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“Okay!” Boxcar shouts. “He’s here…”
I exhale as sadness overwhelms me. “Box…”
“In Los Angeles,” he tells them. “I’ll take you to him.”
Lilah lowers the blade and passes it back to Elijah. Her cold eyes return to me and she turns up an even colder smile. “I guess he didn’t rush out here just for you after all,” she says.
The twins wander away from us to gather their things. I feel Boxcar’s stare on me, but I can’t bring myself to even look at him.
Dammit, Boxcar. She was bluffing. Even if she wasn’t, you shouldn’t have traded Fox’s life for mine.
Elijah walks back over to my chair and swipes the duct tape around my wrists with his knife. My arms slink down into my lap on their own. I think for a moment that I’ll try to lift them, but I can barely get them elbow high before they fall again. He moves to lift me up and carry me out.
Boxcar steps forward. “No,” he says. “I’ll do that.”
Elijah pauses and releases me, taking a slow step back as Boxcar kneels in front of me.
“You okay?” Boxcar whispers.
I don’t answer. Instead, I give a half shake of my head.
“I’m sorry,” he says, his eyes dark with shame. “There’s no other way. He’ll understand.”
“Let’s go,” Lilah barks, growing impatient.
Boxcar helps me out of the chair. I feel my knees caving beneath my weight already. I lean against his willing shoulders to keep myself up. He sighs and bends over to scoop me into his arms, but I don’t do a thing to argue. The swelling warmth in my chest wouldn’t allow it anyway. He holds me closer. I rest my head on his shoulder, accepting the embrace.
As twisted as she is, Lilah is right. Boxcar would sacrifice just about anything to save my life. I can’t deny or ignore that fact any longer. He may be all I have left once this is all over.
I wrap my arms around his neck, moving as quickly as my dead muscles will allow and his grip tightens around me. He holds me as close as possible, almost as if it’s the last time he ever will.
The Harts lead us out into the back alleyway and into their black car. The two of them sit up front while Boxcar keeps a firm grip on me. Fox’s address passes off his tongue and he squeezes my hand to beg for my forgiveness.
“If you’re lying,” Lilah hums from the driver’s seat, “I’ll kill you.”
“He’s not,” I murmur, leaning against Boxcar’s shoulder.
“I figured, but it’s fun to say.”
I don’t have the energy to laugh at her joke, nor would I if I did.
I can’t believe I’m about to go through this all over again.
The death of Fox Fitzpatrick.
Chapter 19
Boxcar
Then
“So, let me get this straight…”
Rhys heaves a thick sigh and I feel the phantom noose tighten a little more around my neck. He leans forward from his spot on the edge of the table in the command tent, his eyes burrowing a little deeper into mine.
“You got kidnapped by an old lady?”
Rogers and West chuckle behind my chair but I ignore it. “It wasn’t so much the old lady as it was the giant men with assault rifles,” I say. “But… yes.”
