Page 159 of Hidden

Just for now.

The thought made my stomach turn so sharply I nearly doubled over, but I forced myself upright and kept moving, one hand trailing along the wall as I tried to think through the panic clawing its way up my throat. I needed a plan. A real one. Not just blind hope and adrenaline and whatever scraps of luck had got me this far.

And that was when one name came to me.

Natalie.

Of everyone left in this place, she was the only one I trusted enough to risk this on. She had been there before all of this, before Nico, before the brutality and the fear and the years of being slowly crushed under the weight of what this club expected us to be. She had been there when we were girls, when our biggest concerns had been boys and fake IDs and whether my dad would lose his shit if he caught us sneaking vodka from the kitchen cupboard.

She had been there before I became this version of myself.

And if there was anyone in this place who might still remember who I had once been, it was her.

I moved quickly, but not carelessly, keeping to the quieter parts of the house, listening at every corner before I rounded it, every nerve in my body stretched so thin I felt as though I mightsplit in two if someone so much as breathed too loudly near me. The clubhouse was quieter than usual, but not silent. Men’s voices drifted faintly from somewhere downstairs, low and indistinct, and every now and then I heard footsteps somewhere in the distance that made me flatten myself against the nearest wall until they passed.

The whole place felt on edge, as though something was brewing. Almost as if Nico had set the board and was simply waiting for the pieces to move.

I hated how well I knew him, because I knew with absolute certainty that if he realised I was gone, he wouldn’t panic.

He’d enjoy it. He’d treat it like a game.

And if I didn’t get out before he realised he had lost control of me, then he would make sure I paid for that enjoyment in ways I didn’t even want to imagine.

Natalie’s room was near the back of the house, tucked away down one of the quieter hallways where the old ladies’ rooms had always been. She wasn’t an old lady, but Nico had assigned her a room in the clubhouse so if I ever visited her, I would do so under his watchful eye.

I hadn’t been down this part of the clubhouse in a long time, but my feet found it anyway, guided by memory and desperation.

I slipped inside as quietly as I could and shut it behind me, and the second I turned around, Natalie let out a sharp gasp so loud I lunged forward on instinct, grabbing her by the shoulders before she could scream.

“It’s me,” I hissed. “Nat, it’s me.”

Her whole body went rigid beneath my hands before her eyes finally focused properly on my face.

“Jesus Christ,” she breathed, her voice shaking so violently it barely sounded like her. “Gabby… what the fuck?”

She looked awful, too.

Not in the same way my mum did, not physically diminished and fading, but frayed around the edges in a way that made my stomach sink.

Her blonde hair was scraped up into a messy knot, her face pale and drawn, her eyes ringed with shadows that told me sleep was probably a luxury she hadn’t had much of lately either. She looked like someone surviving by the skin of her teeth and pretending it was enough.

“I need your help,” I whispered.

She glanced toward the door, then back at me. “How the fuck did you get out?”

“One of the guards is dead. Or dying. I don’t know.” My voice came out flatter than I meant it to, but there was no room left in me for softness. “I need to get out of here.”

Natalie’s face drained of what little colour it had left. “Gabby…”

“I know,” I snapped quietly, then immediately hated myself for it. I dragged a hand through my hair and lowered my voice. “I know. I know this is fucked. But I can’t stay here, Nat. He’s going to kill us. Meandmy mum. He’s not even trying to hide it anymore.”

Her eyes softened at that, and for one awful second I thought she might cry. Instead, she just reached for my hand and squeezed it once. “I know,” she said quietly. “I know.”

The gentleness in her voice almost undid me.

Almost.

But I didn’t have time to be emotional. I had to take every lesson this place had taught me, thatNicohad taught me, and shove every feeling way down deep. I’d deal with that later.