad but he had managed to save a friend of her dad, he had found the man's body by the side of the collapsed building.

She was still shaken by the death of her father as she slowly walked back to where the injured unconscious man lay. Marshall had gone out to the accident site to give a report.

The fire had claimed a lot of lives.

She straightened the covers on the old sleigh bed and plumped the pillow behind the man who her father had always talked about for the last two years.

He had written her countless letters about Alexander Kane, the man wasn't anything short of what she expected.

The man had been slipping in and out of consciousness, she could see his eyes blink again.

Maybe she had woken him up when she walked into the room.

"Are you comfortable?" She asked.

'That's stupid, Joanne. His face is pale with pain.' She thought to herself.

He watched her through thick lashes, his brown eyes, undiluted by flecks of green or gold, looking somehow familiar.

"Not exactly." He groaned.

"Now that we have you in the house, Marshall will call a private doctor."

"I don't need a doctor."

"I can understand why you wouldn't want to go to the hospital, but a doctor will be glad to pay a visit out here, especially with an injury like that." She nodded at his knee which she'd propped up higher than his heart and immediately iced, immediately she and Marshall had carried him from the car to the couch.

His knee was pretty fucked, he could see the swell and the cuts around it, he was surprised that he hadn't broken his legs in the fall, the jump had been almost four stories high.

"As I told you, it's nothing, I'll be fine." His voice was hoarse, probably from pain. He took back his dark hair and shrugged a mile wide shoulders. He was a big man with the build of an athlete.

"I know how to take care of it." Angling his head to the door, he asked, "Is the Warden gone?"

"Yes. He went back to find out the protocol the government would put to rearrest the prisoners who escaped, there's definitely going to be a nationwide manhunt." She smiled weakly. "Now I can just take care of you."

**

Alex looked at her grimly, she was holding up more than he expected.

Didn't she just hear that her father had been burnt beyond recognition and he had died in the fire.

Yet she had driven almost through three states just for him.

She was a busy woman, she owned a company that was planning on competing with Concorp and bringing down the Connery Family, yet she had time to come for him.

She must respect her father that much.

Even if he wanted to tell her about her father's death, he would do it in the nicest way possible.

She looked pale and petite but behind those green eyes, he could see the blazing fire and passion.

He knew the government would organize a statewide manhunt for the escaped prisoners any moment from now and the whole city would be flooded with law enforcement agencies.

He had to start moving immediately his leg got better.

He looked over at Joanne again.

He knew if anything happened and they traced him here, she would be in trouble, he couldn't put her in trouble for deciding to help or care for him.

That was the last thing he planned on doing.

Sarah.

She crossed his mind, he wondered what she was up to.

He looked around for any laptop or phone, maybe if he googled her, he could learn more about what happened.

"You look tired, I'll excuse you." Joanne whispered, bringing him out of his thoughts.

He closed his eyes so she'd leave, in reality, he needed to plot out his strategy.

She quietly switched off the lights and crept to the door, from under half open kids he caught her watching him. After a moment, she shook her head and sighed.

His mind drifted back to Sarah, he knew she was praying he died in the fire.

The thought of that made him chuckle, he felt anger inside, even after that years he was still filled with anger.

Anger from everyone that the Connery family had fucked over.

His eyes flew open as he heard tyres screeching in the driveway.

He'd slept.

The room had been awash with sunshine when Joanne had left, now late afternoon shadows made crisscross patterns on the wall behind the desk.

His knee throbbed as he eased himself to a sitting position, looking out of the window he could see Marshall waking up the front porch, his van had soot all over it, Alex could guess where he was coming from.

He switched on the basketball lamp and reached for the pain medicine.

A still cool glass of water rested next to the bottle, to think that Joanne had come in while he slept didn't sit well with him.

In truth not only did his knee hurt like a son of a bitch, but his shoulders ached and his hand was sore. The fall had battered his thirty two year old body, which didn't bounce back as fast as it used to.

The door flew open and Marshall stomped in, his face hard as a rock.

He looked over at Alex with a grimace,"Hey fella.."

"Where's Joanne?" He continued gruffly.

"I don't know." Alex mumbled, his head ached badly, even with the coolness of the water, his throat was still dry.

"Well y'all better hit the road!"

"There's going to be a nationwide manhunt starting by twelve o'clock." He continued.

Joanne had paused at the door immediately she heard what Marshall said, she looked very anxious.

"So what do we do?" She asked.

Marshall looked over at them with a cocky grin, his rock hard face lighting up with scorn.

"Run!"