by Tijan
I felt myself smiling.
“I’m in.”
She looked up and made a praying motion. “Thank God.” A quick squeal, and she was on her phone. “Okay, your friend is two miles from here to pick us up. We need to trek two miles through the woods in an hour.”
“Why an hour?”
I was off, running to the closet to change. There was no time for modesty. Brooke was about to see me naked, and I tore through the clothes, throwing them into the room.
“You have a bag for me too?” I called.
“Of course.”
“Put those in there.”
“Okay.”
I felt my heart in my throat. The clock had started ticking the second Brooke entered the room. I was wasting time, and we needed all the time we could get.
I pulled on a shirt. “You work out?”
“Yes…”
I held back a groan. She sounded hesitant. “What do you do for conditioning?”
“I swim. Sometimes.” She snorted. “Hardly ever.”
Fuck. If it was just me, I’d run there in under twenty minutes, give or take a few because of the foreign terrain.
Which reminded me, “Why an hour, Brooke?”
“Because that’s all the time we have before the next shift of guards switches at the security cameras.”
I wasn’t going to ask.
Shit.
I had to know. “What happened to the other guards?”
“I might’ve drugged ’em.”
I paused, one second, then yanked on my pants. Socks. Shoes. I had an extra set of clothes in the bag now.
“And I gave one an entire bottle of laxatives.”
“What?!” I popped my head out.
She cringed, standing with both bags over her shoulder. “I’m pretty sure he’ll have to go to the hospital.” She brightened up. “But bonus! That might help us.”
I glared. “No, it won’t. Protocol will be to check on both of us before they dispatch a team to the hospital. We have less than an hour now.”
“How long do you think?”
I led the way to the back patio. I paused before opening the door. “It depends on when someone finds him or he finally calls for help.”
“Oh.” She cringed.
“What?”
She dug inside her bag and pulled out a radio. “I figured we could use it to listen to them.”
Oh. My—I grabbed her face and kissed her on the cheek. “Sweet Jesus, you’re brilliant.”
She shrugged. “Just tried to think what you’d do. You helped me the first time, so I thought we could help each other this time.”
I took a breath. I didn’t think the door was alarmed. I had stepped outside the other day and nothing happened. Then again, Kai had been with me, but it was now or never. Outside was our best shot. We’d run into guards inside.
“Wait.” Brooke pulled out her phone and showed me a map. “This is where we’re supposed to meet your friend.”
“Okay.” I showed her as much as I could. “There’s a small window outside here where I never saw a guard walking. We’ll have to go north, then swing to the right.”
“I’m ready.” She gave me a nod, letting out a breath. Her bottom lip trembled, but we weren’t running for our lives here. We weren’t running for freedom, not really. We were running to follow Kai to Milwaukee. There was irony in there somewhere, and I was sure I’d laugh about it someday. Just not right now.
I opened that door, and we headed out.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
It’s a peaceful feeling.
I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is.
Running in the woods, with just the person beside you, knowing time is running out, knowing the day is coming, knowing you have one goal: to get where you need to be before they find you.
It calmed me in a way I hadn’t felt in so long.
The part of my soul that needed to know my purpose, to understand the why or why not, the part of me that reared up if I wasn’t following my morals, that part was quiet. That part was content, because it was right to run free. It was right to go to Milwaukee. It was right to confront the man who’d been the first monster in my life.
There was no longer any confusion in my head or heart.
But Brooke’s breathing was already uneven behind me.
She’d let me take the lead, and I was using the age-old way to find our path: following the North Star. Once we’d cleared where I last saw guards standing before, we turned so it was on our left side.
Using the map Brooke had showed me, I’d memorized the myriad of roads near the house. There was one main paved one that went alongside the lake. It wound all around it, but Blade wouldn’t be waiting for us on that road. He would pick a gravel one, and not the second- or third-best gravel road. He’d pick the fourth one, one that looked like little more than a long driveway, and he’d park just on the other side of a hill. So he’d see the oncoming lights from a car, but they wouldn’t see him.
This was part of being a Hider that we rarely utilized, but we had training for it.
I enjoyed this part more than the others in my unit. I took to the outdoors better than they did, though even I didn’t know why. It rarely mattered. We usually drove from motel to motel. At some points, we’d have to meet someone. They would lead us through a hotel, or a restaurant, or a school to the back, where we’d get in another vehicle. That was how we’d travel once we got the person who needed saving. Going through was rarely a straight shot. They liked to have us use two or three different routes, in case someone tried to track us.
There were a lot of rich and powerful abusers out there. They had access to main road security footage, to dirty cops, to almost anyone who would take a few extra bucks for a peek at their camera systems. Which made relying on trusted allies and assets already certified through the Network so important.
My mind continued to turn as we ran.
If Brooke had notified Blade, and he was already here, that meant she had known about Kai’s travel plans days ago. It would’ve taken that long to get Blade here and for him to have a cover story in place to hide his whereabouts from the Network.
I was banking on the fact that he’d have a plan ready. We didn’t have the Network’s allies and assets, which meant we’d have to keep to back roads as much as possible—as off the grid as we could be, using the least visible roads, which meant it’d take us so much longer than Kai to get to Milwaukee.
