Zay twitched, tossing and turning all night. I watched her do this a lot before we escaped, and in that first week we were in the bayou. Being back here in Tennessee took a bigger toll on her than I thought it would. The reality of everything was really hitting her. I could see the sunlight around the edges of the darkened curtains. Her bare back was pressed against my chest, my arms tightly wrapped around her. I didn’t want to wake her, so I remained as still as I could.
It didn’t take long before she started to stir. Then, she eventually rolled over and lifted her eyes to meet mine.
“Morning, my sweet little doe,” I said, placing a kiss on her forehead.
“I feel exhausted,” she muttered.
“You slept like shit,” I said.
“I didn’t realize how much my anxiety would be triggered being back here,” she said.
“There’s a lot of unknown still,” I told her.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
The defeat in her eyes—purple bags beneath them—made me want to put her back in the truck and go back to the cabin. Instead, we needed to get up. Hyder organized a meeting with several of us who were tired of Ravik’s bullshit. I wasn’t sure if they knew theextent of our plans or not. Hyder assured me that neither Daxyn nor Benji caught wind of the plans. Benji would probably be down to overtake his father, but I wasn’t sure about Daxyn. He often acted like his parents were scum, but then in their presence, he acted like their best friend. Very wishy-washy.
We got up, and I called Callie and Hyder’s rooms with the phone. Both of them were awake and ready when we were. Zay and I climbed into the small shower, taking a joint shower together. I wanted to touch her in every way, but time was short.
Once we were out and dressed, we headed out of the room, knocking on their doors. All four of us walked along the second-floor balcony and headed down the stairs. Zay was in front of me, leading the way to the vehicles. Callie was between Hyder and me. All three of us were on high alert—
Someone yelled, “Zay!”
All three of us locked eyes on the guy, picking up our pace, walking toward him. She flashed him a big smile and walked faster toward him. I looked back at Callie. She knew him, and clearly, she wasn’t worried about him.
They got to each other, and he wrapped his arms around her, lifting her into the air, and they spun in a circle. My chest tightened, my heart beating faster. I closed the distance between us, tilting my head, narrowing my eyes, and staring at him like he was the prey.
He set her down gently and cupped her cheeks in his hands before I could do anything about it. I cleared my throat before he decided to kiss her, and I lost my cool. He looked up at me, his hands not leaving her face. He turned his head to the side, then looked back down at her. As I stared at him, I realized that he fit the description of Brenden, a friend of hers.
“Where the hell have you been?” Brenden shot out.
“It’s complicated,” she said.
"Your brother said you were kidnapped, but he thinks you ran away," he said.
“It’s true… I was kidnapped, then I escaped and ran away while I got better,” she said.
“Were… are you sick?” he asked, his hands still on her cheeks, her eyes still locked onto his.
“Yeah…” she said, before reaching up and gripping his wrists and stepping back, putting space between them. I took a deep breath that I didn’t realize I needed. “Can you not tell anyone you’ve seen me?”
“Why? What are you doing withthem, anyway?”
“They’re my friends—Quinn and Callie—” she said, nodding our way, “—they saved my life.”
“I remember him. He used to come to the parties with the brothers,” he said.
At least he remembered me.
“We gotta go, Zay,” I said, reaching for her hand.
Her fingers interlocked with mine. Brenden’s eyes immediately dropped to our hands, and red washed over his face. He made a low guttural sound and shook his head. We turned and went to the vehicles. Zay didn’t acknowledge it. Callie rode with Hyder, and we got in the Civic. With the fresh paint, no one would know it was mine.
“You guys were more than friends,” I muttered.
“It was complicated,” she said.
“It didn’t look complicated for him,” I shot back.
