by Tamar Sloan
Arielle’s left mute by the conviction in her cousin’s voice. They used to whisper about a love like that. They knew it existed—they’d both watched their mothers choose to live alone rather than with the men who had their hearts—but they’d always wondered if they’d find something like that themselves.
It seems Gabby has.
She clasps her hands. “But enough about me. Tell me what’s happened.”
Arielle’s situation crashes back down on her shoulders, dragging at her heart. “Mom’s been abducted. She was snatched right off the street,” she says simply, as if they’re not the worst tasting words she’s ever said.
“Oh, Ari. I’m so sorry,” Gabby whispers thickly. “What have the police said?”
Arielle pushes herself up so she’s tucked into the corner of the sofa, glancing down at her hands as they twist together. “They’ve done a forensics sweep, and they’ve asked around whether anyone saw or heard anything. We’ll find out more in the morning.”
“That’s good. They’re taking it seriously, then.”
Arielle frowns, wondering why they wouldn’t. Then again, people go missing all the time… She straightens in alarm. “Do you think they’ll just give up? That they won’t find her?”
Gabby’s eyes widen. “Of course not! That’s most definitely not what I meant.” She clasps Arielle’s hands again. “I’m sure your mom is fine, and you’ll see her again soon.”
But Arielle’s known Gabby long enough to hear the lack of conviction in her tone. She nods, withdrawing her hands. “Of course, they will.”
“What are you thinking, Ari?” Gabby leans forward, peering at her.
It seems her cousin has the same ability to detect a lack of sincerity.
“Dad disappeared and they never found him, Gabby. I’m not going to sit around and have that happen again.”
“This is exactly why I came. The police have got this. You need to stay out of it.”
There’s a thread of steel in her cousin’s voice that Arielle’s never heard. “But—”
“No buts, Ari. This could be dangerous.”
Arielle looks down at her hands, focusing on the only truth she can say right now. “I’m so scared for her, Gabby.”
Her cousin engulfs her in a hug. “I know. But she’s strong. And the police know what to do.”
Nodding, Arielle clasps Gabby back, glad she’s able to hide her face. If Gabby can sense a lie just from her voice, then she certainly doesn’t want her seeing her expression as she says the next words. “You’re right. I’ll wait and see what the police come up with.”
Relief loosens Gabby’s arms, and she pulls back. “Good.” She glances over her shoulder as if she’s worried someone is watching. Or about to appear out of the shadows. “I have to go. I just came to make sure you’re not going to do anything stupid.”
Arielle pulls up a weak smile. “Like the time I tried to prove Trinity is real?”
Gabby grins. “Yes, exactly like that.”
Arielle walks her to the door, and with a last, quick hug, Gabby silently steps onto the front porch. Arielle’s about to close the door when she sees a movement. A shadow separates from the others—a guy—and Gabby sinks into his arms. They hold each other for long seconds, almost seeming to become one, before slipping away.
Back in the living room, Arielle settles in to wait for the dawn. She’ll keep her word. She’ll listen to what Detective Kane has discovered.
And after that, just like her cousin is following her heart, it’s time for her to do the same.
No matter what.
5
Reign
The moment Reign wakes up, he craves oblivion again.
The Hell-face. The nightmare. His ever-growing list of wrong moves, still waiting to be acknowledged.
Lying on the musty mattress, he opens his eyes, shuts them, then opens them again. There’s no guarantee chasing sleep is going to do that for him, but then again, reality isn’t something he likes to spend too much time in.
Rolling over with a groan, he acknowledges sleep won’t be happening, anyway. His brain is awake and is going to be fast looking for some self-flagellation to start the day.
Shoving himself up, he staggers to the door, jamming his hands through his hair. His mouth feels like sandpaper, and he’s hungry, but he’s used to hunger and thirst. There’s something more important he needs right now.
He thumps down the stairs, figuring there will be something somewhere in this house to fix his predicament.