I bent my head forward. One foot after one foot. Keep going. That’s what I had to do.
“Agh!” A twig snapped, and Brooke cried out.
I whirled, grabbing her arm before she crashed into a tree.
“Oh, shit shit shit! Oh no.” She moaned, grabbing for her ankle. “I think I broke my ankle.”
Our hour was slipping away. I could see it shortening before my eyes.
She knelt down, wrapping her hands around her leg, as if to prevent the pain from spreading. “Riley! It hurts so much.” Tears streamed down her face, and she gasped for breath.
By my calculations, we had a little over a mile, more likely a mile and a quarter yet to go. I looked around, but even if we’d had rope for me to build her a crutch, we wouldn’t make it. They would find us.
“Can you make it?”
She looked up, her face pale and getting whiter by the second. She shook her head. Her eyes were dazed, half panicked. “I think I broke my ankle! For real.” Her voice hitched on a sob, pain laced with a twinge of hysteria.
I’m sure this was scary for her. But broken ankles could be fixed. Being in the woods, I’m sure that didn’t help, but those guards wouldn’t hurt her.
I didn’t want to think of it. It felt wrong, but…
“You should go.” She said it for me.
I gazed at her, long and hard. You didn’t leave your co-agent behind, and Brooke had become that for me, but I wouldn’t get to Milwaukee if I stayed. That was just the truth.
“Go. Wait! Here.
” She was still sobbing, and now wheezing. She pulled her backpack off and thrust it at me. “Take it. I mean it. Go, Riley. Go. I know your dad is down there. It was seriously shitty of Kai not to take you with him, and he knows that. For what it’s worth, I think my brother loves you. He might not know it yet, but he does, and I know he’ll feel bad about not taking you with him, but he won’t come back for you. He just won’t.”
“How’d you know he was going to Milwaukee today?”
She quieted, rocking back and forth from her ankle pain. She didn’t answer. Her lips pressed tight together.
“Brooke. Tell me.”
She clenched her eyes shut tight, shaking her head, then sighed. “Fine. Fuck it. I know because Eric told me. Do not tell! Kai will kill him, literally. He let it slip one night, said he only had three more days of this shit. He hates when I tease him, but he tends to slip up because I rattle him. He doesn’t even know I heard him. I just guessed on the Milwaukee part because that’s where Levi’s family is.” She was panting now. “Oh, God. This hurts so much.” Sweat rolled down her face. “Not that I don’t love you and love having gotten to know you again, but can you go? I’m about to die if I don’t get a painkiller in me stat.”
I still hesitated. It feels wrong to leave an injured person behind. It’s rooted deep in your core.
“Go! For real!” She waved at me frantically before holding her ankle again. “This is really starting to throb. I’ll hold off as long as I can before calling for help, but seriously. Get the fuck out of here, or I’m two seconds from calling and not giving a damn if they catch you. I’m in that much pain.”
I still hesitated.
“Go,” she croaked. “They’ll send Tanner back to me, and I’ll try to talk him into flying the coop, but I can’t beg you again. I’m dying here, Ri. Just go. Seriously. Kick my brother’s ass when you find him too.”
When she reached for the radio, I was out of time.
I backed away, still feeling wrong, but I knew I needed to go.
When she raised the radio to her mouth, I turned. I was full-out sprinting within seconds.
I’m coming for you, Dad. I’m coming for you.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
I heard the guards shouting and dogs barking just as I ran down the last hill. A rusted white minivan was pulled over on the road with only two tires on the gravel, and I knew that was my ride.
As I jogged toward it, the back door opened.
Blade greeted me, a dark green blanket full of camouflage ribbons thrown over his shoulders. He waved me in, and as soon as I was inside, he gave me my own blanket.
“Hi!”
Carol sat behind the wheel. Dark red sweatpants, a banana-yellow hoodie and her hair in curls wasn’t even the icing on her disguise. It was the cigarette between two of her fingers.
Carol didn’t smoke.
“Let me guess,” I said, trying hard not to smile. “A tired, middle-aged mother.” It was good to see them, both of them.
“Yep.” She blinded me with a smile so I could see her yellowed teeth, and she pointed to the bags under her eyes. “And this isn’t makeup. I stayed up two full nights for you.”
“The alarm was raised?” Blade looked into the woods behind us.
I moved to the side. “She’s not coming. She rolled her ankle and couldn’t make it the rest of the way.”
“That’s too bad.” Blade reached around me, shutting the door, and then he lay down in the back. “Get down here.”
There was a whole setup of boxes and bags of Christmas ornaments. Nestled in between everything was enough room for two people to lie down. I knew as soon as I got down there, he would reach up and pull the rest of the stuff over us. They’d made the back look almost like a hoarder’s minivan. It was perfect.
I began climbing back. “Drive north. They’ll expect you to go south or even east. Go the opposite direction. We can hit the interstate and make up time that way.”
Carol shot me a look in the mirror. “Pffft. You act like this is my first day on the job.” She waved me down with her cigarette. “Get down, you mafia-kept woman, and let me rescue your madamhood.”
I grinned at her. It was nice to see them again.
Blade tugged me the rest of the way, and a second later he’d pulled the boxes and everything over us. A wood frame held everything in place and kept the weight off of us. We had a cozy little cocoon down here.
A second later Carol was coughing. She muttered, just loud enough for us to hear, “I’d make the worst smoker ever.” Another smattering of coughing. “Okay, guys. It’s about to get cold. I have to open the window.”
A draft hit us moments later.
Blade tucked the blankets more firmly around us.
He lay beside me. In the past he would’ve suggested we share a blanket to conserve heat. He didn’t make that suggestion today, and I knew Kai was the reason.
There was a sadness in Blade’s eyes, one I hadn’t seen before and was hard to see now.
“Are you mad at me?”
He closed his eyes, rolled to his back. When he opened them again, he wasn’t looking at me. “No.”
“You’re sad, though.”
Did Blade love me? I didn’t know. Kai said he did, but it wasn’t my place to ask. The only thing I could control was whether I stayed with Kai at the end of all this. I should’ve regretted what I’d done, but I didn’t have it in me. Not anymore. Not after being with him for the last week, waking up in his arms, being claimed by him. I felt all those dark and delicious sensations rolling around inside me all over again.
No. I couldn’t regret Kai. At least not yet. Not until he did something so bad there was no turning back.
Was that wrong?
Even that question felt bleak to me.
Kai had a pull over me that I couldn’t put into words.
“What does the Network think?”
“I don’t know what—”
“Come on, Blade. Like you haven’t hacked your way into those emails. This is me asking.”
He was quiet a moment.
“They think you’re compromised, but there are some who want to bring you back in, make you an asset.”
They wanted to use me, turn me against Kai. While I stayed with Kai.
“He traffics in women, and drugs, and guns. I mean…” Blade turned to me. His words were fierce. “How can you be with him, knowing that? He is what we stand against.”
I could’ve explained that Kai didn’t traffic those in, except guns. I could’ve explained that he wasn’t a bad man; he just did bad things. That he was the leader of his family, of the council, and he did both of those jobs to keep his family alive.
But I didn’t. My loyalties were now with Kai, and he would want me to say nothing. An ache formed in my chest at that realization.
I loved him. I had fallen in love with him. Even now, even as I was sneaking to follow him, I would go back to him.
I couldn’t explain any of that to Blade, one of my oldest friends, who had done so much for me and was currently risking his job for me.
Wait. Was he?
“What does the Network think you’re doing this weekend?”
He hesitated before responding, his voice dull and low. “They think we’re at a festival in Cowtown.”
He was lying.
I knew Blade. I knew his tells. He’d hesitated. Blade. Did. Not. Hesitate.
I had one guess: they were already moving forward with bringing me back in. They wanted to turn me against Kai.
Well, then.
“He has people in the Network.” I rolled my head to look at Blade directly.
There was no use pretending. I didn’t want that for this friendship. He and Carol were too precious in my heart. I could not be fake, letting their mission wedge even more between us.
“If you’re going to try to turn me against him, you have to know that. He has people inside. He knew things even I didn’t.”
“What are you—why are
you saying this to me?”
“You know why.”
He flinched before looking back at me. His eyes were haunted. “It’s the only way I could keep my job. If he has people there, they’re staying quiet. The Network was furious that I tried to get you back without them.”
Now I was the one flinching.
The woman who helped him was dead, because of Kai.
You should get used to it. He’s the mafia, for God’s sake.
That voice. I hated that voice. My reason, my sanity, but also my reprimander. That voice got quiet whenever I was in Kai’s arms.
“Heads-up. We’re about to get tested,” Carol said.
The car slowed to a stop, and her window rolled down.
“What?”
I bit down to keep from laughing. Carol had been chipper, her usual mood, moments ago. She groused at the person now. I could hear her take a drag from her smoke.
“Shit,” she grumbled. “Here. Hold this.”
“Ma’am?”
“What?” she snapped. “It’s a cig. Jesus. You were smoking one too. I can smell it on you.” She rifled through something. “Fuck. Damn.” A thud on the bottom of the van. “Those little fuckers. They took my wallet. Why’d the fuck they take my wallet?” she growled. “I’m going to murder my own children. Do you hear me—wait.” She gulped. A sweet voice now. “I mean, I’m not actually going to do that, Officer. But look…” Irritation. Impatience. “They wanted pizza last night. I bet that’s when they took it, forgot to put it back. Or no… They wanted to go bowling today, and the mall! Those little shits went to the mall, when I told them specifically not to. I’m raising ingrates. Those little criminals—”
“Okay, ma’am.” A rapping on the top of the car. “You’re free to go.”
“You sure? I wasn’t speeding. The traction on these tires sucks too much for me to go fast. Another thing I need to fix. I tell you—”
The guy was brisk. He was done listening to her. “Here’s your cigarette. Thank you for your time.”
We heard him walk past us.
Carol took a drag, still grumbling under her breath.
His car started up, and he passed us by.