The sounds of chuckles and guffaws reach him as he enters the front room. Darnell and Rico are too busy tussling to notice him. Rico runs at Darnell, head low and aimed for his gut. The moment they connect, Darnell clamps his powerful arms around Rico’s lanky frame and lifts him. Rico whoops like he’s on a rollercoaster as Darnell flips him over and drops him on the mattress. There’s a crunch as his foot goes through the wall.
Reign leans against the door jamb. “I think you two have redecorated enough, don’t you?”
Rico scrambles to his feet, shoving his thick brown bangs out of his eyes. “Oh, it’s sleeping beauty.”
Darnell plants his hands on his hips as he scans Reign from head to toe. “If you went on a bender and you didn’t share, Darnell ain’t gonna be happy.”
Reign wipes his hand down his face. “I didn’t go on a bender. I just slept in, okay?”
Mac enters from the kitchen, eating cereal out of a box. “You never sleep in.”
“You know me,” Reign mutters. “I’m always up for trying new things.”
Rico hikes up his pants. “About time, dude. We need to go cash in our haul.”
He walks to the other corner of the room and picks up a garbage bag full of clothes. Beneath sit the three laptops.
He holds them up. “It’s payday!”
Mac slams the cereal box down on a decrepit set of shelves. “Ah, Reign. Could we talk?”
Sighing, Reign nods. He should’ve known this would be coming.
“Uh oh!” Darnell says in a stage whisper. “Lovers’ tiff.”
“My money’s on Mac,” Rico responds.
Both Reign and Mac ignore them. They’ve told both Darnell and Rico a thousand times they’re nothing more than friends. Best of friends. Friends you know have your back. They’ve lived on the streets long enough to know how precious that is.
Pushing off the doorjamb, Reign leads Mac into the hall. “Look, I know—”
“You stole laptops?” Mac explodes.
Reign jams his hands in his pockets. “Well, I didn’t.”
Mac raises a brow, waiting.
“I just drove the getaway car.”
Mac’s fingers jam into her thick curls. “Of all the dumbass things to do, Reign! We steal food because we need to eat. Stealing luxury items from a store is only going to invite heat!”
Shame trickles down Reign’s spine. “Yeah, I know. If it counts for much, the cop chase wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had.”
Not to mention he saw the Hell-face again.
Mac’s eyes widen at the mention of a police chase. “I should never have invited Darnell and Rico here.”
“As opposed to leaving them next to the dumpster in the rain?”
Mac may spend a lot of time cultivating her tough exterior, but as much as she doesn’t want it, she has a heart. It’s probably all those books she reads.
Reign shakes his head. “I chose to go.” His lips twist into a smile. “And it was a rush.”
Mac jams her hands on her hips. “You get caught doing this stuff, and I’ll kill you.”
Reign grins. “Noted.”
“You get killed, and I’ll resurrect you, just so I can personally do the job.”
The grin multiplies. “I’m smart enough to know you’re probably capable of doing that.”
Her hands slip off and her shoulders sag. “Maybe just don’t do it? Don’t, you know, leave me to make this shitty journey called life on my own?”
Remorse is like a sucker punch to Reign’s gut. “We both know my trajectory is inevitable.”
Mac leaps forward, shoving Reign hard. “If you think that, then you’ve had too many knocks to the head, dumbass.”
He absorbs the hit, just like he’s done most of his life with everything else that fate’s thrown at him. “But if it’s any consolation, I won’t do it again.”
If being that scared is going to mean seeing what he did on the cop’s face, then no amount of chicken wing ding filled wheelbarrows are worth it.
Mac unwinds a fraction. “It’s a start.” She angles her head. “What are you up to today? You should head back to Avril’s at some stage. Have a shower. Get some clean clothes.”
Avril started doing laundry more regularly after the last check by child services questioned her ability to care for so many kids. Of course, the next time the social workers visit and see nice stacks of clean clothes around the place, then it’ll stop. And those well-meaning saps will go on their way, telling themselves these foster kids have it better than if they were on the streets.
“Yeah, maybe later.” First, Reign needs to check out for a few hours. Days. Maybe lifetimes.
She grins. “Why don’t you see what Lizzie’s up to.”
He rolls his eyes. “I haven’t spoken to Lizzie in weeks. That was over a long time ago.”
“Does Lizzie agree with that?” Mac asks, her eyebrow arched.
“Shut up,” Reign growls good naturedly. “I’m sure she’s found someone else by now.”
“Well, I might go check out what’s happening at the campus library.”
Reign heads back to the main room. “Now there’s time well spent. Didn’t the librarian ask for a student card last time?”
Mac shrugs. “I like annoying her. She almost pops a gasket each time I tell her I must’ve left it at a different frat house.”
And Mackenzie likes the library. There are few things that are free in life, but one of Mac’s few joys is that books are one of those things.
Reign waves goodbye as he joins Darnell and Rico. Both boys are slouching over their phones as he enters.
“Can we go now?” Darnell whines. “We’re out of cherry cola.”
Reign leans against the wall, crossing his arms. “You guys sell them.”
“It means you’ll get less of the cut,” Rico says sharply.
Reign nods. He knows the rules—less risk, less reward. “I’m cool with that.”
Darnell and Rico glance at each other. A second later, they’re gone, not waiting around to see if Reign’s going to change his mind.
The moment he’s alone in the house, Reign starts to search for a reality-wiping fix. He checks the underside of the shelves, only to find nothing. Frowning, he opens the bag of clothes and checks every pocket. Nothing.
Tension winding through him, he squats in the corner of the room and lifts the threadbare carpet. Beneath, he slips his hand underneath the loose floorboard. His fingers brush over air and dust.
“Assholes.”
Reign can have a pretty good guess where Darnell and Rico are going after they get their cherry cola. But that doesn’t help him now.
Not when he’s feeling like this.
Leaving the house, Reign breaks into a stride. He doesn’t have any money, which means he needs to find someone who’s willing to do him a solid. Unfortunately, people like that aren’t easy to find in the River District. Trust is about as common as bake sales around here.
Picking up the pace to a jog, he heads for the central shops. Surely, he’ll find someone there.
As his feet hit the pavement in a steady rhythm, Reign tries to keep his mind blank. He counts light poles as he jogs past, but when he discovers there’s an eight second space between them—long enough for images of red glowing eyes to climb into his consciousness—he decides to count trees as well.
Fifty-five.
Fifty-six.
Gray skin. Sunken sockets.
Fifty-seven.
Fifty-eight.
And then it’s Lance’s face before him. His foster brother has his mouth open in a scream, exposing rows of pointed teeth, but there’s no sound.
Like he knows there’s no point asking for help.
Pain slices through Reign’s torso, making him gasp. He stops, bending over as he breathes hard and he grits his teeth. He feels like he’s bleeding from the inside out, but he knows there’s no blood to be seen. This pain can’t be healed.
He needs a fix. Now.
He needs to escape… himself.
The main drag of Mercy City is only a block away, so Reign straightens and sets his sights on a cafe on the corner. He’s going to get there as quickly as he can. He’s about to break into a sprint when a panicked voice reaches him from across the street.
“No, this can’t be happening.”
A middle-aged woman is standing beside her car, her hands clutching her hair. She walks one way then the other. “Not today, of all days.”
A closer look and Reign sees she has a flat tire. She bends over, inspecting it, as if she can will it to re-inflate.
Looking away, one word floats through his mind. Ish-her. He has a dealer willing to take an I-owe-you to find.
“I can’t do this today.”
The words, said on a broken sob, have Reign stopping. They echo the struggle that he faces every day.
“Dammit,” he mutters under his breath. “Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.”
He’s crossing the street before he thinks this through too much. He stops a few feet away. “I can help you with that if you like.”
The woman jumps back, her hands flying to her chest. Her eyes widen even further as she takes Reign in.
Resisting the urge to cross his arms, he waits, having a pretty good idea of what she’s seeing.
Messy hair. Rumpled clothing. A face that doesn’t smile very often.
A street rat.
He almost dares her to take an involuntary step back. To stammer out a “no, thank you” as she quickly slides into her car and locks the doors. It would save him a whole lot of trouble.
But she lets out a breath on a huff, her loose bun wobbling. “I would love a hand, young man.”
Great.
“You’ll need to open your boot.”
The woman blinks. “Of course.”
She presses the button on her car key and it pops open. Reaching in, Reign removes the tools he’ll need followed by the spare tire. Wordlessly, he sets about jacking the car up.
The woman hovers behind him. “Is there any way I can help?”
“No point getting yourself dirty.” Reign doesn’t look up from where he’s undoing the lug nuts.
She shifts so she’s to his left. “I can’t say how much I appreciate this.”
“No need,” Reign grunts as he slips off the flat tire.
“I need to get back to my niece. She’s had some...terrible news.” She points to a brown paper bag sitting on the passenger seat. “I just slipped out to pick up her favorite bagels.”
Reign glances at the woman’s round curves. She looks like she’s a feeder. He’s heard about women like that—they equate nurturing with nourishing. He hopes this niece appreciates having people and words like that in her life.
Rolling the spare over, he slots it on. Making quick work of screwing the lug nuts back on, he tightens them one by one.
He pushes to his feet, dusting his hands off on his jeans. “All done.”
The woman clasps her hands to her chest. “Oh my, you’ve done a wonderful job.”
“It’s just a tire change,” Reign points out.
“Oh goodness no, it’s far more than that. I can’t thank you enough.” Her eyes shine with sincerity. Reign tries to put a stop to the gratitude, but she steps forward. “You’re my knight in shining armor. My savior.”
He leaps back like she just tried to slap him. Savior? Too far. “Seriously, it’s no big deal.” Another retreating step and he’s back on t
he street. “I hope your niece gets some good news soon.”
The woman scrabbles for her purse, yanking out a twenty-dollar bill. “Here, at least take this. My way of saying thanks.”
Reign holds his hands up as he shakes his head. “It’s fine, really.”
He’d like to think that he could help a lady out and not take payment for it. That maybe there’s some shred of decency within him.
His gaze flickers to the bill in her hand. Even if it means he could pay for his weed…
“Please, take it.”
Turning away, Reign breaks into a jog. The woman doesn’t call out again as he quickly crosses the road and streaks away, and he’s relieved. Now, he can forget about his momentary lapse of judgment and find someone who’s going to help him disappear for a few hours.
He reaches the cafe and rounds the bend. It’s not a street he’s been down often, but it’s a busy one, which is just what he wants. The more people, the more shady deals can be made. Large, old buildings line either side of the road as Reign slows down, scanning faces. His body coils in anticipation. Not long now.
He finds what he’s looking for several yards down the street. A slouched figure wearing oversized clothes. One he knows. Candy is one of the better known dealers around this area. He’s also known to be a little lenient in desperate times.
And these are desperate times.
Keeping his gaze on the one person who can give him relief right now, Reign puts his head down and strikes forward. He can almost taste the acrid smoke, feel the thick nothingness that’ll fill his mind.
There’s a blur of movement and a body slams into him. His arms automatically reach out to steady the person he just walked into.
“Sorr—”
Reign reels back in shock.
Shit.
It’s the girl he almost hit with the car.
6
Arielle
“It’s you!” Arielle shakes the guy’s hands off her upper arms, fury vibrating through her.
It’s him!
Whoa, it’s a gorgeous him…
Arielle blinks. Black hair and bold black eyebrows frame the canvas that’s his face, but it’s his eyes that have her mesmerized. They’re a deep, vibrant green, like a verdant jungle. They widen imperceptibly, shades shifting within like a tangled forest. They create a labyrinth, a maze she can feel herself getting lost in.
